Author Archives: Bryan

1080p

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It comes as us with a variety of labels – HD, High Resolution, 1080p and I’m looking forward to Super Duper mega-pixel. I often come away from it confident that some marketing team is embracing a term to trick most customers and annoy the engineers who built the product. It’s laughable when it’s on something like candy, it’s painful when on something that will cause someone’s grandma to waste her limited funds to please little Timmy.

The sad thing is that I’ve become a bit of a slave to that damn logo. My uppity tech side is annoyed that I’m inclined to gravitate to the HD logo even when the thing spewing out in HD sucks. I love old, fully analog cars, shooting with film and tube amps. A well composed but fuzzy picture is significantly better than an uber-megadeathpixel shot that I often see. Even with my passion for great content, I avoid the TV channels that aren’t HD, and even snub some of my lowly DVD’s of exceptional movies. I know it’s wrong, but I’ve done it.

I believe the first step is to admit I have a problem.

I need to cut this short and get back to playing with my new 1080p device.

Here comes the sun

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The winter updates were bogged down with silly levels of distractions. My primary broken bones are healing well enough that I can start wrenching on the Chevelle again. The current list:

  • Fresh trunk hinges – I have a set of Fesler trunk hinges that should radically improve the challenge of using the trunk.
  • Power steering – I have a slightly more modern pump, snazzy mount, hoses and shiny reservoir that should help get the system back to being parking lot friendly.
  • Steering column – The absurdly stiff steering did a number on the splines for the steering wheel, so I need to order up a fresh column.
  • Baer brakes in the back – I’ve had them for years, now would be a great time to install.
  • Fuel injection – The MSD Atomic system looks like a convenient option for me.

If I time all this correctly, my ankle should be ready to use the clutch when the car is ready.

 

Wandercation

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The wandering vacation has started with some Indian lunch with a hot date.

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My plans are to just do things as they seem like fun and the first day was perfect:

  • Coffee at Victors
  • A little shopping for stuff around the house
  • Lunch as some Indian spot in Woodinville. The food was ok, the date was perfect
  • Finished building my daughter’s fort
  • Had a tree guy come out and figure out how much I’ll be spending to make a couple ratty trees go away.

 

 

 

Pinlock visor notes

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As we’re moving towards fall, I’ve been getting questions on how I deal with a fogged up visor. I tell them that holding my breath is the trick. Then, when they note that they can’t hold it long enough, I let them in on my second favorite approach – Pinlock visors.

In the past I’ve tried everything from Cat Crap to Fog City. While most seemed to work at first, they’d quickly run into limitations. Then I read about Pinlock and I had to try it. Unfortunately, it took at least a year for them to show up in the US. Pinlock is a system (sounds fancy) where the shield has two pins, and the fog resistant portion is another hunk of plastic that seals against the shield with a silicon bead and is held in place with the pins out at the sides. I’ve only used these on Arai helmets, but have friends that use them on other brands. I ride with one every day in Puget sound weather and am thrilled.

Pros

  • Very easy to swap in a tinted or clear visor
  • exceptional at keeping the fog out of your vision
Cons
  • it can rub a bit on the seal when opening/closing the shield.
  • if it gets saturated, it needs to dry out (it’s not just simple plastic).
  • can affect vision when used along with polarized glasses
Highly recommended!

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