My 2014 Outback was just over a year and 9600 miles old when the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) started to go out.  It was replaced under warranty, thank heavens.  But after I got the vehicle back from the dealer, it was still having weird issues like shuddering when making tight turns, etc.  I dropped it back off at the dealer the next day.  I was starting to wonder if I had a lemon on my hands.  But the thing about lemon laws is usually it has to be the same issue that’s unsuccessfully fixed three or more time before you can invoke the law and get any joy.  I didn’t want to have to deal with that on a brand new car, anyway.

For better or for worse, I decided to take advantage of the still decent trade-in value and get a different Subaru.  At first I was thinking maybe a Forester would be good, as I’ve driven the 2015 and liked it.  More peppy than the Outback, even with the same 2.5 liter engine and CVT.  Odd, I know.  But when I was on the dealer’s site checking out their inventory, I noticed they had two 2016 WRX’s in stock.  Around these parts, a new WRX is pretty rare.  In fact, last year when I bought my Outback, I was originally looking for a WRX but they weren’t available at all in the Northwest at the time.  Plus the Outback was “more practical” I told myself, and settled on that.  Turns out I really haven’t taken advantage of the Outback’s practicality, and since I also have a real Jeep Cherokee, I don’t really need another off-roady vehicle anyway.

I test drove both of the WRX’s: a red one with CVT, and a silver manual.  I liked the CVT but I don’t like red.  And I am still a little doubtful of the CVT’s durability in light of my experience with the Outback, despite the claim that the WRX’s CVT is “high torque” to handle more power, etc.  Plus, manual transmissions are funner to drive, and I really missed not having one for 10 years or more.  So I traded in the “old” Outback for a new WRX Limited!!

I gotta say, this is by far the funnest car I’ve ever owned or driven.  It just sticks to the road like glue, even going fast on a 270 degree off-ramp.  And when the turbo kicks in, it likes to slam you back into your seat.  The first couple of days I was literally scared of this car, fearing I had bitten off more than I could chew.  Fortunately, the human mind is pretty adaptable and now it doesn’t feel fast enough!  To be fair, I’m still driving it pretty easy for the first 1000 miles to break it in.  But I just love driving this machine.  It is so precise, fast, stops quickly, has a great touchscreen head unit, nice alloy wheels, moonroof, heated leather seats, etc.

Plans for the near future are window tinting and paint protection film, probably Xpel brand?  After the warranty runs out in 7 years, I may mod it with a bigger turbo and better exhaust.  But this thing is great just like it is!

It seems that when I find something I like, I never get just one.  Especially when it comes to shoes and clothes.  You just never know if the same offering is going to be available when your current shoes are worn out and you want to replace them.  Hence the reason I have so many pairs of shoes, backpacks, kilts, etc.

Usually, this philosophy does not hold up in the computer technology realm due to the rapid rate of obsolescence.  You wait until your current hardware can’t keep up anymore, and get a new one.  However, in the case of the Acer Chromebook C2720, it is somewhat applicable.  Why?  The newer Chromebooks are all slimming down and that means no upgrades of any components.  And since they are generally skimpy on local storage, that’s unfortunate.  Enter the Acer C720, which has an upgrade-able SSD card.  Sure it voids the warranty to upgrade it, but who cares with something this cheap?  Also, you can get a C720 with the more powerful quad-core Core i3 CPU and 4GB of RAM.  Couple that with an upgraded 256GB SSD and you have a hell of a Chromebook.

And yes, I should have bought an Acer C720 first instead of getting the Samsung.  But the Samsung was on sale locally and I could play around with it, and fell in love with it!!  I still love it.  But I also like to tinker and tweak.  So I ordered a slightly used gray Core i3 C720 on eBay.  Well, I say I ordered one, but I did not receive it.  Rather, I got a white C720P with a Celeron and 2GB of RAM.  Apparently the seller is completely computer illiterate and had no idea what they were selling.  But for the price I paid at $240 or so, a like-new C720P is still a good machine.  It’s faster than the Samsung Chromebook 2, and has a nice touch screen.  So I went easy on them and just decided to keep it, giving them neutral feedback instead of negative.  Worked out well in the end for everyone.  And I think I finally learned my lesson to not buy computer equipment on eBay.

I upgraded the white C720P with a 128GB MyDigitalSSD SuperCache 2 42mm M.2 SSD.  It’s great now!

But still, I really wanted that Core i3 C720.  And I finally found a really good deal on a new one at Tiger Direct.  I even got a $20 off coupon when shopping for it, so out the door including 2nd Day Air shipping – $319 I think?  Much better price new than anywhere else.  I also upgrade its SSD with a MyDigitalSSD Super Boot Drive 42mm M.2 unit, and it rocks.  Fast, good battery life, and lots of local storage.

So yes, now I have three little Chromebooks.  But I don’t have to worry about synchronizing settings, etc. across the three — Google does it for me.  Even newly downloaded apps and my wallpaper follow me around from Chromebook to Chromebook.  Guess that’s one of the reasons why so many schools have switched to this platform.  I really hope Google keeps it around, even if that means folding it into some kind of laptop version of Android with ChromeOS features sometime down the line.

Chromebooks — been hemming and hawing about getting one of these for a couple of years.  The idea really intrigued me, and I even tried to get a custom build of ChromeOS to work on a couple of my laptops, to no avail.  So far, nothing really struck my fancy in terms of price/performance ratio until I saw this little 11 inch Samsung Chromebook 2 with the Intel processor at Fred Meyer last night.  It was on sale for $219, and after playing with it in the store for about 30 minutes, I was hooked.  I checked review online while I was in the store, and also compared prices to the higher performance Chromebook offerings.  But for my needs, this just couldn’t be beat for the price.

What I like about it:

• Great quality LCD screen
• Perfect size – fits perfectly in my Maxpedition Narrow Look bag
• Very lightweight
• Long battery life (9+ hours)
• Inexpensive
• Solid build/finish
• Plenty good performance for everything I do
• Stays cool without the need for a (noisy) fan

What I would like different:

• More RAM.  These Chromebooks usually only have the option of 2GB or 4GB soldered on the motherboard.  Would be great to have an 8GB option just for fun.
• Larger SSD than 16GB, and the ability to upgrade it, too.  A few other Chromebooks have the ability to upgrade the mSATA SSD.  However, this is not a huge issue because there is a nice recessed and covered Micro SD card slot, and this allowed me to easily boost the effective local storage by 128GB.

Ah, I just ordered a Bark River Pro Scalpel 3V knife with natural canvas micarta handle scales.  Little by little, my collection is growing.  I hope some day to have one of each of the Bark River knife models.  They make such fantastic knives at pretty reasonable prices (considering they are still completely made in the USA).

The Pro Scalpel is a small knife, but it’s made from CPM 3V steel, which imbues it with enough strength for it to handle larger tasks.  I have a few of the pretty large Bark River knives like the Golock, Grasso Bolo I, Magnum Fox River, Bravo 1.5, etc. but I really find that their small to medium sized knives are the most useful.  I debated getting the newer “improved” Pro Scalpel II, but it’s “mere” A-2 tool steel and also cost $30-40 more.

Also, most of their knives are convex ground, which makes for very easy edge maintenance with a simple leather strop impregnated with the gray and green abrasives.  It took me a while to get the “feel” for sharpening with a strop, but I am now good enough that I can get and keep all my convex knives super razor sharp.  The trick is to obtain a feel for meeting the knife edge to the strop, and not applying too much pressure.  I wasted a lot of time “sharpening” my knives at too shallow of an angle, trying to avoid “rounding” off the edge.  However, this merely just polishes the “shoulder” of the blade, and doesn’t sharpen the knife at all.  I eventually learned how to feel when the edge is contacting the strop at just the right angle.  That skill combined with ever resisting the urge to apply too much pressure is what you need to be a good convex blade sharpener.  You can watch all the YouTube videos you want, but you still have to put in the “time” actually using the strop to get the feel and become good at sharpening.