Andy’s Blog

So I thought I would do another small post to let you know my impressions on the Lancer after a week of ownership.

First of all I still absolutely love the car.  I don’t regret buying it even the tiniest bit.  Which is quite an accomplishment because I almost always have a little regret after buying something…even lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.  For the price I got the car it’s definitely more than what I paid for which is always a good feeling.  Obviously if I had more money I probably would’ve upgraded it bit more, but like I said for what I’m paying I’m extremely happy with it.

Now that I’ve had a chance to actually play with the bluetooth system, it’s amazing.  It’s so easy to dial numbers, pick up, and hang up calls truly hands free.  The only slight downside is that you have to add each entry into the phone book, you can’t transfer the existing phone book.  It’s kind of like the non-power seats…it’s not really a huge issue since I don’t talk to many people on the phone so I added only a few entries.  The only gripe I have about the stereo system is the iPod interface.  It’s just a mini-jack (headphone) cord, so you can’t control which song you’re on from the actual head unit…it has to be controlled from the iPod or in my case my phone.  So I resorted to an old school method of using CDs which is okay because I have a 6-CD changer anyways.   Also I can fit about 100 songs per CD if burned correctly and the car reads them no problem!  The best thing about burning CDs as MP3s instead of a traditional CD is that you can actually see the track name on the head unit.  Also I’d rather be able to change the songs from the head unit since the steering wheel is equipped with the stereo controls.

As far as actually driving goes…still a really fun drive whether or not I’m trying to consume gas or see what it can do.  It handles amazingly and can dodge things on the road with ease (I’ve dodged a few potholes that I didn’t see until the last minute).  It has little low-end power but once you hit that mid-range it almost feel like a turbo kicks in without there actually being once there which is a pretty cool feeling in itself.

All in all I’m still overwhelmed with excitement for this car.  I’ve thought about a few minor/cheap upgrades such as a new shift knob to give it a slightly edgier look inside, but it’s not really necessary.

So as I’m sure most of you have heard probably from Facebook, I did finally get a new car! I got a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer ES Sport. I must say I absolutely LOVE the car so far. I’ve only had it for a few days, but it is definitely meeting and exceeding my expectations. As far as the actual car goes it’s got the sports package which included some cosmetic sportier looks on the outside including fog lamps, rear wing spoiler, chrome exhaust tip, and some other sexy looking features. I also decided to get the “Sun & Sound” Package which included a sunroof (pretty obviously) and a premium sound system which is really cool! It also included their “fast-key” system which I’m not quite sure why is part of the sun and sound package, but it’s really cool nonetheless. It basically is a keyless entry/ignition system and it unlocks the doors as long as key is within the vicinity of the car…I did notice that it does have to be VERY close so there really isn’t any issues with stealing etc. The keyless system also allows you to start the car without a key using the same concept as the unlocking doors. The one thing I did notice that the car didn’t do that would’ve been nice is if you leave the car running and leave to go into the convenience store or whatever with the keys in your pocket the engine doesn’t automatically kill itself. It’s not really any different than leaving any other car running and running into the store…someone can just as easily steal it, but it is nice because if they kill the engine they can’t start it up again. It would have been nice if the engine did kill itself.

Alright, lets talk about the actual drive now! First of all the car is a 5-speed manual and if you’re asking me why would I get a manual, the answer is simple, I just prefer to drive manuals over automatics. I have nothing against driving automatics just what I prefer. But the first time I got into the car the first thing you notice is that it’s actually pretty damn roomy for a smaller car. And I’m a pretty tall guy 6′4-6′5 and I thought I had more than enough room. The car started up beautifully and sounded pretty sexy while doing so. I changed my mirrors and moved my seat back (which weren’t power by the way, I thought it was strange but honestly I could care less since I’m really going to be the only one driving it, and adjusting it back to my level is easy just push it all the way back). I shifted the car into first and was on my way. The drive was amazing. The clutch was basically like butter but enough force back to allow for quick shifting and acceleration. I can’t say that I timed the 0-60 time by any means, but it did seem pretty quick for a 4-cylinder engine. I think Mitsubishi really did something amazing with their MIVEC design. Something that was pretty cool that I’ve never had before were the audio system’s controls on the steering wheel. Something minor, but definitely cool to have. The only criticism I have on that is when you’re using the “change channel” buttons it switches between the radio stations and not your presets. I have to look at the manual but that would be very nice. Considering I don’t want to go from 99 to 104 with every decimal between just to switch radio stations, or even worse on the satellite system switching between those where there could be 40 or 50 between the stations I want. Now lets talk fuel economy, since it seems what everyone is talking about these days. It varies greatly depending on what kind of driving you’re doing. If I’m driving aggressively it’s obviously going to be much lower that if I’m driving “normal”. But either way when I’m driving aggressively(without flooring the engine) I’m looking around 23-25 on the streets and about 31 if I’m driving normally. The really impressive mileage comes out on the highway. With normal non-stop and go traffic I was getting around 39 @ 70 MPH and even more impressive 42 @ 60 MPH without cruise control and the AC was on. So honestly the Lancer seems to be an all-in-one in my book. It’s got the really sporty feel and it can be used pretty powerfully though only at 148 HP, but can be used very economically if driven right. There are a few criticisms that I noticed but none of them are big enough to actually make an impact on me….the first being the power seats, the second being no lights in the fold down visor’s mirrors. And the last being “automatic” lights. The car actually has daylight running lights so the lights are technically automatic at night, but the taillights don’t automatically turn on. Slight annoyance but nothing to cry over. So in my book I would give the Lancer a 9/10 for what I’m looking for. Obviously some other things would have been nice such as the Ralliart trim with the turbo in it, but something that isn’t worth $10k extra.

Alright, finally lets talk about actually obtaining the car from the dealership. About a week before I actually bought the car I went in with my buddy John to look at what they have. Basically when I told them I wanted a Lancer ES Sport with a 5-Speed Manual Transmission they said they didn’t have anywhere because they were so hot. The reason the manuals were flying off the shelves and the automatics weren’t is because the Manuals qualified for the “cash for clunkers” program and the automatics didn’t by the order of 2 MPG or something like that. It was slightly annoying for me because that’s not why I wanted the manual at all. But this is where South Suburban Mitsubishi earned my business and my recommendations. They went above and beyond to find me exactly what I was looking for. It took them a while to find one and actually get it here, but I knew what I wanted and wasn’t going to back down simply because it was hard to find. But they did it, they eventually located one near Indianapolis and drove it on up here and did a dealer trade. It was actually a pretty amusing story of how they got it since none of the other dealers would trade them since they were so popular. Apparently the normal manager at the other store didn’t want to get rid of it, but they called on his day off and talked to a rookie manager and were able to get the car, and the normal manager was pretty pissed the next day when they found out the car wasn’t there anymore. Anyways it worked out for me and I was able to get exactly what I wanted. So they get it in on Wednesday night and they had to clean it up and everything which worked out for me because it gave me time to go to the DMV and get my Illinois driver’s license since I still had my Arizona one. So Friday rolls along and I go into work early so I can get my IL driver’s license that morning. I get out of work early and so does my mom and we head on over to the dealership. They were contacting the banks all afternoon trying to get us a good rate, but it wasn’t looking very good. My credit was completely shot. This was one of the reasons I REALLY wanted to be on the loan because I knew that it would really help build my credit back up. So we finally got an offer from the bank, but it was WAY higher that I was willing to pay and they went back to work. The GM of the dealership had to call in a favor to the bank and get us a lower rate. They were able to lower it significantly…I don’t know how much they actually lowered the rate or if they lowered the price of the actual car, but I got the payments down to a reasonable price in the neighborhood I was looking for. It was slightly more than I had originally anticipated, but it was okay. I could have gotten it lower if I wanted to take myself off the loan, but it was the very last option that I wanted. So I went with the price and I had actually planned for a bit more in my budget so it was all good. I would definitely recommend South Suburban Mitsubishi in Monee IL to anyone looking for a new car. They went above and beyond for me.

So anyways that concludes my first impressions on my new Lancer. I absolutely love the car and am looking forward to driving it everyday, though I’m not looking forward to paying for it. I hope you enjoyed reading about it!

So my boss was putting a sound card into one of the computers we use at work. It’s a Dell PowerEdge that was used as a server, but is now being used as a workstation. It didn’t have a sound card in it due to its sever nature. So he pops off the side of the machine, grabs the PCI sound card and goes to put it in.

Quick lesson for all of you who know nothing about computers: The PCI Bus is split into two sections a smaller section and a larger section. The smaller section is towards the front of the computer and the larger section is towards the back of the computer.

So anyways he grabs the PCI card and goes to put it in, only the two sections are inverted. Whoops. Manufacturing Fail. =)

I’m still quite a ways away from actually making my trip to Europe, but planning it is proving to be extremely exciting to me. My original plan was to visit maybe 2 adjacent countries in Europe for my trip. This soon changed when I actually just started playing around with Google Maps and realized that Europe is much smaller than I originally expected. I knew it wasn’t big, but I in no way expected it to be as small as it is. (I’m obviously no geography expert.)

I’m starting to look at different possibilities now that so much more has opened up to me. I’m pretty set on wanting to visit Italy while I’m in Europe so that may be my first destination. I’m not 100% sure where I would fly in to though…maybe fly into Rome and make my way north through the country. The other place I could fly into would be Milan, but then I’m missing a good portion of Italy by cutting a few hours of travel time. I’m also thinking about stopping in Germany to visit a friend that I met back in Arizona to catch up, not only to visit him, but I would like to visit Germany as well so it’s kind of a win-win situation.

Another interesting thing I found out today is how cheap airfare is from country to country. So this also got me excited because it opens up even more possibilities for myself. Obviously airfare varies quite a bit but just from a quick glance and only from one website without any real research I found a trip from Germany to Ireland to be only $120. So that could be another destination to add to my list. I gotta tell ya I’m getting pretty excited just from the research of this trip, and from watching my buddy at VirtualWayfarer.com’s videos.

On a lower note, saving up the money for this trip is proving to be harder than I thought with my various different bills and my student loan payments have started this month. The student loan payments take up almost a quarter of my monthly pay and that’s without the other bills I have to pay. It doesn’t help that my car is in desperate need of repairs so trying to put money away while fixing my car isn’t easy. But nevertheless, I’m still managing it.

Anyways I just wanted to give a little update on my future plans. As always comments and criticisms are always welcome.

So last night I decided to make Tempura Fried Ice Cream based on the suggestion of a friend. First of all I didn’t even know what Tempura Fried Ice Cream was so I had to look it up and get a basic recipe. Anyways the batter consisted of 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp of baking soda sifted together. Then 1 egg beaten, then a cup of water added along with a tsp of vanilla extract. Once the wet ingredients were well blended they were added to the dry ingredients and mixed together. I tried to get as many of the lumps out but the recipe also said that some where bound to happen so I left it. I tasted the batter and wasn’t too happy with it so I decided to add a quarter cup of sugar in to get that sweet edge. It turned out much better so I was going to use this. The ice cream balls (I just used vanilla) were in the freezer for about an hour before I started to heat the oil. Once the oil was hot I took the ice cream balls out of the freezer and put one of them in the batter. After that I quickly dropped the ball in the hot oil and let it cook for about 30 seconds and took it out. I let it cool off before trying it and it turned out really good! The crispy outside turned out to be more of a elephant ear type of taste but that’s fine with me. Unfortunately the first one was the only one that turned out right. I should have expected this because I didn’t keep the ice cream in the freezer along with the batter cold in between cooking. I should have known this was going to happen since I’ve made Mozzerella cheese sticks with the same outcome. I still have two ice cream balls left in the freezer so I’m going to try them again when I get home and do it right this time. There is a short video below of the first one that turned out good.

First of all I just realized I used the word “Eurotrip” which is actually one of my favorite, but incredibly stupid comedies. But anyways back to the important stuff.

Some minor updates on my trip to Europe. I’m still hoping to do this next year but I may have to push it back a few months due to some issues with my car. It seems to be getting in worse shape every day and I’m still so conflicted in whether or not it’s worth fixing or to just get a new car. But I’m still going to strive for next year probably fall.

But as far as the actual trip is concerned a friend of mine directed to me the Eurail website which they have some really cool deals called “Regional Passes” which is basically rail travel within and between one or two countries. The price seems pretty reasonable at around $200-$300 for a two week period. And one of the regions that they have is Italy-Greece which could influence my decision on where I want to go. But I still have a ton of time to make that decision but at least now I have different ideas in my head which is always a good idea.

Anyways just a small update just wanted to try and keep myself going with writing my thoughts down about this trip seeing as how excited I am about it. Happy 4th of July everyone!

So, I’m going to start getting into blogging again especially since I’m going to start planning a trip to Europe next year.

Personally I’ve never been out of the United States…ever. Not even to Mexico or Canada, so I’m really excited to start planning this trip. I know it’s WAY in advance considering I won’t be traveling until next year, but I think the more prepared I am for it, the less shock it will be a month before the trip. For now it’s pretty much getting mentally prepared of being on my own for a couple of weeks thousands of miles from home. My first concern for now is money which is probably the first thing anyone thinks about when taking a long trip anywhere. I’m not too worried about it as I plan to start saving now putting away $200 from each of my paychecks and I should have my goal of $4000 put away within 10 months. While I don’t plan on spending $4000 by any means I do want to have a surplus just in case. It’s always better to have more money than not enough. My plan with that is to have ~$2500-$3000 in my checking account as I will be primarily using a debit card not a credit card and leave the rest in my savings and let someone back stateside be able to transfer the money if need be. Not sure how much safer that is but it sounded good in my head.

My buddy Alex has written up a fantastic site that pretty much goes very in depth of what to expect, what to pack, and what to do in certain situations while traveling. The site is Ultimatepackinglist.com. I give major kudos to Alex on this one since I’m going to be basing most of my research from this site and the external resources it provides.

So why do I want to take this trip? Simple answer: because I never have. But that’s just the simple answer. As long as I can remember from social studies classes, history classes, and from the three years I took in French is that people are different. Learning about other people and cultures has always fascinated to me in some way shape or form. After all America only occupies ~5% of the world meaning there is so much to learn out there. You can only learn so much from textbooks and teachers. I honestly believe there is so much out in the world to discover and this trip I’m planning next year is just the beginning.

As far as where I want to go? I haven’t really decided on that yet. There are 4 main countries I would really like to visit in my lifetime. The United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, and Greece. Obviously those are just the ones I REALLY want to visit and of course I want to visit more but they are on the top of my list before I die. As far as this trip is concerned I would like to visit one of the four and possibly another (on the list or not, it doesn’t really matter just as long as I have a great time). So I would love to hear anybody’s experiences from anywhere in Europe to help make my own decision. Just as a guideline maybe I’ll pick something completly different. That’s the nice thing about starting to plan now…I have plenty of time to make the decision which I gotta say will probably not be easy.

Well thanks and I hope to hear from you all soon!

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So I pretty much got my mind set that I’m going to be getting a new car hopefully sooner than later. Now that I actually make enough money to make a monthly payment on one I can get something besides a filler car and actually get something that I want not something that I need. I did the math and it looks like I’ll be okay with a $350/month payment I would go up to $400 for the right car, but that is REALLY going to make my money tight at least through August while I’m still paying off some bills. After August I’m no longer paying an overdue charge to ASU. And through October I’ll finish off paying a small loan from my aunt. But after those two are paid off I’ll make more than enough money to make a $350 payment. The main reason I’m looking into a new car is that mine is just starting to fail. If I drive on the freeway the car starts to overheat when I slow down when getting off. Another reason is the axle is starting to go bad and I’d rather not have to fix that. I’ve already put $400 into this year and really don’t want to put anymore because I didn’t spend that much on it in the first place. I think this is the right time while the economy is still in the crapper and since I don’t have a paid vacation this year I probably won’t take any more than a few days off for a vacation. I’d really like to hear everyone’s thoughts about whether or not this is a good idea. Like I said I’ll be tight on money for the first few months, but not anything I can’t handle. Plus this will give me an opportunity to really see how I spend my money as I’m going to start keeping a day-to-day tab just to see how much I do spend.

So I came across a strange realization today. Seat belt laws are stupid. I’m not saying wearing a seat belt is stupid by any means. I always wear mine, but the idea that you should be fined for not wearing one seems kind of ridiculous to me. People SHOULD have the choice to wear one or not. Just the same as someone chooses to ride a motorcycle or not and realistically what’s more dangerous under most circumstances…getting into an accident in a car not wearing a seat belt, or getting into an accident on a motorcycle. Which one is more likely to cause permanent damage?

Like I said I wear my seat belt and no it’s not because I’m “scared” into doing it in fear that I will receive a ticket, I do it because it’s the smart thing to do in the event that I were to get into a crash. I guess this post was meant to get you thinking…why do you wear a seat belt…is it because you’re scared of getting a ticket? Is it because you know you’re probably safer in the event of a crash with it on versus not? But it also is to get you thinking why do some laws get passed?

So I’m going to be creating a new website called Ballroom Dance Connection .net It won’t be only for ballroom dancing however Ballroom/Latin/Salsa will all be included. It’s basically going to be a resource where people can find places to dance, where they can learn, etiquette, and links to online stores. There will also be a blog feature where people can post about their ballroom experiences and hopefully everyone will become really interactive with it. I’m really excited about getting this project started so if anyone has any ideas let me know right away!