JamesSlusher.com

I have always had a special fondness for the Gulf Coast. My Dad and I went on a few trips together to Biloxi and had a really great time. My brother and I even spread some of his ashes in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico whilst standing on the beach in Gulfport.

The news of the devastation there makes me want to cry.

There is other news, horrible news, that is coming from the region that makes me angry. Horribly, horribly angry. I’ve tried to think of ways to put this that aren’t blunt and aren’t so in-your-face, but I just can’t. So here it is:

They left the black people to die. Period. To evacuate you had to have money to get out and personal transportation. The average, for god’s sakes average, black person in New Orleans earns $13,000 a year. So many had to stay just because they had no other options.

That makes me just plain sick to my stomach.

And why in the hell did the levees break? Maybe because George Antichrist Bush had better things to do with the money that was being used to fix them.

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

– Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

So they left them to die in a city that could have had adequate protections. And when the survivors try to get some food, they get called looters. The white people “find food”, the black people are “looters”.

Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it? No matter what happens, you can always find ways to reinforce the idea that people with alot of melanin are bad, bad, bad.

Give to the American Red Cross. Let’s try to be part of the solution, rather than exacerbating the problems.

****UPDATE: Do me a favor and donate through the Kung Fu Monkey blog. John will match your donation. I don’t know how much money he has got, but if he wants to match, by god let’s let him. I’ve already emptied my PayPal account to help. Your turn.****

43 minutes.

That is how long it took me to change out my rear brakes. Those are the hard ones. Tomorrow morning I’m going to change out my front brakes.

I’ve got 77 minutes to do it without owing Hank Aaron Land Rover (the whole institution) an apology. Smart money is on me.

The 8/29/05 episode of The Chair and Automan is out. Download the MP3 directly here. Or better yet, get a podcatching client and subscribe to this podcast here. Or check out my Odeo channel.

In this episode:

I talk about trying to get the truck started today. I talk about my wife driving around with the battery from 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis in her Honda. I talk about waiting for the Rotor Locator Screws for the Rover. I send out my well wishes to the folks of New Orleans and suggest the build a 10 mile long, five foot wide wall that rises up out of the ground about 15 foot. I also talk about being a father and my anticipation of my son’s birth. And play songs.

The songs :

• Jopliness by The Baggins.
• The Broke Song by The Art of One Mind.
• Train of Thought by Elemental.
• The Other Side by Steven Scroggs.

Audio feedback/promos are always welcome at jaslusher AT gmail DOT com.

Later.

The 8/24/05 episode of The Chair and Automan is out. Download the MP3 directly here. Or better yet, get a podcatching client and subscribe to this podcast here. Or check out my Odeo channel.

In this episode:

I talk about almost nothing. And play songs.

The songs :

• Kid Nothing vs. The Echo Factor by The Gym Class Heroes.
• Skeptics and True Believers by The Academy Is.
• Anything For You by the beautiful Calibe.
• New Joint by Real-Eyes.

Go buy some cds from the fine fellows at Fueled By Ramen. And tell Adam Samiljan I sent you.

Audio feedback/promos are always welcome at jaslusher AT gmail DOT com.

Later.

****UPDATE: I had messed up the URL of the direct mp3 download. It should be fixed now, thanks to Joe for the heads up.****

I’ve been feeling out of sorts lately. Not sick. Just not right emotionally.

I need to find my groove. I am currently just all jangly and feeling like the various parts of my life are like an ill-fitting suit. Some parts are too big, some just right and some too small. So even though parts of it are just right, overall I feel uncomfortable with it.

I’m looking to do a little tailoring.

I have one more night shift to go before I get a little time off (really little-only about a day and a half). I look forward to being off because that means I dont have to be near my co-workers. If you knew my co-workers, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near them either.

I had harbored a few delusions that moving up in the company would make me happier and I would like those duties and peers better. The job that I do right now puts me into contact with a number of the people who would be my peers if I were to be promoted. After some serious thought, I realize I don’t want any of that either.

All of my non-work energies need to be devoted towards becoming self-employed. It’s the only way I will ever truly be happy. I’m not saying that becoming self-employed will guarantee my happiness. I’m saying that without self-employment, I don’t even have an opportunity to be truly happy.

The 8/17/05 episode of The Chair and Automan is out. Download the MP3 directly here. Or better yet, get a podcatching client and subscribe to this podcast here. Or check out my Odeo channel.

In this episode:

I talk about my experience at Hank Aaron Land Rover/Jaguar and how I now hate the service writer there named Randy.

The songs :

• A Southern Love Song by Captain Lounge.
• Tiffany by The Wolf.
• Kiss My A** by Casual T
• F**k You by AcidFace
• Down and Out by The Academy is…

The suggestion of a $1600 brake job should be punishable by a severe beating. And Randy can kiss my a**.

Go buy some cds from the fine fellows at Fueled By Ramen.

Go buy yourself a CFR T-shirt and tell Georgia I sent you

Audio feedback/promos are always welcome at jaslusher AT gmail DOT com.

Later.

I mounted the new fuel pump today and it turned out to be about 1000 times easier than I expected it to be. If I hadn’t gotten sidetracked by projects for others, I might very well have cranked the thing up tomorrow.

I still think I can get it going in the next couple of weeks, even with my more hectic than normal schedule.

The whole thing is very exciting and I’m so thrilled I think I will change back into my work clothes and spend a bit more of the daylight on it.

I now have the engine and transmission fully installed in the truck. What I mean by fully is that originally the transmission crossmember (to which the transmission mount attaches) wouldn’t go back into place. It sat about 2 inches behind the holes in the frame for it. Using the engine hoist, a crowbar and copious amounts of vulgarities, I managed to move the whole thing forward. So now it is mounted in the truck the way God and Henry Ford intended it.

So tomorrow, after my trip to the dentist, I am going to run the fuel lines, mount the fuel pump and start attaching wires to the ignition switch.

It may seem like a long-time since I started this project, but I am amazed that I really am only a day or two’s worth of futzing around– no really more like a few hours– before I can attempt to crank this bad boy up.

The question comes up over and over again: James, statistically speaking, what are your personal odds of winning a random Freecell game?

78%.

I know this because I have a statistically significant sample from which to collect data.

Longtime readers of this blog may know that I have played many a season of Freecell baseball. Some time ago I stopped that practice and just started playing it regular without resetting the stats after a baseball season’s worth of games. I have just now passed the 1000 game mark and these are my stats:

• Wins: 776
• Losses: 224

Streaks

• wins: 24
• losses:4
• current: 19 wins

That is an overall win percentage of 78%.

Now you can rest easy.