Saturday, April 18, 2009

It's... ALIVE!!!

The Kia is running. Why did it take so long? Here's a list of what I replaced.
  • All 16 Valves.
  • Head Gasket, Intake Gasket, Exhaust Gasket
  • Motor Mounts
  • Front Calipers
  • Brake Pads
  • Front Tires
  • Power Steering Belt
  • Alternator Belt
  • Alternator Mount Spacer (Lost it, then found it later in the street)
  • One Head Bolt (Lost it, then found it later in the yard, needed it anyways, one was messed up)
  • Three valve cover gasket bolts (They break so easy! Josh broke one and I broke the other two)
  • Fuel Filters
  • Cleaned the Fuel Injectors
  • Some little Vacuum Hose connector
  • Valve Cover Gasket
  • Distributor Thingy
  • All 4 Spark Plugs
I think that's everything. It's been so long and my brother helped me out a lot. He showed me that I can do it, which I know I can now. It's useful having an extra set of hands though.

Blood (literally it's on the exhaust manifolt and valve cover), sweat, and not many tears went into getting this car running again. I'd like to thank my mother, for letting me park the POS in her back yard for almost a year. I'd like to thank Karen for her support as well, my father chipped in too. Thank you Ally for encouraging me when the Kia kept up with a new problem every time I worked on it. Pretty much everyone in the family has helped me put this car back together some how.

Thank you.

I made mistakes when repairing this car, but I've learned from them. I'm a much better mechanic now. To anyone reading this that I don't know, I cannot stress enough how important it is to replace your timing belt if you have an interference engine.

Now, I just wait on the DMV for a day pass, then I can get it smogged.

In case you're wondering, I'm not playing World of Bore-craft anymore. I did get my epic flying mount shortly after that post, and it went downhill from there. I tried to play it tonight (I haven't played it in over a month) to relax a bit but It's just not fun anymore.  I just got bored with it, and I had better things to do.  Like say I don't know, look for a job? Still no luck there...

My student loans are due now, what kick in the balls. Damn you economy!!

I have this great idea though, and I want to follow through with it. I like this idea so much I'm going to write it down so later on when I'm not doing it I can say hey I'm going to work on that now.

Requiem for a dream, have you heard that song? It's EPIC. Here's a link to youtube with the song. Just a slight warning though, it has some gore (maybe a lot of gore) and a little nudity. Nothing my family can't handle though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEF6D32HNMI
It's a really good AMV too... which stands for... er.. Anime... Music Video? I think? Whatever.. Why don't I just embed it? Because it's kind of gory and has some nudity! Oh the humanity.. is that a pun?! No.

Anyways listening to that song got my brain turning and whenver I listen to music I get really great videos playing in my head. Here's the script for the animation I want to make.

*Slow intro with violin and cello playing* Me driving home in my Kia. I am happy and loving my car.
*First big bumpy thing* Car stalls.. I pull over... dramatic fades for effect
*First big ahhh chorus* I open the hood... see the timing belt is broken...
*Quiet Part afterwards* Car getting towed... getting tools ready... setting up everything
*big horn thingy blowing* Dramatic montage of me turnin wrenches with my bro
*just before the cool part with teh dundundunnn!* My bro says "The valves... are bent"
*awesome dundundunn parts* Ordering Parts... finish with a dramatic "Order" click
*Quiet part* Borrowing the PT.. go in to work..
*quiet part continues, chorus starts* Dan says to me, "Sean, we need you downstairs"
*chorus builds up* as I walk down the stairs
*at end of chorus before the dundundunns* Boss says "You're all fired!"
*dundundunns go* rage sequence of me thrashing the kia back together
*more dunndunduns* montage of putting car together while family is supporting me
*for the dramatic finish* wrenching the last bolt down, slamming the hood, and starting the engine.
*quiet piano at end of the song* driving the kia off into the sunset

Hopefully my amateur drawing skills and non-existent animation skills will be enough for the fantastic vision I have in my head. There's even more going on in there right now, and each scene begins with the setting "dramatic". Man, I just want to start drawing a story board right this second and throwing together a windows media maker story board! As it is though, I'm up late and Ally is dragging me to the dreaded Renaissance Faire tomorrow morning.

If you read all of this post, thank you.