Man, it’s been a while since my last post….

 

Before we got married, my wife told me she was in the market to buy a new car and trade in her Ford Focus SVT.  Now mind you my wife is unique in that she actually looks at things like performance characteristics, horse power, and handling (which is kinda unlike most women I know who like how a car ‘looks’ over performance; just one of the many reasons I married this girl!).  When she eventually pulled up in her new car, everyone, including myself, thought she was crazy!  Here she is rolling up in an almost-$35K four cylinder, four door, Japanese sedan!  And it’s a Mitsubishi, not the most reliable vehicles in the industry.  And on top of everything else, it was totally crazy looking with the most God-awful-big rear wing I’ve ever seen on a stock car!  What was she thinking?!?  Because I’m almost 40, and like most people, I can be set in my ways of thinking.  To me a high-performance car usually looks like a sports car, like a RX-7 (which I owned at the time) or a muscle car, like a Mustang (also owned one).  Then I drove this car.  The first time only for about 5 minutes, but that was enough time to understand the brilliance of her decision.  This car is, simply put, the most amazing car I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving, and I’ve been falling more and more in love ever since!  The more I read and understand about this car, the more I appreciate the amazing technology and engineering that has been put into this Mitsubishi.  The Japanese really can do the most with very little!

 

There are several factors that make the Mitsubishi EVO IX MR (MR stands for Mitsubishi Racing, BTW) one of the greatest performance cars on the market today.  First of all, it’s WAY fast.  The aforementioned RX-7 and Mustang?  Not even in the same class!  Seriously, this car in the class with super-cars, like the BMW M5, Lambos, and Ferraris.  I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true!  Now you can start to see that the cost of this vehicle is not really that bad of a value, considering other cars in its class start at about $60K and up.  The four banger, DOHC turbo-charged 4G63 engine pumps out about 300 HP!!!.  Not only that, but the car is extremely light weight; door panels, trunk, and hood are aluminum and the rally-inspired body kit is made up of a light weight fiberglass composite.  The turbo literally throws you back into the seat.  But I’ve owned a few fast cars before, and that’s not the main thing that makes this car so amazing to me.  The amazing thing is how well it handles.  The Mitsubishi super all-wheel drive system has been lauded in the industry as one of the best performing systems ever built; actually performs better than the Audi QuattroTrac and does just as well as any M series BMW.  And here’s the crazy thing, which I have never experienced before in any other car:  The car actually handles better, the faster you go!  You may have to experience this first hand to believe, but it’s true!  The EVO IX is built to produce down force when driving at high speed through the air ducts in the front and the giant wing in the rear, giving you the feeling that you are ’glued’ to the road.  Combined with the amazing all-wheel drive system, you can handle just about anything the roads or weather throws at you, at any speed!

 

The other thing I love about this car is it’s all business.  At first glance, you may thing the EVO IX is a stripped down vehicle; no nav system, a crappy stereo (at best) and no other interior bells and whistles at all.  This is what keeps this car below $40K.  I think Mitsubishi’s philosophy behind the EVO was, “does this have anything to do with performance?”  If the answer was ‘no’. then they left it out.  If the answer was ‘yes’, then they put the best possible part in place.  Mitsubishi also went an interesting direction with their high-performance parts.  Instead of creating a high-performance parts division (like Toyota’s TRD or Ford’s SVT), they simple put the best after-market parts on the car to begin with.  The 2006 EVO IX MR comes standard with Brembo brakes on all four wheels, BBS forged wheels, Yokohama street racing tires, Blinstin shocks, Momo steering wheel and pedals, and Recaro racing seats, just to name a few of the high-end parts.

 

My wife still loves this car just as much as the day she bought it, but I think I have become even more attached.   We both now agree that this is ‘my’ car and she even understands and appreciates my new love affair!

Roy and I took the tram to the top of Mt. San Jacinto the day after my bachelor party in Palm Springs, CA Nov. 5, 2006. All photos and videos captured with my Nokia N93.

 

I dragged a couple of buddies with me to Los Angeles this past Thursday (yes, on night when I have to be up at five the next morning!) to see one of my favorite bands, The Pillows!  The Pillows hail from Tokyo Japan and I was very excited to see they were going to be performing in my neck of the woods!  Needless to say they rocked the joint and we had a great time!  The show was at the El Rey Theater, which is a great venue in LA. My N95 also did a great job of capturing the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever since I’ve had my hands on my Nokia N95, I have been snapping away with it’s 5MP camera like madman.  I’ve always been an ‘analog’ person and it took me up to last year to relinquish some of my photo time from my Canon Rebel 35mm (which takes incredible photos, BTW), and delve into the digital photography world.  Although the N95 is arguably the best mobile phone camera on the market today, it is still not quite a digital camera replacement. Hopefully Nokia’s next iteration of uber-devises will continue to blur the line between ‘camera phone’ and ‘digital camera’. For your consideration, here is a collection of photos I’ve taken with the N95 -1 around where I live in Laguna Beach, California between May 2007 and November 2007.  Although most of these pictures are of passable quality, it’s still no match (not even close) to my 35mm.  Also, before the firmware update I noticed that at times the camera had trouble focusing, which is apparent in a few of the photos.  Please let me know your thoughts of these photos and what you think about taking photos with the N95!

 

OK, maybe I’m a little obsessed with my phone (at least that’s what my wife and friends tell me), but I’m also sure there are many of you out there that can relate. Recently, I set out to create a travel kit that could accommodate all of my N95’s accessories.  Besides my Plantronics Bluetooth headset and Stow-A-way Bluetooth keyboard, there are several cords/adaptors that can help make the N95 (or N93) an even more useful device.  When my wife and I went to South East Asia on our honeymoon, my N93 was extremely useful in many ways (read about it here), but I basically had a bunch of lose cords and items floating around my backpack the whole time.  I decided to develop some sort of easy way to carry all of these accessories around with me and also be easily accessible.  Then one day it hit me as I was cleaning out my bathroom cabinet.  I came across a toiletries kit that had come with a razor or something I had purchased long ago.  I removed the cheap items that were contained in it, and, volia, I had my N95 accessory case!  I then needed to fill it with all of the items I like to bring with me when I’m on any kind of trip away from home.  Although not all items fit in the case (my wall charger for example), I think I managed to cram a lot of accessory into a pretty small space! I thought that this would give anyone out there with an N95 or N93 (or any mobile device for that matter) an idea about one possible way of managing your accessories on-the-go.

 

 

I just realized today that my license plate on my 1991 RX-7 has VOX on it (just a coincidence, folks!).  Now if I can get VOX to pay me for advertising their blog site...

Alright.  I MAY be a little obsessed with my Nokia N95 but, like my friends say, at least I’m getting my money’s worth out of my ‘uberphone’.  I use my N95 for all that it was built to do – from VOIP calls, to playing music in my car, to work related reminders; where ever I’m at my N95 right there with doing something!  I use this device at home, work, and at play.

 

At home, I start my day off by being woke up from my N95’s alarm which I’ve set up to play the theme song from The Soprano’s.  My N95 is also fully incorporated into my home office.  I’ve even gone as far as buying a monitor specifically for my N95 (which also doubles as a second computer monitor as well)!  Combine that with my Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard, I’ve got a great secondary computer at my desk.  I usually have my N95 plugged into the power cord, connected to the monitor through the AV RCA cables, and connected to my computer and keyboard via Bluetooth. This is a great way to watch videos, listen to music, and even play games (I'm currently enjoying playing Quake!).

 

 

My N95 has also turned my 1991 RX-7 into a futuristic media accessing portal! Although it was hard to find, I managed to locate a great FM tuner for MP3 players that was NOT iPod specific!  My little VR3 FM tuner works great with my N95 and car stereo and was just a little over $30.  I can even use this thing to charge my phone while on the go, if paired with a USB charger cable!  I bought a window suction-cup holder which mounts my N95 right next to the instrument cluster, so it’s easy to see at get to.  I play all my music in my car through my N95 using my car’s speaker, which I think sounds great. I use the media buttons on the phone more while in the car than anywhere else   This also a great hands-free driving set up; I get a call, the music automatically mutes, I answer the call (right next to the rest of my instruments), and I hear the call through the car’s speakers and the N95’s mic is sensitive enough where people can actually hear even with the top down! I also use the maps and GPS to help me navigate around town.

 

I usually use my Plantronics Bluetooth head-set whenever I make calls but especially at work.  At work, I sync my N95 to my office computer, keyboard, and head-set via Bluetooth (head-set also works simultaneously with my office phone!).  My N95 is my main meeting/task notification device at work.  Also, when I’m not in my office, it’s basically my office on the go.  I’ve got my corporate email account, Hot Mail, and MSN IM all going most of the time when remote, not to mention all my calendar events and tasks synced with my Outlook.  I also roll with QuickOffice 4.5 which now turns my N95 into a pretty good office document/spread sheet/PPT editor. My SoonR program can also help me retrieve file right from my office computer if need be.  I use ScanR as well; it’s a great way to FAX hard-copy documents right from your phone!

 

 

 

 

Not that Kiki and I have anything to worry about, but I thought I’d share my photos and videos of the fires that are currently raging right now in Southern California.  I work in Rancho Santa Margarita and it’s pretty close to where the Foothill Ranch fire is burning.  Here are a few pictures and videos from around my work.

 

 

 

 

   

Surprisingly, the balcony of our home in Laguna Niguel offered an incredible (and horrifying) view of several fires all at once.  Off to the left you can clearly see the Foothill Ranch fire (over by my work) and another fire in east Irvine and off to the right we could clearly see another fire blazing up in San Clemete, not to mention the far away glow of the north San Diego county fire.  It literally seemed as though the world was on fire and we had front row seats. 

 

Hi everyone!

Well, everyone asked for it so here it is!  This is the clip I put together as part of my demonstration/training on the use of SalesForce followed by an actual video shot at Manheim's Drive facility featuring Straty's Top Ten List.  I actually tried to add these clips to SalesForce but I found out there is a file size restriction so I decided to post these on my blog here.  The SalesForce clip is a low-rez version so it's not the quality of the actual one I showed at the Drive facility in Atlanta.  This clip features a classic scene from the movie "Office Space", one of my all time favorite comedies.  If you haven't seem this movie yet, I highly recommend that you do.

 

Here's one of the funniest moments of the conference, Straty's Top Ten List of strange items dealers have submitted to Finance Express.  Straty puts unusual items aside and made this very entertaining presentation of these unique items.  Enjoy!

On our month-long honeymoon to South-East Asia last year, I brought my Nokia N93 with me as my main camera.  Let me tell you, this was the most useful, single thing I took with me on any trip!  I also brought along the various cords of the N93, a couple of additional 2GB Mini SD cards, and three extra batteries (which I knew I would need if I intended to use my phone {in offline mode} on the 20+ hour flight from LA to Bangkok!).  I bought with me a water-proof pouch that I could quickly store the phone in, as we were going to be hiking through jungles, visiting beautiful beaches, and exploring caves.  Here are just a few of the many uses I got out of my N93, while on our honeymoon.  While none of these things are extraordinary by themselves, the fact that one device does all of this, I think, is what’s amazing.

 

• I was able to take very good photos and great videos which documented our entire trip, which you can check out in my previous galleries (basically eliminating bringing a camera and a video cam-corder).  I was also able to email photos to my friends and family instantly!
• One of the coolest features of the N93 (and my new N95) is the ability to plug your phone into ANY TV in the world!  I can’t tell you how nice it was at the end of the day to be able to sit down in our room and go over the photos and videos we took that day on our room’s TV. This also allowed us to watch our favorite recorded TV shows and movies from back home anytime we wanted.
• In every country I traveled to I was able to purchase a SIM card (usually for $15 or less) for my N93 which, of course, gave me the ability to call anyone from where ever I was, at the moment (no more trying to figure out foreign calling cards and looking for a pay phone). 
• Now that there are more and more Wi-Fi hotspots popping up all over the place, I was often able to tap into to one and surf the net, send and check email, and even log into my MSN IM account.  Of course, if no Wi-Fi was available, I could always use the local cell service to do these same things (thus eliminating trips to the often crowded internet cafes).  My Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard definitely helped carry out these tasks.
• Just like folks everywhere, fellow travelers all have iPods!  Not me!  I had my trusty N93 to keep my ears full of all of my favorite tunes.  I brought with me at least 300 of my favorite mp3s, not to mention I could always check out the local FM stations through the built-in FM tuner.  Nokia has a nice pair of water-resistant sport headphones (with mic) which I used for the most part.  What’s nice is I could also play something (song/movie) through the external speaker and it sounded pretty good.  As always, I could play my music through the speakers of whatever TV happened to be in the room.
• I used my N93 to store all of my hotel/flight reservation documents, PDF travel maps, and trip guides.  I also added significant event items to the phone’s calendar.  The N93 also makes a great alarm clock. 

• Whenever we had some free time to kill (like on a long plane flight or bus ride), I could play all of my favorite games (I got through most of Doom 2 on our flight to Bangkok!), and even play them on TV!

Well, I just thought I'd pass this on to any fellow travelers out there; if anyone else has any "N-Series Adventures", tell us about it!