Monthly Archive for March, 2008

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Of Culture & Otaku

Published on March 16, 2008 in anime and Culture by taro. Closed

img_0108b.jpgFinally made it to a Honolulu Festival, having missed quite a few past cultural events. I like going to the Convention Center venue, hate to admit it, because it’s air conditioned. And something different this year was the inclusion of a performance by Haruko Momoi, a popular anime voice actress. She had along a good sized group of her fanclub too. It was entertaining, and I mean that in a good way, not a cynical way. A tiny peek into otaku-dom, got a taste of the energy and enthusiasm without being swamped by massive crowds of a true hardcore event. img_0157b.jpgAnd her performance was good, I honestly have to say she sang better than a lot of other big name J-Pop acts I’ve seen televised live. I do wonder what kind of toll this takes on her voice, unless it really is how she talks.

http://www.right-gauge.jp/

Having arrived late on Sunday and not seeing any of Saturday, I missed a lot of the performers, but still got to see a lot of vibrant performances. Go to see an aboriginal Taiwan group, interestingly it had a very native american Indian feel. And I hoofed it on over to Waikiki to catch the Grand Parade. It seems I kind of choose my position poorly. If I were being hardcore photog I would have roamed the street, but I wasn’t feeling that. I just parked in one spot and dealt with it. Didn’t even move when the finale Daijayama dragon rained sparks chasing everyone around me away. Anyway, I’ll get pics processed and posted sometime, I’m pretty pooped.

Chicken Ride

Published on March 13, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Talking bike with Chris all afternoon inspired me to get out and take a spin yesterday.  Scat and Root were going to hit the jumps, but I didn’t get the email about that until after noon yesterday, so I didn’t have my ridy kit with me.  The sun was still high when I got home, but it was overcast and a little windy out. The Moment was as it was after the last ride. The shifting was fine and the suspension felt nice… the back brake felt a little pumped-up though – I’ll have to check that out later. I did my normal loop, but from the top of WCC, I saw that the State or C & C workers had cleared away a lot of brush, African Tulip trees, and invasive Albizia trees on the hill behind the District park pool. Root and I explored this hill many years ago and found several well-used trails. In recent years, the hill had become overgrown, thus attracting wild chickens and druggies, so I hadn’t ridden there in a while. The brush clearing has made it at least unattractive to the crack-heads and paint-sniffers, so I took a spin up the steep, chicken-infested hill to check things out. The trails were still there, but there was a lot of trash scattered about. I might have to add that back into my neighborhood rides – the rooty melaleuca climb, the scenic hilltop, the moonscape chicken drop-in.  I went back to WCC and did a couple more laps before heading home.

D = 11.88 km (7.38-miles), Vavr = 16.7 km/h (10.4 mph), Vmax = 36.6 km/h (22.7 mph), T = 42-minutes

Jump Jam

Published on March 13, 2008 in Uncategorized by taro. Closed

dscf1043.JPGJust a little mini after work jump session at the Koko Head dirt jumps. Got stuck at work for a bit so a little late by the time I got there. Beautiful weather, a bit more wind, dirt seemed more dry and taking a bit of a beating. dscf1044.JPGJay was feeling a bit worn out from the day at work and wasn’t hitting it the same as last week. Didn’t help that he creamed the boys just before I got there. dscf1045.JPGSome annoying munchkins came running through the jumps and couldn’t get the subtle hints of “Hey, come over here!” and kept running around the trails. Kinda interesting how some mild anger seems to make the jumping better. I hit the jumps the best I have so far. Also feeling a little more familiar with the jumps. Not a bad after work quickie. dscf1048b.jpg

Grind Grime

Published on March 9, 2008 in car by taro. Closed

Sheesh. Taking a dinner break here. Getting case of vibro arms.

So here’s a tip for all you car monkeys, when you sit around grinding and cutting metal bits, try to keep away from your car, or rather your car paint. I have just spent all day buffing and picking out rusty metal filings from the paint of my car. I’m pretty sure it’s from when I was cutting those vacuum pipes a few weeks ago and I didn’t realize it was getting all over the car. After getting the nice pretty wheels on yesterday and waking up early on a Sunday (how’d that happen? Let’s just say wine has an effect of putting me to sleep & had some with dinner last night), I decided to wash the car. That’s when I discovered the tiny little rusty specks sticking all over. Ugh. Thank budha that I have the power buffer, there is absolutely no way I could have done as much in this one day without it, and I would seriously have had jelly arms. Sorry Miyagi-san, I fail, turn-on, turn-off.

Okay, time to go back outside for the final buff on the hood, then sealant the finish.

Paint Pounders

Published on March 9, 2008 in Uncategorized by taro. Closed

So Saturday I start on installing the rest of the wheel studs. Having gotten da theorems down, the other rear wheel is done quickly. Scat called as I was starting to work on the front. I guess he was inspired by our midweek jump session and he asked about the weather at my house. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and it’s brutally sunny. I’m sure it would be a great day to hang at the beach and watch all the beach bunnies out on this March Hawaiian day, but it’ll be roasting out at the dirt jumps. img_1135.JPGSo instead he shows up in the Sled with Chuck. They went by the body shop to start up Chucky’s Camaro, which is finally almost done with body & paint. Long story, best you ask Chuck about it if you want to know the whole story. By this time I was already done with one of the fronts, so there was only one wheel left to do, not much they could help with there. Continue reading ‘Paint Pounders’

Studly

Published on March 8, 2008 in car by taro. Closed

img_1125.JPGParts order came promptly from Summit Racing. In the order was exhaust parts, and the ARP extended length wheel studs. After much digging around & asking at local parts shop to look up the measurements, I figured the ARP stud set listed for Celica was a good match. The key thing is to find a good size for the knurl since these are press fit. The Celica ones here were just slightly bigger in diameter. The whole reason for this is with alloy rims, the stock studs are just barely long enough, as seen here with my old rims. img_1126.JPGimg_1128.JPGLooks a little iffy, but it just makes the general rule of thumb that there should be as much thread engaged as the stud is thick. Now the deal is the new FX came with some nice Rays rims, but it’s sizing required the use of spacers on the back. I think I mentioned before that we discovered that the rear wheels were being held on by only two threads. This was no exageration, two revolutions and the lug nuts were off. img_1129.JPGPretty lucky there wasn’t a disaster. Yikes! Continue reading ‘Studly’

Sucky Sucky

Published on March 2, 2008 in car by taro. Closed

Update on car work. I spent last weekend working on the intake of the FX. If you remember, I’d complained about the gutless low end during the SCCA Test&Tune, so I figured I’d check out the intake system. My guess was something was wrong with the TVIS system. TVIS stand for Toyota Variable Induction System. Each cylinder has a pair of intake runners and the TVIS is a set of butterflies that close off one set at low rpms. What this is doing is tuning the intake size. At low rpms,  since the pistons are moving slower and sucking slower, closing half the runners you get a narrower intake tube, increasing the air velocity getting better mixing and charging of the cylinder. Once the rpms get high, the piston speeds are high and sucking in faster, the narrow intake becomes a restriction so opening up the second set lets in more air. When you’ve got it floored and the throttle wide open, you can actually hear when this happens. Toyota put this into the GE performance engine cars during the 80’s, and then it went away in the 90’s. It’s come back in a different form in Lexus’ with ACIS, kind of similar concept, but it varies the length of the intake. Continue reading ‘Sucky Sucky’

The Green Hell

Published on March 2, 2008 in Travel by taro. Closed

dscf1028b.jpgWednesday Feb 27

Leave work early and arrive at HNL interisland terminals. 4:15PM in the middle of work week finds easy parking in the interisland structure. No lines at all at check-in or security. Arrive at Hawaiian Airlines’ boarding area. The sun is dipping down and creating “god” beams in the sky. I am heading to Hilo, Hawaii for an install at the Hilo Hawaiian hotel. The flight is uneventful, the unflight mag is same from a few weeks ago, I’ve already read about the night surfing with Fabio’s co-worker, about the guy in Volcano growing wasabi. We arrive and I step out of the aircraft and my first thought is, was Hilo always stinky? Continue reading ‘The Green Hell’