Post a Picture of Your Silly Purchase of the Month.

No photo because I am lazy, but after seeing Jim Sterling cranking off about Nintendo's treatment of ROM sites my wife convinced me to set up a Retropie machine for old games. It's amazing how few titles ever have any likelihood of remaining commercially available and playable. While many of those "lost" titles might indeed be mediocre to poor, many of them are also a part of my personal history and memory.

I bought another controller!

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But this one's special because it wraps around my Surface Go!

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It even works with the classics!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/AAI4sM5.jpg)

Lazy couch gaming, here I come.

Looks like a batarang. Nice!

How are you liking your Surface Go?

LeapingGnome wrote:

How are you liking your Surface Go?

I'm really liking it a lot. It's nice and light, the keyboard is great after you get used to it, and it's full Windows - unlike an iPad. I still prefer my iPad for consuming media, but the Go is what I carry back and forth to work now.

I’ve been looking at the possibility of a windows tablet that can run Hearthstone and HSDecktracker. Still a bit too expensive for me, but someday...

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Amazon calls it a "Curved Trihedron Magic Cube", but I just call it a "3-sided" cube. It solves mostly like a normal cube, except because there are duplicate edge pieces (white-blue, white-red, red-blue) it's possible to appear to 'solve' the first two layers but have the 3rd layer in an 'unsolvable' state. It adds a little extra twist.

RawkGWJ wrote:

I’ve been looking at the possibility of a windows tablet that can run Hearthstone and HSDecktracker. Still a bit too expensive for me, but someday...

I was going to mention it running well on even 4 year old Atom-based Windows tablets, but the official minimum RAM is 3GB!?

Looking back a bit...

Stele wrote:

Interesting. RAV4 hybrid is tempting. We currently have a Mazda and like it so maybe the Mazda CX-5 in the similar size. But the hybrid gas mileage at least makes me want to test drive and see.

I'm probably also about to buy a RAV4 hybrid. It's competing with a Subaru Outback for my affections; I like the Subaru a smidge more but not for reasons I can quantify, while my wife likes the RAV4 hybrid because it's a hybrid. (though the actual MPGs are pretty close). I figure I'll get my emotional satisfaction by getting the electric blue one instead of boring ol' silver- after eleven years in a black Saab wagon I think I want something shinier. (My wife observed, and it still holds, that most of the cars on the road would fit right into the color scheme of The Matrix.)

qaraq wrote:

(My wife observed, and it still holds, that most of the cars on the road would fit right into the color scheme of The Matrix.)

This is true. Once you notice that almost every vehicle is white, black, or silver, it's hard to un-notice. Charitably, white, black, and silver are classic schemes, but holy crap it bores me. My own ride is British Racing Green, and I'm genuinely delighted when I see someone on the road in an outrageous yellow, neon purple, or other fun colour.

Coldstream wrote:
qaraq wrote:

(My wife observed, and it still holds, that most of the cars on the road would fit right into the color scheme of The Matrix.)

This is true. Once you notice that almost every vehicle is white, black, or silver, it's hard to un-notice. Charitably, white, black, and silver are classic schemes, but holy crap it bores me. My own ride is British Racing Green, and I'm genuinely delighted when I see someone on the road in an outrageous yellow, neon purple, or other fun colour.

Yep. Noticed this while trying to entertain my nephew on a car trip. "There's a white car. And that one's white. They are all white..." (He had fallen asleep anyhow, so that was fine too.)

I notice that shades of red aren't uncommon, but it's hardly a dent in the sea of monochrome on the freeways.

Almost makes me wish I hadn't gotten a mostly black car... but I love the green secondary scheme on it.

Yup, I noticed that when I got my car. It's a pretty bright blue with a little bit of flake in it so it sparkles a tiny bit. I looked out my office window and saw that the only cars in the parking lot that weren't black, white, silver, or a very muted green or something were my car and the safety orange Tesla Roadster the next lot over. I've pretty much decided that from now on, I'm only getting iteresting-colored cars.

It's also safer. Ever noticed how on a cloudy day, those dark gray cars are basically camouflage. If they don't have their lights on, you can't see the damn things.

After reading these I decided to watch the cars drive by the parking lot I am currently in.

Black, White, White, Silver, Silver, Red, White, White Gray, Black, Champagne, White, White, Black, Silver, Red, Green.

Thanks for doing this to me!

Chaz wrote:

I've pretty much decided that from now on, I'm only getting iteresting-colored cars.

Unfortunately that is easier said than done, if you look at the spec sheets for most new cars, you are lucky if they have something as bold as a maroon as a color option. There certainly are some exceptions, but they tend to be the cheapest or the most expensive cars out there; things like fiat 500s and Lamborghinis. VW is making some colors available on the top of the line Golf R (though not any other Golfs), but it is a $2500 option to get a not boring color.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

After reading these I decided to watch the cars drive by the parking lot I am currently in.

Black, White, White, Silver, Silver, Red, White, White Gray, Black, Champagne, White, White, Black, Silver, Red, Green.

Thanks for doing this to me!

The Mercedes S-Class is available in 5 'shades' of black:
https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehic...

imbiginjapan wrote:

The Mercedes S-Class is available in 5 'shades' of black:
https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehic...

and 3 more that don't have "black" in the name, but at least on their configuration page look like they might as well be black. Your remaining options are two grays, two silvers (totally not gray folks), and two whites.

Hey, there's a dark blue in there!

Good thing I'm probably not going to be getting a new car any time soon. Of course, I also want another manual transmission, and those are also going away in the US. So basically, the US auto market is dumb and boring.

I would love a car with Android Auto though.

i'll drop it after this, but here's the Golf R in Canada versus the US. WTF?

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imbiginjapan wrote:

i'll drop it after this, but here's the Golf R in Canada versus the US. WTF?

...

I think that is addressed by the "Spektrum Program" that gives 40 more color options (for only $2500 more!):
IMAGE(https://newspress-vwusamedia.s3.amazonaws.com/images/thumbnail/8614-SquareSpektrum4.jpg)

I saw an article on this awhile ago, the bottom line is that even when they have the option Americans reliably pick "boring" colors. I can't remember the reason, I think it had to do with fears of affecting resale value.

My current car is the only car I have owned that was neither white or black. It's gray. I picked gray because the choices I had were red or gray. I don't like red. I like gray on a car because any other color goes well with it. If I decide to get orange wheels it would look okay....I got black wheels.

I would also posit that the reason for so many white and silver vehicles these days is because they hide dirt very well, so they don't have to be washed as often. Speaking from experience, black is the absolute worst color for hiding dirt. They look great right after being washed, but damn, they get dirty so quickly.

Gods damn I want a purple car so bad.

The car carrier I saw today.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/GHAoc12.jpg)

If you want cool colors, you can probably get it wrapped with just about any color you can think of for around 3 grand. Also protects the paint.

MeatMan wrote:

I would also posit that the reason for so many white and silver vehicles these days is because they hide dirt very well, so they don't have to be washed as often. Speaking from experience, black is the absolute worst color for hiding dirt. They look great right after being washed, but damn, they get dirty so quickly.

My R8 is the best for hiding dirt. It's a matt blue. I wash it maybe once a year and other than brake dust on the wheels, you wouldn't know.

All my cars are some variant of blue and have been since '97

Ranger Rick wrote:

If you want cool colors, you can probably get it wrapped with just about any color you can think of for around 3 grand. Also protects the paint. :)

Yup. I almost got my Rav4 wrapped (I was quoted $2400), but I like the metallic aqua mica. Nobody can tell if it's green, black, or blue (the salesman and I flipped a coin for the registration, so it's legally blue, I guess). Oh! If you're financing, you can just add the cost of wrapping into your car loan.

Not a very pricey purchase, but I love it nonetheless. You'll never see it coming ...

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I got my 2017 CRV in what I swear was called "Magma" but now is "Molten Lava Pearl". It's a deep red with irridescent flakes that give it an orange glow in sunlight. Really striking and eye-catching. It jumped out at me from about 50 yards away on the sales lot, in the midst of hundreds of other vehicles. I love the color. It's the first red car I've had.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/H4Nnl58.jpg)
Fresh from the truck/boot of my car.