I can't even come up with a title that describes my excitement. This is the prettiest one I've seen. I always thought I wanted a red one....SHA-WING

@davesaddiction now here I would have had 0 doubts about gold!

I just received "The Golden Ox Award" at work which is more or less the "try hard/we like you the best for the year" award. Hit me with a trophy and a print out of everyone's nice comments that voted for me. I'm always thinking that I'm not doing enough... Who cuttin' onions?!

Hello, and welcome to a new segment I'm testing out called "Circuit City Stories". For those of you who are not aware, Circuit City was a US based electronics retailer that went out of business in March of 2009. I started there as a seasonal sales associate in the car stereo department in 2005 making $8.50 an hour. When they closed for good on 3/9/09 I was being paid nearly $40/hour to watch the liquidation company steal from our store.

These are my stories.

As I said I started on the sales floor, but I don't think two weeks had passed before I was comfortable telling my boss that I wanted to work as an installer, and I wanted to work full time. I had to ask a few more times, but I got there and looking back it was the most fun job I have ever had.

I worked with a bunch of cool dudes, and one guy who was just a twit. Always talking down to someone so on and so forth. Well call him "Jim".

Another character, well call "Dave" was an absolute wild man. Had a whole crew of car heads that made and sold DVDs of hooning cars, titties, crotch rockets what have you.

Jim and Dave got themselves into a prank war in the shop one day. I was working on a remote start, security, keyless entry on a green Supra and had the whole interior apart and all over the shop.

It started innocently enough. with a "ball tap". Jim was on the phone with an angry customer and Dave got him right as he was about to speak. Jim went nuts and threw his coffee on Dave. I get all pissed off because the coffee has splattered all over the interior bits and pieces of this guys car! Time passes, I figure its over.

Then I see Jim drilling tiny holes in the top of a sprite bottle. I say something to the effect of "look fuckhead, whatever you're doing with that...outside the shop" He does not listen. Dave comes over for a sip of his sprite (before I can warn him) and it pours all over his face and splatters some more of the car im working on.

Dave apologizes and wipes up the mess. Then he says "I'm ending this" I said "please do" and go back to work. I get out from under the dash to give my back and neck a break and it smells BAD.

All of the sudden, shouting, banging around annnnnnnd Jim/Dave burst through the door Dave in laughing manically as Jim lands one after the other of the sissiest blows I have ever seen. "IN MY FUCKIN TOOLBOX, IN MY F U C K I N G TOOLBOX" Jim keeps shouting. I take a look in the open bottom drawer of Jim's toolbox on my way out of the shop to get away from the smell...Yeah there was a big old Dave SHIT in there.

I wasn't supposed to be written up but was because during the meting with HR I could not stop laughing I was warned half a dozen times but couldn't stop I was crying I was laughing so hard.

The three of us were written up but that's it. Dave ditched the poop before HR saw and I wasn't diming out either person for any of that dumb stuff.

@e90m3 First of all that "joke" has always been wrong. It's the tide pod eaters that can't drive a manual. Not us.

Second of all that sticker and a plate that says YOLO...Something tells me that the driver is old man trying super hard to be young man

After a stress filled day on the phone, the driver that I had to pay twice arrived with my 1975 BMW 1502 sat crooked on his janky Dodge Ram Pickup.

Please enjoy the original Kinja post about the day and some pics you have probably seen before. I tried to find some new ones. One day ago and after many shipping troubles, I joined the Oppo camera crew with some help from @spacekraken and @S65. So hopefully I learn to be not awful at taking pics so I can have some new ones to share.

Post Titled 1502 - Whatthefuckingfuck

"This will probably come as no surprise to The Actual RootWyrm, but it has been just a fucking shit mess since the car arrived at port in Baltimore on 12/26.

Communication hasn’t been great throughout the process but the worst has come from the US importer (broker). Here is a “quick” summary:

-Car arrives in Baltimore on 12/26 and the ship heads to Jacksonville, I know this because I have watched the ships every little move since it left port in Amsterdam.

-12/27 I post this on Oppo, then decide to email the broker to see when I might be able to expect delivery and if there will be any delays due to the government shutdown.

Minutes later I get a response saying “Car is all set and on the way to you already. Driver will be in contact”

A few more minutes later I get another email “Sorry, just called the trucker and he cancelled on me. will get another one going for you ASAP> Can be delivered today or tomorrow.”

12/28 I send another email asking if he was able to secure transport, no response. I wait a few hours and call him. He’s out of the office dealing with a family emergency and wont be able to get to it until the following Wednesday. Rough, but ok family is family.

1/2 Still no word from the import guy. So I send another email, no response. Again I call. He answers and says something to the effect of “yea I dispatched it on Friday, the driver said something about having trouble picking it up. I will have him call you directly”. Then he sends me an email with the driver’s number.

I immediately call the driver, and he said yea I’m at the lot and they only have a record of 3 BMW 1502's two are in California, and one is in Oregon. I PANIC internally. The driver says “this was an auction right”. I’m like “yea...well kinda it was an online auction, but I didn’t “win” I had to make a side deal with the seller.”

Him: “oh ok well I need the sellers info then...?”

Me: “ok but I don’t know if that will help you he lives in Amsterdam”

Him “oh damn...yea uhh well I’m at this auction yard and they said the car would be here.”

Me: “hold up, auction yard? This car came overseas on a boat, I’m pretty sure it’s at the port.

Him: “OOOOOOOh its at the port? That’s all I need thanks bye”

This morning I get out of a meeting around 10am and have not heard anything, so I gave the driver a call just to see if he has everything he needs:

Him “Yo man I’ve been here for two hours, what’s going on?! I need a delivery order/dock receipt they’re charging me $50/hour to be here!”

Me: Whoa, the broker has that. I will send you everything I have and contact the broker.

Both myself and the driver are trying to get in touch with the broker (it’s 7:30am ish on the west cost at this point)

He finally responds to the driver with an email with the wrong document!

I send him another text and tell him that the document he sent is wrong and the driver is going to leave if we don’t get it in the next few minutes.

A half dozen more calls and a few texts later the driver gets the document that he needs but then finds out that hes in the wrong location again!

At this point he’s ready to bail because he’s had to pay $200 in fees to the port and wasted most of his day. He asked the broker about covering the fees and said that the broker acted like he didn’t even ask the question, he just stayed silent on the phone.

So I told him that I would pay for whatever fees he had to pay as long as he can provide receipts, then I will go back to the broker to try and get some money back. I’m offering this knowing for certain that I definitely wont get money back from the broker. I don’t care at this point, I just need the car and need this whole thing to be over with. It has been on my mind for too long.

The driver agrees, apologizes, and thanks me. I thank him for sticking it out all day. It’s lunch time at the port and for the driver, so we end the call hoping that the car actually exists, is where we think it is, and that the driver has everything he needs to get it. Both of us are equally uncertain of all of that.

A few hours go by and I think “FUCK, what if this thing does not start, or he doesn’t know how to start it.” So I send him a quick message saying “if you do actually find the car...here’s how to start it in case you have trouble.”

He says “I’ve already got it started. I was born and raised in Portugal and have been around 2002's my whole life. I’ve seen a lot of their ignitions converted over like this. Then he sends me two quick videos of him driving it around the lot saying that its stalling a little at idle, but it’s beautiful and is running well otherwise. The second video he said that it was low on gas which is why it was stalling, he added a few gallons and had it idling with no problem!

He said that he might have to pick up another car, but he was trying to get this all done tonight, at the latest tomorrow morning!

So I’m still not counting any chickens (except the 3 in my back yard) until it’s actually in my driveway. At the very least it’s in the possession of someone I trust a lot more than the broker I hired and then did 60% of their job.

Obviously I will update Oppo very soon!

Happy New Year!"

We took a trip up to the cabin in the middle of last week for a change of scenery. It felt good to be up in some SPACE. My little girl just LOVES the outdoors it is so fulfilling watching her explore. After she went for a nap, my wife and I walked down to the tree line and up the "mountain" (a medium sized hill). My wife and I spent a lot of time kicking around in the woods together when we first met and throughout our 20's. It's one of those things that brings us right back to what we truly enjoy about each other.

We were both wearing runners as this hike was unplanned. We couldn't safely reach the top so we went as far as we could. My wife mentioned that we ought to be hyperaware of black bear, luckily we did not see any! Here are the pics in no particular order except for the first one, that's my personal favorite.

There are also some primo roads for driving nearby! However, The cabin is off a dirt road and the "driveway" is 1/2 mile long and significantly rougher than the road in some spots. It has been a decade or more since I have had anything good to drive up there. My parents were up so I took my dad's SQ5 on a beer run which was a blast, albeit "slower" than I remember.

I hope everyone's weekend was good.

Hello, and welcome back to another installment of "Circuit City Stories". For those of you who are not aware, Circuit City was a US based electronics retailer that went out of business in March of 2009.

Episode 1

Car stereo equipment is horribly marked up. Installers got gear for 75% off from most manufactures. More or free stuff came if you completed "E-Learnings". So the 4 of us had it all and changed out gear regularly.

Remote starters were really just becoming mainstream and python had just released the 990xp with a claimed 1 mile range on their two way receiver. (It really was about half of that with low/no interference). They retailed for something like $1k at first, but the directed rep gave us 3 which my boss auctioned off to the fastest installers (so last place had to pay cost @ $250) ...sucks to be Jim, you slow twit.

We all drove cars with manual transmissions. If you came to Circuit City with your 3 peddler wanting a remote start we'd send you to a more professional shop that sold a "Code Alarm" branded unit made so shitty and inconvenient that you wouldn't even want it, let's not even talk about how expensive it was so that it was safer to use.

Us installers however could do whatever we wanted to our own cars. So we all jumped the clutch switch and parked our cars in neutral...LOL.

I had a 2004 WRX STi at the time. What I did was scrape a little paint off around the bottom of the shifter and slid a spring around shifter's shaft. It took a relay or 3 but the end result is. If the car is in any gear, metal touches spring, spring grounds relay, relay "un jumps" the clutch switch, car will not start. If it's in neutral, the metal part of the shifter does not touch the spring, car thinks the clutch is depressed, starts without issue. I also had a fuse I could pull to disable the whole thing for when someone else had the car/service.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUT I didn't do that right away.

It was only after an incident that I decided I needed a safety net.

One of the installers I've not mentioned before, well call him "Tim" had a lancer ralliart, but he hopped in a friend's car to go to lunch one day while the rest of us were outside of the install bays doing parking lot shenanigans.

There are two ways to configure the amount of crank time for a remote start. The right way, by poking through the firewall and running a wire from the brain to the tach signal wire, or the lazy way by programming an arbitrary amount of time into the brain of the unit.

Do I need to tell you that Tim did it the lazy way?

He also left his car in gear...

Well with all of these powers combined, Tim managed to sit on his keys in such a way that he trigged remote start from about a quarter mile away and it started in gear!

Luckily no one was between it and the parking brick/wall.

We all make noises similar to those in the background when Toretto is tearing down Brian O in the first FnF as it slammed into the wall.

But wait...there's more...Remote start units, when unsuccessful will try twice more, just for you!!!

So Tim's car smokes the wall and bounces back a little further than where it started and tries again, this time with a little more gusto and bounces even further back. The last time it cracked the wall, both head lights, and did the rest of the damage you'd imagine. Tim even knew it was happening, as soon as he felt it go off in his pocket they were out of range for him to cancel it! A true tragedy!!! Even after that it was only myself and one other that elected to install safety measures.

Believe it or not that Python 990 is still installed and working! It has been hacked in and out of 4 cars by yours truly. It currently resides in the ranger that I sold to my FIL, remote start de-activated after he took ownership.

Thank you all for being so respectfully honest and supportive.

I did what I always do with big purchases. I carefully research and plan them only to throw all of that work out the window and make a hasty purchase.

I ordered a set of wheels and then posted about them here because I was excited...but also insecure. Normally after I make a decision like that I don't want anyone fucking with my chi about the matter. This time though my sub conscious was like:

"Hah ok dawg, did that pretty fast... You sure that's what you want?"

Me: "OH FUCK.....NO! I'm not certain at all"

Luckily the guy working on them told me it would take 8 weeks so I figure no reason I couldn't make a few changes before he gets started...

First it was "should I get gold instead of silver" you all helped there, but it was my best friend who go me over the hump"

Me: "Ah, I'm stuck here between silver and gold"

Him: "I'd go silver or black"

Me: "Out on black, been there, done that, took pictures, wheels were invisible..."

Him: "Silver it is, gold is nice but you might wake up one day and be like "fuck gold".

Me: "haha, know how I know we're friends? I have started wars over less"

But then the REAL issue. The seller recommended a staggered setup and I didn't put up a fight.

I thought, "yeah ok both M3's are/were staggered and like dem FAT rear tires yeeeeeeea"

Then I started tire shopping and I started to grow concerned at the lack of tire options and the fact that it would be nearly impossible for me to get the same dimensions front and rear.

Part of the reason for going to the 15" wheels is so that I can have more options than race tires (which is pretty much it down at 13")

Then @earlyapexer came in hot, and judging by their history, they signed up just to be like "excuse me wtf? Why staggered on an 02".

Most of the time opinions don't bother me so when they do I like to explore why. This time it was easy.

Me to Me: *PANIC "Yeah what the fuck what are you doing you idiot!? You've been quietly worried about that the whole time! It makes no damned sense!"

Me to Me: *Still panic "I don't know, man. I wanted to get some wheels got tired of thinking about it and pulled the trigger"

Me to Me: We'll let's see if you can fix it.

TL;DR

I contacted the man who was very understanding. I'm now slotted for a square set @ 15x7 and feel a lot better about it.

I did however add two weeks onto the build time. He had already ordered the 2" lips for the rear but said he should be able to use them for another project. I told him that if he couldn't, I'd pay for them.

So again, I thank you for your constructive criticisms even more than your support. It kept me out of a bad, possibly nightmare situation. If those rears didn't fit or I couldn't get tires or something I would be beside myself.

Saw this Ferrari F8 that I see from time to time on my way in. Today there was a little more traffic than usual. He ended up right next to me looking to get out of a little cluster of traffic, and I made it obvious that I would allow it with one caveat...

*Us squinting at each other through tint

Me: *cups ear with one hand then makes bowing gesture

Him: *does something with the steering wheel, car gets significantly louder

Me: *lays off just enough to let him through, cracks windows

Him: *Absolutely MURDERS it

-Ya know when you see those videos of cars like the Venom GT or any of the fast electrics and for a split second the video, (or like your brain or something) kind of skips a beat/does not compute because you're like "whoa things don't go that fast".

Well it was like that but in real life and the SOUND.

Me:

Me:

Me:

I was a little nervous about the shifty nature of this wheel transaction at first as I gave him a deposit and he said we'd talk later...

He messaged me about an hour ago but was avoiding the price/deets while he asked if I just wanted the standard setup for an 02. I said yes but then he was like "well, tell me about your car a little maybe send a pic." I do both and then I realize what he's doing.

He was designing a custom set! We talked driving style/conditions, mods on the car, height of the car. He recommended a staggered setup of 15x7 and 15x8, and sent some pics of them installed.

Then he had me pick the color, lip finish, lock nut finish/color, badge type/color. Were all done then hes like "you like the look of the lip badge?" ..."yes, but not red on a green car, can you do black?" he says "how about GREEN".

FUCK YES

Started out thinking I couldn't even have a beater set, coming home with a complete custom set. I can hardly contain my excitement. Says it will take 8 weeks.

So in a couple of months I will post some pics or never mention this again because I got every elaborately swindled.

These are the business, exactly what I chose + Green lip badges

@chariotoflove I don’t hate this. I’d be after a scion but only because I like the back of them better

@musashi66 yeah mine is super nice except for a few areas and I drive it too much to care. But if when I do paint it I’ll be doing everything but the paint myself.

@musashi66 they did the prep too, but I talked to the shop owner for a little. Said that he can get paint that’s hundreds of dollars per gallon...or thousands. He won’t paint any car for less than 12k and that’s if I did the prep!

Best quote I’ve had for a bare metal job where I do everything but the paint and some minor touch up is 4k

@musashi66 said in Anyone looking for a new ride?:

@haveacarortwoorthree "This example is finished in Liquid Silver—which was a $97,566 option"

Paint job that costs as much as all three of my cars combined... twice.

Paint can be nuts! My Friends father is having the rust on his 02 dealt with at a local shop that is famous for really nice paint jobs. There was another 02 chassis that had just come out of paint in Colorado orange. Final invoice was forty seven thousand dollars and the owner delivered the disassembled chassis! It was VERY pretty.

@phenotyp Think I had a malibu of a similar or older vintage... same memories

@shop-teacher RIP Bob. I love curating toolsets for people! My problem with a set like this is that I'd have to create 20 sets, lol. For example, I just replaced my failing 1/4 socket with a new one...then I was like, "well I have this old one...all I need is the rest of the tools and I can make ANOTHER kit!

Once I have a garage the madness will end.

@beefchips any large, fast, BMW or Mercedes from 2000-2010 model year. Why does it have to be cheap? I'm out here gettin money! If I'm modern I'm def slangin' coke and heroin too.

Edit: Forget everything I said. This is my final answer

*Shyne - Bad Boys plays - shibibbledidibledeedobledeedibbbitywhooooooaa.

@way2blu campagna T-Rex

@vincentmalamute said in Anyone else’s brain do this?:

@phenotyp said in Anyone else’s brain do this?:

Man, I'm gonna be 44 in a couple months. I'm finally to the point of seeking medical help for my depression and anxiety and consequent insomnia. Because if I don't, there will come a day, not too long from now, that I decide that this day is my last. It's that bad. And I have a real high tolerance for pain-- I've been living with it for as long as I have memories. It's been up and down, over the years, but now it's at the point that I just cannot take it anymore. I can't listen to the howling any more.

Definitely seek help. Might help. Usually can't hurt. I really hope you stick around this earth though.

Seconded. Getting help with mental health can be difficult, and usually when someone needs it the most it’s the hardest to get motivated. But do the work. One of the reasons it’s so hard to lock in treatment is because so many people need it.

@exage03040 too many mk7 owners on here for that pseudo mini to have a chance. I’m less enthused with the alltrack than when I bought it but would take it again over any non r53 mini.