bleah

sooooo....when i first got this car i figured i could fix anything but the engine and the driveline (transmission, clutch....)

a few months ago i opened up the engine

right now my driveline is half in pieces

so much for my plans. either way, read raimi's blog for updates.

in other news, i think i'm gonna do it. i'm gonna go to grad school. i'll give it more thought tomorrow (and more research) and i'm hoping i can work up the courage to decline the job offer i have sitting here on my desk. scary.

i've secured a parttime job through an old boss. they liked me :) my mom also said i don't have to pay rent if i help her fix the house in the next few months (and pay me some for my time) to close it up and sell it. so sad....*sigh*. i think this whole plan'll work. aaaaand i'll have my life occupied for another two years at least (if i just do a master's program).


it goes

shit shit shit

car is still dead...but a neighbor suggested a simpler problem that sounds more probable, more later.

cell phone is dead. true to form, i jumped in a jacuzzi on saturday night in a short labcoat, red satin slip, embroidered stockings, a nurse's cap and hooker red lipstick...with my cellphone in my pocket.

fuckall. spent a chunk of today taking it apart and cleaning everything i could find. i'd soaked it in isopropyl when it happened after taking the battery out...alcohol evaporates faster than water, even diluted alcohol. seems to have dried it out pretty quickly but unfortunately the alcohol ate at some of the plastic. the screen (not the LCD, the cover) went white and some of my buttons are white now (used to be clear). trying to see if i can replace them...warranty doesn't cover 'moisture'...service warranty might work. we'll see. on first trial it seems to work...but 1,2, and 3 don't work...and some of my keyboard buttons don't work (LG F9100 with a slide out qwerty keyboard)...and by don't work i mean they perform other functions, haha. fuckall.


aaaand got my formal offer. instead of 30k they overed me 38k. crap. you'd think i'd be happy but it makes me reconsider more. i'm PRETTY sure grad school still looks better. but instead of 90% sure i'm 80% sure. good odds, still. i think it'll make me much happier in the long run.

good weekend. ultimate. alcohol. friends. cross dressing.


toodles

raimi

raimi's dead again!

the real world

soooo...this all happened...TODAY.

except my meeting yesterday, which spawned it all. got a job offer...to be sent in writing soon, but only $30k salaried (no overtime) with good benefits and "bonuses" whatever that means. i'm kinda bummed. while i can easily double that if i stay with this job in TWO YEARS (more than double)...it's still two years doing something i'm not all that psyched about...public engineering stuff...building power distribution mainly. they do mechanical engineering too...but yeah...i dunno.

sooooo getting on today. after getting a late start on the day, instead of working on surfboards, tv, reading, surfing, raimi...the usual unemployment bit...i decided to do some research. started by researching the EIT exam (engineer in training) which would make me look better, PE licencing...which looks bland...and a few other things that i would've had tos tudy for that would EVENTUALLY make me lotsa money one day...doing boring things.

then it hit me...i could spend those two years learning things i DO enjoy, and come out two years later earning a liveable paycheck (master's degree) or just be in school forever and get into some cool research and be poor forever but REALLY happy. the factor i can't dismiss is being able to do it in hawaii. in these past two months i've discovered something really interesting....i can live pretty goddamn cheaply....in hawaii. the things i do for fun are almost free except raimi...and that's something i can put off for a time if need be. surfing, ultimate, hiking...all easy to indulge in. so...i could deal with having no money as long as i'm here. back in new york...when i was bored i partied and drank a lot. ultimate was hard 'cause it was in a frickin' city. bladed once in a while but only when the weather agreed. so i spent a lotta money on food, booze and movies. here...don't need it. school would be MUCH more enjoyable when i can balance it with my hobbies on my free time.

i think.

i'm gonna let it sit. i SHOUDL take the GRE's by june (they're recommended but not required) adn app for spring semester is sept. 1st. i could get a part time job easily (already have an outstanding offer from an old boss...CAD work)...and we're going to have to get this house in shape to sell soon...i could strike a deal with my mom.

funny how i can change my mind in a day...for those who don't memorize my blog (bastards), i decided on the first day of school my senior year at columbia that i did NOT want to go to grad school after i was 95% committed up until that point for years prior. now...i get my first legitimate job offer (the last job was handed to me) and i'm changing my mind.

or maybe it's just school decisions.

i'll start drinking and think about it :) usually does me good.

oh...and i would DEFINITELY appreciate comments on the issue. i'd love to hear what you have to say (especially you near-graduates and recent graduates).


ima get off this computer now.

alohas

marriage

my cousin got married on sunday :) it was a nice wedding. short and sweet, actually...with awesome food and an open bar to follow, haha. vanessa (my sis) came home, as did a few of my other cousins spread out around the mainland. good to see them. 'nother wedding on may 28th, ultimate friends. high school friend getting married in maryland sometime soon (i can't go), and two columbia weddings in august (brian/meghann, vix/graham). this is kinda weird, i feel like i'm getting old...but a small consolation is that all of them ARE a bit older than i am (yay!).

also weird since my parents are finally taking the steps to get a divorce. *sigh*. my dad left the house a year ago...they weren't ready to do it for good until a little while ago, though. i think they'll be happier this way.

of course all this has me a little contemplative as of late. how can i not be? for the first time in my life i'm not struggling to keep a relationship alive. i mean sure, there are bumps in the road, but healthy ones so far (whaddaya think, tam?). i'm too young to seriously consider marriage methinks, but with all this surrounding me right now it crosses my mind from time to time. scary. my parents have been married for...28 years...i've been ALIVE for 22. not ready for a decision of those magnitudes just yet. lol, i DO of course need a job at the moment, too.

speaking of which i have a meeting with an employer late this afternoon. i'm pretty sure it's to receive a formal employment offer. woohooo! i like this company...cedric d.o. chong and associates...they do electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and fireproofing. big company in hawaii, and i like my would-be-bosses (they interviewed me). great benefits, too. so i'm pretty psyched. as long as they give me a DECENT amount of money (which i'm confident of) i'll most likely take it. it's time i get back to work...i've enjoyed my unpaid vacation :)


*sigh* i'm gonna take mom and vaness surfing. always fun.

jk

worked

so i got worked yesterday at diamond head. i kinda don't have (meaning DON'T) medical insurance right now so i went to a 'safe' surfspot....mainly a place with really deep water. i've touched bottom at diamond only once (before) in my life...and that was going over the falls on the inside, so that was no biggie...yesterday, howeverl..i was on the outside break about 30 yds. FURTHER out than i usually line up, and i dive through three monsters, and then big momma comes and i can't make it anywhere near close to it breaking so i ditch my board and dive as deep as i can. no luck, she picks me up and slams me to the bottom of the ocean (estimating 15 ft. or more deep) and i get cut up...not horribly but it scared the shit outa' me.

also buckled my board...it was BIG.

so fun.

aaaaaaand now, when the finished product STARTS to take shape. this is after the hotcoat. i wanted to cover all the disgusting holes and discolorations and water damage and nasty edges and my mom really likes turquoise, so i mixed up the hotcoat with blue and a bit of green to get this. i put a bit of q-cell in to make it just a bit more opaque, but not enough to change the liquid properties of the resin. damn...what a frickin' mess that was. i have turquoise resin under my big toenail...i have to wait for this to harden a bit more, then i'm going to go on the underside and do a glosscoat there to seal it. i THINK i'm gonna pigment that too but i haven't decided yet. maybe just flat blue, that could be cool. then i gotta turn it back over to this side (top) and sand the sit out of it to get it as flast as possible. after that i'm gonna let my mom decorate as she wishes with acrylic paints and then glosscoat the top and i'm done. 

Here's right after the dry glass in the last picture is saturated with resin and squeegeed out to "laminate" the fiberglass onto the board's surface (mostly foam). you don't want excess resin sitting on the board so you chase it to the edges with a squeegee (flat, sharp plastic/rubber hand tool) and drip it back into the container of resin. with this 'laminating coat', the fiberglass cloth is essentially see-through as you can see (compared to the last picture) but you can still see the texture of the cloth on the surface (picture doesn't show that close enough). 

Here's the dry glass cloth laid over the 6.5 ft. section i cut out, gutted, and filled with spray foam. there's two layers of 6oz. glass...so it should be damn strong....i hope. there's a shitload'a bubbles in it so it's not ideal....but to get rid of them would've required a whole 'nother method (this stuff called pourfoam) which would basically be like starting from square 1 again. no.