Archive for May, 2006

1997 Saturn SL2 Shift Linkage

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

Saturn sucks!

So, I was driving my ‘97 SL2, shifting from 1st to 2nd gear when the shifter suddenly went limp in my hands. Unable to put the car back in any gear, I coasted to a stop in a left turn lane. Fortunately, the road was not busy at all and I had two friends in the car who were able to push the car into a parking lot. Also fortunate was the fact that it was maybe a quarter mile from the parking lot to my house so we were not stranded. Upon removing the center console, we discovered that the shifter had become disconnected from the shift linkage.

Now, I’m not a car designer nor am I a mechanical engineer by any means. That said, I think it is bass akwards to have a crucial part of the driving system (the connection between the shifter and the shift linkage) be made of plastic!!! I’m all for plastic dashboards, plastic consoles, plastic whatever, except when it concerns the operability of the vehicle. Why the bleep would Saturn secure such an important connection with a small piece of plastic?

Okay, plastic parts in crucial places is bad enough, but this story gets worse. This piece of plastic perhaps cost 50 cents max. I went to the auto parts store to see if they carried anything like it. Nope, gotta go to the dealership. We get to the dealership, I explain the situation, and the guy tells me that they cannot sell the piece by itself. I have to buy the entire shift linkage for $200 to get this bleepy piece of plastic??? WTF??? To make matters worse, the guy tells me that 5 people had been in before me that day to replace the same piece of plastic, and had all bought the entire package. Fortunately, I’m not that big of an idiot (nor do I have the dough), and I leave ready to jerry rig something fancy.

Well, the car is now home, parked out front, because of twine. Why I had twine in my car is not important; it is important that I used it to tie the shifter to the shift linkage and was able to shift just fine on my way home. I figure I can drill a hole through the ball on the shifter, feed it through the hoop on the shift linkage, and feed a bolt through the newly drilled hole and not think about it breaking again. No worries, I do not intend to drive with just the twine.

Moral of the story is: Saturn sucks. Not only do they make crucial parts out of plastic, but they also make you spend $200 to replace a $.50 piece of plastic.

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Happy Towel Day

Thursday, May 25th, 2006

Hooray, it’s Towel Day…oh, you don’t know? May 25th celebrates Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

But why a towel, you may ask? From the “official” Towel Day site:

To quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical
value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

So bring your towel with you today. It is in your best interests.

Posted in Fun, Geekdom, News | No Comments »

Some Thoughts on Sports

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006

It has now been several months since the basketball season ended for my JV team. In that time I have reflected a lot on how the season went, how I performed as a coach, the ups, the downs, and the middles. I have a sheet of ideas that were written for the challenges I was facing during the season, but reading over them today, I find they are applicable to any sports scenario and thought I’d share them in a more public setting.

Punctual: exact, precise, accurate, scientific, prompt, on time, well-timed, instantaneous, constant, steady, systematic, meticulous, detailed, instant, thorough, immediate, direct, precise in observing time, appointments, promises, duties.

Patient: calm endurance of hardships, enduring or waiting without complaining (acknowledging what is right and waiting), perservering, diligent, single in purpose, persistent, even-tempered, peaceful, constant, poised, quiet, still calm, unflappable, submission to the divine will, composed, not impetuous, not discontented, expectant.

Diligent: Constant, careful effort, perserveringm meticulous, steadfast. Keeping pace with highest purpose. Nothing is conclusive about a wrong picture. You are never safer than you are right now in Christian Science.

Mortal mind would try to take you off-guard. Be alert to God’s goodness.

You are always in the court of Spirit. There’s only one outcome – good.

Every moment is the moment (staying in the now).

Principle: The foundation from which an action or series of actions spring; a rule by which one directs one’s life and actions. That from which a thing proceeds.

Procedure: That which springs forth from fundamental principles; Exact in purpose.

Skill: The familiar knowledge of any art or science, united with readiness and dexterity in execution or performance, or in the application of the art or science to practical purposes.

Technique: A means or method of achieving one’s purpose, especially skillfully. A manner of artistic exectution of relation to formal details.

You are there to witness uninterrupted harmony.

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Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Fendon!

Tuesday, May 16th, 2006

Another friend is married. Pictures can be found on my Flickr account.

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, completely harmonious, and, best of all, had great food! Pretty much you are guaranteed a beautiful wedding when it takes place on a mountain like Mammoth, at sunset, and with a beautiful bride. The pictures on the mountain top were not easy to take. 11,000 feet and wind chill dropping temperatures well below freezing do not facilitate comfortable picture taking, but they certainly look great afterwards.

I wish the new Fendon family well in their endeavors, and I will be taking them up on staying at their place in Mammoth Lakes!

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