A good weekend. The brake light in the Ford is now off, since Pat helped me do a complete brake overhaul. I was pretty amazed at how easy it was to change brakes and rotors on the front and back of the truck. I mean, seven bolts per brake/rotor and you’re done. From now on I’ll do my own brakes I think, it’s stupid-easy. After working with the brakes, I got a little curious about how the whole braking system actually works. Since I never took a hydraulics course in school, I haven’t really had any formal introduction to how pistons and force works in a hydraulic machine. Anyway, it’s boring engineering stuff – but I can always count on howstuffworks.com to teach me these things. After a half hour of reading, I think I could build my very own hydraulic system.
Over Christmas, someone gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card (can’t remember who, Tyler maybe?). While cleaning out my wallet the other day, I noticed it had a “scratch-off” area for an “online use” PIN code. I thought that was neat, so I started browsing the B&N website for something cool to order. I love books, and I like to collect them. I like to just “have” them almost as much as I like reading them. Anyway, because of some recent interest on my part, along with the fact that I’ve always had my eye on it, I ordered a book which contains a collection of 17th century alchemical engravings. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been fascinate by alchemical ideas and history for a few years now, and the drawings, illustrations, and engravings related to the practice of alchemy have always looked so cool to me. Very mystical and interesting.
As I mentioned above, I have become somewhat re-interested in the whole alchemy thing lately. Mostly just the history associated with it. It all started when I stumbled upon a webpage that collects and lists unsolved “codes and ciphers.” Ever gradeschool, and then being fueled further by Astro, I’ve been really keen on cryptography. Secret codes and stuff have always intrigued me. So when I happened upon a link from the above page about the Voynich Manuscript, I was immediately engrossed. Some theories about the manuscript say that it’s an alchemical or astrological text, which got my brain on the whole alchemy thing again. Anyway, why am I writing this down? Sorry.
Also sorry for Friday’s lack of blog. I was kinda put out, mostly because I read this (warning, may be NSFW) and it made me feel dumb. Hey, I’m a sensitive dude. Before I go, here’s a cool site that lets you “mix” two webpages together. Taking the content from one and the layout of the other, it make a composite of the two pages. I thought it was kinda neat to see the blog formatted like CNN.
Until tomorrow, Dave out.
Also written on this day...
- in my hands - 2021
- ain't no flies on me - 2011
- who am i to mess with tradition? - 2009
- ready for the weekend - 2007
- it's no good, don't bother - 2006
- disrobe for peace - 2005
O.K. I took a moment to read a bit of the “why I hate blog’s” report and I must say That I thought it was pretty funny. Who would write such hypocritical piece of crap? The guy obviously has a problem with other people posting their thoughts/ideas on the web, so what does this brilliant genius do? He writes down his ideas and posts them on the web! What a hypocrite! Don’t let negative people like this get you down. Consider the source.