The usefulness of my vehicle is waning. It now has 2 "gears": Reverse, and second gear.
It goes in park and neutral.
I can switch it to first gear manually, and it stays in second. It doesn't down or upshift anymore.

Fluid levels are okay, and it used to be kind of jerky when it shifted.

I can now go 35. 45 if I want it to sound like I'm driving an indy car. My acceleration off the line is horrendous.

I'm seriously considering buying eric's saab. Anyone got any solutions? I can't buy a new or lightly used automobile (financing is impossible), and I can only come up with about $500, maybe, if I pull alot of strings.

This is in addition to my only having 3 brakes. I had to clamp off the hose on my drivers side rear tire with a pair of vice grips because it has a damaged brake cylender that sprays fluid everywhere.

I've worked 2 years so far without taking a single vacation day. I spent the day after christmas at my parents fixing a database failure.
The last real time off I had was in November of 2000, inbetween jobs.
I don't even know what to do with myself anymore. Last time I sat around and paid my bills.

I just ripped apart this laptop to pretty much bare components and resoldered my battery connector and the DC adapter plug (which had a cracked solder joint) and strategically shoved a piece of paper in the right spot in my laptop's casing, and now my laptop not only consistently stays on AC power, but also will charge the battery as it is supposed to.

Shock horror, a laptop that works consistently.

Apparently, amazingly, I only have a few parts left over. One screw that I drilled out with a power drill because it was AFU, and a piece of metal I couldn't remember where it went.

Oh, I managed to guess the SSID of a closed network (no SSID broadcast) today. It wasn't completely obvious either. Too bad they were using MAC address security, it would have been far more rewarding if they weren't.

Hey, I managed to put this beast back together. Amazing. It took 2 hours to do this, and at one point I said "I don't think I'm ever gonna see this thing in one piece again" (It was in about 7 pieces at the time. An exact quote: "Hey, look zer0, PC card slots!" as I dangled them in the air.)

Bah, I'm rambling now. Have a great day everyone.

This weekend:
+ and I had the usual friday dinner at the mexican place with
+ ate out alot this weekend. I'm such a high roller pimp.
+ got a CF card for the iPaq. It came in *REAL* handy saturday for untold reasons.
+ started a fire at denis'
+ used alot of gasoline and various other flammables
+ nearly lost a good portion of body hair. w00t!
+ hung out with nate and his girlfriend, along with
+ got some stuff I REALLY wanted. Information wants to be free, but this shit ain't getting out. 😉
+ driving around with zer0 we found some guy with some DMS-100/500 line cards at the curb, along with some various DAT tapes, etc.
+ We now posess various DMS-100/500 linecards and DAT tapes
+ um, wow. (yes, more shit I'm not mentioning)

So basically, I ran around starting fires and playing unreal tournament this weekend. I really can't complain.

Debit card victim wins against odds
By Robin Young

A WOMAN whose debit card was stolen found herself in profit when she checked her bank balance because the thief had used it to bet on the horses and his winnings were paid directly into her account.
Jacqueline Boanson was described in court yesterday as the happiest victim of theft ever. Magistrates at Cheltenham were told that after her card was stolen she looked at her bank statement, and found that the balance had gone up by £291.40

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-376704,00.html

I'm wondering what a yappy dog looks like strung out on cocaine. This question evolved as part of a discussion about hyper dogs, by the way. I'm not a sick bastard.

I need a release for my stress. Something that doesn't interfere with my 3rd shift job. Something where I can forget my life for a few hours, and not worry about how much it's costing me to indulge myself.
Any suggestions?

Don't say excercise. I'm still sore from standing around all day saturday at the coast guard festival.