Chan's Personal Blog

After more than two years without a car, I finally pulled the trigger last October and bought a car. It took me a while to finally build up enough credit and cash for a decent down payment. When I first started my research, I was looking at entry level cars such as a used Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla, but I wasn't too comfortable with the high mileages these cars had in my price range.

By August 2009, my circumstances changed a bit and I rationalized moving up from entry level cars to a little better. I generally dislike buying something, and having to upgrade it a year or two later. I planned to keep my car for at least five years, so that changed the equation a bit. With that time frame, hybrid vehicles started making sense because the gas you save from them will payoff the premium you pay up front for them. Hybrids are also a lot cheaper in California than in Victoria, so it seemed like a really good price as well. The geek in me also enjoys all the technology that they pack into hybrids; I have a much easier time understanding electronics in a car than its mechanical parts.

I had narrowed down my choices to a Mazda 3, Chevy Camaro, Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Camry Hybrid, and Nissan Altima Hybrid. The Camaro was the first to get dropped off my list because an American muscle car just doesn't suit me, it's way too flashy and I don't like coupes. I will admit it's a sweet ride though. The Mazda 3 was the next to get dropped from the list because at this point, I had my heart settled on a hybrid. If I wasn't after a hybrid, the Mazda 3 would be a worthy contender because the price was very reasonable, it came with a ton of features by default, and it's fuel efficiency was quite good.

You'll probably notice that the Toyota Prius is missing from the shortlist. I find the shape of the Prius quite ugly, and I really don't like the social connotations around owning a Prius. If you want an explanation, see this South Park clip entitled, "Smug Alert." Ideally, I wanted a hybrid car that looked like a normal car, and had a little power to it (might be a contradiction). In hindsight, it was also a good idea that I didn't go with Toyota since they're having quite a number of very severe problems with their breaks/accelerators which has caused the Camry and Prius to be recalled.

This was the shootout:

Car	Gas Engine + Electric Engine	Fuel Economy (city/hwy)	0-60mph	Hybrid Tax Credit	Dealer Incentives
Honda Civic Hybrid	110HP + 20HP = 130HP	40/45mpg	13.5s	$0	$0
Toyota Camry Hybrid	147HP + 40HP = 187HP	33/34mpg	8.2s	$0	$0
Nissan Altima Hybrid	158HP + 40HP = 198HP	35/33mpg	7.6s	$2350	$4500

The clear winner in the shootout was the Nissan Altima Hybrid due to the performance, tax incentives, and dealer incentives. It was cheaper for me to buy a new one than a used one. In addition, for the 2009 tax year, the stimulus package allowed me to deduct sales tax and registration fees for new vehicle purchases.

I went down to the dealership to do a test drive of the vehicle, and it was a pretty cool experience because it was the first time I had driven a hybrid. If you're driving steady, below 40mph (~64km/h), you can run purely on electric power. The car is practically silent when it's on electric. The car also had a continuous variable transmission (CVT) drive which meant you could accelerate the vehicle without feeling any shifts in the gears because there are no discrete gears. The car also had regenerative breaks which converts the car's kinetic energy to electric energy (to recharge the batteries) when you tap on the breaks. The car's range is also fairly impressive, I can drive 560miles (~900km) before having to fill up on gas. I fill up on gas once every 2.5 weeks.

There were a couple of cons about the Nissan Altima Hybrid though. First, the trunk is extremely small because part of the space is taken up by its battery pack. The other major disadvantage was that the car's options were very expensive because you had to buy them in bundles. Fortunately for me, I was more than happy with the base model, but if someone wanted to have GPS and leather seats, it got quite expensive.

The timing of my car purchase worked out really well. It was during their year end clearance sale, and they were trying to get rid of all of their 2009 models. Thankfully, the last Altima Hybrid on the lot was exactly the model and colour that I wanted. Next was the price, I had six Nissan dealerships competing against each other, and I managed to get the car at well below invoice price. I did all my negotiations via email, so by the time I walked into the dealership, it was a very easy and straight forward process since we had already agreed on a price. Nissan was also able to access my Canadian credit history from Nissan Canada, so that made the car loan possible.

Overall, it was a pretty good learning experience. I've discovered I'm a pretty good negotiator. Since my car purchase, I've helped negotiate car deals for two other friends.

Attached below is the picture of my car. I've dubbed it the Blackbird because it's a really stealthy car. Under 40mph, it doesn't make a lot of noise, and I can easily sneak up on unsuspecting pedestrians.


There's a funny story with this car during my road test for a California driver's license:

Instructor: Sir, please start your car.
Chan: Year, it's already started.
Instructor: No, I mean I want you to start the ignition of your car.
Chan: Yeah, the car's on, it's a hybrid. It's silent when we're idle.
Instructor: ?!?
Instructor: Oh wow, what does this button do?

For the rest of the ride he was just asking questions about the car instead of actually paying attention to the road test. Consequently, I only had three demerits .

Last funny story about the car. When I wrote my mom that I had purchased a new car, her response was, "remember to keep your car clean, son. Girls like clean cars." I'll have to keep that in mind.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. This is quite a step up from my last car which was a standard hungry grad student beater car. My last car was a Chevy with a ridiculous V6 engine which ate gas, it got 18/26mpg.

I've been thinking a lot about 2010, and the challenges, surprises, and joys that the this new year shall bring. But before I go over 2010, it's important to look back at 2009. If I had to summarize 2009 in a couple of words, I would probably choose uncertainty and defense. I recall at the beginning of that year, no one knew precisely how bad the recession was going to be; the chance of another great depression was still on the table. I know plenty of good people who were severely impacted by job loss and financial chaos.

At work there was another round of layoffs which added to the uncertainty. Job loss in my case would be fairly catastrophic since the work visa I'm on doesn't allow me to stay in the country if that were to happen; furthermore, my green card application was completely frozen because my company did a large layoff.

The strategic position I took in 2009 was defense. Hold the line and defend what you had. I completely stopped even looking at my investments in the stock market as there was a ton of damage; at the same time I didn't bother selling anything because I wasn't going to participate in panic selling. Instead I was just stockpiling cash so that I could live and fight another day when things started turning around.

2009 indeed presented a lot of challenges and there were plenty of tests of character. There were plenty of situations where doing the right thing carried a high cost with it. The quote that kept coming to mind was, "the right thing to do and the easy thing to do is rarely the same thing."

After much deliberation, the theme for 2010 will be empire building. Much of the first two years living in California, I really didn't know how long I would last out here. For those who've seen my apartment, you'll know that it looks like I could just pack up and leave on a whim. A finance guy doing paper work for me said it best when he said, "you're like a ghost, it's as if you don't exist." This year I am dropping some anchors in California because I've come too far to withdraw now. This is the year where hopefully a lot of long term investments start paying off. This is the year where I hopefully catch up to peers.

One of the more recent developments is that I purchased a car after saving for one quite some time (been car-less for a long time). You ask why? Canadian credit history counts for nothing in the US, so my credit score is fairly crappy in the US. This meant a significant down payment was required. In either case, added mobility and independence is going to save a lot of time. (Blog post later about the car).

Another cornerstone of empire building is obviously finances. This year I hope to aggressively increase my credit score in the US as I treat that as a badge of honour. I did take out a car loan as a way to build up that credit score (which is something I thought I never would do, since I'm no fan of debt). I hope to greatly reduce the car loan debt this year as well since the interest rate is high, but I will leave a little around for credit score purposes. The other goal for this year is to get rid of my secured credit card and get a real credit card.

Investment wise I am planning on re-entering the stock market. The goal for this year is to properly diversify my holdings and reduce my risk exposure. I'm not as young and reckless as I once was anymore, so no more crazy speculative stocks. I have important things to save for.

On the work front, I also have high expectations for 2010. I continue loving my work, and I hope I continue to grow momentum this year.

I hope to increase my cooking abilities this year as well. I do have a number of folks calling me Chef Chan these days. I do intend to upgrade some of my kitchen equipment. The majority of my equipment is entry level gear from IKEA. The first thing I wanted to upgrade was my knives; one of my good friends bought be a set of German knives for Christmas. Second item is a really good cutting board. Third on the list are rectangular plank dishes for serving (they look really cool). I've noticed from my cooking photos that I've been doing a lot of meat dishes, so I think it's time to diversify into seafood. At my church in San Jose, I have started joining a monthly cooking small group.

In terms of church, I have been sitting on the side lines for a while now, taking a break and just sitting in services, rejuvenating and just enjoying church. I've been keeping a fairly low profile, and most people don't know that they have a sound technician in their midst (they're always in high demand). Things will change this year, it's time to switch back to active service in the ministry.

Of course 2010 will have its share of challenges and roadblocks. Of course some of my best laid plans that I wish to pursue are futile unless certain conditions that I deem impossible, changes. With that said, one of my friends gave me this great quote. "When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God." With that in mind, I'll keep the hope alive.

Here's to 2010. Faster. Better. Stronger.

First, I'd like to apologize for the lack of blog posts. I'm trying to get all my 2009 photos posted onto Flickr. Anyways, came across this awesome clip with with Jay Leno getting roasted by Jimmy Kimmel in an interview.



The roast is around the feud of Jay Leno wanting to take his show slot back from Conan O'Brien.

I just came across this geography game called Globetrotter XL. They give you a city name, and you try to figure out where it is on a world map as quickly as possible. Points are calculated by how accurate you are in terms of distance, and how much time you used. As you advance through the levels, the game gets harder and harder (country border lines disappear from world map).

On my first attempt, I made it to level 7 with 7287 points. I'll see what I can do to improve it. I thought my geography was pretty good, but apparently I need a lot of work. I played a lot of war strategy games growing up, and it was pretty important to be able to know what country you were targeting. My knowledge of Western African countries is severely lacking.

Time well wasted

I was pretty shocked when I saw this article on Pentagon: Insurgents intercepted drone spy videos."


I find this shocking that the military was using unprotected communications to transmit video feeds from drones. That's valuable intelligence information being broadcasted.

I think as the US military depends more and more on unmanned vehicles, the more incentive it will be for enemies to exploit this. Imagine if adversaries could jam control signals to these unmanned vehicles, the vehicles may just crash. An even more troubling problem would be if adversaries could hack into these drones, and take direct control of them. It's worrisome because some of these drones carry weapons.

Friends, family, countrymen! I shall be migrating North for the winter, in time for Christmas. I fly out of Silicon Valley on December 18th, and I'll be staying in Victoria for an extended period again this year. Drop me a line if anyone wants to meet up while I'm making my annual appearance. Reservations are first come first serve .

See you all then.

Just a short post today as I'm completely bogged down at work these days. I came across this YouTube video of a Lego version of the bullet time action sequence from The Matrix.


Cheers to the 10th year anniversary of The Matrix, a truly groundbreaking movie.