Oct 28 2006

KPro failure

I can’t believe that the problems have already started and I haven’t even gotten the D17 out of my car. I got a call from Eddie at TrueHonda and apparently my PRC ECU is one out of about 10,000 that can’t receive the KPro chip. So, he is supposed to get a different ECU on Monday and try to KPro that one for me. However, according to him, it doesn’t matter which ECU (PND, PRB, PRD, et cetera) is used, because once it is KProed, they are all the same. HOWEVER, according to Hondata (the manufacturer of the KPro system), only the PRB will work because it is made for the 6-speed transmissions. If any of the 5-speed ECUs are used, I will not have reverse-lockout.

So far, this is not going well. I haven’t heard back from Eddie, so I hope he calls by Monday.

|:| Zach |:|

Oct 27 2006

This is just plain cruel!

I don’t know why things have to break or go wrong all at the same time. I would say that it is common knowledge that my camera is my favourite toy that I own. I was looking at a shot I took recently that I completely loved when I noticed a strange spot in the image. I thought maybe it was just in that picture, but then I saw it in another shot.

At that point, I thought it was something to do with my Macro lens. I cleaned the filter on the lens and then took a test shot –> the spot was still there. So, I about cried when I thought it was my lens. I cleaned the whole lens and took another test shot –> the spot was still there.

I decided to try another lens and see if it showed up. I attached my 100-400mm L and took a test shot –> the spot was still there in the same exact location. Now I’ve narrowed it down; it has to be something with the actual camera body. So, I figured it was probably on the image sensor. I went through the procedures in the owner’s manual on cleaning the image sensor. I took another test shot –> the spot was still there. Now I’m sure there is something wrong with the actual camera body, and the spot that I’m seeing is EXACTLY what it says happens when there is a speck of dust on the image sensor. However, I tried cleaning it by using the recommended blower, and it obviously didn’t work. I’m really at a loss for what to do next.

My camera is my baby, and I don’t know what I’m going to do if something is wrong with it. The only good news is that it is under warranty. However, they don’t make that particular model anymore, so I don’t know how I would get a replacement.

Here are some of the images with the spot pointed out. The ones that say “crop” are NOT the full image, but just a crop of the flaw. The others are the full images with the flaw pointed out.

Flaw 1
Flaw 2
Flaw 3
Flaw 1 — crop
Flaw 2 — crop
Flaw 3 — crop

I guess I’ll be paying a visit to the camera shop for more than one reason this weekend.

|:| Zach |:|

Oct 26 2006

The perils of papers

Homework, домашнее задание, thuiswerk, preparación, heimarbeit, εργασία, lavoro, travail, or whatever else you want to call it. I am definitely sick of doing it today. I wrote a grand total of 6 papers today, and when combined with the ones from yesterday, 10. Not that paper writing is a difficult task for me, but it is difficult to stay focused for that many hours. I simply don’t like writing papers on topics that I find to be totally useless, and these fell smack-dab in the middle of the “useless” category.

After all that work, there’s still work to be done. Out of those 10 papers, not all of them were totally useless; just the ones for my Education in a Diverse Society course. I also worked on several of the quasi-book-reports for my Kiddy Lit portfolio. That portfolio is actually a really nice break from things like Mann-Whitney U hypothesis testing and the likes. I still have a ton of books to do for my portfolio, but most of them are beautifully simplistic stories. The one I just finished up tonight was called No, David! by David Shannon. It is a stunningly illustrated book about unconditional love. The ending of the book actually made me a little teary-eyed. You need to check it out. 🙂

Anyway, after that little sidebar about Kiddy Lit, the fact still remains that I’m sick of homework! The worst part is that I’m not even done with the first week of the second-half of the term.

Wish me luck.

|:| Zach |:|