Faith and Cynicism

While I was laughing because of one of our dear friend's poems, (and it was really funny) my own excellent Colleen informed me (blandly) that I was the most cynical person she knew. I thought 'this cannot be true!' I don't think of myself as being especially cynical, especially not to the degree of being an outlier. So I went to look it up, on Wikipedia, of course. I'll just insert the first line.
"Cynicism is an attitude or state of mind characterized by a general distrust of others' apparent motives, or a general lack of faith or hope in the human race."
Oh, well, that's OK then. A general lack of faith in the human race doesn't seem particularly inappropriate; but I don't want to belabor the point, many better thinkers than me have been over that ground. But I also hope that by now I've assimilated more of the Gospel into my thinking than that. Sure we're going to do bad things, and suffer in our turn, and then die lingering, painful deaths (as Evan Wilson assures us), but in the middle of that, in the middle of all of that, God loves us, and nothing can snatch us out of his hand. Perhaps I don't have faith or hope in the human race per se, but I don't really feel the lack. God's faithfulness gives me faith. His love makes it possible for me to love, and this inevitably mitigates my cynicism a little. I hope.
PS: Colleen, my sister, my bride, be my Valentine.

In which we stop and ponder cars.

Well here I am buried in Language and System software, wondering how I can translate a CS degree into designing and building cars. There's no giant rush to figure it out, I just have this small obsession that won't go away. So I am going to humor myself for a moment and put up something about my own fantasy garage. Ok, not the garage per se, just the cars that persistently present themselves to my imagination. Here we go.

This, being my own car, may not qualify as a fantasy. But it sort of is; sometimes I just want to pinch myself and make sure I'm awake. The Mazda Miata is on everyone's list of the best sports cars ever, to the point that Jalopnik has banned it from it's own weekly top-ten lists on the grounds that it would be on all of them and can therefor be assumed. The same sort of deal occurs at LeMons races, where anyone showing up with either a Miata or a BMW E30 is handed a liberal collection of penalty laps, because otherwise no-one would race anything else and that would be no fun. Ask a question to the folks at Grassroots Motorsports. The answer is always Miata.
I've already mentioned car number two, also near the top of everyone's top ten list: the BMW E30. E30 refers to the chassis code of BMW's 3-series cars from 1985 to 1991. Still pretty light, but stiffer than it's predecessors, the E30 was very popular and they sold a lot of them. Which is good. Slightly bigger and heavier than the Miata, it is also holds more stuff and seats more people. BMW invented the whole idea of a sports sedan, and a lot of people still think this was their best one.

A lot of people will demand that I resign my Enthusiast card for this next one, but I can't help it. It is the 1995-2000 Buick Riviera. Not a performance car, but a luxury coupe. What's compelling about it is just the shape: it unites the sleek with the voluptuous in a way that I find irresistible. I'm not going to resist.

Here's another picture, because hey, I'm feeling a little defensive about it. All cars provide a means of transportation, but they could and should do more than that. This Buick does. If it's more sensual and soothing than exciting, that's still good, and it is very lovely to look at.

Just for comparison, here is a Jaguar XK6 from roughly the same era.

The design is more restrained in its elegance, more conservative. It has read Browning's "My Last Duchess" and learned it's lesson. I would like to drive them both, then decide.

But now to try to win my Enthusiast card back. Another persistent favorite of mine is the Lotus 7. Still in production after more that 50 years, it's simplicity and purity put it in a different class. The tiny Miata is a thousand pounds heavier.

At this point I'm way over-due to say something about the almighty Subaru WRX. This is Idaho after all, and when we have to go somewhere, sometimes what we need is a lot of power and some undefeatable all-wheel drive. All Hail.

I doubt I will ever be able to obtain anything other than 1:43 models of some of these, so I might as well round off the list with some cars that I love irregardless of the fact that other people own them and I never will.
Something with a Pininfarina badge, because art: the Fiat 124 Spider.

In the years between 1952 and 1962 or so, Studebaker made some really lovely cars.

A 1953 Studebaker Starlight.

A 1961 Studebaker Hawk. These cars were much smaller than most American cars of the era, and are as sleek and lovely as nearly any of the comparable European cars of the era. Just for comparison, here's a 1960 Ferrari Superamerica:

It makes me go back and puzzle about the Studebakers. Where did they fail? Did they have all that style lavished upon them only to be cursed with lame mechanicals? I want answers.

On a sunnier note, here's a  BMW 2002:

Oh, hey, every BMW.

Here's a pair of Porsches. There is no substitute.

A Cayman and a 911. I'd drive either if I had to. Ezra Dyer says that the Ultimate Porsche Driving Experience involves sliding backwards into a tree at 200 miles per hour. So at some point prior to that I should just settle. I guess. Got a Porsche in your barn? Consider donating it to me, you know, for Science.
These are a pair of micros from the fifties: A Messerschmidt Kabinroller on the left, and a BMW Isetta on the right. I have this feeling in my heart that the world will rediscover Micro cars in the not too distant future. A few companies are playing with the idea now. I want to get in on the fun.

I really like the concept of the Kabinroller, Cabin Scooter in English. Besides being a fun layout, something like this might really work in the Pacific Northwest: economical, eco-friendly, and rain-proof. Add modern mechanicals, modern materials, maybe AWD, and yes, I can see a market here. Must have enough power to go up these hills. Easy to do with today's engines. Ok, I'm on it. Raise some money, hire some engineers...