Crazy Lawsuit Game

This won't be too long and then it's back to work.

No biking today. Snow turning into more snow turning into single digit weather tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll bike Thursday or Friday.

I'm planning on crashing some of the talks at the Colorado Bicycle Summit. I'm crashing it because I don't have $85 to spend on a short conference. Also I would have to cancel class to attend the second day and that isn't going to happen.

I'm really interested to hear what Denver Mayor Bill Vidal (did I miss the Denver mayoral vote somehow? Or is he acting mayor since Hickenlooper is now governor?), Tim Blumenthal, President of Bikes Belong, and Dan Grunig, exec. director of Bicycle Colorado have to say about the future of cycling in Denver. I'm going to try and not take lunch even if presented the opportunity. We'll see if my conscience or stomach win that fight.

That's all Monday and then on Tuesday, there's a ride from the Curtis Hotel down to the Capitol Building. That just sounds like a fun Tuesday morning ride in Denver. I'm always down for a cruise. Even at 8 am.

Now for my other wheeled love, cars. Guess which cars are stupid expensive here and you should buy them in other states and sell them here? Subaru WRXs! Good grief! They're not made of gold people! Have not seen one on Craigslist for under $7900 and that includes the 2002 launch year models. Other Subarus are being given away.

Volvos are wicked cheap and plentiful. I just need to research them a bit more to figure out the easiest way into a RWD wagon.

Yes I want RWD. Yes I know live in Colorado. Yes I know it's snowing outside. After riding in Focus with her super serious and amazing Michelin X-Ice Xi2 tires (my first snow tires and MY GOD! are they amazing) and then in a friend's new 4WD Patriot with all-seasons, I will admit that you do have more traction when accelerating in the snow. I don't know how the Patriot handles while sliding around in the snow because the driver was being boring and needlessly cautious. There was no cars around and not even any parked cars around and he totally could've goosed it a bit, but oh well, he was driving, not me.

If I lived in the mountains and seriously needed 4WD, well it would probably be a truck of some sort. But whilst living in Denver, biking and RTD commuting to work, and driving for fun and the occasional errand; Give me RWD and some snow tires. Oh and a nice open parking lot or deserted never used road.

Labels: 4WD, bicycle, conference, Denver, Focus, FWD, RWD, Subaru

It's exams week, so campus is dead but the library is packed!

It rained today so I took the CATbus to school instead of my bicycle.

Focus is getting the new header, timing belt and water pump on Wed. or Thurs.

I'm worried about finding a job, but also excited to move on.

I bought some of these from Photojojo and can't wait to make something.

Science writing isn't horrible but I don't want to do tons of it for the rest of my life (i.e. no patent law in my future).

I love our real Christmas tree! Cut it down with my bare hands (around a saw) then J and I carried it back to the car. Great family tradition. Urban families might have to do some serious driving for this same experience, but it's worth it.

Labels: bicycle, CATbus, Focus, J, job search

From the wonderful "Shawshank Redemption", and in case you were wondering how Stephen King's novella was different from the movie. I didn't know it was based on a Stephen King story either until Cynical Chris clued me in.

I ran across this last week. It's a "find the next American rally driver" search. They're running it out of the rally school down in Starke, FL. I'm seriously thinking about going. It's going to be $350 for entry plus gas, food and I'll probably camp to save money if I go. Maybe I can convince J to make that my Christmas present. We'll see. I still have plenty of writing to do before I can even think about something like that.

I won our college football pick against the spread competition, so I win bragging rights. Hopefully I can repeat last year's bowl pick'em victory with this year's round of bowl games.

Writing is coming along. I'll be taking a break to replace Focus' exhaust manifold (because the current one is cracked) and also the timing belt and water pump. This will be the first time I ever actually crack open an engine even if it is just the valve cover (that plastic piece on top of the engine, no not that big removable one, the one below that). Speaking of which I hate those big plastic engine covers. They're so stupid and pointless. I think they're supposed to make the engine bay look nicer, but really just get in the way.

My friend called last week and asked some car advice. His car had been running bad for about a month. It just started running rough all of a sudden. He replaced the PCV valve and various other easy accesible inexpensive parts that probably should've been replaced anyway. I suggested that it might be his timing belt slipped and his timing was off, making it run poorly. Thinking about it the next day, I remembered that it might also be a bad spark plug. I called him back and it turns out that he melted one of his spark plug cables, so sometimes he was on 4 cylinders and sometimes he was running 3. Thankfully that is a very easy fix.

Crap. Just saw that my 30 library books are all overdue. Time to go see if I can weasel out of a steep fine.

Labels: cars, Focus, football, movie

F1 this weekend is in Singapore. Practice might be going on right now. I know qualifying is at 10 am tomorrow morning. Wouldn't that make it nighttime in Singapore? Yes it would! That's why this is a very rare street circuit and the first ever night race for Formula 1 and should be an amazing race. I can't wait. The cars actually drive under the grandstands. Just imagine the sounds of 20 V8 engines revving to 19,000 rpm and then all that sound bouncing off the walls. I'm really looking forward to the race live at 7:30 am on Sunday.

This weekend is my lone autocross. I have taken time off from it because of the writing but am taking a break on Saturday. It is at the Michelin test facility near Greenwood, SC and it's called the Black Lake. It's 1400 x 400 square feet of perfectly black asphalt. It's basically the biggest and flattest area most of us have ever driven and for me might be a once in a lifetime thing, so I couldn't pass it up.

I'll let you know how it goes and I might actually remember to bring the camera and take some pictures. Michelin is so great (merci!) for letting us use part of their tire testing facility and have a few rules to protect their baby. No sharp metal touching the surface. No direct canopy legs on the pavement, no jacking a car up directly on the pavement, etc... Hopefully everyone cooperates and we are allowed back again.

I've been busy at work and didn't get much writing done this week. We did learn that Protege and Acura are coming back for a visit! Hooray! They didn't suffer too much damage to their house but there was some flooding to the first floor. Remind me again why there aren't more houses on stilts in low-lying states? I'm looking at you American coastal areas.

Tonight is wrenching on the car a bit, just checking bolts and replacing some suspension bushings. I need to order a timing belt for Focus. Ford says I can wait until 120,000 miles but I don't trust them and have heard of them snapping soon after 100,000. She hit 99,000 on the way to Ikea ATL last weekend. The new shelf is awesome but it was a tad long and had to jam its way between the front seats for the ride home, so I had to lean forward if I actually wanted to see J.

Labels: Acura, F1, Focus, Ikea, J, Protege, writing

J and I went on a tour of Timken at Clemson's new joint venture, ICAR. First a huge thanks to Ron and Timken for allowing us to come take a look at their operation. There were around 25-30 people who showed up for the tour and were instructed to bring a racecar or unique car if they had one for a group picture. The Focus with her dented hood didn't quite make the cut. A supercharged/turbocharged Honda hatchback, 2 Lotus Elise and a Daytona Coupe were among my favorites who showed up. As the Roush built V8 powered Daytona Coupe left, it scared the crap out of J and I. The straight pipes with side exhausts were LOUD! We were also standing right next to them.

Timken is a "white collar" machining facility as described by our wonderful tour guide whose name I didn't catch. Basically it's a two story building with a plethora of engineers, math aficionados and managers upstairs who sit around and think up new bearing designs. They send those designs downstairs, get a few made and test it to see if they revolutionized bearing design or if the crack monkey is back in action and they should try again. They also have many rooms for testing all the spinning parts of an engine. They might get a design from an automobile manufacturer, or a part, and they will test it for them and send the results back.

Huge pieces of machinery that start with a spool of smooth metal and then form that into a bearing abounded. The engine testing lab was loud. They were testing the bearings around the camshafts as they spin. They use electric motors to turn all these machines instead of gas, but it's still loud. We were not allowed in the metrology lab, where they super accurately measure their parts, but it looked really neat. We walked around and I kept wondering if they hired any chemists or materials scientists. I found him! We walked past one lab which had an instrument which said spectraflame, which I can only assume was an AAS, or atomic absorption spectrometer, where the lone chemist hung out all day surrounded by engineers. I imagine any chemistry related question gets posed to him or her, whether they like it or not. J wondered how many women Timken employs. Very good question.

Then we had a lecture on sound and sound control. It drug on a bit but was also informative. The SCCA, sports car club of america, has set that no racecar can be louder than 103 decibels, but there are a few ways to beat the system, or at least use the system to your advantage.

Since I picked up J from work and she didn't want to follow me home in Tercel, we drove home together and I drove her to work this morning. It was fairly trafficky but not too bad. (I guess congested would be a better word there) There was a Jeep Cherokee left lane hogging because he felt his 72 in a 60 was fast enough to warrant it. The 4 or 5 cars backed up behind him seemed to disagree. Our exit was coming up so I accelerated into the middle lane just as the Lincoln Towncar in the middle lane was moving into the right lane, so I kept my foot in it and planned to accelerate past that car to get to my exit. Whilst this occurred, the Cherokee left lane hog encountered yet another left lane hog who was going even slower than him; a red Civic if you're curious. Cherokee sees the Towncar move over and without signaling, starts to pull into the middle lane; the only problem with that being there is an accelerating black Focus that is already plugging the hole left by the Towncar. A simple honk of my horn avoids the impending accident and I pull into the left hand lane and exit. The Cherokee does the same after I get out of the way and proceeds to get very close to the back of my car. Even when we turn onto the surface street and I slow down to the very slow 35 (especially after hitting 80ish on the freeway) with a gentle cajoling from J, he stays behind me. The speed limit goes back up to 45, still there. I move to the left lane to ready us for our turn and he stays in his lane but doesn't pass. I don't look over as he drives by but he does drive by on his way to work instead of doing something crazy like following me to work for a discussion. The strangest part is that he was a school resource officer with "Police" and lightpod on his Cherokee. When he exited with me I was mildly concerned that he would pull me over but seeing as how we were both in the wrong for speeding and he was clearly slower traffic not staying to the right and changing lanes without signaling, I wasn't too worried. So to that officer, sorry it went down like that and no hard feelings.

If I post this weekend it will entail my trip to Drift Atlanta back in May with some pics that are up on my Flickr account if you want to get a preview and check those out.

Labels: chemistry, driving record, Focus, police, racing, Tercel

- Bender as he's being trained by Leela to fight Destructor in the Ultimate Robot Fighting League, from the "Raging Bender" episode of Futurama. I love that episode because Bender and Leela are great and Hermes gets a brain slug and speaks in monotone the whole episode.

This weekend was amazing! Friday was spent packing and straightening the house and then hanging out with Drs. Protege and Acura and their parents who were in town for graduation. Yes it kinda sucked celebrating something that I was also supposed to be partaking in but it will still happen. PERSEVERANCE! NEVER GIVE UP! It was cool seeing their parents again since the last time was their wedding last year. We're taking care of their cats while they're up in CT revisiting their folks after the 'rents were down here last week. Apparently lots of golf is on the schedule for Dr. Protege, I'm not sure what Dr. Acura will be doing but I'm sure she'll enjoy it.

Then woke up early Sat. and drove to Greenville to get J a haircut and I ate breakfast and walked around and realized that there isn't much open in the West End of G'ville before 10 am. I guess Starbucks but they can't scramble an egg and put it on a nice bagel for me, nor do I want them too. T'would be nice but more work for Barista Brat and her fellow baristas. (She runs a good blog and her archives are great but she doesn't update much) We'll revisit the breakfast theme later. Yes I LOVE breakfast and can eat it whenever, therefore I love any place that serves breakfast all the time, or at least past 11 am.

Enjoyed the Reedy River Park(Falls Park apparently) and learned some interesting facts about Greenville and the river thanks to some educational plaques scattered around the park. There were some walkers and joggers and kids but not many people at all. I can see why morning people like the mornings so much, all the night people are asleep and everything is so tranquil. As I sat on a bench, river adjacent, I got to see a robin root for a worm and then fed it to his lady bird who was sitting on the nest and presumably some eggs too.

Walked back to the car and listened to some tunes while I waited for J. Back in the car we made our way back to Clemson to load up the car and head off to Drift Atlanta! Well after eating lunch, we both took an impromptu nap and didn't leave at 1 like I wanted but 2:15 was good enough. We show up at 3:30 and there's tire smoke a-plenty. We drop off the car, grab the camera and go watch the slideways smokey action for awhile. Then we head down to the pits for some freebies, info and the spectacle. Also this is when you get a good chance to meet and talk to the drivers. After qualifying, all the cars came back to the pits to get some new rubber and get some food and liquid into the drivers. I finally got to meet Tanner Foust! Hooray! I've been a fan of his ever since I started following rally and got to watch him progress from the Production GT class where he battled Matt Johnson up to the big HP Open class cars and battle Matt again and take on the Subaru Rally Team's Ken Block and Travis Pastrana. Unfortunately Rally America doesn't have a rally in the SouthEast so Drift Atlanta is the closest they get to Clemson, so it's a great chance for me to meet some great rally drivers, Tanner Foust, Stephan Verdier and Rhys Millen, and then get to watch them drift like mad. Congrats to Rhys for winning the 2008 Drift Atlanta stop also! That Kiwi can drive!

Tanner told me he started ice driving and then moved on to rallying. Ice? Oh, right ice, on the roads and not just in the freezer. I need to experience a real winter one of these days and see what people are talking about with snow for months on end and freezing weather on a regular basis.

To save a bit of money, J and I decided to camp in front of Road Atlanta after all the drifting. It's such a clusterfuck leaving Road Atlanta with all those people. If you show up late you have to park far away and they let the lots closer to the gate out first and there's only one exit for all these cars. So instead of sitting in the car for no less than 30 minutes, we hung out by the car, snacked some and watched all the cars sit in traffic.

After all that we found a nice tree to park under and camp for the night. I put the tarp down and thanks to this event, I learned to fold the edges of the tarp UNDERNEATH the tent. Since this was car camping, we went all out. First went my sleeping pad, then a thick sleeping bag, then both our nice backpacking sleeping bags, then our 3 pillows and then a lovely purple fleece sleeping bag. It was very plush and comfy. We got ready for bed and were talking and then it started raining. Then there was lightening and thunder. I counted and it was roughly 5 miles away assuming my weather math was correct. It was nice sleeping in a tent in the rain and not waking up with a wet sleeping bag and wet pillow. The mud when we woke up was epic. And this was not regular mud. It was red Georgia clay mud that stains whatever it gets near. My flip flops were not up to the job of keeping my feet clean and after loading the car and luckily having enough plastic bags for all the nasty wet, muddy gear, I set off in search of a water faucet or spigot. I did not find one, so I proceeded to channel my inner hippie/homeless guy and washed my feet and flip flops in a relatively clean puddle. Then it was off to Atlanta!

Our first stop was the West Egg Cafe for brunch. It's next to a construction site so they offer free valet parking, which was really nice. So here J and I are in the clothes we wore yesterday and with fresh tent hair and head inside. It's full of bright colored walls and pipes and lovely works of art scattered around the space. I felt we actually fit in a little bit even if we were a tad stinky. The place was packed too! It was a 45 minute wait (closer to 30 min. probably) and we showed up at 11:15ish. We scoped out the dessert case, their cookies are big enough to feed a ravenous badger and only $1.75! We did not try their $2 Coca-Cola cupcakes which are award-winning I'm told. The host took our name and told us we could hang out in the garage around the corner. Wha? Garage? We walk past all the free ATL literature (Creative Loafing, etc...) and find ourselves in a garage complete with huge sliding bay door that has been converted into a waiting room with comfy chairs and stools. The only thing it needed was a small bookshelf with some books to read while you wait. The guy with the Falcons polo shirt and black Crocs complete with Atlanta Falcon and skull trinkets made me laugh.

Our table for two was ready and we sat down and ordered a chai latte for J and a cappuccino for me. Both were delicious and ready fairly quickly for how busy they were. I ordered the Peachtree Platter, two eggs any way (scrambled), cheddar monterey jack grits, a biscuit, fried green tomatoes and brown sugar bacon. J had the Westside Turkey Club, sweet tea basted turkey, swiss, bacon, cranberry dijon mustard on freshly baked white bread. Hers was very good and I will attempt to baste some turkey in tea in the future. Mine was good but the menu didn't state "roasted garlic grits" and my taste buds were quite offended at that surprise. I don't usually like garlic in my breakfast foods but they were good after I realized what I was eating. The tomatoes and eggs were very good, but let me tell you about the biscuit and the bacon. The biscuit was warm, light and sooooo good. I tossed some egg and bacon in there and had one of the best bacon, egg & cheese biscuits ever. I don't know how they make the brown sugar bacon (I'm guessing, and will attempt, they dredge the bacon in brown sugar before frying) but it was deliciously fatty and sweet and ooey gooey. It wasn't crisp so I used a fork and knife but the flavor more than made up for not being able to solidly pick it up. It was smokey and sweet and I want some more. NOW! Next time we go there, I might get the eggs again but biscuits and bacon will definitely be on my plate. A huge thanks to Jennifer Johnson and chef Patric Bell for the fun and funky atmosphere and delicious hearty breakfast! They open at 7 am on the weekdays, 8 am on the weekends and close at 4 pm, so don't be late!

With full sated bellies, we drove up Howell Mill Rd. to Atlanta Rocks! Intown. After a quick belay test and 2 daily passes, we were free to climb their 12,000 square feet of climbing awesomeness. A big main bouldering area was complemented by two hidden bouldering caves, and those were surrounded by over 50 ropes and auto-belayers covering the walls. Flat surfaces to faux rock outcroppings will keep any climber of any skill level entertained for a long time. If you need to give your fingers a rest, but still want to work out, they also have a nice gym with weights and treadmills and more (I just glanced over there but didn't go upstairs). After a few hours there, and realizing I'm a solid 5.8 climber and J is a solid 5.7 climber, we exchanged some pants at REI and then made our way home.

Thanks to Formula Drift, Mother Nature, the West Egg Cafe and Atlanta Rocks for a great weekend. Thanks to you for reading, and thanks to Ford and the gas companies for getting us there and back.

Labels: Breakfast, climbing, drift, Drift Atlanta, Focus, Futurama, restaurant reviews

Those are what I have to grade by Wed. Ugh. I really don't mind grading but when it's a report and there are a stack of 50-60, it's a daunting task. Not dissertation daunting, but still daunting. I plan to get home and grade furiously until they're done then I can get back into my book. It took me about 15-20 pages to get hooked but I really can't put it down. Blindness by Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago. There is an epidemic that causes white blindness. They know hardly anything about it but know it is contagious but are not sure exactly how. All the blind are quarantined in abandoned buildings and they're at max capacity. Something big is about to happen. I'll let you know how it ends, unless you want to read it for yourself.

I did some routine maintenance on the cars this weekend. I used "Sea Foam" in both cars to help with carbon build-up. Both received new wipers, 3 for Focus, 2 for Tercel. Tercel had a new headlight installed. I also cleaned up Focus' battery which had some corrosion, bluish snow stuff that I can only assume is copper (II) sulfate formed from the copper of the wires and the sulfate from the batteries' sulfuric acid.

All that's left is a coolant flush for Tercel and replace a turn signal in Focus. I'll probably finish that up this week or next weekend. J is running a 5K next weekend too.

Oh! We also picked up a Carolina (Blue) Sapphire that is really pretty and smells amazing! We put it up last night and got the lights on. J went a bit crazy and successfully jammed it full of 800 clear lights. Pictures will be posted.

Labels: 5K, cars, Focus, Tercel, weekend

Oh, if I haven't mentioned it before, the Clemson Sports Car Club lost its ability to autocross on campus because of Geary Robinson, the new director of parking services. We've been autocrossing on campus for 30 years and then he comes in and decides its dangerous and destroying "his" lots. Right. We have a skydiving club but driving around a parking lot is "dangerous".

I'm pretty sure it's personal and is only vaguely in the interest of the university.

But we all became spoiled having them on campus. It was so nice being able to wake up around 8:30 or 9 and drive 5 minutes to campus, swap some tires, hang out, work the course, drive and then make it home by 2 pm. The results would be up the next day or even the same day.

But now I have to wake up at 5:30, leave the house at 6, get to Turner Field at 8, swap tires, hang out, work the course, drive, eat lunch, work some more and drive again. If I would've left immediately after the autocross was over, I might've made it home by 5:30, but I stopped by Ikea to pick up some shelves. Ikea is pretty nuts on Sundays past 12:30 but it was jam packed on Saturday evening. Even the self-serve, 10 items or less line took 10-15 minutes to get through, but I did beat the guy in line ahead of me. I was flying. I would like to thank J for teaching me the ways of the scanner and checkout procedure and years of video game play for getting me ready to quickly read the text on the screen.

I also realized I'm slowly learning parts of Atlanta. I sort of know how to get around 16th through 10th Street, near Georgia Tech and Ikea. I know the block immediately surrounding Turner Field (take Exit 246 from 85/75 Southbound), there's a KFC/Taco Bell there if you get hungry, and I know the 20 to 85 route through Atlanta, and that's it.

If When I get lost in Atlanta, I usually find the direction that I'm supposed to be going and follow that road until I see a sign for an interstate. This usually works pretty well.

Do you guys think I should get some "Focus" mud flaps?

The guy wants $40 for all 4 and they look kinda cool and would definitely give my Focus a rally look to it. You can't even really see them if it's dark.


I don't know. I'll ask J and see what she thinks. I might hold off and save that money for my new brakes.

Labels: autocross, Focus, Ikea

This weekend was awesome.

Drive down to the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds (GCF), get a few practice starts with the drag racing style timing lights, (sorry, I was talking with the energy co. to get the power off at our old place, not that you could sense the pause in the typing), get the car teched and ready to race, we also had to have several stickers on our cars since it was a national event, we got around actually sticking them on the cars by putting them on magnets so they're nice and removable.

After that we went over to Fish Lake to camp. The sun was down and it was nice and cool. We hung out, had some beers (Sweet Water Blue which is unavailable in SC) and then it started to rain. Crazy rain with flashes of purplish cracks of light. There were a couple that were definitely too close for comfort. At the start of the rain we huddled under a tree (there were 4 of us, Protege, Subaru, myself and Suby's co-driver) and then it soaked the tree and started really coming down so we ran to the safety of Focus, rolled down the windows and stuck an umbrella out the windows so we could have a breeze. My tent kept me dry for most of the night except for a small pool at the foot of the tent.

We would arrive the next day and get 6 qualifying runs, 3 from each side (remember it was a Doublecross so there were 2 cars on course with a mutual finish line and different starting lanes) and we wouldn't know how well we did until that evening. I qualified 120 out of 137, Protege was 119, Subaru was 109 and his co-driver was 104. It isn't that we're that bad, it's that everyone else was that good. This was a national event that you can win some decent money at so the good drivers come out of the woodworks. My goal was not last in my class and I was 3rd to last and I was very pleased with how Focus was handling and my driving.

They had a cook-out that evening with brats and hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches and they even provided beer. It was from the Atlanta Brewing Company. Their Peachtree Pale Ale was waaaay too hoppy and bitter for my taste but their Blonde Ale was freakin' phenomenal.

That night we stayed at the Best Western in Lawrenceville. Nice rooms but the guy working the night counter was having a bad day. He didn't tell us any of the features of the hotel (like breakfast would be in the room behind us from 6-9 or that you could get pool towels from the front desk) but was a nice guy besides that.

Woke up at 6 am AGAIN and made our way back to the GCF. I was paired up against a stripped down old Civic in E Prepared, which means it was light and fast and on racing slicks. The point of the drag lights at the start was to make the event more fair. If I would've gone up against that Civic straight up on my street tires in STS (Street Touring Stock) I would've been destroyed, so they offset the lights depending on your class. So I had a few second headstart over the Civic. It was a good run, slow in, fast out, smooth, smooth, smooth, FINISH! Crap, he beat me, but I hear over the PA system that he hit a cone. I won! Then I raced a very fast S2000 and lost by several seconds. It's a double elimination bracket so I get another shot to keep racing that day. I'm up against a new 2007 Mazda MX5 (Miata) that is stock except for race tires. This is gonna be close. We pull up to the line and I get a few tenths of a head start. Coming around to the finish and....I lost. Poo. The one consolation is that it's still early and I can go ahead and changed my tires in the shade and get the car mostly packed before I have to show up for my work assignment.

You have to see this hat I bought for this event. I've always wanted a hat that will keep my face and neck shaded. A baseball cap isn't going to cut it. So I stopped by REI (the one in Buford near the Mall of Georgia) since it was on our way. Sunglasses and a hat on sale and $43 later I'm on the road with eye, head and neck protection from the sun. The other guys teased me about my big hat, saying I looked like an explorer, but they didn't think it was so funny on the second day and I was barely sunburned on my face and neck.

So much fun and I have so much to learn and so much to do to my Focus if I really want to be nationally competitive but that isn't my goal. I'm a rally driver. I want to get sideways in the dirt and fly past trees at 60 mph. Autocross is just a hobby and seat time until I get my rally car. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Whoops, almost forgot. My friend Derek was able to come down from his house near Suwanee and watch a few of my qualifying runs on Sat. morning. I hadn't seen him since he was in our wedding last Nov. I had hoped at least one ATL blogger could've made it but I understand that you were busy and had other things to do.

Labels: autocross, camping, Doublecross, Drift Atlanta, Focus, Protege, Subaru

Sorry if I sounded preachy yesterday. I try not to. I just know that no one group has all the answers and that's the bottom line.

Ugh. Focus is not happy. I changed her main belt a few months ago and she developed a squeal when you crank her. I changed the belt tensioner two days ago but it didn't help. I bought a new belt from NAPA this morning so hopefully that'll do the trick. It doesn't really hurt anything it just sounds dreadful and I don't want it to happen this weekend in front of all the other autocrossers.

J made chicken pot pie for dinner last night. It was delicious.

We're still keeping Foxy and Leon separated during the day because Foxy still has some worms and we want both cats worm free.

Ah, a HUGE thanks to Random Movie Club and Dawn for sending out a special treat to its loyal readers. I received a Random Movie Club magnet and a Starbucks card! Hooray!

I want to advertise this blog and make it more famous but I don't want to at the exact same time. Right now more can go wrong than right, so we'll just keep this between you and I.

I will be taking my camera to the Doublecross this weekend in Atlanta. I will wash Focus beforehand. We have to put lots of stickers on our cars for this event. It's part of the national tour which has sponsors so I'll be driving a small billboard around the parking lot this weekend.

Labels: Doublecross, Focus, Random Movie Club

Focus' accessory belt is still squealing. The guy sent me the wrong part, but I assume he's going to work with me to replace it. I knew it looked like the wrong part.

Leon finally calmed down and is now right at home, chasing his spongy soccer balls and trying to get out the door.

There is still a good trip or two worth of stuff at the old place but we still need to paint and clean, so we're in no hurry to get it completely empty.

We went washer and dryer shopping yesterday. We really want the fancy pants front loaders because then if the TV goes out, you can watch your clothes flail about; plus they use less water and are gentler on your clothes. I need to research washer and dryers a bit on ye olde internet before we start swiping plastic cards though.

Our 5 year first date anniversary is coming up on Fri. I'm not sure what we're planning on doing to commemorate it.

I came to the conclusion that I would rather not buy a new digicam and buy a big TV. But the TV we want is still a bit out of our price range, so J might get her new pink camera soon enough.

Labels: Focus, moving

Subaru and I worked on the car yesterday. She has this really annoying chirp of the accessory belt slipping right when you start it up. Sometimes it goes away and sometimes it gets worse and then other times it sounds like there is a team of banshees lighting screaming bottle rockets under my hood. There is also a lower radiator support that has been bent by me on 2 separate occasions. We also had to replace some lug studs because I keep breaking those bad boys. I had some H&R lug studs that were supposedly hardened but I snapped 2 of those and when I called H&R's customer service, the lady (whose name I should've gotten) was decidedly unhelpful. So I turned to ARP (Automotive Racing Products) and picked up some Camaro lug studs that fit Focus. They're pretty long. Long enough so that I had to take the brake caliper off to slip them into the holes whereas the H&R and the OEM studs you can just slip in from behind without removing anything.

Some basic parts that needed replacing, nothing major.

I don't know how I've survived this long without a drill. Well I do know actually. I've just been borrowing the lab's drill and drill bits. But one day I'll have to break down and get my own drill. Maybe cordless if I can get one with enough voltage to be effective. But the thing I dream about as I'm laying on my back wrenching on a bolt is an air compressor with some air tools. The stereotypical garage sound of the impact wrench is what I want emanating from my garage. Bolts would fly off with my air ratchet. I could've busted out a grinder and ground down the piece that was preventing me from slipping the new lug studs through. Toss in a lift, a few thousand more in tools and machines, a welder and some schooling and experience and I'll have a garage capable of most anything. That's the dream. And if I have friends who come over and help out with projects and bring in projects of their own, even better.

The Move keeps getting closer and closer. There are no books left on the main bookcase. The couches have been donated to the Salvation Army. J is bringing home a few more boxes. We still have suitcases and duffel bags for clothes if need be. I'm just hoping all the utilities get turned on tomorrow and that we have a nice strong wireless signal waiting for us.

Labels: dream garage, Focus, moving

It's Tuesday. Many parts for Focus have been ordered. Her serpentine belt has been squealing, so we're going to try replacing the belt tensioner. The radiator support and some lug studs are also being replaced.

An autocross is taking place this weekend in Columbia, SC. It's going to be hot. Stupid hot. Kills babies and old people hot. It's going to be good practice for the Doublecross Challenge in Atlanta at the end of the month. Here are last year's posts concerning the event. In a nut shell, it is two autocross courses that will be run simultaneously and have a mutual finish line. It's confusing but if it sounds interesting, please drive on over the the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds and check it out on both Saturday, June 30th and Sunday, July 1st.

This year, we will also be camping the first night and then staying in a hotel for the second night so we can take showers and what not. Of course as of right now I'm the only 1 of the 3 resident autocrossers who is signed up, so I might be looking for a place to crash both those nights. We'll see.

It is part of the SCCA ProSolo National Tour, so the competition will be nationally competitive. I'm gonna get waxed but it's gonna be fun!

Labels: autocross, Doublecross, Focus

Sorry, I was checking out TMZ.com for the latest news in celebrities. Paris is trying everything to stay out of jail, except not driving of course. Tom Sizemore was busted for smoking crank, again. Stay off the ice Tom, haven't you seen Faces of Meth? Yeah, that shit is BAD.

So the wheels for Focus that I bought and had sandblasted, remeber those? The original plan was sandblast them, clearcoat them, mount tires on them, put them on car and sell my stock wheels on ebay. Not gonna happen.

Clearcoated them, looked great, took them to get the tires mounted and the guy encountered problems. The finish from the sandblasting was really rough so they were grabbing the tires and wouldn't pop onto the wheel/rim. Lots of soap took care of that. So we get it mounted up and put it on the for a test fit since I'd never had them on my car before.

Hey, did you know these were 8 inches wide? Uh, no. Did you know that these wheels have been machined by someone to try and make them fit another bolt pattern? Um, nope.

He said they would stay on the car and it would be safe but there was no guarantee that the wheels would ride smooth and might make the car shake and vibrate. AND the fact that they are 1.5 inches wider than the stock wheels, so I literally had a finger's width between the tire and my fender, which would be fine if all roads everywhere were smooth. So I didn't feel like cutting my fenders this week to make the tire fit, and I didn't like the prospect of the new wheels not riding right, so I told him to mount the tires on my stock wheels.

I contacted the guy who sold them to me and he's being cool about it and offered some of my money back, but I HATE learning lessons the hard way. Although it does seem like I learn them that way more often than not. Yeah, I like starting sentences with conjuctions, what of it?

So here I present Seth's Guide to Buying Used Wheels (we'll also toss in some other search tags like rims, tutorial, help)

1) Check the outer and inner lip of the wheel and make sure they are straight and even. The outer lip is also where most wheels will be scraped against curbs, so if you're looking for show quality, keep that in mind. If you see any small dips, it most likely means they hit something hard and even if the tire will hold air, you are going to get some vibration through the steering column. Better pass on those unless you REALLY like them and they are cheap.

2) Triple check the bolt pattern of the wheel, its size, center bore and offset. 15s? 16s? 24s? and how wide are they? 5"? 8"? 12"? If the person you're buying them from doesn't know, take that as a warning sign and take a tape measure just in case. Odds are if they know a few of those numbers and it came off the same type of car that you're putting it on, it should work. Contact your local wheel merchant if you're unsure.

3) Check the holes through which the lugs pass. Are they circular? Are they oblong or elliptical? If they don't all look the same, and all aren't round, you're probably looking at a wheel that someone tried to make fit on another bolt pattern. In my case, they tried, screwed up and put in a plastic dish to try and fix their mistake. Bleh.

4) Ask them what size tire they usually mount onto the wheel also and go price a set of those. You can play around with the width a little bit (the width is the first number of the mystical tire marking) and adjust the price with wider tires being more expensive. Protege saved himself about $75 going from a 215 to a 205 width tire for everyday driving and he said he can barely tell a difference.

For a frame of reference, if you're considering going blingtastic on your new Escalade, the guy was quoting 2800-3500 for a set of 22s and around 1800-2200 for tires, so you always have to budget money for tires for your brand new wheels too.

The bad part is I still like the wheels I have. I LOVE that they're 8 inches wide. I could squeeze at least a 235 on there if not a 245. That's alot of tire going from a 205. However to do that I would have to cut my fenders and would also have to find some tires in that size. I hear 16 inch race tires are very tricky to find. Huh, I just found a set of Hankook's new Ventus Rs2 V212s for $93/each from Edge Racing. In a 245/45/16. Niiiiice. I need some storage space to prevent myself from getting hosed on this deal!

That also reminds me. If you're paying more than $400 to $450 for tires, mounting and balancing, you're getting ripped off. Or maybe you're not. But please, please, please shop around on the internet a little bit before going down to your dealership/Goodyear/Firestone or wherever the hell you buy tires from. You might be surprised. For example, I just looked up a set of 205/50/16 (my street tire size) on Edge Racing. $245 shipped plus another $60 for mounting and balancing and I just replaced my tires for a hair over $300. Don't you love the internet?

Also, if you don't know your tire size (something everyone who drives a vehicle should know, just in case) next time you go out to your car, bend down and get to know your tires. There will be a bunch of writing, some DOT stuff, max PSI, etc... and then you should see some numbers that will look similar to 215/50/17 89Wor something like that. The important numbers are the first 3. The last number and letter is a speed rating. It basically states how what load the tire can hold and its top tested speed. Don't worry, you're probably not going that fast anyway, or at least not on public roads.

Tire browsing websites:
Tire Rack (Currently sponsoring the One Lap of America, like Cannonball but fewer deaths and more legal)
Edge Racing
Vulcan Tire
Discount Tire

Most of those also offer race tires if you're in the market for those.

Labels: Focus, tires, wheels

No one has blamed Marilyn Manson for anything recently. There has to be someone that he pseduo-influenced into performing an atrocity.

I was thinking about what is really stopping the reform of drug laws in this country. So far I have come up with: uninformed and uneducated voters, the prison system and the corporations that keep it chugging along destroying a significant portion of our country, pharmaceutical companies and the money they might lose, and propaganda.

J and I watched The Last King of Scotland last night. Hats off to Forest Whitaker. Excellent job portraying the light and dark sides of one of the world's most recent tyrants and congrats on the Oscar. But that movie and Hotel Rwanda really cemented how powerful propaganda is. Governments have been using it for aeons. It inspires people to work harder, eat less, sacrifice for the cause! It also convinces people that people different from you aren't really human, are evil and should be killed. So if you're planning on invading or taking control of a country, propaganda should be on your checklist, right behind food and medical supplies for the people and an army of mercenaries, just in case.

Remember I bought a set of wheels for Focus? Well they have now been sandblasted and are a lovely pale silver color. I rather like it. So now I have to do some googling and see what the best way to protect it is and if it's even possible to polish some parts of it and make it shiny. Not quite chrome shiny Smoove, but shiny nonetheless.

I'll take some before and after pics for comparison and maybe it'll inspire you to change the look of your car with a small investment instead of going to your local Bling-o-rama and picking up a set of 22s.

Labels: Focus, movie

One of the songs that, for me, really solidified the Rolling Stones as one of the greats. It didn't hurt that my suitemate (one of the two guys in the adjacent dorm room with whom we shared a bathroom) would start his day with that Stones CD and made sure that it was loud and we could hear it. Wonderful way to start the day.

Heroes was pretty good last night. We leapt into the future 5 years after the nuclear bomb (aka Peter Petrelli who absorbed the radiation guy's power) has destroyed half of NYC and "mutants" are considered terrorists and being captured. If you don't think you need a shape shifter on your side, think again. Magneto's righthand wo-man is Mystique, a shape shifter, and in Heroes, many people have been tricked by the shape shifter, but it turns out that Peter's brother Nathan is president of the USA except we found out he's really Sylar! Oh no! And he was the mastermind behind people with superpowers becoming outlaws. It's alot easier to take over the world if a) you're the president of the USA and b) you're using said power to exterminate all other mutants, so they're won't be anyone left to stop you. Kind of the reverse of Magneto's plan in the first X-men, which was to turn everyone into a mutant. It's still a good show even if they're "borrowing" some ideas from great comic books.

So Peter is helping Past Hiro (who can teleport and time travel) get back to the past and kill Sylar before he orchestrates his plan. I'm not sure if they're going to wrap it up in 3 seasons, or wrap up a few of the storylines, but I'm fairly certain we'll at least figure out if they stop the catastrophe from happening.

Another thing I noticed they've never addressed is what Sylar does after he takes off the top of the skull. He pops the top and then presumably does something sinister with the brain. I have taken the liberty of adding my own slurping sounds whenever they cut away from what is about to happen. Maybe he makes a smoothie. Maybe he just touches the brain and gets the power. Who knows? It isn't super important but just something I was wondering about. And if you're trying to recreate my slurping noises at home, it's very similar to the sound Sir Anthony Hopkins made after delivering his famous Silence of the Lambs line: "I ate his liver with some favre beans and a nice chianti."

I planted some tomatoes, green bell peppers and some zuchinni yesterday so I'll keep you posted on that. Maybe even a pic or two.

We also found a new place to live. The previous tenants skipped out and left holes in the wall, a hole in a door, some gross couches and a bedframe, so they're gonna clean all that up and make it "reasonable" to use their word. I also had to sign a paper stating that the security deposit I'm giving them is mine but they get to keep any interest that it accumulates. Nice. I wish I was a slumlord. But it's a 2 story townhouse which will be a first for both J and myself. We've been one story dwellers our entire lives. I'm sure Leon will like running up and down the stairs.

We had a call about Julio but it was a fake Julio. This cat had orange spots on it and not stripes. Julio has about a month and a half to show back up before we move. When we move out, I will officially give up hope that he will ever come back.

This weekend was lots of fun. I autocrossed Focus at the BMW factory in Greer. We set up a small Focus showdown and had Foci from ATL, Asheville and even Knoxville. I came in dead last out of the Foci. But that's okay. I'm still learning but am to the point where I need some semi-professional instruction, so I'm gonna try and make it to a driving school this summer. It was still lots of fun. Check out the results here. My class, Street Touring, is about halfway down the page. I'm #21 and got 8 out of 11 cars in my class and Foci swept the top 3 spots! Hooray! Focus Powah!

Then we went to eat at TGIFridays and talked, hung out and enjoyed each others' company.

I'm getting the new set of wheels I picked up for Focus sandblasted tomorrow. The previous owner spraypainted them black and their original paint color was a bronzish/gold. The gold might look good on my black car, but I don't think there's a good way to get just the black off, so we're going to bare metal and then I'll decide if I want to spraypaint it another color, or just clearcoat it and keep it bare aluminum. Right now I'm leaning towards bare metal but we'll see.

Labels: autocross, Focus, Heroes, Julio and Leon, moving, Samford

Hello, we're sorry but Clemson University is closed today.

I'm here though. Why? Mostly because the parking service Nazis are off today so we can park wherever we please without fear of being ticketed.

It's a fairly relaxed day though. And man is the weather down here unbelievable. The highs tomorrow are supposed to be in the low 80s. And they're in the mid-70s right now. And I'm thinking of moving to Canada. What the hell is wrong with me?

I'm in flip flops today. My grandmother really hates them. She is scared that we drive in them also lest an errant flop wedge itself inbetween the brake and the floor and send us careening into a milk truck.

Why a milk truck? Beats me. But can you imagine the smell of that after a few hours in the sun? Yikes.

J and I are planning on moving this July/August. We've started to look and there are some places that are hopefully nicer than our place and only slightly more expensive.

I like moving. It gives you a chance to purge some of your belongings. We don't need everything in our house, so it's nice to sell and give away some of it and lighten our load.

I freaked out about my pre-oral yesterday, which is okay because it always sends me into a tizzy of work and stress. I usually work better with a little stress to keep my mind focused.

The set of wheels (rims) I picked up from another Focus guy no longer have crappy old tires on them and are ready for cleaning. They're a sort of bronzish color that he spray-painted black over. It looks okay but some of the paint is chipping. I assume they're aluminum underneath so maybe I'll just strip off all the paint and go with bare aluminum and some wax. Currently that and washing both cars is my planned Saturday morning activity.

After getting the wheels dismounted, I was near Anderson so I swung by our local Ford stealership. Have I done my "why the 2008 Focus sucks" tirade on here? If not, I'll do that maybe this weekend or Monday. So I was enquiring about replacing my front wheel bearings and a few other odds and ends. They bring out a tech and he says the bearings alone are 2.5 billed hours of labor on one side, so that's 5 hours labor, $84 parts, $61 belt tensioner, a $60 alignment and we're at a grand total of $653.51. Shit. Thanks for the estimate and I hightail it out of there.

The big part of that job is you need a press to press the old wheel bearing out of the wheel knuckle (the part that keeps the brakes connected to the suspension and the wheel) and press the new one in. The wheel bearing is what lets the wheels spin, so they're mildly important. However, Ford Racing sells a "Rally Brake Kit" that replaces all 4 steering knuckles and has the wheel bearings already pressed in and would also replace my crappy rear drums with some nice new disc brakes. That kit goes for $995. Ugh, decisions, decisions. Actually it isn't really a decision at this point, it's just convincing J that it's worthwhile preventative maintenance and a cost effective upgrade. All she hears is the big number and the word "car" and then starts griping that the car is a money hole. I can't really argue with that since I'm a terrible arguer in the first place and that she has a very valid point.

Hmm, maybe if when we can start going out to eat again, I start bringing sandwiches and drinking water, I can convince her that I can reduce the cost of eating out?

What I should really do is just postpone this whole racing thing until I have a real job and can afford to do stuff like this, but what fun is that? It's a knife edge, this tight-rope walk between being a responsible adult and blowing money on hobbies.

Labels: Clemson, Focus, moving