On the longest day… of the 26th year… · 5:27am Jun 21st, 2014
Yeah, I know the 21st is technically the solstice, so sue me!
26 years ago, on a hot summer morning, a baby was born. And amongst the inevitable commotion in the room at the time, the doctor who held the little child in his hands could only look upon the babe and wonder why he did not cry. For the little boy was healthy and breathing, but himself too busy to cry at the moment. Too busy looking upon this curious new world he was thrust into, with his tiny little eyes.
TLDR: It's mah birthday, yo!
Yes, the 20th. It's close enough to the longest day.
I figured I'd clue you all into a bit of the life of Red.
Today is my birthday. Also when my driver's license expires. And in typical Red fashion, I waited to the last minute to renew it! So I got up and drove straight to the DMV. Unfortunately, being summer, the place was absolutely teeming with teenagers ready to get their licenses. The lady who gave me a number said it'd be about an hour and a half. I took my number and left. I found some little greasy spoon type diner and got some grub for about half an hour and went back. Another 10 minutes and my number was called.
They said I was picked 'at random' to take a written test. Random my ass. (I have had a ticket or two lol.) No matter, all went smoothly and I got a shiny new DL!
Although I did hassle the test guy for grading one question wrong. It was a trick question! It was like, 2 people stop at a stop sign, who goes first?
A. The person who stopped first.
B. The person on the right.
C. This answer is wrong.
Any competent motorist would know that it's both A and B (technically A then B). The moron grading my test looked at me like I was explaining nuclear physics to him. I was just like, dude, this is common knowledge. If you don't understand this, you shouldn't be driving. Whatever. Fucking system.
For my b-day, we went to Bob Chinn's for dinner. Two words: King. Crab. Sweet Celestia's perky nipples, that shit is gooood.
I'll assume none of you have ever been to Bob's. My family goes there fairly often for special occasions. It's… interesting. Most people go to a restaurant for the food. And though their food is great, you'd almost want to go there just for the service! First thing I saw today was a completely packed parking lot. Even I, knowing how they do shit there, worried that I'd be waiting. Hell, we even saw people waiting around outside, presumably for a table. But nope. In typical Bob Chinn's fashion, as soon as you walk in, you get funneled into a waiting line. Some old review of the restaurant likened it to going to an amusement park and waiting in line for a ride. Except these guys are so efficient, the wait time is almost nothing. In under a minute, we were at a table. When the place is packed. Without a reservation. Now that's an efficient restaurant.
We were waited on by a nice fellow named Jim. He gave pause for a moment and asked if he'd served us before. Which he had. We might go to the place twice a year, but hell, dude's got a good memory I guess. I definitely recognized him. Has one of those faces I guess.
I drank 2 big Mai Tai's, so I was feeling pretty delicious afterwards. We had king crab, and for anyone who hasn't tried it yet… do it. First chance you get, it's some of the sweetest, juiciest, tenderest meat you'll ever eat. I mean, lobster is good (and similar), but king crab still trumps it. It's good shit.
Though the shell of the crab has little pointy spines to deter lesser predators from eating them, they're no match for human ingenuity. (And my rough and meaty mechanic's hands lol)
My mom gave me a tall glass with a picture of Rainbow Dash and the words "20% COOLER" on it. And a really cool T shirt with Daring Do and Dashie.
<3
And also a DVD copy of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Damn good movie by the way. You should watch it.
Today at work, our long time customer / friend, Bob the machinist, (we know so many Bobs, we have to annotate which one is which!) delivered a piece I ordered. Technically 2. And this has me very excited.
It's 2 pieces, mirror images of each other, simply cut from a piece of angle iron, that I need to make a motor mount for my LeBaron. You see, I went through the trouble of swapping the automatic transmission (as much as I love it) for a manual. Stick shift. It's harder to drive, but it's a bit more fun. And I can do a burn out now!
Ain't she a beaut?
Point is: the reason I am so excited is because 1 year of drafting class, and 2 years of mechanical drawing and CAD in college are finally being put to use. I gave Bob this drawing:
And today I received the actual finished product. It might not seem like a big deal, but I dunno, it's just very special to me. I designed something, using only my imagination, put it on paper, and here it is:
Well, I finally settled my student loans. Worst 2 years of my adult life, by the way. Complete waste. Anyway, that god-awful, lingering aftertaste of college that they call 'financial aid' is finally over and done with!
Good riddance!
So it's time for some new debt! What's considered a 'good' debt, this time. My parents are buying a new house… and I'm going to be a signer! That's right, my dad and I will be signers on the deed and mortgage, so with any luck, old Red here will technically be a homeowner!
We picked a place too. Made an offer. They counter offered. And we're taking their counter offer, because it's actually 20 g's less than what we were prepared to pay!
However. Since we're not the type of people to ever pay full price for something like a house, this place is a little bit of a dump. But it's nothing we haven't seen before with our current house. And let's be honest, there's no experience quite the same as getting shards of splintered bathroom wall tiles lodged in your eyeball, or bleaching, scrubbing, and sanding a huge dog piss stain out of hard wood floor, or having an entire basement filled knee-deep in plaster, lathe, wood scraps, and other renovation debris, and having to shovel it into wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow out and into a dumpster or two.
Looking forward to it.
I was once aspiring to be an architect or engineer or something of the sort. I have an eye for the technical part of anything, really. That's what makes me a damn good mechanic. And while I may not be super-interested in all the different schools of architecture, I always liked a good Frank Lloyd Wright building. Prairie style, man. Beautiful stuff.
Anyway, one of the common ideas in architecture in general is that the outside of a building should reflect the actual structure of the building. For example, the John Hancock tower. It's covered in glass and black painted aluminum (which is metal) to reflect that it is a steel frame building. Hell, it even has huge cross-braces clearly on display. Those things are actually there to keep the building structure rigid.
The Roman Coliseum is made of nothing but arch after arch, a feat of engineering and design that they were immensely proud of. The arches actually bear and distribute the weight of the building.
Medieval cathedrals employed hammer beam roof trusses, that bore the weight of their enormous roofs. Most of them were incredibly detailed things, with engravings and designs that were as much art as they were engineering. Likewise on the outside, (hammer beam actually kind of sucked because it pushed the walls apart) what they call flying buttresses gave stunning character to the buildings, and they were there to hold it up.
This brings me to my complaint. There are no new brick buildings. Not really anyway.
*Morpheus voice*
You think that's brick you're looking at?
That mailbox has more integrity than the house does. What you're looking at is a wood frame house, built out of 2x4's, covered in plywood, then a sheet of plastic (like a fucking garbage bag), then it's wrapped in a single layer of purely decorative brick.
It's a wood frame house, pretending to be brick. It's a façade, in the most literal meaning of the word, and it's a lie. The outside of the building is intentionally misleading. It is not a reflection of the structure of the building. And for someone like me, who can 'see' under the brick, it's insulting.
This, I have been told all my life, is a 'common brick.' However, I have recently found out that (because I live in Chicago) the rest of the country calls this a 'Chicago common brick.' Chicago is inherently a swampland. Filled with clay. Apparently that clay makes a damn good brick, even if it is a bit ugly and plain.
Many, many moons ago, they would dig up a huge chunk of Chicago, make the clay into bricks, and then fill the gaping hole with garbage. This was mentioned in the book The Jungle. It also said that the garbage stank, and may or may not have been bad for your health, but who could really be sure? (It was 1900, they didn't really have a firm grasp on the whole 'germs' thing.)
Sometime in the '50s, they stopped making common brick. I don't know why. Maybe it became expensive. Maybe steel and reinforced concrete buildings became cheaper. Maybe they ran out of clay. This makes me sad. There aren't any substitutes either, other than cinder blocks and other hollow 'bricks.' True, there are some structurally 'brick' buildings built these days. Usually industrial buildings, strip malls, etc. But the vast majority of bricks these days are hollow, or have holes in them. This makes them light, cheaper to make and transport. It's also good for a fake brick house, because the lighter the layer of brick is, the less supporting it needs.
A house supporting its brick instead of the other way around. Makes me cringe.
Bricks need to be solid. Because it makes them heavy. The heavier they are, the more weight there is on the wall. The more weight you put on a brick wall, the stronger it becomes. With more weight pressing down on the bricks, there is more friction force holding them together, and therefore, sturdier structures.
Of course that's how a true brick wall works. Thankfully, my current house (1928), my hopefully soon house (1947 - just barely post-war!), and my shop (…~1910ish?) are all structurally brick buildings, proudly built with Chicago brick.
I'm honestly not sure if I could stand living in a fake brick house. A frame house with siding, sure. But not fake brick.
If anyone here plays DayZ, the mod, let me know. I'll give you the ip to my server. It's not 100% ready yet, but my guys are working on it.
Me and the guys were playing on some other not-mine server, and the admin did something I didn't approve of. I called him a douchebag and got kicked. So I said fuck it, I'll go make my own server with blackjack and hookers! So I did. Except without those things. lol
And then all my friends got banned from the server they liked. Huehuehue.
I also had the guys whip together a Gmod prop hunt server, at the behest of Merlos the Mad. He gets a kick out of it, I guess. Hell, it's a good bit of fun.
Again, let me know if you want the ip.
Bronycon.
Are you going? I'm gonna try. Money and time aren't really too much of an issue for me. Credit cards and self employment, fuck yeah! But what I really want to do is get my buddies from Oklahoma to come along on the road trip with me.
I have to make a cosplay!
Alright guys, that's it! Long ass blog post, I know. Felt like writing I guess.
Man, you've got everything and the kitchen sink going on. I commend you.
Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday I guess. That's what normal people say right?
I got my license in Arizona, don't have to renew for another 42 years.
man, fake bricks piss me off. They're kind of missing the point of the matter.
happy b day!
i still need to get my license renewed....im too lazy ;_;
nice ride, dat big mac cutie mark pretty BAWS
2223111 ty! And yes, I think that's the jist of it.
2223135 Oh gawd, you sound like my brother. lol. And yes, my sentiments exactly. I'm also sorry that you live in Arizona. There's way too much stucco out there.
2223145 ty! ikr?
2223264 luckily I live in Vermont
2223272 Ah nice
“¡Get your hooves up, party’s starting out right now!”
“¡Everypony, everypony get down!”
“¡Time to make a wish, better make it right now!”
“¡It’s been a year and today is your birthdayparty!”
“¡Make a wish, it’s your birthday!”
“¡Make a wish, it’s your birthdayparty!”
“¡Make a wish, it’s your birthday!”
“¡Make a wish, it’s your birthdayparty!“
I'm late, but happy birthday, Mad.
Happy Birthday! Have a good one!
Happy birthday! Also, may you never have to see a favela if first-world building standards make you cringe!
Congratulations! Happy birthday.
2223347
2223354 Ah, someone from RAWCG. And thank you!
2224195 Thanks! And uh, I guess? What really makes me cringe is that we are a first world country, and these are nice, proper houses. It's these houses that are being built like shit, and made to look pretty. That bugs me. As versus a shack that's made like shit, and actually looks the part... well that's just because they had no better option. Though I suppose if I actually went through a favela and examined the construction of such dwellings... yeah, I'd probably cringe anyway
2224208 Thanks!