Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Leaky Shmeaky

Published on December 31, 2007 in car by taro. Closed

So I check out the AE86 where I thought the power steering hose coupling was leaking. It’s torqued to spec, so I over torque it a bit. I start the car and let it run. If it were leaking from the pressure hose, I’d expect to be able to see stuff leaking already, but I don’t see anything. Puzzled I crawl around and lie on the ground looking up. I then notice the bottom of the distributor has got oil and driping. Sheesh, shoulda known. The 4AGE is famous for leaky distributors. For the time being I swap over a spare FX dizzy. It’s not quite the same configuration, but it’ll work. I hope this takes care of most of the big leaks. I know the transmission leaks too.

I move over to the FX. I swap over the rear seat belts. I guess the rice thing to do is take those out too. Both this and the one previous FX did not have the rear belts. Guess have to compensate for the weight of that big fiberglass sub tub and rear deck? Rest of night is spent on some creature comfort time. I swap over the amp, speakers, sub and rewire it into the new FX. Nice coffee stain trail on carpet from center to under the passenger seat.  I spray some cleaner on it. Oh well, can’t be seen. So now I’ve got some decent tunes cranking in the FX!

Rolling

Published on December 29, 2007 in car by taro. Closed

Ah yeah, took the FX to Lex Brodies and got it aligned. I intended this morning to only fix the ignition wiring enough to go, but I ended up removing the offending EGR bits. Excess hard lines are still there, but it’s so much cleaner without the maze of hoses. Man, it feels real good to finally have a good rolling car. The interior is still a mess with panels all over the place and the alarm dangling by its mass of wires, but it runs good. There is only one thing that is really really offending me now. The exhaust. Aside from it being loud as hell, it was not routed with enough clearance. So on bumps the suspension clanks on the exhaust bits. It’s not a matter of that the space is tight, it just wasn’t done right. Will have to have this taken care of pronto, I don’t think I can live with it for long. Other than that (oh wait, there’s the parking brake issue…) it’s all good!

Thank Ullr it’s over…

Published on December 26, 2007 in Culture and rant by risu. Closed Tags: .

Hooray!  Christmas has past and 101.1 FM has ceased playing horrible xmas music all day.  Back to natsukashii J-pop…

Pork Tamales por Favor

Published on December 26, 2007 in Food and Review by risu. Closed

12-26-07_1232.jpgMmm…

Nothing quite as good as pork tamales from Cha Cha Cha Salsaria in Hawaii Kai.  I got there a little early, so I had to wait for them to open, but it was worth the wait.  Pork carnitas with corn tamale and black beans with a green tomatillo sauce.  Rice and chips with homemade salsa on the side.  They thoughtfully put the chips in a seperate container for take-out orders so they don’t get all soggy.

$9.37 USD

Four out of four grinning chow monkeys

Tio Muerte says, “muy sabroso!”

How I Spent My Festivus

Published on December 26, 2007 in car by taro. Closed

Getting all greasy was how I spent my holiday! img_1040.JPGLast I left off, the AE86 was back together but the FX wouldn’t start. Oh, here’s a pic of the crossmember and rack back in. The rest of it is still pretty crusty, but check out that clean crossmember! I’m going to have to go back and tighten that hydraulic hose hitting, I crawled under the other day after test driving and it’s leaking fluid onto the nice clean crossmember already! Continue reading ‘How I Spent My Festivus’

This is not History

Published on December 24, 2007 in rant by risu. Closed Tags: .

Every year when Easter or Christmas rolls around, the documentary channels up in the 70’s run all these “History of [insert Biblical name here]” or “The Science of [insert Biblical occurrence here]” programs.

This isn’t HISTORY – it is DOGMA.  Having these kinds of programs on seemingly “objective”, “scientific” networks lends credence to the assertion that the people or events involved are factual.  This is brainwashing through habituation.

I ran into these on both the National Geographic Channel and The History Channel this weekend. Give us natural history documenaries and war documentaries (respectively), not Christian demagogue!

FTP!

More Carbon

Published on December 21, 2007 in bike and Review by risu. Closed

All carbonJarrel finally managed to get me an Easton EC90 zero-offset carbon seatpost after many attempts.  I picked it up on Tuesday along with a new Fizik Nisene MTB saddle.  The post is all carbon with the exception of the fasteners – the monocoque quill and both rail clamp pieces are carbon fiber!  The 27.2mm x 300mm post I got is supposedly around 160 grams.  Seat mounting and installation are similar to other zero-offset seatposts like the original Syncros and the current Thomson.  The threaded barrels that sit in the top clamp piece are provided with thin stainless steel shims that allow them to rotate freely and not bind against the carbon. Continue reading ‘More Carbon’

Tase him bro!

Published on December 21, 2007 in rant by risu. Closed

Tase him broAfter eating at Yotteko-ya last night, we left to find a situation in the McCully Shopping Center parking lot.  A dude in a Nissan Sentra had hit a delivery truck offloading food ingredients at Taco Bell, then has attempted to flee.  When we had arrived on the scene, an HPD officer was already there and was waiting for the perp to produce his vehicle documents.  The officer was on the perp, repeatedly asking rhetorically if he had intended to run from the scene and if he thought this kind of behavior was correct (not in so polite terms though).  If the perp wasn’t a perp, then the officer’s tirade would probably be considered hassling.  Growing frustrated with the perp’s inability to produce the proper documentation, even after rummaging through his glovebox for an extended period of time, the officer’s speech grew louder and became almost enraged.

A few thoughts came immediately to mind:

“He’s resisting arrest – tase him!”

“He’s going to make a run for it – tase him!”

I wonder where the cops were when the creepy LED-headlamp homeless dudes were raiding the trash cans across the street for discarded pornography?

Our Dog is an Awesome Dog

Published on December 21, 2007 in Food, rant and Review by risu. Closed Tags: .

There are a surprising number of Japanese-themed restaurants in Kaneohe.  I say “themed” because in general, they serve Americanized or “Local”-ized fare and not authentic, traditional Japanese cuisine.  Maybe I’m also being a racist, since so far all of the ones that I have tried in Kaneohe have been run by ethnic Koreans.  That’s not to say Koreans can’t make good food – they make terriffic food: I’m saying the restaurants in question don’t produce acceptable approximations of Nihon-ryouri.  It’s picture-book cooking – it looks like it’s supposed to, but doesn’t taste exactly like it’s supposed to.  It’s like those science fiction shows where aliens build soul-less, substance-less copies of earth cities, then populate them with kidnapped earthlings and assume the humans will not notice they aren’t at home anymore.  Continue reading ‘Our Dog is an Awesome Dog’

Saint Louis Spoogefest

Published on December 16, 2007 in bike by taro. Closed

12-10-07

What, I didn’t get enough monkey butt from riding the marathon escort on Sunday? dscf0699.JPGI guess not, and despite the soaking I got on that ride, Ckucky, Chris and I decide to ride St. Louis tonight. The whole day had been sunny, there’s a chance it might be ok. Yeah. Well, it might be a little spoogy, but that’ll be ok. Uh huh. But Chris has some free time, so we got to take advantage. Continue reading ‘Saint Louis Spoogefest’