Car Shopping = FAIL

As mentioned before, I’m looking for a new car.

Yeah, I’m STILL looking.

I’m really not all that picky; my problem, over and over again, is that I get into a car and I’m just not comfortable. The issue is that I’m 6’4” (mostly torso) and broad-shouldered.

I just want something I fit in that’s reasonably fun to drive. Is that so difficult?

Legroom really isn’t a problem in most cars. It’s headroom. In some cases, I can’t physically position the seat in a way that my head is not grazing the roof. In others, the combination of my eye level being so high and the roof line being so low would require me to lean forward every time I’m at a red light to see the signal change.

Some cars’ seats are too narrow as well. I test-drove an Accord whose seats made me feel like I was getting a hug from a person with no forearms and sharp elbows. The contours didn’t really fit my contours.

The suck part is that I actually want a small- to medium-sized car (see “fun to drive” criterion above). The problem is that those cars don’t tend to come with power (i.e. potentially low-slung) seats as an option, which would be essential to my ability to drive them.

I can’t believe how frustrating this has become.

Biting My Tongue

There's a internal conflict that I frequently encounter: I have something on mind that I don't vocalize--even though it chews me up--because I know the long-term consequences of saying something are worse than just getting it off my chest.

It's two parts of my personality colliding. I'm a bit of a ruminator, so thoughts don't simply enter and exit my brain as they normally should...especially when they trigger something in me emotionally. In other words, I have trouble letting shit go.

On the other hand, I'm (usually) sensitive to a fault about how my words could affect others. I can be honest with someone as long as I don't think my honesty would affect my relationship with them. If I feel like it would lead to a grudge on their part, I'd just as soon let it chew me up.

The problem with this, of course, goes back to the first issue--things tend to chew me up, but never spit me out. It leaves me in this perpetual state of unresolved annoyance.

The irony is that I never hold a grudge against someone if they're honest with me. I'd rather hear that they don't like working with me because ____ or even that they don't like me because ____ than for me to be under the wrong impression.

Why the hell can't I just give people a measured but honest version of my thoughts? What the hell am I afraid of?

Social Notworking

I’ve officially had a Facebook account for a little over a year. I signed up for the account for the sole purpose of participating in the marketing of an improv troupe, and I’ve come close to cancelling more than once.

Facebook is far more trouble than it’s worth. It’s just another thing I feel obligated to check, and that is even more difficult because I can’t access it from work. In fact, a huge number of people are blocked in that way.

Yes, I have long since turned off nearly all email notifications, because I got sick of all the messages saying someone joined a fan club, or someone sent me a “beer” (a virtual one, of course) or wants me to take a quiz. Here’s a novel idea--how about we go out somewhere and, I don’t know, HAVE A BEER?

I will readily admit it’s an improvement over myspace, if only because idiots can’t willingly construct the most hideous-looking and –sounding page they can imagine.

However, the downsides to Facebook can be tremendous. More and more companies (i.e. prospective employers) go online to see what type of person they’re hiring. I don’t need my lowest moments preserved in digital photographic posterity.

Also, feel free to google “facebook data mining”. Yeah.

If Facebook is your thing, have at it. I could (and soon, probably will) live without it.