Wednesday, August 31, 2005

hurricane katrina

As with most of America and the world, I have been captivated by Hurricane Katrina for the past few days. I first got interested after it hit Florida and started heading straight for New Orleans. Since then I have been glued to a computer pointed at google news waiting for more updates, watching the blog and webcams from a hosting company in New Orleans, and nearly every news reporting agency out there. The thing that really gets me - and I have come across it quite a bit now that google owns the world - are these adwords. I'm reading about how hundreds of people are dying, 80% of a city of half a million is under water, oil is more than $70 a barrel, and google is shooting me ads for portable shelters and flood insurance?



I know, I know, it's just some algorithm that extracts words from the article and serves ads based on the content, but ... I don't want to say it's funny, because it's not, but what else can I say?

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

back to school

It's that time of the year again! Back to school! I moved in to my place last Friday; I'm here for good now :) It's been a crazy first few days of school trying to get my classes sorted out, going back to my job, and trying to make time for things like shopping for food and making food. I am taking some interesting classes, and some not so interesting - like assembly language programming. Blah.

Once I get all my classes set in stone I will put in my schedule, but for now I have no idea even where I'm supposed to be. Long story, but over the summer the university dropped all my classes for me (how kind) so when I went to check my schedule last weekend I found out that I am not enrolled in any classes yet. Imagine my suprise when Monday morning came and I had no idea where to go. Not a fun situation.

Anyway, I think I have class in a half hour across campus, so I'm going to try to get there early and beg the teacher to let me in...

Friday, August 12, 2005

my luck with cars

I have THE worst luck with cars. I'm not just talking about how my last one got stolen, or how I bought a lemon this time around. I'm talking about luck here.

It all started when I was driving out at whiskeytown lake just sightseeing and whatnot. My battery light comes on, I figured, "oh, fine, the alternator belt probably just came loose or something". I make it back into town in time to get to wal*mart (the only place open that late at night) to see if they have a spare alternator belt for my car. When I get there, I realize that, oh, shit, I got in an accident last week and my hood is jammed shut from my fender bender Well, after a bit of hassle, we get the hood opened and see that the alternator belt is attached fine and spinning up a storm like it's supposed to. No need to be at wally world. I park my car at James' house (go figure) to work on it later, and catch a ride back to the place I'm living at. That was last Thursday.

I do my thing that weekend, move in to my townhouse in Chico, put the furniture together, fun fun. Get back on Sunday night to take a look at the car and decide that the alternator is bad. Logical assumption based on the facts. I take it out and wait until Monday to take it in to Kragen and get a replacement. I had them test my old one in their magic machine to see if it is indeed the alternator, and it fails all three tests. I say I want a new one so they look it up on the computer (what's that, a '91 civic ... LX, you say ... ) and believe it or not (!) they have one in stock. I buy it on the spot ($162) and give them my old one. I went home and installed it, but when I was done it was past 7PM, closing time over at Kragen, so I wait until Tuesday to go back to have it tested.

I drove up with my freshly installed brand spankin' new alternator and it tests - bad? I wonder if I installed it right, but it's only 2 bolts and a couple wire connectors and I'm confident in my work. The lady there was real nice and ordered me another brand new alternator from the Kragen down the road. I'm left on Tuesday wondering why my car doesn't work yet, hoping it's not a wiring issue...

Wednesday. I go in and pick up my new-new part (that was tested to work) and take it back to James' house where my car is still up on blocks. I put it in, convinced that my car is going to work this time. I got it in before 7PM so I took it right down to Kragen to have them test it. I didn't get the nice lady who helped me before - I got the assistant manager from hell. I kid you not, he is a complete jackass with a feather duster in his back pocket. More on him later. Anyway, I have him test the charging system and, without too much suprise, it tests bad. I'm stumped.

Thursday during my lunch break I managed to arc-weld a wrench to the frame, but that's another story. I took the car in to Norm, my honda mechanic, to have him take a look at it. He looks it over for a few minutes and not only confirms that the alternator is not functioning, but it's the wrong type of alternator. Something about the pin configuration being different or something. I say cool, I'll just let him fix it. He tells me to bring the old alternator to him and he can rebuild it and put it back in. After work, I have a co-worker drive me to Kragen to return my brand new alternator and get my old one back. I walk in the store with part in hand and explain to assistant-asshole that he sold me the wrong part and I want a refund. He lets me know that "we don't do returns on parts once they've been installed". Well shit, it's been used for a total of, oh, say 2.5 miles, only minor scratches from installation, but hey, I'll bite it this time. I tell him that's fine, I just want my old one back so I can have it rebuilt. After arguing over whether or not it has shipped out yet, he goes back and gets it for me (it was still in the store). He puts it on the counter and asks how I'd like to pay for it. PAY FOR IT. This, the alternator I just gave them 2 days prior after buying a BRAND NEW ONE at full retail that he just told me is USELESS TO ME. Kragen charged me $40 to get the broken alternator I had originally given them back. I held my tounge and politely slid my debit card and walked out of the store - less $200 - with the SAME problem I walked in the store with 3 days before.

I dropped the car off at my mechanics and slid the key under the door so he could get to it first thing Friday. Well, turns out to be another $196 for him to fix it and put the working alternator in. I picked up the car during lunch today (Friday) and paid the money and the car seems to work fine; I'm still going to take the volt-meter to it though.

Cost of a rebuilt alternator: $60; Amount I paid: $400; Lesson learned: the hard way

Thursday, August 11, 2005

got a place to live

I finally have a place to live! My lease started on the townhouse in Chico on August 4th, so I have finally got a mailing address that points to a place I will be living full time. I know, it's a radical thought, but I have my own place.

I moved all my stuff out of James' house last weekend in my grandpa's truck, as well as moved all my furniture from San Jose. I will be moving in for good next friday (the 19th) after I finish out work here in Redding. It is so nice to have a place to go home to :)

Oh, yeah, about my car. Still no word from the insurance companies about anything, I guess I'll just have to call them back again today and hope for the best. But that's not what I'm still mad about. I'm mad about my alternator going out. Yeah, just one more thing I have had to deal with this last week. I swear, that car is way more trouble than it is worth. I mean, I have put so much money into it it's not even a joke anymore. I put in a new alternator ($160) and did all the labor myself, but for some odd reason or another, it's testing bad. Like, the charging system doesn't recognize that it's working, even thoguh I'm almost convinced that it is. So now I get to take it BACK to the shop and have it looked at. If my mechanic didn't know my name before, he certainly will now. Luckily my grandpa has been nice enough to let me drive his truck while my car remains on blocks at James' hosue. I swear, move out all my stuff, then wind up leavnig the car there :-/ Sorry, James...

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

cleaned my car today

It was scary. Among the things I found strewn about the car: 5 dutch bros. cups, several other misc. fast food items, a 700 watt amp I forgot I had, the keyring I lost at the BEGINNING of the summer, 15 blank DVDs, one coat hanger, 1 pairs of jeans, 2 paits of shorts, a bunch of shirts, 17 (!) socks (I wonder if I missed one) a bag full of fireworks, half an 18 pack, probably $30 in change, an old car insurance bill, a book about AS 2.0, one about quantum supercomputing, the latest 2600, a big blanket, 5 pairs of shoes, an install kit for aforementioned amp, and a really really old french fry. Oh, the list could go on...

After I cleaned it, I wanted to drive it. It was right around sundown, so I figured I'd go take some pictures out at whiskeytown lake; the sunset would be good because of a recent fire. Well, I went around the lake up to the dirt road that leads up to Shasta Bally. As I went further, the road got worse, not even to mention steeper. Before I knew it, I was several thousand feet higher than when I started, and the sun was gone. One of my headlights was out due to the accident as well, so all that proved to be an interesting drive back :) I made it without too much trouble. After all, I love the smell of my brakes as I slide with all four wheels locked down an impossibly steep grade with cliffs on both sides. (hi mom!)
Well, I washed the car when I got back in to town, and here I am in front of my computer about to go back to work. I swear, I work for eight hours straight on a computer at work, then I come home just to turn on my machine and start again. What a life. I want school to start...