First of all, can I say, that Tropic Thunder is THE BEST movie I have EVER seen. EVER. Period. It is so badass that words can not explain how much I enjoyed that film. Every single second fo the movie is absolutely hilarious, and packed with action. The combination of Ben Stiller, Tom Cruise, Robert Downer Jr, and Jack Black, is absolutely perfect. These guys just feed off of each other in a symphony of comedic perfection. Seriously, I have never laughed so hard. Ever. Please, go see it. You will not be disappointed.
I love war movies, and comedy, and the mixture of these two fused together, was just pefect. I have to say that RDJ playing a black man was absolutely hilarious, even though he was really supposed to be portraying a stingy irish (English? not sure, basing off of accent, which I’m not a good judge), which was just hilarious on so many levels.
Anyway, go see it. I guarantee that it is money well spent. In fact, if you don’t enjoy it, I will pay your movie fees back. Ok, I lied, I won’t pay them back. But if you are one of the three people that read my blog, I know that you probably enjoy my sense of humor, and in that case, you’ll enjoy this movie. haha
On another note, I found that god damn annoying metallic vibrating noise that has been driving me crazy on my ‘56 pontiac. I narrowed it down to something in the passenger side exhaust system (thanks to evan, and a lot of help from the guys on the HAMB on this thread I started: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=286674)
Anyway, took the poncho down to the muffler shop I had my dual Flow 40’s installed at (Bobs Discount Muffler on Grape Street, downtown), and talked to the owner, an old New Yorker named Bob Napolitano (hes a fuckin BA!), and he narrowed it down to being the heat riser in the passenger side exhaust manifold. The riser is apparently blown out, and there is a butterfly in the riser that stays closed while the exhaust heats up through the engine, and when warm, the buttefly opens and allows the hot exhuast to run out through the manifold and out through the pipes. Apparently that butterfly had worn out and was rattling around in the riser in the manifold. Typical on old cars apparently. I’m dropping her off at old Bob’s discount muffler on Monday on my way to work, and hes going to fix that and an exhaust leak I have out of my passenger side manifold during the day, and I’ll pick up after work.
God, I love that car! Turns a lot of heads. Was out for margaritas all afternoon today with Dani, Cam, and Chessmaster Cass, and got a lot of thumbs ups, and one from a guy cruising a sweet 1959 bel air.
Anyway, I’m heading to bed, we are cruising out to San V tomorrow morning around 5:45 AM (Me, evan, jamie, dani, cam, and Kjo) to get a good morning session in while the water is glassy, then will prob be chillin all afternoon.
Everyone knows of my love for classic cars, and craigslist. The two met again recently when I sold my 1995 Yamaha FZR 600 (that I picked up for $2000 and resold for $3000). Turns out, investing in that old street bike let to a hell of a payout, with gas prices being what they are, affordable, high mpg motorcycles are in high demand! WIth some extra cash in my pocket, I started looking for another classic car to cruise around in. Since Evan and I sold the ‘59 Ford almost a year ago, I have been missing having a car that would turn heads…and after a couple weeks of searching - I found just the thing.
I was searching through the San Diego Auto Trader a couple weeks ago, and came across this beauty, it was listed for $4500. When I talked to the owner, it turns out the car was actually being stored in a warehouse in Upland! (I grew up in up Upland until I was 18, its a couple hours north of SD, and my parents still live there). So I asked the guy if my parents could go take a look at it, and he said that would be fine. They went and took it for a cruise, and my dad called me the next day and said the car was sweet and to get it. So I worked out a deal with the owner, for $3500 cash he would tow it down to SD on a flat bed and drop it off at my house. Everything worked out perfectly, and last weds he pulled up with my new ‘56 Pontiac!
I have been driving it almost daily, put nearly 100 miles on it. It always takes a while to get to know a new (old) car, and find out its strengths, weaknesses, and pain points. There are fairly new tires on it, and everything else (Paint, interior, etc) seem to be original. There are about 101,000 miles on the original Strato-Streak 316 v8, and the 4 speed Auto Hydramatic Trans has had some work done recently (the guy I bought it from purchased it from the original owners widow in National City who sold off all of his stuff when he died a few years back. When he got it, it ran well but wouldn’t shift out of first gear).
It seems to be in fairly solid shape, except for a problem with the power brakes. I don’t know if its an issue with the booster or the proportioning valve, but the brakes are Extremely touchy! Regardless, its in good shape for its price and age, and I intend to hold on to it for years to come. It has developed a extremely annoying metalic vibrating/ringing noise that I am trying to troubleshoot, with some help from the guys on the HAMB:
Just sold my 1995 FZR 600 to a really cool guy in the Navy today, and I’m on the lookout for a new project. Since I still have my truck, and the F150 for towing, I’m on the lookout for something fun to drive. If I can get ahold of a cool older car thats reliable, I may sell my Frontier, otherwise it would just be cool to pick up something sweet to cruise.
Last weekend I checked out a 1989 Corvette Convertible with 20″rims, new top, sick stereo system, 5.7 liter v8…had it negotiated down to $4000 but didn’t get my bike sold in time, so I couldn’t pull the funds together. Those old vettes have all LCD dash board displays, it looks like night rider in there. Anyway, now that its gone, I’m checking craigslist for my next project. That vette would have been sweet, but I’m sure something will turn up sooner or later.
Had another awesome weekend, filled with a ton of wakeboarding and sun. 5 days of work ended last week with happy hour @ Fred’s in Old Town with the gf and her family, a shot of cuervo and a margarita, followed by some hot tub and booze action at La Mirage. Passed out for a couple hours of sleep to get up at 5:30am and head out to San Vicente for some wakeboarding. Danielle’s mom turned out to be an excellent coach, giving me some really helpful tips to step up my skills. Although now I find I have so much to remember while riding, I just have to keep practicing to get all these things to be second nature.
Took care of a bunch of stuff saturday afternoon - noticed another vibration in the brakes on the F150, pulled off the wheel to find that another bolt on the driver side caliper had come off! What is going on! Put loc-tite on all the caliper bolts on both sides, so hopefully this is the end of brake problems.
Sunday went out to San V again with the guys from DBG Concepts. Did some wake surfing and wakeboarding. (reminds me - I still need to fix the gallery on their website! Shit). Check out the pics up top for some of the action. It was nice weather in the morning, but the wind picked up and blew clouds in as it got later, so when we left around 7 it was pretty dark and super cold.
Also on Saturday, went around to some local car dealers to check out a new ride. I’m thinking of getting a new car, and am really liking the 2008 Mustang Shelby GT500’s. It was crazy walking around dealerships - they are so desperate to sell cars right now they will offer you just about anything. Evan and I got mobbed by salesmen everywhere we went, trying to get us to buy right then and there. I guess with the economy going to shit, no one is buying anything at all. One salesmen at Mossy Ford in PB was 29, with a finance degree from USC, can’t find a job and is selling cars, and about to get fired from that because no one is buying anything! I will keep posting about my car search. It is dependent on me selling my truck, maybe my motorcycle as well. I’m not sure about how much of a payment I want to get myself into either, so I will just have to see. Dunno if I’ll end up with the Shelby, but it will probably be a mustang GT.
Anyway, Have to head over to Solutions 4 College offices to wrap up this website project that we have been working on for the past month, and pick up the final payment. Lets just say it will be good to have this project completed. I would like to get the focus back on apache.com, and have some time to play GTA. See ya!
Evan, the creator of www.DezertDimes.com, a S10/Sonoma pre runner truck online forum, is trying to sell his truck to the guys that joined his forum for his support! What a hypocrite. No wonder they shred him to pieces as soon as they read his post.
Then someone asks why he doesn’t ride his motorcycle more. He initially writes “I hurt my foot”, then edits it and says hell start riding it during summer. So I had to throw in my $.02, so I posted following his:
Tropic Thunder is Badass AND a Poncho Update
Also on Saturday, went around to some local car dealers to check out a new ride. I’m thinking of getting a new car, and am really liking the 2008 Mustang Shelby GT500’s. It was crazy walking around dealerships - 
