I feel your pain. I was looking at some of the GED sample tests and I was like "What?!?". Its way different from when I was in school. It pisses me off. I used to be pretty good in school when I was younger but now I have a hard time grasping the material. I guess if you don't use it, you definitely lose it. Got to get those synapses firing again.

 

It definitely gets lost when you don't use it. Even something as simple as spelling has escaped me. I used to be able to spell almost anything, was even in a few bee's and placed well, but today without Google Chrome auto-fill and Goggle itself, I would be lost. When I went back to college after only being away from the classroom for 4 or 5 years, even that was enough to make me forget a lot of stuff. Especially the subjects that are primarily memorization, like History. Luckily Math has always been my strongest subject and I was able to ace it with no problem.

 

In a broader sense, yes. Nevermind.

We already learned enough about your reading comprehension in the MINI scoop thread.

 

Well, the placement testing went as I thought it would...reading comprehension and writing skills were my bitch (96% and 94%) and math was 34 I think I made a few lucky guesses on the math because the teacher was like "well, you were 3 points away from making math 101, if you were to retest, you would probably get it". I declined the retest stating that I was lucky to get what I did and that it would be in my best interest to take a remedial math course to refresh my brainpowerzzzz.

I am a GED graduate as well, left my junior year of HS as I slacked off like hell and got behind. Had my GED within a month and started working. So here I am, 11 years later with an idea of what I would like to do with myself....not something I knew when I was in HS with the teachers pounding "college! college! college!...rest of your life.....fail here and fail at life" into my head. I felt weird walking into a school though, but I better get used to it and am looking forward to it.

 

I shipped a Cadillac CTS Hood to a guy last week and he just sent me a message this morning saying the right corner is crumbled beyond repair.

I'm having a hard time believing this because I spent over an hour packing the thing with 5" of foam around the entire hood, finished off with cardboard and stretch wrap. Not to mention the hood was aluminum and weighed about 15lbs, so its not like the pure weight of it could have caused this. The freight guys literally would have had to pick this thing up and slam it down to cause damage.

Now I have to get on the phone and give this guy a call. He easily could have had another hood that was already damaged (hence why he was buying this one) and is trying to pull a fast one on me. He offered to send pictures so I'm going to tell him to go ahead and send me some. Bad way to start the day.

 

Check out The Kahn Academy. It is an Asian dude who gives lessons on a shitton of topics. He is very good at explaining math topics.

 

Yay, 24H of Le Mans tickets booked. Can't wait for a weekend with no sleep, beer and awesome cars.

 

Yet another stunning victory in mankind's ongoing battle against reason!

Introducing Candwich, the Sandwich-in-a-Can!



This one appears to be completely serious. The price seems a trifle steep at $3 for a can containing one PB&J sandwich, but they claim to have a couple of other flavors in the works, including BBQ Chicken.

One thing that bothers me is that little yellow thingy at the bottom advising us that there is a surprise inside. I'm quite certain that if there is one thing you absolutely do not want when opening a sandwich-in-a-can, it's a surprise.

 

This came to mind.

 

Tabasco makes everything better.

Tabasco and I had sort of drifted apart over the years. There was never any animosity, I'd just been busy with other things. But fate (and my walking down aisle 6) recently brought us back together.

And oh yeah, Tabasco really does make everything better.

Pizza? Check.
Chicken? Check.
Meatloaf? Check.
Spaghetti? Check.
Mac-n-cheese? Check.
Vanilla ice cream? Check.
Cheap hotdogs with pickle relish? Check.
Breakfast cereal?

Actually, it turns out that the enjoyment of breakfast cereal is not enhanced by Tabasco. Ah, well. Chalk that one up to science.

You know what would go well with breakfast cereal, though? Honey-mustard. I simply do not understand how these concepts remain divided. We enjoy honey-mustard every day as a salad dressing, a pretzel coating, a glaze for meat, a dipping sauce for small nugget-shaped pieces of reconstituted mechanically separated chicken...

So why not breakfast cereal? Seriously, does anybody here not think that honey-bunches-of-mustard might potentially be awesome? That it might not rise up and stand as a testament to man's limitless creativity and usher in a new golden era of culinary enlightenment?

Who is with me? Who among you will stand up against the forces of breakfast tyranny and proclaim "We will not rest, we will not sleep for an instant until honey-mustard goodness is delivered to our breakfast table!"


On the vanilla ice cream thing, though. It turns out that there is one thing with which it goes even better:

Stout.

Oatmeal Stout.

"Old Goat" Oatmeal Stout from the San Marcos Brewery on San Marcos Blvd near the Edward's Cinema on Las Poses road.

I couldn't be more serious. When the bartender suggested it to me, saying that it was a favorite desert treat of the owner, I thought he was yanking my chain. But he slid a little bowl of vanilla ice cream over to me, which I deposited into my half-emptied pint glass and stirred a bit. Cautiously, I took a sip. And then another. And at that moment, my eyes were truly opened.

Friends, hear me: Drinking a Stout Float is like tasting the semen of angels. I have never experienced a gastronomical sensation which is even fit to compare in a trifling and dismissive tone to the wonder and majesty brought forth by dropping a dollop of common vanilla ice cream into a half-emptied pint glass of really good-quality oatmeal stout. Separately, the two are certainly good. But when brought together... something magical is unlocked. Like the Sankara Stones of Mt. Kalisa, they react together to produce an experience which simply cannot be described in words.

You simply must experience this before you die.

 

Angel semen, huh? You make it seem so appealing...

 

I guess my "weird" food mixture of hashbrowns and pickes isn't so weird anymore...

 

Well, I'm trying to make things relevant for our specific audience here.

 

Oh yes, my wife is gonna hear all about the angel semen tonight.

 

does she catalog all of your toys?

 

I just rented a cooling system pressure tester

 

Quick question. When putting new studs in the manifold, should I worry about how hard I'm hitting them with a hammer to line them up?

The studs need to be helped back into the correct positions, I'm just worried about hitting them too hard and cracking the flange. Not sure if that's even possible though.

 

Manifold or hub?

 

ARTech manifold. Stainless steel studs.

EDIT: Turbo is on! I just kept working at them one by one until they lined up. I forgot how much patience is needed at this part when it comes to the lower rear downpipe nut and the lower rightside turbo nut. Only took a minute, but still stressed me the **** out. lol

 

What became of the hood situation? Just curious.