Dawgs win, Gustav, my car, and Wii Fit

So I have a lot of catching up to do, as evidenced by the number of topics in the heading up there. So here goes. First of all, I have to comment on the football team's win last Saturday. Yes, I was there, and yes, I recorded the game on my DVR, and yes, I watched the recording as soon as I got home from the game. It was that good! There were a few times when things weren't going so well, but the score never got to the point of no hope. I would liked to have seen a few more point from the good Dawgs. We had plenty of opportunity to score, we just made some mistakes that cost points. But overall it was a great effort and the defense held and we won. This week (Kansas) is going to have to be a perfect effort.

Gustav came blowing through Monday and it seems that we all escaped any major damage. I did have a tree down in the font yard that had me blocked in Monday night and Tuesday morning. My power was off until sometime Tuesday morning as well. But overall, no real damage to anything valuable. Now we will have to wait and see what Hanna is going to do.

I am making an assumption that my car is no longer on the City's list of annoyances. I haven't heard from them in several weeks so I think I am in the clear. I still have a good bit of work to do though and more parts to order. I got the engine running, but only by pouring gasoline directly into the carburetor. The fuel tank and lines are corroded and just not delivering fuel. So I ordered a new fuel tank and fuel lines that should be here this week. I also have gotten the interior back in good shape, I replaced the carpet and cleaned the rest of the interior. It is looking pretty good on the inside, although I do need a few trim pieces. I am going to have to replace the tires and do the brakes before I can actually drive anywhere though.

Lastly, I got a Nintendo Wii Fit the other day, just because it looked pretty cool and I like technology, especially when it is fun. Basically, the Fit is a balance board that has force sensors at each corner and it measures the position of your center of gravity as you move around on the board. It started out by asking my height and birthday and such and then had me stand on the board. It said that I had a BMI of 24.5 or something like that. It cheered me bacuase that was in the normal range, but it did say that 22 was the best and that I needed to loose a little weight to get to that perfect BMI. So then it proceeds to give me all sorts of exercises and yoga positions and such that I can do to help reach this "ideal" BMI. I did a few of them and they were pretty fun, some of them were pretty hard to do too. Apparently I have ok balance, but not great. But, at the time, I didn't think it was doing all that much, but this morning I really felt the workout. I wonder if I lost any weight? It keeps track of all that sort of stuff so when I get back on it again it will tell me if I managed to loose anything and begin to approach my ideal BMI. Overall, it was a pretty fun way to work out and I think it will be pretty easy to keep doing it. We shall see.

Oh, I will have some more information about my house decision soon. I have come up with about four different options that I will have to describe and then evaluate. So stayed tuned.

In the home stretch now.

So I only have a few days left to get the car to a marked state of improvement. I believe that things should be ok. The only problem is that I will be gone on a cruise when the deadline runs out. So I really need to get some work done these next few days to show that I have made progress. I should have a (temporary) license plate this week which should go a long way toward showing progress. I am going to get one of the Tech license plates - hopefully number 1965. I have a shiny new engine ready to go in, but I want to get the engine compartment cleaned up so that everything looks brand new. There is still quite a bit to do though. Some of the major things left are:

1. clean and paint the engine compartment
2. repair the power steering (I am waiting on parts for this)
3. run new wiring for the engine
4. plumb new gas lines for the new carburetor
5. get the alternator working
6. drop the new engine in place
7. redo the brakes
8. install new carpet
9. fix some rust and dents
10. new paint

Some of these things can wait, but others have to be done in order to get an inspection sticker. I hope to be driving this car to school this Fall. Once I get this one running, I can start working on my convertible Mustang - it has some problems that have had to be put on the back burner while I am focusing on the old one.

The next big thing is to decide if I want to build a garage at the house I am at now, or look for some land and build an entirely new house complete with garage. That is going to take some serious thinking to figure out. So if you are interested in how an engineer makes a decision of that magnitude stay tuned for what I am sure will be an enthralling dissertation on the decision making process - there will be charts and graphs!

edit - not a fan of the little flowers on the bulleted list, but I don't have time right now to figure out how to change that.

T minus 15 days and counting.

So I have now appealed for the last time in my battle with the City over my car. This last appeal bought me 15 more days. I think it is doable. It seems like all I need to do is show that progress is being made in the restoration of the Mustang. I have a lot of parts now, and most everything that is necessary to get the car back in running shape. There are definitely more parts that I want, but I think I have all the essentials. Now I just have to find the time to get out there and do the work. This picture shows the current state of the engine. It is just about ready to be pulled out - again it is just so HOT outside that I am not very anxious to get out there and do the work. Once the engine is replaced, I should be in good shape as far as the City is concerned. To top things off though, my AC in the house is going to have to be completely replaced. I patched it together to get it to "work", but there will need to be some major changes made in order to actually have cool air inside the house. Let me check real quick, umm . . . yeah it is currently 88 degrees Fahrenheit inside at 7 PM - not too pleasant to say the least. Fortunately, if you recall, I do have a small window unit in my bedroom so that one room is an ok temperature. So, now I not only have to spend money to get the car running, I also have to spend some major bucks to get my AC fixed. But, God does provide - I just got word today that Tech is going to pay me some more money for a summer camp that I did back in June. So it will all work out in the end.

You know, as a teacher I often get emails of students inquiring about their grades. I am not really sure why they bother to ask, but often they do. So if you were a student and I told you that it was mathematically impossible for you to pass my class no matter what you scored on the final, what would you do? Well, it turns out that if you were one of the students in an engineering class that one of my co-workers teaches, you would stick it out and see how things turned out. Really? My favorite though is when I get an email saying:

Dr. C, I was wandering bout my grade . . .

I really wanted to ask him if it was a long trip.

It is HOT!

So I fixed my air conditioner blower motor, but now my AC is low (or out) of freon - ergo it is HOT. I do have a small window unit in my bedroom so at least I have one nice and cool room in the house. It started me thinking though. We haven't always had AC, some people didn't even have ice back in the day! What would I do if I didn't have ice water? I mean, is it just one of those things that if you don't know any better then you are fine, but once you know that there is more out there you won't be satisfied with less? I guess there are a lot of things like that. I would hate to have to live without internet now. And a DVR, what about a car? It all makes me start thinking . . .

Anyway, now that I am on a technology train of thought, let me tell you about some of our newest additions in Bogard. From the very beginning of working at Tech, I have wanted to be involved in teaching (and doing) design work. Not your typical number crunching design work, but more of the "why don't we do something completely new" type of design work. So I have worked my way into a position where I get to teach an open ended, multidisciplinary design class and it is great (IMO). I am going to have to spend some more time this year working on the actual design (pun intended) of the course, but at least the framework is in place. So as part of this position, I get to seek funding for a prototyping lab, and we have been really successful lately and have added a rapid prototyping machine that I blogged about a long time ago, but since then we have gotten a water jet cutter, we have some CNC lathes and mills, a laser scanner, a powder coating machine, a vinyl sticker printer (you know, for making it look good), and a bunch of tools. We are getting to the point that we can make just about anything - which will come in handy this next year as we begin work on our new eco cars.


Last year (I tend to speak in school years, so bear with me) we built the "Blue Diamond" and carried it out to California to compete in the Shell EcoMarathon. We did ok, and got a lot of good publicity. This year, we are going to make some modifications on this car and re-enter it. But we are also going to build a completely new car to enter in the "Urban Concept" category. This new car will have to be much more car like - headlights, four wheels, room for two . . . I think it will be a lot of fun, err I mean a good teaching tool.

I like what I do! I just wish I fixed AC's, hmm maybe I can . . .

I thought summertime meant vaction time!

So our FrEP (Freshman Enrichment Program) started yesterday. Yes that is right, on Sunday. I thought that I was supposed to have all this free time during the summer, but I think I actually work more during the summer than during the regular school year. I was not originally scheduled to teach this FrEP class, but it turns out that I am teaching it now. It is pretty fun, but it is at 8:00 in the morning and I am just not much of a morning person. I guess it will be alright, the only problem I see right now is that I am not getting much done on my car. That could turn out to be a very bad thing, I have got to get it running very soon in order to beat the appeal. I just don't feel like doing very much once I finally get home - especially knowing that I am going to have to get up early (for me) each morning. Blah!

I did make a new guitar related purchase recently. I got a Line 6 Pod XT Live. It is a really nice effects board. I normally like to stick with all analog stuff, but decided that the XT was a much better solution even though it is a digital board. I went in the Ruston music store (Piney Hills Music), and talked with the guy about possible options and it ended up that I bought his XT board. I got a great deal and he seemed ok with it too. So if you have no idea what I am talking about, the effects that you run determine if you sound like U2, or Van Halen, or Elvis. Of course all the effects in the world don't matter if you suck. Anyway, I did add a picture of the board so you can get an idea. This is a stock picture, not a picture that I took, but you get the idea.Well, I need to go try to get motivated to work on my car - I really just want to do nothing for a while though.

Is it a conspiracy?

I am beginning to wonder if there is a conspiracy or something against me. I got a letter from the IRS yesterday stating that I owed them $1300 for some unreported income from back in 2006. Apparently, Louisiana Tech paid me some money, but not as a regular employee and the IRS thinks I should pay some (and by some I mean 50%) tax on this money. First of all, why would Tech pay me money as a non-employee? Second, the source of the money is not the same as my normal pay check, it is some type of foundation account. Finally, why did I receive this money in the first place? The only thing I can think of is that there was some sort of reimbursement (which would not be income by the way) that was paid to me through this foundation account. I looked into it briefly this morning, but so far no one knows anything about it. I will continue my investigation. Oh and even though this occurred way back in 2006, the IRS suddenly wants all "their" money in less than a month!

I also sent in my formal appeal to the City of Ruston today:

I, Kelly Crittenden,. . . am filing an appeal of the decision to deny my previous appeal for case #08-62. This case is concerning the City of Ruston Abandoned/Nuisance Vehicle ordinance. My 1965 Mustang . . . was determined by the City to be in violation of this ordinance. I am formally filing an appeal of this decision.

Basically, I am just buying time to get more work done so that I have the car up to code before the appeal date (July 21). It is a bit of a pain though because I am supposed to have to pay for "advertising" costs because apparently you have to advertise in the paper that you are making this appeal. The thing is that they don't even know how much these costs are. I have been good about biting my tongue with these people for quite some time now, but I am not sure how much longer I am going to be able to hold out. I think the City is trying to get rid of me . . .

Oh, I thought I would add a picture of my nuisance car just so everyone was on the same page with what we are talking about here.

To top it all off, this morning was trash pickup day and I had one cardboard box that was just a little too big to fit in the full-to-the-rim garbage can. So I set the box beside the garbage can thinking that the garbage men would just pick it up and put in on the truck. But what do I find this morning? I find that the garbage can was emptied and the cardboard box was neatly propped next to the can just the way I left it. Really?!? Whatever - I am seriously ready to move out to the country where I belong.

Denied!

I had my appeal hearing for my Mustang this morning, and I was denied. Actually, I sort of expected that and it is an ok thing - not a good thing, but ok. In the end what will happen is that I will file another appeal and in the meantime I will get my car "legal." It just means that I have a lot of work to do and a lot of money to spend.

I am trying to do as much of the work as I can in order to keep expenses down, but I am going to have to farm out some of the work so that I can get it done in time. Mainly, I will get some of the engine work done at a local place. I don't have the necessary equipment for the machining work that the engine block will probably need so I am going to have to have that done for me. I really don't like that, I would much rather do it all myself, but drastic times call for drastic measures. Also, it is not going to be cheap, we are talking in the $1000 to $1500 range. Why would I spend that much on an old car you ask. Well, this isn't just any old car, it is the car that daddy and I built for me to drive and there is no way that I will let someone just haul it away because it doesn't suit their fancy.

More to come soon, at least I hope so.