sandt38

Soon the water will come and claim what is mine. I must leave it behind, and climb to a new place now.

I should play GOD and just shoot you myself.

Thanks fellas. I just got my first legitimate email from Fluke regarding our testing and the equipment involved. This is surreal.

Just a few hours ago I recieved, what I consider to be, the biggest compliment of my professional career. Not only is it a compliment, but it is also the beginning of some amazing extra cash. I am fortunate that I am good friends with one of the very best technicians in the country. This is not a guy who I feel is one of the best, this is a guy with accreditation from numerous national and worldwide groups from the Automotive Society of Engineers, National Automotive Service Task Force, he is the president of the National Mobile Diagnostic Technician group, and a trainer and class author of CTI who is nationally published in Motor, Motor Age, and Import Service magazine among other honors. Many automotive manufacturers have him write up documents stating what he wants to see in their scan tools. They give him tools to see what he thinks, how they can improve them, etc. He is given tools and equipment and asked to write up their use, and general reviews of said equipment.I have an ego, as far as my industry is concerned, the size of a continent, and if I wind up in a bind, this is the guy I call. He is my trainer, and my mentor. When I talked to him about my stepping into diagnosis with thermal imaging he was intrigued. We spent some time discussing the things that I feel I can achieve with the imagers, and he decided to step up and find out what can be done with them. He has been speaking with Fluke engineers about these capabilities, and they offered to send him a couple imagers to compare with what I purchased. He is receiving a $5K TI110, which I contemplated buying, and another unit with an MSRP of over $10,000 to do some testing, technical write ups, and training for CTI as well as Fuke. He called me tonight and wanted to get together to do some comparisons of the units, and what can be achieved with these units relative to cost. He wants me to be involved in various case studies involving traditional ICE repairs and diagnosis, as well as some hybrid battery case studies, both in vehicle and in the building room. Sadly, 6 months ago, Jim was diagnosed with cancer. Unfortunately when he recieved surgery, they found out the tumor was advanced, and his cancer incurable. So Jim is living his life knowing this disease is killing him, but his prognosis for long term survival (15 years) is pretty good. His daughters are both almost done with college, his house is paid off, his business loans are paid off, and he is not in a difficult financial state. So he has decided to back off on his training (instruction) and he asked me to take over for him. Pay for training is solid. Really solid. Pay for case studies (which we will begin together over the next couple weeks) is really nice. Simple 7-15 slide studies pay very well. If I write classes, the pay is incredible. He mentioned that my knowledge and hands on in the world of hybrids, hybrid diagnosis, hybrid repair, and hybrid battery building is years ahead of everyone else writing for CTI right now. He suggested that if he can get me in with CTI, I could easily write 4 or 5 classes in one year just based on hybrids. This will be essentially a second job. I will have to miss some time from my shop for training. This will not be a huge amount, maybe 16 hours a month, worst case. My classes will be within a 400 mile radius of my home, and all travel will be covered by CTI, rental cars included. While my boss will lose me for a little bit each month, he will be able to tout my being an instructor, and gain the benefits that guys like Jim receive... this includes a ton of free tooling, and various information systems that cost thousands of dollars a year. I don't think he will be upset. So I am stoked. This is really a huge honor for a simple wrench like me. I am completely flattered that Jim would ask me. This is a massive, huge honor. MASSIVE. I cannot think of a single time in my life when I was on a higher cloud than I am right now. I just hope and pray that Jim, and CTI, feel like I really have what it takes to perform these duties. This is a huge step, and a big financial boost for me if it all works out.

LOL

IE current in windows 8.1 does not quote, try firefox, current version. I tried quoting in this post, same rig as my others in ff and chrome, and it does not work in ie.

What browser? Version of said browser? What OS, and update version? Ask him. But I think Mark is the techy here. Even as a Mod here I can't do much from that end...

Me either... Oh wait...

And while I appreciate it, I don't need condolences or anything like that, although I appreciate it. I just need a place to spout my feelings at the current moment. I had a hard night last night, I couldn't sleep. I had a hard day today, unable to concentrate... I just to vent a bit.

Thanks, fellas. It is kind of hard to see things like that. This was an OG to me. One of my original party friends. He was fierce in everything he did. Weather it be friendship, loyalty, drugs, girls, alcohol, fighting... He was the extreme. Mikey was the ultimate badass. This dude was no fucking wallflower. We experimented with a lot, from drugs to alcohol to girls to fighting... We went to it all. People were afraid of us. But when I left WNY, I left everything in WNY. Sadly this included my very best of friends. I didn't know how bad Mike had become. This dude was no thief, so to see him in all this trouble for burglary and GTA stuns me. He was about respect. He would kick your fuckin ass, then pick you up, shake your hand and drink a beer with you. It is sad to see how he lost everything, how he took everything from his boys and ex-wife, Dawn, whom he started dating when he was ~14. I will not say, as a former crackhead and junky, that it was taken from him. He made those choices, and sadly it affected a lot of people. His son is on FB and has a good lookin' little boy... a grandchild who Mike will never know. How fucking sad is that? Now I wonder why I left that all behind and built that wall. What else did I miss? I have been looking for my old room mate for years, and can't find him. Nobody knows anything about what happened to him. He was not a dude to just up and leave. The last time I talked to him over 20 years ago he told me he was doing coke. He always gave me shit about it, and refused to do coke; powder or crack or real 'base, with me. Then he stepped off... getting so bad he lost his job with Pepsi (damn good job). Is Facebook the devil? Finding this out is akin to arriving in hell. Vlahoff's passing is crushing to me, and it is not the first I experienced, but it hit me extremely hard. The man became a father, a husband... then these fucking demons came back to kill him. The fucker never liked opium or junk! I would smoke heroin and he would fucking leave! If it had been earlier, could my getting up with Mike have saved him? I will never know.

I just got some sad news today from an old friend. One of my very old, very good friends of mine and I were talking about old friends and one of my best buds as a kid came up. We started freebasing when we were 13, and started smoking crack by 15. We spent years partying. This dude was a world class bad ass motherfucker... bad ass motherfucker. I tended to fight most people just to show dominance, but I knew Mike would fucking destroy me, so we became fast, respectful friends. He went to the marines (his lifelong goal was to be the ultimate badass... no shit) and his drill sergeant got in his face. He told the dude to back off before he got his ass kicked. The drill sergeant got in his face some more and Mike fucking destroyed him. After Mike got out of the brig they put him in front of the same DS. The DS told him that now he was ready, there would be no second chances, and Mike let him know he was going to get his ass kicked in 3... 2... 1... Mike got a dishonorable discharge after kicking this guy's ass again. I found out he passed on some years back. This is further proof that I got lucky... This was from the Buffalo News. Mike was an ultimate brother. An Ultimate, fearless, respectful, trustworthy, honest friend. This article literally made my cry big fucking tears of sorrow. My buddy and I taked about a good time we had one night. 4 of us were chillin and drinkin'. Mike said "I am going for some smokes". We were all like... No way, we are too drunk. He left. After an hour we were wondering where he went. We opened the door and the cops were outside the door, threw us all in the cop car and asked who owned the Nova in front of the house. It was Mikes, of course. Apparently he ran into a light pole, and did a lawn job on 4 yards right around the corner. I cursed out the cops, because I was WAAAAYYYY fucked up. Mike got away with it. His sister called the car in stolen earlier that night. Apparently Mike took her keys, and got away scott free. Good times. I will miss my great friend, Mike. I pray I don't ever cry like I did just a little while ago when I found out the method of his end. Mike is my brother, and my friend. May God bless and rest your weary soul, brother. I love you.

Water in bourbon? You're dead to me. Water in the sugar.....that then went into the whisky.... too much ice melted in the glass and it went limp. I refortified though. :-) Use your bitters in the sugar. 1/1.

Get out and VOTE today!

Water in bourbon? You're dead to me.

I started using crank at 17... No difference, really. The shit numbs you.

Hammered off WDO... very happy.

Nope. That is an insult. I see one similarity. When you start to get off there is a hard buzzing in your ears. Aside from that, I see no similarities.

Perhaps if you were 15 and your libido insaneAmphetamines massively increase sexual desire in almost everyone. Just rough on the hearts for you old men. Sure. But try getting hard... I used to use a ton of meth, couldn't get it up. I partied with a lot of pretty ladies, which resulted in sore cock, numb pussy, and no hard on.

Noted... I will play.

Yep, same reasons you ALWAYS salt garlic before and during the smashing process. Also some lovely flavors in the rind of the orange, a bit of sandpaper helps extract it. I have seen super fine graters used, but understand that there is a fine line between good extraction, and killing it. From what I have seen, we are lalking right before the rind goes from color to white... not sure I have the patience to find this happy medium. Hmmm... I saw the Agave when I snagged the bitters but I was unsure. I also saw honey syrup, but that didn't hold my interest. I do like blue Agave tequilas, but I stopped as I didn't know what flavor it might impart. But I had considered mixing the Agave with the orange bitters, rather than using it on it's own. Please pardon my ignorance, as I am typically a rocks kind of dude, who does prefer a sour when "top shelf" at the bar isn't the shit I might like as a well in my house. Swill, is the phrase I will kike from you. SO mixing is not something I am familiar with. I can make a mean Margarita, but that and a little whiskey sour is really the limit of my knowledge, and neither is particularly important to me... I may try adding a Manhattan to me mixing repertoire. I did appreciate the orange flavor that the orange bitters did impart, as I am a sucker for orange. But I worry that the only reason that one might use Agave is to impart sweetness. Or is it a combo of the orange bitters and Agave? Sorry if this has already been answered, I am just snagging these replies one by one. Sorry, rofl, this is the hop. It's whole purpose could be to talk about alcohol for all I know I think you like bitters more than I do, but extracting more out of the orange peel itself may replace that need. Buy some cheap swill and make like 10 and compare doing different things. Dump them down the drain and then make the same drink with what you like. Worth the bottle IMO. The technique can take to a Scotch or Brandy as well depending on your sweet tooth. Glen Livet Old Fashioned's don't suck. I think I like the flavor of orange bitters, as straight bitters did nothing for me. Again, I worry about going overboard with the grater. I am not a fan of scotch... I will steer clear of the GL with that thought in mind.

I think the eyes indicate a sense of the other presences that you feel. They are not overbearing, but rather modest ideas that they are in each path you might choose on your trip.

wormholes, colors, aliens/gods... a sense of wellbeing based on colors.

Honestly, I think hybrid and DFI combined are the future.

and easy to synthesize...

And FWIW, I have a lot of local friends who have blasted off, and read a lot online about people who blasted off. This isn't people who studied it like me before they did it. The majority of people who blast off report images that are all eerily similar. While they may not be exact, they are close enough that the connection is easy to see. These colors, images of aliens and/or Gods, the feeling of another malevolent and/or benevolent presence, the feeling of overall well being, the colors, the shapes,, the depth of everything (particularly a physical depth beyond 3D), the basis of the conversations (albeit physical or "a language I couldn't understand that was all spoken inside my head), and the general structure of the trip... It is too significantly similar to be bullshit.