flow

Wow it's been a while since my last update.  I haven't been terribly busy with work but I have been keeping busy with other stuff.  I did get one business trip to DC where I managed to make one outing to Ben's Chili Bowl, one of my favorite spots in DC to get a couple of chili half-smokes.  Oh so good, oh so bad.

Notwithstanding the indulgent eating that is de rigeur for the holidays, I've been trying to exercise more, ride my bike, take more walks and do more time on the elliptical.  It's helped me lose maybe 8-10 lbs.  I'm going to try and keep it up with a target of losing about 15 more.

Still getting a lot of use out of my new iPhone 5.  The camera on the iPhone is decent but not awesome.  I get a lot of lens flare or reflections but maybe that's just poor technique on my part.  Anyways I do find myself using it out of convenience a lot more than the Nikon DSLR now.  I've been snapping away lots of pics and even started doing little videos.  Nothing worthy of the cinema or anything but it's kind of neat being able to hold the camera in places you couldn't normally squeeze your head, like under the car.  I also finally made some use of the Kensington phone/iPod suction cup mount I bought a long while ago, and mounted it in the windshield. Holy crap maybe they don't make the one I have anymore but why is it $149 to buy it on Amazon??  Trust me I did not pay that much.     Kensington Dash Car Mount for iPhone and iPod

Since things have gotten pretty quiet at work, I decided to take an extended time off from the office... I basically told them, I'm taking December off, I will see you in January.  And then added a week in January to top it off.  I have 37 days off starting tomorrow, which sounds pretty epic.  Helps me burn off a big surplus of vacation days I had banked.

So what am I going to do with all that time?  Hopefully a lot.  I need to make a list so I can remember to do everything and set some goals, but generally... a bunch of car stuff.  Go driving.  Go for bike rides.  Go for hikes/walks/runs.  Take more photos.  Listen to music.  Watch movies.  Play games.  Go shoot my guns some more. Exercise and lose weight.  Eat some good food (but not too much).  Cook dinner for wifey.  Bake some pastries or cookies.  I suppose somewhere in there I will have to do some holiday shopping (gag).  Wow I have a lot to do!  But for now, I'm going to bed.  Tomorrow is the first day of my vacation.

UPDATE:  I've started a  new blog to specifically cover this 37-day vacation.  Check it out at 37DaysOff.

arrival

My BRZ just arrived at the dealership in Colorado Springs. I am super excited about that. I just need to finalize the paperwork, fork over some dough, and the car will be on its way to me via truck by sometime next week. Almost as exciting for me, and almost perfectly timed, Digital Polyphony has just announced that the BRZ will be available as a downloadable car in GT5 next week! For only $0.99, that's a must-buy for me... ok, can you tell which ones are the real car and which ones are GT5? :)

gamesmanship

Rockstar Games, over the last ten years or so, has earned my respect -- and my dollars because well, quite simply their games are awesome.  I'm a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series of games and have played every one since GTA III.  So it'll be no surprise that I eagerly anticipate the next one in the series, Grand Theft Auto V.  This one will be returning to the fictionalized California/Los Angeles area known in the GTA universe as San Andreas/Los Santos.  No release date has been set yet, but Rockstar occasionally releases a trailer or screenshot to keep the hype alive.  So far it looks phenomenal and has me excited about playing it as soon as it comes out.  It doesn't hurt that recently on the Rockstar blog they've released a number of screenshots with single word titles for the entries.  If you haven't figured it out, I'm a big fan of the single word title.  Check out the blog entries/screenshots here:

Leisure.
Business.
Transport.

So it's going to be a while before the game comes out and I am wondering if I should pick up something else to play in the meantime.  My gaming sommelier Ken has suggested I pick up Sleeping Dogs, a Square Enix title that started out as True Crime: Hong Kong and underwent some rebranding and renaming.  It looks pretty fun as well and has what I have always been wishing for:  an open sandbox type crime game set in Hong Kong.  I've been a HK noir film fan for many years so this may be right up my alley.

endurance

About 12 years ago, I bought my first sports car--my 2000 MR2 Spyder. At the same time, I also joined some online communities devoted to the Spyder specifically as well as the MR2 family in general. These were online forums devoted to all aspects of owning, caring for, and driving these great little sports cars, but you could say that these were in essence car clubs. And although there is a ton of information available to any visitor to these communities online, in the end it is a social experience. The members of these communities plan many local and regional gatherings where you can meet up and not only check out each others' cars in person, but also meet the people involved -- typically people who share the same passion and enthusiasm for cars that you do. And that is how I met Bryan Heitkotter.

In the MR2 community, there tend to be two basic kinds of gatherings. There's the meet up in a parking lot and check out everyone else's car type of meeting, where the focus is usually on who has the latest mods, the fattest rims, the newest body kit on their ride. Maybe hang out and have coffee, or get something to eat together, and just chill. Then there's the other kind -- meet up and drive as a group somewhere, whether purely for the fun of driving, or cruising somewhere scenic like along the coast or up to wine country. I've done my fair share of both types of meets, and they are both fun, but my preference has been to do more of the latter. These MR2s are sports cars, not museum pieces. They were meant to be driven, not just looked at! So I prefer to spend my time driving them. So it happened that a group of MR2 owners suggested a gathering at the local SCCA autocross one weekend, and I went to check it out. Several of us ended up entering in the event, which is basically a timed competitive event driving around a course laid out in traffic cones. It's a great safe way to learn your car's dynamics and work on your performance driving skills. From that I got hooked, got my own racing helmet, and started doing autocross events on a regular basis.

And I started seeing a familiar face, at both the MR2 meetings and at the autocross events: this young kid, he must have been 19 or so, who went by the name of BryanH on the MR2 forums. He owned a first generation 1987 MR2, and drove it like he stole it out on the autocross course. I was a little stunned when I saw that he consistently drove his underpowered, 13 year old car around the course faster than I could drive my brand-spanking new Spyder. And he was modest and humble as could be, showing plenty of admiration for our new MR2s. I kind of compared him to the protagonist of the Inital D anime series, Takumi. Well I just had one thought -- if this kid is this fast in that beat-up old thing, how much faster could he be in my MR2? So I asked him to drive my car at one of the events -- with one caveat, that I get to ride along with him to see how he was driving so fast. What was he doing that I wasn't to be so quick? So we went out there, and ... just wow. I don't really know what just happened there. It was so dramatically different than what I was doing. He was going flat out in areas where I hesitated. Where I braked hard and slowed down for a corner, he tapped the brakes and trusted the car to find its way around the bend at significantly greater speed. And where I fought to keep the car pointed in the right direction, he quickly and intuitively steered and countersteered to maximize forward motion and minimize the skidding around that slowed me down. After seeing him do this on several occasions and seeing him compete at local and national levels, I remember saying to him, "you should really do this for a living. You have a natural skill, a knack for driving that I with all my practice cannot match." At the time he hemmed and hawwed modestly, because realistically who gets the chance to become a real race car driver? Don't you have to basically be bred from birth to be a F1 driver and spend your 2nd birthday tooting around in a shifter kart to qualify? Not to mention find a sponsor.  Over the next few years Bryan started coming out to the meets and events in the Bay Area less because he lived all the way out in Fresno and as you all know the price of gas has been steadily increasing. And I got busy with work so I had to stop doing the autocross events. So we sort of lost touch...

Well fast forward to 2011. I believe I've blogged in the past about my favorite driving game/sim for the PS3, Gran Turismo. They're up to Gran Turismo 5 now which is a fantastic game. In addition to being able to race online with other players, they periodically hold competitive events not terribly different in concept from the autocrosses we used to do.  Get the fastest time around the track that you can, competing online against all the other contestants.  The competition was called GT Academy, with the final prizes being a trip to Silverstone racing circuit in England to compete as one of the final 16 finalists.  And the grand prize being a job with Nissan's racing team as a real life race car driver!  I participated in the first round (everyone who owned the game in North America was eligible to enter), but the competition was fierce and my skill was lacking - I think I ranked somewhere around about 67000.  So I put it aside and went back to playing the game as a regular joe.

A few months ago, when they started publicizing the GT Academy again, on TV and within the game itself.  They filmed the whole final round of GT Academy and it became a reality series that aired on Speed TV.  And lo and behold, the name of the man they crowned as GT Academy USA champion sounded awfully familiar.  The one and only Bryan Heitkotter!  Imagine my surprise and pleasure to hear that this highly skilled and modest guy had managed to take it all the way to the top and had won a contract as racing driver for Nissan's racing team and was living the dream.  If you watch the interview video I've linked above, you'll see what a great and humble guy he is, and hear a little about his story.  I'm a little disappointed that he didn't mention his early MR2 driving roots, although he does talk about autocrossing of course.  Winning GT Academy is no doubt a turning point in his life, because basically he had been living a fairly banal existence, unemployed in Fresno when he entered the competition.  Now that's all changed as he travels the world, testing and racing cars and earning his international competition license under the aegis of Nissan's racing efforts.

Who knows how far Bryan's star will continue to rise, but right now he is doing something pretty amazing:  this weekend he is in Dubai, along with 3 other GT Academy champions from past competitions in the U.S. and Europe.  They are campaigning a Nissan 370Z race car in the Dubai 24 Hours endurance race which has already started, and ends in about 10 hours.  Best of luck to you, Bryan, and the RJN racing team -- kick ass and take names!

More info about the race and where to find info about the Dubai race, on GT Planet:
http://www.gtplanet.net/2012-dubai-24-hours/

decade(nce)

Happy New Year and welcome to the new decade! Wow, I can’t believe it’s 2010. It’s one of those futuristic numbers that I thought when I was younger, it would be so far off. So I have managed to cheat death and apocalypse for another 10 years.

It’s pretty customary to take a look at the end of a year, at the past year and try to remember the major events. I suppose it helps you to know where you’ve been, before you plan where you want to go next. So bear with me as I recap the highlights of 2009, even though I am a little late.

I think the biggest personal development for me in 2009 was taking one of my interests and moving it up to the next level – if you have been following along on this blog you probably already know what I am speaking of – Photography. It had always been an interest of mine ever since childhood, but this spring I really went into advanced mode by buying a Nikon digital SLR camera and a couple of lenses. I am fortunate to have a supportive wife who always encourages me to go out and get the best equipment, not just the best deal. And as I ended up traveling quite a bit in 2009, I got plenty of opportunities to get out there and just shoot, learning as I went. Some of the shots even turned out decent, if I may say so myself. Of course due to the nature of my work most of my free time to shoot was at night, which made it even more challenging. But I have much to learn still. I have found I favor static shots like landscapes and architecture, and shooting portraits and action definitely are not my strong points.

Professionally, it was almost certainly the busiest year of my career. Almost immediately following the trial I had in September 2008, I jumped onboard another pair of trial-bound cases and worked virtually non-stop. We had two trials in Washington DC in the fall, which meant lots of travel and ultimately I spent over a month in the capital. I haven’t run the numbers yet but I think I have 2700 hours logged for the year. I also hit my 10-year anniversary with the firm which is both amazing and depressing at the same time.

Thankfully, I was able to take a refreshing 3-week vacation with my honey V. once the trials were over. It was also our belated celebration of our 5th year anniversary, since I missed it while I was away at trial. We traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to soak up the sun and devour the cuisine. And to take lots of photos, of course. It was just what I needed to scrape off the battle scars and regain my sanity.

In the electronic gadgets world, I’ve continued to collect nifty toys to keep me occupied in the rare free moments I have. V. somehow always manages to find me the greatest gifts! I have a Sony PSP to play games on the go, and a new pocket-sized projector to bring giant-sized movies with me wherever I go. Gran Turismo and Grand Theft Auto IV (with their multiple iterations of great add-on content) continue to provide me hours of entertainment.

On the automotive front, not a whole lot has changed with my rides. The biggest thing to happen was I ordered, and after 4 months of waiting, put on some new rims and tires on my Lexus. I’m very happy with how they turned out, and doing everything I can to drive and park carefully to keep them in their brand new condition.

So what’s next for 2010? Well it is the start of a new decade and therefore a great chance to make big plans and aspirations. Personally, I hope to keep taking more photos and learn to take better shots. Learn to be a better husband. And if the economy starts to pick itself up, move to a bigger house. With a bigger garage or driveway. And drive bigger and faster cars. Take more vacations. Lose weight and get in shape. Eat healthy. Improve my quality of life. You know, live the American dream, writ large.

Professionally, I am kind of at a crossroads. What I see ahead of me where I am, is the same thing over and over. I’ve already been put on another new case that is headed for trial later this year. I might make more money each year but the same challenges and tasks await. Arguably, I am near the top of my game here, so perhaps it’s time for a change? But with the economy in the tank right now changing jobs or professions doesn’t seem like such a brilliant path.

Executive summary: it’s a new dawn, a new day, a new life. Time to get out there and start living it. I suggest you do the same.

portable

Coming back from two back-to-back trials, the return to normalcy is almost a bizarre and unsettling experience. After being accustomed after over a month away from home, to working 100+ hours a week and sleeping for a few hours during the daytime, returning to a regular work week and sleeping at night is somewhat difficult. My sleep pattern is still a little out of whack, but I am historically a fairly nocturnal person. I think I almost kind of thrived on staying up all night and going to bed in the morning. It's certainly nice to be back home but I almost don't know what to do with all the extra free time I now find myself with; it's like I suddenly gained back 40-50 hours a week that I didn't have. Well, sleep is certainly high on the priority list. But when I returned home my honey V. had also bought me a few toys and games to help kill some time with. Specifically she bought me both the PSPgo and the PSP 3000
"Slim" so I could try them both and see which one I liked better. She also picked me up a copy of the newly released Halo 3: ODST game for the X360.

The PSPgo is a real neat little device--all the abilities of the previous PSPs but in a smaller package. The slide-down controls allow most of the frontal area to be a screen, and it's about the same footprint as an iPhone when closed. Because it doesn't include a UMD drive it's ultra light and quiet. And with its launch in early October the online Playstation Network Store saw a barrage of new digital downloads added to the roster.

The thing is, the older PSP 3000 does everything the PSPgo does, plus it has a UMD drive to play the older sold-in-stores PSP games. They both have wifi to connect to the internet and a basic web browser. They both use bluetooth to connect with other players. And they both have large, bright displays which look great with games and videos. The downside is the 3000 is larger, bulkier, and doesn't come with onboard memory -- you have to buy a Memory Stick card in order to download and store games on the PSP 3000 whereas the PSPgo comes with 16GB onboard. Although when you add up the cost of a PSP-3000 and a Sony 16 GB Memory Stick card it still comes out to less than the list price of a PSPgo. And when you compare the 3000 with its predecessors (the original 1000 and the "slim" 2000, the 3000 is significantly thinner and lighter.

I downloaded several demos on both PSPs such as the addictive Patapon 2, the speedy reflex-testing Wipeout Pulse, and the slash-tastic blood-splattering God of War: Chains of Olympus. I played the same games on both so I could really compare and contrast the two, get a sense of their strengths and weaknesses. And then to really put them through their pace, I bought a digital copy of the newly released Gran Turismo for PSP, which the Playstation network gratifyingly allowed me to install and play on both handhelds at the same time. Sweeet. Some of my coworkers also had GT on their PSPs so we got together several times after work and had some hilariously fun racing parties. Plus with the game's ability to share cars we were able to give each other the cool rides we had been accumulating on our own. I highly recommend this game for any racing fans, it's like having the old GT4 game from the PS2 in your hand wherever you go. Good times.

So what's the verdict? Which version of the PSP did I choose? It was not an easy decision, but ultimately I chose the PSP 3000. Mostly for the way the controls just felt better in my hands, on the PSP-go my fingers felt a little cramped when playing for anything more than a few minutes. I will have some disadvantage from the fact that the 3000 won't fit easily into the pocket like the go does, but when you factor in the UMD drive, the lower cost, and better controls I felt the 3000 had the best combination of features.

That's not all in the gadgets department... in anticipation of our upcoming vacation trip to SE Asia (Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia) we also decided to also pick up a netbook for convenient portable internet access, and an HD camcorder. V. really wanted a pink laptop so I ordered her a ASUS Eee PC 1005HA 10.1-Inch Pink Netbook. And then we got a Sony HDR-XR200V 120GB HDD High Definition Camcorder to document our travels. So you can look forward to plenty of photos and video clips from our adventures in Asia! We're getting pretty amped up about it, we leave for Bangkok in just three days!

defection

What's the holidays without a little technological gadgetry upgrade? Well it would still be the holidays, but also getting some new gadgets is certainly more fun! My honey V. couldn't wait until Christmas to give me my Christmas present, so I got it super early this year... she got me an Xbox 360 Elite! It's super cool looking in all black and even has its own distinctive black controller. The Elite has everything the regular X360 has, plus a 120GB drive, HDMI cable connector, and black headset. It also came with two free games, LEGO Indiana Jones and Kung-Foo Panda. I'm not too sure about those two games, but I will probably get to playing them eventually.
V. knows me so well... she knew they probably wouldn't cut it so she got me a copy of Halo 3 to get my violence rampage on. (Hey, killing ugly bad things in the virtual world, just might make you a better person in the real world.) So I stopped (momentarily) playing through GTA4 for the third time, to get into the world of Master Chief. So far it's been a real challenge, playing the game at "Heroic" difficulty I have to try most levels many many times before I can get through it. But the gameplay and storyline is fairly similar to Resistance 2
for the PS3, which I finished in an unbelievably short period of time. I haven't ventured online to play against other people yet but I will, I hear it is a lot of fun and some people never even play the solo campaign, opting to spend all their time online instead.
So now I'm a little conflicted, having been so long a Sony PS3 fanboy and now I have an X360 as well. What games to buy, which system to spend more money and time on? The PS3 has the home theater setup going for it, with Blu-Ray support and a decent web browser. On the other hand the X360 also interfaces nicely with our PC as a Windows Media Center extender. Well, we'll see how it goes as I play around with the X360 and learn more about what it can do.