I’ve been thinking about checking out a Kendo class for a while. I used to fence with epees in college and have been thinking about this for a while. So I’m going to go down and check out one of the all levels classes that DFWKIK has to see both if I’m up to it (probably not, but I won’t let that stop me) and whether I really want to do this. More to follow…
Author Archives: Pat
Alignment, Rain, Driving Home
Since the skies were so nasty this morning, I worked on getting the front-end alignment done early. Cowtown Jeeps has a great page that shows exactly how to do this, and it’s the method that I used. It worked like a charm and other than the really nasty rain until I got almost to Ellis county, the drive back was uneventful. I’m tired and I’ve still got to work on school stuff so this is staying short.
A Bad Jeep Day
After noticing that my alignment was really badly off, with the driver’s side tire at a completely different angle than the passenger’s side tire when they should have both been straight, I decided to fix it by removing the driver’s side tie rod end, screwing it in a little more, then reconnecting it and redoing an alignment. Easy, right?
Wrong.
I messed up the threads on the tie rod end and spent most of the day making three 20 mile trips to the nearest auto parts store to get the right part to replace it. It turns out that my tie rod was put on backwards which threw everyone for a loop.
I started this at 2:00 this afternoon and got to a stopping point with just the alignment left to do at around 8:30 tonight.
At least I’ll be able to drive home tomorrow.
Mars Polar Lander Found?
Space.com is reporting that the Mars Polar Lander’s crash site may have been found. From the article it sounds like a software glitch caused the lander to crash. I wonder just how they could have tested for this particular case since it is theorized that the jolt from the landing legs extending prematurely cut off the engines.
A New Hamsat!
HAMSAT was launched today and should be operational by June. It’s going to be mode B, but since it’s not showing up on Heavens Above yet, I don’t know if there are going to be any orbital passes over the US.
We Few
I just finished reading We Few, John Ringo and David Weber‘s latest installment in their Prince Roger series. It’s great! I was completely sucked in and couldn’t stop reading it. If you enjoy military sci-fi, give this series a try. Start with March Upcountry.
I’m looking forward to the next book because something tells me the chaos hasn’t quite ended yet. I’m keeping this spoiler free, so it’s a little on the brief side, but it’s a great read!
Referrer Spam Run
Sorry about the poor performance, my poor server’s getting the stuffing beaten out of it by one massive referrer spam run. I’ve got mod_rewrite passing out 301’s to (hopefully) redirect the clients back to the site they’re spamming for, but the router’s still working hard enough that connection times are terrible. This has been going on since about 5:30 Central time on 3 May with no end in sight. I’ll post updates as things develop.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I went to see The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. No, it’s not the BBC series (radio or television), it’s not the book, but it’s still good fun. Alan Rickman did an absolutely wonderful job as Marvin. It was good to see Trillian as more than just window dressing. The Vogons were great. Zaphod was too!
Go see it, it’s worth the price of admission.
Christ Is Risen!
Today is Pascha, the feast of the Resurrection, also known as Easter. Today we celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead. There’s too much there for me to say any better than what’s on the OCA website. It will have to be sufficient to say that this is the feast of the Christian year.
I arrived at St. Maximus’s at around 11:00 PM Saturday night, services started at 11:30 and ran until about 3:30 Sunday morning, at which time we broke the fast with meats, cheeses, alcohol, and the other foods we’ve been fasting from for the last six weeks.
I got home a few minutes ago and am going to get some much needed sleep.
Christ Is Risen!
H-alpha Viewing
Since it was such a nice sunny day today I set up the PST and took a good look at the sun. There was one really nice prominence there today! This PST really is one really cool little telescope!
I took a few shots with the LPI, and if anyone’s interested, they’re here.
