AWW crap, it's barely 3 days til Christmas and I'm stuck in the office trying to debug this device driver, while some Jurrasic 5 verses play openly from the laptop. No one's around here to listen. Too tired to write about much, except to proudly announce, I bought a new car!

But it's not the one below. Not exactly anyhow. So I went to the Opera two weeks ago on a Thursday; Turandot was excellent -- I loved the music and its simple but elegant backdrop. Puccini even adopted the well-known Chinese folksong "Jasmine" into one of the main motifs of the music! If you're obviously Chinese and still know what I'm talking about, look up the translation for jasmine. It was even prevalently blended into the execution of a Persian prince in the first scene. Very intriguing to hear such a normally heart-warming song wrapped around quite the opposite atmosphere on stage.

Alright, about the car. I swung by the guy's place in SF before the opera, and check out the dark green corrado below a second time. Everything checked out okay; I just needed to look up the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on carfax.com to verify its history before finally sending him an offer. He seemed convinced I was a nice enough guy to even tell me what a previous speculator had already offered him, $7200; but I already had plans to offer $7800, a reasonable price that I was sure he would take up on and so told him I'd make him a very fair (*hint hint*) offer after I get back from skiing that weekend.

Funny how things turn out -- well he got an offer for $7700 that weekend, and seized that opportunity, feeling that I wasn't likely to counter-offer that amount (did I give the wrong impression?). Unsuspectingly, my hopes were high all weekend, and I was ready to call him to seal that deal on Monday. All I needed now was his phone number; ahh, it's on his email to my Yahoo! account.

And I open up yahoo, log into my account.

Hey, a couple emails from the man. First one says, someone made an offer for $7500, but I can counter-offer. Well, no big deal.

Second one, he just got an offer on Saturday he couldn't refuse. He consulted with Bob Barker and Bob says the Price is Right. He sold the corrado. Sold the corrado? And my mind returns to what I was doing Saturday. Stupidly falling over on the bunny slopes of Squaw Valley trying to remember how to snowboard. I didn't suspect I'd be outbid before even bidding!

Well, I definitely don't blame the guy; he was acting on his own hunches after all. I really should've just told him my interest in that car, and hop-scotch over the guessing game. Should've made that offer right away! All that hunting and researching for a corrado, I though were to be wasted. But as lady luck might have it, as I frantically searched craigslist, autotrader, cars.com, and whatever classified I could think of for Corrados and Nissan 240sx's (my next-up choice). I dug up an 5-day-old ad on craigslist for a red 1992 corrado. With aftermarket exhaust, 17" wheels, and new sound system. $5800. I couldn't believe my eyes. How could this car not be bought already, after how quickly I saw the first corrado go (and I'm not talking 0-60mph here)?

Well, I guess I did get lucky after all that. I called the second seller; the car's still on the market! Someone came by who said he loved the car but couldn't come up with the money to pay for it! I tried to act quickly, got my friend Markus (a car nut and a Type R owner) to come up and test drive it with me. Checked out the exterior and interior; asked the seller about its history. He really takes care of his cars; works on the Corrado and several dirt bikes in his own garage, so I felt like I could really trust him. Overall, I got a great impression of the car, and it was even in red, much fancier than the dark green.

Back at the batcave, I poured over more Corrado websites, did a VIN check, blue-booked the car from multiple angles of estimates. $5800 just seems like a good deal! I was sold on the car that night. And two days later, I was sold the car. So now I'm a proud owner of a red 1992 Volkswagon Corrado with barely 93k miles on it, and I have now the pleasure of cramping my left leg trying to learn stick-shift and not stalling it in 1st gear, like any armchair car "enthusiant" has dreamed. ;)

Alrighty and time for the salivating pics:




-- 12:59 AM

AS most of you know, i had a car acccident and messed my nissan up pretty bad last october. And so now I'm in the market for a new car.

I've been doing some amount of research. I don't want a new car yet; I don't believe I should get something shiny and new for the sake it being new. Plus, it's possibly I might end up damaging it again, judging from my track record so far. But don't worry -- I am being a lot more careful when I drive now. I think older cars have plenty of personality to them, and to me it's a romantic but warming idea to buy a unique car that I can learn to appreciate and take care of.


So here's a car that I've been looking at, up in San Francisco, that I'm almost set on getting -- a metallic green 1993 VW Corrado. No need for me to quote its spec here; you can easily find it on the web. I just like its simple but stealthy exterior, excellent handling, and a punchy V6 that supposedly makes this car shine while driving. This one comes with leather! The drawback is the Corrado (and VW's in general) can be expensive steeds to maintain and to buy parts for. Nevertheless, I'm set on taking care of this bugger if I can buy it. Tomorrow before going to see the opera Turandot I'm stopping by the owner's place in the city to take a look at it a second time. If I'm satisfied it I'll make him an offer. Thinking about it stirs my excitement!
-- 11:36 PM

HMM... i was just rummaging thru the japanese website that I got the apple sidra pic from, and came upon this one. "NETWORKER" drink? with resident evil characters on it? that's kinda cool; i'd drink something with Jill Valentine on it. Red Bull gives you wings; maybe this drink gives you the power to kick zombie ass in a tube-top.

Current song running through my head is Bonnie Pink's Curious Baby. A minute ago was Luna Sea's With Love. And a minute before that, Heart Baazar's Digitalis.
-- 11:05 PM

WHY is it that whenever I drink Taiwanese APPLE SIDRA [å_‰Ê�¼‘Å], my mouth starts to feel dry? This sharp and flavorful soda is apple-licious. It's great for sipping at work and is certainly more natural than Dr. Pepper or Coke. But it seems to dissolve the saliva right out of my mouth after a couple of gulps, leaving my tongue groping for more moisture like coffee tends to do, only without the after-taste. Maybe I should mix a little bit of vodka in there to smooth it out and add a bit of punch. Or maybe a lot of vodka. And rum maybe... hmm, some triple sec.. iced tea never soured my mouth, so why would a long island, right?
-- 10:40 PM