Jeeping with Wes: Catastrophe

Date: 2009.07.11 | Category: Friends, Jeeping, Projects | Response: 3

Just got back from Jeeping with Wes in Uwharrie. Wes decided to break in his BRAND NEW Jeep on the trail. He seriously got it no more than 10 days ago. It’s a 2004, but it was in pristine condition at the beginning of the day.

I fixed that. Got the new off.

Dumbass that I am, decided to back down a bit to get another go at an obstacle. I was pretty close to Wes, but thought not much of it.

I took a good look at the hill, mentally pictured going up it, and hit the gas. I needed to get a bit of speed because not all tires would be on the ground, and I don’t have lockers. I needed to roll over the obstacle a bit until all 4 wheels touched again for traction uphill.

Note to self: Before hitting the gas enthusiastically, check to see what gear you are in. If you want to go forward, perhaps the big R is not the right choice.

Wes received 5700 lbs, 290 ft-lbs of torque, in 4 wheel low straight to the Grill / Hood / Radiator. This required us to actually replace the radiator shortly after the incident as the life blood of the cooling system drained away. Poor environment.

On the plus side, I now know how to replace a radiator, and how much they cost.

Witness the carnage:

Luckily we were able to restore it to “just like factory” specifications:

Yep. Classic.

That will be an experience I’ll not likely live down. I normally wouldn’t post something this embarrassing so soon after it happened, but listen closely to 1:58 in the second video. I’m pretty much awesome.

New Music – Youtube

Date: 2009.07.10 | Category: Music | Response: 0

Youtube has been an amazing source of new music for me.

I’ll be driving the Z into work and hear a song I like on SiriusXM. Lucky for me I get the artist and song name displayed. I get into work and hit up the you tubes to listen to the song again. And again. And sometimes again.

Here are two of my recent favorites:

Manchester Orchestra – I’ve Got Friends

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The Limousines – Very Busy People

Man I love music.

I spent a few hours at work the other day with Say Anything video’s running in the background. This one in particular is a favorite:

Say Anything – Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too
(embedding disabled again)

But really I like any of the Say Anything songs. Acoustic, Electric, Live, It’s all great.

Great late night quotes

Date: 2009.07.07 | Category: Quotes | Response: 1

Awesome quote yet again

I’m sober enough to know I’m too drunk to be doing this.
-Shapess

Fantastic.

Multiple Personality Disorder

Date: 2009.07.03 | Category: Quotes | Response: 0

Quote of the day upon waking up in San Francisco:

I love when my drunk self does stuff to help out my sober self.
-Burns

This after waking up to find my shoes where they normally are, my cell phone plugged in and charging, my laptop plugged in and charging, and my contacts removed and in their case.

I don’t know how all of these things happened as I have no memory of them, but drunk self, thank you!

Networkers / San Francisco: Day 1

Date: 2009.06.29 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 2

I rolled out of bed at 4:07 AM on Sunday morning. Waited for a severely late Pete, and just barely got on the plane before they closed the doors at 6:05AM.

We got into SF around 1PM local time after taking the BART to Market Street. Little did we know that we were dropped straight into the Gay Pride Parade.

I joked with my friends that I should get a rainbow feather boa. When i got off the train 3 girls in front of us actually had rainbow feather boas. I didn’t even know they made them when I was joking about it.

Checking into the 28th floor of the Westin with a view of Alcatraz.
(Will insert pic later)

Walked from Market to the Embarcadero. Late lunch at Boudin’s. Walk the Ghiradelli for chocolate sample.

Walked back to the hotel on a “Stop at every tiny bar” route. This took many hours.

The first bar had $2 Guinness. It also was an Irish pub / Curry place. What?

We sat down next to random dudes who offered our table weed. We politely declined, but these guys were pretty cool. Remember the guys from “Training Day” who almost blew the guys head off in the tub? These were those guys.

The next stop was a “Rogue Brewery” bar. They had a ton of Rogue bers on tap which were delicious.

Next stop was some small Italian place I’ll never remember the name of. We walked to one section of town, and there were so many Italian restaurants to choose from that it was ridiculous.

That’s when we started on the wine.

After that we walked a long way home. Back at the hotel I still blew a .09 with my breathalyzer. Yay for not having to drive back home!

And now, breakfast.

Random Update – Off to Networkers

Date: 2009.06.26 | Category: Work | Response: 0

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything. Not a ton going on besides tons of work. I’m in desperate need of a vacation!

I have a week of “semi-work-related” activity ahead of me. I’m headed to San Francisco for Cisco Live! Networkers. I’m actually pretty excited about this. A whole week in SF talking about VoIP with customers, and hanging out after the convention at night.

I went back in 2007 and had a great time. It’s always good to meet the customers and meet up with TAC engineers from other parts of the US.

Here are all of the pictures from the last time I went.

I leave on Sunday, June 28th and don’t get back until Sunday, July  6th. I’ll post pics and update with stories as they become available.

Background – Friday The 12th

Date: 2009.06.17 | Category: Background | Response: 2

I love the simplistic / minimalistic backgrounds. My favorite recently is hilarious:

Black Snake Moan

Date: 2009.06.16 | Category: Movies | Response: 0

I watched Black Snake Moan last night.

Damn this was a good movie. I enjoyed it immensely. Maybe it was because it opened with a sex scene? Maybe it was because Christina Ricci was half naked through the entire movie:

Either way. It was one of the most interesting things I’ve watched in a while. My attention was rivited. You should give it a watch if you haven’t already.

Handgun Concealed Carry Permit

Date: 2009.06.14 | Category: Quotes | Response: 3

I’m taking the class for the NC Concealed Carry Permit. I’m thinking of a 9mm CZ P-07 Duty. Marv says he loves his, and it’s pretty light.

Anyway, the instructor for this class is pretty awesome.  Here is a typical exchange between student and instructor.

Student: So the Habitation Defense says  once he crosses your threshold and starts stealing your stuff, you CAN’T shoot him. What if he starts coming at you with a screwdriver.

Instructor: Light Him Up!! In that case you meet the 4 prongs of the Use of Deadly Force in Self Defense Common Law.

Awesome. I love that the precise definition of the law comes with color commentary. Perfect.

Today I’m off to fire rounds at different distances under timed conditions. Wish me luck.

Music Is My Hot Hot Sex

Date: 2009.06.12 | Category: Music | Response: 4

For nearly as long as I can remember I’ve loved music. Not only have I loved music, but I’ve been passionately involved in memorizing Artists, Song Titles, and Lyrics. My brain is a saturated treasure trove of lyrics and titles. There is some gaping void inside of me that screams “fill me with songs”. It is insatiable, and I love it.

My first real memory of this obsession gaining hold is in Silver Creek, NY.

I was in 2nd grade and got a very cheap blue portable cassette player. I remember walking around outside and around in school listening to my favorite (and only) tape: Scorpions – Crazy World

I will always remember the whistling from Winds of Change, and that Send Me An Angel was featured in the school dance part of the movie Rad Which I watched incessantly. This virtually forced my mom to buy me a BMX bike.

Another transformational event was soon to come. Radio:

I had just gotten my own room, and was maybe 8 to 10 years old. I received what was to be one of the greatest gifts. A two cassette AM/FM boom box with dual recording, and equalizer, and super fast dub mode to copy tapes quickly. Not only that, but it had line input. This didn’t come into play until years later though. More on that soon.

I was holed up in my room, and I would listen to any radio station that would come in. I tuned the dial (because it was a tunable thumb wheel type dial) and would stumble upon Canadian stations (just over the lake), and Buffalo stations. My favorite was 103.3 The Foxx. They played rock, and classic rock.

I remember vividly a sudden change in the 90s. They switched the format to this new fangled grunge, alternative. They changed the name to 103.3 The Edge. For a solid 24 hours they played nothing but the song It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, by R.E.M. No joke. 24 hours of that song. I can’t forget that.

Then I started listening more and more, and another exciting thing happened. I received a CD Player and Bush – Sixteen Stone.  I took the CD player with me virtually everywhere, and hooked it up to my boom box with Line In. I would even take my CDs and rip them into tapes just so I had that extra copy.

I would spend hours and hours listening to albums over and over until I knew all of the songs, and all of the words.

When High School came around this continued even more. I bought an entire grunge collection from some kid who was converting to hip hop. I thought he was crazy, but he sold at deep discounts. My CD collection increased 5 fold. More new music to listen to!

It’s been down hill ever since. College was just insane for the amount of new music I downloaded, and now that I actually have some money I’ve started buying more. The combination of the Internet, and Satellite radio for my car is almost too much to handle. There is so much to listen to that I miss the simplicity I once had.

I miss finding one album, and playing it for weeks on repeat, and then shuffle.

Maybe it’s time to cleanse my iPod and simplify the playlist to just one or two artists at a time.

I had to post this. It was driving me crazy thinking about what song was playing on 103.3 The Edge when they switched formats back in the 90s. Now my brain is satisfied. I can sleep again.

These are the things that keep me awake at night. Now you know.