push me, pull me

6th of July!

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:41:14 GMT

Happy birthday H!

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:49:23 GMT

Now the boat is headed back to Temple and I am home. It is only fitting that after such a horrible performance and series of events that the transportation is having trouble as well. The trailer has now put a hole in the hull. We are planning on unloading the boat tomorrow morning and getting the hull ready for scrap. What did not blow up or burn out in the competition we are planning on saving in case Temple would like to continue entering the competition in the future. As sad as it is, the other two team members and I have already started putting together a recruiting system for future team members. I never dreamed I would have anything to do with the engineering program at Temple once I had graduated, but here I go.

Here is a recap of the events:

Day One:
We unloaded the boat and equipment. The team skippers completed our swimming qualifications.

Day Two:
Completed assembling the boat and competed in the maneuverability qualification competition, finishing 3rd.

Day Three:
Competed in the sprint qualification and finished 6th overall in the qualification round.
Feeling confident, we went straight from the sprint qualification to the slalom event. One of the batteries died at the second buoy leaving us very slow for the final buoy and the finishing stretch.
Two hours later and the batteries fully charged, we headed into the head-to-head sprinting event against the University of South Carolina. "On your mark. Get set. Go!" was the call from the starting line. I hit it full throttle and the boat turned hard to the left. I tried to compensate, but continued in a complete circle. The steering had slipped completely and was inoperable.

Day Four:
The steering being fixed at the end of Day Three, we were confident in facing Carnegie Mellon in the second heat. We were second in line that morning. The power brought the bow up immediately and we leveled off at about 13-15 mph. We were going to finish a sprint! Then at the second buoy on the track there was a loud popping sound and immediate loss of power. The boat nosed down and I was left in the middle of the lake. I turned to the electrical system. There was an odor of burning plastic. I thought it has to be the wiring or the batteries. After running a quick diagnostic test during the tow back to the dock, I found it was the batteries. This was not a good day.

Day Five:
The last day of the competition was used for the endurance capability of the entries. We were confident that we could finish somewhere in the middle of the pack and leave with some pride. I started the endurance competition and I had a good start. We placed ourselves in the middle of the heat and began a steady run from there. Four laps (a lap is 995 meters) the gear box started making noise. I reported to the team via walkie-talkie the problem and was encouraged to keep going. At about a quarter of a lap later, I noticed the gears were becoming misaligned and smoke was starting to come out of the gear box. About 200 meters away from the pit area I decided to make a run for it. The motor lost power and then churned and popped it's way out of commission. Another tow was in store.
We quickly switched motors, to a much less efficient motor, and continued in the event. An hour into the final two hours of the event, we ran out of battery power and had to rely on solar power alone. This proved to be difficult since we did not have a bypass around the batteries. Our solution... when the batteries died, wait ten seconds under good sunlight conditions, charge the batteries just enough and continue on. At this point, the whole thing just became comical and we just had fun with it.

All-in-all, it was a blast. We got to hang out with plenty of people who had spent the last 12 months mostly going through what we had. Since we were the only part of the engineering school competing in anything, we were happy to be there. Now it's back to the drawing board.

Boat Transportation

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:55:25 GMT

We loaded the boat on a trailer headed for Arkansas today. I will be headed in that direction tomorrow with my teammates. We have been testing the boat in Cooper River since Thursday afternoon. The results of the testing? It will compete.

I will post photos of the testing phase once H. uploads them from the camera. She has been our photographer for the week. I will also try and post results and photos from the competition.

Airbrushing

Wed, 09 May 2007 23:50:28 GMT

Does anyone know someone with mad airbrushing skills and equipment? We would like to pimp out our boat hull. We were thinking of airbrushing sparks or lightning on the coming down the hull from the front.

Edit to yesterday's post.

Tue, 08 May 2007 17:26:20 GMT

OK. So today is not election day. But know you are in the mood to vote against Matt McClure right? Next Tuesday...

Matt McClure broke my car

Mon, 07 May 2007 19:59:40 GMT

If you are voting tomorrow, please don't vote for Matt McClure. A few months back he destroyed the clutch in my car and then did not take any responsibility for it. I drove the car 30 miles the morning of the incident and the car was running fine. I wish I could have rode in the car with him, but I was in the middle of brewing a batch of beer when he took it out for the test drive. The priority, of course was the beer. It was a damn tasty batch too. I asked a mechanic how a clutch would burn out so quickly. I was told that the person either did not know how to drive a stick or they were stuck on a hill and panicked or they drove it like they stole it. Since my clutch had a mechanism that locked the wheels for hills and the fact that he drove a stick shift to my house that day, I have a pretty good idea of what happened. It was a 1994 Subaru Legacy, you don't drive that car like a maniac.. unless you're a dickhead. I do not want another dickhead operating the city. Do you?

I wish I had enough money to buy a commercial spot. It would say "Matt McClure... what a dickhead."

As a matter of fact, if you see him at your polling place, please kick him between the legs. I am registered as an independent, so I am going to miss out on all the fun.

Hey...

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:43:09 GMT

Has anyone wondered how I've been?

Know Your Enemy

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:57:47 GMT

Apparently, I have an enemy. Today, when the cable company came to restore my service they noticed that I was not accidentally disconnected, but the line was cut. Superbowl Sunday I was watching a pre-game show while surfing the web on the laptop when television and internet simultaneously vanished before my eyes. Now the television thing isn't so bad because we only have the most basic of the basic service which is essentially antenna channels with some public access channels. The internet thing was kind of harsh since I have been awaiting news and communicating about my senior design project. So anyway, the cable worker looked at me after restoring service and said that someone had cut my line. After testing for signals in the house and getting nothing that somehow it became disconnected at the pole. All of the other lines at the pole were intact exept for ours. He wasn't sure how someone could tell what line was ours since the entire row is connected at one pole, but that it was definitely cut.

Here's the kicker, back in December I went to plug in the decorative lights we keep in the back yard and the lights did not come on. After inspection, I saw that someone had cut the line connecting the lights. I thought at the time that the lights were somewhat old and the line could have just broken apart. I also thought it was possible that a squirrel chewed through the line, but it looked like a pretty clean cut. The cut location also seemed suspicious. It was behind a post on our fence that is only accessible from within our back yard.

I wonder what line will be next?

Biking to a Flyers game...

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:59:03 GMT

Does anyone know if the Wachovia Center has bike racks?

Did I mention?

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:19:50 GMT

I am designing and building a solar-powered boat for my senior design project at Temple. Yesterday, my teammates and I went to Home "Despot" to get the materials we are going to need for the mold. We are using fiberglass as our boat's material. We have yet to secure the glassing materials and we are hoping a NJ company donates it or provides a hefty discount for us. We have been raising funds since the middle of the Fall semester and so far, we are just under half-way to our maximum goal. We just finished a 1:5 scale model of the boat hull last week. We should begin building the full-size hull in the next two weeks to meet our schedule. We would like to have the boat completed by April so we can present it at the end of our senior design class and to allow for testing before a competition. The competition is Solar Splash and our team is TU Solar Splash. This is the first time any school in the Greater Philadelphia Area has participated in this competition so we are starting everything from scratch. Using solar power for commercial and recreational boating (especially fresh water fishing) makes sense. If anyone knows of a company in the area that might be interested in what we are doing I can send them more information.

Anyway, that is what I've been up to.

Beer

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 16:15:12 GMT

At was attending a Halloween party in late October and got into a discussion about home brews. Heather bought me a homebrewing kit for my birthday back in June, but I had yet to do anything with it. The discussion inspired me to start my first batch. It was an American Pale Ale kit from Beer, Beer and More Beer. It was done by the end of the Fall semester and so I decided to have a party with some classmates. The beer turned out to be fantastic and was drank and enjoyed by many. I was a little worried since others that had already brewed their own beer told me not to be upset if it didn't turn out well. The fact that the kit was so easy to brew and the instructions were so easy to follow helped a great deal. I felt pretty bad since H could not partake in the tasting festivities so I brewed a hard cider. I had to use instructions from the web for that along with some helpful tips from George at Home Sweet Homebrew, located at 20th and Samson. That turned out well too!

Today I am going to start brewing another kit I received as a Christmas gift from my in-laws (yeah... that's pretty sweet). It is a Honey Brown Ale, again from More Beer. This time there will be no party though. My only regret with the first batch is that I ran out so fast. I will take request for tastings though if anyone is interested. I imagine I'm on a good streak here.

Tuesday...

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:25:16 GMT

This Tuesday, just as I got to Temple, I had a flat on the rear wheel. I carry plenty of tubes, but they are for the stolen Fuji and the wrecked MB. I walked it down to the bike shop on North Broad... you know, the one near Fairmount and asked for a kindly tire change. When I got there, a man was leaving with a Fuji Sagres. Weird, but it wasn't mine. The peeps inside were cool and I had throw a Mr. Tuffy in there for good measure. We talked about the Fuji and the MB and they were saying they could fix it up the MB for $60. New wheels and a new fork. That would be worth it! I am taking it in next week. It is going to be sweet to have one of my bikes back. Even though it is the crappy one.

alive!

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:25:44 GMT

Yep, I'm still alive. I am in desperate need of a bicycle... one of my own that is. My good neighbor, the Swedish doctor lent me his Trek commuter until I find a track bike of my own. Yeah, I'm going fixed gear up the hill from here on. I am looking for something used. Any suggestions of used bike stores in the city? I am going to stop at Philadelphia Bicycle on North Broad tomorrow between class and work. Tomorrow begins my last semester at Temple. I only have one class left and we are going to build and race a solar powered boat for the class. Me and the three other students on my team. I made sure I am going to have plenty to do this semester even though it is just one class. It should be fun and I'll try to remember to post pics of the progress. Hopefully this semester will go a little smoother for me than the last. I had one bicycle stolen, another trashed, one motorcycle smashed and one car that could not be sold. The day of the last incident came during the week between the end of classes and the start of finals. I was telling a professor about the the latest of my personal crises and he replied "You're still alive."

Yes I am.

A Free Man

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:44:11 GMT

Poppa's not going to prison!

I had to...

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 21:20:33 GMT

I just had to post this quote from my friend Attila.

"... I mean, my God! What is this?! This is an engineering firm, not a Kotex factory!"

I'm still glad I brought him with me.

Snoredano...

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 02:01:25 GMT

I think I am going to leave this internet thing behind and buy a weather stick.

Watch What?

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 23:41:47 GMT

Tornado Watch for Philadelphia?

Ride On

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 01:58:30 GMT

Thanks to everyone who donated to our ride this year. There are people that appreciate it more than we do.

Who-dat?

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 23:14:24 GMT

Who-dis?

Saturday night's alright...

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 01:42:17 GMT

... for fixing up your house?

This is how we are spending this Saturday night.

I made an attic hatch enclosure for the hole leading to our air handler. I do pretty good work.

H. is staining the front doors.

Life is good.

Today's Progress (Part 3)

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:05:27 GMT

Baseboards are off. I am going to wait until tomorrow morning before I start pulling wire. I find it is better to be in the crawlspace before the sun starts beating down on it. Now it is time for cleaning and planning the receptacle layout... and drinking.

Today's Progress (Part 2)

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 18:36:10 GMT

The shoe molding is off and now I have to shut the power off to the house to get the baseboards off.

Today's Progress

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:25:28 GMT

I started work in the master bedroom to prepare for the new wiring. So far the lip molding is off without too much damage to the plaster. Now it is time for lunch.

VJMC Ride

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 15:05:51 GMT

I did not camp overnight at the show for fear of a rain storm and I was not alone. There may have been 8 to 10 tents set up by the time I left. So I missed all of the contests that are happening today, but I did get to see some of the bikes being entered. I went looking for a set of original exhaust, a new clutch cable and an upper triple tree clamp for steering. I came away with a new clutch cable. I did run into someone who had a totally restored '76 CB750 Four for sale and I saw he had brand new exhaust system. He told me he ordered them from Honda. I asked the Honda shop near me a while back and they told me they do not make them any more. Now this guy was from Canadia and it was a different size bike that is a little more readily available, but I am going to double check with a couple of other dealers in the area. As far as Item #3, the triple tree clamp, one might be coming in the mail if it can be found in a salvage yard. Even though I rode home with one item I might have really come away with three. If I can get the original exhaust and the triple tree clamp, the bike will be totally restored to stock and be worth more. It is already worth more than I bought it for. I can't complain about the investment.

I arrived safe and sound with the new travel pack. I wish I had taken a photo of the bike in front of the hill. The place where the event was held is also a Motorcycle club that host an annual motorcycle hill-climbing event. It is tottaly a "Hold my beer and watch this!"

This is a sweet Honda Dream 300

A decent Honda 90 for sale. If I owned a vinyard, this is how I would get around.

Riding on rolling hills is so much fun. I was able to "open her up" for the first time since I rebuilt the carbs. The bike ran so sweet. Yesterday was the best it has run since I've had it.

I had lots of compliments about the bike on the way out there and especially at the show. It was a great day for a ride.

Bluegrass

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 05:44:30 GMT

Bluegrass in Philly is pretty good.