Today has been very long, and very terrifying. This friend of mine is a good guy, just has a LOT of emotional baggage, and some serious trust issues. I helped him through a hard time in high school, and I'm one of the few people he does trust, so of course he called me today to talk about how the world is out to get him and he wants to end it all. I thought he had been doing better, and was not prepared for this bombshell. I did everything I could to convince him suicide is never the answer, but he didn't want to believe me. Thankfully, he mentioned that one of the parents of the family who's adopting him happens to work at my college. I couldn't convince him to talk to them, but I knew they needed to know what was going on so they could help. I was able to track them down after my friend hung up on me, and after I explained the situation, they were able to have the sheriff go check on him. He's in a mental hospital now, where he'll be safe from harming himself. I hope he starts doing better. Poor guy's been through a lot.

Until today, I've never had to try and convince someone not to kill themselves. That was terrifying. Thank God his parent works at my college, otherwise I don't know if he would've gotten help in time.

I need a hug, a couple birthdays, and a drink.

Today, I park my car in honor of The Ever Given. It may no longer be wedged in a canal, but it will forever be wedged in our hearts.

I've just been accepted into YWAM (Youth With A Mission), which means that this September I'll be leaving to spend 3 months in Hawaii learning about missions work, and then spending another 3 months on a missions trip to... I don't know yet, they don't tell you until later because reasons.

I know they've got free WIFI where I'm staying in Hawaii, so I might still check in on Oppo from time to time whenever I'm not busy. But since I have no idea where I'm going for the actual missions trip, I don't know if they'll have internet at all. They focus on ministering to groups of people who have never heard about God before, so we may be heading to some pretty remote places. One thing's for certain, I'll have some stories to tell when I get back

I'm honestly super excited about this! I don't know how many of you on Oppo are religious, but for me personally, everything in my life not related to my relationship with God hasn't really worked out. The plans I make for my life keep failing, but when I do what I feel like God is asking me to do, it does work. Every idea I had about what I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, fell apart over the course of 2020 as I either realized I hated it or that it just wasn't for me. But at the same time, I've been realizing that what I can do is missions work. I can share my testimony and change people's lives. I've already saved one of my friend's lives doing that, and impacted many others. This is what I'm meant to do, regardless of what job I have or where I live.

What I've realized is that worrying about the future consistently gets me nowhere, but going wherever God tells me to just works. I'll trust in him that he has a plan for me, and go wherever he tells me to. And the first step in that is YWAM.

As soon as I get back, my only plans are to get a job and start saving to go somewhere else. I don't know where yet, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I do feel like God's been getting me interested in various methods of making money without staying in one place for a reason, so I have a feeling I'll be traveling a lot in the future. Perhaps I should start prepping Phoebe for road trips... Or get one of those fancy vans...

TL;DR I'm going to probably disappear for 3-6 months, and I expect to be a different person when I return. I'll still photograph every interesting vehicle I see on my travels, so expect one heckuva photodump next year Thunderbird on an island for your time.

This torched 2013 Kia is owned by a man named Odaeye. It was once owned by a friend of his, who did a few too many drugs, and thought it would be a good idea to light a fire in his car to warm himself. He escaped, but his car went up in flames. There are no salvageable parts left in the roasted Kia, but there is actually some incentive for Odaeye to temporarily keep it. You see, every car in Jordan has a serial number separate from the VIN number, which the government uses to keep track of them. This number must stay with its vehicle for at least ten years after the date of manufacture. But after that, the vehicle can be sold to the Jordanian government for 1,400 JD, at which point it will be scrapped so that its serial number can be reused on a different vehicle. So next year, Odaeye will be able to sell this Kiampfire for the U.S. equivalent of $2,380. Not a bad deal for an unrepairable car!

This thing is made entirely of Lego: It has a seven-foot wingspan, and is built to minifigure scale. Here's the link for better pictures of it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/166701137@N06/albums/72157719542757675 I just want to know where he stores these things...

So, I was one of those unfortunate students who graduated from high school and started college in 2020. That dumpster fire of a year was crap for everyone, but it hit me hard in school, and 2021 has not been any better. I didn't realize at the beginning of the semester that you're only supposed to take two online classes at a time, with four online classes over the course of a semester, and they don't recommend that freshmen take those at all. I took one in addition to four regular classes. That was intense, to say the least. But I thought my workload was normal, and I was just being lazy or dumb, so I never questioned it. Instead, in my attempts to get everything done, I got nothing done, or at least nothing done very well. I had a meeting with an advisor a few weeks ago who told me that my schedule was a recipe for disaster that she wouldn't recommend to anyone, and since then I've dropped the online class and had to drop another class for which there was no chance I could pass now. My workload should've been much more manageable by now, but I've dug myself into such a deep hole that even the three classes I have left, I'm struggling in because I'm so far behind. And this morning I learned I'll have to drop another, which means I'll lose financial aid, and might not be able to come back to college. I want this major so badly. I'm willing to fight for it, to do whatever it takes to even just barely pass so I can stay at this school, but every day it feels like even more of an impossible goal. Trying not to slip into depression is almost as hard as getting the work done.

I used to look at my Thunderbird as not just a car, but a symbol of what I could achieve with enough hard work and perseverance. That car was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. As I look at it now, I realize that whatever happens, I'll at least be able to point to it and say I accomplished one of my dreams. If I did it once, I can do it again. As I write this, I'm waiting for a professor to come to school so I can sign up for a quad class. I've already signed up for one, and if I can get into this second one, I'll once again have enough credits to stay in school and not lose financial aid. I'll have to work hard over spring break to get caught up in these new classes, but if I can stay in school, it'll be worth it. I'm not giving up now. If I'm going down, I'm going to go down fighting. May the roar of my 390 V8 be my battle cry!

My Lego Ideas project finally exists in the form of a physical model! I don't have to make do with digital renders anymore! Yay! I got my sister to help me with the photos, because she's a photography student and actually knows what she's doing with a camera. My job was simply to position the Miata and hold the lamps in whatever position she told me to. The results are certainly better than anything I could've gotten on my own! As always, please consider supporting this project on ideas.lego.com! If it reaches 10,000 supporters, Lego will consider turning it into an official set, and then we can all have Lego Miatas! https://ideas.lego.com/projects/dc154873-6c00-4d14-91e4-c0fe521b632d Features include working pop up headlights, opening doors, hood, and trunk, three pedals in the footwell and a stick shift mounted on a ball joint for pretend shifting gears, adjustable steering wheel and parking brake, and a detailed, removable model of the engine under the hood. The model is made using ~800 pieces, which would give it a price of approximately $70-80 if it were to become a set. And it survived my sister moving it around during photography, so it's fairly sturdy too. Also feel free to share this project elsewhere if you like, so it can get more exposure. I appreciate all of the support you and the rest of the Miata community have shown for this project, as it continues to amaze me

I couldn't figure out how Torsen differentials work, so I made one out of Lego, and now it makes sense. What a nifty little mechanism! Now I suppose I should integrate it into some sort of RC buggy so I can take advantage of its limited-slip capabilities...

When I arrived in Jordan, I spent the first few days in Amman, Jordan’s capital city. While wandering the streets with my friends one day, I came across this unusual hatchback, and I started to get excited. Running around to the back to confirm my suspicions, I gleefully shouted, “It’s a Lada Samara! These were built by Russian communists! I’ve never seen one of these in person before, this is so cool!”

What I would soon discover is that the car’s owner, Muhammad, was working in a barber shop nearby and overheard me geeking out about his obscure Soviet hatchback. “Wanna take it for a ride?” He asked (temporarily leaving the person whose hair he was cutting, as I would later learn).

“For real?”

“Yeah!”

And then he TOSSED ME THE KEYS.

I love Jordanians

So anyway, I got into the driver’s seat, my friend Julian got in the back, and Muhammad sat next to me. He asked if I knew how to drive stick, which I assured him I could, and then he had to show me where first gear was because the shifter felt like stirring a bowl of boiled eggs and I couldn’t figure out where any gears were.

Once the Lada was in gear, I was pleasantly surprised that the balance between the clutch and gas was very good. It felt a lot like my 2002 Civic back home, and I got used to it quickly. What took me more time to get used to was the brakes. They were extremely stiff, and I think they were unassisted drum brakes all around. I had to practically stand on the pedal to get any stopping power, but at least they didn’t lock up on me at any point.

It took a little while to get out on the main road, as I had to maneuver the car back and forth several times to get out of a parking lot at the bottom of the hill the Lada had been parked on, with each change of gears ultimately requiring the help of Muhammad because I still couldn’t figure it out. But Muhammad seemed to be having a good time nonetheless, so after waiting for a good gap, I finally ventured onto the main road and even successfully managed to shift into second gear briefly! But about two seconds after second gear, I came to a hill. It was a big hill. I couldn’t downshift fast enough, and I ended up parked on the hill, standing on the brakes.

It was time to do… a hill start.

With the hill being so steep, the brakes being so stiff, and a parked Hyundai + oncoming traffic behind us, I kept trying and failing to transition quickly to the gas, but the car kept stalling as I crept ever closer to another car. Eventually I decided to just give it the beans, but I gave it a little too much beans, and well… I ended up doing a 20-foot burnout uphill in the Lada Samara.

I apologized immediately for doing a burnout in his car, but surprisingly, Muhammad would have none of it. He was laughing! He thought the burnout was hilarious, and giggled the whole time. After I parallel parked the car at the top of the hill, he even complimented my driving. That was a relief… Julian was a little less impressed and admitted that he thought he was about to die, but at least the owner had a good time.

How was the handling? Somewhere between truck and Civic, I’d say. Same with comfort. About what I expected.

Engine note? Agricultural!

Performance? Well, it wasn’t particularly revvy, nor was it very smooth, but it had decent torque and felt like it had adequate power for what it is.

Features? What features? It’s a cheap Russian hatchback with crank windows, a manual transmission, and front wheel drive, those are its features and it doesn’t need more. It also had a radio, and a heater, but I don’t know if either of them worked.

Build quality? Some of the panel gaps were inconsistent and the plastic interior was falling apart, but the car is also 30something years old and built by communists so ehhhhh who cares. I’m just impressed that it’s survived this long and is still being daily driven. This is the kind of build quality that matters most anyway.

All in all, I liked the Lada Samara. Five out of ten, would drive again!

The Lego Miata is finished More photos will come as soon as I can enlist the help of my sister, who knows more about photography than me and has the fancy camera. This is something that deserves to be photographed properly.

@orneryduck I wish! But 1. The Thunderbird is currently not roadworthy, due to a faulty wiring harness that I'm still saving up money to replace, and 2. I live in Idaho. That's a long drive for any car, let alone an unrestored 56 year-old gas guzzler during a fuel crisis.

@StreetsofPerth You know how the trolleys in Disneyworld are pulled by horses? Well, fun fact, horses have a tendency to make big poops in the middle of the street! So Disney, being obsessed with cleanliness, has made sure that as soon as any horse drops a load, a staff member comes over as quickly as possible with a poop cart and shovel to remove the foul brown. But, since Disney wants everything in the area to fit the old-timey vibe, they don't use your typical plastic janitor cart for the poop. No, they have fancy wooden poop carts with wood-spoked wheels, pinstriping, and everything! I was so impressed with the attention to detail, that Disney would even put effort into making the poop carts look pretty, that I took a picture of one. And then I forgot to take pictures of anything else for the rest of the trip...

It's time for a family vacation to Disneyworld! Hopefully this time I will remember to take pictures, and not come back home with only a single picture of a poop cart. At least the poop cart photo resulted in my new favorite thing to do at Disney parks, which is documenting every unique variety of trash can I come across. I have so many trash can photos, and I love them all, time to get some more

Any suggestions for mobile apps that aren't trash that I can use to kill time standing in lines/on the airplane? I heard there's a Forza mobile game, but couldn't find it on the app store...

@Genesis_Haysenhox I remember doing something like this in high school, but we had to pick new cars for some reason so I picked a Nissan Versa, mother of all cheap boring cars.

@Demon-Xanth Nice Ford Thunderbird

@Taylor-Martin I'm no Volkswagen expert, but my engine doesn't like to rev when it's cold and usually stalls if I try to rev it before it's spent a few minutes warming up. I'd suggest letting it idle for about 5-10 minutes and then try revving it.

@Highlander ...I would actually rather have that than a stock NC Miata. Mitsuokas are neat!

@GibbsEmphasis Huh, I'd never thought of that before! Hydrogen's disadvantages are negligible compared to the fact that you no longer have to worry about emissions at all. That's almost the ultimate ICE fantasy... Engines not limited by regulations, nothing to restrict horsepower, you can just go wild with tuning and make it as powerful and crazy as you want!

You've convinced me, I want hydrogen engines to be a thing now.

@Turbineguy-Nom-de-Zoom Slightly more impressive, but its purpose is still to limit the speed of the cars behind it. That doesn't scream impressive performance to me.

@ranwhenparked I can understand wanting an interesting livery on your car, but pace car replicas don't make sense to me. Like... Isn't the whole point of pace cars to prevent other cars from going too fast? It doesn't even seem like pace cars need to be particularly fast cars to be able to do their job. So you drove slowly while a bunch of more interesting cars drove slowly behind you, so what? I don't see why pace cars are considered glamorous enough that a bunch of boomers want replicas of them.