spugbrap’s blog

Ever since Lacey and I saw a 2-page spread in a magazine, back in 2002-2003, showing a red Infiniti G35 coupe (with a spoiler), I’ve been in love with that car. When we went and test drove one, back then, we were very impressed. Ever since then, I’ve been wanting one, but they’re rather expensive, so I couldn’t justify it. Back in 2005, I bought my Nissan Altima, with the express purpose of reselling it in a couple years when I was ready to buy my G35. The idea was that I would be in a better financial position than I was at the time.

Well, I’m definitely not in a better financial position, but somehow I got it in my head, recently, that now was the time to buy my G35. I started researching prices and options, and decided I definitely wanted the coupe with a manual transmission, and it be either black or red, with a spoiler. For some reason, most of them are some shade of silver/gray/blue/goldish, and Lacey and I agreed that it had to be black or red. After doing some drives, researching how much I could reasonably get for the Altima, working the numbers to try and see if/how I could afford it, etc. I finally found a promotion that pushed me to go ahead and buy it (and fast!). A 12% off deal, which was about to expire. I talked to 2 different dealerships, and did some negotiating, and bought the car that day! It didn’t have a spoiler yet, but I paid for them to put one on. Here’s a picture before the spoiler:

Here it is with the spoiler, it really makes it look hotter to us:

This is a great, reliable car. I bought this instead of a Camry because the Altima has more style/character. I’m only selling it because I finally bought the car I’ve been in love with for the past 4-5 years, an Infiniti G35 Coupe. :)

Here’s the info:
2005 Nissan Altima 2.5S

Color: black exterior, gray interior with chrome accents

Mileage: 22800 miles

Price: $15000

Maintenance: All scheduled maintenance has been performed to date.

Warranty:
Still under original 3 year/36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty.
Also includes Nissan Security+Plus Gold Preferred Plan [extended warranty]: 6 years/75,000 miles, which is transferable.

Features (partial list):
2.5L DOHC 175HP 4-Cylinder Engine
4 Speed A/T w/ Gated Shifter
Rear Disc Brakes & Power Vented Front Disc Brakes
Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) with Remote Trunk Opener
Power Windows w/ Driver Auto Up/Down & Anti Pinch
Power Door Locks
Dual Power Outside Mirrors
60/40 Split Fold-Down Rear Seat w/ Lock
AM/FM/CD with 6 Speakers
Tilt & Telescopic Steering Column
5-Piece Floor Mat Set w/ Trunk Mat
Seating for 5, including 3-point Front, Rear, and Center Seat Belts
Child seat upper tether anchors
LATCH System
… and more …

Convenience Package:
Alloy Wheels, 8-Way Power Driver’s Seat, Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel w/ Audio Controls, Trip Computer w/ Outside Temp Display, Vehicle Security System, Cargo Net, Dual Illuminated Vanity Mirrors, Sunvisor Extensions, RKE Front Window Control, Speed Sensitive Volume Control, Auto Up/Down Front Passenger Window, Door Key Cylinder Front Window Control, Auto On/Off Headlights

Protection Package:
First-aid Kit, Emergency Kit

Condition:
Interior: Very Good (floor mats are showing their age/use, but carpets/seats/everything else are Excellent)
Exterior: Very Good (one tiny ding on driver’s door, otherwise paint/body looks Excellent)

Contact: forsale+nissan@spugbrap.com

We watched the 2-hour finale tonight, which apparently ended about 10 minutes late. We didn’t watch it live, though; we watched it on the tivo, shifted about an hour later. So, when our recording ended abruptly, and they hadn’t even announced the results yet, we were kinda bummed. Apparently, they couldn’t fit everything they wanted into two hours. To reward their viewers, who cast a record number of votes (74 million or so), they didn’t even announce the results until after the show’s scheduled end time. So, anyone who recorded the results show using a Tivo, VCR, etc. did not get to see the results. Thanks, Fox/American Idol!

Incidentally, the winner was Jordin Sparks. I was happy about this, as she was my favorite since fairly early on. Last month, I mentioned that I expected either Jordin or Melinda to win. Blake beating Melinda seemed like a fluke, but his performance with that other beat-boxing rapper guy was pretty entertaining!

One other thing Lacey noticed in the finale show was this message (technically from Coca-Cola, but that was not terribly obvious in this captured frame):

(”Thanks for drinking.”)

Okay, time to come clean. I’ve been watching American Idol this season. This was supposed to be my ‘off’ season — I’ve consistently watched only every other season of that show. But Lacey had to keep showing me “just a couple of the really good performances”, and before I knew it, I cared. Not enough to vote, as I have on some previous seasons. But enough to watch every damn episode since. Oof.

I thought about blogging about it back when I first got into it, but didn’t get around to it. When Lacey and I honestly couldn’t tell whether Sanjaya Malakar was male or female during one of his early performances (I think this might be it), I almost blogged about that, but didn’t get around to it. Later, I felt like saying something about the girl who was bawling during Sanjaya’s peformance, but again, didn’t get around to it. Now, Sanjaya is finally gone, and I just wanted to publicly express my relief that America finally woke up from its collective drunken stupor, and voted him off.

It does take a little bit of the controversy out of the show, and now there’s nobody left that I sincerely want voted off, but I’ll still keep watching till the end. I’ll probably even vote next week, with their whole “Idol Gives Back” or whatever (votes ==> charitable contributions). I expect Melinda Doolittle or Jordin Sparks to win the competition, but based on how long Sanjaya managed to stay on the show, it’s really up in the air.

Anyways, I doubt I’ll post anything more on this subject. Now, let the finger-pointing and name-calling begin, since I publicly admitted to watching/being into this show. For the record, I will watch “So You Think You Can Dance” when it comes on again, as well. Guilty pleasures, I guess. I’ll probably blog about it once, since I never got around to it last year.

I finally set up my own instance of wordpress at: http://www.spugbrap.com/blog

All posts/comments from the existing spugbrap.wordpress.com blog, as well as my two old Blogger blogs, have been migrated to the new site.

There are two main reasons for this change:

1. I will now be able to modify the templates/install plugins/etc., which will allow me to do some customizations I’ve been wanting to do since I first tried out wordpress.

2. Since spugbrap.com is my own domain, I can change my hosting provider anytime I want/need to, without breaking/deprecating any links, and without requiring any readers to update their bookmarks/feed settings.

Speaking of updating feed settings… if you already subscribe via the feedburner feeds (posts / comments), you will not be affected by this recent change.