Year: 2008

81,000 Trinkets & Geegaws

On the way home this morning from our visit to Aiken’s Makin’ (the city’s big craft show) the Emperor passed through the 81k mark.

Because we enjoyed the Jesse Stone flick Stone Cold so much yesterday we decided not to wait on Netflix and went to the local video store to rent the remaining three. Then we watched them all this afternoon. No self control. I think I’m going to get me ball cap with a big PPD embroidered on it.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 340

Dude Where’s Your Car?

That’s right, we rode the tandem to work today. Even though Tropical Storm Hannah has weakened and there was only a 30% chance of rain we still got slightly damp on the ride home.

Hannah also played havoc with the MMC’s scheduled trip to the Food Lion Auto Fair in Charlotte, NC. The Club (and I use that term loosely) had planned on going to the Spring version earlier this year, but it was going to be a rainy day, so we canceled and rescheduled to go to the fall version. Well, somebody is trying to tell us something, like don’t go, because there is a 60% chance of rain there tomorrow too.

If it was only, say an hour away, we might have taken a chance, but to get there it is at least 2-1/2 hours which is just too long a trip to end up in the rain.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 340

Chrome

There is another entry into the browser wars and it is from the company that is out to unseat Microsoft as the ruler of the computer world — Google. Welcome to the front Private Chrome.

I tried it and it has a look and feel that I like, but it won’t (probably) ever replace Firefox. The deal breaker is no Adblock Plus. I read somewhere that because of the way the browser was written you can’t easily tweak it with extensions, etc just yet. Plus Google makes tons of money that is generated from their ads, so why should they want you to have the ability to block them.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 340

Photo Manipulation

Turn your photos into cartoons at BeFunky and then add a cartoon word balloon at SuperLame.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 327

Squeak Removal

I made an attempt to eliminate a couple of unwanted sounds that the Emperor has been making tonight.

First up was a high pitched ringing or whine that it seems that only I and possibly certain breeds of dogs can hear. I’m hoping that this is what it was in the past, a singing clutch actuation fork. A bit of grease needs to be applied on the fork where the slave cylinder rod touches it. It seems like there was still some grease on there, but I applied some more and worked it around a bit.

Second was the annoying belt squeal, mostly brief when the AC kicks in and occasionally long, loud and embarrassing on damp morning start ups. I’ve been treating this issue with belt dressing with limited success and decided it was time to attempt to tighten the offending belt. I have been avoiding this because I didn’t think that I could manage it without making it worse. Turns out in the intervening 25 years since I last tried tightening an automotive belt they have made it easy. Once you’ve loosened the mounting bolt, there is now a fancy screw that you can tighten with a wrench which increases the tension. Heck, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have had to listen to that squeal for the past year.

When I finished the maintenance I pulled out Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and gave the car a sponge bath.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 326

Donnie Darko

List your top five favorite Cult Classic movies. We had this discussion a few weeks ago over the course of several afternoon breaks in my cubical. Of the four folks involved we had very few overlaps. A little of this difference can be attributed to our age disparity, but when asked for the criteria used to define cult classic there were lots of variation, from a movie that people dress in character to go see to not having a firm definition, but knowing one when when you saw one.

My Five:
1) Rocky Horror Picture Show
2) Donnie Darko
3) A Clockwork Orange
4) The Harder They Come
5) The Goonies

 

The Simpsonized Frank & Donnie Darko comes from Springfield Punx.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 324

Happy Bird-day

Yesterday was Donna’s birthday, but today was our bird day.

While I snapped a photo of the Pineville, SC Post Office I noticed a large flock (a colony) of egrets in the background. I couldn’t help myself, so I walked around back hoping to snag a photo of the lot of them taking off as they saw me. And I got kind of lucky, but I don’t think National Geographic magazine will be knocking on my door with a job offer.

Earlier I didn’t have the camera at the ready because I was driving and missed a similar fly off. This one wasn’t a flock of egrets though. We could see a set of large flapping wings a little ways down the road off in the grass and knew exactly what it was, a turkey vulture. Not much is scarier when you are driving a bitty convertible with the top down than a bird with a 6 foot wing span that has trouble getting to altitude. So I slowed down to let the bird get airborne, and when he did, he took his friends with him. There must have been 2 dozen of them hidden it the tall grass. I had to slow to nearly a stop to let them clear out of my way and we still chased two of them down the road for about a eighth of a mile before they found a spot to veer off.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 323