Published on November 19, 2008 in rant by risu. Closed
The Bloody Finger of Death.
Ow! Dammit, that hurts! Pinched my finger between the work van tire and the radial tire patch insertion tool. Those new type pre-glued patch strips break easily during the insertion process, and the tool takes a jump toward the tire. POS! Bring back the old heavily-corded patches!
I didn’t have scissors in my first aid kit since security took away my Leatherman Micra in Banff years ago, so I had to cut the dangling flap of skin off with the apparently dull blade of my Swisstool. Note to self: Buy some scissors.
Published on November 18, 2008 in Culture and rant by risu. Closed
I really hate when people take the “Drive with Aloha” thing to inappropriate levels. If you’re on the freeway and it’s gridlocked and someone is trying to merge in at an on-ramp, sure, show some Aloha and let ‘da bruddah’ or sistah’ in. It’s when people go out of their way to let you in and cause inconvenience to everyone else around them is where I draw the line. Yesterday I was making a right turn from a side street onto a divided highway, and there was a space coming up in traffic that I could pull into. Continue reading ‘No Aloha for You!’
Published on November 9, 2008 in rant and SUAR by taro. Closed
I’m amazed there aren’t more disasters in this world. Last week filling gas was the second time I’ve seen someone smoking at a gas station. The passenger was puffing away, hanging cigarette hand outside of window which happened to be the pump side. Previous instance a few months ago dude did stop smoking, by flinging the the still smoldering cigerette onto the ground of the filling station. Luckily I was done and I bugged out as I watched the smoldering stick rolling along the concrete.
Published on November 6, 2008 in bike and rant by risu. Closed
Last week, Ckucke ordered some parts from Chain Reaction Cycles in the UK, so I had him het me a set of Shimano M770 9-speed shifters and a cassette for the Chase. Parts came in on Friday, but I didn’t have a chance to work on the bike until Tuesday, so I took it into the shop to switch them out. Dug around in back for an XTR 9-speed chain, then I put the cassette on. When I opened the bag-o-shifters (they were OEM packaged or take-offs, not retail packaged), the first one was a left (front) shifter, so I just grabbed he other and put it in my tool tray. I took off the bar plug and grip, removed the brake lever, and set about unmounting the shifter, unthreading the cable from the housing, and disconnecting the cable from the old shifter. The cable in use was a trick Teflon-coated one, so I wanted to use that instead of the generic stainless steel one that shipped with the XT. I pulled the new shifter out of the bag and got ready to take the cable out when I noticed that it was a left shifter. I must have grabbed the wrong one by accident. I grabbed the other shifter and it was the left shifter that I had put down earlier. I got that sick, sinking feeling in my gut. No way! I put the two shifters side-by-side. Both were lefts! WTF?! Continue reading ‘Front and Front’
Published on November 3, 2008 in car and rant by taro. Closed
So, one of my left side rear brake lights has been out for a while. Been lazy, but safety is this month. Got home early tonight and checked it out as I was unloading cargo. Pull the socket out of light assembly. Hmm, the bulb is shattered, and the socket is rusted. Use a rag, crack of most of the other jagged bit of bulb left, and managed to extract the bulb. There’s water in the socket. I pull the other bulbs out, there’s moisture inside the lower housing, the other bulb and socket is rusted together. Continue reading ‘The Rice Lives’
Published on October 27, 2008 in rant by risu. Closed
…well, at least as functional a Vista Home Premium machine can be. Processed a lot of outstanding digital photos over the rainy weekend, and the laptop seems to be in working order. Also of note, it will now boot with the battery not in place but the external power connected. Not sure if this is from the repair or the latest BIOS revision. Just glad it works again!
Published on October 23, 2008 in car and rant by taro. Closed
I was going to rant earlier about the guy yelling out his car window calling me an a-hole for not letting the car in front of him turn into building driveway when there was no car behind me for the rest of the road all the way back to traffic light. But that annoyance went away already.
Instead, I’ll say, WTF? As I was going to leave Los Chaps after having dinner, my drivers side headlight was out. That wasn’t the one I messed with to put the zip tie on. Aw heck, that’s what I get for reusing old scavenged bulbs from the time both bulbs went out simultaneously. Such is life.
Published on October 23, 2008 in rant by risu. Closed
…well, more like Blue Screen of Panic. No sooner had I gotten my machine back when a Windows update security patch bombed and messed up something in the boot sector. WTF?! After a lot of prodding, I got Windows working again and now all is right for the moment…
I was mostly concerned about the pain in the ass it would be reinstalling everything from scratch.
Published on October 22, 2008 in bike and rant by taro. Closed
I get home fairly early today, so decide to go out on a road spin on the 10th Anniversary Fat. It’s a nice night, temp is actually a bit warm, I’ll discover later that the winds are strong. I’m on skinny tires and spinningaway on the road like a roadie, it feels good. There’s early evening traffic out, but I’m fairly comfortable with it. I plan to just do some loops in Hawaii Kai. I pull over at the Hahaione 7-11 to adjust my seat height and angle. I’d earlier swapped saddles so needed to shake things down a bit. That done, I saddled up and headed back onto the road. I turn onto Keahole-Hawaii Kai intersection, prob the one portion that is a bit dicey. There’s a lot of traffic from Safeway and Cosco, it’s on an outside curve so cars want to wander to the right into you, the road surface is terrible (any surprise there?), and no one heeds the 25 mph speed limit. Coming from Hawaii Kai Drive and crossing with the light, it’s not too bad as you can usually get a fair way down the road before the bulk of distracted drivers from the shopping center catch up. Continue reading ‘Direct Hit, Tailgunner Daimler’
Published on October 21, 2008 in rant by risu. Closed
…well, it booted when I picked it up anyway. Two weeks, a new motherboard, and a new Core 2 Duo processor later, it’s back in my hands. I assume since the original motherboard wasn’t the issue in the first place, they put the old one back… We’ll see later tonight if everything still works OK. At least my drive didn’t have to be replaced or wiped!
it seems like chainring spacers are some kind of mystical vintage part. I've asked at almost every shop in whistler with a service department. Quite a few didn't even know what it was and couldn't comprehend what I wanted to do. Finally found some at Fanatyk Co but only ancient crusty mechanics know about these and they have poor eyesight or something. I asked for 3mm and he even used a ruler, he scrounged up 4mms.
The Bloody Finger of Death.
