Just finished taking a second shower and popping open a St. Pauli Girl. After finishing my form 1040, it was around 22:30 and I wasn’t feeling sleepy, so I went outside and fixed the leaky heater hoses on the FJ80. Essentially, the ends of hte hoses that go to the thermostat neck and water pump were deformed from age and reaction to various fluids and had started to leak. The OEM Toyota wire-style hose clamps were deeply cut into the rubber and not providing enough squeeze. I undid the clamps, pried the ends of the hoses off the barb fittings with a flat screwdriver, cut a couple of centimeters off the ends with EMT shears, cleaned the fittings with a kitchen scouring pad, and reassembled the hose ends. Thankfully, there was enough excess play in the hoses to allow for this. After tightening everything up and refilling the radiator and reservoir, I ran it up to operating temperature and everything seemed to be holding. Damn, I’m tired now… Continue reading ‘Midnight Leak Repair’
Archive for the 'rant' Category
Page 42 of 54
WTF!? I awoke to the new “Dash and Diane” format on the KHNL morning news this morning. No Kristine anymore! Kuso! That sucks. I don’t have anything to look forward to in the morning now! It’s just like going back to Vancouver last year and discovering that the Breakfast Television format has been changed and the familiar hosts are gone! Bigfoot no like!
(0)You really don’t have to read this post… Continue reading ‘I am the Spam Magnet’
On average, I have to say tonight’s ride sucked. The camaraderie was good. About half of the actual riding was fun. Dinner was great. The uphill parts of the riding absolutely sucked. Being wet, sweaty, muddy, and gritty sucked. Losing half of a pair of $45 USD Da Kine gloves sucked. Getting the inside of my FJ80 covered with mud sucked. Spending more time hosing down the bikes than riding time sucked. Dropping my light when cleaning up and breaking it sucked. I’m effing salty about this whole escapade now. When it started raining, I should have just gone the F home. I thought it would be OK, and besides, we hadn’t really gone on a mud ride in a while. I joked at dinner that we had to do one of these once in a while to remind ourselves not to do it. This was before I realized I lost the glove and before I broke the light. Great F I was right! I am so unbelievably pissed right now. Screw this sh*t! Double F! Continue reading ‘Muddy Trudge’
Does anyone see the irony of the Federal Building in Honolulu being landscaped with trees that are all on the State of Hawaii list of invasive or weed species? There’s Fiddlewood (Citharexylum caudatum) near the mauka entrance stairs, Formosa Koa (Acacia confusa) and several manicured Chinese Banyan trees (Ficus microcarpa) on the lawn, and a very heavy presence of Australian Tree Ferns (Sphaeropteris cooperi) along the ‘Ewa side. Heck, there’s probably Wedelia (Wedelia prostrata) somewhere over there too!
Is it also ironic that Kaiser Hospital, Moanalua has a hedge of poisonous Yellow Oleander (Thevetia peruviana)?
Go figure.
It is funny how much media attention is being paid to the newer “slightly more grown-up†version of Dora the Explorer by disgruntled parents and children’s advocates. It’s just a fictional character people! They are all up in arms as if it were a real little kid – almost as if it were their own child being exploited. Heck, since they personalize it so much, shouldn’t they be proud that the dumpy, androgynous daughter that they are so emotionally invested in has grown up pretty? All the press releases have been very specific that the children’s television program will remain unchanged, and that particular character merchandising effort will also go unchanged. The new pre-teen character is a parallel toy marketing scheme aimed at older kids who grew up with the preschool-aged Dora and are now in the same “tweens†demographic. I bet the same people who are going nuts over this fictional character would be the first to speak out about how unhealthy or sick it is for otaku to be obsessing over fictional annie-may characters!
With all the cash and effort the born-again right is throwing against the “domestic partnership” issue before the State Legislature now in the form of rallies and radio spots, it behooves us to stand up against these people who hide behind the catchphrase “traditional marriage” and show them once and for all that in order to protect Hawaii’s multi-cultural diversity, we are sick and tired of them trying to force their religious beliefs down everyone else’s throats. You may not care one way or the other about the domestic partnership issue or the same-sex marriage issue that they are attempting to noose it to, but this is one step of many that they are trying to force Hawaii to take down the road toward a christian theocracy (the next step is getting Dook in office). FTP!
Dropped by Toyota today to grab a now-tiny oil filter for the FJ-80. While I was there, I stopped by the showroom. I sat down in the new Matrix. It looks pretty nice inside, except for the non-DIN opening for the radio, but I know there are at least 2 adaptors available. The forward-folding front passenger seat looks like it would make it big enough inside for a DH/FR bike with both wheels on to fit, but the liftgate appears too narrow to accommodate a long fork and wide riser bars. The reach to the shifter might be a little far, especially 3 and 5. The one thing I disconcertingly noticed was the view out the windscreen. The hood line is so high and the seating position is so low that you probably won’t be able to see the road immediately in front of you! The bottom edge of the windscreen is about 108 cm (42â€) above the ground. Continue reading ‘See? See Not!’
Stuck in traffic on the Eastbound H-1 this past Saturday morning between Pali and Punahou? Well, I’m not sure what exactly happened, but it’s this guy’s fault! There were no other vehicles visible nearby that could have also been involved.