Matt the Geek

So it's 2009 already. I can only pray that this year is better than the last. Not that all of 2008 was bad, and looking back, not all the bad parts were that awful.
Last year in summation:
-Started living on my own again.
-Worked. Didn't work. Worked. Didn't work. Lather, rinse, repeat.
-Got a divorce.
-Re-connected with some friends.
-Made a couple new friends, including an awesome one in Tonia :]
-Finally got an Audi 4000 Quattro :)
-And had it break :(
-Socialized outside my normal comfort zone, and had a good time doing so.

Goals for this new year:
-Find a (good) job. This proved quite difficult late last year, I hope that is in the past as well.
-Make one of my cars reliable, fully functional, and not ready to fall apart at any given moment. I have 2 older Audi's, wish me luck.
-Find a nicer place to live. Yes, I have a roof over my head, and rent is cheap, but renting a 10x10 room in someone else's smoky house isn't where I want to be.
-Get more healthy. This includes eating better (and less), exercising more, dropping some tonnage, and getting out of the house in which I am the only one who does not smoke.
-Get on with life. This started to some extent last year, as I was picking up the pieces that were left and arranging them into something resembling a life.

I think that's all for now, and if it isn't, maybe I'll update more than once every couple weeks.

Ok, so there's only 2 weeks until Christmas. When did that happen? I swear it was Thanksgiving like yesterday. So far I am liking the snow that is abundant up here in the middle of nowhere. I'd probably be having even more fun with it if the Audi with the Quattro was operational, but I'll live. I have some pictures of the snow up on my Flickr, and you can find that over to the right in the links. I'll get better pictures someday.
Wow, totally ran out of ideas to write. More later when I can think of something.

So it snowed again today/tonight. Pretty decent actually. When I got back "home" from fixing a couple computers at my friend Tony's there was about 5" on the ground here. The roads on the way back weren't great by any means, but they didn't warrant the 40 MPH that most people were driving.
I will say though, it is rather pretty out here with all the snow. I will try to get pictures tomorrow if it as pretty in the daylight.

So I've been trying to get another job, as there hasn't been anything for me to do with the simulators in a while. I thought I might have had a new job, and actually worked it for a while, but they kept finding loopholes for not paying people. So that's a week and half and 2 tanks of gas wasted.
Something's got to give, and soon I hope.

In relatively older news, I found a new-to-me Linksys Wireless-N USB adapter on Craigslist for way too cheap. But I'm not complaining. I had been using a generic Ralink RT73-based adapter and was getting signal drop-outs very frequently, especially in humidity and rain. With this new one, I haven't had a drop out in the over a month I've had it. And I get a better signal with more speed to boot.

Ok y'all, I'm out for now.

Things seem to be ending around me all the time these days. The 2008 NASCAR season ended not more than an hour ago. My divorce has been final for over a month now. My days of traveling all over for work may be done, as the company hasn't had any work for me in close to a month now. Above all else, I may have alienated a dear friend after I made a foolish comment on Youtube video of hers.
Even just thinking back on it now makes me not want to write anymore...

Maybe next time something happy. Maybe.

So here it is. An entry just for the sake of having an entry for October. Haven't exactly been up to much, was in Charlotte for 2 weeks earlier this month helping get some stuff ready to ship. Stripped the decals off 2 Jeff Gordon show cars so they could become other show cars. The sun was both blessing and curse for that though, the beating down sun made the decals come off easier, but I got slightly sunburnt on my ears and head. And it was just hot, like 86F every day. I had gotten used to cooler Michigan weather, and it was October and all, so I was in Fall mode. As such, the heat was unwelcome by me.
While I like this colder weather, my little red Audi does not seem to. It does not like to start when it is as cold as it was this morning after a hard frost. I had made an appointment for it to go see the Doctors at German Auto to get that right front axle re-attached this morning (er, yesterday by now). Of course it wouldn't start, ran the battery dead trying. So I hooked it up to the charger and a 100' extension cord, set it to 50 Amp quick charge / start mode and would crank it till dead, charge, crank, repeat. After a while this seems to have taken its toll on the starter, as it started whining and was having a hard time turning the car over. So I called it a day and let it be. Let's make a list then of what she needs to get back in shape: Distributor cap and rotor to help the cold/humid start issue. New spark plugs too. Those are normal tune-up items though, and should be replaced periodically anyway. Needs the Right Front axle put back in, I have a new one, and 2 old ones, but seem to require assistance in getting one of them on. Needs rear brakes done, I have the new rear pads and rotors, but discovered the calipers are both froze and very rusty, so those need replacing as well. And now a starter.
Oh well, being a Quattro, this thing will make an excellent snowmobile, once it's all back together. Mercifully my big gray Audi, that was playing dead and therefore was the reasoning behind buying the red one, is no longer playing possum. It has been doing very well, starting basically every time I ask it to. It too needs all the rear brake components replaced as well, but I can only do one car at a time, and for now it is the red winter one, because winter is coming.

I leave you now, wishing you all a happy and safe, and maybe slightly scary Halloween.
Here's to more post (with actual content) in November.