:: let us all be economic crisis cave bear ::

Now-a-day, breathing, living, sleeping on the land of the free and the home of the brave, you will unmistakable to hear one, which also happens to be the most heated, topic of the decade, the economic turmoil.

I know I do, either having dinner with a lady friend with the most seductive smile or a group of superfluous petrol-heads, the conversation eventually steer toward the crisis of the money market. I doubt even Osama bin Laden can possibly escapes from this with his hiding skill that defeated the world police’s troops and technologies (and I can assure you he has already heard the news and probably laugh about it before he goes to bed, that is if he is still alive).

And why? Why is our chitchat topic becomes so dry all in a sudden? Does the tele stop broadcasting the Bachelor? No, because it is eff-ing REAL!

It was as real as the movie “W” which I was informed to be hilarious because all things were facts and they were just as real as the unemployment letter that everybody had gotten (or will being receiving soon).

In this uncanny time during an uninterrupted 12-hour road trip, my dad and I came to one of the most sensational conclusion for years: what if we hibernate!

You see, as the temperature drops and the food supplies died off, animals had figure out a way to save themselves from the hard work on finding food, they simply lay down, relax, and sleep the whole crisis over. So how come a civilization that can figure out how to overcome gravity and create gadgets that could translate on-and-off electric current into thousand hours of music in ones pocket cannot figure this out?

Economic crisis? Sure! We will all go to bed early today and by the time we wake up again, this whole thing will be blown over.
Well, not that easy isn’t it? When H.G. Wells suggested the human race to hide underground on public radio in 1938, waiting for the Martians invaders to pack their bags and leave, everybody freaked out.

Instead of playing the waiting game, there are actually many little tricks to help improve your chances to be employed via the greatest invention of the 21st century: the Internet and social media.

Sure it might sounds silly, but on the other end of the cyber space, those are real people sitting in front of their computer screen, or silicon-hand grenades, who might be looking for talents to resolve specific issue.

If you know me, I am sure you are aware I am a facebook addict; it is a great piazza for anyone to advertise a personal brand, service, or even products to friends; if you happen to have a web-site, blogs, or other media site (such as youTube), posting updates on f.book also help to gain publicity on your service.

However, f.book might seems like a small circuit when it comes to advertising, and that is why we look into the social-media “big daddy-o”: Twitter.

As you think this blog is derailing, stay with me. From personal experience I can tell you it is one of the most effective ways to put yourself on the local radar screen.

Back in May this year, I was busy finishing up a house expansion/renovation project of mine. I tweeted aggressively because it was the only tool I had to keep my spirit up in the social artic. By the end of May, someone actually contacted me, via Twitter, regarding to a renovation project she had in mind.

While many of you might think Twitter is nothing but a gossip loopy loop, it is actually a powerful tool to let you, or others, to search for professions in your local area. Twitter clients such as TweetDeck for desktop or TwitterFon for iPhone allow use to define a search proximity for recent tweets.

Secondly, understand the power of the “#”; the humble little symbol often use as a tag for keyword for sorting of a similar interest. Topic related to architecture might tag as #arch, or #architecture; Top Gear addict like myself often post comment regarding to the show with #TopGear, or #TG. Use your imagination while search and filter topics are the key to success. You might be surprise how many people yack about the same stuff you have in mind every moment, 24/7.

No? Still not convincing enough? Philip Odegard, a 23-year-old so-call Californian social media expert, was so good with the whole trade he even owned a 1.4 million Bugatti Veyron; to further show the world his expertise in SM (that’s social media, not S&M you filth…), he even drove the damn thing at 210+ mph and caught by donut-eating man.

Sadly, this not only stirred up attention in the social media circle, the news actually caused some enthusiastic petrol head to poke about this automobile amazement. When matters get on the hands of petrol head, we don’t f__k around.

So, it turned out the “King of SM” did not own a 1.4 technological hyper triumph nor did he blazed down the highway at 210 mph; he was, discovered by lawyer and confirmed by California-donut enthusiasts, caught speeding at 100 mph three months ago in a 2004 Infiniti.

On that bombshell, I do have one of those (mine is a 2003, but what’s the difference, the haven’t even change to the aluminum trim for the 2004, yet); and, of course, I tweet. Thus if I drive fast enough, maybe this whole economic crisis will be all over; or simply, I can get to dinner with my lady friend just as stylish as Mr. 23-year-old millionaire-wanna-be.

:: the architectural-engineering twilight ::

In today’s civilized society, we, as a collective body of diverse interests, had figured out that the four seasons which the global climate had provided for our comfort (or discomfort) were too plain and boring. Therefore, we figured out ways to define our own spectacle of time as entertainment; there was season that we prefer to go shoot those cute little squeals in our front yard; there were seasons for sport enthusiasts to challenge each other; there was time when children must obey rules and sit quietly in confine environment; there were even seasons when the color of fabric deemed inappropriate to cover our naked bodies.

For personal interest sake I learn to adapt my own seasonal patterns very much like animals that evolve overtime to survive in the ever-changing, now globally warmed, environment; thus, without any doubt, summer is always the ultimate car season.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like car during the rest of the year, (oh no, far from that) but the leisure of having cool breeze tunneling into the driver’s cockpit under blazing hot sun somehow make me increasingly more passionate about what I love.
I have more time on hands, too (hint I have time to write this blog); and these precious moments of freedom translated into hours of Top Gear watching and petrol-head chitchats.

I was so intoxicated on this passion of mine I even made videos last summer (which you can find from my previous post).

Sometime, it troubles me how much I love the automobile industry that I would question myself if architecture is in fact the holy grail as my career path, especially when the construction industry is nothing by a spectacle of unemployment. Since my both of my all-time hero were both non-architects (Anthony Bourdain, being a cool middle-age chef and travel show host for “No Reservation”; while the other as an automobile expert and a TV commentator overwhelmed with ridiculous thoughts – Jeremy Clarkson), my architecture friends might find this particularly disturbing (since the architectural cult usually consisted of pure building believer and build shrine at home worshiping his/her favorite architect).

Until one day, in this summer, I chatted with a friend of mine who happened to be a petrol-head AND an engineer. In a general setting, we, as in my major of study, all know the relationship between engineers and architects are like oil and water; both hate each other but yet need the coexist with the opposing party.

However, in the case of my friend Roger Carter, he appreciates quality design as much as value engineering. Here, we are talking about a guy who know how much horsepower he can extract out of an engineer by reporting its port for 0.01 millimeter and the pitch change through an exhaust system while adding quarter of an inch to the pipe, yet he understand the different between a line drawn by a man with a pencil and one generate by silicon chips.

It is under these extraordinary circumstances when masterpiece is born, shocking the world (exceeded beyond design, architecture, and engineering) by surprise – Antonio Calatrava is certainly the perfect example for such occasion, caught within the delta area of spectacular aesthetic, monumental architectural gesture and mind-blowing engineering.

Now, wait a minute, with that being said, did I just reassured the security of my interest? If a grease monkey understood, and appreciated, the different between minimalistic-cold-architectural concrete and rotting-Victorian-Colonial state of mind, I could comfortably admit my disappointment toward the American automobile industry in the 90’s then admired the Mercedes 300SL as the most astonishing car men had ever created on the drafting board.

But until I can master the craft of impossible imagination, I will take advantage with this petrol-head season of mine; as I driving my coupe with the windows down and a pair of sepia sunglass on, I shall listen to Joyce Cooling, pretending I am living under the California driving culture, where the four seasons are monochromatic, people are as gorgeous as Italian sports cars, and the architectures are doubtlessly brilliant.

lost tracks

Have you ever dig into your shoeboxes, rediscovering your old cassette tapes, pulling out records from their dust covers. listening to music that you used to love, but had been forgotten all these years?
I don’t havethe experience on neither of these two scenarios (since I am a new vinyl collector and my oldest media to date are CDs); however, I do own three iPods and one iPhone. In this evening much need for music to pump up my productivity energy, I decided to plug up my Altec Lansing iM7 speakers, mount my 3G (that’s third generation) 15GB iPhod which I purchased 6 years ago and let one of my play list unfold as I click my evening through autoCAD
I had not update this particular iPod for 4 years, thus all the music onboard were basically my soundtrack from my 1st year in architecture school. It was simply sublime and amazing on how many amazing songs had forgotten within my new iPhone and iPod inventory. And the effortless simplicity of the iM7 iPod station (which had also been forgotten for about 2 years) allow me to listen to these delicious old tracks without the complexity of playing with remote on my amplifier, no sampling mode, no equalizer simulation, just plug and play. Of course, fundamentally, the iM7 did not sound bad at all.
Sometime, I just cannot cease to amaze myself with the power and joy of listening to music that was forgotten, and the memories that they bring back to me.

:: aeroDrive new Infiniti G35-VQ35HR ::

It has been a very long time since my last post... well, it is simply because my video making schedule usually derail as expected when school kicks in. So, in this winter break, I could get back into the video marking mode and shoot quite a bit, so, here is the first (more is uploading to youTube as we speak...) so, sit back, and enjoy!

:: G35 tailgate party ::

what is my second favorite show? (beside Top Gear) See if you can make a guess, without seeing the credit screen at the end of course... ^_^

:: top gear off season DIY ::

my first dv film, ever!!!

shift smart, S-Smart

Gas prices continue to go up, but people can never stop driving in the deep-south backcountry of America. However, for the first time being in a long drive for three weeks, I realized something has changed.
As I drove on the interstate going toward Charlotte this afternoon during early rush-hour traffic (4:00 p.m.-ish), the driving momentum on the open road was fairly different. Through out my one hour thirty minutes drive, there wasn’t loads of traffic, but everybody remained at a constant pace of 62 mph. I wasn’t only talking about those old people whose would not be driving nor those idiots talking on their cell phone and eating t-bone stakes at the same time; the whole damn motorway was moving at a speed of 62 mph. Sure, the speed limit is 65 mph and 55 mph, but in this part of the interstates, it really translated to be 75 mph and 70 mph.
Usually I would be annoyed and start to find passing opportunities within traffic, but somehow, I slow down today; I was moving at the same pace as everybody else, 62 mph. With my calculation, I was actually rather surprise by the mpg when I arrived in Charlotte; with no A/C, I only burned 3 gallons of fuel in a 90% highway and 10% city driving condition. That was 26.6 mpg in an Infiniti G35 Coupe, which is… a lot.
So, I had to do a few things in town, had a lovely yet massive dinner with my friends, had a nice walk a long the water’s edge of an artificial pound, then it was time to drive the same trip in reverse.
The traffic out of the city was moderate, and yes, everybody was still driving at about 62 mph. Not to long after, however, the traffic really seems to clear up; there was nothing, except the empty interstate, a cool summer evening and my G35 Coupe. So I decided to bring the challenge up a notch, pushing the vigorous V6 to 68 mph.. Beyond any expectation, the range of my vehicle actually slightly increased. As time accumulated, the fuel gauges dropped so slow that I almost forgot I was driving a proper 280 horsepower V6 power-panzer.
At the end of the trip, I calculated my mpg; despite the extra weight from my massive dinner, my G35 Coupe managed to pull of an astonishing 30 mpg, and that was with about 50% of the drive time going at 68 mpg. That is totally exceeded the factory mpg assumption.
Maybe Top Gear top tips suggested at a 53 mph is the optimum speed for most vehicle, and yes you have to shift smart, S-smart; but ultimately, if you are driving a car that have decent mechanical engineering (in this case the VQ35 has better than decent engineering) and a very though out aero design, driving slow does not necessary to mean saving fuel. Of course, I cannot blast down the highway at 120 mph to shoot for a better gas mileage, but by modifying your driving style slightly do makes the biggest saving for petroleum shopping.
This is a good way to end a day, really, not only having a superb driving experience at a very chill summer night with windows down, but it also proved a 280 hp powerhouse does not necessary mean its need more fuel to be feed. And this simply concluded my next automobile shopping analysis; I don’t have to fall for the Smart Car nor Prius, as long as I can drive smart, I can save fuel in a CLS 600 with no problem.