OK. I know I know. This site has been going through so many face lifts, so many versions, database v. static, WordPress v. Joomla!, it just never ends.

I’ve decided to resurrect as much data as I could from past versions and put them all here on my new blog and that would not be possible if it were not for the Wayback Archive.

I hope you enjoy the show!

I have had a notable absence from my website for the past couple months. Ever since switching to my new job with Skip Barber Racing School I’ve been ultra busy, and will continue to be busy trying to modernize our infrastructure. That being said I will be more diligent to get new articles out.

For the past several months since I moved to Kingston NY, I have been working for the firm Pearson Education. While this opportunity was an exciting venture in the Technical Project Management space, I felt I was straying too far away from my IT roots. So beginning on 20 February 2006 I will start a new leg in my career as a Network Engineer with Skip Barber Racing School in CT. As a self confessed car fanatic, this will be an exciting opportunity to embark on.

Until 1996, I was searching for the key to my life. With two failed college attempts in 1991 and 1993, I went through a mild depression, feeling useless, unfulfilled. It wasn’t till I took a huge gamble and moved to Washington DC, with little more than a trunk full of clothes, a sleeping bag, a bunch of CD’s, an Amtrak ticket and a hundred dollars, and began a journey that jump started my career and began to fill a great emptiness in my life.This journey started off as a real test of mettle. I happened to find a help-desk job literally days after moving to the area, but my first days were a struggle. I had to make the money stretch as far as I could resorting to eating Ramen noodles, French fries with cheese slices, and not much more. Hell I was so broke I couldn’t even afford a lamp, so when the sun went down on a cold winter’s day, that was it. Sure things got better after a while. My father brought down some of my essential items from my apartment like my futon, a lamp, my dresser, a few kitchen items, but I still lived like a pauper for quite a long time. This life wasn’t bad, hell it seemed so much better than doing nothing in Northern NY.

I hit one of my first major setbacks in mid-1997 when I lost my job, and couldn’t find another. I had to abandon the notion of living in DC, and moved back to Northern NY, the same ol’ area that beat my sanity down in years past. I took a few months off working to contemplate my next move. Living off my unemployment checks gave me larger paydays that pretty much any job I could find in the area. It wasn’t till the beginning of 1998 when I got my career back on track, finding a job in Northern NY that was about an hour away from my father’s house paying again a paltry sum. I managed to get by, largely due to the fact that I lived with my father. I did well enough that I was able to own my first new car, a 1998 Dodge Neon R/T.
Then came the year that tested my sanity, put me in virtual financial ruin, and almost destroyed my life. In February of 1999, I decided that working for pennies was not going to be my mantra, and I began a search for a job back in the DC area. I found a job that was going to pay almost 3x the salary than I was currently making, and of course as soon as they offered it I took it without hesitation. I remember driving back from the breakfast interview with my friend Scott I kept on screaming out “fifty-five thousand dollars!” I decided to help my friends who were struggling to move down with me, and share a nice rental townhouse in Rockville MD. I really felt that I had finally made it, that I was now getting paid for what I was worth.
Of course all of this got to my head. I felt beneath the brand new car that I had just bought and quickly dispatched of it, opting for a one-year used 1998 Golf GTI VR6. The payments were close to double for what I was paying with the Neon, but who cares, I am getting paid, right? But quickly my new found empire crumbled. The new job that I got fell short of cash, and I lost my job. No big problem I would just find another one, but I let my big head get in the way of the big picture. I landed a new job a couple weeks later, but I saw ethical issues with it and left within a day. After that I could not find anything on the market. To make matters worse, my friends that I had brought down with me decided to move back to Northern NY. So here I was stuck with a huge rental payment for a townhouse, a car payment that was nearly double what I was paying, and out of a job. So I had to swallow my pride and move back to Northern NY again.
It took me many years to help fix my credit after this debacle. It just wasn’t the car payment, but credit cards, phone bills; I am still paying for these ‘lack of judgment’ issues to this very day. With the help of my wife I was able to right myself financially. This isn’t to say that we didn’t spend money wisely all the time. It’s only now after re-visiting the lessons of the past that we are able to put things into perspective. We now live in Upstate NY, I make good money, and we are smartly planning for the future.
This entire long-winded story has a purpose, to help remind people that we can settle for just ‘good’. To continue to strive for the very best will put most people in the poor house. Even if you are able to achieve top status, usually it’s at a terrible price. Overextending your credit, living well beyond your means, working ridiculous hours to make up for the lost wages you need. There is another solution, to settle for your personal best without going overboard, to say “no I don’t need a Hummer H2, I can settle for the nice new car I already own”. Sure there are splurges that are necessary, when they are affordable. That nice new LCD TV is not outrageously priced if you save for it in advance. Impulse purchasing is what business wants you to do. They want you to pay just the required payment on your 14 credit cards so you are in debt to them for 10, 20, 30 years or more. This is why they continue to push your available credit limit higher and higher.
We as a society need to learn that keeping a car for over five years is not a bad thing, or that owing a $250k home is smarter than scraping every nickel and dime for a $600k house that the shadow of foreclosure looms every day for years. Once we have learned to settle for what we have, with the caveat of owning what you can afford, only then will we not only financially better off, but finally happy with ourselves. I can say I am much happier now that I have ever been.

I had recently written an article in my commentary “The Unattainable American Dream“, a look into the increasingly unaffordable housing market, especially in the DC Metro area. The Washington Post has a good article< about recent trends in the area.

 So by luck on the 17th I hit Alton Brown’s website and notice that he is doing a 2 week tour to promote “I’m Just Here For More Food”, and noticed that he was going to Tysons Corners in NoVA. So I absolutly had to go!

As I sit here pondering what just happened over the past 24 hours, the best phrase to summarize it is “stunned, but not surprised”. For decades, Washington DC has been trying to woo Major League Baseball (MLB) to set up shop once again in our nation’s capital. A few months ago MLB agreed, as long as a sstadium could be built, and financing was secured by the end of the year.

Well last night, at an 11th hour push, Linda Cropp dropped a bombshell, and amended the agreement to demand at least 50% private funding for the stadium. The measure passed, and the former Expos future was immediatly in doubt.

Now we can all argue that MLB is a monopoly and holds cities hostage to build stadiums on their own dimes, and MLB comes out on top always. Unfortunatly it would take an act of Congress to change that.

So today MLB responds but naturally not agreeing with the city council’s decision, and go further to virtually eliminate any future for baseball in DC. They are even going to the legnths of refunding season ticket holders. That my friends is the final nail in the coffin for DC baseball.

Linda Cropp should be labled for what she did, she killed baseball plain and simple. Why not bring up these financing issues in the past? MLB agreed to numerous concessions yesterday to help drive the vote for the stadium, and in one swoop it’s gone.

So goodbuy Washington Nationals. I am sure Nofolk, NoVA, or even Puerto Rico will love you, and the people of DC will continute to be under the death grip of Peter Angelo, owner of the O’s. No one wants to drive hours to watch a baseball team in the gutter for years straight, and this is coming from a true O’s fan!

Anyone that is surprised at the recent outing of Giambi, and the high probability of athletes like Bonds are on the strength sauce better known as steroids, then they are under some serious medication. To see how athletes have bulked up over the past 10 years you’d have to be blind not to notice.

The fact of the matter is, in all levels of sports, professional, amateur, collegiate, and even lower, there is a demand by our peers to perform beyond expectations, and these athletes are willing to oblige to get that big check.

If we were serious that we didn’t want athletes doped up, then we would be performing random tests throughout the season with every sport, period, end of discussion. But because we don’t back up the screams of foul play, athletes will continue to embellish in the ‘roids, bulk up, and perform.

It time to put up or shut up. If we are serious, we must take action. Demand that athletes don’t dope up, it’s that simple. If you remain just an small voice on the sidelines, then shame on you.

And for the hypocrites that bitch about ‘roids, what about home pharmaceuticals. If you pop a Viagra pill, are you and different than Giambi. You want to perform, don’t you. Why the double standard?

Personally I would love a world free of drugs, but we live in world where drugs are as common as buying a candy bar at a vendor, and the thirst for performance and success drives us all. Because of this, ‘roids will probably never go away, just mutate into the next it drug to push us farther, faster, longer.

Just when you thought that once you are armed with good data about buying a new car, a new variable get’s thrown into the mix. We have had the new-car horry story experience with Triangle Mitsubishi in 2001. So we thought we would be skilled to handle anything that comes our way on the next new car purchase. We were proven wrong.Initial interest (05.26.2004)

So we get a piece of mail from Mitsubishi on how we can get up to $2900 in a refund to end our lease early, of course if we stick with Mitsubishi. Danyelle and I had thought of this in the past, and we weren’t hot on the idea of keeping a lease. So she goes to Rockville Mitsubishi to quickly eye a 2004 Lancer Ralliart and kind of likes what see sees. So she calls me to negotiate with the salesperson.

So I arrive at the dealership, and it seems to take forever to get a good deal. They had already marked up the car $2995, and it seemed the MSRP was a tad high. This is where the fun began.

Dealer Haggle (05.26.2004)

The initial negotiations with the salesperson seemed to be off to a very rocky start. First I tried to get them to justify the dealer markup and the salesperson noted that this was a hot selling car. Not quite true since there were a few on the lot and not that far away the same car could be had with only a $500 markup. I explained to him I wanted to make sure that he was fairly compensated for the sale, but I wasn’t going to pay for an outrageous sum.

The first real numbers he came back with were outrageous. 6% interest, $2000 down, and something like $380 a month. I immediately became frustrated but tried to maintain as much calm as I could. I explained that I knew my wife’s FICO score and it was in the 700s plus we were just in a Mitsubishi lease for three years without a single blemish.

A couple more times he came back with a different set of numbers. Some with a lower interest, higher down payments, longer terms. He attempted to use one of the slimy tactics that many sales people use; “what do you want your payments to be”. This is a huge misstate for a consumer to focus on and show instead look at the bottom line.

After threatening to walk out of the negotiations, a good deal finally came along with 0% interest but with a markup still. I was satisfied with the deal, like I said I wanted for the dealership to be fairly compensated. I went home for a couple hours waiting for my wife and then we headed to the dealership at night (7pm) and lo and behold the salesperson is anxious to give us the car that instant. Mind you the car still has its shipping tape on it, and we hadn’t gotten things out of the old car. It was decided to pick up the car the next day, and she proceeds to fill out all the paperwork on the car.

Delivery (05.27.2004)

So at noontime, Danyelle goes to pick up the car, but there is a problem with the paperwork. After another hour of redoing it, the car is ready to be driven off the lot. As soon as Danyelle gets back to work in the Lancer, she notices the scratch on the passenger front rim. She brings it home at 7pm, I take photos of it, and call the salesperson. He acknowledges the problem as says to bring it in Tuesday (we were heading to NY State on vacation) and it would get fixed. OK so it doesn’t seem to bad, but wait…

Rust?!?!? (05.28.2004)

So at 4:30pm the next day, after work for Danyelle, we decide to really inspect the car. Mind you this is only 30 hours after taking delivery of the car. Well at the photos on the right clearly show, there are serious gouges in the car, and even rust on the hood. Now why didn’t we notice this before, chalk it up to her being rushed at lunchtime when she picked up the car, and her being short (5′ 1″) didn’t get a good angle on the scratches/gouges till you were right up on it. So I call the dealership once again, and explain the situation. The sales guy says to still bring it in on Tuesday and he will talk to the manager about it.

Dealership Nightmare (06.01.2004)

So after an enjoyable trip up North, and really loving the car, I bring the car over to the dealer at 10am. What happens next surprises me. The dealer will still replace the rim, but the rest of the car they will not repair. Their excuse, well the detailer didn’t notice the problems, so it must have happened after we took delivery of the car. Um OK, so they are blaming us for ruining the car. Never mind that the car Danyelle traded in is in better condition than this brand new car. I talk to the manager, and he reiterates that they will do nothing but replace the rim. I am livid, and threaten calling the Attorney General and the BBB, which doesn’t phase him.

Action Is Taken (06.01.2004)

So, on my word, I call the Attorney General of MD, and they refer me to the Montgomery County Consumer Affairs division. I talk to a representative that lets me know that they can have an inspector come, asses the problem, and take it from there, and if necessary can be called as a witness. I also call Mitsubishi HQ and lodge a complaint with them on the issues at hand, and the lack of any remedy. They let me know that the regional rep. comes to visit dealerships once a month and that they will call to let me know when he will be at Rockville Mitsubishi.

Maybe a remedy in sight (06.01.2004)

So I swing by the dealership once again, to see if they have changed their minds, and if not let them know the avenues I am going to pursuit to resolve this issue. Finally, the manager lets the salesperson know that they will repair the gouges. So in the next few days I should be updating this page with new news.

Finally Fixed (06.09.2004)

We had dropped off the Lancer at Rockville Mitsubishi on 06.03.2004, and was anticipating the car to be done on Monday the 7th. Well two days after we thought the car would be done, finally we get it back. The car is in great condition with the exception of the antenna mast, and to be quite honest I am not all worried about it. We’ll keep a careful eye to make sure the pain dosen’t discolor, but I have to admit they did a great job on it!

Lessons Learned

Well there are numerous lessons learned on this. We had been burned before by Triangle Mitsubishi and their bait/switch moves, and we thought we had enough experience at hand. But as we learned in this experience, you have to have a watchful eye, and plenty of time before you drive off the lot with a car at hand. So please, heed from our experience, don’t drive away without a thorough investigation on the car, be it new or used.

Also, this will be our one and only dealings with Rockville Mitsubishi, and quite possible our last deal with Mitsubishi in general. I am up for a early lease out in 12.2005 and completely finish the least in 6.2006.

“Why his head so biiiiigggggg.. Whyyyy his head so big?!?” - GiR

You migh wonder what the hell is the quote above, well it’s from the series of cartoons called Invader Zim!, a cartoon that soon became a cult classic, and one that Nickelodeon pulled. Luckilly it was just released on DVD, so I must insist buy it and enjoy it!