Oh well. I was hoping to maybe change the kokunai leg of my return flight today, but everything is full – so full that they announced it on the radio. Today is a National Day (“take care of old people day” or something), so everyone who came up for the long weekend is going back to wherever this afternoon. My flight out is at 13:00 or so, so I get into NRT at around 14:50.  My flight to HNL isn’t until 21:00! Maybe I’ll try and catch the 18:00 flight and get in earlier – that one shouldn’t be full. I’m sure Ckucke will be surprised if I call him before 07:00 for a pick-up!
Archive for the 'rant' Category
Page 53 of 54
Okay, I hope this comes out looking how it’s supposed to, since this is a JIS keyboard and all… Anyway, I just got back into Sapporo after travelling around the Shiretoko-hantou, Abashiri, and Asahikawa for the past few days. Since this has been life out of a minimal kit, this has probably been the dirtiest I’ve felt in Japan ever. I was only able to pack a pair of shorts and some DPM trousers and 2 T-shirts other than the one I was wearing on Wednesday night. It was fairly hot every day, probably around 25C and sunny, so with all the hiking about, in one day a shirt was ruined with funk. Continue reading ‘Oyaji ni Naritakunari’
…well, TMD actually (go wikipedia it!) I ate a Ba-le sandwich for lunch yesterday, and noticed on the drive home that my jaw felt stiff and odd on one side. Dinner and breakfast were difficult to eat – not really from the chewing, but from not being able to open my mouth wide enough. It even hurts a little when I try to talk. Hope this doesn’t cause any great issues on the trip…
I’ll be working half a day today then head to the airport to catch JO 079 HNL-NRT.
Mitch really did fix my back. One week after he worked on it, there was only a slight residual discomfort – enough to remind me not to do anything stupid over the weekend. Now it is completely back to normal.
Hope I don’t wreck it in Japan next week!
Finally had to go and see Mitch yesterday about my back. I’ve been resisting because of his new office location, but the discomfort grew too great. I had trouble climbing in and out of the work van all morning, and after lunch just leaning foreward a little sent searing twinges of pain from my back all the way down the back of my left leg to my heel.
This all stems back to putting new shocks in the Land Cruiser months ago. The pain had decreased before the Whistler MTB trip, and was not an issue during all the riding up there. Even after I got back it was fine, but this week it just went wild. After Mitch worked on it, I could bend forward, but it still hurt. I took a TC3 and hit the sheets. This morning I felt like a million bucks, then I squatted down to pick up some breakfast cereal that I spilled and wham - the pain was back. It’s almost lunchtime and the pain seems to be back to pre-breakfast levels.Â
Pinched nerves suck.
Fabio, we need ‘Roncam. Coming down Ward, stopped before Beretania because light red, everyone is stopped. Moron in Titan talking on his cell phone rolls into the back of the Suzuki. I pull into the convenience store at the corner & park on side by gas pumps. I see him turn in. He drives past me, parks in the stalls by the shop, gets out, and then starts walking to the store! At this moment he is officially a ‘Ron. I call out to him & ask if his truck is alright. Of course at this point I didn’t really give a flying monkeys behind about his truck. But I guess maybe its my over polite Japanese culture influence method of saying hey ‘Ron, WTF are you doing?! I had already looked at my (actually Dad’s) bumper and damage was trivial. Luckily his bumper did not hit the spare tire. So really that wasn’t the issue, the issue was that he said he didn’t know he hit me. Sheesh.
Anyway, Fabio, you need to finish development of your tailgater cam and we need to make it into the ‘Roncam and adapt it to spool video continuously to a memory card with the big red ‘Ron button to save the video. Or if its made so simply pulling the card out you can view the video file left on the card. You know, if you made it small without needing a laptop, relatively inexpensive unit, bet you could sell it. Consumer version and commercial version, commercial version perhaps some kind of authentication algorithm so it could be submitted as legal evidence. I even give you permission to use the ‘Roncam name.
Another weekend of back breaking stuff. Hunched over repairing caulk in the bathtub, swinging a pickaxe around for Stump Removal. The the final Insult/Injury was trying to roll a engine crane (with the engine hooked up and suspended) while said engine was still attached to the car.
I’ve been missing out on most of the bike rides for the past few weeks in an attempt to finish the artwork for HAA’s Showcase 2007. Over the weekend, I pulled two days of before-noon-to-after-midnight marathon sessions, so now the digital “cel color” finishing is done. Just have to do the backgrounds and some effects stuff. My sciatic already was hurting from changing the shocks on the FJ80, but sitting in front of the PC for days probably made it worse. I should really see Mitch, but his new office is geographically undesirable.
Hopefully I can finish up by this coming weekend and get the printing and framing done. Whistler MTB is coming up, so I have to turn in the artwork before then. I’m pretty happy with how the two pieces are coming out. I’ll have to do a little content editing on one so I don’t get my ass banned from the Academy. Don’t worry – there will be the “Showcase ’07 version” and the “uncensored version”.
Went to the McBike bike department bonus dinner last night at the Shogun Restaurant at the Pacific Beach Hotel. Buffet style. Main line was quite pedestrain, with the exception for the presence of goya champuru and shoyu pork. The champuru was looking a little grey, so it didn’t make it onto my plate. The little pitchers that held the soba tsuyu were empty, so my soba sucked even more. There was crab… the smooth one… is that Snow crab? Not the pokey Alaska King crab… Sushi selection was fairly good and quality was not unacceptable. Didn’t try the prime rib or tempura. Continue reading ‘What the hell is this cr@p?’
What the F! Okay, about an hour ago I was sitting here working on my blog entry about past work on the FX. I heard something outside, I thought maybe some kid on a bike or something & didn’t really think anything of it. A few minutes later the door bell rings. Go to answer. Hmm, pretty cute local girl, wonder what she’s selling. Then she asks about the black car parked down the street. Um, yeah, that’s mine. Then she tells me she hit it. Aw geeze, tell her, hold on, I’ll get the insurance info. What the bleeping hell! Does that FX have “HIT ME” writen all over it?!
 
I go out and see that the FX is pushed up onto the curb. That doesn’t look good….
I’m fairly speechless. You know, I was only kidding about if someone hit the other door, then I’d have enough money to buy another whole FX from the mainland. Getting closer, I’m expecting the worst, but it’s not quite that bad. But the wheel is turned in. I don’t usually turn my wheel in to park here. My habit is to turn in where I feel the front starting to rise up the curve of the gutter, then turn back to straighten out so the car is pretty much as far to curb as possible.
I’m not happy but things are civil. We exchange info. Oo, ouch, that’s gonna smart for her nice shiny 2006 Lexus RX400. 
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Looks like things are under control so I go to straighten out the FX. F, the door won’t open. It unlatches & opens, but door won’t swing out. I climb in through passenger side and move the car. I’m expecting the girl to drive off in her Lexus, but then she reverses & stops. What gives? She gets out and explains that her steering isn’t working. My parents came home from shopping while this was all developing and my mom comes over to see what’s going on. She finds a chunk of munged aluminum with a bit of chassis grease on the ground. Looks like some part of steering linkage, prob a joint of the steering shaft. Wow, junk, LandCruiser that isn’t!
The FX seems to move ok, unknown if suspension , steering, or wheel is damaged. Will have to find out. Hmm, am I going to have to rush to ABC tomorrow and get the other door and fender? And damn, if I get it repainted, am I going to have to have it painted International Orange?! Just what is going on with this car?!