A family of bobcats has taken up residence on the rooftop of my parents' house.
This curious kitten kept a close eye on me as I tried to get a good photo
I was able to sneak around the wall downwind without attracting attention...
...but as soon as the first shutter went off this adult stared right at me.
My old 1990 4Runner was dying of neglect in the desert, and after three hard years of being eaten by rodents and beaten up by invisible assailants it was time for something new. Something smaller and more nimble, with enough space to be practical for buying groceries and carrying nephews and a niece around, but powerful. Emphasis on the powerful. Subtle enough to escape the Watchful Eyes but fast enough to strike fear into the hearts of those who lurk in the fast lane, applying makeup at five under. A ninja on roller skates. With a jetpack.
Three years of saving had given me enough to buy the car in cash, if needed, but I took out a loan as a sort of stalling tactic; with no other income I can still pay off my loan but I'll still have money for survival. Saturday I went with my father to test drive some potentials. Under Mitsu's direction we first visited the Mazda dealership, to scope out a Mazdaspeed 3 in Grand Touring trim. I had first thought the Mazda 3 was just a normal car, like a Corolla, but in secret the engineers had added a turbocharger and sport chassis components while keeping the whole thing looking mostly stock, and injected the word "speed" into the name. And here I thought methamphetamine was illegal.
The other test drive that day was the Volkswagen GTI. While it didn't have as much raw power as the Mazda, its silky smooth gearbox and wide torque band were an advantage. And that same lower power made the car easier to control during the test drive. But the air conditioning seemed anemic even at full blast, as if the vents couldn't direct sufficient air in my direction. And while many reviews claimed the GTI's interior was of higher quality, I couldn't really see much difference. In all honesty the dash cluster looked more accessible on the Mazda-- who the hell marks their tachometer in hundreds, like 10, 20, 30? And most of the time I'm looking at the plastics, not stroking them like a 14 year old boy who's just discovered what women hide underneath their blouses. Everything else aside, the prices for the two models I looked at were roughly equivalent, but the GTI was lacking in features, and its ratings for reliability weren't that high.
We went for burgers and a chat, and my father rightly pointed out that the Mazda seemed to offer more for the money. We drove around to a couple lots, and even took a look at a used M3 on sale for $20k (the gangster tinting on all the windows couldn't have been legal), but a new car just seemed like a better investment since I'd be doing all the driving and maintenance. We looked up prices online and drafted up a plan of attack for negotiations.
Today I went in to the dealership, and haggled for about an hour over extras, fees, and the trade-in value of my old car. The "dealer extras" on the car totaled almost 2000 dollars, and I spent most of my time trying to back them down from those, even with invoice price in hand. Negotiations weren't going as smoothly as I'd hoped, and I played the tag team card: "I'll have to talk to my dad." I went home and started taking care of some paperwork. They were a bit more desperate to close the deal when my father arrived, as they wanted to sell their quota before the end of the month. He was able to negotiate further toward what he and I were expecting, and he phoned me up to say the deal was still on. One of the other guys handled the paperwork but his attempts to sell me a car alarm were no match for my prior knowledge about how easily factory systems are defeated. (Hint: don't try to convince a guy with a computer engineering degree that your factory system is infallible. We know about back doors.) The dealer whom I'd sparred with was a great sport after all the wheeling and dealing, and he took the time to show me all the ins and outs of the interior controls before I drove it off the lot.
The car I bought seems to exceed my qualifications, despite my initial apprehension at buying a FWD car. In terms of subtlety, the Mazdaspeed is the proverbial shotgun in the box of roses. The phrase "hot hatch" is unknown in these parts, and the car certainly doesn't look fast until it's rocketing past you. They say it puts out 263 horsepower and 280 ft-lb of torque (that's 380 N m for the rest of the world), through the front two wheels. Under heavy acceleration the car seems to want to torque steer itself into the next lane when you hit the gas hard, like a team of mismatched horses. Except in this case it's more like a team of rabid cheetahs, on fire. Traction control kicks in if things get out of hand, but this car seems to follow the axiom, "Control your left foot." On dry pavement on the way home, I gave it a little test from a stoplight. I didn't hammer the launch, but the tires squeaked in second gear, and the traction control computer freaked out for much of 3rd while the front wheels found the ground again. I looked down and I was going 60, and there were still three gears left to go. I'm used to having to flog my vehicles, and it's a real treat to have more power than I can use. Moth, meet flame. How those crazy bastards were able to keep it all at the rubber, I'm not really sure. It's certainly a feat of engineering.
As for nimble, I haven't gotten the chance to try that out yet, but my initial impressions are positive. I think a trip up to the mountains next week might be in order.
I love the nice little things that came with the new car as well, such as perforated leather seats (so your back can breathe) and the modern conveniences like automatic headlights and rain-sensing wipers. You can even toggle the dash lights between red-dominant and more of a blue theme, to suit your mood, or shut off the lights on the radio panel if you want your field of view free from distractions at night. I appreciate the thought and design that went into it. Really the only thing that's missing is a boost gauge, and I'm sure someone will make an A-pillar mod with one soon.
Real technology brings you an aromatic coffee break and a fine life.
In that case, I wonder what Unreal Technology brings you...
Last Saturday, during the Golden Week break, I went to the Uesugi festival in Yonezawa. They hold a parade in Yonezawa every year with a parade and reenactment of a famous 1561 battle between the Takeda and Uesugi clans, the fourth battle of Kawanakayama. (Here's a wiki article with a really cool painting of it.)
Heather had told me about this festival a few days beforehand, and she convinced me to go along with her to see it. As it was also the first day of the Golden Week holidays, I was worried that the expressways would be crowded. So we wound up leaving at 6am, and got there 2 hours before the parade even started. We used the time to walk around and take photos of temples, but of course you've seen those before. At 10am the parade started, and then we had to wait around in the hot sun until the actual battle started around 3pm. But let's take a look at some authentic costumes, shall we?
Click on any cropped photo to view the full image.
The large matchlock gun these soldiers carry is called an "arquebus". In Japan, it came into use as a sort of field artillery in the 1500s before its use was banned during the Tokugawa era.
The face mask, or men, is quite a rare sight, as is the huge headpiece on the helmet.
Smoke and noisemaking arrows were often fitted to signal troops. Smoke from fire arrows could also provide concealment for troop movements.
The arquebus was a heavy and loud matchlock weapon, sounding more like a cannon than a modern firearm. As guns of that era lacked rifling the arquebus was very inaccurate, but if it hit at close range the shot would often pierce armor. Guns were never wielded by samurai; instead they were given to common foot soldiers who were then trained in their use.
Click on any cropped photo to view the full image.
With spring in the air again and the weather warming up, almost every town is celebrating with their own festival. Yesterday was the Toramai festival for my town, the tiger dance. I took some photos last year but with the new telephoto lens it was possible to get close shots of the tigers doing their thing, even from the back row. (The guy next to me had a white Canon 70-200mm L series lens and a stepladder. But he wasn't using a tripod; he's gonna be pissed when his long shots turn out blurry even with image stabilization. I like to think my photos turned out just fine and I spent about a sixth the price for my lens.)
(I can't take credit for this one; Heather took this photo while I was fixing my shirt. I'll have to ask her to hold my camera more often.)
Just got back from Malacca, which sounds like the name of a creature from Star Wars but is actually a small city in Malaysia.
Speaking of odd names, I have a pop quiz for you. NO CHEATING WITH THE INTERNETS.
"Ringgit" is:
a) A type of monkey which lives in southeast Asia
b) A popular carnival game in Thailand
c) The national currency of Malaysia
d) A city in Indonesia
OK, now that's out of the way, and I can talk about the trip itself.
I found out about Malacca by meeting a girl at Redang beach last week who lives there. She invited me to come see her town. My graceful hosts later informed me that it's a popular tourist destination with lots of local stuff to see. My interest was piqued, I had a guide, and I was ready to go. So I did.
Malacca is a pretty compact town, and you can see most of its sights just by walking around. The big things to see are the old Dutch and Portuguese buildings. The area was settled by Europeans in the 1600s, and they built several Western-style buildings, married the locals, and created a type of Portuguese-Malay fusion food called "Nyonya". One of the most notable is a kind of coconut based soup and noodle curry called "Baba Laksa". The area also has many other Chinese-style dishes that are only found there, or have their own Malacca twist to them. Between the buildings and the food, the town has a very distinct style.
The other thing I noticed about Malacca is that the drivers are SCARY. In the U.S. and also in Japan, every intersection has either a stoplight, a set of stop signs, or at the very least a couple yield signs. Not so in Malaysia. Also, those pesky lines on the road are just decoration. They don't indicate lanes or stop points or anything really. Crosswalks? Ha. You have to wait for a break in traffic, jaywalk, and take your life in your own hands.
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