May, 2005:

Oh my god. I am really dragging today. I’m never *this* sleepy. Even if I’ve been deprived of sleep for the past few nights and have been more active than normal for me, I’m still, usually, not sleepy. But today, I’m sure that, if I just closed my eyes for a few minutes, I’d fall right asleep. I’d go get some caffeine but I don’t have any cash on me and the cafeteria is closed now. Even a glass of water might help but I don’t have a cup to put it in.

Ugh. 30 more minutes. Then I have to drive all the way home. Someone keep me awake.

girl in white panties and a tank top

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(For Sale)

I’m not in the greatest of moods this morning. And I figure that looking at a pretty girl certainly can’t make anything worse.

This is a great shot of Danielle. She was so easy to work with and I really enjoyed our shoot together. I’d love to work with her again some time.

So we bought a new truck. Well, new to us. A 2001 Nissan Frontier CrewCab V6 4×4 5Spd with 42k miles.

Being as unable to make a descision as I am, it wasn’t an easy choice to make. At first I was really set on fixing the 4Runner. Once I got that out of my head, I was really set on buying something brand new. But $500/mo ($25,000 vehicle) is tough to consider when you’ve been paying $0 for the past two years. After a while, I talked myself into it. Jess wasn’t so sure, though. She wanted me to buy something preowned. I looked for a “really good deal” and found nothing since I’m really picky about what I want in a truck and, apparantly, either no one else wants what I do or they like them so much they don’t want to get rid of them.

Buying a “new” car that is 4 years old with 42k on it certainly didn’t seem like a good idea at first. After talking to my dad and finding out what purchasing a warranty would run, it started looking better and better.

Jess got to experience her first real taste of the trickery of car salemen. I think they hated me because I kept pointing out what they were doing to her. The asking price on the vehicle was almost $9,000 less than the new vehicle. After considering our trade in ($2000) and a small down payment, they decided that we could have it for $550/mo over 60 months. The look on Jess’ face was *priceless*. After I told them that that was absolutely ridiculous, they came back with something still absurd but could at least pass as decent. The best part was when they said, $325/mo and we said “no” and the whole time had been mentioning that we were going to add a warranty on this as well. So, he talks to the sales manager and comes back with a really good offer: $375/mo and that’s WITH the BEST warranty they offer. I asked how much the best warranty was and he said $2000 and I said, “so without the warranty you’re offering me $325 the same thing he did a few minutes ago?” Believe it or not even after pointing this out to him, their next offer he made was the exact same thing again just worded differenty again. And, what makes it even worse is that, at that point, though they wanted to concentrate on monthly payment, we were basically paying sticker or more for the truck *AND* getting an interest rate much MUCH higher than I knew I could get on my own. It almost seemed hopeless. It seemed like they didn’t even want to sell us the car for sticker. Jess was getting very frustrated. Had it not been the *only* used car in the metroplex that met my specifications, I would have left. Eventually, thankfully, they realized that we weren’t going to budge from what I had decided on paying before I even walked in the place. I wasn’t asking for some amazing deal, I just wanted it to be fair. Eventually, they agreed.

The warranty we got worked out well. I drive 25k/yr. The biggest warranty we could get was 4yr/50k. So, this means I’m covered for the next two years which really helps give me peace of mind when driving a vehcile that I’m making payments on. On top of that, so far, the truck is great, so far.

There is one small cosmetic repair that needs to be made on the passenger’s side seat (nothing big). Additionally, despite the saleman telling me that the tires looked great after looking at them, they need to be replaced, like, within the next 30 days. So that’s like $570. I also need a 2″ receiver hitch, which would have come with the new vehicle. That’ll run about $200 or so.

Of course, I’m insane, and I obsess over everything. So I did the math to find out, considering the repairs that have to be made and features that have to be added, how much we were saving per month by buying used. It works out to about $117/mo or about $7000 over the course of the loan. No surprises there. As I told Jess at the sales office. For me, personally, the niceness and dependability and security afforded by a NEW vehicle is hard to put a price on but, for me, $117/mo is well worth it to spend on getting a NEW vehicle. But Jess seems very happy with the purchase and if saving $117/mo makes her feel better about adding such a large new expense to our monthly plethora of bills, then it doesn’t bother me one bit. In fact, I’m used to driving the 4Runner, so almost anything less than 5 years old would be a step up for me.

While we were sitting in the finance office, Taylor, Justin’s brother, offered to buy the 4Runner. I’d much rather see it go to good hands (since I know what it’s worth and what new parts have been put in it) then go to the dealer to be auctioned. So, that made me feel better. Since we ended up with three cars in Lewisville because of this arrangement, our friend Sean helped us out by driving one home for us. Seeing the 4Runner on the road behind me made me miss it already. It really is a good car.

Pictures are forthcoming. Right now I’ve got to get my stuff out of the 4Runner, find a place that will install tires and a hitch on a Sunday and then bring the 4Runner to Taylor.

My ’91 4Runner’s A/C is just about dead. Compressor’s bad. So is the evaporator and the control head. “Jill”:http://livejournal.com/users/tigger54/’s Dad’s shop quoted me $1700 to fix it. I called around and that price is more than fair. Unfortunately, the truck is only worth $1600 or so, according to “KBB”:http://kbb.com/.

If the A/C was the only problem, I’d probably just fix it. But, the engine is burning oil. About 4 qts per 3,000 miles. It’s gotten much worse since I’ve owned it. It needs a paint job really bad, and a new bumper. The clutch hydrolic line leaks, which is annoying, but probably an easy fix if I have the time and the right tools.

So, I’m in a pickle. Do I fix the 4Runner, buy another VERY used truck, buy a slightly used truck, or buy a brand spankin’ new truck?

I’m still looking around for slightly used trucks that fit the bill. I don’t see any point in buying another VERY used truck as, fixing the 4Runner would probably not only be cheaper, but, I know that many of the components in the 4Runner have been replaced (by me) so I know that it’s probably more reliable.

It looks like, depending on how much we put down, a new truck is going to run about $500/mo. We can afford it but, I’m not exactly *nice* to the vehicles I own. As much as I like a new car, I’m going to abuse it, so sometimes I feel as thought it might be better to buy something that’s already been abused a bit and safe a few bucks. But, it turns out I really don’t save much.

So, right now, I’m looking for a slightly used truck, but tossing the new truck and fix a 4Runner ideas back and forth. Any input you have would be very appreciated. I don’t fuck around and will, most likely, put the wheels in motion sometime today. So, if you have some advice… offer it quickly and soon.

If you…

# like my photography and wish you could see more of it sooner or,
# enjoy helping me select which images are worthy of publication here and in my portfolio or,
# you like laughing at my failures,
# would just like to help me out

… feel keep an eye on “My Flickr Account”:http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/. I often put images there that I am considering for publication in order to get a feel for what people will think of them. In fact, I’ve even got a PhotoSet call “Pre-Publish”:http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/sets/354516/ set up for that very purpose. Right now, the images are all public and visible to anyone with small versions of them being displayed at the top of the front page of my site. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll leave them public. As more people start looking it starts to feel more and more like “publishing”, in which case, I’ll start limiting their visibility to those that actually provide helpful comments.

Anyway, I just thought I’d let you know, in case you hadn’t noticed already. I know at least one of you did (thanks, “Erica”:http://livejournal.com/users/razormaid/!).

girl wrapped tightly in herself with shell slightly cracking

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I love the silver look of this. I love her shy smile. I love the way you can see that she is almost ready to loosen up. I love the tenseness in her arms stomach.

So, yeah. I like this one a lot. Framing/composition could be better. Background could be more interesting. But, none of that was really the goal here.

I’ve received word that tonights episode will be entitled “Exodus Part I” and that the season finale, next week, will be “Exodus Part II” (and two hours long). So… this should be a great episode.

I’m also doing my best to compile rules for a Lost drinking/stripping game. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I doubt they’ll be ready for use tonight, but could be a lot of fun for use while watching reruns until we get some more new episodes next season.

Very few of you have RSVPed. You have until 11am Central Time to do so without penalty, after which, some form of payment will be required for slacking off, to be decided by those who RSVPed appropriately.

We’ll start eating dinner (pizza) around 7:30 and start watching Lost around 8:30pm.

I don’t like spoilers, so don’t post them here, please. But I do like theorizing. Just to spark some conversation I’ll offer you these things:

A lot of people have mentioned that they think Walt is evil. I don’t think so. I think he’s simply quite gifted. The bird hitting the window and the polar bear are both things that he saw… and then they happened. I think that he possesses some ability, but that certainly doesn’t make him evil. And Vincent, Walt’s dog — how is that thing *always* clean and well fed and not eaten? Again, I think Walt has created him. I don’t know how luggage storage works, but it’s unlikely that a dog as big as Vincent would have been allowed in the cabin. Therefore, he was probably drugged and under the plane with the luggage. I think that’s how most dogs travel. Being drugged would have caused him to suffer less injury, possibly, but, it’s not like he was wearing a seat belt or anything.

Also.. the hatch. This is a wild guess, but it looks like it might go quite far down into the island. This suggests that, as opposed to the hatch being buried in the island… maybe it *is* the island. As in, maybe it was built and then dirt was put on top of it to make it look like a natural island. Maybe it’s a ship, or simply a manufactured structure. Maybe not. Just something to think about.

RSVP! Now!

see-through dress and painted toes on bench

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Another shot from my shoot with Jennifer from the end of last year. I really liked working with her and really enjoyed most of the shots I got out of it. I feel like she didn’t get what she wanted, though. And that makes me want to try again, though I don’t know if I could do any differently.

red skirt with hands outstretched and eyes visible

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This is another great shot from my shoot with Erica at the end of January. She’s incredible.

I particularly like the lighting on this one. I hope you’ll agree.