More Crown History

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I got a mail out of the blue today from the previous previous owner of the Kujira Crown I bought last year:

I owned the Crown before you bought it off Chris.
Thought you might like to hear how I came (although it was in my wifes name ) to be the proud owner of that lovely old girl.
In 2003 I was an in house English teacher at a semi-conductor factory in Pathum Thani.
While waiting for the remainder of the class to arrive the boys were talking about cars. As we do!?P, one of the best guys in the class, asked me what sort of car I would like to buy. I answered a Toyota Crown.
“Oh I have one that my father bought new in 1973, I am having it re-painted at the moment ” he said. “I’ts got a Nissan RB 20 engine in it.”
I asked him why did you put a Nissan engine in a Crown and he said it was 10,000 baht cheaper than a Toyota engine.
At that point I said that if he ever decided to sell the Crown to contact me.
Finished my contract at the factory and went on to other things.
Some 6 months later I got a call from him saying he wanted to sell it and he would bring it over at the weekend.

It was cool to be able to hear more background on this amazing car..?.She’s still running great, although I had to take off the new rims because they were – cough – just too big (surprise).

but do i deserve to be?

Yes, I’m still alive.
Just finished finals week; now it’s time to grade 500 tests from nine different classes. This 30-hour teaching week thing has finally come to an end. Yay.
Car maintenance side notes:

  • The Crown was acting like she needed a new battery or alternator, so I changed the cheaper of the two and everything is fine again.
  • The front brakes on the Cefiro were squealing so I got the rotors ground; they are still being broken in.

git up a git git down 911 119 191 is a joke in yo town

It made so much sense when I found out in Japan that the number for the popo fire department was 119, because like so many other aspects of Japanese culture, it was the exact opposite of what I was used to. Namely, 911. But it is kind of strange that Thailand has taken the only unique left in that series and dubbed 191 the number for emergency services countrywide.
So the real question is, why don’t they standardize the number for emergency services worldwide?
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Flava Flav says “Ho!”

Matthew Santos for President

Previously in this series: David Palmer for President

“For what those West Wing fans stunned by the similarity between the fictitious Matthew Santos and the real-life Barack Obama have not known is that the resemblance is no coincidence. When the West Wing scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Illinois politician – not yet even a US senator – by the name of Barack Obama.”

See the full article here: LINK
All I know is that John McCain ain’t no Arnie Vinick.

White Tribble


Cosmically sublime.
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My older cousin, Susumu, sat next to one of the members of Jefferson Airplane (don’t remember which one – sure as hell wasn’t Grace Slick, but there were many members over the lifespan of the band) on a plane ride from LAX to Osaka back in the 90’s. He said something to the effect that it was cool talking to someone who was so famous when he grew up.
Myself, I’d rather sit on a plane for twelve hours with Don McLean and have a chat about his greatest hit so someone could finally give this guy some closure.

ubertunez

On ebay:
The World’s Greatest Music Collection
3 Million Records, 300,000 CDs, 6 million+ Song Titles

“Every recording in the collection was purchased by the collection’s owner over the past fifty years and represents a lifetime of work and his desire to see the music preserved for future generations. Advancing age and health concerns are forcing the owner to sell…
The new owner of this magnificent collection will also acquire (1) the rights to Spin-Clean, the owner’s patented vinyl record cleaning system, considered the best on the market by audiophiles the world over, (2) the rights to Discmist CD cleaner, (3) CD Saver 2-part archival CD storage sleeves, (4)Yellow Jacket 45 RPM acid-free archival storage sleeves, (5) ownership of the owner’s six publishing companies and eight independent record labels, and (7) more than $100,000 worth of antique recording and listening devices and other music memorabilia currently on loan to a museum.”

This collection would totally look good in my room.