delta_november
Jul. 3rd, 2009
11:35 pm
It has been a demoralizing day. I went up to Barrie to visit the M38A1. I was told that the work on it was almost complete, and that all it required was an engine tune-up. Closer inspection revealed that to be not quite true. Work that has been done includes:
- Sandblasting of the undercarriage, priming and painting
- Rebuilding of the axles
- Fresh bump stops
- New brake cylinders, hoses and lines
- New tires and rebuilt wheels
- New wire harness installed, including proper turn indicators and solid-state relay box
- New fuel lines
But the list of not done is long:
- No rear shocks
- No exhaust
- No batteries, and electrical system has not been tested
- Engine has not been started, and so fuel system has not been tested
- No hydraulic fluid in the brakes, and so the brakes have not been tested
- The hole in the floor has not yet been patched
It's been sitting in a field all summer, and it shows.
I think what they really ment is that tuning the engine is the next step. There we will find out if the motor is any good, or if that needs replacement too. The projected completion date as-of is September 2009. For comparison:
- In May 2009, the completion date was June 2009.
- In October 2008, the completion date was January 2009.
We're not getting any closer to done. We may even be getting farther away. I strongly suspect the September date will slip, and since it's not really a winter truck it may not be on the road until spring. There's a nasty little voice in the back of my head, wondering if I'll still be able to drive by the time it's done.
This summer is very busy, but I think I need to take a week off somewhere and get the Rover back on the road.
Jun. 26th, 2009
11:09 pm
I posit that there is no sadness that cannot be abated by the unexpected viewing of the Wayne's World movie.
Jun. 23rd, 2009
10:03 pm
Toronto's garbage strike began yesterday. The liquor store strike is set to start tomorrow. There is one clear path ahead of us...
We must ferment and distil our garbage.
Jun. 21st, 2009
Jun. 20th, 2009
10:46 am - Communication, and failure thereof
A long walk by the lake in the storm this morning has hopefully transformed this post from mope into something constructive. It had better have, since we seem to have run out of storm :).
I like to think that I am a good communicator. Non-verbal signals are important and useful, but since they are subject to misinterpretation I try to be verbally articulate, clear and honest. If I have enjoyed spending time with you, I will say so. If it's getting late and I think you should leave so that I can get to sleep, I will tell you. If I love you I will tell you. Often and repeatedly.
But over the past couple weeks I've seen a number of people catastrophically fail to asses how others think of them. And in one case the other was me. We all need to do better at this. Speak better, listen better, and ask better. Please. If we follow our present course it will lead to nothing but angst and poetry.
Jun. 10th, 2009
08:25 pm
The Internet has a lot of things, but it is not yet complete. For example, it will not automatically translate the naughty bits of Fall of the Roman Empire in the West. The only machine translator I have found is here.
Given the source:
Sororibus suis constupratis. Ipsa concubinas suas sub oculis msuis stuprari jubebat. Nec irruentium in se juvenum carebat infamiâ, omni parte corporis atque ore in sexum utrumque pollutus.
It renders:
Sororibus suis constupratis. Herself copulation persuasive discourse up to, under eye msuis to ravish jubebat. And not irruentium upon himself young man sedgy spot to put to shame omni faction fleshly and ore upon sexum whether to defile.
Clearly very naughty, what with the sedgy spot and all, but I still think I need somebody to draw me a stick-figure diagram.
Jun. 6th, 2009
11:22 pm - WorldCon : The Plan
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jo_etal and I will be in Montreal this year for a slighty abreviated WorldCon. Arrive in Montreal on the Thursday, probably via Porter flight TBD. Staying at the Delta Centre-Ville, where I am assured that the cool kids are. I must then leave early Sunday morning (flight at 08:15) for the annual Utah shindig.
I think it may be best this way. 3 days of con may be all that I can handle. I hope to see many of you there.
Jun. 5th, 2009
12:49 pm
It must be the Blackadder Goes Forth that makes me so amused to know that the British government has a Chancellor Darling.
May. 16th, 2009
08:01 am - Spamtastic!
This morning zetakre added me as a LJ friend. Curious, I looked at his blog. The posts are friends only, so only priviledged people like me can see them. And they are get rich quick spam. I feel so very special.
May. 9th, 2009
10:28 am
Because the world is full of doubting people, I must state for the record that I did indeed have leftover Viking Roll for breakfast.
For the uninitiated, a Viking Roll contains: peanut butter, bacon, crab, cucumber, avocado, smoked salmon, and BBQ eel. It is better (somewhat) the next day.
Apr. 20th, 2009
07:35 am
If I had the time, I would send this to every person over 50 who has told me to buy a house
Apr. 18th, 2009
12:43 pm - Financial Social Networking
I recently set up a Joint Account on ING, for purposes of increased CDIC coverage. The process is interesting, and surprisingly painless. You setup the account online, and give them the client number of the other person. That person then logs in, and sees a joint account request. He/she has 30 days in which to accept, after which the account goes live.
It's essentially a financial friends-request, though more in the style of Facebook than LiveJournal. Once you have a friend you have an immediate zero-fee way to push money to that person where it continues to earn interest until used. I wonder if our future holds financial webs like this, in addition to our inevitable LinkedIn trees.
The only constraint is that a joint account can have only two people in it. Damn the mono-normalization of the banking industry :). Of course, with more than two people a web of joint accounts can be set up for massive CDIC coverage.
Apr. 5th, 2009
11:02 pm - In praise of RAID
I upgraded the hard disks in my notebook today. 120 GB just wasn't enough, and since we live in the future and nothing costs anything I picked up 500 GB of storage for pocket change. I was, however, resigned to at least a day of fooling around to get the computer configured right.
No such worries. With a RAID1 disk-mirroring system the upgrade went as smoothly as I could ask. Removed one 120 GB drive and dropped in a 500 GB. Data magically copied across. Then de-RAIDed the 500 GB, resized the partition. Added the second 500 GB and re-RAIDed. Bingo.
Of course, nothing else went smoothly today. There's only so much smooth in the world...
Mar. 28th, 2009
09:58 am - Sping!
On Thursday I went for a really nice rock-climb with leftofcool . Despite a sedentary winter I managed 5 1/2 walls totalling 250' of vertical travel. This morning I put some air in my bike tires and got it rolling. This groundhog declares that winter is over!
Mar. 22nd, 2009
02:20 pm - Vrooom!
(Firefox tells me I use this subject line a lot)
It's spring, and time for the Land Rover's wakeup. It's been on three wheels since the brake-job-that-never-ended last summer which limits what I can do with it. Still, I think I've stirred up most of the fluids.
After an hour of trickle-charging the battery I was able the start the engine. I put the gearbox in 1st gear, the transfer case in neutral, and engaged the hydraulic PTO. Working the winch clutch I was able to spool out and then retract a few feet of winch wire.
The axles haven't turned, of course, but this will have knocked the spiders out of everything else.
01:11 pm
I've just finished my taxes for 2008. Each year it amuses me to compute my marginal tax rates -- if I had made one extra dollar, how much of that would the government want?
This year my marginal income tax is 46%. If I were to take the remaining 54 cents and buy something I would likely incur an extra 7 cents in sales taxes. Thus, my marginal overall tax rate is something like 53%.
I do hope they're spending it well...
Mar. 18th, 2009
Mar. 16th, 2009
09:21 am - Worldcon 2009
It's official. The memberships are bought, and jo_etal and I are going to Worldcon this summer. Huzzah!
Mar. 15th, 2009
01:48 pm
The question of the modern age is: "where do I put my money?" Banks offer low interest, and all of the best Ponzi schemes have been shut down. And so, I find myself a speculator in cheese futures.
Give these folks some cash now, and they'll repay you over the next five years in cheese. The effective interest rate is something like 20% and it's not taxable.
I very much approve of the fact that, like my business, they tithe to MSF. The only concern there is that since they donate a fraction of the profit rather than the gross they may not give a cent during lean times.
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