So, my blog got a new comment, which suddenly made me aware that I really had been putting off writing a new entry for a long time. I have several excuses, the primary one being school, the gigantic waste of time it is this year. Before that, I had a much better (well, more interesting anyway) excuse. I'll tell you by showing you some DO's and DON'T's of bicycle riding in a very hilly area.

Don't go close to thirty MPH downhill on a bicycle when the downhill street you're riding down empties out into a street going the other direction.

Why?

Because once you get going that fast, you cannot make a sufficient gradual turn to go along with the sudden sharp turn change. That's okay if going off the road means you'll just hit some nice flat dirt or somewhere on which you can slow to a stop on. That's defnitely NOT okay if going off the road means going into a sudden excessively steep hill covered with slippery pine needles and trees.

What should you do in that case?

Don't lightly squeeze the brakes in an attempt to slow down, even if the bike starts to slow. Especially don't brake the front tire

Why?

Because that generates A LOT of friction and heat between the brakes and the tires. Not letting off the brakes once or twice means they don't get a chance to cool off, and eventually, once they get hot enough, they stick to the tires. This means a full, sudden stop.

What happens when you hit a full sudden stop of both wheels after going almost thirty MPH?

The bike stops. You don't. Rather, you go flying forward off the bike and into somebody's gravelly driveway. In my case, judging by some injuries, I flipped off the bike, hit the ground with part of my head and my back, tumbled forward and slid on the gravelly driveway arms outstretched.

Sounds awesome! What's the problem?

Right palm skinned and injured. That's a problem. Left shoulder and back scraped. That's bad. Left elbow severely wounded, leg and hip scraped up. That's a pain. Entire left arm, including hand, losing motion and experiencing excrutiating pain. That's a bad, painful problem.

Here are some DO's I took from the experience:

DO wear a helmet while riding a bike. Helmets cost money, you may have trouble fitting one, and they look dorky. WEAR ONE ANYWAY. My head and neck took absolutely no damage, but the helmet had a bad break and needed to be replaced. I tested the helmet in the backyard, and it turns out that the force it took to break the helmet like that could be equated to a good smack with a crowbar. WEAR A HELMET.

DO make sure you have plenty of neosporin (or something like it), bandages, bandaids, anti-bacterial fluid (hydrogen peroxide is what we use), and light anti-pain pills (we used ibuprofen).

That was several weeks ago. I've gotten some nifty scars from it, and my left arm is still not working quite right.

There. That's a blog entry. I hope you enjoy it (all three of you), because you won't be seeing them as frequently as I put them up before. I created this blog to combat summer boredom. Summer's over. Now I'll try to do a monthly-at-least update like I intended in the first place. Looks like this is OCTOBER'S. I may update more than once a month, but I'm not dedicating myself to anything here.

HA NOI — The auto market last month saw the lowest sales volumes seen in two years, reported the Viet Nam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

Seventeen leading auto makers in the country sold 5,180 vehicles last month, down 33 per cent over the same period last year and 2,629 vehicles less than in August, it said.

According to the association, only Toyota had sales of more than 1,000 units last month. Six months ago, five companies reached that number.

The passenger-car segment led the figures down in September, with a 49 per cent decline year-on-year to 1,137 units, the lowest level since May 2007.

Sport Utility Vehicle and Multi Purpose Vehicle (SUV/MPV) saw a 28 per cent decline year-on-year to 1,130 units, the worst figures since April 2006.

Commercial vehicle sales also saw a 25 per cent decline year-on-year to 2,913 units.

"Severe economic recession and galloping inflation has impacted customers and negatively affected the auto market," said a representative from GM-Daewoo in Ha Noi.

In company rankings, Toyota topped the list with 1,226 units sold last month, followed by bus and truck maker Vinamotor with 771 units, GM-Daewoo brand Vidamco with 601 units and Truong Hai with 566 units.

Car ownership remains limited to the elite and emerging upper classes in Viet Nam. The country has more than 900,000 privately-owned cars and 21 million motorbikes.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Viet Nam has more than 40 auto makers and more than 100 auto-part makers with a total capacity of more than 200,000 units per year. —