citizen of the planet

Just like I stated last year, at this time of year I have a tendency to avoid doing these run down type posts.  I tend to do these on my birthday, and usually it’s enough.  Thing is, I think for a year like this a little bit of navel-gazing is necessary.  There’s a lot of talk about this year being a tough one.  By and large, yes, it was tough.  With all of the doom and gloom, it can be easy for me to sink into a dark place.  There are, however, enough reasons for me to look up and forward.  That’s why it’s important for me to see what I’ve gone through.

This is one heck of an entry, so I’m placing it after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so I can’t claim the award because I’m not going to post this to seven other bloggers. Sorry, no dice. That being said, since it was requested and I don’t seem to mind, I’m going to post seven quick tidbits about myself.

1. I am a Scorpio and the sign rising over the horizon at my birth was also Scorpio. So my inner and outer self have that characteristic. My moon was in Pisces meaning my emotional nature is Pisces-like (whatever that means). Yes, my vitals are all in water-signs. Would indicate that my emotions play a big role in my life. Very true.
2. I have helped to organize and emcee orientation week at university. Time leading up to it was probably one of the hardest years of my life. The week itself was completely hellish. Those people that I’ve ushered in have since graduated.
3. I’ve had three cars: an Oldsmobile Cutless Ciera, a Pontiac Sunfire, and a Toyota Corolla. They all had spoilers. I now can’t picture myself with a spoiler-less car. Such cars kind of look bare, don’t they?
4. I have notoriously flat feet. I always used that as an excuse as to why I just wasn’t meant to run. Who knew that I’d be running half marathons?
5. I bake relatively frequently. I often take pictures of what I made. I’m really not that bad of a baker. I’ve gotten good reviews for a lot of stuff that I’ve come up with.
6. I’ve been to Japan twice. I’m pretty sure I won’t be heading back any time soon. That being said, I find the memorization of Kanji to be fascinating. I’d like to take on Mandarin Chinese as my next challenge.
7. According to Last.fm, my music tastes tend to be: rock, indie, female vocalists, pop, alternative, Canadian artists. I really like quirky stuff, hence my propensity for Alanis and Björk.

At some point early on I think I had developed something in terms of a vehicle complex of sorts. When I got my Corolla, I was quite pleased with myself. I mean, this was the first time I’d purchased a new vehicle. My reasons for buying that vehicle came down to reliability and the comfort factor (due to lengthy commutes): both of which the Corolla has a reputation for. I ended up getting the sport trim because it reminded me of my old Sunfire. As I read on about the Corolla though, I kept on reading reviews about it being rather boring. As much as I didn’t want those views to creep into my head, some of them did. Often when I’d talk about my vehicle I’d turn into an apologist of sorts. Crazy, isn’t it? Well, now that I’m nearing 5000 kilometres on my vehicle, I think my mind is totally at ease about my decision.

(God, it better be at this point.)

Seriously. As time has passed, I’ve gotten to know the car, and now I really don’t mind it at all. Previously I complained about the car being sluggish. Hmm…if it is, I don’t notice it at all anymore. Perhaps the car has gotten used to my driving style, or maybe I’ve adjusted my habits to the car’s abilities. Either way, its acceleration is completely fine; I honestly don’t know what I was complaining about before.

As far as looks go, the sport trim makes it look nice. When people would ask about my car, I used to say that it indeed looks great, but would qualify it with “but it’s a Corolla.” After a couple of months though, I don’t feel the need to add the qualification any more. Just the other night, one of my running buddies commented on how it looks reeeeeeally nice. I was about to blurt out “it’s a Corolla!” I suppressed the urge and just accepted the compliment. Why do I need to be apologetic? Good is good, right?

Anyway, I guess I just need to declare it: no more car angst! No kidding. I can do without useless mental clutter.

I figured today would be pretty average; I had nothing going except a short trip to the mall to spend some cash because I was feeling so inclined. After an hour or two I left the place with bags and a mango smoothie in hand. I left through the Wal-mart entrance into the bright sunshine–it was an unusually warm day for this time of year. I think the forecasts indicated that we’d hit a high of 22°C. Anyway, as I absent-mindedly fished for my keys I heard an old woman speaking loudly in a Chinese accent. I didn’t really think much of it until I realized that she was trying to get my attention. I turned to her to see what was up. “Mai ca~!! Mai ca~!!” she exclaimed as she pointed off in the distance. It took my a moment to realize she was trying to convey a message that something was wrong with her car. It took me a small moment to decide what to do. I could have just left her pretending not to understand, but in the end I just went with her.

As we approached her car, there was her husband standing there with a car jack on the ground pointing at a flat tire. When I saw that I was kind of relieved. I figured that if it was a problem with their car battery, I would have been useless. It’s not that I’m good at changing tires or anything. In fact, I’ve never done it before in my life. Although it was demonstrated to me at a seminar I attended at the Toyota Dealership a month or two after I purchased my car. I was hazy on the details, but I figured I’d give it my best try. I tried communicating to the couple, but they weren’t understanding a word. All I could do was sigh loudly and smile. I bent down and started working on jacking the car up.

Now, at the seminar I remember them talking about placing the jack in between two notches under the frame. The purpose of the notches seemed to be that it pointed out a spot on the frame that could be jacked up. Anyway, I looked under and only found one notch. I though “oh shit, what now?” I just went with it. I placed the jack in between the notch and the wheel. I started cranking the handle. As the car lifted, my confidence kind of soared. All I could think was “Holy shit! I’m doing it!” Once it was high off the ground, I took the wrench to the nuts and started turning the handle. Thing is, the nuts were still tight to the wheel. I tried stepping on the wrench to get the nut loose. That’s when it happened: THWOMP. The jack tipped and the car collapsed. Oops. That’s when I remembered that you have to loosen the nuts first before jacking it up or else you’ll risk having the jack tip and the car falling.

I spent the next few minutes trying to lower the jack, but I couldn’t figure out which direction to crank the thing. My mind was thinking about too many things at once, but mostly about my failed attempt. As I was adjusting the jack, a guy with a Caribbean accent came to help out. I think the wife flagged him down. It turns out he was a mechanic. He started helping out. The couple had also picked up another Chinese person with a grasp of English so that she could translate. It was suddenly a group affair. The wife told the translator that she recognized him from a dancing group. He said that he indeed was in the group. Small world.

So, the mechanic started loosening the nuts and the husband started motioning to the jack first. I tried to motion that it was OK because he had to loosen the thing first. After he loosened the nuts, he had me crank the jack to raise the car. As it was going up, I told the mechanic that I kind of knew what I was doing but was glad he showed up. He just told me that it’s not hard to do but you needed to “cut your teeth” and experience doing it first hand. My reply was that I was just glad it wasn’t with my car. Once the was raised he removed the nuts and then the tire. While it was off, I put the spare tire on. He put the nuts back on and I started cranking the car down. Once it was down he tightened the nuts, and just like that we were done. Craaazy!

The husband took two bottles of water from the trunk to allow us to rinse our hands which had become really greasy. Water didn’t help much, but after using some tissues they weren’t so bad. Through the translator we were told that the wife was coming back with coffee. And there she was with a tray of three large coffees from McDonalds. It was a small gesture, but the gratitude was obvious. I was trying to juggle my bags, the smoothie which had melted by then, and the hot coffee which was spilling on my hands. I just smiled and shook everyone’s hand. The woman conveyed that maybe she could dance with the mechanic next time as a thank you. Laughs were had. I was still burning my hands.

Xie xie! (Thank you!) That was the only Chinese could come up with. I started walking away back to my car. My head was buzzing at having done such an unexpected good deed. As I neared my car, I realized that I should have said something like zai jian (goodbye…I think). It didn’t matter. I was just beaming. I drove out of the lot confident that I could change a tire and that the couple would make it home.

I felt entirely and completely manly.

Shortly, I was back on the road with greasy hands burned by coffee, drinking a melted smoothie. Even so, all was right with the world.

Honestly, where the heck did February go? No kidding. March is upon us which means the equinox is just around the corner. I don’t think that winter has ever affected me as much as it has this season. I often comment about how much I enjoy it and how trudging through snow builds character, blah blah blah. Yeah, I still believe that, but for whatever reason the burden just feels heavier than usual.

First and foremost, I can attribute it to continuing training through the snowy months. It’s been a sacrifice to leave work early and commute north to join my running group. I’ve continued to run through blowing snow and biting winds. There were times when my thighs felt close to being frostbitten. I don’t mind. It’s been a fun and refreshing experience. It’s allowed me to maintain a level of fitness through a season where I’m usually relatively complacent. Still, it’s a different experience for me to be this committed to an activity and not have a down season. Perhaps the injury is my body’s way of forcing me to take some time off. Who knows?

In terms of work, projects are still being scheduled into the tight confines of the time line. Some days I almost feel like the client is asking to use me as a resource on more projects just because I’m the pack mule and capable of the weight. Tch. Just because I’m capable of it doesn’t mean that I should be pushed to my limits. I keep saying that I need time off. I haven’t scheduled anything yet, but I do know that I have one leftover vacation day from last year that I need to use up by the end of this month. It would be improper and ridiculous to let that day expire so I’m going to force myself to get away sometime soon.

On the housing front, this season has brought me a swift kick to the nuts. Actually, no, I suppose I can’t characterize it as that because there’s a good side to it all. The postponement is just tough on the mind. I mean, getting psyched for the move has been a slow process for me. I’ve been cautious about getting excited knowing that such delays happen. Then, in December they gave a confirmed final date. At that point there was a finish line: there was some finality. That’s when I allowed myself to start feeling great about it. Buying the appliances was a fantastic experience. And then…the date was bumped. I seriously cannot allow myself to get my expectations up so soon until there’s more evidence of finality. I mean, when I look at the building today, the balconies are under construction, and bricks are up on the ground floor. Still, as far as I’m concerned, those are meaningless to me: I need to force myself to contain any excitement.

These are a few reasons why this has been a relatively trying season for me. I’m not saying that it’s all been one downer after another, because a lot of good things have happened as well. I love my new car. It performed excellently on my trip to Burlington. I had absolutely no issues with acceleration–I felt that it was actually kind of zippy. Fuel economy for the trip seemed great too. Anyway, I think the result of all of this is that I’m anticipating the return of spring a lot more than I ever have in the past. I’m feeling the sunlight more strongly. In the mornings, I’ve noticed that sunlight pierces my blinds at an earlier time now. I’ve been toying with the idea of just turning my alarm clock off and waking up with the sun. Sounds great, but I actually question whether I can trust myself to actually wake up properly at a proper time. What if it’s a rainy day? Hmm.

What are my expectations for the month and for the upcoming season? Well, for one thing, I’m hoping to take better care of myself. When I return to my training I am going to attack it with measured fervour. I plan on saying “no” more often. I plan on having more courage. At the end of the month, the braces are coming off–I need to find more self-confidence.

If spring is a time for new beginnings, I’m going to work to plant as many positive seeds as I can.

The odometer on my new car went past 500 kilometres earlier today. I figured that now would be a good point to kind of give a review of the vehicle. If you recall I have a 2009 Corolla in the S trim. As far as looks go, this 10th-gen redesign is pretty cool. I mean, with the grill, skirt and spoiler it looks really nice. I picked up the picture on the left from Google Images. Anyway, my old Sunfire had a spoiler and looked pretty sporty in its own way, so I was looking for something that looked similar. When I finally decided on a Corolla I went for the S model because the look was what I wanted and the cost didn’t break the bank.

As far as how it drives, it feels wider than my old car. It’s pretty stable on the road when it’s clear. In more slippery winter conditions, it kind of feels a little bit loose when I try to get it to get traction while moving. I don’t know. It’s different from my old car, so I’m still trying to get accustomed to it all. I wonder how much of that is due to the tires. For my daily commuting, it’s good enough. It gets me where I need to go with a smooth ride. Pulling out of a stop light, it’s not as strong as my old car. Then again, you can’t really compare a 1.8L engine to a 2.4, right? As far as Corollas go, they’re not really known for being powerful. The few times I’ve pushed it, that extra second or two it takes for me to get up to speed is kind of noticeable. Once it does get up to speed though, it’s solid. Saying all of this though, acceleration really isn’t all that bad. In terms of fuel economy, it’s really good. With my old car I usually had to fill up every 8-10 days. On my first tank I took this car to just under 2 weeks. I could have gone longer, but I thought it was about time. I know that with the listed fuel economy I should probably be able to make it last longer, but given my driving style I expected I knew that it wouldn’t match the ideal conditions.

The interior is really nice. The seats are really comfortable. I could swear that the seats are a bit larger that what I’m used to. For a guy like me with a big frame, there’s no need for me to squirm. I’m almost confident that on a long ride I’ll get along just fine. My parents have told me that they sense that there’s more room in the back and in the passenger seat. The steering wheel feels chunky and solid. The gear shifter is nice to hold. Seriously, given how comfortable I feel in there, I can look over the fact that driving it feels more practical than anything else.

God, I really enjoy the fact that this car has an auxiliary in. I love plugging my iPod in and letting it go. The sound is good enough, but I think I need to do some more adjusting to get the sound just right. The trunk seems spacious. I kind of wish I got the cargo net for it though. I’m thinking I should put some grip mats on the floor just so that groceries won’t be rolling around too much in there.

Anyway, overall I’m really happy with this purchase. Even though this is my first time buying a new car, there’s nothing to be ashamed about for having this thing. Given the reputation of the Corolla, I know that this car will serve me for a very long time. I can even see it as a future family car, know what I mean? Would I recommend this car to other people? Sure! It’s practical, smooth, and very drivable. For my needs, this car fits the bill.

Now, due to all of the weird car business that’s been going on since mid-2008, I’ve been thrust right into the process of car hunting. It took a hell of a lot of soul searching and multiple pep talks from friends and family to get to the point where I had the guts to be able to spend the money to buy a new car. The decision to buy a new car itself instead of a used vehicle was a tough one. For the longest time the thought of going new scared me because I was scared of debt. It wasn’t until I worked out the numbers multiple times that I finally settled on going with a new car. I mean, I’ve had two cars in the past–both used. Both have had issues. Fresh in my mind, of course, has been the supposed spiritual possession of my Sunfire.

So, in my mind I had two requirements in my mind: foreign and reliable. I’ve had an Oldsmobile and a Pontiac. Both were cool when they were working. Just that when they weren’t they were just a lot of trouble. I’m not against domestic cars, but I just thought I’d give a foreign car a go. As for reliability, well, I know that new vehicles aren’t prone to breaking down so quickly, but I wanted something with a proven track record. Well, given these two characteristics, my mind wandered to one car: Toyota Corolla. Other options I considered were the Honda Civic and the Mazda 3, though I admit tossing the Honda option out kind of quickly because our family has more experience with Toyota and Mazda. I leaned more toward the Toyota plainly because mom currently drives a Mazda 3.

My mom had a string of Corollas in the past. They all treated her well. As a commuter vehicle, she had no complaints about them. That’s pretty much what many people are saying on the Internet, isn’t it? Sites though were also saying that there wasn’t anything terribly inspiring about driving one around. Eh…well, it’s not like I’m going to be racing with my vehicle, right? I needed something to get from point A to point B, but I also didn’t want it to look too plain. I guess, when I spotted the Corolla with the sport trim, I decided that that was the best balance of all the things I wanted. Sure, the car isn’t truly sporty when it comes to power, but in terms look it’s pretty cool. I played around with various tools on the Toyota site to build and price a vehicle. I had a good idea of what I was gunning for. I didn’t have any intentions of going too far forward with it though. These were all just plans. As is often the case, it took a shove forward from family to actually make me go forward with the purchase.

I told my parents about my plans and they told me to go ahead with it. They reminded me of the snowstorm incident as a good reason to go ahead. Well, yeah, of course that’s a good reason. Putting everyone’s safety in jeopardy was the trigger. I guess my family just had more confidence in my financial situation than I did. Anyway, on Saturday, I was urged to header to the dealer; it really became a family event. On my insistence though, they sat behind as mere observers. I was freaking out. I just couldn’t believe how everything was unfolding so quickly. Within an hour or two, the deal was close to be closed. The one big issue that was what colour I wanted the car to be.

My mind settled on one of three choices: a metallic dark grey, a bright metallic blue, and a deep metallic red. The weather was kind of dull, so the samples they had out in the open weren’t really making much of an impression on me. I decided that the bright blue was way too flashy for someone like me. After a lot of wavering I finally decided on the dark red because I associated that with my personality type.

(Just as an aside, the Nintendo DS colour I picked was crimson red. The curtains in my room are dark red, as are my current sheets.)

Funny, it wasn’t until the salesman made this remark that I realized how flashy my choice was: “you picked a sports-like car, so you thought you might as well go with red, eh?” Uhh…maybe? Actually, no, that didn’t register at all; I just liked red. If it was a flat red like that on the Matrix, I probably wouldn’t have gone that route. However, the Corolla is a darker metallic shade. That was the clincher.

Anyway, I got a call a few days ago indicating that may car would be ready for pick up today, Friday. I just needed to get a couple of things in order. Unfortunately, due to the holidays I had to put off a lot of it until today. I was playing phone tag with multiple people today just to get my papers in order. Luckily I had the day off.

Wow. So, as I drove my Sunfire to the dealer, I started to feel a bit lonely. I was apologizing out loud to the Sunfire. I got good use out of the car for the three years I had it. It’s too bad that it all had to end that way. As soon as I got to the dealer though, the loneliness was overridden by plain excitement. It didn’t kick in up until I actually saw the car. Previous to that, the idea of the car was just some nebulous thought–I guess I just needed to see something tangible for me to have that light bulb moment: I just bought myself a new car! As I was signing papers, I’m sure I had this wide grin on my face. I can only imagine that the woman I was dealing with was used to seeing customers that giddy. Within an hour, I had my keys and I was heading out. While I was in the dealership though, a heavy dumping of snow occurred. When I wanted to head out, I had to run back in and borrow a snow brush just so that I could see. Hah. My first drive was through a flurry. Crazy!

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. I’m going to spend some time reading the manual and getting acquainted. The picture below is of the car in our garage. With the flash on, the red looks kind of flat, but it’s a bit more metallic than it seems. I’m going to sleep well tonight.

Well, if you’ve been following along lately, you’ll know about all of the car issues I’ve been having.  I’ve been really patient with it because, really, I can manage.  As long as I’ve been the only one affected, I’ve been cool with it. Lights go off?  No worries: the daytime headlights usually come on in it’s place. The wipers stop working? I wouldn’t be driving out in a storm in the first place! So, driving around has been a bit of an adventure for the last few months.

I’ve taken it to three different mechanics–two of them being mechanics at the dealerships. None of them have been able to figure it out. With the last one, I’ve patiently brought it in multiple times to allow him to test out different theories. Still no luck. I still had hope that it would eventually a solution would be found, and that’s what’s kept me going. All of a sudden though, my patience was very quickly drained as something regrettable happened.

On Sunday morning, I woke up early to go with my parents to the novena mass at 5:30. We were beginning to get some snow at the beginning of a snow storm. The streets were covered because the plows still hadn’t gone through at such an early hour. My wipers were going, clearing snow and giving me clear vision. All of a sudden, the moment that I’d been absolutely dreading came to pass. The lights shut off, the wipers stopped working and the door unlocked. No one else in the car noticed, but I started freaking out on the inside. The first few moments were OK because the snow was just melting as soon as it hit the heated glass. Eventually though, the glare of the street lights were making it difficult to see. Mom started chiding me for not turning on the wipers. I didn’t want to cause a commotion so I just said, “I’m fine. I can see.” I figured it was best that I didn’t qualify that statement with the word “barely” (as much as I wanted to). She was really getting angry with me though for not clearing the windshield. In a moment of exasperation I just yelled, “I can’t!” At that point I had to explain my situation.

I wasn’t happy about that at all. I mean, I was putting my family in danger with this issue. Luckily, due to the hour there really wasn’t anyone else to compete with on the road. Let’s just say though that the situation could have been even worse. Anyway, that was my tipping point for this car. I am now officially at a point where I’m needing to search for another vehicle. I really wish it didn’t have to come to this, but I seriously don’t have a choice anymore. I cannot put myself and other people in danger with this problem anymore. There’s been a lot of heated discussion over what to do/what to buy. I’m very much glad that we can engage in this type of conversation. It really is quite interesting. I’ve sort of narrowed my choices down to a short list. Worst case scenario, the car I’m thinking about will set me back $26K after freight, taxes, etc. God, this all became interesting hasn’t it? I will elaborate on what I’m thinking about in a different entry. Meanwhile, I just want to say that I’m very much thankful that we all made it back home without incident. This is a type of problem that shouldn’t happen at all. The fact that I’m stressing about it is really disgusting.