JoshP5

I always felt more satisfied by the experience gained than the grade achieved.

sumo_Bob

I installed my "Weighted Companion Cube"

Remember. The weighted companion cube will never threaten to stab you.

JoshP5

Over the past few days I noticed that a little bird lives somewhere in my car. It only chirps at about 1100rpm.

aMaff

I changed my oil yesterday!

In the garage!

Of my house! That makes me so happy in a way only you car guys and gals can understand. I haven't been able to do even the simplest thing (brake job, oil, etc) since I moved into the apartment. Having to pay ppl for that kind of stuff seriously kills me. And packing up all my tools, unload everything at a friends place, doing it there, loading up / unloading again is a huge pain in the ***. Just being able to do that made my night

_Kansei_

I have one of those, it's from 700rpm - a little over 2000rpm though. if I cram my hand in the gap between the driver's door and the dashboard it stops, but isn't very safe to do while moving. What area is your noise coming from?

Tell that to any big name employer or grad school who won't even look at your resume/application unless you have X gpa. I hate it too, this is literally the first semester that I've ever kept track of my grades. I talked to my adviser and she strongly recommended it so that I can do what I can to get my GPA as high as possible before I graduate this summer.

Maff I'm gonna copy you and change my oil today. I'm going the cheap crap route though, Royal Purple + Purolator PureONE filter. I just need to get back to 5w30 while I still have time.

oh and I'm putting my summer wheels, tires, hood, and shift **** back on.

reasons:
1. going to toronto tomorrow and meeting up with toprotege, I've met most of the people that will be at this week's westside meet (yeah they have 4 regions of the club, east, west, and I believe central all have weekly meets, farmside (north) not as much but at least once a month year round) but don't feel like putting a ton of miles on my brand new snow tires when I don't need to.
2. I'm missing two hood bolts and I gotta go to the fastener supply store on the other side of the city to get some. I know the size (thanks Rob) is M12x1.25 but it would be easy to just bring them the bolts I have and get 4 that match.
3. goes with #1 but I want an alignment before I start wearing the new blizzaks, even though I don't plan on being here for any winter after this one.
4. my summer tires aren't bald enough yet
5. Blizzaks make my car unsafe to drive. totally serious. There's barely any body roll at all but the amount of mushy tread depth on the tires is incredible. There's a serious lag when I turn the wheel and I hate that. Plus they don't really make the ride much more comfortable, there's only so much the mush tread can absorb and then it's back to s-techs in all their glory.

so yeah, I guess going into winter mode this weekend was a bit premature (yay I have ED :P)

Jackelope

I'm Barry and approve this decal.

JoshP5

Actually mine's under the car, probably the exhaust or shift linkage or something. But I know what you mean about the interior squeaks--I'm constantly hunting those down, particularly when it's cold.
I'm just saying don't sweat it. Obviously you know your ****. If some company or school won't look at you because of some bullshit number, do you really want to be associated with them? We all know there's more to it than a number. There are plenty of companies and institutions that know this, too. They're the ones that really get **** done; have a genuine impact on society.

_Kansei_

^^ werd. I still have my job offer with United Technologies so I'm not worried. Working for one of their subsidiary companies they didn't even ask for my transcript, which was shocking considering they are part of a major international company and have policy to uphold. They tested me and knew I knew my **** so I got the job. Lets just say my anxiety issues were much less under control then too, I was a major nervous wreck.

And to be fair most of why my GPA is so low is that the first two years of my core courses were just too easy. I had taken AP Calc in high school but that only got me out of Calc I here, still had to take Calc II-IV. Same goes for physics.. when most of what I was doing was review, finding the motivation to study and do homework was near impossible. It bit me in the *** last winter/spring when I finally was getting into the upper level courses in my department. I still have trouble focusing on doing homework when it isn't new and fresh, but this should be the last quarter where I know what I'm doing going in. From here on out it's time to get my money's worth and get me an edumacation :P

But to not be totally off topic, I just finished with the hood and wheels stuff. I'm not putting the center caps back on the wheels, easy as it may be. I got the first couple wheels on and remembered how much I hated those chrome caps. It took me so long because I also thoroughly cleaned both sets of wheels, though the car is still filthy. It was raining a little so I'll just wash it in the AM. I also rotated the tires because the front ones were toast again. Including when I mounted them in the spring that makes three rotations this season. Maybe I should stick to these high treadwear (I think my current potenzas are near 300) tires with the way I burn through them.

now I need to update my sig again but the crew came and cleaned up all the leaves today

TheDirtyGoatee

Ya know, I am not that new to the whole Mazda Protege thing. I am not too new at this website. However, what the hell is the Weighted Companion Cube? I am a little baffled by this one.

Jackelope

it's from a video game "Portal" .. http://kotaku.com/gaming/portal/soft...ube-316532.php

and to stay semi-topical , my car got MOR dirty today & "stumbling" is worse. (still havent had time to change plugs... grrr)

sumo_Bob

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_%28video_game%29

Turpro

Totally true. I've been apt living for 5+ years now. I can't wait till next summer when we buy our house

_Kansei_

We should probably start a random banter type thread in the off-topic section. I'm glad I'm not the only one who just makes sure to have an on-topic thought in each post though.

I narrowed my dash rattle down. There's dash-windshield interference. If it gets worse I will be tempted to completely remove the dash from the car and apply sound insulation all over the damn place, making my car more front-heavy :P

I'm trying to decide on tire pressures for the drive tomorrow. It's not as much of a straight highway drive because I'll be waiting at the border and dealing with city traffic but I think I might just do the 42/40 (cold) again. I went for a little drive after putting my summer equipment back on and oh how I missed it even though I only drove 25 miles or so on the new Blizzaks. It was warm enough today that my summer tires weren't rock solid, so the difference in ride harshness was minimal, there was just of course much more road feel. I went from only feeling bumps and seams to being able to feel the road surface texture again. me likey

I'll make sure to take plenty of pics of the Protege action in Toronto tomorrow

_Kansei_

Aw crap it's supposed to start snowing in Toronto around midnight (which is on the earlier side of when I'm probably leaving) and in Rochester around 4am (when I'll be getting back to Rochester)

I hate how you can't really tell if it is just going to be really light snow or if it's actually going to stick from the weather reports. I'm really not in the mood to put my snow tires back on just for that drive today, I might not go now

SteveO

I can count on one hand how many times I have seen snow in my entire life here.
Its supposed to be mid-70s today. I feel for you guys from up north. Be careful.


On topic, Im about to clay the car before it does start getting cold(er) here. Take 1-2 hours to clay it properly and another hour of waxing. Fun fun.

On another subject, I would also like to add that these Neo Gens are the best tires I have ever driven on....ever.