Hobbies

Ever since I went back to school, I have been trying to concentrate on finishing my studies and have made working a second priority.  This hampers the amount of extracaricular activities I can participate in.  So things like taking my car to track, eating out, partying have had to fall victim to budget cuts.  Instead I have been trying to do active things that don’t cost as much money.

 

This basically sums up what I do when I am not at home studying or just hanging out at a friend’s house.  I suppose its better for me this way.  But the pain that used to be from hangovers are now from broken toes and sore muscles.  Instead of getting shut down by girls, I get tapped out by little kids. Oh well…

大学もどたから、おれはものすごい貧乏なた。だから、最近お金要らないの趣味やている。二日酔いの痛いもない、けど筋肉遺体です。Brazilian jiu jitsuも一年間やってなかた。けっこ大変でもたのし。

Put in work

I have been really neglecting my blog lately.  Mainly because I haven’t really been doing shit except for going to school and trying to train jiu jitsu again.  I guess the only anamoly in my schedule has been the Formula D events that I have been attending with Team Hankook.  But I am so busy doing shit, that I don’t really think about taking random photos. 

Masuda-san from RS*R asked me if I could possibly help them out and I agreed.  Masuda-san was the one who initially introduced me to Boss.  I spent the past weekend at Hiro’s Auto helping my buddy Shingo do some maintenance on the Team Scion drift TC. 

After some major initial issues, they redid this whole car.  I have to give them kudos on it.  This is one of the easiest cars to put together.  A lot of thought went into the car after their revision.  The large majority of parts and fittings are easily accessable.  Before long, the car was on the alignment rack and we were done.

Next stop… VEGAS!

Getting metal with it

So after the Mizuno Bamboo bat broke, I picked up a $20 bat just to hold us over until I went and got another bat.  Well turns out there is a reason why they are $20.  With my crappy batting skills, I managed to destroy the second bat with the 3 hit of my second time using it.  Frustrated, I knew it was time to go metal.  Since my moms goes to the swap meet every weekend. I asked her if she could look for a bat for me.  After a couple of lemons, she came up with this.

The first one on the left is the original Mizuno MZB62 Bamboo bat I started with.  The wood unit was another cheapy that I ran through pretty quickly.  The second from the right is a  base Easton BX2T model bat. Even though it is the cheapest model aluminum bat Easton makes its still much easier to hit than wood.  At 70mph I could see the difference.  At 60mph the difference was huge.  With such a big sweet spot, I could pick up hits off of late swings. The one of the far right is a 34″ 29oz Easton Connexion that I have yet to try out.  Probably going to wait for Naoto to get back and take it for a whirl at Baseball Academy.

The BX2T came with a nasty grip, so I decided to give my first try at wrapping a bat.  I first marked where my fingers would go. Then I took sports tape and rolled it into a string.  First wrapping along where my fingers would go, then giving it a flat wrap.  Seems to feel pretty good, I just got to remember to loosen up my grip as I am swinging.

Separation Anxiety

I woke up pretty damn late today and it was really nice weather, so I decided to get some work done on my hoopty. Ever since I put my car together, I have had an issue with my air separator tank. When I first thought about my layout, I made sure the top of the air separator tank was the highest point of my cooling system.  But no matter, how many times I would bleed the system, a air bubble would form right at my radiator.  After some thinking, I realize that the way I routed the hoses (from the radiator to down under the filter, to back up into the tank, made any air get trapped up into the top of the radiator.

Since the new route was shorter than the original, all I had to do was cut all the cable ties, reroute the hoses and cut to fit.  After getting everything sorted out, I filled the system back up with some distilled water and definitely noticed it was circulating much better than before.  I didn’t have to pump it as many times to really bleed out the system.  Good stuff.  Now if I can only figure where this damned oil leak is coming from.

For some show points, I routed it through the strut tower bar. It actually fits better this way.

Finally

Its crunch time and I needs me some crack to keep me going.

今学期もちょっとある。今週はずっと試験だからRedbullいっぱい飲んでいる。

Broken stick

I broke my bat today… damnit! I should feel like good that I am hitting enough balls to break a bat, but I feel like I didn’t really get my money’s worth yet.  I did a quick estimation and I probably went through about 600 hits on this bat before it gave out today.  Oh well. I had to buy something to finish out our session so I picked up a shitty $20 piece of wood.

Thinking to myself now whether I should just step it up and get an aluminum bat.  But I am probably going to get another bamboo bat.  Maybe the one after the next I will try to step it up.

今日バッテンぐセンターでバット折った。くそ！まだ２ヶ月だけ。仕様がない。今度アルミバット買うかな。

Eat a d**k

To the shit head to decided to hack our Japanese site, thanks fuck face. Now I got to pay my host to look up an old backed up version that they keep offsite to upload.  Please give me the pleasure of meeting you at the batting cages one day.  So I can smash my Mizuno bamboo into your fingers.  That way you can suffer a lifetime of pain bringing pain to others through your keyboard.  By the way, call your malware buddies while you are at it.

Crack

Ever since I was a kid, I really liked to eat candy. Except that when I did, it would throw me into a sugar high from hell. Just with anything else, I would over do it and run around in a rage. It never really changed the older I got. Just that I would try to avoid eating anything with a lot of sugar.(part of the reason I become a goofy shit head when I drink) Its to the point that some of my friends try to keep me from eating for the greater good of everyone.  I think my forgot about this somewhere along the way because she walked in my room and put this on my desk.

Tony and Huyen’s Wed day

 

Even though my eye looked like I had eyeliner on it, I had to show up to my boy Tony’s wedding. I have known Tony a good portion of my life.  I had Sunday school with his sister since we were in second grade and known his family since then.  As much as we razz each other, the guy is always there for his friends and has found a great girl. 

We knew most of the people at the wedding so it was really comfortable. Figuring that we finished all the alcohol 3/4 of the way through the reception it was on the verge of out of control.  But super fun none the less. Congrats guys!

Battle with the ball

 

I had a really fun day today. I got a hair cut, went to 2 batting cages with Paul and Naoto.  We finished off the day with a game of catch at the park by Paul’s house.  This is when things went sour.  As I was going to catch a ball, I miscalculated its trajectory.  Instead of catching it with my glove, I caught it with my eye instead. 

Learn something new today: if you fight with a solid object, that solid object usually wins.

今日、直人とPaulといっしょにバッティングセンターに行った。そのあとキャチボールやってました。めちゃ楽しかったけど、野球ボールとけんかした。おれ負けた！はい。馬鹿です。