after work i went by Texas tattoo emporium to see if byriah was there. he was. (so if you're looking for byriah dailey from taurian, he is currently working at Texas tattoo emporium on westheimer.) unfortunately, the selection of 2-gauge jewelry was somewhat limited and they didn't have anything i really wanted. i talked to him about stuff i'd seen online, and he said to send him an email with the link and he'd look at it and let me know if he thought it looked like decent stuff. seeing as i was already there, and not getting my ears stretched, i decided to do something i've wanted to for years and years but never could convince myself to actually go through with. here's photographic evidence:

he pierced with a two-angle technique, and i had him put in a bent barbell. this should allow me to switch to a hoop if i want to in the future (after the piercing heals, which should take 6-8 weeks probably).

from there i went home. later jamie came by and got me and we went to brasil to eat supper. while there, i got to watch a couple right in front of me working their way up the pda ladder -- after they both were running their hands on each others' legs and doing some hip grinding, i was half expecting them to just throw each other on the floor and go at it. but they restrained themselves, and eventually went elsewhere. after that we walked over to poison girl. guess who was at the bar? yep, the couple from brasil. still draped around each other. so i had a few white russians while hanging out in the outdoor area in the back. i hadn't been to poison girl in a while, but i still <3 it. i guess that was about the extent of my debauchery for my birthday.

wyatt earp: been hitting it awful hard, haven't ya?
doc holliday: nonsense. i have not yet begun to defile myself.
(from tombstone)

once home i fell into a slumber. i wasn't sure i was going to make into work the next day (i'd actually asked for the day off since at one point i thought i might be headed to austin that day), but i woke up right before my alarm went off and was not sleepy. part of that was due to the fact that what woke me was an annoying dream involving the hrc (julia). that was kind of a bitter ending to an otherwise fairly pleasant low-key birthday.

kate: aren't i a good woman to you, doc?
doc: yes, it's true you are a good woman. then again you may be the antichrist.
(also from tombstone)

• a heartbeat and a guitar: johnny cash and the making of bitter tears - antonio d'ambrosio (nation books / perseus)

i didn't order it, so i'm guessing it's a present...probably from my brother. but there was no name or anything connected to it, and no one has 'fessed up or mentioned it, so i'm not sure.

also a couple of days ago i got something i ordered off ebay. it's the canopus advc-110, which is an analog-to-digital video converter. so you can hook any analog video source (vcr, analog-only video camera, etc.) into this and it will convert to digital, which can then be imported onto your computer. there are cheaper devices around to do this, but the canopus product is generally considered one of the best consumer-grade devices. there are three canopus models: 55, 110, and 300. the 300 has extra features but is about twice the price of the 110. i had watched them on ebay on and off for the last few weeks, but last week a brand new one with the power supply (an optional accessory) popped up on ebay as a "buy it now" for $100. the device retails for $200-$250 and the power supply is usually around $40. most of the ones on ebay, used without the power supply, end up going for around $160+. so i am pretty happy to have gotten what i did at the price point i did.

saturday morning i got up around 10am, then went to meet loopylow at a mexican restaurant on airline drive called teotihuacan. the food i had was good. from there we headed up to near intercontinental airport to go to apollocon.

i had a harrowing experience on the way up. i was on my motorcycle following scott (loopylow). just as we crested the 610 overpass on i-45, traffic immediately came to a dead halt. i mean completely. the car in front of loopylow slammed on its brakes and started fishtailing, scott hit his brakes hard, and i hit mine...but i could tell i wasn't going to stop in time. we were in the middle of three lanes and i knew there were cars to my right. i hadn't seen cars to my left so i quickly decided to veer to the left to go near scott, hoping there wasn't anything in my left blind spot (i didn't have time to turn my head or anything). as i started to slow and veer i heard my tires lock up and start squealing, but i managed to pop around him okay. fortunately no one was right behind me to my left so i was able to pass scott and slow down. (i guess maybe it's a good time to mention that when i renewed my driver's license this last time i agreed to be an organ donor.) the rest of the trip up was uneventful.

the main reason i went up to apollocon is because barrett (from technology bytes) and kd5gzi (david -- a radio show listener, irc-er, and geek gathering regular) were doing a presentation on open source hardware and following it up with a workshop on building your own arduino on a breadboard. i find the arduino stuff and open source hardware community somewhat interesting, but i'd never jumped into it on any level. (for example, i've been eyeing the ice tube clock kit on ladyada's adafruit site. not arduino, but a cool build it yourself kit nonetheless.) i figured this was a good way to push myself into getting my toes wet. i managed to be the first one in the group to get my kit to perform its first task: blinking a light. that was really all we were supposed to do, but i went ahead and started playing with it some more, changing it to blink morse code "sos", then adding a bunch of cables to control 6 leds and turn them on and off in sequence, then sweep back and forth like a cylon. i still don't really feel like i accomplished much, but i guess it's small steps that build toward something bigger and better.

the rest of the con reminded me of why i usually don't go to cons. it's not the con's fault at all. i know some people might think i should feel like i'm in my element there, but they're wrong. i used to be into and collect comic books, and i enjoy sci-fi/cyberpunk books and movies (fantasy not as much), and i played some d&d in high school, and i'm into computers/tech stuff -- but most of the people at cons seem like they're just living it all at a whole different level than me. maybe it has to do with my growing up in a small town. plus this was really a writing/gaming con and not a comic con, so even my history with comics couldn't make me feel like i fit in. and while the whole steampunk thing is intriguing, it's not something i want to get into myself. that one chick in the polished silver tight-fitting robot suit that completely covered everything head to toe -- based on sorayama's "sexy robot" work -- was pretty swank though. (and evidently won the costume contest, although i only saw her standing outside in the hallway since i missed most of the contest.) i managed to find two pics of the apollocon sexy robot: solo sexy robot and group shot sexy robot, both on facebook. i stayed around late because i was intrigued by what music dj hawz might play at the party, especially with his really cool poster of a skull with a mario hat on it over crossed classic nintendo console guns -- i was hoping maybe he'd be mixing some 8-bit, glitch, electroclash, etc. -- but while i was listening he played pretty typical party songs mixed with the occasional tip of the hat to geek culture (like a remixed imperial death march, the dr. who theme, etc.).

monday after work i went over to the flying saucer downtown thinking i was going to meet someone there. i got there and didn't see him, so i sat down at the bar and had a breckenridge vanilla porter. i didn't really taste vanilla, but it was pretty good overall. i still didn't see the guy, so i moved on to a southern star buried hatchet stout. (southern star comes from conroe, Texas.) it smelled like coffee, a bit of chocolate, and was pretty yummy. still no guy, but i decided i should probably stop. i got on my motorcycle and started heading home. on westheimer it started raining on me some, but i didn't really care. it rained on me most of the rest of the way home, but never really heavy. i got home and took off my wet clothes...then i woke up in my bed and it was 4am. i'm really unsure exactly what happened after i got home. but after i woke up, i couldn't get back to sleep. i guess maybe i'd gotten at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep already. so i was up very early for the next day.

tuesday i took the bike to work again. when i left work rain was coming in, but i figured i had 30 to 45 minutes before it arrived so i decided to go by taurian. i got about a block or two from them and then decided i wouldn't have time to go in and look and talk to them before the rain hit. so i turned and headed home. i got about 2/3rd of the way through downtown when big giant raindrops started pegging me. by the time i got on westheimer it was coming down pretty hard. i kept thinking i was going to get ahead of the rain but i never did. i was completely drenched by the time i got home. coming home drenched and cold is always a much better situation when you have someone waiting at home for you. when you're by yourself it pretty much just sucks.

tuesday night i made my first trip to the house of pies in a couple of months. a guy who used to be a co-worker that has been living out of state the last year or two was in town, and we planned to meet there for supper. we were there for some time, so i ate supper and then ended up getting a slice of bayou goo.

wednesday between work and the radio show i went back by taurian. i rang the doorbell but no one answered. i waited awhile, then rang it again. no answer. so then i tried the door, but it was locked. i started trying to call their phone number, but the line kept immediately dropping. after the radio show i started poking around online, and i learned that taurian had closed down. after some more google-sleuthing, i found someone that said byriah was now piercing at Texas tattoo emporium. i called their phone number and asked about him, and found out that is indeed where he is. so i decided i'd drop by the next day.

mr. henry: well, i mean, it couldn't hurt could it?
dignan: no, it couldn't hurt. but...well, you gotta weigh the pros and the cons, and you're the one who hit me to that, mr. henry.
mr. henry: shoot, go ahead. what are the cons?

joel: yes?
patrick: can I help you?
joel: what do you mean?
patrick: can I help you with something?
joel: no.
patrick: what are you doing here?
joel: i'm not really sure what you're asking.
patrick: oh, thanks...

(if you've seen the movie, you can probably see the similarities of awkwardness. although i didn't actually talk to this person. and i'm not really comfortable with me being identified as patrick, since he was sort of slimy. although perhaps in this situation it's more appropriate than i'd care for it to be.)

whether it was really the hrc or not, what i can say from the experience is that i'm obviously still not done with my emotions over her -- which isn't surprising given my tendency to forge strong bonds with romantic interests and have them not go away very easily or quickly at all. my adrenalin was pumping, my heart was racing, my hands were starting to shake some. it's really kind of stupid of me. perhaps it'd be nice to be able to slash through emotional bonds like lots of other people seem to be able to do.

i went home, then drove to jack's to try and knock out the back of the techbytes 15th anniversary party t-shirts. unfortunately, jack was waiting in line for an iphone 4. so i went and ate, then came back to his house. he still wasn't back, so i went ahead and started getting stuff ready. it took awhile to get everything set up, and doing the back was slower and more complex than the front was. so i gave up around 4am, having completed about half of the shirts.

friday morning i managed to wake up a little after 9am and go into work (neither of which i was confident was going to happen after my late night). friday evening i went back over to the potts' and continued working on the techbytes 15th anniversary party shirts. this time i managed to get them knocked out before i left (around 3am). jack moved some speakers into the garage where the screening machine is, so i was able to hook up my iphone and listen to music while i worked. that helped make the process more enjoyable, since without that all you hear is a large shop fan.

monday i had my first fry/chip in over two months. it's not a conviction or anything for me, but it was still difficult since i'd gone so long without any. i decided it was kind of silly not to have one though, as it was a special circumstance. a coworker had another coworker bring them back some interesting chips from india. these were lay's potato chips, but the flavor was chicken and thyme. so i had one. it tasted sorta like chicken noodle soup, or rotisserie chicken. kind of weird to have that taste sensation as a potato chip, but it wasn't bad. still no coffee or sodas for over two months.

monday after work i went over to the potts'. we went by and picked up all of the t-shirts we're going to be using for the techbytes party. jack and i spent the rest of the evening screening the front of all of the techbytes 15th anniversary party t-shirts. considering that neither of us really had any experience with silk screening, and printing white is supposed to be more difficult to get right (the ink is thicker, etc), i think they came out pretty good. i think my technique was a bit off, and i'm not sure the screen distance from the shirts was just right, but i'm still pretty happy with them. hopefully we cured them long enough and the ink will stick to the shirts and not crack or peel off or anything.

tuesday after work i went back over, but we ended up not getting too much accomplished. we needed to make one more screen and the first attempt didn't go quite right, so we had to do another one. by the time we got another one done, which was good, it was already late and i didn't want to start then since we probably wouldn't have been done for at least two or three hours. i was already tired from staying up late the previous night. we should be working on getting them finished tomorrow night.

after driving my car to the potts' and back on sunday i noticed the engine was running hot and getting hot really fast. when i checked the radiator it didn't have much fluid in it. monday i was able to pour in a full one gallon jug of radiator fluid, so i'd have to say it was pretty low. it still seems like it's running hotter than i think it should. but i didn't see any radiator fluid leaking. so i'm not sure if i've got a leak or what's going on at this point. also over the last couple of days the car has started making an odd sound. it appears to be related to the flywheel or clutch or transmission, as it definitely relates to the speed of the engine but goes away if i push in the clutch. so, yet more things to deal with on the car. that vehicle just does not want to play nice.

i don't think i mentioned it, but after driving to brady and back again, i'm definitely leaning towards giving up on the 3-on-the-tree. as much as i love the uniqueness these days of having one, i just can not enjoy higher speeds with the 3 gears i currently have. one option is overdrive, but if my current transmission doesn't have overdrive then i'm not sure it's worth replacing it with another 3 that has overdrive. a guy from work has talked about some rear axles that have an overdrive built into them, so that's an option (although i don't know how common those are or anything about them). or i could change the gearing on my current transmission. but again, if i'm doing junk like that, it'd probably cost enough that just putting in a new 5-speed transmission with a floor straight shifter would be worth it. it just makes me a little sad to think about cutting a hole in that virgin floor. of course, not having that column shifter would also free up engine bay space on the driver's side for more exhaust header choices. *sigh*

last night i upgraded my iphone (3g) to ios 4. because it's a 3g, i'm not going to see most of the benefits of the new os (such as multitasking), but i do get the unified inbox and some other stuff i think will be worth the update. i'm probably going to be getting the new iphone here at some point though.

after freaking out for a bit after i got back from my trip last weekend, my desktop has seemed to run without problem. it's still a 6+ year old machine, so i keep thinking about replacing it. i originally was waiting for a mac mini refresh. that happened, but now i'm not as excited because they bumped the prices up on them. what to do. also, i realized tonight the battery on my macbook air is kind of sucking. it went from full charge to near dead in only about 2 hours.

i was supposed to be working all day saturday to do disaster recovery site email testing, but it got canceled friday afternoon. so that's now the second time it's been canceled the afternoon of the day before. it's really annoying because you get geared up and ready to do it, try to make everything fresh in your mind -- then you're told it's not going to happen. it's a major mental and emotional let-down.

speaking of major mental and emotional let-downs, i suppose i should mention today would have been my 12 year wedding anniversary. and it could be father's day for me; i could have a 6-year-old kid. but it's not, and i don't. does that aspect of my past matter any more to me? sure. but not like it used to. for all intents and purposes, the tamara i believed i married back then is dead and gone from this world. she has become a painful memory in my past, a tagged mental note that you can never be sure what is lurking underneath, and just how unfair and two-faced they can turn out to be because of it. enough time has passed that it doesn't fill my thoughts very often any more. and even when i do think about it, though there is still pain and anger and sadness there, it's much less intense overall. but, at the same time, marriage and a family is a desire i have for my life, so that failure and loss can bring me down a lot if i let it (focusing on it and/or starting off in a poor emotional state). it's still relevant to me because i've never really had new memories in that area to shift my focus onto. (i wish jennifer or the hrc could have done it, but neither of them were ever really very committed toward me.) because of that, my experience with tamara is always sitting there available to me when i get lonely or sad or depressed -- especially over that facet of my life. as the crucified song notes: "my loneliness is evidence of my failure" (though in the song they are trying to point out that is flawed thinking, so don't trash them for being negative or such nonsense...trash me instead :). anyway, enough of that subject.

yesterday and today i spent some time over at the potts' house working with jack trying to figure out how to silk screen. he got some equipment from someone, i came up with some designs for a simple shirt for the party for the radio show i help with, and we're supposed to screen some shirts. yesterday was the first day for either of us, and we learned we didn't really have stuff figured out. earlier today jack and jackson figured some stuff out, then this afternoon jack and i made the screens for the techbytes shirt. tomorrow we should actually try screening some shirts. i watched some youtube videos today trying to learn more about silk screening and techniques and such. it's so nice to have an instant resource for all kinds of things right at your fingertips whenever you want it. hopefully our stuff will come out well.

• beginner's russian script - daphne west (teach yourself)
• rapture ready! - daniel radosh (scribner)

rapture ready is the adventures of a non-xian guy who decided to look into the xian pop culture scene. i've read a couple of other books in the same vein, but i've read some excepts and reviews and this one seems like it might be pretty decent as far as the guy having a fairly open mind and being even-handed about everything. (more like body piercing saved my life and less like righteous.)

i finally finished lovesick blues by paul hempill. it's the story of hank williams. i'd started reading it probably a year or more ago, taking it to crescent city or coffee houses with me. but i hadn't been going out like that for some time, so it'd just been sitting there. it was good. i also read why i am not a calvinist by walls and dongell. it seemed to walk a pretty good line to me between being very simple and complex. some ideas relating to predestination, election, evil, and the attributes of G-d just can't be made simple. who'd 'a thunk theology ain't easy-peasy? anyway, i really enjoyed the book, and i thought they did a good job of opening up some holes in the reformed/calvinist positions that i hadn't thought of before. they were also able to articulate much better several things that i've thought/felt but never been able to flesh out very well. the reformed camp tends to have lots of verses to point at, but it always felt like to me the overarching theme of the bible is choice and free will. it just doesn't seem like the G-d of the calvinist/reformed position is the G-d throughout the bible. i could go on for some time on this subject, but i i'll save you the pain.

i also bought some cds over the last couple of weeks:

• borko - celebrating life (morr)
• daft punk - homework (virgin)
• daft punk - discovery (virgin)
• it's a musical - the music makes me sick (morr)
• peaches - fatherfscker (xl / kitty yo)
• playradioplay! - Texas (island / def jam)

i've watched a few movies via streaming netflix over the last couple of weeks. first up is revolution os, a documentary about the history of gnu, linux, and the free software / copyleft movement. it was pretty good. next up is second skin, a documentary about people who game online. it includes some of the history of computer gaming, but mostly focuses on the culture and lives of various people. it was pretty enjoyable, and went into a lot of different aspects (both good and bad) of gaming culture, focusing mostly on wow. then i watched the dark ages, a history channel piece on the dark ages. it was pretty interesting. although i know lots of fragments of historical information, sometimes it's nice to watch something that kind of puts timelines into order and shows where/how things fit chronologically. after that i watched visioneers, a fairly black comedy about a dystopian future where no one is supposed to dream because people are exploding. it stars zach galifianakis, playing it straight...although it's a quirky near-future world. he works in a life-draining sparse office doing menial tasks with a few people, barely interacting with other workers that he rarely sees. he's unhappily married. imagine perhaps brazil mixed with idiocracy and a bit of donnie darko or something. i liked it, but i flipped between times where i felt like i was totally getting the point they were trying to get across, and other times having no idea what of several points they were trying to get across...especially since it seemed to contradict the ones i thought i was pretty sure of earlier. i'm not sure if that makes it a complex good film, or just a confused jumble of seeing what sticks. last up, i watched welcome to macintosh, which is a documentary about the history of apple and the culture around it. they interviewed quite a few key players, which was nice, and it was cool to get some aspects of the history of the company i was unaware of.

the friday before last i had a lunch meeting at work and they only provided tea. so i had a glass of tea. but i put no sugar in it. other than that, i've still had no soda, tea, or coffee. or chips or fries. i've finally started hitting the point where i sometimes think about having some coffee or a soda, but so far i've continued to completely abstain. i've been drinking water or 100% fruit juices, but mostly water. i can't say as i can really tell any difference in anything (energy, etc) but i'm still doing it anyway. it can't really hurt much to cut out sodas or "fruit"/flavored drinks with insane amounts of sugar / high fructose corn syrup.

last week or the week before at some point i replaced the hard drive in my desktop. i'd switched from an 80gb to a 160gb a few months ago i think, but i'd almost filled the 160 so i put in a 500gb. i have plenty of room to spare now, and should for awhile probably. it's very nice being able to put in a new drive, boot off the os cd, install the os on the new drive, then tell it to copy all of the old accounts, files, configs, etc. off the old drive. (i did that on the 80-160 upgrade too.) the only problem i noticed either time was the license keys for the macromedia products don't get set up right so i have to re-enter them.

friday i worked in the evening, so i used the daytime to get my motorcycle inspected and then go renew my driver's license. i had renewed online last time, so i had to physically show up this time. the license renewal office is the typical soul-sucking, depressing, slow-moving, cheerless government setup. at first i showed up around 12:30pm and there were a bunch of people just sitting waiting...bleh. plus i didn't have cash and they didn't take credit cards. so i left and ate lunch, got some cash, and came back. i think the line was shorter. somehow, they'd never retaken my picture since 1996 when i first got my motorcycle license. that's 14 years. but they retook it this time, and i must confess it looks pretty fine. you see, my goal in license pics is to make it look as much like a mugshot as possible. my pic from the last 14 years was pretty good. but i think this one might top it. i'll have to wait and see the full-color, full-size version though. i also was happy i was able to pass the eye exam, so i still am not required to wear corrective lenses while driving (which sucks on a motorcycle if you wear goggles).

saturday morning i got up and decided to drive to brady. i hadn't been since xmas, plus it was the leifeste family reunion on sunday. i took my belair. since i have no a/c and i was driving between 12pm-7pm, it was pretty hot. but it was okay. i arrived and my parents and brother and miles had just left for underwood's in brownwood. i called them and they decided to come back and get me. while i was waiting, a lady came over and asked me if i could help her. a lady next door had fallen and she couldn't get her into a wheelchair. i got over there and the lady was sitting on the ground near the open driver's side door of a pickup, although she didn't appear to be able to use her legs. even though i'm a bulky guy, i do computer work all day in an office so i'm not exactly strong. but i managed to get her into the wheelchair. a little while later, she went by driving the pickup and smiled at me real big and waved. odd. my parents got me and we all went to underwood's and ate, then came back to brady. that was a lot of time in a car for saturday.

sunday we ate breakfast with my grandmother, then everyone left and i stayed and hung out with my grandmother. a couple of hours later my parents came by and picked me up and we went to the reunion. it was about the same as usual i suppose. i hadn't done anything on the genealogy stuff in the last year or two though, so i felt kind of bad. we drover back to brady, then after a nap i got up and drove back to houston. i didn't leave until around 6pm, so the temperature wasn't quite as bad on the trip back.

my brother gave me an early birthday present:

• lightnin' hopkins - from the vaults of everest records (collectibles)

it's a 4-cd set of recordings lightnin' did on everest records. of course, he recorded on tons of different labels, of all different recording quality and such. he also would record multiple versions of the same songs on different labels, as well as making up songs on the spot. the story is if you came to him with a bottle of jack and some cash he'd let you record an album of him.

when i got back sunday night, my desktop wasn't working and the fans were spinning at full tilt. i don't know how long it'd been like that. it's happened a few times, and usually is due to some process running out of control, spiking the cpu, and locking the system. but when i went to power cycle it, it crashed before it ever really started booting. it did this a few times. after that i waited a few minutes with it off, then powered it up. it got further, but locked up again. i thought maybe my machine had finally bit it. i wondered if maybe it was just too hot to operate though, so i went to bed. the next morning i got up and started it up and it booted up fine. and has been running okay since.

• d!rty russian - coyne & fisun (ulysses press)
• essential russian grammar - kemple (dover)
• how to learn any language - farber (mjf)
• random house webster's pocket russian dictionary - reference (random house)
• russian word picture book - rogers & steadman (dover)
• teach yourself russian - west (teach yourself)

obviously all of them are related to the russian language. except how to learn any language, which was suggested by ash as a guide for how to go about learning a language (such as russian).

friday after work i took my bike to meet the potts (minus sue) at the petrol station in the heights for supper. it'd been awhile since i'd been there. it was a pretty happening place, and they had expanded their tap beer selection. no giant domestics at all on tap. (awesome.) they had also fenced in the back area and put in some landscaping elements. it felt more like the back of poison girl or such, although there were lots of people with kids. (they are kid-friendly and have kids' items on the menu.) i had a stone brewing company imperial russian stout and a burger with swiss cheese. i gave the fries to the potts. the burger was juicy and fresh, on more of a sourdough style bun than a generic white bread bun. it was good. then, unexpectedly, the rain came. the potts left, and i waited for the rain to stop and the streets to dry up some. so i had another beer while i was waiting: the hairy eyeball by lagunitas brewing co.. it was very good. unfortunately, it's a seasonal. i figured i'd wait for the roads to dry up some, but i checked the radar on my iphone and another band was coming, so i hopped on the bike and rode home. i didn't get rained on, but the streets were still wet and at one point i slid some coming to a stop at a light. i also narrowly avoided getting splashed by cars a few times. but i made it home in one piece, with only my pants' legs wet.

at midnight i went to river oaks and saw a midnight showing of a clockwork orange. i had hoped i would have someone to go with, or at least to meet up with there, but of course i ended up watching it by myself. and i of course neither met nor talked to anyone. normally i'd just not go anywhere instead of go alone (which is why i stay home often), but i really wanted to see the movie again on a big screen. it was nice. there were maybe around 200 people for the showing, half a dozen to a dozen dressed as alex and/or his droogs. i wore my moloko vellocet shirt. no one else cared. :)

i had decided saturday i would try to get my brakes on the bel air fixed, so that's what i did. since it was only the brakes, and the brake system is fairly simple, i decided i'd drop by brake check just to see if they would look at it. (the one at 5637 southwest freeway, since that's the one jack went to a few weeks ago and they seemed nice.) they didn't know how to drive a 3-on-the-tree, but they said they'd try to check it out. i drove it into the bay, then they took the tires off and checked all of the drums and everything looked fine. they then said they could try a bleed and flush, since that would show any blocked lines or air in the system. and if it went fine, that meant it was the master cylinder or something mechanical with the pedal itself. it was only ~$40, and couldn't really hurt, so i figured that was worth it. they did the front brakes and everything was fine, but when they went to the back brakes both sides barely leaked. they brought me out to look at it at that point, because the connectors on the rubber line between the steel line coming from the front and the split on the steel lines in the rear were corroded and they weren't sure they could get it off without mangling/breaking the hose. (which meant waiting for and buying a new hose.) i told them to go ahead and do it. the steel line from the front flowed just fine, but the rubber hose barely leaked. so the rubber brake line hose was the culprit. based on that knowledge and the way my brakes were acting, apparently the clog was causing both rear brakes to always be at least partially on (thus the feeling my brakes were on at all times) while in the front the pressure was all messed up so my brake pedal was immediately tight (and was only really working the front brakes). they had to order the hose and said it'd be in the next day hopefully, so i decided to walk home. (probably about 4.5 to 5 miles.)

i walked over to chimney rock, then up to richmond. i stopped in the hat store to look at their fedoras (they didn't have that many...they're mostly cowboy hats) and see if they had plastic travel boxes for fedoras/bowlers (nope, just western size). i continued walking down richmond, and after i passed 610 i decided i'd stop in the pipe and cigar store there by luling city market. it's called serious cigars (4722 richmond ave, it used to be crofts pipe and tobacco shoppe). i was in there i guess a couple of hours, talking to the guy working there about all sorts of things while i looked at the pipe tobaccos, meerschaum pipes, and briar pipes. a guy smoking there gave me an aromatic to try, and the employee gave me a blend they'd made for xmas. i bought a custom blend he made, and i also bought a new pipe: a savinelli black rustic (trevi rustica, style 626). it's only about a 1/4 bent, with a fairly small bowl. so it's somewhat different than my other pipes. but i like the way it looks. (and of course i paid more than if i would have bought it online.) while i was in there for so long, brake check called me and said they'd gotten the hose in. so i told them i'd walk back. i made my purchase and left.

i only made it part way back before they called to check on me. they were already staying late to get mine done. i told them i was still walking, so one of them came and picked me up. we hopped in my car to test drive it, and the brakes were obviously better. i got about 1/4 mile and my car almost died. i guess i should have put gas in it. i drove a bit further down the road, asked if there was a gas station that way, he said "no" so i did u-turn to head back to the closest station. the car died and i coasted across the road and up to a pump. whew! i got out and put some gas in it, then we were on our way again. the brakes seemed fine. so fixing the brakes cost about $120: $40 for the bleed/flush and $80 for the hose/labor. anyway, i recommend these guys. they seemed fair, and willing to explain to and discuss things with me.

after leaving brake check, i went back by the pipe store to pick up another thing of tobacco. i had smelled it earlier and it reminded me of...something relating to our family land. maybe the house, or the barn. i couldn't place it exactly. but i smelled it again and it was still in there. i'm going to send some to my dad and brother and see if they can connect the smell as well.

saturday evening i went over to the potts and watched snl, then i came home and watched district 9 on netflix streaming. it was a good movie, although i wasn't overwhelmed by it. i seem to recall hearing it was done pretty cheaply, and if that's the case then the cg work is pretty impressive.

sunday afternoon i ate lunch with the potts, then sunday evening i went over and had supper at the potts. we had pierogies, sausage and links, sauerkraut, french bread, and real ale's devil's backbone (a belgian-style tripel). later that night jack and i watched art & copy via streaming netflix. it's a documentary, sort of about the history of advertising in america but really focused on the work/history of about six or so gods or rock stars in advertising. it was pretty interesting, although i think i would have liked it more if it delved into the creative process and the life cycle of ads from brainstorming to print more than being more of a reminiscing. they tried to stitch it, or add a different angle, by interleaving data and interviews with a guy who actually puts up billboards -- but, while connected in a general sense by the topic of the film, it really seemed sort of disjointed instead of in the flow.

today i ate a late lunch with the potts, then i headed over to the half price books on westheimer way out west. i picked up a few comics to add to wheresthatbeen.com, and i bought a few cds and a book for myself:

• belle and sebastian - the life pursuit (rough trade)
• circlesquare - songs about dancing and drugs (!k7)
• japanic - red book (plethorazine / southwest wholesale)

not sure i'll like the belle and sebastian, but i figured i'd pick it up and try it. i'm hopeful about circlesquare based on the label he's on and the description of his stuff i read via google. japanic was a local houston band...i think i heard them on ktru back in 2001 or something and always meant to try and see them and pick up their cd(s). well, i finally got this one. (i think they had two, one before this one.)

• the torrents of spring - ivan turgenev (grove press)

tonight i finished watching alexander nevsky, a 1938 russian film by eisenstein. it tells the story of alexander nevsky, a 13th century russian prince who (for the part of his life the movie is concerned with) protected novgorod (and thus most of what is now russia) from the germans (an order of the teutonic knights, actually). it was, in fact, part of the northern crusades -- the roman catholic church trying to take north and east (pagans and orthodox) instead of the east (muslims and the holy land). by chance ;), at the time this movie was made and released the nazis just happened to be building in germany and looking at russia. this was a motivational call to arms to the russian people to defend their homeland from invaders (such as...oh, the germans). in fact, nevsky was used throughout that time period as a symbol of protecting russia from the invading germans. the movie worked, as nevsky is still considered one of the most important people in russian history by the russian people.

here's the rest of the stuff i mentioned last time that i ordered from amazon and ebay:

• the knife - silent shout 2-lp vinyl (rabid / brille / mute)
• madness - one step beyond... (salvo / union square)
• madness - absolutely (salvo / union square)
• madness - 7 (salvo / union square)
• miss kittin - batbox (nobody's bizzness)
• trentemoller - the last resort (high note / poker flat)
• various - the box collection no. 1 (international deejay gigolos)

the knife album is a still-sealed 2-lp vinyl version. the 3 madness cds are 2-cd re-releases. they have remastered versions of the original albums, plus some videos, plus b-sides and live recordings and such. these are their first three albums. (evidently they are going to do this will all 7 of their old albums.) and for the record, somehow i never knew (or i forgot) the self-titled madness album i played and loved all those many years was actually a compilation album. even though i had a cassette copy of one step beyond.... the miss kittin album is a fairly recent release of hers. the trentemoller cd is an asian version which has an extra bonus cd of remixes. it's an interesting jewel case design too...i'm not sure if it's common in other countries or it's just uncommon in general. and finally is the gigolos box, which includes the first four dj gigolos compilations (plus a bonus disc, unless comp 4 was always 2 cds...they pitch it as a bonus disc).

last friday night (21st) i got off work and though "man, i feel like going out and doing something." unfortunately, i have no single friends that i hang out and do stuff with, so i had no one to call or meet up with somewhere -- so i just drove around awhile, then came home and watched a movie by myself. i ended up watching machine girl (2008), which is one of those hyper-violent / extreme asian films. in other words, tons of gratuitous and completely over-the-top blood and gore and such. it was kind of stupid.

saturday (22nd) i went and watched the film exit through the gift shop at river oaks. it's a documentary (of sorts) about the street art scene. it's supposedly done by banksy, although his identity is sort of secret. the story is that this french guy obsessively films everything and lucks into hanging out with and filming all of these street art guys, then says he's making a documentary, then befriends banksy. he has tons of film but no skills with editing, so banksy says he'll take over and tells the guy to go do street art. he does and becomes mr. brainwash. the movie never really lets you know what's real and what's not, but it's obviously edited to poke fun at art culture. my personal opinion is that the entire movie is pretty much an elaborate setup, and mr. brainwash (who in real life had a giant opening in l.a., sells art, does interviews, etc.) is a giant joke on the "elite" art community. the movie doesn't state that bluntly, and no one has admitted the joke, but come on..."mr. brainwash"? and his techniques are basically ripoffs of other street artists? and in the film some of his comments about himself once he becomes "mbw" seem to totally come off as belittling what he does (without his realizing what he is implying about himself)? the movie starts off believably, but once you get to the part where banksy takes over it gets somewhat asinine. i have a hard time believing banksy isn't "taking the piss." however, it's still cool to see all of the footage of these famous street artists at work, getting arrested, etc. which is what i think the actual point of the film was. i'm betting banksy, sort of like andy kaufman, is in it for the personal lulz and doesn't care if almost no one else is let in on it. but then i really liked kaufman's mindset.

sunday morning (23rd) i got up early. even earlier than i do for work. why? because myself and a couple of co-workers had made plans to go down to galveston for the day. first we went on an airboat tour of part of the bay. the water was murky and i didn't see much of anything in the water at all (i finally saw one small stingray, murkily, for a couple of seconds), but now no one can say i've never been on an airboat. from there we headed over to the strand and walked away for awhile, eventually eating at fisherman's wharf. i don't like seafood so i had the burger. it wasn't that good. then we walked on the strand some more, ending up at a "bar". it was like a biker bar, sort of, but i don't think they have a liquor license because all i saw for sell was beer and machine-mixed mixed drinks. so they are probably wine-based. we were there for a bit, then we headed back to houston. it doesn't sound too exciting i suppose, but it was nice to hang out with the guys outside of work and do something different.

man, i'm about tired of things. i ordered several books on russian from amazon, which arrived recently. i'll list them later. i'm not sure why i want to try and learn one of the more difficult languages to learn, since i've never learned any others and have no reason to believe i can do it.

the last few days i've been trying to play with my korg electribe sampler, seeing if i can manage to do something besides come up with cool 1-bar or 4-bar loops. (which i've done.) i've never really tried to write out a full song before.

i finished paying off the "one year no interest loan" (credit card with 0% interest for a year) i used to help get the engine put in my bel air. i still owe myself a bit for the trip to taiwan, but i should have that paid off within the month. then i can start saving some money to do some more work to the bel air.

i'm still sticking to my "no tea, coffee, or soda" and "no fries or chips" stance. i don't really know that it's doing much of anything, but i'd assume it's got to be cutting 200 to 700 calories a day from my normal eating patterns. but if i want to see results of any value, i'm sure i need to exercise too. i hate exercising. i hate it with a passion. end results do not motivate me to do it. nothing motivates me to do it. it may be a contributing factor to my life sucking, but at least i'm not having to exercise. ;)

i'll catch up things from the last few days in another post. i want to go ahead and put this one out instead of sitting on it even longer. (i originally wrote it about a week ago.)

tuesday and thursday nights i watched the two parts of ivan the terrible. it's yet another russian film by eisenstein. this one was filmed later than his others i've watched, so it's a talkie! but it seems like a stage acting style also took over -- it feels much more like filming of a stage play than the earlier movies (that i watched). by "stage acting style" i mean overly dramatic gestures and facial expressions, etc. it was kind of out of control. it was interesting just for some history about the russian czar system and what was before it.

speaking of russian history, i'm still trying to figure out a way for me to move to russia. it doesn't seem like the job market there is very active, at least for foreigners looking for tech jobs. i've started to consider teaching english, since there is some demand for that. but it doesn't pay that well, and it can be sort of a crappy job (depending on the company you work for, etc.). plus i'm not actually a teacher, nor do i have a teaching background. and my degree and experience are technical, not in linguistics or some area of liberal arts that might relate better. but it'd get me over there and some of them would give me a chance to learn russian while i'm teaching. of course, i've also starting wondering if russia is a very safe or stable place for me to be. i really have enjoyed reading russian novels, watching russian movies, and i think the culture and history are interesting (plus i enjoyed many aspects of the time i spent with a russian -- the hrc -- here, although she didn't really seem to care about her russian background much), but i've heard a lot of stories about russia being a sort of hardened, rough kind of place due to their history. (not just recent, either.) so i don't know. plus the two big cities for jobs are moscow and st. petersburg, and they are both pretty far north and really cold for stretches. i'd still like to do it anyway, because, "hey, why not?" it'd be way out of my comfort zone, and what really do i have to lose anyway?

i got my car back on friday. the new shop i took it to was very good about contacting me, telling me what was going on, etc. it turns out houston performance had pretty much not adjusted any of the valves correctly (with one on the driver's side having over 1/2 inch of play). in addition, they'd not put the distributor on correctly so the timing was all off. and they'd re-used the gasket on the thermostat housing at the manifold so it was leaking. the new shop fixed all that stuff, although they said even with a new gasket the old thermostat housing was still leaking some so they put on a new one. (that's probably because the original mechanic re-used a lot of parts of my old engine.) the only out-of-pocket cost to me was the new housing. i talked for some time with both of them during my visits, and they both seem to be knowledgeable and professional. i'm thinking it's very possible i'll be looking to them to do some work for me in the (near?) future.

of course, it wouldn't be my car if something wasn't wrong. so with the engine seemingly fixed, something new had to start up. now it feels like my brakes are constantly at least partially on. (yes, i checked to see if i left the parking brake on.) in addition, my brake pedal feels really tight, like it won't depress much (as much as it used to). it also feels like my brakes don't work as well, so it takes me longer to stop. i don't see how any work of either shop should have affected my brakes. i guess it's possible that during the tow the towing hooks crimped one of the metal brake lines or something. i'm not sure yet. it's just yet another thing to keep me dealing with the car instead of enjoying it. my pickup, on the other hand -- while sounding like crap and being in moderate to bad shape -- just keeps plugging along.

saturday i went by ikea, then headed to an auditorium at a middle school to see calista perform in a dance recital. the whole thing was a bit painful. (not meaning calista's performance or anything.) i mean: all of the kids dressed up and performing on stage, all of the proud and overly support parents, all of the costumes and music and announcing. i kind of felt like the jaded guy with earplugs in little miss sunshine. fortunately, none of the dances played the song "superfreak", so i didn't have to stand up at the end and yell "yeeeeah!"

this evening i watched video games: behind the fun (by the history channel) on netflix streaming. it's somewhat outdated, but it provides some interesting tidbits of info about the history of computer gaming. plus it's kind of fun to see people talking about some of the older games, as well as what was current and expected at the time the show was made.

friday night was the geek gathering at coffee groundz. i once again got to play dj. which is basically me picking songs off my ipod one by one. i'm not sure if anyone cares, but it keeps me somewhat entertained. i'd like it if i could actually dj (i.e., cross-fade via two sources, loop, etc.), but i don't have the skills. or the equipment.

saturday i went with the potts to the art car parade. i found jay and dwight where they were announcing, but they were busy so i didn't interrupt. it's sometimes weird being in that huge of a crowd who pretty much all live in the same city and realizing i don't really know any of them. it reminds me of how few people i actually know.

afterward, jack dropped sue and the kids off with me at my house and he took off for some work. the kids played around while sue tried to help me dig up a smallish tree and its roots. its root system was big and going under the corner of the house and concrete walkway. we got it about 3/4 free, but that 1/4 kept it from budging. i broke my new tie-down strap trying to pull the tree/roots with my pickup. later i drove them all back to their house, and i hung out there until late. when i left, i borrowed my chainsaw from them.

today i got up and went to work on the tree again. the chainsaw was better, but wasn't working that well. i decided to go buy a new chain and some chain lube. the new chain helped a lot. but it was still stubborn. i left and went and ate with the potts, then came back and worked on the tree some more. i finally got the big root torn/pulled out. unfortunately, some of it goes under the concrete for the walkway, so i think it will grow back. but maybe not. i thought about buying some root killer stuff, but i had pulled up some lillies or some kind of bulb plant that was right next to the tree, so i wanted to try and get them replanted before they died. (of course, they might die anyway, but i tried to give them a fighting chance.) you might be surprised to learn i don't have to do much of anything physical for my job, nor do i ever exercise. so my hands and body don't seem too excited about the physical labor involved in pulling up a tree.

this past tuesday evening i watched the vanished empire (2008). it's set in russia in the 1970's, and follows a high school kid dealing with friends, relationships, and "rebellion" by going against his family's intellectual heritage. instead he sells his family's books at second hand stores, buys contraband american rock albums on the black market, drinks, chases women, gets in fights, etc. difficulties ensue and he has to come to terms with his choices and his path in life. it was a pretty good movie.

this evening i watched 12 (2007), which is a modern russian reworking of 12 angry men. it deals with a chechen teen accused of murdering his russian step-father with a knife. the jurors are from various backgrounds with various baggage/perspectives. the film intermixes the jurors deliberating with scenes from the chechen kid's past. the characters are kind of quirky, the acting a bit odd at times, and there are some weird bits of symbolism and such -- but in the end i thought the movie finished off really well and i think it's worth a view.

even though i'm still waiting on some things i've ordered, i'm going to go ahead and list the stuff i've already received:

• adult. - suck the air 7" clear vinyl 378/2000 (ersatz audio)
• the dead milkmen - bucky fellini (restless / fever)
• the dead milkmen - chaos rules: live at the trocadero (restless)
• devo - e-z listening disc (ryko)
• the knife - hannah med h soundtrack (rabid / cooperative / v2)
• kraftwerk - the catalogue (klingklang)
• lowfish - frozen & broken (noise factory)
• memory systems - ad placement for the collective unconscious (form)
• miss kittin - radio caroline vol. 1 (mental groove / emperor norton)
• miss kittin - a bugged out mix by miss kittin (system / resist)
• various - electrecord cd 2000 (k7 / electrecord)

i'm close to having all of the adult. stuff now. just a few more vinyl, although the few left are mostly pretty scarce. i'm not sure how i never got bucky fellini, since i really liked the dead milkmen. but i never had. i picked up the live album on a whim since the guy selling bucky fellini had the other for sale too. the "musak" devo album put out by ryko in1987 is kind of hard to find, and usually sells for $25 or so. i scored one at about $9 so i was pretty happy. and it's in great shape! the knife cd is a soundtrack album they did for a movie. a movie i can't find on netflix. the kraftwerk bit is an album-sized box set containing 8 of their albums (it's missing the first three they ever did), all remastered. new artwork, 12x12 booklets for each album all in a hard slipcase, etc. i used a 40% off coupon from border's so i got it at a pretty reasonable price. the rest on the list above are i guess all considered part of the "electroclash" scene of the late 90's and early 2000's. although miss kittin is also a dj, and her two albums are dj mixes she did (a bugged out mix containing two sets/cds).

i told work i was going to be out this morning to go pick up my car. jack and his daughters gave me ride up to the place. the place is houston performance (houston performance website), located on 249 a little inside beltway 8 north. i walked in and after a minute or two the owner (steve) showed up and said "yeah? oh, it's you. the keys are in it." when he had called a few days ago to let me know the car was ready, i thought it was odd he just said "your car's ready" since i'd asked him about doing some other work for me, like looking at the clutch, problems shifting, trying to see if my transmission has overdrive, etc. but he hadn't talked at all about anything, just "your car's ready". so i now asked him about the shifting (as one thing), and he said "yeah, it's messed up. you need to talk to a transmission guy. i've got a card for one." i said "so you didn't look at any of the other stuff?" to which he replied "yeah, it's not really our thing." i was kind of annoyed he completely blew off everything i'd asked about, especially given he'd made it sound like they could look at that stuff. but, oh well, what could i do? i wasn't having to pay them so i wasn't losing anything. i went out and got in the car and took off.

within 50 feet the engine was clicking just like when i dropped it off. "well," i thought, "maybe it just needs to get some oil in it when it starts up." so i kept driving it. no, the sound was...worse. louder. same sound though. we were only going about 1.5 miles to eat, so when we got there i told jack and we turned around and went back to the shop.

i walked into the office and the boss and his two workers were sitting in chairs. i said "the car's still making the same sound. i think it's worse now than it was before." they looked at each other for awhile without saying anything, then the boss said "well, i don't know what to tell you. we did what edelbrock told us to do." pause. "i thought it sounded better. but i didn't drive it. you?" (aside: this comment is rather interesting considering the first time i was there he talked to me about my shifting/transmission as if he'd looked into it some.) one of the other guys replied "nah, i just started it up and moved it back. so, uh...." pause. then the boss said "i guess you need to just call edelbrock." that was evidently all they cared to say on the matter. i was shocked. they hardly talked, would hardly make eye contact...not a single one of them went out to look at or listen to the car. they couldn't even bother to get out of their fscking seats. i turned around and walked out. (and for the record, i was not angry, confrontational, taking attitude, or anything at any point with them.)

i went back to my car and immediately called edelbrock. fortunately the guy at edelbrock was at his desk and answered his phone. i told him the story and he seemed surprised. i told him i was still in the parking lot, so he said he'd call the shop. i sat outside and waited while he called and talked to them. while waiting and checking my engine, i noticed that several cosmetic hex nut inserts that go on top of the rocker arm covers were missing (which i'd never noticed being gone before.) i could see oil left on the spark plug wires and headers they didn't clean off. so i guess at least i could tell they'd done something to the engine. after some time, he called me back and said the guy told him he thought it'd been fixed. i was still letting the car idle, so i told him i could let him hear it over the phone. he was shocked a shop would give an engine back to someone when it sounded like that. he even brought a mechanic over and let him listen to it over the phone. he was shocked and said it sounded bad too. i told him how they'd acted, and he told me he got the impression they weren't really interested in dealing with this at all, so he thought we should take it to another shop. i agreed, saying i was concerned at this point they would be annoyed with me, even though none of this was my fault at all. the edelbrock guy agreed. i made sure i should still be able to drive it, since it was making the same sound as before and he'd told me i could drive it. he said it was fine. note during the 20 or 30 minutes i was outside and they were on the phone with edelbrock, plus the time they were off the phone with and i was talking to edelbrock, they never came out to me or anything. their bay doors were open and i was right there near them. i hopped in the car and off we went back to the place to eat.

about 200 or 300 yards into the drive, my car started making a new sound. a bad sound. not a high-pitched ticking like with the lifter knock, but a low-pitched loud clanging/thunking...more like pistons hitting valves or something. i let off the gas and it subsided, so i hoped it was temporary. but the next time i gave it some gas and started to get rpms beyond idle it started doing it again. it did this a couple of times, so i ended up having to mostly let the car coast or move at very low speeds. i called the edelbrock guy while driving and told him the new twist, and gave the car some gas to let him hear the engine. (oh, it was way loud enough to hear over a phone.) he said that sounded really bad and i shouldn't drive it. i agreed. to be honest, it sounded about like my previous engine did before it blew. (thank goodness i hadn't immediately taken it onto a highway, because it may have happened under high rpm at highway speeds, and it might have been really bad.) i was at the parking lot for the restaurant so i pulled in and stopped the engine. he said he'd talk to his guys and come up with a plan. i told him i had aaa, so i could tow it somewhere. he said they could pay for it, but if i wanted to use my aaa he'd appreciate it.

we ate, then we left my car and went to an auto zone to get a fuse for jack's van. he called me and said he was trying to get me into fast lane. which looked like a very nice shop from when i looked up their web site a couple of months ago. plus it was only a few miles from where my car was. i felt pretty confident fast lane would probably do a good job. but then he called me back later and said fast lane was overbooked and couldn't take me. so he told me he was calling the Texas edelbrock rep to find somewhere, and he'd call me back. so we went to the mall. he called me back an hour or so later with contact info for a new shop to try.

so i called them. they couldn't take my car today. *sigh* so i had to get my car towed to my house, and i'm supposed to tow it to their shop (which is only about 7 miles from my house) tomorrow. of course, i had to miss the whole day of work, which wasn't planned. and now i'm going to have to miss part of work tomorrow too. i called aaa and set up the towing, but i also learned aaa only gives you 4 free tows a year (i thought it was 5) and i had already used 3. so today was my last free aaa tow until my membership renews (in august). so i called edelbrock back and told them i couldn't use aaa tomorrow because my free tows were gone. he told me keep the receipt and edelbrock would reimburse me.

now, at this point i'm a little worried about what is going on with my engine. i'm hopeful that everything will be taken care of under warranty, especially since the edelbrock rep has been on the phone with me for the whole ordeal today (as well as the last couple of months in getting it into a shop) -- but anytime stuff like this happens i always get worried that they're going to find some reason to blame me or the mechanic that put the engine in or something. i don't think that'll happen this time -- i drove it probably 1000 or 2000 miles with the lifter knock and no other problems before houston performance had it -- but who knows? i spent a lot of money buying a brand name "performance" crate engine, and had to pay way more than i thought i was going to have to in order to get it installed. so it'd just be nice if you spend the money to get nice stuff done that it would fscking work. it's annoying to feel like you could have spent money better on getting crappy work and crappy parts and it all probably would have worked better. or at least it would feel like you got your money's worth.

but mostly what i'm on about right now is houston performance. they are a mustang shop, and almost all they had there were mustangs. so maybe they don't deal with my kind of engine often. but why did they agree to take my job, tell me (and edelbrock) they could do stuff (and the edelbrock guy said they described the work properly), but then act as if they'd washed their hands of the whole thing and were completely disinterested in the work they were supposed to have performed when the work they did didn't fix the problem? and now it seems very likely that something they did while working on my car has actually made it really messed up. (even if it turns out to be an easy fix.) i'm pretty sure if i would have pushed the engine, it would have irrecoverable damage. hopefully just the little amount i did drive it today didn't mess it up. based on my experience with houston performance today, i don't think they'd give a sh!t anyway.

maybe you can expect that sort of crap from some shade tree mechanic that is self-taught, irresponsible, and (perhaps) incompetent. but i don't see how a business that is supposedly "performance" and specialty can act like that. seriously? blow off customers and their problems, ones that you were specifically contracted to work on? even if it's outside of your normal work/experience range, what you don't do as a professional business is act like you could care less about the work you did and the operation of the vehicle you just worked on. it's beyond unprofessional, it's almost a level of poor customer service and inconsideration that you have to work at to achieve.

i guess we'll see what happens with yet another shop. why is it so hard to find a mechanic that is competent and professional? i sure hope this new place turns out to be an exception to most mechanic shops. if they seem to be, i'll certainly sing their praises.

i've watched a few movies, all via netflix streaming:
4 (2005) - this is a modern russian film. it starts off with 3 strangers plus the bartender hanging out and talking in a bar. they basically all lie about what they do for a living, for whatever reason. the pace is pretty slow, but all of the stuff before and including the bar scene was pretty interesting. after they leave the bar, the movie gets rather weird. and really slow. (the movie clocks in at over 2 hours, and the bar scene portion is about the first 30 minutes.) the girl from the bar finds out a sister died, so she treks into the country for the funeral. (i mean like 15+ minutes of trains and her walking through mist and mud.) a lot of stuff is somewhat surreal from that point on, and some of the lies from the bar are perhaps hinted at as actually being true, although nothing is for sure. most of her story involves a bunch of old women crying, yelling, fighting, gorging, getting drunk, yelling, and sewing dolls. i'm not sure i can recommend the movie, although it was...unique. i think part of its point is to show the huge difference between urban and rural russia, as well as modern and "old" russia, in modern times, but there's more than that.
the battleship potemkin (1925) - this is a classic silent black and white russian film by eisenstein. it tells the story of some of the beginnings of the bolshevik revolution, starting with mutiny on a military ship and including the resulting anger and then crackdown in odessa. (not Texas :) it's definitely has a pro-soviet propaganda slant, but it's interesting historically.
the king of kong: a fistful of quarters (2007) - a story about drama around the world record score for the stand-up arcade game donkey kong. steve wiebe got laid off and decided to try and beat the 20+ year old donkey kong record set by billy mitchell in 1982. no one had ever gotten close. he did it, but drama ensued. this documentary delves into the world record score arcade scene and culture, the players, the fighting, etc. this is a really cool film! i highly recommend it.
man, woman and the wall (2007) - this is a japanese film about a magazine reporter who moves into an apartment building with thin walls, and he can hear the hot girl in the apartment next door. he gets kind of creepy about learning things about her and finding ways to listen to her better and fantasizing about her, but her current actual boyfriend is really screwed up. i think this is sort of a male fantasy movie where the sort of creepy infatuated guy defeats an even creepier perverted guy and gets the hot chick. but the movie was okay for what it was. :)
october - ten days that shook the world (1927) - this is another classic russian black and white silent film by eisenstein. this was sanctioned to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the bolshevik revolution (1917). like ...potemkin it's pretty heavy-handed propaganda. the peasants and bolsheviks all portrayed as great, friendly, people of character, all others (provincial government, tsar system, etc.) are grotesque, odd, laughable and/or evil. plus it embellishes the gravity of the events leading up to and during the october revolution. but the general history is accurate, and it was filmed in actual locations just ten years after the events, so it's got some pretty impressive visual historical value. plus eisenstein was ahead of his time as far as directing/editing.

saturday afternoon i went by sears and picked up a new washing machine raj bought online. i brought it home and got it all hooked up and such. so on sunday i was finally ale to do some much-needed laundry.

i recently finished the best short stories of dostoevsky, which included "notes from the underground". i think i might need some notes from a scholar to better understand some aspects of that story. i did enjoy "a gentle creature", "white nights", and "the honest thief" though.

the shop called me and my belair is ready to be picked up. hopefully it'll actually be fixed. this month i'll also finish paying off the credit card i used to get the engine and other stuff (thus resulting in a 0% interest loan, except for the one automated payment glitch which cost me a late payment fee). and i should be close to done paying myself back for the money i borrowed from my ranch account. which will leave the harley as my only debt.

i've gotten a few things from ebay and amazon, but i'll detail all that once most or all of it arrives.

last tuesday night i watched a 99 cent itunes rental: happy campers. it's about a group of camp counselors and their goings on at a summer camp. it sort of plays like it could have been cool, but unfortunately it comes up very, very short. there is a lot of moral ambiguity, and a lot of complexity, and some darkness, and things are "learned" i suppose -- but it's couched in so much slapstick and goofiness, and perhaps is too unfocused or has too many irons in the fire, that it doesn't come across as dark or complex as much as shallow and silly and you just don't really care about the characters. (except maybe pixel. but that's because i'm screwed up. :) when i was watching it i kept thinking "it's got the possibility to be a great, extremely dark comedy like heathers, but it falls so short." interestingly enough, and unknown to me at the time, this was the directorial debut of daniel waters...who wrote the heathers screenplay (and also wrote this one).

thursday i called the auto shop to ask about the lifters from edelbrock. they said they'd had them for a few weeks. *sigh* i them i'd drop it off monday.

thursday night i watched zach galifianakis: live on netflix streaming. zach's humour is odd, groan-inducing, and much of the time awkward and stilted...but man, is he funny.

friday during the day we suddenly had a major saturday dr test that had been in the works for months cancelled. someone higher up complained at the last minute i guess. it seems kind of stupid since it'd been on the calendar for a long time, and i'm not sure the testing would have affected anything related to this person anyway. whatever. it's kind of annoying to be all geared up and prepared to do some work in uncharted territory, then have the plug pulled at the last second. it also meant my saturday was suddenly free.

friday night i came home and didn't see any interesting live music shows going on, so i stayed at home and watched a 99 cent itunes rental: rescue dawn. it's based on the true story of dieter dengler, a german-american u.s. pilot who got shot down during a bombing run over laos before the u.s. was supposed to be involved there (pre-vietnam war). he got captured and spent months in a prison camp. eventually he planned an escape, and somehow made it far enough to get rescued. christian bale plays the main character, and it was directed by werner herzog. it plays a bit slow, and doesn't feel like it tries to pump drama like a lot of movies -- but i thought that made it feel more realistic and true, and i really liked the style.

of course, i didn't really take advantage of the open saturday. i'd thought about going on a motorcycle rally ride, but it got canceled due to the major weather going through most of Texas. (it was a ride to san antonio and then to kinky friedman's utopia animal shelter.) so instead i just took my bike to a fundraiser wash brad was doing for his youth group. i'd been waiting to wash it due to the weather being colder, so i was happy it was going to finally be all cleaned up. but i learned there was stuff all over the bike that couldn't be washed off. grr. a while back late at night i'd had to drive through some liquid running across the highway where they were doing some work. it was a tan/grey liquid, and it looked like they were cutting the concrete. well, evidently whatever that tan/grey stuff is, it stuck to my paint, my chrome...pretty much everything. i'm hoping maybe some tar remover will clean it off, but i don't know yet.

remember me replacing raj's busted washer with mine? well, now my washer isn't working right. it does everything okay except it won't do the spin cycle at all. i spent a couple of hours sunday pulling it apart, removing the motor, taking off the clutch assembly (and breaking one of the stupid pad support prongs), testing the motor, etc. i'm not sure what the problem is, but i cleaned up the clutch assembly and if i can fix the pad support (jb weld?) i'll see if cleaning the clutch assembly fixed it. otherwise it's either the motor burning out (in tests it still works during the spin cycle with no load) or the motor-to-basket transmission seizing. in either case, i think it'd cost so much to get replacement parts it'd be more cost effective to just ditch it and buy a new one with a warranty.

sunday night i watched extreme engineering: offshore oil via netflix streaming. it's a documentary about a company in mississippi that is building a "jack-up rig" for the gulf of mexico. while it talks about deep water offshore drilling rigs, how they work, how they're set up and moved and such, most of it deals with some of the process the company was going through in the process of building out one of these while the film crew was there. it was interesting to find out more about how they do this stuff.

monday i took off work in the afternoon and dropped off the belair at the shop. jack and the kids went up with me and gave me a ride back to my house. we stopped and at saltgrass steakhouse on the way back.

monday night i watched the 99 cent itunes rental bad lieutenant. i'd seen it a few years ago and didn't see what the fascination people seem to have with it. i thought perhaps a few years' time might change my perspective of it. nope. it's not that it's bad or anything, i just don't find it deserving of a lot of praise. it doesn't move me. and i still think harvey keitel's periods of anguished wailing seem odd and unnatural rather than moving.

tonight i watched the island via netflix streaming. no, not the michael bay film from 2005 with scarlett johansson. this is ostrov, a russian film from 2006. it's about a man who makes a fateful decision under pressure as a young man, and ends up in a remote russian orthodox monastery as a father who seems to be crazy but is visited by a lot of people because of the powers/insight he seems to have. he is constantly seeking forgiveness for his sins, particularly for that fateful decision he made. all of the other orthodox fathers struggle to deal with him. he is what is considered a "fool for christ". the pace is slow, but the visuals and contemplative nature of the story are beautiful. the dynamics of the interactions of the characters and what it reveals about people -- our perceptions, our vices, our misunderstandings, etc. -- is really great. you really should see this beautiful film, particularly if you search for something deeper and more meaningful to christianity than a lot of the mainstream american stuff you see around you. and from reviews, evidently it really hits at the heart of russian culture as it ties to faith. the more i think about the movie, the more i like it.

i've now gone two weeks without having any soda, tea, or coffee. mostly water, some fruit juice. i've also been pretty successful at avoiding eating purely "filler" sides. i've completely avoided fries and chips so far. i'm sure i'm still making poor eating choices, but i'm not trying to be healthy, just healthier. and it's probably just temporary anyway.

when i finally did "get up" i still felt awful, but the illness had "broken" and it wasn't *as* bad. with much difficulty, i convinced myself to get in my car and drive to a clinic. i got there around 1:30pm. and of course they were out to lunch until 2pm. so i went to the house of pies and ate a big bowl of fruit and drank water. i went back to the clinic and they gave me a 10-day supply of horse pill antibiotics. i also picked up some cans of soup (2 low-sodium chicken noodle and 1 won ton) and "hint of salt" premium crackers.

thursday was about the same as wednesday. in total on wednesday and thursday i ate two big bowls of fruit with water, one english muffin, and three cans of soup with crackers. i also learned salt adds a lot of flavor to campbell's chicken noodle soup. but i wasn't feeling up to being picky. i had no energy and felt too crappy to go to work, but i'd slept so much my body didn't want to sleep. so of course i ended up watching the television. but not cable, i watched movies. (and all but the first was via netflix online streaming.) here's what i watched, and my thoughts:

• picture this: the times of peter bogdanovich in archer city - this was actually an itunes 99 cent rental. it was interesting, as i really like the last picture show, but it's a documentary and not explosive or anything. it gives some interesting history of the various people and what was going on in their lives before, during, and between the filming of the two movies in archer city. it also discusses archer city's opinion of itself as an object of mcmurtry's writings, citizens take on the people, places, etc.
• this is england - a semi-autobiographical story about a young school kid in england whose father dies in the falkland war, and his having to deal with that. he ends up befriending some skinheads (which isn't in and of itself a bad thing, as most skinheads aren't evil or racist...although they are sort of gang/mob-mentality-oriented usually). but an older skinhead who went to prison comes back with white power ideas and everything gets messed up. it is a good movie.
• fast food, fast women - i had already seen it before. it's a kind of odd movie about quirky people in new york acting quirky. but there's an innocence to it that makes it cute, even though there are really a lot of kind of bad situations and choices. i wouldn't say the acting is that great overall either. but it's a quaint story.
• the price of milk - this is a surrealistic story set in new zealand. the colors are pretty nice in the film. the story is odd. imagine perhaps a classic fairy tale, but set in modern new zealand. odd "magical" things happen, and sometimes people in the movie think it's odd, sometimes not. mostly it plays like a fairy tale -- bad choices, evil people, manipulation, trickery, and -- something not in all classic fairy tales -- a happy ending.
• the animatrix - i had already seen this, but there are some *really* good segments. various animation styles and various storytelling styles, but the world/framework created in the matrix provides such interesting possibilities.
• le femme nikita - i saw this a few years ago, but it is worth seeing again. it made me miss the hrc. :)
• lady vengeance - this is a korean film, the last in the "revenge" trilogy (which includes oldboy, which i've also seen). a young lady confesses to a murder she didn't commit, and during the years she spends in prison (acting like the model prisoner, but being anything but) she plans her revenge on the person who forced her to confess to the murder. beautiful imagery, graphic and disturbing. i love the importance asian cultures place on symbolism, ritual, customs, honour, etc.
• for all mankind - this is a documentary based on video and audio footage from the volumes of material from the apollo missions. it's really cool to see documentary footage of the astronauts and engineers and crafts and everything from then. it was an amazing feat of determination and will (and luck), and it must be incredible to have been a part of it. all that stuff is what made me want to be a part of the space program when i was a kid. but the drive and support died in lots of ways before i made it, both for the program and inside myself. it's still cool to know that i *did* make it though, and for 4 years actually was a part of the u.s. space program as an aerospace engineer. (and 2.5 more as a unix admin.) usually the job was boring and drab, but every now and then i'd have a moment of clarity and think "i'm at jsc working at nasa on the space program. how *fscking* rad is that?"

friday i went back to work, even though i still wasn't feeling too great. but it went okay. it was a maintenance window, so i actually didn't have to go in until the afternoon. but of course i had to work until around midnight.

saturday i ate lunch with the potts, then i went and saw how to train your dragon in 3d with them. this being an animated film, it was "filmed" in 3d, so the 3d stuff was better than clash of the titans. i still think it's gimmicky though, and i'm not sure why some people seem so excited by it. the movie was fun to watch and was a cute story. some of the animation bits were really impressive, even if the characters were very cartoony. i had forgotten about it being record store day, so in the early evening i went to a couple of places to see if i could pick up the devo 7" of new songs. no luck. i had been thinking about doing something that night, but my body reminded me it was still sick and still had way less than normal levels of energy. i ended up staying home and watching snl by myself, then going to bed.

sue had been bugging me the last several days to get a neti pot, as she'd recently started using one and evidently thought they rocked. neti pots are the short long pots (like tea pots or watering pots) that are used to irrigate your nasal passages. yeah, you take lukewarm saltwater and pour it up your nose for a minute or two. it sounded odd, but i watched a lot of youtube videos of people doing it (including doing it horribly "wrong"), so i figured "how bad could i do at it?" i ended up buying one at whole foods (a nice ceramic multi-colored glazed one) along with some fine-grain non-iodized salt for it (you can also use kosher or sea salt). i then went over to the potts and all of us (minus sue, who was working) ate at sweet tomatoes. then we went to fry's. at fry's i bought a new multimeter (i've only ever owned pocket ones, so this full-size one is my first), a bit set for very small screws (security, hex, torx, etc.), 3 different color 7ft cat 6 cables, and a netgear 5-port gigabit switch (with management features...which unfortunately is configured with software for windows only).

when i got home, i broke out the neti pot. i was a bit nervous, but i'd seen plenty of people do it on youtube and read enough about it to not feel too freaked. the deal is, if you get the salinity and temperature right, it doesn't burn or feel painful or anything. so i mixed it up and...it feels a little odd, but it didn't feel like burning or getting water up your nose (haha). and it definitely helped clean out some stuff that was just sort of hanging out up in my sinuses. after i was done with that i set up my new switch and cables. it's to network all of my home entertainment center devices, which were previously all on an old 10base netgear hub. i'm hoping it'll provide a better pipe for streaming and downloading with my apple tv and samsung blu-ray (it's what does netflix streaming).

i should also mention after having gone 4 days or so without any soda, tea, coffee, etc., and having eaten "healthier" stuff, i decided to try and continue that for awhile. i've now gone one week without sodas, tea, coffee, etc. and i've decided to not get combos with fries. i'm not trying to become a health nut or anything, i just figure cutting out sugary sodas and fries should get rid of a fair number of calories i normally consume because they're there. even if i continue to eat everything else the same, that'll probably cut my calorie intake one third i'd bet. i've done this before though, so i doubt it'll last too horribly long. it begins to lose its value when you don't see any results in making the effort to sacrifice something and change your habits. (it's either that or my ex's theory that i hate myself...choices, choices.)

i still feel somewhat sick today, even though i've been taking the meds. since antibiotics usually work pretty fast, i'm guessing this was actually a virus. hopefully the antibiotics will at least keep anything else from cropping up during my body's weakened state from fighting the virus.

tonight i watched (via netflix streaming) this film is not yet rated, a documentary film about the inconsistent and secretive practices and ratings of the mpaa that also serves as an attempt to expose the "secret" raters. while i wasn't shocked by much about the mpaa and their behaviour, it was interesting to learn more about just how few people make the arbitrary and somewhat inconsistent decisions about the rating each movie gets. and how horribly secretive they want it all to be.

"...that if our paths cross again, you're going to see a side of dignan that you haven't seen before. a sick, sadistic side because i'm furious at bob..." --dignan, bottle rocket

• my life with the thrill kill kult - 13 above the night (interscope / atlantic / time warner)
• styrofoam - i'm what's there to show that something's missing (morr music)
• porter wagoner - wagonmaster (anti / epitaph)
• hank williams, jr. - high notes (curb / warner)
• dwight yoakam - hillbilly deluxe (reprise / warner)
• various - napoleon dynamite soundtrack (lakeshore / fox)
• various - pulp fiction soundtrack (mca / columbia)

in the evening that very same friday was the geek gathering. on my way there, i stopped by the half price books on westheimer near montrose and picked up a few things for wheresthatbeen.com. i managed to get 3 softcover sandman compilations (i can't recall for sure which three...i think maybe the doll's house, dream country, and fables and reflections). i also got a copy of aliens. barrett and amanda brought some of her dj gear to the gathering to play music, but i guess barrett didn't have much to play. i offered to play geeky/tech music from my iphone, so i actually ended up playing dj the whole evening. i'm not sure anyone really paid attention to the music or cared that much, but i did it anyway. perhaps emboldened by my fortune earlier in the day, before my arrival i'd decided i would perhaps try talking to someone who's been at a few geek gatherings. but once there events and my mindset persuaded me otherwise.

i don't recall doing anything good with the daytime saturday (april 3rd). in the early evening i ate at chili's with the potts clan. afterward, i joined jack and jackson and dietrich for a "guy's night out" (using my belair). they were planning on seeing alice in wonderland in 3d but it wasn't showing or something so we ended up watching clash of the titans in 3d. it was the first 3d movie i've seen with the new, hip 3d technology. i wasn't that impressed by the 3d. although i've since read neither was the director. the movie wasn't filmed in 3d, the studio added it later. which means it comes out looking sort of like a viewmaster. the movie itself was pretty enjoyable, although i didn't think it was epic or anything.

easter sunday i met the potts at the martin-weber's place. we talked and ate and drank and had an easter egg hunt, then hung out and talked more. i spent most of the day and evening there. i don't know them that well, but they seem like really cool people. their neighbor and her son joined us on the egg hunt. i didn't really get to talk to them much, but they seemed cool too.

one night earlier in the week i watched a 99 cent itunes rental: showtime. this isn't a movie i would jump at seeing, but itunes has three a week at 99 cents and the trailer looked like it might be funny. it's a cop movie with robert deniro and eddie murphy. deniro is a serious detective, murphy is a beat cop that wishes he was an actor (but doesn't have the chops). deniro gets tagged to do a "reality" show about cops, murphy gets picked to be his partner, wacky hijinx ensue. william shatner plays a small role as himself in the movie, and his bits are pretty hilarious. deniro is also fairly funny as the straight guy. but overall it's mostly predictable, and nothing to get excited about. still, it was okay for a laugh.

tuesday night after work i was going to see a free screening of after.life with sue. but i guess a lot of people had the same idea, because i was there about 45 minutes before showtime and there was a long line and they'd already given out all the tickets. so instead i met sue at chuy's and we sat on the patio and had some margaritas and i ate supper. i went home and watched the henry jaglom film eating.

tuesday i got my new pair of boots. these fit better, so i'll be keeping them. i'll probably take a pic at some point, but they're really just black steel toe engineer style motorcycle boots. i have learned that after the accident i don't think i can bend my left ankle quite as much as my right, as the left boot is a little harder to get on. also, since the boots are "stovepipe" style (that's what i'll call it...not sure if that's actually a used term), my left leg/calf doesn't fit as well as my right. ever since the accident my left leg from my knee down is a little larger than my right, plus as i'm up and about the left still retains fluids and bloats/swells some. (i'm assuming that may never go away.) it doesn't hurt, but it's there. this makes the top of the boot not fit as well as it should. but it still works okay.

wednesday a strange thing happened on the way to the show. it'd been raining lightly some for awhile, so everything was somewhat wet. i was in my pickup on alabama and turning left onto montrose, when suddenly about one third of the way into the turn my pickup stopped turning and started going straight ahead. i let off the gas and hit the brakes, but that didn't solve anything. as my backend started to come around, my right front tire bumped the curb and jumped it, soon followed by my right rear tire. fortunately, there is nothing but grass and then sidewalk there. i put it in first and took off. i was worried my steering had gone wonky, but after driving and playing with the steering i guess i just hit a slick spot and my front tires lost traction. it being a pickup (and one with lots of torque and a low gear ratio), i have that happen with my rear tires all the time. but i almost never have my front tires lose traction.

late in the week i had another dream in my recent thematic dream sequence. this time it was back to tamara. i was hanging out with a bunch of people i didn't know very well, and somehow tamara ended up there and knew at least one or two of them. then she and i ended up going back to where she lived, which i was unsure about doing the whole time i was going with her, but i did.

friday night i watched the 99 cent itunes movie igby goes down. i saw it in the theaters when it came out, but it'd been awhile and i hadn't seen it since. it's a pretty good movie about a dysfunctional rich family on the east coast, igby being the youngest of two sons. his father went mental, his mother is overbearing, and his brother is a manipulative overachiever. igby is just sort of screwing up his life. (although with that family, it might be hard to not want to screw up your life.)

saturday around noon i finally made the call for a plumber to come by and fix the leaking (no longer dripping, as it got worse) shower fixture. he came by a couple of hours later. $316 in time/labor, $24 in parts = $340 total. time here? i'm guessing about two hours tops. plumbers make bank. but the shower is no longer leaking, and it would have taken me much longer to learn about the fixtures and find the parts i needed (if i could find them) and do the work...then hopefully it wouldn't have leaked when i was done.

saturday i also got a shirt i ordered. what shirt? why a brand spanking new shirt for the crucified! pretty much just like my old, threadbare one. same old versions of their name and logo on the front and back. sweet!

saturday evening i dropped by a liquor store and picked up some potato vodka, then i went by luling city market and picked up some brisket and sausage links. why? meat and martini, of course! this of course is the yearly party thrown by chris and mary, where you dress nicely and drink martinis and eat lots of red meat (although bacon is temporarily deemed a red meat for the evening). i wore my green fedora with brim up all the way around, my black 50's style dress shirt with two vertical grey stripes down the left chest and "v8" buttons, grey slacks with my wallet chain, and black and white wingtip docs. i thought i looked appropriate for a 50's-era martini party. but that's one of the ways i dress anyway, so it wasn't really out of the ordinary. the party was cool, as usual. even though i don't really expect it to happen, i still generally hope maybe i'll meet someone there and we'll hit it off. i guess it didn't happen again. :)

i've still not gotten a call from the shop about my belair lifters from edelbrock. i guess if i haven't heard anything by near the end of this week i'll break down and call to see if i can figure out where the hold up is. this process has been insanely, stupidly long.

and tonight i did my taxes. it's nice that i don't have to fill out all kinds of forms related to all sorts of things. while it's possible i may pay more in taxes than i need to, i don't know that i really care. if i do overpay, the rest of you that pay taxes and/or receive benefit from the federal government can thank me.

"my head they tried to wreck
and i just laughed and said
guess who lost the go in the go for it"
  --"the go in the go for it" by grandaddy from sumday