i'm in LA -- i've been trying to attend meetups that interest me. they're mostly out in the westside, though -- i'm in arcadia. getting out there is difficult.
there isn't a specific event to attend, but i signed up for startup weekend, which is coming up. hopefully there will be some cool people there :)
ah, but never buy rustproofing (or optional alarm, tint, etc.) from the dealer! those are the optional extras that are marked up 200-500%. there are specialty shops that will do the same exact thing for much cheaper.
also, every modern car sold today has anti-corrosion measures, as well as corrosion warranties, so i don't see why you would pay extra for rustproofing. this might've been a good idea 20 years ago, but i don't think it's necessary today.
drumset since middle school, orchestral percussion since about then too, and mallet percussion (and drumline stuff) since high school. wait, that sounds a bit misleading, since i don't do the orchestral, mallet, or drumline stuff anymore.
i also played piano since like 6. stopped when i hit high school.
"In a nutshell, a meaningless background was removed from a seller page. Pandemonium. After strong resistance the background was reinstated, to everyone’s satisfaction. In fact, the rebellious users were so placated that they failed to notice the designers slowly adjusting the background’s hex values over the next few months. The background got lighter and lighter until one day—pop!—it was gone."
i remember reading somewhere that ebay changed the background color of their homepage from gray to white, gradually, over 6 months, as not to alienate customers who were used to the gray. can't provide links, and sorry because this isn't really related. i just thought that was interesting. :)
i have a 2000 infiniti Q45 anniversary edition - insurance group coilovers, peak performance multilink, work euroline N in 19x9.5 ET8 19x10 ET-11. it's almost 6" lower than stock, and i'm running -7* camber. most car guys think i'm crazy for doing it, and i'm inclined to agree but it looks so cool! too bad it's so impractical: i got stuck on the driveway at in-n-out a few days ago, and i can't carry more than about 500lb in the car with me at any time (that includes passengers), otherwise i'll rub. the entire trip. or worse, pop the bead on the tires. oh well.
i'm thinking of selling it though and building a porsche 964, rauh-welt style:
mac pro + 30" cinema display, apple wired keyboard, and the kensington expert mouse trackball, running windows vista x64 almost exclusively. thinking about getting something with a 1600 horizontal resolution and running it rotated 90 degrees, like http://flickr.com/photos/blakespot/2371594617/in/set-7215760...
and for portable use, a macbook air also running vista x64.