Much has happened in the year it’s been since I last posted. (Wow, exactly one year.) Some good and some bad, but all nevertheless, important experiences. I never made it to Paris, but I did rack up an amazing amount of airline miles. I am sitting at about 140,000 miles which equals about 3 free round-trip tickets to Tokyo, Japan (just to put the amount in perspective). I also have a free companion airline ticket I need to use by the expiration date of June 30, 2012. It’s good for anywhere in the U.S., based on me buying a ticket for $299 or up.

The urge to travel is almost overpowering. I must! Soon, I hope.

I am planning a trip to Paris with my girlfriend Holly, and we are so excited about it. She’s never traveled outside of the States, so this will be a real eye-opener and great experience for her. I keep telling her she’s going to get addicted to the feeling hah, and once that travel bug has bitten you’re infected for life.

Right now we’re in the preliminary stages of planning, and I’m researching hotels, places to see, and places to eat. Of course part of the fun of being in another town or country is roaming and exploring on your own with no set agenda too. I think we’ll have a good balance of sightseeing and roaming/diving into the culture.

I have one lofty goal that I am going to work my hardest at acheiving by mid-April of this year.  That is that I want to have 80,000 American Airline miles accrued by then so that both of our round-trip flights will be free. (Except for the $50 or so taxes). The second trip I made to Japan in 2009 was free due to mileage rewards.

As of today, 02/20/2011 I have 26,807 miles. I’ve signed up for a second CitiAdvantage credit card, and will be getting 40,000 miles after I spent $1000, in the first four months. I should be able to get that done in months. For one, I am pre-ordering the iPad 2 as soon as it comes out, which should be $600 right there. I’ll put every other time I need to eat out or buy anything on the card, and should get the bonus miles by end of March. I also just signed up for a Citibank checking account. I’ll earn 25,000 miles after two consecutive months of using my debit card at least 5 times a month. Piece of cake. I also fill surveys out on Opinionplace.com and earn 75-100 miles per survey, averaging about 300 miles a month.

I know it’s been nearly 3 years so I have posted anything on this site, but I intend to start blogging again. There is so much to say and share.

Here is a picture of my girlfriend and I. She is the prettiest gal in the world and I am one helluva lucky man.

- Kyle

For me, it’ll be:

and

Take a look at what this little device can do:

Earlier today I came across an ad for the coolest cell phone I have ever seen. It even bests the iPhone, in it’s radicalness. Sure the iPhone has a multi-touch screen, built-in wi-fi and crazy sex appeal. Pull an iPhone out in the middle of a crowded room and you’re sure to get some glances and the obvious-and-over-used “oooohs” and “ahhhhs”. But pull this baby out and I can tell you 100% of the room will look your way. I bet even a blind person would look your way.

(click the pic for more info)

Yes, it’s a FUNCTIONAL cell phone, that you can insert a SIM card into. Uber-fantastic I tell you. Sure it would be just a little bit harder to tote around than a sleek and stylish iPhone, but it would totally be worth it. I need to buy one, get a camcorder and post some YouTube videos of my antics. Unfortunately, they’re priced at $499. Maybe I will be able to afford one in a few months, seeing as I have to pay a hefty car insurance deductible next week…

…you think I’m kidding huh? Well on my car-hating post on 08/05/07 I did ask, “what the hell else could wrong?” Promptly, carma answered. A couple of weeks ago, I ran over a muffler that somebody ghetto-rigged to the bottom of their car with hangers. I didn’t see it at all in the road. I only went about 100ft after running over it, but it tore up $5200 worth of shit under the car. My car is so low, it completely wrecked the underbody, including the oil pan and catalytic converter. Again, I told you I can’t make this shnizzle up. So I now have to pay a $1030 deductible, and hope I don’t get dropped from my insurance company. I need a bike. Or better yet, the city bus. 

In other news, I heard about this company who rents books out Netflix style. Sounds pretty awesome!! Free shipping, both ways too. Peep it out   

I’ll leave you with a video of another very skilled musician.

Since I got my license at 21, I have had nothing but bad luck with cars. My first car was a 1996 Acura Integra LS, which I purchased in late 2001. I owned the car for 2 years and had nothing but trouble that entire time.

When I bought it the passenger side of the windshield was shattered - it literally looked like an ex-girlfriend took a bat to the windshield and beat the shit out of it, for finding her b/f screwing around on her. I think that pain and anguish was somehow transferred to the car. (Anybody ever seen or read Christine?)

• In the first 5 minutes of owning it, a guy backed into me. The guy who sold it to me came running outside and was laughing. I was still in the parking lot where I purchased it.  
• The car was broken into 3 times while parked in front of my buddy Joseph’s house. 3 stereos were removed, and one time I had the factory alarm enabled and somehow it didn’t go off.  
• I was in 3 accidents (none were my fault, and this doesn’t count the one where the dude backed into me after first purchasing it). One of them was a hit-and-run on MLK, that was pretty bad. I swear people aim right for me.   
• When I bought it the car had a dent in the rear driver-side door. I bought a door on Ebay that was the same color and looked awesome. Shipping cost more than the door itself. (hundreds) I got the door and brought it to Caliber Collision. The door looked great on the outside, but it was actually useless. Below some of the paint was a ton of putty. That was a complete waste of money, so I just had them repair the door I already had on there haha. So I paid basically double to get the door fixed.  
• When the car was in the shop after one of the wrecks, I had a rental. I decided not to get the extra insurance. Hail promptly commenced and damaged the rental badly, and State Farm subsequently dropped me.  
• I first sold the car to a random lady on a payment plan, who I trusted and should not have. I got royally screwed on that one. (It’s quite a lengthy and funny story, but I’ll save it for another time.) Basically I only got $1000 out of $4200 and she got to drive it for 9 months for that $1000. Karma caught up with her and magically I got the car back.  
• In late 2003 I buy a brand new 2004 RX-8 and am happy to rid myself of the cursed car. But OH the curse isn’t ready to stop. Oh not by a long-shot.  
• After dropping the car off at the dealership for it’s first oil change, I get a call from the service department. Apparently there was “a mishap with your vehicle.” Ok… a little oil spilled on one of the seats, I thought. HAHA no. Another RX-8 was backed into the front of mine and crushed the front right side, including the whole headlight casing and fender.  
• One morning I woke up to find somebody had side-swiped the rear passenger fender. There’s a dent/scrape on it.  
• One night, a friend up north told me a huge hail storm was coming my way. Joseph and I ran out to throw towels and blankets all over the top of the car to protect it. The next morning I survey the car and damnit there’s hail damage! What’s funny is that we had 3 more hail storms after that one, and I didn’t bother throwing towels or blankets on the car for those, and there was NO DAMAGE at all from those haha. I can’t make this stuff up.  
• I have had 2 speeding tickets and a ticket for running a red-light at 3am. I was waiting at the light for at least 5 minutes and thought it was just broken. While I was taking defensive driving for one of my speeding tickets, I got the other speeding ticket on the way to Houston.  
• I got out of class one morning at Texas State, and somebody had side-swiped the SAME rear fender that was side-swiped a couple of years ago. This was damaged much worse than before. The person left no note, or anything.  
• At 33,000miles I had to get the engine replaced on the RX-8. It was stalling, idling very rough, having bad loss of power.  
• Mazda called me to let me know the car was ready to be picked up. I hopped in the rental Dodge Caravan, turned the corner and BLAMMO some lady ran the stop sign and plowed into the side of the Caravan. She said she didn’t see me. HOW THE HELL CAN YOU MISS A DODGE CARAVAN?? Ever since the rental car hail-damage issue I have always gotten the extra insurance. But guess what? Since nothing had happened since then, I decided NOT to get the extra insurance while using the Caravan. The only two times I don’t get the extra insurance, bad things happen to the rental cars. JESUS.  
• At 48,500miles the RX-8 start acting exactly as it did at 33,000miles. I take it into Mazda and they say I need a new engine. So not even 50,000 miles into the car and I am on my 3rd engine. I am sure I shouldn’t ask this, but what the hell else could go wrong?

Before: After:

Close-up:

Weekend to-do list:

• Bring the RX-8 into Mazda to have them look at it
• Clean the house
• Deposit check
• Go through papers on dining room table
• Grocery Shopping (ugh)
• Install bathroom drawer and cabinet pulls
• Pick up bulb for kitchen track lighting at Home Depot
• Relax like a mofo
• Setup weight set in garage (I unboxed it, but need to get a pair of pliers and a wrench at Home Depot)
• Work on group presentation for a few hours