I’ve been a member of the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club for a long time now. It all started back in March of 2000 when I was looking at buying a 2000 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS. It was a damn cool little car that I was in love with. What happened to it is another story…

At the time I was looking for more information about the car, and came across an online forum www.nasioc.com. I joined and found a great online community of auto (Subaru specific) enthusiasts. This was all before the WRX (turbo version of the Impreza) was introduced in the US. So once the WRX came out…the membership of the site grew and grew.

I am member number 1165 (joined mid ‘00)…now there are over 120,000 members and it grows daily.

Of course the vast majority of the site is dedicated to the Subaru line-up and the various things that can be done with it…but there is another, more sepecial section of the site…

Off Topic

Technically “OT” is reserved for “Non-technical related discussions”…but it has become a holding pen, a discussion forum, an area for the most amazing conversations I have seen anywhere. It is, for all practical purposes, a life in it’s own…a living, breathing, creative and somewhat terrifying creation of the minds of some very complicated people.

For example…here are some of the things you can find there…

Doctors puzzled over bizarre infection surfacing in South Texas

Track Mania - Best Free Game I’ve Ever Played

Photography!!! post your pics

Countdown to bigger boobies…

MS Paint something stupid you have done…

I highly suggest checking it out. I warn you though…although the material found inside will 90% of the time be safe for viewing at work…you may run into assholes, elitests, idiots and general insanity. You have been warned.

A friend of mine suggested I post here when I add new pages to my site. That is a great idea…and I’m going to do it.

Lately I’ve been on a bit of a video making kick. I’ve got a decent setup on the truck for filming crap as I drive. Who knows…maybe I’ll capture some truly exciting event while crusing around this plant. Odds are I’ll just end up filling my server space with random videos of my driving. But hey, what’s the internet for if not random boring shit?

Oh yeah…it’s for porn. Silly me.

So here is my new Video Page. Enjoy.

I may end up posting quite a lot about this book (Omnivore’s Dilemma) but as I said before it is having a profound impact during a rather introspective point in my life.

Today I went to Costco to get new tires for the truck.  Holy crap did it need them too.  A couple Sunday’s ago, when it was still raining heavily, I was driving from Santa Cruz to Blackhawk for work.  That was not an easy drive.  My front tires were so extremely bald that changing lanes was no longer an option…the suspension in that thing is so light, the tires so bald and the rear end so lively that a simple lane-change resulted in annoying understeer -> ubrupt oversteer -> terrifying understeer -> settle settle please settle…and relax.

I’m all for having a little fun while driving but that was more terror than I like to put myself through.

Yeah…that was a bit ago and it’s not until today that I got new tires…call me lazy…fuck off.

Anyway…why is Costco so damn crowded on Friday?  I got there around 12:30 and the place was PACKED.  The parking lot…the lines inside…everything was so full of people.

I couldn’t stay long inside.  It was…bothering me.  The massive piles of crap…super sized crap…it was almost painful to see.

I am a consumer.  I like buying things…fun things, useful things, consumable things, tasty things…buying in general.  I’ve been to Costco many times and bought many giant piles of things I really didn’t need a giant pile of.

This time really struck a chord though.  I didn’t like it.

I was stuck there for 2.5 hours for the tire replacement (damn I wish I could do that myself).  I went inside the store for a bit but quickly left.  I sat out in the sun, made some calls, sneezed 324 times and realized I was hungry.  I bought this sandwich thing…chunked chicken breast with cheese and bacon bits inside a soft cheese covered baked roll.  It was “tasty” but made me sad.  It made me sad because I could FEEL how bad it was for me…and at the same time definitely enjoyed the flavor.  Sitting outside on a curb eating it…the melted cheese dripping onto my shoe…watching some extremely and disgustingly overweight people pushing overloaded carts full of high fructose corn syrup and heavily processed 400 year shelf life super sized insto-meals didn’t help either.  It felt…wrong.  I felt as if I had stepped far away from the lifestyle that leads to happiness.  I didn’t see one smile.

I don’t want to sound too self-righteous here…but this shit has GOT to stop.  No…I’m not going to fire-bomb Costco…nor write my congressman (congresswoman…sorry ma’am).  I am going to focus on a far more healthy and sustainable lifestyle here…for me.
Costco may have gotten me some great cheap tires…but that place is, in a word, gross.

I heard about this book listening to NPR the other day. It is a story about food divided into three sections…the first is about “industrial” food production, the second “organic” and the third “hunter/gatherer”.

I must say it is quite insightful, and pretty damn shitty. I’m not going to go into the heavy details of what I’ve been learning for two main reasons. One, it would be extremely complex and dificult to summarize this whole giant book into my simple typing. I just don’t want to…plus you really ought to read it yourself. Two, although I am sure it is very factual and accurate…it also (in my educated opinion) a bit “extreme”. The author is definitely giving an accurate portrayal of the food industry but at the same time his word choice leans more on the far end of the spectrum.

This book is poiniant for a very simple reason…I am in bad shape. What I mean to say is…I am not as healthy as I ought to be. I smoke way too much, do not get enough exercise and generally feel pretty crappy about my well-being. Granted this is hard-core allergy season (and I’m suffering due to it)…I still feel (and believe I look) worse than I ought to.

The hardest thing here is to quit smoking. Just thinking about it (and I do a lot these days because I can honestly say that it’s weighing heavily on my mind) makes me cringe a touch. I haven’t stopped…but each one I light up is really bothering me.

Plus…something pretty crappy happened this past Friday. It didn’t happen to me…it happened to someone I know and care dearly for. They didn’t die, or get hurt…but through a foolish and childish act they got themselves into a world of trouble. I respect this person a HELL of a lot but at the same time I see the road they’ve gone down and I do NOT want to end up on the same path. It is very important to me that I don’t.

This weekend is going to be a gnarly one. It’s Mother’s Day and that means the busiest day of the year for the restaurant. I’m stressing over it a bit, but not to the point where I’m freaked out. But I am going to let it serve as a turning point for me…the last day of…rather…a new day of a new era.

Yes that above sounds a bit fatalistic and all that…but it’s time I do more for myself.

And what better day than May 15th? It is…after all…Monday. Whatever that means.