Post Number 23: A Thousand Pageviews and About The Author

Your intrepid author confusing a GT-R for a Model T. Image credit: Amber
Today marks two milestones in the short life of this blog – over 1000 pageviews (Thanks to you all for your time!) and the 23rd post since it began. Given the significance I thought it shouldn't be some run-of-the-mill post...but since I didn't have some of the more interesting articles ready yet I thought I'd bore you all by talking about your humble author since I never properly introduced myself before.

Well, to he honest I figured this would also allow you to get a better idea of the source of the articles here since I myself would prefer to know some background about a writer rather than just choosing to believe an anonymous source on the interwebs. So, with that said...

My name is Oliver (yes, I know, not a very cool name – but it works to keep me from getting confused with random serial killers) and I currently live in the great state of Arizona. I was born and raised in the wonderfully wacky islands of the Philippines but moved to the US over a decade ago. Because I was raised in a great family with a healthy mix of Asian and Western viewpoints my friends branded me an American as soon as I set foot on California soil. The US government just decided to make it official later on.

Being a crazy nut obsessed with my various hobbies is really what should be considered my profession, but I pretend to be a serious health professional to pay the bills. In my short life so far I've dabbled in all manner of interests ranging from mundane coin and stamp collecting as a kid to more extreme pursuits like car and motorcycle track days, scuba diving, and desperately hiding my geekdom from public knowledge. I was also one of the editors for my high school's two newspapers and was volunteered (I was a lazy young git) for various writing contests at that time. Oddly enough, some crazy people thought my output was coherent enough to give me awards. Whatever little writing skill I have I've passed onto a gaggle of trained monkeys that put out these blog posts in exchange for the odd banana so I can dedicate my time to my hobbies.

My current main interests are modifying and collecting cars, anime and Japanese culture, traveling, firearms, motorcycles, hiking and camping, video games, and reading. Yeah, I know, that last one is so extreme hardly anyone does it anymore.

Since this is a car blog, you're probably more interested in my vehicular background. I'm a second-generation gearhead, having inherited my fascination from my father who owned an eclectic selection of cars ranging from a Ford V8 (very unusual for the Philippines) to an apple green Mitsubishi Celeste (Plymouth Fire Arrow to yankees) to a ubiquitous VW Beetle. Unfortunately, he died relatively young in his mid-50s from multiple strokes but not before our family bought a Nissan California (a wagon version of the Nissan Sentra) that kicked off our family's Nissan fandom.

At various times I've owned a 1995 Nissan Sentra Super Saloon, a 2002 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, a 2005 Infiniti G35 6MT coupe, a 2011 Honda Fit Sport, a 2007 Suzuki SV650S, and a 2005 Kawasaki Ninja 500. Currently I have the two GT-Rs I've talked about on this blog, a 2013 Scion FR-S for daily driving duties, a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder SE, and a 2006 Suzuki GSX-R750. In addition to the cars I've owned I've driven a wide variety of vehicles ranging from a base-model Dodge Neon that I used to scare a friend enough to swear never to ride with me again, to a Ferrari 458 and a Lamborghini Aventador.

My driving experience started out in the crazy traffic of the Philippines where everyone thinks they're Michael Schumacher but usually end up like Pastor Maldonado. After coming to the US, the mostly organized and law-abiding (i.e. boring) traffic here probably was what drove me to do trackdays of which I've done nearly thirty as of this writing, on both two and four wheels. I've attended the California Superbike School as well as the Jim Russell Driving School and been lucky to go to the inaugural Nismo Performance Academy. I regularly attend NASA HPDE events when time allows.

I don't consider myself a gifted mechanic in any way but I have muddled through various jobs ranging from basic maintenance to installing new lights and alarms to swapping a CV joint and doing some basic modifications like body kits, exhausts, ECU flashes, and intakes. I've yet to own a vehicle I don't give enough of a sh*t about however to risk doing big jobs like engine teardowns with my fists of ham and fingers of butter.Finding an old 510 or 240SX to get some experience in those big jobs was a thought recently but then my Nismo R32 fell into my naïve hands.

Which brings us to the genesis of this blog. When I was researching my Skyline purchase I found almost no info on the internet about the realities of owning an R32 here in the USA so I decided to start this blog to try and contribute to the petrolhead community. Hopefully you've found the posts interesting so far.

In case you're worried that writing about myself is a sign I've run out of good material, don't worry because coming soon I have posts about some rare Skylines, some DIYs, handy things for the GT-R owner, and where to buy parts for your R32. I hope you'll be back to check those out!


Comments

  1. Nice to meet you Oliver. And thanks for putting together this blog. It is extremely informative and is definitely helping me prepare for the impending arrival of my R32. I look forward to upcoming posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice to meet you too. Happy to hear people find it helpful and I haven't just been talking to myself lol.

      Delete
    2. Oliver, thanks for the informative article about the R32 base model vs the NISMO, it was very helpful. I am currently trying to import a NISMO from Japan and have found one that looks good. It has been in a front fender bender and has a few issues but looks like a genuine NISMO based on your blog. Can I send you some photos of it for a second opinion?
      Thanks
      Scott

      Delete
    3. Glad you found the info helpful! Sure, feel free to email me at 23gtblog(at)gmail.com and I'll be happy to check out your pics!

      Delete

Post a Comment