Good weekend. Pretty damn busy.

Friday
- Oktoberfest @ work - Beer and brats.  I skipped, mostly.  Enjoyed the polka music while I worked on some Friday Afternoon releases.

- Black Angus - Met up with Humble to grab some food before heading over the check out the new nightlife thing going on Santa Clara.  Think we ended up at Black Angus by default.

- Tinker's Dam - The new furry nightlife event going on in Santa Clara.  Was cool for a first time event, seemed to pick up very well around 10PM.  Not a terrible bar, not a bad location.  Really hope that this gains some momentum.  Would be nice to have a monthly club thing going on in Santa Clara.

Saturday
- Aircooled VW meet/coffee near my house - Went to get coffee, ran into a bunch of people I know from the Thursday night B.L.T.N. meets chilling out in the parking lot of the OSH near my place so, of course, I had to stop by and say a hello or two.  Some cool stuff out there, including a Type-34.  Good way to spend a time while swilling coffee and eating a pumpkin muffin.

- FC2013 prop party - Up in Oakland FC's Marketing department decided that it was time to host a prop party.  And so it happened.  And rockets and robots were made.  Good progress!  Lots of fun!  Even got a little work in on one of my personal projects.  Good but long day of crafting.

- Steak, Booze and meteors up on The Mountain - Following the prop party I stopped past home to change clothes and cars before heading to Boulder Creek for a small house party and meteor watching. The meteor shower was cool even if kind of sporadic, chilling with friends was the better attractor here.  And candy glazed steak.

Sunday
- Chased @ Humblewolf up Highway 9 & Skyline - Waking up on Sunday morning, Humble hopped in his stock 71' Super Beetle, I in the E30 and we had a fair bit of fun running up Highway 9 and Skyline until we got caught up by slow moving traffic.

- Breakfast at Alices - At the end of the fun-run was Alice's and breakfast.  Eat light, then parted ways after oogling a few of the nicer pieces of equipment that had decided to show up that morning. (GT-40, a few other things.)

- Mini Retro Sci-Fi Movie Festival - Back home I showered, then queued up a couple of retro-sci fi movies to watch while reading mail and doing more con-stuff.  Watched The Angry Red Planet and

- Motorcycle Maintenance - Helped a friend do the needful on his motorcycle.  Oil change, coolant flush.  Was only minorly disastrous. On the upside of things, didn't have to swap out brake pads.  Do have to check and swap the spark-plugs but that's going to be a big pain in the ass, scheduled that for this coming Friday night.

- More Mini Retro Sci-Fi Movie Festival - After bike work, I watched LifeForce and The Man Who Fell to Earth.  I regret having watched LifeForce.

Giggle Machines.

Do you want to know what makes a great car for me?  It's not necessarily power.  It's not necessarily handling.  It's not necessarily ride comfort or looks or any thing else that's actually tangible.  No, what makes a great car for more is something far more personal...emotional.  To me, a truly great car is one that makes you smile every time you drive it.

In that category my E30 does that for me.  In my estimation it's a truly great car.  I won't say that of all E30s (mine is not quite like any other E30 on the road, a point which I'll talk about later on) but I suspect that most E30 drivers feel that way about their cars.

Strangely enough, last week, I took my friend's new-to-him '71 Super Beetle for a spin around the block and couldn't stop grinning like a fool.  The thing is such an absurd machine you can't help but enjoy driving it.  It wallows.  It rattles.  It sounds like a lawnmower. (smells like one, too) The brakes are frightening.  The tires are pencil thin and hard as nylon.  The seats are flat and slick.  The seat belts are completely unrelenting.  Damn if for all of that you don't smile like a fool when you drive it.

Knowing the owner of this Beetle isn't not going to remain that absurd in that way for very long.  In fact, it's already been made a little less absurd, a little better and a little sharper.  I know where this beetle is going and I have every confidence that as it's owner tightens it up--stripping away the current absurdity--it will stay just as much a smile maker.  It will still be absurd, just in different ways.  And it will be not quite like any other beetle on the road.

Getting back to my point about the BMW, man it was a terrible car when I bought it.  I knew it too.  And I bought it anyway because it just spoke to me, nailed me on a purely emotional level when I first drove it.  Won me over with it's shabby, well worn modern classic charm.  It's been a bit more than a year and while it's the same chassis it's not the same car I bought a year ago.  The suspension is vastly upgraded, it doesn't leak any more, the shifter--for as loose as it still feels--is no where near as vague as it had been.  It's louder, lighter, tighter, faster and more reliable now than it was then.  It brakes harder, turns harder, runs hard and goes longer.  And it's still absurd.  And it still makes me smile every time I drive it.

My VW Passat is a good car.  It's quick, has a lot of utility and does the job of an entertaining daily driver without much complaint but I don't get in it with a grin on my face.  It's just not that special.  My BMW, on the other hand...well...that's just another story.  It's a car that from end-to-end is a little mad and growing madder all the time as it changes to reflect my personal desires and thoughts about cars.  It is as absurd now as it was when I bought it, it's just absurd in a different way.

Giggle machines, man.  You know that they're absurd an you love 'em all the more because of it.