I'm gonna be trading my morning walk for a morning drive soon. But for this drive I will be getting a gym and membership, free soda, better health insurance,401k rolled over, and a few familar faces and some new ones too I'm sure. And lets not forget upgrade in pay. That means more money for toys, and projects, or just stuff for my car.

This week refuses to die. It should have been over Tuesday. Next will likely be the same. And I don't care how long the next few after that take cause I will at lease be someplace new.

Tomorrow I may have to call or drop by the place that took care of my car to see what the deal is with the dash stuff. Anything that could delay of stereo is unaceptable.

I got my siren mounted and my LED blinken. The LED isn't as visable as it could be because the shift handle gets in the way but it is installed and functioning. The helpful guys at norvac helped me get my LED picked and a resistor so I wouln't fry it. I installed a red one but almost installed a blue one I got. Maybe if Tiffany is feeling brave she could put it on her alarm (if i haven't lost it already). But the alarm is as installed its going to be for now. It chrips, it beeps, it blinks it alarms, it arms it disarms.

The last part of my dash is supposed to show up tomorrow. But I will still have to go another week with no tunage. Tunage should be installed just in time for new job though. Then who knows what else will happen.

I plan to spend some money today. Maybe a new CD or 2. Get my LED, and hardware to mount siren cause the stuff I bought yesterday was too big. I've also come to the conclustion my parking lights are not going to blink even if i did more wiring cause none of the other wiring is for the parking lights. I may be able to get the hood thing worked out at the OBC as I might have found the wire for that there.

It really should be friday. It would be better if it twas next friday and I never had to come back to stream again. I really want my stereo installed too but it's not here yet which sucks.

Its getting really hard to do work.

Got off work early. Came home and saw message on the machine. Called back and got a job offer. I took it. I'm gonna start the monday after the friday my current place of employment shutsdown so just a weekend off.

My alarm is installed mostly. I have voided the warranty with the LED thing. The windows don't roll up as they should. Aside from that it works. Tomorrow I mount the siren (I found the plug) and buy a 5v LED to mount as well. I didn't get the hood switch hooked up because I couldnt figure out where the hell it terminated under the dash (thank you previous owner.) but thats ok. I'm gonna email TS about the window. I'm soo glad to be mostly done with this project. The alarm doesn't flash the parking lights. I could most likely fix that tomorrow too by doing more taping and wiring but I don't know that i really care about those.

I'm getting quite frustrated and annoyed with the alarm installation process. I think I am passed the point of no return as I have made a couple modifcations to the kit. The modifcations being relocating and replacement of the LED and Valet button.

Today I am gonna use some VTO to get out of here an hour early and spend yet more time bonding with my car and figureing the alarm out.

I got the all the wires where they generaly need to be. I had most of it hooked up for a while too and I think I almost had it working. But I can't tell cause no siren sounds or LED. The relay went nuts on it for a little bit too I'm not sure what that was about but other than that nothing. So far I'm not encouraged. And again the previous owner did some strange strange stuff. I think they may have had a remote start and a bad ass stereo in there I'm still finding more ends to more cables and wires that go noplace anymore and other little things that were kinda fucked by them. I'd like to punch the previous owner in the teeth.

I do know the alarm gets power thats a good start. But thats about all I know other than I don't think the OBC horn/siren works right and I cannot for the life of me find the hood switch plug under the dash. I just got done putting the under side of the dash back together in the dark. Fun stuff. I did take a pic of the valet switch in its home and all the messes of wires everyplace. Maybe I can take it right to stellar and they can make it work. Maybe I will give them a call and get more info once I get the LED setup/replaced and maybe the siren/horn going...

I'm done.

Got part of the car call and LED installed and the valet button mounted up and placed. No wires are to their final desination just yet.

Chris showed up on his way back from medford so futher progress on the install is halted until tomorrow most likely. Unless I can get Chris to help out on it, which I doubt will happen because he wants to watch Along Came Polly. Damn he is a fruity bastard.

I'm gonna go climb around under my dash. I don't want to watch this crap.

I was just given a $10 gift certificate to Valley River Center mall from work. I guess for being such a good agent but most likely for having good call times and doing the calls backs for the supervisor. I think I'm one of if not the most seasoned person on this team which helps some.

I'm very tempted to take some voluntary time off to go home an hour early and work more on my alarm/car.

I think I'm gonna do the valet switch today. But that will involve a trip to radio-shack. I don't like the little red button they gave me so I'm gonna put a little black button on instead. and perhaps get that mounted up and maybe wires ran. Last night I placed the antenna and partly ran the wires for it. If the button goes well I will most likely be placing the car call sticker thingy tonight too. After that I will see about placing the shock sensor someplace that I will be able to adjust it later with out taking half my dash apart. Then maybe the rest of the alarm tonight or tomorrow depending on how long it takes me to get other stuff taken care of.

I found good news about the alarm siren. Apparenlty because I have the full OBC I have another horn/siren already there and hidden away in a spot i kept going where in the hell is that wire going and what to. So tomorrow I may install and see what happens. I spent hours googling for it last night but I yahooed today and it gave me this gem.

That is all.

Still no idea where the alleged alarm siren plug is. But I do have a clue as to how to get the pillars off so I can mount the antenna. I'm thinking I'm gonna do a slowish install. Get one part installed at a time until I have the hard stuff done then put the control unit in. The hard things being the siren and the antenna.

Went to Salem. Helped my dad move fixed the computer. Adaware found around 1300 items on the first run. When I got there windows would hardly run some message about .tmp file causing windows to crash. Cleared the temp folder it wouldnt delete. Headed to safemode uninstalled all sorts of crap and got rid of the temp file. Rebooted. Windows already running much better. Installed ad-aware and Spybot s&d a few times. Resoureces went from 69% from when I was able to check them to 90% after using the tools.

I think I've figured some out about the alarm. I think I have the wireing setup for the alarm that also does remote start. Meaning there are about a doze extra wires that need to be hooked up to something or another. So installation just got easier cause I didn't get the remote start feature apparently I got the harness that it would go with though (wonder if it is the remote start alarm by mistake). Anyways now the problem is I cannot find the damn siren plug to hook it up to.

Also while I was under the hood i noticed coolant was a bit low and some was down the side of the radiator. I may have another slowish leak of some kind on my hands I can't tell where it's coming from yet but I'm not too worried about it right now it hasn't come up with any messages to check levels or even thought about over heating but I will keep and eye on it.

Tomorrow is Salem to help my dad move and fix the computer. But in Tiffany's car this time. No music in my car means no drive my car.

So Good Guys is not allowed to install alarms they don't sell and that sucks. So I've got to find someplace else that will install it. Or figure it out on my own. Which I'm sure I could do but Tiffany and I just had half the dash removed and well it was more of an undertaking than I wanted to deal with right now. I am still waiting to hear back from Stellar about the LED once I do and get a replacement for it I will look into other places around town that can do it or take it to Nathans place and see what kinda damage we can do. Perhaps get Chris involved too.

While at Good Guys we did order order my new Alpine 9835 which shows up in a couple of weeks.

I took the bus to pickup my car from the place. I also only paid like 170$ for my decutable because they owed me $320 for the setreo. So that worked out nicely for all partys involved.

The windows are OEM they don't read the same as the others but they do bare the BMW logo which is good enough for me. They said some dash part won't be in until next week sometime so after that is in is when my alarm and stereo get installed. It's gonna be hard to wait that long.

Thats all for now.

I broke the LED to the alarm while expermienting with it. Now I await information from Stellar about the LED and specs on it so a replacement may be purchased at my local electronics shop like Radioshack, Norvac, or someother place that sells that crap. I may take a guess at some point and get a new LED and see what happens they are pretty cheap.

Just talked to insurance people. I get my car back around 5:30ish pm. Now to find a way to my car. The car is about 99% done apparenlty they are waiting on a special order part that is coming in next thrusday. So stereo and Alarm stuff may have to wait until then. But that gives me more time to figure out the LED.

I'm nervous about picking my car up. What if they didn't put in OEM windows like i demanded. Or something else is stupid.

Another interview out of the way. Job hunting sucks. But as a guy I once worked with said "I was looking for a job when I found this one". Hopefuly this one will pan out. I interviewed with a supervisor I have worked with before and another guy. I was told by my former supervisor that I really impressed him. Thats good.

Still no word on the car. I am hoping they will call and say come get it. But I have put a page up pics of the most recent misfortune.

I've got a whole day to kill now. But how to kill it is the question. There isn't much good within walking distance of home. I'd think about wiring up/modiying the alarm LED thingy but I need more parts meaning a trip to radio shack or Norvac. I am also thinking about doing it like El Presidente or getting a 5 series mirror and wiring it up that way. But that would all mean extra work. And I think I'm mostly done with being productive today.

For now I lay around on the couch and poke around on the intarweb.

I think I may have started to outgrow my Orinoco router. I seem to have reached the portfowarding limit and I'm not fowarding a large number of ports maybe 20 at the highest. I am deciding if i want to roll my own NAT box or buy a newer wireless router. Whatever i end up with I want the ablity to do traffic graphing with MRTG.

I've also been having the ugrge to start running more linux and getting in touch with some roots. Maybe learn some new distributions and tricks. If I come up or do anything good I will post in the tech blog.

My alarm from Stellar is here. Apperntly it only comes with 1 remote so if Tiffany wants one someone is gonna have to pay for an extra. The directions are a bit vauge but most car stuff like that is as your expect to know something about what you are doing. I have no doubts that I could install it I just don't want to take the time and deal with the frustartion from the first 12 times I fucked it up. Then I will have to figure out how to work all the features of the alarm. A couple things i don't like about it. 1 the LED gets stuck to the window the a car call thingy that's annoying. I don't know if I even want that. I may by an LED and do some splicing or maybe have good guys do it..

No more word on the car yet. Hopefuly tomorrow.

Fedex decided to not leave the alarm here so it will a) be left tomorrow b) have to be picked up by Tiffany or me if I get my car back soon enough.

I'm in the process of making Nathan's DV-tape into a DVD it's gonna be for his new little girl, Nadia. who's page has gone from 8 hits to 130hits today alone. It is one very strange tape so far. Nathan showing off his surfboard and DVDs and giving a tour of the house they live in now.

I want my car back and my alarm and new stereo installed.

Met Nathan's little girl last night. We will also be converting his DVtape to DVD for their later viewing pleasure.

Also t-moblie has turned the time broadcasting feature of their network on in the Northwest. Previously it was off while it was on in places like Florida. When I went to Florida last December my phone prompted me to adjust the time. When I came back it did not. The one morning last week it did. Now I'm sure Florida needs phones that can set the time their self cause Florida isn't a very technicaly savy State, at least the people I talk to from Floirda. I just thought I would mention this.

My alarm for my car ,which is still in the shop waiting on parts, is supposed to showup today. Hopefuly it will be left then I won't have to deal with figuring out how to pick it up or be there for devivery.

Booked my interview for Friday morning at 8:30am. Should be early enough for me to bum a ride from Tiffany and maybe even a ride home. Then the question is do I even show up at my current job afte the interview? If it goes well I might show up to tell them I won't be showing up any more.

Just got off the phone with insurance people. Told them again OEM glass. none of that Safelite crap. It could mean my car waiting till next week to get back. Thats fine I want glass that belongs on my car and matches. I will pay more cause your policy sucks.

ok so the phone just rang as i finished that last paragraph. it was insurance again. They got me factory used glass from portland for same price. w00t. Happy Ben. I may get car back Thusday or Friday. Then get my new toys installed too.

I'm supposed to get back to a company about an interview. But I don't know when to set it for because a) i don't know when I'm getting my car back b) don't know the mass transit scheudles well enough (will look into it) c) other modes avilable? But fact of the matter is I will get there and do it one way or another I refuse to be made a slave to cars now when I haven't even had it for a year and have up until I got it always found a way to get where I needed to be.

What started as a dismal grey morning has turned into a nice comfortable late summerish early fallish after noon. That would be great for a drive. Now too bad I can't go anyplace in my car cause 3 windows were broken out by some ass head that decided he neeeded my stereo more than I needed my windows. It's at the shop. We are hopeing to get used OEM windows as my policy doesn't cover new OEM windows. So that could mean old BMW windows or I pay more out of my pocket.

They started to offer to let people take 2 hour lunches or leave an hour early as they are ramping down more and more. I'm sticking to full time for now I think I'm gonna need all the money I can get. On the plus side I'm supposed to have an interview sometime this week wich will hopefuly make it much more ok to be spending all the mula I may be spending on my car.

I got the great drive space graphing configuation worked out today. Thats about all I did today other than talk to insurance people and get my Alarm ordered.

so here is how i did it Clicky Clicky.... Chances are if you don't know what MRTG is this will make zero sence to you.

Dealing with insurance stuff today. Currenlty waiting for a call back from the local branch of my insurance company. Tomorrow Tiffany is gonna take it to the place for fixin. Hopefuly this won't put too much of a dent in the interview that I'm supposed to have later this week. I will also be purchasing an alarm soon. Insurance should cover most of a new stereo but I may upgrade the stereo vs just replacing it.

I am pissed. I am annoyed. But fact of the matter whats done is done and I can't do much else than pay my deductable and get it fixed and install an alarm to help prevent it from happening again.

my car is missing 3 windows and a stereo. I didn't do it.

october fest was fun.

I talked to a guy at the company I maybe working for soon. My prescreening went well. He said i was on top of my stuff and was probably bored to tears with it. I wasn't I was excited to be possibly getting a new damn job.

Hung with Joe, John, and Ivan from work for a while. Just got home. Making a CD for the Road. Tiffany should be home any min here then its off to the wonderful German festivtys.

I need some caffeine.

After work I'm supposed to meet some of the guys from work for drinks at Adams place. I may not have anything to drink because. Tiffany and I are heading north after she gets off work tonight. Gonna stop in Salem meet up with Cat, Chris, Andy, and someone who lives next to Cat. Then its the Oktoberfest in Mt. Angel for beers, sausages, and hanging out with friends.

Maybe I will go home and take a nap to prepare instead of drinks at Adams.

I got a call today from my former supervisor who is now working at another company just out side of town that the company I'm working for used to work for. I called her back but Haven't heard back again yet. It's phone tag time. But I belive it is to setup and interview at said company. Thanks be to Nathan the new dad, Rob, and maybe Sean too. I will keep yall posted.

We had a job fair at work. I talked took an application and a t-shirt, a hat, a pen and neopreen thingy to keep my beers cold. I don't have any real interest in working for them an hour away. Even though I could most likely get the job easy and they would give an allowance of $1,000 to move to the crap town they are located in.

Now back to working on that snmp stuff.

SNMP and MRTG is tricky stuff. I will most likely speend the rest of the week and weekend tring to figure it out. My ulitmate goals are to monitor the usage of the internet connection and system status of Honey Ryder. Making it easy to see bandwidth usage over a period of time in a glance and same with disk/drive usage on honey ryder. If i get it going it will most likely go in the tech blog.

Also Nathan and his wife Laurn are having their baby girl Nadia Tomorrow. Congrats Nathan.

That is all.

8:53pm: its not gonna happen the way i want it to for the wireless gateway. but I will lookinto other things.

I got a letter from re/max today. blah blah. we have selected another canidate blah blah. Thank you for your interest. We will refer you to others. blah blah.. At least I know now. It woulda been a cool job. I need my own company so I can start an IT department and pay my self lots of money but I'd need money to start a company to make a IT dept to pay myself. So it's really a catch 22 damn. Maybe i should start playing the lotto. Now to start the hunt back up and stop hoping for that one.

There is gonna be a "job fair" at work with some people looking to hire. like Dell but dell would be an hour commute. That doesn't sound like a good time tome. Another place in Albany I could prolly do that in less than an hour but still too far. And a couple other local places which i will most likely try for 1st.

My directonal keys are not working. I'm gonna reboot.

Kaukauna is a creemy sharp cheddar spread. Much better than that self despensing cheese that comes out the little spout. Caleb, Tiffanys cat seems to like it plenty too. After he licked the knife clean he was having some trouble getting it out of his mouth and off his tounge. You ever give a dog peanut butter? well just like that but only a cat.

Today is Monday. Tomorrow is Tuesday. The next Wednesday. Then Thursday and finaly Friday. Then weekend again. So only 4 days of crap ass work left this week.

Nathan sez autocross this weekend too I think. I don't think I can race cause I'm poor, and Tiff prolly wont let me pay entrance fee etc. Not to mention if i break her I might have problems paying to fix her.

9-11 was a few years ago yesterday. Fuck you terrorist. there the 911 post done out of the way.

Found some stylesheets for MT here. I'm tring to think of how I want a page or two to look. Once I get something going there I will link them up.

Tomorrow is back to work. That sucks.

I waxed my car again. The good chances to do such things are gonna become fewer and fewer as we here in Oregon prepare for big rains of winter.

Yesterday was very gray. Not much sun, sometimes sprinkled and threatened to rain and a fairly low energy day. Didn't do a whole lot and spent a good ammount of time just kinda bored and lazy. But thats ok. Today looks much better. I may take advantage and wax my car up again before the weather gets too crapy to do it again.

I had a good time the night before at Seans Gunbound/Monkeyball party.

I've started to do stuff at badcommand.net. Nothing much yet but something soonish as long as I don't end up too distracted. It is something I've mentioned doing before.

Saw an M6 and I Robot tonight.

The m6 was sometime in the 80s i think. But there will be a new one in the next few years. I got a picture of the back of the M6 no more though cause I'm lazy and we were already running late for movie.

I liked I robot.

I saw a very pink BMW 2002 I have thought breifely about starting a photo log of cars that I take pictures of. Cauase I've got a lot of pictures of cars. maybe I will do something like that over at badcommand... What do we think? maybe just a photo blog of some kind too... It already holds the Media hold basicaly a group gallery that you gotta register to see and upload. I feel it has a lot of potental.

I've been hanging out at ORblogs.com quite a bit lately and seeing other oregon bloggers blogs. Some interesting and not so interesting bloggers around here but mostly I find a good source of local news.

Of course it rains last night and I had just washed my yesterday. But it is still cleaner than it was when I washed it yesterday.

Gonna go to Sean's later tonight and play gunbound and some game cube. I will most likely get my ass handed to me some. well plenty I'm sure. But I must first find out where Sean lives and what time it starts. Why is Nathan not on line when you need him to be?

My car got something nasty on it on the way up to Virgo Fest last weekend. It didn't want to wash off then and it took some work to get it off tonight. I think my hood needs to be rewaxxed but than can wait another week or more.

Murray cat has been extra cuddly. Each time Ive satdown for more than a 10 seconds he ends up on my lap and over my arms making using my laptop a bit tricky. But I manage.

Still havent heard anything about the interview and the interviewer said she would be letting people know either way. So I guess I could still be in the running. The suspense is starting to get to me through. I'm half tempted to call and find out my self.

There is supposed to be some free food at work tomorrow. Yay. I took another 29 calls for them today. Damn I want that other job.

I had an idea of somekind for a page but I fogot it. I have added a few new things to the pimpin page. Like a Portlanders phonecam photos of bus stops, which was done quite nicely.

I am gonna do something else now. like eat. I'm hungry.

I've started playing with the bluetooth tools in linux. I think with a couple shell scripts and more research about 12 cans of Moutain Dew a couple late nights and a few million in goverment grants I could get something for my car hooked up like I have Posted by Ben at 09:12 PM