Looking At Grad School

I’m getting close to completing my undergrad degree and have been seriously considering going on for an advanced degree. I went to a graduate forum at The University of Texas at Arlington this morning to see what they’ve got to offer. I’m really impressed and will be starting the process to get my admissions stuff done, including the GMAT, as soon as I’m done with the undergrad degree. The current plan is to start working on an MBA with a concentration in Information Systems and a M.S. in Information Systems concurrently since it looks like it’ll take about another year in addition to the MBA in order to complete it.

The Cylinders And Pistons Are Back

The UPS guy brought a present for me today in the form of a box from Nallin with my pistons, cylinders, rings, gaskets, and the new pushrod bases. Now all I’ve got to do is work out a time with Crude to start the reassembly and then get through a 500 mile break-in period and I’ll be able to quit paying so much for gas.

Starting The Rebuild

Mine and Crude’s schedules both had some free time today so I went over there to do some of the non-engine work. We got the new neutral switch and front pulley installed, and put in the throttle lock and new lower right control housing. Crude also helped me out by getting the connector that I worked on when I installed the tach put back behind the headlight housing. All in all a productive evening.

And I heard from Nallin, the pistons are supposed to be in tomorrow, so they’ll be shipping everything back to me later on this week. Hopefully that means that the final reassembly will happen next weekend.

Setting Up The 2m/70cm Vertical

I finally got around to setting up the 2m/70cm vertical that I bought almost two years ago. It’s now in the attic, at about 30 feet, being fed by about 40 feet of LMR-400. I’ve tested it on both 2m and 70cm and it’s getting out with no SWR problems and good coverage. Now all I’ve got to do is set up the 2m and 70cm HO Loops to get a little side band action.

Getting Some Head(s)

I picked up the heads from Evolution Bike Works this afternoon. They had to replace the exhaust valves because they were a little pitted. In addition they replaced the seals, recut the seats, and did a general clean up on them. Now I’ve got all of the parts back except for the stuff from Nallin which is waiting on back-ordered pistons.

Picked Up The Chrome

I stopped by to pick up the rocker box covers today. The polishing is excellent, all of the scratches are gone, but the chroming’s a little off. The top covers don’t have good coverage in the deep parts. It’s clear that it was dipped instead of immersed. If I were building a custom this would have been an issue, but with my goals it’s fine. I’ll clean them up later.

Wow!

I got the slides and prints back today and am completely blown away by how good the slides came out. I’ve got a reprint of one of them on order and am scanning the rest now. It looks like the scanner’s colors are off quite a bit since flowers which on the slides are vibrant purple are coming out blue, but they’re all up in the gallery now. I guess I’m going to have to add a good professional slide and film scanner to the shopping list.

But, that being said, these are without a doubt the best pictures I’ve ever taken. I know now how much I’ve got to learn and that I can do better.

Dallas Arboretum

I decided to head out to the Dallas Arboretum with a few friends today to really try out the new lens and some good film. I shot my first roll of slide film, Fuji Velvia 100, and a roll of Kodak’s Ultra Color 100 negative film. I’m a little concerned over how the Velvia’s going to turn out, because I took every shot in manual mode and am trusting the camera’s light meter to do the right thing.

The Arboretum itself was beautiful. Load of flowers in every color of the rainbow, well tended grounds, and great walking paths. I’m definitely going to go back when the seasons change for some variety.