zrath

So I went to a LUGOLA meeting today.
Over the past two days, I built a quicky spaceship just to have something to show.
The gang seemed to like it.
I'll take photos of it tomorrow and stick them on Flickr.
It's a submariny-squiddy spaceship in yellow and white and grey.
When one of the LUGOLAians first saw it, he said "we can all live in it!". :D
The main reason for going to the meeting was to buy a Lego set from one of my fellow members.
It's a set I've wanted since it was released in 2002. It's my favorite Star Wars ship.
It's been released in other sizes, but this is the BIG one.
I am now the proud owner of a new still-sealed Universal Collectors Series version of the Imperial Star Destroyer.
I'm so happy!!!
I have no idea when I will build it, it's a bit of a challenge.
It's over 3 feet long and it contains over 3000 parts.

In other news, Gabrielle Union is smoking hot.
She was on Monday's Craig Ferguson, which I've just watched, and she was smoking hot, witty, and adorable.

And now, I sleep.
And hopefully dream of Gabrielle Union. :D

There's been no word from the French Consulate about the job I interviewed for.
I've sent some more resumes out for various jobs, including a QA Lead position at 2K Games.
Nothing new on the grandmother thing. I expect this will take forever.
A wire transfer popped up in my bank account a couple of days ago. It wasn't much, but it was enough to
take care of a couple of problems that would have made me unable to pay my October rent on time.
The transfer was from the SACEM, so looks like the paperwork has finally gone through.
I've decided to sell the 3 Lego Classic Space bases from The Tub after all. I need the money.
I still have a bunch of sets and minifigures on eBay, including the new Power Miners mini-sets right here.
There's a big LUGOLA meeting this Saturday, near Legoland Carlsbad. It's a joint meeting with SANDLUG,
the San Diego Lego User Group, so that should be interesting. And a bit of a drive.
I just completed a new Lego MOC (My Own Creation) for the meeting and I'm happy with it. I'll be bringing
it along with the SCAP strike package, Weapon M, the Agents flying sub, and the big scary Mega Bloks ship.
There will be pictures on Flickr some time in the future.
My sleep schedule is totally screwed up. I woke up at 6pm, did some computer and eBay stuff until 10pm,
then showered and dressed and went out to get dinner. Then I came back and ate dinner while watching
two Season 7 episodes of "Smallville". Damn, Brainiac is an asshole. Then I cracked open Volume 4 of
"Batman: The Animated Series" and watched Disc 1 while finishing my Lego MOC for the Saturday meeting.
Volume 4 contains the post-redesign episodes, were Joker suddenly has "Genesis Cooke reverse eyeballs"
(black eyes with white pupils), Bruce Wayne looks like Clark Kent from "Superman: TAS" but with blue eyes
and black hair, Poison Ivy looks elfin and unhealthy, and Catwoman lost all definition. Grrrrrr...
The Scarecrow did look scarier though, what with the noose and the Leatherface mask and the preacher's rags.
And the writing is still there, which is the most important part.
It's now approaching 6am and I'm going to try to get some sleep and return some normalcy to my schedule.
Good morning!

Dang! It's already Thursday and I haven't posted a weekend report. I better get to it!
Actually, this report will go back a little further than the weekend itself.

( My dinner with Dagoski, and LUGOLA Saturday... )

Thursday: That's today! I have my ticket for "Star Trek" on IMAX, so I'm pretty excited.
After work, I'm gonna go home, change, have a bite of dinner, then zoom to The Bridge on the 405. Wooh!!
From what people have been saying, it will be fun at the very least.
Love long and perspire! :D

Friday: Called Joe at the garage that fixed the Fnord Stranger before I took delivery of it.
Told him about the cracked hose. He offered to fix it for free if I could find the right hose.
Well, that gave me my mission for the day!
I duct-taped the crack on the hose, filled the radiator, and went to Pep Boys to find the hose.
Apparently, they don't have the car diagrams anymore, so it was a complete waste of time. I went to
the nearby Westside Pavilion to make a payment on my T-Mobile account and keep my cellphone turned on.
While there, I discovered that the Japanese toy store "PowerAnime" had not, in fact, closed.
It had relocated to a larger, ground-floor space. Somebody had forgotten to put a sign about the move
on the old storefront way back in October when I tried going back there. Harrumph!
Anyway, this gave time to the Stranger to cool down enough for me to refill the radiator.

Went to the local Ford extortionist dealer to gather some data on the needed hose.
The Ford Parts Guy had problems understanding my accent.
Kzin: "Hi, I need a part."
Parts Guy: "A bolt?"
K: "No, a part. A spare part. A hose."
PG: "What kinda hose? There's a lot of 'em."
K: "I don't know what it's called."
I described in detail where the hose was and what it was connected to. I asked him to put up an
exploded diagram of the truck on-screen so I could point to the part. He replied that he didn't have
such a diagram. Okay, what the hell? I remember clearly such diagrams available at car parts dealers,
both dealers and 3rd party, and now they've all disappeared! Nobody ported them to the computers!
This is stupid and damned inconvenient! While at Pep Boys, I looked through a Chilton car repair book
and nowhere did I see an exploded diagram of the vehicle with all parts labelled and numbered!
Anyway, Ford Parts Guy brought up a super simple diagram showing the heating system and, miracles
of miracles, the hose I was looking for. I pointed to it and he worked the keyboard some more.
Now, this hose I needed was roughly 8 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter. Pretty small.
"Oh, this is an expensive hose," he clucks. "Over $90 at least..."
He is not kidding. I wasn't planning to buy it there anyway, I just wanted the info.
He didn't have the hose in stock, but he printed out the diagram for me to have, so that was cool.

I immediately took off for Kragen Auto Parts, which is where I had wanted to go in the first place.
The guy at Kragen was incredibly cool. He let me walk in the back and look at the hoses they had in
stock to see if I could find a close match. Then, he let me walk out of the store with the hose so
I could measure it against the existing one. The hose I found was a really close fit, so I bought it.
It cost me all of $9. Mission accomplished! WIN!!! \O/
I came home and found an e-mail from Genex in my box. I did not get the job. They chose someone with
more web server testing experience. Nom de dieu de bordel de putain de couilles de merde!
I dejectedly crashed in front of the TV and watched some "John Adams", the HBO miniseries, on DVD.

Saturday: Got up at 7am (hisssssssssss!!!), showered, dressed, grabbed a few things, refilled
the truck's radiator and took off for Joe's place to get the hose put on. Traffic was wonderfully
light and I got there quickly. After the truck had cooled down, hose installation commenced.
The hose turned out to be the perfect inner and outer diameter. It was a bit long, but that was easily
remedied with a little cutting with a very sharp blade. In the end, it fit perfectly.
The engine was run for several minutes to make sure everything was good, all fluids were checked and
topped up. I shook Joe's hand vigorously, thanking him for being such a cool guy and doing this free.

With that taken care of, I headed for Torrance to attend the monthly LUGOLA meeting.
I eyed the gas gauge nervously the whole time because it was getting low, and I was out of cash.
I had a Lego set with me that I was hoping to sell to get some gas and food money.

( LUGOLA meeting details and photos here )

The weather was hot, the apartment was crowded, but we still had a good time!
And I sold my Lego set so, upon leaving the meeting, I immediately put gas in the Stranger.
Then I stopped at Red Robin for lunch on the way home. I had an A1 Peppercorn Cheeseburger, and boy
was it ever peppery! Also, two baskets of those Bottomless Fries with mayo on the side. :)
Red Robin is a pretty cool joint, they have yet to screw up on me.
I got home at around 6pm and just chilled. I watched more "John Adams".

Sunday: I was hoping to be in the Valley by 10am to help selenesue with stuff moving but
I was, wait for it, "le tired"!! Bwahahahahahaha-snort! Ahem...
So I got there a little later but just in time to stuff the Stranger full of boxes (cue Tetris Song 2!).
And then we stuffed a friend's Exploder full of stuff. Selene's got too much stuff...
We caravaned to the house and unloaded everything with help of a friend's two nephews, or something.
Then we went to the old place and loaded the Stranger and Exploder again. Greg The Jedi showed up
to help load stuff. We caravaned to the house again and unloaded the stuff. I was still achy-breaky
from the Thursday Sound System Deployment & Evac Drill, so I couldn't lift the heavy boxes of books.
I was thankful Greg was there to do that. I was completely drenched in sweat during the whole thing.
Selene treated the survivors to supper at the nearby Sizzler's, and the food was, and remember that
this is a Frenchman talking, to use the current jargon, "meh". At least mine was.
Also, the ketchup was not Heinz. It was a Heinz bottle but the ketchup tasted cheap and watered-down.
I thought there was something wrong with my fries but it was, in fact, the ketchup.
I enjoyed the fully operational air conditioning in Selene's new house for a while, then went home.
Jean-Louis was supposed to come by and get his sound system, but he didn't make it.
I showered and relaxed in front of the TV to watch the rest of "John Adams".
And thus the weekend ended...