Twomonkeysayoyo Blogs You

Hoozah. A game worth playing! Dwarf Fortress is absolutely incredibly awesome. I cannot believe the depth of play here. I've built 3 or 4 fortress all of them based on sandbox style tutorials. Not even close to being able to play. I'm like a child who wandered into international banking and trade and is expected to make a living with arms dealers.

I decided to make a really really really big world and build my first fort.
Farming took a while to figure out under-ground but I found the golden rule for it...
5 to 1. That means 5 earthen squares for every square of water you are dumping into it. Also, don't depend on building a wall to stop up the flow. Mechanisms are too easy to make, so just do a floodgate.

• August 30: 24 migrants to a fortress of 24. WTF.


• August 31: Fucking elves and their anti-wood tidbit stance.


• Sept 1 Legendary Digger dies. Tomb is built.

Ok, so I started Eve Online. Amazing game. I do my 14day trial, woot, do some stuff and am happy. I decide I want to buy the cool retail box. It gives you 60 days of game time, a one-off shuttle and some other stuff. "Awesome!". I get it back home, and try to add the time to my trial account. "Sorry, if you want the goodies you have to start a new account and transfer them to an existing account". FFFFUUUUUUUUU. So I would have to pay another 20 bucks to activate the other account or pay 20 bucks to transfer that character. DAMNIT. That sucks. Oh well, move on, I only played for two fucking weeks. So I start my new character--Stabbicus Rex--and get online examine my new shuttle and start over, basically. Ok. Whatever. Move on. Let Mantard Monkeyface rest in peace. Ok, so I'm back into it, not angry, and want to enjoy it on my PC instead of my Mac. The client isn't really a Mac Native Client, it runs on some Citrus thing that HOGS resources. Ok, I go home, I've got a couple hours before the love of my life gets home and I can do some playing... woot. I've got the DVD, so cool. I'm expecting a patch. Really, I am. 500Mb or something. Downloading the whole game isn't but 2Gb. I insert the DVD and start the setup. It takes 10 minutes to verify the media. WTF. "Ok, now what..." I wait for another 10 minutes and nothing happens. I don't have anything on my screen but the flash welcome screen that I clicked on to start the install. FFFUUUU. Ok, reboot. I reboot. I start it again. Another 10 minutes verifying the damn media. I start the 2Gb download client just in case it does it again. So this time I'm content to wait. After another 10 minutes of nothing happening on the screen the installer starts up! WOOT! Yay, I'll be playing tonight! I cancel the download install. It's been going for 20 minutes and I've got a good 400Mb downloaded. The install completes (only a full 38 minutes after I started it the first time. Yay?) So now I go to login; I input my username and password. "you need to download the patch, ok to do so" "yes" "ok, logging off and installing patch now downloaded 0% of 1555Mb". FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

So my girlfriend needs to go to the store for some sundries. She comes back with a Tale of The Awesome. She gets to the checkout island and offers up her items for scanning. She has

• a Box of Wine
• 2 Chipwiches
• a package of razors
• some sleeping pills
• a bottle o'lotion

The girl at the counter looks at her and asks "Oh! Having a party?" I need to know more... just what items on here made her think "party"? Razorblades and Wine? Sleeping Pills and Lotion? I just want to over hear her cellphone conversation with her girlfriends... "Oh, I just love John's parties, but why does my heiney always hurt the next day?!"

[11:14 That Guy] wtf is blackgold
[11:14 TwoMonkeysAYoYo]
Monitors a directory and its children, generating indexes and thumbnails.
[11:15 TwoMonkeysAYoYo]
is py script
11:15 Offering to send blackgold.py to That Guy
[11:16 That Guy]
wtf??
11:18 Transfer of file blackgold.py complete
11:18 That Guy]
wtf didn't it work the other day
[11:19 TwoMonkeysAYoYo]
well that's what happens when I do it.
[11:19 That Guy]
what happens is fuck you!
[11:19 TwoMonkeysAYoYo]
ha

Well, I've decided to start this again, with a little linkbaiting, possibly some referral moneys if I get lucky. That being said, I'll start trying to put together some stuff people actually want to hear/read instead of just ruining my Karma over at Reddit with wildly named crap (See The Clitoris: Very Disappointing). At any rate (this one being free I hope to put something up someone will like or find interesting.

Ok, the car and I had a run of bad luck. I ended up buying a Camry to support me in my newly found 360 mile/week lifestyle. So it sits in my driveway, waiting for a new rear-transmission seal and radiator. She's for sale, so feel free to make me an offer.

Things I will get around to soon. When World of Warcraft and Mr. Barfy the Tailess Ass-Hat Bastard Cat allow.

• Paint Ruination By Apartment Complex Shit for Brains Building Cleaner
  
• Coolant Essplosion & Subsequent Replacement of Hoses and Coolant.
  
• 150,000 Miles on the Auto-Magic Tranny
  
• Google #1 result for "Howto Replace Upper Control Arms on a E28"
  
• Why I think "Howto" is the Proper web spelling of "how to".
  

ummm...other stuff???

Mileage: 151,221 Alright. Another Installation, less hassle, no pictures. Artists Rendition's to follow.

Thrust Arm / Upper Control Arms Removal and Replacement.
Fuel Filter Removal and Replacement

First, secure your parts. This done, Get the car up off it's front wheels.

You'll need:

• 22mm Socket


• 22mm Box Wrench (I used a 7/8's since I couldn't find a 22mm box anywhere)


• Some method for separating the ball-joint from it's prison.


• optional15mm and 17mm wrenches to remove the 4 bolts that hold the chassis bar that kind of gets in the way to the car.

I cheated. This time I rented the ball-joint removal kit from Advance Auto. Good move I suspect. I didn't, however, miss the opportunity to add a new hammer to my collection. Just in case, you see.

Remove the wheels.

Spray PB Blaster Liberally about the bits what need removing.

I removed the Metal Bar (4 nutted bolts, 15mm on top, 17mm on bottom) that ties the two halves of the suspension together to get a better angle on the 22mm bolts holding the UCA's to the car. This is VERY optional, though I found one of the bolts had been sheared, so I was happy I did this.

After that I used my ball-joint remover to separate the balljoint from the wheel. Man, I tell ya, that made things a snap. Then, with much moaning and strange placing of feet and knees for leverage, broke free the 22mm Bolt/Nut combo holding the UCA in place and removed them and cleaned them.

Installation was reverse of removal, with one important (I am told) difference. DON'T TIGHTEN THE UCA Bolt COMPLETELY UNTIL YOU HAVE THE CAR SETTING UPON IT'S OWN WEIGHT. I drove the car up and down the road a bit to let them settle in, then tightened them.

Caveat: I ran into one problem that was kind of scary. When trying to tighten the ball-joint nut the thing just started spinning in place and never tightening. I had to get one of those C shaped wrenches to press the ball-joint into it's housing enough so that I got enough friction to hold the thing while I tightened the nut. This was Awkward and Painful.

I also changed the Fuel Filter while I was under there. Nothing to this except clamping the fuel line, and remembering which way it flows. I think it was a 12mm nut holding the thing in place.


Sitting, Waiting, Wishing (Jack Johnson)

Mileage: 151, 253
Whoa, well it's been several months since my last confession. Haven't really done much or hung out with the E28 crowds. The car really got so down-right scary to drive I didn't have a lot of E-Thusiasm. She got relegated to hustling kids from Point A to Point B on the off weekends when I get to see them. In that time I have recharged the A/C with the help of a Co-Worker and Friend henceforth known as The Grant. He's a Volvo guy with a '50 Ford F-1. I've crossed the 150,000 Mile Mark. Got the engine de-grimed for that birthday. And Finally I Have Changed the Upper-Control Arms/Thrust Arms. It is this Procedure that I will explain, though this will be far less entertaining than the Lower Control Arms. There is also some little stuff I need to explain how I fixed...

I'll get one of those out of the way right now! Ready?

Electrical Light Issue Resolved
Turns out that when one of those wacky little fuses blows sometimes the fuse end-cap falls off. Well, if it isn't properly retrieved and disposed of then it just slides right out of view against the lip of the fuse box and can make spurious connections between one or more fuses in the fuse box. This is what was happening. One of those end-caps was touching both the fuel pump circuit and the headlight circuit so when the fuel pump was on, so then would be the lights. Hilarious.


Better Together (Jack Johnson)

Electrical glitches with the headlights continue to plague me. First, after I "fixed" the stereo I noticed that the headlights were always on. The lights weren't on, only the headlights. I could still turn the rest off and on via the light switch and they acted appropriately (IE I couldn't turn on the fog lights without the lights being on, etc...). NOW the fog light dash indicator light does not come on, though the fog lights are working correctly. I guess the light in the dash could have burned out, but I don't know.

The heating issue I am experiencing now is said by those more experienced than I to be the Heater Valve.
Symptoms: Heat works well at low speed but as speed increases the amount of heat available decreases.
Caveat: If your Fresh Air Valve is stuck open then you will experience the same thing. The notable difference is that there won't be air rushing out of the dash vents (or, if they are manually closed, out onto your leg out of the vent in the center console).

Frosty the Snowman ()