Found In the Woods

Andy & Kate are officially married. Last weekend, on the 23rd (also Kyle’s b-day) they were married at Christ Church Christiana Hundred in the Brandywine Valley. The ceremony was very nice and the reception was a blast. I left at 2am and the party was still going strong. Those Brits know how to have a good time. I miss so many folks from up in DE, it’s hard to leave them behind. The DE area is a special place to me – I really bonded with it when I was up there for school and the year afterwards. Maybe some day I’ll find myself living up there again. Who knows. Salut Andy & Kate! Click the photo below to view my collection of snapshots.

Over the last couple years I wired my whole house up for Ethernet, Phone and Cable. It was a fun project and I learned a lot along the way. Photos of the install are up in my Gallery. I don’t post links too often, but on this subject, which can be very complicated (trust me) having a good how-to is very important. A friend is doing some network installation in his new home and I was poking around looking for things related to the process. Here is a great guide I found:

http://www.swhowto.com

If anyone out there ever has questions or needs tips, please feel free to ask!

My work email address gets tons of spam. This is what happens when you have a sub-par email server w/ mediocre (if any) spam filtering. This one really made me chuckle.

Chicks always laugh at me and even guys did in the WC toilets!
Well now I smile 🙂 at them because I took megadlk for 6 months
and now my disk is much bigger than NATION average piano size. :p
http://mazkth.com/
I bought that music disk from this store
league leaders United. Early strikes by Agger and Riise
said as protesters burned a picture of him.
points behind the leaders and needed a win to ensure a
Councilman: Buffalo, N.Y. police to stage “sickout”
a ball for Drogba, but the ensuing shot was off target.

How can the spammers make any money or sell anything if the spam makes no sense at all? These folks, along with meter maids and evil dictators are the scum of the earth.

Good gawd this made my day:

 http://worldofcryingcraft.ytmnd.com

Patch day can be so painful…

Part of the responsibilities of my main character in Warcraft is to tank. This means that when we go into a battle, I stand up front, get the mob (monster, whatever) really angry with me so that he beats on me and no one else. I use every ability I have to get “aggro” or his attention and keep it on me. This allows the rest of my group to dump all of their effort into doing damage and whooping the mob’s arse. This can be stressful (if I lose aggro and the mob goes after another party member or if another mob comes into the fold, etc.) and difficult but I just love it. It’s probably the most appealing aspect of playing the class of Warrior to me and I look forward to the challenge in every instance.

Here’s a great guide on the WoW forums which lays out the philosophy of tanking and how to do it well.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11931356&sid=1 

Getting up at the breaka-breaka dawn has immense benefits to all of us, especially in terms of productivity, health and wellness. I have gone in and out of being an early riser but recently have been reminded of some solid, well-rounded reasons that I should get back in the habit. Primarily these reasons center around health – it has been nearly six years since I started my downward spiral from healthy to unhealthy, slimmer to fatter. I was going to the gym, biking to work, doing the Body-for-LIFE program (which worked a charm for me) and generally happier. Since then I’ve gained weight, more or less stopped exercising and relaxed my eating habits. My weight has climbed up while my habits went down the drain.

So, being an early riser has become another goal of mine. Get to the gym, get on the bike, get outside, get active. It all starts early in the day. That’s where the real gold is. Let’s get back on it…

http://www.davecheong.com/2007/06/15/waking-up-early-15-tips-that-work/

I’ve never really been into cellphones. They tend to overly bore me (I’m not one of those dudes who wears the borg-like ear piece and is seemingly on the phone at all times, in fact I rarely answer the phone while driving) or overly excite me. (OMG you can take PICTURES on your phoen?! …and teh emails!??!!1! …AND teh Interwebs?!!11!?) While I was in Mexico a month ago one of my friends was showing us his new Blackberry Pearl, which he got free w/ contract from Wirefly.com on the T-Mobile network.

When I saw this thing I was totally hooked. My phone was getting old and showing its age. I wanted something more full-featured and I was ready to step up to a smartphone. I really dug the idea of having a mobile camera and email access anywhere. I know, I know, I sound like I just crawled out from a rock. Well, in a sense I have, because I’ve owned a long string of very basic phones, never really wanting to get too involved, until now.

My Pearl arrived a few weeks ago from Wirefly and so far it’s been a blast. So many times I find myself checking in on email, doing instant messaging on the fly, from anywhere there’s a signal, and generally enjoying to use the phone. I still have to get myself acquainted w/ some of the more complex features (like music, Blackberry IM, etc.) but I have time. I’m also going to crossgrade my copy of Missing Sync to support Blackberry (currently have the Palm OS version, which I love) and seek out some more charging/data cables.

SO, as a result of this, I’ve set up a new gallery of my mobile photos on my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpl_clegg/

A couple weeks back 6 of my oldest and best buddies went to Mexico for a long weekend of R&R. We had a blast, to say the least. I’d never been to Mexico and it was a good introduction to some of the grittier side of life there. I flew out with Oozy on Friday and we made it to SNA with no problems. Ben & Felix (who’d flown in earlier) met us at Enterprise. We rented a van, packed it up and headed to Wahoo’s Fish Tacos for some lunch. The Maui Bowl is just amazing; get it if you ever go there. We ran a few errands around town and then headed to the train station to pick up Bowis & Nick (who’d flown to LA a day early to hang w/ Bo). We headed South in the throes of Friday evening CA traffic, which has to be some of the worst I’ve ever seen. It took us about three hours to get to the border. In the pouring rain… come on Cali! Where’s the sun?!

We picked up some Mexican auto insurance and crossed the border into Tijuana. The extreme poverty and filth of this city is overwhelming. I’ve never been to a third world nation but this is what I imagine it to be. Everywhere we looked was broken down buildings, dirt, wrecked cars, junk and the smell was terrible. It had been raining all day so the sewers were overflowing with raw sewage. Along the highway you could see storm drain covers spewing brown sewage like fountains. We saw one house where a lady was using a bucket to bail the sewage out of her first floor room onto the street. Shacks and “houses” cling to hills precariously and there is junk covering the landscape. Beggars thread the cars on the highway traffic with bravado as we crept through town.

Once we made it through TJ things cleared up as we headed South along the coast. Not much to say, only more and more run down towns and new posh skyscraper hotels along the beach every mile or so. There are some amazing vistas and it’s a shame that Mex hasn’t capitalized too much yet on this. Sure there are lots of nice houses here and there, but the run down areas far outweigh the nice ones. Trump is even building a complex down there. Our destination was Las Gaviotas, a walled community of little houses on a hillside overlooking the ocean. We made it down with no problems and quickly got settled in. Newcott & Bowis grabbed their surfboards and headed out to catch a few waves while we enjoyed the incredible sunset.

The house we got was fantastic. A three bedroom, fully furnished place with nice amenities and space. Our house was right on the water, had a roof deck and a patio, where we spent most of our time drinking cerveza and RBV. The first evening we headed to Puerto Nuevo for some “lobsters”, which are more like baby lobsters but good nonetheless. The food down there was good. Regardless of where you went, food was tasty and cheap. We ate and headed back home for some drinkin’ and movies/hot tub, which seemed to be the general routine of the trip.

Next day we got up and headed to Fat Raoul’s for some Mexican Eggs. (*The name of the place is Raoul’s but last year when a few of the guys were down here the proprietor who worked there was a ginormous dude who they nicknamed Fat Raoul) and beers. This day happened to be a big Baja bike ride so the roads were closed for a little while. It was perfect b/c we got a bucket of beers and hung out to watch the bikers go by and enjoy the locals try to navigate/negotiate/overpower the police on the roads. One truck driver actually managed to back his double-trailer back the exit ramp and onto the nearby main highway. We headed South to try to hit Ensenada but again, the traffic and road situation turned us back. We eventually ended back up where we started and hit a local ATV rental place. For about $20/person we rented ATVs for 1:15 and rode ’em all over the dunes there. It was a riot. Only Oozy flipped his ATV and luckily no one was hurt, which is surprising since we were criss crossing and passing each other and other ATVs constantly. Back home for some lunch and lounging on the roof deck, enjoying the sun and the company. That night we headed to Rosarito for some local fare and nightlife. The towns are nuts there, wherever you go you are hounded by the proprietors of restaurants/bars with “deals” and specials endlessly. We lit of a few local fireworks on the beach and headed back home.

The next day, our last in Mex, we headed back to Fat Raoul’s for some more Mexican Eggs and margaritas this time. The ritas were fantastic and the food great as well. Simple and cheap, just the way we like it. The rest of the day we spent sitting on the patio in the sun, chatting, drinking and just generally catching up with each other. All of us have been friends for over 16 years now and some of us don’t get to see each other more than once or twice a year. This was the best time, just hanging out, I think we would all agree. After a little hemming and hawing, we decided to pack it up later that night and head back to Costa Mesa, CA. We decided we didn’t want to drive in traffic the next morning and risk missing our flights home. The Newcott’s were gracious enough to allow us to crash on their floor (literally) that night, and of course, back in California, it was raining. Seriously Cali, what’s up with all this rain?!

The last day we all packed into the van while Ben went to work. We dropped Felix, Bo & Nick off at the airport while Oozy and I headed back to SNA to catch our flight with time to spare. All in all this was a great trip. No one got hurt (unlike last year where Bo nearly was blinded) and everyone had a blast. We’ve made a pact to have a guys trip each year somewhere in the world, and I’d say this was a good start. In my mind the only thing that would have made it better was more time.

Photos are online.

(This is a follow up to “Regret” posted here on June 15, 2005) Sometimes a man regrets a decision he’s made. Sometimes that decision seems trivial to others because they don’t understand all the motives and meaning behind it. When I traded away my original set of D&D manuals I regretted it almost immediately. I’ve regretted it since then for some reason.

Enter the internets and the wonderful world of eBay. I’m an eBay whore. I’ve bought a lot of stuff off there and sold even more. I’ve got several saved searches running constantly (mainly looking for railroad related paraphenalia) and I’m always checking to find odd stuff up there. It hadn’t dawned on me to look there to replace the D&D manuals which I traded away so long ago, but one day it did. And bingo! There they were. Someone was selling them, in near mint condition, for a reasonable price. I had to bid. How could I not? So I did… and I ended up winning them. Don’t ask how much I paid, because it’s not important. What is important is that I redeemed myself. My materialistic regret was satisfied. Oh, and while I was at it, I replaced my lost/stolen copy of Squad Leader (ca. 1977). I love eBay.

In part two of today’s rants and raves, I wanted to follow up on a story posted here a couple months ago about the dying transmission in my 2003 VW Jetta Wagon. Some of you attentive readers might have remembered that as part of that repair they “offered” to replace my clutch which “had some wear on it”. At $600 this was a bit of a deal for me because since they’d already have the transmission out for the warranty repair, they could then replace the clutch at a discounted rate. At least $1,000 or so less. Sounded good to me so I went ahead and had them do it.

VWoA vs. Me

Well, all was well for a couple months, but then the trouble started up. My clutch started slipping about 2.5 months later. When I accelerated, say in 3rd gear when merging onto highway, once the revs reached around 3,000 RPM the clutch would slip out and the car would just rev up really high, as if I’d slowly disengaged the clutch. This was utterly frustrating b/c they had so recently replaced the clutch I knew this was gonna be a pain. I also thought that this would be a no-brainer since they had so recently installed the clutch they would just replace it free of charge under a warranty or something. I was wrong, oh so wrong.

I dropped my car off on a Tuesday. The following weekend I was going to be in FL on vacation, returning to MD the next Tuesday so I told VW they could keep it for a whole week. Before I left the dealership they asked me to go for a test drive w/ one of the technicians. This was a) so they could observe my driving style and b) so I could recreate the problem. This went well; the tech told me that I drive well and that the only thing he noticed was that I occasionally will engage the clutch while waiting for a light to change and that this will wear out the clutch as it adds pressure to the system. Whatever, I thought, I hardly do this anyway.

I got a call from them on Friday telling me that they were about to open up the transmission and that because it’s a warranty repair they will need my permission. Of course I gave it to them. My service adviser also informed me that if the part is faulty that VW will replace the clutch no cost. BUT, if there is heavy wear (i.e. from riding the clutch, etc.) that it will be MY responsibility to foot the bill… for $1,500+… on a clutch they installed 2.5 months earlier. This didn’t sit well with me.

Well, I had to get on a plane the next morning and was on my way to FL so I didn’t want to think about it. I just wanted to get a call from them saying that they fixed it, no charge, come pick it up at your earliest convenience. As I was walking in the door after the trip to FL, with bags in hand, my phone rang. My service advisor informed me that they found wear on the clutch and that it was now my responsibility to foot the bill and that they wouldn’t cover it. Poor timing and a sense that there were some shenanigans going on here, I told him I’d be at the dealership in the morning to speak w/ the manager. I then called my awesome mechanic (they are the best) and went over the situation with him. He was great – he has been around VW’s most all of his days and he knows every story that you could tell about VW nightmares. He was very helpful in nailing down exactly what sort of things to focus on with my case. I.e. the fact that I am a careful driver when it comes to manual transmissions and that the previous clutch which lasted 54,000 miles before VW replaced it (out of convenience) wasn’t completely worn out at all. Also, VW has a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty on all parts – even consumables like a clutch.

Armed with my newfound knowledge and a general sense of right vs. wrong on this issue, I went in to the dealership fully expecting WWIII with the service manager. Instead, he was very straightforward and friendly. He was completely sympathetic and agreed with my perspective. The problem, he said, was that because there is wear on the part, VW won’t honor the warranty. Because there is no “fault” with the part, they won’t honor it. So, in this case, the dealership would have to eat the cost and that just wasn’t going to happen. BUT, he said he was going to talk to his boss and then to the regional boss and see what they could do and get back to me. Several hours later he got back to me and said nothings changed. They still won’t pay for the repair and I could a) bend over and take it up the arse or b) call VW of America and file a complaint with one of their customer “advocates”. So I called VWoA and pleaded my case.

After about a week, I got the call. VWoA agreed that they would cover the repair under the parts warranty and that I would be absolved of any costs associated w/ the repairs. I was ecstatic. I felt that VW had done the “right” thing and stood behind their parts. There was either a faulty part or a faulty installation here, not a faulty driver. I don’t rag on my clutch so there’s no way I could have ruined one in two and a half months. So by now VW had my car in the shop for 10 days. I spoke w/ my service advisor on Friday and he said that he hadn’t heard from VWoA yet and that it would probably be Mon or Tue before they got back to me. Come Wednesday the service advisor said they still hadn’t heard from the mothership yet so I had to call VWoA again to see what’s going on. VWoA said they had spoken to the manager at the dealership already and cleared the repair…. well, you see where this is going. Back and forth and back and forth. Eventually I got the two to talk to each other and got the repairs underway.

16 days later I got my car back with a new clutch and walked out a happy man. VWoA did the right thing. I don’t feel I got away with anything, I feel like the situation resolved the correct way. If it was two or three years after they replaced the clutch, I wouldn’t balk at the huge repair bill. Because it was probably my fault and there would be no surprise. But two and a half months? Come on! It’s nuts to think that they would even ask me to pay for this repair. What troubles me is that if I had just gone ahead and paid for the repair initially (as many folks probably would) I would be out $1,500+. And all in all, it wasn’t my responsibility. Well, thanks anyway VW for making things right.