Saturday, June 30, 2007

What Would Janis Do???

For some time now, I've been idly contemplating buying another car. I dearly love the Storm, but, as I originally titled it, it is less than perfect. While it runs like a top and (since I preformed a couple of minor modifications) pulls down a solid 30 miles per gallon, it obstinately refuses to pass the California emissions test.



I have a few criteria that I would like it to fulfill. Good to great mileage would be a huge plus. Easily passes emissions would be nice, but even nicer would be something exempt. Automatic transmission isn't a deal maker or breaker, but if I had my 'druthers, I would go with an auto. Something with a drop top would be nice, but barring that, at least a sun roof would be nice.

One of the first I considered was an old Opel GT. I've always loved the "baby corvette" styling. Old enough to be smog exempt. My dad has been going on about getting a 'vette for quite some time now. I found one that looked to have been sitting for years, on a little trailer, for a very reasonable price. Could it possibly be like the Falcon, where all it really needs is air in the tires, a live battery under the hood and some gas in the carb??? I told my dad about it (at my niece's graduation, in fact) and he was somewhat fascinated, especially after I mentioned that I'd seen big block Chevy engines swapped into these. He googled and found some that had this and similar treatments. He even went out and took a look at it, and while the body was in good condition for its age, the interior had seen better days. Pretty much as I would have expected. I had visions of swapping a Toyota 4 banger and automatic transmission into it for reliability and mileage. Back to the realm of reality, I really have no time or inclination for another project. I let this one go.



For quite a while I've been thinking of VW Diesels. They are famous for consistently pulling down around 50 MPG. Diesels are smog exempt. My preference would be a 2-door dasher wagon or, better yet, a Caddy pickup truck. Physics, the less weight you're hauling around, the better mileage, performance, and handling you're going to get. Of course, the bulk are going to have stick shifts. Other thoughts I'd kicked around for ages were rigging a small electric motor to the rear axle and a bank of batteries. Traffic slows down or comes to a stop??? Switch to electric and burn no fuel at all. Could be charged by plugging it in, using the motor as a generator, or from the vehicles charging system. I even had an idea of constructing a tonneau cover for the bed comprised of solar electric panels!!! I'd thought it would look pretty sharp with the passenger compartment roof cut off, too. (Paint Shop Pro to give you an idea of my vision!!!) However, the Caddy trucks seem to pull down a fairly high price, or if they are reasonably priced, seem to sell very quickly.

Lots of VW Cabriolets out there for good prices. They are also plentiful in the junkyards. I'm sure they would get decent mileage. Not smog exempt, though. I've considered buying any kind of VW diesel and swapping the drive train into a Cabriolet, that would merit me a trip to a smog referee. See notes above on getting into another project. Also, it always kind of bugged me that the rear windows don't roll down all the way. Looks wrong.

I saw one late 80's Mustang rag top that sounded good. The price wasn't too steep. It had a 4 cylinder and automatic. Mileage can't be TOO bad with a 4, right??? But, smog. Maybe it'd pass easily every time, but who knows??? The other strikes against were that the plastic back window was gone out of the back, and it needed the brake master cylinder replaced. Master cylinder is easy for me, but it still had the other two strikes. Also, I had visions of its little sewing machine engine laboring to get up to highway speed.



Another thing about diesels, you have options on the fuel. They can easily be converted to run on straight vegetable oil (used deep fryer oil, they say, and you exhaust will smell of what was cooked in it. I'd be hitting up the donut stores), or you can brew your own diesel fuel by mixing the veggie oil and alcohol and a tad of lye. Mix it for a while and let it settle out, a bulk of diesel fuel rises to the top, and a small amount of glycerin settles to the bottom. No foreign oil reliance!!! Let the Detroit auto makers and politicians blather on about E85 ethanol, that's really not a new technology, just a way to keep using the same old tricks and try and give people a warm fuzzy feeling or something. Of course, neither is the brewing of biodiesel or running on SVO new technology. Rudolf Diesel originally used just this type of fuel.

Of course, besides full size pickup trucks, there are only two major auto manufacturers that make diesels in the States. I've already touched on one. Tomorrow I will likely go and take a look at one from the other manufacturer. Sounds nice, has an automatic transmission, and a sunroof. I will probably take my camera along and will update you.

I think Janis Joplin would approve.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I Had to Know

Online Dating




And there it is!!! That's what having a couple of references to "Kill Bill" and an observation about humming birds will get you!!! Funniest thing, though, it didn't pick up on either of the references to the big ass fans or anything about warm sloppy testicle jizzum or decapitations!!! I'm thinking it should have at least been PG-13 for that!!!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Return to Oz

Now this was cool!!!


Last time I went to see Wicked, I had a few things I would have liked to have done different. I would have liked to have taken the train there. I would have liked to have taken my wife there. I would have liked to be able to pick up some tickets to take her for her birthday and not have to take out a second mortgage.

Well, today we got a friend to watch the boys. We hopped the rail line to the Hollywood and Vine station. Riding the train is really a great way to get around, provided you can spare a little wait time. We put our names into the daily ticket lottery drawing.

The deal on the ticket lottery goes like this: Two and a half hours before showtime, they start taking names for the drawing. Two hours before, they draw names. If your name is drawn and you are present, you can purchase one or two front row tickets for $25 each. One of my co-workers told me about it, said it was the deal they do now instead of student passes. 26 seats, the whole front row.



Well, DING DING DING DING DING, WE GOT A WINNA WINNA WINNA!!! Appropriately enough, it was my wife's name that got drawn, it was in celebration of her birthday that we were there. Front row, almost dead center. We were able to chat a little bit with the conductor before the show, and make eye contact with the actors. The only downside is you aren't as readily able to take in all the action at once, you've got to look around more.



Of course, there was this matter of having two and a half hours of free time in Hollywood. More than that, actually, because what with the train we showed up early. Directly to the left of the Pantages is a tiny little cafe, and I bought her a really tasty rosemary chicken sandwich before the name depositing. Between the name deposit and the drawing, we just loitered in front of the theatre. After we got the tickets, we walked over a few blocks to Sunset so she could get a coffee from Starbucks, cashing in a gift card she got for her birthday. After that, we browsed in a store for a while. Everything was priced too high, and of course we would have had to cart it back to the theatre and on the train. A fun little wasting of time just under the Hollywood sign, in the shadow of the Capitol Records building.

She loved the show!!! I knew she would. Happy birthday!!!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Lunch Box



I almost always take my lunch to work. Pretty much have as long as I've been working. Back when I first began being gainfully employed, I used brown paper sacks. Not always easy to come by these days, and not really durable enough to re-use more than a couple of times. I think it was for my birthday sometime way back then that my oldest sister gave me a dark gray plastic thermos lunch box. Nothing fancy, hinged halfway through the middle. I probably used that for 15 years or more. The wires between the box and the handle spread open, and they came loose from each other. I put them back together and welded them closed, not an easy proposition with a plastic box!!! A few years later, the handle wore through, so I replaced the plastic handle with a strip of leather. Once I was at the junkyard, and I found a sticker that said, "Cause I'm a PIMP" on it, and I slapped it onto my lunch box.





A couple of years ago, I told my wife that I would like an old school, metal round top lunch box. I don't know where she found it, but she came through!!! It has the vintage look that I was looking for, even though it is new construction. You can see in the first picture, the handle is a molded plastic coke bottle. I brought it in to work with me after Christmas, and everyone was duly impressed. Of course, this was at my previous employment, and it didn't take long before everyone had seen it. Fast forward to these days, there are a lot more people at my current job. It seems like almost every week someone tells me, "I like your lunch box!!!"

I like my lunch box, too.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Open House & Graduation



An eventful weekend, and blogworthy. I got to take several pictures, too, for a change. It's been a while.



Saturday was the company picnic at my work. Plenty of food and drink, games and bouncers for the kids, and it was in the back docks, so they were giving tours of the place.



Is that a big ass fan or what???



Yep. That's a Big Ass Fan.



So, this is where I work. I hope this conveys some of the scope of the place. Over 700,000 square feet.



Around a mile of conveyors.



Later on that night, my sister was throwing a graduation party for my niece, who has gotten her degree from college.




Here is the proud graduate. When asked why she had taken her sweater off, she replied, "Because my shoe got wet." Ah, to have a college education like that!!!


I also got a short video of her dancing with my mom that I said I would be posting on YouTube. I should have asked what her degree was in.



My wife was admiring how the light was reflecting off my skull, so I had her take a picture. After that, I got my dad to come over to see if he had the same effect. We put our heads together and made an ass of ourselves!!!



I also got to see my nephew Eyeball for the first time in a long time. Didn't get any pictures of him or his new car, though.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Media Bias


This was in the paper today. I thought that the underlying comment on media bias was delicious!!!
Photo by Mel Melcon

The Midnight Rambler's Random Post



Went out to dinner and a movie tonight. I usually don't drink much soda, but I had three glasses of Mr. Pibb with dinner and a cup you can re-use as a wastebasket of it at the movie.


I tried to sleep, but it wasn't happening. My mind kept going, so I decided to try and put my latest random post together.


If I start to fade, I've got the couch for sleeping. It seems to have sedative properties.


Ironically, I'm reading Stephen King's "Insomnia" at the time.


I've started tracking some of the statistics about my work. I was thinking I could make a new blog of that. I could title it the world's most boring blog. Besides, I hardly keep up with this one, how would I do with a second??? I imagine not well.


My latest Wheres George hit was from Winnetka. Ironically, that is where my IP address shows up as being from.


419'ed again!!! From England this time. His business patners (yes, you read that right, spellchecker, patners) will fedex or USPS me payments, and I should western union money transfer to him. Why would not his patners just do the western union him the payments???


After reading the first of The Gunslinger graphic novels, my firstborn started in on the books. He's about halfway through the third book, "The Wastelands", right now. Quite advanced for his age, I say.


I filled an order from Alaska today. The guy's name on the order was Axemann. I thought that was a perfect name for a guy from Alaska.


I was also thinking of starting a Dream Blog. I rarely remember my dreams, but if I were to do that I might tend to remember better.


How come I can't find Mr. Pibb in cans or bottles???


Itunes is working better for me than Windows Media Player ever since I got the latest version of the latter.


Humming birds: The crack heads of the Avian world???


I got an E-mail from Dean Koontz that they will be coming out with an Odd Thomas graphic novel. Can't wait to see it!!!


I think that back in the Golden Age of Cinema, they used to have intermissions at the movies. Seems to me that would be a good idea these days more so than back then, what with movies pushing towards three hours and drinks pushing towards a gallon.


My parents got a fiber optic phone, TV and broadband package last week. I forgot to ask them how that is working out for them.


I got three comments from people today (well, yesterday now) about my lunch box. I should do a post about that someday when I am challenged and want to make a post.


614 unique hits, 684 total hits. 10.47% percent. Those are my current Wheres George stats.


The sofa is getting a tad threadbare. Well, a tad more. I'm considering re upholstery.


My cell phone company is so cool. They have sent me a shirt, playing cards, a Tyler Hilton CD, and threw a bowling party for subscribers. Got my wife a new model for Mother's day, even tho she's not my mother.


I really like that show, "How I Met Your Mother". I also like reading blogs. One of these days I should check out Barney's Blog.




A week ago at lunch break, one of the girls spotted a spider on the other table's leg. It was fairly large and THICK!!! I took a closer look, and it turned to watch me back!!! Crazy looking, iridescent green eyes (I thought, we all thought, turns out they're it's fangs). The chef came out a bit later and was messing with it, and it was putting it's front legs up like it was ready to fight!!! I finally researched it, turns out it's called a Daring Jumping Spider!!! (Photo by Patrick Edwin Moran)

Fracture was a pretty good movie. Seemed to kind of drag for the last third or so, tho. I wonder if it wouldn't have so much if I hadn't figured it out at around that point.