They Are On Your Side

Now that the weather has turned colder and Scorpio rules the night sky, many people’s thoughts turn to various winter gift giving Gift-Giving-Guide-for-Executives holidays (Yule, Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukkah).  This means many of you will throng to retail stores like flies to rotten meat.  And get very, very stressed when dealing with the store workers.  They will seem like idiots.  They will seem like they are out to get you. 

I worked retail for about ten years, and I can reveal to you that retail employees are actually more scared of you than you can possibly realise.  Before you go holiday shopping, relax knowing the truth about what it’s like to be a retail store worker during November and December.  And then pity them.

 Yes, We Have No Bananas

If a retail worker seems clueless, that’s because they are.  Retail workers are given only the barest miminum in training — usually only how to use the cash register, how to read their work schedule and that’s it.  This is why they always have to ask the manager a question.  Stores do not think it is worth giving seasonal employees extensive training, since they’ll be gone in January.  If a retail worker hangs about longer, they are fired or pressured to quit so they do not have to be given a raise. The retail industry relies on having the vast majority of their workers be paid minimum wage only.

They Haven’t Slept Since October

Very few retail workers have steady schedules.  Most often, they are on swing shift.  In my time in retail, there were days I had to work until midnight and then had to be at my register at six the next morning.  This takes an incredible toll on physical health, ability to concentrate and to pick up lots of details.  If you have a complaint, don’t go on a tangent — please get to the point so you can be pointed in the right direction.

They Have To Say A Lot Of Crap

It is a requirement of many retial store workers to answer the phone with a particular sentence, to pitch the store credit card as soon as you walk in the door and to go through a litany of seemingly stupid questions when you get to the register.  The workers can’t help this.  They hate it just as much as you do.  In order to make the situation as painless as possible, just let them babble on through the sales pitch as quickly as possible. 

When a retail store worker, especially a register worker, talks to you, they will often sound like a robot.  That’s because of a combination of stress, exhaustion and having to say the prerequisite "please apply for a store card" chant.  After eight hours of this, let alone eight weeks, you can’t help but sound like a robot.  Please, shopers, do not take the monotone personally.

Make a Retail Worker’s Day

Just say "Please" and "Thank you."  This is the equivelent of giving a comforting hug.  Sometimes a genuine smile from a customer was enough to keep me from bursting out into tears.

And please, don’t take buying a sky blue and not navy blue belly button lint remover as an insult.  Stuff is not what holdiays are about.  It’s saying "Please" and "Thank you."

Together, we can get through this."

HAHAHAHAHAHA !
sorry....it just sounded funny....
Tuesday February 26, 2008



"The client is not always right."  --Enzo Ferrari

Here is a video of the owner of the world's only Ferrari P 4/5.  It is essentially a modified Enzo Ferrari in the spirit of the very classic Ferrari P 3/4.  Enjoy !


Monday February 25, 2008

I LOVE this website:  http://icanhascheezburger.com/

here is your cuteness and silliness for this evening:



For the Biblically inclined, you may wish to contribute to the translation of the entire Bible into the language of today's egghead youth by visiting the following website as well:  www.lolcatbible.com  All you really have to remember is that God is referred to as "Ceiling Cat."  Here is the first chapter of Genesis translated:

"

2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.

3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1

6 An Ceiling Cat sayed, im in ur waterz makin a ceiling. But he no yet make a ur. An he maded a hole in teh Ceiling.7 An Ceiling Cat doed teh skiez with waterz down An waterz up. It happen.8 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has teh firmmint wich iz funny bibel naim 4 ceiling, so wuz teh twoth day.

9 An Ceiling Cat gotted all teh waterz in ur base, An Ceiling Cat hadz dry placez cuz kittehs DO NOT WANT get wet.10 An Ceiling Cat called no waterz urth and waters oshun. Iz good.

11 An Ceiling Cat sayed, DO WANT grass! so tehr wuz seedz An stufs, An fruitzors An vegbatels. An a Corm. It happen.12 An Ceiling Cat sawed that weedz ish good, so, letz there be weedz.13 An so teh threeth day jazzhands.

14 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has lightz in the skiez for splittin day An no day.15 It happen, lights everwear, like christmass, srsly.16 An Ceiling Cat doeth two grate lightz, teh most big for day, teh other for no day.17 An Ceiling Cat screw tehm on skiez, with big nails An stuff, to lite teh Urfs.18 An tehy rulez day An night. Ceiling Cat sawed. Iz good.19 An so teh furth day w00t.

20 An Ceiling Cat sayed, waterz bring me phishes, An burds, so kittehs can eat dem. But Ceiling Cat no eated dem.21 An Ceiling Cat maed big fishies An see monstrs, which wuz like big cows, except they no mood, An other stuffs dat mooves, An Ceiling Cat sawed iz good.22 An Ceiling Cat sed O hai, make bebehs kthx. An dont worry i wont watch u secksy, i not that kynd uf kitteh.23 An so teh...fith day. Ceiling Cat taek a wile 2 cawnt.

24 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has MOAR living stuff, mooes, An creepie tings, An otehr aminals. It happen so tehre.25 An Ceiling Cat doed moar living stuff, mooes, An creepies, An otehr animuls, An did not eated tehm.

26 An Ceiling Cat sayed, letz us do peeps like uz, becuz we ish teh qte, An let min p0wnz0r becuz tehy has can openers.

27 So Ceiling Cat createded teh peeps taht waz like him, can has can openers he maed tehm, min An womin wuz maeded, but he did not eated tehm.

28 An Ceiling Cat sed them O hai maek bebehs kthx, An p0wn teh waterz, no waterz An teh firmmint, An evry stufs.

29 An Ceiling Cat sayed, Beholdt, the Urfs, I has it, An I has not eated it.30 For evry createded stufs tehre are the fuudz, to the burdies, teh creepiez, An teh mooes, so tehre. It happen. Iz good.

LOL !! =p

That will be all for today's posting.

Tuesday February 19, 2008

Last night I decided to replace my rear Eibach springs with the Cobbs so I have a matching set (Cobb sport springs all around).  Initially I was worried that they were raising the car up in the back, which just goes to show that you can't judge ride height until the springs are actually on the car, bolted down and maybe drive the car around the block a few times incase the struts need to compress a little.  So, ride height looks great as of last night, back looks just as low as the Eibachs did, but now I can sell my Eibach set and pay off part of my blow off valve, haha. (That guy was expensive).  I was thinking next perhaps doing an STI hood scoop or a different wing.  I know some people don't like the STI wings but I think the high wing and high scoop with a lowered car gives it a cool looking profile.  Then I could always do a bigger turbo and injectors and be as fast as an STI anyways for not too expensive.  People are always selling and upgrading to bigger turbos or going back to stock to sell their car and upgrade.  Any suggestions??  I like carbon fiber stuff, might look cool on a black car.  =)

Check this out, this guy's intake blows up (not sure how that happens, I am thinking that he may have it rigged to do that unless other things blew up in his engine also, anyways, have a look, it's fun....)  Actually, now that I watched it a second time looks like his engine went, oh well, haha !



Sunday February 17, 2008

Here are some pics I put together of work I recently did on my 2004 Subaru WRX sedan.

The first picture is a collage showing the differences in wheel gaps before and after installing Cobb Sport Springs in the front of my WRX.  On the left are two photos with the OEM or stock struts and springs for a 2004 WRX.  On the right are photos after lowering the car with Cobb Sport Springs in front and Eibach Pro Kit springs in the rear of my WRX.  I am repeating some things intentionally here in case it helps search engines find my website easier for other curious Subaru enthusiasts out there.



Next up is a photo collage showing the stock Subaru OEM recirculating turbo bypass valve mounted to the fron of my 2004 WRX sedan intercooler.  On the right is my newly installed Go Fast Bits (or GFB) Stealth FX fully adjustable recirculating/vent to atmosphere blow off valve.  It has rotating parts at the end of its barrel shape.  The top ring adjusts the spring pressure which pushes the internal piston shut after it is finished venting the extra air charge from the turbo heading into the engine intake.  The middle ring rotates 360 degrees and has the vacuum line nipple attached to it which is part of the system controlling when the valve decides to vent.  The lowest ring is responsible for adjusting how much of the pressurized air is recirculated back into the intake and how much is vented directly to the engine bay.  



For those who don't know about blow off valves:
A turbocharger is a performance part on some cars (like a Subaru WRX Impreza or a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution or "Evo") which is basically an air compressor forcing very high pressure air into an engine to create a lot of power.  A turbo has a turbine fan inside which spins very very fast.  The turbo on my car, if my information is accurate, can spin up to 150,000rpm.  While this is spinning those fan blades are blowing air at high pressure into the cylinders of the engine, which, when mixed with the correct amount of fuel, makes a lot of power from a very small and lightweight engine.  Most 2.0 liter 4 cylinder engines produce between 120 and 140 horsepower.  My engine is a turbocharged 2.0 liter flat "boxer" 4 cylinder Subaru EJ20 that produces 227 horsepower.  Some of this energy is lost through the transmission, other things attached like the air conditioning system and inefficiencies inherent to any engine (it's all physics and mechanics), so it actually only puts out about 170 horsepower at the actual tires.  A typical 4 cylinder car will produce 100 horsepower or less at the tires.  
So.  A turbo forces air into the engine and it spins very very fast.  When I take my foot off of the gas, this turbo is still spinning very very fast except that the fuel is now cut off, so you have to cut the air suppy to the engine to balance things.  A plate (so I have heard) that controls air going into the engine shuts when my foot comes off of the gas pedal and all this air from the turbo crashes into it backing up into the turbo and making it slow down very quickly (and ultimately with destructive results).  Imagine you are going 600 miles per hour and slowing down very quickly to a full stop in 1 second.  This is what would happen if that pressure didn't have someplace to go if the engine decided not to let it into the cylinders.  
This is where a bypass or blow off valve comes in.  A bypass valve directs that pressurized air back into the intake through some special piping.  A blow off valve simply lets it out into the open air or "atmosphere."  My new valve is currently set to "vent to atmosphere."  This is one of the coolest things about having a car with a turbo in it because when you let your foot off the gas pedal (as when shifting gears) the pressurized air being vented makes a loud "PSHHH!" sound.  I have a special optional "trumpet" on mine that makes a whistling sound if the pressure (or "boost") is high enough.  It only whistles when I have been accelerating hard.  After lower acceleration it makes more of a whoosh sound, and if I have accelerated very slowly the turbo may not have generated any pressure at all and there will be no sound.

Lastly, a friend of mine is planning to sell a set of four Motegi FF6 17" wheels in black with 235mm tires that I will be buying when the weather warms up a little bit and the snow goes away.  They look like these but without the silver lip around the edge of the rim.



Okay dokey.  That's all for today.  Goodnight all !

Thursday February 14, 2008

Howdy and Happy Valentine's Day !  Welcome back after my few weeks off from the website.  Here is the amazing video of the day, it is a drum loop recording circuit.  Hard to explain, just watch the video, really sweet.



Also, since last talking I installed my new springs, my front height dropped a bit, but only after I cut off 2/3rds of the rubber bump stop around the strut shafts up front (the rear didn't change any after cutting the bump stop down).  AND, I installed a Go Fast Bits Stealth FX, fully adjustable hybrid blow off valve, had problems with it, took it off, cut down the spring just a tiny bit, reinstalled and adjusted the spring tension some more and now it works fine.  The original problem was compressor surge from the valve not venting at lower boost levels and backing up air into the turbo (very bad), but with a lightened spring it vents now without surging at all levels of boost.  My Cobb Accessport v2.0 is another new toy I have in my posession and have been using for a few weeks.  I have my ECU re-flashed to Stage 2 93 octane with High wastegate setting and I am hitting a maximum so far of 16lbs of boost.  I had to shorten my wastegate arm by four turns of the threaded end but the car pulls a heck of a lot more now.  Andy from work informs me that if I replace my headers and up-pipe going into the turbo and possibly switching to larger exhaust piping I will be up a lot more power.  Stock engine horsepower on a 2004 WRX is 227.  With my current setup I could be anywhere from 250hp to 270hp.  In terms of wheel horsepower (according to lots of reading about other people dyno testing their cars with the same settings) a stock WRX has 169hp at the tires.  Currently with just my ECU reflashing and wastegate adjustment I should be hitting over 200hp at the wheels with no question.  And the blow off valve just serves the purpose of sounding like the coolest thing ever when shifting =)  Here is a video of what a blow off valve sounds like in case anyone reading doesn't know:



Wednesday January 30, 2008

Today's video is episode 3 part 2 of the Periodic Review of NASIOC North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club :
 



Friday January 25, 2008

My Cobb Sport WRX lowering springs should be here on Monday (leaving me Tuesday to install them) for a more dramatic lowering of the car.  I also just ordered an adjustable hybrid blow-off valve for the WRX by Go Fast Bits, which will probably take about one week to arrive also, that should install in an hour or less, the springs will take a whole day most likely....hopefully it won't be too too cold in the garage that day =)

Funny video my friend Rach sent me !



Wednesday January 23, 2008

Currently in Detroit, the North American International Auto Show is in full swing (continuing through Sunday January 27th), but in early February we have our own to look forward to.  The Buffalo Auto Show will be held this year (as always) at the Buffalo Convention Center and I will be present with my camera and hopefully some good photos will follow.  For those who aren't big on the cars themselves, you can meet Buffalo Sabres Ryan Miller and Brian Campbell on Thursday evening from 7-8pm.  Many other exciting things as well I am sure.  See you there !!!



Sunday January 20, 2008

Okay.  The Eibach Pro-Kit springs I installed on my WRX a month or so ago aren't quite what I had in mind.....soooo, I have ordered another set to try out.  Cobb makes a set of sport springs that are supposed to lower the car 2.0" in the front compared to stock height.  The Eibach's were supposed to drop it 1.2" in the front I think....they appeared to actually lower it about 0.5" compared to the springs that I had on it.  One possibility is that the springs that the car came with were not the stock springs.  My car has a few other things that I don't think were factory options, so the previous owner may have done some tinkering of his own and not told anyone when he traded the car in....well, we will see how this set does and I might just sell the Eibach's.  I would really like to do a bunch more modifications in the future, but money is the main limiting factor.  More power, bigger wheels, bigger brakes, body kit and wider tires would all be awesome.  And let's not forget a nice loud blowoff valve (I was considering getting one of those today when I ordered the springs, but maybe I will save those for next week).  Ah well, night night.



Sunday January 13, 2008

Today's fun fact brought to you by PBS:

    If New York City had the same population density as Alaska, the population would be 16.

Also, my car informed me a few days ago that it wishes for some upgrades.  I have broken down the list of essentials and some photos of the approximate end result:

I am accepting sponsorships and for your contributions you will recieve an authentic handshake.  =)






Wednesday January 9, 2008

Also, anybody remember this TV series from the 1980's?  If you like street bikes check it out....a motorcycle that goes 300mph and has built-in rockets and machine guns !



Happy New Year, hope everyone enjoyed their holiday from my website ! haha.  Here is my funny video of the day:

Nice mustang vs a cop car Funny!

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