PODCAST – Can’t save to save my life
I beat this guy… twice.
Well here we go. I recorded this yesterday and am just now getting it on the site. The inability to save seems to be a theme. Not only with what I talk about in the show, but my computer even crashed while trying to save the audio.
Topics Include:
Metroid Prime
How I suck at Metroid Prime
My phone is old
Garage Sales
Podcast Music
Mystery Song
The previous mystery song was from Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3!
DOWNLOAD YE!
Good Greif
I hate to complain (never seems to change anything anway). But it’s been an exhausting last few weeks. So much work and travel. I think I went 3 or 4 days without seeing what my house looks like in the sunlight. Luckily I get to see Andrea once in a while when her and Luke stop by the radio station to hang out. Lately I’ve been so busy thought that even then it’s tough to spend any quality time.
Well yesterday my schedule was pretty clear, so I made huge strides in getting caught up! Felt good to not only be productive, but to be productive in the areas that I chose! I have a little checklist at work that I use to make sure I don’t forget anything, and I finally got back to where I need to be on that. Still some long term stuff that I need to get done, but I finally feel like I’m making progress again.
I actually left work a little early yesterday. It felt almost like a vacation day! I used my extra time to re-plant some peppers and corn in the garden, and start digging out the old pole that a satellite dish used to sit on. Eventually that will become my new fire pit! That’s gonna be a lot of work though for sure.
I actually sat down the other day and played some Guild Wars. The original. Actually had a lot of fun. Since all the main story is done, I now have to make sure I just pick a direction or goal I want to work on and go at it. Because it’s so easy now to sit in an outpost and just wonder what to do. So I decided I was going to go work on my Asura reputation so I can get another title and some Asura armor to add to my Hall of Monuments. When GW2 comes out, the more progress you’ve made in your HoM the better rewards you will get in GW2.
So there’s a little recap. Sorry I’ve been so absent. I really hope that it slows down soon because I don’t enjoy such a frantic pace to life. So from henceforth I’m dialing it back!
Time for new Vinyl
I wish I were talking about records…
Actually talking about Andrea’s Cutlass. The vinyl top on the back half of her roof has slowly been coming loose since we bought the car. It hasn’t been too bad, then all at once it really went to crappy. The glue just totally gave up.
She said she could hear it flapping in the wind as she was driving down the highway, so we stopped by the upholstery shop to get a quote. It’s actually pretty reasonable if I remove the old top. So that’s the plan. Infact, Andrea already got most of the vinyl off!
Life is Good
I’ve gotta apologize to everyone who’s been either around me, or following me on Twitter the past few weeks. I’ve been under a lot of pressure and haven’t handled it as well as I’d like. Everyone at work seems to keep telling me otherwise, but I really feel like there’s been a few moments where I could have kept a little more composure. Nevertheless things are starting to quiet down and I’m able to get back to my “old” self.
I’m just way to laid back of a person. I don’t “care” about much. So being all business and cracking the whip just isn’t my style. I guess you can say I’m lazy if you want. Doesn’t hurt my feelings. I prefer to think that life is too short to worry about most things. That’s kind of how I approach each crossroad. “Will the decision I make here have any significance 5 years from now?” Most of the time the answer is “No” and if that’s the case, what’s the point stewing over this small stuff.
So now I’m kicking it. I have to work a little late today, but I decided that if that’s the case I’m going to go in a little late too. So I slept until 7:30am and I’ve just been relaxing with the family. It’s fun to see Luke when he wakes up. He’s always in such a great mood. Lots of smiles. And we haven’t been doing much, but we’re at least all hanging out together, something that hasn’t happened much.
I also love sleeping with the windows open. It’s awesome waking up to fresh air and the sounds of the birds chirping. Like they way an alarm clock should be. We have an east window in the bedroom so the sun this time of year starts shining through a little before 7AM. I woke up the first time at 6:30 and thought, I should get up and around. But then thought…. well heck, I don’t have anything to do so I laid back down until my phone rang at 7:30… from work. They just can’t live without me I guess.
So today is Thursday. And I’m super excited. Because tomorrow is Friday. Which means the Guild Wars 2 Beta begins tomorrow as soon as I get home. I’m going to be late getting home again tomorrow because of a baseball game… but once I am home… I am free all weekend. I have absolutely nothing planned. And unless something super important comes up… it’s going to stay that way.
So sorry I’ve been complaining a lot. I feel like I’m getting a little burnt out at work and just have to vent some of it. I’ve got a vacation scheduled though here in a few weeks. That makes a big difference because it gives me a finite date in the future to look forward to. Instead of never knowing when it will end. But I’ll try to keep the whining to a minimum. I’ve got it pretty darn good.
PODCAST – Collector’s Edition
Just realized that my last post was my 1,000th post on the blog! Way to go me, and those who have contributed over the years! I don’t even think I have a thousand VIEWS! Haha.
I forgot what I even used for the last Podcast’s mystery song, so I had to go back and listen. The answer is: Ending Theme of Mario Kart 64.
Topics for this Podcast Include but are not limited to:
- Hell Month
- Guild Wars 2 GET
- Podcast Music
- Mystery Song
- Blasphemous Stage Clear (For Andrea)
One Nut Short
This is re-damn-diculous. I ordered my new exhaust from RockAuto.com and everything came in quickly like I always expect. I finally got some time on Sunday to install it. I got it all hung and lined up and went to put the clamps on. I got all three clamps, but one clamp came with only ONE NUT instead of two! So the project is on hold until I can either get another nut or another clamp.
All in all its gone a lot smoother than I had planned. Separating rusty exhaust pieces is never an enjoyable experience. There wasn’t much left of the old system, it has rusted apart where the muffler used to be and all that was left was the old inlet pipe for the muffler and the old clamp. I put the big breaker bar on the rusty nuts and ended up just twisting the u-bolt in two, then just hammered the rusty clamp off. Of course the clamp had become unnessicary as the old pipe had rusted to the surface of what good exhaust I had left. But about 20 minutes with my angle grinder and I was able to pry part of the old pipe off. Then with vice grips I peeled the rusty old pipe off of the good pipe like peeling a banana. Actually went smoother than I had expected.
The good news is that all the new parts fit darn near perfect! Something I’m really not used to. Haha! And if I would have had just that one nut…. I’d be driving it today. It will be nice to have a quiet ride again, but I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow. It’s just funny because I had mentioned in a previous podcast that I almost always figure out that I will be missing something to get this job done. I thought it was going to be a tool or something I’d have to buy, didn’t think it would be a single nut that was supposed to be included in the first place!
Lots of work on a day off
I don’t want to come across as complaining, but rather just reflect on a day that didn’t turn out anything like I had expected.
I really only had one thing to get done today which was get the oil changed on both cars.
I woke up about 8:30 and noticed I’d missed a text on my phone. It was one of our part timers informing me that they forgot to inform me that they were out of town and were scheduled to work today… well that’s nice. So I’m filling in for that now today.
As I’m checking that message (I haven’t even got out of bed yet) I get another message from another co-worker saying we’re having issues with one of our Saturday morning shows. So the next 45 minutes are spent getting that around. After fixing that I suddenly realize I haven’t made any coffee yet! Better get on that before this day becomes a complete disaster!
I grab a cup of coffee and head down to the computer to make the morning internet rounds. Figure I’ve got quite a bit of time since I don’t have to be to work until 5PM so I decide to fire up some Minecraft and played for a good hour or so.
I embark on the oil change of both cars which goes pretty un-eventful until I realize… I got the wrong filter for my car. I dunno how I did… I’ve been changing the oil on that car for 5 years now. So even an oil change can’t go flawless today!
The good news is, since I went to work, the rest of the day has been pretty smooth! It’s almost over now and the good news is I only have one thing planned to get done tomorrow… oh no.
My day is never what I expect
I was totally looking forward to today at work. I had been so slammed last week that I was looking forward to getting caught up.
Before I get my coat off, there’s a note on my desk, “Business line on the phone doesn’t work”. Great. So I spent the first hour and a half of my day troubleshooting that and calling the phone company and the place that sold us our phone system as they passed the buck back and forth.
Next our midday person calls in sick, so I have to fill in not one, but both of the shows they record for the day.
Then the boss says, Oh… sorry for the late notice, but we have a meeting at 10am today that we need you to attend.
After lunch I got an e-mail asking me to write some scripts to automate the download of some shows for another market.
And finally, I got asked to fill in for ANOTHER show before the day was over.
Wisely I said “no” to the last two. Heck I didn’t have time anyway.
Maybe tomorrow will be easy?
Toast-erriffic!
Last night around 10:15pm I noticed it felt pretty warm in the house, so I checked to see if we just had turned the AC off for the night or what. Unfortunately the fan was still blowing, but it wasn’t cold. A quick check outside proved the AC unit wasn’t running in the back yard.
Figured we’d make it through the nights so decided to call the landlord in the morning. So today he said he’d try to get somebody over here but it was a pretty busy day for AC guys. I figured that was true and we aren’t any more important than anyone else on the list, so we left the dog with plenty of water and headed off to work. Forecasted high of only 106 today.
Got home at 5:30pm or so and the landlord and the AC guy were there waiting for me. Apparently the landlord didn’t bring the right keys or something to get into the house. They didn’t have to wait long though, and I was able to let them in. First thing the AC guy did… was check the breaker. WHY THE HELL DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT! It never even occurred to me for some reason. But he flips that on, lo and behold the AC fires right up. He hooks some gauges up just to make sure it’s operating correctly and it appears to be. Guess it’s just been running so much lately with the 100+ temperatures that it started drawing enough current to keep up and the breaker tripped.
So quite humbled I thanked both men and they headed to their vehicles. Soon after I heard a knock again at the door. It was the AC guy. He needed a jumpstart because his van battery was dead. I CAN DO THAT! So somewhat redeeming my pride I jumpstarted him and he was on his way.
In the end, its all good. AC is working and recovering. I’d previously tweeted that we’d save a bunch of money by not running the AC while it was broke. Of course Andrea was probably right when she said we’re going to spend all the money we saved getting the house back down to 85! No kidding! It’s toast-erriffic in here!
Problems logging in
Not sure what’s causing it. Must have been a WordPress update, but the past few days I haven’t been able to login unless I go directly to buthard.wordpress.com. I’m trying a few things and should have it sorted out soon!
The Bonus in Basketball
Worst rule – bar none. Nothing like taking the last two minutes of a ballgame and stretching it to a good 15 to 20 minutes. I understand why it’s there. You don’t want one team fouling intentionally and indefinitely to keep the other team from scoring, but there’s got to be a better way.
Proposition 1: Hockey style penalty box. After 5 team fouls in a half, the next personal foul results in the offending player visiting the penalty box. This would give the opposing team a “power play” where they have a numbers advantage until the offending player has served their time.
Proposition 2: Running Clock. I’m tired of this bullcrap where teams will foul intentionally, hoping the opposing player will miss their free throws and get the ball back. This is chickenshit. If you can’t beat the other team straight up in the time allotted YOU DON’T DESERVE TO WIN! (shocker). Once you have reached the bonus all current rules remain in place, the other team still shoots free throws and you can still get the ball back, but that whole time they’re shooting free throws, the clock keeps running. That’s what you get for pulling a bitch move.
Proposition 3: No bonus. Infact you eliminate free throws all together. This is my favorite and most convoluted. If you foul an offensive player in the act of shooting, play is stopped. The offensive player is then allowed to take an unguarded shot from the spot of the foul. If you foul somebody going in for a layup, then they get a free shot right there from underneath the basket. If you foul an offensive player before the shot. Play is stopped, and the offensive team puts the ball back in play at the spot of the foul.
Let’s face it, all the bonus accomplishes is to let a team that has under-performed until the end of the game have an opportunity to win. I know we’re supposed to live in a world where giving it your best is supposed to be good enough, and hell, I should probably just be glad that they still allow one team to win in the game of basketball. But there has to be a better, more honest way to play the game.
There Goes the Neighborhood
Ugh… well we got our new neighbors this week. I knew this would happen here eventually. We’d been lucky so far that the folks that have lived behind us were 1) a quiet single guy, 2) elderly woman, and 3) single college student.
Now make that 4) Two hoodlum roommates.
The way our place is situated our house is what you see from the street. But behind our house, literally in the back yard is another small house with a little two car garage. There’s one driveway that runs from the street out front of our house, to the alley in the back. It’s not ideal, but it works for now. I guess I had kinda gotten used to a single person always living there (I’m pretty sure it’s a one bedroom house), so there was always one car there. Made maneuvering around pretty doable. Now there’s two cars back there, which sure they are entitled… but it makes getting in and out of our half of the garage a pain in the ass now.
The worst part is that ever since they moved in, people have been coming and going all the freakin’ time. There were two high school aged kids that were sitting in the driveway, waiting for the new neighbors to get home for (no exaggeration) 4 hours. There’s not too many things kids that age will wait that long for, and I’m pretty sure none of them are legal.
Maybe I’m a grumpy old fart now. But I just don’t feel like putting up with it. This really isn’t a great time for a move, but since we aren’t locked in to a lease here, I’m really going to start looking around. Ugh. I can’t wait until we’re ready to buy a house.
This Sucks
Well, here I am. Finally have a night after work where there’s not something going on no running around, or things that have to be done. And… I’m bored.
Damn!
I don’t know if it is lack of things to do, or lack of motivation to get started? I’d play some Guild Wars or Minecraft right now, but I don’t really want to set aside enough time to actually accomplish anything. Like my free time is SO </sarcasam> valuable that I can’t spend to much of it doing one thing, that now I’ve sat around and done Nothing. I’m racking my brain trying to think of all the stuff I was wishing I had time to do. Then talking myself out of doing it.
I might just go grab my next N64 game and start the next re-review.
Days too short
Well not only is the sun going down earlier… it just seems so much harder to get something done after work. I went to the store, watched some Big Bang Theory, tinkered with an old radio, and really don’t feel like I made much progress on any of them.
Now it’s midnight and I should have gone to bed a long time ago! Me needs a weekend! Or better yet a vacation!
The Blazer has a name!
“Lazarus.” It’s almost even spelled like Blazer. So after a hot day under the car port and with Andrea’s help, we got the Blazer going again. The fuel pump we sent back as bad, probably wasn’t bad after all. I ordered a new sending unit that comes with new wiring for the pump inside the tank. So after dropping the gas tank for the 4th time, and swapping out the units… vroom! Fired right up! Runs just like it did for the two weeks before it died last time. It’s a relieving feeling.
Andrea doing some of the grunt work.
So after all this… I think we’re selling it. No way will we ever get for it what we have put into it financially, I’m prepared for that. But after fighting us every step of the way, I’ll be honest, I really don’t even like it any more. It’s like somebody who you just get off on the wrong foot with, and after that first impression, it’s just too hard to give them a second chance. I mean, heck. The ENTIRE fuel system is brand new now on this thing, but I just don’t trust it. For somebody else, it could go another 100,000 miles, I dunno. And we originally settled on Lazarus because it was cheap and available. We really wanted a pickup truck in the first place anyway.
So I think I’m going to ask $900 and see what we get. We’ll lose some money on the deal, but we learned a lot. I’d never dropped a gas tank before. Fairly good at it now. Never tore this deep into an engine before, and will be a little less timid to do it in the future. So it’s not a total loss. Or maybe that’s just what I’m telling myself. Haha!
0 MPG
Draining the gas tank to drop it for the THIRD time.
Blazer Update
Well, I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t progress any further on the Blazer without spending some money. Now that the weather is nice and Andrea and I have been talking about camping a lot this summer, we decided that we need to get it running ASAP. Especially since we’re already paying for insurance on it (which isn’t much, but still).
So I finally think I’ve got the fuel pump wiring straightened out and working like it’s supposed to. I decided to tear into the engine and inspect the fuel injector and fuel lines for any leaks and see if anything under the intake could be causing problems.
Upper intake manifold removed. You can see the injector in the middle and the fuel lines on the right. Do you notice anything odd? Look closely...
WTF!? A HOSE CLAMP to stop a leak? Just when I thought it couldn't get more rednecked!
I was amazed. To think that someone would go through all the trouble to remove the upper intake manifold and put it all back together and not spend the $50 on the new lines to just fix it. You can see the bright silver finish from leaking gas washing the wall clean and a puddle of gas and gunk down by the bolt at the bottom. ”Well there’s your problem!”
So with new parts in hand we set out the replace the leaky fuel lines and the injector.
Old injector vs. New one. Pricey little bastard ($270). The old one's lines were so brittle they stayed in the position they were installed.
Yup... it's old.
Yup... it's new.
These are the nozzles that spray the fuel. Not the best technology today, but it works.
Old fuel line from inside the intake. This is the one that had small cracks leaking fuel inside the engine.
Those fuel lines were the hardest part of the job. They were obviously installed in the truck before the engine was put in at the factory. There wasn’t a whole lot of room and ended up having to get some smaller tools to get the job done. But after a bit of swearing, we got ‘em out.
Ready to install!
With all the stuff out of there, cleaned all the gunk out of the intake. Didn't worry about making it spotless... not like anyone is going to see it.
My favorite part. Looking at all the new stuff perfectly in place.
Andrea got her hands (and face apparently) dirty with this job too! I love having a wife that's interested in this stuff!
As we were putting everything back together it started getting dark.
Before I tried to start it up, I told Andrea that I was nervous. That either it was going to do the same thing it was doing before, or it wasn’t going to start at all. Turn the key…. and it cranks over but wouldn’t start. I could get it running with some starting fluid, but it dies once all the fluid is burned up. It’s just not getting any fuel.
So I’m thinking we’re gonna need a fuel pump too. I don’t regret spending the money on these parts as the both were shot, but it sure would have been nice if that were it. Future updates to come. I’m definitely in too deep now to turn away.
More wiring woes (Not the Blazer)!
Would you like that toasted?
Tuesday nights Andrea bowls league, which means I usually get some Guild Wars time in. So there I am trudging through the Ring of Fire in Hard Mode (geek), when Andrea calls. I just figure she’s calling to update me on her awesome bowling results for the night. Turns out she needs a ride home because it’s 10PM and her headlights won’t come on on the Mustang. SUPER!
So not much we can do in the bowling alley parking lot in the dark, so we just left her car there and picked it up in the morning. By the time I’d gotten home from work yesterday, my awesome wife ALREADY had her dash halfway apart and found the problem. Someone had repaired one of the wires at the light switch at one point with one of those crimp connectors and it had burnt itself to a crisp to the point that the wire just fell out. Ever since I got a soldering iron, I can’t stand those crimp connectors.
So Andrea did all the grunt work herself. I just did the soldering and she got it all back together. Had a brief scare when we tested our work and the lights still didn’t come on, but found that the power lead had came out of the harness. Snapped that back in and viola! And easy fix. Well at least my part was!
Best of all… Cost to fix: $0.00
Ready to retreat, more every day.
Note: I started writing this blog almost a week ago and finally finished it today… timeframes referenced probably aren’t consistant!
So this morning I got up at 6am with my alarm clock, despite staying up until almost midnite last night. I kicked on the coffee and decided I’d do a little web surfing to start the day. Then I did something I shouldn’t have. I kicked on the Google News page.
With all the commotion going on about this health care reform, I foolishly took up an interest in its outcome. I watched the final stages unfold much as one would watch the end of a match between the worlds finest chess players. I get the basics of the game, but the moves are completely above my head and happening so quickly that it’s easy to see how people can feel that stuff like this is just being rammed through. Every move is so carefully calculated, planned, and countless unseen hands are pulling the strings.
I had initially had the intention that I was going to find out what the Health Care bill really meant, form my own opinion and take side on the issue. Of course nobody was talking about this story. It was about the “Story within the story”. Some jackball yelling “Baby Killer”, or isolated cases (yes yes, I realize of real people) from both sides that are supposed to convince me one way or another to be for or against the broad sweeping legislation that apparently all of a sudden has a deadline.
What further discouraged my already misplaced faith in the populous were the comments section in all of these news stories. After coming up dry on the real information I really wanted, I continue to read heated purely emotional discussions between ignorant people that have no intention of discussion. They’d just rather have the opposing argument eliminated. I guess it was disappointing because it was all so predictable.
1 John 2:15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
There are SO many struggles I face every day, trying to be more like Christ. But the passage above is certainly one of the least difficult! What a lot of folks see as interesting, entertaining, or desirable– All too often I see them as mundane, predictable, and empty. Six hundred shows on TV about nurses and doctors? Oh yay, a new greener car! TV Guy says: “Here’s something you didn’t know exsisted until just now but you HAVE TO HAVE IT!”
The term “rat race” seems all to literal. Running a maze to get some piece of cheese, only when you get the cheese you realize the maze continues for more bigger cheeze. Then you look around and realize everyone elses cheeze is bigger and tastier than yours… so you keep running. If only everybody knew that the race was voluntary. I mean I don’t try to be different for different’s sake, I just try to be comfortable in every situation… perhaps at times making the people around me somewhat uncomfortable, hehe.
Jenn blogged about Facebook today. It made me realize how far from the center I am. Not to say Jenn isn’t a unique person, far from it. But Facebook is top dead center on what is popular in today’s culture, and I really couldn’t have less to do with it. I’ve never been too social. Infact even back in school I always preferred my small group of good friends over being the popular one, or center of attention. So in that respect Facebook is a little overwhelming for me. I’m sure there’s plenty of others just like me out there, but we’re the weird ones.
So I’ve once again swore off Google News, and really the media in general in most respects. I’ll stick to message boards and a few niche websites. And if I just so happen to find out some major earth shattering event two days after it happened via the IGN Boards, so be it… It wouldn’t be the first time!
I’m back!
Many apologies for my serious lack of posting as of late. I’m just rebounding from being as sick as I can remember for quite some time.
The worst part about being sick, is that when you are sick, it is impossibly difficult to remember what it felt like to be well, normal, and just relaxed. I had a cold and fever for two days that left every muscle in my body tense and sore, and once that went away a pounding three day headache utterly sucked my will to do anything but bury myself in covers and wait for it to be over.
In the meantime there were birthday parties to attend, and work that had to be done. Calling in on Monday is one thing, but on a Friday the options are either “spend all day on the phone trying to explain how to do what it is you do to the people that just know you ‘take care of it’.” Or just go get it done and keep everything as low key as possible. So Friday I called and said I was feeling terrible but I was going to come in a bit late. I knocked out everything that was absolutely required, then retreated home for a breif rest before heading down to Wichita for a Nephew’s birthday party. The entire stretch was exhausting.
So now it feels like light is finally returning to my world and I can resume whatever boring and mundane goals I had before my brush with despair. I try to take a little something from every experience, and I think from this one I can truly be thankful for the health that I have, and the fact that I am RARELY ever really sick like that. I feel like I can be a little less than understanding of those who live with constant pain because I’m well so much of the time, but I really am thankful for what I have, because that constant discomfort really effects your attitude in a big way, at least it did for me. Perhaps I’m just a baby.
I just want bigger boots.
Well I’ve had a resolution for this winter to be better equipped to handle the weather. So a few days ago I picked up some snow boots and insulators to keep my feet nice warm and dry. Well I tried the boots on at the store, but I couldn’t try on the insulators unless I took them out of the package. Get home and boots + insulators = too small. No biggie. I’ll just take them back and exchange them. I figure a couple sizes bigger on both outta do it.
So last night we roll up to Orschlen’s. There were several cars there, but I wouldn’t say they were swamped. I grab the boots, insulators, and my original reciept and head to the nearest checkout stand. I’m not sure how exchanges work at Orschlen’s, but I explain to the guy that I just want to exchange these for the same thing bigger size. He says that’s fine and asks me to place my stuff in a cart right up front there and go get what I need.
We do so, and look around a little bit to see if there’s anything else we need while we’re there. After a while of just window shopping we head to the front with just the items I want to exchange. I go to the same guy I went to before (you know since I already talked to him about exchanging) even though his line was a little bit longer. As it would turn out, this guy is the Smokey Dan of Orschlen Farm & Home. So from now on, we’ll just call him Dan.
Dan appeared to be “training” someone. I use the quotes because the trainee seemed to be helping this guy make it through some snags in the computer system. It wasn’t the computer system’s fault. It’s just that you can’t do things like, type in a zip code, when there’s an error message on the screen saying you forgot the city “Please click OK.” Eventually he gets my old reciept scanned in, rings up my new items and says, “That’ll be $25.”
“Huh? I’m just exchanging this stuff for the exact same things. Same prices and everything!”
“Well you didn’t tell me that before,” Dan said.
“Sorry. I had both these items in my hands when I talked to you the first time AND placed them both in the cart you told me to put them in which looks like somebody else already hauled off.”
Dan sighed and said, “Okay.”
The next 8 minutes or so involved Dan trying to undo everything he just did. After many dings, and error messages he finally decides it will be FASTER to start over. Genius. So he trys to, I guess, cancel out the sale and manages to freeze the check out machine up. I don’t know how you crash a POS machine, but he did it. Meanwhile somebody is asking him for his override code for another register. OH, apparently this guy is IN CHARGE tonight! I can’t even ask if the manager is here! After giving the gal the WRONG code and her having to come back twice while he fiddles with the machine trying to figure out how to restart it he decides it would be FASTER to move to another register.
So for the third time I explain how to spell my last name, and give him my address and phone number so he can put it in again incorrectly a third different way. BUT FINALLY I have a receipt that says I can leave the store with boots and insulators and not owe them anything! HOORAY!
It was frustrating, but now I’ve got me some boots that will keep my feet and pants warm and dry. Good thing to as it looks like we’ve already got a good amount of snow overnight and more to come today. Bring it ON!
Rollin’
Well we’re starting the process of painting Andrea’s car. I just realized I don’t have any pictures. So for historical purposes, here’s the before shots.
The paint really isn’t in too bad of shape other than the clear coat peeling off the hood, and the bumper spot. But it’s two different colors of red! That’s what a couple of deer will do I guess. This one should be ALOT less work than mine was, because we’re going to park it while we’re painting it. (Meaning I don’t have to put it back together everyday. ) And there’s not near the rust on it as there was on mine. But we’ll see. After it’s painted it’s going into the shop for all new exhaust and we’re getting new headlights since these are all fogged over and make it difficult to drive at night. She doesn’t even have to turn her brights off for oncoming traffic! Ha ha.
She wants black. Which is cool, but I warned her it shows any and all imperfections. But I’m sure there won’t be any. We’ll see what happens.
Hopefully it goes better than today’s automotive work did. I headed out to get the front end on my car finally fixed. Only to find out that I don’t have big enough tools to do the work! So I run to the hardware store to see if they have what I need. Heck they don’t even sell big enough sockets. So at least I leave without spending any money… But coming out to the parking lot I notice something hanging from underneath Andrea’s car. The tailpipe came loose from the muffler! Geeze! So I nurse it home and put it up on the ramps. Just pulled the rusty thing out and threw it in the trash. At least that’s one less thing that can fall off.
So back to my car I see if there’s anything I can fix with the tools I have. Front shocks? Nope, I have wrenches one size too big, one size too small. Not the one I need. How about just get the idler arm fixed? That was the part that had been scaring me to get out on the highway. I got my wrench on there… but damn it if my sockets aren’t big enough! GEEZE.
So I headed over to Harborfreight.com and scored (I think) everything I need to get it all done for about $60. Like all my projects on my car it looks like this one is going to end up about $200 over budget. Oh well, right. Still cheaper than a car payment!
Well shucks.
For the first time in the 4 years I’ve owned it, my car left me stranded. It’s mostly my fault though. It was about 18 this morning when I went out to start the car. Pumped the pedal twice and it fired right up like always. Instead of letting it warm up like I should, I let it idle high for about 15 seconds and kicked it down and headed over to the My Town stores to do some computer work. That is only about four blocks away from the house, so the car still didn’t have time to get warmed up.
I go in and work for about 45 minutes and come out to leave, pump it twice again, and it starts, but stumbles. Pump it a couple more times to try to keep it going but it dies. In trying to start it again I pump it AGAIN and now it won’t start at all, just turn over. Pop the hood and you can REALLY smell the gas. Flooded. Damn. I let it sit for about 10 minutes, but she still won’t start. Took the cover off the air cleaner and there’s liquid gasoline on the choke plates on the top of the carb. That’s REAL flooded.
So I got a ride to work and will go try to start it again over lunch. That should be enough time for the gas to evaporate. As long as I didn’t kill the battery with all the cranking! Lesson learned. Should have let it warm up.
Cox Kansas throttles internet service
This story popped up on my Google Reader the other day claiming that Cox will be trying to control their network traffic by slowing down “non-time sensitive” content during peak congestion times. They state things like file-transfers aren’t as critical as on-demand content like loading web pages, online games, and streaming videos.
At home, I really don’t have a problem with this. A majority of my time is spent surfing the net, or playing Guild Wars. But at work the core of what I do relies heavily on file transfers. I have over 10 hours of audio content that I have to transfer to our on-air computer in Hays, and a majority of that has to first be downloaded from another source. At the present rate it takes about 20 minutes to transfer one hour of mp3 audio to Hays at a measly 40 k/s. That’s ALREADY a P.I.T.A. I certainly don’t need it to take even longer.
Lifehacker also recently published a link to a set of tools to test what (if anything) is being throttled by your provider. I’m anxious to put this to the test and see what protocols exactly are being throttled and by how much. And if it significantly impacts my work, you can bet they’ll hear from me…as futile as my cry may be.
