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Feb. 17th, 2021 03:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyGot Nozomi's exhaust back together, now it's a matter of getting her state inspection done. The only reason it took me so long was because even though the garage is technically indoors and part of the house, it can still get too cold to do anything. All told, I didn't encounter any nasty surprises. The two bolts I was worried about the most came out with ease. Had those broken, I would have had a Big Sad and a lot of extra work.
Gonna do a triage on the parts I took off. The muffler may have another year or two left in it so I'll save that for a pinch. The main pipe is the culprit of all this, and needed replaced. The original catalytic converter and O2 sensors are reusable but will need a lot of work to free it from the main pipe. For what the OEM parts cost, it's worth it. As I'm putting on an aftermarket converter for the time being, I somewhat expect the original one to be called upon to go back in a few years from now. This has already happened with Ai. At least then, all of the fasteners and such should be easier to work with, instead of what's been on there for over 15 years and 290k miles. It's quite amazing how replacing or removing a part can go from "last resort" to "viable" just from the condition of the fasteners.
My LaserDisc collection has reached a point where I found it necessary to make a spreadsheet to keep track of them. Unlike with DVDs and BDs, where I can keep track of them via Libib, there is no such provision for LDs with that service. In terms of linear shelf space, my LD collection takes up about 4 feet of shelf. Given that all of my LDs are at least 20 years old, with a few dating back to the 1980s, I'm starting to be a bit concerned about the condition of the "protective" plastic inner sleeve. Ever seen a plastic bag that breaks apart just from touching it because it's so old? Yeah. Fortunately, as LDs are the same size as LP vinyl records, the inner sleeves for records will work as a replacement.
Recently I was conversing with a gentleman who runs a used music store. Most of his sales are in vinyl records. In asking about a protective sleeve for LDs, he mentioned that he had a few LDs for sale, leftover from when he rented them out back in the 90s. He then told me the story of a "reverse shoplifter": About 10 years ago, there was a customer who would enter the store, wearing his coat in such a way as to conceal something else inside, make his way to the back of the store, and then leave some LDs behind. The guy was actively trying to get rid of his LD collection without directly throwing them away. He probably knew that he could have brought all of them into the store and tried to sell them to the owner, and he wouldn't have gotten much for them. Or he could have just plopped them on the counter and said "you can have these". But then where's the thrill in that? Given that was 10 years ago, it was at a time when LDs were worth their least: Too obsolete for mainstream enjoyment, too new for any retro/hipster value. I'm not gonna lie; around that same time I seriously thought about getting rid of my LDs and player. I'm glad I didn't. I actually have a few titles in that format that never made it to DVD.
I'm gonna get back into doing anime reviews in some capacity, although I'll be posting those on my main site instead of here. (But I will post the link here on DW/LJ.) There will be one major difference! Instead of doing reviews of shows that I might watch a few episodes of and then drop for whatever reason, I'm going to watch the whole series, and then say what I think about it after I'm done. That way, I'll have the context of the whole series in one mindset, while I'm still thinking of it.
http://www.cardboardshrine.com/articles/anime-reviews/9/return-of-the-anime-reviews or something like it.
As mentioned in that link, I'm not going to be taking suggestions on what to watch, nor am I going to take on shows with excessively large episode counts. There's already enough anime in my existing library that it can keep me busy for decades, already enough anime that I've been meaning to get around to watching.
Last weekend would have been Katsucon. That means it's been a solid year since I've been to an anime convention and at the rate things are going, it'll probably be another year.
Gonna do a triage on the parts I took off. The muffler may have another year or two left in it so I'll save that for a pinch. The main pipe is the culprit of all this, and needed replaced. The original catalytic converter and O2 sensors are reusable but will need a lot of work to free it from the main pipe. For what the OEM parts cost, it's worth it. As I'm putting on an aftermarket converter for the time being, I somewhat expect the original one to be called upon to go back in a few years from now. This has already happened with Ai. At least then, all of the fasteners and such should be easier to work with, instead of what's been on there for over 15 years and 290k miles. It's quite amazing how replacing or removing a part can go from "last resort" to "viable" just from the condition of the fasteners.
My LaserDisc collection has reached a point where I found it necessary to make a spreadsheet to keep track of them. Unlike with DVDs and BDs, where I can keep track of them via Libib, there is no such provision for LDs with that service. In terms of linear shelf space, my LD collection takes up about 4 feet of shelf. Given that all of my LDs are at least 20 years old, with a few dating back to the 1980s, I'm starting to be a bit concerned about the condition of the "protective" plastic inner sleeve. Ever seen a plastic bag that breaks apart just from touching it because it's so old? Yeah. Fortunately, as LDs are the same size as LP vinyl records, the inner sleeves for records will work as a replacement.
Recently I was conversing with a gentleman who runs a used music store. Most of his sales are in vinyl records. In asking about a protective sleeve for LDs, he mentioned that he had a few LDs for sale, leftover from when he rented them out back in the 90s. He then told me the story of a "reverse shoplifter": About 10 years ago, there was a customer who would enter the store, wearing his coat in such a way as to conceal something else inside, make his way to the back of the store, and then leave some LDs behind. The guy was actively trying to get rid of his LD collection without directly throwing them away. He probably knew that he could have brought all of them into the store and tried to sell them to the owner, and he wouldn't have gotten much for them. Or he could have just plopped them on the counter and said "you can have these". But then where's the thrill in that? Given that was 10 years ago, it was at a time when LDs were worth their least: Too obsolete for mainstream enjoyment, too new for any retro/hipster value. I'm not gonna lie; around that same time I seriously thought about getting rid of my LDs and player. I'm glad I didn't. I actually have a few titles in that format that never made it to DVD.
I'm gonna get back into doing anime reviews in some capacity, although I'll be posting those on my main site instead of here. (But I will post the link here on DW/LJ.) There will be one major difference! Instead of doing reviews of shows that I might watch a few episodes of and then drop for whatever reason, I'm going to watch the whole series, and then say what I think about it after I'm done. That way, I'll have the context of the whole series in one mindset, while I'm still thinking of it.
http://www.cardboardshrine.com/articles/anime-reviews/9/return-of-the-anime-reviews or something like it.
As mentioned in that link, I'm not going to be taking suggestions on what to watch, nor am I going to take on shows with excessively large episode counts. There's already enough anime in my existing library that it can keep me busy for decades, already enough anime that I've been meaning to get around to watching.
Last weekend would have been Katsucon. That means it's been a solid year since I've been to an anime convention and at the rate things are going, it'll probably be another year.
