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All about darksyde

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They Don't Know #027
Author: epilonious :: Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:25 am I get Joe and Mark to join me for this rehash of our labor-day weekend activities. I also play a voicemail from Stephen who was awesome for leaving one. Listen to it here. Don't you want to be awesome too? Voicemail: 678 701-3371 Email: epilonious@gmail.com AIM/YIM/Skype: epilonious website: epilonious.net (0) Replies

Second Unplanned Expenditure, Thermostat.

Author: epilonious :: Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:41 pm

So, I was driving Lina to the Dealer to get a tire-rotation and an oil change this most recent Tuesday (which usually runs about $50) when the Check Engine light turned on.

Always annoying to get the dreaded CEL, but it was fortuitous that it came on when I was already on my way to the dealer.

So, I get to the dealer and begin checking in for my regular appointment and mention "oh, the check engine light came on while I was driving over here, I would appreciate it if you checked it out"

The response is "okay, but it costs $170 to run diagnostics on a Check Engine Light..." I probably balked or did something hat expressed my inner feelings of "My friend has a $50 code reader from Auto Zone, why the hell is a CEL diagnostic three times that at your dealership!?". I say this because he immediately asked me more question to see if they would in fact have to run a diagnostic on the car: "Are you sure you weren't doing anything weird, and let's check the gas-cap before we enter the request into the system.."

Alas, the gas cap was tight, and I can't remember doing any burnouts or near stalls on the trip. And I figured since I was already there I would get it checked anyways because I took Tuesday off and didn't want to run around to figure out what was going on when I could get this thing handled right then and there, especially if it was something minor.

This says all sorts of things about growing up and responsibility... it was a strange juxtaposition that I had the money instead of the time when it came to an aging car acting up. Instead of going "no, just change the oil and lemme run around and see if I can spend 4 hours fixing it myself to save $250" I said "that sounds a bit pricey, but I would much rather get it fixed now".

The other thing I thought was "Oh, I think I am still under warranty."

The culprit turned out to be a faulty thermostat. It failed, gave funky readings, and told the computer "tell that young man to go to the dealer and get a new one". Thus, the light came on, and I am here telling the tale of a $50 trip becoming a $300 trip.

I also discovered that my extended warranty contract expired a couple of months ago.
Keeping that warranty legit was the main reason I went to the dealer for all my service.

Thus, I now have to ask myself if I keep taking Lina to the dealer, or whether I start going to the Awesome South African Mechanics. They are closer, they are cheaper, and they tend to have lower labor rates. They also tend to take a bit more time because they are popular and have to order the parts from a part place in a different spot in the city.

I was leaning towards just going to the dealer. Because they tend to be faster, I have a good interaction with them, and they have a nice waiting room with wireless internet and all that jazz. Then, I went to go fill the car with gas, opened the hood to do an oil-level check (as I always do) and noticed that there was a wire hanging ominously close to the serpentine belt.

It was the thermostat cable. There were little plastic fasteners that held the wire in place, and the dealer mechanics had forgotten to reattach everything. Thus I got to maneuver the little fasteners into place near a very hot engine in the parking lot of a gas station.

So much for dealer service.

I think it will be gracing the South African Mechanics soon. It's a good thing too because my car just rolled over 85,000 miles, and the 100K service is a doozy. The one thing I worry about is whether I will be able to get a good deal on Lina if I choose to sell her for another car... but then I remembered, I don't want to sell Lina.

I want to run Lina into the ground. I want to drive her until she costs more to fix than I could sell her for, and then I want to donate her to Cars for Kidneys or a similar charity before going on my next car-buying adventure. I am already saving up for a new car (and to have a bucket of cash for larger repairs should something major happen in the transmission/engine) so it is my hope Lina lasts 200K+ miles so that I can have 30K+ dollars to buy a niifty new car. But we'll see, and I'll give updates along the way.

(0) Replies

They Don't Know #026; Project Runway Scrappy 8

Author: epilonious :: Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 11:41 pm

I get Joe, Joey, and Mark to join me for this discussion of Dianne Von Furstenburg style as cranked out by the remaining designers.

I had a wonderful time, and I hope you do to!

Click to listen here

Want to contact me? I would love it if you did!
Voicemail: 678 701-3371
Email: epilonious@gmail.com
AIM/YIM/Skype: epilonious
website: epilonious.net

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The Humongous Dragon*Con post, Sunday and Monday

Author: epilonious :: Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:36 pm

When we last left off, Wikipedia was edited, and I had a new love for Dana Snyder and Ken Plume, and I had joined Quick Stop Entertainment.

Sunday enhanced my loves of everything about this Dragon*Con.

Sunday
- I left a bit earlier than Spud to go to the Escape Pod meetup. I take my cookies but not the camera bag.
- I get to the restaurant, sort of go "oh crap, I don't know anyone here and I have to be social (something my Aunts and Mom refers to as a "paxil moment"
- I see Steve's badge, figure out where he is hanging out on the private floor we are on, introduce myself, and give his wife the cookies I made... which are immediately used as ransom for the adorable Eley child.
- I hang out, talk to the Eleys and other fans for about 15 minutes, and then head on down to Dragon*Con, but not before getting an adorable picture
- I meet up with Eric and Ava and The Gang at the Hyatt and make it to a diner that I didn't know existed, was very popular, but managed to crank people out and be excruciatingly tasty.
- Hung out with Ava in the signing room, took a picture of her getting a signature from Michael Dorn (TV's Worf) and hung out with her in the Dana Snyder line.
- Got great pictures in the Dana Snyder line, which moved slowly because he drew a shake for every visitor on cardstock (so classy!). I think the best was Murderface complete with Boxy Brown
- Realized I forgot the cookies, went over to the Hyatt room to fetch the cookies with Spud, went to Artists Alley and gave Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties. I also bought a new Devils Panties book and a set of playing cards with kilts and leafblowers.
- Went to the room where Ken Plume and Dana Snyder were going to be hanging out for a "british game show retrospective"... and it really was just a solid hour of "we piss Ken off with the buzzer", and it was hilarious. Also, Doc Hammer was there. Also, I gave Dana cookies at the beginning, and they all ate them, and loved them, and gave me a prize for giving them cookies.
- Got everyone to sign my prize (a box set of BBC Dinosaurs on DVD)
- Went back to Ava's room for the masquerade. This time the sound was okay but the picture sucked... as did the masquerade. Creepy "I'm gay and I don't want to see this" gyration guy won. That is all.

Monday, we slept in and puttered about. That and I got Wii Fit.

Tuesday, I took off, as I knew I would need the recovery time. Unfortunately, Wii fit kicked my ass.

(0) Replies

The Humongous DragonCon post, Friday and Saturday.

Author: epilonious :: Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:21 am

A couple of Dragon*Con's ago, I got very sick of going to Dragon*Con. It seemed to get a little bit worse each time I went there. The crowds got bigger making the lines longer and the likelihood of making it into a "big" panel without waiting for an hour were slimmer. All while things I loved skipped town and stopped making it to Atlanta.

Then I discovered the secret: If I hang out with a bunch of cool people I haven't seen in forever who have a whole bunch of enthusiasm for stuff I have never heard of before, I can feed off their enthusiasm and fill in the time that used to be spent "hanging around" or "going to the dealers room for the 15th time" going to the stuff they love and helping them with pictures and such and generally catching up.

Last year and this year, that person has been Ava. Last year she introduced me to Wrestling, and this year she introduced me to all the QuickStopEntertainment.com podcasting stuff.

I was already subscribed to the Smodcast... now I am subscribed to the Ken P. D. Snydecast and the Cabin Fever podcast... and I can say I have met and greatly enjoyed the antics of all the involved people.

Here is a couple of reviews of the first two days of the con (the busiest ones)

August 29th
- Took the day off, Spud still had to go to work. Sleeping in feels extra nummy when your partner gets up early and you don't have to.
- Eventually made it down to the con about noonish with Araken and the Illustrious Araken-mom, helped them get settled in their rooms
- Took lots of pictures of how cool the Holiday Inn rooms are.
- Met Ava at the Ken P. D. Snydecast session and took some pictures of her with the gang.
- Went back to Ava's room, hung out with all the Charlotteans who were visiting, one of whom is apparently just a fabio who plays ren-fairs and wears skin tight breeches. (I am pretty sure he is catholic).
- Took the most retarded eleveator ever to get down to the lobby level so we could go a block over to Hard Rock Cafe. Every time we stopped the door thought someone was blocking the way.
- Took a long-ass elevator up to Ava's room
- Met Spud
- Went to the wrestling for a Scoch
- Waited in first humongous line for the cinematic titanic screening
- Waited in the room for the cinematic titanic screening, extra bonus for my head being on screen while the cameras were setting up. Thus, lots of people doing cool things with their hands
- Joel, Trace, Frank! MST3K goodness!
- Wasp woman, bad movie, made fun of!
- Took pictures of Ava getting a signed pic of the Cinematic Titanic folk!
- See John "The Gneech" Robey, author of Suburban Jungle, tell him I love his webcomic and thanks.
- Home for the night.
- I realize I forgot my Camera Bag, the one with the charger and the special adapter cable, somewhere. Panic.
- Fight with Spud about whether "WELL YOU SHOULDN'T CARRY THAT MUCH SHIT WITH YOU ALL THE TIME" is the appropriate response for me when under duress about losing something. I still think it isn't. Especially considering all the times I have helped him find keys and other things by remaining calm and not accusing him of anything.
- Sleep, have dream about spud leaving me,
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
- Printed out post-card sized pictures of Ava with people for her collection and perhaps signing... made much more difficult without camera cables and wonky selphy behavior.
- Drove down to the Marta station, horrified by just how many people are there for the football game. Lots of Red and Orange craziness.
- Ride train to Con, got there at about 10:45, just enough time to miss the Parade, and get a Chick Fil A brunch.
- We get in on the Squidbillies/ATHF panel, see some spoilers, and love on Dana Snyder. (He is dreamy, and funny)
- Catch Dustin (a lovely Charlottean) and get up to the room where Ava is staying.
- Find camera bag in Ava's room.
- Smarm with Eric about how he was mean to me, and how I need to carry less shit around with me all the time.
- We wait in line for a long-ass time to see Doc Hammer in the Venture Brothers panel (we were outside this time). Ava tags along and it is awesome.
- Doc Hammer was awesome. As were a bunch of the Venture Brothers cosplayers. This makes it the second time I have seen Ken Plume.
- Ava leaves a bit early to make it to the Quick Stop Entertainment panel, saves us seats right up front.
- It was made the BEST PANEL EVER for the following reasons:
  - It was not that crowded, so there was more chance to talk and to win things
  - I got lots of DumDum pops and a South Park: Imaginationland DVD
  - It was discovered that I had a podcast, thanks to Ava... so now Ken Plume and the boys from Cabin Fever (Aaron and Brian) know about it, know it is called "They Don't Know", took my business cards, and invited me to QSE to hang out.
  - Ava pointed out that I was gay. I pointed out that Spud was sitting on the other side of Ava, and we almost got a free Dr. Phil-ing (if it had gone on, I would have brought up the camera-bag issue).
  - There were two children who were exposed to the F-bomb, the S-bomb, and way too much sugar. I think they mauled each other after running off with the bag of DumDum pops.
- We followed Ava to her room again, and then down to Voltaire
- We went to meet Araken and Araken-mom for dinner.
- We went to dinner at Hard Rock
- Dinner was uncomfortable because Spud was tired, had a headache, mentioned that he specifically did not want to go to Hard Rock that weekend, they sat us next to the A/C vent, and they burned his food.
- We went home in stony silence
- We made up
- I stayed up after the make-up to type these articles, bake cookies for tomorrow (Nothing like oven-lovin to make your favorite web-comic artists perk up), and adjust the QSE wikipedia entry to mention the young children (hey, a con promise is a con promise)

I am having so much fun at this con. I hope you are having a good Labor Day weekend!!

(1) Replies

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