Cars
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The Toyota “Kujira” Crown, Reborn
After five months of being held hostage by a rogue body shop, a brief return home, and then a serious accident caused by a negligent repair shop, the Kuj has returned. These are the kinds of photos I really wanted to take before the accident, but I never had the chance. The body shop to which the work was outsourced did a good job – they pounded out parts I thought would be impossible to save, and finished the job slowly while looking for parts. Only one rare part was totally lost – the lower right front turn signal lens and frame. The shop returned the car to me apologizing…
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Stuck like a boss
Yes, I got stuck. I arrived a bit late to the first wedding of two only to get trapped in the parking lot due to idiots who had parked every which way Undeterred, I squeezed through a couple of pickups to a promising dirt field that appeared to be damp, but solid. A couple feet into it, the car bogged down a bit, but not wanting to get stuck, I pushed forward… and got stuck further into the field. Anyway, lemons into lemonade I say. This is what my car would look like slammed, with brown tires: Eventually, a truck came and pulled our trusty Cefiro out of…
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Biggest load
Yes, please use the whole goddamn highway (@ Rayong outskirts).
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Thai HMMV
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Highway eyesore
Buses painted like these are a common sight at highway rest stops in Thailand, but this just might be the worst I’ve ever seen.
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Online again.
So I’ve been recovering for a month now. Wasn’t hurt too bad in the accident, but it flipped a switch in my head. Didn’t feel like blogging or writing or working at all, really. Of those three things, though, only one was really necessary so I did do a lot of extra work lecturing and speaking here and there. As I type away on this dirty keyboard, it slowly feels like I’m coming back to a place of comfort. I was angry for a long time. Specifically, I was angry at the shop that almost killed me through negligent automobile repair. When I last wrote, I was waiting to hear…
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Breaking the silence
I’ve been away from blogging just taking it easy after the accident, mostly just playing with the kids and waiting for an estimate for my car. We haven’t decided what to do with it yet, it depends on whether it’s worth fixing or not. As I wrote about before, the shop that screwed the brakes wants to pay only half for the repairs… I’m not willing to let them off so easy, but am waiting for the estimate to continue negotiations. Meanwhile, this is the best thing I’ve watched in ten days:
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I’m still alive
Almost fucking died today. My car saved me. My reactions saved me. An inept mechanic almost killed me, and is now lying to save his job. — At about 10:00 this morning, I dropped off my car at a local garage called Prasertyon to get brakes on my just-restored Crown fixed. The brake pedal lost pressure yesterday and the brakes were locking on one side this morning, so it needed to be done. Prasertyon had overhauled the entire brake system for me a couple years before, so I thought they would be familiar with my old car and do a good job… Nam and I piled the kids in her…
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Dragon Wing
It’s never too rainy to make fun of other people’s rice. Here’s an Isuzu Dragon pickup with multiple rows of covered subwoofers and a rear spoiler worthy of a Red Sun’s RX-7:
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Toyota reviving Nobunaga (Toyota ReBorn), plus killer killer whales
Linkdump follows: Any modern car ad using a 1960’s S40 Crown is worth watching in my opinion, but the CM being referred to (and uploaded to Youtube just 3 hours ago) is just indecipherable. The making of video isn’t much help, either. Killer whales attack and eat sharks: In itself, not news but apparently orcas screw with sharks the way that dolphins screw with bait balls, using their cunning mammalian brains This Chinese Village Is So Rich It Built A Fake Great Wall And Arc De Triomphe: I’m not sure those are signs of wealth by themselves — the small Japanese island I used to live on had miniature versions…
