BMW's

So today Nate and I went down to some BMW drive for cancer event that strangely I got some kind of formal invite to in the mail a few weeks ago. Turns out it was basically a chance to drive any BMW's that you want and in return BMW was donating $1 for every mile driven. They had at least one car from every BMW model (except the M series, unfortunately) and multiples of their really popular cars like the X5, Z4 and 330Ci. They even had a 750Ci which, although they don't carry them in the Salt Lake dealership (because of their price) Nate and I figured was at least an $80,000 car. The bastards wouldn't let us take the 750 because we weren't 25 but we did get a chance to drive some other cars.

First we took a manual 330 Ci out for a spin and it actually turned out to be in both of our opinions the nicest car we drove. Not only did it have good power, it drove extremely nice and had all kinds of stuff like satellite radio, iPod connector and some kind of voice command system where you can tell the car verbally what to do. It was a cool car.

Next we drove the Z4 convertible. This was my least favorite out of the bunch. Although it had really good power and we took it well over 100 mph several times, it just didn't impress us that much. It had some cool features the 330 didn't like tiptronic shifting, and it could corner like a bitch, but overall the ride was pretty rough and the interior didn't seem nearly as nice as the 330.

Last we drove the 330Ci convertible. It was very similar to the sedan but not quite as luxurious feeling. Although they were the same year and same model the convertible was lacking a lot of the cool little interior features the sedan had like the voice command system. It did have good power though and was pretty fun to drive considering it was a convertible. Still the sedan was more fun.

Hopefully I get an invite like this from Mercedes soon!

Stupid Internet Explorer

It may have taken me 5 months since I use a Mac and Safari as my internet browser, but I just found out that apparently the right sidebar of my blog doesn't appear right in Microsucks Internet Explorer. I looked that the HTML code with the limited knowledge of that stuff that I have and didn't see anything wrong, so I don't know why this is happening. It works as far as I can tell with every other browser out there, so if you using Internet Explorer I guess your just S.O.L. Sorry!

By the way, if you are using Internet Explorer I ask why? Go download Firefox instead! It's free and trust me, it's much, much better.

Learning to Fly

Well it's taken me 6 years but I think I have finally made up my mind as to what I want to do as a career for the rest of my life. I've decided to become a professional pilot. I've always dreamed of flying but for some reason never considered a career as a professional pilot. I always thought that it was too hard, too expensive and that even though you have a commercial pilot license it can still be hard to find work, especially in a post 9/11 flight industry. The more I researched however, the more I found most of these assertions to be false, especially the one about work being scarce. It was really my cosine that convinced me it was fairly easily attainable and not the near impossible undertaking I once thought; he himself was in a similar position as I 3 years ago. He was 26 and still trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. 3 years later, he's now flying for a regional airline and set to be making close to $40,000 a year after only 1 year with the company. He expects to be making close to $75,000 a year 2 to 3 years from now. I can deal with that kind of money! So to start things off I went flying a few weeks ago around Salt Lake with an instructor. We took off from SL International and flew for about an hour up along the canyons, down to American Fork and back again. The instructor was so impressed with my knowledge of everything and my ability to fly the plane that a few minutes into our flight he slid his seat back and let me fly the entire time all the way up to about 5 seconds before we touched down. It was awesome and I instantly got the flight bug. Ever since that day all I've wanted to do was go on another flight, and if they weren't about $140 an hour, I would.

So I've been doing a lot of research into different school and have my choice of two different schools. One in Cedar City and one in Farminton, New Mexico. Each have advantages and disadvantages but their too in detailed to mention here. Either way I will have to make my decision soon and get the ball rolling. It will be fun.

Here's a picture of my first landing!

Warped Tour

Damn it was hot this year. As far as I know officially it was around 104 degrees but it sure as hell felt a lot hotter than that. At first I wasn't all that excited about the lineup, I could care less about bands like The Starting Line, Simple Plan and My Chemical Romance; and I really don't give a shit that Billy Idol's decrepit ass was playing so it was pretty hard for me to get motivated about spending 10 hours in the scorching sun. That is until I went into the production office and got a lineup schedule. Some of my favorite bands were playing; Dropkick Murpheys, Strung Out, No Use for a Name, and even some bands that I'd been meaning to check out like The Transplants and the Horrorpops.

I ended up checking out a few bands and here's what I thought of them:

Dropkick Murpheys - Kicked major ass. They had a huge crowd with some of the most devoted fans I'd ever seen, some who had giant 2 person flags that they had made and a bunch of other people with big 1 person flags. I saw about half of their set until I had to go let Mckell in, but they sounded really good.

Strung Out - Now I've seen Strung Out before and they kicked ass so I know what their capable of, but I don't have much good to say about their Warped Tour performance. They sounded out of time the whole set, it seemed like their sound was just not happening and nothing seemed to come together. Most of their songs ended up just sounding like a whole lot of noise, nothing like the originals. I wasn't that impressed.

No Use for a Name - These guys get my best of show award. Not only did they sound good, they rocked hard so hard in fact, that I was nearly rocked into a coma during a few of their new songs. I wasn't worthy to be in that set's presence.

The Transplants - Didn't get to see them myself, but judging by the fact that almost everyone I talked to said they sucked, I'm willing to bet they sucked. From what I hear Travis Barker was the only thing even slightly decent about the set and other than that, they blew.

Gogol Bordello - Mckell and I caught a little bit of this weird bands set as we were coming back from meeting The Offspring. Their a strange folk/polka/punk band from mother Russia and they sounded really cool. They had dancers that would dance and play percussion on a bunch of their songs and they were definitely a nice change of pace from all the strait punk you were hearing. They were cool, check 'em out.

Billy Idol - What the hell is it about this guy that turned him into an instant Warped Tour superstar? While sitting at our booth, I must have had 50 kids under the age of 18 come and tell me they were there to see Billy Idol more than anyone else. Billy Idol is before my time, and sure as shit theirs! I think it's funny how if some old bastard plays Warped Tour he's instantly cool with all the young kids. Either way I didn't see his set either, but I know he only played 4 songs and they kinda sucked. I guess that's what you get for liking Billy Idol.

One For Me, One For My Homies

This ones for Harold. My friends live-in dad that when I was about 10 years old told me "they wouldn't call it the blue ribbon for nothing.". Rest in peace my truth speaking friend!

Hot Today

Hot day today, eh? Mmmhmm...

I Got a New Car!

I got a new car!

No, not really. Anyone that knows me would know that I never plan on giving up my Supra, but I am driving another car for a little while. We're giving away a new Ford Mustang at work on September 24th and until then I have to drive it around to get the word out. Today was my first day with the car and I've got a few things to say...

First off it's a Ford and like any Ford it's built cheap. Never mind it's considered their "top of the line" sports car, Ford still uses the rock hard, stiff plastic dashboards that you find on all cheap cars. They also didn't do anything fancy with the interior; basic gauges (speed, tach, gas and temp) and a really cheap CD/FM radio is about all there is to the interior. No fancy GPS, mileage computer, outside temp or oil pressure gauge, just the most absolute basic things you would need, nothing else. They also seemed to cut a lot of corners in general. Unlike just about every car sold today, it didn't come with keyless entry, nor does it have a secure gas cap (the kind you pop open from inside your car), no automatic lights, nothing. Basically this car comes with everything you'd expect to see in a dirt cheap entry level Focus, and nothing you would expect to see in a "top of the line" sports car

The car has a few thing's I'll give it credit for though. The power isn't bad. Now I didn't say it was good, but I'm not going to say it's bad either. It would be considered fast for most, probably putting out what feels like 220-230 HP coming from feel only, no testing, but it isn't nearly as fast as other stock cars I've driven. I also give Ford credit for putting daylight illumination on the gauges, although they were pretty much required too since they are so far recessed in the dash that you wouldn't be able to see them without it. The gauges light up with bright fluorescent white light in the daylight, but unfortunately turn to ugly dim green at night when you have the headlights on. Last but not least, the look is starting to grow on me. I think they did a really good job incorporating the look of the old 60's and 70's Mustangs into the modern design. All in all I don't think they look that bad.

I definitely don't think the new Mustangs live up to all the hype. All in all their a pretty average sports car not really impressing me all that much in any aspect and disappointing me in quite a few. I would definitely drop the $26,000 on something that has a little more potential, maybe something that's not made by Ford either.

The Drive-In

So last night Mckell, Mckell's sister Chelsea, Nate and I all went to the Redwood Drive-In theaters in good ole' West Best Valley (didn't they officially change their name like 6 years ago?). We were looking for something to do and I realized that I couldn't remember the last time that I had gone to the drive-in, so we up'ed and went. We decided to see War of the Worlds, and since at the drive-in you get two movies for the price of one (which is only $6 a person, a damn good deal) it was followed by The Longest Yard. We took my car down even though my registration has been expired for 7 months now since I've got the bitchin' stereo and the convertible top.

All I can say is I forgot how fun that place can be. It was the perfect night so we left the top off, pitched a couple folding chairs next to car, opened the doors and watched the movie from there. The sound rocked and my only complaint is that the screen was a little blurry since I didn't have my glasses. After War of the Worlds we loaded up on pizza, popcorn, cotton-candy and drinks, then moved the car to a better spot in the theater for The Longest Yard. Good times were had and if you live in the area, I'd recommend going. Bring a 12 pack for added enjoyment.

Now for the movies. WTF was Steven Speilberg thinking? To be fair War of the Worlds started out pretty good, and actually remained pretty good throughout most of the movie. The problem lies in the ending. The ending was SO bad that not only is it hard to understand, but it almost ruins the rest of the movie. Without giving any spoilers, it just seemed like they ran out of budget or time (the latter being the most likely since this is Steven Speilberg) and had to find a way to end the movie, and and it fast. The problem is their ending is so quick and confusing that unless you have seen the older version of the movie, or read the book, you have no idea what the hell is going on. Anyway, yeah, it's probably worth seeing, but you might want to hold out for the dollar theater.

The Longest Yard on the other hand was the far better of the two. I had no real intention of seeing this movie anytime soon, but since it was bundled with War of the Worlds I did, and it put War of the Worlds to shame. Not only was it actually pretty funny (a rarity for Adam Sandler these days) but the ending actually made sense, immediately making it better than War of the Worlds. Go see it, it's worth it.

PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals

I didn't write the following article, nor do I know if it's true or not, but since I have a deep loathing for all things PETA I'm going to post it. EAT MEAT!

"PETA vice president mary beth sweetland is a diabetic she takes insulin shots which has animal products in it and was developed through animal research and this gets so much better. PETA headquarters in New hampshire pretty fuckin nice building for a fortune 500 company however peta is suppose to be non-proffit this means their tax records are available to the public, now there is some fucked up shit I will point out a few things for ya, PETA doesn't use violence however they donated over 75,000 fuckin dollars to ALF a violent animal rights group pretty fucked up, but wait this is where it gets really good, they purchased a walk-in freezer for 10 grand what the fuck for? don't worry i researched and found out why, peta took in 2103 animals last year, they euthanized 1325 that means over 2/3 of the animals peta takes in they fuckin kill, and now PETA is against pets and service animals for the blind yea those dogs have it so rough, let the blind fuckers stumble around and the dogs roam free, and now on to pets my dog bailey i wish i had his life fuck that dog is to stupid to make it on his own and if everyone let their pets roam free do you ingrid the president of PETA would volunteer to pick up all that road kill."