I bought the Plantronics 855 with the best of all worlds in mind: unfortunately, when you look for the best of all worlds, what you tend to get is the best of none.

Device:

The device is a standard plantronics Bluetooth earpiece, same basic design as their Mono unit, except it has a small slot (through and through, top and bottom, which is smart) in the main barrel. This slot is for the earloop to push into, and holds the loose wire that runs across to a non-standard earphone. What this means is that you can add or remove the stereo functionality as you see fit. This is a great idea. The kit also comes with a little leather bag to keep everything in (which you will never use) and two spare earpieces without the second headset, to keep the mono piece in place, if you want, and a set of eight rubber ear/speaker caps to custom fit the two earpieces.

Setup:

Setup was super easy with my iPhone. Turned on Bluetooth, hit the button, and it paired in about 45 seconds. The iPhone switches seamlessly from using the Plantronics profile to that of my Genesis Coupe bluetooth system. They don't trip over each other at all.

Getting the right fit in the ear pieces has been more difficult. None of the rubber cups fit me properly, and the second earpiece on a wire falls out occasionally: usually when I'm exercising. Which was, in fact, the whole point of getting the thing, so that I had something that wasn't a noise-cancelling headset (so I can hear what's going on around me) but it doesn't fit me well, and the cups are just that: get some vigourous exercise in there, and all of a sudden, you've got an earful of sweat.

Functionality:

There's a series of buttons on the main barrel of the primary earpiece. A rocker which controls volume up/down, and if supported with [insert protocol], forward/backward track selection. A small button on the top for pause/play, and an LED surrounded button on the centre of the unit for call answer/hang up, and power on/off. When the unit is syncing with a device, it blinks blue on the LED surround, and when it's charging, it's solid red. You can also check the battery level, when you do, it 'blinks' the level at you. Somehow, I doubt I'll ever use that feature, but it's there.

Officially, the headset is good for about 7-8 hours of usage, and 160 hours of standby time. I charged it on Wednesday night, used it Thursday at work, and it sat on "standby" for the entire weekend, including Friday. I'm using it again today (Monday) at work, and with my co-worker and cubicle mate here today, it's going to get a good work out. It's looking like 7-8 hours of usage on a charge is pretty realistic, however.

Bluetooth range: decent, as long as you don't stand in the way. Seriously. I can't even put the phone in the oposite pocket, headphone reciever on left ear, phone in right pocket, signal gets chunky. They do warn about this, but really... I didn't know bluetooth was directional, like IR. And within three feet, it should just pick-up.

Either way, this isn't a big deal: just make sure you put your phone on the same side as the primary headset is. I do like leaving my phone on my desk and wandering around to the printer, getting paperwork, etc, and not having to remember to pick things up before you drag the device onto the floor. Not that' I'd ever done that, of course.

Sound quality is the big issue, and this is the problem. When it's working properly, the tone is tinny at best, unless you REALLY, REALLY screw the earpieces down into your ears. Pretty much to the point at which your mother would start screaming about getting things stuck in your ears forever, and well beyond the point of comfort. Even worse than that is the fact that the second ear-piece for the stereo doesn't clip in firmly, and if you're moving around, or even just re-seating the headset in either ear, you lose the connection for the second ear piece.



That's unforgivable. And it's getting looser as I use it, too. I've a feeling that within two months, the second headset will be almost completely unusable without some fiddling and fixing. Possibly with dialectric grease.


Taking Calls:

I've not had the opportunity to take a call on the thing, partly because I'm using it only when I have to, for stereo bluetooth. other than that, I tend not to leave the headset on to talk. I'm assuming that the sound is comparable to that on the stereo throughput: competent, but not stunning. It does have an extendible boom-mic, which actually brings the mic very close to the corner of your mouth (within an inch and a half) but, lets face it, these boom-mic things make you look like a douchebag, and the extentible piece only accentuates that, so that's not necessarily a selling feature.

Cost:

I paid $52.99 from TigerDirect which is, quite honestly, fair. You'll pay $30-$120 for a standard mono earpiece, so you're effectively getting the stereo functionality for free. Except that it doesn't work particularly well or consistently. I did see it for a regular price of $102.99 and for that price, I would have felt completely ripped off.

Overall:

It works. It'll do as an interim, but it's neither what I really want, nor does it function particularly well. On top of that, it's also not comfortable, nor do the earpieces stay in particularly well. Again, I want to stress that that's in my usuage. I don't think there's any reason that the comfort level and fixture of the earpieces wouldn't be better for someone else, they're just not good for me, personally.

I think what I'm going to end up doing is looking for what I should have bought in the first place: a set of headphones with a pendent mic/reciever like Sony DR-BT10cx. This thing just ain't for me. At best, I'll give it a 2.5 out of 5.

Tags: 855, bluetooth, iphone, plantronics, voyager

Now that the iPhone 3.0 update has gone through and I've installed it, I'm looking for a Stereo Bluetooth headset to listen to the music on. Preference is for a mic built-in as well, for obvious reasons. Has anyone actually tried the AD2P setup on the iPhone yet?

quotation has suggested the phillips SHB7100's and also suggested that the BlueAnt X5's are crap; I'm also considering the Motorola Rockr. There's also the Sony DRBT10CX, which look pretty decent, and are affordable too. I'm actually now looking more seriously at Plantronics Discoverry 855, again at the suggestion of quotation: Even better, he sent me a link to 'em at $100 or so, but TigerDirect has them for $52.99, which also appeals to my cheap side.

It still boggles my mind that Apple had the hardware for stereo bluetooth in the handsets two years ago, but just didn't enable it. That's still one of the single douchey-est things I've ever heard.

Tags: ad2p, bluetooth, iphone 3.0, stereo headset

One of the guys who's podcasts I've listened to, rabidly, J.C.Hutchins, just released Personal Effects: Dark Arts. I got my copy two days ago, and having gone through the accompanying documents, clues, and notes (to help you along in the story) I cannot wait to read it. I've just got to finish my current book, and then I can have at it. If you dig horror/fantasy/mystery/intrigue, this is one I think you'll want to pick up, and at the same time, you support a guy who's doing it right: giving good material and awesome stories away. If you're not sure but want a taste of the material, go listen to a couple of chapters of Personal Effects: Sword of Blood, which is a podcast only pre-story to Dark Arts. I'm lovin' that right now, too.

Which leads to the rest of it: everyone who reads here knows by now that I support a bunch of these guys. Well, Phil Rossi's got a book coming out July 9th: the completely awesome and totally creepy Crescent, and then J.C.Hutchins 7th Son comes out in the fall, in print, as well. I've listened to the entirity of both Crescent and Seventh Son, and will be buying the novels as they're released. These guys write awesome fiction, and need to be supported so that they can keep writing awesome fiction.

At the sametime, I ordered up the first three Dark Tower graphic novels. They've done a great job with these, each one encompassing seven issues, each seven issues in a mini-series previously released. What I'd not realized is that they're telling more than just the story that King had already told in the books. I'm impressed with the way they're expanding the lore (at least a little).

On top of all that, I've just finished Greg Bear's "City at the End of Time". Which means I've begun Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. I must admit, I'm really enjoying PPaZ, despite myself. Who'd have thunk it? It's funny, entertaining, and surprisingly true to the narrative tone of the original.

Tags: 7th son, books, comics, crescent, graphic novels, greg bear, j.c.hutchins, personal effects: dark arts, personal effects: sword of blood, phil rossi, podcasts, pride prejudice and zombies, stephen king

It's been a hell of a weak. Major family turmoil for idioglossia which means, for me too. She's now on her way to BC, as of this morning, to deal with said turmoil. Some of you will have read her journal and know waht's going on. If you did, you know. If you didn't/don't, well... I'm not going into it here.

So, I've got the house to myself for the next ten days or so.

During that time, I'm gonna take a run down to Bellville to see the folks (and, I'll admit, show off the car). This is a good weekend for it, as long as the weather's good, it being Father's Day on Sunday, and all. I'll probably go Saturday morning, but we'll see what the weather's like.

This'll be a lightning run: Drive down early, have coffee/breakfast/chat, then drive home for mid-afternoon. The good news is, it's no hardship of a drive as long as it's not raining. If it is, however, it's a long round-trip. Or, possibly, I'll do the same run on Sunday morning.

Either way, it appears the torrential rain forecast for the weekend has been relegated to Toronto, and only the edge of it will touch Prince Edward County. If you can believe what The Weather Office says, we're looking at sun all weekend now, instead of 40-50mm of rain.

Ok. We WERE looking at sun when I wrote this at 10am. Now, we're looking at "chance of showers" again. I can't keep up.

All my bitching and complaining, and how long is it now since I wrote anything?

Life doesn't get any slower, I tell you what. I get home in the evening, and I just want to collapse. No time or inclanation to write anything (longer than 140 characters).

The biggest news of the last little bit is... The Acura is gone.

I went into Bank Street Hyundai a few weeks back and test drove the Hyundai Genesis Coupe. I loved it. Didn't think I could afford it but sat down to bang the numbers out anyways. Turns out, when you factor in the repairs I was going to have to do this summer on the Acura, as it hits 160,000km[1] or so, the payments on the Genesis were pretty reasonable. In fact, they were more than reasonable.

So, I put my order in, and bought me a car.

And like Tom Petty says, the wait IS the hardest part. The Genesis is a brand new model this year, and it's a big deal for Hyundai: it's their first foray into a true sports car, and play with the big boys like Infiniti, Lexus, and BMW. It's not quite in that league, but it's really, really close, and for the price, the differences are really easy to overlook.

So, the wait. I ordered it on May 8th. I got lucky. I got my order in before the saturation bombing began on TV. Apparently, the wait is now close to two months for one. I got mine in my hands on Thursday, June 11th.

It had 21km on the clock when I got it.

And it IS beautiful. I've spent a ton of time driving over the last five days: 425km worth, in fact, and I didn't really go anywhere. Sunday night, I gave myself my ultimatum: go out and take pictures of the car. idioglossia and I ended up in Greely at a great little boat launch/park on the Ottawa River, right as the sun was going down, and a storm was coming in.







If you like, you can see the rest of the pics here.

I've had a "test drive" write-up on the go for ages, but never gotten around to finishing it. My bias is now that, well, I own one. And I really do love it. This is the kind of car I've been waiting for the import manufacturers to make since the demise of the Nissan 240sx: an affordable, rear-wheel-drive sports car.

So, what's it got?

It's got a 210+ horsepower turbo four cylinder, mounted longditudinally, drivnig the rear wheels through a six speed manual transmission. Staggered tires, 225/40R18 front, 245/40R18 on the back. 12.6" brakes in the front and 12.4" in the back. AM/FM/XM/CD/MP3/ipod/aux stereo with 6-disc changer and 10 speakers, plus bluetooth for handsfree phone operation. Heated leather seats, sunroof. You get the idea. Loaded. It's technically got four seats, but as mightydogking will tell you, the back seats are short-hop seats ONLY.

It's quick. A lot quicker than the 210hp would actually imply. It makes (as you might expect from a turbo engine) phenomenal torque down low in the rev range, and holds it across a really, really flat torque band.

So, yeah.

New car. *grin* I keep having people asking me what it is, how long I've had it, and screaming things like "Sick car, dude" out the window on Montreal Road.. The car seems to be a bit of a celebrity.

I'm still in the "break in" period, so I've not really opened it up yet, not more than about 70% throttle, and no higher than 5500rpm (it's got a 6800rpm redline). But it is seriously fun to drive, and I'm going to have to be careful, because I'm going to get in trouble if I'm not.

Now that I've spent some time with the car though, I have some thoughts.

The seats. Oh My God, the seats. I have never sat in seats this good.[2] Neither, for that matter, has Jay. He spent 20 minutes test-driving a 2.0T GT/track two weeks ago when he was up, and said flat-out that when he got out of the car, his back felt better than when he got into that. I can also attest to this, Even after two hours around town and out in the country, I'm feeling zero fatigue from driving. Not only are they comfortable, but the support that the bolsters give in cornering is spectactular, and because of the active restraint headrests, you actually get full support all the way up your back, through the shoulders and into the head and neck. Even the Recaros in the RSX didn't give me that, and I've driven some cars where the support stopped about half-way up your spine. I'm interested to see how well the leather wears over the long term.

For the geeks: bluetooth. Now that Ontario has adopted a hands-free law, this was actually a consideration for me. I really didn't want a bluetooth headset stuck in my ear. However, the pairing between car and iPhone was superbly simple, and functions well. Espeically once I figured out that I needed to turn up the volume on both mic and speaker. This is a great solution as far as I'm concerned, and now that the profile is saved, I get in the car, turn it on, and ten seconds later the system is active.

Handling. Flat, stable, firm. So far, because of the staggered pattern to the wheel/tire combo, mild understeer leading to mild oversteer, probably leading to heavy power oversteer if I were to turn off the traction control and stand on the gas. Very predictable. Along with that, the steering has excellent communication with the road. A lot of cars today are set-up for comfort, and what that means is that you don't 'feel' the road through the wheel, you're disconnected from teh surface you're driving on. The Genesis, while comfortable, talks to you. You can feel the tires start to let go (front or back, depending on the situation) and can ease into the situation you want very, very easily, without over-comensating. I've taken corners at 70km/h that make the RSX feel decidedly unsafe at 50km/h. and I'm quite certain that once I know the car better, I could go a lot faster.

Which is the real difference. My Acura RSX was a fantastic car. It was the quintessential hothatch; an economy platform reworked to provide better handling and more power and luxury. The Genesis, however, is a purpose-built GT/sports platform. Is it a corvette? Not by any means. It will, I think, compete very well with the guys it's supposed to compete with Infiniti's G37, Nissan's 370z, BMW's 3-series. Will it be better than them? Probably not. But, it is, in top, 3.8L GT trim, just shy of half the price of a 335i, and undercuts the Nissan by nearly eight grand, and closer to fifteen against the G37. For some people, the difference in fit, finish, quality, and brand will be enough to justify those prices. For others, there really is enough car there that there is little incentive to moving up to one of those higher brand names.

My biggest 'give' in this whole exchange is giving up the hatchback for a trunk. Having the trunk, and the solid roof and backseat support/cross-bracing that goes with it, pays off in spades for handling. It's much, much stiffer, and has less body twist when pushed hard. What I give up is the ability to bring home a 46" TV without renting a truck, or for that matter, large-ish items from Ikea. I'll have to bum a ride (or walk, carrying it, from Canadian Tire) when I get a Christmas Tree this year. I'm definitely giving up some convenience.

However, I love this car. Seriously. Love. Almost as important, I love the treatment I got from the dealership: I got a call this morning to make sure I had a good weekend, and that there weren't any problems with the car, etc.

More update to come, but today's crazy. This post has been brewing for a while, however.

( footnotes )

Tags: acura rsx, car, genesis, hyundai, hyundai genesis coupe, sports cars

Today turned into testosterone central, oddly, with yumikid in tow. Photography that ended up being sports/Monster Trucks, and then UFC coming up tonight @ mightydogking and mcswooney's place.

In the meantime, though, Monster Trucks:



Public Disturbance
Nikon D70s, Nikon 18-70mm, Cokin P-series ND2
ISO 250, 1/250th sec, f/7.1


Lots more pics to come, but currently, there's seven here I'll be adding to the set as I process more.

Tags: monster trucks, photography, saturday

So, a discussion erupted the other day, about making mixtapes. I mean, really, old-school style: the kind of tapes where you'd have the fade-in and voice-over from the radio station you were recording the song from at the start of at least half the songs.

During the discussion, a co-worker (a very young co-worker) said... "What the hell is a mixtape?"

And yeah, I know, I'm dating myself again, but wow. There are people out there who don't remember mixtapes. Even the less verbally friendly "mix CD" will disappear. And, really, with good reason. One of the things I love about the interface for the iPod, and i-product in general, is the ease with which you can make playlists: essentially big mixtapes. I can't comment on the majority of current audio-players, but I know that the old M:Robe that I had sucked for making playlists. If you didn't set it up on the computer, you were stuffed.

But, at the same time, there was something really fun about sitting down and making a serious mixtape. Even CD's weren't as good for it.

You had to get a good tape, for one thing. There was a quality difference. There was also a length issue. The best mixtapes I ever put together were on 90min tapes. 60min was too short: 120min was so long that it was tough to put a convincingly themed mix together.

For example, I used to have the "I can't Drive 55 - Photo Radar Sux: The Revenge Mix" tape. That was sweet. there was some serious driving music on that. Ok, fine, it was ALL metal and hair rock, but still.

"I can't drive" was a 90 minute tape. But that wasn't all. You had to organize the songs properly. Not only did they have to flow together well, but they also had be optimized to fit on 45 minute sides.

There was an art to the mixtape, too. Same with the mixCD. You were working within time constraints that just don't exist on a playlist on any modern mp3 player. A 90 minute tape could, if you planned well, be optimized to use about 87 minutes. If you figure about four minutes per song, you're looking at just about 22 songs. A CD, even less. 15 to 18 tops. So, you wanted a cohesive set of songs, that flowed well, could be split into two 45 minute blocks, and would have a minimum of 'dead space' around the 45 minute mark.

Personally, I favoured movie soundbytes interspersed with teh songs to fill up that dead air. It worked well. And yes, I stole it, really, from Tarantino's soundtracks. Ok. Fine. From Resevoir Dogs. In fact, often enough, I used soundbites FROM Resevoir Dogs. Because they're just good soundbites. Usually, I'd just put the songs I wanted on, in the order I wanted them, and then figure out how logn that was and where the 45 minute break hit. If I had two minutes to fill on a side, then I'd go looking for five or six twenty second soundbites from movies, and slide 'em in where appropriate. And yes, I would get THAT anal about it. They were never just random soundbites, they were subject appropriate, based on the songs on either side, (generally the song following the bite) and the theme of the tape itself.

Yet another example of my early geekitude.

Today, though, it's just a playlist. And there's no limit, not real attempt to create cohesion (I guess you CAN, if you never hit 'shuffle'), it's just a bunch of songs. Which is fine. But at the same time...

Mixtapes were cool. They were! Analogue and all, they were cool.

So,the plan for the [many] cottage runs? I'm gonna put mixtape playlists together. i'm not sure HOW, and honestly, it's going to be more difficult than it used to be: my musical taste has grown in scope pretty drastically.

But I think I've gotta open with the "Greatest zooks" soundbite, from Hackers, because who doesn't love artists dead on their own vomit?

I'm figuring I'll stick to the 90 minute tape as well. Not physically, but no playlist longer than that. And I'll have to have a half-dozen of 'em, at least. Because you've got to do the fumbling for a tape routine, and trying to pick which tape you're in the mood for.

An example:

-clip – "would it help if I said we were on a mission from God?"
-
-clip – greatest zooks (cerealkiller)
-Jimi Hendrix –
-three dog night – mamma told me not to come
-clip - dazed and confused – just wait until I get to college
-Asher Roth – I love college
-matthew sweet – girlfriend
-clip - fast & furious – granny shifting
-motley crue - kick start my heart
-Kazzer – pedal to the metal
-Spencer Davis Group – Gimme some lovin’
-clip - exit wounds – turn the god damn music down
-Anthrax – bring the noise

Get it?

Any suggestions?

Tags: mixtape, music, old school

So, last night, I was doing the good thing, and taking the garbage out before the girl got home. We have a ton this week, after doing some major work in the yard over the weekend. So, I started with the basics, and moved up to the big yard trash, like the fence I'd torn down which'd been previously surrounding and protecting the single most lack-lustre vegetable patch I've ever seen.

And, of course, I managed to find the one screw that I'd not removed from the fence. In the board that I stepped on.

Which put a hole in my shoe, and then my foot.

A quick (ok, not so quick, more like an hour) call to Tele Health Ontario, and this morning it was off to the clinic again for yet another shot. This time, a Tetnus booster.

Heh.

I've been saying/writing that as "TITnus" for nearly twenty-four hours now, and it's not gotten old yet.

I digress.

Basically, I had a Tetnus (heh) Booster nine years ago, when I was still working for Chemlawn/Greenspace Services Which now appears to be "GreenUnlimited" But I could be wrong. I got bit by a dog one afternoon and it'd been basically childhood since I'd had a Tetnus (heh) shot before that.

Everything I knew/read said that if you've had a booster in the last ten years, you're pretty much ok. But, I did want to check in case (horror of horrors!) the internet was wrong. And the internet was indeed wrong. The nurse at Telehealth said that for most reasons, a booster every ten years is fine, but if you have an incident, especially one that involves a dirty item and a puncture wound, a boost if it's been longer than five years is the way to go. notmikesince91 erred on the side of even more caution, suggesting outside of one year a booster's a good idea in those situations.

I agree with him, to be honest. Have you seen the symtoms and effects that go along with a case of Tetnus? That's an ugly way to die. And you can seriously die from it. Painfully.

*--*

So, Tonight is a bit of a run around. I had some issues getting pictures printed. I used an online service (who I'm not naming YET, because they may have fixed things, or they may have just gotten lucky), Kodak Gallery for the basics, and a 20x30. Tonight, after THREE WEEKS, I get my pictures. I got a phone call from the pick-up store (Futureshop SouthKeys) and my pictures are actually IN now, and about time.

More on that if I get a response from the printer in question, even more depending on the quality of the response. One of the prints is iffy, and it's the biggest, at 20x30. I'd always noticed a bit of noise/stippling in the picture, but a friend wants a copy of it for her TV room (her kids love trains) so, I'm trying this first: if this version is ok, then that's what she's getting: if not,t hen I've got to try to fix the print, even more than I already have done.

*continued trauma* So, I go to futureshop, to find out that, to begin with, there's only two of my three packages there (no 20x30). I get out to the car, after huge apologies from the staff (who's fault it totally isn't: they're just a pick-up point for KodakGallery.ca) to find out that one of the packages is NOT my pictures, it's someone elses pictures of their kids, with a (416) Toronto area code. I went back inside to drop off the pictures and let the staff know what was going on, and I will now find another way to lambast KodakGallery, because it's now 48 hours later, and I haven't gotten anything beyond a stock, automated response telling me that "they'll get to me as soon as they can".

I may have to "get to" reversing the charges on my VISA, too.

So, it appears that KodakGallery are useless. More as this develops, but the only way they can redeem themselves now is by getting me my prints, and refunding my money. Note the "and".

But, at the same time, I'm goin' by Simon's place (many of you know him). Apparently, I'd given him a pair of JVC speakers years ago, and he's cleaning out, so he called to ask if I wanted 'em back. They're not great, but they're better than I have with the dinky little home-theatre-in-a-box speakers i have now, so... yeah, definitely willing to take 'em before he decides to craigslist 'em.

If you give a shit, it's these:





Crazy. I'd actually forgotten they even existed, but they were, once upon a time, part of my Dad's JVC stereo that he bought when we first came to Canada, in 1984. And they're not brilliant, but they are loud.

Tomorrow, off to the NAC for the Sci-Fi Spectacular featuring Jack Everly (conductor), and George (Mr. Sulu) Takei narrating. This is gonna be freakin' great.

And for right now, that's all I gots.

Tags: george takei, health, jvc, kodakgallery.ca, nac, shots, tetnus

So, I was all looking forward to test-driving the Hyundai Genesis Coupe today, and it turns out that the guy I want to deal with at Bank Street Hyundai isn't in until 2pm. This is not a miscommunication or anything: I didn't call ahead, I just showed up during business hours. However, the Sales Manager there was exceptionally apologetic, offered to take me out in the vehicle/trim of my choice, on the spot. We chatted for a bit, and I declined.

I declined because the guy I came to see, Mike, sold mightydogking his car, and he was completely honest and up-front. He made the pitches he needs to make, but he knew when to back off: he also did what he needed to with mightydogking but also talked performance, etc, with me. In other words, he was a smart salesman. And there are too few of those in the world.

The upshot of all this is that the sales manager, Jesse, is going to have Mike call me to book an appointment to drive said Genesis (MSRP from $24,995 to $37,995 CDN) at my leisure. If I want, they'll come pick me up at my door, and, obviously, drop me off again.

No complaints there.

I gotta say, I've not seen and sat in the Genesis Coupe. It's... beautiful. The fit and finish is excellent, and as I noted with the Genesis Sedan: It doesn't feel like a "Hyundai" is supposed to. You know. The Hyundai circa 1998, with panel gaps you could jam a pencil through, anemic engines, sloppy transmissions, and questionable design practices.

WIthout having driven it, the only issue I'm seeing is that it's a true coupe, rather than a hatch. It's got a big trunk, for a coupe, but that's a trunk for bags, NOT for a TV or something. I'd be losing some functionality.

Ok.

So, I wasn't having my test drive today. It was 10am, and I had time to kill, so..

Dodge Challenger. I've been seeing a Hugger Orange Dodge Challenger on Huntclub for weeks now. So, I figure, it's worth a look. Even if it's just a V6 automatic, I'll give one a ride. In fact, it'll have to be a V6 auto, because the V6 isn't yet available with a stick, and the Hemi/Manual combo is going for $42,000 MSRP which is well out of my range. Also, I wouldn't pay that much for that car. If I'm going into that ballpark, I'm going for a Subaru WRX STI, or even an Infiniti G37 coupe.

Pulled in, parked. Directly in front of the building are three black HEMI R/T Dodge challengers. Identical. Manual transmission, 20" rims, mean lookin'. Next to them, looking somewhat plain despite the bodykit, was a Dodge Calibre SRT4.

I walked around the lot a bit, checked out the Hugger Orange Challenger, it was also an R/T model. For those who don't know, this means that they get the 5.7L HEMI V8 making 375hp and 404lb.ft of torque. These are big numbers no matter how you slice it. My Acura, for comparison, makes 160hp, and 139lb.ft of torque (probably with the intake work that Jay's done, about 10% more than that) and it's no slouch off the line, as several of you will be able to attest to. Even though the Challenger weighs about 1000lbs more than my car, that's a huge difference, especially with the revs at which the Hemi makes its power. And, hey, I've always been a V8 guy. I love 'em. I love muscle cars. I know they don't corner quite as well, but nothing makes me quite as a happy as a big V8, and rear-wheel drive.

So, I opened the door to the showroom, and was immediately met by a sales guy.

Who declined to let me test drive a car.

Let me say that again.

I was not allowed (nor is anyone) to test drive an R/T Challenger. Period. You either buy one, or you look at something else.

BMW? Happy to give me a set of keys to a $60,000 335ix. Hyundai? Falling over backwards to put me an a Genesis Coupe.

Chrysler? Buy it or walk away.

I actually told the guy that was ok: I'm not really in the market for the V8 anyways: the MSRP is more than I'd be willing to spend for the next few years anyway. So, I suggested I might be interested in the V6 Challenger. It's lower powered, obviously, but it's still as quick as my Acura, and still looks just as cool as the Hemi R/T.

"We don't carry those."

Again, what?

"We don't carry those."

Chrysler, who desperately needs volume of sales, isn't selling the entry level vehicle, only their halo model. The volume sales, the one that most people are likely to go for, especially with concerns over gas prices? Yeah, they're not selling that one. Now, I gotta say, the guy wandered out for a smoke, and told me, out in the parking lot, that he'd lobbied the local management to get the V6's in, and they weren't having any of it. But seriously, that's ridiculous. I know with the Ford Mustang, they generally sell about three V6's for every V8. There's a lot of people out there who want to drive the car, but don't care about the performance.

But no. They're not carrying any of the sub-$30,000 Challengers. I can only assume because they make less per unit.

And because you can't test-drive a V8/HEMI, you can't make a fair judgement on if you want to wait, or even order, a V6 Challenger. You simply cannot drive a Challenger without buying it first.

I was told that I was welcome to test-drive a Charger, or a Mini van. Which is great, except the market I was looking at this morning is the sports coupe market.

I walked away, obviously. I'm not really serious about buying a Challenger anyway, but I made it clear in the showroom that I'd be test driving a V6 mustang (i've actually already driven one) and a V6 Camaro when they become available. But while people may buy high-end luxury cars without driving them, there's a reason for that. Reputation. As in, what Chrysler doesn't have in regards to quality. At the pricepoint that Chrysler is attempting to sell cars ($16-45,000) test-drives are essential. No one in that ballpark can afford to throw money away without having driven it first.

I'm still stunned.

But I know why Chrysler's about to file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the US if this is typical of their attitude towards sales. For those not in the know, Chapter 7 is, in a nutshell, the liquidation phase where everyone scrambles to get the money owed to them. GM is more likely (currently) looking at Chapter 11, which is the "re-negotiation" phase.

FYI: the Canadian (and US) government(s) are planning on covering all warranties on auto manufacturers that go under. I mention this because there are people on my flist here who may be in the market for a vehicle, especially one to beat the crap out of for five to seven years. I was told today (agingcusahack, pay attention) that you can get a Dodge/Chrysler minivan for $16,000cdn, right now. That's about half the cost of an equivelent model from Honda, Mazda, or Toyota.

You can also get a new 3.5L V6 Charger for $21,000, and a used one (2008, under 20,000km) for less than $17,000. If you're willing to deal with non-manufacturer repairs, these are amazing deals. They had a used Dodge Magnum on the lot for $10,000, which is a car I always loved.

I'm really looking forward to reviewing, for my own self, the Genesis though. Even more so than before.

Tags: cars, chrysler, dodge, hyundai, sales
Current Mood: incredulous

Where the hell have i been?

Work is insane. I'm competing for an HQ job (3 levels up), and a local management job (2 levels up in responsibility, probably not much more pay to begin with). On top of that (or, really, the reason for that) is my general frustration with how things are done here. There's a very old-school government logic that says if you have knowledge, you don't share it, because then you're replaceable. This is causing me huge amounts of suffering. I'm a tester. Very often, I'm given software situations that I'm not conversant with. So, to set them up so they're fixed (they're always 'problem' situations) as quickly as possible, with the least possible impact to the client (ie. taxpayers) I need information.

I had a situation recently that ended up drawing out over six weeks: had I been given (as I asked for, specifically) all the information up front, instead of in bits and pieces (I test, it doesn't work, they say "oh, you should ahve done this too", lather, rinse, repeat), it would have been finished in six days. Literally.

And if it were a one-time thing, then hey, it happens. I know that. Communication breakdown and all. But this is a consistent problem for me. It didn't help that after all this, it turned out the functionality involved hadn't been put into the test environment... and the person-in-charge, who'd been bugging me for status updates nearly daily, knew it ahead of time.

So, work's been busting my hump.

Tomorrow, I'm off work to write competencies. 3-4 page descriptions of an attribute like "Team Leadership" or "Conflict Resolution". There's a list of bullets that you have to hit, and a description which you have to match (and these two things don't necessarily jibe with each other, either). They have to be verified and in by 4pm tomorrow, so I'm defintely at the deadline.

*_*

Everyone's busy with their houses. I've been helping with mcswooney and mightydogking where I can, and I'm sure, after they get moved on the weekend, that'll encompase mr_rhodes too.

At the same time, idioglossia and I are considering our next projects. We've begun gutting the backyard (which is, IMO, awful); at the same time, we're considering new windows, and redoing the bathroom. The girl goes into this in huge detail in ottawa_emptor, where I have been horribly silent for ages.





*_*

Photography.

Class has been awesome. Not only has it been wicked fun hanging out with yumikid on 'enforced' time every week, but I've learned a ton. I still don't think my portraits are the best in the world, but they're competent, even if I'm not confident. I'm much, much better spotting and setting up pattern, texture, line/circle, etc type shots, and I've done what I think is some of my best abstract work for this class. Motion photography was always something I was interested in, but again, I've advanced exponentially in my ability, and I'm super happy with the panning shots I took for class: enough that I think if Jay comes up to the OTT during the summer, we're going to hit the car races, locally, and he'll get his fix, and the rest of us will get some time shooting fast cars with cameras.





On top of that, I'm finally starting to understand just how powerful a tool Photoshop CS4 really is. I also had the advantage of a student number, so I could finally afford to buy the full suite. I've finally learned enough that I can go back a ways through my older "throw away" photography, and salvage a bunch of shots, especailly cars which are notorious for "big shadows, big bright skies".

In other words, I'm a better photographer for having taken the class, which really, was the point.

However, leaving the house at 6:30am on a Wednesday for work, and getting home from class around 10pm has been beating the shit out of me.

*_*

I wrote a bunch of stuff about the phone: app reviews, hardware issues, thoughts on the up-and-coming 3.0 O/S. I never posted any of it. Never got around to it, and never talked to bambiblue about possibly publishing it on a freelance basis. idioglossia is gonna hit me for admitting that, but, shit happens, kids. In this case, life.

I'm still going to put some of that up here though, and bambiblue if you think of an acceptable outlet for iPhone talk, lemme know, I'm still technically interested, just busy.

Right now, I've got self-interested personal reviews for WunderRadio, Twitter Fon versus Twitterlator, fieldrunners and a multitude of tower-defense games, not to mention the ones that I'm planning of RoadTrip and generally, anything that I'm using regularly, because, well, I'm familiar enough with them to write decent reviews. I do this for kicks mostly: it keeps my writing in shape, and lets me think a little about what I'm actually putting on my phone.

*_*

Two years I've had the Acura. And it's still great. I gotta do shocks, maybe springs, and definitely tires, but that's life. I've got 150,000km on the clock now, and I'm currently returning about 5.5L/100km fuel economy on long distance runs. In the city, not as good, more like 8.5L/100km. After watching Fast & Furious? 12.34L/100km. Ouch. That'll happen when you spend all your time, all afternoon, upwards of 6000rpm. I do occasionally wish I had a little more space (like a WRX wagon) or a little more grunt.. Like a WRX Wagon, but on the whole, I still love that car.





So, I still may stiffen and lower the suspension with a set of aftermarket springs, stock shocks, and I'd still love a set of 215/45R17 rims and rubber, but more realistically will stick with the stock 205/55R16's.

That's not going to stop me going out and playing on Friday.

It's my compressed day off: the day off I earn. It's my time to waste as I see fit. And while I'll be picking idioglossia up from the airport at 2pm, That gives me the whole morning to myself.

What will I be doing?

Well, back when mightydogking got his Accent, I ended up talking to the sales guy for ages. Everyone who reads this knows I follow the industry pretty closely, and Hyundai's doing great things. The great thing I'm interested in is this:





What's amazing about this lil' number is that it's a] a 4 cyl turbo (or bigger V6) makes 60hp more than my Acura, powers the right (read, back) tires, and comes with a stick. For $24,995-$33,995 canadian dollahs. Now, can I afford one right now? Probably not. But, at the same time, financing is so aggressive right now that it could cost me the same as I'm paying right now on the Acura. If I were to sell the RSX, I'd probably break even on it (well, I'd have to: it's the only way I'm willing to sell), and be able to pay off what I still owe. YEs, that puts me at zero, but it might get me that. Yup, just look at it.

This is the first 'affordable' car I've ever been excited about. So, I'm test driving one. Just for fun, of course.

And, of course, you'll get a complete review, as much as I'm able to give with the half hour I'll be able to play with the car.

SO, assignment is due in two days, and I'm ACTUALLY on the ball. After shooting all day today.

One of the shots I got today was a bit of an accident: I was looking for the repetative stonework in a culvert: what I got was the oil and gasoline that leeches down from the road, when it rains.



Oil on Water
ISO 320, f/9.0, 1/100th second


There's no massive post-processing on this: I pushed the colours and contrast up, and that's IT. Contrast took away the reflection, colour did what colour does best. I really, really like this one. It's abstract-y, which is unusual for me, and definitely not my usual thing. I could see printing this though.

Tags: abstract, oil on water, photo 101, photography

Nikon D70s, Sigma 105mm F/2.8
ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/50th sec


More here.

Tags: nikon, photo 101, photography, racetrack, sigma

Warning: This week's EscapePod contains strong language, violence, and adult content. It may also be very offensive to some for cultural or historical reasons. I respect that. No political statement is intended in our story selection. If the first minute or two has you feeling too angry or upset to continue, follow your instincts. - Steve Eley, EscapePod.org.

This is very likely the best story I've heard on EscapePod, and it's the 187th. I've listened to them all. It's an alternate history set in 1941 France; around the time the French Emperor starts executing Jews, and segregating them outside Paris, in camps "for their own protection". It's about three men, one specifically, who inadventently begin the revolution for democracy in retaliation for the actions of the emperor. The three men are named Hemmingway, Chaplin... and Hitler.

Summer in Paris, Lights in the Sky" by Ken Scholes.

Tags: alternate history, escapepod.org, ken scholes, podcast, sci-fi, science fiction

shot (I think, my favorite) from Photo Class 'field trip' on Saturday.



Victoria
ISO 500, +2/3 EV, F/5, 1/200th sec


Had a hard time shooting. D70s has serious ISO problems (anything approaching ISO800 is waaaay too noisy) which I think put both myself and yumikid at a disadvantage, at least in terms of hardware, to others in the class who got D300's for Christmas.

Ok, I kid. A little. But it's making the D300, or at least the D90, look a lot more attractive, in combination with the problems I've been having with read/write errors.

I think I'm going to start posting to Photo a day again, not necessarily on a daily basis, but just to keep in practice, and keep the blog itself moving. Not that most of you care. ;)

Tags: d300, d70, d90, nikon, photo 101, photography, victoria

Ahhh, here's the good stuff.







If you click through, you can see what everything actually is; and more pictures of other things. So. Much. Food.

Tags: bacon, baconfest, baconfest 2009, ham, pig, pork, potluck

The phrase "a flat torque curve" is thrown around a lot. However, the new 2010 Taurus SHO brings a new definition to it.




Doesn't hurt that it's AWD, and a total sleeper, as it should be. Check the link for pics of the car. Ford: If you build it, they will come.

Tags: 2010 taurus, cars, ford, sho, torque

As we approach the tenth year of Baconfest, things are looking up.

I'm pretty sure it's ten years now: I know we started it at the place on Bronson which would have been '98/'99.

Anyways, it's 3:47pm, and the bacon pie, aka "Telltale Heart of Darkness" is in the final stages of baking. I've been twittering it like crazy along the way, and idioglossia is completing her combination of apple tarts and sweet'n'spicy bacon.

Those in the know, or with connections, we're heading to mightydogking and mcswoony's in about an hour, maybe less, with feeding time scheduled for approximately 6pm.

*buuuuuuuuuuurp*.

Tags: bacon, bacon orgy, baconfest, orgy of bacon

Well, I'm taking this photography class. And the prof, he gives the assignment in chunks, each week.

This week? Freeze Motion is the topic du jour. Actually, last week. But, that's neither here nor there! I'm looking forward to seeing what some of the rest of the class comes up with: yumikid and I are working from similar ideas: no big surprise, we bang the ideas of each other, so we absorb a lot too.

I decided early on I wanted to do droplets. This is not easy. However, this is the result of an afternoon.





It's not actually the best example, it's just one I like a lot.

More here.

Tags: 55mm, flash photography, macro, micro-nikkor, photo 101, photo class, photography, timing