Last week I open-sourced my car decision and asked for all of your comments.

Today I took the second step in my fact-gathering, car shopping expedition. Tyler, Stephanie and I headed out to the SanTan Auto Mall to test drive the top suggestions offered by all of you.

First on the list was Power Nissan to check out the Versa and to drive the Cube. Based on comments, I had expected the Versa to blow the Cube out of the water. While sporty with its hatchback and sizable trunk space, the car felt a bit cramped. Stephanie enjoyed the stadium-style seating, so those in the back can see past the driver and passenger. The car is not designed for the tall, or broad shouldered. I didn’t like how the driver’s seat is touching the door, added to the cramp feeling. On the highway, you can hear the engine – though it’s not bad for pickup. Fantastic turning radius.

Next was the Cube. Love the head room and seats are very comfortable. The engine noise is the same as in the Versa. I love, LOVE that the front window is far away from my face – opens up the car. I like feeling high up, which is achieved by the ability of the seat to be “pumped up”. Overall, my favorite pick – despite the fact that Clower thinks it will be keyed in the parking lot.

After Nissan, it was onto the Ford Focus. The salesman here was particularly swarmy and laid on the one-liners thick, including “What’d ya say, Katie? Could you see this beauty in your driveway?”. This salesman also did not know how to turn off the dealer alarm, so the first several minutes were spent awkwardly giggling at the constant honking. Once he managed to smack the alarm into submission, we took the Focus for a spin. I was not a fan from the start. It was a typical Ford and not all the hype everyone had worked it up to be. It’s a heavier car and very sturdy. It feels good to drive and has more pickup than the Nissans – also none of the noise. Great trunk space as well. All around great car, but not my type. The dash set up is annoying and the standard interior color of tan is grotesque. Additionally, even the most basic model is out of my price range.

So, it looks like the Nissan Cube. The price for a 2009 is right and it has the features I need. I may check out the Scion xB before making a final decision, but overall I fell in love with the Cube and it’s more my personality.

A tip on car shopping — I scheduled an appointment with a salesman that had been recommended by a friend, Jim Chikos. The mutual acquaintance eased the pressure of the sale and allowed us to speak openly. Additionally, Jim let my friends and I drive the car without him. As I have a natural need to fill awkward space, the lack of a salesman’s presence put me at ease and allowed me to focus on how the car felt. More likely to give him the sale, than swarmy Ford man.

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All this time I’ve had my heart set on the cube. Its clean corners and funky windows captured my little car-freak self.

But, I know I need to be realistic and try multiple options.

So I’m open-sourcing my car decision.

I’ll accept any comments, personal experiences, offers to go test-driving with me, etc. I have the month of March to weigh all the options, and then will purchase the car for my birthday in April.

Let me introduce you to the players:

Honda Fit
Nissan Cube
Nissan Versa
Ford Focus
Toyota Yaris
Hyundai Accent
Hyundai Elantra
Pontiac G3 (being shut down by GM)
Scion
Suziki Sx4 (been eliminated by Dad)
Chevy Cobalt

Here are the parameters:

• Must be under $17k
• Monthly payments must be less than $300
• Must have 4-doors, fold-able back seats
• Better than average gas mileage (i.e. over 30 city)

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A goldfish has the unique trait of growing based on the size of its environment. Therefore, a goldfish will stay small if it lives its life in say, an aquarium. It will grow until there is a lack of resources and stop – big fish in a little pond. The master of his castle.

Now put that same fish in a pond, and the fish will grow even bigger over time.

But for a little while, that big fish in a little pond becomes a little fish in a big pond.

And it sucks.

The once big fish that was used to having all the resources and the edge on all the other fish, is now at the bottom of the food chain. He has to fight for everything and gets pushed around.

But the goldfish will grow, eventually.

For most of my life, I’ve been a big fish in a little pond. I was top of my class in suburban high school. I lead a college organization with less than 100 active members. I work for an organization with 7 on staff.

But Phoenix is a big pond. I’m working alongside the likes of the ASU Sun Devil Entreprenership Network, Gangplank, Local First AZ, Ignite and camps galore. Expectations are higher. Being a heretic is expected, not optional.

It’s time for this little goldfish to start growing to my maximum potential.

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There are friends. And then there are ‘best’ friends. Typically there are only one or two that hold this title, but it is meant to set them apart from other friends and acquaintances.

These are the people that have been there during difficult times that other friends shy away from. They are the ones you call first, the ones you trust with information.

There’s a reason why boyfriends and girlfriends are referred to as ’significant’ others. The feelings we have for them are larger and more intense then those we have for friends or family. We want to be with them, involve them in decisions, expose our faults and explore the very depths of our being. They are more than ‘best’ – they are significant.

Best friends and significant others are the special ones…the elite. They are defined this way by how they are treated by you. They should be made to feel special.

Take a trip with the sole purpose of visiting a friend – not because they are located next to Vegas or you need a place to crash on your way to something else.

Have an event, action, term or location that is unique to your relationship – something you do with no one else. Save seeing a blockbuster movie, have a special restaurant or a song.

The same action for everyone means the same relationships over and over.

Make people feel special.

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With the exception of Casablanca and Newsies, I cannot repeat the lines of movies.

I can’t tell you who sang what song or how to add fractions.

But when it comes to American history, it seems that my memory remains fully intact.

I was blessed with amazing history teachers throughout my entire life. They did not have me memorize facts or watch boring documentaries. They involved me, made me feel like I was there.

When explaining the American Revolution, my 7th grade history teacher (Mr. Lademan), brought us out to the football field behind the school. He divided us, gave us some sticks and then had us walk towards each other. He finally told us to stop, maybe 5 feet from each other, and told us that was the firing range of the musket. Let me tell you, hearing that fact told in a classroom is not the same as staring into the eyes of your classmates at point blank range.

Not only did my teachers tell the stories, they made us tell them in our own way. Practically no one I know can tell me how World War I began. The reason it is embedded in my memory? I had to write, produce and act in a silent movie depicting the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

But it isn’t just remembering what happened and why. It is the goosebumps and personal connection I feel when visiting historical locations. The first time I went to Ellis Island, I found myself sitting in the main hall where the families would have waited, tears falling down my face. Even though the corn in the field at Antietam was less than a few weeks old, all I could see was trampled stalks stained with blood from Civil War soldiers.

My teachers instilled a deep love of history that is physically manifested – an appreciation for where I came from, and where I am going.

This video may be silly, but it is projects like this that sparked learning, understanding and connection.

Play with history. You’ll be better for it.

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“There’s no such thing as a free lunch”

Psh.

Mooching is the art of taking advantage of another person, or attempting to get something for free.

To be a successful moocher, you must both have genuine guilt and be able to turn the emotion off. For example, you must actually forget your wallet at home during a lunch with a colleague, but still have the lack of guilt to ask that they pay for your meal.

Second, you must be creative. Asking for a total sum of money is obvious – “can I have 5 dollars?” Asking for a small donation from lots of people – more likelihood you’ll succeed. I once asked each of my friends for various sized coins – a nickel here, quarter there – until I had enough money to purchase my entire lunch in high school.

Third, be cheap. Whenever going out to dinner with friends, express your poorness loudly and often. “Oh, I can’t drink tonight. I’ve got rent due this week.” “I was just going to order an appetizer. I can’t afford an entree. I’m really not that hungry anyway. What are you guys having?”

Fourth, be patient. The last two events I’ve gone to for free were simply because I waited to purchase tickets. Someone wasn’t able to get rid of them last minute – wallah.

Lastly, always have at least one friend/relative in the following professions:
- Press/Media
- PR (particularly sports or luxury)
- Tourism
- Airlines
- High-profile blogger

What’s your most impressive mooching story?

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People seem to be getting all in tizzy about getting questions asked of them on the new social site, formspring and why they aren’t getting more. There is even a button to ask yourself a question, should you not be receiving the amount of inquiries you would like. A high number of questions are associated with popularity, value, being interesting. And God forbid a social network dubs you uninteresting!

It’s a matter of being question worthy.

I live my life in the open. There is little mystery to me. Everyone knows who I’m dating because I blush every time someone mentions his name. If I’ve got an opinion, I rarely am able to hold it in. And since I’m a goody-goody, there’s little to my past that requires gossip and rumor.

That isn’t the case with all. As a result, people leap at the opportunity to anonymously ask all those incredibly personal and somewhat insulting questions they’d never think to ask in person. Strip away the mask! We demand you reveal yourself!

So become angry, mysterious and controversial or…

…be a leader.

Leaders attract questions worth reading. The conversation rises above gossip and drama to how to move things forward. It provides a glimpse into the mind of someone striving to be better. It provides a template for how to improve yourself and inspiration to get involved.

Stop being upset you aren’t getting asked questions and start becoming question worthy.

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The Subway by my work is a popular spot for local Chapparal high school students to hit for off-campus lunch. Every time I go to buy a sandwich, I wait in line behind 17-year-olds that drive Audis and play games on iPhones. And it angers me.

It angers because I highly doubt those teenagers have contributed financially to those purchases, nor provided any logical argument besides “everyone else has one”.

I started working at 15. I got a cell phone at 16, and a car at 17. I made payments to my Dad for that car – a broke down 1993 Dodge 4-door. My cell phone could do nothing but send/receive calls. I insisted on paying for my clothes. When I got to college, I wanted to pay my own insurance. I didn’t want an allowance from my parents and any traveling I saved up for myself.

And now I’m saving up for my first car. I live on my own, I pay all my own bills and I put myself through grad school.

The lesson here is there is a difference between necessity and luxury that teaches kids to be self-reliant and understand the value of a dollar.

I understand that cell phones are a necessity these days. An iPhone is not. An iPhone is a luxury for a teenager. They do not need to play games, receive email or write blogs from their phone. All they need is to be able to tell parents and friends where they are. A parent should pay for necessity – the child should pay for luxury.

Before Christmas, Justin McHood wrote a blog post asking people to provide input on whether his 10-year-old daughter should get a cell phone. She wrote a letter providing her argument and offered to contribute the $40 she had saved toward the purchase of the phone. It is an excellent argument, and were she my child, I would have given it to her.

If a child wants a necessity to become a luxury, they should contribute. Want a nice car as opposed to something with 4 wheels? Get a job and save. Want brand name clothes from Nordstrom’s as opposed to Old Navy? Give me the dough.

Necessity is not an argument for anything other than the basic model.

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I never would have known Santa wasn’t real if no one had told me. I didn’t find out by staying up all night or seeing the toys in the trunk of my mother’s car. It is completely possible that I could have grown up believing he was real if the kids at school hadn’t told me.

Would it have really been a problem?

As we grow up, we learn. We adapt characteristics into our  personalities from our environment, our friends and family members. There are some behaviors we learn that to us are completely normal based on our environment.

Until someone tells us they are not.

I couldn’t go back to believing Santa was real after I was told he was not. Even if I had, there would have always been that nagging thought in the back of my head.

Once a behavior is pointed out to, you can’t go back to acting the exact same way as before you knew. It’s the same as how actions change when people know they are being watched.

If an action isn’t hurting anyone, no matter how awkward or strange, should we point it out? Is it really a problem?

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Out of the many discussions in my graduate journalism classes, only a few stick out. One in particular debated whether journalists should be “typecast” to a certain type of story based on their ethnic or cultural background.

For example, should a reporter with a Hispanic last name cover stories on immigration? Does it leave the door open to be bias or does it make the reporter appear less bias?

Personally, I don’t have an opinion on it. But it has stuck in my mind because of the local NPR station, KJZZ.

Each time that KJZZ covers a story on Arpaio or immigration, Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez seems to always be the reporter. It brings me back to this discussion. Does she choose to cover these stories or is she assigned? If she does choose them, is it a personal connection? If she does not choose them, why does the station assign her to those particular stories over others?

I’m particularly interested as to what journalists currently working in the field think, and whether this practice exists in newsrooms – or just in the minds of overzealous grad students.

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