Hyperbolic Logic

My friend Tim just put up this video of his bmx riding and I had to post it.  He is doing some amazing stuff.

http://vimeo.com/15842862

I posted this on a car forum I frequent (www.fourtitude.com) and I think it would be good to post up here.  I’ll try to review different cars I’ve driven, hopefully it will be helpful to someone.

I’ve spent the past 10 days in lovely Nuevo Laredo Mexico working on an assignment at our plant and have been driving a Black HHR rental.  Since I spend (*cough – waste) so much time on here I figure I’d post something worthwhile instead of photos of bagels and cats.

Some background:  My normal car is an 07 GTI.  I’m a driveline NVH engineer for McLaren performance technologies and had a short stint in interiors and HVAC at Visteon.  Often commuter car reviews bug me because the reviewer complains about low skidpad numbers or other things 99% of owners of that model who aren’t highschoolers wouldn’t care or know about.  I’m an enthusiast but will try to review from the POV of someone who would actually buy the car, and will call myself out when I’m picking nits just because. <p>I always viewed the HHR as a spiritual successor to the often (arguably wrongly) maligned PT Cruiser.  A smaller cheap car with a little extra space and some styling pizzaz for those who don’t want to get lost in a sea of identical econoboxes.  Styling wise I think it looks pretty decent.  I’ve seen some modified ones that look nice.  The headlights being somewhat awkward is my only real issue, and it is a small one.  Mine was a shiny black model like the one below, but a lower trim level.

Unfortunately the large population of drug dealers here prefer black tinted SUVs and have an aversion to stopping at red lights.  Because of the similarity I got searched on both sides of the border by the heavily armed guards pretty much every time I crossed.  So if you are looking to smuggle drugs, go the beige camry route.

Overall I think it is a nice car for what it is.  I rarely had to go over 45 miles an hour but it hustles to the lower city traffic speeds with plenty of pep.  Merging onto the highway in a hurry will leave you wanting for more power, but for a majority of situations the average HHR driver encounters it is quick as it needs to be.  As far as driving goes, it works very well.  It is funner to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow as I found out with my rental Yaris in Dubai.  That car had some annoying issues with a jumpy throttle and brakes.  The HHR just does what you want it to without making any quirks known.  The brake feel is linear and pedal feel is good, as well as for the go-pedal.  The engine note is.. present.  Not intoxicating but not annoying, just there to remind you the car indeed has an engine.  The company is paying for gas so I wasn’t paying attention to mileage.  <p>Handling is good.  Compliance is the name of the game in Mexico where the paved road can end suddenly and unexpectedly.   Compared to my lowered GTI on 18′s crashing over giant Detroit potholes the HHR felt downright cushy.  Emergency maneuvers to dodge burros or dudes on bikes had some body roll but were drama free.  No flipping over or tails stepping out.  I don’t know or care how it would handle on a track, probably not well, but whatever.  It is fairly fun to toss around.  Everything just works competently.

The interior is where i was most impressed, but also slightly annoyed.  I was a GM interior hater for a while.  It started when I sat in the top level Pontiac Grand Prix at the auto show years ago and was amazed my POS basement level MK3 golf GL had a better interior than a more expensive vehicle that was over a decade newer.  Hence a dashstroker was born.  A couple months gaging panel gaps on an assembly line and studying all the panel/substrate/ and color requirements made me even more sensitive to interior build quality.  The last GM interior I spent a long time in was the previous gen Caddy SRX, which I thought had way to many contrasting/wierd textures and no real flow.  In addition to some bad panel gaps.

The HHR interior is actually pleasantly designed and the fit and finish is surprisingly good.  Controls are easy to use.  The materials are no match for my GTI, which is the ultimate in automobile interior design and strokeablilty The main dash section is nicely grained but made of hard plastic, which doesn’t matter that much since it is rarely touched.  The tops of the doors and door arm rest are just as hard which is unfortunate because my arm was there often.  The door lock is also placed so it will stab the inside of your elbow if you have your arm on the doorsill with the window down during a nice day.   The right arm rest is too close to my body (I’m not a large person) and my arm felt more comfortable on the passenger armrest.  The circular door handles look cool and work very well.  I was kind of annoyed by how small the tach is but it is something most HHR drivers will never look at so I’m just being irrational there.  If you take the car to the nurenburgring your ass will be sliding all over the place but the seats are comfortable for normal driving.  The seat material nicely dampens fart sounds from eating too much fried queso, something I look for in any vehicle.

My main gripe is the visibility, a product of the exterior styling.  The A-pillars are huge.  While making a left turn I almost hit a guy in a crosswalk because he was in my A-pillar blind spot the whole time.  The D-pillars are also pretty big making rearward visibility not great.  There is a good amount of storage in the back.  The trunk floor is made of hard plastic which looks to be pretty durable.  This car would be good for hauling stuff.

Overall I say this is a good car.  If you want to get from point A to B with some extra room and style I’d recommend test driving one.  I’m impressed by how far GM has come in the interior department, even on a low content rental vehicle like this.  I personally wouldn’t get one because it doesn’t meet my needs (prefer something sportier) but I wouldn’t feel guilty about recommending it to someone else.  It does its job transparently and competently.  It is also often mistaken for a drug dealers car, so if it is good enough for the Zetas, it is good enough for your mom or aunt looking for their next stylish appliance.

Even if you aren’t into photography or photo editing, you will probably be pretty blown away by how these photos are being manipulated by this new Adobe software.  Wait for the last one, your jaw will drop. 

This is really cool.  Someone took children’s drawings and repainted the scenes realistically.  Many of these are cute, others are familiarly nightmarish.  All are out of the artist Dave Devries’ book, The Monster Engine.  See his site here. http://www.themonsterengine.com/

We’ve been really busy since Nick and Alex got here, driving all around the city and only getting the bare minimum of sleep.  It has been a lot of fun and we are seeing a lot.  After they arrived around 4:30 AM we decided to head to the city for breakfast.  It was neat to see downtown as the sun was rising.

We drove to Palm Jumeirah one of the palm islands, huge manmade islands that are full of luxury hotels and housing.  We had to take a bridge to the island, and then went through a tunnel that went under the large Atlantis hotel to the furthest edge of the island.  The place is unbelievably big, it is hard to imagine that it is man made.  We got out of the car on the rim of the island and hung out, amazed that where we were standing used to be in the middle of the ocean.  There are two more palm islands under construction, but are on hold due to the recession.

The Atlantis hotel, uber exclusive, we couldn’t get anywhere near it

The island seen from the international space station

We then drove to this marina area next to the palm islands and hung out on the beach there.  This was an upscale area, the marina was created for people to park their yachts.  The streets were all cobblestone and there were a lot of expatriates (Europeans) jogging around.  We were amazed by the sheer number of brand new apartment buildings.  It was hard to believe there were that many people around to stay in them. although they need to have a majority of the units purchased before they start construction.

The palm island and Atlantis hotel from the beach

A Hamann 6 series, nice!

Later we went to a market area called Karama Souk.  There were many shops selling clothes, shoes, jewelry, and some traditional souvenir type items.  I needed some sunglasses and wanted to get a watch so we talked to this guy in front of his shop.  When he knew we were interested he took us upstairs to the storage room in his shop and through a low corridor.  In the back he started pulling out boxes full of counterfeit watches.  They were pretty high quality.  I found a really nice looking one that was self winding and more subtle looking than some of the “diamond” encrusted ones.  Since i was a tourist he tried ripping me off, asking 450 dirhams ($170) for the watch alone.  Alex and I bargained the guy down to $240 ($60) for the watch and sunglasses, a pretty good deal.  Below you can see Nick and Alex posing in front of a mannequin at one of the shops.

We checked out this area called the Madinat Jumeriah, a really interesting area built to look like an old market place.  It held tons of shops, nice restaurants, and bars.  The architecture was really interesting and was on a manmade river with small boats that could cart you around.

Another nice thing was you had a clear view of the Burj al Arab, the world’s only 7 star hotel constructed on its own manmade island.  I’ve seen a show on the Discovery channel about how they built it and it is truly incredible.  It was built to look like the sail of a ship.  It is super exclusive, the new years party is over $2000 to enter.

Some photos from Wikipedia:

This is all for now.  I have a few more posts coming up on the nightlife at Dubai and on the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.  We also have a trip to the desert with ATVs which should be a lot of fun.  Thanks for watching.

Well it is Christmas!  I’m normally used to snow and negative temperatures, but 80’s and sunny is fine with me.  Tonight we will be dressing up and going to Christmas mass, where Ajo is a server.  Later around 3 AM Nick and Alex will be arriving!  I’m excited for them to get here.  I’ve been busy the past few days.  I moved out of the hotel to a spare room at Alex and Ajo’s house.  I’ve been having fun hanging out with Ajo and his friends. 

A few nights ago we went to a shisha (or hooka) bar.  A few of my friends own hooka pipes and there are a few nice hooka bars around Detroit.  For those who don’t know: shisha is smoking fresh, usually flavored tobacco from a large water pipe.  The smoke is cool, smooth, and very relaxing.  Unlike the hooka coals in the US which are tablets with some sort of combustible substance inside that makes them easy to light, the coals here are loose and natural.  There is a guy who walks around with a large metal ladle full of coals and replaces the ones on your pipe when they are dying out.  The hooka bar was nice, with lots of tables and comfortable places to sit.  There were several TVs and some of those bar computer games.  We hung out and played some card games.  We played poker for points.  Gambling is very illegal here, playing poker for money can get you 40 lashes.  We also played a traditional Indian card game called Donkey.  This game is simple but extremely fun and involves a lot of strategy and risk.  We have played it several nights since then and it is always a good time.  It gets it’s name because the loser of the game has to put a sock on their ear, and if they have socks on both ears they have to make a donkey noise, otherwise they get a “round of slaps”.  We didn’t do the sock thing but made sure the losers made some type of embarrassing sound.

  Kevin and Bennet

Ajo and me

A couple days ago we put up the Christmas tree at their house.  It is an artificial tree, obviously real pine trees are hard to come by here.  Normally Ajo’s family puts the tree up together but since they are in India with his Dad for the next week or so we made sure it was up for Christmas.  We left the star off the tree for Alex to put on when he arrives.  The tree looks great, bedecked with ornaments, beads, and lights.

Yesterday we took a bus and the metro across town to the Mall of the Emirates.  It is not the Dubai mall, which is the largest mall in the world, but was still extremely impressive.  On the way there we rode the bus, the busses here are identical to the ones in Germany, very modern.  The metro is also really nice and new.  The trains are automatic, no drivers.  The stations are extremely clean and nicely designed.  Here is a photo of Ajo and I at the station.  I’m looking kind of smarmy with my eyes at half blink. 

On the metro we rode through downtown, which was amazing.  I didn’t take any photos since we were zipping through on the train and I’ll be there again soon to take some proper pictures.  There is so much construction going on.  Dozens of huge skyscrapers are in a partially finished state, their concrete skeletons showing through open patches in their sleek glass and steel skins.  What was very unusual is unlike normal city construction where there is an established street and neighborhood surrounding the site, it looks like these buildings are rising out of the bare desert themselves.  Sections of the downtown are just a sea of sandy construction sites, with beautiful tall skyscrapers sprouting through.  Only a few paved paths cross through these areas, like there was nothing there before.  A couple apartment buildings had only one lane of paved road circling the building which connected to another path that led out of the construction area.  Further back was the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.  It is stunning and has almost an art-deco look to it with rings of chrome over the tall glass cylinders.  It is 2 to 3 times taller than any of the surrounding buildings.  It officially opens on January 4th and we will be there to see it for sure. 

We arrived at the mall and started walking around.  I bought a plug converter so I could charge and use my dead laptop.  The mall is nicer than any I’ve been to in the states, and about 4 times bigger.  Each section has its own design theme.  All the floors are colorful marble, and everything is very pleasantly designed.  There are lots of interesting shops there, and uber-expensive jewelry and watch stores.

  Me next to an impractically large teapot

We ate at the food court which had some really nice selections.  There was a KFC, Burger Kang, and Pizza Hut, but also a lot of really good looking ethnic restaurants from Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Italian, etc.  The mall is also the first place that I’ve seen tourists, besides a handful near the gold district.  It is pretty nice since so far I’ve been seeing a lot of the city that is off the beaten path for most foreigners.  One interesting thing about the mall is that there is a dress code which is somewhat followed by most of the tourists.  You have to be modestly dressed, no skirts above the knees.  Many of the women I have seen so far at least have their hair covered.  Some wear the full burqa, although most have their faces uncovered.  Many of the women at the mall had ornately decorated burqas, and were probably more rich than most of the women I’ve seen so far.  Not all the women were wearing traditional garb, most were wearing what any woman would wear to the mall in the US. 

There was a large Christmas tree in the middle of the mall with an animatronic polar bear for the kids to sit on.  Not sure if Santa was on break or something.

One of the main attractions to this mall is Ski Dubai, the only indoor ski slope.  We walked into the main area where you buy tickets and rent equipment.  It is 180 dirhams, or 60 dollars for 2 hours of skiing.  I’m not a skiing fan and unfortunately the only look we could get of the inside was through the windows near the food court.  It is still pretty unbelievable to see a ski hill in the middle of the desert.

We decided to hang out outside, luckily we chose an exit next to the main valet area and saw some incredible vehicles.

And I showed the guys the traditional American way to pose in front of a Rolls Royce.

Christmas eve Ajo and I dressed up for mass.  We went to this neighborhood in the city that has the most schools in one area.  It also had the most churches in one area.  There was a mosque on one side of the street with the catholic church, then Ajo’s church – Serbian orthodox Christian, on the other side.  The Catholic church was holding several masses that night in different languages.  I caught the end of the French mass and decided to walk across the street to see what was going on with Ajo’s mass.  The Serbian Orthodox mass is interesting.  You need to remove your shoes before entering the church, and there is only a small section of pews for older folks and women with babies, everyone else stands on the carpet.  Men were all on the left side and women on the right; the men were wearing the standard Sunday church wear like you would find in the US.  The women were all wearing brightly colored dresses with beautifully ornate embroidered patterns.  Many covered their hair with scarves.  The mass was in Malayalam, Ajo and Alex’s native language, and pretty much the whole mass was sung.  After standing in the back for about 45 minutes, the mass is about 3 hours, I decided to see if the English mass was underway.  I had to walk through thick crowds of people dressed up for mass, and the whole outside of the church was packed with people watching the mass projected on screens.  There is a large Pilipino population in Dubai and it seemed like they were all at that mass. 

The Mosque across the street from Ajo’s church

One of the Xmas displays at the Catholic church

   Ajo’s Serbian Orthodox church

I went back to Ajo’s church and the place was now packed.  The inside had filled so there were people standing outside along the walls of the church facing the altar, and there were huge piles of shoes.  When mass was over everyone flooded in the square outside the church, cakes and coffee were served.  A choir of girls got on stage and started singing Christmas carols while parents took photos and video.  While that was happening a parade started walking around the outside by a group of men with drums and a guy dressed as Santa singing songs.  It was pretty interesting and fun to see.  Ajo said the celebrating goes late into the night until the priest finally kicks out the stragglers.  We walked to a corner cafeteria, ate two different kinds of schawarma and took a cab home to wait for Nick and Alex to arrive that morning.

The girl’s Christmas choir

The Christmas “conga line’ with Santa

That is all for now.  Alex and Nick come tonight, and with Alex we will have someone with a drivers license so I will be seeing even more of the city.  Stay tuned and thanks for all the comments so far!    

I thought 14 hours on a plane seemed long.  The video below is called “The Known Universe”, part of an exhibition for the American Museum of Natural History.  It zooms out from the Himalayas to the outer reaches of the known universe.  The video is overwhelming when you think about our place and significance in the greater scheme of things.  

From the YouTube description:

“The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010. “

This is my first post on this blog.  Yay!

I’m a 25 year old mechanical engineer, artist, musician, science and cat enthusiast living in Detroit.  I’ve always enjoyed the act of writing, and feel I do a good job at it, but haven’t had many opportunities to write about things I enjoy.  These days I mostly write reports about the results of tests and experiments I conduct at work.  It is somewhat interesting and I like creating well written concise reports, but nobody actually reads them.  I’m not sure anybody will read this either but hey at least what i write will be out there. 

I was apprehensive about getting a blog because I feel blogging, twitter, and facebook are deluding people into thinking they are the star of their own online reality show.  The result is a continuous flood of information on the dull minutiae of everyone’s daily lives.  The internet at its best connects people with similar interests and makes it easier to find information that would otherwise be hard to come by.  Everyone has some subject that they are an expert in, and blogs help people share their knowledge and experience with an audience who will be helped or inspired by that information.  I’m not going to make posts about the great sandwich I ate for lunch (besides this one) or whatever.  I’m going to post things that I know a lot about, and hopefully help or inspire people (and vice versa) along the way.

What is coming down the pipeline are posts about art, artists, making art, graphic design, music, creating music, interesting science or engineering things, environmental engineering, cars, the auto industry, etc.  I’m a huge musical omnivore and do a lot of research into various genres, bands, and their influences; so expect to see some reviews on CDs that I find important.   I’m also writing a series of articles called “The Guitar Hero, Not Dead but Underground” about modern day musicians that belong in the pantheon of guitar gods like Page, or Hendrix but are unknown by pretty much everyone. 

So, I got the stereotypically self conscious first blog post out of the way.  I hope you enjoy what I have to write.  And a big thanks to my Uncle Timm who put this whole thing together.  He has a lot of interesting blogs on everything from technology and web development to the beautiful nature preserves he owns, so check them out on the side bar.