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!

Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. Maybe enjoy a movie with the family or something. Try to remember though the true meaning of Christmas isn't gifts or family time like most movies seem to protray. It's about the birth of Jesus. That is worth celebrating!

Garage work

I did some tweaks to the eclipse that i've wanted to do for a while, but had too many other things, or was just plain lazy. Some bolts were stripped so i Heli-Coiled them, replaced a valve cover gasket and the spark plugs. I also did a little fuel tuning for warm up/cold start issues. So far it's looking really good it had no drivability issues and still makes LOTS of power. Before it was having trouble idling because the plugs fouled. I think that was because it was too rich (too much fuel) and it should be better now. I didnt' get to test it too much cuz even on my short drive there were 2 cops with someone pulled over. To sum it all up incase it didn't make sense: Good car night!

Can't believe i forgot to post this....

I GOT THE POOL TABLE TUESDAY!! I guess with all the playing pool and work parties I didn't take the time to update my blog. I guess part of it is that i didn't take any pictures yet, but i still should have posted it. I'm very happy with it and i've practiced some and i'm sure i will continue to do so.

Christmas parties

This past week was full of work Christmas parties. I ate out or they provided lunch every day. I went out one night even. Tonight there was a party at my manager's house which was fun. He has a pool table in his basement so that's where i stayed after i had some of the food. Didn't do too bad, but I can still use a lot of practice. I think i'll do more of the practicing tomorrow since i can!

As for the holiday shopping i think i'm catching up and doing ok now. Haven't done any wrapping of course, but most things are purchased.

Basement prepped

Ceiling is finished and the room is empty all ready for the pool table. Here are some pics i have so of the basement pre-pool table.

The other side of my basement is completely cluttered at the moment, but that isn't really the point yet. Long term project is to have a Coke fountain on the other side with a bar and the foosball table.

Productivity

So last night we put most of a new ceiling up in the basement for when the pool table comes. It already has one coat of paint and will likely get another tomorrow and a few other finishing touches. It is much brighter than it was before and it feels much more open as well. Can't wait for the pool table.

Then today we worked on my roommates car that he is getting rid of. It took a bit of work, but we actually finished it already and we thought there was going to be leftover work for tomorrow. There is still one piece that is broken, but we were able to drive it tonight and it is so much better than it was before.

I'm not sure, but i might just be lazy the rest of the night as i'm going to have guard early in the morning. Fortunately it is going to be a party day so it shouldn't be too bad.

Oh and to anyone that missed the deadline for the gifts, but still wants to give me a list you can still send it to me and we'll see what happens hehe.

Christmas list

I haven't really done any Christmas shopping yet, but i suppose i should get on that. I am feeling generous though. How bout all my loyal readers (you know who you are) send me a comment, email, instant message, or just call with their Christmas list. I will pick something off of it and get it for you (within reason of course, but i'm not making a fixed value). I suppose for it to prove you are a loyal reader I would need the list by oh, Thursday night at 8pm.

Enjoy!

Chose a pool table!!!

This is about what it will look like except the colors will be a little different. This is oak with a milano finish and mine is maple with a spice finish. My felt will be marine blue. It should be delivered and installed in the house on Dec 12th!!! CAN'T WAIT!!!!

vvvv

I was pointed to a new tool that is designed to be interactive with audio, video and large outputs. It's called a Multipurpose toolkit and it looks like it has some great possibilities given motivation and an idea i'm sure it would be great. So far i just went through the tutorial and i'm not really sure what else i'm going to do with it, but there are definitely possibilities. The one screen they show i would like to have set up for a bar in my basement. When you set mugs on it they interact with each other. Probly makes no sense, but you can check out the gallery by clicking the link in the title. Enjoy!

PS still looking at pool tables, didn't find a different store that was open tonight though

Now with RSS

Not sure how many of you use RSS readers, but I set the site up with Feedburner now so it should with with any RSS or Atom reader program. Feel free to subscribe!

Now the real reason i'm posting is because i'm thinking about getting a pool table. Not just like how i've always wanted one, but like I saw one in a store and came home to measure the room. According to the minimum recommended size for rooms my basement would actually work with a 7' pool table, but it would be a little tight on the sides. I do however have some short sticks in case that would be needed. If anyone knows of a good deal, or someone getting rid of a pool table let me know. Oh and of course any of you are welcome to just buy me one for a Christmas present or something if you feel so inclined

flickr

So the previous 3 posts may not have been too interesting, but it could mean something for the future of my blog. I found out that flickr has a method where i can email pictures to my account and have it automatically post it to my Blog. This means i can now take a picture while i'm out and post it to my blog with a description without ever needed a computer. Anyone that has seen my phone probably won't be too surprised that i can do this, but i still think it is kind of neat.

Mobile photo post via flickr

Mobile photo post via flickr
Originally uploaded by imcokeman.

Here is another test of moblogging hope the pic works this way. It should!

Mobile pic test

Well the first test worked so now here is a pic of the house I just took with the phone.

Edit: I'm not a fan of deleting in general so i'm just appending this note to say that emailing pictures does not work for blogger at the moment. I might be able to log onto the actual blog page and do the whole post from my phone though.

Mobile post

This is a test post from my phone. If it works I might also try taking a pic and posting that to test how well it will work for posting on the go.

New blogger

Apparently I have now switched to the new blogger. It is now connected to my Google account, but i'm not quite sure of all the benefits it provides at this point. It looks like i could make some posts private and i can add labels etc. Not sure if i will even use them, but i figured i'd try the newer one just for the fun of it. I think it also said it published faster which would be nice at times.

edit: I noticed the archive links are a little better to follow, but they do take up more space...oh well

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

I was recently thinking about changing the title of the blog from the "Now with 2X the carbs" but i think Thanksgiving week is a bad time for the change hehe. Hope everyone ate well and had positive family time. I managed to make it to 2 places and ate more than i was able to even. The last bites of mashed potatoes on the third plate were too much. Although after a break i was ready for some more pie still.

As for today i didnt do any shopping, but i did go out for breakfast and visited with an amazing friend whom i haven't seen for a very long time. So far it's been a great day and the weather is nice so i think i will go out and take advantage of that soon too.

pictures of the newly painted kitchen

Kitchen is almost done!!!

I will probably be posting pics shortly of the latest progress on painting my kitchen. There is now NO sponge paint in that room. The cabinet doors are blue, cabinets white and walls tan. My new roommate was the primary motivation. He had his sister and mom come over with interior design knowledge and also home cooked food! It was amazing what we got done in one night yesterday and we put a second coat down today. There are still a few spots to touch up of course, but that kitchen is pretty bib to get done as fast as we did. It's nice to have another room that feels like I had a part in what it looks like. Especially considering the choices that were made by the previous owners for colors. I had some memories when the radio was playing the counting crows song from Shrek 2, and also realized how long it's been since i planned to have the kitchen redone.

Kill story (disclaimer: street racing is bad....)

I actually had another race in the eclipse recently. I was showing the car to a friend that hadn't ridden in it yet. We did the normal 2nd and 3rd pull to get a feel for it without going "too" fast. Then did a little more driving. As i was getting ready to get on it again in 2nd a WRX passed me. Apparently the passenger was giving me a thumbs down and making faces (probly cuz at the time i was only going 40mph) So my buddy says "That's a WRX!" and of course i had to finish the fight they were picking by making faces. They were ahead so i got on it in 2nd like i was going to, but stopped when i was door to door with them. I think that was noticable cuz i was flying and then slowed down to stay at their speed. Then i tapped the throttle a few times til they finally got on it. I decided to let them get about a car length ahead of me before i floored it. I went through 3rd and was already going much faster then them and about even. I then shifted to 4th and kept on it. I heard a pop and got off the gas and let a little brake light show to tell them who won incase there was doubt. They then were giving the thumbs up when they caught up so i think they understood. Meanwhile my passenger decided that that couldn't have been more perfect and he was pretty excited about the car. We had to check what the pop sound was from though, it seemed like an intercooler pipe blowing off. After looking it turns out everything was fine, but that means i had hit the rev limiter in 4th gear. I'll let you figure out how fast that is =) Who would have thought i would go through 4th gear fast enough to hit the limiter before i knew it? Fun stuff

New Roommate

So i had a friend that needed a place to stay and I had a room that was not being used. That worked out pretty well. He got here saturday and already the kitchen is spotless and a lot of it happened while i was away at guard. It was so good it even helped my brother to want to clean a little more. That takes a lot!
On guard news i got to give a salute to my favorite new 2LT when she was buying us food. I also brought my eclipse in sunday for the other people that wanted to see it. Yup it still runs!!

ppc 6700

So i think i decided on the phone/PDA i'm going to get. Not sure how great it will really work as a phone without using a bluetooth headset, but i'm still excited about it. Yes i realize most people wouldn't think this is worth it and don't get it, but remember I'm a comp sci guy. It has tons of features and if half of them work i'll be happy with it. Well i suppose there are some that i kinda need to work, but there are a lot that would just be fun.

Ok feel free to leave the comments saying i'm a loser!

Cell phones

I'm about out of contract with my cell phone so i've been looking around for the best options for me. If anyone has suggestions or knows someone in the business feel free to let me know. Other then that, not too much excitement lately. Last night I took a nap in the evening and woke up about 12 hours later for work. Not very productive, but i guess i needed it to catch up after the guard weekend and the pager weekend before that. I was pretty tired cuz apparently my bro asked me somethings a few times and i definitely don't remember anything like that.

Don't forget to turn your clocks back this weekend.

Guitar

I finally got around to picking up my guitar again. Since i haven't played in a while my fingers are too a little sore, but they'll toughen up if i keep playin. I hope that i'll actually get to where i can play a few songs this time. I still have a few house projects, but with the colder weather i'm sure i'll be more apt to stay in and play once in a while.

Tomorrow is a big day. I have guard where i'll have the physical for my Officer position. I might also have a fitness test afterwards. Then after guard i am going to a friends wedding in Lancaster. That should be lots of fun! It's weird i'll have to change too many times. Camo for the morning, maybe PT gear for the fitness test then a suit for the evening.

I plan on taking the eclipse to guard this weekend as there are people there that probably don't believe i even own it anymore.

Garage roof

I finally finished the garage roof tonight. Just in time for the rain tomorrow. One of the guys from work offered to help tonight and we just managed to get it all done with a few snags as is to be expected. That of course made it take until just after it got dark, but it is all done now. Good work to be doing while i'm on call since i could have made it to the house pretty easily. Fortunately so far it's been ok. I had some things going on while i was at work though.

Guess i'll be using the furnace by the end of the week with the weather coming up. Hopefully oil prices will stay low. I just ordered it and it was actually cheaper now than the time i filled up at the end of last year!

New Computer...again

Well it's a new motherboard, CPU and DVD-RW (dual mode, dual layer capable). All three of those things only totaled about $115. After all the hassle i've been through i am glad to have this now. I suppose i may still have some issues, but hopefully the random lockup won't happen anymore. Wow it's a friday night and i'm sitting here writing about the computer i just put together. I'm a loser...

NHRA drags

Well i made it to the drag races on Saturday. I ended up going by myself since my boss couldn't make the rescheduled date, and i didn't have much time to find someone to give his ticket to. It was still fun though I got to see a car run a 4.40 second 328MPH pass. They are really fast and loud, it shakes the stands! I also got to tour the trailer and look at the LRS car up close since they are the ones that gave the tickets away. I didn't even have to talk about work stuff since the salesman wasn't there, he wouldn't have known me anyway though. Unfortunately the LRS car kinda blew up at the end of it's race. The driver was ok and the time was good enough to qualify though. They'll have it put back together and running today i suppose for the race even. Pretty impressive stuff. 8000hp makes my dyno chart seem insignificant, but the eclipse sure doesn't feel that way on the street.

Before and after

Here is the comparison of before and after the coil on plug ignition setup. It was a peak gain of about 100 ft lbs of torque and 95 hp just below 5000rpm

Dyno day for me!!!

I took the eclipse to the dyno and I think it did pretty well. Take a look at the graph to see for yourself, but it made 531hp and i was able to drive it home in one piece this time. There is something to be said for working on your own car. Also I didn't check precicely, but it did the dyno session and the trip there and back all on one tank of gas which means i still averaged over 20 MPG. Not bad on a 500+ hp car.

Day Off!

I had the day off and will have more time off the rest of the week since it is the end of the fiscal year and i can't save my vacation days. It's ok though because i just ordered parts for the car monday and they came already and the car started with the upgrade already. Coil on plug ignition if anyone is wondering. I think i'll use some of the time off to get another dyno session in. Should be able to get another 50-60 hp out of the car now. Also worked on the garage a little before teh UPS guy got here. I'm down to the last few rows before putting on the ridge vent. I'm not sure if i want to do that myself though. I'll also have to put up soffit at some point. Ahh the joys of home ownership.

Computers

I have been working on fixing my computer for a long time now. Maybe a year and a half or so. One of them was locking up and i replaced all the parts to the point where i actually made a second computer out of the spares (which was basically the old computer) and it worked. The new one then had the problems. Now i switched around a few of the parts Mainly the CPU, and both computers are working!

In other news Friday was our fall fling at work which was kinda fun. I was the only one at work on my team also, but i think it went smoothly. Hopefully i'll be able to take some time off this coming week though. The Eclipse is still running and i plan to get some more done to it. Oh yeah, I got a decent size bonus from work which will actually be enough to get some parts for the car!

PS did anyone notice i had a double post up for a week? I just did tonight

NHRA drags cancelled

I didn't get to see the NHRA drags yesterday because of the rain. It apparently ruined all their parking for the wekened and also got the race teams stuck in the mud. Oh well i'll have another chance at the end of the month. Then i won't be on call either that should be good. To make up for missing the drags i just drove the eclipse some more. Another good thing was my friend came back from officer training after being away for 6 weeks.

Pager was good to me so far this weekend too though. I was able to make it to church which doesn't always happen. I might get something tonight, but i plan to be around the house anyway to catch up on things besides putting the car together.

VROOM!

It lives, i actually took the eclipse for a drive today. Everything seems to be working, i didn't beat on it yet though. The transmission doesn't seem to be leaking like it was before i took everything apart either. I might warm the car up for 5 minutes and take the 2 minute drive to work and let it cool down for another 5 minutes tomorrow hehe. Very nice to have it back though even if i should still walk to work. Oh and plugging the hole was a little tough as mitsubushi didn't have the part in stock so i had to make my own bolt by cutting one down to size. Dremels are excellent tools!

Car and Pager

Well i worked on the eclipse last night. Got the oil squirters i was waiting on and put the oil pan back. After all the other parts were put back i filled it up with all the fluids, put the tires on and took it off the jackstands. Turned the key and....it started! Definitely a nice feeling. Then I checked the timing and it looked close enough that i could drive it to work at least. Unfortunately there was some fluid coming out. By some fluid i mean there was a bolt missing that allowed the oil to shoot out of the head onto the floor. Big mess, but i have the kitty litter type stuff to soak it up. Unfortunately that means i need one more part, but at least it is very minor and they should have it in stock at mitsubishi. I might do it over lunch hehe.

Then to top off my night i got a page too. Not a big deal as i wasn't asleep and i expect at least one page during the week on average. I didn't like that it was something we warned people not to do, but that isn't unusual either.

I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend now. I get to go to my first NHRA drag race for free. I have a pit pass and there will be a hospitality tent too. My car should be working by then too. Of course i might get paged over the weekend too, but we'll try to use that as an excuse for a cellular modem i think =)

Pager week

Guard weekend is over and Pager week begins. It's not all bad though because I have car parts to install on the eclipse. It should be back together this week if the last part gets here quickly. It was shipped UPS from Maryland though so it should make it here fast, maybe even by tomorrow. I still have to put all the belts on including timing belt and i need to get all the fluids to put in. Oil, transmission gear oil, and coolant. If i get the part i'll probably try to get it all together tomorrow. If not, i'll probly try to get everything but that part put together so it won't take long afterwards.

The garage roof now has the cut for the ridge vent, then we put the paper back over so it's water proof. That means i can just finish up with the shingles and not have to worry about stopping to cut if i went to far etc.

This weekend is the NHRA drag race at Maple grove that i plan on attending. I have hearing protection and everything. Normally i'm not a big fan, but i suppose a day full of funny cars might make it worthwhile.

Thanks for reading and feel free to click to let me know you were here.

Getting there!

I took the day off so I could pick up the head for my eclipse finally. It is already on the car, but I still have a lot of other work before the car is back together. I got the transmission back a while ago and it is also in the car now too. Unfortunately there is another part that i noticed was broken today (rather than when it happened) so i'll have to wait for another part, but it isn't a pricey one at all so that's a plus. Also not as much work is involved in putting it back together.

I have guard this weekend and Sunday is some appreciation thing at state college. Hopefully it won't be too bad, but as they say in the military it's "mandatory fun". Tomorrow after guard though i plan on working on the garage roof some more. We can't have it leaking while i'm working on the eclipse.

Oh and my brother's car got hit really bad, but it will be fixed and not totalled. He might even be able to make some money out of it if he does some of the work himself like installing some of the parts on the other door.

Picture

Here is the new pic of the house as promised. For anyone with photoshop skill and some free time, you can play around with green shutters and figure out what to do about the brown on the garage door in the bottom left.

This weekend was interesting, after we got bri's car back together it got hit in the side. The estimate should come on wednesday, he's hoping they total it so he can get a new car. I'll want this one and use it as a rally car though. That way who cares about the body damage.

House and Car status

The roof on the house is now done, but it's been raining a bit so i didn't take any pictures yet. My brother decided to buy Compact fluorescent Bulbs for the house after reading up on them (Google: CFL) It looks like a good way to save money and also help to be earth friendly. They take 1/4 the power and last 10 times as long as regular bulbs. Unfortunately the purchase prices is about 10 times as much as a regular bulb, but it's well worth it especially for rooms that have lights on almost all the time.

As for the car, I have the transmission now and it is attached to the engine, but not completely mounted etc. The head still hasn't come back yet which is getting kinda ridiculous, but i don't really have too much i can do other than complain and that doesn't help. I'm just working on getting the rest of the car ready so all it needs is the head. At this point i'm getting fairly good at working on it so it shouldn't be too bad once i get the parts. OHH!!! I might go to a real NHRA drag race for free from one of the vendors at work. Reserved seats and free soda/food even. It would be cool to have my car running by then (16th), but i wouldn't be racing anyway so not a huge deal.

Impersonal

I like the idea of writing to this blog once in a while possibly to entertain, and also for those that i may not talk to on a regular basis to get an idea what is going on day by day. Tonight however what I am feeling is not adequately expressed in such an impersonal manner. If you haven't been in touch for a while this post can be an excuse for sending a note, leaving a comment, or making a call. I am sure I will be fine, but tonight more than usual I feel an increased longing for hearing back from those who are interested in my life for one reason or another.

Fitness

I heard about a week or so ago that i should start running now to prepare for my Officer training school. Since then i've actually done it 3 times. Two of which were after some roofing even. This time i stepped it up a little and ran 14 minutes instead of the ~10 that i was running. That's not too bad considering i played tennis yesterday too. I'm not saying i'm fast or anything, but i am pretty sure i'll pass the fitness exam since i don't even have my dates yet (earliest would be January i think). I also did a few pushups and situps lately. Believe it or not it isn't really all that fun, but if anyone wants to join me give me a call.

assorted updates

I had another guard weekend, but it wasn't too busy at all. It rained last night, but the roof is all papered so that isn't a problem. It is going quite well actually thanks to friends and family. It's not quite ready for picture taking, but it is looking good. As for the cars, my Eclipse is still awaiting parts as it has been for a while. The tranny i shipped out though appears to look good. That might mean less money, but now i don't know why i popped out of gear. My bro's car is leaking oil and he doesn't really want to take care of it so he might get a new one. The miata and the truck seem to be running ok for now though.

Roofing

I've been keeping pretty busy lately. The roofers were working on my house for a while now, but i just started the Garage this weekend. I took Friday and Monday off so the weekend actually started Thursday night. The shingles are all ripped off the garage now with the exception of the ones at the very edge of the back which are friction holding all the removed shingles until the trailer arrives to take them away. The underlayment is also done on the one side. Tomorrow will be the big day to get started shingling though. I'll have two helpers in the morning and perhaps a few others after they get out of work. The part that is done on the house looks really good so far and i'm excited for it to be done. I'm sure i'll post some pictures of the finished roof for anyone that is interested.

On an unrelated note I also handed in my official transcripts and signed some paperwork to get my officer paperwork pushed through a little further. I still have no idea how long that will take though.

Thanks for reading!

Brother's birthday

Today was my brother's birthday and to celebrate we went tubing in the creek by our old house. It was really tough finding tubes as we each went 3 or 4 places, but after all the work we finally got 2 tubes and some soda's for a cooler to take with us. It was a nice relaxing time, the water was a little cool and the day was pretty hot so it worked out well. Afterwards I took him for some Ice cream.

On a completely seperate note, I actually called a rally racing school today. I talked to the guy a while and when i mentioned that i have to go out and drive on the snow before the plows get to it he said I called the right place. There is a one day basically teaser course that i might go to if it doesn't conflict with guard, otherwise i'll probably have to wait at least until January. I'm pretty excited about it though as i definitely want to do this and this is my first call to actually try and start something. It will be an expensive sport of course, but i know it's something i'd find to be well worth it.

Blogging

Sometimes it's interesting to check where i left off. For anyone reading this they would still think I was going to work on my tranny. It turned out i decided it was better to send it out and have some other parts professionally inspected. I was in SAP training for Tyco last week in Philly. On the last day i stopped by a Porche dealership and actually looked at and touched a Carrerra GT.

That will probably be the closest i'll get to one of those as they are 450K. I'll save up for some other cars instead of just that one.

Now it'll be back to work for a while i think. We'll see how things go with the weather to see how the roofing job comes along. I'm sure i'll have other things to do to keep me busy anyway. Perhaps even tubing with my brother tomorrow for his birthday.

Garage work

While the head is in the shop for the eclipse (I know...again) I decided to take the time to pull the tranny as well. This was another thing i've never done before, but managed to get it all the way out now. I used the excuse to buy another tool though (tranny jack) Next i have to take the transmission apart and see if i can figure out what part is broken. I believe it to be the 3-4 shift fork, but as i've never removed or opened a tranny before i'm kind of taking it as i go. It is good for a sense of accomplishment thats for sure. I am really happy that i not afraid to take anything apart on the car anymore.

Catching up

I was able to help my brother fix his car on Sunday so he could use it for work. Monday I got the rest of the parts for the miata suspension and promptly installed it all in the heat. I was definitely dripping, but it was worth it. The car rides so much better over bumps now. It is a little different in turns, but definitely a nicer vehicle to drive i think. Oh and i finally took the visor off of the pickup truck. I think it has much less drag and therefore more power at highway speeds now. Might improve the mileage a little too. Guess it's time to do more work to the Eclipse so it doesn't feel left out! Actually it will probably have the transmission removed when i get around to it, but i also need to get the roof installed on the house and garage soon.

Ok enough rambling, thanks for reading!

PS Almost forgot to mention I will be in Philly next week for SAP training again

Home again

I had a decent time on my week away. Went to a few interesting places. The biosphere, Kartchner Caverns, and the Tucson Desert Museum to name a few. Also ate enough to gain some weight in the short time I was there. Unfortunately my brother's car broke when he took me to the airport and he didn't get to it while I was away so I already had work to do today so he could use his car for work tomorrow. I'm still waiting on some parts for the miata that should come Monday, and I might need to mow the lawn today as my brother didn't get to that either.

Going to AZ

I'm leaving tomorrow for AZ and i'll be gone a week. Hopefully it will be a great time with lots of excellent food while visiting my grandmother. Not sure how much i'll get online so i may or may not update this while i'm gone. Of course it would be hard to notice as i've gone longer without updating. I'll still have my cell phone and chances are i'll still go online, but it's dial up. Then when i get back i'll be able to work on the Miata with all new suspension parts and the roof will be replaced that week too. I can hear my bank account balance dropping.

Back to work

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th. I went to Harrisburg's fireworks last night and saw the beach boys concert before hand. It was pretty crowded, but watching all the people get aggrivated over little things was also kind of amusing. The fireworks were good as usual and the seats were very nice.

Now it's time to go back to work. Fortunately I now have a Trogdor shirt! That should make today better. Also, i'm going away next week to AZ so it's not like i'm gonna be working too many days.

Fireworks!

I saw some fireworks tonight in Lancaster. It was interesting as we arrived somewhat late, but we were able to walk close enough to hear the loud booms and see the good fireworks. We also managed to dodge most of the traffic. I even got to use a sparkler and make a little sculpture out of the wire when i was done. Still not sure what i'm doing the actual night of the 4th, but at least I got some fireworks in now!

On some seperate notes, i switched my auto insurance over and saved some money, but got much better coverage (one of the few benefits of being 25). Also, I returned a survey that i may have to do jury duty in september. We'll see how that goes, as last time i did this i never got selected for a case.

Oh and i'd put up another update on the eclipse, but it isn't pleasant so i'll wait for another day, you can always ask me about it though.

Eclipse is Running!!

I had the eclipse running yesterday after i found out they were having a car show there. I didn't really have the time to clean it, but just getting it running made me happy. After I printed out the Dyno sheet from my blog (see January '06 archives) it was still able to earn respect. Unfortunately after I got home and washed the car there was a set back and the car stopped running. Since then it was pushed into the garage (from the driveway) and I fixed the problem. Unfortunately I don't know what caused it to happen so I can't be sure it won't happen again. Additionally it may have caused some damage, but at least it still starts and runs. Definitely a rollercoaster of ups and downs with the Eclipse in the past few days. Hopefully I'll button it up, tune it some and get it inspected again soon.

Eclipse Project update

I have all the main parts i need to put the Eclipse back together. I installed prothane motor mounts and a bunch of new gaskets last night. The main progress is that the head is once again bolted on the car with the manifolds as well. Still looooooots of work before i can start it up, but definitely closer. I plan to work on it quite a bit more this week. Hopefully it will be ready soon.

Updated House picture

Here is a better picture of my new front door. It also shows my new double-hung windows that replaced the old 12 inch pane bow windows that were leaking. Next on the list is the roof it will be a darker color with a little green in it. I also plan to paint the shudders green at some point so this should match nicely. My house won't look at all like it used to, but i think it's looking very nice.

Officer position

I got a call from the guard base this week to say that i was selected for the officer position!! This was about a year in the making so i'm quite excited about it. It will be a while before i will be in the position as i'll need to go to training though. Should be a good opportunity.

On a separate note I have almost all new windows now. They are a huge improvement. Although i think i'm gonna need to get a new roof too, that might be expensive too.

Been a while

Haven't updated this in a while. For anyone wondering about the Officer positions I still haven't heard anything definite, but the Maintenance one is still looking like a good possibility. Also yet again there is another squirrel story. This time i was going to park in the garage and i heard something then i saw a squirrel. It kept running around the garage and even though i had the door wide open it wouldn't leave. Instead it preferred to run into walls and tool boxes. I managed to set up a trap to get him out and now i removed yet another squirrel from my property. I think i like these things less and less each time too.

Tomorrow i'm going to go to the circus. Haven't done that in a long time, hope it's fun still. Enjoy the long weekend everyone!

Guard Weekend

So i have another Officer Board to go to tomorrow at 9:30 am. I worked on getting all my ribbons today so that I can look like i've done more since it is kind of like wearing a resume. I wore 5 to my last interview and now that the paperwork has gone through and after my deployment I am able to wear 12 of them! not sure how many of you know what they all look like, but it went from having just under 2 full rows to having 4 full rows of ribbons. I haven't put it together yet, but i'm sure it will look MUCH better! Ok so i'm kinda excited about the next interview. I also have heard some rumors that I'm likely to get the Maintenance officer position that I boarded for earlier this year, but i'm going to go to the Comm. Officer one tomorrow just incase.

Hope everyone is doing well, i know finals are coming up for people, but classes should be just about over!