Kevin Phelps

This is one of my favorite family guy clips…

The last few weeks have been kinda interesting. I have way more time than I know what to do with it turns out and I have really been putting some time into a few things. First, I scrapped my Automobile Industry News site and have been working hard on my new one that talks about Canon Camera Reviews. I’ll be doing some major link building soon but so far I’ve worked hard to get the content on it.

Second, I signed up for a Golds Membership again on Monday. I’ve played basketball everyday so far and it’s been fun. I think I’m going to try to go everyday but we’ll see how long that lasts.

Third, I’m moving home in February after the contract at our apartment is up. I assume Chad will be doing the same and Choch will be leaving early for school in California.

School is going good I guess. I’ll be surprised if I pass History but maybe I’ll get lucky. English and Math won’t be a problem.

Over the last week I have been learning about HTML & CSS. I have a lot to learn but once I have it down I’ll be able to create a website from scratch, hopefully. I’d really like to be able to have some web development skills.

Paramore, Blink 182, Say Anything, Armor for Sleep, The Rocket Summer and Brand New seem to be the most played bands on my playlist right now. I’ve been listening to a lot, a lot of music.

I think thats it. My life has been very calm lately and it’s nice to finally be able to breathe.

Today is my birthday and I’ve had alot of fun. Camille came over at around noon to wake me up and we went back to her house and she made me waffles. They were pretty good. She went back to bed shortly after because she was up till 5 AM trying to finish crocheting my blanket that she’s been working on for nearly a year. It’s black and white and really big. I’m really looking forward to having it. Besides that she got me a couple shirts and this necklace that I will be hanging from my rear view mirror. I don’t wear necklaces. Her parents got me a nice shirt as well, a 2 GB thumbdrive, and made me this really good chocolate cake. We had dinner at her grandparents house and hung out with her very large family.

It was a good birthday, thank you to my parents for the money. It’s greatly appriciated. Thanks to Lindsay, Katie, Steve, Cory and my parents for calling.

Warm weather is over unfortunately and now the cold weather has come in to ruin the second half of my year. I absolutely hate the cold, there are not many things worse than it. Waking up blows already, now I have to go out in the cold and scrape the ice of my car, then drive to work while shivering. Anyways, now that the weather is changing I’ll talk about what happened this Summer.

Probably the very first cool thing that happened was about 3 of my friends and I bought scooters. They are so much fun and its ridiculous how much gas you’ll save. $3 will last you a week and I drive to UVU everyday. I need to throw this in: if you want to get a scooter, look around before you decide where you wanna get it. I have a Less Stress Auto & Powersports review to help you if you are interested in their selection.

Then High School was finally over! I finally graduated from Pleasant Grove High School, Class of 2008.

Chad, Choch and I moved out of our houses for the first time and still live in Pleasant Grove. It is everything I thought it would be and more. I love it, it’s so much fun.

I got promoted at my job as well! I’m an SEO Analyst and I work with Bryan, my brother. Its a lot of fun, and I’ve gotten pretty good at table tennis too.

I started college at UVU as well. I’m taking English, Math and History. It is fun sometimes but it’s getting old quickly.

Camille and I got back together, I never thought it would happen but it did. It’s awesome and it is working out better than it ever has.

I went to Lake Powell for the first time with Camille and her whole family. It was so much fun. I can’t say I’ve had a better trip than that one.

I finally bought myself an iPhone. I’ve wanted one so long! It is so handy with whatever you want to do. I strongly recommend getting yourself one.

I’ll finally be old enough to vote! It’ll be pretty memorable considering some people think that this is the most important election in decades.

That is about it, I turn 19 in a week and a half so that’ll be pretty exciting. All the fun is over and it is now cold outside. I’m not sure what is more depressing, the economy, or the 7 day forecast.

Lately I’ve been working on a new blog called Auto Performance Blog. Check it out! It’s about Automobile Industry News for the Automotive Community. It talks about all sorts of stuff but so far it’s been about Lamborghini, Porsche & Aston Martin’s new 4-Door cars because it’s still new. My next one is most likely going to be about the New 2010 Mazda3. If you’re an auto enthusiast check back often because you’ll love what I have to write about.

Oh and if you are looking for a nice new camera for Christmas but don’t know what to get, Ourcamerareviews.com has expert Compact & SLR Digital Camera Reviews for you to look through.

I haven’t been on here in a while because I’ve been really busy. School and homework are taking up a lot of my time and work is more complicated. My classes aren’t too hard right now and work is going without problems so I guess that’s all I can really ask for.

My scooter is starting to have problems go figure. Everything works except for the electric start because there is a loose wire somewhere that I need to find. For now I am using the crank start till I can fix the problem.

This weekend I got myself the new 3G iPhone in black. I love it, there are SO many things you can do with this thing. My Mom also got one, she’s still struggling :)

Camille and I went to Lagoon on Saturday and it was awesome. The weather was kind of a pain but it was still fun. She wouldn’t go on the Wicked but that’s ok… Frightmares starts soon so we’ll have to go again, or go to some other insane haunted house.

I’ve gotten pretty good at ping pong. I can slam it most of the time and have it hit the opposite side. If you’ve ever really played ping pong you’ll understand that this can be a challenge.

Other than that, nothing new has really happened. Everything is just, moving along.

I started school a few days ago and it was quite the experience. I’m taking English, Math and History this semester while working full time at OrangeSoda. Lets see how it turns out. I’m not really worried about any of the classes except for English. I just have to say that college is ridiculously expensive and I didn’t even pay tuition this semester (thank you Mom and Dad). I can’t imagine going to a college like Stanford or Harvard. My books for the three classes came to a grand total of $400, so thank you Utah Valley University for nearly maxing out my credit card. I appreciate it you greedy jackasses (excuse my language Katie).

It should be fun though. I’m really looking forward to being there for a good while to get my GPA up. Hopefully I can transfer to BYU someday and get my MBA from them. That would kick so much butt. Someday I guess…

***The First Less Stress Auto & Powersports Review***

If you don’t know, some friends and I bought scooters from Less Stress Auto & Powersports and we’ve had a little bit of trouble with them and with the management of the company. You can read the first review of the company by clicking the links at the top and bottom of the page.

On August 4th, the owner of Less Stress Auto & Powersports (Rory) called me and talked to me about the very first review that I had posted on my website. He was familiar with my friends problems and was curious about some others that we had experienced. Obviously our experience that we had wasn’t the best but Rory tried his best to make the situation better by explaining the warranty and even discounting Chads scooter to $125 installed instead of $350. He also apologized for the inconvenience and miscommunication that we had experienced.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I would ever go back to Less Stress Auto & Powersports to have them help me with my scooter, but now after talking with Rory and having him make the situation better, I’ll gladly go back for service or maintenance. Its good that Rory from Less Stress Auto & Powersports cares about his customers because he again has my business back.

***The First Less Stress Auto & Powersports Review***

I’ve been working at OrangeSoda for almost 10 months now and am now being promoted to an SEO Analyst. It comes with new responsibilities that my specialist job didn’t have so I’ve got a lot of learning to do. The last few days I’ve been training 2 new people and I believe we’re still hiring. Once this pay period is up on the 31st then I’ll be training the new guys half the day, then I’ll be training for the new position with Dylan for the other half. I’m glad I get to do this because I’ve been working toward it for a long, long time.

I’m excited, new opportunities and better paychecks are coming my way!

Thank you Alex & Bryan!

***Less Stress Auto & Powersports Review Part II***

A little bit ago Chad, Regen, Haylee and I bought the very popular Roketa Sicily from Less Stress Auto & Powersports, as well as another acquaintance of ours. With all reviews there are pro’s and con’s with the topic and I’m going to try to point out both. I’m going to try to not be biased so that whoever reads this gets the truth about Less Stress Powersports, and not just somebody’s personal opinion. I will include my opinion at the end however.

Our first impression of Less Stress Auto & Powersports was a good one. We found their building without trouble (you can see it going northbound on I-15 on the right with all the scooters & 4-wheelers on the roof). Less Stress Auto & Powersports is located in American Fork, Utah. Just off the American Fork Exit and a little bit east of Carls Jr.  We found an amazing deal on a 150 cc scooter, and the person that was helping us answered all our questions and was very friendly. The test ride of the Sicily was good; it felt just like a quality Vespa at first. They had good speed and basically it was everything a scooter should be.

A few days later we all purchased them and had a great time without any trouble. Everything seemed to be working correctly but we were about to see how great of a purchase we really made.

Let’s start with Chad. He purchased his the same day and was enjoying his scooter. He never laid it down or let it out of his sight. One day he was riding it and it decided to shut off and he couldn’t get it started with the electric starter or the crank start so he had to push it up the hill back to his house. His scooter only had about 700 miles on it at this time and had the initial oil change performed by the people at Less Stress Auto & Powersports, and he had also done two changes himself before it had got to 700 miles (as did Regan, Haylee and I). Keep in mind that when we purchased them, we asked how often we should have the oil changed and they said 300 miles so that it can break in, then 1000 -1500 miles afterward. When Chad took his scooter down the mechanics said that his engine had seized up and was going to need a new engine because there was no oil in it, therefore, it was not covered under their warranty. We told them that we had changed it no more than 100 miles ago (as did Haylee, Regen and I) but they said that there was no oil leaking and there was no oil in the exhaust. Where did a whole quart of oil go??? We couldn’t figure it out so Chad would have had to buy a new engine for $350, after some miscommunication however between the employees and Chad; they offered it to him for $250 installed. Other than the engine, Chad’s scooter has done well, it’s held together nicely and all the electrical components work. Chad still had his temporary plate long after it was expired because Less Stress Auto & Powersports didn’t get him his official license plates in time, not that it matters, because Chad didn’t have his scooter to ride on anyways.

Haylee got the white model and really hasn’t had too much trouble with it. There has been a couple times where it hasn’t wanted to start but we got it going with the handy crank start. She hasn’t had any engine troubles luckily but has had some issues with her blinkers not working. The oil was running very low one time but Regen checked it before it got too low and filled it back up. We went down to Less Stress Auto & Powersports and were greeted by who we believe was the owner. We told him we were having blinker issues and that it won’t start and he immediately said that he would sell us a new battery for $40 or so dollars. We asked them to please take a look at it before we buy a battery and one of their good mechanics came out, opened up the battery compartment and checked the battery. It seems as though the battery was in perfect condition but one of the fuses had split in two. The mechanic replaced it no problem and without any cost. Everything worked again and we were grateful we got to deal with the mechanic rather than the owner.

***Less Stress Auto & Powersports Review Part II***

Our other friend, whom I’ll keep anonymous, also had their engine seize on him. He heard about Chad’s little experience and checked the oil and to his surprise, there was none. He didn’t have any leaks either and has driving his scooter considerably less than we have.

I would like to know where the oil is going, because it’s not leaking and it isn’t pooling inside of the exhaust system. Perhaps it is burning it faster than it should, I’m not sure, I’m by no means a mechanic.

Neither Regen nor I have experienced any problems with our scooters. The casing that holds the headlight is a little bit loose but that is because of my own negligence. Besides that, mine runs perfectly. It has never broken down or shut off for any reason.

If you are debating on whether to buy a scooter from Less Stress Auto & Powersports, I would strongly suggest upgrading the warranty, and I would strongly suggest tightening all the bolts and screws once you get it.

Now here’s my personal opinion…

The experience I had with Less Stress Auto & Powersports could have been better. I was impressed with the price of the scooters ($1200 OTD) but that is about as far as it goes. When you have a problem with your scooter and take it there, you have to pay to have them fix/replace parts, despite the fact that you purchased a warranty. You can’t sell a knowingly faulty product, while the consumer is under the impression that it’s going to last and them charge them for repairs. It’s not right, it’s not ethical. Neither regen nor I had any problem getting our plates but Chad and Haylee’s came long after their temporary had expired. I was impressed with the gentleman that helped Haylee and I replace the fuse, but the other mechanics that Chad, Mitch and I dealt with were, truthfully, were a little bit incompetent and my first impression was that they were using drugs. Out of 10, with 10 being the best experience I could have had with Less Stress Auto & Powersports, I’d rate them a 6 but that is only because my scooter hasn’t had any issues. Unfortunately my friends would rate them much lower I’m sure because of their troubles. I guess it goes to show you; you get what you pay for.

NOTE: After reading this review, please read the update to what is going on with Less Stress Auto & Powersports by following the link below

***Less Stress Auto & Powersports Review Part II***