monkey nonsense

so i bought a new used car – scion tc. it’s very different from my camry… but it was in kind of in my price range (close enough) with the features i wanted (really only ABS) and low mileage. i wanted a 2004ish camry with ABS with 30-40k miles, but 1. the first dealership sold the car before i even got my insurance check 2. the second dealership was idiotic and had their salesman offer it to me at the price i wanted only to pull back the offer 3. the last dealership offered it to me at the price i wanted, but then we found out the car had no ABS… in any case… i couldn’t get a camry i was bummed.

things i miss about my camry:

• 4 doors. 4 doors are so convenient! even if it’s just me that’s riding in the car… it’s nice to be able to easily put things in the backseat. and lately, i’ve been carpooling. this means that one of my passengers needs to crawl out of the back… very annoying.
• larrrge trunk. do you know how many dead bodies can fit in a camry’s trunk??? MANY!
• quiet ride. seriously, i feel like the comfort level of riding a camry is comparable to luxury cars. it’s really quiet, it’s really smooth. i miss it. and my scion makes noises. not normal noises. i swear there’s something wrong with it. i got a lemon.
• gas tank. i filled up my scion for the first time this past week. it took 12 gallons. i miss my 15+ gallon tank on the camry.
• it’s not a rice rocket. so apparently, the scion i bought is a rice rocket. i didn’t put it all together at the time… but when i bought it, i knew about the air intake. i thought it was kind of annoying but the car was cheap! i also noticed the tinted windows, but didn’t think anything of it. until i saw it in the daylight more. it is REALLY darkly tinted!!! like unless you go right up to the glass, u can’t see thru the window! then… i went to austin and saw all these tcs… and they looked different than mine. when i got back, i noticed i have a suped up exhaust!

things i like about the scion:

• it handles better than the camry. this could be because it’s a smaller car… but maybe also because it’s designed to handle better? (supposedly sportier?)
• blue! my odometer lights up blue! i test drove during the day so i didn’t know this feature. it was a pleasant surprise. i love blue!! also, the light in the rearseat area also lights up blue!! and the radio allows you to pick the color of its display. pretty useless feature if you ask me… i usually don’t care what color my display is. but of course, i set mine to be blue
• smaller. it’s nice being a little bit smaller. the scion is actually wider than the corolla so it’s a nice width. but it’s shorter. makes for parking in my garage a lot easier! i don’t have to go alllll the way forward just to make sure i clear the garage door.

i think in general, i still prefer the camry. but given the price range i had to work with, the scion’s a pretty nice car!!

so i posted earlier about how google voice mis-transcribed my parents’ voicemail. it also happened a few times to mariam as well.

sample -

“You can Mary, I’m just calling” … haha, i like how Mariam became “Mary, I’m”
“Gimme a call back on my plate right now”
“Hello little voice subscriber” … wait that translated properly! what’s mariam smoking?!

anyways, i received my first perfect transcription today from the car dealership….
“Hi. This is Mike from Town and Country auto and truck Center calling in regards to your email on the Camry. Please give me a call (410) ###-####. Again (410) ###-####. Thanks.” (Note: I removed the digits to the phone number, but they actually matched exactly too!!)

is google voice getting better?? or is Mike just that better of a voicemail leaver that google voice can understand him better than mariam?