water crisis & accord euro

just lost a post under a freaking freak accident.mounring is in order

anyhow, water restriction season is upon us, hooray~. under the looming water crisis and 5% damned dam level, we are in this huge fucking crucible called water shortage. here's some way you (and me) can help:

• STOP wasting time washing car. buy a cheap car that you don't care about that can get washed outdoors by rain, use those el-cheapo window washes sticks in petrol stations to wipe off the occasional bird doodles on your car and that it, why bother washing and polishing? you reall got nothing better to do with your life if the look of your car is more important than sipping coffee and reading paper
• shower ONCE! it's fucking unbelievable how many people shower twice. if you got BO, just let people laugh at you at work and don't bother hiding it. what is this whole idea of showing in the morning anyway, is your bed a fucking mud box? and if u wet your pants every night, showering in the morning shouldn't be the first thing you should be worried about
• shower SHORTER - i'm sometimes guilty of this deplorable trait myself, especially in the chilling winter nights where all love is gone. we tend to let warm water bring back the meaning of life for us by letting it spray on our naked body. STOP DOING THAT! shower is the single largest consumer of water for anybody and cutting a shower by 2 minutes will collectively help our continent.
• use HALF flush for pissing - i suspect future loos should start using rain/recycled water for flushing pee and poos, but until then, wasting drinkable water on piss is insane. flush half and drink the other half.... or such is the idea.
• STOP watering plants - LET THEM DIE.
• use EFFICIENT SHOWER HEADS

in other news, this week's Rich8rd's test drive for fun victim is Honda Accord Euro, the winner of best of over $28000 category. standard features runs a bit long so here's the gist:

• stability control
• 4 air bags
• climate control
• 140KW 2.4 four potter engine
• and the usual car stuff

anywhohowbloodyway, it appears that HONDA is up to its necks with EURO stocks. the dealer dude confided that their warehouse is literally STUFFED with euros, CRV and oddessey, so they are more than eager to push them out the door. yeah who gives a fuck. the car is shitter than i expected, required diligent roving above 4000 RPM to get any sparkle from that lazy engine. that's even worse than my Swift! the steering is lifelessly wooden, ride is okay, fake wood trim in the luxury model a bit too fake. that GPS system in luxury is so senile it's not even funny. a GOLD TDI would eat this car for morning tea and wouldn't bother spit out the bones. the dude after test drive did the usual car selling routine of hyping up the car for me to hope for a sale, but since it's Rich8rd's pointless test-drive for fun (TM), he's unfortunately the victim of a very boring scheme to drive cars for free. cut to 20 minutes later, he offered the car for 34K on the road, and i shake his hand and offered a measly "good to know, i'll think about it". the victim dude is so pissed he didn't bother to shake me hand on the way out. BAD service!

i kinda feel bad about the whole thing suddenly and decided to try hyundai next week to repent my sins. poor upmarket brands.

the test drive institution does pose some fallibles. on the face of it it's fine, but to really appreciate the chassis balance you really need more than 3 days in a car. drive through that corner you drive past every day to tell the subtle difference between this's suspension and weight distribution over other cars, push the car up that hill in your neighbourhood to gaugh the precise pulling power over you usual ride, thing like that. the wonderful thing about Swift is its nonchalance in most driving conditions that u almost take it for granted, until u sit in other cars that yield to these trivial mistakes. that really speak volumes of the effort made into balancing the whole car over all sorts of conditions and settings.