Thinkcage

Here’s a great video showing that even kids can play the Wii – just like Dad.

I have finally brought home my new baby. After months of shopping, test drives, and research I have taken delivery of a 2004 Volkswagen GTI 1.8T. It is Silverstone Grey with a black interior.

What can I say? The car is everything I had hoped and more. It’s beautiful, fast and exceedingly fun to drive. It has more features and amenities than any one car (or driver) deserves and has completely transformed my commute. I can’t say enough about how much I love this car.

Also, a special thank you to the the fine folks at Cable Volkswagen who run a truly “class” operation. By far this was the most enjoyable car buying experience I could have ever expected. Special thanks to Michael and John – say “Hi” to them for me if you are ever in the store.

I took a quick round of photos that really don’t do the car justice. Take a look at them here.(Special thanks to the amazing Andrew Berg for the use of his fantastic photo browser.)

Over the past few weeks I have spent several afternoons car shopping. I have looked at countless models and have been serious enough to have driven the following cars:

• Toyota Celica GT
• Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T
• Volkswagen GTI 1.8T
• Mini Cooper
• Nissan 350Z

This was more or less my short list of cars from the beginning. I have weeded the list from there.

It was easy to remove the Toyota Celica and Nissan 350Z from the list. The Toyota, despite being an early favorite was the most disappointing. I rather like the styling of the car, even though I have my doubts about the long term likeability of that look, but in testing the car was the least fun to drive and had the fewest interior features. The interior style was bland and poorly designed. The 350Z, however, is a sports car in every sense of the word. It featured high power, high torque and a very “race car” feel in the interior. This is still one of my favorite cars on the road. Ultimately, though, the fact that it only seats two turned me off. I have a family of four and even though my next car will be used primarily for my daily commute to and from work, the fact that I can’t share my car with my family takes some of the fun out of it.

The final three, then are the Jetta/GTI and the Mini. I group the two Volkwagen models together because feature and trim-wise they are nearly identical. The choice between them comes down to body style. The Mini also can be equipped with very similar features. These three were the most fun to drive and really appealed to my sense of design with well-thought out features and beautiful design inside and out. Even the price is similar, leaving this mostly a matter of style. The VW models are both understated, but design-wise really appeal to me. The Mini is also very well designed, but in a more “hey look at me” style. That and its more classical feel leave me wondering if it fits my personal style as well as I feel the VW cars do. Still I can’t quite rule it out just yet.

It is interesting that my experiences at the various car dealerships were vastly different and seem to align with my choices. While I really feel that I am choosing a car based on its features and design, the dealer experience either effected or confirmed my choices. I found the Nissan, Mazda, and Toyota sales people to be pushy and lacking knowledge. These were auto mall stores that had several brands on the same gigantic lot. The Toyota salesman that showed me the Celica virtually ignored me, focusing on my wife who had some interest in another car. They even had us sign a purchaser agreement before looking that basically said we would buy a car if they met our terms. Kind of goes without saying, right? There was virtually no discussion of the car, itself, or why I might buy it – we were talking price and financing before I could ask about options. Very much the stereotypical high-pressure sale.

The Volkswagen and Mini Cooper (BMW) dealers were the complete opposite. Both salesmen started with a complete walk-around feature-by-feature discussion about the car. There was no pressure to buy or do anything else for that matter. Refreshingly, both salesmen seemed to be enthusiasts of the brand and knew the cars inside and out. Quite a refreshing experience. I just can’t tell how much that has played into my decision.

It has been a fun experience and I hope to make a decision and a purchase soon. Wish me luck!

I have kept a pretty close eye on the Lego Master Builder Contest over the past few weeks as they held regional contests to fill a seventh U.S. Master Builder position in their California Legoland theme park. The contestants were each competing for what many would consider a dream job, despite the fact that it was really a $13-$15 per hour job in California. I’m not so sure that is a very good wage in the golden state.

Still, my imagination has soared thinking about it. As a child, Lego was my favorite toy. I spent hours upon hours building from my imagination and I consider this a very strong foundation for my creativity to this day. The continual problem-solving, designing, adjusting, invention of building with Lego parallels so closely what I do in web and graphic design. So much of HTML and CSS, especially, is tied to tinkering and tweaking; you have a set of pieces and must push yourself to find new forms with that limited set. Sure, every now and then you get a freebie like a molded plastic windshield (akin to a well thought out CSS hack perhaps) that makes life easier but each new piece brings possibilities and limits. To think about a job or career that consisted of playing with Lego(s) is a fantastic thing.

Today, I have passed my well cared for Lego collection to my son. He is seven years old and we sit down together and build at least one evening a week. Its fun for him and a bit therapeutic for me after a long day at work.

Here are a couple of good reads on the contest:

• Slashdot discussion
• Livejournal of a contestant
• Wired News article with photos of the final