Crazy Octopus's Escapades

When you think about going 3d...

2011-11-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

You ask the community...

[21:11] < CrazyOctopus> anyone here?
[21:11] < CrazyOctopus> rather alive?\
[21:12] < maxbots_> No, think the world ended a few minutes ago, nothing left but zombies
[21:12] < CrazyOctopus> fantast, because zombie printers are at least stable to the current build
[21:12] < maxbots_> lol
[21:13] < CrazyOctopus> I have a very basic question that google can't answer for me.
[21:13] < maxbots_> no problem, shoot... just don't aim for the head
[21:13] < CrazyOctopus> i am about to invest in a prusa mendel, and want to make sure that I am getting to best that I can from the kit
[21:14] < maxbots_> Zombies can answer questions, but not if you shoot us in the head
[21:14] < CrazyOctopus> it is fine, form what i have heard i have terrible aim
[21:14] < maxbots_> good. ;-)

So as of tomorrow after work I am getting a MakerGear Prusa Mendel with a 3mm extruder and an additional hot-end kit.

--Don't worry I haven'y forgotten about the car. I am waiting on word for my clutch actuation, and if i hear nothing from that then I am going with the McLeod hydro throwout bearing and just finishing it all off.

-'till next time.

best write up ever

2011-10-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

woah crazy month, but serious this is the best craigslist add ever

--Ripping it now before he takes it down--

Skyline! 1990 GTSt - $5000 (Maple Ridge)

Date: 2011-10-07, 11:36AM PDT
Reply to: sale-bqyhj-2619410616@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

This isn't your normal skyline. This motherfcker is the skyline God would drive if he wasn't busy doing God sh*t like making tsunamis and crap. Its set up to go fast, and go fast sideways. Who doesn't like to get sideway?! Terrorists, thats who. Are you a terrorist? No? Then you need this car.

Handling? This car handles like a junior executive CEO. Go around corners like the devil himself is chasing you, and not give a fck.

Whats that? You like drifting? Well I've got some great god d@mn news for you. This car was a drift project of mine, and the last owner was planning on making it a drift machine too. Interior is for pussies so we got rid of it. Manly as fck. It literally oozes testosterone. So much so that its puddling up in the back.

Seats? this cocks*cker has got two. One for you, and one for the hot @ss broad thats gunna be all upons your dick after you buy this car. You're a girl? Sh*t works both ways. One seat for you, and one seat for that hot @ss dude you've been trying to hook up with for weeks. Deal with it,sh*ts getting serious.

Stereos and AC are for hippies. Fortunately this car has neither. Oh look at me, I like listen to Simon and Garfunkel and think about puppies. F*ck that. The only noises you're gunna be hearing is the ultra manly engine noises coming from this sweet turbocharged, intercooled, 24 valve inline 6. Sh*ts getting real, real f*cking fast.

This car has got a bright orange ebrake handle (b*tches love orange) with a drift button for those super ultra megahellatastic bar room brawler ebrake lockers. F*ck. Yes.

Now, I'll be honest. The wheels are a little lackluster, although everyones gunna be so focused on your super gangster drifting that nobody is going to give a f*ck about your sh*tty stock 16s. Don't worry, I've got you fcking covered. Its like we're in Vietnam and you just got ambushed by Charlie. Don't worry, friend, I've got your fcking back and I blow charlie to kingdom fcking come. For an extra $450 I can throw in some added p*ssy magnets for wheels, just don't come crawling back to me complaining that you're getting TOO much vajayjay. Bright fcking green 18s. Greens not your thing? Super legit silver 18s. Done like dinner.

This car has got 1.5 metric f*ck tons of awesome parts. Bride, Greddy, Brembo, the list doesn't f*cking END. It just keeps going and going, like the energizer bunny on speed.

You like going fast? Ever tried to outrun 24 police cars and 3 helicopters? You need this car. It will go so fcking fast that you may very well go back in time. It happened to me once. Just once, but it was fcking rad. Its like someone took a rocket and opened its mouth and poured steroids down its throat and and threatened to kill its family if it wasn't the fastest motherfcker you've ever driven.

I get it. You're busy, I'm busy, lets not waste time. If you're interested send me a message and I'll get back to you ASAP. You send me a message, I send you one right back. Thats how this works.

==
ACTUAL POSTING FOUND HERE

-Fucking brilliant

SF trip and such

2011-09-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

Woah, had no idea that it would take me this long to actually post something about the San Fran trip but things have been hectic and well... the drinks have been plenty.

Arrived in SF and checked into The Hotel Kabuki and was pleasantly surprised to have a view like this

-baller, and it was awesome-

After a quick nap I called up Logan to ask him where the best spot would be to kill some time while we wait for him to get off work. He suggested that the first place that we go to is The Grove for sammitches. It was delicious.

-I was talking when the shot was taken, gotta be polite!-

We meandered up and down Fillmore street stopping in at random shops, and climbing hills

-little steps!-

Dropped by an optics place in the marina (I hate myself for not remembering the name of the place and cant find it, BECAUSE THE GUY WAS AWESOME. I tried looking for a place called optiks but if you know of the eyeglass place next to a bar with an orange awning let me know) where we got some sunglasses adjusted and had an awesome conversation about vintage silhouettes and sunglass design

Shortly after Logan called around and said that he would be back in the city in a couple hours where we met at his house. His room, and roommate were fucking awesome so we all decided to get some Thai at 2001 Thai Stick where we promptly drank Sake and beer and finished off the meal with some awesome rice and whatnot.

Then Logan and I skipped with massive speed to the next block to bring the remaining food back to his place

-Via Elize
==we skipped so fast they couldn't catch our speed==

With the food dropped off we strolled to

where I already had a good buzz going, and promptly had more drinks, and even better drink drinks were large and strong. Logan showed us a dice game called three man, which in my opinion trumps red/black/high/low/same 10 fold. Needless to say that buzzed turned into a well placed awesome buzz

Next stop was to karaoke at a bar inside of the closed Japantown mall, I was stoked.

I have not sung karaoke since I was... 21ish(?) so singing a duet with Logan to Aladdin's "A Whole New World" was awesome!

Elize got in on the action as well with a multi-song set

We got the crowd up and yelling and left a few songs later.

Next morning we all met at a restaurant in downtown and made our way back to the Marina where Logan and I parted ways with the kids and walked to the Presidio where Logan showed me the statue of greatness, in the land of nerddom

we walked around talked Star Wars and design, then walked to a bar called The Final Final, had a few brews and then got a call forcing us to head back to the statue and nab a photo of us in front of the statue... this is 5pmish right when Lucas Studios get off work...

we ran away.

Met the rest of the gang at a neat restaurant (Liverpool Lil's)where the waitress had to super confirm that we were indeed a party of 5 at least a hundred times. Totally worth it as the drinks were cold ad the food was good, and the waitress turned out to be hilarious.

The next day we did the more touristy stuff and drove across the bridge.

and went to the museum to get japanese tea and meander around before I drove back home

It ended quite horribly, but such is life cant have too much good without having the bad. I got back on the road for the 8 hour stint back home, and after an hour or so I pulled off and bought myself a coffee and gas. I look down at the speedo and was pleasantly surprised to find my car just hitting

BOOM!

I got home around midnight and promptly crashed hard as I had to wake up 6 hours from then. Once I arrive I find out that my favorite coworker is leaving the company, and that the software that I am helping develop needs a massive rush of new design drawings... ugh. Thankfully it was a short week and I made my way to San Diego on Friday to have some sushi and drinks; needless to say good end to a stressful week.

Finally I arrive to this week were I held some interviews to fill the soon to be vacated position, and most of the applicants were laughable at best. One would think that with this economy there would be a rush of either overqualified people or people with fantastic resumes; nope. Surprisingly the best applicant was with a guy that had the least exp of them all, but I have a couple more ahead of me this week so we shall see.

As I am sure some of you had heard we had a California snow day with the power going out; it was awesome. Really, I swear. Granted i have dealt with power outages in the past but dealing with them as an adult leads to soo much more fun as alchy and extreme darkness/quiet is involved. Wade and I built a bonfire out of the dead tree in our backyard

-WWOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!-

-Skulled-

And then I got a call from Ian saying that he is cooking up some smoked Tri-tip, had my favorite cigars on hand, and a some whiskey and beer to wash it all down. Nearly needless to say, I hadn't had that much fun in a long time, and was a much needed mini-vacation after the last couple weeks. Unfortunately I had to go back to work on Friday after power returned around 11:45pm that night.

Thankfully it was a short work day and was able to get home after I finished up some errands. That night Erin made her way over to the house where Wade had the awesome idea of making some breakfast burritos with chrizzo, a plethora of peppers, refried black beans, and some eggs. It was fucking delicious and really want to start making breakfast for dinner more often. The next morn Erin and I went to coffee where my sis dropped by and killed a few hours. Ian dropped by and after a quick talk suggested that we should watch watch Fear[s] of the Dark that eve. We parted ways and met back up at the house to watch the flick after I made dinner; whole wheat gnocchi with garlic sauce with a spinach salad. While I am not a fan of horror movies the animation was astounding, and the individual plot lines were good (not great as a whole movie, but the segments were rad).

Woke up this morning and finished acquiring the latest Formula 1 race, Monza. While I have yet to see the race as I am waiting to watch it at Jeg's going away party (moving to London to study race car engineering, bitch) qualifying looked great and Hamilton is sitting in a cool second.

Speaking of which I need to pick up some last minute stuff for the party so I am just going to post this without editing it, deal with it.

==on the car note I have decided that I am going the expensive and fast route and am picking up a McLeod Hydraulic throwout bearing this week and am putting a massive halt on all other life projects until the car is done, I MUST HAVE IT DONE BEFORE MARTIN RETURNS!!!==

-'till next time

Santa Rosa

2011-08-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

I really do wish that I able to come up here more often, but with a legitimate work schedule it is getting harder to do so. This trip up north was a short one, but still really good, and really having a family member to confide everything in is really nice; friends are amazing, partners are fantastic, but family is best. We both talked about what has been going on in our lives, and I actually chuckled a bit every time that I noticed how similar we both actually are. But this post isn't really about that, it is actually something I am doing to pass the time while I wait to start drinking and exploring (but I have already started drinking ssshhh.).

==in advance sorry for not tagging and editing this to the thoroughly, I really don't know when I will be off and wanted to get this on the internets asap... Then again I am probably going to just leave my comp running in the room because it is taking FOREVER to upload these photos.==

so onto the photos!!

-'till next time

Fight Stick

2011-08-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

Mornin'

So I know that it has taken me a bit of time to actually post anything, but meh I have been fighting streets and building stuff. This is one of those things.

When I heard that Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike was coming to online download I had to finally break down and fight stick it up, after all pads don't look as nerdy. While I could have just bought one that works and looks like this...

But as you know by now, I am the kind of person that would rather build than just buy. So on to it!

Wade and I started with a bunch of research at http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick.html and then purchased the buttons and joystick on EVO2k11 weekend. They all came in a few days later, minus the joystick's ribbon cable... BITCHES!! few days after that we went to Home Depot to pick up the few tools that I didn't have, and then be fucking ballers and buy really nice wood.

Shortly thereafter we made some cuts to said fancy wood and come up with this.

Made a few holes and mounted one side

and then Then a puppy came over

Finished up the sides and back and then made the cuts for the buttons.

yeah... kinda big...

Then got it all wired up, only to have it fail because I needed something crazy to get the buttons to work with a ps2-a controller...

Wade saved the day and lent me his ps1 controller and within a short bit I had it all connected and rocking to the max!

I have yet to secure everything down to the bottom board and clean it all up because the ribbon cable has yet to show up, but when that does I'll be sure to post the photos of the finish product.

Now I am going to start drinking, taking photos, cycle around town, and having fun with my cousin and his kids (they won't be drinking) in Santa Rosa!

-'till next time

Stuff happened...

2011-08-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

A bit of an update...

Due to my last post of happiness, and actually getting visual progress, I had a new found rush of working on my car again. As such I worked on my car on Saturday with the hope that I would be able to make a transmission mount as well as see how much I had to cut off of my driveshaft to make it fit.

But before any of that could be done we had to get some sim racing in

The next morning I made a quick run to the hardware store and picked up the required metal, bolts, and nuts. After a short bit of hammering, heating, and drilling I created a transmission mount. After final fit was done on the chassis I made a couple more holes into the chassis and bolted it all up.

Now it was time to see how much I was either going to have to cut off or add to the driveshaft to make it work...

So I bolted in the driveshaft...

And BOOM!!! YESSS!!!

Seriously only about 1/16" from being where it was from the factory! Soooooo incredible. Now all that is needed is to find a U-joint that will convert the Datsun size to the Mustang size and I will be golden!

This week will be spend re-researching what I will need to finish the car and hopefully within the month I will be finished; actually I want to be finished by the 26th so that I can enter into open header night and roll around town being fucking loud, but we will see if that is actually possible.

-'till next time

Headlights

2011-07-30T19:18:00.001-07:00

Headlights, originally uploaded by crazyoctopus.

they work now.

My day was shot from a client asking me to do some last minute design work, but during testing i was able to finish up my chassis wiring. The only thing that i cant figure out is the turn signals, but whatever.. shit works!!

'till next time

[first time posting from flickr, as well as from my phone, so lets see how well this works out

la la land and a mouth full.

2011-07-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I drove up to LA to hang out with my sis and some friends. First stop was Mindy's to wait for everyone to show up.

--you can't wait without drinking... that is just wrong...--

Friends and new kids started showing up a bit later and the fun ensued. After running out of some ginger beer for the mules, I figured that the best thing to do would be to just replace it with some ranger IPAs... while it is fucking delicious, it gets you good real fast. To help us all sober up we went to grab some mexican food, with a couple pitchers of strong margaritas. After some good conversation, and being the last people in the restaurant, we made our way back to Mindy's for a night cap and a parting of ways. Met some awesome people, and it just makes me want to live there more than ever.

Sunday I made my way to my sister's place which happens to be about 3 blocks from LACMA; yeah I hate her too... from there we went to grab some lunch and then we made our way to a swap meet where I bought a hat that I have been looking for ever since I saw a photographer wearing one at an ALMS race.

--Take that sun! Never get in my eyepiece again!--

Meandered a bit more at a few different spots, but nothing too grand happened and after all was said and done I started making my trip home, only with a quick stop in Long Beach to do a parts exchange. Yuri recently bought himself a 280z, and he needs a new exhaust. At one point his car

--this one....

was sponsored by GodSpeed, and they gave him a meaty intercooler with piping. And since I have no use for my old exhaust, and he has no use for the intercooler... we swapped. While I was there I was also able to finally see Joel's Datsun 610, and holy shitballs I now know what chassis I want to build from next.

--510s eat your fucking heart out--

I finally got home later that evening and opened up the box to test fit it in the chassis...

-OM NOM NOM-

I was really planning on doing a V-mount, but after setting this in the car... yeah front mount it is. Thanks again Yuri!!

After a long weekend of fun I plopped myself down on the couch for a local brew double IPA and the German race; where I fell asleep before I could see the ending

'till next time

I hate this game... (actual car update)

2011-07-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

It has been too long since I have actually done any wiring on a car, and I never was really that good at it to begin with, but I have finally gotten around to tackling the chassis. With the wiring diagram that I created on the screen I started connecting everything to the relay and fuse box.

Drilled out my switch panel as well as my instrument panel and mounted what I needed to mount.

--This is not the final look of the panels, they will be covered with some fabric so that it doesn't blind me while I am driving.--

I am pretty stoked about how it turned out, and once it was all ready I started testing. At that moment I was no longer stoked about it...

Nothing worked, absolutely nothing. I kept trying different things and checking grounds but nothing was working. The relays were clicking, but none of the lights turned on. So after about 5 more minutes I called it a weekend and started to let the vodka+ flow.

During this time of intoxication I started to think about how I wired up the relays. I went everywhere on the internets with a diagram as to how ground switch relays are wired I found out that I was correct in what I did. However, what I did do wrong was mirror where the wires go to... yeah... I'm that guy. Somewhere down the line my numbers got switched around:

my layout translated from the Nissan numbers

30(1) --ooo-- 87(2)
85(3) __/ -- 86(5)

=====WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN====

86(1) --ooo--85(2)

30(3) __/ -- 87(5)

So yeah... the visual diagram that I put at the bottom of the page is correct, just the Nissan numbers that I associated with it were wrong. I should have double checked but I figured that after 15 revisions it would be good.

Oh well such is life, and it isn't that big of a deal to re-plug everything back together. And that is my plan for this week, that way I have the whole weekend to make a transmission mount and hopefully start on the engine wiring harness, but I may save that for the very last thing that I do.

'till next time

4th of july

2011-07-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

Took a couple shots

This is how I see fireworks without glasses

-'till next time

dults days

2011-06-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I flew to New York, and have a frikken blast. I originally wanted to head to New York after taxes were done because I knew that I was going to owe some and wanted to make sure that I was all in the clear. But right around the same time I got a full time position, and what that meant is that the freedom of working anywhere went out the window. So the thought of seeing Jeg kind of went on the back-burner until I was able to accumulate some vacation days. Then I found out that he was actually going to be coming back to town in a couple months, which made me super stoked to hang out with my best friend again. But, he is only going to be here for a monthish and then move to London for school, rad for him (and plane tickets just went up a notch, but now I have a place to stay in London). So now I really had to see him, but my vacation days weren't going to kick in until the first on this month...

Now fast forward to Mother's day weekend where I meet one of the raddest people ever, Elize. She is super friends with the people that I hang out with, and flew over from New York to check out jobs as well as to see them. I met her on Cinco de Mayo and well apart from the time where I had to go to work on Friday we were pretty much inseparable throughout the weekend. For you kids who enjoy movies, the best way to describe the weekend would have to be Before Sunrise, only we exchanged information. We keep in contact and talk about seeing each other, and after a short talk with my manager I find out that I could schedule some non-paid time off; frikken awesome. I call up Jeg, let him know to try to free up the weekend, because this kid is heading into his turf.

Fast forward to Father's day weekend (I really don't know how it turned out that way, but it just did). I scheduled to take Friday (which is always a half day for me) and Monday off; this way I could leave the office on Thursday to arrive in New York at 7am Friday morning, and leave New York Monday at 5pm to get to San Diego at 10:30pm in the evening. Side note, I have heard about people that hate taking red eye flights, but after this trip I kind of dig them a lot.

The flight there was pretty awesome as I was able to get either exit row or extended leg room for no extra charge; needless to say sleep was in full effect while I was in the air. I landed a bit early, but Elize arrived at the exact same time that I walked outside. By the way, the last time I was in New York I had no idea that it got this frikken humid... while it isn't as bad as Florida, GAH sweat a plethora. We drove to her parent’s house, I took a nap, and then we were off to Coney Island with her cousin Sarah and Aunt Alice to meet up with some people. In good ol' California our theme parks are massive and out roller coasters are huge, but I have to admit that the Cyclone was probably one of the scariest rides that I have been on. It isn't because it is faster than anything else, or has insano-drops like the others; it is because on every turn it feels like you are going to tip over and every drop feels like you are going to get de-railed.

After that we went exploring the rest of the place and attacking all of the fun rides.

--The swings--

--Do a barrel roll--

-Get Levi drunk-

-Watch him shoot people on a drunken rampage-

After that we finished off all of the "High Trill Rides" and left to get some Nathans and then attack the bumper cars. All in all a good day with quite a bit of fun was had by all. We took the train into the city and checked in just in time to see the golden hour

Called up Jeg and we met up for some food and some drinks, unfortunately I was knackered out to the maximum and was only able to stay out for one drink. But we had the rest of the weekend, so I wasn't worried one bit; I was stoked to see him on the first day of my arrival.

Saturday started off with a quick trip to SoHo so that I could get in some shopping at Uniqlo (which by the way I wish that they did online sales, would make it soooo much easier to get quality basics), and then we were off to Elize's friend's flat. After a few minutes we found ourselves in the middle of a super cute photo shoot with his daughter Breeze.

-First time that I have seen an at home studio done well, and kind of changed my mind about using a flash [also, same camera!]-

-Recent love of crazy blocking-

-Honor made her presence known-

After the fun afternoon, went back to the hotel for a short nap before a real night of drinking with Jeg and Elize's friends at Max Fish (which have the best bathrooms ever).

Sunday morning we walked around the street fair, started making plans for my last evening in towne, and went to Shake Shack to test if they are indeed better than In-n-out...

They weren't.

First on the list was to head to Jeg's place in Brooklyn and see where he lives and do our gift exchange, and I was able to score the Jil Sanders Pumas that you saw a couple posts ago, and this amazing Givenchy wind breaker

After that we went to the BAM to see Ayrton Senna's biography and some free Brooklyn Brewery beer. If you haven't seen it, do; it is an amazing film. Actually there is a "director's cut" out there where they go farther into the commentaries that are there throughout the film. After a few brews we took a nice stroll back to Jeg's place and then made our way to alphabet city for a rooftop party at Chris's place.

Craziest bit about the party was that I saw people that I haven't seen in YEARS, from way back when I was hanging out with Jeg at UCI.

After that we all made our way to Elize's friend's house for a relaxing evening in Brooklyn Heights to meet her new boyfriend, Logan. After a few hours of great conversation and a good growler my belly we left her place and started to make our way back to the city.

Monday morning was spent making our way back to Elize's place to drop off the luggage and get a real New York Bagel with capers, salmon, the whole shebang; just like the rest of the weekend it was everything I was looking for and more.

And actually the only downside to the whole weekend was the flight back where I had a 2 hour delay and wasn't able to get back home until 1am; I had work at 7:30am that same day...

I really want to head back soon, but the next weekend trip that I take will either be to someplace that I haven't been to before, or to San Fran.

-'till next time

175, kneading - 176, collection

2011-06-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

-175, Athena kneads bellies-

-176, slowly building up my collection of Silhouette glasses-

3 more not photographed because I cant remember where I put them...

-'till next time

car stuff!!!!!

2011-06-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

I had a free weekend awhile back and finally got around to uploading the photos.

Dash re-installed

a bundle

positioning time

the location

First cut

made the hole a bit bigger

test fit

new hole

layout check

layout updated

and that is how far I got on that day, now just need to find some time to finish it up. GAH I miss driving my car!!

-'till next time

Ska Party

2011-06-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Favorite shots from the party on April 29th... soo long ago this is like finding an undeveloped roll of film....

Drunk Robbie, and yes they were playing wizard staff...

Max Sharp, RIP

Truly

dont fall...

Overall fun for all, and Max you are sorely missed.

-'till next time

one month and well...

2011-06-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

Oh hi!

I haven't forgotten about you, don't worry. This last month has been filled with many changing things in my life, and while these POTDs might not express that, one of my next posts will show you exactly what has been the highlight of it all.

for those that have been wondering exactly why I haven't been posting... I picked up a couple more clients for my personal business; which puts me up to 1 full time 40+ hour a week job, and then when I get home I have been been doing work for two different clients. This leads to no time to work on the car, but I have been able to get the wiring started. and with the new clients I am starting to think that if I want to get this running before Martin gets back into the states I may have to pull some all nighters without getting paid.

onto the photos!!!

134 - Schnarr on stage!

135 - cooking

136 - i even clean occationally

137 - cooking again

138 - gotcha sleepin

139 - what I have been up to at my employed job.

140 - LOVE IT!!

141 - cancer with friends

142 -real life cooking

143 - they caught me sleeping!

144 - a helping hand

145 - fight night

146 - best markdown ever

147 - boom colors!

148 - illegalities

149 - man cooking

150 - poppyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

151 - man cancer

152 - yummmmmmmmmmmmm

153 - super spicy time

154 - $25 hair cut, with red wine, neck massage, head massage, and a warm face towel. i love kromatic hair

155 - COLD FACE!

156 - jamming with my sister

157 - won a trivia and got a hat and a ticket at kids price

158 - RAADDDDDD

159 - Vintage Silhouettes

160 - MYMU shoes, up to 29 pairs with this one i think

161 - Vintage Silhouette glasses times 2

162 - love em!

163 - life after work (hidden to protect)

164 - 30 pairs

165 - vodka that starts with Z!

166 - bonus for working solid over the weekend

167 - packed up for New York

168 - in flight

169 - fuck humidity

169-2 - unfair height requirement

170 - Elize x japan x cotton candy = have you taken the photo yet?

171 - In Jeg's neighborhood (mad fix, or max fish)

172 - flight back home

173 - dead tired and look at the size difference between a 13 and 14 puma 917

174 - sleepers sleepers

175 - #31, that is right i now have a different pair of shoes to wear every day of the month (JEG YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!!)

-'till next time

116-133

2011-05-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

Been awhile, but life is changing and I'd rather be with people that stuck on a comp when i get back from work.

time to get right at it...

116 - Sleepy Robbie - we have a battle to see who can fall asleep the fastest when we are hanging out at the house...

117 - Bella-stache

118 - marathon of champions for the midnight showing.

119 - up and rolling so I took it to get some coffee.

120 - WIRING BEGINS!!!

121 - Taste test, Wheat gnocchi vs flour gnocchi. wheat won!

122 - I was feeling sick, so i combated it with 200oz of lifewater. it worked pretty well.

123 - to continue the octopus domination.

124 - get sick at work, this is what happens

125 - 1 drink per line. she was catching up quick!!!

126 - classy evening

127 - sneaking in a shot

128 - Mam's day

129 - *Nose

130 - Keepsake

131 - taller than me?!?!!?! WHHAATTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

132 - we think that Bella or Athena ate my fish Gorbash... worst thing to come home to...

133 - the end of an era, and the cleaning of a fish tank.

Weekend electrical will continue this weekend and I cant wait to finish up!

-'till next time

099-115

2011-04-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

so much, and of these places I'll be revisiting on Friday with the d90.. guess which one.

097 - Drinks drinks drinks

098 - marginally okay burgers

099 - flying!!

100 - spicy martini

101 - 26 & 27

102 - breffast

103 - walled (needs to be re-organized though...)

104 - BWAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH

105 - Bacon wrapped and it sounds delicious

106 - who says that the animal kingdom doesnt have homosexual beings... like scissoring cats...

107 - zonked after the avofestival

108 - no idea...

109 - big slice

110 - slowly gathering stuff to send to Mr. Martin. (in the mail tomorrow btw).

111 - favorite paper ever

112 - Samurai Cop movie night, so I made sushi rolls

112a - and Robbie fell asleep, so we put stuff on him...

113 - time to maximize the day and get some greasy hands! and how I hate wiring...

114 - the little kids table has now become the double A R P table. what?! what?!

115 - so much curry, so much yummmmmm

-'till soon, I hope

085-096

2011-04-06T23:50:00.000-07:00

I am way behind, and not too keen on looking at a screen (been working from 730am-2am for a few days, and then 730am-12am for the rest of them) so I'll get right to it.

-085- finally installed and brooke it in with a day full of WRC and Formula 1

-086- friend of mine help put together an art show, I like to call this "Robotic Reactions and Wrenching Dung"

-087- mmmm beers

-088-very very messy desk.

-089- cookin stuff. wheat spaghetti with hot Italian sausages and organic fun stuff

-090- more cooking, beer boiled pork sausages with mac & cheese with seasoned fries.

-091- another one of my drawings coming to real life! QCed even!

then I made stir fry for dinner

-092-the days are counting down, and I finally had some free time to make my car fly!

-093-drinks with friends

-094- super awesome to find out that there was some live music/performance at E-street cafe while we were out; caught it a bit late, but pretty damn awesome.

-095- glad i took this shot, thought that I missed this day. I took it for reference to make it for dinner, but forgot about it.

-096- Then I remembered on the drive home today!

-'till next time.

083 it is here (lp), 084 it is in

2011-03-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

For some reason I claimed a since day as two different days on the last post, but it has since been edited to show the true day.

After I came back form the office I asked Robbie to help me move a heavy object, and thankfully he said yes.

-083-

Then we celebrated the ginormousness with a good ol thumbrise, aka I tried to hide the flash.

and a star phone

And then today thanks to the awesomeness of half-day Fridays, I got home around 1 and then Wade and I moved the TV into the room.

-084-

this weekend we are going to break it in with games and movies at massive volumes.

But for the time being I am just a tall guy with a bottle of wine designing small parts on my free time.

-'till next time

079-082 stuffs

2011-03-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

I am kinda digging the massive posts, but I also miss the constant postings.

Saturday we moved from the house to the pub and then back to the house, and then a banana got involved

Video taken with Sabrina's phone, if I wasn't a few wine bottles deep I would have remembered to grab my phone...

somehow I was the one to get he first slap...

and this was her rebuttal.

-079-Then on Sunday I spent the day in Hillcrest with Katy and we went here and there and it was way too much fun; btw babycakes is my new favorite place... cupcakes, coffee, and cocktails... AMAZING!

and for some strange reason, every time I get drinks hers is constantly bigger... it is actually kinda annoying, I want more!

Babycakes has Campari.... aka John Rambos!!

-080- Monday was a super recover day with Jenna coming over to my house and having an awkward moment from Wade's belated Valentine's gift. it was hilarious, and awesome

-081- ^C figure it out, this picture should help

-082- contrast.

-'till next time

[edited for correct dates, dunno what happened there]

070-078 soo much!

2011-03-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

I really haven't been on the computer for one simple reason; I was burnt out on the computer screen. As a matter of fact it is the first time that it has ever happened. Then again I guess the difference is that before when I was spending days in front of the screen it was for fun, but recently it has been for intense work. It has been nice, but I have missed the interents.

On to the photoss, and let's see if you can notice the my trend this last week...

-070- March 11th

-071- It is like cloud watching!

-072- the lonely cupcake

-073- I made some naan burgers for the house

-074- My Domain.

-075- handseses

-076- The lonely chair

-077- I just needed to take something because the day was going to be tough, so here is my throw around lappy.

-078- My submission for the Oakley design challenge from a couple weeks ago.

After finishing their challenge, I have decided that the next bit of custom design work that I am going to do is going to be a pair of frames for my blind eyes. I really don't know how they are going to look, but I know what the material and hardware I will be using: frame and temple out of stainless steel, screws are brass, if I choose to use hinges they will be brass, if I choose to go with something that I come up with then the bushings will be nylon. There is however one design aspect that I am damn positive it will have; "The Crazy Octopus" running along the temples. I'll start taking pictures of the initial design once I start sketching it all out, and start getting it modeled up in SolidWorks.

But yeah... the trend of the week has pretty much been drinking with the mates, and Wade having his hand in the shot. I keep forgetting to bring my camera everywhere so most of these have been with the phone. As much as I keep saying it, I am really going to try to be that guy with the clacker around his neck.

This upcoming week should be awesome fun as I am going to start lunchtime cycling again. Sadly I only get 30 minutes, but I figure if i start bringing my own lunch then I can cycle for 30 min non-stop and then just munch on food when I get back in. Should be a blast, made only better by me getting those caballo legs back up to par!

-'till next time

068 Robin (lp), 069 Drinks with Louis XIV

2011-03-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

I needed something ASAP, so here is Robbie and Erin at my place talking about something deeply riveting.

-068-

Last night we started out the evening at this awesome restaurant in San Diego called Veg-n-out. Amazing veggie burgers, and their fries (read large potato wedges) were outstanding. After that we made out way to Fluxx to see Hot Moon, Lesands, and the reuniting of Louis XIV. Short and sweet of it all: Hot Moon had a couple good songs, lesands shook the house, and Louis XIV tore it down. I was hoping for a bit more of the sensualness in Jason Hill's voice, but we did not leave disappointed

-069-

This morning I made my way to Cafe101 where I grabbed some coffee and avocado omelet for breakfast before my first half day at work! Woooo love Fridays!

-'till next time

067, soo sleepy

2011-03-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

So here is a shot of Max's feet in my backyard

-'till next time

066, burger battle

2011-03-08T00:34:00.000-08:00

Nearly got to work a late because of the rainy morning, but thankfully I was able to arrive precisely on time. The office was frikken awesome, and due to the handbook I am pretty this will be my last post about it. After work I made my way to D street had a great time and an awesome burger battle

-066-

(portobello vs. Beef Mushroom and Swiss; portobello won)

After dinner we went to go see Rango (which is actually pretty damn good). But now, I am off to sleep so I wont yawn too much tomorrow. Wooooo 7:30-530(or later) monday to thursdays!

-'till next time

065, new beginings

2011-03-06T22:11:00.000-08:00

So as you may have noticed, I haven't posted much on the build of my car, and well... it really isnt going to be any faster. Last week I finalized a position at a new company, and I am going to be starting tomorrow morning. Because of this change in lifestyle, I'll only be able to work on the car on the weekends; good news is that with the constant income stream comes parts of a higher caliber. Then again I could be spending it on camera equipment, but car is held a bit higher in rank due to it not being drivable. Or spending it on drinks, dinners, and high brow cooking ingredients; which is more than likely going to be the case...

In reality though these last few months hasn't been the best that it could have been. I have tried and tried to get things to work, but it didn't; the effort just wasn't there, so I had no choice but to raise that white flag and surrender. Then in the last couple weeks, things have turned around for the amazing; most of which you have seen, others will be coming in the subsequent days.

So here is to new beginnings, and happier days (it is about fucking time).

best quote of the evening in regards to that image...

"Wino?"

"Nah, I prefer mild alcoholic"

-'till next time

062 lammbbbb (lp), 063 alphabet birthday gifts (lp), 064 boom

2011-03-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

Soo on the 3rd I tried my hand at cooking some lamb, surprisingly easy and delicious.

added in some eggs and the usual jalapenos, cerranos, and green peppers.

and then poured myself a glass of wine.

-062-

Next day was my alphabet birthday, 26, and it was frikken awesome. Went to the junkyard and shoe shopping with my sister, made pizza with friends and fam, and was drinking from 5pm to 5am. best. No photos from the evening as I didn't want to possibly break my camera.

woooooo more shoes!

and a bottle of green label from the man himself, Robbie

-063-

Today has just been lazy day so... here is a big fucking wine bottle.

-'till next time

061, tailoring

2011-03-03T18:15:00.000-08:00

Finally got a hold of the sewing machine and starting making some adjustments to some pants that need it desperately.

H&M skinny - taper

-061a-

Commune jeans - taper

-061b-

Top Shop skinny - hem (going a bit different with these,

-061c- (drunk tailoring, shaky camera)

-'till next time

059 paint, 060 done

2011-03-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

kinda a cop out couple days but it was made official that I will be working with a new firm starting on Monday so I have been sorting things out. As a result of the new job I will be about 3 miles away from the beach (and bull taco) so I decided to turn the bike that Drew and I pieced together into something that looked decent from 10 feet.

Painted the main body black, and the fork and headstock ultra flat green

-059-

and today I finished putting it together.

-060-

better photos tomorrow, while I am tailoring a few of my pants.

-'till next time

058, Fixie with King

2011-02-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

Drew King was in town for the weekend and asked if he could borrow my fixie for a quick run today. Since it has been awhile since I have worked, or ridden, on a bicycle, we had to piece it together. Thankfully it didn't need much at all: a patch for a punctured tube, and install a front brake. After we got all that sorted out, and a couple bottles of wine later, we went out to get some action shots. I mean come on, it was damp and neither of us have a road worthy/legal car so...

-058a-

-058b-

It also happened to be fucking cold and some neat ice paintings happened to appear on some cars

and then there was this slammed 350z

All in all a good eve/morn, and now that Drew finished his ride, I am going to tear down the bike and paint it gloss white with an ultra-flat deep forest green fork (probably tomorrow's PoTD) for when I start riding on my lunch breaks.

-'till next time

057, Banksy was in Oceanside

2011-02-26T17:46:00.000-08:00

Found out his morning that Banksy made his mark in oceanside yesterday at Bull Taco, and since it was only 30 minutes away I just head to head over there and check it out.

-057-

There is some speculation that this may have not been done by him, but that should all be sorted out within the next coupe days or so.

For a few more photos of the piece head HERE

-On a side note, Bull Taco has some pretty damn good Veggie burritos, and they serve Stone's Arrogant Bastard. Also happens to be 2.7 miles away from one of the companies that I interviewed with, aka biking to lunch would be back!

-'till next time

056, Crazyoctopus forever.

2011-02-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

As some of you might have guessed, Sabrina wasn't the only person to get a tattoo yesterday.

After 10 years of being with my symbol, and the last 6 of it in contemplation of tattooing it onto my flesh, I finally took the plunge and made it forever.

The last view

The instrument

The preparation

Some of you may think that 6 years is a long time to think about getting a tattoo, but the way that I have always looked at it is this: If you want to get a tattoo, wait two years. If you still enjoy the idea and symbol, wait two more years and finalize placement. If you still enjoy the idea, symbol, and placement then after a couple more years make it happen. After all, getting a tattoo is forever. Being such I wanted it to be something more than just a tattoo.

The last couple months I had been plagued with doubts about going through with it, which also intermingled with some doubts about other things. However during a discussion with Jeggi, he said that as long as what I put on there matters to me in some significant way, then there is nothing to worry about. So with that most of my doubts about getting a tattoo disappeared. Then to make those doubts completely evaporate Speedhunters posted an article on my build, my website went up, and I secured a few interviews for full time design positions with well established companies.

The placement

The reasoning behind this particular location is simple, if the need arises for me to ever hide my tattoo all I have to do is wear a watch, see 030. It is 1.2 inches in diameter (size of a half dollar), and fits perfectly under the face of my watch; now all I have to do is get used to wearing a watch face down. The reason that I have it on my left wrist is also quite simple, when greeting someone you shake with your right hand. That connection should be made without the hindrance of ink (silly thought process I know, but hey real connections are important).

The outlining

The completed outline

The shading

The shading will not be as dark as it is photographed, but it will definitely give it some depth.

-056- Crazyoctopus forever.

It should completely healed within the next week, and then I am going to head back in for some touch ups and maybe add in some color (or white) to make the octopus stand out.

-'till next time

055, Sabrina gets a new tattoo

2011-02-24T21:50:00.000-08:00

Went over to Little C's shop in town to take photos of the process of Sabrina getting her tattoo, here are a few of my favorites.

-055-

-055-

-055-

-055-

For the complete set of photos head HERE

Additional photos of the day will come tomorrow!

-'till next time

053 Sonic Screwdriver, 054 Breathe Free

2011-02-23T19:23:00.000-08:00

Sabs got a Sonic Screwdriver (10th Doctor) in the mail yesterday and Bella couldn't believe the magic.

And I got my the new dsalnidrawn Solex picture in the mail

-'till next time

Fuck yeah speedhunters!

2011-02-22T16:57:00.001-08:00

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/02/22/guest-blog-zach-zupancic-gt-gt-volvo-powered-240z-on-a-budget.aspx

Smiles for days! Thanks to Mike for letting this one sneak through!

-'till next time

052, house warming

2011-02-22T01:24:00.000-08:00

House warming gift.

filled with alcohol.

-'till next time

049 (house warming), 050 (Martin's boat), and 051 (clean attack)

2011-02-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I haven't posted in a few days, but this is Martin's last couple days before he leaves on a boat to be the world's police for the next 7 to 9 months. So this weekend has been kinda busy with all of the cooking, driving, carting, and eventual cleaning.

Friday night I had a bit of a get together, to celebrate me being apart of the house and a farewell for Mr. Martin. I made soy patties, ground sirloin burgers, sauteed portobello mushrooms, lightly broiled asparagus, served on wheat toast or focaccia bread, with a salad, and my super bean dip.

-049-

The kids were gamin' while I be cookin'

it was super delicious!

Saturday we drove to the San Diego Naval Base and dropped off some more of his stuff on the boat.

sleeping quarters

opposite this is another one facing it; oh and if I lay flat my feet hit the bottom and my head hits the top...

and then there is eye level throughout the ship

shooting the sky

fun signs

fun with hummers

Sneaky Martin in the second photo

Tanks.

All in all a fun trip, M1A1s are a lot smaller than I originally thought, but it was cool to see and touch one in real life. However the best of it all had to be the top deck; I mean this is a shot right out of a fucking hilarious B action movie

-050-

a gym area right next to the rocket launcher... epic.

Later that evening Joel, Yuri, and Chris came down to see Martin off and we went to K1 speed in Carlsbad. Drew met us there, and as per usual we all had a blast. We got back to the house around midnight and mashed on GT5 till around 3am, super best.

Today we decided to clean the dishwasher so I would no longer have to constantly hand wash all of the pots and pans every time I cook (which is nearly everyday)

-051-

Now that that is done, we are once again jamming on GT5.

-'till next time

048, yeay drinks

2011-02-18T00:43:00.000-08:00

advil in the background makes for a good night...

-'till next time

047, blossomed

2011-02-16T23:37:00.000-08:00

The flowers blossomed today, or rather I was around while they did.

I know that there is just a slight change in lens position, but I still can't decide which one I like better.

-'till next time

046, blaaahhh

2011-02-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

-'till next time

045, V-day flowers

2011-02-14T22:52:00.000-08:00

Didn't want these to go unseen, and since I finally had a chance to bring out my guitars I figured it would make for a good shoot.

-045-

Great to have those steel strings back at my fingertips; who knows I might even plug them in tomorrow... so rebellious

-'till next time

043 Veggie building (late posting), & 044 organized

2011-02-14T00:25:00.000-08:00

So I was super busy making stuff and finishing my room to get around to posting up the photos, but since I have the time tonight I figured it would be best to get it done!

-043-
I sprayed and mounted up the pegboard on my wall

Then Drew King called me up and mentioned that he was in town, and he had the best idea of making veggie patties from scratch; not to mention that he also had the mad scientist idea of having a fried plantain and mango with 5 ingredient vanilla ice cream...

.

After dinner Ian and Zoe headed over to the house and Ian brought over some extremely potent and bold cigars, my mouth loved it.

Today was spent cleaning. Cleaned the car (Fit), organized my room,

-044-

did laundry and found my favorite spot in my house....

I can see my car, photographs, and shoes from one spot in the house yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssss

-'till next time

042, the building continues

2011-02-12T00:30:00.000-08:00

A bit ago I mentioned that I was going to be using pegboard to cover my wall, and now it is finally coming to be.

Because I have a hard time attacking anything without a plan.

a bit later, and after I picked up martin from base and dropped him off at the airport.

And the boards ready to be painted for tomorrow, just have to figure out the perfect color to use... I am thinking either forest green, or orange.

-042-

-'till next time

041, my iPhone4 completely custom case

2011-02-10T22:41:00.000-08:00

This happened quite a bit quicker than I had expected, but hey faster results are always nice to have. But before I get into it, I am going to do a bit of a back story on my case design.

When I first got my iPhone4 I was completely stressed out about having a case, and after a day or so of searching, reading and watching reviews I found one that I really liked. Unfortunately the case that I wanted I could not buy in any store that I went to. Eventually I just gave up and bought a case on sale at the at&t store; Speck fitted. It did me well, but I really wanted one that I found while scowering the youtube reviews; the LTDtools iPhone case.

However there are some issues that I have with their design.

The cuts on the back lend to scratches on the glass. The delrin bushings that he uses are extremely rigid, and do not extend past the metal, so if you ever drop the phone it would be smacking hard on the metal case. While the flip option is neat, I would never use it (they do offer one without). The way that you inset the phone is by sliding it in from the top, which from the video looks like it could be very prone to scratches.

Nit picking about a case when you have nothing to show, or a lack of critic is... lame. So I decided to make my own. I expanded on the idea of using laser cut metal held together with bolts and bushings.

The busings would be made out of nylon instead of delrin, while nylon is still pretty rigid they are not as rigid as delrin ($8 for 100 from McMasterCarr). The bolts and nuts would be 4-40 brass at .75in long and then cut to spec when the case was complete ($3 at local hardware store). The metal would not be directly touching the glass, I would have a piece of fabric protecting it from scratches. I really wanted the plates to be made out of brass or bronze, but getting that cut would cost significantly more due to the need of a CNC machine rather than a laser cutter (brass is too reflective). Lay down protection would be taken care of by the nuts and bolts.

aaannnddddddd...... boom.

The nylon came in a day later, and then I put it all together.

Initials on the top cover

-040a-

lookie lookie can your case stand on its side?

Of course nothing made by me cannot be without my octopus

-040b-

it is like the camera and the flash are its eyes!

And a custom case is not really custom until you jailbreak it (thanks Chronic Dev Team!)

Hope you like it as much as I do.

-'till next time

040, it has been made

2011-02-10T00:09:00.000-08:00

So today was kinda a bust on what I wanted to accomplish, organize my garage, but I did get something done; unfortunately I am not going to talk about that until I finish the project (non-car related). I will however end the day with a snippit of what I have been working on.

I finished my desk, nearly.

And here is the thing that brought a smile to my face.
-040-

Can you guess what it will be used for? When I get all the parts in I will do a full write up, but for now....

-'till next time

039, home sweet home

2011-02-09T01:13:00.000-08:00

So today I slotted some holes into the engine mounts and bolted the engine into the car, super zip-tied the transmission into the chassis, and put it on the ground.

checked the clearance of the oil pan

a bit low

Then I called AAA and got the car towed to my new location.

now my lady is nice and warm in her new house

not to mention she gets to play with cats in the garage instead of a dog jumping all up on her.

After I moved in all of my tools I made Wade and myself some dinner

Jumbolia rice mix, eggs, red orange and yellow bell peppers, onions, chives, jalapenos, poblanos, and yellow peppers. Then I added in some spicy italian sausages.

it was good, definitely not my best, needed a bit more flavor.

even with the decent food, all was made better when I walked down the stairs and peeked in her room

-039

-'till next time

038, nearly there

2011-02-08T01:37:00.000-08:00

So today I added some counterbores to the holes for clearance on the bolt heads

Used my favorite carbide bit and ground the shit out of the input shaft hole on the bellhousing

bolted em together

The steering shaft does indeed clear the current motor mounts, so no worries there. However if I go with a 240 (volvo) front mounted dizzy I might be able to move the engine back just enough to be able to use the stock hole for the shifter, but I would have to make my own steering column. In the end that decision will come down to funds.

After connecting what needed to be connected I mounted the engine back in the car

and while I was stocking the car with stuff I also put the hood on to see if it clears..

-038-

it does

-'till next time

037, put it in the hole

2011-02-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we woke up, got some anti-zombie juice, and then started to attack the install.

The first issues that we ran into were the fact that the alternator and the intake manifold would be hitting on the stock motor mounts and the hood latch.

So we cut the mounts off, and in one case beat the shit out of it, and removed the alternator. Since Volvo's have two stock alternator locations I will be using the other one on the driver's side engine; I am gonna have to re-buy that bracket as I threw it away after I got the lower one.

We put the engine back in the car to see where about it sat in the car.

we removed the engine and cut part of the stock transmission mount on the driver's side for some transmission clearance.

That is about as far back as the transmission will sit. So it looks like I will have to enlarge the hole, as well as design my own shift lever to make it work.

After a quick peek at how the engine sits we cut up a quick few pieces and made a temp mount to see how it would fare.

But before we could continue Martin needed to sharpen his mini-sword.

a couple tacs here and there

but when we put in the metal we found out that the motor mounts don't fit exactly flat, so we decided to change our strategy

A slight change in the gusseting design

There are going to be some of you that are asking why not just move the engine back farther cut a hole in your firewall and get the shifter in the right spot. I will give you that answer: steering column clearance.

The day was growing thin, and then it got dark, but we were able to get the big stuff out of the way at 10:30.

-037-

I am going to be heading back there today to slot some of the holes, properly mount the bellhousing to the transmission (which apparently doesnt need to be that accurate, just make the hole bigger so that it will fit), and get everything in a towable state so that I can start working on it in a real garage.

In regards to the tans-mount: it is pretty much in the exact same spot as the stock one is, but since we had to make a clearance cut I'll just have to modify one side. That is gonna be made after the car is in my garage.

-'till next time

036, mocked engine and trans

2011-02-05T22:06:00.000-08:00

Fuck this day... So we woke up a bit late and didn't get started on buying tools (welder, mask, cutting blade, grinding wheel, etc.) and picking up some metal until around 11am. After we picked up all that we needed we dropped by the junkyard to see if there was anything of value and for the most part just took our time. By the time we finally got to the house it was around 4pm. We started to mate the bellhousing to the T5, when we ran into an issue, it didn't work. Either I forgot and didn't take care of it, or I wasn't told that the only way the adapter plate will work is if we modify the bellhousing.

I wasn't too pleased with this, and in all reality I am getting real fed up with running into these fucking set-backs at nearly every turn. Martin and I decided that since we don't have all the time in the world, we should at least mock it up the best that we can and at least get the engine mounts welded in place. unfortunately we ran out of daylight before we could actually get the engine inside of the car, so it will be a project for tomorrow before the Super Bowl.

For now here are some shots for your viewing pleasure

--oh yeah Martin bought a 18" machete, aka small sword, that he painted black for "tactical reasons."

This is the gap is the reason that we are going to have to fudge the transmission mount for now...

more on this tomorrow...

-'till next time

035

2011-02-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

So in order to make my room start to look more like a room I built a desk from scratch, and it cost me a whole $12 in materials. It is 33 inches from the ground to the top and is amazing. So after it was all screwed together I started to put my stuff on it...

I did add a small shelving unit, made out of some leftovers of the table, to put the PS3 up a bit higher; thus giving more desk space.

After all that was done I went to the store to get some much needed spiced and cooking additives.

F'n Easy was having a sale on peppers (98 cents for a pound of peppers!) I kinda stocked up...

-1 pound of jalapeños, 1 pound serranos, 1 pound yellow peppers, 4 poblano peppers, 4 red 4 yellow 4 orange bell peppers, and chives. Took me about an hour to cut all of that up, and I am not going to touch my eyes for the next week.

So I figured since I had all of this cut up I made a bowl of my favorite dip.

-refried black beans, diced jalapeños, serranos, and poblano peppers; heat, mix, eat.-

Today, should be a blast of fun as the plan is to get the Volvo engine into the 240z.... GONNA BE AMAZING!!!

-'till next time

034

2011-02-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

The day that I moved in Sabrina bought me a beta fish and told me his name is Gorbash. I instantly called him Gorby, and he is fucking awesome.

Deal with it.

-'till next time

032, late posting, and 033

2011-02-02T23:27:00.000-08:00

So as you have seen I have been in the process of moving to a new place. Rent is a bit more than what I was paying, but it comes with a huge benefit; the garage. At my old place all of my project cars have been regulated to the driveway or side of the house, now it can stay protected in a garage; not to mention the fact that working on it during the cold/rainy season will be far better. I do lose out on the massive room that I was living in, but I am fine with the current size (from an 11'x16' to a about an 8.5'x11').

== Side note: I haven't used a zoom lens in ages, and I can finally see the difference in clarity and crispness that the 35mm prime gives me==

It took me 3 trips in the fit to get everything at the new place, and here is the aftermath.

After I set up my bed I started getting all of the hangers put up.

Gonna cut is close...

The unpacking for the evening was short lived, as there was mention of heading to the pub. And well... where there is alcohol, I must be. After we returned, I did a bit more unpacking and spoke with Kate about how I was going to set-up the room. IKEA was the obvious answer, but for those prices, I feel that I could do it for less and more to my liking. When the evening ended I still had 3 bags left and I needed to get up in the morning to head to Oceanside to finish up on some designs. So as a good kid, I went to sleep at 1:45am.

I awoke around 6:45, which has been highly unusual as of late, and was instantly terrified that I overslept on

My alarm, thankfully that was not was not the case. I finally had the chance to wake up with the sun, and for me it is far better than an alarm. Due to me not getting much sleep I decided to stay in bed and wait for the alarm to ring. I got up alright, but the day was a bit long due to the late night.

I left Oceanside around 5pm and made my way back to the house, and stopped at Home Depot along the way. Looked around at what they had to offer, and took notes on the prices. I then ran to the F'n Easy and decided that I wanted to make some stir fry. I picked up some udon noodles, green and orange peppers, onions, beef strips (I was feeling lazy), extra virgin olive oil, and some garlic naan bread. Thankfully they are well stocked in pots and pans, however they are lacking in the spice department (quickly remedied within the next week or so). Everything turned out a lot better than I expected, but I should have known to pick up some spices. Cleaned it all up and that whole ordeal (buy, cook, eat, clean) took an hour, not too shabby.

I went back into the danger zone that is my room, and continued to sort and judge my things. This is how my room looks currently.

And the sleeping side.

I still have a 45 pound bag full of shoes, and another full of car clothes to unpack, but the main things are ready for use and quick access. This brings me to why I stopped at Home Depot on the way home. I need places to put things. Awhile back I saw in article in a ReadyMade about the use of pegboards and another from the blog dornob about using fabric as a bookshelf (too lazy to find the articles, but a good googling will provide). I figure that the wall to the right of the bed will be all peg board, the wall will be painted a very vibrant color, and the pegboard another so that when you look through the holes you will see something more than a traditional white wall. The pegboard will be used to hang my shoes, photos, and anything really. There will be a cut-out for the existing mirror, and another for a desk that I will either buy from IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70180045) or one that I build from scratch. The drawers will be used to hold clothes, and the top of the desk for random nicknacks.

Who knows what else I will come across in the days to come, but at least my suits are hung.

-'till next time

031

2011-02-01T00:41:00.000-08:00

Heading to the new place tomorrow and figured that I'd get a couple shots of the process.

031

the closest description to this that I can give is that it was like heading into the Mines of Moria, but instead of a Balrog it is spiders... and what I was searching for was the base of my bed and mattress, it just happened to be behind the table, sofa, wheelchair, mattress foundation, fridge, microwave, gold chairs, and a skeleton.

After losing a limb and finding the holy grail, I started to put almost everything I own into boxes and bags.

before

after

one bag is just for shoes, minus my steel toes and the pumas.

finally, books and drawings that I may need/want to show off.

Should take me a couple trips to get everything over, but the best news is that my car should be there in a little over a week; after Martin and I weld the engine into the chassis... this weekend.

-'till next time

030

2011-01-30T21:09:00.000-08:00

It was raining outside, so we built a fire.

and threw some wreaths in it.

Then decided it was time to go with a second round of sizing of the octopus; 1.2 inches, the diameter of a half-dollar.

This is happening

-'till next time

029

2011-01-29T17:14:00.000-08:00

Sooo.... this showed up at my house.

It is the case base and seal assembly for a M831A1 120mm round.

It is fired by an M1A1 and makes it do this...

I am gonna use it as an ashtray.

-'till next time, and hopefully on time.

028, late posting

2011-01-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

So while driving back on base to pick up something that he wanted to get done I remembered that I neglected to upload and post about the photo of the day, hell wasn't even sure that I took one. Thankfully I have gotten into the habit of naturally taking about a photo everyday.

Had to completely mock up this assembly and his partner in about an hour; quite fun.

-'till when I post up today's PotD

027

2011-01-27T20:27:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the sticker Botan Rice Candy

now what the fuck does it mean?

-'till next time

026

2011-01-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

Finally got my gauges in...

unfortunately they sent me the wrong tachometer, so I have to wait until the first to get that in...

-'till next time

025

2011-01-25T23:54:00.001-08:00

One of the raddest things about knowing the bartender is being able to stay when everyone else has to leave.

-'till next time

024

2011-01-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

Zoe's first day at the animal hospital

Best scrubs ever!!

-'till next time

023

2011-01-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

I seem to keep leaving my Nikon at the house whenever I go out and it is starting to annoy me... Yesterday Martin, Missy, and me (I know it is correct to say I, but with so many "m"s I couldn't resist) went to San Diego to drop Missy off at the airport for her flight at 8pm. We decided to leave the house a bit earlier and go climbing at the Solid Rock Gym before she had to get on the plane. Even though we were only there for a little over an hour, we had a blast. After we dropped Missy off at the airport, we were back on the road heading to base so that Martin would be able to get some sleep in for his hard work in the field with 3am wake-up calls.

So after a fun filled weekend of driving, carting, and climbing I meandered back into town for some drinks with Erin and Robbie. I ordered up my typical combo of a Black Russian and a Guinness, while we started to discuss a future project that will net us millions in awesome points and drinks. Seeing as this is a small town, and it wasn’t busy, the Pub likes to close around 10pm. So I closed my tab and was about to ask if we were going to head to the Red Eye when I got a call from Kate saying that she just got off work, and if I was still in the Carlsbad area for some drinks. So while I may not have been in the area, I was definitely keen on getting a few drinks mixed with great conversation; not to mention that we have been trying to see each other for a month and haven't been able to. So I make my way to 3rd corner in Encinitas where we proceed to drink some wine, catch up, and have awesome conversations. Which brings me to 11:20 when I remembered that I didn’t take my photo of the day...

=If I had my Nikon it would have made for a crisper photo, as well as having the ability of post production color correction, but this will do.

All in all it made for a great end, to a good weekend.

-'till next time.

022

2011-01-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was definitely not one of my better days in regards to shooting, and mental stability. Joel, an old driving buddy, just received a lime green 1976 Honda CB200, and it was gorgeous. So i whipped out the camera and snapped a hundred or so shots of it, and then when he was organizing the garage we parked his early 80s CB650 next to it and I took a couple hundred more with both of them sitting together.

I did a quick review in the car before we went to a late lunch and was sure that I had at least 5 great shots that I could use and show. We get back to the house and when I plug the SD card into the computer none of the images show up. They all disappeared. The card showed that they were there, but as many options as I change, as many resets as I did, and recovery programs that I ran nothing was able to bring them back. My motorbike shoot was gone.

So while we were at K1 speed, I decided that I might as well get another carting shot in and at the very least try something new; motion capture. Since this was essentially my first time attempting this, and I only had one run group before our staging, the photos didn't turn out so well. But here is the best of them all...

If I learned anything from yesterday: I need to start actively shooting motion capture to be a better photographer, be more precise with how I word things so that plans are not assumed they are known, and be sure to invite everyone in the area (sorry Richard and Jesse).

-'till next time

021

2011-01-21T23:23:00.000-08:00

So I was gonna use this because it is of one of my best friends... and it is hilarious...

but I am going to go with this instead.

Octopus mania.

-'till next time

020

2011-01-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

Was at one of my old client's shops today and found a drawing that I did for him in 2004ish

and here it is in real life

This is why I love being a mechanical engineer/designer; you turn those clicks and taps of the keyboard and mouse into a part/assembly that you can touch, feel, and use.

-'till next time

019

2011-01-19T22:09:00.000-08:00

I made a free (nearly zero calorie) dinner, that we ended up not eating, for my sis and me.

We ended up going out drinking and having appetizers with Ian's parents. Ian's dad had some amazing cigars to smoke while the conversations were being conducted, it was amazing. I nearly forgot how much I loved smoking them and how much fun I had in Florida at the Havana Cigar and Coffee shop.

Now I just need to find someone who enjoys to smoke cigars, and then I'll be golden.

-'till next time

018, late posting

2011-01-19T09:48:00.000-08:00

Got caught up with some things yesterday and didn't get around to posting the photo.

Mine is the pretty drawing with the isometric view.

-'till next time

017

2011-01-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

Obligatory times 2

Ink-topus shirt from Shirtwoot

-'till next time

016

2011-01-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

Obligatory purchase and shot.

never have enough octopi in your life

-'till next time

015

2011-01-15T17:31:00.001-08:00

Forgot my camera at the house, so I had to use the phone.

Also took two photos and can't really choose which one to post... So I decided to double up.

First was taken we were helping Martin move out of his old storage unit.

And second is on the seal beach pier with an awesome truck band playing

-'till next time

014

2011-01-14T21:42:00.000-08:00

My life for the last week and the weeks to follow

-'till next time

013

2011-01-13T19:26:00.000-08:00

One of the little pieces that I get to reverse engineer.

-'till next time

012

2011-01-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

My Dad's 1966 Datsun Fairlady 1600. This photo was taken in 1974 right after he pulled the engine took it apart and couldn't figure out to put it back together.

and... like father like son, he is standing in the empty engine bay, best.

-taken in 2004

-'till next time

011

2011-01-11T20:16:00.000-08:00

To celebrate 01.11.11

PoTD - 011

celebrate 1.11.11

celebrate 01.11.11

-'till next time

010: Shoes

2011-01-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

23 pairs; need at least 7 more.

maybe 10 more...

-'till next time

009

2011-01-10T00:22:00.001-08:00

cop out

008

2011-01-08T19:46:00.000-08:00

Conner, junior cart pole position, K1 Speed Carlsbad.

Totally bad ass kid.

Couldn't actually get into the track, balls, so all of the shots were taken with me leaning over the edge and the camera resting on the barrier; sometimes it is nice to be tall.

-'till next time

Year in Review

2011-01-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

Well another year has passed of me posting on this blag, and as such it is time for a year in review.

I kicked off the year with my 240z being cut into pieces

Martin re-introduced me to rock climbing; looking at these makes me want to get back on a bike to get these legs back into shape.

After a month with the shell I had her up and running

And then made her sound awesome

Then gave her a quick spray

Put her on the ground, even though she looked like a monster truck. She is the first 240z photographed with both a BRE front lip and ZG flares (50 pages of google images, and 150+ flickr pages confirmed)

Had fun cleaning a carb, turned out it didn’t help.

Started to work on my wiring diagram, oh how it has changed!)

Went to New York and had lots of coffee

Someone in the UK was selling my Octopus logo on eBay, and I got some triple weber DCOE 40s

Then she got coffee with me for the first time.

Made the usual trip to the LBGP with the short shorts

Real life

With nascar sounds

Then slammed the car to the ground with the help of YoshiFab.

Boom.

Got a new camera.

Made the Z sound great

The car lost 40lbs

The Crazy Octopus returned

And the car got internet famous.

http://automanas.lt/astuonkojis-datsun-s30z-projektas/
http://www.build-threads.com/build-threads/chronicles-of-the-crazy-octopus/
http://www.vadriven.com/forums/showthread.php?t=346909&p=6331524#post6331524
http://oldskooljdm.tumblr.com/post/587120385/this-is-a-pretty-cool-z-less-is-definitely-more
http://blog.retro-classics.co.nz/?p=3385
http://tailoutsx.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/s13-z/
http://dsalni.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/oh-so-crazy/
http://dsalni.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/this/
http://kyushakai.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/crazy-jaguar/

My sister graduated

Took a photography class that changed my way of life

Had a 240 gathering at the house

Martin’s car was no longer able to run over a soda can

Replaced the dash.

Dropped to a new weight low of 185, and did some self portraits for my final project.

Went driving.

Then get really really loud for open header night

Then she began her stint in the air, while I gathered parts for a Volvo b230+16v+t engine swap with a Ford T-5 transmission swap.

Went to DC for the rally to restore sanity/fear with my sister.

More real life.

The Volvo engine finally put together

Only to find out that it had a crack in the block…

And help make pasta from scratch.

All in all it was an eventful year, and above all far better than 2009. The blag itself grew in viewership tipping around 19,500 (nearly 10 times more than last year) views throughout the year and an average daily view of 50 (more than 3 times more than last year) page loads. The blog moved from just being viewed by friends to being seen all across the states as well as from Oxford UK to Warsaw Poland; Bratislava Slovakia to Canterbury New Zealand; Bayen Germany to Seoul Korea; Canarias Spain to Ontario Canada; Queensland Australia to Paris France; and Fukuoka Japan to Oppland Norway to name a few.

This year looks to be quite promising with the car to be up and running within the next couple months, daily photographs, and simply just more awesome. As always I’ll keep with the updates as long as you keep viewing them.

-‘till next time.
The CrazyOctopus

double up

2011-01-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a couple more shots of Martin tearing down his 360.

as well as me jailbreaking and bricking my new iPhone 4, twice, within a day of owning it.

and here is today's Photograph of the day, an old Thunderbird at the gas station.

I really wish that my 240z was running and I was driving it, it would have made a great juxtaposition.

-'till next time

006

2011-01-06T22:48:00.000-08:00

Serious Martin is serious while tearing apart his 360 to hopefully fix the crazy CD sound...

Hilariously, he didn't read into it completely (just like me, heh) and found out that there were three different types of drives; he got the wrong one.

-'till next time

005

2011-01-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

I know, I know; two iPhone pictures in two days. But hey, this one has my cracked/broken/waiting for the new glass+digitizer 3GS and a 4. I have been taking these photos at the last second, I need to up my game on carrying my camera with me.

In other news I received my pressure plate, and the clutch and throughout bearing should be in within the next week.

-'till next time.

004

2011-01-04T23:31:00.000-08:00

Was going to replace the glass on my 3GS, but the kit I ordered from eBay didnt have the digitizer (the thing that reads finger movement) so now I am out a phone 'till i head to AT&T tomorrow and pick up the 4.

Also ordered a glass (with digitizer), so I can turn the 3gs into a ipod touch, or back up.

-'till next time

003

2011-01-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

Need more shoes.

-'till next time

002

2011-01-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

-'till next time

001

2011-01-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

Day 001 of the 365 challenge.

Didn't get to the junkyard today, and won't do it tomorrow either. I figure that I'll worry about getting a new block when my current one takes a dive. Josh at YoshiFab has a source for good blocks, so when the time comes (or when I think it is soon approaching) I'll give him a call and get it all sorted out.

-'till next time

Flow

2010-12-30T17:11:00.001-08:00

Is better now.

Today was the first day of the half off sale at Pick Your Part, so I made my way down to Chula Vista and picked up the 90+ manifold, dip stick, and a couple 16v cam gears for Josh at YoshiFab. Tomorrow I'll be up in Long Beach to hopefully find a back up block, and anything else that tickles my fancy.

-'till next time

fingers crossed!

2010-12-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

On this years "build of the year" on RetroRides!

-'till next time

It is cold!

2010-12-19T18:49:00.000-08:00

And raining! But that isn't any real excuse why I hit another lull in posting. I still have yet to re-clock the turbo, or go to the yard and find the better exhaust manifold, but I have been doing my research on what I will be buying. As it stands the purchasing order will be as follows:

1. Clutch, pressure plate, and pilot bearing.
2. Finalize how I am going to be actuating the clutch. Because going either with the stock hydraulic or using a hydraulic throwout bearing are looking to cost the same, and while cable looks to be significantly cheaper it isn't nearly as awesome.
3. Purchase the wires and connectors for the wiring harness.
4. ??
5. Profit

Besides lurking on car forums and part stores, on Tuesday I had the awesome chance to learn how to make pasta from an awesome gal, Kate. I am not talking about going to the store and then throwing it in a pot, we made it from scratch. BOOM!

It took me a bit of time before I realized that I should be documenting this; so I missed the creation and kneading of the dough, but was able to get in the first few when we started to roll it out.

Then we cut them into nearly equal sized strips.

Then we started to make the sauce for the pasta. I am very used to a traditional tomato base with hot Italian sausage, but Kate said that we should make it a light sauce because then we can taste the pasta and not just the sauce; I agreed. So we started to cut up some turkey basil and something sausages, chop some garlic, and throw in all in a very large skillet with rosemary and something olive oil.

Wine always makes things better

boiled a pot of water and tossed in the pasta

I was a bit forgetful in taking a photograph of the finished product, but this will not be the last time that we make pasta from scratch (I am hoping for some gnocchi next time). The pasta was extremely delicious as well as being significantly better than store bought.

I am still waiting for other people to post up some photos of Matt Schnarr's birthday party on Friday night, so once those are put up I'll post them up here.

-'till next time

Let's hope this works: part 2

2010-12-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finished manhandling my head and turbo to get everything to bolt up together with the least chance of leaking with the hand that I was dealt.

To fix the bolt that was broken off in the head I tried reverse drill bits, titanium drill bits, and finally ended up falling in love with cobalt bits. I figured I’d tackle the easier of the two problems first, the turbo. The 15g had the bottom two studs broken off, and there was no way that I was going to try to easy-out them, so I starting drilling into it. The first pilot bit, standard high speed, broke off; the second bit, titanium, broke off; finally the third pilot bit, cobalt, went through it like butter. I was able to center one of the bits perfectly on one of the bolts, but on the other I wasn’t as lucky. So instead of having 4 equally round holes I now have 3 and 1 more like a slot. After that was taken care of and cleaned I moved onto the head.

I tried every pilot bit that I could find and/or buy to get drill into the snapped easy-out but nothing was working. So I called up Josh and asked if I was to drill and tap on either side of the hole would that accomplish sealing the manifold. He said that I was taking a very drastic approach and could not guarantee that it would work, but there is a chance that it might. Seeing as I had no other option I took the chance. Aluminum is super easy to cut through so I went at it slowly. After that was taken care of I tapped into the head with a 1/4-28 bit.

Then I put some bearing grease on the head and mounted up the YoshiFab adapter plate to get an idea of where the two holes were placed. I took out my cobalt bits and started drilling away. I knew that there was really no way that I was going to get the holes perfect on the first pass, so after a few mounting and test fits later I was able to open the holes up enough to clear the bolt.

Put in the bolts and tightened the whole plate down.

This led to another expected issue, bolt head clearance with the manifold.

Marked up the manifold, put it in a vise and started grinding away the worthless material. In the end it looked like this.

Mounted it to the plate, and tightened all of the bolts down. And by the way, does volvo hate the people that work on their cars? Because who in their right mind would make a 4 piece exhaust gasket...

Now my engine is really starting to look like a real one.

Today my only goal is to re-clock the turbo and order the clutch, pressure plate, and pilot bearing.

-‘till next time

"This is bad right?" or "What can't this fix?"

2010-12-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

The horribleness that I mentioned yesterday was only compiled with yet even more lameness and shit. For the kids who keep asking why isn’t my engine cleaned, painted, pretty; this is why…

Yeah… that is a cracked block. I didn’t see it before because the block was dirty, so while I was cleaning it I found it. I reached my fingers inside of the flame trap opening and found out that it is a straight crack through the block. Balls. So I did some research and made a call to Josh and asked if it was weldable; it isn’t. He mentioned that the best thing to do would just be to just JB Weld it and hope for the best. I love JB Weld, but this is kind of pushing it to limit of how much I trust it. So I did a bit of lurking on the internets to see if other people have done this, and surprisingly there are quite a few outboard boats that do it. Seeing as I am so far along in the project, and the next half-off junkyard day isn’t until the end of the month I figured that I will keep using the block until it blows up and just have another one waiting.

Before I started on the crack I purchased what the hardware guy said was a “sure thing” to remove my stuck bolt in the head. Yeah, no. It snapped within the bolt, fuck that. If there is an exhaust leak, there is a leak and unless I find another head it’ll be there for awhile. Then I turned to the turbo and tried to get out the two bolts that are also seized, no prying could help, and it already wore down two of my bits so I have to get some more tomorrow, and hopefully something will go right for me.

So after all that I finally got around to cleaning the area around the crack

Made a grove where the crack is so that the JB Weld can have even more contact with the metal around the crack.

Roughed up the groove, cleaned the surrounding area, and brought out the good stuff.

Mixed it together, and dumped it all around.

Then I cleaned up the bit on my oil pan and while the engine was on its side I fixed the tension on the timing belt. So that end another day, and now I am off for a coffee and then later drown in vodka+ while playing GT5.

-‘till next time

It's starting to look a lot like and engine...

2010-12-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

Today was a continuation of the motor piece together and it was littered with both great and horrible things, I won’t get into horribleness today because the lighting wasn’t the best.

Since the oil pan was off the block I looked under its skirt to see if I did indeed have the awesome oil-squirting block, I did…

Here is Josh’s handy work with the new turbo oil drain.

And here is how the engine sits with the oil pan now installed

Then I FINALLY got my collector edition of GT5 in, and of course I was forced into the dilemma of racing vs. real.

I chose real and installed the intake manifold as well as YoshiFab’s tensioner, getting the tension right will be a job for tomorrow.

Then started on the exhaust side with the removal of the exhaust bolts

During the process, of course, one of the bolts snapped in the head… another thing I’ll be working on tomorrow.

Test mounted YoshiFab’s exhaust adapter plate and noticed that bolts that come off the 16v head are a bit too long. So I ran to the hardware store and picked up some bolts (I want to say they were M8x1.25 at 30mm) and washers. Then it got kind of cold and dark so I decided that the best course of action was to just pick up where I left off early tomorrow.

Then about 30 minutes ago my monitor mount finally came in!! So GT5 action is soon to come after a nice shower, some food, and some vodka+

-‘till next time

head bolted

2010-12-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

The 16v head bolts showed up this afternoon at YoshiFab!!! So I unbolted my oil pan so that Josh could weld in a fittingfor the turbo's oil drainage. The fitting seriously took Josh maybe 10 minutes to weld it in... insane fast in my honest opinion. I forgot to take photos of the oil pan today, but I'll get them tomorrow when I finish making the engine look like a real engine.

When I got back I started the attack...

Super Volvo sealant applied after torquing the bolts down: 15 lbs, then 30 lbs, then 115 degrees.

Top of the head half way though putting in the lifters

Installing cams: all nuts torqued to 15 lbs == DO NOT EXCEED OR YOU WILL SNAP THE BOLTS!==

and done!

Tomorrow I'll be bolting on the manifolds and oil pan, re-clocking the turbo, installing the timing belt, and cleaning it up a bit; I can't wait for it to look like a real engine.

-'till next time

Sim racing to a different level

2010-12-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

I pre-ordered the collectors edition of GT5, but when I checked the status on release day amazon said that it was back ordered; balls. So I got my refund and ordered it off of a different supplier on amazon and it should be coming in within days. In order to fully experience the beauty of this game...

example from Hakosukaa :

I ordered a 25" monitor from geeks.com on cyber Monday and it arrived at the house yesterday. Now the Sim seat is is a plank and a few bolts away from being awesome!

-'till next time

Why hide it?

2010-11-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

I am fucking blind and have been forever; in order to illustrate how blind I am here is what the numbered vision that I am (logMAR)

-11.50 right eye
-10.00 left eye

in 20/20 terms I am...

20 / .00000000006324 right eye
20 / .00000000002 left eye

here is what it looks like with my new glasses.

And I love it! after all, why hide what I really am! also heard back from YoshiFab and he is already on it and has the new head bolts on order. The company that sent the bolts accidentally sent 8v bolts rather than 16v. I don't know when they will get in, hopefully by the end of the week, but I will however be getting a new monitor in tomorrow and that should make my eyeballs jump for glee!

-'till next time

2010-11-28T20:32:00.000-08:00

Oh, come on…

Finally had all the parts in to put the engine together this weekend, but it turns out the head bolts that were ordered are far too large, so now I have to wait another week to get the correct ones in… I am really glad that that I have another daily… but in all honesty I am pretty pissed that the project has been on this lull for such a long time. I really want to hear this thing at full tilt…

Anyway here is a grab bag of things that have been in my eye sockets.

The Jacket, and how to waste time...

2010-11-12T19:14:00.000-08:00

While waiting for the super special Volvo head sealant to be ready I have gotten a couple things done...

Finally got the team patch sewed onto my leather jacket.

Went on an adventure with Erin Haugh, Chris Burge, and Max Sharp to this random spot in De Luz that I have never been to in my life.

Updated the wiring harness diagram (Rev.15)

and purchased the biggest of time sucks Call of Duty: Black Ops

CrazyOctopus, to top it all off someone asked me if i was the same CrazyOctopus with the slammed green 240z. Best moment.

Been a really long time since I have posted anything about my personal life so I figured that I would finally spill the beans; as far as the personal life goes, it could be better... ::begin rant::

I have been seeing this amazing girl for the last 4 months, and as much as I asked and tried to develop the relationship past the "man-friend/lady-friend" relationship; it never happened. That coupled with the fact that I couldn't even walk her to her family's front door, nor see her during the daylight hours while she was in town (she lives in LA) may have also played a part in it. I mean come on? I have know her brother for 7-8 years and I never thought that there was any bad blood between us, and then all of a sudden once I start seeing his sister everything changed (she is 25, nothing weird).

With this new ultimate dislike of me, and the relationship that I had with his sister, he essentially forced me out. I would like to think that without that happening, something could have been developed. Yes I know that I could have just kept things where they were and just waited even longer, but if he can't open his mind after 4 months who is to say that it would ever. For all truths though; I really wish that it had worked out because she is a fucking amazing lady. ::end rant::

-'till next time

A few days in DC

2010-11-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

My sister and I were in DC for the weekend to attend the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," as well as roam around and experience my nation's capital.

The Metro

On the escalator to the Pentagon

day before the rally on the lawn

American Museum

Natural History Museum

Jumping at the Washington Monument

Drunken Jegna night

youtube version HERE

The Rally

Then we got back home I updated the wiring diagram with a better kill switch layout.

-'till next time

Rev 13, the Volvo addition

2010-10-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

for those with Volvo LH 2.4

-'till next time, when I'll be in DC.