Block Off Plate

It's finally on. I was going to change the oil today but went with my brother to Boise to help his girlfriend with her car (which we weren't able to do anything about after all), so I haven't gotten around to it yet.

So yeah... that's about it for today...

I hope you're feeling better this afternoon, Sarah.

Captain's Log Stardate 070718.539

So, my brother built my block off plate... out of 1/4 inch steel. It's thicker than my engine block sidewalls. I bought gasket paper and cut out a gasket for it and now I just have to go back to the shop tonight and bolt it into place, drain the oil/gas it has sitting in it right now, and refill with the thicker 20W Pennzoil that's sitting next to it, and then I am going to replace the gaskets that are also sitting on the bench next to it.

Sarah, I hope you feel better honey, I love you so much. I miss you sweetie.

Append to Previous

• Unfortunately do to some unfortunate sizing issues and the unwillingness of companies to produce products for Toyota's read headed stepchild that is the 4A-C engine, my older brother is fabricating me a fuel block of plate.
• I'm still waiting for that paycheck and it's grown some.
• I got to spend all of 4th of July and even most of the week following with Sarah.
• She loved her surprise.
• Still deciding on the Electric Fuel Pump and Electric Fan I want to purchase.
• Still waiting to get the block off plate on so I can drain the oil and run the heavier weight stuff through.
• Haven't called the transportation department. (Want it to be running before I proceed.)
• And I still need to check on getting some upholstery work done on it.
  

I am also working on getting a few of my dad's trucks painted.

And it's been really hot and crappy lately, but anyways, talk to you all later.

Just a few things.

• My fuel pump block off plate is due in at V & M tomorrow.
  
• I have a paycheck coming soon.
  
• I get to spend most of the 4th of July with Sarah.
• Been working on a surprise for her, hopefully I get it planned and finished in time
• I need to get the electric fuel pump ($42) and the F.A.L. Electric Fan ordered ($75-$100).
• After I get the block off plate put on I need to drain the oil, replace the oil filter and give it heavier 20W oil to see if it'll smooth it out at all.
• I need to call the Transportation Department about the title.
• I need to check with some upholstery guys about getting the seats redone, and then I'm going to start scouring junk yards in Portland for similar cars for some parts.

That's about it. I need to figure out where I'm sleeping in Portland in the next few days as well... dangit...

AE86 Dream Come True...

Hello the few that view this. My name is SlowTEC and this is my dream:

This is a 1984 Toyota Corolla SR5 Hatchback. In Japan, it's the equivalent to the 85, powered by a carbureted 1.6L SOHC 8-Valve 4A-C engine.

I rescued this car, it was a tragic story of an automobile headed for the crusher on trumped up charges of not being wanted... a lie simple and pure. But I found him. A diamond among dirt clods.

For as long as I've been into cars, and I'm afraid to say, my spurring into post 1970s automobiles was Fast and the Furious, though I have progressed since, so don't be afraid that I'm going to double clutch my Integra or my Corolla.

Now, let's talk about the car. The 4A-C creates over 70 horsepower, however, only 60 horsepower reach the wheels. Compared to the 4A-GE in the GT-S that puts nearly 100 horsepower to the road. But it can be brought to that level, and I don't see a reason why you should throw out a the car's engine, it's heart, it's soul, for the simple fact of wanting to be Mr. Dorifto.

The car's engine can be brought up to the GT-S performance with mild modification. Paradise Racing makes a 4A-C Power Pack that comes with a Weber 32/36 Downdraft carb, specially ground Schneider Camshaft, and double valve springs all for $650. And that should be enough to raise the cars performance considerably. And since I'm in Idaho where emissions laws aren't spoken of, I can issue black smoke out the exhaust in voluminous amounts and no one could care less.

The suspension can be set up on my SR5 the same as it could on the GT-S, so my car has the potential of identical handling and with the addition of a complete GT-S rear end in the car, I could have the rear-wheel disc brakes, LSD, and higher rear end gears.

Headers were made for the engine at one time, however because of lack of demand the company, S&S, stopped production, so headers are non-existent for this engine, unless you want to have your own made or are lucky enough to find some used S&S headers that someone is selling.

In the long run, I'd like to get the head ported and polished, get some upgraded pistons and rods, just beef this thing. It's all about enabling. Why would I want to change the car's engine, it's very personality, when it could run like a scalded cat with a little help?

And as far as aesthetically, I'm going to get the damaged interior panels and tears in the vinyl from sitting in the sun for too long replaced. Get the seats reupholstered, repaint the car in it's original paint scheme, Silver/Black, and just get this car back to it's former glory. It feels so good to set in and in the short times I've driven it, I've been in heaven.

I officially love this car. I can't wait to have kids so they can underestimate it in 16 years, haha.

It's exciting to see the beginning of construction of this car. Money permitting it should all be complete in a year or two.

That's all for now. Thank you.

May, Year 20, Current Status:

So I got off work early, we didn't drive today, just did some mechanic work... came home, showered, and as I started to get dressed pulled on my headphones and flipped on a song I had but hadn't listened to, called Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top. I tell you what, any guy who has ever dressed up for anything in his entire life, be it any sort of social event, should be listening to that song as he got ready, that'll get you jacked up about whatever it is your about to do.

I have to drive tomorrow again, I want to do something tonight to relax before tomorrow, but there isn't anything, I don't like going to movies or watching TV because your time just disappears into the abyss that is the right side of your brain when you do that. If the only way to slow down time is to stare at the clock so be it, but I want it to slow down.

It's a strange thing waiting on a paycheck, I have MADE a lot of money, I don't have any of it yet, but I guess that helps keep me from spending.

Other than that, I need to go shave and comb my hair a load of other stuff.

Later...

Frustration

Do you even know the meaning of true frustration? Frustration is knowing that the car you've always wanted is 10 miles away and not being able to do anything about it because you've been an idiot in the past...

Frustration is being 600 miles from the person you love more than anything because you are too much of a pansy to get a job back there...

Frustration is the definition of my life, when you have a comparable situation let me know... (Andy you need not apply, it's like the episode of Seinfeld where the survivor of the Titanic is crying because George told his life life story, that's like your frustrations compared to mine)

Putting the me back in Country...

I'm 2 decades old. I'm in my 20's now. Is it weird to feel nostalgic for a time period when I wasn't even born? Homesick for a place I've never been? I feel like a farm kid. I've spent days picking rock, I've spent most of my childhood around tractors and farm implements... my mom's family are cowboys, but I'm not them... I'm a Paulin. Paulin's are farmers. We are hardworking and blue-collar... have you ever felt that by getting an education you are betraying your family's history... the way your family is. We are a content people, we belong with other blue-collar people... down-to-Earth working people, not scholars... It's great that my grandparents and my parents want more for me, but that's not where my heart pulls. I dream of fields of hay, corn, grain... fields green as far as the eye can see, so far that the waving ocean of green meets the blue, white clouded sky.

I am a driver. My grandfather was a driver, he drove old Mercury's, he drove milk trucks, he was a tank driver in the Korean War, my father drove muscle-cars, hopped up trucks, silage trucks, and I feel a pull to cars, they speak to me... it's like a religious feeling. The closest I feel to God is driving down a road or being in the country. It's because I know I'm as close to heaven as I'll be on Earth.

The beliefs are stronger here. The people are better. I belong here, I understand this place. Portland, coffee other than black with cream and sugar, even the small import cars I'm fond of, feel totally out of place with me sometimes...

I've been wearing a John Deere hat constantly for the last week... And I find myself singing "Small Town" in my head while I drive...

"Well I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Probly die in a small town
Oh, those small communities

All my friends are so small town
My parents live in the same small town
My job is so small town
Provides little opportunity

Educated in a small town
Taught the fear of jesus in a small town
Used to daydream in that small town
Another boring romantic thats me

But Ive seen it all in a small town
Had myself a ball in a small town
Married an LA doll and brought her to this small town
Now shes small town just like me

No I cannot forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be

Got nothing against a big town
Still hayseed enough to say
Look whos in the big town
But my bed is in a small town
Oh, and thats good enough for me

Well I was born in a small town
And I can breathe in a small town
Gonna die in this small town
And thats probly where theyll bury me"

That's all, Happy Birthday to me...

Back in Idaho Part 2.86

So I am working again, and it's hot outside and I'm tired.

But I worked all day and I made money and now I'm tired and showered and feeling like relaxing for a few hours, I was thinking about going into town and buying something to make for dinner, but thought better of it, I'm too tired, I'm just going to laze around for a bit and then start getting ready for bed.

And that's the end of Day 1.

I worked, drove home, showered, and now I have 6 hours until I have to sleep again.

Talk to you later, have a good evening.

The End #2

It's the last week of my second year of college. Think about what I've lived through in the last 2 years. I've met dozens of people, fell in love with friends and THE girl. I've met some amazing people, one I'm sitting next right next to as I type, David Way, a genius, unkempt just like every one before him, with a mind that frankly astounds me, he just... knows everything. David is going to be gone next year, he's done, after 5 years, and I only counting him as a friend for one of them, he's going off to make his mark on the world. Parker is gone, he was only here for a year, probably the best year of my life, and then he was gone. My roommates this year, though at times they have bothered me, I've lived with them, shared 5% of my life with them, 10% if you count last year. Joe is gone now. I have memories of walking into my suite after walking down to her room at night, and even though it was 11, Joe would be there, WoW loaded on his laptop, Fox would be asleep, like always, by this late, but Joe would be there. It was like clockwork. It's like a summer memory, it's a warm memory.

In 3 days, George'll be gone. And that'll be the end of that chapter of my life, the Sutton chapter. Will I see George this much ever again? He was a roommate, quirky, but caring. And the next chapter will start, and to be honest, I'm not sure how it will go. Joe was overly opinionated, George under. It was a weird grouping of people, a thrown together situation because we were the rejects that no one else wanted to live with, so we got together, the way rejects do, and formed something out of nothing.

I've been dating the girl that I'm going to marry for over a year, 15 months now.

Andy and Nick are gone. Back to California, Koda is getting married. Slowly it seems like the fabric of my life is starting to pull apart the seams and separate.

Craig is graduating and going back home, it's like I can start to see the finish line myself and know that I'll have to provide for myself and for her, and there's a lot of growth and understanding that is going to have to happen before then.

Alex was thinking of moving to Arizona, but now he's talking of sticking around and going to PSU. But that was nearly one more relationship gone.

Haskell is living with me next year, Haskell, Chris, and Brian. Three more people I have a chance to know, to get closer to. Life is all about relationships Van Wilder once said, and you know what? That's something worth writing down.

Me and George have been playing WoW, new characters on a new server, but we only play together, we don't play unless we are both on, that way we stick together. And that keeps us accountable, we motivate each, we hang out, we talk. If all relationships in life were as simple and easy as me and George the world would be a happier place.

That's all for now.

Me and George are level 20 Blood Elf Rogues by the way. Very Bad-A.

WoW doesn't wow me, but it's all I got right now...

So, like the title implies, I'm back in it. And it's boring as crap...

Especially since I'm alone.

I started on the Rivendare server. As a human priest named, you guessed it, Exon. I'm glad to be playing a priest again, I like healing people, being part of a community much more than grinding and playing straight through, and this gives me a chance to be in groups and hang around with people. So I'm going to be playing that for a while, not terribly much, but for a while, so if there's anyone out there wanting to try their hand at being a DPS helper or dedicated tank for me... that'd help a ton when there are no groups to be had...

Well that's all I have for now.

Until later...

From where I'm sittin

Money bothers me.

It does.

I was sitting at my computer for hours last night looking the country over for my dream car, the 1984-1987 Corolla GT-S Hatchback. And it's agonizing. I found a couple of really clean ones, but by the time I have the money they'll be sold.

And it makes me really... uptight about money when stuff like that happens. I don't like not having enough. I don't like not being able to do what I want because I'm lacking.

I'll definitely have that much by the end of the summer, I've been crunching numbers for months while sitting in my classes about all the ways I can earn a little money. It seems so easy. But it's hardly that.

Money is fluid, it's earned almost as fast as it's lost.

I don't have very many liquid assets and that's a little disheartening. I wish there was more than there is.

But I'll try to be content. Today marks the beginning of my saving. My saving for multiple things. No more spending on frivolous things like fast food or DVDs. Just necessities.

And that is that.

It's all my fault that everyone is poor...

So in my usual style I left a 7 page research paper until the morning it was due and then began feverishly working on it, even having woken up late too, I meant to start at 4:30 am, but wasn't up until 6 am, so that kind of got me nervous, but then after only a few hours working on it, I'm already completed with 4 out of 7, Intro and Conclusion both already completed, I'm just filling in the middle and have nearly half of that done.

I've been playing Ogame.org, it's a text based space exploring online game. And it's a game you can only play every 2 or 3 ours for 10 minutes because you just have to tell it what to set up and where to send your ships and then you have to wait 2 hours for them to get to where they were supposed to go, and that is a little frustrating. If any of you read this and want to play with me, I play on Universe 29.

But other than that, this is the second to last week of school and I'm just cruising steadily along.

I have 4 more photos to take for photography tomorrow evening and I need to develop 2 rolls of film before then as well. But I'll get it all done, no worries.

Until a little later, have fun.

165th Post!

So, Spring Break is over. I made good money over break doing a dirty job. But that's all behind me now. I have class in an hour... how horrible that feels. There's no way I'm ready for classes again already. Break felt as short as a weekend.

I took back a box of stuff, so I have less junk laying around to worry about. I'm probably going to go ahead and box up another portion of it so I have less clutter, it'll make it easier to finish the semester that way.

Roommate woes as always...

But other than that, everything is okay. It was sunny this morning, now it's all overcast and pretty dim.

I have a class in 45 minutes. Then I need to run to the bank and read for History of the American West.

Have a good day everyone.

Idaho Again...

Sarah, I love you. Here's what I did today:

Snake River Canyon (Downriver from Shoshone Falls)

Shoshone Falls, March 2007, low, low water year

Perrine Bridge over the Snake River from a spot down in the canyon next to Centennial Park.

Small waterfall in the Snake River Canyon

Doctrine, Spoil, Degree, and Break

So, another day of criticism over my class schedule for next spring, mainly that FCSC class. So what if it's a class dealing with Fashion, it's also dealing with Merchandising. Inventory management, product acquisition, and the kind of information that could be an asset to a person with my major, it's always worth the practice.

I got my grade back on my Global Political Economy exam: 90%

And I am finished with my exam in Managerial Accounting, and I feel good about it. It'll be a high B or an A for certain.

So now the only thing left before I can enjoy spring break are 2 class periods (Christian Foundations and Intermediate Photography) and an 8-page research paper on my Denomination's History/Doctrine/and Personal Reflection.

And I have to pack tonight.

And I have to go to Stevens and fill out a housing contract.

And I need to start that paper.

Okay... bye.

Sloshing through...

I've been managing to average about 7 1/2 hours of sleep a night for the last few weeks. That's amazing considering last semester and earlier this semester I was getting between 4 and 5 hours on average.

I have a test and term project bonanza this week. I had a News Journal Due on Monday for Global Political Econ, I have a project due in Photography Thursday that I've already managed to spend 2 hours in the process of and am only 1/3 of the way done, I had an exam in History of the American West, which I completed and passed, and another exam in Managerial Accounting tomorrow morning and an 8 page research paper on my Denomination due in Christian Foundations. So tonight:

• Take second photo topic. Develop film and print.
  
• Study for Accounting Exam, emphasis on Ch. 7, Budgeting.
• Gather research materials for Research Paper
• Complete Literature reading and Analysis
• Read for C.F.

I'll be leaving for home on Saturday morning, around 8:00 A.M. My brother and sister will be flying back in from Italy on Saturday evening, so I'll meet my parents and siblings in Boise, before we drive home.

I'm super ancy to be getting back home for a little bit, it'll be a nice visit.

On another note, I have registered for my classes next fall. I have a few fluff classes, but for the most part, I'm going to have a leisurely semester. In the Fall I am currently signed up for:

• Management (Taught by Greg Allen)
• Information Systems (Technology in Business, that'll be a cinch for me)
  
• Understanding Jazz (Fills a GEED requirement, and it's flipping easy)
• Backpacking (To fill my last Health and Human Performance Activity credit)
• Sociology (To fill my last Social Science requirement)
• Life of Christ (Which fills my last BIBL credits)

In the Spring I am all Business though:

• Marketing
• Financial Management
• Ethics in Business
• Fashion Merchandising (Don't laugh, it's going to be easy upper division credits)
• GEED365 (Juniors Abroad. Either Amsterdam to Paris or Spain to Portugal)

And I'm living in Weesner Village, that's going to be so awesome.

I have Global Political Economy now. I'll talk to you later.

The next step...

I was walking to my room, bag slung on my shoulder, not so heavy, just it hanging about my waist made it noticeable, the way it would sway from side to side while I strode. tap. I listened to the squeak of my left shoe as my heel pressed to the ground and rolled onto the toe. tap. I wasn't thinking anything, just striding, confident in the previous half of my day. tap... tap... tap. I watched the dark spots form intermittently on the asphalt as I walked, staring down at my shoes. tap, tap, tap. As I watched my shoes, white, clean spots started appearing on their tongues. tap tap tap tap. When my foot left the ground it was firmly planted in the dirty pine smell, the smell of drying mud and asphalt, the smell of clouded humidity, but when it landed I was walking down a dusty, rutted road. Pieces of straw blew about me as I walked towards the old green pick-up parked just off the road. Oh the smell, the luxurious smell- never do you notice the smell of dust until you smell it suddenly mix with moisture- as the drop hits the ground, the crater of silt spews out in all directions and smell of water making everything clean drifts to your noise. You revel in it, you clothes your eyes for a minute and you dream of all the wonderful things on this earth, the good things God made, and you are confident that this smell is one of his greatest triumphs. It moves you to the core. You take your next step, your foot, dirty and hot and uncomfortable stomps the ground, sending more silt shooting off like ash from a volcano. The rain runs down the back of your neck, soothing the itch and grime and sweat left by the hay and the dust and the sun. That is the second you realize yourself a poet, a romantic, not one that is published in books or that is heard by people, but in your heart you know that you were created to create. Your heart beats faster to match the rain spattering the ground and the windshield. You feel alive like the roaring, beating engine. You smile at the earth being made clean, the dust becoming a rich brown, the dusty covering washed away to become the most vibrant beautiful colors, and you focus with all your might to embed it in your mind. And you yearn with a hopeful heart that you will have someone to share it with. Can you ever describe it in a way that does it justice? I think not, it's something that you have to see. It's not exotic or rare, at least to some. It's a gorgeous commonality. A perfectly ordinary but wonderful experience. And a place so close to my heart that no matter how many times I am displaced, I will always know home.

As I drove home, the straight, wide, yet somehow spindly, road tosses me, the whimsical boy, to and fro as I lose myself, dreaming of another. I wished I wasn't alone.

My eyes came back into focus at the clicking of the door as I swiped my card. I remembered her, I remembered that day, the thoughts, the feelings, the loneliness. And my mind finds it hard to wrap itself around the concept that she wasn't with me always. Because it feels like she has woven herself into the very memories of myself, down to the deepest level of what makes me... me. And I know that someday, it won't be mere descriptions, she'll experience it with me. The spring time air, the smell of dew on the tall sagebrush as you drive, slowly, through a dark desert morning.

The rush of cool air on a hot face as you drive through rolling fields of lava rock and high desert. The bite of a cool Sawtooth morning. The wind, forcing the tall, yellowed grasses to worship. And all of it with you.

Stress and Joy in Writing.

I finished my research paper for American West about an hour before it had to be turned in, then didn't get a break because I had Literature and Accounting homework to do as well. And that was depressing... I just wanted a break.

I started reading good ol' fantasy again. And Andy's current situation with his wanting to finally write his book has me wanting to start mine again... so I say down, opened that dusty old file from the archives of my PC and read through what I had written in the past... not bad... not very good either.

But I think I'm going to try. I spent 20 or 30 minutes adding stuff to what I already had earlier today, and just generally trying to work out in my mind what more was to come.

Who knows, maybe I'll get somewhere, or maybe I'll get nowhere at all, but it's worth a shot. Books are a nice reprieve from daily life, it's like taking a mental vacation, and if I could give that to one person, even myself, it would be worth it to me to write.

And now I have to work on homework... the never ending grind.

Present Moment

So like Whatafreak I attained a new mouse as well, the new(er) Logitech MX Revolution. The thing rocks. And the software bundled with it wasn't entirely retarded so I was okay.

Moving on...

I'm tired of sitting here... waiting.

I want to do something, I want to start something, I want life to continue even though I'm in college. But it seemingly does not. It halts. And I can't figure out for the life of me how to get it started again. Every idea seems so far fetched but inside me, I know that I can do it.

I want to start now but before I do that I need to have knowledge, which I lack. I need to know what I'm doing and I have no idea how to go about gaining that precise knowledge.

So I sit here, wasting time, wasting life, day dreaming. I have so many thoughts in my head, so many ideas... but they seem like schemes because I haven't thought them all the way out. I know for some reason, it would fail. And I don't want to put myself into financial woes because of a failure.