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I picked up Wordplay thanks to the VT library’s immense collection of new and hard-to-find DVDs. It’s a documentary about crossword puzzles. Sounds pretty boring, right? Who wants to watch over an hour’s worth of footage of geeks gathering and competing in a national crossword puzzle event?

I’ll tell you who: every nerd, geek, and any person who has ever had an interest in something that the mainstream considers lame. If you’ve ever drooled over the Star Wars films as a child, if you ever thought 3D art was absolutely mind-blowing, if you laugh at math jokes, you will adore Wordplay. Not only is the movie superbly produced, but it touches on the human element, requiring you to become sympathetic to their plight for friendship and community lest your own conscience be rendered frigid.

And there’s an added bonus to watching Wordplay: you’ll want to do a crossword puzzle when you’re done. I personally haven’t done a crossword puzzle in… a long time. I’m not a fan of doing them on newsprint, so I was glad to see that the NYTimes had some archived puzzles. Plus, when you’re doing a crossword on the computer, on the internet, well, you get to cheat.

That took me an hour to complete. And, I cheated without remorse, utilizing Google, Google Earth, Paralink Translator, and my thesaurus widget. Now I’m able to see the crossword puzzle appeal. If only I knew some more… stuff. I did one on global bodies of water, assuming that I knew more geography then fine arts or politics. If only they had an acoustics crossword, or physics - I’d lay a smackdown so intense as to induce a phase shift in the cosmic symphony.

Ok, so I’m going to go do some more puzzles. It’s not addicting yet, but, we’ll see.

In the search for an automobile, I eventually decided that only a well-maintained and used Volkswagen TDI should be my goal. Daily searching on craigslist, cars.com, autotrader, and moderately local eBay listings have given me a keen sense of price and reasonable expectations of vehicle condition. Today, I found an opportunity. And it was only 21 miles away.

This listing appeared on autotrader: a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle TDI, 5 speed. Yes, it has the 100k miles you’d expect of an 8-year-old vehicle, but the TDIs can last an elephantine lifetime. Yes, it’s a Beetle, and yes, it’s the flat lime green color probably more frequently driven by women… but, hey, it’s a TDI. I called the dealer and they said they were asking $8,000. I told them I’d be over after work.

The car was recently brought into the dealership on a trade-in and had neither been washed nor cleaned out yet. It has every single option available on the Beetles of 2000, with the exception of a CD player. Given that Beetles are typically cars for women, and given that it has heated seats, where was the CD player? Strange. But, never should I mind. It rode well, but oddly slow for a TDI, and would clearly look sharp once washed and cleaned with my engineering-type scrutiny. After the test drive (oh, how wonderful it felt to be behind a manual transmission TDI), the dealer rep told me that the vehicle was leaving for auction within a few days. If I wanted it, I could take it for $6,500 tonight.

Sixty-five means I could probably deal down to $5,800 or $6,000, which is pennies compared to other used TDIs on the market. My father scheduled to come over to check the car out and I waited in and around the TDI for an hour contemplating this vehicle. I called Becky so that she could give her opinion on me purchasing a Beetle. If her response was an emoticon, it wasn’t exactly a sad face but not exactly a weary face :/. So, I spent the rest of the time waiting for my father in deep thought about whether I should make this purchase and have disappointed (even slightly) my Becky. Once he arrived, we hit the road again with his more-diesel-tuned ears.

He also noticed the lack of zip in the TDI. On our second test ride, the dealer rep pointed out that a mechanic had said the turbo was “intermittent”. Or, in other words, the turbo was broken, messed up, something other than fully-functional. A TDI without the turbo is a slow, fuel-efficient car, probably not capable of maintaining the 60mph speed limit traveling up I-81 into Blacksburg on the 6% climb. Which is no different than my family’s trusty 1991 diesel Jetta. Even $6,000 for a TDI (more like DI) isn’t worth it if you have to replace the turbo ($2,000 estimated expense total) and then hope that the previous owner hadn’t destroyed the car by running it for so long without the turbo.

The final nail on the coffin was that the interior needed several fixes: a latch to be replaced here, a speaker needing fixing here, a button needing re-attachment there. Above all, Becky’s hesitance to see me drive around in a green Beetle - and dare I even ask her to be in the passenger seat while I piloted the car, she’d need dark sunglasses to hide her shame - was what really impressed me to pass up this deal. Yes, the car can be fixed in&out for about $2,500 more, but the utility of a Beetle doesn’t compare to that of a Golf or Jetta TDI. And the 45 mpg in a TDI isn’t worth the rolling eyes your girlfriend gives you when you pick her up in a lime green VW Beetle.

Catching up on 2 weeks’ worth of absence, I have been racing to complete some projects as the semester closed, rushing to sign some official documents for my GRA, savoring my time with Becky, and getting on the bike whenever possible. Yesterday I officially received a diploma for a Bachelor’s of something-or-other in Mechanical Engineering even though I just completed a 3rd semester of classes which count towards my Master’s degree. So, yesterday afternoon, I put the finishing touches on my bachelor’s education and can begin to forget the monotonous given-then-solve routines that I was so thoroughly a master of. I graduated magna cum laude with a firm handshake and a thank you square into the eyes of the Dean of Mechanical Engineering.

I’ve given a lot of thought to the future lately. My academics have morphed into a sort-of career with their own set of rules, expectations and authority figures. The convenience and utility of motor transportation has me searching for a proper automobile that could last me a long time. Becky is moving here in July - an event worthy of a billboard-sized countdown.

Everywhere I look, a serious disposition seems appropriate, though even better accompanied with a round of humor and lightheartedness. A coming-of-age is on the horizon, and I’ve not been blogging enough lately to look back and see the magnificent progression. I blame my extreme busyness due to this past semester’s finale, my exhausted eveningself for not having the capacity to contemplate and document my coming-and-goings.

So, enjoy some visuals while I get my documentarian self back in order.