AZ and TX have a lot to recommend them if your quality of life includes property, guns, relatively much lighter car regs, etc.

Which is why they are called "free states"

I would very much like some automatic weapons, a house purchased outright, etc etc.

AZ and TX are kind of socially conservative though, which isn't all bad, but can be annoying. The most free state in the US is, believe it or not, probably NH. Completely bizarre within New England. It really depends on your values, and in your case, AZ and TX, maybe NV are about the best. CA is great in a lot of ways if you have money, but it's just a bit of a bitch if you don't.

Right, no amount of money is going to get me a mini gun in CA though. I can deal with the other crap. I already deal with my religious retarded family, so it wont be a problem, I make friends easily :sm_laughing:

Another boring day on the job for Phil. Angeles Crest HWY shut down for a upcoming Motor Trend magazine feature.

Awesome, rub it in some more.

No problem. He's sent me some before but I watch their YouTube channel and I'm excited to see this episode so I had to post it.

I'm confused. Is that a nearly complete car?

There is no spoiler mounted, no cowl, no windshield or hatch window trim, no radio, and I need to put a different air filter on it and put the passenger wheel liner back in.

So like nine months or so? :nutkick:

Not that I'm anyone to talk.

Shit, even that is being generous.

It looked like this for 6 months

I had a stripped car on jack stands . . . on my patio for about 5 years.

I'm aware, I've parted out more than a few cars here.
For as far as it's come, and for what I spent, and how many engines I've gone through. I'm not totally displeased with it.

It looks great!

Thanks

Happy Birthday Ron!

Thanks Ben. I took the day off yesterday so that Amy and I could go to breakfast and lunch and see a movie but Mya woke up with a fever and sore throat. So instead I worked on the Cobra while Amy took care of Mya. I'm going to try and finish it up today.

Congratz on being older

Life happens. :) You get a rain check.

I have been looking at houses pretty seriously over the past few months, I would REALLY like to keep the blue car, but, i'm not sure I can pull the trigger on a purchase this year like I intend to while having a nice bank cushion without selling it. The more I research the more I realize all the shit that comes along with it, not just the down payment. So in an attempt to save it, I'm going full liquidation on everything else. Meaning if it's not needed for completion of the car, its gone. No matter how minor of a part, it's being photographed and sold. It will take an assload of time, be a major hassle with dealing with jacktards, but if it gets me a place, and keeps my car it's worth it.

Also setting up a pretty aggressive savings schedule, fortunately being on competition prep allows me to save serious coin on food since I all eat is canned tuna, rice, peanut butter and avocados, well as much as anyone who consumes 3980 calories a day can save. I stopped going out, no more vegas, no more clubbing, no more dating, only cash being spent is on making the car complete in the even that I need to sell it, and it will be so it can be sold at a premium, because if I do have to sell it, i'm not going to give it away, if I don't have to sell it, it'll be done before I buy and require nothing but consumables.

This is just a plan, things could go horribly south like they have been for the past few years, but i'm done fucking around, side work, hocking shit, whatever I have to to rathole as much cash as possible.

It's a viable plan and having your own home, however problematic has its own upsides too.

But there's only so far you can go with working for yourself and saving, unless you're at the mad bank level of a star athlete, international banker, etc. BUT, even if you're dead middle class, you can work up to some pretty good scratch if you want it and catch a few breaks along the way. For that you have to build a business where ultimately other people are making money for you and investing in assets that create value. "Earned income" ain't gonna get it and there is only so much upside to saving. Technically there is no upper limit to income. For you, the closest obvious possibility I suppose is *maybe* taking up your dad's biz depending on where he is at. The other areas you know well are cars and martial arts. You're not lazy; the same energies applied towards building and expanding a business might turn into having the house of your dreams, just writing a check for a GT and so on. This does require an entirely different mindset than employee or even self employed, but is the way up. I can technically "afford" a lot more than tinkering on the old Vette. I don't spend there because I'm putting it back in to building up what I can repeatedly with the idea of being zero bullshit financially free by 50. I'm not any kind of genius at this but I am doing it and the pattern, while not for the faint of heart, does work. That's 10 years and 10 years goes fast, but it is in reach. Think hard about what you really want over life and what is available to you and spend your energy there. You might have much higher upper limits than you suspect.

I want to be clear though. There is nothing wrong with simply working hard as an employee somewhere, earning your money, and saving towards the things you want. It is in some sense no question a simpler process. My point is that outside some exceptions, it is limited. The balance of values and goals is entirely up to you.

I am going to be a cop, no question. That's my dream, it's what I always wanted to do, I got VERY close last time which means I'll be better prepared for when I reapply. I have no reservations about starting a business after I retire, but this plan is building blocks to getting hired. Having my own home at a relatively young age should help ease any concerns a hiring board has with employing me.

I know you and I do not see eye to eye on the LEO thing, nor do alot of people, but I will accept nothing less than a badge. Ultimately I'd love to do what I do now for some academy, CHP gave me a conditional offer equal to what they pay people with masters degress and doctorates to start in the academy. It's a very specialized skill set that fits the law enforcement world very well, and if I can train officers to stop accidentally killing people, that would be pretty ok.

When cops investigate and find real criminals, or on occasion actually stop a real crime, etc., they do a great service. CHP has additional functions to keep dip hits off the road, make the environment safer when things go badly, and that's good too. Most all of the rest is total nonsense, though the source starts at a higher level. If you can at least get some cops to be marginally more competent in their use of force, that would be a positive. So keep at it.

Man, not much more than a year after my dads business partner beating cancer, we found out yesterday that he has lung cancer, dude cannot catch a break.

Cancer sucks :(

Don't know if I posted about my moto on here yet, picked up a '14 Honda CB500F back in September as a new toy while all my fun cars are undergoing repairs. Went out for a ride yesterday - up to Frazier park and Mt. Pinos, then back down and over to the 33 to Ojai, and took the 101 back towards home. It was absolutely gorgeous out:

Fractured my ankle on Monday which sucks.:crutches:

I've been playing in a basketball league with my neighbor for the passed few months. We just finished our third season on Monday and took first place with a 9-1 record but lost the championship game that night. It happened with about 2 minutes left in the first half. I didn't know that I fractured anything, I just thought I sprained it so I iced it during half time and then started the second half. I scored 4 more point during the 4 minutes I played but then my ankle started getting to me. We were up by 11 points when I went out but we ended up losing by 4.

Same thing happened to me on the Groove Cruise. I was shuffling and thought I tweaked it, turns out I had 3 fractures, I guess we're all falling apart.

I went to the La Fit Expo this weekend to take as many free samples as I could, was there for a few hours and got to meet my favorite body builders. Just for reference as to how big these guys are. I am 6' tall and weigh 200lbs, and they make me feel small.

Brad Castleberry, strongest power body builder in the world

Adelfo Cerame Jr. If it looks like he's kneeling, well, he's a wheelchair physique competitor

Jay Cutler, 4x Mr Olympia

Simeon Panda, hard to believe this dude is my age, at nearly 80lbs heavier than I am.

They were all super cool as you would hope for the people you look up to in the industry. I've met some other people in the body building profession that were super tools so it's nice not to be let down when you meet someone you've been following for some time.

Nothing like the feeling of inadequacy to fuel your workouts :jester:

Sold some extra shit and bought something I have wanted for nearly a decade, to top it off it was on sale, in a new configuration from Springfield. Just need to play the waiting game now. Figured i'd grab one before they say I can't own it anymore.

FUCK CA gun laws, that is all.

What happened?

Just going back and forth with the company I ordered my guns from, and my local FFL and what they think is "legal" its becoming a huge fuckin headache

It sucks. The law is not especially clear in some areas and there are so many details that it's easy to have this kind of situation. CA FFLs are very weary of losing their license so they tend to be very conservative in interpretation.

Also, a district court just upheld that the roster and microstamping is not an undue burden, so the chances of any new handguns AT ALL hitting the roster is pretty small at this time.

It's not clear in any areas, and the only reason it's so murky is because legislature doesn't want us to own anything at all. I didn't go through nearly as much shit for my M4 pistols, but that was before the expiration of the SSE.

NV calling.

Sadly NV is quickly becoming like CA. I did apply to AHP though, I have yet to hear a response.

Californians are leaving CA and moving to NV, AZ, and TX and generally polluting them with their godless communist America-hating ways.

To a fucking tee

I went to the podiatrist yesterday and he said I'm healing as expected. I have no pain where I cracked the bone which is good. The only area that has pain when he presses on it is where I tore the ligaments. He put me in a walking cast and I go back to see him again in three more weeks. I'm really glad that I can walk on it now because having to use crutches all the time sucks. I couldn't even get myself a glass of water because I could carry it.

Good to hear. Nothing like being injured/sick to realize how close we are to needing help to just to get by.

Went to Cal Earth with me mum today. Interesting place. They've been around for a while and are teaching facility and test site for "earth bag" construction.

http://calearth.org/