Month: July 2011

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Syma S107/S107G R/C Helicopter Review

Syma S107

Yup.  You are looking at an R/C helicopter.  In fact, it’s Syma S107 from Amazon.com.  And no, I am not endorsed by them.  That would be wicked cool!  😛  You see, there are two wishes that I knew that would never happen to me: 1) professional racer and 2) pilot.  So R/C (Radio-Controlled) vehicles come in.  However, most of you should know that airplanes are hard to control as you are in the AIR!  So you’d think that flying a helicopter would be worse!  Well, I am here to prove to you that it’s not!

I have NEVER flown any kind of R/C aircraft previously!  You see, this one has gyro to help in stability and while it’s not perfect, it’s enough to help a newbie like myself fly one!  And to top that, it’s only $18!  This one charges via USB cable or from the remote control.  The 3-axis remote control takes 6 AA batteries (can you say re-chargeable?!) and after about 40 minutes of charging, you are set!

I was nervous at first but in minutes, I had this thing moving in the apartment!!  Without breaking anything!  It is quite durable as I hit it on the (rotating) ceiling fan!  Yikes.  I had a blast and look forward to flying it some more OUTSIDE (range is only 30′ though) tomorrow morning!  Meanwhile, here are some pics I managed to squeeze in…  Flying and taking pics at the same time ain’t easy… who figured?!  😛

  

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Kindle Textbook Rentals! Where were you when I needed you?!

So Amazon.com is moving to rent out textbooks.  Not the regular thick paper books, mind you. The electronic copies!  This will save students so much money since new books are way too overpriced and when you re-sell it, you get gypped!

I wish I had this back in the days… not to mention that e-textbooks will be sooo much lighter!!

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Old Car Needs Parts? Internetz has got the answer

My ’96 Honda Accord, with over 195,000 miles on it is now in need of new suspension.  Rear shocks & springs are gone.  Not only do they squeak badly all the time, they are making the wheel alignment go off. Well, I took it to Firestone and got a quote that went to about $1000.  The car’s value is maybe about $2000 at most.  It still has lots of life left in it. After all, I put in a rebuilt tranny in it and take good care of it.

So I took upon the challenge to look on the ‘net to see if I can find a set for cheaper.  My awesome mechanic, Ash Auto, quoted about $200 for the labor so I needed just the parts. Well, there were lots of aftermarket suspensions that lowered the car by an inch or two. I thought that’d be awesome since the car tends to roll.  A lot.  I don’t care so much about the speed, but the handling is a must.

However, my suspension-ful story took a sharp turn when I spoke with Ash and he mentioned that when you lower a car, the camber angle (angle between the suspension to the wheel) changes and can mess up the tires.

So I went back to the drawing board, ok, eBay. I searched for camber kits on eBay and guess what?! They were more expensive than the shocks and the springs! WTH?!

After vainly trying to find both camber kit AND suspension for about $400 and failed. Failed miserably! So I had to give that idea of lowering the car up, and decided to just stick to OEM parts. So I looked and looked… and the best I came up with was Monroe parts: 171989, 171286L/R.

However, here’s the final kicker. eBay is not necessarily the best place to find the best price. Guess where I found them? Amazon.com  Yup. In the end, just keep looking. The set of 4, which should be here by Wednesday, cost me about $420.

Still… I wish I could’ve gotten the lowering suspension AND the camber kit for the same price… Oh well, c’est la vie.

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Netflix: How I got Screwed

Netflix had it for me. I could watch practically humongous selections of TV shows and movies online be it on my laptop, at home, or on my Android phone. And if one wasn’t on that streaming list, I could just have the DVD/Blu-Ray sent home. No late fees and life was great. But as the pic above shows for me, they just changed the plan.

Instead of $12/mo. for 1 DVD/Blu-Ray plus unlimited streaming, they were gonna split it up at $8 each, which meant that it was now going to be $16/mo.+$2 extra if I wanted Blu-Ray option. I get it. I understand that it’s expensive to ship all those DVDs and that they underestimated how popular discs are still and how expensive it is to ship them and process them, but for someone like me who borrowed DVDs that Netflix just didn’t carry for streaming, I rarely rented the discs. Now I am forever penalized?!

You know what, Netflix?! We used to have a great relationship… now you screwed it up for me. So you know what I’m gonna do?! I thought about just sucking it up and getting the (now) $18/mo. plan (which will be about $20 after tax and such). However, I said I’m gonna let Netflix know how I feel…

How do I do that?! By poking where it hurts. My spending that $8/mo. on Hulu Plus.  You see, one weakness… actually TWO weaknesses, of Netflix are these: 1) stream selection still has a LONG way to go… there are hardly less than 20 Korean movies and 2) the latest/current seasons of TV shows take forever to become available.  Hulu Plus solves that!

So you know what, Netflix?!  Go shoot yourself in the foot, ’cause that’s what you are doing now! Keep it up and I might just have to quit you!

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How to Travel to Cheju Island 101

So as most of you know by now, my family got a chance to take a long vacation together. This time, I had saved up enough vacation to go to Korea for a month. I could’ve stayed longer but there were no return flights left for me (without increasing the price signficantly) in July.

It was fun and crazy month, let me tell ya… but it was also our tenth (yes, 10th!) anniversary! We had taken lots of sacrifices to get to where we are today and we hadn’t spent many of our anniversaries together, let alone do stuff together. So I was more than determined to do something special… something memorable.

I had never been to the Cheju Island in the south… the Korean Hawaii, if you will, as it is also a dead volcano. We had sufficient Korean Air miles saved to buy two tickets, two nights of stay at KAL Hotel, and 3 days of car rental. That was awesome and it was Soojin that made all the stuff happen. By the way, renting cars in Korea is friggin’ expensive!! It’s not like here where it’s more reasonable at $30/day or so… In Korea, it was more like $100/day! Yikes!

Anyhow, we get to Cheju Island and take the shuttle ride to the Hanjin Car Rental only to find out that… you need an International Driver’s license to rent or drive a car! After much panic and trying to think our way through it, Soojin asked if we could hire a “driver” (기사). By God’s grace, we were sent a man who seemed to be in his late 40’s to early 50’s. His name was 김두환. No I am not kidding! Just take a look at him!

Let me just say, do NOT judge a man by his cover! While he may seem like a hybrid between a thug and 70’s pop singer, he was definitely a worthy tour guide. Get this. His rate was $50. Per day! No kidding! He was not only kind but was very thorough and made a plan for us but was flexible to what we had wanted to do (and not do)! And of course, he knew some of the best places to eat! One of the best dishes ever was ê¿© 수제비 (pheasant dumpling soup)!

If you are ever in Cheju Island and need a great tour guide (but you’d need to be able to at least understand Korean as he doesn’t speak any English!), give him a call! He’s my man! 김두환 기사 010-7709-0823 and tell him that the couple from Texas sent you! 😛