New Post Coming.

So I have been writing, really I have. Unfortunately it is for Math. I decided that I will post papers on request if I have one that fits the need. That's right all B or higher, research done on most.

So away from that I am working on three blogs right now, and two books. Well proofing one, skeleton the next. But two are on scary Halloween type stuff. The other a bit different. The book I won't elude to since I don't want to be copy right infringed.

But I have also done other things besides homework and writing. I finished that little horse riding toy I bought. It was grey, worn, and in a couple pieces with no handle. A buck fifty. I'm re stained it with dark walnut stain, put it together and reinforced it. Finally it is done, not bad an antique riding horse now in great shape for a buck fifty and a half n hour of work.

I sanded it, which didn't take much, after I took it all apart. I knocked out the old peg handles. And drilled a larger hole to hold an entire 1" dowel rod versus the little wood glued 1/2 handles with peg bases. I also put on a new the little rope. I stained it all the dark walnut letting them soak over night. Then I put it all back together, and took off my masking tape. Here is a bad cell phone photo, I'll try and get a better one soon.



I also found why your least favorite lighter always gets appreciated. That's right, many of you buy a bunch of lighters at a time, a four pack for dollar or something. You then carry your favorite lighter, and then want to go down through the pack. But you loose it for a day in your pocket or something, and you use a new one. After a while you have all the lighters out. At the end as they are all dieing your least favorite still lights, and you think, maybe I shouldn't hate this lighter (color, shape, etc) so much, they all died and this one is still going. You love your ugly little lighter. But you shouldn't it didn't really do anything special. You used your favorite, if you couldn't find it your second favorite, and so on. SO it never got used, it didn't last longer, it just sat around, it is the lazy lighter, that's why it choose to be it's color, shape, etc. . .

But that's it, I'll have more posts coming soon.

Fixing the grill.

I’ve been busy as of late. I cleaned out the house gutters, and installed gutter guards 99% of the way. They are the steel kind; you have to life the bottom shingle up to install. I got all but 2’ done. I ran out of screen, but bent the end down so nothing can get under it. Hopefully I can get the rest of the gutter screen done before winter.

I also finally fixed the grill. A few months ago I was grilling when I noticed part of the burner was shooting flames about two feet high. I turned off the gas and looked at the burner; it had a hole in it, to say the least.



Being late in the grill season I got a deal on a new burner. Installing it was an easy job. The igniter had long been broke; the new burner had come with a new bracket for the igniter.

I disassembled the grill. The dogs had knocked it over a couple times making the frame a bit wobbly. I took a couple pieces of wood and made cross braces to make it more stable. I took the actual grill off of the frame and pulled the igniter out. I took the old burner out, and replaced it with the new one. Installing the bracket for the igniter I had filed clean and fit into a not so perfect match bracket hole actually went without problems.



So it all came together, more stable than before, an igniter that was hooked up, and a good looking burner. I hit the grill with a wire brush to clean the grate, put new lava rock in, and finally hooked up the propane tank.



I turned it one, with a click of the igniter I had fire. So I am ready for my winter grilling sprees. Nothing is awesome as fresh grilled burgers in the dead of winter. I do only have half a tank of propane left, and icy cold weather may unmotivated me to replace it in cold winter weather.

As for an update on the guns I took a copper brush and cleaned the chambers of the mag cylinder, it shot beautifully, no stuck shells. Dead on, easy action. My brother shot a round off sitting on the ground, he just about deafened himself.

College is keeping me busy. I just had a big psych test covering such things as authoritative versus authoritarian parenting styles. I have a couple papers coming up and some homework to work through, but it won’t be so much of a rush since Monday is a holiday. I still am saving papers for possible blog posts, who wouldn’t want a ready made B+? I save them for future use, why do the work over again if you did it once already?

I came across this headstone on a walk. I found it humorous, thought I'd share it.

Labor day adventures.

So this weekend we did a lot of cleaning. Got the house about ½ way done. That means ½ still waits, but we are picking at it. Also we got to do some shooting, and a little work on the Aveo.



So we went out and shot our new rifle, and revolver. Legendary shooting trip. The new rifle needs some oil, likes to jamb time to time. So I think a cleaning and oiling of the chamber will fix that. But once it starts firing it is a good little gun. The wife shot the hell out of it, really likes the way it shoots and sits. I too like it, easy to fire, holds about 16 rounds, tube fed.

I shot the hell out of our new little handgun. Heritage Western Rough Rider, cheap and gets mixed reviews. I love it. The sights are fixed and you have to aim slightly to the right to get the sights dead on. But who needs sights? I was shooting from the hip, and I was shooting off weeds at the stalk. Those little revolvers are so on, it isn’t funny.



The three highlights included my mom’s boyfriend. I took a break action 12 gauge, and fired a slug out, then gave him a slug to fire out. I didn’t tell him how hard the 3” double packed slug was going to kick. He shot it and grabbed his shoulder, hilarious. The second highlight was him telling me to shoot this log with my 12 gauge when he threw it in the air. First toss he threw it straight up above him. I decided not to shoot and looked down to see him getting the hell out of the way. And lastly I was shooting my revolver at dragon flies in my mom’s pond. I was hitting around them, and then boom, got one with a .22 round drove it in the ground. Mom’s boyfriends reaction was priceless “Holys*t you just shot a dragon fly out of the air!”.

Like I said the little gun in on. If I can shot a dragon fly out of the air with a Heritage Rough Rider you know it is on. I had no problems with about 100 rounds or .22 I shot out of it. I went up to the .22 full metal jacket mags, only shot one chamber of them, 5/6 were fine. All shot, but one the shell wedged in the chamber and I had to use pliers to get it out. I put another round and the chamber is a little tight, perhaps there is a bur I need to get with a brush when I clean it. Otherwise we have a year warranty if a good bore cleaning doesn’t fix it I’ll send the mag cylinder back. But 1/106 rounds had a problem, that could of very well just been due to the fact the cylinders hadn’t been broke in.



Shooting was fun, and then we came home.



The Aveo was due for its 3000 mile oil change. So I changed the oil. Easy to do on the car, everything is right where you can get to it. Only problem I had was the cat was hot, so I used pliers to tighten the filter, which is never a good idea, I scratched up the filter pretty good, but in 3000 miles it is going to be junk anyway. The new oil is 5-30, clearer than honey. The old oil was about the color of honey. Cleanest oil I’ve ever changed. I had to do the rest of the maintenance to keep the warranty intact. Checked the belts, the fluids, air filter, this was a pretty basic maintenance round. The book for the car has a chart right inside, what to check, with a box for date, mechanic’s initials, and notes. So that’s my record log of vehicle maintenance. But took out clean oil, and put in cleaner oil.



Then with the extra free time I’ve been doing homework this weekend. Finding odds from probabilities, then converting those into expected values, taking the expected values and apply them to controlled probabilities sets to find some (f/e) thing, which I found out if you just find the second probability or last probability in the control set that’s you answer. No idea how, or why, just it’s always correct. Also writing an essay which a is a plan to develop a longitudinal study to find the changes in sexual behaviors from adolescence to adulthood for psych.

Busy but fun weekend, except for homework.

I have all my papers I’ve written over the past four years saved . . . I think the lowest grade on one has a been a B so far. . . do you think I should post them as “references” on my blog?

So my new I-9 CECT phone sucks. I have battery and charger issues, the screen has died twice and I’ve had to fix it. Be assured I voided the warranty for the good of the cause. Once it was working again it cooked a battery, then due to no fault of the new battery, but fault of the phone, the charger works poor, and the battery discharges fast. I only have charge for about 6 hours and if you let the phone die, it takes two days on the charger before it will even turn back on. Junk. Our cell phone plan renews in about two months and we get free phones then, so I need a back up phone. Rather than keeping a normal phone I decided to rig my own together. It was at this point at a flea market I found a nes controller. Boom nes controller = phone. I’ve seen images of one online, and didn’t figure it could be that hard. I had to find a donor phone. We had an old China Junk Fashion phone, just about the right size to use. The phone had a weak battery, horrible signal, and no one liked it. The tf slot was broke as well. So I took the controller apart, and the phone. I gutted the controller with a dremel tool. Next I had to tear apart the phone. I cut the phone up and trimmed the circuit board and moved some components around. The vibe module didn’t survive. I removed the camera to make the phone fit the case. I had to fine tune trimming out the controller, and it was hit and miss fitting the phone. I removed the screen from the phone and moved it up a bit. I marked out the screen, and marked out the keypad. I cut the phone to fit the keys and screen. I also cut a USB spot in the bottom so the phone can be charged by usb cord or power cord. Once everything fit together and I made a battery holder for the phone I tested it. No signal . . . I forgot the antenna was crap. I used the Tesla coil theory in a sense to boost the antenna, by making a copper coil and attaching to both antenna leads. After that the touch screen failed to work, so I had to micro solider two leads back together. I then pieced the whole together, and it works, not the best reception, but the phone works, charges, and is pretty neat. The TF slot still doesn’t work, but after I made a new mount the battery is working wonderfully. But here is my new back up phone.


And on youtube:

Update; and bought a revolver.

So lots going on, painting a room, making a cell phone, and college has started. Lots of crap on my plate and lots of projects left to do. I have a bench to refinish, the chevette to work on, I have to adjust my rear springs on the nova it is dog tracking a bit, keep up with homework, and live life. Oh yeah and put a gas tank on the Bronco.

So we’ve been painting. Painting a room a light green color, seems ok to me.



The wife ate some kind of spaghetti/pizza sauce that gave her an allergic reaction.
Took three days to get over it, then she ate it again for some unknown reason.



I’m building my own cell phone, because my new I-9 sucks. That will be a blog in itself. I’m building it inside a Nintendo controller. May end up pretty cool, or suck big time, we will see. My I-9 won’t hold charge for more than 6 hours then takes two days to charge enough to turn back on.



I’ve got a new rifle. Redid the stock, it was dull and very rough. I sanded, stained, and varnished it. Good little gun as far as I know, haven’t got to shoot it yet. It is the rifle in the pic, not the shot gun, had that break barrel for a while.



Also bought a revolver. It is a little heritage, pretty good for under $200. Haven’t shot it yet either, but action is smooth, comes with 2 cylinders, fires any 22s, from shorts to mags. So cheap rounds equal more shooting. I check the sight with my bore sighter, they are fixed but pretty close, aims a little to the left if my bore sighter is correct. Should be fun to shoot, looks very old western and is simple in build.




I'll have to get some target shooting in and post the reviews.

Flowers

I checked out our flowers today. I am getting baby tomatoes finally, but was curious how the flowers were doing. I was amazed the sunflowers are taller than I am. I shot some pics of the flowers beside out house. I didn’t however get pics of our tomatoes; I’ll wait until they turn red.



So the sun flowers are about 8’ tall. They stand almost as high as the window tops. Big yellow flowers. We also have some other flowers, some I didn’t get pictures of, lots of lilies I missed.



But I did shoot some yellow, pink, and red flowers.








Oh yeah and some metallic beetles that are eating leafs of one kind of plant (no idea what it is). But as you can see they are going at it pretty hard core. I should of got them and fed them to my toad, Mr. Toadsworth.





Toadsworth was the size of a pinky nail now he is up to the size of a thumb nail. But he can annihilate a dozen crickets overnight so it isn’t a surprise. I caught the poor little guy by the river. If you feel bad for him, he left a snake infested environment where the insects were larger than he was, to a comfortable home with no predators and a buffet of bugs. He is very happy, and doesn’t pee on you every time you pick him up anymore. So if you feel bad for anything feel bad for one of the snakes that would of got him, they lost a meal.

And here sits the Chevette, awaiting a brake part to come in. Notice the exhaust I ripped off pulling up our hill. Hard to believe that thing has a rebuilt engine in it.



We have been fertilizing with humus, and fish parts. Lots of fish heads and guts. The tomatoes get a lot of dog crap thanks to my three lovely dogs.



I was amazed at the flowers I never really stick my head around there, I just kind of mow and weed whack around them for the most part.
Ok I lied, lilies and tomatoes. But not the big white and pink lilies, only the orange. And I noticed I'm going to have to start watching my pics, already up to 25% of max uploads, wow!

Fall is coming, or Wishful Thinking?

Feels like fall is coming fast. That means bow season. I dug out my bow. Browning double cam Cobra. Yep, one of the old ones from the 70s, wood grain with a 50lb draw and 50% let off. After shooting with her the new ones just feel off. And even know the cobra model was only about 5 pounds, the new ones feel too light. The newer compounds aren't so bad if you like the caliper release, but I still like my fingers on the string just below the nocks.



It’s been a while since I shot her. Going to have to get some practice in with her, I know she shoots higher than you’d expect, and to the left. I don’t like sights on a bow, too easy to rely on, so I like to know how my bow shoots.
She is pretty quite. String whiskers help the string from “twanging”, and everything is tight.

My bow isn’t too accessorized. The quiver is stock, detachable if needed. The string whiskers were added of course. The rest is (I can’t find any more) a stick on plastic “fall away”.

The rest is nice, holds the arrow firm, but is flexible and thin enough to not get in the way of a shot, doesn’t move the arrow off course in the least. It just slaps in on release. I haven’t been able to find another one like it, but I am keeping an eye out.

No sight. Sights get tangled up, and bumped out of line easily. I prefer to know where and how my bow shoots. Though I do have a “sorta sight” It is a piece of tape, and about a half inch above, and half inch out to the left when you’re looking at it is where the arrow will land in the field. Up to 50 foot anyway.



I have my other stuff out as well. Taking inventory so to speak or what I need/don’t need. Skinning knife, check, deer pee, check, rope, check, and so on.



And of course broad heads. I love these three blade broad heads. Fires like a field tip making it easy to adjust from target shooting to kill shooting. They are easy to sharpen as each blade comes out.

But here I am waiting for fall to get here, hopefully this year I can get a good deer. If not with a bow I’m ready for shot gun season as well.

(I actually will use a HR slug gun, though I love my Mossberg.)

My tips? Keep quiet, deer can hear better than you. Keep clean, deer can smell (stank and cologne) better than you. Get close; most people take deer within 50 foot, despite the sniper like tales you may hear. Stay camo’ed. If you are on the ground, stay still and stay out of main view, wear a pattern that breaks up your outline.

If you’re high in the air hang some branches off your stand to break up its form. Deer hardly ever look up right above them, so go too high and you have an impossible angle, too low and they will see you as they come in. About 15’ is good. If your ground hunting with a shotgun, being low can help.

That being said I usually walk up on deer and they surprise me as much as I do them. At 50-25 foot they stop and look at you, sometimes run, but usually go back about their business and keep an eye on you. If you Move fast and they bolt. Move slow and they stay cautious. The young ones won’t run, one that has had a shot taken at it will be gone (probably before you see it).

If you find a rub, or drinking spot, deer are creatures of habit. They will be back, if they don’t see you good, if they do they may avoid the spot all together, if really interested they will come in slow and ready to bolt. Stay still, try and move when they aren’t looking. Then take your shot.

Always go for a kill shot, nothing sucks more than running down an injured deer, you can be on them for miles before they drop. All this sounds easy, but gets very difficult out in the field. That being said I’m probably breaking a copy right law somewhere but here where to shoot.



(Sorry Champion targets, but I used your name so that free advertisement)
Right above the front knee and back a little ways. In the chest area, a little behind the shoulder, but not too high. I say that because most people shoot high, so aim low, If you miss the heart you can still take out both lungs with a good shot, bow or round.

So fall here yet? I’m getting tired of kill rabbits. I wanted to put a picture of dead rabbit here, but you will have to look at my other posts, got to start watching my image hosting.

Bye VW, hello Aveo.

So what ever happened to the VW? We traded it in. A prime time to do so.

But why get rid of a VW golf? I hate VW s. The German engineers are asses. The way certain things are mounted and placed is a joke. But away from that it ran like crap. For the first two months after we bought it, it ran great.

Then the tranny started shifting hard, then late. Then I found out the transmission is a “sealed unit”. Not so, if you need to change transmission fluid on a VW search my blog, it’s there. The great thing about VW tranny fluid, is that it is about $25-30 a liter.



Then the fuel pump went out, a $400 fix, then the starter, a $300 fix, and then the strut mounts, a $80 fix. Did I mention VW parts are expensive? Not including labor, which I graciously volunteered.

After the tranny fluid change it shifted a bit better. But then it started running hot. Something got crossed in the wires/bad fan, and the fuse kept blowing for the electric fan.

I replaced the fuse and usually it would blow in 5-10 minutes. I never wanted to hunt down the cause. So it ran a little hot. Then the “thermo housing,” the hose junction on the side of the block, started to leak. Well it had been leaking since we got the car, but started to get more noticeable where I had to add water twice a week, versus once every two weeks.

The radio lights stopped working from us running the heater to cool the car down, melted the wires inside the dash. The engine began to run weak as well. When it ran great it took about 5 minutes to get to 70, so weaker performance was very noticeable.

So we started car shopping, and we found a Chevy Aveo we liked. The day we went to look at it something under the dash went up in the VW, so I pulled fuses until the smoke stopped. We went the dealer and they offered us $1500 for it. Sold. I just had my fingers crossed when they test drove it.



We got the Aveo. Ok I know it is a Daewoo, that doesn’t surprise me. But it has a Chevy warranty, 4 year bumper to bumper, and 5 year engine/drive train. Good warranty, but you have to “afford” the maintenance to keep the warranty valid. Good thing my wife is sleeping with a mechanic.





But I like the Aveo. It is tiny, four door, and fun to drive. The car has a tight turning radius, super quiet, and feels huge inside. It is peppy with its little 4 cyl, but has exhaust manifold turbo, I found the air pump and hear the whistle. It’s pretty easy to do maintenance on, everything is easily accessible. There are some guards in the way, but not as bad as the VW.





One of my favorite things is the mileage. We get almost 40mpg on the highway, about 30-35 in town, with no air on. But the air will turn the small car into a meat locker.

A Buick that couldn't stop.

So recently I did the brakes on a 90 something Buick. I am not a big Buick fan to start with; I've had no luck with them. I owned a Buick Regal Grand Sport Limited Edition 3800 GT one time, longest freakin' car name ever, and it was a lemon. Nothing but problems. But this one wasn't mine, but it did have those damn hex bolts on the calipers that I'd wanted to get a picture of.

In my opinion that’s what killed GM, those hex bolts on the calipers. The old ones where small, and in between sizes from heat expansion. You had to shove a metric one in and hope to God you didn't round it off. That scared away consumer trust starting around the early 70s, that and building crap with air condition pumps over the distributors. The trend of making cars un friendly to repair.



I was fan of simply cutting the caliper off and then vice gripping the bolts out. But you can't do that unless you replace the caliper.

So any way back to the Buick. It wasn't stopping, and was grinding in the front. It was the brakes of course. Brakes are pretty easy.

Tire off/Jack up the car.

Unbolt the caliper from the back, two bolts, and if they are GM you allen type hex bits/sockets.

Flip the caliper over, pop out one side and "push the caliper open" with a brake tool or C clamp.

Pop out the other pad, put the new ones in.

Check the rotor

Reverse the process.



Easy enough. So the passenger side went about like that. Done in ten minutes with a smoke break.

The driver side however wasn't so good. The pads were down to the rivets, the rotor super thin on one side, and the caliper locked up tighter than catholic school dorms.



So I unhook the caliper, and popped the rotor off. Put a new caliper on, and rotor, put the pads back in, and was almost done.



I usually make someone help me bleed the brakes out, but this time I was on my own, so I used my "God Awful" one man bleeder. I got sick of it, and ended up just sucking the brake fluid out by mouth like a siphon until I saw no bubbles. Much easier and faster than actually using the bleeder.

With the air out I returned the vehicle to a drivable condition. I was later informed that the driver almost got whiplash the first time she stopped, because she was used to standing on the brakes.

Another job well done.

Killed my phone.

I broke it.



So I had a CECT P168 phone, commonly known as an Iphone clone. I loved it, but most people hated it. It looked like the first generation Iphone, but didn’t have the features. There was no Java, shake feature, and it was pretty bare bones.

The reason I loved it is I had signal everywhere. I have a smaller company, and with them I could get almost full bars where my friends with the big networks and $500 phones couldn't get a signal. I always said I could be in a bomb shelter sitting in a closet and get half bars.

It was tough, I dropped it, got it wet, and abused it, and it took a beating. Being a mechanic it rode in my pocket with lots of bolts, screwdrivers, ect, and only had one small scratch on the screen. Not bad for $70.

But it didn’t have Java, so games and apps were out. That is the reason I think most people hated it. The camera was ok, good enough for me; the video it took was awesome though. Loud, very loud, even on its quietest mode it was still loud, on full volume a surprise call could make you piss yourself. Great for an alarm clock. Played mp3s, and most videos with ease. I used to watch old cartoons on it when waiting places.

The headphone jack was a USB type jack, so getting replacements head phones was a PITA. I hardly used it, but a regular jack would have been better.

Touch screen was great, I loved the phone, tough, reliable, and then I killed it.

As tough as it was it couldn't survive a fall on the corner of an open drawer on the night stand screen first.



So I say good bye to my 168, and wait for next week when my CECT I9 will be here. It does have Java, shake control, ect, however I just hope it has as good of antenna and gets as good of a signal as it's ancestor.