photo credit: blackstarproject.org
I am in the market for a car. Why? You know, I’m not quite sure. But hey, it’s the last thing my mom will do for me before she sends me off to fend for myself. Of course, I can still bum my living situation off her for the allotted three months before she starts to charge me a minimal rent. Besides, might as well take advantage of the government’s stimulus plan and save a thousand or so, right? All of this came up rather randomly and suddenly the first full day I was back. My mom and I spent the day finding out about getting me a new phone and we decided to drop by the dealers’ strip at night to have a quick browse at what there was. Sadly, I’m not the most original, so I pretty much just wanted to look at the brands we’ve owned: Toyota and Lexus.
photo credit: vietnamcar.com
Originally my budget was $30,000, but that was dropped down to $20,000 when my mom saw some of the price tags for the cars on the lots. After a bit more searching, she settled to something more like $23,000, which should get me a decent set of brand new wheels. I think I can probably stretch that a little if I need, though hopefully I won’t. I checked out Toyota, Hyundai, and Nissan and try as I might, I still find the Camry the nicest-looking. And yes, I do not want to buy a car unless I think it looks nice. Most have short, stubby trunks that I find utterly unattractive and others just have the wrong shape in general. I liked the features of the Altima but I just didn’t like how it looks from the front. After some pondering, my mom decided that what I need is a mid-size sedan. I don’t really know what the difference between that and a full size is, but hey, sounds about right!
photo credit: thedailygreen.com
I went home and did some research and suddenly it dawned upon me: why am I not looking at hybrids?! So of course, the first thing I did was only consider the hybrids on the market. Lucky me, there aren’t too many out there that are mid-size sedans, so it makes choosing easier. I really just want the Camry, but the Prius has such cool features and the Altima is slightly cheaper and has sliiightly better MPG. Sadly, I find the Prius ugly and I don’t know if I could bear to own the thing. I guess a test drive can help me decide. As for the Altima, though it’s the safest car on the road, I don’t know if the price and MPG differences are big enough to change my mind. In the end, I’ve come full circle and still got my eye on a Camry Hybrid.
However, I want to go to the dealer’s and ask about all the things that the Prius has and what the Camry can have too. Usually I’m all about functionality over aesthetics, but for some reason with cars, that’s not so much the case. I’ll also need to take them both out for a spin. I’ve heard that the Prius has a “Prius blind spot” and if that bothers me, there’s no way I’m getting it. The solar panel cooling system and parking assistance sounds so awesome though! I hope they have that type of technology for the Camry as well. I wish the Camry’s MPG was better though – only 33 MPG to the Prius’s 50! How does the Prius get away with being so much cheaper when it has better technology?! I just don’t understand cars. All I know is that I’ll probably stay brand loyal for the rest of my life, thanks to the choices that my dad made in my youth.
[You know what I just realized? Camry = C + mary! Yeah, this is what happens when I mistype something… amazing discoveries occur. :-P]
This time around, I felt a bit outdated, since apparently in the past few years, bluetooth and cameras have become a default in phones. Well, that’s good because I wanted both, as well as a slot for a MicroSD card and a simple, clean interface. Unfortunately, though the outside looks simple, once you turn on the phone, there is a mess of buttons and symbols that I need to get used to. Not as easy I as thought it’d be. The irony of convenience in electronics is that you often need to learn the system first. Until then, it’s all confusing – exactly the stage I’m at!
What a fabulous experience at Sentosa! I touched so many creatures I can’t even count them anymore. From butterflies to sting rays and even a dolphin, it was an absolutely thrilling time for me. Though I enjoyed the views from the Tiger Tower and Merlion, what stood out the most was the time I spent at the Butterfly Garden and Insect Kingdom, Dolphin Lagoon, and Underwater World.
The Dolphin Lagoon provided good entertainment as the pink dolphins there showed off their speed, balance, and accuracy. They even showed off for us before the show and posed for pictures. They are still adolescents, so only their bellies have started to turn pink, which was interesting to see. After the show, we were allowed to pose for a picture with one of the dolphins for a small fee, so I happily lined up for my turn. My dolphin’s name was Splash and loved the ladies, but swam away when the only guy entered the water! He was good for me though and struck the best pose. 🙂
Continuing on, there was a pool entirely of rays that would whisk by and occasionally stop to say hello and see if you had food. It made me want to have a pet sting ray – they’re better than dogs! I spent a lot of time there, petting their soft bodies as they went by and marveled at the opportunity. There was a display showing sharks at their stages of development with live examples! Then it was case after case of bizarre and brilliant species, like jellyfish, cuttlefish, seahorses, crabs, and sharks. There were these “angels” that flapped their wings and cuttlefish that changed skin patterns in the blink of an eye. Some leafy-looking sea horses floated around near the seaweed they resembled and some giant crabs scuttled slowly across the sand.
