New Years Eve

Yep I did post again before the new year. Since my last post the biggest news is that Xbox live has been VERY annoying. Won't go into too much more detail but it's even more than just the connection issues that are bothering everyone when their system messed up. I suppose it should be an excuse to not sit infront of a game system, but somehow it's had the opposite effect by making me try to get it to work.

It snowed last night which is great I love winter weather! I definitely missed it when I was in tx. When i looked out of my window last night it made me smile.

Merry Christmas!

Yeah i know i'm a little late on that, but i hope everyone had a great one! I enjoyed the time visiting with family and friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Even watched a Christmas special that carefully avoids mentioning Jesus so it could be on prime time TV.

I'll probly write again around new years, but incase i miss it: Happy New Year!

YAY!!!!

Today was a great day!

I got home yesterday after a long drive back from training in texas. It was about 1400 miles, but since there was weather I decided it was best to drive straight through instead of getting stuck in the middle. Well since I made it here i must not have been the worst decision, but 21hrs is a lot to drive straight especially when you were only plannin on about 9 since I had to have the graduation ceremony earlier in the day.

Today was great because after yesterday i was able to get to bed at a fairly regular time and I made it up in time for church with no issues. Then went out to lunch and visited other people afterwards. I'm just happy to be back where there is actually winter weather in december. I didn't really enjoy the inch of ice to scrape off the windshield itself, but the trees do look pretty (at least the ones still standing).

Looks like I gotta start my Christmas shopping tomorrow, we'll see how that goes since I didn't do anything for it yet and don't even know what anyone wants since I've been gone.

Last week here!!!

I start heading hom friday! i can't wait! We have a neat exercize this week that simulates some of the things we will be doing when we get back to our bases so it should be fairly interesting. some days might be long, but at least we won't stare at powerpoint all day long. also it might be a little challenging. The best part though is the leaving. I'm definitely ready to head home. I still have done no shopping for Christmas and i hope to have some time when i get home because i definitely want to do a bunch of that, but there is seriously just about nothing in this area.

Well thats really about it....oh yeah i might have joined one of the online sites for networking that i said i'd never join.

Thanksgiving is coming!

I am going to AZ for thanksgiving this year which will be a first for me. I'm looking forward to it for the change as well as for getting away for a while. I was more bored this weekend at wichita falls than i have been any other weekend. And that is even with the xbox with halo 3 and live.

Hopefully i will be eating good food and have some more to write about by the time i get back. mmmmm fooooooood.

Three Day weekend

I was thinking of going down to Houston this three day weekend, but those plans kind of fell through. I also had something i had to do for the base on Friday night. So instead of sitting around being bored all weekend i got myself an Xbox 360 and Halo3. I was able to play my brother on it as well since he was borrowing a consol from a friend. Xbox Live is kind of like a big conference call that way and we got to play video games too.

On Saturday i went to Dallas to hit the mall for a little while too. It was the Galleria mall which is very ritzy and didn't really have anything I wanted (expensive clothes and jewelry aren't really at the top of my must have list). The way back from dallas i recieved my first Speeding Warning ever!

By that i mean it was the first time i was pulled over and didn't have' to pay money, not that i never had a ticket. I pulled the military card bigtime and it worked for me. Must be something about Texas =)

Sunday i did a bit of running, but nothing else too exciting for the weekend. More Xbox live and going out for food i guess, but that's about it.

Explosions!

In class yesterday we went out to see some live explosive demonstrations. A practice bomb, a signal flare, some det. cord, an ignitor, and then a little tnt and c4. Overall not too bad for an hour and a half of our school day. The det cord was actually the coolest to watch because it was out in the open and you could feel the shock of it. the tnt and c4 were buried in sand behind concrete walls in addition to the distance.

Other than that nothing super exciting in wichita falls lately, but dinner tonight at a steakhouse should be good.

air show

Today at the base i worked a little at an air show and then i came back later to just watch. It was a good day overall for a wichita falls weekend actually. I was able to see an F-22 which is a pretty interesting plane fly around for a while. It has a thing called thrust vectoring which enables it to fly in different paths than a normal plane. There were some other interesting planes as well, and overall a pretty decent day.

The base was pretty busy though and i hear at the peak times it took at least 1:40 to get from the gate of the base to the gate of the air show which seems a bit rediculous. Volunteering on info booth and teardown though i didn't have to worry about any of that

wifi toy

I got a new wifi USB device today. It has a threaded antenna connector so it can be used with large external antennas, but just being USB makes it easier to put in some of the free/cheap reflector type antennas for better signal. the other cool thing about this is it supports packet injection so that should be fun to play with this weekend.

Book Depository, Book Depository

Still in Dallas so i went to the tourist sites today. I saw the 6th floor museum today and could see the window and where the boxes were stacked for cover. Also saw the other end of the floor where he stashed the rifle. It was an interesting museum and i went down to where the X is on the street and took a picture of that and the view from that area to the Depository window. After looking at all the Kennedy info i went to the Red Court House museum which they just opened in may. It was also interesting to see.

After all the museum stuff i went to fry's which is a computer place around here the place is a huge warehouse type building and it's all electronics. Very nice to visit and lots of selection on all types of stuff.

4 wheeler

Yay i got to ride teh 4wheeler for a while today. Unfortunately it was kinda misting out so i got soaked, but still had fun. Rode through 50+ acres of land with some cattle, trees, fields, ponds and a little bit of creek beds to cross too. It was a honda 400 and pretty good, unfortunately the polaris 600 they had was stolen a while ago so i didn't get to ride that.

After that i got to shoot a colt 45 revolver with a hair trigger. that's scary the first time you pull it cuz it has no trigger pull at all. I blew up a McDonalds cup for a while with it though. That's what it gets for not having the instant win monopoly pieces on it!

Dallas!

Well it's a 3 day weekend so i decided to make sure i left the base for a while. I am staying in Dallas area and tomorrow i should be out riding a Quad. Never done that yet so i'm kinda excited. I'm sure i'll find some other interesting things to do as well, but in the meantime i'm kinda happy that they have wireless internet here so i can update this blog etc. Hope everyone is doing well.

block 2 of 7

i'm in the next ~2 week block now and i had a good score on my first test for the maintenance officer course. today we were volunteering to help set up a festival for the weekend. We got out of class in the morning to do it and it looks good to volunteer as well. It wasn't perfectly efficient, but we did get a lot accomplished which was good.

I also got some huge progress on one of my completely dorky hobbies of my cell phone. Got some help on the internet from some other people into it and it was entertaining for me at least =) no need to bore you with the details though, but thanks for reading

TX after a week

I've been here about a week now. Our class has 15 people in it, but only about 6 of us have really been hanging out regularly. I suppose a few of the others might have formed their own group, but it is kind of interesting. There seems to be a divide among the ROTC students and teh Academy students. I'm the only guard member, but since i went to a regular college the ROTC students feel i'm one of them heh. Not sure how many of you will know the difference or maybe some of the readers will actually have witnessed this difference themselves, but it seems quite distinct seeing them interact fresh after commissioning like this.

In other news i've been keeping up with the material, and getting some exercise. Saw a bit of the town already and participated in Meals on wheels today.

Wichita Falls

Well i am in training now at Sheppard AFB. It's not too bad i haven't gone out too much yet, but i don't htink there will be a ton to do in the local area. Not a huge deal as i can entertain myself fairly easily and i will have enough other work to do. I will probly travel to Dallas on the weekend at some point since it's only 2 hrs away.

Unfortunately I got a ticket on the way here, but other than that the drive was fine. I'm pretty much settled in now, but i might change rooms in 2 weeks anyway. Feel free to send me emails and you can ask for my address if you like as well.

I should be graduating on Dec 14th

Preparations

Today i did some work on the truck to get ready for the trip to Texas. It was the first time i changed spark plugs on a V6. All my other vehicles are 4 cylinders and the plugs and wires are about the easiest thing to change on them. I do have a wonderful trick i heard about though for getting the plugs and wires changed on a v6 with a lot of miles. I couldn't pull the boot off of the spark plugs on most of them so i used a hammer and chisel to break the porceline part of the plug off with the boot attached. Then i just used the socket to take the rest of the plug out and replaced it and the wires with new ones. This was still a long, hard, dirty and sometimes painful task though when compared to my other cars. Oh i also did an oil change on it and my brother's car. Those were uneventful though.

Still haven't packed and i really don't want to, but i know it will need to be done shortly. I've been saying goodbye to friends and family lately too. I'm really glad i'll be able to have my phone and the internet on this trip though!

Travelling

My brother just came back from Oregon this week. He's planning on staying at my house at least 3 months now. The reason for the 3 months is because I am going away that long. I'll be in Texas from Sept til Dec. Should be back at work just before Christmas though. If anyone wants to visit I'll still be around all next week. Also if you're on the way to texas let me know!


Random shameless plug: Watch the Arrested Development series, it's hilarious.

Cedar Point and DSM shootout

I took thurs and fri off work to go to Ohio. Thurs was mostly the drive and we went out to dinner. Friday we went to Cedar point though. That was a lot of fun! There is a coaster that goes 120mph in 4 seconds. We waited for the front seat on that one and it was worth it to see and feel the speed. There were other good coasters we went on as well. It was a great time and after about 10 hours in the park we were getting a little tired.
Saturday was a carshow and dyno sessions at Buschur racing (a big Eclipse and Evo shop) That was a fun day as well, but not as exciting as the coasters were.
Sunday was supposed to be the races which would be the main event. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to the rain. I suppose it wasn't too bad though considering we ended up sleeping in pretty late and would have missed a lot of the races anyway. The drive back Sunday was not too much fun in all the rain either, but we made it.

Volleyball

We've been playing volleyball after work on monday's lately and its pretty fun. It is usually most of the newer hires. We were challenged by the old timers recently and that game was yesterday. It was fun, but there is definitely more of a selection process for the old timers than there were for the new guys. First 3 games they were up 2-1. Then a few people had to leave and the director called me over to his team, i wisely accepted (although my previous team came to hate me). At first i wasn't able to get the ball because the director would get it and block me incase i wasn't going to play well for his team. In the end though we won the game when i was serving the final 4 points. I'm glad i didn't get beat up for that one =)

Fortunately we are all playing for fun so it wasn't too bad, but it was still competitive.

Hopefully i'll have more to post here after this weekend, sorry for the lack of content recently.

I was a Mover today...oh and more miata stuff

Helped my cousin move all her stuff to her apt in DC for college. Long day lots of riding in a uhaul/van/car. Didn't do too much driving, but i did do a lot of packing and unloading. I used my phone's GPS for some of the directions, but it was still tough to find the loading dock that was in an unmarked alley on a side of the building that all streets seemed to be one way away from. Finally got it though. Was a good day over all, had a nice big dinner with her side of the fam for her birthday too.

Yesterday i got the miata inspected. The exhaust came on thursday so i installed it then, but had to wait until friday for the inspection. It took a while and they wanted to say no because i didn't ahve wiper nozzles (just the hose) but it sprays on the windshield and it was like that since i got it and no other place fussed about it. They decided to let it go and i just needed one side marker bulb which was like 2.49 so i didn't do too bad. Also the miata sounds much better with a real exhaust rather than a big leak heh. Now if i can stop the buzzing heatsheilds from the resonation of the new exhaust.

Garage stuff

I got the miata back this week, it was on time and same price as the estimate....$75 plus tax. The thing looks good too i'm very impressed and have already referred people to them even though they didn't need body work hehe.

Milestone for me today with the garage though. I can't believe it's the case but it is the first time i've ever had a garage remote in one of my cars to open the door when pulling up. I had to get a new battery and reconnect the one lift for the bay with the pit. I also went ahead and got a remote setup for the Eclipse bay too. Now the truck is left out, but i don't have an opener there either and don't feel like gettin the whole kit and installing it.

While i was at it though i once again re-wired teh speaker in the garage too. There shouldn't be any more squirrels after the soffit replacement.

miata

I had a crack in my windshield on the miata and it should be fixed this week. I have to get it to a body shop though cuz there is rust underneath the windshield in that area. The windshield is covered under insurance and fortunately the body damage isn't too bad. It needs to be inspected this month though and it also needs a new exhaust before then. Not too bad though i guess since i'll get myself a better one in the meantime and i didn't like the leak sound anyway.

Back from AZ

I was in AZ for the past week visiting my grandmother. Unfortunately they day after i got there she broke her ankle and we had to go to doctor visits etc. I was still able to help her out with things though and made the best of the time there. It was good food as always too.

Now that i'm back home i checked the basement and it seems to be ok still. No more flooding. The clock was still running as it's an 8 day weight drive too. I should be asleep now actually, but the jet lag makes it feel much earlier.

Fireworks etc.

Guess i've been keeping fairly busy lately since i haven't posted updates even though i had some things to write about. I went to a friends 4th of july party on Sunday and saw some awesome fireworks in Lancaster.

Then on tuesday i went and got a new laptop to replace the 4yr old one i've been using (screen is about to fall off). I got it at circuit city and they have lots of rebates now for free printers, routers and discounts on the laptop. I was looking at some that were 399 after rebate, but settled on one that was $499. If this one lasts me just over a year it will still be a better value than the old one which was top of the line when i got it. Stupid disposable society.

Last night i went to Hershey for the 4th of July fireworks there too. I try to hit a few of them kinda like i do with Thanksgiving dinners. I'll be going to AZ on saturday, maybe there will be some fireworks shows out there too!

Fountain Coke in my very own basement!!!!

I drove to NY to pick up a Coke fountain for my basement. It's called a breakmate (see http://www.mrbreakmate.com/ for more info) This is a small all in one setup that i just needed to plug in to power to make it work. This version has it's own water container and a coin op attachment. It came with some CO2 and syrups already as well. In fact i'm having a cup from it as i'm typing this.

After picking up the breakmate i stopped by my cousin's since it was on the way. It was nice to see her and i got to see some of the work she is doing to her place.

Box seats

I'm not the biggest baseball fan, but i had the opportunity to have free box seats at an Orioles vs Yankees game in a suite at Camden Yards last night. It was last minute, but i was able to postpone my Texas roadhouse dinner too accomodate the rare opportunity. The hosts were a company called webMethods (www.webmethods.com) and they have software for implementing six sigma and lean type analysis. I was there til about the 8th inning when the score had already reached the final of 4-0 for the Orioles. Roger Clemens gave up all 4 runs in one inning. The box seats were really nice too. Free food is always enough for me to go somewhere and they did it right. There was lots to snack on, burgers, hotdogs, wings, shrimp and crabcakes in addition to the fruit, cheeses, vegetables and snack mixes. I probly had about 5 cans of soda as well. Since i don't drink Corona i used some of their limes in the soda as well. Can't forget the dessert either, there was a nice chocolate mouse with chocolate chips type dessert as well as cookies that were delicious. Probly had enough calories for the week, still not gonna stop me from doing it again at Texas Roadhouse though.

Overall a good night and i was able to use the GPS a little on the way down even though it was a straight shot almost the whole way. Gotta use the toys if ya have them.

updates

Clock is working fine now, face is on the inside where it's supposed to be, chimes are working etc. The router i bought is now installed and i updated to the dd-wrt firmware which has worked in letting me use different high network traffic programs on the PC and not get any network disconnects for other progs. I also got the Eclipse inspected so that's good for another year, i had to get a new horn (not loud enough?) for it and make a few other tweaks since the one place was nitpicking, but it's ok now. Also got a USB serial adapter from iogear since it is one of two types that is supposed to work with the special computer i tune my Eclipse with. Haven't tested it yet, but it should allow for me to buy a new laptop with only usb ports so i will have more options. Guess i should get ready for work now, oh and i'm going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner tonight!!!!

Clock is working!!!

Here's what it looks like. the dial is on the outside cuz it doesn't have a good way to mount it yet. I'll figure something out, but i put it up after all the stores closed so that made it tough. I have it kinda like a skeleton clock now though with the dial to the side and i can see the time and the movements. That's kinda cool too actually. I'm pretty excited that it's together. I'll let it run for a while and see if i have the stuff set up properly for it to keep accurate time. I might need to make leveling and pendulum adjustments. My grandfather build the wooden case for the grandmother clock. I just bought the internals and installed them. It should make a nice heirloom.

Spending money

So this weekend i ordered a new router for the house since the one i have made me mad my not having an option i wanted, and now i ordered a part for the miata. The power antenna in the miata was broke since i got it, but now i'm finally coughing up the ~20 bucks to fix it hehe. Next will probably be fixing the stupid speakers on the passenger door. I think it's either wiring or the crossover, but i'll probly get to digging at some point.

I think tonight is the first i've needed to turn the AC on this year. These new windows actually kept it pretty comfortable and i'd open them at night if it was cool a few times. Now it's still warmer outside though so that wouldn't help tonight.

Edit: The link for the router is http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202046565&s_kwcid=&dcaid=17260 now the tech geeks (as mentioned in the comment to this post) can find out all the interesting stuff about it...also it will run dd-wrt if you want to look into that too.

Clay bar and fresh wax

I used a meguire's clay bar kit and their NXT tech wax on the eclipse tonight. The terry cloth towel litterally slid right off the hood afterwards, here's a nice pic of it still in the garage. You can see a bit of the reflections too. I think i'll take it to work tomorrow for the heck of it to show it off =)

Grandmother clock

I just ordered the movements etc. for the grandmother clock that my grandfather made me. Basically it's a slightly smaller version of a grandfather clock. I ordered the workings from www.klockit.com and if you go there looking for grandmother clock parts you'll see basically what i got. There aren't too many options for the grandmother clocks, but i tried to get the best of what would fit in the case. I think it will be nice to have it fully working. I am going to take something to my grandfather to make one last board to mount the movements to on Saturday. After that it should be fairly easy to install. I'm a little worried about the chime mounts, but i'm sure i'll be able to figure it out when it's all here.

ok, time to go put some oil in the Eclipse and go for a spin!

Yay!

Eclipse runs!!!

I know i haven't posted much aside from the transmission updates lately, but hey that's what i've been doing most of my free time. Well the transmission is finally installed and fully working in the Eclipse now. I took it for a spin last night and again today.

Unfortunately the oil pan gasket i tried to fix is actually worse than it was before hand so i'll get to do that one over again here shortly. Not near as big of a deal, but time consuming and i have to let the gasket dry at least 24 hrs before adding oil again.

In other news i had guard drill over the weekend and got to shoot an M9 pistol for the first time. I didn't get an expert rating, but i did qualify. It was fun, but i think i would have done better if i wasn't up until 11 the night before wrenching on the car.

Another transmission update

Well we had to tear the transmission apart again after getting all the internals back in, but before installing it. After getting it together it wasn't shifting properly and i knew where the problem was because i had to make a modification to get it to shift at all even. It took a while to completely diagnose why it happened, but basically there were 2 parts that didn't match when mixing the different gearsets (a shift rail and 3/4 shift fork for anyone that is curious) so i had to go to a friend for another part. It was torn all apart, installed the shift rail and put back together last night. Now the transmission is sitting in the eclipse, but it isn't really "installed" yet and i have to put all the rest of the car back together. Hopefully that will be soon though, then i get to get it inspected again after only driving about 1000 miles on it this year hehe.

Here's my brothers latest status update

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm on my third major rewrite of the outline. (The last one scrapped just about everything I wrote). The outline is about three pages, so I can't view it all at once on my screen, thus defeating it's usefulness. During the last rewrite, I simplified it to fit on one screen, but to do so I left out important details. This time I'm scripting it like I did for my website. In this manner, I can have a file for each chapter. The script that calls the files then displays only the titles and first level of detail. This manages to fit on one screen (albeit barely).

While working with the outline script I wrote a function that converts numbers into roman numerals. I was thinking about counters and I came up with the following...

bottles=99;
while [ ${bottles} -gt 1 ]; do
echo "${bottles} bottles of beer on the wall, ${bottles} bottles of beer.";
echo -n "Take one down, pass it around, ";
bottles=`expr ${bottles} '-' 1`;
done;
echo "1 bottle of beer on the wall, 1 bottle of beer.";
echo "Take one down, pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall."

With the semicolons, this can actually be run as a single line on a unix prompt. I put it on several lines here hoping someone will figure out what it does without an explanation.

Rally Race!!!

I just got back from going to a rally race at STPR (http://www.stpr.org/). As many of you know i've been wanting to get into rally racing for a while now. It was awesome to go see the cars racing. At one corner we saw 2 cars slide into the bank, but they both continued on with the race. It does make for extra excitement though. One of the people we were with was right above the car on the top of the bank when it hit. I had a great time. It does involve a lot of walking and waiting to watch a rally race though.

Transmission update (good news)

So last night i finally opened up the transmission completely and found the broken part. It turns out it wasn't quite everything that was broken. The good news though is that I was able to get the parts i need to fix it already today! There was a DSM (Eclipse is a DSM) type get together and one person had recently upgraded his transmission (to the dogbox i want) and no longer needed the old internals. Currently i have them in my garage already, but i probably won't be able to get them isntalled to the transmission before Wednesday at the earliest. Good news though is that friend prices on used internals are MUCH cheaper than getting a dogbox, but it should be sufficient to get the car back on the road until i can save up some more money. I definitely plan on gettin the dogbox still and i rode in the car that had it. It's quite loud and would be obnoxious to most people, but i think my car already fit that category so i'm good there. It gets into gear FAST though and his car has some serious power so that part was fun too.

I'll be saving for a while, but if you want to help for free take a look at the firefox and/or google pack buttons on the blog. Both products have good points to them

Loans instead of charity?

Recently I heard about a website where you can contribute to loans for people who would not be able to get them from a regular bank (http://www.kiva.org/). I like the idea of having people work to get help so they take pride in themselves and actually make better use of the aide that is given. I had heard of microfanance previously (yep, from the same person =) ), but it didn't really sink in as much until i saw how a similar idea is used for habitat for humanity( http://www.habitat.org/ ).

I guess now i need to explain that one. When i was in the officer training they had a day where you get to do community service for the morning and there were some choices, and i felt my best fit was habitat for humanity. It was a good time, and they described their process of how they have the potential owners work 500 hours of "sweat equity" before they can get their house. This is in the form of some classes such as finance, and working at the jobsite. I got to see the owner of the house i was building and how much she cared about the process and how thankful she was.

I will probably try to do another habitat for humanity project near home when they have one again now. Also, I decided to lend some money to someone on kiva, let me know if you find out who it is. My only hint will be that a side part of the loan is to set up a pool table =)

Gps arrived

It will probably lose it's novelty pretty quickly like most things, but so far the GPS is a pretty fun toy. I haven't really had any use for it for navigation at this point, but i was racking up points with navizon on it. The idea behind navizon is they take the gps data for wifi and cell spots and use it to give an estimated location for people that do not have real gps systems. People pay for that service so they will pay for my to locate the hot spots. It is never going to be lucrative for me, but it does kinda make it interesting when i might get 20 bucks if i had it on all the time whnever i drive different places. It's also neat cuz it points out where all the hot spots are. I had 170 networks found in about a 10 mile or less radius. If anyone is interested the site is www.navizon.com

Organizing etc.

I finally started to catch up a little on cleaning and paperwork issues around the house. It's really hard to get myself motivated to do those things. I'm not saying it's done by any means, but better and hopefully it will be easier to take on the rest of the paperwork now.

One of the good things about this was in going through the mail from while i was away i found a check for 18 bucks. Nothing major, but it made my time organizing a little more worthwhile. Apparently i over paid my local taxes. Oops, at least i got it back and it's nice since it was kinda surprising to find.

The side of the basement with the foosball table now has a ceiling and the table is playable. I didn't finish cleaning out the area where the soda fountain should be going yet, but i've made progress.

This weekend was guard weekend and i do have an interesting story from it, but i think it is better one on one, so feel free to call and ask about it if i haven't already told ya.

Update on GPS unit

instead of the one that i ordered previously it looks like i'll get the i. Trek M5+ it looks to be newer and should be at least as good, also it has double the battery life. They are sending it for the same price since hte one i ordered looks to be on back order until june.

Here's a link, it also looks prettier hehe:
http://www.semsons.com/im5blgpsrewa.html

Ordered a GPS unit

I was able to find a bluetooth GPS device that was only $50. It doesn't come with a display or software, but my phone can already handle the display and software portion. It's the Holux M-1000 and I ordered it from www.semsons.com There is also a site called www.buygpsnow.com which also has good deals and sells this for the same price, but they had more expensive shipping. Unfortunately this is a pre-order special so it won't be shipped until the 18th. I guess for the price it's worth the wait though, and it should be a pretty good device from what i have read. If i end up using it a lot i'm sure i'll post more about it's performance too.

Transmission

I took the transmission out of the eclipse tonight. I took my time, but it's on the garage floor now. It's probly gonna need EVERYTHING replaced, but i didn't look inside it. If you want to hear all the details you'll have to call. I'm definitely filthy now though. I wore a yellow shirt and it lets you know where the dirt is.

I might not end up getting a dogbox transmission like i want since they are really really expensive and the transmission i had should be able to take more power than i'm making. I still want the other one though so if you wanna donate lots of money to me just let me know =)

This car makes any other maintenance i do to vehicles seem small, but it's still my favorite by far!

Shocks

I have the Bilstiens installed on the ranger now. I guess i'm getting pretty well practiced at this now. In fact it even went fairly smooth. I've done them on my miata, helped my bro with the talon (just like my eclipse, but i didn't need them since i've had a garage) and now the ranger. Hopefully soon i'll get them done on a Toyota for a friend too. We'll see how that works out, but i won't be counting on it to be as smooth as this one went.

The truck rides better from what i can tell in the 5 miles i've driven since. It's stiffer than before which is good. That's pretty much the news for today. Oh, if you know anyone that needs a set of 16" steel rims that don't have tires, but are in really good shape let me know.

keeping busy

I finally finished the soffit on the garage yesterday! It should be a huge step in getting rid of the squirrel problem i've been having. It looks pretty good too. After i was done i decided to celebrate by taking the eclipse out for a spin. That car is lots of fun! I also splurged on a toy called an Airhogz Havoc Heli which is $30 from wal-mart or target. I only had it one night so i'm not great with it, but i'd reccommend it since it's a lot of fun for a fairly cheap investment in a flying toy.

Today i went to the carlisle car show. It was decent, it seemed like there weren't too many people compared to what i was expecting. I did see the StarBoyz bike stunts which were pretty awesome.

Now for the bad part. On the way home from the car show i was driving the eclipse and just as i was getting off my exit the car made funny noises. It was also starting to buck so i pulled over. As soon as i got off the road the car stalled even though it was in neutral. All of these things added up to a diagnosis of a broken tranny. I called a friend of mine and he's had this same thing happen 5 times to the transmissions which came from the same company i got mine from. The engine in the car is running perfectly still fortunately, but this does mean more eclipse downtime.

Bro update (wow 2 posts in one day!)

Dear Friends and Family,

Did I say I would write these every two weeks? That must have been a typo. Maybe I meant every two months. The time between each letter seems to be doubling. So don't worry about me for four months. (Kidding).

Every two weeks is rather difficult though. There isn't enough to report. Going to try monthly.

May be visiting Pennsylvania for a highschool reunion at the end of June. My roomate, Derek, needs to move to Portland the week before the reunion. Won't have the time to drive to PA (or at least not the same route). For those of you that were visited on my journey here: If you enjoyed my company, my appologies there won't be a visit this June. If you didn't enjoy my company, don't worry, you won't see me for a while.

After the last letter, hit a snag in writing the book. Took a while to figure out that I know nothing about police procedure. Got some help from some friends on the force. While waiting for one of their responses, started working on another long standing project.

Owned "http://www.tekempire.net/" since about January 12, 2005. Until recently, the site didn't do anything. Now, as far as functionality is concerned, it's finished. It's a text based forum, no pictures, nothing special to see. Most of the "commands" are akin to their counterparts in the UNIX operating system. It was designed for my own purposes, you aren't likely to enjoy it.

At this point, if anyone is considering taking a look at the website (despite how hard I tried to downplay its appeal), hold on a second. If my friends (or internet users en masse) have gotten to it before you, the messages may be vulgar or otherwise offensive. That being said, do as you please.

The website was supposed to waste a week, it ended up taking over a month at about ten hours a day. There were approximately five complete rewrites. Fortunately I learned something in the process.

When trying to build something, take the time to learn the tools. Creative construction is a cumulative process. The creativity part may not require any prior knowledge, but trying to implement an idea can require a great deal of it.

Outlines, even when not necessary to complete a task, will simplify it a great deal. The outlines don't have to follow any standard, the idea is to make sense to the author at a glance. A quote comes to mind, "Work smart, not hard." A lot of small tasks are easier than one big task.

Don't worry about time. Stress impedes performance. Also, time is a largly left-brained process, and creativity a largely right-brained one. While worrying about time, it may be difficult to be creative. Ironically worrying about time is likely to make things take longer. This one is probably the biggest problem for me.

Somewhere in the middle of the website diversion, one of my friends on the force sent me an e-mail. Not only did their response explain what areas to research, it gave a great deal of the specific information needed. Of course, nobody can write my book for me, so there is still some research to do on my own.

Originally thought I knew all I needed to know to write this book. Gained a new respect for authors (at least the good ones); they must be well versed in a variety of fields. Conversely lost some respect for computer programmers. Programming is no longer magic to me. (Or at least I discovered the spell to be caffeine and endless hours in front of a keyboard).

I'd like to thank those of you that have written to me on real paper. This dying art feels "warmer" than it's next of kin (e-mail). I do intend to respond to them in a more individual fassion, but there is a limit to what I can write in a given period of time. Eventually I will realize this is just an excuse and set aside a day to respond to all of them. Until then, please be patient. (Are you thinking that I can't know that I will realize something, without having already realized it? Well in that case I'll respond to your thought with this thought, "what?").

home improvements

I finally purchaced the materials i will be needing for the soffit on the garage. It's wide open now, but i think a squirrel or two still likes it in there. My speaker for the radio doesn't work again. When i checked it out i saw the chewed up wire. It's getting rediculous. I will also be making more improvements this summer, but this is the first priority. I don't have a roommate anymore though so the improvements will come slower this year. Speaking of which, if you know anyone that needs an apartment in the area let me know.

I'll also be installing shocks on the truck soon, maybe the weekend after this one.

I'm back!!

I am now a commissioned 2nd LT in the Air national guard!! I think i should get to bed soon though cuz i plan on actually going in tomorrow to do the in processing and to be there for a retirement. Just thought i'd let everyone know i'm back. So glad to be home too!

Off Base!!!

I was finally able to leave the base this weekend so i decided to stop at a panera bread and use the laptop for the internet. Now i checked some personal email and other stuff i couldn't really do from base. Not too much excitement online, but nice to have the freedom. The Chai tea was pretty good too and i think i'll get some more food in a bit. Still not allowed to use cell phones (i know it makes no sense) but i should be able to fairly soon.

Thanks for reading, i should be home sometime late friday night with some gold bars!!!! It's been a big learning experience here and i've made some friends, but i'll be glad to be home.

Academics are almost done

As of today I have completed all the academics aside from one last test that will be on Monday. I
have done pretty well so far though. In fact i have the highest grade in my squadron (barely) and
i only need a 31 percent on the test monday to pass academics. After monday we will be going on a
deployment exercise where we will march about 3 miles with ruck sacks and do other field
exercises. That will be for 3 days and then we will return. once we are back we will be preparing
for the parades and final week festivities etc. before graduation. It will likely seem quite busy,
but tonight felt like a nice milestone.

About 2 weeks til gold bars and coming home!!

At AMS

This is the first chance i have had to post to the blog. I wish i could have posted my address
earlier, but i didn't have it until they restricted all my access. I guess i shouldn't be too
surprised though. I am now about half way done and i've been doing very well so far. I did lots
and lots of pushups, but it's ok. I've earned some more privileges lately and am in good spirits.
If anyone wants to email me my address is now as follows firstname.lastname [at] gimail.af.mil
(that's to stop spammers, hopefully you will understand it) I don't have my address here at the
moment though and i can't guarantee i'll check this email very often, but i wanted to get a little
update sent. If you know my family you should be able to get the address. Feel free to send stuff
now too! I should be done by April 20th and back home soon after.

Half way to 2nd LT!!

bro update (last one on here til i get back)

Dear Friends and Family,

Good news, the previous tenant's mother took the TV the other day. She left an effectively broken one; not something worth watching anyway. There is little left to distract me.

Started writing the actual book recently. It finally hit me how big of a task this is. My usual method for writing involves no rough draft, nor outline. Basically just think of what I want to write and in an hour or so have the final product. That isn't working this time; can't even write a page in an hour.

As I write I try to keep the next steps of the chapter in mind, but can't think about that and the grammar at the same time. What I'm left with is either, something that is largely unreadable, or nothing at all. Neither of which are particularly pleasing to me. Going the route of "largely unreadable" and plan to refine everything in a second and, if necessary, third pass.

Don't know if I'll make the deadline that I set for myself (end of August). I am confident, however, that I will be able to finish this endeavor. Not coming back until it's done. For if I do, I will still be thought of as a child.

Uncle Pat gave me the distribution list, so now I'll send out the status updates directly. While he's in Europe, I won't get any incoming mail. If you wanted to "unsubscribe," you missed your chance.

Officer training soon...

I'm still trying to get myself prepared for AMS (Academy of Military Science aka officer school). I'll be leaving here on friday the 9th to head out. Apparently when i get there i will know my address before they restrict me from using my cell phone so i shouldn't have too much trouble contacting a few people. I will also try to get my address up on this blog if i can. I'm a tech geek so i should be able to find a way. I'll leave the name out, but i think the people who would be sending me mail know that part already. I think i'll need to get myself a big calling card too even with the restricted phone use.

ok, i'm a loser but check this out...

Endgadget posted a news article that links to a thread i created. I know it's really lame to almost everyone, but it's kinda cool to me. The "read" link posts to a thread i started.

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/02/21/htc-apache-gets-aku-3-5-from-the-underworld/

clothes, phone and snow

Well i finally picked up the clothes i needed from dover for my training. I still need to take them to get taylored and drycleaning done. Shouldn't be a big deal. I also need to break in my boots and run and do pushups and situps.

I broke my new phone the other night. I was loading a software update and now it doesn't boot. I think there is a hardware problem because i tried lots of stuff. It is under warranty, but i probly won't be able to get it back in order before i go away. I'll be working on calling utstarcom on monday.

It started snowing again today. I was going to go to a party for poppop, but we cancelled it due to the weather. Instead i sat around the house all day doing just about nothing, but i did have a nice cup of tea. The kind where you forget about it and it's really strong when ya remember! Made me smile.

Weather, pay raise, Clock etc.

So this weather we had last week was fun, i'm glad i had the 4wd fixed in the ranger. I used the tow strap at least 6 times since the snow started. My road wasn't plowed til after it iced up so they just took the thin layer of snow off the top of the ice to make it nice and slick. When i pulled the last car out we didn't even take the slack of the strap to loosen it. The guy pulled the car sideways a foot and a half by hand (yeah it was that slippery!!) and that loosened it up.

I found out how much my pay raise was this week and i'm happy with it. I got the promotion to a level 2 analyst and a good merit raise in addition. I'm probably the lowest paid on my team still since i'm so new, but i'm workin on it.

My grandfather just delivered the grandmother clock today. It is sitting by my mantle now. It doesn't have the workings yet as i wanted to pick them out personally. Unfortunately the clock peddler store has been closed for a while now and i'll need to take some time to look and order. That means it will have to wait til i get back from training.

I played hockey last night and ran more than others so i could get in shape too. I also got the phone working about how i wanted. Today i tried to start my taxes even, but i don't have all the info yet, i might even need to file an extention since i'm gonna be gone. Final misc item is i'm almost out of oil. I have to call tomorrow and hope they can deliver soon. Oh well i have blankets =)

Bro update again...

Here is the biweekly(-ish) update from my bro:

Dear Friends and Family,

Another two weeks have passed. I've effectively finished my outline. I'm going to wait about two weeks before I start writing though. A friend of mine was writing a book once. After he got to about the halfway point, he realized he wanted to make a major change, thus ruining the last six chapters that he wrote. I'd rather change an outline than even one chapter. Even if I find this outline to be flawless, two weeks probably won't be that big of a deal in the long run.

After telling that story to my landlord, he told me I'm probably still going to rewrite six chapters once I get into it. One of his relatives is an author, so I can't just dismiss his warning. It's as my grandmother told me, "A good author's wastebasket is always full." I am however using a computer to cut back on the clutter.

Nothing terribly interesting happened lately. I've been going to Denny's in the middle of the night to work on my outline. That isn't really new; I frequently go to diners in the middle of the night. Or go for walks on especially clear nights when the visible stars are plentiful, which they haven't been. As much as I dislike Denny's, the one here is empty after 10:00pm (local time). So I've found it to be a wonderful place to focus.

My biggest responsibility is taking my roommate to school. Oh and not waking him up when I get back from Denny's at 2 or 3 in the morning (local time). In regards to a writing environment, this is great. Unfortunately we still have cable.

I can't think of anything else to mention. I guess I'll wait until the middle of the month when I have everyone's responses to the first letter. Since I'm sure everyone who received it will either respond, or send Terrific Uncle Pat an "unsubscribe" request.

Officer training

Today was my last guard drill before my officer training. I will be leaving for training March 10th the graduation is on April 20th. I still need to work on getting my clothes first though. I need to get to running too though.

my Cell phone etc.

Yeah i know, big deal right? That's exactly why this journal entry is so overdue. Since my phone actually is a PDA it runs a version of Windows Mobile. Well i've been spending (wasting?) a lot of time on it lately updating it to a version that was previously not working on this phone. To me it's kind of a big deal like a pioneer or something, but i realize this is really not too interesting to many people. So instead of posting to the blog i've been posting to a forum about the phone. That way i've been sparing you a boring details and actually sharing them with other's with similar interests. On a related note i just got the $100 rebate check for the phone and everyone should understand the excitement there!

I've also had blockbuster total access for the past month (cancelled it this weekend) for the trial period. It was good and another way to be wasting my time.

I also have made progress getting the clothes for the officer school. It looks like i could have them as early as next week. I emailed the list so i didn't have to waste too much time. It is great to have a friend that already went through this stuff! Looks like the next class starts in March and if i don't go on that one another starts in May.

Consultants and fair trade!

We have had a Consultant in from SAP all week to help with a unicode conversion. It's not scary like bringing in the Bobs or anything, but it does meen long days. He usually doesn't know how to stop so we've been there til about 5:30 or later all week. Me being kinda dumb i usually still come in early too. Today i'm not going in early though!! Instead i'm getting starbuck's coffee for the morning to help it go faster. I know at least one of you will be happy to know that I ordered the Fair Trade coffee too! At first i wasn't sure how that would go over since my boss was joking about getting coffee where at least 10 rainforest trees were destroyed in the making of his cup. Turns out he'd rather have the workers get the money than "terrorists". I didn't do any more correcting at that point though =)

First written update from my bro (Status Update 1)

I know some of you might be interested in knowing how my bro is doing so i'm going to post most of the info he sends out to the family on here. If you will recieve it in the mail checking here will probably get the info more quickly. If you haven't given your address to him for sending updates then this might be your only option. I have left out the portion that is a journal. If you are interested in that part (some is good and tells of his drive accross country) post a comment or send an email etc. Well anyway here is his "Status Update":

Dear Friends and Family,
As of Friday January 12th (approximately 9:30pm local time), I have arrived safely in Eugene, Oregon. I'm here for many reasons, but the one that is most relevant is isolation. I'm not giving out my direct address because I do not wish to receive any "care packages." I'd also like to limit the timeframe of incoming letters to once a month. So I'm asking that if anyone wants to reach me, they send (paper) letters to my "terrific" UncleNormally I'd use the term "great," but I'm afraid he might think I'm subtly calling him "elderly."

I've sought this isolation for a very particular purpose; I intend to write a book. I figure some of you may be mildly interested in following along with the agony I go through, attempting to accomplish *something* with my life. This is the first in a series of what I like to call "status updates." I will write one approximately every two weeks.

On to the actual status of the book...I have nothing. Well I came with about 60 pages of notes, read them, and threw most of them away. Since I've been thinking about this off and on for about 5 years now, the story has evolved. Most of what I've written, while thought provoking, doesn't really fit the story or the characters anymore. So as far as writing is concerned, I'll have to start from scratch, with a new outline. Since memory isn't linear, I've had trouble trying to write a chronological outline. I've purchased some index cards on which to write the major events. When I feel I've got most of them completed, I'm going to try to sort them in what makes sense chronologically.

So you're probably wondering why I haven't done that by now, if I already have a plan. I've been watching a lot of TV. We weren't supposed to have cable here, and we still aren't paying for it. On a positive note, I've also figured out how to write a shell script to archive the photos from my digital camera. Unfortunately I didn't take many since I didn't have that script earlier. I'm not sure whether to thank my brother for that or complain to him.

I can still tell you what happened on my trip; just can't prove it without the pictures. It also won't be as colorful.

Work stuff

So i had guard this weekend and got the letter that says i am appointed into the officer position in temporary status. I still need to get my new uniforms then i will get my school dates. My boss at work seems super cooperative. I am kinda heading up a project at the moment, but he isn't worried about letting me go for the training as there will be other similar projects in the future and i'll work on at least one of them. That being said i don't think i'll go get the uniforms this week though cuz we have a consultant in all week. (no it's not the Bobs) If i could get the stuff on the weekend that would be easiest, but if not maybe in an afternoon. I'll work it out i'm sure.

So not too much else to report, but i'm really glad it finally snowed since it's been so cold anyway. I didn't do too much driving in the stuff, but it wasn't bad.

Pool table photo

Pool table photo, originally uploaded by imcokeman.

For some reason I never posted the pic of my pool table in my basement, so here it is

My brother has completed the oregon trail...for real

He made it to Oregon by this weekend and all seems well. I'm glad the trip went smoothly and safely. His Talon with ~190k miles made it accross the country in one piece! Good ole DSMs.

As for myself this was an on call weekend and today wasn't too exciting as i was sitting near a computer most of the day. At least there wasn't too much i had to do and i had rented some movies in anticipation.

Bro's trip update 3 and comp stuff

I think my brother was in Disneyland today. I know he said he made it to Cali and was staying with some relatives there. He said if he stayed til today he got to go to disneyland for free so i'm guessing he took them up on that offer today. Not sure if he is going out later tonight or what, but he seems to be doing well and is already at the other coast.

Now for me I have another computer issue. I think it could have been part of the problems i was having a long time ago and it just finally gace up. I have a WD2500 250 gig ide hard drive that gave up the ghost. I am running some utilities on it now, but i definitely won't trust it with any data i don't have backed up somewhere else. And i thought they were supposed to be the good company. Oh well i still have another 750 gig in that computer anyway i guess i'll manage.

Bro update 2

Well my brother has made it as far as arizona now and is staying with my grandmother out there. He'll be there a little, then off to Cali to visit some other relatives before heading out to Oregon. So far he's been safe, but the weather was colder as he went south. Yesterday it was in the mid 60s here in PA and there was snow in New Mexico where he was driving through.

Update 1 on my brothers trip - Chicago

Well he made it to Chicago today. He stopped a few times before making it there since the person he was visiting wasn't free until today though. He should be on his way again now and stop as far outside chicago as he can before getting tired. He seemed to be doing well and didn't report and car troubles aside from bad traffic in chicago. Maybe he'll be hitting the start of Rt 66 tonight!

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a good 2006 and I wish you all an even better 2007. I have had a fairly busy week with my brother preparing to drive accross country. He should be leaving some time today i think. I'm not sure how much news i will get from him, but i will likely post a few updates as i recieve them.

I can't believe how much food i've been eating lately either. Well i guess i'm not really too surprised, but it is definitely a lot. A few times i've eaten more than one dinner =) and of course there is always a lot of deserts and snacks around during the holidays. We'll see how long it takes for me to finish up the stuff we have on the kitchen counter!