Fleet Update! (Maybe Final?)

"Mercedes Streeter" (smart) 10/19/2020 at 14:36 • Filed to: gambler 500, diesel

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I have no idea what will become of this Kinja account on next Monday. Maybe I’ll keep it but have a second for the FP...maybe this one will be the FP...not really sure. But I have a couple updates to pump out before then!

(Edit: I apologize for how blurry a few of these pictures are. No idea why Kinja’s downgrading photo quality on this post.)

After seeing Sheryl love driving the Gambler 500 so much to the point where she never wants to be a navigator again, our friends suggested we create our own Gambler team that mixes “transgender” and “transcend” together. We liked that idea and thus launched Team TransSenders! We’re only a team of three thus far with her Camry, a friend with their Pontiac Torrent, and my latest sketch find, a diabolically cheap 6.0 (RIP) Powerstroke van!

This hunk of American workhorse has a couple new injectors, a few years of service records, and runs like a champ. AC and cruise control even work! Amazingly, it’s the first high mileage Powerstroke I’ve ever seen that doesn’t leak some sort of fluid. Its only real problem is that the rocker panel under the side cargo doors is...practically nonexistent. Nothing a new rocker and some rivets can’t solve.

I’d rather have a 7.3 but for the purpose of gambling? This will do fine. We wanted a van going into the winter Gambler 500 season so we don’t have to freeze to death in a tent (or pay for one of those fancy winter tents). So of course I wanted it to be special in some way.

The next Gambler run will be Southern Indiana. We’ll be bringing the van and her graffiti Camry.

She was going to install the flat tow kit that shop teacher gave me last year...but that’s not really going to work after we kinda ripped off the entirety of the front end’s crash structure.

Yeeeeeaaaaaah, don’t try recovering a really stuck 1 ton Chevy with your Camry.

The Camry will continue with its graffiti theme while the van will get a simple theme as well.

The van’s theme will be NASA inspired. “ABG” NASA-ish logo, a couple “STS-420" decals, maybe a red and blue stripe, and for fun, a couple decals that say “Free 10mm Sockets”. I wanted to get a spacesuit costume but all the ones in my size are sold out, so I’ll just roll with a flight suit costume with a spray painted motorcycle helmet.

Finally, since Sheryl decided to turn her rusting daily into a gambler car, I decided to buy her a new daily for her birthday. And what better daily than a dream car daily! She’s always wanted an HHR so like she made a school bus happen for me, I made an HHR happen for her! 

Stay tuned, you’re going to end up seeing a lot more of me!

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 14:41

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Totally opposite situation, but Stef’s account is still active and she does come here every once in a while. And the FP people do post to their personal blogs from their mains from time to time...

I’m looking forward to your FP content!

Chariotoflove > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 14:43

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Wait, what happened?  You’re getting hired?  Did I blink at the wrong time again?

Mercedes Streeter > Chariotoflove 10/19/2020 at 14:48

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I’ve only somewhat hinted at it in a previous post and it seems those that read the hint got it. lol But yes! I’m getting out of IT and throwing my hat into the Jalop ring! :)

shop-teacher > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 14:48

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How many vehicles do you own now? Because I feel like you’ve bought one a week for the last like 6 weeks.

There is a very outside chance I may end up with another rally cross vehicle soon. If you don’t end up using that flat-tow kit , might you be willing to sell it back to me?

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 14:52

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Just ask that you use this for FP posting.  Several writers have posted to both Oppo and the FP from their account.  I think that a few of the FP writers still use their kinja accounts from back when they were on Oppo

phenotyp > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:04

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Whoa, missed that. Congratulations!

Future next gen S2000 owner > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:05

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How long before you move onto T he Drive?

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:06

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Congratulations! The FP could use a delightful original personality like you after all their talent bailed.

I would invest in a good camera and maybe read up on some photography techniques as I feel better photographic accompaniment would help your articles appear more polished and professional grade. Your Kinja formatting skills are already great and you have a very well developed writing style so I’m sure you’ll do great. I look forward to seeing you writing for the FP (if I can navigate the terrible UI).

Chariotoflove > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:07

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Well congrats and good luck!

jminer > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:10

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Congrats on the new gig!

Mercedes Streeter > shop-teacher 10/19/2020 at 15:11

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I’d be willing to give it back to you for free! I figure when we get the bus up and going we’ll just use a dolly.

Vehicle count is 11 after the school bus. Sold the Harley, sold the dying Nissan, sold the Ranger, etc. Her car count was 3, now down to 2 after getting rid of her Subaru.

We plan on buying a gambler’s house and land once they set sail for Tennessee. The hardest part about having this many vehicles hasn’t been the maintenance/repairs , but rather just finding a place to keep them all. lol

Mercedes Streeter > Future next gen S2000 owner 10/19/2020 at 15:13

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I plan to be here until the heat death of the universe, joining forces with DT and Torch alike!

Mercedes Streeter > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 10/19/2020 at 15:15

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Thanks!!! A new camera will basically be my first purchase. Love my phone but it s little shooter won’t cut it on a professional scale . :) I’m also going to learn some photo manipulation stuff for snazzy lede photos and such.

Not sure why Kinja decided to make the pics all blurry on this post. I guess Kinja’s having a Monday. lol

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:17

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HOW DO YOU AFFORD THINGS

ibRAD > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:21

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Nice! Congrats.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:23

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You don’t have to go all out but a half decent DSLR will make a world of difference. I’d also consider keeping a cheap point and shoot with a good zoom lens around because even that is a shockingly large improvement over a phone camera and sometimes you just want a quick shoot. I’ve got an old hand me down that I sometimes pull out for more scenic locations. 

Kinja recently seems to have updated to increase compression and really increase compression in some photos for some reason, usually vertically oriented ones. No idea why. If it posted the same pic in the comments it’s not compressed like that.

Mercedes Streeter > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 10/19/2020 at 15:25

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Way better!!! Let’s see, that was taken with an iPhone SE (the new one), edited to have the license plate blocked out , uploaded to Facebook, downloaded by me, then compressed like hell by Kinja. xD

And note to my girlfriend to take pics in landscape mode if she wants me to feature them. :)

Any camera recommendations?

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:25

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Horizontal orientation is more professional and Kinja makes vertical shots distractingly large on the page by default. 

Mercedes Streeter > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 10/19/2020 at 15:34

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Agreed! Oppo is more casual than professional so I do a whole lot less editing here than I would on an article I really care about.

I’ll occasionally use a portrait oriented picture here and there, but I’ll put them into a sidebar so the output doesn’t look outrageously large.

A decent example would be one of my final Out Motorsports entries!

https://outmotorsports.com/2020/10/adventures-in-restoring-an-800-holy-grail-vw-passat-w8-4motion-manual/

OH! Any recommendations for a decent camera?

Mercedes Streeter > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 10/19/2020 at 15:37

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Dual income, no kids, and very very very few living expenses! My girlfriend (lawyer) and I (soon to be former IT) live in a tiny apartment. Max money for fun!

Tekamul > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:39

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I nside my head that lede shot is a still from a Lemons- style forest rally.

Co ngrats on the FP bump, I expect they'll make a new account.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:49

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No, but if you want to ask a few people over on Photograph Kinja you ’ll get loads of responses.

https://photography.kinja.com/?_ga=2.40752290.1234928721.1602605967-1571130833.1602605967

CompactLuxuryFan > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 15:56

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So you’re also stopping writing for them? I feel kinda bad for Out Motorsports. I don’t get why their content seems to get so little engagement.

Mercedes Streeter > CompactLuxuryFan 10/19/2020 at 15:59

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I’ll have more details about what I can and cannot do in the coming days. I hope I’ll still be able to fire off an article for OMS here and there. OMS wasn’t a paid thing so I don’t see any true conflicts of interest.

Readership at Out Motorsports is higher than ever, though indeed the engagement is a tad weird. I think most of the engagement comes from Instagram and Facebook. Perhaps Wordpress isn’t the best platform for reader engagement?

shop-teacher > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 16:44

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Cool! Thanks! Keep it for now, because it may not happen. It depends on what I get for that F-150, and how irresponsible I decide to be with that money. I really should use it to replace the rockers on my Sierra, or do some other adult-type thing with it ... but we’ll see.

Wow. That is a crazy big fleet! I’d be critical, but while I would have chosen different vehicles than you, if I wasn’t married to a normal person I’d have a huge fleet of shit-boxes too.

Textured Soy Protein > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 17:41

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The easiest entry point into professional-ish looking photo & video stuff is the advanced point & shoot cameras with 1" image sensors. The sensors on these are much larger than phones which gives you better low-light capability, more ability to blur the background in shots, and just generally better image quality. Some of them are pocket camera size and others are SLR size with more zoom range.

The features you want to focus on are good image stabilization (helps with low light & smooths out video), a screen that flips around for selfie/vlog shooting, and ideally, a mic input jack so you can add external mic(s) as the internal mics on all cameras are usually trash. If you’re going to be doing a lot of vlogging, phase detect autofocus helps immensely with keeping your face in focus.

The mic jack limits you to the big SLR style ones and only 3 pocket-size options (Canon G7X III, Sony ZV1, or Sony RX1oo VII). The phase detect AF is a similarly uncommon feature.

Depending on budget, on the cheap end, you can get a used Panasonic FZ1000. It’s an older model but has those first 3 features I mentioned . There’s no touchscreen or phase detection but it has a bunch of zoom range. Panasonic’s autofocus isn’t the greatest for vlogging either.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-FZ1000-Digital-Camera-Black/402491170287

Depending on how much you want to spend and what exactly you’ll think you’ll be doing I can help you narrow down other choices. 

Mercedes Streeter > Textured Soy Protein 10/19/2020 at 18:35

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*Bows* You’re awesome! Thank you so much!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Mercedes Streeter 10/19/2020 at 18:44

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No id ea how you can get away with such cheap living expenses! I am not even sure if I’ll be able to afford a house and th e mortgage payments plus internet, and phone and food and all that stuff...I guess the two of you being there would help a lot though!

TheBlightOfGrey > Mercedes Streeter 10/28/2020 at 14:05

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When you do go to buy land take a page from David Tracy’s non-play book and buy someplace where they don’t have  HOA covenants. Although I’m sure you’re in good hands having a lawyer in on the deal.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Mercedes Streeter 10/28/2020 at 14:13

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Congrats on the new gig!

Amoore100 > Mercedes Streeter 10/28/2020 at 17:46

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That’s awesome, c ongrats! You’ve come so far in the past few years, and I’ve loved watching you every step of the way. I t’s about time you get a proper platform to share your story. Hope to still see you around Oppo!