Hours Of Sheer Boredom Interspersed With Moments Of Pure Excitement

Or, Trees: Natures Guardrails

This morning, at the intersection of Custer Trail and Copeland Way, I heard something. Since I'm the only person out at three in the morning, it's pretty damn quiet out, and I hear just about any noise.

As I was throwing a paper up on a doorstep, I heard a car accelerating hard, then screeching tires, then quiet, then more screeching tires, and then a crash.

Cool, I thought to myself, a car crash. So I hoped in my car, and started driving in the general direction of the noise. At first I figured the crash would be on 80th Street, since it's kind of a major thoroughfare. But as I turned on to Corey Path, to get to 80th Street, I saw the crash.

A Pontiac Grand Am or Grand Prix, I'm not exactly sure which, had plowed into a tree right in front of a house. It's a damn good thing the tree was there, otherwise the car would have gone right into the living room of the house. There were two guys standing next to the car in boxers, and one guy who was fully clothed (who I'm assuming was the driver). Within about 30 seconds of my arriving, three squad cars of IGH's finest were on the scene.

I'll be back in the area this afternoon, and I'll get some pictures of the scene to show you all, because I can not figure out how or why someone would have crashed there, unless it was brake failure, or careless/drunk driving.

Two other, shall we say interesting, things have happened on my paper route recently. Last Sunday, as I was delivering a paper to the last house on my route, at about 6 a.m., I noticed there were two guys on their porch, obviously drunk. I asked them, "Hey, you guys want the paper up there?" One of them said "Yeah man bring it over here. You want a shot of Captain?" Against my better judgement, I declined.

And on the Sunday before that, I'm pretty sure I saw two people having sex in their kitchen. I pulled into a cul de sac with four houses, three of which I have to deliver to. I pulled up in front of the house in the middle, and noticed that the lights were on. I realize that it's an odd thing to notice, but the lights at that house are never on. As I got out of my car, I looked through the front door of this house and I noticed a guy, naked, thrusting, with someone else bent over the table. The guy then looked over to his left (at me), and stopped. I just walked over to the house to the left of his, threw a paper on the doorstep, waked over to the house in the middle, and the lights were off.

Hope...And Despair

For about two years, I've had a Macintosh 128k sitting in my room.

(this is where a picture of my Mac 128k would go, if only my laptop
would upload photos to blogger)

I bought it in 2004 at Savers. When the family went to Savers one day at around noon, I found two things I was interested in: an old compact mac, and a of Medal Of Honor for the Macintosh, both for $10. When I powered up the compact Mac in the store, I got the diskette ? icon. At the time, I thought to myself, "I already have a Mac SE, why do I need this?" So I passed on it, and bought the Medal Of Honor instead, since I only had $10 in cash.

All throughout the day, I thought about that little Mac. So finally, I looked in Mactracker to figure out what it was. Model M0001. The Macintosh 128k. The computer that started the second greatest line of computers ever (with the Commodore 64, of course being the greatest). I had to have it. I had to have it. I also looked it up on eBay, and found out they go for quite a bit ($100+). So I sped to Savers (literally sped, because I wanted to get there before they closed), hoping it would still be there. It was (who else would have bought it?). For $10 I got the 128, a keyboard, a mouse, and a printer.

I belted it into the front seat of my car, fully expecting to bring it home, install the copy of Macintosh OS7 I had, and play away. Nope. First off, the 128k doesn't have a hard drive. The OS is loaded into memory. Second, the highest OS the 128k can take is 3.2. Finally, the floppy drive is a 400k, meaning I cant just download a copy of the correct OS, load it on a floppy, and use that.

So I shelved it, since a copy of the correct OS was nowhere to be found. Then, while in Grand Forks at a thrift store, I thought I had found what I needed:

(Insert pic of Mac 512k accesories)

A Mac 512k manual, brochures, an Imagewriter II manual, a reset button, an audio tour, Mac Paint/Mac Draw/Mac Write, and two system disks with, presumably, OS 3.2! So I waited patiently until the next time I went home. I attempted to boot it up, but then I discovered that the disks were 800k (cue uncontrollable sobbing). Again, I shelved the 128k.

Then, I thought all my problems had been solved, when my brother D-monee informed me he had recieved an old external floppy drive:

(You know what goes here)

So tonight, I plugged it in, turned on the 128k, inserted the disk, and held my breath...

(0F0064)

No. No it cant be. A SAD MAC! GOD DAMMNIT! 0F0064 means wrong system disk. Ok I thought, it's not that serious. At least it's not a motherboard problem. I was about to shelve the 128k again for who knows how long, when I got an idea. The external drive is a 1.44MB drive. If I could find a copy of System 1.0-3.2, I could copy it to a floppy on my G4, and I'd be in business.

So I found both 1.1 and 3.2. I copied them to floppies, booted the 128k, and hoped. But I got another sad Mac, this time 0F0004, which means Zero Divide2 (and I'm not sure what that means).

So what do I do? Well, for now I'll shelve the 128k, and keep my eyes open. I know one day I'll find the correct disks, whether at a thrift store or on eBay, I'll find them.

Even though I think I know what they'll say, I think I'll email Apple Support tomorrow looking for help.

Clerks II

I went and saw Clerks II this afternoon.

I wasn't going to see it at first, since I really expected it to be terrible. I mean, Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma were all great movies, but Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, although it had it's funny moments, sucked, and although I never saw Jersey Girl, I don't think I hard anything positive about it at all.

But I was pleasantly surprised.

I suck at reviews, but I'll do my best. Personally, I thought the movie was really rather good. It was funny, had a good story, and I thought was a great follow up to the original. The only complaint I have is that the love scenes with Dante and Becky seemed...a bit out of place. But they weren't bad, and don't really hurt the movie.

So if you are looking for a movie to see, and have a few spare bucks to spend, I'd reccomend it. If you don't go and see it in the theater, at least rent it when it comes out on video. I think it's a movie I'll definitely be buying when it comes out.

Mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore...

As I was sitting here drinking a Newcastle, watching the midday news (KSTP, I hate 'em but there the only news on at 11), after the story about the striking Teamsters at the Marathon/Ashland Refinery in Newport, they ran a story about how NWA has a tentative agreement with their flight sim technicians, which according to KSTP means that NWA now has agreements with all their labor groups.

Cue blood boiling.

As you may or may not know, my father is one of the striking Northwest Airlines mechanics. He most definitely does NOT have an agreement

About a month ago, WCCO had a news report which claimed that NWA had agreements with all their labor groups except the flight attendants. I emailed them a complaint, talked about various things, and said that my father and all the striking mechanics, cleaners and custodians deserved an apology. At the end of the email I put "I realize that on small voice has no hope of affecting change, especially when compared to the tremendous amount of advertising revenue you recieve each month from NWA", or something to that effect. Shortly after I sent the email, I forgot about it.

The next afternoon, I was lying on the couch, when the phone rings. My sister answered it, brought it out to me and said "It's WCCO". Cool.

Me: "Hello"
Phone: "Hello, this is (I can't remember his name), Vice President of News Programming (or something like that). I just wanted to let you know that although you may think that one small voice may have no hope of affecting change, in this case it has."
Me: "OK"
Phone: "I just wanted to let you know that I will be putting out a memo that the mechanics do not in fact have an agreement."
Me: "Wow, uh thank you very much."
Phone: "Goodbye (click)"

Guess what? As of today I have still not heard the newscaster on WCCO say that NWA has agreements with all their labor groups, they now say something like "the mechanics are still on strike", or something like that.

But KSTP STILL does it. I personally haven't complained to them, but I kno other people have. After their report today, I went to their website on my laptop (by the way, KSTP has the worst news website I've ever seen), and went to their contact page. Most websites have a specific complaint, or what number to call to file a complaint. KSTP: none.

So I decided to just call the main switchboard.
Phone: "KSTP how can I help you?"
Me: "Hi, I'd like to file a complaint."
Phone: "OK, let me transfer you to the correct person."
Phone 2: "Hi KSTP."
Me: "Um, I'd like to file a complaint"
Phone2: "OK, and what's the complaint?"
Me: "(runs through complaint)"
Phone2: "OK sir, I'll run this down to the newsroom"
Me: "Thank you."

Will my call have any effect? Probably not. I know I did have an effect with WCCO, but with KSTP, I really doubt it.

But you know what? I think I'm gonna put their switchboard on speed-dial for the future.

Weirdness...

First off, I promised pictures of St. Paul Park Auto Parts, so here they are:

Here's the main building of the place. The inside is just as cluttered and garbage filled as the outside.
And there are cars and more garbage everywhere. This is a mid 70's Dodge Dart.
Chevy or GMC flatbed.
Ford truck of some sort.
No idea.
This bus is freakin' sweet.
The Old Building. So yeah, that's St Paul Park Auto Parts. It's a little weird, and a total dump, but they are one of if not the cheapest place around. They also get parts real quick. We called them about the cat for my car at about 10 a.m., and it was there at 2:00 p.m.
More St. Paul Park Weirdness. You might be asking yourself, what's so weird about this apartment building?
Because they changed the old St Paul Park High School into Pioneer Valley Senior Apartments.
It's also gotta be one of the coolest apartment buildings ever, since there's a thrift store in the basement.

D&D Leads To The Occult And/Or Suicide!

Well, not really, but that doesn't diminish the awesomeness of THIS religious tract from 1984.

Action!

I didn't know that more than one movie had ever been filmed in South Saint Paul.

According to imdb.com, five movies and one T.V. show have been filmed here or have had parts filmed here:

Ice Castles (Wakota Arena)

Doomed To Consume (some horror movie that hasn't come out yet. I just watched the trailer, and there's a part where the main charachters get attacked by zombies at the Phillips 66 at 8th and Southview, the one next to the paint store and across from where Turn About Books was)

Beautiful Girls (Divine Redeemer)

Grumpy Old Men (Divine Redeemer)

The Cure (Divine Redeemer and the baseball field at St. John Vianney. I actually remember tham filming this)

Let's Bowl! (the short lived Comedy Central show from 2001, where two people bowled for fantastic prizes like sides of beef had one episode filmed at Wells Lanes Eatery & Pub. Our family actually went bowling the day they were filming it)

Catalytic Catalyst

On Thursday, I was driving my sister to Anime club, when all of the sudden I noticed a strange noise and vibration coming from right under my feet. On Friday, I was delivering my papers when my car got loud. Real loud.

So I pulled my car in, jacked it up, and with the help of my dad, figured out the problem. The exhaust had rusted through where the pipe coming down from the exhaust manifold meets the catalytic converter.

So we ordered a new cat from Saint Paul Park Auto Parts, and went and picked it up on Saturday. Saint Paul Park Auto was...weird. I'll try and get some pictures on Wednesday to show everybody when I go and return the old cat. Total cost for a new direct fit cat: $121.97

Ooooohhhh...Shiny

O.K. now lets try and pull off the old exhaust. First, I've gotta pull my car back into the car hold, and jack it back up. Heres the thing I hate about jacking my car up: you're not supposed to use anything but the knuckle scraping jack that comes with the car, and there are NO JACK STAND POINTS! What the hell was Suzuki thinking when they designed this car? So to jack up my car, I just put a piece of wood on my dads 1 1/2 ton Sears floor jack, and I have created divots in the rocker panels in the shape of the jack stands.

So then I started undoing the exhaust. The two bolts that attach the catalytic converter to the muffler: come off just fine (we had replaced the muffler on my car last summer, and we made sure to put Never Seez on the bolts). The O2 sensor: comes off just fine. The two bolts that connect to the exhaust manifold: hmm, they arent budging. Well, lets Tri-Flo 'em, let it sit and see what happens. Hmm, they still aren't moving. "Hey dad, can you give me a hand with these?"
So then he gets under the car. First bolt: comes out just fine. Second bolt: SNAP! The head came clean off:Well, that was all we could do for that night, so we closed up the garage and headed out the next day to try and find some bolts. Pep boys? Nope. AutoZone? Nope. Checker? Nope. Napa? Nope. Shit. Well, those are the only auto parts stores around, and dealerships are closed on Sundays, so were out of luck.

To get that stud out, my dad went across the street and borrowed a stud remover from Howard, which did the job beautifully.

This morining, I went and picketed with my dad. Then we went to the court house so I could contest my ticket. Ticket? Yep. Remember that seatbelt I told you about that broke in Wisconsin? On about May 27th, I drove out to the M.O.A. to drop off a job application, then I went to the airport to see the picket lines, since it was the National Day of Solidarity, and there were supposed to be a bunch of people on the picket lines (there were). But on the outbound road from the main terminal, I got caught in a sting, and the cop that pulled me over wouldn't let me show him that my belt was broken ("That's no excuse"). So right after that I drove to UPull'r, and got a buckle. My Hearing Officer appointment was today, and I got her to throw the ticket out.

Anyways, after I got my ticket thrown out, we went to Lupient Chevrolet of Bloomington, to try and track down some bolts. We went to the parts department, told him what we needed, and he said "Huh. I'm really surprised that we have these." Great. How much? $9.13. A piece. Without tax.

So we go home, Never Seez the crap out of the bolts, hang the new cat, bolt everything up, and I try and start my car. It runs for about a second and then dies. I try again: no joy. Again? Nope. Once more? Third time's the charm. Neither my dad nor I can figure out why it wouldn't start. And then I pulled my car out, went back into the garage to clean up...and saw the gasket that goes between the muffler and the cat laying on the ground. I know I put it in there, I know it was on there, so how did it get on the ground? It's a mystery. So the I pulled my car BACK into the garage, jacked it up, threw the gasket in, tightened everything up, and finally closed up the garage.

After it was all over, my dad told me that this actually wen't fairly smoothly for this type of job.

Awesome.