Toyota Presara

Toyota makes easy and comfortable cars, no doubt about it. Presara seems to be another good idea since Yaris. The car is liberally splashed with decent dosage of chrome, fake wood panel, (dodgy?) leather, acres of space and every luxury appointments higher end cars come equipped with these days save the really fancy stuff like line mark recognition and dynamic cruise control using infra red (the merc and audi stuff). Honestly it looks and to a less degree feels like a bloated lexus IS sedan due to the similar layout and use of wood paneling and central console. The electronics are inherently nothing wrong, compare to lexus the reverse camera loses the computer vision type lines of car positions but that's about it. the touch screen in the presara even flips down to reveal both cd and dvd slots for music and maps. The GPS is a bit of let down i think, still in the premitive line drawing days of maps and headings are not automatically orientated based on heading, either that or i haven't dig deep enough to its settings.  other nice touches of toyota include rear window sunblinds that goes up and down in a touch of a button, awesome looking taco and speedo, auto dipping reverse mirror and auto dimming rear view mirror. Personally i'm not that into the bland and flat centrol arm rest that hides cup holders and no park brake. I would rather a more sophisticated arm rest/central beam section with electronic park brake (audi style) and all the button on it. but touch screen has absolutely nothing wrong with it together with shortcut button operation on the centrol console. 

Driveability wise a very light steering wheel and good suspension settings, they've tuned it down for this top of the line model and it shows. In corners the weight does rear its head and whole car leans and squats pretty noticeably, but the seats are supportive enough to hold you in place. 

all in all a very up market feel and basically a FWD, OZ made large IS sedan in a very reasonable price (30k 2nd hand), other attributes are non-pretentious, solid looking, reliably (i am told), ergonomically designed. If my aim for a car are those good to god qualities (but mine is not) i would undoubtedly consider Aurion Presara, the well to do family man without a racing urge's choice!

W the film (2008)

a late viewer of this 2008 film, but still interesting. This oliver stone piece carves deeply into the Bush legacy and notoriety through dubya's own life trace. heavy screentime have been focussed on the born again Christian transition of W's adolescence period and how God's influence has so greatly impacted his political and military decisions following his ascendance to presidency. A deeply provocative and revealing film, much better made than i was expected. Laura bush was hot though :D

a vivid person of inner conflict between following God's will and defining its own legacy in his family's shadow, this piece tears whatever is remaining of the Bush reputation right down with its satirical tone and moments of utter disgrace, i.e., the last media interview. To be honest nothing that havent' been said before, but nonetheless striking when you string them altogether and presented retrospectively and behind the scene in its war room scenario with all the real players (awesome makeup) present.