The "I'm in a damn good mood" Thread

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: In reply to wbjones: Thanks! If they webcam I'm going to business mullet/tv anchor man it, business up top and party below.

A US government agency just (incompetently) tried to cover up evidence of their incompetence as it was being exposed, BUT I SAVED EET!

Just a little schadenfreude this afternoon. I just saw the new version of a product I once worked on. The new version is...unfortunate.

I'm on the 42nd floor in a rooftop bar in Bangkok, Thailand enjoying the last few cocktails of our trip with my wonderful wife after two weeks of backpacking through this beautiful country. So, yeah. I'm in a pretty damn good mood right now.

^ dude, that's awesome.

Today I'm in a dang good mood. Why? Man, it's just been a couple of dang good days

Good mood of the day.

Went out last night to see a very cool band play. Here Come The Mummies played a college fine arts center, awesomeness!

Because I figured we would get home late, and because I felt like it, I took today off work. Combined with the holiday Monday I'm starting a 4 day weekend by sleeping in and lounging in bed. It's nice!

Not really a "minor win", so I'm reawakening this thread. I'm in a good mood.

Haven't really driven the Manic Miata in fighting trim in about 2 years. Got it back together at the end of last fall but still had some drivability issues and annoyances. I think I've gotten 99.2% of those taken care of and I've been driving it to work all week to take advantage of the first real spring weather. Took DW to a new ice cream place in it last night and she said it was fun.

Over the whole multi-year Depressive phase I had kind of fallen out of love with the car. Now it's all the way back in Manic Mode; it's running pretty reliably, starts well, idles fairly evenly, the water temperature and oil pressure are solid, it's not rattling horribly, and I got the new/used Corbeau F1 seats installed, so it's a lot more comfortable. It was cloudy this morning but I took a chance and drove it anyway; the weather turned out nice.

On my way in, I arrived at a stoplight next to a black CTS-V with tinted windows. Couldn't see the driver but the car looked nice. The light went green and once we were rolling a little, I stepped on it and scooted out pretty hard, then backed off because of traffic. The CTS-V rewarded me by dropping back a little and coming past at full chat for a second or two. That blown LSX sure sounds good!

He got off it and fell back next to me, rolled the window down and said "Not enough room to play!" He asked if the Miata was turbocharged and gave me a thumbs up when I said it was supercharged too. I coaxed some whine out of it for him and he laughed and waved as I turned off.

I'm starting to love this car again.

Power steering pump is replaced, even though im out 54 bucks for no reason im happy as hell i get to drive the car this weekend!

My son came to visit today & we upgraded brakes on his 323i 5spd wagon (soon to be a 330i 6spd), then drove the '76 M2 to lunch.

Taking a train 120 miles in the morning to pick up a new daily driver and hang out with a friend I don't get to see often enough.

This is the only hint I will give as to the car.

On April 1st, at 5:14pm Eastern time, Darth Vader came to life with its new MS3-Pro brain.

Heh heh heh.

Two year old ethanol free gasoline with Sta-Bil still burns just fine in my push mower!

I ran into an old customer today that I hadn't seen in years. I guess he's in his late 30s and when I met him 15 or so years ago he was working odd jobs around Flushing loading garbage trucks, sweeping sidewalks and such. He is a friendly guy who I suspect had a bit of a learning disability that would talk to a lot of us as he'd ride buses. A number of us would bring him job listings and one worked out. He's got a job with us cleaning subway station making a nice living, has a little girl and moved his girlfriend, kid and mother out of the projects. It was good to see him doing well and that he recognized me and thought I helped.

Mrs. 84FSP's new Iphone was stolen Saturday and amazingly was recovered by the local police and delivered back to the house Sunday morning. Amazed and thankful to have great local police.

Got my annual physical today. Ten years of marriage and three kids later, I've only gained 10 pounds. Got married at 165, standing today at 175. Oh, and I'm 6'2". #winning

I just found out that there is a new food truck in town. They sell BBQ and call themselves "Deez Butts".

My day has been made.

Figured out how to coax throttle response from the Fiero. Realized that while I was doing full leg-press throttle stabs from idle while in gear (basically a worst case scenario for throttle response) I was skidding the front tires 5-6 feet every time I stabbed the throttle. This from a breathed on Iron Duke. I am liking the MS3-Pro, a lot. Customer picked the car up and is thrilled with the drivability and everything else we've done with the car.

Got the GN running, too, with excellent drivability with minimal work. Already has loads more power than on the chipped '168 computer, at less boost. Going to try some timing tweaks when the weather gets less rainy. I spent FAR less time getting the tune polished than I ever spent on an XFi, which is theoretically made to control GMs. Seriously digging this little computer.

Had a Subaru engine on a pallet, pushed the car in at 4:30. Drove it out at 5:30. Cheating slightly: the A/C still needs to be charged, will do that tomorrow I love how easy Subarus are to work on, but one hour to throw an engine in is some kind of record for us.

I think making stickers on my new vinyl plotter is very cool.

Had an enlightening conversation with Da Boss today after work. He told me that all of the fast Buick drag racers were switching from XFI to something called Pro EFI. I looked at the website and wasn't terribly impressed, we can do better with the MS3-Pro for the kinds of builds we do (no 4 stage nitrous systems or variable launch control or other highly specific drag racing things). So, he asked me why.

So I went on a long monologue, peppered by pointed questions from him, about what good EFI should do, and why the XFI wasn't particularly good EFI in 2016. It was great in the 90s when it was the only thing that could control the LT1, but it's long past by the wayside, the algorithms aren't that complex and there are some things it completely lacks, so it's little wonder that people are moving away from it and doign better. Then I pointed out that we got the basic engine modeling nailed in the GN in about a half hour of driving around. Which turned into me explaining that a proper computer will model what the engine is doing, what the injectors are doing, and then calculate from there what to do...

And I realized that, like injection systems themselves, I've come a long way in my tuning skillset from "make da numbers do what makes da engine happy". That will get you in the ballpark, but then so do mass produced carburetors and fixed-curve distributors. We can do so much better And I think that I was also able to enlighten him on exactly what the hell it is I'm doing when I'm face-deep in the laptop.

God I want you to come south and tune the duster, knurled. Need a vacation? ??

Got a new wheel for the s2000. A dear friend is codriving with me this year, and a wheel is needed so he can fit in the car. He's 6.5 and has a hand to knee clearance issue with the stock wheel. An aftermarket wheel and a spacer gives him the room needed for racong purposes. I always wanted the wheel a little closer to me anyways, so it works out well. It's a Momo Monte Carlo 350mm. I think I'm in love.

And my stealthy cruise control 'set' button.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: Two year old ethanol free gasoline with Sta-Bil still burns just fine in my push mower!

Which begs the question as to why fuel can't just contain stabilisers in the first place. I'll definitely be keeping sta-bil in mind for my lesser used items though.

I'm in a good mood because the cool weather is here, I hate summer.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Vacation season is over, I have a Mustang that needs tuning and a T-Type just got delivered yesterday with an apparent timing chain failure (which is an instant call for engine removal and rebuild - you do not pull a turbo Buick's heads off in chassis if they are on studs, period) and I have been informed of a couple other projects coming in in the next few days/weeks... and the regular repair side is finally picking up after a phenomally crappy winter business-wise... and we're expanding and trying to acquire a new site, which will require a lot of man-hours for preparation/moving/training new hires...

I have been thinking off and on about tuning on the side, some guys seem to do very well for themselves by just traveling around the country tuning other peoples' cars. Once you get a large enough repertoire, you can practically just grab a tune from a previous similar project, make a couple tweaks here and there, and BAM! $800 in a half hour on the dyno.

Line up a dozen tunes and rent a dyno shop for a weekend, different city every week, sounds fun! Never get to play with your own cars, always on planes going from city to city instead of driving around...

Wait no, that sucks!

Since I had already told work I was going to be out all day for doctors' appointments and such, I ended up with much of the afternoon off as things didn't take as long as planned. SWMBO had to head in to work early leaving me alone to my own devices after about 3pm. So to try and lessen some of the time blow she's taken with having to essentially take care of me for 2 weeks, I decided to suit up and head out on the moped and knock a few things of her to-do list for her (essentially, going by businesses and dropping off donation request forms for her non-profit).

After taking care of most of them I was sitting in traffic on the moped on one of the main drags in town- and it was now rush hour, so I'm surrounded by cars. A couple probably about my age pulls up next to me in an Audi station wagon- and does a double take at the crutches strapped to the back of the moped and the large black pneumatic compression boot on my right foot. The guy driving rolls down his window and says, "That is the most badass thing I've seen all day- you're awesome!"

Went to see the Blue Man Group last night. Excellent show!

Taking off work today at 10 to run down to Bowling Green to watch the One Lap cars zoom around. Yay