bored yet?

So, have you stopped checking my blog? I haven't. Nah, 's true. I have an rss feed to my google.com/ig and every time I scroll down to see if there are any new posts here.

There aren't.

So, what have we done?

Activities have included such things as:

Spent the weekend with friends at Marcoola.

Helped Ben and Bonnie move. We moved into our new house. Housewarming party. Helped Steve and Schalk move. Helped John H move. Helped Matt and Liss move (well, took their mower and whipper-snipper over, anyway. Moved some stuff of Stu and Christy's to our place.

Going to NZ tomorrow for 5 days.

etc.

Trooks

You like?




Ver naarce...

Trailer Finished

Got 'er done.

Hung it up with the wheels off to make it easy to paint the underside.












All sor'ed. Registrated and all. Numberplate is CM...., so I tell Carmen it's her responsibility now. For everything short of selling it, that is...

Wierd stuff- again

I tell you, people do some crazy stuff. And most of that is in Japan. Check it out.
Let's start out gently...



And then progressively get stranger...












For more, see an autosalon site.

Nuncle Again!

I'm a nuncle again!! Liam Christopher Matthews was borned today, and isn't he a cutie!

If you wanta see vid, go here.

WoohOO

......

...In the middle of our street, ...

So, we signed on a house. V cool. Can't wait. Settle on 31 Oct, all things being equal.

And here it is...

Funny behaviour

It's strange: we're in the middle of negotiating the biggest purchase of our lives, and I'm quite relaxed about the time it's taking…

Normally I make a purchase, then investigate the options, because I get impatient and just want the thing now. But this time, although I'm very keen to get it done, I'm quite happy to wait to let the vendor sweat a bit.  Let him come down to meet us.  Of course Carmen is just itching…

Spoke with a bloke last night who had his vendor come down almost 50G, so that's pretty cool for him.  Ours wouldn't be that much right now, but ...

Wierd stuff

In case you were unaware, the interdumptruck has some strange stuff on it.

See Badgers, Kenya (both "Weebl and Bob"), for ready examples.

And really, you gotta know about Homestar Runner by now...

Thanks heaps Pat.

MyFace, BookSpace, et al

{Rant}
See Carmen's blog.

I can't be bothered, either creating ANOTHER account with ANOTHER website, to read their advertising, be bothered by an email telling me that someone sent me an email, and stuff. I figgure, if you want your photos to be publicly available, and want your mates who you don't catch up with regularly to know what's going on, Get a photo account with someone like flickr or photobucket, and maybe start a blog.

"Social networking", my donkey." They JUST WANT YOUR DETAILS TO SELL TO PEOPLE, people.

Or whatever.

{/Rant}

*sigh*

Overheard...

Guy1: I'm thinking about a new *phone brand* "Shiney".
Guy2: Had one. Brand new. Dropped it in the toilet.

Nicely. Dude actually called it the "Shiney". Huh.

Easter Already?

If you have Google Earth installed, hit Ctrl-Alt-A and have a bit of fun!!

Video linkup

I did a bit of a play around with my video stuff, and made a short clip from when we went to CityView 4x4 Park back in June...

Now YouTube says i can paste some text or some such, for embedded or something... Here goes:



Checkout the lifted wheel!! eleven!1

Direct link here.

Something's Fishy...

I ran over a FISH on Saturday morning, as it was crossing the road. It looked to be maybe a bit over a foot long. I've never done that before. It was on the Nambour-Maroochydore Rd, as we heading up to Noosa.  Some parts of the Sunshine (Hah!) Coast had more than 800mm of rain in three days!! Unbelievable. Hopefully some of the runoff will make its way to the dams that feed Brisbane.

Mountain Climbing

Went driving around Mt Mee this weekend. VERY dry, and the storms and showers this week are much appreciated. Good fun driving. Tried a long, steep, dusty, shale-y hill, but didn't get as far as Geoff's Prado. Didn't really expect to, but you've gotta try, sometimes.

Also didn't manage to follow him thru a tight, twisty and well-holed climb. I have decided that the extra leaf in the rear, although it has increased the ride height and load-carrying capacity, has decreased the amount of rear axle articulation with normal loading. That is, with a bunch more kilos in the boot, the axle would have twisted as much as a standard-sprung Charlie, allowing the wheels to stay on the ground in deeper holes. This was what pulled me up short on the weekend. I wasn't touching the ground with anything but tyres, but too few tyres… A front diff-lock would have helped, as would a (working) rear LSD. Ah well. There's always Christmas…

Photos rarely show a good perspective of climbs, but the vid I took of Geoff's climb should look good, when I get my camera back from Pat.

Couple of the dudes with us were a bit cowboyish. Full throttle, arms and legs akimbo, kids standing on seats etc… I can't figure out how people can let their kids ride in the car with no seat belts. Weird. Maybe they don't like them?

Happy eKKa Day!

Day off yesterday, mid week. Feels like a while since that has happened. We went for a fundraising walk along the river, from Southbank out to Kangaroo point, over the Storey Bridge and back to Southbank via the Botanical Gardens and the Goodwill Bridge. Nicely.

I saw a truck and car crash; or rather heard the squeal and turned around and there was a truck, pushing along the car. 'Course I had to take photos then, 'cos that's what you do these days...









Then today I got the bike serviced for the first time in a loooong time... Yeah, it hurt. And gotta go back. Sounds just like a dentist. The "loaner" bike i got was a ZRX1200. First time I've ridden one of them. Pretty cool, plenty o'torque. Bit windy tho.

I think there was something else I was going to say too.... Oh well.

Byron

Carmen and Chalky wanted to go diving (SCUBA-type) so we went down to bryron for the weekend. Tops trip, sitting on the beach, having ice creams, coffees etc, playing cards, reading. Was like a mini holiday.

Ok then...

Bloke at work was offering this free to good home. His ad said "much TLC" req. Check the photos, i think you'll agree...

So I went and got an unreg trailer permit, picked up the trailer, and the next day towed it up to Dad and Mum's, collecting a bit of steel on the way.






Plenty of room for improvement, and plenty of targets for my grinder, hey?

And after all was salvaged...


So then I went into the garage (for the concrete floor...) and got set on the next step...






Next weekend I picked up some sides, and uprights, lights etc...







I cleaned everything that I was re-using with a wire-wheel on the grinder. Tops little tool, but pretty wicked. Wear the gear, cos as the wires break off (naturally) they come flinging out pretty quickly. You end up with bits of wire sticking out of your overalls, sleeves, skin, eyeball-peepers, whatever is exposed.


I wanted LED tail-lights, but the price of a free trailer is NOT zero...




Still to come: Paint and rego. I think it'll be a nice shade of black. Good, cheap black...

Trailerable offense

Picked up the new set of wheels tonight. SOOO stoked. Stand by for photos...

Oh, and I re-read that last post of mine, and the story about the drafting bloke. I called him a dud, when I meant dude. Turns out the typo was funny, so I'm gonna leave it there....

Tubes, multicoloured and different shapes...

I picked up a delivery this morning: a package full of intertubes.

Stand by for full connectedness.

My title here reminded me of a story my old boss let me in on. He was interviewing for a drafting position, and was trying to get a handle on how much the dud knew about AutoCAD.  He asked him about blocks, and the fella said "Yeah, they can come in different shapes, and colours, and stuff."  For those unfamiliar, Blocks are user-defined groups of entities (such as lines circles etc) whereby all instances of the block in a drawing are updated when one is changed.  So to say that they can come in different colours and shapes was very funny to us…  *sigh*. Geek humour.

Skreeming for Cigniphicance

Beware: hypocritical rant/ramblings to follow…

When I starting writing this thing, I mentioned that I had given in to it. It's only really just occurred to me what "it" is. It is my perception that everyone writes these things as a cry for significance, in a space that recognises no-one.  "Make me real" we (now) say. "I want to be important to someone!" But "it" is also the fact that with EVERYONE screaming, crying and wailing for attention, who is there left to pay attention? And if they do, who can tell?

I write these things, but why? Do I want to get it off my chest, or do I want to gloat about my own depth of thought? So the hypocrite in me ignores the dissonance, and writes it anyway, hoping for many varied comments on my profound perceptions, while that part of me that is uncomfortable with it hopes that no-one will read it anyway, what with everyone else screaming at the same time.

The internet (and blogs specifically) might very well be one of the last places in "western" society where we want to be more contributors than consumers.  Everywhere else, it's "gimme gimmee", but here, who want to read a well written article, without being able to offer their two cents' worth for all and sundry to see. "That's all well and good, but you didn't think about this" or "No, you're wrong and I have to tell everyone".

No real paradox there, then.  Instead of "gimme" content, it's "gimme" significance.  And here endeth the rant.

I dunno. Whatever.

Not Got me...

Funny thing: when you don't buy tickets, you can't go.  Turns out lotsa folk want to go see Gotye (Wally DeBacca), and 'cos we's slack and didn't get ourselves all ticketed up, nice'n'early, we have prolly missed out on seeing him and his mates in the Powerhouse next month.  Unless you have some spare tickets you'd like to swap for easy-carry cash…

I heard a Karnivool cover of one of his songs last week, v. rocking! Apparently there's an album out now (or soon) of covers and remixes of the stuff from "Like Drawing Blood", called … ah, what was it? "I can't Remember".  Drat.  Will keep you posted… Ah, ooggle, you are my friend.  It's "Mixed Blood" of course.  Might be worth a listen.

RE: Quiet weekend

Of course, a "queal" is a small rodent that had found the freddo first, and the noise it made was when Carmen trapped it to put it outside….

Quiet weekend

Not much on this weekend, only 4 appointments…

Chalkie & Yorkie's House-warming Saturday lunch, then that evening we'll prolly go to the Sofitel (I think) for 'zert and to hear Andy and Robyn play ("Dynamic Duo", from our wedding fame), Sunday evening I'm driving the bus, plus we have 'zert with Ben & Bonnie.

But talking about our wedding, yesterday was 3months/13 weeks.  To "celebrate" I hid 9 strawb freddos in fairly obvious spots around the house… You should have heard the queal when she found the first one, and then when the second was found, and it was realised that there were more…  It was like mini-Christmas crossed with an Easter-egg hunt...

Driving Games

Went to CityView 4x4 Park in Jimboomba (near Beaudessert … sweeet) on the weekend, with Brendan (prado), Doug (prado), Geoff (prado), Francois (hilux) and Mick (patrol).  Tops fun, all the blokes had a ball I reckon, in spite of the damage. Brendan now wants rock sliders, I think, and I need a new aerial. Geoff's sliders are proven (although a bit dented), and Dougie was stoked to have the most flex.

Expect some footage and photos when the intertubes come home, maybe next week.

I'm starting to think that more droop would be nice, especially in the front end, and even with the rear sway bar disconnected, there wasn't as much articulation as I expected, probably due to the stiff rear springs (extra leaf).  We did ok tho, with some very satisfying steps and jump-ups completed with no damage, minimal touching, and minor wheel-lifting… Wait for the pics...

Oh, and most of the wives and kids probably won't be coming next time we go…

Hmm. Did it last long enough?

It would appear that my initial enthusiasm for this whole "bLog" thing wore off pretty quickly, hey? Maybe 'cos I can't read it online, nor add pics, nor read others' replies, and stuff.

Maybe I don't need excuse for not posting, but I feel compelled to, since I resisted starting a blog for so long before finally doing it. Ah, I dunno.

Going down to CityView 4x4 park tomorrow morning, for a day's fun with a bunch of fellas from work. 4 Prados, 1 patrol, 1 hilux and our challenger. I'm might gonna disconnect sway bars Front and Rear too, for increased articulation compliance. Just for fun, you know. Apparently, the rain we had earlier this week was enough to settle the dust, fill the mud-holes but not render the park impassable. So here we go… Gotta say I've been looking forward to this for weeks!

Becoming a grownup...

Had a valuer-dude come around this morning… all I can say is … WoooHooo! Equity position is looking good. My girl bought well.  Now to figger the best way to move forward.  Accountant will be the next step...

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!!!

I half woke up the other night, and rolled to my left (away from the middle of the bed), when I felt Carmen's hand on my shoulder, pushing.  I asked "What are you doing?"

"I'm making sure you do it right."

"What??"

"Ah uuuh nglell … uh…. mmmmm."

"Oh. That's ok then."

Hehehe.

Blinking lights... (look up "double entendre"...)

Saturday didn't quite go as planned.  Carmen and I left our place with Col and Ruth following, but we had to make a side-track on the way up to the meeting point, the traffic-lights didn't play the game for us, and we got there just as everyone else was leaving, and then we chose to get fuel.  So we saw a whole heap of funky looking trucks, some standard soccer-mobiles, and some needing trailers…

So we got the fuel, went to try and find them, but couldn't, and instead we just had a play in the fire-trails and bush tracks in the forestry.  Came out plenty muddy, and had a nice little picnic under to power-lines (how about that serenity?). We took some photos, and a bit of video of splash-age.  I also found out (deliberately) that when the full car weight is on two wheels only (diagonally) the front is aalllllmooost touching the compression bump-stop. That means that in spite of winding up the front torsion bars, I've still essentially got fully wheel travel.  Next step will be to disconnect the rear sway-bar, to increase rear axle articulation.  Apparently I can leave it in place, and just take out the bolts.  We'll see. Got pics of current artic, so will have something to compare with…

Col and Ruth (or more specifically Col, I think) wanted to shoot though to get home and garaged before any of the impending rain washed their car clean…

Afternoon tea at M&D's with Liz and Neil also. Carmen was stoked that Thermos oop, Thomas, fell asleep in her arms, was there for about an hour so, I think.  Then back to Holland Park for a "Transport Ministry" team bbq.  Totally over-catered (mexcellent), and the deserts!! Trifle, cheesecake (2 off), carrot cake, and something else that I can't rember. Whew.

Col preached at church (W) for the first time this month, and Nathan B at "big" church in the evening. Was a gooood weekend, even if it didn't pan out as planned.  Of course on Monday I looked at the pics the fellas we missed took, and I've gotta say, bit upset that we missed finding where the big stuff was, but whew, some gnarly stuff there… OUR damage report was a dodgy temperature gauge/thermostat (Col's) and that's it.  Their damage report included busted axles, holed diff, ripped off sill protector, scratched bumpers, bent alternator guard, sump guard torn off, burst brake slave cylinder, … I reckon we need some rock sliders, Carmen, to replace the sidesteps?? Of course a roo bar with side bars also… Maybe go the full exo???

Wait'll I get the internerd back on at home, and there'll be all sorts of pics...

RE: 4-Bee Axione

As a result of having no internerd access at home anymore (long story) and not having access to any blog sites from work, I've gotta update this blog thingy (well, I don't have to update it at all, really…) by emailing my posts… Not really ideal, as I don't get to proof what goes up.

Apparently, the font in my previous post was different.  Sorry about that chief.  You know that I, of all people, would hate that!!

And my photo didn't come through.  So let try it differently.  I'm attaching the same pic as was supposed to appear in the last post, by a different method.  Lets sit back and watch, shall we.

Challenger with no sidesteps. (right aligned?)

Oh, and of course, I can't categorise my postings via email.  Booger.  We'll see what happens in the future, hey?

4-Bee Axione

So, I've been getting into this 4-wheel driving thing a bit recently… Not in that we've actually been doing any more, more so that I've been absorbing all the information that I can find. Especially … well, everything really. Bris31 has 4WD TV on Tuesday evenings, replayed on Saturday afternoons (also shown elsewhere around Australasia, check the website). Plus Outerlimits4x4.com.au, where I spend most of my lunch times…

And of course, this makes me want to get into the driving more also… the other week when we went camping with some folks from work, we went through some tracks up north of Noosa/Tewantin (see Carmen's post) and just for the fun of it I took the side steps off the car. Made it look a lot higher, but also made it harder to get into, especially for wives…

<<Challenger 2.jpg>>

But this weekend, all else being equal, going for a bit of an explore around the Glasshouse mountains tracks, with a bunch (like 15!) of people from OuterLimits4x4. Should be a bit interesting, as there are a huge range of types of vehicles represented there, from totally standard jackaroo-types, to fully-sick-mate 37" tyred, 10" lifted, V8-powered hiluxes, etc. Don't think I'm going to follow them, just quietly. But am looking forward to seeing some action in person, and learning a bit of driving technique even.

And now I have discovered a competition at Caboolture in September, so will be tops to go see what that’s all about.

Chris Who-Meulen??

The man had a cracker, and did you see Casey's ride? Just brilliant, the two of them.

Wheelie the length of the straight at Le Mans, in the wet. Well done, the guy from Yandina.

Got ye!

Turns out I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Gotye in August (all else being equal...). He's playing at the PowerHouse, which will be something different. Haven't been to see live music since, well, the BDO, I guess.

Well, I guess I should qualify that: I haven't PAID to see live music since then...

Hunting for Gremlins

Saturday afternoon, after the nap: got a 12V power point in the front of the car (commonly called cigarette lighter) that doesn't work so much. I figure, let's check it out. No worries, remove the dash - wait, gotta take out the centre console, to move the gear-lever surround, to remove the dash lower. K, got the centre console bin out, hey look, 3 of Carmen's bobbi pins. (Dunno why I spelt it that way, I just did, ok?) Clean out some of the rubbish. Oh, hey, the Handbrake light switch is down here somewhere, let's fix that too. Ah, there it is, ok, works like that. Ah, that paddle-pop™ stick musta been blocking the switch. Sor'd. Right, move the gearstick surround, dash out. Hmm, gotta get the stereo out by the look of it. Mucka-bout, mucka-bout, ah, there it goes. Here we go… right, gotit. Oh, didn't need to get the stereo out after all. Oh well, no harm done.

K, so there are the light socket leads. Oh, they all look fine. Wiggle, wiggle. All firm. Nothing obvious wrong. Drat. Empty mission there, then. Oh well, at least the handbrake warning light won't stay on any more. All back together. Nurries. Oh, hey, here's the replacement lock barrel for the passenger door. (When I bought the car, it was all munted.) Righto, let's see what this involves …

Door lining off, unplug light and windows, peel back plastic lining, muck-about, pull it out, new one in, done. Plastic back, switches back, lining back, sor'd. Hmm. Doesn't seem to work, in that it doesn't actually unlock the door. Key turns it, no worries, door still unlocks with the central/alarm button, but … no unlocking with key. Oh well. Next time.

Pack up, tools back into the garage, drive car into gar- wait, what?? The hand-brake light stays on? … Huh.

oooh, Flexxy

If I was to say "Flexcentric" to you, what would that mean? You'd probably say "He's making up words again."

And if I was to follow that up with "Patent, built under licence, not at liberty to disclose", you'd say "Ahh, very hush-hush. Say. No. More."

Well, I work here, and I work on these. Cool, hey. Indirectly actuated vibratory, 3-D modelled in AutoDesk Inventor. Good stuff.



So let's say I got an evaluation copy of Inventor, and installed it at home. What would I do? Would I do work at home? No, not really possible, since we use SAP, and I can't be bothered getting the necessary setup done. Would I ... Convert to 3D the model of the bike i drew in AutoCAD LT a couple of years ago? Yep, done that. So now what?



Now, is a new, better CV joint. The bane of all IFS 4wd'ers. I saw a snippet on the news the other day about a dude who has invented something that might be this, but i didn't catch the whole article. D'oh. Better get in quick then, hey?



My thoughts are ... Yeah, right. Give away my thoughts here. Tell you what: i'll sell them to you. Contact me via this blog....



Right.



Pajero IFS, with shock (blue), torsion Bar (black, near the bottom, coming in from left), steering arm (brownish, horizontal), new CV boots (the shiny black rubber things), Ventilated disc (ooh, shiny), and manual-locking hub.

K?