Got into Osaka last night on a good flight on Hawaiian Airlines (HA449 HNL-KIX). The 767-300ER they are currently using on this route is older, but it is clean and in good repair. The comparable JAL aircraft have so many hours on them, they look a lot more beat-up inside, and the “personal contact surfaces” like the seat material and armrest pads are a lot more worn and dreary (and possibly suffused with funk). This one didn’t have the personal video screens, so that meant cooler seats and more seat width for me, since I was only one of two native English speakers on board, so I got “volunteered” into the exit row. Passenger demographic was mostly young couples, instead of the older crowd on JAL. They actually ran the A/C nice and cold, such that I actually had to use the blanket, as opposed to JAL, where my back is usually soaked with sweat. After a turbulent approach over Awaji-shima and Kobe, we were brought straight into KIX without any waiting or holding pattern. Continue reading ‘The Wall of Heat’
Author Archive for snm
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A Guinness brew I hadn’t seen before? Had to try it. Pours opaque black, moderately heavy head that dissapates. Moderate carbonation that persists. A fairly light and clean mouth feel. There actually is very little bitter, just a bit of roastyness that lingers a bit through the middle and leaves a tiny bit of astringentness on the tongue. Easy drinking. Nothing horrible about this beer, it’s certainly nice enough to drink, but if I want a Guinness, I want a Guinness. Guinness is synonomous with stout. It’s like poser Guinness. All the look, none of the substance. So as a beer to drink I give it 3 monkeys, but as a Guinness I give it a 2 out of 4 monkeys. Hm, seems to pack a buzz, but it’s not teh al content, it’s Speights syndrome, it’s easy drinking so you find yourself downing them rapidly.
I’m not sure who “invented” the tactical trouser belt, but Spec.-Ops. Brand was definitely one of the pioneers of the genre. Years back, I wanted a fully non-metallic belt to make airport checkpoints go more quicky, but that was before September 11 and the TSA, as nowadays all belts have to come off. I ended up with a PRC-made 5.11 Tactical Gear TDU belt, which worked perfectly fine, but its country of origin left something to be desired. Spec.-Ops. Brand belts are made in the USA, so I picked up a couple, one in Coyote Brown to go with my MultiCam trousers, and a black one for everyday use. Continue reading ‘Spec.-Ops. Brand Better BDU Belt 1.75”’
I dropped by Chinatown Boardroom on the 2nd for the opening of Fuyuki’s show, NAMI. Fukaya Fuyuki is an artist from Kyoto who creates using traditional brush techniques and a mix of traditional motifs mixed with a hint of the contemporary. His outstanding design sensibilities stem from his background in kimono fabric design and production. This show is his first in the USA, showcasing his paintings done with traditional water-based sumi-e inks on hand-made washi paper made by his friend in Kyushu. I was thoroughly impressed with his work and bought a woodblock print of a rooster from him. The show runs through the 30th of September, so check it out!
Highly Recommended!
Even after doubling back to get something I forgot at work, I managed to get home in time to take the bike out once again on Monday. The weather wasn’t as nice as last Wednesday with thick, opaque clouds crowning the mountaintops, but it didn’t appear like rain was imminent, so I took a chance on taking a spin. The weather held, but there wasn’t a single moment where the looming overcast parted to allow even a spot of sun to reach my path. Again, the limiting factor was a matter of seating, so the duration of the ride coincidentally ended up being almost exactly the same. I managed a couple more kilometers this time out. The two rides bracketed this month’s full-moon night hike, so I’m not sure how all the pain/fatigue dynamics work out, like whether Wednesday’s ride set me up for more pain on Friday night, or Friday’s hike left me drained for Monday.
D = 12.68 km (7.88-miles), Vavr = 17.7 km/h (11.0-mph), Vmax = 38.5 km/h (23.9-mph), T = 43-minutes
Bike? What is this “bike” you speak of? This word is unfamiliar to me…
Actually got out and rode around on Wednesday. The old saying, “it’s like riding a bike,” definitely holds true – it always hurts, it always kicks your ass, and it’s always somehow fun (even if it hurts and kicks your ass). The tires were covered with lint and dog hair on the bottoms from sitting immobile for over half-a-year. The fuzz patches stayed in place even through the fast sections, clinging between the lugs of the sticky Rubber Queens even against the wind and rotational vectors. It was a little distracting, so I rode through the grass to remove them. There was some construction going on my normal loop, so I had to make some adjustments to the routine. I didn’t push hard since I didn’t want to break anything (on me, not the bike) as I haven’t been riding in like forever, so the numbers will reflect this. During the ride, the knees hurt, the legs burnt a little, and the lungs and heart weren’t quite up to the task, but the limiting factor really was the ability to sit on that little seat for an extended period of time. One day later, the back of my neck was sore, and my calves were tight. Even so, the discomfort paled against the feeling of the afternoon wind and the pure, simple rush of speed.
D = 10.86 km (6.75-miles), Vavr = 15.4 km/h (9.6-mph), Vmax = 39.9 km/h (24.8-mph), T = 42-minutes
I feel like such a doof. Last night Mitch called & we went to the Daikon Festival in Millilani. I’m a bit dissapointed, by the time we got there, there was no daikon! What’s up with that?! Anyway, on the drive out the rally FX was acting pretty wierd and doing a lot of hesitating and check engine light flashing. I pulled the code earlier which indicated coolant temp sensor. I figured this as a shake down drive, drive home was not any better, and it seemed pretty random. Stalled a couple times at lights, but made it home. So this morning I drained the water, which was in the plan anyway, but pulled the water temp sensor. I’m not exactly sure how the ECU uses this sensor, it’s not the temp gauge sensor for the dash, it’s not the temp switch for the radiator fan, it’s not the cold start temp timer switch. The meter test at room temp was good, but I swapped it out with the original rally FX one for good measure. I then started skinning back the wiring loom to expose some of the wiring for that sensor. Visually it looked ok. I cut the connector and a length of wire off the end, then spliced in a connector from spare harness. I metered the wires of the part I cut out, it tested ok. Damn, I hope its not a problem with the wiring furthur down the harness. After soldering and heatshrinking in the spare connector, I plugged it in and started up the car. It seemed better, but then I heard the miss and saw the CE light flash. Damn! I wiggled the harness around and it indeed seemed to be associated. I worked my way down the harness wiggling it as I went to try & find where the problem was. Doh! I found it, the bolt for the grounding point for that part of the harness was loose, I’d forgotten to tighten it! I felt like an idiot, I’d spent all the morning and into lunch cutting into a perfectly fine wiring harness. Tightening it and plugging everything back in, the car ran well and I drove it out to SCCA. There still is some phantom missfiring, but it’s nowhere as bad as last night, and it doesn’t trigger the CE light. At least it’s liveable, we’ll see how it goes.
Last night took my new Toyota gasket & o-ring & applied rtv all over & assembled. Moment of truth this morning after giving the goop overnight to cure, filled er up with water. Victory, the outlets not leaking! Wtf, I see small drips in another spot! Looks like one of my hose clamps not tight enough, crank it & looks good! Crank the engine over a few times with ecu relay removed to get some lube juice flowing through the engine. Hook everything up, start cranking, nothing. Hmm, I jumper the fuel pump and listen to it run, I hear gurgling through the lines, run until sounds solid. A few more tense moment of cranking, a cough, then it churns right up. Nice! And no water or other stuff spraying all over the place! So I got it over at the service station for safety right now, what a relief!
KC10 just took off, super-labored. Wonder what’s passing through and where they’re going? Something big that can’t be seen?
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