January 5, 2010

Out with the Old Car and in with the New?

Well, 2009 is now done with. Let's see if 2010 will be any better. So, far... it doesn't appear to have changed. LJ's car's strut snapped in two. Sure that technically happened in 2009, but none-the-less, it's something we're dealing with this year. Funny thing is that the day before it all happened, I was telling LJ that I wanted to actually buy a new car with better gas mileage.

I'm starting off the year by looking at getting a new car! I'm actually pretty stoked about it. It's been over 5 years since I initially got my Maxima. It's time for a change. I'll be keeping the Maxima and be hopefully picking a Ford Focus ZX3. It'll get me better gas mileage and be more compact. I don't really need much anyway.



The cool thing is that LJ can keep my Maxima if she chooses. But it turns out that she'll be keeping her Helga after all. Her dad's Passat is unfixable, which means all parts can be pulled from that thing. Only labor is being paid for. It's a pretty damn good deal! Think about it. All those little nuances will be fixed. The doors will open, the windows will close, the e-brake won't stick, the strut will be fixed, etc. Maybe even the transmission can be fixed? Hopefully it's not too expensive.

Last night I took the Focus out for a spin. It's roomy, but there's a lot of minor things about it that annoy me. For instance, there's no tachometer, and it's a manual! What the dilly? It took me a good minute to figure out how to put the damn thing into reverse, too. It's nothing I've ever seen before. It won't go straight into reverse, and it doesn't let me push it down like a VW. Instead, I have to lift some switch to let me do it. It's a safety thing, but it was weird. The exhaust is freakin' loud, too. I know it has a performance exhaust, but come on. I need this to pass inspection. Overall, I liked it. But since LJ's fixing up her car, I really don't see why I need to get a new one anymore. Maybe I'll wait for my dream car: Volkswagen Jetta TDI

Switching from JBOD to LVM RAID5

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, I want to make sure we have some understanding of the tools in place. For the sake of argument, we...