27 October 2018

Ending Daylight Savings Time

It is that time again.  Yep, time for me to bitch about Daylight Savings Time.  If you are in the UK and (I would guess) most of Europe, you need to "fall back" tonight.

But, if you are in North America (or other places) this stupid ritual does not take into effect until next week.  Good luck to all those international business meetings on Monday.  Better luck to drivers on the road.

It is time to end this practice.  There are two options:


  1. Leave the time at Standard Time.  Uh...because that should be the STANDARD
  2. My crazy idea that I have said this for decades:  just set the time (in all time zones) a half and hour off and leave it.  We do it once, and that is it.


I will give you a year on Option 2.  All we have to do is lose thirty minutes on 31 December 2019.  Some time before the clocks strike midnight, say at 23:00, we set the clocks ahead to 23:30...making New Years Day 1 January 2020 at 00:00 (wherever you are in the world) the new time.  From then on, we leave time alone.  Remember Y2K?  Well, this is Y2K2X!

21 October 2018

Build the Back to the Future Time Machine - Manual Transmission

Yeah, it has been a while.  This is the first update since July, that is four months.  Still nothing, no new shipment.  But, we have an updated and correct transmission.

Issues 016 and 023
Eaglemoss has supplied subscribers a manual transmission.  These are updated Issues 016 and 023.

Contents of Issue 016
The manual transmission, like the automatic transmission, is a simple build.

Contents of Issue 023
If you are further along like I am, you will only need the transmission mounts in this issue.  The tedious part is to remove the already mounted auto transmission.  Here is how I did it in a hundred easy steps (apologies for the blurry photos):

Remove plate
Remove the triangular plate buy removing the three screws.  Set the plate aside

Pro tip:  Screw the screws back in the screw bosses so you do not lose the tiny screws.

Remove engine mounts
Remove the three main screws holding the engine and transmission assembly.  Note that these first few steps can do not need to be in this order.

Remove hoses
The hoses need to be removed.  If you remember, these are just just held in by a mortise and tenon like joints.

Hidden screws under gasket
The two drive shafts (probably not what they are called) need to be removed.  Slide the gasket over and remove the screws.  They should pop right out.  At this point, you should almost be able to remove the engine assembly.

Remove one lower flux box mount
The lower flux box mounts make the engine assembly too wide to fit through the frame.  So, one lower flux box mount needs to be removed.  Now you are ready to ease the assembly out of the frame.

Now that you have freed the engine and transmission assembly from the frame, you will need to remove the transmission.

Remove distributor assembly
First remove the four screws holding the distributor assembly.  Carefully undo the wires from the block and set the six-legged spider aside.

Unhook the the belts
No need to remove the belts, just unhook them.

Remove top of engine
There are two screws way deep in the valley of death that need to be removed.

Remove these screws
Once the top of the engine is removed, remove the two screws holding the transmission assembly.

Remove pipe
The pipe that goes across the transmission needs to be removed before the assembly can be removed.  There are two screws holding down this pipe.

More screws to unscrew
Remove the three screws holding the plate to the transmission.  Also, it is necessary to remove that black plastic piece.

Last two screws
Take out these last screws and you will have successfully removed the transmission.  That was not that hard, was it?

Here is what the manual transmission looks like versus the automatic transmission

Manual on left, auto on right
Now, the fun part...putting it all back together with the correct transmission.

Finished transmission swap
Once your engine and new transmission is reassembled, it should look like image above.  Yay!

No screw count on this update, since this is a technically a replacement part. 

Now, I just wait until I get new issues from Eaglemoss.  We are approaching November, which would make it five months since my last shipment of parts.  Five months at four issues each...that makes them twenty issues behind.  

If you are wondering...Did I just happen to post this on Back to the Future Day?  Yes.  Yes, I did. NERD!

...to be continued.

01 October 2018

FUCK YOU, STOP CALLING ME - October 2018

New month.  Heading into Fall.  For some of you business minded folks, start of the important fourth quarter.

1 October 2018
  310-849-9714  Beverly Hills, CA - Starting off the new month on a Monday means getting a call on the first business day of the week/month.  Well, fuck you!

  310-366-4627  Gardena, CA - This call was marked as "Suspected Spam" by the phone.  Looks like it is going to be one of those days.  Fuck you!

  310-366-4627  Gardena, CA - Second call of the day from same number.  First the phone tags this number.  Now, on the second call, Call Protect intercepts this and tags it as "Potential Fraud". See image below.  Again, fuck you

  323-686-9376  Los Angeles, CA - Wow, four calls in a day.  These guys make more calls to me, in about six hours, than I make in six months.  Fuck you!

Calls from a bunch of assholes
3 October 2018
   323-686-9376  Los Angeles, CA - Surprised I did not get any calls yesterday.  You can always count on these fuckers to call back the next day.  So here we are.  Fuck you!

9 October 2018
  323-686-9377  Los Angeles, CA - You know how Homeland Security gets a little antsy when there is no terrorist activity for a while.  I kinda feel the same when there are no calls from telemarketers for a while.  Something must be up.  Are they planning their attack?  Oh, I just noticed that it is one number up from the last call.  Fuck you!

12 October 2018
  310-849-1552  Beverly Hills, CA - It is 8:23 in the morning.  I am in the middle of actually working and this fucker calls.  That means I have to drop everything to write this shit.  Fuck you!

  310-849-9291  Beverly Hills, CA - They keep calling, I keep ignoring.  Is there a way to block an entire prefix?  Fuck you!

15 October 2018
  310-849-7697  Beverly Hills, CA - Who dis?  Fuck you!

19 October 2018
  650-437-9871  San Mateo, CA - Lori is a CUNT!  Another fucking Door Dash text.  Fuck these guys and their business model.

Lori is a cunt
I hope Lori gets food poisoning...but from something else, since this is not Chipotle's fault.  Like Chipotle needs another food poisoning scandal.  And, I hope Door Dash stock drops to rock bottom.  Fuck you!

Update:  I contacted Door Dash via Twitter, and looks like the issue is being resolved.  Almost three years later...seriously, the first Door Dash text was received in February of 2016.  I have tried to contact via their website with no results.  Luckily, I found social media links and contacted them. We will see if this is the last of texts from Door Dash. Not holding my breath. 

25 October 2018
  800-513-8282 - Ooh, fancy.  An 800 number.  Someone is stepping up.  Too bad your shit was pre-tagged with "Suspected Spam".

800-513-8282
The early morning call is a nice touch.  Fuck you!

26 October 2018
  310-160-2155  United States -  Getting a little creative with the numbers.  Who has ever heard of a 160 prefix.  Not that is matters, this was pre-tagged as Suspected Spam.  Ha, nice try.  Fuck you!

Oh, we have an update.  They left a voicemail...yep, you guessed it. Some robo Chinese message.  Again, I say, fuck you!

30 October 2018
  310-849-9255  Beverly Hills, CA - Who the fuck is this?  Another spoofed number from another terrorist telemarketer.  Fuck you!