Not the biggest zombie truck

I've been working on several different projects lately. First is tons of self improvement stuff; working on certs, physical improvement, and looking into other dumb grown up things.

But this isn't about those things. This is about a project I have wanted to do for a while now. This is one that I want to do all the time. Every time I look out the window, every time I stand in the late afternoon sun, every time I stand up in the mountains it creeps under my skin. It is time to ruin my gas mileage and make my truck something a little more awesome. I have worked on a list of things I wish to complete over the next year or so.

1. Lights - I want to upgrade the headlamps to halogens or something similar. I would like to add some molded top lamps in the amber fog color.

2. A full blown suspension overhaul - I don't want to lift my truck, but just beef up the suspension for some of the forest trails around the state

3. Brush guards - for all the new fancy pants lights

4. Upgrade seats - The front driver seat either needs re-upholstering or just out and out replacement. With a replacement I could put in a harness instead of stock belts

5. General performance boosters - Anytime the maintenance calls for replacing something I want to upgrade to something stronger or tougher. Things like tires, spark plugs, spark wires, upgraded filters would fall in here.


The overall purpose of this should be obvious. I want to make something tough enough to roll with the big bad zombie dorks, but still be able to drive to work without watching my gas gauge plummet. I am starting with a strong motor, Toyota's 22R-E. It isn't the most powerful engine to build off of, but it does have one advantage; it isn't deterred by most hills. So I think the place to start is on some of the easy stuff like wires and lights. Then some new struts, not the best right now, but something better than what I have under there currently. And any little things I can complete on the weekends.

Unstuck!

So I am now unstuck on the plot motion for my story. Now that I can get everyone on the boat they can go ahead with their voyage. Huzzah!


- Posted using BlogPress from the road.

Coffee

I don’t know where my wallet got to today. I’m a little pissed off. And really tired. I haven’t been able to relax in months. So today I am watching Hairspray and drinking coffee.

I don’t know what it is about coffee but it is really relaxing. The only thing better would be smoking a hookah on a deck in the late spring air, with a cup of Turkish coffee. Watching the moon rise above the range while inside sits a puppy resting his poor feet. The run through the woods today was a great one, three miles out and back. Now I sit at home, a little dub floats in the apartment’s air, and all there is right then is me the moon and the pup. Then the coffee boils over.

He seriously can’t be that good…

Sitting at lunch and working on the adventures. We’ll see what happens with this, but I don’t have the creative energy to spend on one of the short stories stuck in DropBox or the hard drive right now. Freaking iTunes is a piece of shit yet again, telling me that my iPhone isn’t authorized to sync with the same computer it has always been sync’d to. But whatever. Updates and relaxing night of D&D with the guys should fix my mood. Stupid neighbors and thin walls.

On the bus

I am forever stuck on this bus. I see your eyes and it isn’t the next day that I am thinking about. It is twenty years from now that I seek. The quiet, the alone doesn’t bother me as much as what you could do to me if you get up from that cushioned seat. That fear is what stays my mouth when you smile at me. It’s okay though because I am forever stuck on this bus, and you’ll leave it soon. Just another hour and then I can sleep in my room.

From my Netbook: Entry 1

Alright, so I am poking around Microsoft’s online store for the different Office products and discovered that there are too many options. This was one of the problems when Vista came out just a few years ago. MS needs to follow the K.I.S.S. principle when it comes to offering products. Aim one at business people with serious IT departments, one at smaller business groups with basic database needs and one at home/students with the basics. Word, Excel, PowePoint, Outlook and OneNote all should be included in the most basic level of Office. I can see losing Outlook, but don’t make two different versions of the software, one without Outlook and with OneNote, and one without OneNote and with Outlook. It is just a silly way to do things. Microsoft continues to try to push the envelope just a little more but they need to give their customers what the customers ask for. I would condense the Student and Teacher edition and Standard editions of Office into one edition. Well, hopefully they will do it in 2010. Here’s to 2010.

Christmas 2009

Got The Alchemist from Eldon and Meghann today. Well, didn't get it today, but opened it today. Looking at netbooks, seeing what Best Buy might have in stock.

As I keep looking I continue to wonder why people seem to think that these little laptops are hindered by the lack of a heavy optical drive. They are not meant for more than surfing, writing, and coffee house culture. The little boxes are meant no more than what the perfect computer for most Gen X's parents will ever use it for. Writing their friends, leaving inane comments for their children on Facebook, and keeping in touch as they learn to live on less and less.

To me they mean so much more. They mean home servers, wired housing, and everything that Gates, the two Steves, Linus, and many sci-fi writers predicted. They are ideal for students who need something other than the heavy duty laptop/desktop left in their room. Wired up rooms, houses you can monitor from home, your own little Big Brother. Beautiful baby, beautiful. It is a little machine I can take my D&D character with me, stop at a Starbucks and pull down my book from Dropbox or my own server, and can post my homework before I roll some twenties with my friends. When I started college this was what I was looking for out of a laptop. Small, light, good batt life, and able to keep up with my typing. Woo... sleep time now.

SW:RPG Players needed.

I have always wanted to play this with people. Most of the time, however, I cannot seem to find a group willing to keep going for longer than one or two sessions. People just don't seem to be that into the Star Wars RPG thing. I like the D&D group I'm in right now, but would like to run my own campaign. I would like to use the Dawn of Defiance setting as the over-arching storyline with some of my own adventures sprinkled within to keep the players busy.

Right now it is just a thought in my head. No players to speak of, and other than having downloaded the campaign and no follow up/replacement for players who drive without rails adventures this will remain on the whiteboard for a little while longer.

Worn thin

It is Christmas week now and some of the gifts are on their way. Just waiting for money to buy a netbook now. Feeling really spent now. Just sore and tired. The cold is really killing me.

Finished Cuckoo's Egg today

I finished Cliff Stoll's book today. Nothing a whole lot of special. Spent most of the post work period reading the book and looking up more and more information about whatever. Kind of boring lately, not a whole lot going down in my neck of the woods. NaNoWriMo didn't go off this year; didn't plan out the story as well as I wanted to have done. Got a few new ideas running in my head about it though so that should be interesting. Pouring over "Local" by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly. This is one of the most beautiful collections I have seen without it being a special collection. It's a wonderful trip through the world of a, well, let's call her a normal person getting lost in the world. There's probably more history to it than that, but I see little things in it that remind me of hipsters and music snobs. And things that remind me of me.

I just think that it is such a strange thing with the world lately. Green Day writes a concept album about growing up and finding your way, I hear a lot about late 20's children stumbling about and getting lost in the big cities, and mostly about just being a being. It is a little dark sometimes, and quite a bit off to me. I hear people my age talking about their IRA or 401k all the time. It seems like things people were talking about who were my parents age have trickled down and become things we talk about. And how left isn't left like it used to be, right is worse and don't get Bill started on the NSA and his crazy theories because you know that will kill your buzz faster than crashing into the snow bank ass first. I just keep plugging long here. I seem to not be the only one without the questions that can't be answered, but I seem to be the only one who still searches for those answers.

The question is posed of "Why are we here?". The answer is not quite what anyone wants to hear but the most basic standings are these two pillars: "We are here to reproduce" and "We are here to be good people". What the hell either of those means seems so damn arbitrary that I wonder if anyone really believes that or those are just canned responses to a question like "How are you today?" "I'm fine.". It amazes me where people end up somedays. I shall continue on in my little corner of the galaxy for now and dream of the better days to come.

Forward Motion

I am sitting at my mom's working on what I hope will be installed this week. My server is going well, updates are running as I type. beyond all of this I am slowly working my way forward in NaNoWriMo this month. Nothing exciting yet but we shall see what happens. Anyway, just a quick update.

Current affairs 10/18/2009

I don't really have much going on. The Pouges are coming this Friday. Broke my iPhone's plug. Probably get a small dock for it at home or get a new cord. Server is half done, just need to install Samba and get it here soon. Band practice this week I hope, really could use the time away from it all. Ordered a new power supply for my laptop.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Fixer.

There is this kid, somewhere in the midwest, who is wrapped up in flannel and listening to the latest Pearl Jam track with the biggest headphones this side of a Memphis recording studio. In this kid's head are the dreams yet to unfold from the crumpled ink on the floor. His walls are plastered with Obama stickers and posters for bands that may and may not be any longer. The imitation Bab-com sits next to titanium fighters beside his bed lamp. He lays his head down and watches the click and fade of the beautiful box on top of his portable closet. All is right today, all is correct here and now. Just a few more days until I can put my sticks in my hand and keep going for another week.

Rocky Top and Wagon Wheel

Really digging the folky revival things going on right now. Just something good feeling about this, and all the music is helping find inspiration for Two Boots right now. Anyway, found some ideas deep down. Now to lay my head below the high.

Poet and the mutts

The poet and his companions watch from their world, out the door and in the silence of contemplation. The children of the storm watch in silence as history dances in her way. Too young to feel this old, we pass the time the same ways as those that love us did.

Some Random Band

I can see the end of the world right now and it isn't that bad. The ring and the flowers are a little late but they are here right now. I miss you sure, but not as muchas I miss my drums right now.

Not getting kicked yet

Hey y'all. So I have this thing I feel like doing, and I don't quite understand why. I want to roll out on the Route 66 for a while this year. Put some money aside, take a week off of work and just hit it and see how far from home I can get. Just a thought. Woo!

Sketchy (Beastie Boys - Ill Communication)

So what am I doing here? Well mostly this will be the new center of operations for me. Who am I? I am the author of "Two Boots and a Drumstick". That is a blog filled with snippets of text, ideas, happenings and hanging outs that are all fictional. What am I doing with a second blog? This I hope to use as a full time record of real events and comment on things that inspire the posts on Two Boots.

Also I want to post some of the sketches I do and repost some of the "Jim and Frank" stuff either here or on Two Boots and a Drumstick. Same with the Boys story.

But the big opener I want to post here is the Final Tour of Harvey Danger. One of the saddest days of my life was hearing that they were retiring the name. Maybe the actual members won't split, but who knows but them. All I know right now is one of my bands is going off as the other finally got back together and moved back into a serious tour schedule. Oh well, such is and whatnot. Hope everyone enjoys the stories on Two Boots and a Drumstick and the creepy voyeurism of this site!