January 08, 2009
Bart Police Shooting and Oakland Riots... Why?
I was shocked by the events that led to the death of young Arthur Grant on a BART platform in the chilly night air of South Oakland. The fact the there were so many people sitting on the train watching what happened absolutely blows me away. It sure seems to show that the BART Police officer shot Arthur Grant in the back while he was lying face down. I don't want to jump to any conclusions and although the OJ Simpson trial showed us that the evidence does not always get a guilty convictions, the evidence on the surface is compelling.
So on the day that young Mr Grant was laid to rest, a peaceful demonstration turned into a wild mob of rioters tearing up their own neighborhood because they were upset? I don't pretend to have all the answers to the racial problems we have here in the US or around the world for that matter, but somehow destroying personal property of innocent people doesn't seem to move things in the right direction. From what I understand, Arthur Grant was a really nice young man who was against that sort of violence.
This might be the question that can't be answered, but I have to ask why? Why were was the group of young men getting rowdy on the BART? Why did the BART police handle the situation so poorly? Why wasn't the BART policeman who shot the unarmed man taking immediately into custody for attempted murder? I'm sure if I shot an unarmed man I would have been arrested and questioned. Why was the reaction to demonstrate and riot? What purpose does that serve?
It is clear that the older I get, the less I understand.
Posted by Hefe at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)
December 30, 2008
Is Geni.com Safe For Personal Information?
Last week my Auntie SanSan sent an email to Hefita introducing her to a genealogy project she was working on. She had entered some family data for my side of the family and was inviting Hefita to add information about the her relations. Auntie SanSan was using a site called Geni.com that is a Web 2.0 alternative to Ancestry.com and the like. It has a nice flash based interface and it includes social networking aspects that have been missing from the other big players. You can organize family gatherings, send virtual gifts, etc. The interface is easy to use and if you want to spend the time, you can put together a fairly comprehensive family tree. So Hefita invited some family members to join and contribute. While we did not think twice about adding information it became fairly clear that others were having some reservations about using Geni.com to put names, addresses, birth dates, maiden names, etc. Hmmm these are all good points. So unless the site was going to steal the information, what exactly is the business model. I decided to do some digging.
So the site's terms and conditions clearly state that they are interested in securing your personal information but they also state that they are not responsible if it is compromised. Hmmm... this is troubling. They "try" to secure the site and protect your information, but if it gets out, they aren't responsible. I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy. I do personally know some of the people involved in the project and I'm sure they aren't leaving huge holes in the system. Some of them were involved in PayPal and they haven't been hacked (but have been phished).
So the bottom line is this. If you are super paranoid, don't put anything on the net that you want compromised. Period. Otherwise only give information to sites you trust and limit the type of information to the strength of their conviction in protecting it.
Do you still feel safe with all that online banking and those purchases at Amazon.com? :-) Kind of makes you go hmmmm....
Posted by Hefe at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2008
Freedom From JUSTICE - The Novel
My nephew, Joe Reister (Joe Jose to the family) is a writer. He's been working on his craft for a while now and has written a number of remarkable short stories. A few years ago he sat down to write the great American Novel. I'm not certain where he found the inspiration, but his first major novel, Freedom From JUSTICE is not only a catchy double entendre, but also an excellent thriller with a scrappy hero named Liberator who has all these mad skills of 007 but the conscience of Jack Ryan. He also has a past life he is trying to hide from JUSTICE and get back to it without the whole thing going north. It's an excellent read.
Joe Jose wrote the book a while back and the only reason I am mentioning it now is that he sent a bound copy to Hefito a couple days ago for his 18th birthday. Very cool! Up until now, we had to print it out and read it on our computers. Now we can actually hold the book in our hands. If you want to reach the author and get your own copy, here's how to contact him.
Joseph G. Reister
jgreister at hotmail dot com
Tell him Uncle Bill sent you ;-)
Posted by Hefe at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2008
Classic Hefito
Ever since the bug problems started, Hefito has been down on the car. He seems to focus on every little sound and instead of embracing the quirks of a classic car he finds every little squeak an annoyance or some sort of foretelling of catastrophic failure. I've been working on adjusting the new carburetor and timing since I changed the parts since he has been complaining that the car lugs. We went out for a drive together and I did feel the lugging and also noticed that the passenger side door was hitting somewhere. I asked Hefito about it and he said a friend was hanging on the door. I thought maybe something was bent. Hefito was feeling all guilty and dejected so I decided we should look into the problem. It turned out to be very simple. The weather had turned cold and he latch was sticking. A little WD-40 was all it took and the door was working fine again.
A couple days later Hefito calls and says "Dad... I don't want you to think I am complaining about the car, but now the driver's side door is stuck. I can't open it and I have really pulled on it. I think maybe the weather stripping is stuck in the door latch. I tried to open it from the inside and the outside and its really stuck. I had to crawl across the car to drive it.". I said "I'm sure it's something simple, I'll check it out when I get home." "Thanks dada, I want you to know I really tried to solve the problem on my own."
So when I got home from work I went and checked the door. Sure enough it was quite stuck. I looked down and noticed something odd about the door. I walked around he car opened the passenger side door, reached across the car and pulled up on the door lock. I walked back around and opened the driver's side door. Problem solving is definitely not one of Hefito's strong points.
Posted by Hefe at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
The Amex Wishlist 2008
Today is the last day. Go for it, you might get lucky.
Posted by Hefe at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2008
Great Places For Bug Parts and Info
I must admit I've learned a lot doing the bug project. Mostly I learned that even if your car is 30 years old, it is still possible to find parts if you know where to look. Here is a list of resources I used while I was getting the car back on the road (only the recent ones are listed because, sadly some of the older once I used to use are no longer around).
Pick-n-Pull - This place is great if you are into scavenger hunts, you have lot's of time on your hands, and you are into bitter disappointment. On the upside if they have what you want it will be at a discount price.
Wolfsburg West - These guys have the really good stuff but it tends to be a little expensive and sometimes they run out of stock. They ship the parts right away and I have always been happy with the service.
JC Whitney - What can I say, these guys have pretty much everything for any model car you might have. The parts tend to be a bit lower quality but I bought my front bumper from them and I like to look at their magazine. The do send you a lot of email once you place an order.
Air Head Parts - They have a great selection of after market parts and since I live on the West Coast, they can get parts to me in two days. Once I placed an order by noon and it shipped that same day arriving two days later. Totally awesome. They also have a bunch of well written helpful documentati
on to help you adjust your carburetor, toubleshoot problems, etc.
EBay - Be carful, things are not exacty what they seem. I won some "new" parts that were actually "unused". It's semantic and a little nit picky I realize, but cmon, new is new and unused is "not totally new".
OE VeeDub - They had some parts that I needed at a fair price, but the shipping was 1/3 of the total cost. I bought $24 in parts and paid $12 in shipping. JC Whitney was free and Air Heads charged $20 for $400 in parts. You have to factor these things in.
Posted by Hefe at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2008
Odd Bug Problems
The bug has been acting up lately. It has this miss in it that is pretty hard to understand. It started on a drive home the other night and got worse the next day. Hefito insisted that we take it to a "real" mechanic to have it looked at. He took it in and the guy charged $90 to change the points (a $3 part) and while it did run better, it was not running right.
The problem is that when the car is cold it runs great. Then, when it warms up, it idles great but sputters at around 1500-2000 RPMs. If you floor it, it doesn't sputter until it settles in on a fixed RPM. I suspected a vacuum leak somewhere, but I couldn't find one anywhere. The I decided there was a problem with the timing, but that didn't seem to be the case. I spent a couple days messing with it and finally decided I needed to get a new carburetor and while I was at it, a new Single Vacuum Dual Advance (SVDA) distributor. My stock dual vacuum distributor was probably OK, but there was some question as to the compatibility of the new carburetor with my old distributor.
I did some shopping around and decided to got with a set from Airhead Parts. I matched the EMPI PICT-34-3 with a SVDA distibutor. I got the parts in two days and after a couple hours of work on the car, I had it running perfectly again. So at the end of the day, I think the carburetor got some gunk in it. I bought a rebuild kit and at some point I might rebuild it, but honestly the new EMPI carburetor fits much better (the accelerator pump and linkage clear the alternator) and chances or good I would mess up the rebuild. I have never been successful in the past. Anyway, but 74 beetle is back on the road. Look out.
Posted by Hefe at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2008
Flag of Kerblakistan
The other day a friend of mine mentioned that he couldn't find the flag of Kerblakistan anywhere. That led him to believe that perhaps they didn't have a flag. I told him that was nonsense and that every country has a flag so I did some digging.
It turns out that Kerblakistan does actually have a flag. It's blue white and green just like Uzbekistan or Sierra Leone with a single red dove in the center to signify the bloody peace they want to maintain by keeping their borders closed to non-anarchist tourists. I don't think you can get a visa to visit unless you can somehow prove you are an anarchist. Not that I am interested in a visit, but how exactly does one prove their anarchy?
Posted by Hefe at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2008
Mac Frugal vs Mac Million
The other night I got a call from The Sandpiper. It was mostly a catch up session since we don't get together as much as we would like and about twice a month we hook up and give each other the proverbial "dump". So he says "I got together with BS the other night. I told him I'd take him out to dinner for his birthday. So guess how much I spent?". I pondered this for a bit before I decided to answer. Knowing The Sandpiper he either spent very little or quite a bit. First a little background.
For those of you who don't know The Sandpiper, he is a bit ... frugal. To put it into perspective, once he invited a group of people over to his place for jerk chicken. He was generously providing the meat and asked others to bring salad or a side dish. When the dinner hit the table here were exactly 2 drummettes per person. It was cool, there was plenty of salad to fill up on.
Now, for those of you who don't know BS, he is well... hmm... He's a bit like PT Barnum without all the clowns and animals. He is affluent and enjoys his social stature. He's a really nice fellow, but he's not always paying attention to the needs of others. He once offered to let "Friends and Family" stay at his beach house in Santa Crux. Only $1500 per night. Needless to say we passed on his kind offer. My buddy Night Owl lets us stay at his place in Truckee for a six pack a night. That's a real "Friend and Family" deal.
So back to the question. Mac Frugal vs Mac Million. I figured he spent more than he wanted and hazard "$150 bucks?" He says "try $200 with tip". I asked "Where did you eat The House of Bullion" He said, "I tried to get BS to eat at this sports bar so we could catch the last game of the World Series, but he wanted to try out some swank new place that just opened. He was schmoozing the manager passing cards around and acting like he owned the place. The manager did give us a round of drinks on the house." He said "Do you think BS was taking advantage?". "It would seem so" I said "but you did tell him you were buying him dinner and it was his choice on where you ate. In some ways that's just the price of admission to the BS dinner show. Next year why don't you just send him a card?" The Sandpiper shook it off and said "Well I did have a pretty good time... until the check came." That's The Sandpiper. He likes being frugal but hates being cheap. I suppose I can connect with that.
Posted by Hefe at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2008
Enter Mario
I've been working on a bathroom remodel at the Fremont house for about 6 months now. It was started with great gusto, but I got a little side tracked with the bug project and now I decided it's time get things started again. The only problem is I decided that I have to replace all the galvanized pipe with copper. I don't have a lot of fear, but this should be an interesting adventure. Super Mario in a 2 foot crawl space with a torch, some pipe and a six pack. Cmon, how hard could it be?
Posted by Hefe at 09:51 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2008
That Raymond Chen Guy
While I was at PDC this year there was this event one evening where we had the opportunity to "Meet the experts". I was looking to solve a particular problem that had to do with changing the text color for a Windows radio button. I had been working on the problem for some time and figured an expert could help.
I wondered around a bit discussing the problem with different folks and pretty much everyone said "You need to talk to Raymond" So I walk around aimlessly looking for Raymond until I sat down at a table next to this unassuming fellow with a that said "Raymond Chen - Microsoft" I introduced myself and talked with him for a bit about my problem. He listened intently and then said "That is a very hard problem, Chris what do you think?" Chris it turns out maintained the Common Dialog DLL which was the root of my issue. After some thought, they gave me a couple things to try and his card so I could email him if the suggestions didn't work. His card read simply "That Raymond Chen Guy".
When I got back to the office I tried a couple of the ideas and while the solution I finally arrived at was a little less than what I had hoped for, it did work and I owe a lot to my discussion with Raymond and Chris. Thanks a million!
Posted by Hefe at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2008
Coyote
My son is an avid reader and back in the day when he was looking for a good book to read, I would dig into my library of favorites and pull out something I thought he would enjoy. I take credit for getting him hooked on science fiction by giving him Hyperion, Neuromancer, and Armor to read when he was younger. He still reads the Hyperion series and tells me it's his favorite book of all time. I have to admit is is probably my favorite book as well (the fruit falls close to the tree).
So no it's his turn to give me books to read. He gave me a book he really liked called Coyote by Allen Steele. It's the story of a futuristic and oppressive America looking for a planet to colonize to take the message into space. Without giving too much away it's less of an epic space travel book and more of a colonization of the new world type book with some high tech (not much) thrown in. It's more about building log cabins than fighting space aliens. At any rate it's a pretty good read, but I have to admit I didn't jump right in and read the rest of the series. It was certainly a good read and some of the story was pretty compelling. If you want a classic Hugo award winning space epic, read Hyperion.
Posted by Hefe at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2008
Don't Take It Personally
The other day I got a mystery call on my cell phone. It was a number I didn't recognize and they didn't leave a message. That happens from time to time because my number is the same as a nearby church that is in a different area code. Anyway, a couple days later I get a voice mail from my old college roommate Edwin D. He didn't say much except he wanted to get a hold of me and chat. I hadn't spoken to Edwin in years and our last conversation was a little "weird" but I figured he was reaching out and we were pretty good friends at one point.
Rather than returning the call from CubeLand I decided I would wait and return his call from home so I would have time to sit down and have a real catch up kind of conversation. When I got home I sat down, dialed the number and was greeted with a somewhat irritated sounding "Hefe". I thought hmmm... a little weird but whatever. I asked if it was a good time to talk he said he was about to eat but had a few minutes.
I started trying to catch up and see what he was up to, started telling him about my old an new gigs, things I was doing, where I was living etc. He cut me off and said "Hey listen, I need to eat now, but do you still have the Willie and the Wetsuits video?" Edwin and I were in a band in college called Willie and the Wetsuts and at one point we made a video of our hit single "It's a joke". I said yeah, but it's in storage and it will take me a while to dig it out. "Hey would you mind ripping it to DVD and sending it to me? I'll send you a couple bucks for postage". I'm like "Sure, but I don't know when I will be able to get to it. In the meantime do you want some MP3s some of the band's music, I converted some of the tapes a couple years ago." "Sure" he says, here's my email... Then he got off the phone.
Once again it was a little weird. I sent him the MP3s and he responded saying he was sorry about not being able to talk more. I don't want to take it personally, but we hadn't spoken in many years and I would have let my food get cold to catch up with an old friend.
Posted by Hefe at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2008
Happy Birthday Richie D
It's that time of year again, My childhood pal RD (and former drummer of fourplay et. al.) is another year older. Happy birthday amigo! Don't drink too heavily you are getting a little old for that :)
Posted by Hefe at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2008
The 2008 Baseball Season Ends (for the A's)...
And I don't care. Just call me Hefe Crack Corn.
I predicted the A's would be in last place, but somehow the M's were even worse. At this point everyone is gone except Bobby Crosby and Houston Street. Blanton was farmed off the Philly and actually has a shot to pitch in the playoffs. Good news for Kentucky Joe, bad news for the A's.
At this point I'm pinning my hopes on the Ray's. I like the underdog and it would be great to see them at least get to the World Series. Honestly, I might not even watch it this year.
Posted by Hefe at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2008
The 74 Beetle Rides Again
Wooo Hooo... We finally finished the Bug! So as a father and son project it was totally satisfying. Me and the boy were able to spend quite a few quality hours together. I think Hefito learned a little bit about how cars work. He is pretty good at removing and attaching Beetle fenders and attaching the fresh air vent.
It turns out that we had most of the parts and I could still remember how most of them went back on the car. It was a challenge and we didn't use all of the stuff I bought mostly because I was getting tired of working on the car and Hefito was anxious to start driving it. Mostly we are talking about rubber parts and such that were way more trouble to change than I ever imagined.
The car looks great (pictures to come soon...)
What did we learn?
- Restoring a car can take A LOT longer than you might think
- Take notes when you remove stuff from a car. You never know when you are going to put them back together (especially wires)
- Check the fuses. If they don't work what they are connected to won't work.
- Check that all the wires are connected BEFORE you put the fresh air vent back on.
- Change the fuel tank evaporator hoses even if they look good. If they leak even a little you get an awful gas smell in the car.
- Restoring a 74 Beetle can be very satisfying.
Posted by Hefe at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2008
The Bug Has Paint
Oh, what an excellent sight to behold. The guys a Maaco gave us the presidential treatment and the car looks great except of course for the huge bug skeleton that somehow managed to get itself stuck in the paint on the top rim of the driver's side door.
Somehow I find it really hard to believe they painted the car in a booth or at least a booth that had doors on it. Anyway, that are going to make good on the paint job, the only hitch is that we have to wait 30 days for the paint for fully cure before we can take it back to them. In the meantime we can do everything except the driver's side door.
Now the fun of sorting out all the parts that have been stored in WebVan (remember those guys?) containers for the past seven years. I'll try to get some in progress pictures up when I get a chance.
Picture borrowed from Wikipedia. They can have if back if they want.
Posted by Hefe at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
August 07, 2008
The A's Aren't as Bad as the M's
I got an email from RJ today reminding me the the M's with all the money they spent to own the AL West are likely going to be in last place. I would love to jump up and do a WOOO HOOO in my new Cubeland home, but somehow being only slightly better than a total loser team does not exactly warm my heart. I do appreciate RJ reaching out and trying to make my pain a little less err... painful. There is always next season.
Posted by Hefe at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)
July 31, 2008
And then the wheels fell off...
My beloved Oakland A's looked as though they were going to make some racket this year despite all the "rebuilding" going on in the organization. What strikes me is that all this rebuilding has been sending all of my favorite players somewhere else... Anyway, almost as quickly as it started, the rumble subsided and now the A's look as though they have a really good chance at clinching last place in the AL West. They will however need to figure out how to dethrone the Mariners who seem to have last place all sewn up but At this point I am willing to bet it is possible.
I'm still going to watch them play, but I have to admit I have lost nearly all of my enthusiasm and I am giving away as many games as I go to.
If you want to catch a game before the season ends, shoot me an email and I will hook you up.
Posted by Hefe at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2008
The Joys of Pick N Pull
For anybody who has never had the pleasure of entering the wonderful world that is Pick N Pull you are totally missing out. It's a bone yard for cars where a car that is on it's way to the crusher stops one last time to have it's bones picked over for fun and profit. You have to pay a small fee to enter and sign a waiver just in case a car falls on you. Once in the gate you and your tools walk the bone yard looking for the important bits and pieces that are broken on your old junker. The cars are arranged in an odd order. Small foreign, SUVs and pickups, large domestic, etc.
It's a great business model. The patron does all the heavy lifting using their own tools and if they need anything special like a dolly to carry something heavy you can charge them a rental fee to use it. Then you can charge standard pricing for parts based on standard price list. It seems to me the place has super low overhead and I would imagine fairly high margins.
Lately I have been looking for parts for the old beetle, specifically the bumpers and shocks. What's odd is I have been collecting all sorts of other stuff that I lost in the meantime since I started the project. Mostly nuts, bolts, screws, etc. I also have been grabbing up odd stuff that I will probably never use just because when you have a 30 year old car, you never know when something that is difficult to replace will break. If you need parts for a 74 Beetle drop me a line, I probably have a spare door handle or wind wing lying around. :-)
Posted by Hefe at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2008
The 74 Beetle Project Update
The old 74 Beetle is slowing getting put back together. As is the case with most of these projects, it is taking much longer than anybody expected. My son thought it would take about 3 weeks to get the car put back together. I figured it would be a couple months, but in reality we might get the car back on the road in another month.
It seems that whenever we fix something, something else is broken. My son has taken the fenders off a total of three times now for different reasons and he probably needs to do it once more. The other day I took the car out for a quick test drive just to check the engine and there were no brakes. We changed one of the brake pistons, and then one popped in one of the other wheels. What a hassle. We got the brakes worked out and adjusted and the engine starting running all rough. Hmmm... why exactly did I sign up for this again? I'm starting to remember why I never got around to finishing this project. Can you say "time sponge"
I think the pace will pick up a bit when we get the car painted. We went and talked to Maaco and I think we can get the car painted for about $500.
Posted by Hefe at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)