4th on the boat

Wow, it has been a couple of days since the last time I actually blogged on this site and I have to say that I don’t know how the time slipped away. I hope that you had a happy 4th whether you were shooting off fireworks or shooting Spyder paintball guns or whatever. Personally, I was down on a river, so I had to make due with my cool new RC boats. Since I happen to have a couple of them, I would attach firecrackers to the one that was the junkiest and try to sink it. However, I must have had the wrong type of fire crackers because all they did was leave black marks on the boat. Oh well. I guess there’s always next year to try again. One thing that is fun about being on the river during the Fourth is that the fireworks reflect really well off the water. And because it was a nice, calm night, you could see them as plain as if you were looking in some chrome BMW wheels. The river was like glass and it really gave us two fireworks shows to look at. Usually there really isn’t much to do on a boat at night, so we will end up playing cards and because we use a poker chip set, we never have to worry about losing real money. This way, we can bet and raise all we want without making it too difficult on those (I mean me) who don’t have any real money to use. But the boat is fun and you can usually find something to do, but it is always more fun on the Fourth because of the fireworks.

The Mall parking lot

Every time I go to the mall I am surprised by the number of cars and trucks that have been outfitted with things like Nissan Titan accessories and BMW floor mats (and yes, that means I peek inside the windows). If you are up to it, the next time you happen to visit a place with a bunch of cars, like a mall or a hospital, just take a look at how many of the vehicles have been upgraded with new wheels, or cheap body kits. There is nothing wrong with doing this, but it is just odd that so many people do it. But, I guess that if making their vehicle as personal and unique as possible is what they are all about, then the Mercedes Benz rims that are very bright and chrome are not all that surprising. So if these people are willing to spend the money to make their personal transport so unique, why is it that things like model planes and cars don’t get the same treatment? If you were to go out and purchase a nitro RC car, wouldn’t you want to make it look unique and not have to do what the box dictates? Of course you would, but many of the radio controlled vehicles I see are being driven, flown or floated while wearing the same stickers and paint that came with the box. I can guarantee that when I get my new electric RC planes that I will be at the hobby shop getting some different paint and adding my own custom decals to it. No one will be able to mistake my airplane for anyone else’s.

The week

Is it just me, or does the week get slower and slower as it rolls ever onward? Monday, to me, goes by so fast it’s like I’m being shot from paint ball guns. And the fact that getting done with work feels like hitting a wall at the same speed doesn’t really help matters.
Tuesday is more like the feeling you get when you have put your whole poker chip set in the pot. You know you have everything on the line so you are just hoping that the right cards fall and that you get a little bit of luck to come your way. Once again, it goes very fast, but it takes a little more time than Monday because you know you have gone past the wall.
Wednesday is the day when the week really begins to slow down. You know that you are halfway through the week by lunch time, and after that, it’s like a Mustang exhaust system revving. You know it just wants to launch itself off that line, but it’s still spinning the tires in anticipation.
Thursday is a long day, but not the longest. If I had to equate it to anything, it would be like the feeling you get when wearing a new Shoei motorcycle helmet. Sure it fits, but it gives you a sensation of tunnel vision for the weekend. You can see it just ahead of you and all of your vision is pointing right toward it; kind of like having blinders on.
And by the time Friday rolls around, the days have slowed to a crawl. The fact that very little actually gets done on this day is just like the RC drift cars that you see sometimes. Sure, they make a lot of noise and look cool, but you know that in reality, they are just not going to do anything all that quickly. And Friday is the same way. It just sits there, being all cool, but it is one of the slowest days of the week.
And then the weekend comes and it goes by like a race car: A full-on BMW performance race car with a man behind the wheel who just had a mix of Red Bull and coffee injected right into his veins. Also the car happens to have two gigantic turbos. That is how fast the weekend goes by. And then Monday invariably rolls around again and the week starts all over.

Car movie binge

I feel I should explain myself with these last posts. I have been on a bit of a car movie binge as of late. I picked up a copy of Grand Prix on DVD just the other week and am going to watch Speed Racer later tonight (that being the reason it isn’t on my list either way). I also was flipping through the channels and saw Transformers on Cinemax. Technically this isn’t a car movie, but all of the Autobots take the form of vehicles when in public mode (hence their name). So this whole car movie posting thing came about because of the prevalence of car movie on TV or DVD in my house at the moment. By the way, these movies are seriously preventing me from playing with my new RC planes and the air hockey tables, which is how most of my free time is usually spent. Oh well, what can I do about that huh? The fact that I get to watch Speed Racer take on Racer X with all of his air ride technologies and fun gadgets is entertaining enough I suppose.

Car movies not on my first list

After revealing my top 10 car movies, I thought I would give you some insight as to what some other people suggested that I didn’t originally include. If you are wondering why I didn’t include these originally, it’s either because I think they are stupid, or I haven’t seen them yet, and it’s most likely that I haven’t seen them.

First up is Bullitt. Now I have seen this and I didn’t think it was stupid, but for the most part, the movie is about a cop and only really features a car chase (though a very famous car chase to be sure). Nonetheless, it was not in the final cut because it did not turn my crank as much as some of the other movies on my list did.

Second on the list is Smokey and the Bandit. This movie falls under the “I haven’t seen it AND I think it’s stupid” label. I just don’t need to see a Trans Am driving around to make my life even more pathetic that it is now. If I wanted to see a Trans Am tooling around, I could just go down to the local biker bar and see who forgot their bike (and probably their new Shoei motorcycle helmet as well).
The third movie on the list is Days of Thunder. Not only do I not like NASCAR, I don’t want to sit around and these overblown excuses for race cars go around in circles endlessly when I could be buying and installing quality Acura parts for my car.
Fourth has to be the Sylvester Stallone waste of film stock called Driven. Thank god that Formula One said no to Stallone’s requests to make a film about their sport so that he could go and mess up CART or IRL or whatever he did. This movie made me want to stay home just so that I could rearrange my outdoor patio sets a gazillion times.
Fifth on the list is Redline. This falls under the haven’t seen it category, but I also have to assume that it is crap and only got any exposure because Eddie Griffin crashed an extremely expensive Enzo while attempting to turn a simple corner. Good job buddy!
So there is my worst list. I’m sure that it isn’t complete because, well, there will be many more car movies made and I can guarantee that many of them will be as horrible as having a paintball gun shot straight at your face.

Top Ten Car Movies

Top 10 car movies – in no particular order

1. Grand Prix – This movie is the most iconic racing movie about Formula One, because it is the most realistic and almost only one out there. The late John Frankenheimer directed this classic and it stands the test of time to watch it even today. Get yourself a big screen and surround sound and turn up the volume for an opening blast through Monaco.

2. Le Mans – This was Steve McQueen’s ultimate movie and he finally got to make it. The racing around Le Mans is spectacular and the scope is wide. Take a trip down the Mulsanne and feel all 200+ mph of it from the comfort of your patio set.

3. The Fast and The Furious – The first movie in the franchise is one of the better ones. From the opening scene that turned a thousand or more civics owners on to the slammed scene to the amazing wheelie in the Charger R/T this whole movie is all about the need for speed and the tuning culture and probably helped to sell a ton of Volkswagen parts.

4. The Italian Job – Unfortunately I cannot speak on the original (but I will see it one day) but the remake did feature some fun new Mini action, the canals of Venice and Charlize Theron J.

5. Gone in 60 Seconds – Another remake and not really a good movie per se, but many of the cars are interesting and it even features the rarely seen Jaguar XJ220 (though much too briefly for me). There’s no way that I would let my XJ220 get stolen if I had one, much less by Nick Cage in a motorcycle helmet.

6. Cars – Pixar strikes gold again in this great movie. There’s great comedy, timing, cars, racing and even some adventurous voice acting work from the likes of Michael Schumacher and Jeremy Clarkson. (For those who want to know, in England, Clarkson is the voice of the manager instead of Jeremy Piven.)

7. Ronin – A chase through Paris sets this thriller apart from the rest. Another John Frankenheimer movie, so you know it has a good car chase scene with real guns and not paintball guns.

8. Blues Brothers – Most people don’t think of cars when the think of the Blues Brothers, but this movie has a ton of crashed cop cars, a genius chase through a mall and a car falling off of the tallest unfinished bridge in the history of the world. A must see.

9. Tokyo Drift – Although it is another Fast and Furious movie, this one is different in the fact that it features drifting instead of just driving fast in a straight line. Hot cars in Tokyo are featured, and the drifting action is fairly realistic.

10. Initial D (TV Show) – If you are a fan of drifting, or of anime, or of Japanese cars, or of all of them, then you should like this show. And even though it is still technically a television show first, there have been two movies made of it. Be sure to find the original copies in Japanese with English subtitles because the dubbed version is no good.

An easy upgrade

Well, I took my own advice and installed new car accessories over the weekend. How did I do this? Well, first off, I purchased the parts that would specifically fit my car, and most importantly, I made sure to purchase the ones that would be easy to install so I didn’t have to bring my car to a shop and have to pay even more money. So what did I get? Thanks for asking. I got some HID lights for my car to make the headlights brighter at night. I was sick and tired of trying to see at night and have to strain to do so. Not only are my lights brighter, but my car looks more expensive, and I like that. These lights help so much more at night than I ever thought possible. It’s like I don’t even really need to use my brights any more. Very nice and very affordable upgrade. In other news, I just received my motorcycle helmet in the mail. And no, I don’t own a motorcycle, but I wanted it in case I ever take my car to the track…plus I might be getting either a four wheeler or a scooter for around town – I haven’t decided which one yet. I will be keeping this blog updated on that in the future…but for now its off to play with my good old RC helicopter. Until next time.