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Well a new year is upon us. I scheduled some vacation time over the past few weeks and am enjoying a streak of clarity as a result. I had some time to catch up on sleep, work on side projects, and think about some of the things I want to accomplish this year.

1. Get my 2 side projects launched. I've been working on the aesthetics for an online application as well as a website for Angry Sheep Motorsports. I'd like to get the first phases of these 2 projects out the door before the end of February.
2. Practice my guitar playing. Over the past few years, I've found little time to play guitar unless I'm at band practice or preparing for band practice. I like to blame my school responsibilities for this. Now that I've graduated (finally), I'd like to spend more time doing the creative things that I truly enjoy.
3. Racing. I may not have the budget for more than 2 or 3 race weekends, but I'm going to try to make the most of what I can afford. I'm not making significant performance changes to my race car, but I hope to make some of the safety changes that I compromised when originalluy building it: a FIA certified seat, removable steering wheel, and maybe even a head and neck restraint.
4. Artwork. Much like my guitar playing, my interest in creating art (not just design) was limited by my school and work schedule. Now that I actually have my BFA, I'd like to apply it. I have a drawing tablet for my computer that I've been experimenting with . The next step is to actually create some electronic "paintings" and composite images.
5. Read. I used to love to read. However, for the past few years, I've had to read a lot of things that I had little interest in... yep: school. I'm looking forward to finishing the 3 books that I've started as well as a new book that I was given last night: The Art of Racing in the Rain.

I've spent that last 15 years as an on-again, off-again (mostly) Fine Arts student at Wayne State. On Wednesday, I attended my last undergraduate class ever. I've self audited myself several times and have made sure that everything is covered. There were no objections when I filed for graduation earlier in the year, so fully expect my diploma shortly. Finally: Bachelor of Fine Arts - Interdisciplinary Electronic Art.

For a while, I had aspirations to become a movie sound designer, which later evolved into aspirations to create special effects. An inside joke among sound designers is the "Wilhelm Scream." It's a bit of stock audio used in a lot of Lucas, Spielberg, and Disney movies as well as hundreds of others. A complete catalog of it's occurrences is here, and a montage of examples can be found here.

Gina and I have been hanging out every few weeks with our friends, Erik, Larry, and Keith. When we hang out, we drink beer and play some music. We decided to channel this energy into something a little more organized and invited a bunch of our friends over for a barn party and mini-show. The turn out was awesome and I think we put on a pretty good show. It's been a while since we played for a crowd, and it just wasn't the same without our old RogerBox bass player, Chris. However, Larry, new bass player and biker bar expert managed to kick out some tough parts with ease. Thanks to all of our friends for coming out and I hope we get a chance to play for you all some time soon! [Pictures Here]

Our tow vehicle, a 1996 E350 van, needed a battery and starter. This became painfully obvious when it would not start after filling up at a gas station. Luckily (or unluckily, as you'll soon read) the gas station had a service bay. The resident "mechanic" swapped in a new battery and eventually installed a new starter. However, when he attemped to move the van, the brake pedal went to the floor and it ended up needing a few new brake lines. After installing the brake lines, he began to process of bleeding the air from the brake lines, and discovered that the bleeder screws on the calipers were seized. So, we've just invested in a batter, starter, brake lines, and front calipers. When he was "done" he asked me if I ever had trouble shifting the van into drive. I answered "no", and he continued to explain that I do now. I had enough and refused to pay any more, driving my crippled van back to the lot at work. The speedometer, radio, headlights, brake lights, and transmission control module were all obviously not working. I eventually (and gently) drove the van home (with Gina tailing me to provide brake lights and a GPS for speedometer). Chris Childs (from Angry Sheep Motorsports had pity on me and came over to have a look. After removing some "bonus" wiring from a 2-way radio and lighting system, he identified a single misplaced wire on the aux. starter relay. A few minutes later and the big orange van was back in business.

During the week-or-so that the van sat dormant in our shop, I lost 3rd gear on my Subaru. I called Chris in a panic and he suggested I shop around for a replacement that he could swap. Using the forums at NASIOC, I learned about Millennium Auto. I also learned that early 2002 model year WRXs had very weak gear sets (check the trans code on the driver's side strut tower, if it ends with "AA" you have the weak trans). Millennium Auto specializes in STi engine and trans swaps, but they also had a nice beefy 2005 WRX trans. After a little strategic coordination with Chris at Angry Sheep my old trans was out, swapped with the new trans (for a great price) and installed just a few days later. It now shifts smoothly and the gear engagement is precise and clean.

While the other cars were out of commission, I had to take my Camaro out of storage and deal with the crazy insurance rate for a while. However, the fuel level sensor is not working and it constantly reads as if the tank was empty. Enough is enough. I deal with that next spring. The car is back in storage now and I'll be pulling insurance on it as soon as possible.

The last bit of fun for the past few weeks was the loss of our network storage system that housed our music and movies at home. It looks like the main logic board is toast. I'm hoping that the data can be recovered. Updates will come soon on that front.

Gina and I spent a few (long) weekends painting our polebarn/shop. The helpful folks at Sherwin Williams, helped us select an oil-based enamel that should last for decades. We rented a sprayer and after days of prepping and priming, we painted the barn. It looks like new!

I've been invited to write iPhone-related articles on Get In My iPhone, a new iPhone-centric blog. My most recent contribution details using the iPhone (or iPod touch) as a central control device for an X10 or Insteon-based home automation system. Enjoy!

This is my first season away from the comfy land of Spec Neon. Since the class is no longer recognized by NASA, the only place I could have raced in my "real" class was Waterford Hills. It's a nice, technical track. However, I've been touring with my father-in-law Glenn (and his Spec Racer Ford) and it's easier to tag along, crew for him, and learn as much as possible about racing. So, as mentioned in previous updates, I've committed to the improved touring (ITA) class. It's a regional class with good competition and quite a few Neons. I'm still not as competitively prepared (no coilovers, big wheels, race engine, etc.), but I've been able to stay mid-pack.

The mid-pack trend continued last weekend at Nelson Ledges in northeast Ohio. I finished 6th in class and 6th overall both days. I stayed ahead of the other Neons... except for the last lap on Saturday, where I got stuck behind lap traffic (I was prety pissed... and my in-car video shows it...) and was passed 3 turns before the finish. Sunday was better. By mid-race no more Neons were in my mirrors, though the Hondas trounced me handily. Not too bad for my first time at Nelson Ledges. Lap times and positions are here.

Glenn did well, but was kept off pace by his tires. He really showed some amazing car control when it started to rain as he sat on the starting grid. By the 3rd lap it felt like monsoon season. Even though he was on his dry tires and had a spin early in the race (c'mon... it was POURING) he snagged a podium finish.

Gina's lab invited me to join them at Cedar Point yesterday. We all packed into the big orange van and made the 2 hour trek to America's Roller Coast®. I'm not a big fan of rollercoasters, but I rode quite a few this time: Blue Streak, Iron Dragon, Gemini, Corkscrew, Disaster Transport, and Cedar Creek Mine Ride. We stood in line for the Maverick, but it broke down twice and we bailed after about an hour in line. (Last year when I went to Cedar Point with work, it was down for the whole day, too. Kinda scary.) My favorite is still the Gemini and I plan to take the Raptor and Maverick next time. Gina's favorites were Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force. Both of which I passed on.

Last weekend was rough. Our area was hit by a huge storm around 6 am on Friday. Trees were broken and/or uprooted. A pair of large trees fell on our shop and the whole area was without power. We set out to borrow a generator from Gina's dad, Glenn and helped set them up with digital ofter-the-air tv in their travel trailer (their power was out too, but had a nice camper as a backup). We got some supplies from Costco and headed back home. Around 3, DTE got to our yard and started removing the down trees and lines from the pole barn. I figured it was safe to finally enter the metal building to get my chainsaw. I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting up fallen trees on our property. When the trees and lines were finally cleared, I surveyed the damage to the barn and confirmed that it is, indeed, worse than the tree damage from last year. We were saving up to finish the repair from last year, so at least nothing new was harmed, but this time the insurance company will have to fix the whole roof.

We continued to clean and prepare for our parents' anniversary celebrations. On Saturday I identified that our router was cooked while trying to set up our recently returned Wii. With about an hour before guests started to arrive, I sped off to Best Buy to get an Airport Extreme to replace our old, toasty Linksys WRT54G. The new router had to be set up and there were a few complications getting our server and other services set up. But I was up and running in time to monitor a major change at work from 11pm to about 2am Sunday. Another couple of hours and our network was back to it's happy self.

On Saturday my parents came over and Sunday Gina's parents came over to celebrate their wedding anniversaries and father's day. Our parents' anniversaries are bookends to Gina's birthday (on the day before, the other after) which is on June 18th... exactly one month before my birthday. We feasted on all kind of grilled goodness: fancy chipotle burgers, beer-bbq brats, potatoes, salads, and more. We ended Saturday with a bonfire and s'mores and Sunday with a game of cut-throat Uno.

Chris "Cat Killer" Childs, Glenn "Father-in-law" Gehrke, and I raced at Grattan last weekend. Since both Glenn and I were racing, Gina was the crew chief. She took care of timing, radio communication, setup, fuel and everything in between. Without her help, I'm pretty sure I would have missed at least one of the sessions. We got out there on Friday to get some practice time in. Chris came through with some wheel spacers that allow me to run Hoosiers and I was able to try out the new setup on the last 2 practice sessions. Unfortunately, Chris also realized that his exhaust was beginning to leak and was cooking the steering rack in his Neon. He ordered a new rack and installed it Saturday morning. Later that day, Glenn qualified second and placed first. Chris qualified first and finished first, and I qualified third and finished third. This was my first podium finish ever. The good news was mixed with bad. Even though Chris finished first, he did so without power steering for the last 7 laps. With no other steering racks available in the area, he was forced to retire for the weekend. The next day resulted in a second place finish for Glenn and a second place finish for me as well. (Since Chris was unable to partipate.) The work on my Neon this spring really paid off. I'd also like to think that I've improved as a driver. I recorded by fastest time at Grattan to date (1:36.973) but I still have a long way to go. The fastest guys (including Chris) run in the 1:32 range. I think I have a second or two yet to find in my driving, but the car still has a long way to go too. I still need a coilover suspension, wider front tires, a limited slip diff, and an IT-prepped engine.

The engine in my Neon is weak. To better prepare for the upgrade to ITA (from Spec Neon), I decided to shake some of the cobwebs out. A few weeks ago, I disassembled the top end of the engine to install an underdrive accessory pulley, 95 cam, exhaust header, new o2 sensor, new water pump, new water pump inlet o-ring, new thermostat, new seals and gaskets, and new plugs, plug tubes and wires. During the process of disassembling and re-assembling I learned a lot and made a mistake or two. Biggest mistake: don't wedge a wrench in your cam gear to keep it from spinning while torquing the attaching bolt. Cam pulleys are much more fragile than they appear. Also, order all of the parts you'll need ahead of time, preferably from the dealer unless you can get a much better price from a parts store. I spent several days trying to get the right o-ring for the water pump inlet tube from Murray's that I could have gotten for the same price then next day from the dealership. Finally, start earlier in the year. You'll never have enough time to do everything you hope to complete. Starting as early as possible helps.

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