Oct 17 2006

And on the third day…

Zach blogged again! I have been busy with all sorts of things lately and haven’t had a chance to write to you, world. Now that things have settled a bit, maybe I should recap the events of the past few days.

Friday, I did homework so that I wouldn’t have to do a whole bunch of it over the break. I still have a good amount to do, but I probably won’t get to that until later this week.

Saturday, I spent the day running around town getting things for my car (like cluster pinouts) and looking for new camera equipment. I found the perfect set of tripod legs and a grip-head. I also found the shutter release cable that I need. I was surprised that all three pieces only cost $320 before tax! That’s way cheaper than I would have expected.

Sunday, I went over to Uncle Steve’s house to setup his DSL. However, I found out that I couldn’t because his computer is fried. It was too old to bother upgrading and repairing, so I’m building him a new one instead. When I got back in my car (the red one, not the Civic) it decided that the tranny didn’t want to work anymore. Alas, nothing but reverse. So, I had to get a ride home from Uncle Steve, which I’m sure he loved.

And lastly, today I had to take my Mom to work bright and early (well, dark and early actually). Then I picked her up at 14:00. For the past several hours, I’ve been running errands. I got a lot of stuff done, but it wasn’t the nicest of weather outside to be running around.

Hopefully I won’t miss three days in a row again for a long time.
Take care for now.

|:| Zach |:|

Oct 13 2006

Misplaced modifiers…something to Speak of!

I’m reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak right now and I stumbled upon a really interesting misplaced modifier in a sentence. A little over halfway through the book (p. 108 in the softcover Platinum Edition — ISBN: 0142407321), Melinda states that:

“It is easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school.”

Before going further, maybe it would be best to define a “misplaced modifier” for all of you that aren’t exactly English nerds like I am. According to The Writers’ Workshop at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, misplaced modifiers are:

“single words, phrases, or clauses that do not point clearly to the word or words they modify. As a rule, related words usually should be kept together.”

An example taken from the site is:

“The robber was described as a tall man with a black moustache weighing 150 pounds.”

In that example, the sloppy wording makes it sound like the moustache weighs 150 pounds, which is clearly incorrect. Now that you’ve seen an example, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with the line from Speak. 🙂

Anderson’s wording makes it seem like Melinda believes that liking a middle-schooler is harder than “flossing with barbed wire.” This grammatical error made me laugh out loud because I took it at face value. I thought Melinda was thinking of herself as a “grown-up highschooler” now and wouldn’t consider junior-high boys because they are all babies.

And now, I decline.

|:| Zach |:|

Oct 11 2006

Welcome our new visitor to the states

Today is a very special day! We have a new permanent resident in the United States. What’s his or her name you might ask? Well for now, let’s just call him Kyle, and for the sake of argument we’ll say that he is 20-years-old, but in truth he’s only 3, going on 4. Who is this mysterious person? Actually, it isn’t a person at all. My new K20 engine (haha, laugh at the joke about Kyle and 20-years-old). It is a real JDM K20a Type-R engine and complete swap out of a 2004 ITR. Here’s a picture of the beautiful beast:

Click to enlarge:

That is what will be going into the Z-Ride when it arrives in Saint Louis. Other than that, nothing much will be upgraded; just an AEM V2 CAI, and Exedy OEM clutch and a K-pro ECU (if absolutely necessary).

That’s all for now, but I’ll keep you posted on the status of Kyle.

|:| Zach |:|