Summer Vacation

Most of us have already been counting down the days until we can break loose from all things school related, and for me that's next week thursday. I cannot wait to say the least. I'm excited for what this summer has in store, and I'm eager to go to ltc in the fall. Only one problem gets in my way, a job. I need one is what the real problem is. In the job market it's impossible to find a good job in any particular area of interest.

What I want is a job that I can relate to I guess you could say. I want a job doing car related things, either that or I may settle for landscaping or something similar. I have applied at numerous different places with no success so far. You'd think that autozone could use a guy like me since I could practically read them their inventory off the top of my head. Or Lakeland Auto could use me to detail their cars considering I still clean my car everyday even though it's sitting broken in my garage.

To cope with not having a job I bought a moped to cruise around on this summer. It's by no means a showstopper, but it's reliable being a 1980 Honda Express. I'll get great mpgs and funny looks all summer long. I decided that once I get a job I'm gonna buy another Talon right away and keep fixing the Talon I own now (I have a weird thing for DSMs). So I guess this is my outlook for summer. It will be fun, but a challenge at the same time in trying to get a job.

Life really blows right now.

So on Urban Dictionary the other day I learned a new term, and it's called an emotional dump. What this is, is when you dump all of your crappy feeling onto another person. You can stop reading now if you want because that is what this is all about, I don't care. See the thing is that I'm going insane so I just need to put all of this crap somewhere, this blog.

So just the other day my car started running like garbage, which isn't uncommon, but it couldn't have been worse timing because just the next day I got suspended from my job. Now if you know me then you know that I hate the Piggly Wiggly, but I kind of need a job. I got suspended for the stupidest thing too just to top it off. I went and bought two things for break, and then punched out. Now I'm a time theft and they gave away all of my hours. Just great, my car doesn't work and my job is on the line (most likely got fired).

I have never been more pissed off in my life, especially when I've never called in, been late, or tardy to work not once. Then the fact that my car doesn't work right either just makes my life just all that much more miserable. At least if my car worked I could drive over to Pig and find out what's going on with my job, but nope, I can't even do that. I really don't know what to do.

You know you're a dsmer when...

So this past week I made the mistake of again browsing the DSM forums when I should have been doing other things and no to my surprise I found another very entertaining thread in the hangout forums. This thread was labeled "You know you're a dsmer when..." and it was fantastic! It was basically just post things every dsmer does on a daily basis or tries at least once. This one guy about three posts down put a list up of 380 things! Of course me being the ultimate dsmer I read all 380 posts. I guess the good part of all of this was is that I fit into most of these 380 things.
Another thing I also found it is that people driving Eclipses and Talons in Sheboygan don't seem to be real dsmers because one thing dsmers have in common is that every other dsm on the road catches their attention and they stare at it. Most people driving dsms in Sheboygan don't even glance at my car where as I'm giving them thumbs up and all what not. It's a kind of rejected feeling. Either way though at least I know that I'm a truer dsmer then they are.
The other thing I found out is that I'm not as crazy as I originally thought I was for calling a junkyard and upgrade yard. Not to mention thinking that my Talon sounds like a turbodiesel dumptruck!! Also I have thought of trying to bolt my other turbo to the push mower just to see if it would work, and I run around the house going, "vroooooooom, pshhhhhh!!!" I now believe that I can truly consider my self a dsmer!

Enjoying the Weather

So here I am sitting outside in my car barely catching an internet signal while typing my blog for this week, and to top it off I got my free Ipod on shuffle which is currently playing Again by Flyleaf. I'm not really a big fan of Flyleaf so I hit the skip button and up comes...Land Down Under by the Men at Work, now were talking, this is some awesome 80's music that I learned to like by playing none other than Saints Row 2. Saints Row 2 is a great game, If you haven't played it then you don't know what your missing. Now lets go over my day up until this point.

Just earlier today I had to work which I figured would be fun because part of my job requires me to be outside, not a problem with today's weather. Well, I got to work and pulled a Stifler from American Pie greeting on my usual suspect Damion, and like always he laughed and thought it was rather comical. Then I found out the same person I had just talked to made me pick up all his slack on carts. This wasn't terrible because the weather was still as nice as ever, but then I had to do carts all over again after another co-worker Taylor screwed me over too.

Well this was an end to a pretty bad day at work, and to put a cherry on the top I'm still sore from swapping wheels on two of my friend's Ford Escorts, both of which look like crap. Either way I figured I could still make my day better by going for a cruise to check out the local tuners. I saw some pretty sweet cars on my cruise including a tan Honda Accord that sounded decent. With that I went to Advance Auto to look at gauges for my new a-pillar gauge pod. I found out that my Faze boost gauge I picked up at the junkyard is worth 50 bucks!! I think I might go back over there now and order a couple Autometer gauges for like 60 something and put them in tomorrow since I'll probably be bored as crap. Enjoy this weather while you can before the storm :)

Car buying

So the other day at work my friend Justin asked me to go with him over to Northgate Auto in Sheboygan after we were done so he could make make his car payment. I said, "why?" and he responded, "there's an 03' Eclipse you gotta see!" I was sold, how could I the "DSMer" possibly say no to checking out an Eclipse, even if it was just a 3rd gen.

After running around for a while in Justin's fat ass Dodge Intrepid we finally got to Northgate and that's when I saw it, not the Eclipse, but a 95 Eagle Talon Tsi! About the only thing I could see wrong with the car was a really badly bent wheel up front, and 200k miles. Good news was I have another set of wheels here at home that I could put on the car if needed. I know most people are saying, "what!? 200k miles!!" I say, the car's stock 100% and as long as it was maintained properly then there should not be any problems with it. The car had a preserve the wildlife sticker on the front window so I'm figuring the owner was probably a total flamer that knew nothing about DSM's. Another plus side was that the car had no visible rust! Soon after looking at it I went in to get a price and came out disappointed because the car hasn't been safety inspected yet.

Later that day I went and took pics of the Talon to show my parents and of course my Mom goes an shoots it down right away. Even though it looks good she keeps saying I don't need another car. Regardless I'm going in there tomorrow to check out the car anyways because I want to see how much they will take for it. I think that with some big car knowledge talking I could get them for about 1500 or less. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens, but all I know is that definitely need another DSM!

Crappy Day

I jumped in my Talon this morning to go to Church and I hear clicks, grinds, and clunks while backing out of the driveway. Now my car has been doing this for sometime now but only while turning right under harsh acceleration. As of this morning it does it now regardless of speed or direction, hell it'd probably make noise going sideways too. Either way it was annoying as hell and destroying the crap out of something under my car so I decided to not risk traveling to church.

About fifteen minutes later I decided I could rip off the front wheels to try and pinpoint the noises, which I then found out my jacking points had ice chunks on them. So much for that idea, so I layed on the ground instead to try inspecting stuff; and nothing, not a thing looked broken. This then led me to DSMTuners which has a great search function to see what other fellow dsm'ers had my problem. It turns out many people had similar problems that had numerous possible solutions that costed copius amounts of money, just great! This exactly what I needed, another problem with the good ol' dsm. You know they say that dsm stands for don't start monthly, and I'm starting to think this is coming true.

So now 12 o'clock is rolling around and it's time to go to Hell, I mean The Piggly Wiggly. I do my job on carts to my best abilities only to get insulted soon later about my work ethic, bullshit! Not to mention the fact that it was behind my back that "they" insulted me. "They" are the people most of my co-workers refer to as the front desk bitches, ecluding a friend of mine. Other then that they're all stupid and only piss everyone off. So that was my funfilled day.

Auto VS. Stick

I know that people who are really into cars will hate me for this, but I don't care because it's a topic that I've always wanted to have an arguement on. Any car enthusiast should know that an Automatic is ALWAYS faster in drag racing than a manual. Many will say that a manual is more fun, which I believe to be true, but at the end of the day no loss of boost while drag racing is my bread and butter.

I just read countless numbers of pages on DSM Tuners on this exact subject which is why I'm now blogging about it. It amazes me how people say that their 5 speed will own manuals every time at the track. First things first now. Different power levels of the two cars racing is one reason a manual might be faster, but everyone should realize that a computer can shift faster than a human could possibly be capable of. End of story, period. It is a fact that manuals have more moving parts to break than automatics, and many times the reason why things break in manuals is because of human error. Oops, did I just type that? Yes I did, and it's true. Humans make mistakes, computers don't. That is why autos are so much quicker in drag racing, less breakage, and quicker trap times.

Not to lose focus one the other side of the arguement here, I would go stick shift on the streets because of the more fun in operating gears and all what not. For track though I would always go auto just because it's quicker and cheaper to maintain/modify. I just felt that I needed to vent my opinion because ignorant people always give me crap about my automatic Talon. I always say that auto IS faster than manual, but no one ever believes me. If manual was faster than auto then why are people swapping manuals to autos for drag racing? Because they're faster and more reliable. End of story, period.

New plans for life... Well, maybe.

So I'm thinkin' today: I hate math, english, and just about everything else you need to get a 2-4 year college degree. You may say "Whoa! He ain't talkin about cars today!? or, why the hell is he going to college then?" Well don't worry, I'll get to the cars soon enough. The reason I'm going to college is basically because I want to feel as if I'm doing something with my life. I wanted to stay local because that's where my friends are at, and  I also thought that going for Mech. Engineering would be fun.

Well I found out that I'm great with the Autocad program, but I suck at pretty much everything else. This is the point where I thought maybe I should consider doing something I'm better at... and who would've thunk it, cars. I know my way around cars like a... well, I can't think of anything so you get the idea. Anyways, before I started going to the UW center I had originally planned on going to Wyotech. At Wyotech I could work on cars all day and all week, and then to put the cherry on the top, get kudos for doing a good job! What's better than that!? Well, for me that's about as good as it gets.

Now back to what I'm thinkin'. I'm thinkin' I'll finish off my semester at UW and then in fall head down to Blairsville, Pennsylvania where Wyotech is located. If I do this, then I'll be doing what I love and do best. I think that it's what I should have done all along, but I let all the small things get in the way. The only real downside is that it's so far away and I wouldn't want to lose any friends, but I guess that's what life is about, making changes. 

So I got this crazy idea...

Today I thought, you know, I could go into rally racing considering I'm so good at driftin' my Talon already. Then I thought maybe its not such a good idea because of cost. Then again, who cares!? I would be doing what I currently do best and love doin' it, driving like a crazed maniac in my car!

I then thought, "ok, what would I have to do to get into rallying?" I figure I would have to get the safety equipment down first. Things like a roll cage, racing buckets with proper seat belt harnesses, fire protection, and all what not and I feel that would cover me safety wise. Next I would for sure need more power. To cover that I would have to rebuild the good ol' engine because of my burned piston rings. While thats happenin' you might as well put more power parts on and throw in some suspension upgrades too. After that I think I would be ready for the next step.

I'm not sure exactly how you get into rally racing even after you have a properly set up car, but I'm pretty sure you have to go through some sort of training school. After a quick google search I found that Wisconsin is pretty much hopeless in the fun department. The closest place would be stevens point, or some places in Upper Michigan by da Yoopers, ya hey. One more problem though.

Back to the money. Even if I were to get a rally license or something I would still be shit outta luck without sponsors (which I've heard are really hard to get). If I rolled my car, or blew a headgasket, that could mean tons o' money out of my pocket. So I have concluded that I'll just stick to drifting parking lots, and random streets of Sheboygan for now. As long as I can impress my friends I think I'll be happy, (gotta get that reverse 180 down lol). Maybe in a couple years I can dream this up again to hopefully make it a reality, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Loud cars...

My opinion on loud cars is that they are awesome. Loud cars are cool because hearing the engine roar is 100% beast. I feel that if I were to get a ticket for being too loud in my Talon that it would be an honor. I'm a kind of quiet guy for the most part, so I make up for it in the form of a 2.5inch straight pipe turboback exhaust on my Talon.

For those of you who don't know what that means, don't worry just imagine it being loud and obnoxious, cause that's what it is, and I love it. I actually looking into getting a 3inch so that it'll be even louder yet, but then I would have one problem with that. That problem is that it would be louder than it is fast, in other words "not cool". There's those ricer Civics that drive around Sheboygan with huge fart cans only going like 30mph when it sounds like they should be taking flight with those huge park bench on their trunks. That's not cool. My rule for loud cars is that it has to be as fast as it is loud, and yes my car qualifies.

This leads me to my next point. What sounds good? I think that the SRT4 sounds sick, especially how they snap crackle pop like rice crispies in your cereal bowl! Even though most people think of backfiring as being a bad thing that only crappy cars do because the plug wires are crossed of something, the SRT4 does it a daily basis, without any problems. SRT4's are like the god of FWD's (front wheel drives) because they haul STi's up and down the blocks regularly, all while only putting power to two front wheels and sounding like diesel trucks. They're simply put, loud, fast, and crazy annoying to the everyday law abiding citizen. In other words exactly what I like.

What doesn't sound good is those cheesy ricer's. All those weed whackers are irritating and stupid. The high pitched whine of a four cylinder sounds like crap through a cat-back rocket ship exhaust. What you gotta get is something good quality from a real parts manufacturer i.e. flowmaster, thermal R&D, HKS, or something else good. Things from places like Andy's Auto Sport suck, and usually make Honda's sound like people mowing their lawns at 80mph. That's what sounds bad. Now that you know the difference, don't make stupid decisions. Now I'm itching to play Test Drive Unlimited 2, see ya!!!!!

My splendid weekend

Well, this past weekend I had finally set up the time to look at a car I wanted to buy. A 1990 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD. For those of you that don't know me, let's just say that all I talk about is cars. DSM's are my number 1 favorite. DSM's consist of the Mitsubishi Galant, Eclipse, Eagle Talon, and Plymouth Laser. I already own a Talon, but I want a 5 speed because owning an auto is like sacrilege. Now just cause my Talon is an auto it doesn't mean that it's slow. This new Talon though was a lot more fun.

I found this Talon on craigslist about a week ago. It looked good from the pics online so I decided to go and check it out. One problem though, it's located in Eagle River (coincidence) and that's 4 hours from lovely SheVegas. After a lot of talking and convincing I got my Dad to agree to the long drive. So off we were to a small town my Dad hadn't been to in over 30 years, with only a vague sense of how to get there.

On the drive to Eagle River my Dad and I saw 6 accidents due to the slippery roads. All but one were cars in ditches. The one that wasn't was a F-150, flipped onto it's roof, in a ditch (laughing maniacally). Well I thought, good thing we're in a van with bald tires. Making it to Eagle River in one piece was the easy part, now I had to find out how to get to the car. The seller wasn't making this easy either. With no name, or address it made it very difficult to locate the car. You may call me stupid for dealing with a seller who can't even spell Jack right on craigslist, or give me an address to go to, but you can't say nothing until you've tried to deal with people on craigslist for yourself.

After finally finding the car I could see for myself what I couldn't make out in the pictures. It was caked in crap from the local dirt roads but the rust stood out, and the paint fade. Never the less the engine was in tip top form cranking out an owner claimed 260whp. I called shenanigans though after asking a few simple questions and finding out that the guy knew jack diddly about this or any other car on the road for that matter. Example:
Me: Is this a real or knockoff blowoff valve?
Seller: That's a Greddy I think.
Me: I'm reading HKS, plus I know for a fact that this is an SSQV.
Seller: (dumbfounded look) Oh I don't know then, that must be the other one that I have.

Now I've never driven stick before unfortunately but I really wanted to test drive this beast so I could at least see what it could do. My Dad decided he could drive it so off we went. I tell you, this car was fast! It could probably blow the doors off of some corvettes! Not to mention that it would also eat Honda's in 100 calorie packs! Now I see why God created turbolag, to give V8s a chance! Anyways, back on topic. This car had a 3.5 inch turboback exhaust and the blow off valve was vented to the atmosphere which meant that it was loud. Loud was what I wanted, and thank God it's what I was riding in. Pshhhh! goes the blow of valve with a little fluttering which makes it sound like tweety bird's under the hood. This car was exactly what I had wanted engine/performance wise, but the interior was held in by only a few screws at best and the exterior was fancied up with zip ties and 21 year old paint. It was nothing that I couldn't handle but for one thing, the brakes were to unsafe to drive with for 4 hours, and the car wasn't worth 2 gran.

With a good farewell my Dad and I had a good experience and a long not so fun drive home. To sum up the drive home and wrap this blog up, it was a fun experience, but a boring drive there (for the most part) and back (the whole way). I figure I can find something a little more...together if I keep looking. Until then, DSM's for the win.