Heavy Metal Redneck

2011-01-14T13:16:00.000-08:00

Been away from the computer recently...

So I'm going to try to be back more often.

So what's on my mind today?

Well lets see, first of all... A friend of mine most likely lost his job yesterday. One of our best drivers, if not our best driver. (Driving modified forklifts in this case, with a clamp attachment instead of forks) Why? A collision. The crash wasn't the big deal, even though it damaged both clamp trucks. Crashes happen. The problem was, both parties were drug tested, and my buddy probably wasn't going to pass a drug test. Was he high at work? Never! Was he high before work? Never! He was a good worker and took his job seriously. (as serious as any of us do.) He might have been high last weekend, which is really his business isn't it? You might say, "Well it's against the law to smoke marijuana" So what? Is it the company's place to enforce the law? I drove my Trooper down the sidewalk a week or two ago to get around a stalled car. That's illegal. Gonna fire me now?

Hmm what else...

Ahh yes, for Christmas I got a few very cool things. I got a VERY nice flannel shirt, made by mom. I got a couple of books, "Kraken" by China Mieville, and "The World is Round" by Tony Rothman. "Kraken" was a strange book. All of Mr. Mieville's books are strange, but Kraken was a bit different from any of the others I've read. It started out normal. Then suddenly, without warning, the Weird comes along, and without remembering how or why, you're up to your ears in the Weird. I also got a nice Traditions 'Hawken" rifle. It uses percussion caps, not a flintlock. It's nice to shoot, and as accurate as you could ask for. I'm glad it isn't a "Centerfire" muzzleloader, I figure if you're going to use a black powder rifle, why bother with a modern one with a synthetic stock and a center fire mechanism?

That's all... for now.

2010-11-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

Jack Bruton 12/18/1927 - 11/11/2010

My neighbor died in an auto accident last Thursday. My wife and I went to his service today. He would have been 83 in December, he had the same birthday as my son. He was a WWII veteran, he built and worked at the Potters Clay Mission in Tulsa for the last 12 years, he had no less than 17 great-grandchildren. He played football at Webster high school, and still holds some records for football and track.

But I'll remember him as the old guy who talked to my wife and I about working at the Sun refinery, about his son who repaired helicopters, the guy who sat and watched me fix one machine after another. Didn't matter if it was cold or hot, he would always take time to sit outside.

2010-11-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hiding for the Holidays

It's that time of year again. The time where we all are supposed to be thinking of family, and loving one another, and buying bunches of stuff.

I'm usually just trying to find a good spot to hide out. But I have a wife now, and my wife is the most wonderful and happy person, who wants to be sociable with everyone. And she can't understand why her husband doesn't want to be sociable with everyone just like her. And it's not so much a matter of being anti-social, it's a matter of being bored. I can sit at home and read, or I can go see her family and stare at the walls because they get insulted when I read instead of, well, stare at the walls. Last family gathering I went to, I sat inside and after listening to the same hen party talking about the same self-inflicted issues for about fifteen minutes, I took to my heels and could be found sitting in the cargo compartment of my Trooper, with the back door open, reading a book. Which of course nobody could understand. Except my wife. And they kept bugging her, and grousing at her, about me being outside (In the heat, I think it was in the 90's that day) when I could be inside. After much whining from her aunt, I went inside and - you guessed it - read my book. Only it was in an uncomfortable chair, it was noisy, and it was inside.

Hanging out with her family tends to be like that. It's great if you're a woman, and want to talk about woman-type things. I'm not ever going to enjoy it. If I'm going to be staring at the walls, I'd rather be home staring at my own.

2010-10-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

This Is Not An Illusion

The car really is that small. It's noisy. It rides bad. It rattles. It costs $16 to fill it up. And so far, it's getting better gas mileage than most hybrids.

What you are looking at is a 1982 Toyota Corolla. This is old-school from Toyota. The engine block and head are cast iron. There are no overhead cams, only lifters (solid ones) pushrods and rocker arms. There is no fuel injection. It is rear-wheel drive, unheard of in a small car, even a small sports car, made today.

2010-10-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

Another Night in the Mud

Here is a pic just after we got home. The Trooper did very well, embarassing a Dakota and doing as well or better than a Cherokee. And fortunately, it was the only one of the three that didn't need either repair (The cherokee needed an alternator) or making alarming strange noises.

2010-10-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

Bug of the Week

We have here another grasshopper. He's in the Tulsa warehouse. He's also trying to steal my dollar that I put down to show his size.

2010-10-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Puppy Pictures

Here are some much-requested puppy pictures. For those who don't know, she is a mix between a Catahoula Cur and an American Pit Bull. She's playful, and when she's awake, she's normally quiet. Oddly enough she makes more noise when sleeping.

2010-10-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Isuzu Lives

Fired her up at about 7:00 pm yesterday. Much smoother idle than before. Was idling fast in this video, but it's fixed now. This is the first startup attempt, to everyone's surprise it roared to life.

2010-09-30T01:18:00.000-07:00

Bug of the Week

Here's a nice black and yellow moth. He was on the floor at Overflow, I'm pretty sure he was no longer alive though. There has been a distinct lack of Huge Insects since I tried to make this a weekly feature.

2010-09-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

Well Made

We've all heard, in this country, how well made Japanese cars and trucks are. How they are far superior to any American made car. I've been wondering about this lately.

I don't drive newer cars. I don't drive anything that was made in the last twenty years. I have a 1988 Isuzu Trooper, and a 1989 Chevrolet C1500. This gives me a nice side-by-side look at which side of the planet is making truly long-lasting and dependable vehicles. I've had others through the years, and I've noticed a pretty strong trend. And it isn't what you've been told.

A very old American vehicle is more dependable than a very old Japanese one.

I've not found many exceptions to this. Dear old dad had an Isuzu P'up he bought new in 1987, and it ran great for years. The gas gauge didn't work after the first year or so, but it was ok until the radiator got clogged up. 243,000 on the clock when my parents got rid of it. He also had a Chevy Tracker (Made by Suzuki) that ran into the 200,000 mile range, had a couple of little issues, but was OK overall.

But those are the exceptions to the rule. My parents also have a Ford Truck a couple years older than the Tracker was, that behaves exactly like a new truck. Normal wear items have been replaced, and there was a problem with a slave cylinder a few years back. That's it. It's a 13 year old truck.

In my own personal stable, I can recall a Mitsubishi truck, 1988 model. It ran halfway decent, most of the time. But the cylinder head cracked. Had to replace that. The timing belt fell off. The water pump leaked. I had to replace the radiator. After years of messing with the factory carburetor and never getting it to run quite right, I replaced it with a Weber, which helped a lot. Reverse gear (it was an automatic) always seemed to slip. The windshield wiper blades wouldn't stay on.

More recently, I have the aforementioned Chevy truck and Isuzu Trooper. The Trooper is made in Japan, the genuine article. It has a 2.6 liter inline four, an automatic, and four wheel drive. It will go anywhere you point it, on or off road. It has 157,000 miles. Sometimes it won't start. Doesn't seem to be any reason. There are so many vacuum lines on the EFI, so many places to leak, that it's nearly impossible to get them all sealed up. Almost every day I drive it, I have a problem with it. (today it was the carrier bearing in the driveshaft. The driveshaft is 3 feet long. Who decided it needed a carrier bearing???) When you start it, it takes a bit of cranking before it fires, and then it runs rough for a minute before it runs... less rough. When you stop at a light, the brakes howl, the engine slows down to almost-stalling speed, and the whole truck shakes. The temperature gauge doesn't work. The suspension squeaks. The exhaust manifold leaks. It struggles up the slightest incline. Oddly enough, once you take it off the pavement, it's an amazingly capable machine. Will climb any hill, go over any terrain.

The Chevy truck, on the other hand, is a fullsize half ton truck. Single cab, eight foot bed, 5.7 liter V-8 engine. It has a manual transmission. It has 215,000 miles on it. There have been minor problems, such as the ignition coil, and a bad piece of fuel line. The ABS valve got stuck open once. The clutch wore out once. I had to put a belt on it. Other than the coil and the ABS valve, it's normal stuff that just wears out. When you start the engine, it cranks for about a full revolution, and with a roar that shakes the windows, thunders to life. No smoke. No knocks. No rough sputtering. No misfires. The truck accelerates with an unstoppable, frame twisting authority, no matter what is loaded in the bed, no matter what I'm pulling behind it. The A/C works. The heat works. The radio works. Everything on the truck works. No leaky head gasket. No puddles on the ground. It doesn't leak coolant, engine oil, or transmission oil. Safety? There have been two cars that hit it, one in the side, and one in the rear. The truck was still driveable after both accidents. Neither car could be driven.

There are many more examples. I had a Honda Accord that burned a hole in the piston, no overheating, no low oil, just failure. After that, I had a Chevy Corsica with 232,000 miles that ran like it was new. There was a Corolla that if you turned on the air conditioning, it would blow a fuse for the transmission and you'd be stuck in first gear. It broke the timing belt and destroyed the engine.

I think it comes down to complication. My truck is very simple. My Trooper's engine is very complex. It has one fuel injector for each cylinder, my truck has two injectors for the whole engine. The Trooper has 50 PSI of fuel pressure, the truck has 13 PSI. The Trooper has a bunch of sensors, the chevy truck has just a few.

2010-09-21T01:45:00.000-07:00

BUG OF THE WEEK

I'm thinking of starting a new feature, a little something for people to check back for once in a while. I work in a large warehouse. I have found, in this warehouse, some Really Big Insects, and other large things with more legs than I'm comfortable with. So I'm going to start to post my favorite one, once a week.

Today's bug wasn't in the warehouse, I found him chillin' out on the fence. He was about the size of my thumb.

2010-09-01T03:18:00.000-07:00

What's in a (Japanese) name?

Boredom causes me to read strange things. Today's strange thing: Where do the names for different Japanese auto manufacturers come from?

Toyota

Originally Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, the founder's son, one Kilchiro Toyoda, spun off an auto manufacturing division.

Even though the family name is Toyoda, the name was changed to show a separation of home and business life. Toyota is considered to be luckier, since it takes eight strokes to write Toyota in katakana, and eight is a lucky number in Japan.

Honda

This one is pretty simple. The founder's name was Soichiro Honda.

Nissan

"Nissan" was an abbreviation for Nippon Sangyo (Which means Japan Industries) on the Tokyo stock market.

Isuzu

This name comes from the Isuzu River. It was adopted as the name of a truck in 1934, and then as the name of the company in 1949.

Mitsubishi

A strange one. It translates as Three Diamonds. Owners of Mitsubishi vehicles may notice that the emblem affixed to the front of your car looks like three diamonds.

Mazda

Mazda started as Toyo Cork Kogyo, and changed to Toyo Kogyo in 1927. The name Mazda is derived from Ahura Mazda, a Persian-Zoroastrian god, and the name of the founder, Jujiro Matsuda.

Other names... The Chevrolet LUV, built by Isuzu, is an acronym for Light Utility Vehicle.

2010-08-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Our new Truck

This is the vehicle I have purchased for my wife and I to drive. It's my first-ever 4x4. It has 31" tires on it, I'm not sure if it's been lifted because all the parts look like they've been on there since 1988. There is a backseat, which our son will appreciate. There is a lot of room behind the backseat, which will make it easier to get groceries home, in any weather. The small amount of off-roading we have done has proven it to be a very capable machine.

2010-08-12T23:57:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu, do you speak it?

I'm glad I'm taking the time to learn to use Linux. Whenever I have to boot Windows XP I feel like I'm in the dark ages of computing. After you see the desktop in XP, it's still working it's little heart out to get done loading up. When you see the GNOME desktop in Ubuntu (I'm using 9.10) it's done. No more waiting. It's ready to use, and will follow your commands instantly and with alacrity. And I can run many games in Ubuntu, including Doom3 and World of Warcraft. And I don't have to reboot it. Ever. If a program crashes it doesn't crash the operating system. How handy is that?

2010-08-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

A small visitor...

The other half found her lying by the curb, so weak she couldn't move. Panting uncontrollably. We gave her water, and brought her in the house to recover in the A/C. I put an ad up on Craigslist, and fortunately, someone came to get her.

2010-08-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Speedy, Rest in Pieces

We will miss your air conditioning, your quiet exhaust, your primer paint job with the safety yellow showing through, and your I-Think-I-Can personality. I'm glad my wife was driving you, and not some modern crumple-zone tin can. May your major components bring new life to other old Chevrolets. We will miss you.

You may be replaced, but never forgotten.

2010-08-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

I'm trying this again

or

MARK TEACHES HIMSELF HTML

or

Same Blog, Less Rage

Going to try this again. Things have changed since last time. I've been married over a year. I'm now 30 years old. Life is OK. I'm apparently one of the few people in the past couple of years who has not only kept his job, but has been working overtime. Not all is roses. But I can't really complain.