Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Hassan's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
9:37 pm	Success! I am now home from a successful there-and-back trip on the moped. All the way to campus and then the return trip, with no problems at all. The bike has a different feel to it now in a way thats hard to really quantify, but the same thing happened when I broke down and cleaned out the carburetor, and so I am inclined to think of the new feel as 'no longer riding with a loose chain' . It's harder to feel the shift to the next gear, for one thing, and it strikes me that this is probably because now there isn't enough slack in the chain for it to 'jolt' when it catches into second. There is some nervousness in the back of my mind though. Having the rear wheel lock up was a little wild, but it wasn't until afterward that I realised that had it happened at a different speed, or if I hadn't been thinking about the chain at the time, I might well have wiped out and been hurt when it happened. I think it will take me a couple trips to feel confident again, and it will help that I'm paying attention to the issue now. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
10:46 pm	...and continues! Im sure you are all terribly excited to hear about this. YES YOU ARE. I don't think I mentioned this before, but apparently the previous owner had just been sort of increasing the tension on the chain, so when it gave out on me it was tensioned out as far as the mechanism allows (and still loose). This posed something of a problem, but with some cunning and judicious use of a hammer and screwdriver, I managed to get off a couple of links, shortening the chain and allowing me to get the tension right when I put it back on. As far as I can tell there is nothing deeply wrong with this, particularly because it is a short term solution that only has to work for a week or so. In the long run I realise that it would wear at the sprockets and alter their shape, but I intend to keep riding to necessary trips and so hopefully prevent that. So, tomorrow I will get up and take the bike out for another test run just in case I missed anything tonight in the dark. Assuming all seems alright I'll make the run down to school. Keep your fingers crossed for me! (Comment on this)
Monday, January 22nd, 2007
12:40 pm	The Moped Saga Continues Ok, well, very little substantial progress, in the sense that my bike is still sobbing quitely at home. =( However, necessary parts for it are on the way, and will hopefully be here today. When they get in I need to repair and adjust the chain, and retension the whole shebang. After inspection it seems like the sprockets and so on are all alright, and I haven't been able to pinpoint any problems with the transmission, so Im not going to take it apart. I think that I need to get a new chain in the near future though, because adjusting the tension out means that its lengthened appreciably. Although the chain doesn't seem to be failing, I don't really know how long its been on there, and so changing it is probably just a good idea. Unfortunately a new chain is going to have to wait until the end of the month when I am considerably less broke from all the beginning-of-semester stuff. So go on, brave little bike, hold on another week, ok? The other downside I have discovered is that a '93 Tomos is apparently pretty scarce around the place, and the only place that seems to offer any real support for it is about 60miles out of Atlanta. Obviously, thats a problem. There are some scooter places in midtown, but as far as I can tell they won't deal with a bike more then ten years old because some things have changed in the way they run (or who knows what) Case in point, the local moped/scooter place doesn't even sell chains or a lot of tools, because the modern bikes are belt-driven. Now thats a pain in the ass (because the bicycle shops that DO sell that stuff don't sell it for moped-level bikes). Apparently there are some motorcycle places in the area, though, and that might be a better bet, although the one I have contacted so far had the opposite problem -- moped parts are too dinky for a real cycle shop to bother with. All this is again some motivation to switch up to a different bike that I can get some more support on and would hopefully just be running better to begin with. On the other hand I've been putting time and effort into this guy, and Im kind of loathe to just stick a bandaid on its problems and pack him off to someone else. I think once I have the chain issue fixed it will be alright (haha like I haven't said that before) and I've entertained some notions of working on its aesthetics. As in, its a little beat up and has some chipped paint, etc. But that really needs to wait until its all working fine, huh? (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
12:22 am	augh My moped is killing me here. I've had the odd issue with it on and off, mostly performance stuff that you would expect. Right before Christmas though it started having real problems, and so over the break I broke down a lot of it to clean everything up properly. (at the time it was dying when you tried to throttle up, which is obviously not what you want it to do) I ended up rebuilding the carburetor, and that seemed to solve things. Around the same time, I ended up changing the brake cables and the rear brake cam, for safety's sake. Now yesterday riding home, something happens and the chain literally falls off. Obviously, not great. I check the chain over and it seems to be fine in general, it just lost the masterlink which was pretty old. So, I change in a new masterlink, and things seem fine. Earlier today, on the way down to class, it doesn't seem quite right but I didn't have time to check. On the way back tonight it throws the chain (though the chain doesn't actually break) and that locks the rear wheel, nearly wiping me out. Fortunately, I apparently have better balance and reflexes than I knew, so disaster is averted. Seeing as it threw the chain, I have to assume that something is up with the tension, but it seems fine and I can't seem to get it any better than it looks. So I decide to wheel the thing to somewhere safe for the night. In the course of doing so I notice a strange stick-and-click coming from the drive sprocket that certainly wasn't there yesterday. I can only assume that throwing the chain threw something else out of alignment, and I will need to open it up tomorrow and take a good look -- hopefully at the same time Im adjusting my tension. With all this in mind I really just need to get a fresh chain to be on the safe side, but its an old bike and so I have to order one in. Im just really hoping that nothing bad happened to the gears or the transmission in all of this. On the one hand, I'm really irritated that there is also something else going wrong. It's certainly not very cool to have a moderately unpredictable means of transport, thats certain (I have had to have someone pick me up three times, all in the last six weeks or so). I also have to wonder if a certain amount of this is due to the cold weather and the general amount of wear that has been going on -- I ride it almost every day, though not very far. Given that its about 14 years old and I don't think the previous owners were too great, its probably just worn down. On the plus side, this is really one of the reasons I got the thing; to see if I was capable of handling some of the issues a bike-life throws at you, and to learn about how to maintain and repair your basic engine (and it doesn't get much more basic than this, really). So in that regard, I suppose that its filling the bill very well. When I bought the bike I didn't have much idea about, well, anything. Right not I feel pretty comfortable dropping the engine, checking the ignition system and the electric connections, taking apart/cleaning/restoring the entire carburetor, and -- at the hopeful conclusion of the current challenge -- replacing and retensioning the chain. The things that I haven't done is basically taking apart the entire transmission, and work on the cylinder/piston. In addition, the entire thing has cost me probably only around $700, including the bike itself, all the parts I've gotten, and the cost of gas. Considering the cost of car + insurance + parking, I think Im still ahead of the game. I just need to go ahead and get this problem solved, as soon as the parts get in. That, or just cave and buy a motorcycle. Vrrom! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 4th, 2006
3:41 pm	Jose Padilla I think this is of note to anyone and everyone, and particularly the citizens of these United States. Conditions of Jose Padilla's confinement Jose Padilla is a natural-born American citizen. He is not a foreign insurgent captured in Afghanistan or Iraq, he's not some shady individual trying to coast through the immigration service and infiltrate the country. He is an American citizen in the most basic sense. And yet, he was arrested without clear evidence and held without trial for three years, before the movement of the Supreme Court forced the government to lay some sort of charge against him. A divided government might go some way to preventing this sort of thing from recurring, but the recent elections have not undone the damage done to rights and liberties in this country. Whatever your political stripe and fanct, you should be wary of allowing the government to treat its citizens this way. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
1:06 pm	We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be held without charge, trial, or legal recourse. It's not all that often that I post here at all, and it's even rarer that I say something of note. But finally, I do have something to say, and tragically it is really too late to be saying it. Last week, both the House and the Senate passed S.3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Why is this a problem? Because this piece of legislation is what I can only term a heinous attack on essential rights. Think that's strong language? Well here is why (and I encourage you to go ahead and check out the text itself. 1) The bill allows the government to designate individuals as 'enemy combatants', not through any regular judicial review, but by tribunal. Importantly, this can be done through the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT), even though CSRT determinations may be based on evidence that would be excluded as unreliable by a military commission. This means that people can now become 'enemy combatants' essentially on the force of hearsay, and may not even be able to view the evidence held against them. Oh, and the tribunals are not even bound by the UCMJ. This in and of itself should be profoundly disturbing for anyone. 2) In addition to the above, the bill revokes the right of Habeas Corpus from any alien classified as an enemy combatant, or awaiting such determination. That last part is killer. What does this mean, you ask? Habeas Corpus is the right you have to petition (or for someone to petition on your behalf) the state or court to prove their right to hold you. Essentially, this allows you to challenge your imprisonment as unlawful, and force the authorities to prove that it is not. It is a fundamental protection from simply being held hostage by the state. It is now a hairsbreadth from being revoked for the 30 million legal aliens in the United States, and any tourists that happen to wander through. The right to Haebus Corpus is also enshrined in the US Constitution. There is no possible way to argue that this legislation is remotely constitutional. Well, surely if this is unconstitutional, then we merely need to wait for the system to do its job! In theory, yes, but the legislation bars any court from receiving a writ of habeas corpus pertaining to those held, and places such detainees beyond the jurisdiction of conventional courts. This does not make it impossible that the legislation can be struck down, but it means that someone (probably the ACLU) is going to have to wrestle bears to get this up to the level of the supreme court. I think that Barack Obama has something eloquent to say on this matter: The world is watching what we do today in America. They will know what we do here today, and they will treat all of us accordingly in the future--our soldiers, our diplomats, our journalists, anybody who travels beyond these borders. I hope we remember this as we go forward. I sincerely hope we can protect what has been called the ``great writ''--a writ that has been in place in the Anglo-American legal system for over 700 years. I don't have the power to do anything more than inform you. I suggest all citizens (who have not been labeled as enemy combatants) use their alleged power of vote to speak to Congress on this issue. ( On a more personal note ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
10:51 am	Hurk This entire week has been a complete wreck for me. I can't seem to get anything done on time, be anywhere when I need to be, or get to sleep at a reasonable hour. There isn't even a reasonable excuse for this. I think something just went wrong on Monday and it's been dominoing through the rest of the week. Or something. I don't even know. Also: Need job for post-graduation. I have no idea what I should be pursuing at this point, but I need to get pursuing something. And I need to file my degree petition so I can graduate in May. And check in with OIE about traveling on my curent paperwork. And doigjeonadfknaldkvndlfkdd. sdfdsklcks[pqw orhj (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
2:13 am	No really my life is interesting. So back in classes at this point. I think that this is going to be a good semester. I'm happy with half of my classes, which is pretty good, and the others don't seem like a horrible burden (although I would really like to reschedule some of the stuff they're doing that is messing with my weekend. Bleh.) Anyway, quite more importantly, one of my professors has asked me if I would like to co-author part of his book. (!!!!) It would be a chapter of a greater work, but the topic is very interesting and pretty untouched. It would be brilliant to write about it. And, of course, if I can even get my name lodged somewhere in the tiny font it would be awesome. In more global news, The president of Iran challenges G. W. Bush to a TV debate. This is, of course, something that Bush would never do, and it would probably be a amazingly bad idea if he did. But the idea is a fun one, and it would be interesting to see a debate between two sides with this much difference, as opposed to the highly controlled stuff that turns up in politics at the moment. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
2:37 am	Oh Shit. I'm 23 now. Well, technically, yesterday. Tonight. Whatever. I feel like I haven't made very good use of that time. The first 10 years were a complete bust. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
1:26 am	So, uh... I am not dead yet. I am very tired, though. Weary. Going to California on the 5th, by way of the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Don't wait up. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 26th, 2006
2:12 am	Over-informationalisation So because I am a dork and stuff, I recently joined OKCupid. This was really more with the intent of wasting time than of actually getting results, which is good because the results have been about as abyssmal as the rest of my dating endeavours! But that isn't the point of this post. One of the things that the site has done is got me thinking about the bulk of information that you can find on people now. One of the problems I suffer through on the site is working out what to say to people when you contact them. All the normal stuff you might ask to get to know someone is laid out right there in front of you. In a way, there is too much information being provided. You have their age, details of their personality, journal entries, really everything I can think of, and all there really is to is look and say 'well yea' or 'uh no'. But all that knowledge doesn't offer familiarity, or attachment, or any of the things that the usual exchange of trivial details is really for. I don't really know where Im going with this (just that its been on my mind and this place needed something posted here) It's certainly a good thing, in many ways, to have all this sort of information. It lets you trim away people for whatever reason you know that you won't get along; religion, interests, whatever. But at the same time, somehow, it seems to give us all too much. Half the interesting people I know in life might be people I would have steered clear of -- had I known every detail of their lives before knowing them. I realise that sounds bizarre, but I think there is some truth to it. I demand thoughts on this topic. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
1:10 am	Well I have an interview with Clean Air Campaign here in Atlanta, which would be a nifty little resume addition and actually pay me more than I earn now on campus. This would be coo, despite the fact it would add to my commute. The interview is going to be at 3:30 today (Tuesday) so, keep your fingers crossed for me. Or something, I don't know. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 20th, 2006
9:56 pm	Long Day. Today ended up being longer than anticipated. The landlord-representative guy (I have no idea what his title might be) woke me up showing the remaining room to some dude. He's shown it to about three or four people now, with apparently no firm takers. This includes a girl who was looking for a place, which would be pretty hilarious if only because of how I imagine living with a girl would effect J and G. Haha. Speaking of which, J had passed through on Friday, and I had had to unpack some of his stuff that he wanted to take with him -- and then repack it when he couldn't fit it in the car. So I had boxes and whatnot tossed about the place that needed cleaning up again, and some reorganising of the room to be done. I suppose that I should have been somewhat grateful for being woken up so I could spend a few hours actually getting all that done. The place is pretty close to set now, I really just need to throw out all the packing boxes and it will look like I actually live here. Following this, I headed around to Kroger on the bike to grab some things I needed for dinner, and about halfway there -- *puchunk* -- something goes wrong with the bike, locking the back wheel. I make it off the road without dying, and find that its thrown the chain. Doh. I spend a few minutes getting that set in place, and notice that the entire rear assembly looks a little weird. Hmm. Not really having the option of stripping anything on the roadside, I continue the 100meters to Kroger. Right in the parking lot, yea -- *clickclickclick*chunk* -- it locks up again. Only this time the chain hasn't been thrown, the rear derailer# and tension pulleys# have gotten into the back wheel, and I'm very lucky it didn't mangle any spokes. Had I been going faster, something would have given. I spend fifteen minutes in the Kroger parking lot trying to set this straight, but without tools or anything its not looking great. Rather than manhandle it, I just lock up the bike and go in to get the stuff I need. Of course, the bike wheel is still locked, so I have to carry it most of the way home. About halfway I work out that the way the assembly is, it can actually roll backwards, so I do that the rest of the way. Geeze. Once home, get dinner rolling, and then spend an hour and a half poking about the bike working out what has gone wrong and bouncing between the wheel and the laptop because, lets be honest, I have no idea how to fix a bike. But, eventually and with the assistance of Mr. Sheldon Brown, I get the whole damn rear assembbly fixed. I went ahead and did some real cleaning on the thing while I was at it. Suffice to say that was NOT how I had intended to pass Saturday evening. The bike seems alright now, perhaps even in improved condition, and hopefully it will not explode on the way to work tomorrow. We'll see. Other things of note: 1) I had a callback from the Clean Air Campaign, with whom I applied for an internship. They want an interview, so thats promising, and if Im lucky I'll manage to pick up a paid position for this summer. The only hurdle is the stupid amount of paperwork that the school/INS requires that I get done, which means that it might be a week before I can begin working there, and theres a real possibility that some dick in the chain can veto it and stop me. Huzzah. 2) I'd forgotten what it was like to essentially live alone. Its not really that bad all in all. Hey, I get to watch whatever tv shows I want, for one thing. At the same time, there is something sort of bleak about having a trio of nerf guns sitting around in the main room and you being the only person there. Maybe I can rig the stuffed monkey to shoot at me. That wouldn't be creepy at all. 3) I really need to get working on my Dragon*Con costume if I want to wear one. I also think that I missed the cheap prereg date as well. Dammit. In general I need to stop procrastinating on things and start getting everyone done. This is not my strong point. Its strange though, because I was actually doing pretty well during the spring. Maybe I used up all my gumption or something. 4) Pie. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 15th, 2006
1:20 pm	Getting to Work I now live two miles from work (and class) I had hoped to get a little scooter/moped thing before moving, but didn't have any luck in finding one in my price range (ie, cheap) So instead I struck out today on my (actually former roomies) trusty bicycle. This has lead to a realisation. Unless I do get around to finding some sort of moped thingy, I will either be: 1) Dead 2) In excellent shape. Oh I made it work, but Im really glad that I have hours before I will have to bike back. Let me tell you, if you think Atlanta traffic is whacky as is, face it on bike. Jesus. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
11:04 am	Moved. I am in the new house, now. My great thanks go out to artemis257 for his help in hauling all our stupid crap over to the new place, and for not stabbing me in the anything. I really appreciate that. =D Anyway. New place. I am mostly moved in now. I got all the kitchen and house stuff pretty much unpacked and what remains is basically stuff from my room and boxes of books that need to be unpacked. Not too horrible, and it looks like someone lives here now. Unfortunately I have work today, so I can't lay around the place adjusting. Emily should be fine in my absence though, she seems to really be pretty fine with the move. Thats one small blessing, as I was pretty worried I would have to contend with an angry and disgruntled cat trying to escape all the time or something. As it is she's happy as long as she can bash her head against me all the time. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006
2:09 am	Moving I am moving house, so I am filled with rage. How did I get so much stuff? Where did all these boxes of books come from? Why can I not bring myself to throw anything away? Its like you fill a box and set it to one side, but the amount of things in your house has not diminished. I live in some sort of warped space, I don't even know. Also this means there is a real chance I will be cut off for a week or whatever while I sort out the new internet situation. There was a time that would bother me a lot more than it does now. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 1st, 2006
11:24 am	It is in fact possible Im dead. I don't know if Im really going to keep up with this whole journal thing. Or make the pretense that Im doing it, even. I use it to read up on what friends are up to, but other than that I really have trouble putting anything in here. I SLEPT THROUGH THE WEEKEND. UPDATE AT ELEVEN! You can see how I am not particularly compelled to write about this stuff. I suppose that the real solution is for me to make a greater effort to have whacky hijinks, so that I would have something more substantial to talk about. Anyway, alive, finals, blah blah, fascism. As you were. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 17th, 2006
5:00 pm	Spring Break Alright, Im off on spring break tomorrow. Me and the guys are going up to ski in some crazy place north of here. Seeing as the most snow I have seen is in Atlanta itself, this ought to be pretty interesting. Hoepfully I will not kill myself in some tragic accident. I suppose I should be ready for a broken limb of some kind though, give my natural sports affinity (ie, none) and the fact I've been lucky too long. Anyway, wish me luck. In other, unrelated news: Haircut. Yea, after growing out my hair for ages I finally got up one morning with a thought not entirely unlike "what the hell is up with this stuff, anyway?" So I went and got it cut. Tada: I haven't had short hair in years now, so Im still trying to remember what the hell I did with it. I think I just left it alone and looked ridiculous most of the time. Brilliant! (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 20th, 2006
12:03 am	Har. I stole this from Faeriechyld because I am an evil person and because I like spectrum thingies. Get your own spectral analysis from Area 23® (Comment on this)
Friday, February 17th, 2006
6:09 am	Those Crazy Old Politicians. You know, one of the things that sort of makes me vaguely uncomfortable about the political system is the fact that once you're in, you're basically there until you die. The fact that people will serve in one role or another for basically 50 years is kind of disconcerting. Granted it's a democracy, but why is it that so many of people in government are so old? Seriously. When I was in Britain, a lot of the officials were a lot younger. Why is this? It's kind of interesting to consider the positions that basically have no retirement age; politics, law, certain kinds of medecine, academia, and research. It makes sense that you can keep working as a politician at a greater age than you can be a fire fighter, but it still seems like there ought to be some standard at which we send people home or something. At least get them out of public office. Every so often, something happens that helps justify this feeling. Oh those crazy politicians and their getting aides to parade themselves! I can understand him being distracted, but how lecherous and crass do you have to be to ask someone to walk back for you to ogle again? On camera? Is what you're doing not important enough to hold your attention here, gramps? (2 Comments |Comment on this)