Rants

I’m Not A Gearhead

But I would like to be able to do the “easy” stuff on my car. Changing the oil and rotating tires has become second nature. I’ve done the brakes, i.e., change pads, bleed them, etc twice now. I would like to change out the transmission fluid and the differential oil, but to do these you need both a 23mm and a 24 mm socket. From a quick search on the web these will run me $15 a piece, plus $10-15 for the 1/2″ ratchet. Then a oil pump would make this easier to get the oils back in these hard to reach places, another $5-10. Not to mention the cost of the fluids. Probably be cheaper to get the Mazda place to do it when they change my timing belt in a couple weeks.

Tell Me Again Why I’m Eating Here?

They have been doing this for as long as I remember, so it must be working. The Tums commercials always take place in a diner. The customers, the counter person and the look are different, but there is always some schmoe with gas or an upset tummy taking some product other than Tums. Someone will offer him advice on the best antacid to solve the problem. In the one I saw tonight the counter man told our sufferer to ask a counsel of experts and points to a trio of beefy Johnny Lunchpails at the end of the counter. The three of them are clutching their chests and bellies while, literally swilling, from a Tums container.

Maybe, just maybe, you wouldn’t have those gastrointestinal problems if you found another place to eat.

I Hate Tuesdays

Spent the morning driving around town snapping pictures recognizable (at least I hope recognizable) as being in Aiken county with just a bit of car showing. They were done using a disposable camera with a built in flash, so I have little idea exactly how they will turn out. They are for the First Annual Aiken Drive By Photo Contest. You can enter more than once, so I think I will grab another entry packet when I turn in the first tomorrow.

It was weird being off work today because we treated yesterday just like a regular Sunday – had lunch with our regular group, watched an X-Files episode and I even trimmed around my beard. So my dysfunctional mind is frantically trying to categorize what today was. Oh well, soon it will be morning and I’ll be able to classify tomorrow as a Monday.

Chasing Papi

I read the video reviews every Friday so I can get some ideas for movies to put in my Netflix queue. The Augusta Chronicle publishes about a half dozen condensed versions of the Roger Ebert review. (I don’t always agree with Roger, but I always find him entertaining.) Here is the review for the movie Chasing Papi:

A feature-length jiggle show designed to display Roselyn Sanchez, Sofia Vergara and Jaci Velasquez in a way that would make your average Maxim reader feel right at home. They play the girlfriends of the three-timing Papi (Eduardo Verastegui), and when they arrive simultaneously at his home the plot requires them to run through a lot of scenes wearing high heels and squealing with passion or fear or delight, while a stupendous amount of jiggling goes on.

The primordial man in me is intrigued by this and is trying to figure out how to “accidentally” get Netflix to deliver this movie.

Here is his full review.

1/2 Vacation Day

We only had 1 day left of unscheduled vacation and I was hoping to use it the day before Thanksgiving for the drive to eff-el-ay, but Donna won out. She wanted to take a 1/2 day tomorrow (leaving a half for November) so we wouldn’t have to go in to work at all. We now have a 4 day weekend and nothing planned, zero. Seems almost a waste to me, but then again any day out of the office is a good day. With any luck our Powerball numbers will come in on Saturday and we’ll never have to go back.

Just A Little Over Sensitive?

Got a response from my arbiter of taste. Seems he now thinks he was hasty. I think so too, but that does mean he isn’t right. There probably are folks who might find those images distasteful, but I’m sure they are very few and very far between.

Hey Brian, I came on strong. I apologize for that, and I really did mean what I said about best intentions. I realized later that I probably just took it the wrong way, I really came off pretty defensivly right off the bat. And, I did mean what I said about liking those cars too! I actually used to have a datsun Z with the barndoor headlights, had to sell it for school.. Hopefully some day I’ll get another. Anyway, my apologies. Take Care.

Troll or Concerned Citizen?

Got an interesting email last night and I am not sure what to make of it. The subject line was “taste..” Go and look at this page I have on the Barndoor Fan Club site called Barndoors Down Through History and now read the email reproduced in it’s entirety below. What do you think?

I can understand your “taste” in headlights but perhaps you should consider some “taste” where you place superimposed images of a car. I am not trying to be rude, honestly, in fact I am not even sure how I stumbled across your sight or why I am wasting my time on this email. I will say though, I realize you “love barndoors” and “mourn their loss,” and will “continue to cherish their retro beauty”. Just realize that some people might mourn the loss of great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King and J.F.K. or those lost in the vietnam war, and would also like to cherish the beauty of thier memory and would prefer not to have images of such horrible events made worse by placing in a lame superimposed image of a cheap imported convertable. Really, there are other historical events that you could use instead.. consider perhaps, a miata driving down a dusty street with two huge buildings falling behind it- hilarious!, or maybe one behind Ghandi while he is fasting to stop the brittish empire- he he… actually no, perfect, have a miata speeding away from Princess Diana’s crash scene ;). See what I mean, there are soooo many other great historical events to defile! But I reeeealy love the one where the Berlin wall was going up.. that-cold-war-was soooo silly! and the suferage parade, ha, that one’l keep me giggling all night!

don’t get me wrong, miatas did have very nice headlights. Just consider some taste.

If that whole section was done with best intentions, than so was this email. Please realize though, that your best intentions may be offensive to some.