As I was looking through the pictures in my computer that I have taken with my cell phone, many memories become vivid as I remember when I took each picture. A group of pictures caught my eye as I was searching through my photo album, the picture above. Looking at this picture for the first time, one may assume that I caused the damage on this car. In reality, this Honda Civic is my best friend's brother's car. One may ask how did this type of destruction was caused on this car, I shall give some background of how this tragedy occurred.

The night before my last final during spring quarter of 2007, I received a phone call from one of my good friends informing me that my best friend Kris had just gotten into an accident. This was also the night before my friends and I were going to go to Lake Tahoe to celebrate the end of a school year. Before I could panic my friend predicted that I was going to drive straight back to San Francisco right away and skip my final, but my friend told me not to worry because Kris was not injured. After my final I rushed home and went straight to the hospital to see my friend lying in a hospital bed with a broken tibia and tibia. To make matters even worse I thought Kris crashed his own car but I found out that he was driving his brother's car. This took a toll on all my friends and I because that Honda Civic meant more to us then just a regular car. We all put in time and effort to make that car the way it was. It took us about two years to get the car to where it was and have it be crashed within an instant.

The next day I went to Kris' brother's house to check out the car and saw the damage done by the car. It was painful to see the car in that condition and it was even more painful to take a picture of the car. Every time I look through my pictures in my phone i see the pictures of the battered car and it pains me to see our project car be destroyed. It may seem strange to some people to think it is painful to see someone else's car destroyed but each person in my group of friends had a special place for that car. It was a four cylinder monster that could beat any muscle car on the streets. We took joy in seeing the accomplishment that was that car. Although Kris' brother was nine years older then us, the car connected his generation to ours because we shared the same passion. There was no age gap whenever all of us would work on the car or take joy rides in it. That car will be sorely missed.

Going off subject to the car, I wanted to make a point about a subject we were talking about in class but I did not get the chance to say my opinion. The class was discussing how the food industry does disgusting things to their food products to make their burgers look more appealing during commercials. Food industries such as Carl's Jr. would paint nail polish on the sesame seed buns to make the seeds look shiny and appetizing. The food industry is not the only companies that make their products seem more appealing then they really are. Car companies also create commercials that would make a car seem more appealing then it really is. Since there is a growing sense of going green, car companies have made their cars more "gas friendly" by saying their cars get an average of twenty-five miles per gallon or more. This is true only because car companies test our their cars in optimal conditions and test their cars at fifty-five miles per hour to obtain their statistics on their cars' average miles per gallon. In reality, cars get about five miles less per gallon because people drive on the highway and on the streets, up hills, and in bumper to bumper traffic. These conditions reduce gas mileage drastically. From a personal example, my car is supposed to get thirty-two miles to the gallon on a highway and street based driving. My average gas mileage has been more at twenty-five miles to the gallon on highway and street combined since I got my car. Thus, do not be fooled by the extravagant car commercials displaying their cars to be gas efficient when in reality they are not.