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Tuesday, October 13, 2009:Wow, I was right, Facebook destroyed my blog. It's way too easy to update Facebook and way too hard to find time to write something here. But, nevertheless, here I am. I'm sitting through the world's worst Orion telecon, so now's a good time.So what's been new? Both readers of this blog know my policy on talking about romantic relationships, but let's just say there's something happening, it involves a WWII aircraft carrier, and it's good stuff.  Speaking of things that are out of my control, the Mustang is an unbridled monster. Its new built short block is rocking a production FRPP aluminum 3v block, Manley rods, Manley -14cc 3v coated pistons, a crank from an 03 Cobra, Cleveite bearings, ARP fasterners, and a lot of money. All of that required a new clutch, new flywheel, fancy gaskets, and tons of other fun stuff. The engine and clutch are now broken in, so next week it goes back to Fastlane for a 10% overdrive crank pulley, a smaller supercharger pulley, and a new dyno tune. It should be up around 650 rear wheel horsepower, if my cypherin' is correct. That will mark the end of Phase 2, which will usher in a long break/recovery period while I learn how to drive this thing again. Then, of course, we'll go to the track and hopefully be in the low 11s or high 10s. And when that happens, there will be much rejoicing. Work is also a barrel full of monkeys. We continue to support three programs: Shuttle, the Space Station, and Constellation. I spend most of my time these days working on Constellation stuff, specifically supporting the design of Orion. As you may have seen on TV, going to the moon is pretty hard, but building a vehicle to go to the Station, the moon, and Mars is really, REALLY hard. We continue to do good work, though, and if this thing ever sees the light of day, it'll be good. Or at least good enough to do the job... barely. I'm going to Denver at the end of the month, so there is some good coming from this. I've never seen the Rocky Mountains, and now I will actually get to frolic among them. There have been no midget sightings lately, which leads me to wonder why they're avoiding me. Was it something I said?! Christmas is coming up, so maybe they're just busy. In dog news, Duke is still 15 and Shadow is still fat. I don't see either one of those things changing for a year or so. Politics. It's gonna be a looong 8 years. Take care! Posted by Ray at 11:13 AM / 0 Comments
Friday, June 19, 2009:I watched a great show about Winston Churchill on HBO called Into The Storm the other day. What an amazing man. My favorite scene was just him and a British airman standing in a room. The airman had just received the Victoria Cross for gallantry in combat, and was clearly nervous being there with the Prime Minister. Churchill says, "you must feel humble and awkward in my presence," to which the airman replies, "yes, sir." Then Churchill says, "then imagine how humble and awkward I must feel in yours." Very amazing.Posted by Ray at 8:00 PM / 0 Comments
Friday, June 05, 2009:The invasion was supposed to be 65 years ago today, but since it was postponed by nasty weather in the English Channel, I'll save that post for tomorrow. Today, instead, I will tell you about Ray's patented Triple Lock-out Maneuver. You are by now, no doubt, familiar with conventional men's room urinal etiquette that dictates that if all three urinals are open, you choose either the left or the right so you're not adjacent to the next jerk that comes in. The middle one is no-man's land. Sound theory... until now. With this new maneuver, rather than picking Lefty or Righty on your way in, you go straight to the center urinal. The center. That way, if everyone is playing by the rules (admittedly not the greatest assumption, especially where I work), the rest of the field is effectively locked out. Straight to the stalls where you belong, freaks. Genius, if I do say so myself.And now, hot off the presses, the Southwest Airlines Corollary to the Triple Lock-out Maneuver has recently undergone extensive field trials and has been proven totally effective! Nobody likes sitting in the middle seat between two mouth-breathing retards as you trek across the country, so our courageous and attractive field agents have used the new Triple Lock-out Maneuver to successfully secure an entire row to themselves... on a full flight! We applaud their bravery and dedication to the service of their guiding principles. Posted by Ray at 2:45 PM / 0 Comments
Saturday, May 23, 2009:Ladder 3 is back from its overhaul in Pennsylvania. I got to drive her and do a full truck checkout this morning. Aside from getting soaking wet, it was cool. I was very happy to be behind the wheel of that truck again.So the Hubble repair mission is almost over. Atlantis will be landing tomorrow, like it or not, because they've already waived off two landing days due to weather. I worked the Orbit 3 shift, which had overnight hours for this flight. That sucked badly, but I actually kind of enjoyed going in at night and coming home in the early morning. No traffic, and aside from dealing with various personalities in Mission Control, it's like taking a vacation from humanity. And now I have a five day weekend! I really gotta slow down on car mods. The built short block is done being assembled, and damn, it's expensive. I think I'm going to hold off on installation and use it as a coffee table for a few months. In fact, I think I'm going to take a break from spending money on just about everything for a few months. They announced there will be quarterly lay-offs at work, and while my job is pretty bullet proof, I'd still like to have a larger safety net. Then again, when I am ever "safe" about anything? Posted by Ray at 2:57 PM / 0 Comments
Monday, April 27, 2009:More insane rain and biblical flooding again this weekend. Running fire calls in a monsoon is getting old. One call was fun, though. We were called to a house at about midnight, in the pouring down rain, for an elevator rescue call. A guy with no legs in a wheelchair had installed an elevator external to his house, so he could go from the garage area to the deck on the second floor. The power went out and he got stuck halfway between floors. No problem, we bring our own power, so we hooked up his lift to Engine 3's generator. It didn't provide enough juice to get him to the top floor, so he came back down to the bottom floor. Dude was like, "screw it, I'm just gonna WALK up," then proceeds to HAND-WALK up an entire flight of stairs! Amazing and very inspirational. So then he asked me to move his chair out of the rain, and I said, "sure, but only if I can drive it." Next thing ya know, I'm tearing around in a motorized wheelchair in full bunker gear, in the pouring rain, at midnight, in a stranger's driveway.The new engine build continues at the performance shop I use. It should be done in a couple of weeks, I hope. I'm heading to Connecticut on Thursday, then to my cousin's wedding in New Hampshire on Friday. I'm a groomsman, but hopefully no pictures of me in a tux will surface. Posted by Ray at 10:55 AM / 0 Comments
Sunday, April 19, 2009:Yesterday, it rained ten inches in two hours. That, as you may imagine, causes every square inch of town to flood. I was on my way home and just couldn't go any farther, so I pulled off into a parking lot that had high ground. I hitched a ride with my District Chief and went around town advising people not to drive in 5 foot deep water, and plucking occasional drivers from their stalled cars and driving them to safety. The water was cold, muddy, and full of debris. A few hours later, I made it back to my car, which thankfully was fine, and tried to head home. I made it to the entrance to my subdivision and had to park and walk the rest of the way due to more high water. After rescuing people for hours for free, I got splashed twice and not one person stopped to ask ME if I needed a ride. No good deed goes unpunished. So when I got home, the same shutter that blew off in Hurricane Ike was on my front lawn, my American flag was up on my roof, and my back door broke off one of its hinges.Yeah, yesterday sucked. Posted by Ray at 11:04 AM / 1 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009:It sucks being 1,719 miles from home on Easter.Today is 48th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, and the 28th anniversary of the launch of STS-1. Kudos to three of the bravest men ever.  
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Friday, April 10, 2009:I am so impressed with the American spirit shown by the crew of the merchant vessel taken over by pirates the other day. First, they disable the ship and repel the attackers. This "give em hell" attitude is more than these scum are used to, I'm sure. It seems like everyone else just rolls over for them. Then the captain offers himself up as a prisoner if they let the rest of the crew go. And dude escapes in the middle of the night. Those are some balls of steel, even if they did re-capture him. I'd like to meet this guy. I just love the whole "don't tread on me" mentality.
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Sunday, March 22, 2009:"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."- Charles Austin Beard Posted by Ray at 8:58 PM / 0 Comments
Saturday, March 21, 2009:OK, so maybe I do update my Facebook more than I blog here. That's not good.So what's new? First, I became the President of my fire department. Unlike the last five years or so, I haven't been doing much for the department, taking a much-needed break from all of the drama queens. The position was available and a few people twisted my arm, so here I am. I hope I can do some good in this new role, over the next two years. I'm quite positive I'll have pissed off nearly all of our 130 members by the end of my term, so I doubt there will be more after that. I'm low-carbing it again. I just gotta lose some weight, man. It seems to be working, and I feel pretty good. Meat sweats! Check out this awesome picture I took in Clear Lake Shores the other day. It was super foggy. In car news, my new engine is officially being built! This is like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one. I dropped off all of the parts at Fastlane the other day, and now it's in their hands for a few weeks. For the record, it's a forged short block on the production aluminum block with six-bolt main caps, Manley pistons, Manley rods, and a forged crank from an 03 Cobra. So... 650 horsepower, here I come. STS-119 is up, and the new S6 solar array wing is installed. I was the lead for the last flight, so I'm taking this one off. I will be working one shift, just to fill in for someone, but for the most part, I'm gladly watching this one from the sidelines. Posted by Ray at 10:23 PM / 0 Comments
Monday, March 09, 2009:I took a racy picture of my girl topless today!Posted by Ray at 6:13 PM / 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 18, 2009: more animals Posted by Ray at 11:49 PM / 1 CommentsOn the way home from work yesterday, in the spot my car fails EVERY TIME, I lost all oil pressure and white smoke started billowing out from... well... everywhere. I wasn't even getting on it! I thought, "that white smoke is oil hitting the hot exhaust, and there are two ways oil can leave the engine: I broke a rod and it swiss-cheesed the block, or I blew a head gasket." A hundred bucks to tow my car 300 yards and I'm back in my garage. I got under it and much to my surprise, didn't see the typical carnage of a blown engine. In fact, everything looked fine. Turns out it was just an oil hose that had burst. Man, I'm lucky. I really need to start building the new engine, so I have it on deck for when this thing really dies.Posted by Ray at 1:57 PM / 1 Comments
Sunday, February 15, 2009:Posted by Ray at 4:24 PM / 1 Comments
Friday, February 13, 2009:Happy Friday the 13th. I blew the supercharger discharge tube off my engine again on the way to work today. It wasn't all bad, though; I coasted to a stop in a donut shop parking lot. Shouldn't be too hard to fix.Posted by Ray at 11:01 AM / 0 Comments
Sunday, February 01, 2009:
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Thursday, January 29, 2009:I'm back amongst the living. I started feeling sick on Saturday, and am just coming out of it today. So as of right now, I declare myself officially done with being sick.Ya know what else is done? Phase 1 of my Mustang project car. I have spent an insane amount of time and energy on this over the last two years, and the first part is finally complete. It went from a stock 300 horsepower Mustang GT to putting 475 horsepower and 412 ft-lbs of torque to the rear wheels. That's over 550 horsepower at the engine. Here's a partial list of just the performance mods, so you can gauge the depth of my insanity:
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009:
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009:
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Friday, January 16, 2009:Screw Windows Vista.I bought a dual layer DVD burner that also plays Blu-Ray DVDs for $100 on Newegg. Great deal, for a drive with a metric f*ckton of support. It plays everything, and burns everything except Blu-Rays. Anyway, I have a thin bookshelf PC case that hides behind my TV, driving 56 inches in 1920x1080 at 60Hz. I know, that's sweet. It only has one SATA port, though, so I bought an internal SATA controller card. It was like pulling teeth getting Vista to even recognize the PCI card, much less anything connected to it, despite the pretty "Vista" label on the box. I threw it in my XP box and it ran without blinking an eye. About ten hours later, I finally got it working by installing it in another PCI slot. That's super stupid. So I finally get it running, download the fancy Blu-Ray player software, dim the lights, and slide in Dark Knight. "Your ghey video card is too ghey to play Blu-Ray discs. Go spend another freaking $100." So I did... I have a GeForce 8400GS coming soon. If that doesn't work, check my front curb next week on garbage day for a free PC. Posted by Ray at 8:27 AM / 0 Comments
Sunday, January 11, 2009:OK, this is how I feel right now.Posted by Ray at 4:09 PM / 1 Comments
Monday, January 05, 2009:Alright, my Facebook page is fully up to speed now. I added Duke, Shadow, car pics, and fire pics today. I don't see how communicating via Facebook is any easier than just texting someone, but I'll play along for now. Shadow and Duke even have Dogbook pages now. To my two faithful readers (my mom and the guy in Albuquerque), don't worry, most of my life will still be chronicalled here.Happy New Year. I was actually awake at midnight this year. I know, weird! Last year was both good and bad. I acheived several of my personal goals, such as reducing the crazy in my life, concentrating more on my own physical and spiritual health, and slowly laying more horsepower to the ground with my car. The dogs are great. Dating was pretty OK last year, and has promise for the future. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things with the fire department, after taking some much-needed time off. And during my last trip to Connecticut, I got to re-connect with several relatives that I've really missed recently. Overall, not bad. Hopefully, the year 2009 will continue to be a time of improvement for me. It can't be worse than 2008, except maybe politically and economically. Our country will surely continue its Romanesque death spiral, as it continues to do all of the wrong things, both at home and abroad. I firmly believe we are in the beginning stages of World War III, with pretty much all of the big players involved in one conflict or another at the moment. We seem to be one Archduke Ferdinand assassination away from the next "war to end all wars." And having a completely incapable President slash Secretary of State combo won't help that much, I'm afraid. On the bright side, at least Israel is finally kicking the crap out of Hamas; hopefully they will pretend it's 1967 and do it right. And for once, the US isn't yanking back on the leash... yet. Something tells me that come January 20, the terrorists' new friend in the Oval Office will reign Israel back in. Anyway, in car news, I have the following mods going in soon: aluminum engine mounts, a K-member support brace with torque limiters, and new oil pressure and water temp gauges. I will also continue to kill brain cells trying to figure out where I'm leaking fuel from. Still looking for a 12 step program to help me with my sickness. Posted by Ray at 11:39 AM / 0 Comments
Sunday, January 04, 2009:If I ever father a child, he'll probably look like this in the womb...
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