Rear Ended on the Freeway

On the way to Downtown SF, I got rear ended last night on the Freeway. I was at a complete stop on the fast lane as well as the pick up truck behind me, when a civic plowed into the the truck - causing the truck to hit me. Good thing no one was was badly injured. After the accident, I thought all I had were minor scratches on the bumper. But after looking at it this morning, the entire bumper needs to be realigned.

The other two vehicles:
The rear end of the pick up truck will need some major repairs.
The civic - it may be a total loss.

Follow up: Drifting in Buttonwillow

Here's a video Phillip put together on the Drift event that I had posted on February 24. I'm the passenger in some of the footage shown. Thanks again to Calvin for the ride along and Phil for the Awesome Editing Artistry!

Just another Sat

After Delivering Orchids for my mom, I headed over to the Home of Chicken and Waffles located at Jack London Square in Oakland. This is the second weekend in a row that I've headed over there.

Drifting in Buttonwillow

Last week, I was invited by Phillip to come along to Buttonwillow to attend a Team Drift Competition by Fatlace held on Sunday. With no plans made I said to myself, "sure, why the hell not. At least it'll keep me away from drinking alcohol Sat night." Boy was I glad I went. I was able to meet a Pro Drifter, Calvin Wan, and was even able to do a ride along. Holy Cows, what a ride, and super cool, down to earth dude. I really had no clue what the day had in stored but in the end, I was pretty darn happy: First drift event and first drift ride along experience with a Pro Drifter. WOW!

What made it all crazy was, I haven't been at a race event in years. Yet alone, a pure drift event in which I've never attended. My experience in Calvin's FD Ride may have awaken the Sleeping Racing Dragon in me. For those of you who don't know, I use to own a '72 Corolla, known in the race world as the Mango. It had 44 Dual side draft Mikuni's (then down graded to 40's for efficiency)and the engine was rebuit with a Japanese motor modified with a dual over head cam - 3TG. Half dome pistons for better compression and the block ported by hand. The paint was original with no rust - color: Mango. Its shoes: Panasport 13 x 8 wtih Sumitomo tires. DAMN! I miss that car. As soon as I find an old photo of it, I'll post it.

Anyways, the event was awesome. Good turn out. Good people. The racing scene has changed a lot. People seem a bit more friendlier. Maybe because its such a smaller niche in comparison to the Drag Races back in 1994-2000. The scene was a bit more calm- similar to the auto crossing scene: real mellow. So I guess the next question is, am I gonna go get a car and fix it up? The answer is, "not now." I don't have a garage of my own to monkey around and my priorities are else where. Mainly to pay my bills and to continue to travel as much as I can.

Digital Graffiti

Digital Graffiti at the Olympic Village from Alex Beim on Vimeo.

About a month ago, John on Mixcrate wrote an article on digital Graffiti. I though it was dope. Just today, I ran into this on Vimeo. I thought it was cool.

Let the Planning Begin!

I'm so happy and excited to say that I got my days off request from work approved. That means, I'm headed to Australia! How did this come about... easy. I've putting off Australia for the past couple years. I'll be attending a wedding in Hawaii, so I figured, the trip back home would be quicker. The tentative plan is as follows: SFO to Melbourne. Train or car rental from Melbourne to Sydney. Sydney to Honolulu. Planning to leave June 24 and return from Hawaii on the 11th.

100000 Miles and Counting

Posted for February 1, 2010
On my way to work last week I exited A Street in Hayward to take a photo of this: 100,000 miles. As you can tell, I reseted the resettable odometer.