Tuesday, April 26, 2005 :: 4:26:00 PM

ok, because I have nothing that I really need to write about (or anything that I can write about publicly), I've decided to post up a readers digest version of my trials with this freakin' car... it all started on a nice spring morning...

April 11th, 6am
wake up and call Abrams Towing to arrange a 7am tow of the car from the Previous Owners (PO) house to my mechanic to get it inspected.

April 11th, 7am
show up at the POs house to oversee the tow.. he's going to school, so someone needs to be there.

April 11th, 9am
The tow truck finally shows up. Funny young Russian guy driving.. Something funny I learned is that you do NOT need to be the owner of a car to tow it.. He showed up, I pointed to the car in his driveway (the PO left for school about a half hour ago), he just hooked it up and took it.. no proof of ownership or anything... Car thieves - remember this... it's easier than stealing it yourself. Anyway, the car gets to my mechanic without a hitch.

April 11th, 5:30pm
I'm driving my mom to work so I can go to school. She tells me that she talked to our mechanic and he explains that I've made myself one hell of a deal because that car, as it is, is worth more than double I paid for it (I paid $3,500). Good news!

11pm
I learn that my parents talked to our mechanic again. He finished the inspection, and quoted approximately $2500 worth of work that needs to go into the car to get it up to 100%.

April 12th, 8am
I head over to the mechanic to find out what needs to be repaired / replaced. Here's the list:

- Licence plate light
- Windshield washer hose
- Right Side Inner Tierod
- Right Side Swaybar Bushing
- Right side upper strut mount
- 2 front brake rotors and pads
- parking brake wont hold
- driver side door handle sticky
- Rear rotors undersized

April 12th, pm
I talk to the PO, and tell him of the repairs. He agrees to do the repairs for me if I add another $500 to the price of the car to cover parts and labour.. I figure $500 is much better than $2500, so I agree.

Car sits in the mechanic's lot for a while..

April 15th, 7:45pm
I go with all of my paperwork to the MTO to get the ownership changed into my dad's name (for insurances reasons). I get there, and they close early.. apparently they close at 8, but they close the doors so they can finish dealing with customers already inside.

April 16th, noon
My dad, Beth, and myself go to the MTO to try to transfer ownership again. We get all the paperwork done, and everything was almost all set to go... But then the nice lady behind the counter told us that as of that previous week, any cars over 20 years old need to be appraised so they can calculate the tax i must pay. We dont have this form, so with me even more frustrated than the day before, we leave.

April 18th, 5:45pm
My dad and I are on our way to the MTO again to transfer ownership. We stop in at our mechanic and he fills out the appraisal form for me.... and while on our way, we get a call from my mom who needs to go to work but cant find her set of car keys - she needs my set for her car, so we turn around and go back to the house.

April 18th, 6:04pm
I walk into the MTO office. They inform me that they're closed, and that they absolutely cannot see me. I asked when they were closed, and they told me 6:00.... it's 6:04!!! I told them I had all the paperwork done (from my previous visits).. all I had to do was pay and pick up my plates. They had no part of it, and this little oriental woman who worked there walked out and told me to leave too. I told her my situation, and expressed my frustrations, but she said that they could not pay the employees overtime to take care of my situation.. and that I should come back tomorrow..

April 18th, 6:08pm
I chase the little oriental woman out into the parking garage ranting and yelling at her... I dont think I've ever scared someone like that before.. damn she was walking fast..

April 19th, early afternoon
My dad and I go BACK to the MTO... we get everything taken care of and that was that. I get my plates (after the girl tried to convince me that personal plates on a porsche was the "right" thing to do, even though they cost $240 MORE than regular plates)... and get my ownership, and we head home. My dad takes the car off the lot, and parks it in our driveway. Damn it looks good there. I washed it that afternoon =D The car is now actually mine..

And finally, as of yesterday.. April 25th, at 11am.. the final parts that I ordered online showed up to the house. You see, I saved myself about $1500 by buying all the parts myself rather than having to buy them from a mechanic to install them. I gave the car to the PO yesterday at 6pm, where he spent from 6pm-1am working on the car... But it's done. He and his buddy finished EVERYTHING... so something that would have cost me at least $2500 from my mechanic, I got away with for about $500.

Oh, one final entry into this time journal...

April 26th, 1am in the morning
The two guys take the car out for a drive around Streetsville (where the shop was that they were working in...) and they got PULLED OVER! They weren't speeding or anything, but they were pulled over just randomly... Now, imagine this... Two twenty-somethings... male... driving a porsche out of a parking lot at 1am in STREETSVILLE... when the ownership in the glovebox doesn't even belong to them... to the cop, for all intents and purposes.. They stole it!!!! But, they explained the situation, and explained that one of the guys was the son of the guy who owned Daley's shope (this was Craig Daley helping the PO install the parts)... the cop let them go..

anyway, would you look at that.. Fate was definitely against me in buying that car. I'm sure there were a bunch of little things that happened that I'm just not thinking of now that obstructed me from my goal of owning this car, but I stuck through them all.. and came out the otherside of it with a set of wheels that not only looks good, but will run well too....

My dad and I were joking about my fate and luck with this car... Every time we went to the MTO office to change ownership, we kept joking around on how the place was going to be a smouldering pile of ash, or something else equally rediculous that would prevent me from actually doing this deed... And if that was the case, then I should just call the PO up and tell him to forget it - this car has bad Karma and the deal was off...

I did no such thing.. It took a little longer to do than I expected, but the end far outweighs the means on the scale of "happy kyle-ness"...

I pick up the car tonight from the lot in streetsville - hopefully it's still there.. lol

Until next time.......
*fade to black*

:: Eldorado ::

Friday, April 15, 2005 ::

I think I've found my hero. First off, how I found him.

You know me. You know my absolute inability to leave something alone. I need to satisfy my tinker urges.. When I see something, I have to take it apart... if it's electronic, if it has screws on it's plastic casing, then for absolutely no reason at all I Need to take it apart.. and if it doesn't have screws? the challenge becomes finding out HOW to take it apart.... "hide screws under a sticker, Mr. Manufacturer? HA.. I'll show you.."

it's something I like doing.. even if I have no idea what I'm looking at, it's just fun to look inside of something..

So in my newest toy (read: porsche), I started thinking about what I could do with it... Sure, I could put a body kit on it and be just like everyone else.... OR.. I could find out some way of bringing my two favourite toys together... a coming together of two of my favourite loves... my car, and my computer.

"oh god no..."

I can hear you saying it now.. but, my only response is.... oh god yes.

I have a spare laptop sitting in my room here.. not really doing anything but collecting dust... and then I thought....why not put the laptop in the car???

No, not mount it on the dash like a police car... (Although that'd be pretty kickin'..) I'm talking about putting it somewhere... under the drivers seat... in the trunk... somewhere... load the mofo up with mp3s, and have my own personal car mp3 deck :)

On top of that, run a remote to the dash that would allow me to control it from the dash... that'd be kick ass....

Anyway, I was searching around google for a way to do this because, how do you run a 15V laptop off of a 12V car battery? Surprisingly, it can be done!

I came across this website, www.ghettohardware.com - right off the bat, from the name, I knew I had fallen in love. This is a blog of a gentleman who logs silly little hardware things that he accomplishes, one of wich being a laptop in a car.

In reading through his past entries, I came across one where he took an xbox controller, attached an LCD video screen to it.... ran it into the wall of his bathroom, through his house, into his media center computer in his living room... the LCD displays the contents of his media center monitor... and he can then control music that plays through speakers in the bathroom that also run through the walls... He could also, if he wishes, fire up a dvd and watch it on the tiny LCD...

Could you not picture me doing something like that in my first home? god that'd be beautiful.. this just proves that he truly is my hero...

something funny that he wrote about as I came across it on his blog was about things being "premium this" and "premium that"... I was just thinking about this the other day - when did everything reach the premium status? Are premium potato chips on par with premium gasoline? He writes...

"Today, I drink premium juices (7$/half gallon vs 1$ for the frozen concentrate), choose from a variety of premium breads (3$ for a ciabatta from a local bakery vs 50 cents for the grocery-brand white spongy crap), surf the web on a premier connection while watching a variety of television that shares in it's luxury. I can enjoy premium local beer and make my own on occasion with ingredients bought from a local homebrew shop which specializes in premium ingredients. If that's not all, I share the road with a plethora of premium cars ($$$) on my way to see the cups from the coffehouses (where customers daily order their "personalized" double white chocolate mocha with space in the top of the cup to add additional cream, just to make sure they are different from the person behind them in line who wears the same clothes from banana republic, drives a Jetta of the same color to the same job where they fight to climb a ladder that never ends....) overflowing out of garbage cans near the cities premium apartment complexes."

It's true, if you think about it.. Society is so wrapped up with "premium" status that it's bleeding throughout everything.. Even the eggs you get, the meat you eat... clothes you wear, and the air you breathe (that only counts if you live in Toronto and own an Ionic Breeze air purifier... everywhere else is fine without the purifier)... it's all premium..

anyway, now if you'll excuse me from my premium rant, I should go to bed so I can wake up tomorrow and sign the ownership papers of my brand new 22 year old premium german automobile.

Until next time.......
*fade to black*

:: Eldorado ::

Sunday, April 10, 2005 ::

THIS WEEK!!
gah.. I'm so excited =D

:: Eldorado ::

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 ::

Here's a question for you..
after just recently watching all 3 Matrix movies, my whole thoughts of the series changed.... but first, a question for you...

who do you think was the main character in the Matrix Trilogy? and... Why?

use the comment section to respond, and I'll get back to you with my own thoughts on this matter sometime later..

Until next time.......
*fade to black*

:: Eldorado ::