We decided to hold off going camping until today, so as soon as we get the camper loaded, we're outta here. It's going to be damn hot today, and I'm wishing we were going somewhere high up in the mountains, but I'd rather be close to town in case something goes terribly wrong (I have this great fear of propane explosions for some reason). I still don't know what we're going to do while we're camping, 'cause it's just my wife, my son, and I...I guess we'll probably end up playing card games and reading most of the time.

Allen finally got a site running again, with a badass new name: Alle/n

Kmart is ceasing the sale of all handgun ammo. Yeah, that ought to curb handgun violence. I wonder when people are going to realize that if somebody wants to kill somebody else, they will find the means to do so, regardless of Kmart's decision, and regardless of the law. Murder is against the law, period, and people willing to commit murder won't think twice about breaking handgun laws, or *gasp* going to an actual sporting goods store rather than a department store.

I'm going to get a sticker like this to put on the back window of my camper:

The oil seal on my truck's rear diff was letting some oil through still, so I had to torque the nut quite a bit more. Hopefully that will take care of the problem, but I'm not so sure it will...I torqued it to 120 ft-lbs, but after I put my driveline back on, I found out that it should have been 140 ft-lbs. My repair manual didn't specify a torque reading, but my father-in-law had a manual that did, and he didn't show me until after I had returned his torque wrench. Oh well, I can always tighten it more later if I need to.

There was another article in the public forum of the Tribune today about the "gay display" at a library in northern Utah, and the children who were forced by their parents to protest it. This one talks about a tv news story about the library in which a little kid was asked why he was protesting. According to this article, "he said he didn't really know anything about homosexuality and really didn't know what the display was about, but it was wrong and homosexuality was wrong."

I'm sure the kid's father or mother just said, "Just shut up and hold this sign. I don't want to hear any complaining out of you." You know how parents can be. I'm just determined not to be such an asshole to my children. Forcing them to promote a very adult agenda, one with which they may not agree when they're old enough to know what's going on, is simply wrong.

Update (6/29): Here is yet another public forum article from the Trib.

I just got done doing a lot of work on my camper. I vacuumed everything, then washed everything down with tons of soapy water. I made some makeshift steps out of cinderblocks and some particle board--they'll have to do until I can either buy or build some sturdy steps. I spent a good deal of time yesterday making sure the fridge, stove, and heater all work, and tomorrow I gotta clean and fill the water tank and toilet, and make sure the water pump works. My wife is in the middle of re-upholstering all the seat cushions and making new curtains. Hopefully we'll be all finished Friday, which is when we're going camping. We chose a camping spot fairly close to town, since all we're doing is making sure everything in the camper works during regular use. The instant I get back into town on Sunday and get all cleaned up, I'm going to Ty's to borrow his tape of SG-1 season five episode one.

In about three weeks, my wife's family reunion is coming up. After what happened last time, I'm either going to be anti-social and stay inside the camper the whole time reading a book, or I'll spend the entire time away from camp riding my bike and fishing and hiking. I certainly don't want to be around those people for three days straight.

Something shitty is going on. Justin shut his site down. The James shut his site down. Solo is doing god knows what with his site. Same with Naim. And several other people are updating very infrequently. Could this suck any worse?

Here is a damn funny response to a Salt Lake Trib article I posted about a few days ago.

Go wish Ty a happy birthday...he's a quarter of a century old today. =)

There are times when I really wish I could peer into somebody's mind and figure out just what in the hell is going on in there. Today on the drive to work, I was following three semis, all from the same trucking company. I passed the last one in line on a dotted yellow, so I was sandwiched between the first two and the last one. When our lane opened up into two lanes, the first semi immediately got over to the right, but the truck in front of me stayed over to the left. I only waited a few seconds to give him his shot at getting the fuck out of my way, then I gunned it and took off to the right. Just about as my front bumper cleared the back of his trailer, the fucker signaled and started getting in the right lane. I said, "Fuck that," and kept my foot on the pedal. He eventually stopped moving to the right, after almost squishing my car against the cement barrier. So I get around this asshole, and cut the wheel hard left to cut him off while getting around his buddy in the front, and the truck in front moves over to the left! Asshole. So I had to cut right again and fly past the other moron doing about 90.

It almost makes you wonder if they plan shit like that in advance, 'cause there's no reason for a convoy of three trucks from the same company to be blocking all the fucking lanes.

I got my new glasses today. I got this pair in a translucent grey color, and a pair of Converse Voltage frames that I can't find a picture of on the net. The prescription is just slightly different than my old one (from eight years ago), and the only time I really notice is when I'm walking up or down stairs. I am getting a headache, and I'm sure it's being caused by that tiny difference in prescriptions.

I purposefully didn't watch today's NASCAR race, mostly because I was pretty sure Jeff Gordon would win, but also partly because I don't like road courses. And now I'm pissed at myself for not watching, because Tony Stewart won. That puts him fourth in points, definitely in contention for the championship this year. I'd like to see him kick Jeff Gordon's ass all over the place. =)

I just spent a couple of hours fixing up my news archives. I got all of 1998 and 1999's archives prettied up...they were all just manually archived files anyway. The beginning of 2000 is manually archived as well, and another part is in News Publisher's format, so I'll have to do some text manipulation to separate all the posts and organize them in files by month. The last few months of 2000 and part of 2001 are in Blogger format, so those need even more work, since they're categorized by week, and there's much more extraneous code to sort through. I've really got my work cut out for me, but when I'm finished, it will have been worth it.

I also did a quick and simple layout for all the archives, and it should be easier to change layouts after I get all the different formats of archives standardized. I probably have several more hours of work before it's all finished.

This is just amazing: A public library in Utah has refused to remove gay-themed books and a "gay and lesbian pride month" sign, even after several complaints by stupid Mormons. Normally, I would expect the local government to support such censorship, but a library official said, "We're simply recognizing we have gay citizens. They pay taxes. We're committed to serving them as we would any other part of the population." This is a nearly unheard of stance in Utah, and I praise the library for saying "fuck you" to all the assholes who voiced complaints.

Oh, and you can't tell me the little boy in the picture in that article is picketing of his own free will. I'm willing to bet he doesn't really give a shit about the whole deal, but his dad made him stand there holding that sign. That's what really makes me sick about this state--children are told what to believe starting from the time they're able to understand human speech, and not given a choice in the matter. The LDS church baptizes children at age 8...way too young to make informed decisions about anything as important as which religion to choose, if any.

Well, Mars isn't any better-looking tonight than it was last night. I guess my telescope just sucks. You can more clearly make out the shape of the planet through the telescope, but can't see any detail at all...it's just too small.

I'm pretty happy, I found my Cake - Fashion Nugget CD, after being lost for more than a year. Somehow, it ended up in my Snoop Dogg CD case. Damn, this is a good album.

I tried to take a peek at Mars last night through the telescope, but it didn't look much bigger than with the naked eye. Hopefully tonight will be better. I went outside last night around dusk, and was looking at airliners flying overhead. I was actually able to make out the Delta logo on one of them, which was pretty cool. Planes are extremely hard to follow with a telescope--they travel the entire viewing width in about a second.

Some guy called me last night asking about my car. He said he was going to stop by today and take a look at it, but never showed up. Some Japanese college students took it for a spin last week, but I never heard back from them either. I hope I sell that thing soon...I desperately need a new car.

I got back from Provo after 8:00 last night, and I spent a little time on the computer before laying down to take what was supposed to be a short nap. I had gotten up at 6:00 yesterday morning, and was dead tired after a full day of work and several hours driving. Anyway, I didn't wake up 'til 5:30 a.m. this morning...I just got up and pissed, then undressed and got under the covers and slept for another couple of hours.

Since I got so much sleep, I was able to start work a little earlier than usual, so I think I'm going to do some yard work when I get off work. I really need to clean up my back yard--there are a lot of dead weeds and tree branches and rocks that need to be hauled off--but I have to find a way to get my truck back there. My camper is in my driveway, and I am not going to move it, so I can't get in through the front. I might be able to get in through the back (from my mom's yard, which is adjacent to mine), but there are some rose bushes and an irrigation ditch in my way. The ditch wouldn't be a problem if my front driveline was intact, but I still haven't fixed it...I think if I put a railroad tie in the ditch, though, my truck can make it over. I'm not sure if my mom cares about the rose bushes, so I guess I'll ask her before I run over them.

Since I inadvertently slept so long yesterday evening, I forgot to take the trash out to the curb, so I gotta take the garbage can out to the landfill. That's the only reason I'm going to do any yard work at all, because hauling all that stuff off will make the trip to the landfill worth it.

When people say such stupid things as this, they really should be shot and killed. This guy suggests that "gas-guzzling" and "useless" SUVs should be taxed to pay for energy research.

I completely fail to see how the shape of a vehicle should qualify it for heavier taxes than other vehicles. It's ridiculous to think that a Caddilac Deville with its 4.6L V8 or a Ford F-350 with a fucking huge 7.3L diesel shouldn't be included in this guy's rant, all because of their shape. Most SUVs are built on a truck platform, with the same available engines, but this guy doesn't mention Ford Rangers or Toyota Tacomas, either.

People who bitch about SUVs really need to shut the fuck up. After all, it's not the soccer moms driving their kids to the mall in their 20 mpg SUV that you need to worry about--it's me, in my 10 mpg Ford F-150. Try focusing on real-life facts, not emotional bias.

Damn shitty little black ants...they're crawling all over my computer room. I guess it's time to clean this place up and vacuum them all up.

When I got finally around to unclogging my kitchen drain pipe today, I didn't think it would involve the use of a blowtorch, a hacksaw, and six hours of my time. One of the pipes under the sink broke when I was trying to remove all of them, so I decided to replace everything with PVC. I also decided to replace the drains, 'cause they were old and looking shitty. One of the drains wouldn't come off the sink, so the blowtorch and hacksaw came in handy. When I got the drains installed, I tackled the clog...I played out all but eight inches of the pipe snake before it hit the clog, so I'm damn lucky I didn't have to go buy a longer one. After I put all the new pipes together, I had several leaks, including both drains (which just needed more plumber's putty).

When I finally got everything in working order, six hours had passed from when I started, which included two trips to the hardware store. I made quite a mess of the kitchen, so I cleaned it all up, then did some dishes that had been sitting around since the drain got clogged a couple of days ago. I hadn't eaten anything all day, so I was pretty exhausted when I was totally finished.

I had always thought being a plumber would be a decent job, 'cause they charge so much for what seems to be a relatively small amount of work, but now I know better. Plumbing is a hard and usually disgusting job.

It's strange actually being a father on father's day. It doesn't really feel any different, but it just reminds me that I'm somebody's dad now.

I'm getting new glasses on Tuesday. I figured I'd just go to America's Best and get two pairs for $80...even if they're cheap quality, they're better than the glasses I have now. My last pair broke quite a while ago, and I've been wearing an even older pair since. I'm probably going to get one pair of Daniel Jackson glasses and one pair of Jack O'Neill prescription shades. Which reminds me, less than two weeks 'til season five of SG-1 starts...woohoo!

The derby was great. One of the guys in it got a little out of hand, seemingly trying to kill people rather than disable their vehicles, but two brothers ganged up on him in the last round and took him out for good. I came home smelling very strongly of exhaust and probably many other automotive fluids. During the last round, the entire arena was so filled with tire smoke and steam from radiators that I could barely see the other side.

I'd like to enter a car in a demolition derby some year, but it'll probably be quite a while before I can afford to do it, and I'd need at least one other person to give me a hand with everything. Just building the car would be fun, but driving would be badass. I hear Solo has a car that would be good in a derby. =)

The drain pipe for my kitchen sink is clogged very badly (it takes several hours to drain about ¼" of water), and I've been trying for a couple of hours to get it unclogged. Two bottles of Drano did absolutely no good, so today I tried to get a pipe snake down there, but I can't make it past one of the bends in the pipe. So I gotta wait 'til all the water drains out of the sink, then disassemble all my drain pipes 'til I can get the snake in.

My wife and I were going to go to the demolition derby tonight, but my wife forgot about a friend's baby shower that she has to go to, so I'm taking my mom with me instead. My mom was going to babysit Michael while Traci and I went, but I'm sure she'll enjoy going to the derby much more.

I really need to put a new poll up, but can't think of a decent question...anybody got any ideas?

I went over to my mom's and got my telescope today (well, I guess it's mine, she told me to come get it). Mars is supposed to be really close to Earth in a few days, close enough to make out cloud formations and land forms, so I'm gonna see what I can see. I went up on Wood Hill today with the telescope to make sure I had all the lenses attached correctly, and I could clearly make out the Chevron sign out at the airport's gas station, probably about four miles away, so I guess it's working properly.

God damn, this is some nasty-ass weather we're having. It's the middle of June, and I've got my furnace on 'cause it's 50 degrees outside. What next, snow?

I guess the battery in my camper is shit. It looks pretty new, but it won't take a charge. In fact, after six hours of charging, it could still barely light three 12-volt bulbs, and it was making a bubbling noise. I was worried it was either going to explode or leak acid all over the place, so I took it out of the camper and put it outside in the driveway. There's an external plug for 120-volt power on the camper, so I hooked it up to the house power to make sure everything worked. When I turned on the breaker inside, one of the light bulbs exploded--it was a 12V bulb in a 120V fixture. At least I know all the wiring works, I just need to get the power situation worked out. =)

I'm surprised this is still up. =) I still don't know who the hell did all that...

I bought a battery charger to charge the battery in my camper, and the damn thing seems to think my battery is fully charged. I had to switch to manual operation so it would charge no matter what, but now I have to check it every once in a while to make sure it isn't over-charging the battery. I'm probably going to take the charger back to Wal-Mart after the battery is charged and just buy a better one when I can afford it. Cheap chargers run about $30, but the nice ones are around $60 or more. I think I'm going to get one that can provide enough power to turn an engine over while charging.

I cleaned out my car yesterday and bought some for-sale signs, so hopefully I'll be rid of it before the registration expires at the end of this month. If I don't sell it before then, I'm just not going to drive it at all. I damn well don't wanna spend another dime on that car.

My wife and I were going to come back home fairly early yesterday after getting the camper, but Mike got tickets to the Starzz game at the Delta Center, so we went to that. We had seats in one of the suites, and it was sweet. The game actually wasn't all that cool--the Starzz got their asses kicked--but it was fun eating and drinking in the suite.

We got home after 1:00 a.m. last night, and it was a long drive. My truck handled pretty well with the camper on it, but it was slow-going up the steep canyon roads. I'm really happy with the camper...the guy I bought it from didn't clean it out at all, but it's in decent condition, and everything works on it. We're going to clean it out and do a few other things to it and go camping in a few weeks just to get the hang of how everything works. I might need to add a few leafs to the rear springs on my truck, 'cause they flatten out pretty badly with that camper on. I definitely need to get some mounting brackets to secure the camper to the truck...I had to use some ratchet tie-downs to hold it in place on the way home.

While I was up in Salt Lake, I heard Alien Ant Farm's cover of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal on the radio, and it's a pretty badass song. I downloaded it and am listening to it now...it's much better than Michael Jackson's version. =)

That new-fangled cherry Mountain Dew is some god damned good stuff. And Wal-Mart has 20 ouncers for 72¢. Gotta go get me some.

Out of the multitude of junkyards in Utah County, only two have 240SXs, one of which was closed today. I found the bolt I needed, but not the mounting bracket. Oh well, I can make-do with the bolt for now.

I got a new bed today, it's really comfortable. I was gonna get a Serta from Sam's Club, but ended up getting a Sealy from The Mattress Firm. It came in at under $400, which isn't bad for a decent queen-size.

I'm going to start work at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, so I can head up to Salt Lake City before 3:00. I'm staying at Mikey's place tomorrow night, then I'm gonna pick up the camper and head back home sometime Saturday evening. It's gonna be really cool having a camper...we're definitely gonna have to go to Lake Powell this summer now...um, well, maybe after we get a boat. =)

Well, I got my truck completely fixed, and it's damn smooth now. I got up to 90 mph on the highway right after I finished installing the new u-joints, and the driveline didn't vibrate one bit. I had to jam one of the u-joints into the yoke pretty hard in order to get the retaining clip to seat, and afterwards I could barely turn the joint with my hands, but it seems to work without any problems. And so far, not a drop of oil has leaked around the new oil seal.

That bolt from my car ended up being the one that connects the control arm to a bracket on the frame, so I'm damn lucky that I made it home without incident this morning. I guess it was actually better than it being from the tie-rod, 'cause I would definitely have wrecked if that were the case. None of the auto parts stores in town carry such specific items as that bolt, and even the mining equipment supply store couldn't find anything like it. When I go into work on Thursday, I'm going to stop by a junkyard and get one, plus a new rim if I can find one. The right-front rim on my car is bent pretty badly (the vibration from which probably caused that bolt to come loose), and a small part of the tire is worn down to the steel belt.

I was heading up to Provo for work today in the Nissan, along with my wife and son, and something broke off my car and made a lot of clunking noises before it finally bounced out from underneath. I looked out the rearview, and saw that something bouncing along the road still. I had to drive for another half-mile before I could safely pull off the road, and I got out and checked things out. I couldn't see anything missing from under the hood, and it seemed to drive ok still, but I didn't want to chance anything and continue driving. So we turned around to have a gander at what exactly fell off the car. It turned out to be a six-inch bolt, and I think it's the bolt that holds one of the tie-rod ends onto the steering knuckle. After turning around, I noticed that the steering was a little off, so I just picked the bolt up off the highway and headed for home. I'm just taking a vacation day today so I can fix the car and finish putting my truck back together.

So, does anybody want to buy a 1990 Nissan 240SX? Real cheap, only $800.

It took me over four and a half hours to install that oil seal. It was really quite easy, but since it was my first time doing anything like that, it took quite a while. I didn't have time to replace the u-joints, so I'll probably get around to that tomorrow or Wednesday. We made an offer on a camper that some guy in Salt Lake is selling, and he accepted, so we're going to pick it up this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it. It would have sucked going camping this summer with the baby and only a tent to sleep in.

After weeks of procrastinating, I'm finally going to fix the oil seal in my rear differential tomorrow. I've had to fill it up with oil twice in the past few weeks, but I borrowed some torque wrenches, and I'm going to buy the oil seal tomorrow, then start tearing things apart when I get off work. While I've got the driveline disconnected, I'm going to rebuild the u-joints, 'cause I get a really bad vibration when I get up around 70 mph.

My wife and I are going to Salt Lake next weekend to spend the night at a friend's house and just hang out. We might buy a cab-over camper while we're up there, and we're definitely going to buy a new bed. So I have to fix my truck if I don't want my differential to lock up under the strain of all the added weight--actually, it would probably lock up just by driving that far, even without that much weight.

I just hope I don't screw anything up. I have no clue what the inner workings of a differential are like, and my repair manual is pretty vague, and doesn't have any pictures or diagrams. I guess the worst that can happen is I can bend the seal, or crush it too far, and I'd just have to drop $20 on another one and try again.

I just got back from a pretty nice evening at Ty's house. He and his wife invited Traci and I (and Michael) over for dinner, and afterwards, we just sat around and watched tv and bull-shitted. It was a nice break from the usual routine of staying home doing nothing. Michael got pretty fussy, so Traci's mom came and got him and watched him for a couple hours. I missed him, even though he was only gone a short time.

I cut down some shrubs (more like dwarf pine trees) in my front yard today, and cleared the flower beds of all plants. My yard is finally starting to look like it belongs in my neighborhood, rather than in a trailer park. After I plant some flowers and shrubs and lay down some bark mulch, I can get started on the back yard. I'm determined to have a vegetable garden back there next year, so that means clearing all the rocks and tree stumps and other crap, and conditioning the soil. It desperately needs some sand and manure, otherwise it'll be hard as a rock and won't have enough nutrients to grow anything but weeds.

I opened a bottle of Gallo white grenache just a few minutes ago, and my wife realized that the bottle had a big crack in it. I didn't want the damn thing to break open in my fridge, so I had to empty it into a plastic apple juice bottle. How fancy schmancy is that? =)

Here's a quote from Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, found in today's Trib:

"Utah's liquor laws are based on the longstanding state policy to reasonably satisfy the public demand for alcoholic beverages while protecting the public interest, including the rights of the citizens who do not wish to be involved with alcoholic beverages."

I fail to see how selling wine or liquor in grocery stores infringes upon anybody's rights at all. Just because it's there doesn't mean you'll be forced to consume alcohol. If that were the case, why have legislators decided to allow the sale of 3.2% beer in grocery stores? In what way does that protect the public interest, while selling wine doesn't?

And what reasons for passing such laws could they cite, except for religious reasons? Almost 90% of the Utah legislature is Mormon--but wait, that couldn't possibly have anything to do with it.