A few days ago, we (the family) were sitting down to dinner and trying to get the younger of two boys (4 years old) to try something different for dinner. This kid eats very few things, and seldom tries anything new. We gave him one of his older brother's (6 years old) dino buddies (chicken nugget things shaped like dinosaurs - a staple protein of the older son's diet.)

I was trying to convince him to take a bite, so in an effort to weave Silkworm through my life, I said, "Try it, you won't die".

The older boy, who recently has been thinking about death, somewhat fearful of dying, of his mother and father dying, etc., and just trying to be helpful, says, "Yeah, if you eat that, you will never die!" What a good boy. He still believes most of what I say and he takes everything literally.

I had explain to both of them, that while dino buddies are good, and they will make you grow up big and strong and healthy, they are not magical immortality-granting substances. In fact, what I meant was that if you try one, even if you do not like the taste, you will not die from the experience.

Next week I plan to try and use the phrase "gotta treat the new guy right". We'll see how that goes.

Awoke this morning to find my wifes car dead. Been charging the battery now for about 2hrs to no avail (yes, I'm a stereotypical band guy.... no job, lives off wifes paycheck, watches toddler and makes himself believe he's contributing something). Thing is I just dropped a new battery in a month ago. I think it's the damn alternator.

Funny thing is my dumb-ass guitar player borrowed the band van a few weeks ago and left the headlights on for the whole time. So we had to put a new battery in there yesterday.

These things happen in 3's don't they?

Korloin wrote:Awoke this morning to find my wifes car dead. Been charging the battery now for about 2hrs to no avail (yes, I'm a stereotypical band guy.... no job, lives off wifes paycheck, watches toddler and makes himself believe he's contributing something). Thing is I just dropped a new battery in a month ago. I think it's the damn alternator.

Funny thing is my dumb-ass guitar player borrowed the band van a few weeks ago and left the headlights on for the whole time. So we had to put a new battery in there yesterday.

These things happen in 3's don't they?

This is usually right about 75% of the time:

If you can jump it off and it runs, it's not the alternator. If you jump it off and it runs for 30 seconds or so and dies, it's the alternator.

Alternators are generally cheap and easy to replace. If it's a modern-ish car with a serpentine belt, make sure there's a diagram somewhere on the firewall that you can refer back to, or take a picture of it with your cell phone.

If the battery is only a month old, it's still under warranty, and there's always the possibility that it's just a bad one. I've heard of it happening, but it's never happened to me. The whole "I've charged it for two hours and nothing doing" thing makes me wonder if you've got the terminals connected properly to the charger or if the battery isn't just stone dead.

Good luck.

dontfeartheringo wrote:

Korloin wrote:Awoke this morning to find my wifes car dead. Been charging the battery now for about 2hrs to no avail (yes, I'm a stereotypical band guy.... no job, lives off wifes paycheck, watches toddler and makes himself believe he's contributing something). Thing is I just dropped a new battery in a month ago. I think it's the damn alternator.

Funny thing is my dumb-ass guitar player borrowed the band van a few weeks ago and left the headlights on for the whole time. So we had to put a new battery in there yesterday.

These things happen in 3's don't they?

This is usually right about 75% of the time:

If you can jump it off and it runs, it's not the alternator. If you jump it off and it runs for 30 seconds or so and dies, it's the alternator.

Alternators are generally cheap and easy to replace. If it's a modern-ish car with a serpentine belt, make sure there's a diagram somewhere on the firewall that you can refer back to, or take a picture of it with your cell phone.

If the battery is only a month old, it's still under warranty, and there's always the possibility that it's just a bad one. I've heard of it happening, but it's never happened to me. The whole "I've charged it for two hours and nothing doing" thing makes me wonder if you've got the terminals connected properly to the charger or if the battery isn't just stone dead.

Good luck.

It's grabbed enough charge to light the dash and interior, but I can't get it to turn over. I am getting some clicking from the starter.

Things are starting to become official.
Officially enrolled at IIT
Officially moving to that area (bridgeport)
I'm nervous about all of it, dreading moving again, worried I won't get funding, or that I'm doing the wrong thing, that the other grad students will be smarter than me or I won't like bridgeport. To deal with all this worry I've been taking anti-anxiety meds which make me sleep 12+ hours a night and I feel like a zombie.

Zombie Kayte.

I'll be alright though just like a frantic patch.

Last night I and two friends did a dissonant (lots of tritones, minor seconds) drone metal piece, shoehorned into the middle of an anarchist festival after two folk acts and a poet. Very few of these people had any context for this kind of thing (like knowing that drone, doom, or stoner metal exist, or ever having heard Morton Feldman). We were slotted for fifteen minutes (down from an initial 30), and even at that, asked to stop after 12:30. I think we made at least one person cry.

This morning, we were paid $20 for our set--an appropriate $6.66 a person, plus a penny.

dontfeartheringo wrote:

burun wrote:I shot a Ruger 10/22 rifle tonight. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. One of my former students took me to the range. She's an ex-military somethingorother (amongst other things) named Shinae. She rules.

I was pretty apprehensive about my skills, since I am a klutz. Luckily there were people on the range wearing stilettos and such (don't get me started) so I was compelled to do better than them.

The first target was flipped to the white side, just so I could get a feeling for the gun.

This is my second target:

This is my third.

I was told I had good "grouping" and I was confused when I got a target back that only had six holes in it...until Shinae showed me that I had actually shot more than one round through some of the holes!

I shot 50 rounds in total. I met some cool guys, including the priest that runs the mission on 7th and Ave. A (I think that's where he said it is)

The priest was shooting a Colt from 1911. Hot damn.

women are often better shots than men. nice cluster.

Maurice wrote:Last night I and two friends did a dissonant (lots of tritones, minor seconds) drone metal piece, shoehorned into the middle of an anarchist festival after two folk acts and a poet. Very few of these people had any context for this kind of thing (like knowing that drone, doom, or stoner metal exist, or ever having heard Morton Feldman). We were slotted for fifteen minutes (down from an initial 30), and even at that, asked to stop after 12:30. I think we made at least one person cry.

This morning, we were paid $20 for our set--an appropriate $6.66 a person, plus a penny.

This sounds delightful.

"I know this is an anarchist festival, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want!"

tmidgett wrote:"I know this is an anarchist festival, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want!"

Ha! Beautiful!

Lovely work, Maurice.

I had given up scribbling in the bar a couple of hours ago and had a glass of wine when my father send me a series of text messages urging me to go see Barack Obama. Not wanting to disappoint, and feeling curious (I've never seen a president or presidential contender), I rushed home, grabbed my bike and managed to make it to Tiergarten within 20 minutes, despite getting lost during my "shortcut". I caught the last half!



He's the one who looks like a dot if you magnify the photo with future alien technology!

I was quite excited, actually. Everyone seemed to be, even the people serving the bratwurst. I weirdly met one of the lovely Sarah's of my bar as I cycled back. "Isn't he great?!" she enthused. Very impressive, I told her. She then gave me a detailed breakdown of the flaws in his speech. I didn't tell her that I did not really hear much of it.

What did you do for democracy today, beatniks?