It's about time......

I finally made it through a drift event unscathed, mechanically, in any way. Don't get me wrong, I spent the day puting out "fires" as I usually have to do. The hand brake wouldn't cooperate at all. And new clutches aren't real partial to working when abused before they've been broken in. To combat these issues, I had to let the car sit periodically to keep the clutch cool and I had to use "shift-lock" to initiate a few of the turns(Thanks go to Chris for that one). In practice for the comp, the tires on the front were junk. I'd enter the turn, initiate, start my slide and the tires would stop gripping and suddenly it's pushing up the track. Bolting on spares for the rear helped immensly, because they're a lot bigger(wider). I didn't make the comp. My runs weren't good enough. While they were my best of the day(it took me all day to get my act together...), they did suck. However they were so much fun that all the aggrivation from earlier in the day was worth it.
I'll be honest, I'm REALLY glad the season is over. It's been a long and expensive season. The car is good, now it's time to make a list of what I'd like to change over the winter, prioritize it and get started. Right now here's what I'm looking at:
1. Change the brake system so the foot pedal controls just the front and install a dedicated master cylinder as the hand brake for the rears.
2. Fab lower arms and modify the tie-rod mounting on the spindles for more angle.
3. Install a power Mustang rack to get some weight off the nose
4. Change the rear suspension to a 3-link with a panhard bar.
A few of these projects are rather ambitious, but well with in my abilities.

To my job......

Dear Job,
  While I could carry on a long and boring rant about how much I hate your guts, I'm going to save us both a lot of time and sum it up with this from Asuka: 

I hate you, you bucket of fetid monkey cum

       love, Mike

Finally, something I feel lucky to have....

Today I was driving for work(that's what my crappy job entails now....) and passed by one hell of a hot female. I could only see from the back, and what great backside it was. I'm sure the front looked just as good. She had an amazing rear, beautiful straight black hair, and was black(african-american if it makes you feel better.). What does this have to do with my feeling lucky? I consider myself lucky because a womans ethnicity has no bearing on how attractive I find her. Because I'm not tripped up on something (as I see it) so basic and elementary, It's a very cool thing to see so many hot women around me. When skin color means nothing to you, there are limitless possibilities of mates. This really comes into play when I deliver to the college. Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White. They're all represented and in great numbers. Over the years I've known many guys who aren't racist, but wouldn't consider dating out of their ethnicity. My though is why let something so rudimentary keep you from finding the woman who could be your perfect mate?

One of those days.......

It was a little foggy on the way to class this morning, so I had the headlights turned on. I remember thinking to myself that I need to remember to turn them off when I got there. Of course I didn't. Returning to the car after class, I discovered the battery to be dead. Called AAA for a jump but it was soo dead, it wouldn't budge. Godammit, this does not bode well for my day.... Called Mom to come and bail my ass out. Called my buddy on the way home, to see if he could help out in retriving my car from school. Got home, went to his house, went to my brothers to get my trailer, drove all the way to the other side of the city, back to school. Tried to jump the car for the hell of it. Suprise! It started. Drove the car back to Moms and my buddy followed. Grabed the stuff for the Malibu, returned to the barn, dropped the trailer and fixed the 'Bu. Went back to my buddys house and picked up the Blazer that I'd driven there to meet him, and finally returned home.
Text book example of a cluster-fuck, but at least it worked out in the end. I got my car back and the 'Bu is now totally fixed and ready for battle in two weeks at Drift Battle 2009(provided it isn't cancelled due to lack of entries.).

This image is from "Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan". It has a couple of REALLY hot lead characters, Plug(red hair) and Aresta(blue hair and my favorite), and some good fan service(as seen above), and I REALLY want to like this, but there are a few things holding me back. The lead male keeps hitting the two hotties with a baseball bat constantly(I'm only four eposodes in thus far....), sometimes resulting in them wetting themselves. Frankly, I'm not into "water sports" and find this kinda stupid. Aresta seems to be turned on by being hit by him. Sorta bothersome.... It's got some excellent ecchi, which I love, but the whole bit with the abuse of the girls is trippin' me up.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.....

It's Sunday eve. and I figured i'd share some more catgirl love with you. (like anybody really reads this crap....) Why do I continue to do this? Because:
1. I have a thing for catgirls
2. I have no life
3. I'm bored
4. I just feel like it.
By the way, These awesome images are by Kamiya Tomoe. The dude (or dudette) does beautiful catgirl work! As usual, click on the pic to get the bigger versions.....

Of course I dig the catgirl maid the most. And she's even rockin the "shimapan".

Wheelhop - 2 and Moser Eng. axle - 0

Here's the axle I twisted off last weekend. I pulled the "good" one out to replace the seal and discovered that the splines on it had twisted. So, I just ordered another one. You can sure bet I'm gonna fix this goddamm wheelhop issue! To recap, I flushed a pair of Moser Eng. 1541H steel axles down the drain due to wheelhop. This sucks. If you can avoid it, don't repeat my mistake. I was a bitch getting the broken piece out of the differential.

Drift Indy video

Here's the video for drift indy round 4. For those of you with ADD, it's nice and short
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuY1jbuNxtA

One good thing about working out...

....is I tend to do a lot of thinking. I seem to sort out the crap in my life the best when I'm torturing myself under the guise of being healthy. I've been bummin' about my cars failure at Drift Indy round 4. I was going through the runs in my mind when I realized I failed, not the car. My car is more than capable, there isn't one system on it that hasn't been modified. I, however, am not as capable. I'm not so much over-driving the car, but far exceeding my skill level. I guess I'm trying to say that the car is capable of doing what I want to do, but I'm not up to the task as a driver.
When I first got the car, the best process would've been to just get it up and running and go drift it. Then begin to upgrade the car, growing as a driver as it's capabilities did. Learning to become a better driver. However, I way over-built the car and started with something that FAR exceeded my skills.
At the event, I saw all these drivers just haulin' ass into the 1st turn and thought "Okay, I guess that's how it's done." Dumbass. There was the failure that led to my broken axle. Instead of just doing my own thing starting out easy on an unfamiliar course, I did what they were doing(well, tried to...). The course had a HUGE lead-in(bigger than anything I've ever attempted) and I was thrown off by the way the course felt really narrow. I remember trying to change up my approach and how I went thought the first turn, but I was just being too aggressive. I should've slowed down and started from square one.
Bottom line is I was just driving too fast for my skill. I need track time to become a better driver and breaking my car robs me of it. Hopefully I will remember this next time before it's too late and my stupidity breaks another part, ending my day early.

Why does this crap keep happening to me?! - round 2

I just got back from the Drift Indy event. It was well run, like I expected it to be. My first run session didn't go well. I was having a difficult time adjusting to the track. The surface was abrasive concrete and the car didn't seem to want to let go of it. As the runs went on, I was figuring out the track from the end of the run back towards the start. I was also battling VERY severe wheel hop.
I changed tire for the second session and the car felt a bit better on the first run, but it was all for naught, as I twisted off an axle shaft at the end. The wheel hop issue certainly didn't help things. I was so depressed I didn't even stick around to watch the tandem runs, something I was really looking forward to doing myself. So, once again something I was REALLY looking forward to failed to pan out yet again. I was really hoping this would've gone well. I'm struggling to find ANY kind of sign of prosperity in my life. You know, the silver lining, a bright light, something good..... It's been so long since something like that has happened to me, I couldn't tell you when the last time was it happened. Could I be a born loser?
In review, I got up at 2am, drove 3-1/2 hours, paid $75 to register, made 4 or 5 runs, and broke a $200 steel axle shaft. I'm so beaten down by my bad luck, I'm not even pissed. I'm so fucking depressed right now. Right now, I don't care about anything at all. Will I ever notice when it's time to call it quits?.......

So I just finished watching a bit of Clannad......

As I typed, I just finished a bit of Clannad before heading of to try and get some sleep before I have to get up at 2am for the drive to Indy. I'm envious of the fun they have at school. The good memories they're making. I don't have any memories like that. For me, school was an oppresive place. I wasn't, like, picked on or anything like that. It was like I was invisable. No one ever talked to me or even acknowleged my existance. High school being the worst. Four of the most hellish years of my life. I'm sure for my classmates it wasn't four years of nothing but good times. There were downs along with ups. I bet many of them look longingly back at school. Their friends, activities, etc, etc. I wish it had gone differently for me. I wish I hadn't been such an outsider. Some say being popular is being a sell-out. Maybe they're correct, but I bet it made school a bit easier none the less, having a support group. Even now, all these years later, to think about it, it still hurts. I wish I had some good memories to associate with that time in my life. But I don't.
I know doing this should be a healing process, dealing with these issues. But why do I feel worse after doing it?.......