Although the tracking website indicated it would be delivered by FedEx, it was UPS that actually delivered the package. It left Sacramento around 6am and arrived at my door shortly after 11am.
Syncing now :D
I finally decided on, and ordered my wheels. Didn’t think I would do it this early, but I just couldn’t wait. Say hello to my 19" Volk VR.G2’s. They are the second generation of the TE37 by Rays Engineering, which I have always loved and almost got for my G35. These wheels come in two different styles. Type 1 has no lip whereas Type 2 does. I ordered Type 2 (pictured above). Unfortunately, I have to wait 60-90 days for them to ship from Japan.
Others have also asked why I would put Japanese wheels on a German car. My answer is, “because they’re awesome” and the fact that fewer people have (or want) these on M3’s just made me want to do it more. I actually like these a ton more than the original TE37’s.
The comment about spinners by the boy was true. He likes that kind of stuff right now, but I'm sure he'll grow out of it eventually. I told him spinners aren’t for race cars but he argued that his RC Skyline has spinners. So I said, “That’s just a toy. They’re not for real performance”...to which he replied, “the monster truck Escalade has them.”
*sigh*
Went to Pre MFest with the boy today since it was being held at Oakley. There was a rumor that the Kogi truck was going to be there so we were both looking forward to that. However, it turned out to be an imitation, named Calbi BBQ so I still have not been able to get a taste of the real thing. It was still pretty good, but a little too spicy for the boy.
Here are some requisite shots of cars (mine is in the final shot of this set):
I wanted to put Aperture 3’s non-destructive brushes to the test so I created the first few images on this set with black & white backgrounds. It worked pretty well for the most part, but it did get pretty processor-intensive at times. The more adjustments I put on an image, the slower things got. I think I’ll eventually end up with a decent workflow, but right now I’m still learning/experimenting. The masks were pretty easy to paint, though I did them kind of fast, so you can see the flaws.
And some detail shots:
Can’t go to an event with the boy and not take pics of him:
And finally, some B&W’s:
While we were at Pre MFest today, we took a little break and checked out the snowman art project that Brian Takumi recently handed out. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying attention and the camera was still set for outside shooting so the images all came out a little blurry. These art projects are always pretty cool.
Not sure how I feel about this at all. I like the Genesis coupe, but it looks odd with the camo paint. The Volks are cool, but the huge wing...meh.
Our ex-CEO had a camo SL65 AMG that looked great since it was subtle and you could only see it in good light, but this is a tad too contrasty for my tastes.
I admit I was intrigued and a bit annoyed by the whole “shake to develop” feature of the ShakeItPhoto iPhone app, but after discovering the “faster shaking” setting and messing with some old photos for awhile, I'm pretty impressed with the image quality. Here's a few:
Braces:
Cars and Coffee:
Ajisen Ramen:
Flying home from Cincinnati:
Ramune:
Been playing TypeWar occassionally and while I currently have an accuracy rating of around 95% these are the ones that almost always trip me up.
I usually get the Futura and Gill Sans ones right but the rest are just plain evil.
Will keep adding more to this set as I get them. It's also interesting to see the frequency of when I get them based on the score changes. On a positive note, the last on of these I got was at a score of 3750 and I'm now at 4563 so I haven't had to deal with it for awhile. Of course, this means the next time I fire it up I'll get one...
I happened to see a Tesla driving in front of me today so I got the iPhone out to snap a pic and it just so happened that an email came in at the same time. I have my phone set to vibrate when that happens so this is what happened to the picture. Pretty interesting IMO.
For you car lovers, I went ahead and snapped another, clearer one, hehe.
This is a video taken during the boys' first K1 Speed Junior League session. It's cut from a combination of 2 difference races which is why sometimes you'll see him with his jacket on and other times, not. He's also driving 2 different cars. Number 58 and 60.
For some reason the color got all washed out when I exported from FCE. Gonna have to try to figure out why and re-upload.