Brake job

...Oh maaaaan. So like I finally did the front brakes on the car. I had this whole plan in my head that I was going to set up the tripod and document everything in a photo essay. I had read the manual several times to make sure I knew exactly what had to be done. First I had to get the parts. What an adventure that was. The first store had only the pads. For rotors I had to go to the warehouse location across the river. Of course when I got there it was only to find they did not have them after all. Turns out the first store might have sold me the wrong ones because the second store in looking for them discovered the ones they did have plenty of the stock number had the last two numbers reversed. Well I needed some other supplies so I got them there and then went to store number three. At store number three not only did they have the rotors they also had the pads. Why oh why did I not simply go there first??? By that time the girls where super hungry so we went ate and then home to crash. Next day no time to lose I get out the jack and jackstands. Put the car on the stands and took off the first wheel. Looked ok there oh wait gotta take out some brake fluid from resovier. Nope can't do that the MAF sensor and resonance chamber in the way. No problem right? wrong i got the air box cover off but still had to bend and tuck intake hose and resonance chamber under engine cover. Ok so now i gotta remove the guide pins. WTF they are 7mm allen wrenches. In all my many toolboxes I have 6 and 8 but no 7mm. Best i could do was 1/4 inch which did the job but not perfectly. Got the calipers off and pryed off the outward pad. Oh ya gotta compress the caliper to make room for new pads. That c clamp I bought came in handy. Ok so now i set the new pads in the caliper but wait the inner one seems loose. Lucky for me a friend of my wife came by. Her husband is a mechanic and pointed out that on closer inspection i had two outside pads (thanks much Wayne). I probably would have figured that out but thanks to him I was saved the time. The rotor came off relatively easily. Everything went back together easily so on to the other side. Uh oh the top guide pin would not come off. I could get the caliper off if the rotor was off. The rotor wouldn't budge. I had to take a mallet to it to beat it off. With the rotor off I was able to wrestle the pads out of the caliper and then slide off the caliper from the guide pin. I put the new pads in the caliper and the new rotor on the hub. Then i called my friend who was already on the way to stop in at an unidentifed auto parts store to pick up a 7mm allen wrench. Wouldn't you know it but sure enough the allen wrench sets they sell do not include a 7mm. Plan B time for vice grips. They did the trick. I removed that stubborn guide pin put the caliper back in place greased the pin up and put it back on. I got them as tight as I could with only the 1/4 inch wrench. I don't own a torque wrench so tight as i could will have to do.
Turns out this was also true for the wheel bolts. When I finally got everthing back together i went for a spin around the block everything seemed ok so when i got back i cleaned up and Renee and I went to Langley. On the way back we noticed there was a bit of vibration on the passenger side. Shure enough I was able to tighten the wheel bolts even more. Went for a drive 5 blocks away and it seemed that the vibration was gone. Cool all done. Well until next project or picture bye for now...

Last one of our current series

...Thats right. This will be the last one for a while. This picture is called "You want some sushi?" It goes once again with that Japanese fascination i seem to have. I didn't actually try Sushi until some time a couple years ago. I really like the Tuna, Salmon and Ebi both as maki and sashimi. Good sushi is served with fresh ginger and wasabi. Ginger of course is good but wasabi is well umm lets just say its an aquired taste. I recently spotted wasabi flavored potato chips from lays. I bought a bag but have not opened them yet. Perhaps i'll try them later tonight. Anyway here's the picture.



...Not much else to add but perhaps i might plug in the scanner and scan this.



...its a schetch i did at Renee's Birthday dinner. We took her to Montana's. She did not wear the horn helmut so i drew this instead. Also since i ordered pan fried fish the little fisher had to catch em first. Ok by for now.

The Surreal

...i guess this describes the following picture. What does it mean? I haven't a clue. The title was "wipe your nose". If i where to guess it may have something to do with my choice of music that day. Does the "Digital Underground" ring any bells? How about "The Humpty Dance"? Ok if not then perhaps you might wan't to look here. Anyway you may have to draw your oun conclusions.



...and of course you could always leave a comment by clicking on the little green "comments" link below.

I had fun doing this

...The assingment was simple enough or so it whould seem. Do a modern stained glass design. Immediatly i thought of most classic stained glass and cathedrals with stained glass whose subject matter mostly included saints. Being raised protestant I really had no clue of any of the saints cannonized or immortalized in glass. So i thought of what group of people might not be represented by a patron saint. Since I thought motorcyclists were mostly bad dudes (which i liked) then they probably would not have a Patron Saint and thus i hoped that i would not offend anyone by inventing one. This picture was the result.



...The bike was inspired not devinely but from boss hoss bike that had a small block V8 engine instead of the usual V-Twin like a harley. By devine intervention so small a rider could handle so big a bike. Also i thought perhaps that since I thought there might not be too many saints some of them might do for other groups of people. So i figured my patron saint would also represent electric guitar players. Turns out its a good thing i'm not catholic. I might have been burned at the stake for heresey. Actually there are 2 patron saints for motorcyclists. The first is "The Blessed Virgin Mary" and i'm like "well duhhh". The second was Saint Columbanus who by what i could find did not play guitar instead did missions and tamed wild bears (with Gods help of course). As for guitarists well not that i could find so perhaps I'll suggest i should rename this picture to that instead.

Yet Another Self Potrait

...yeppers it looks like another one. This time its was near grad. The library in the backgroung is a cleverly placed backdrop. Not shure what else to say 'bout this.



...the only thing i like about this was my hands. They look the most realistic element of the picture. Perhaps if i had taken the extra time to edit it i would have tryed to redraw my face. The offset of the eyes are somewhat correct but the nose and mouth are way too cartoonish. And of course i could have spent a little longer tightining the detail of the books in background. I suppose if i where to do my own webcomic i might start by defining settings with story board like backgrounds of where my charators live and interact. Or maby charactor development should be a priority. Anyway these are just musings at this point. More to come, possibly tommorow.

Study of Contrast

...First of all i must apologise for the lack of posts so far this week. My excuse is simply that i've been sick with fly like symptoms. Anyway this assingment I'm proud to mention was the only one i recall that was a top of class selection from the other students and also earned an A grade. The idea was to draw something that demonstrated the concept of "Contrast". Not real shure what that meant but i remember thinking of the effect of adjusting the contrast control on a black and white television set. I thought of how i could give different weight to each color and using a sort of grey scale repersent it that would give defined contrast. The picture was in full color but i drew the lines and did the shading on that idea of grey scale weight. I think it turned out great....




...i guess the flash from the camera scared me because in the next picture i was crying but i didn't draw that one so you will have to imagine what it might have looked like. Of course i belive Naan, Oma and Opa still have the originals so they would know and be chuckling now. By the way we decided that our new cat will be named "Smoky" Ok bye for now.

Rock you like a Hurricane

...Once again I had another reproduction assignment. This time it was my choice. I chose this...



...The album cover of The Scorpions, Love At First Sting. I've played this tape so many times its warped. So mabey i'll buy the CD right? Nope i got something even better...vinyl! Bought it at a garage sale. But oh if only i could get a drive belt for my turntable. Just kidding. I figure that because i paid full retail for the tape so long ago then i must have some right to the music. So why not download select tracks in mp3 format. After all I could hook up the tape deck to the computer and rip it that way but why bother. Downloading is so much easyer. Anyway i've secretly wondered if this was some endorsment for double penetration. Its obious he's sticking his tattoo needle into her but is that all?? Hmm ok thats it for now.