Category: Uncategorized

That last post was my 1000th in Blogger. Holy hell. Anyway, I haven’t written about Spain yet and I just keep forgetting to make time. Here’s a quick blurb I wrote for someone else; it might hold you over:

Overall, Spain was great: the weather was very cooperative (no rain, but I can’t really say that highs in the 50s are anything more than just “cooperative”), the wine was cheap and plentiful, getting around was quite easy (taxis everywhere, good bus and train networks) and the sites were fabulous. The highlight and dark horse of the trip was the Mezquita, a Moorish mosque that was eventually converted into a Christian church. It wasn’t highly regarded in the tour books but the history and architecture were quite impressive.

The Spain vacation wasn’t without problems though. The Southern half is fairly sexist which caused problems since the girlfriend is the better Spanish speaker. We were also treated poorly at our Seville hotel since we booked with Expedia; I’ve heard this being an issue so I think I will book my European hotels directly from now on. We also received some poor service due to being American at a few places. These small issues didn’t really harm the trip, but still something to note.

Let’s see, what has been taking up my time lately? First it was Spain, the pictures are here. Next, my well-pre-ordered XBox 360 arrived earlier this week. I’ve only played one real game, Project Gotham Racing 3, and two Live Arcade games, Geometry Wars and Hexic. Want to play? Gametag: opensob. Want to XBL stalk me? Sign in to xbox.com.

I decided my car is quickly decending into mild rice. The car came a bit ricey from stock (the futuristic 17″ wheels, the huge rear bumper, the spoiler) and then the previous owner decided to add some more. The rear hatch normally comes with an emblem that says SVT Focus and there is a Ford oval. The owner decided to shave off the “Focus” part of “SVT Focus” and then covered up the blue Ford oval with a matching red “SVT” oval. The front grill has a similar “SVT” red oval.

If the uninitiated looked at my car and tried to figure what make and model it was, they would come up with… SVT SVT. I’m not kidding, as this is exactly what was written up when I got a “parking ticket” at Microsoft. Color: Red. Make: SVT. Model: SVT. License Plate: OPENSOB. I personally think the combination of the new “Pirahna” logo I added has tipped me into the “rice” category. I’m going to leave the Pirahna, since it’s new and barely noticeable, but I just removed the red SVT ovals from the front and back. Here’s a picture of what I just removed:

I’m thinking about buying a new “SVT Focus” emblem and returning to almost stock.

If you have speakers, check out Crumpler Bags. Turn off the site music by hitting the little note in the lower right corner. Get ready for weirdness and then start playing with the “nards” button. Fecalrific.

You know that wheel scuff repair article that I linked to earlier? I decided to go for it on my most damaged wheel:

The first step is to take the rim off and then tape off the damaged area:

After that, sand off a bulk of the damage with 240 grit sandpaper:

Then, add spot putty and sand with 400 grit over and over until it feels fairly smooth:

Using a scratch filling primer, spray two or three thin layers, just to cover the spot putty:

Spray down three or four thin layers of the wheel paint:

After letting the paint set up for an hour or two, spray a few layers of clear 10 minutes apart. After that, you’re done! Granted, the paint didnt quite match the original color, but it was close enough:

I have been testing a new device the last week and I feel I’ve used it enough to post a summary.

Name: HTC Wizard (AKA QTek 9100, IMate KJam)
Specs

• Weight: 160 g
• Dimensions: 108 x 58 x 24 mm
• Screen: 240x320x16bit
• Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP 850, 195 MHz
• Memory: 64MB RAM, 128 MB ROM
• Radio: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 EDGE
• Bluetooth 1.2
• 802.11g
• 1.3 megapixel camera

The device is a small “slider”, meaning that it looks like a normal Pocket PC but you can also expose a keyboard. Unlike previous devices such as the Blue Angel, the keyboard slides out to the side and the screen then flips to landscape mode.

The combination of small size, powerful features (I’ve been using a Windows Mobile Smartphone for so long I forgot how much is included in Windows Mobile Pocket PC) and speedy data (I’m getting about 150kbps with EDGE) make this just about the perfect device. Some people say that the Universal is going to be the WM device that makes it big. Some people say that is going to be the Tornado. Nay, I say, NAY. It will be the Wizard.

It’s definitely music to my ears! “We are the Champions” as played on… a Renault F1 engine!

Holy hell, a used 2005 Boxster that I was interested in about two months ago is now being listed at a dealer for over $48k. When I was originally interested, the car had fewer miles and I know the car was available since I actually talked to the seller on the phone. I backed out when I realized how expensive the monthly payments would be but payments on $41k wouldn’t have been as bad as they would be now!

Know of any idiots that have curbed their wheels and want a cheap fix? Try this process out!

…yeah, both of my driver side wheels are curbed, but were curbed when on the passenger side. When I had my Kumho MXs installed, I guess they decided to put those wheels on the opposite side. It’s a shame, since I’m now more likely to curb the clean wheels…

So, our hockey game this week was reschedule from Monday (Labor Day) to Thursday, but this rescheduling wasn’t announced and was done on Sunday. Needless to say, we only had a few people show up last night. Three, to be exact, or not enough to field a team!

Luckily, someone from a different team filled in for us so we could at least play. By the end of the first half, we were all extraordinarily exhausted, but we were up 2-0! Another player showed up at halftime, so at least we could sub one person out. The final result? We won 5-1. I was shocked, but everyone played smart: passing cleanly, not giving up the puck in our end, knowing when to dump and when to bring it up, etc. It was a good game.