wolfwings

Typing this under Linux over a 802.11g wireless link. Just reformatted the laptop from the ground up, Linux is in, Windows XP Professional 64-bit (yes, that last fragment of the name makes a HUGE difference) is installed, all my 'user' folders are set up to be shared so I log into 'wolfwings' on either platform and get the same files. =^.^= Oh, and Puzzle Pirates will be installed in a couple more hours once I get everything else set up properly.

Also heard back from the insurance company finally. They've valued the 'base car' before service records at $2500, about $200 higher than I'd initially been planning to barter for. So I'm likely to get the $3500 I hoped for. Time to settle debts overdue and unpaid.

Zaly? I dunno if you even look at my journal anymore, I kept poking at trying to get you the money half-heartedly, not fighting through getting PayPal working again, etc, and for that I have no way to appologize at this point and I know it. Please e-mail me at wolfwings@gmail.com with how you'd like me to get you $200. (Yes, $200 at this point. Call it paying debts overdue with interest.) Western Union is fine, postal money order, cashiers check from my bank, silver half dollars in a wooden chest (yes, I can do this), however you want.

Feather? Dour? You still need anything? I heard you found some computer, you still need one of the loose systems of mine? I've lost track of what you guys need, if you even want to stay in touch with me at this point after I dropped off the face of the earth like that. Lemme know.

Still dealing with paperwork with the insurance company, I get the feeling I'm going to end up pushing for closer to US$3200, when they total it out. Getting a copy of all reciepts from the sole mechanic to ever do work on the car in a few hours, and copying 'average sales price' stuff (local ads in magazines, and on-line, and the like), and going to hand them the reciept for the $900 of tires that are all less than 5000 miles old.

And reading a recent entry by Manawolf... something hit me. Something that is honestly scaring me a little bit, and making me consider turning in my drivers license if I didn't need it to hold down a job. Something I went out, and tested by driving around monotonously up and down short streets for about 20-30 minutes, then driving around without tracking my speedometer or turning except to stay in the lane down the same stretches of mostly-deserted road. Speed limit of the street sections varied between 25mph (gated residential) and 50mph (local intrastate highway) sections, with the experiment aborted due to findings at the 50mph level.

Up to around 30-35mph, I have zero problem driving very sedately, more-or-less running the proverbial mental and driving engine at idle.

Between 35-45mph, it actually takes larger and larger conscious effort, not to avoid 'hot dogging' my driving style, but to mentally stay 'safely aware' if I'm driving sedately.

At 50mph, it's a very noticable effort.

I've got close to a quarter century of in-grained training to fall asleep in moving vehicles once they are above 'city' speeds even remotely, if I'm watching out the windows at the passing terrain. (Ergo why talking with people inside the car avoids it. And thankfully I don't get motion-sick in vehicles either so I don't need to look out the windows generally.) My only technique to 'combat' this has become overloading my senses and brain to keep it in a hyber-aware state when I'm driving, preventing the 'power saving' spin-down. This only applies when I'm the only person in the vehicle, I have not compared with/without having someone to have a conversation with, nor with outside factors like using/not using the radio, air conditioning, or having the windows down.

And no particular reason for the new LJ icon, I just finished it and wanted to share. :-) S'from Secret of Mana for the SNES. =^.^= And to explain what entry brought this on for some sort of 'context' for those that can read it, it's in regards to being a Sprinter. Somehow appropriate, driving a Toyota Corolla. (Google it, you'll understand. :-) )

Eclipse is wrecked.

I'm okay aside from some bruises.

Guess what I learned? Guess what I spelled out, as blatantly as I could in the last post? That just because I can do something, does not mean the other guy driving another vehicle that has a possible physical interaction with my car can accomplish the same thing. And that implies the reverse, or I thought it did when I wrote it and didn't think to attach the vice-versa tag. Just because someone else can do something, doesn't mean that I can either. And guess who just had a very quiet weekend to think about all this, because my accident happened less than 4 hours after I woke up on my 'Saturday' began?

Thank you. And yes, I'm writing this to avoid writing a lot of duplicate entries, and this is also written with very little thought because I woke up in time to go to work tonight, and have to leave immediately to do so so can't take the time to make individual replies to everyone's comments on my original post seperately.

...does not mean the gal behind me does. That was the last thought I had, almost literally. "Oh shit... I had to max-brake there and barely made it... BRACE! *WHAM*crinzt*"

Eclipse is now about 3 inches more compact, and has a face like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

Northbound on the 405, number 1 lane, sudden slowdown. And I mean to the point I realized, "I don't have time to blink my brakelights to warn the person behind me. I have to actually slam on the brakes and try not to spin out," sudden.

I stopped with around a foot to spare. And as my car was settling back on it's rear wheels again... it got lifted up and forward so the passenger-side headlight got shoved back about a foot into the car by the driver-side rear bumper of the car in front of me.

The gal behind me had a face covered in blood, as was her shirt, and full airbag deployment in the front of the car with the front of her car shortered by about... 2 feet, by comparison to the 3-4 inches my rear bumper got crunched. Now it's all up to the insurance companies, which'll be akward since both she and I are AAA members and have AAA insurance.

But this proves that I can tell if I can stop in time. And that that has no bearing on if the person behind me can.

...which are fairly minor really.

As I can: Get some of these for storage purposes. Something to store dirty oil, 20W-20 clean, ATF for the power steering and brake systems, and gear oil for the transmission. This'll be a long-term supplies task. About $200-$400, depending on the number and size of tanks, and if I swap the oil-pump between types or buy seperate pumps for each type of oil.

Get a re-usable oil filter in a year or so. Sure, it'll cost $200 or so, but I already got a re-usable K&N air filter, might as well REALLY piss off the guys that go to change my oil now and make them unable to charge me for any parts. =^.^=

Finish getting the tire-storage unit built for the trunk, so I can hold the pair of full-sized spares in there safely. Most likely a simple threaded-rod with a T at the peak that the existing tire-bolt system can bolt the spare wheels onto. That way it's easy to remove the whole contraption when I rotate my tires. About $20 in parts, total. Maybe $40 to be paranoid.

Before I get the engine rebuilt, get some new 4340 pistons, 4340 rods, and a 4340 crankshaft. Note the sarcasm dripping from this paragraph, and lack of any prices unlike the other paragraphs.

...better get your PS1/PS2 and assorted games while you still can.

Yes, unless Sony is successful in their appeal, they just got handed a massive 'take all your stuff and go home' note. As in, theoretically it could end up requiring them to issue a complete recall of all PS1's and PS2's in the United States.

Because a company patented computer controlled vibration for crisakes.

Something to note... that 'blue column' is 2" wide, roughly.

Behold... the power of LOX!

...but I have an easier time getting a Tire-gasm than any other sort of car-related "Ooh! Shiny!" response.

Needless to say, the engineer, artist, and driver in my head all are drooling over the new TripleTred tires from GoodYear.

I mean... 80,000 mile treadlife? =O.o= Most tires are around 35,000 right now. And some of those 35k tires cost more than these 80k tires. And these 80k tires are quite happy on snow and everything else.

Now if they made a version rated for higher speeds, everyone could use them. As it is, anyone needing V or other high-speed tires needs to fall back on the Eagle line of tires from GoodYear, or look to other tire companies.

But good grief... 80k miles for barely $115/tire. That's like... barely $1.43 per thousand miles. Most tires I've seen elsewhere are nearly double that cost per mile. *squee* And these even look neat. :-)

...

0____pedophiles is the newest serial-furry-adder on the block, with the new schtick of only adding 'pedophiles' as if you couldn't tell from the username.

Just to refresh everyone's memory...

Go here and enter:

ban_set 0____pedophiles

Click "execute" and that'll add him to your ban list.

But don't expect any legal action to occur against this individual, unfortunately most of the courts will side with LJ on this matter, who's stance is more-or-less that unless he posts actual RL names or addresses or non-public e-mail addresses, he's doing nothing that can be actually considered harassment or libel or whatever legal term you care to use to complete the sentence, "LiveJournal, can you tell me more about user XYZ so I can take them to court more easilly because they ________ed me?"

Took me long enough...

...but now everyone can see why I didn't think the car was dead and why it broke my heart so much to have to take it to a scrapyard.

Especially when the fucker still ran, well enough that I drove it into said scrapyard.

...just got the notice I'm about to run out of LiveJournal Paid status...

Gah, I never got around to finishing my S2 style. =-.-= Bad Wolf, not enough time left now. :-P

Erf... can't figure out which of my last four user icons to lose, either, since I don't want to lose the newest icon, but it's the least-used so it's most likely to get axed. Double-bleah.

...and the simply-and-cheap plans I have for it.

As a few folks know, I now own a 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST, albeit one with a burnt-out turbo so it's more anemic than my Civic ever was since it's expecting the extra pressure from the turbocharger, and it's just not there so it can't make much torque or horsepower.

Immediate costs looming are... $1600 owed to

talesin to pay off the car itself, on hold with his okay so I can pay the $600 or so to get a couple outstanding leaks fixed before they can cause any problems. So... if I don't miss any work and keep pulling in $720 paychecks, I'll have everything payed off in... about 3 months.

After that, another month spent just saving cash so I have a buffer again.

Then, 'fun' starts. Well... semi-fun. The turbo will still not be repaired unless I find a truly pressing need for it. I'll start decorating the car, though, as I just flat-out don't like red sports cars, which is what it is, in all honesty. After discussing it with various folks, and figuring out the plans in more detail... CamoClad is what I'll be doing the entire body up in, head to toe. First, painting the red panels an earthy brown or green to act both as an undercoat, so I don't have flecks of red shining through whenever I open the doors or what-not. Then the CamoClad goes on. And then I get it airbrushed to break up the repeating pattern. And then I start paying artists to do one-off details like squirrels and such-not peeking out of the camo pattern.

So, no, it's no mini-APC like my Civic plans were, but it's something fun to do, and when I'm done I think it'll look neat. Or at least unique. =^.^=

...and want to make a difference in LJ.

So... I have a question for all of you out there in LJ land... anyone have any ideas for LJ, that they're just not sure if they can write a good suggestion for?

If so, post it as a comment here, and we'll all hash it out in my mini-commons of LJ land, and if I can't find a duplicate suggestion, and I think the suggestion is feasable, I'll write up a full suggestion submission and send it off.

I think I've had a pretty good track record of suggestions that were accepted so far, and I realized that some people may have really good ideas... but lack the time to research them, confidence to write and submit a suggestion and actually debate it, or simply lack the actual skill (in their eyes or in reality) to handle it.

And I feel like doing productive things, so give me some ideas, folks. Of course, a cursory search over the previous suggestions would be appreciated first, but for this I'll make it totally optional. :-)

...drive here if you want to know where I grew up.

Turn around back down the 178 if you don't have experience driving mountain roads, or take Democrat Road instead if you want a beautiful drive. :-)

...I'll definitely be buying

talesin's car.

Because Bill's old Corolla AE82 is starting to have more and more engine problems. It seems like the exhaust/intake manifold gasket failing is causing more gaskets to fail. Either that, or they were damaged when the car initially had the overheating trouble, which is possible as well.

It runs badly unless it's at higher RPM's now, and if it idles too low it's stalled out a couple times. Unfortunately, that means it's more-or-less not long for this world near as I can tell from looking through various service manuals for that model of car, as I lack a fucking garage I can disassembly the damn car in and fix it at.

*sigh* If I just had a fucking garage I could break down the engine at and rebuild it over the weekend. Or even just buy a rebuilt engine and swap them... but the cost to pay someone else to swap the engine is exorbitant. :-/

Currently, it's on a U-Haul car trailer. Tommorow morning, I take it to a... most likely a dismantler's shop, and get a little cash from them for the car, sadly. The frame is measured to be straight, and the engine still runs, but there's probably just too much body damage. The rear cargo hatch is nearly folded over, and likely would need to be cut out bodilly, and one rear wheel is bent over an inch out of true, but I can't tell if that's just the rim or something further up the line.

It's cost me $700 all said-and-told to get the car out, and by the time I'm done driving it around on the U-Haul trailer.

But I got the fucking plates off of it, and the inverter, and other save-able aftermarket crap like that. Unfortunately, I simply don't have access to a garage I can store it in while I disassemble it myself, so I can't part the car out, or even save major components for the next vehicle if I get another Civic.

At this point... I'm just hoping

talesin's idea works. As it's my best bet at getting a car again.

But all that is on hold until I get the police report back that says who's at fault for what in this accident. If I get handed the whole thing... I just don't know. I'll likely lose my job, as if the accident gets handed to me that'll trigger all sorts of legal lawsuits, and even if my insurance covers the costs I'll still get named the defendant, while can trigger all sorts of icky situations since I'm a security guard by trade... it's just a huge possible mess.

But damn-it-all, I have the car back. It's free again. Now to get a car-cover in case I need to leave it on the street for a while, and have Patrick attack it with his Saws-All to remove the roof for now.

So anyone have any ideas out there?

And regardless... keep me in your wishes/prayers/whatever, if you would.

( ...I've started looking into what a proper roll-cage actually costs. )

...or primed for having the entire body rebuilt at once.

Both doors work. They still open and close cleanly, though the driver's side has some serious road-rash and the handle itself is mangled a little. Hell, both windows still roll up and down fairly smoothly.

The hood itself opens and closes easilly.

The radiator fan spins freely.

The radiator has some minor dings and blunt-trama from tree limbs, and likely needs to be replaced as a pre-emptive measure if I keep the car.

But... the most surprising thing...

...the motor still runs. As in, turns over, runs, the stick-shift still changes gears, and the steering wheel turns.

If it still can start tommorow morning... I may take a hacksaw to the roof, and hire a tow-truck to take it to somewhere to get a roll-cage and some kind of weld-in windshield installed.

But, as I promised

talesin, he gets final say on what to do with the car, since I'm too emotionally attached to it to give it up. Annoyingly, I can't even get my license plates back, despite them being personalized plates and transferrable to another car... I'm goint to hit DMV tommorow and see if I can get the paperwork both to transfer the title to the tow-yard, AND unattach the damn license plates from that car. I'm not going to give up the fucking plates I just payed $65 for a couple of months ago.

...right shoulder, just behind the shoulder blade.

My forearms are still really sore along my finger-muscles... but they were sore before I went anywhere from playing too much Nintendo DS. =^.^=

Well... that was a fiasco.

I'm still alive.

Maybe everyone will actually read this post...

Just because I know threshold braking...

Some car plans...

And yet another bit of proof that overly broad patents are far too easy to obtain...

Now... who remembers the Quake-2 mission pack that included this as a weapon?

Okay... call me wierd...

Yay... yet another one to pull out the shotgun of banning for...

Well... Drakonidae is running again.

Better photos to come...

Erf...

Well... might as well update about my car for a change...

I'm feeling feisty again...

And just for the record...

Well... more car problems...

Well... the car is out of the tow-yard.

Well... after this last accident...

Well... the car is either totalled...

Wow... I finally found my first sore muscle...

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