(un-private from april 18 2008)

Nearly forgot this one --
last Sunday I was hauling ass up the Barton Creek Greenbelt (sounds for hauling ass: SatsiSonik on memekast and Squarepusher's "Ultravisitor") to burn off the vestiges of Saturday night, when I get to the point where it's less a trail and more a collection of boulders and decide to walk this one for a bit. I'm still feeling pretty good about my handling of the trail, until this 60ish-looking man blows by in the other direction on a - get this - mountain unicycle - scaling those too-hard-for-me rock faces like they're nothing but the tiniest bumps in the road.

I have seen the pinnacle of awesome, and it is that guy.

Democracy: A+++, would revolt again.

Dear UT Community:

Today, September 4th Parking and Transportation Services will be holding a
silent auction of over 150 bicycles. The preview will be at 5pm and the
silent bidding will begin at 5:30pm.
The starting bid will be $3.The location of the bike auction will be the
roof top of the Trinity Garage, located at 1815 Trinity Street. In case of
rain, the auction will be held on the 5th floor of the garage.

Images of the bicycles to be auctioned are currently online at the BikeUT
webpage www.utexas.edu/parking/transportation/biking

Holy shit, I'm actually graduating.

Also, real life, in its infinite variety, keeps flowering.

2 extra. Who needs 'em?

About 5 years ago I heard a record played on, I think, KVRX, wherein, to my best guess, an elderly Orson Wells narrated an hour-long history of 20th century USA politics, in King James Old Testament style. To wit:

On nixon: "And the people sayeth, 'wouldst thou buy a used chariot from this man?'"
On the Chicago Democratic National Convention:
"I say unto you, verily, thou canst smite city hall."
"Yea, verily, like unto a snowball in hell."
"Then did the hippites and the yippites descend upon Chicago, but Daley sent forth his legions and smote them, and the blood flowed."
And Daley sayeth, 'let us lay out a carpet of red for them.' And they smote the hippites, and the yippites...(here my memory fails me)"
"Dan of the tribe of Rather stood upon the watchtower and wept to see the smiting of the children...."

Dear lazyweb, where can I find this? The best I've done is a suggestion that it's a Stan Freburg radio serial. Beyond that I've got a whole bunch of nothing.

Also, Denver 2008 is shaping up to look like Chicago 1968. Delegates, remember to bring your gas masks.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20080213.html

"Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth"

Went as follows:

lift jeep onto 2 stands and 4 jacks (wheels, engine, trans)
remove center console
detach shift assembly
remove driveshafts
detach speedometer/clutch cabling from transmission
disassemble 4wd controls
remove crossplate
defy fermi-dirac laws of physics to reach bolts connecting bell housing to engine
detach starter
pry transmission off of engine, slide over exhaust supports, side aside
remove clutch assembly
remove flywheel & cover
finally get at a blown freeze plug: a $0.96 2" steel disc that sits in a hole in the engine block. By design, the purpose of the freeze plug is to blow and drain the cooling system if the block freezes over. Judging from the hole in the plug along with the directional scoring on the flywheel and starter, I'm guessing that some small thing, a rock perhaps, got through the gap in the housing and was flung into the side of the plug at high speed, weakening it to the point of near-collapse, which happened when towing another vehicle.

Replaced the plug and have been reassembling since last night. This was probably not worth my time to do myself, but it was totally worth my time in illuminating the mechanisms of cars. The impacted grease under my fingernails is another story entirely.

edit: forgot to note that this was a computed risk decision, as due to the location and nature of the leak, it was either this plug or a cracked block, either one occuluded by the flywheel. If the former, it's a small part with a good deal of effort - my time and the shop costs would be neat equivalent. If the latter, the numbers are conditional - I can't afford a new block (~3k usd), but I could weld it shut (minimal cost, more time), so if it's cracked I need it here, and if it's at the shop all that disassembly is wasted time and money. 50/50: go for the option that yields more information.

also also, I continue to be astonished that the machinery underlying our society keeps running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpKbO6O3O3M&mode=user&search=

http://bigrigjig.com/?page_id=7

Holy shit, yo.

It's that time again. Who's going to the playa, what're your plans?

Clearly, this is not my beautiful life, but if whoever left it here wants it back, he'd best be ready for one hell of a fight.

Next years project: coming home to a clean kitchen.

Thanks for everything, y'all. Fantastic year.

One ticket available, you know the number.

Step 1: Rent a truck with a box.


Step 2: Put your wood in that box.


Step 3: Make hippies open the box.


*cue harmonic duet*

Teardown and loading today, 10am until done, 1023 springdale.

http://createdigitalmusic.com/tag/vj/

http://www.punpunpun.com/
THE O. HENRY PUN-OFF:
AUSTIN'S THIRTY LITTLE SECRET

AUSTIN, TX - IT'S A THIRTY JOB, BUT SOMEBODY'S GOT TO DO IT! The
Friends of the O. Henry and Dickinson Museums will celebrate the lowest form of humor at the 30th Annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships on Saturday, May 19, 2007. Back by popular demand, the competition will be held in Brush Square, downtown Austin (5th Street at Neches). All Austin citizens are invited to join in this irreverent assault on the English language, which lures both veteran verbivores and naive neophytes from across the nation for verbal jousting, mental calisthenics, and general carousing.

The Pun-Off is one of the oldest public events in Austin, and is open
to 32 punslingers in two categories of competition: "Punniest of
Show" and "High-Lies & Low-Puns." The battle of words has strict time
limits, and the last one left standing at the end of the competition
is declared the winner.

The Pun-Off showdown begins at high noon. Music will be furnished by
"MoPac and the Blue Suburbans." starting at 11 am. A Book Sale will
benefit the O. Henry Museum and proceeds from a Silent Auction will
support restoration of Susanna Dickinson's historic home. Auction
items include gift certificates and donations from artists, restaurants, sports venues, hotels, and stores. Admission is free, but cash, checks, or credit cards are accepted for auction items, books, and food.
The O. Henry Museum is located at 409 E. 5th Street in Austin. For
more information, ontact the museum at 512-472-1903

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

http://eventful.com/events/E0-001-004268441-2