here it is. hopefully i can balance school, extracurricular activities, and work (if i get a job).

soon enough, my parents bought me my first Sonic the Hedgehog plush toy. i remember it was small and if i can recall, i ended up giving it to my cousin. either that, or he just took it from me. but not to worry, i somehow ended up with another one, much like the first one, but slightly bigger. the size of your average sized teddy bear. kept it ever since as a memory of my childhood since. that is, until i decided to give it up to somebody. =[

of course, being as naive as i was, i gave it to my ex-GF as a reminder of myself when she went to UC Davis. of course, time goes, we break up and we both have each other’s stuff. of course, i return hers and she does the same for some of the stuff she had of mine. last was my most treasured item that reminded me when i was a kid. unfortunately, she didn’t have that to return back to me. =T instead, she tossed him away since it hurt to have her look at it. i don’t blame her, but that thing had so much value in my life, i feel that a part of my childhood was just thrown away… honestly, i expected a bit more respect for belongings, but i guess when it comes down to shit like that, gotta take action. feelings are overwhelming and become too strong to control. the result is my Sonic the Hedgehog plush toy resting in peace in some dumpster.

fast-forwarding to now, i just had a conversation with my buddy, Q. Q linked me this Sonic cap you get when you pre-order the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4 video game that’s being released later this year. of course, him being him, he’d rather buy it from Amazon than pre-order the game. lol the subject of Sonic reminded me of my old Sonic plush toy so i took my chances just now on Amazon to see if they had my old toy – nope. so, next was ebay.

considering it’s a vintage plush toy compared to the new-school Sonic plush toys, i sorted the list according to price. anxious to find it, i indeed did. i almost felt my heart stop.

i can’t believe it, but it is here being sold on ebay. “1993″. that was the year it was released. honestly, if i had my job at IKEA right now, or even, if i had $100 to blow, i’d do so right now on the spot. as a human, you must be wondering why am i so passionate about such an old item? it’s just a plush toy! it’s so old, you can buy another one! or one that’s brand new! it’s an inanimate object for goodness sake! honestly, i don’t care how old i am now (21 years), this is a piece of my life that was thrown away. i remember growing up as a kid and looking up to such a fictional hero. it reminded of my cherished moments playing video games and what not.

someday, i’ll buy him back… :sigh:

equipped with magnetic rail gain, radome, gatling guns, and everything else.

source: http://www.streetlevel.com/

here, we have some all purpose lube that can be used to provide lubrication for the bike. in this case, i used it to provide lubrication within the cable housings to reduce friction with the brake cable and housing. i thought it was pretty funny how the brand Finish Line is pretty known company for bike stuff. other than that, it’s my username on the RX7club. =P thanks again Alvaro for the lube!

so i started off the whole project by dismounting the brake handle. here’s the front brake cable and housing.

these brake cables come with both ends for both road bike and mountain bike brake handles. this way, the customer may buy the same brake cables for their own preference and snip off the end that they don’t need. in this case, i cut the mountain bike brake cable end since i’m using the road bike side. =]

decided to clean up the brake levers while i’m at it. the end of the brake cable goes through the slot so the metal bead stays in place, while the rest of the cable goes through that hole and into the rest of the housing.

since the cable was taken out to be measured and cut as the same length as the old one, i had the whole leftover housing still untouched. with that, i used the same method and applied it to the brake housings. here’s a picture showing the length difference between the old housing and the new one. gotta chop it up the housing to that length!

on the top right of the pic, that’s the brake lever’s clamp which allows the lever to be mounted on the handlebars. took it off the lever completely to make cleaning easier. in this pic, i’m assembling the cable and housing back together. crimped the metal connectors too to ensure that the housing doesn’t come off. of course, before assembling the cable through the housing, i apply the brake cable lube on each end so that the cable can spread the rest of it through the housing when traveling through. =]

decided to clean the front brakes calipers too since i cleaned the rears couple weeks back. i guess the model of the calipers are “Dia-Compe N500″. did a brief search on the internet and these calipers were actually also used on old BMX bikes. =P also sanded down the brake pads to make em a bit smoother from any road junk pebbles that are embedded within.

in this pic, i’m finishing up the rear brakes. followed the same method of cleaning the brake levers, cutting the cable and housing, etc. the only problem was that it took the longest to finish this. it’s really a tedious job to find the perfect brake cable setting to have the brake pads at its closest to the rim of the wheel without touching it. and it doesn’t help that the whole mechanism on the caliper that allow the calipers open in order to make room to remove your wheel is slightly stripped. so when you close it back up, it doesn’t do it right. *sigh* so after trial and error for a good couple hours, i end up stripping one of the nuts that tighten the cable on the caliper.

so i decided that a quick trip to the Home Depot was most ideal for a situation like this. 0.5mm x8 sized nut. if you can see in the picture carefully, the small bolt is screwed onto the nut. lol or vice versa. however you wanna say it. =P i’ll probably get a cone nut later down the road but this is definitely an emergency so i had to make do with what i have. better this than not being able to use my rear brakes at all. lol

so alas, the day ends, and i am satisfied many hours later after squatting for such long periods of times. i can also say that my thumbs hurt from squeezing the brake calipers while trying to install the brake cable but that’s ok. after wrapping the whole project up and re-using the handle bar tape (yes, i still think i can use it. hasn’t been THAT long. =P), i took the bike for a quick spin around the neighborhood and the brakes are really sensitive. =] very impressed what a tune-up can really do. also proud of myself of how well the bike is so far along with the knowledge gained in the process of learning how to do all this stuff.

until next time… *WHEW*

PS: next will be the front stem. it’s kinda loose when i hit bumps so yea, gotta tighten that guy. not sure when i’ll be truing the wheels but i don’t have the money for that. i’d like to also replace the front derailleur so i can change gears without having the derailleur hit the crank and not have the chain fall out on either side. so close, yet so far! xD

Yoshinoya recently renovated the inside of their building too! and from the looks of it, it’s really a fresh new look inside to see! =]

so i ordered Heather and i two #1 bowls, one for each of us, along with our cup of waters. got some condiments to complement the food as well: the pepper and the soy sauce. mind you, the place is brand new so everything, and i mean EVERYTHING was new.

including this:

notice anything odd about the soy sauce bottle? the cap actually has the plastic wrapped on it still! LOL so i thought to myself, ok, this is no problem. just gotta remove it. and so i did, tipped the bottle over my bowl… nothing. strike two. might be the closed off by that thing i gotta peel off i thought to myself. twisted off the cap…

and yet, ANOTHER cap! -____- talk about new, huh? lol good thing it was just that as the last thing to remove to use the damn soy sauce bottle. hahah stuffed the red cap in my pocket and took it home as a souvenir.

kudos to Yoshinoya. the place is lookin’ good. wonder how long it’s gonna take before the bathrooms get all tagged up. =P

check it out.

alas, the story of Raiden and how he came to be in MGS4 will finally be unveiled.

win.

disregard everyone’s opinions. whether it be blood or friends, !@#$ it.

what’s the point? what the @#$! is support anymore?

how about being accepted for what you are?

what does it mean to understand? to be understood?

shit happens. whatever. prove it to others? that’s a mistake waiting to happen.

do it for yourself. !@#$ everyone else. no point because your life is what you make it.

not theirs. either they help you, you benefit from it, or they bring you down.

handle it. stay up. keep your head high. you’ll pull through it. pray for the strength.

there will be next time… hopefully.

“I don’t like you either! FOO!” LOL

good night.