Procrastination at its finest

It's always so much more appealing to creep facebook, read tweets, or write in this blog than actually be productive. In particular, doing my homework. Do I really care about school? Probably, but not enough to do any work on time, even though it's my last year of undergrad. Ugh.

Irony.

I'm nocturnal. My parents make me sleep in the Solarium when I'm back in Brampton. For those that don't know, a Solarium is also known as a "Sun Room." That is, One wall is all window. So much sun in my eyes when I ought to be sleeping. Best of all? I will be working the graveyard shift yet again this summer. So this whole sleeping during the day...in a solarium, thing? Not going to be good. I'll keep you posted

Studying? What's that?

It's interesting how much my blog appeals to me when I ought to be studying for exams. I've always been horrible at studying anyway. When exam time rolls around, I find myself drinking more, playing more games, and just sitting around. It's fun. I deserve some fun, right? :P

Tire Repairs in the Winter

So, recently, my van has slight rips in the sidewall of the back right tire. Being the stubborn son of a gun that I am, I made efforts to fix it. Despite bitter colds and many failures, I persevered and managed to stop the leak as of 11am this morning. I almost managed to give myself frostbite about 8 times, and spent over $25 CAD in rubber patching kits. If you ever find yourself in a similar predicament, I imagine you'd like to know how to do such things in spite of winter weather. So I will outline steps and materials required to do such repairs.

Step 1: Supplies
You will need;
Rubber Tire Repair Kit(s) [I bought about 4, because I kept fucking it up]
Air Compressor [To (duh) reinflate the tire]
Tire Gauge [If you don't know what this is for, go eff yourself]
Hydraulic Jack [To relieve stress on the rim of flat tire]
Heat gun/Hair Drier [To accelerate drying of things]
Sandpaper/Rotary Tool with Sandpaper attachment
Extension cord [If you're not doing this in a garage]
Rubber gloves [To avoid mess on your own hands]
Bucket/Sponge [To clean tire]
Balls of steel [Because it's going to get f***in' cold out there]

Step 2: Preparation
If your driveway is covered in ice and snow that is fairly impossible to clear completely, I recommend laying down a tarp or a decent carpet to avoid electrocution while using the powered devices as listed above.

Raise your vehicle using the hydraulic jack, and completely deflate the affected tire.

Set up all your devices onto the tarp/carpet.
Wash and dry the affected tire to sufficient cleanliness.

Step 3: Preparation Part 2
You can follow the directions on the patching kit. But I imagine it's meant for ideal conditions, so following it will make your repair fail... numerous times. Use the sandpaper or rotary tool to scrape a good area around the tear, ideally, you want the rubber to be flat where you want to patch it. If the side of your tire has ridges, you will most definitely wind up with air holes in your patch, which is a waste of time and money.

Once you've sufficiently "buffed" the patch area, use the rubber cement in the patch kit and apply a decent layer of the shit wider than the actual patch. rub it in to the tear and around the tear using the rubber gloves (or your fingers, if you're a dumbass and want your fingers amputated later that day, which is funny, because you can't drive without fingers, so this whole method become moot). Dry the rubber cement with the heatgun/hair dryer until it is sufficiently dry.

Step 4: Break
You're probably really cold at this point, so take a short (or long) break in order to get the feeling back into your fingers.

Step 5: Patching
Remove the protective backing from the patch. Apply patch to the tear, pushing outwards to release air bubbles (I like to gently scratch the top of the patch to do this). I also like to put more rubber cement around the outside bits of the patch and dry it to ensure proper adhesion. Make sure the rubber cement is dry before continuing. I left it overnight.

Step 6: Reinflation
The patch kit claims the repair is completed once you've applied the patch, but in the winter, that's pretty much bullshit. It also says to inflate the tire to full capacity, which is also not true in the winter. The max on my van tires is 44psi. If I had inflated it any more than 33psi, the patch fails. So I inflated it to 30psi, and leaned in to listen for leaking. If it continues to leak, do the following;
- apply rubber cement to the outside of patch; look for bubbling.
- scratch outwards from center to bubbling area, hold at the end of the patch. Dry the rubber cement where the bubble is.
- Reinflate to 30psi
- Check for leaks again.

Step 7: Finished?
If you were successful, hooray. Maybe your tire will last a while longer. You'll still need it replaced at some point, but for now, you can drive it around and not worry TOO much about it. Keep checking the tire from time to time. If the patch gets fucked up, replace it.



This is a lot to read, but it's better to know what to do, then struggle to figure it out the hard way. Hope this helps.

Personal Grooming...TME

So I'm trying to grow a chinstrap. Being an "asian" male makes it slightly difficult to grow facial hair, with the exception of my father and my uncles who grow pretty sweet mustaches. My chinstrap is lame thus far, but I will be diligent and continue to trim it until it HOPEFULLY grows in decently, else I'll just shave it off, no problem. :)

Maybe I'll grow a mustache. A perv-stache. I would be a dirty mexicano, mang. :P

I'm in class, yet this is the most productive thing I could think of doing.

I have 2 fewer upper level math and physics courses this term, and I find myself going to lecture with little to absolutely no intention of paying attention to the actual lesson. More like, doing other class' homework, doodling, or, as I'm doing right now, dicking around on a computer.

I should really rename this blog "The Art of Doing Stupid Stuff while I'm supposed to be Productive"... But that's TME to say. So whatever.

Winter driving can be dangerous...ly fun!

Just made the trip back to St. Catharines, and let me tell you how enjoyable it is to not have to worry about staying within the lane on the highway... because you can't even see the line! The trade is that you can only drive like... 80km/hr without...you know...sliding all over the place. Oh well. Still fun. :)

I also enjoy drifting on winter roads. Nothing too adventurous. Just turning on suburban streets. It's fun to lose control once in a while. But no worries, I remember driving school's teaching... STEER IN THE DIRECTION OF THE SKID. :)

Trilogy Marathons = I don't have a life.

Sometimes you're so bored you want to watch a movie you've seen a million times. Better yet, a trilogy you've seen a million times. NO, EVERY SINGLE TRILOGY YOU FUCKING OWN.

I say "you", but clearly, I'm referring to myself. Because that's what I've been doing for the past couple of days. Really, I'm only half watching, because I'm also playing "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" at the same time, and possibly watching/listening to porn. Yeah, I watch porn. Get over it.

I kinda wish school started again sooner. But whatever. I'll just go comatose until then. =]

Christmas Holidays: A typical day in the life of me.

After winter exams, the majority of people are all, "Whooooo! Christmas!"

I suppose after a long semester of assignments, midterms, hangovers, and regrets; it's probably nice to make the trip back home in order to indulge in meals that don't involve kraft dinner, oatmeal, meatless spaghetti, or McDonald's (YUM).

I, on the other hand, don't really give a shit about winter holidays. Well, sure, it's nice to not have assignments to do. But without plans to do anything, most days look like this.

6:00am: Wake up. Put on sweatpants (maybe). Check fridge. Check freezer. Check fridge. Fuck, there's no food. Back to sleep I go.

9:30am: Wake up again. Did Dad make food yet? If yes, rejoice. If no, go back to sleep.

9:30am-5:00pm: If I'm not eating or pooping; dick around on the computer.

5:00pm: Text someone to hang out.

6:00pm: Bail on plans. Too lazy to put on pants.

7:30pm: Sleep?

2:00am: Yeah, I didn't sleep, I was on the computer still.

4:00am: What the fuck am I still doing awake? Sleep-time.



Yeah, holidays are boring for me.