Car Tips Edition

Helpful Hints from Hairy Helpful

  • Handy-Dandy lil Tip: Eschew “power” windows and always have a sharp knife clipped in a handy place and those specialty “automobile escape tools” become redundant, completely unneeded.
  • Power Tip: Don’t trap yourself in a car wreck to begin with. Drive smart and keep your head on a swivel. 😉
  • Pro Tip: Don’t trust cops. There are easily at least as many corrupt cops are there are a$$h*les in the general population. Have TWO (minimum) car cams and use them. (You have–at the very least–a first amendment right to record cops in the performance of their duty. You may not have had  your due process rights infringed on in your location, so you may be able to legally record them at other times, as well.)

“Once more into the breach. . . “

I blame Pete Townsend and legions of subliterates who have been “misunderedumacated” in “gummint” schools (A.K.A. “prisons for kids”) for the disgusting spread of “alright” in place of the useful and perfectly good “all right.” Yeh, yeh, so James Joyce wrote “alright” ONCE, as against dozens of uses of “all right.” Big deal. Even if Joyce’s usage had been flipped the other way, he wrote Suckitudinous Fiction that only appeals to sophomoric idiots who feign intellectual pursuits. (Yes, I am completely serious in that assertion.)

Heck, eve with Pete Townsend’s endorsement for the stupid, “alright” only gained any traction at all with the advent of massive “democratic” stupidity inflicted on English by “mass-man” (see Ortega) via the Internet. And even with the promulgation of subliterate stupidity via subliterate writing, editing, and self-publishing, one can be thankful the use of “all right” still VASTLY outweighs the deplorable infliction of “alright” on the English language.

So, if you insist on being a Philistine, a nekulturny subliterate (A.K.A. “trailer trash,” etc.), go ahead and use “alright” in private emails where you might be safe doing so, or in a public form where you can be raucously mocked. No skin off my nose either way. But if you (assuming a reader who wants to be a published writer and expects to be paid for wordsmithery) want to avoid a raucous mocking in, say, an Amazon review, get it right, mmmK?

Rainy Days and. . . Tuesdays?

Nah, don’t always get me down.

Lil P0106 error code on Son&Heir’s 2010 Jetta (pretty nice car, that) that cleared when new PCV valve installed recurred with a P2178 (idle rich) added. MAF sensor/throttle body problem? MAF sensor connector was cracked. Cleaned out oil after removing, cleaning, checking throttle body, sealed MAF sensor connection after Deoxit cleaning of connectors. So far, no errors, but we’ll see. May need to replace a bit of electrical harness/connectors and MAF sensor, if it recurs. *shrugs* And then, of course, there’s always *tum-dum-tum-DUM!* taking it to the mechanic. *heh*

Methinks I’ll check things under the hood on my Wonder Woman’s 2010 Jetta, too, when I change the oil. *shrugs* Who knows? Maybe at least Deoxit* a few electrical connections there, too.


*I love the various Caig Deoxit products. Solved quite a few problems over the years using them. Their dielectric grease is apparently head and shoulders above similar products, going by the results I have had eliminating household electrical problems using it (solutions implemented a decade ago have held up). Computer and electronic woes dealt with, sound quality improvement from sound equipment. Vehicle woes wiped out. Improved network connections. Nice products, IMO.

Petty Gripes

Trimmed my beard to be what is now called a “circle beard” (a term unknown to this 50-year beard wearer until recently) to better accommodate proper fitment of a respirator*. #gagamaggot Means shaving daily, a task I abhor.

Oh, well. At least what remains of my beard easily accommodates my “scary mask,” now. *heh* (That’s the name given to one of my respirator frames by my Wonder Woman.)

(Yes, the pic was converted to grayscale and deliberately blurred. So? *heh*)

Why Is That?

I know a lot of folks for whom the statement, “I am a sinner” would not be at all offensive, and even viewed by some as a laudable admission, but who would find the statement, “I am an asshole” to be extremely offensive.

Frankly, I don’t get it.

Thanks for the Heads Up

Among other mind-boggling abortions of English literacy in a recently-read screed (including apostrophe abuses/neglects, comma splices, inexplicable “grammar” and syntax, & etc.) was this laughable phrase: “vest interest” (instead of “vested interest”) –attached to a comment that also had no basis in fact, of course.

I appreciated the writer going to such great lengths to let me know his opinion was worthless, so that I could forever after avoid his stupidity. Very helpful.

A Lil “Not-an-Experiment” Quasi-Semi-Sorta Experiment

No protocols for measurement of results, just a combination of procedures from different well-designed-and-conducted (IMO) experiments as presented in several papers downloaded from PubMed, as well as info posted directly on CDC site (no link here; anyone who’d “smarter than a third grader” can find the info for themselves with a simple web search. Not gonna hold hands and be “internet crossing guard” for adults):

Took a used disposable N-95 and (per CDC) subjected it to 170°F temps for 20 minutes (CDC says 165 for 15 mins), after having soaked it in a solution comprised of 75% ethanol, 25% concentrate of a medical-grade disinfectant (compatible with ethanol) that remains after ethanol evaporates.

Stored in disinfected (with above ethanol solution) vacuum sealed bag for use as filtration media–in place of HEPA filtration media-as supplementary filtration in a simple two-layer cloth mask that has the exterior treated with a hydrophobic compound to resist moisture (“droplets” anyone?)

This will be a very slight step down from the HEPA filtration media. . . but is plenty for allergy season. 🙂

N.B. Will also be just fine for wearing into those stores that “can’t” stay open w/o “masked bandits” for customers.