Someone might have noticed some pics in the gallery that weren’t scenery. I bought that cute little 1987 Nissan Pulsar, with the intention of dropping a big ol’ motor into it (one pulled from a 180sx), and having it as a weekend warrior, something that could kick the ever loving crap out of any civic around, but was still comfortable and fun to drive. Unfortunately, that didn’t exactly work out. See, when I bought it, I knew there was some serious frame rust under the trunk, and the floorboards were pretty much shot. What I didn’t know was that the front strut towers were rusted to the point where they’re coming off the body (which was helped along by its trip home on a flatbed trailer), and that one of the motor mounts had rusted to the point where the mount pulled out of the body. So, the cute little green car is going bye-bye, and it’s replacement is already sitting next to the garage: a 1984 Toyota Celica GT. Until I saw this car, I didn’t even realize Toyota made the Celica back that far, or that the Celica was once rear wheel drive. Yes, I said Rear. Wheel. Drive. That means I can do a little body work, put on some fresh paint, get a motor and tranny from a Supra, beef it up, and have one heck of a fun car that’s certain to turn some heads. I’ll post some pics of it in its current state, as soon as I can find my camera.

Now, some very astute reader might have noticed that I said next to the garage, and not in it. That’s because the garage was, until late last night, occupied by the only vehicle produced in 1991 and currently in the state of Maine to be free of any kind of major rust problems, with the factory metal. That vehicle is a white Ford Taurus. But, when it comes to cars, there’s always something: with great looking bodies, comes major engine work. This car has what’s called a flex plate (similar to a flywheel), it’s a circular piece of steel, with gears around the outside where the starter turns the motor. On the inside, there are 6 bolts, which bolt onto the end of the motor (the crankshaft, to be more specific). Around the outside are 4 more bolts, those connect to the transmission. So essentially, this is the thing that connects the engine to the transmission, and on this car, it broke, between the inside and outside sets of bolts. Aside from that, the intake is full of oil, a fairly bad sign, so it’s getting a full ground-up rebuild before it goes back in the car. Also, one of the previous owners has, for lack of a better description, bastardized this car. The dash…isn’t original. The steering column isn’t original either, and the color doesn’t match the dash, nor does it have the cruise control buttons that it should. The AC system, well, all the components are still there, but the hoses have been cut. The holes where the AC hoses used to go into the car have been filled with foam insulation, the type you get in a spray can, and some of the other holes in the firewall have been as well. But, well, the price was right.

Aside from that, I’m still alive, just playing with cars instead of computers lately. Hope you don’t mind the change of pace (and if you do, tough luck!).

-Corey

Wow, it’s been way too long since I’ve posted anything. I’ll be keeping this a little more up to date when I start my next project (not computer related!), I’ll post about that tomorrow. For now, last month I finally took the dive and bought myself a digital camera, a Canon PowerShot A570IS. I’ve been taking it on the road with me, and when I see somewhere that sticks out as particularly pretty or unique, or I just wanted to get out of the car for a few minutes, I stopped and took some pictures. The intention was to take these shots daily, and post them as I took them. You can see how that’s turned out. Most of my spare time lately has been spent trying to chase down an annoying problem with my car, which resulted in a loss of vacuum and very serious revving while it was idle. The fix turned out to be a 15 minute job, it was finding the right fix that’s taken me the last month. Anyways, without further ado, you can find the pictures that I’ve taken so far at http://slightlyhackish.com/gallery/. I’m still in the process of sorting and uploading them all, so they may get finished tomorrow.

It looks like Obama’s gonna win the Democratic nomination, and there’s no question now, with Romney’s delegates on his side, that McCain will be the Republican nominee. The only chance this country has to not get thrown into total economic turmoil is to elect McCain, and pray to God he kicks the bucket within the first year of his term, and his VP is someone a little more conservative (not that you can get much LESS conservative then McCain). You know, as much as I hate the guy, I think we’d be better off with Ron Paul then McCain as president.

Oh, and have you heard about the farce going on in Congress? Nancy Pulosi is refusing to bring the FISA extension bill, which runs up at midnight on Saturday, to the floor, and now blaming Republicans and Bush because it won’t pass. Hell in a handbasket, I tell ya. All you Democrats out there, FFS, why do you elect these kinds of people into office?

EDIT: For those of you who do not know, the FISA is the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act. Among the important aspects of it is immunity for telephone companies who complied with government requests for information, including wire tapping.  Although I don’t exactly agree with all the implications of the bill, I do not believe that the telephone companies should be able to be held accountable for complying with government requests.

Ok, now that I’ve got the site all set up, there’s no reason not to get to this post, which I’ve been meaning to get to for a while.

As everyone, at least in the US, should know by now, John McCain is now almost guaranteed the Republican nomination for president. Which means that our county will have two options next November: you can buy a cat or a pig in a poke. John McCain is not really a Republican, and his recent claims to be a Conservative are ridiculous outright lies. The man supports amnesty for illegal aliens. He supports restrictions on freedom of speech, limiting what candidates can say about each other within a certain timeframe from a primary (and then taking advantage of it to take uncontestable pot shots at Romney). By his own admission, he has very little of an idea about the economy, and will likely end up skipping down the yellow brick road, holding the hands of Congress’ democratic majority, to get legislation passed that makes it look like he’s getting something done. Our only hope was that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee would maintain enough delegates to force a brokered convention, and someone else would get the nomination, but that hope is quickly fading.

As some of the conservative talkshow hosts have mentioned, it might be a good idea to get out and vote Democratic this election. Why? Either way, the country is going to get overrun by illegals, the national deficit will skyrocket, unemployment and homeless will see huge rises, and the country will generally be in shambles (all in the name of global warming, mind you). But if we put a Democrat in the White House, we do two things: first, we show that Democratic economics don’t work (a well-proven test, but people must be reminded), and second, we show that a Republican who acts like a Democrat does not have the support of the Republicans who matter most: the American people.

Now, I realize I might get flamed for parts of that last paragraph, so allow me to explain myself a bit. First off, global warming: I have serious trouble believing two parts of the global warming camp’s philosophies. First, I can’t believe that, with a gaping hole in the ozone layer, the greenhouse gasses continue to build up. The second is that I don’t believe that, even if global warming were real (which it still hasn’t been proven to be), that buying an electric car, a $5 lightbulb that doesn’t light, and a washing machine that has a government logo on it is going to do a damn thing to offset the carbon emissions that have been going on since the industrial revolution. Next up is Democratic economics, the good old Robin Hood theory, take from the rich and give to the poor. I agree that some corporate regulations are necessary, there should be caps on the amount of money that CEOs, etc, can make, perhaps even linked to the size of their company. However, the Democratic idea that the rich deserve to be taxed is ridiculous. I don’t know about you, but one of these days I want to be rich. I want to make a small fortune, and then retire and live off it, and let someone else come in to take up my role. But if the government is going to step in and take my riches as soon as I get them, why should I bother making them in the first place? If I can keep my business small, and have lower taxes, or have a huge corporation and get taxed down to the same level, then what’s the incentive? And where does the money go? Well, to people like my next door neighbor, who is so damn fat she’s legally disabled, but can still make it down to KFC every other day. To people who play the system, who work only long enough to be able to collect unemployment again. To people who work under the table and still want a little extra. And (this one I love) to illegal immigrants. Yes, these programs have a use, and SHOULD exist. However, they need tighter regulation, and strict penalties for those who abuse them. The rampant, widespread abuse they face today only increases the tax burden on those who do work for a living. Getting back on topic, some people claim that Clinton grew the economy; I’d loudly protest that idea. The economy grew under, and in some cases against, Clinton. Bush Sr. set Clinton up to succeed, many of his economic programs were designed and implemented to grow the economy over time. Only towards the end of his run did Clinton’s economic policies begin to come into play, and when they did, he dropped a falling economy on our current president’s lap.

Back to the original idea, the only hope for America in this next election is a strong independent candidate, one who represents strong conservative economic principles, a clear plan for our engagements overseas (it doesn’t matter his position, only that he/she knows how they’re going to handle it), and a method for getting ahold of the illegal immigration that’s running amuck. If Hillary Clinton become the Democratic nominee, well, 49% of voters said they wouldn’t vote for her under any circumstance, even before the primaries began. And with McCain, who has no support from the conservative base of the Republican party, running against her, it would be mighty tempting to vote for that third party. Who would that candidate be? Well, Mayor Bloomberg has already outright denied it, but if he did decide to run, I think he’d win by a landslide, and keep our country on at least somewhat straight of a path.

I’ve been trying to import the old blog posts for the last couple hours (even since before I went live with the new ‘blog), and no matter what I do, it beefs out. Looks like it just ain’t happening, but I’ll try to recreate some of the better posts, and just let the stupid ones slide.

EDIT: well, some of them decided to show up, and now they won’t go away, so I guess I’m stuck with ‘em.

This is the new slightlyhackish.com, complete with a fresh new interface and bright colors! If you want the dull, gloomy old site (with the archives) click here. Pardon the dust, this place might get a little messy over the next few days.

For the first time, the site’s actually redirecting like I wanted it to all along…and now I’m gonna mess it all up again. I’m moving from this quick blogcast crap to some real blogging software. Pictures in old posts may be broken, this site may disappear at random, or you might be greeted by a friendly new wordpress interface. the site will remain available until the 23rd at blog.slightlyhackish.com, after that it’s fate is in godaddy’s hands.

Now, the other thing that this means is I’ll hopefully be doing more blogging. I’ve got a new laptop and some great news that I’m dying to talk about, but every time I get on to quickblog, I find myself too enthralled with trying to change to a half decent theme (which I never can), and not getting the blogging done.

Today, I saw the new Will Smith flick, “I am Legend,” and honestly, I wasn’t impressed. After the heartfelt story of Chris Gardner’s life in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” I held this film to high expectations. I was sorely disappointed.

The film itself does an excellent job of telling the story Dr. Robert Neville (played by Smith), who is one of the few survivors of a cancer cure that mutates into a terrible disease, transforming those who come in contact with it into raging mutant beasts. The film starts with Dr. Neville’s morning routine, driving a shining Ford Mustang through a seemingly abandoned New York City with his dog, Sam. It soon becomes apparent that not only is the city abandoned, but overrun with wildlife. Throughout the movie, we learn through recorded TV shows and horrific dreams the back story of the measles disease that was transformed into a wonder drug, the quarantine of Manhatten Island, of Dr. Neville’s decision to stay behind as thousands fled the island, in search of a cure, and of  the accident that killed his family, We learn how Dr. Neville has survived the beasts’ nightly prowls, and see some amazing special effects.

The problem is not with the film, but rather with the story itself. The story is nothing more than depressing, and seems like its only goal is to defy the conventional wisdom set by its predecessors, rather then to tell a good story. The story starts on a rather high note, with the careless, high-speed drive through NYC. As it progresses, we see Neville going down hill. The isolation has obviously gotten to him, as he admires and is even shy about talking to a mannequin set up in a book store, and speaks with the”owner”, another mannequin, about her. After Sam’s death, we see Neville attempts suicide at the hand of the mutants, being saved barely by Anna, another survivor who hears his daily radio broadcast while aboard a Red Cross evacuation ship. The mutants track down his house, and the next night attack it. Neville discovers the cure for the disease in the midst of the attack, and hands it off to Anna, who, with her son Ethan, goes into hiding in a bunker in the basement. Neville then pulls out a hand grenade and sets it off, taking out hundreds of mutants along with himself. Yet somehow, miraculously, Anna and Ethan survive, although in reality the entire house should have come down on top of them, killing them both. The next scene, we see Anna and Ethan driving to a survivors colony in Vermont (I suppose we’re supposed to forget that earlier in the movie we saw the army destroy the bridges as part of the quarantine process), They arrive at the colony with the cure in hand, and the movie ends.

A good story has some high points, some low points, and in the end, some resolution. This movie had a couple high points (driving through NYC, the Anna’s timely appearance, the discovery of the cure), and a lot of lows (death of his family, downfall of NYC, nightly mutant attacks, Sam’s death, Neville’s death, failed cure attempts, etc, etc), and only half a resolution. The story may be seen as open-ended, but it really isn’t. For all we know, the Vermont survivors take the cure, throw it in a lock box, and keep on surviving one day at a time. Some might believe that they somehow manage to cure the entire world, but if we consider the lengths Neville had to go to to cure one mutant, curing all of them is a far-fetched idea, without more development of the cure. The survivors colony, from what little we see of it, doesn’t seem to have that sort of technology, and looks more like a Quaker’s village then a well thought out place to continue humanity’s survival.

In the end, this story would have been better written as a horror flick then a drama. More emphasis on the mutant attacks and the rabid transformation could have really improved the overall quality. However, as it sits, I may buy it on DVD only to see if there’s an alternate ending.