Coke Blog: Now with 2X the carbs

Some tree pics, by "Anonymous" demand

2010-10-16T21:46:00.005-04:00

I am surprised people will threaten a BAN even without the common decency of logging in, or some signature even. Anyway, here are some pics:

More Trees

2010-10-12T08:45:00.002-04:00

All the dangerous cutting part is done, no more tree limbs over the house, the garage, the neighbor's fence or anything. So far the biggest tree is still standing, but we cut off the large "trunks" that were leaning towards the garage side. Now if anything were to happen it would just fall in the woods (would it even make a sound?). The cleanup project will probably last a LONG time, who knows maybe even pictures with next blog post about it. But does anyone even read this anymore?

Trees

2010-09-20T09:56:00.002-04:00

So lately the work I've been doing around the house has been cutting and dragging tree limbs. One day we also broke up the concrete patio, but that was fast compared to the tree project. I have a great helpful friend doing the felling of the limbs, but it leaves a huge amount of work still with how large my trees were. One tree's branches pretty much fill up the entire backyard and take hours to cut and move smaller branches to brush piles. 3 down, still some limbs to cut up and drag, but 5 more similar trees to go. There are also 2 REALLY huge trees that need to come completely down, but that is so big its almost it's own project. Who know's, maybe it will be enough to actually post another time...

Time for another post

2010-07-10T12:41:00.003-04:00

So my Eclipse runs again after getting the part back from AEM and it's inspected and everything, probably needs some new spark plugs, but no biggie there. It's been up for a while, but I don't really post too often lately.

Next tech purchase will probably be the sprint HTC EVO 4g phone (link). I still have a touch pro 2 and it's nice, but it seems windows mobile is dying and it's time to give android a shot. That will be August though for my 2 yr upgrade to kick in. I guess there might be a post about that if I do get one.

I guess that's about it for now.

someone reminded me that i have a blog

2010-01-30T00:49:00.004-05:00

Not sure how many other people still know i have one, but here's a random update for ya. Tonight I managed to get my digital over the air TV working again. In my boycott of the cable company i decided i didn't need their monthly price increases a long time ago and with FIOS and over the air tv i was fine. Well actually i can't remember the last time i watched my tv for over the air, but i wanted it to work. Instead of using those tuners with the 40 dollar rebate and composite connector i wanted to use my Xbox 360 as a media center extender. This uses my PC tuner and has dvr capability all with no monthly fee (for media center the 360 still doesn't need to be on xbox live). For the high definition digital signals though you need a lot of network bandwidth and i didn't have a network cable in the bedroom. Fortunately they recently came out with a wireless N network adapter so i jumped on that and a new router. It's been working well now that i got passed the problem of my antenna connections needing to be checked for the channels to come in again. Another feature of media center is internet tv, but unfortunately now that i upgraded to windows 7 that isn't supported on extenders (the xbox).

All this to say, i'm really happy that i can watch tv in my bedroom now, even though i probably won't.

Tech toys

2009-10-07T18:50:00.002-04:00

Any idea what my next tech toy purchase should be? I was looking at the following:

Nextar - 43LT GPS
Gps with free lifetime rds detailed traffic info, but not in all areas.

A Cheap used xbox 360 for another media extender. Probably from craigslist or something.

HTC Touch pro 2 for sprint

Not really sure I need any of those though. Anyone else have any must have tech toys?

Yay!

2009-09-24T23:33:00.001-04:00

The car runs again, thanks for all the suggestions! (double checks for comments, ok just checking....)

M3 updates

2009-09-23T22:33:00.005-04:00

Anyone like installing alarms or remote starts? I'm part way there, but it's not quite right. Take a look at the pictures and let me know if you see the problem =)

Oh, incidentally, once again I can't drive it.

Someone reminded me I have a blog

2009-08-22T15:30:00.003-04:00

I guess for update on M3 i FINALLY fixed the rubbing issue with the eastwood fender tool and rear bump stops. Car doesn't look much different than last pic but i can actually drive it now. I also fixed the sway bars. Front needed new end links, rear needed a new subframe....lots of work, but well worth it!

New Rimz Dawg

2009-04-22T16:40:00.004-04:00

WOW I updated my blog!!!!!!

So now that it's nice out i finally put on the new rims for the M3. Good news is they look freaking awesome, bad news is that they rub the fender even sitting in the driveway. So at this point I backed it up the 20 feet into the garage and it sits awaiting some options. Perhaps raise it back up a little which may not be the preferred option, perhaps look into rolling the fenders some. Maybe a compromise. Either way the old rims have not yet been burnt up due to lack of suitable parking lots with no surveillance. I do still plan to remedy this at some point, but I'd like to drive the thing for a little while with the nice rims anyway.

HID lights w/ Angel eyes

2009-01-27T00:16:00.003-05:00

Finally installed the new lights in the M3 today. There was in issue and i had it started earlier, but it works now. They definitely need to be adjusted because they shine super high, but that can be fixed. I tried to take some pictures, but they just looked like white light so i'll wait til daytime when it will be less trouble for the camera. Also gonna have to spark a rim soon as the new CSLs are in. The old rims got some tread though so they'll be good through winter i'm thinking.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T16:33:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I just noticed I haven't posted an entry since Nov 22nd. That could mean I'm off doing things that are super exciting and I don't even have time to write about it. Or, that I'm really up to nothing at all and don't have anything interesting to write about. Who knows it could just be that I haven't gotten around to it though and interesting things happened that didn't get written about for no particular reason at all. You decide.

Trucks first snow and 4 wheeling

2008-11-22T12:30:00.005-05:00

I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one.

Ok one comment, it actually looked more muddy after it dried later in the day

New M3 exhaust

2008-10-17T22:34:00.006-04:00

Installed a new exhaust on the M3. That was probably my least favorite part of the car previously due to how it looked, this one is a little quieter i think, but MUCH nicer looking and it sounds clean. The fit was a little interesting to make work, but its about as good as it can get now. Only busted one bolt in the whole exhaust job and none were totally seized, not bad. Next will be all the exterior lighting, HID lights and some clear lenses to replace all the orange. It should be a much cleaner look on the blue car and they are already ordered.

Update: Here's a daylight shot

"My" new project car

2008-10-13T17:57:00.003-04:00

Its a 1995 BMW M3 with a nice Vortec supercharger. Here are a few pics. Enjoy, I know I will!

oops, forgot to post during on call

2008-10-08T23:26:00.002-04:00

I actually got paged a few too many times this time around, but oh well. Good news for tonight is that I just installed a rebuilt and upgraded transmission with a new twin disc clutch in the Eclipse. I still have a little more work to come on that one I think with a modified slave cylinder, but it runs and is quite grabby.

Still ringing, but life goes on

2008-09-06T01:19:00.002-04:00

So I went to the Specialist the other day and they basically said that there is nothing they can do about the ringing in my ear that started over a month ago. The sympoms he can see are just that I have a slight high pitch hearing loss in my left ear. Which he said looks to be about normal, but I notice it because it was about perfect before. I'm kinda thinking it might be worth a second opinion. Not that they will definitely be able to do anything, but his explanation doesn't even address the fact that I was near deaf for a week in that ear and the doc saw swelling so gave me meds that helped.

Bottom line: I can hear ok, but ringing is still there and still feels like a little pressure as well.

Since last post I went to Cedar point which was awesome, also a DSM get together and race. My Eclipse is currently undergoing a transmission upgrade as last time at the track made me angry at the current one. Oh and tonight I had a bunch of people over for a game night, good times!

New Truck!!

2008-07-29T23:28:00.003-04:00

So it turns out that high gas prices make for cheap trucks! I have wanted a full size pickup for the ability to tow a vehicle for a long time now. I had a ranger, but that wasn't cutting it. After looking around at every place i could find lately i noticed all brands had huge rebates til the end of the month. The one that really caught my attention at first was a 30% off sale at Nissan! And that's right off the bat no fighting for it. That makes a 37,700 sticker price truck down to around 27,700 out the door after taxes tags etc. Nice deal! Thought that's about what I'd be getting after trying all brands. Then I looked on the internet to make sure it was the best nissan deal. Turns out it wasn't! There was a 40% off deal and they had a fancier truck. It made a 41,000 truck down to about 27,100 out the door. Needless to say more options and less money sounds like the way to go. Some of the options weren't deal makers, but there were a few I really liked and hey if it costs me less money why not? It went from an SE to a PRO-4X for those interested. It's color is listed as smoke which is a nice dark charcoal gray.

Needless to say i'm excited and this is made to haul so hopefully it will lead me into my other car hobbies that will go better with a car trailer =)

On another note i have a weird ringing in my ears that has been there since saturday. went to the doc today hopefully the meds will fix it pretty annoying to test the new car stereos and be like, well i think the one side sounds good. Left ear is very muffled and ringing though.

World of Coca-Cola!

2008-07-07T22:42:00.003-04:00

So had to go to Atlanta for a class for work and it turns out that's where the world of coca cola is. You might have guess that I'm a Coke fan so this was definitely a good time! The class was ok, but I was very glad to go to the Coke Mecca for the first time. They have a museum of different coke historic items and art. There are a few movies, one is the happiness factory (the ones in the coke machine where the quarter rolls in) another was "4d" or 3d with moving chairs and similar additional effects. The best part though is the sample room where they have cocacola products from around the world. There were about 63 flavors and i sampled most of them right away. I didn't waste room on the ones that said diet and might have skipped a few US ones, but there was Bibo from south africa (mango), Inca Cola from south america, and the infamous Beverly from italy to name a few. The Beverly is one that every has to try when they go there hehe. I didn't even get very sick afterwards....just wasn't really hungry from all the sugar =)

Hmm, never posted about that?

2008-06-20T22:04:00.002-04:00

So a few weeks ago i went to a rally race! It was awesome as was expected. It was kinda hard to pull off though as i had to work the day before and after the 3hr drive. I'm willing to sacrifice sleep for that though. Saw some cars hit a bank pretty hard, one jumped up in the air with all 4 tires when it hit. Overall it was nice to see now that i have a little more background from the team o'neil course over the winter. I could see where they took the lines and which worked and why some hit the wall.

Another fun part was the day before i went to the rally the gutter decided to fall off of my backporch. The roof definitely needed to be redone, but i didn't think it was as drastic until that happened. I ended up putting it back up myself with some nails and a little handy work for a temp fix so i could go to the race and not think about it, but i still needed a real fix.

Now it's been redone with new decking, fascia boards (it had none before, part of why gutter fell), rubber roof and soffit. All thanks to some friends that hooked me up with the skills and tools/materials. its all done now and looks good and i don't see water getting in now.

Unusual twist of fate

2008-05-10T19:34:00.002-04:00

So yesterday I went to the garage and heard a noise in the attic which I've heard many times before. The lovely sound of the metal trap rattling because it caught a squirrel. About two days before this I had caught another one and let it go about 30 miles away so it wouldn't come back.
This time it was a little different though. When I picked up the cage the weirded thing happened. I believe the direct quote from my own mouth was "Darn it this one's cute!" It was a tiny squirrel so I didn't feel as happy about releasing him miles away as usual. I figured at least a "last meal" was in order.
So my brother and I went to get some peanut M&Ms (squirrels actually shell even chocolate M&Ms) and went to the park. We left the little guy in the cage and tried to feed him the treats, but he wasn't eating. We sat and ate a few to make sure he could tell there were peanuts inside and even opened some up for him.
After that got boring we figured it was time to open the cage and let him go to the pile of M&Ms we left for him. So I spring open the cage and he stays put. After a little coaxing he finally got out, but instead of going to the food he went towards my brother. This kinda freaked my brother out so he shouted "ahhh!" and kinda ran a little. Then the squirrel turned around confused and started going towards me. Nothing aggressive or fast, but just coming closer.
This went on for a little until I said to my bro: Ok, if it goes back in the trap we'll take him with us. So I set up the trap with no bait and stepped back. I don't think it was even 30 seconds later the squirrel had gone back in the trap as if it knew what it meant.
Needless to say neither my brother or I actually thought we'd be taking the squirrel back with us, but we did. We were both hungry though so we went to eat while trying to figure out what to do with it.
Finally we took it to a friends house and pampered him a bit. He is pretty cute and actually fun. He slept a lot, but when he was awake he chased me slowly around the kitchen and crawled up our arms and sat on our shoulders. Not bad for a wild animal we tamed with a bag of M&Ms that it didn't even eat. He didn't draw blood or anything and I think everyone is just as healthy as they were yesterday too incase anyone was worried.
So if you have read the rest of my blog you'd know I'm probly the last person you'd ever expect to end up with a squirrel as a pet, but thats kinda what happened. What a start to my first weekend without work since early April.

GPS enabled for htc touch

2008-04-25T20:07:00.003-04:00

I recently spent some time updating an unlocker i made for the htc vogue aka touch. The new unlocker i made now makes it possible to use GPS on any brand of CDMA touch, Sprint, verizon, telus, etc. Link to a nice write up below:

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=24925

For my non ppc phone readers:
I went to a leadership conference today. There were about 2 hours of good speakers today and more to come tomorrow and sunday. I think this puts me close to the half way point of my month with no days off so we'll see how the rest goes.

Unlocking that GPS was fun, and i think having the eclipse running will be enough to keep me sane.

YAY! Eclipse again!

2008-04-22T17:37:00.002-04:00

So the ignition wasn't working, but it turns out it was just a fuse that blew. This model has a known issue so if it does blow a few more times i'm going to have to send it it for a replacement, but at least i know what it was now. I might take the car out for a spin tonight to test it out more. Super happy about this!

Also a little happy bout some phone stuff, but thats kinda boring to most so i'll spare you. The weekend at guard was ok, actually went faster than i expected. I guess i'm about 25% through my month of 0 days off.

Good weekend

2008-04-14T23:24:00.002-04:00

Well i never got paged all week so that was awesome. On top of that i didn't have to go into work today until 2pm. The best part of the weekend was Saturday until about 3pm though. I managed to get my Eclipse running finally! Put the starter in friday night, then charged the battery over night. Since it was warm saturday it started right up after a little work and running out the fuel from the lines. After that i took it for a little spin and showed it to a friend. All went well.

The friend brought over a mini motocross bike. I never rode one before so the little 125cc was enough to have some fun, but small enough that if it got away i could just stand up. Definitely a good time and my yard was ok for a bit of a run with it. Did a little bit of accidental wheelies or going into neighbors yard, but overall not too bad for first time, no big spills or blood or anything.

Later I decided the eclipse needed some more time on the streets so i went out some more. Found another friend to give a ride to, drove around a while. Went under a bridge with the wastegate wide open. Good times. Then it was time to take him back home. Got off the highway and stopped at another light. Third in line with three behind me the tach jumps around a bit and car dies. No chance of restarting but it does crank. After a bit of troubleshooting and friends stopping by it turned out it was time for a tow from AAA. its home now, but it seems the ignition box i bought last year might be fried since it doesn't seem to be sparking (Wrench stuff: Coil on plug is a little harder to check, but the timing light which worked before doesn't show any flashes indicating inducted current while cranking).

haven't gotten to the car yet, but yesterday I hooked up a friend with an AT&T tilt unlocked to work with their t-mobile plan. Today i pulled the railing off the back porch so i have more room for the Grill i got yesterday too.

Lot more happening this weekend to write about than there has been for a while. Guess i liked the warmer weather!

Apparently I only blog when on call now

2008-04-10T19:07:00.004-04:00

Well i am on call, but today was pretty cool because i got an AT&T Tilt to play with. Its not for me, but i'm setting it up. I'm currently unlocking it to use on a different carrier and loading it with a new ROM. Check out my nice assortment of PPCs (and the on call phone).

On Call, PC, and phone stuff

2008-03-22T13:07:00.004-04:00

Well so far this week of on call has been interesting. Got a call on wednesday that our main system was down so i had to log in and get it running again. That was kind of fun since i tried something new to speed up the process and it worked. Normally a few people log in to do the process, but i did the repair faster and by myself by adding 1 line to a script basically.

Got another call today which was kind of odd, but seems to be working now. Hopefully this is it cuz i'd like to have Easter be somewhat normal.

On a side note my pc USB ports all stopped working a few days ago and i found the solution to that today. Digging through the registry for driver entries yay. Windows can be a pain, but it is still the main os i use so i'm glad to have USB back.

The usb ports broke while i was trying to troubleshoot a windows mobile phone (htc Titan, sprint mogul) That phone is still not working, but i'm much closer to a workaround for that and USB coming back should help speed up that process.

Warm day!

2008-03-03T18:57:00.002-05:00

Today was awesome, at least for a while. It was almost 60 degrees outside so I washed the miata and bro did the same. Then we went for a convertible drive. Not super far and had coats for later, but still worth it. It's great to get a little taste of spring during a winter, but i still love snow. Now the ground is all mushy.

I really should have more to write about, but oh well.

random entry

2008-02-21T16:52:00.002-05:00

Just thought about how i haven't updated in a while. I guess i need to go do some more interesting stuff so i have more to write about. I've been good, and things are going on, but just not too much that i can think of for the blog (and any readers i have hehe)

Gotta get truck inspected this month still i guess i've been putting that off, didn't want to send it away during the weather, but looks like theres more to come and i still need to do it in a week or so.

Miata was fun in the snow last night, hopefully more tonight to play in as well.

Work's good....i guess there's more to talk about there, but more for a call or visit or even email than for a post =)

Last week

2008-02-09T19:46:00.000-05:00

So i guess this week getting back to work must have thrown me off a bit cuz i intended to write about my trip to NH.

I did end up going to the team o'neil rally school (www.teamoneil.com) and it was incredible. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was well worth the money. Unfortunately to continue honing my new skills requires even more money in the form of a rally car =) Don't have one yet, but definitely interested.

At the school we started out in FWD jettas and the roads were pretty icy. I was totally amazed at how backwards the concept of FWD on ice is compared to RWD, but also amazed at how well it worked once you get the hang of it. I did some nice left foot braking amd made it turn in when i thought i'd hit stuff which was fun. Then the fun part was pendulum turns. It seems backwards as you line up on the inside of the turn, slide the opposite direction and then flip it back to get the car the way you want. My first few tries all went pretty well so i was psyched. Then when we switched cars it didn't work so well, but i def still had the idea cuz it worked on the rest of the cars i was in.

After FWD we did some AWD little different and much faster cuz lets face it, ice doesn't have much traction. I liked these audis and the one suby quite a bit. Then last day had a little RWD, but it was so icy that day that it was more just countersteering than driving so i only drove it a little. Highlight reel for me would have included when i launched the suby up ontop of the snow bank. Some said it looked like it was going to flip, but in fact we just backed it down and drove it again, didn't hurt a thing. Definitely a combination of more confidence and worsening conditions on the test road. By the time we went on real trails through the woods i was pretty good at not letting something like that happen.

Feel free to ask about it anytime, but i might talk a while =)

guess where

2008-01-29T07:23:00.001-05:00

Well i'm not in PA today so if you read the last post you can probly tell i'm really excited!

Short post

2008-01-24T19:13:00.000-05:00

Phone works now!

Got an email about a huge discount on a rally school in new hampshire that i have been thinking about for a while. Trouble is it's for next week. Hmmmmmmm.....

Snowboarding and phone issues

2008-01-23T22:38:00.000-05:00

Well today was fun, i went snowboarding this evening with some of the people from work. It was my 3rd time and i haven't gone for like 2-3 years, but i don't think i have any bruises. I am definitely sore and used muscles that i haven't used for a while, but it was good overall. I was just impressed i could still turn without catching an edge and falling every time. Thought i would have lost that after a few years and barely learning it in the first place, but it came back. Not gonna say i didn't fall by any means, but it was decent enough where i didn't get really hurt and i had a good time. In fact i even gingerly went down a double black diamond. I'm sure i'll be pretty sore come friday when i play street hockey though!

In other news my phone isn't working there was a VERY unusual issue where my account and phone were set up like they should be. When calling my phone though it didn't work and calling out didnt either. then they did some resetting type stuff on the tower and tried calling again. My phone still didn't ring, but a woman answered! It turns out they gave her my number which was still on my acct in good standing as a temporary number, but til then neither of us were able to get calls on it. so far they ported hers away, but my phone isn't working, i'll give them another call here shortly and hopefully that will resolve it though.

Jury Duty

2008-01-16T23:06:00.001-05:00

Yesterday and today i actually sat on a jury rather than just the assembly room chairs. It was interesting and a fairly clear case. The deliberation is interesting though to see the dynamic of the 12 people involved in the jury. Everyone focuses on different parts or questions different things etc. Fortunately, we were able to agree on a verdict in a reasonable time, but not all necessarily for the same reasons. I go back tomorrow, not sure if i'll sit on anymore, but i think the experience so far was one of the better ones.

Imax Legend

2008-01-13T21:33:00.000-05:00

Guess what I saw this weekend? Wow you figured it out from the title huh? Yep I am Legend at an IMAX theater. It was ok, nothing incredible that everyone has to see though. I went with some friends though and we visited a bit afterwards so that made it worthwhile.

I also played a game of street hockey again finally. First time being very active for a while (lazy over the holidays). Cold air doesn't get along with my lungs too well when sprinting. I wasn't too bad though and our team won which was fun. Mostly cuz the kids that were super into winning were on the other team.

Next i get to go to jury duty this week, hope that goes well.

"January post"

2008-01-06T18:37:00.000-05:00

Well here it is, first post of the new year. I've been on call this week at work and had guard this weekend. Also, in that time went to a friends on friday night til about midnight. So not too much sleep as usual. On call wasn't too bad at work though and guard drill is still interesting since i've become an LT. Still learning all i can as quick as possible and having no clue what i'm really supposed to be doing though. Just like the ohter 4 of us =).

Around Christmas my brother got me a 1 yr xbox live membership and we haven't really been able to get it up and running until today. After all the hassles though i'm not even that excited and i went on today for about 10 minutes. Oh well, i'm sure it'll get used somehow.

Oh yeah i really gotta get to work on my eclipse too, i haven't even started any kind of troubleshooting, but it wasn't starting for me last i tried.

Happy New Year!!

New Years Eve

2007-12-31T12:02:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-12-26T14:37:00.000-05:00

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!!!!

2007-12-16T23:54:00.001-05:00

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!!!

2007-12-09T03:49:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-11-20T22:45:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-13T00:42:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-10-26T19:07:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-21T01:59:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-12T12:45:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-07T23:03:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-07T00:50:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-10-06T00:06:00.001-04:00

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

2007-09-26T00:26:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-17T23:30:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-11T23:48:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-04T00:03:00.001-04:00

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

2007-08-24T12:38:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-21T10:07:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-04T23:38:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-29T03:07:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-22T23:44:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-15T03:25:00.000-04:00

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.

2007-07-05T10:30:00.000-04:00

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!!!!

2007-06-30T23:52:00.001-04:00

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

2007-06-28T06:27:00.001-04:00

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

2007-06-27T06:34:00.000-04:00

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!!!

2007-06-21T22:34:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-17T23:33:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-14T23:10:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-14T18:19:00.000-04:00

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!!!

2007-06-11T18:22:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-06T23:57:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-03T22:18:00.000-04:00

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!!!

2007-06-03T17:40:00.000-04:00

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)

2007-05-28T22:40:00.000-04:00

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?

2007-05-25T22:09:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-23T22:26:00.000-04:00

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.

2007-05-22T12:05:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-19T17:41:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-16T16:02:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-11T22:38:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-09T22:40:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-05T22:21:00.000-04:00

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!)

2007-05-02T21:59:00.001-04:00

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

2007-05-02T20:07:00.000-04:00

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!!

2007-04-20T23:47:00.000-04:00

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!!!

2007-04-15T16:12:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-05T23:06:00.001-04:00

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

2007-03-31T21:04:00.001-04:00

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)

2007-03-06T06:36:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-03-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-02-28T20:04:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-25T22:53:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-18T23:37:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-02-14T21:29:00.001-05:00

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

2007-02-11T20:59:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-05T16:51:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-01-26T07:10:00.000-05:00

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)

2007-01-26T07:01:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-22T20:08:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-21T17:49:00.001-05:00

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

2007-01-14T22:44:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-11T21:01:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-07T22:47:00.000-05:00

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.