Holy Shit!

Sometimes in life, we are asked to make choices. Some other times, choices are made for us and situations are dropped on our laps without any warning. A combination of these two instances presented itself to me recently. I really was looking for something but it wasn’t exactly her. I’ve always known she had potential but I thought she just wasn’t my cup of tea. We spent some time getting to know each other through other people’s efforts and I was pleasantly surprised that we got really comfortable with each other in such a short time.

I’m still wondering if she’s right for me. The important connection is there and I like it when we’re together but I have to accept that I need to turn away from my preferences for me to be with her. She’s tall (relatively speaking, of course), white and turbocharged. But if Bunta Fujiwara fell in love with her more attractive cousin, I guess Amanda would suit me just fine. Damn, I need to get used to boost!

1. I sleep beside vacuum tube car audio amplifiers.
2. I’d rather spend a day at the track with a Porsche 993 Turbo S than with Jessica Biel shacked up in my room.
3. I dream about cars at LEAST once a week.
3. The highlights of summer are the car shows, not the bikini clad girls at the beach.
4. A new car is a blank canvas.

Please help me.

I attended a college friend’s wedding a couple of weeks ago. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting much since I haven’t seen most of my college classmates for years. As it turned out, there were 6 Che96 people there, including the groom. Naturally, all of us shared a table (except for the groom, for obvious reasons). One by one, all of us started fiddling with something. After about 10 minutes of talking and fiddling, Jeremy took a glass and tried fitting the bottom of the said glass on top of the container that housed a candle. The thing was, I had been holding myself back from doing this exact same action since I didn’t want people to think that  I’ve become too weird. This made me remember why I had such a blast in college. These guys made me feel that I belong. Oh, and the wedding was beautiful and I had a blast. Congratulations, Jasper and Lei!

It feels different, yet at the same time familiar. I am finally the master of my own household. A new year, a new responsibility.

Slowly, throughout the years, my immediate family started drifting out of the old house we grew up in. The first one to go was my brother, getting married more than 8 (or 9) years ago. The next one was my grandma, around 4 years ago, gong to the great concert hall in the sky. My sister followed suit about a year and a half ago after getting hitched to her long time boyfriend. Earlier, as 2007 drew to a close, my parents moved to their new crib they had built a few years ago to serve as their retirement home. Now, as the youngest of three siblings, I’m all alone in the house I grew up in. It’s home but it’s not as the same as before. I guess I’d just have to live with it. Happy new year, dear non-existent reader!

At KAC’s 4th annual soundoff, the inevitable happened. My ass got beaten. But it was a very pleasant thing, the sub-PHP20k system I assembled going head to head with systems whose front stage speakers cost more than all the audio junk that I entered. Plus, when I got my score sheets, the results were very good. Don’t worry, KAC guys, I’d be back next year, and I’d bring more entries.

No, this is not an ode to Bob Marley, but rather an ode to my roots in car audio This comes right before December 1, 2007, the day I’d write in my memoirs as the day I lost my car audio (as a competitor) cherry. I’ve almost lost my virginity 2 times before. The first time was when I was still in college and I almost entered a system (admittedly, one of several) in my Toyota ST191. I crapped out 3 hours before registration. The second time was last July 28, with a system in my Suzuki Carry truck (again, one of many installs. More on this later.) I chickened out at the last minute, deciding to just display my toy and annoy my car show neighbors with campy musical choices ( e.g. Endless Love, Mag Exercise Tayo, Bikining Itim, etc.) only to regret chickening out because there were just two other conpetitors in my power class (SQ, 1-300 watts), assuring me a place whatever the result of the competition was. This time, I’ve decided to go all the way, win or lose, no chickening out. Hopefully, the ass whupping they’d give me in the SQ 1-600 watts class wouldn’t hurt too much.

My first car audio install was way back in 1992, with a dinky head unit and crappy speakers installed in an owner type jeep owned by my family. 15 years on, I’m still involved in car audio, installing, tuning, designing systems. Since 1992, I’ve installed a lot of systems, some of it for my own vehicles and some for friends. I’ve never really grown tired of it and I haven’t really earned anything from it either. I guess the reason I’m writing this is to force myself to show up on saturday and compete. So, dear non-existent reader, my motivation for not quitting is you. Hahaha.

MMDA’s slogan “Metro Gwapo” should be changed to “Fernando Gago”! In a recent display of moronic stupidity (I know it’s redundant but called for in this case), Bayani Fernando decides to go after vehicles with High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights. What the fuck was he on when he thought of that? These lights come standard with new cars for heaven’s sake! If he’s going to apprehend drivers of cars with HIDs, he better apprehend his boss’ driver. HIDs are standard for the Mercedes Benz S600, the official car of the President of the Philippines.

Waaaay back when I was in college, I’ve always enjoyed going out with friends. We were everywhere, the warehouse parties along Roxas Boulevard, The Purple Ostrich at Island Cove, getting smashed at this little watering hole beside CSB, being there when Cable Car Glorietta caught fire (literally), gettting drunk and doing stupid things on stage at The Hard Rock Cafe.

Now that I think about it, what the fuck was I doing in Manila (and Cavite)? I was studying and living at that time in, as my friend Randy (aka Squid, http://songsofthesalamander.blogspot.com) would like to call it, Los Bastos, Laguna.

And when I think about it more, I couldn’t even remember what the hell we were doing back then. The truth is I don’t enjoy going out anymore. I’d rather stay home and watch DVDs. Who would’ve believed that Partyboy Caloy would grow up?

Having made a yearly pilgrimage to this personal happy place for the past few years, I missed my chance to go there during the summer months this year. I’m not even sure if I’d be able to go this year so I’d list 5 things I miss and would like to do. 

1. Waking up at 7 a.m. and having breakfast, cigarettes and refillable brewed coffee at the Sun Cafe along the main beach. (Not too much tourists up at that time.)

2. The pizza at Cocomangas, the best I’ve ever had. (Why does that sound sleazy?)

3. Happy hour at Cocomangas. (Booze + me = lots of fun!)

4. Diving Yapak II. (I haven’t done this yet but I hear it’s the best dive site there.)

5. The beach barbecue at Club Panoly. (I’m not sure if they’re still called that.)

As I was fumbling about the Net looking for reactions about Kimi Raikkonen’s fabulous win at the Belgian Grand Prix and Colin McRae’s tragic death by helicopter crash, I stumbled upon an old F1 forum. There was one poster who observed that a lot of glamorous women turn up at Grand Prix venues, dressed to titillate, enjoying the attention they get from the mostly (smelly and inebriated) male spectators.

Now, I ask the question: Why is it that hot women and hot cars go together? Go to any automotive event (legal or illegal) and you’d find women there, dressed like there’s a shortage of fabric in the world market, made up to attract attention (as if they’d win over the cars). Don’t they know that car nuts would rather talk amongst themselves and bench race? Are women attracted by the smell of high octane gas (in some cases methanol), wax, leather conditioner and sweat? Is it the pumping bass, the shiny paint or the smell of burnt rubber? We ought to do some research on this.