San Clemente - The Good Life

1970 Cheverolet Nova SS

2008-12-03T10:23:00.000-08:00

I am really considering buying a classic car and I have been eying a 1970 Chevy Nova SuperSport. It will definitely be a project car that I am going to have to work on, but the current condition of the car is pretty good for the price. These cars don't get any younger, so it just means that as time passes there are less and less of them, and more expensive to buy. I really think that now is the time that I should get one. I have always wanted to restore a classic car, and especially have one that can haul some butt.

Here are some pictures of some Novas

USC

2008-11-02T01:09:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't been able to update my blog for a while, especially because of the fact that I am not in San Clemente right now. I am in college now up at the University of Southern California. I love it here and it is amazing to be a trojan. I'll try to update in a little. Here are a few pics from college.

-Fight On!

Prom 2008!

2008-05-20T19:25:00.001-07:00

So life in San Clemente has been insane lately. Being a Senior and the end of the year is approaching, that means it is time for graduation. Now that all of my IB and AP Tests are finished, I can relax and have fun. Here are some picture of Prom from a few weekends ago. It was incredibly fun. We had dinner at the Fox Sports Grill and the Dance was at the Newport Beach Hyatt.
Me and my beautiful Date:

The Group:

It's been a long time ....

2008-04-27T22:35:00.001-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything new lately. Life has been pretty busy lately with school and everything in general.

I did detail my car this past weekend. Here is what I used

Washed with Meguiars Gold Class
Meguiars Mild Blue Clay Bar
Meguiars 80 Speed Glaze
Turtle Wax Scratch and Swirl Remover
Meguiars 07 Show Car Glaze
Meguiars 21 Synthetic Sealant 2.0
Meguiars 26 Hi Tech Yellow Wax

Used Hot Rims Tire dressing
Show Room New Restore to get plastic black again
Windex Vinegar Mix

and lots of Elbow Grease

First Time I have ever done this and it took practically all day. I think I should invest in a dual action buffer for next time... it would speed things up a lot

here is a few pics

I love my Ford F150

Got back from Cabo

2008-04-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

So it is spring break and my family and I went down to Cabo San Lucas Mexico for vacation. It was pretty awesome. We stayed at a resort called the Riu Palace. The nice thing was that everything was inclusive. Free food and drinks everywhere! I still haven't weighed myself since getting back, but I bet I gained some weight with food being everywhere .... for free! My favorite part of the vacation was jet skiing. It is so fun to do because there is no roads! The ocean is your highway. I want to buy one, however they are like $10,000 and I kinda don't have that type of money right now haha.

Here is my hotel:

Tires!

2008-03-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

If you drive a car, you have to have tires, and you eventually have to replace them. If you have ever been through replacing tires, you know it can often become very confusing and expensive.

I have decided to create reviews for tires and post them on another blog: http://autotires.blogspot.com/

You should check it out and see what tire will work best for you. I am doing the reviews based upon categories of tire type. The first category I am starting on is All Terrain tires. I am open for suggestions as to what tires I should review or what category I should review next. I think that my next category is going to be the daily driver tire.

Getting My Windows Tinted!!!

2008-03-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend went by and my dad was telling me I should get my windows tinted on my truck. I have been wanting to do this and ever since I told him my windows look like you are looking into a fish bowl, it has driven him crazy that they are not darker. Well, like usual, I procrastinated and called too late in the day to get them tinted. I could have done it at 7 pm on Saturday night, but that would be crazy to do.
So I hope on getting them tinted this weekend. The only problem is that you have to wait around while they are being tinted, unless you have someone to pick you up. Chances are, you will be picked up and then you have to head right on back to the tint shop. I want to make my windows pretty dark, not to the point of where you can't see out of them, but that happy medium to where it is still hard to see inside. Unfortunately, California has tinting laws on the driver and passenger side windows, so I can only tint those as much as the law permits.
Well I think the tinting is going to run me something around $200, and I am probably going to be using my birthday money for this. I think the tinted windows will definitely ad a nice touch to my Ford F-150.

My next step, earn some money so I can mod my truck even more. I think that my friend and I are going to fertilize lawns this summer to try and bring in a little dough. We will have to see how well it works. We figure if we work the neighborhoods of San Clemente, we could earn some decent cash!

Easter Meal!

2008-03-23T20:28:00.000-07:00

First off I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter.

So today we had the entire, or for the most part the entire, family on my mom's side over the house for Easter. There were two major events of the day - the meal and the easter egg hunt. I am gonna tell ya what I ate today, because I am incredibly full right now and can still feel every last bit of what I ate haha.

So First off, for the meat, my uncle made his honey baked ham that he makes every holiday which is absolutely delicious and my dad made tri tip which was delicious too.

There were various other items such as beans, potato salad, salad, jello, bread and rolls. Pretty much nothing insanely special, other than a great tasting meal. I just wanna put these pictures up to make your mouth water.
By the way .... I loveeeeeeeee Beans.
Potato Salad
Jello Eggs
Rolls

Salad

In case you didn't already know, these aren't actual pictures of what I ate, haha

Are tall people smarter?

2008-03-20T17:11:00.001-07:00

So I am working on my IB Math studies project right now, and I am doing a statistical analysis of the comparison between high school students' GPA's and their height. I have read and heard that taller men tend to get better jobs and earn more money in the business world, and I wondered whether or not it had anything to do with their intelligence, or if it was just their state of being tall.

So I asked 100 different kids at my school for their GPA and height. From the way things look, it is pretty much scattered everywhere. I have not yet set up my graphs and charts for the project, but I am pretty sure there is no correlation at all between height and intelligence level. I am 6' 5", and I know that I am tall, so it was fun to do a project on a topic which relates to me.

Well at least I know that since I'm tall, I have an advantage in the business world!

Well I am looking to make some money

2008-03-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

Who wants to make MONEY!?! Well that is a silly question because everyone loves money and would love to earn it quick and without much work. Summer is approaching and I want to earn some money, however not be restrained under the ties of having a job. So my friend and I were talking and we decided to go around neighborhoods and do random yard work for money, that way we decided when we worked, plus how much we get paid. The faster and more efficient we each work, the more business we will be able to bring in and the more money. Hey it would be nice to wake up in the morning work on three or four yards, make around 150 bucks depending upon what we do, and then go chill at the beach for the rest of the day.

I have been trying to think up other jobs to do and I decided I could teach trombone and baritone lessons to middle school and elementary kids. It is not a hard job, because there is not much time involved and plus it is good pay for the hours put in. Plus, I am teaching by doing one of the things I love, playing Trombone.

Well I will just have to see what happens with all of this. Who knows, maybe I will end up making some decent money!

If you have a good idea for making some money, go ahead and leave me a comment and let me know.

My truck

2008-03-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

I pretty much love my truck. It is a 2003 Ford F150 and I have made it for the most part, pretty much my own. The very first modification I got for my truck was a cold air intake. I actually got it as a Birthday present. The CAI makes your car have a little bit more pick-up in the low end range and also gives you a bit better gas milage.
There is a saying my friends tend to say alot, and it is "Go Big or Go Home!" and that is exactly what I did. I lifted my truck. I put on a Fabtech 7.5" Performance Crossmember lift and with 35"x12.5" Procomp Xtreme All Terrain Tires, Mounted on 17" Helo Maxx6 rims in chrome. I will tell you that this made my truck look completely different! Recently for my birthday, I got a billet grill and clear cornerlights. Oh and also for christmas, I got a single in, dual out exhaust system, while dual pipes exiting strait out the back of the truck with chrome tips (The new muffler makes the truck sound mean!)
My most recent mod was getting my truck regeared. i got 456 gears put in because when I changed my tire size to a 35 inch, it made my truck as slow as a turtle. I definitely can feel the power gain and see an improvement in gas mile (it is ridiculous how expensive gas is down here in southern California)
One thing I love so much about my F150 is that there is so much room to modify it and make it your own truck and I can say that my truck is my truck.
I think my next mod will probably be tinting the windows, and then after that, probably upgrading my sound system!

Before

After!

Trombone

2008-03-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

So I play trombone, and yeah I love it There is something about playing trombone that distinguishes you from all of the other instrument players out there. I think it is because it is the only instrument of its kinda and is so unique. The trombone is the only instrument that you play with a slide. Most other brass instruments are playing by simply pushing down different combinations of valves or rotors and for woodwind instruments, they just push down the different keys. Nothing else compares to a trombone. I personally love it because you can play obnoxiously loud on it. I'm telling you, there is nothing better than being able to play loud in marching band. I'm in the San Clemente High School Marching Band and we have done pretty well for the past four years. My brother is in the University of Southern California Marching band, and god I love how insanely loud their trombones are.
I definitely want to keep playing trombone when I go to college. I don't mean like majoring in music, but just remain active on the trombone. While the bone looks so simple there are actually many items which make it more complicated than it looks. For example, being in the right position every time to stay in tune, or what type of slide lube you are going to use. No one likes a sticky slide. There is a whole world to trombones. Check out this forum I belong to on trombone alone. http://tromboneforum.org/

The pictures on this post are of my trombones.

Enjoys

Surfing!

2008-03-08T12:33:00.001-08:00

So amazingly I don't know how to surf... yeah yeah I live in San Clemente in Southern California which is beach town that is known for its amazing waves and I don't know how to surf. I love the every day activities of the beach during summer like beach volleyball, body boarding, boogie boarding, swimming, etc. but this summer I want to be able to add surfing to it.

I have always wanted to learn to surf, but never really pursued it. Its such a beautiful day out right now. Not a cloud in the sky, and the beach is calling. However, I don't have a wet suit that fits me right now, so I probably don't wanna go in the cold water without one just yet. So when summer hits and the water warms up, I'm learning to surf from some of my friends. It can't be that hard can it? (haha I'm probably going to get annihilated when I first try to surf)

Spanish!!! Espanol

2008-03-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

I'm actually at school right now in the library looking up information on the computers for my Spanish Oral. I will be honest, I really don't like learning Spanish. It is very hard for me, however I know it could be a lot harder of a language to learn. One thing I do know is that in San Clemente, or more so Southern California as a whole, Spanish is going to come in handy, due to so many Mexican immigrants being in Southern California. Although San Clemente has some high prices for housing, there are still a decent amount of illegals who populated the city. I guess I should just suck it up and try and learn as best as I can because I know it will eventually help me.

Quite interesting, I'm looking up basketball leagues in Spain right now for my Spanish oral. I like how their winners of their national league goes ahead and competes against other countries.

See ya later!

Everything is beautiful... except school

2008-03-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

Once again, there is another beautiful day today in San Clemente. Southern California is great, however talking with my friends, who are also suffering from senioritis, we realized that we are going to get pounded by school this weekend and not enjoy our "carefree" view of school because we are seniors. Most of my friends and I are in the International Baccalaureate Program, which gets you college credit for college courses. Unfortunately this is the time of the year that all of the internal assessments and projects for IB must be sent off to be graded, which means we are all working our butts off trying to get our work done. This isn't just a normal homework assignment. I have a 4,000 word paper to write, 15 minutes of trombone solo work to practice, 10 minute Spanish Oral, mathematics survey/ data analysis, along with all of my other work!

Has anyone else done the IB program? What do you have to say about it?

Turns out we don't really have senioritis that bad if we keep doing our work :) hehe

And Life Begins

2008-03-05T22:49:00.001-08:00

Well this blog is just beginning so let's start off on a good note.

Weather today in San Clemente was absolutely beautiful today. Being a high school senior, I am starting to experience this so called phenomenon called "senioritis." I think it has to do with the fact that it has been raining for about the past month and all of a sudden it is nice and warm and sunny and brings back my summer memories. There are two things that go together, San Clemente, and summer. God how I miss going down to the beach to just take a dip in the water or play some beach volleyball with the guys.

School has been pretty rigorous even though its my senior year. But I love life and it is great. I live in a vacation spot for crying out loud. There is no better place to be right now than Southern California. Just in case you were wondering, this is where I live

Well this first post was quite short, but it's a start. I'll definitely be posting some more!

-Andrew