I'm a bum. I'm sluggard. I did not update my web page until late January. Sorry. I'll get over it. Just to be fair, I'll update it again March 01 (grin).
Over Christmas I had the opportunity to visit friends and family, and spend some time unwinding from the tumultuous existance of everyday life. I went snowboarding on Big White, despite paltry levels of snow. My younger brother tried snowboarding - I recommended he take lessons, he seemed to enjoy it (I didn't take lessons when I started in 1997. I strapped the board on, and figured I'd have it made by the time I got down. I can laugh about it now - You spend the first day smashing your face into the mountain every time you catch an edge. The next time out you land on your butt all day. I was a cheapie - I had a two day rental and dog-gone it I was going to use it. I didn't really give myself time for the bones to knit before I went out again).
I have progressed quite a bit from that first experience on Silver Star in 1997. I don't do tricks or stunts, or 540 backside inverted arials while eating a banana in one hand and making long distance phone calls in the other. I like my spine connected the way it came from the factory, thanks. Perhaps I'm not a "Real Man" in your opinion, but "Real Men" die young. If you want to huck yourself off Dismemberment Gorge up on Mt. Insanity, go for it - just get it all on film.
I like carving. Fast, lay-down skim the snow with your chest carving. That's what excites me. I also like boarding through trees. Well, make that "around" trees - it's easier.
I also spent some time reading. I hadn't picked up a novel since 1994 when I finally threw Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace away. It was a classic novel, but I just didn't get into it. I never finished it, which bothered me because I always prefer to finish the things I do. Since I had never finished War and Peace, how could I start another novel?
This holiday I read Alfred Lansing's Endurance (ISBN 0-8423-0824-5), the story of Sir Ernest Shakleton's trans-antarctic expedition. Along the way, the ship is caught and crushed in the ice, and the men must survive the elements almost two years in order to return home. It is a wonderful story on the endurance of the men to survive despite all odds. An excellent read!
No, I don't get paid for that.
At school, we're getting close to Course Selection Time! The grade 8's will be going on a tour of the various shops and programs we offer at our school. Many of these courses are described in great detail at the school web page.
The grade 8's made marionettes this year - an excellent project! I will (hopefully) get a page written for them, including some pictures I snapped of some really creative ones. This was the first year of this project, and I think it went very well!
In late January we switched the second Tech 8 classroom over to the school server. I was the sysop of the server which fed both my room and the other Tech 8 room. Late last school year, the server bit the green weiner and was sent out for repair. Unfortunately, despite valiant efforts, the server was never really the same again, and continued to crash on an increasingly frequent basis. Before Christmas, we swapped my room over by stuffing in new cards and plugging into a hub.
The other class was hooked up in a similar manner, and we used another hub for that classroom. We have a switch on order to run both rooms - when it arives we should see something of an increase in network speed (I hope).
If you ever have a chance to check out Junkyard Wars on TLC, do it! It is (in my
opinion) the best show on the tube (except maybe for The Simpsons). It is awesome to see
how people tackle challenging projects, just making things work together!
The premise is that two teams of 3 or 4 people attempt to build some sort of mechanical device using only junkyard parts. Everything from dragsters to catapults, deep-sea diving equipment to submarines. You must check it out!
The Heinous Honda Page
(or, The Adventures of the Crate that was Trying to Die)
Not much new has happened over Christmas and New Year's.
I went to look at a 92 Civic DX. They were asking $5800 (low!) but it had 300,000 Km (high!). I debated long and hard about it, thinking that since I was going to prepare it for racing anyway, which would include replacing the entire suspension and drivetrain (I want stiff springs, swaybars and shocks, polyurethane bushings, and a B18B Integra engine swap), why worry about the mileage?
Well, for starters, the car is not even comparably set up like the Heinous Honda is for H-Stock, and I don't have the time or money to prep another car for this season. So I would be stuck with a slower car, with MORE miles than my current beast! I was pretty hesitant. When I found a wee bit of rust working it's way through the paint over a rear wheel, I knew I didn't want this car - I don't want rust again! I might as well keep what I have.
And so, the Saga continues.... (*sigh*)