The Top Failure

For the past couple of weeks I have been spending my hours working on my computer by writing coursework while watching Top Gear. An excellent show about cars that is also hilarious if you're not interested in cars, I found myself thinking about what cars I could possibly want to own if I could afford any.

Mustang Boss 302

SRT Viper

Toyota GT 86

But then I remembered two things:

a) How terrible my knowledge and evaluation of cars is.

b) How terrible at driving I really am. 

Addressing point b first, after graduating from university and doing a road-trip from the South to the North of the US I was most proud about parallel parking than anything else we had experienced that entire time. Also, I measure success in parking when in Hong Kong by determining whether I can get out of the car without damaging anything else rather than how straight or considerate my parking is to other people. A perfectly horrible trait when parking in a city with 7 million other people sharing the space normally allocated to 13. But perhaps my terrible driving skills are due to two things. One being the fact that when I drive I care very little about the actual control over the car but rather think I'm in some sort of game that I must win at all costs. The other thing is that maybe the above mentioned issues are more related to parking and my immaturity than skill. 

But more important is point a. When I think of the cars I have driven there are a variety of types of cars, some with good quality controls, some with less quality build. Some are basically classifiable as tractors while others were more like golf carts. But still I find the huge block of metal that we have in Hong Kong the most fun car to drive simply because it is a challenge. Just getting out of the garage is a thing of nightmares, yet we have an ongoing competition among family members and perhaps should start a shame wall for people who cannot get out on the first go. Next comes the turning and handling of the car. Not only does it handle the way I imagine a whale would handle with a saddle attached, if you want to turn a corner you should devise a strategy about 20km away before engaging. However, the most fun part about the car is its attitude. It is so brute and large yet battered that it shouts to everyone driving by "I dare you to bump me! I'll push you off the f&#@*$^ planet!"

Education

For a little while now I had a sneaking suspicion that I was fooling myself. For a little while now I had realized that quite possibly I was faking intelligence all along and that I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the world. This sneaking suspicion was underlined by my classes where we had discussions about things I didn't know about or understood, and things I really should have known. Now I've been trying to read and catch up with things, reading the news and articles, hoping to be a little more educated. But this is the point where I realize why I didn't read these things in the first place:

The more I read about world politics and conflict and all that stuff around it the more I realize how much I hate people.

Now that I am feeling very much better and no longer have a raging fever I think the world thought I was enjoying life too much and decided that I should drop a plate weight from the gym on my toes...  Thanks.