Ranty McRanterson

Amazing really how much I can rant about the people that drive on the roads today. looking back at old blog posts, I've basically ranted about everyone that drives on the road today.

But does it stop there? Not at all. Monday night, or was it Sunday night can't remember. Anyways, I was the tail driver in a group, with two fairly new hires, and obviously a lead in front of me. Now the lead i know well, hits 70 on the freeway, then turns on the cruise. well my cruise never was on the entire night. and I'm not sure which speed I was doing more, 65 or 75. Already not sounding good right? well. were also supposed to keep a 4 second gap, which isn't exactly small, but the 2nd driver let a semi in because of the gap they had. the person would NOT go 70. would not speed up to go on a freeway (like at one point we were on an on ramp doing about 45, at the same point normally I'd be doing at least 60). Now when that 2nd driver wasn't doing so bad, the 3rd driver, well was. annoyingly enough. By the end of that night I wanted to shoot myself, and at one point even though about going from tail to the 2nd driver. (yeah as in I pass both of them). Now what really kills me about that 2nd driver is my lead that day told them that they were on cruise at 70. the 2nd driver had said that they didn't set it up before they left...



...I'm trying to not blow up here, but seriously? last I checked to make cruise control work. you pressed the on button then press the set button. is that really that hard?

Now another rant I have is bikers. today was a fairly nice day out, got a little cold at night but nothing bad. At one point I had my window open, and two bikes went past me on a 4 lane road going the other way. I'm amazed my ears weren't bleeding after they passed me. (and for those that think, oh its not that bad, it was like a Harley, in a tunnel... but louder). Then later I had a bike BLOW by me (it was a crotch rocket) no idea how fast he was going, but I was doing 55. he must of been at least going 80. I should note that there was a car in that lane when he blew by us, but the car was far enough up he basically cut my lead off and kept on blasting ahead. I do wonder if a cop got him because he wasn't just cooking, he was burning. But I have noticed that a lot of bikers seem to go faster then cars. now being a little louder I can understand, but they have to obey the same speed limits cars have to obey so I don't see why they are going faster. or is there something here I'm completely missing.

Also I went to the Woodward Dream Cruise this past weekend. it was pretty good, didn't seem quite as packed as previous years. (but now they are spreading it out over like two or 3 days I think as well).

Long Time... No Post

Was it laziness or was it forgetfulness.... I forget now. Life has been busy lately for me. My oldest sister got her first house, and I've been helping on cleaning the place up getting it ready for her and her husband and daughter into very soon. Work has also been keeping me busy, between to two really I feel like I've had very little personal time.

and first of all I got to get some ranting off, to blow out the steam thats been building inside of me. STUPID F#@%!#@ PEOPLE ON THE ROAD. Just today nearly had an accident because a guy just started moving over. blinker? nope. did he look? didn't seem him move his head until I honked at him. Should I have slammed on my brakes for him? No i should of let him hit me, he had a pos Ranger I was in something that was worth about 10x what he was driving. He wouldn't of been able to pin it on me because he never signaled. On top of that I later had to deal with RUSH HOUR traffic. no longer do I think the I-275 and I-96 merge is bad. now I know whats worse. Haggerty Rd up by Pontiac Trail (believe its in Commerce). They are freakin crazy up there, if only I had a nickel for every car I just saw pull out of a dam driveway. I looked at the front of my vehicle and there thankfully wasn't a hit me sign on it. Thought it felt like there was.

Last Night (as in Sunday night, I forget I'm posting this on what is technically Tuesday morning). We got stuck behind a Sprinter van not going the speed limit (at some other location) and then this minivan with the flashers on passes us. so we go to pass the van, and they slow down, ends up being a blazer (or something like that) that was slowing the minivan down. I get about halfway to passing him, and he takes off like a bat out of h#!!. Then the minivan passes us again. -_- k seriously?

Oh I'm not even done yet. probably a month ago. I had a guy cut in front of me. and i might of had a car length between me and the car in front of me (I did it on purpose as to not allow that person to get in front of me). guy still cuts right IN THERE. I should of blared my horn at him for being not just a complete moron, but also a complete and uder a$$#@!#.

(Rip from the Budweiser radio ads) (Chorus sarcastically "Real Men of Genius.") Here's to you Mr. attempted multitasking driver. You so gracefully float between lanes nearly causes accidents, with full horns blaring behind you.(Chorus "Mr. attempted multitasking driver") While talking on the phone... and texting.... and shaving... and eating breakfast. (Chorus again "Oh your car is going to be wrecked")

In other news. Progress on all my 3d models has been minimal at best. I did pull out my parents old lawnmower and got it running, not well but its running. and it took me about 4 hours (this is including rather frequent breaks) which is probably about 3 hours longer then it took to do the same backyard with the good mower. The problem is, it hits any amount of grass and it bogs down so my thought is tighten up the governer spring. (could the problem really be that easy though?). the carb could probably be rebuilt again. as the mixture screw has as far as i can tell no jurisdiction on how much fuel that engine gets. Only thing that seems better about that mower then i recall is, its starting in 1 pull just about everytime, not too shabby for a 1983 Briggs and Straton that mowed a lot and half for probably about 10 years. and mowed a much smaller lawn for another 10 years until being rebuilt and put away. I do seem to remember running it before i put it away and I seem to remember it chugging black smoke when it hit just a little grass. never did that now though... there were a couple times where it started chugging out blue smoke so I shut it down and let it cool off. (and proceeded to say "UGH").

I can also tell the engine has no power because its barely chucking grass into the bag, and when it does it doesn't chuck too much into it before it overloads the mower (and the bag won't be very full).

Anyways I need to sleep now.

Who's good... errr not me I guess...

Finally, finally. some free time from work, and a nice day out to boot, need to wash my car now lol.

Obviously I haven't been regularly posting around here as I have been working. Oh its been a long hard night and I've been working like a dog... whoops sorry lol, might hit a copyright infringement if I go any further there lol.

in terms of 3d models, well my Iota-B didn't get an interior, but it was released.



and then theres this thing...


Yeah, its a Ford Ranger, XLT. its i n testing right now, so its also equipped with a 2.3l 4 cylinder engine and a 5 speed manual transmission right now.

Anyways I think thats it for now maybe more later, if I don't forget again of course.

Congratulations its a.... Errm....

If you couldn't already tell, I have been somewhat busy lately, my grandpa passed away earlier this month. my oldest sister has been dealing with depression (and a baby of course). and I've been working 4-5 days a week (yes some of those days were my weekends). But as I calmly sit here waiting to watch Live Time With Jon & Jory. I realized I hadn't posted a thing here in a long time. So other than personal matters in my life, and ranting to myself about the bad drivers on the roads. Seems I've been driving 5 speeds at work a little more often, my favorite so far was a base model 5 speed Ranger.

But my 3d models, oddly enough a acquired and have been somewhat working on converting a Ford Ranger (looks like a Sport model one) to Racer. and also working on my Rauss Iota. Firstly I'll show off the wheels for the Iota.

This first one is a 5 spoke more open design, and the center is more inset to create more of a dish shape with the wheels.

This 2nd one (obviously not quite finished) is a 5 spoke, hubcap (still have some detail work to finish on it to make it look more hubcap-ish). the design is based off an old Dodge Superbee hubcap design, but obviously altered.

The body, has only had a little progress on it the rear quarter glass and front window frame, and some lights.

bad driver redux.... (and more!)

Well thats right, another rant about more bad drivers, and even stupid drivers.

First up today, oh boy, the best of the breed. let me paint the picture for you, your going along you see a sign "Road Work Ahead" and you think "ok" (remember this is on a tri lane freeway) then another sign fast approaching reads "Left Two Lanes Closed Ahead" so you do the smart thing and move into the right lane, as you get closer to where this construction is, it starts to heavily back up. As your waiting 50 cars blow by you on the left, and as your sitting there you notice people behind you going into the left lane, and you remember the sign "left two lanes closed ahead" and are thinking to yourself "wtf?". these people that go into the lanes closed off for construction (before the barrels are set up), then cutting in very rudely up front (by ways of a blinker and just moving over), are the exact people that I don't just dislike them, I hate them, they are the stupidest people in the world. how big do we need to make the sign that says those two lanes are closed ahead so they can READ THEM!!! and the people that go from the open lane into the ones that are closed ahead, WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!?!?! I think they are probably dumber than the people that just sit in the left lane and just ride it out until the very end. This just makes me mad to no end how stupid people can be while driving. Made me want to kick some people's butt's with how dumb they were. I honestly think that the best idea here is to build a 2ft wall where the construction starts, without the silly slowly merging down. just a flat brick wall to stop people, and build a 50 foot long wall so if people are really that dumb they will get trapped into the box, then they will be pointed and laughed at by the workers and the passerby's. Maybe some spikes in the road would also help. probably would ramp up the amount of safety those workers have as well.

Now not too far off from this construction area I saw another bad driver (yeah everything I'm going to say is what I saw from work tonight, how terrible is that?). This one had no idea what a constant speed was, I was doing a good 69 mph (it was raining out and as part of my job I was following someone). and this person passed me, then maybe 5 minutes later, I passed them by. then not even 2 minutes later, they passed me by. Then I passed them. Now some people might think "Oh well they were probably trying to take pictures or video of the vehicle you were driving". This is possible, but not probable, since the people in this vehicle (which happened to be a late 90s Jetta TDI). Were not at all young, I think they could of passed for grandparent's. But maybe this is also why their speed was not too consistent. Alas, it annoyed me, especially since they never seemed to wonder 50 ft away from me(ok it didn't help they had the brightest blinkers... (long pause for Clarkson-esque-ness) ...In the world.

Now this last one, happened to be my lead driver. They weren't the best driver really, neither am I but better than this. part of the route I had to take today involved some roundabouts. now for some Americans roundabouts, can be confusing, but they are popping up everywhere (last time I took this route to the dot we hit 6 of them and I can think of two that we didn't take for sure). Now for those of us that understand roundabouts, its basically a circle with two lanes, and each way has two lanes as well the outer most will be if you say want to make a right turn onto the next street. the inside lane is for when you want to make a left hand turn onto that street, or a U-turn, or your really lost, and you just go around it for hours. Anyways, each way that goes onto these roundabouts has a Yield sign, so in this respect you must think of it like your on the onramp going on to a freeway, you have to yield to those on it already. Once you have space you can go. and you will seemlessly flow from one road to the next.

This person? treated each Yield sign, as a stop sign, even when no traffic was present at all. and one timed even stopped IN the roundabout, because there was a car coming at one point (but I think it made a turn into a driveway). Not to smart of an idea if you ask me. This just minorly annoys me really. Maybe its because i use my common sense, and quickly understood how a roundabout works, or maybe I watch too much Top Gear, and learned how roundabouts work on there. Either way, quite easy to understand really, and more efficient than stop signs or lights in most cases.

Thankfully that was it, but that was just in one day. how terrible is that? that I spotted 3 signs of stupid or bad drivers in a single day. (pretty sure I spotted some previously mentioned ones as well today). Still, ceases to amaze me how stupid people can be when driving. My grandpa always said that when people put their car into Drive they put their brains into Neutral, and sadly I'm seeing the truest form of this a lot with this job.


Of course this is a 3d modeling blog, with some OT-ness added in for more human nature-ness. (along with a lot of ness'ing around lol)

What have I been upto on my 3d models lately? well the Rauss Iota, is looking more complete, and ready to compete. Sure its got a lot to still do but its getting there at least.




The Omni? got the rear end tucked in a little more, the chrome trim for the tail lights, a new rear window, and I fixed the shader on the wheels so they are dark in the ambient and light in the sun. But anyone that knows any Omni.... wait am I alone on this? darn it.... anyways. the rear lights aren't quite right, the way I have them and the way they really are, well they are different.



I also rather quickly whipped up a replica of Davidsfarm's old Diesel Voyager, not perfectly accurate by any means, but close enough for me.



This thing? well look at the picture, its a Porsche 928, no I didn't model it, got it from a 3d modeling site, probably more so for fun then anything, and a good teaser kind of vehicle as well.



Now those last two pictures. you might of noticed something slightly different about them, in terms of size. they seemed. widescreen-ish. well thats because I finally got the money to get me a new Monitor, enter the Hanns-G HH201HPB 20" LCD widescreen monitor.
So that means no more of this...

and more like this...


purely awesomeness to me.

A bit of a rant

Well as I am a Test Driver and do a lot of on the road driving (like last week I clocked somewhere around 40 hours of driving last week alone). I see a lot of bad (clueless, possibly drunk) drivers on the road. Some do 90 mph, some do 45mph.... on the freeway.... so here's my rant and I'll start with whats bugging me right now. (obviously bad drivers)

What is really ticking me off is the amount of drivers that will sit in the very left lane on the freeway then, suddenly they realize their exit is coming up in a 1/4 mile. so they cut bait and get to the right hand lane as quickly as possible, and change lanes in their SUV (seems like everyone of them drives either that or a Crossover, or a Grand Prix) sometimes I think without looking and they jettison across the 3 lanes of traffic almost as fast as they are moving forward.

Then there's the person that seems to always come out of no where and just sit.... in your blind spot, while on the freeway, typically it seems to happen when your approaching a truck. which these same people also seem to do to those trucks, and they seem to like sitting in their blind spots, which is about the stupidest idea ever, because thats right where the trucker CAN'T SEE YOU.

My next is not really a bad driver as much as wrongly using a car, the car in specific? the Toyota Prius. I see more of them on the freeway then I do on the city streets. Some may know, but clearly those hippies (or who ever drives those things) don't realize that at freeway speeds a hybrid is just like a normal car, the electric motor in the Prius is only good for about 30 mph, so really the Prius was built for driving in the city, yet no one seems to realize that, unless theres another selling point for the thing (I don't really consider it a car as much as a tool) I think the car has no real appeal, not really a good looking car, quite ugly in my eyes. its not fun to drive, unless you consider trying to hyper mile fun. I've never driven one by the way, but I'd imagine they drive like a boat, turn in and it will turn, eventually. I think they are also a complete waste of money, especially in the long term because the batteries only last about 8 years, so by the time the hybrid system has paid for itself, you have to spend the 8,000$ (or whatever it is) for the new batterys. and if it is 8,000$ I'd go buy myself a Ford Festiva or a Geo Metro, as my commuter car, as I won't have to replace its 8,000$ battery in 8 years, you might have to replace a 50$ battery every 5 years, and other littler things that will easily pay itself off. And if you couldn't already realize I'm not a fan of the hybrid system, really its a joke, its lieing, a hybrid won't save the world, you might as well drive that 10 mpg Suburban again, because it really thats about the same damage to the enviroment. and some people are saying "well no they aren't the Prius gets 40 mpg". bad news for you people, those batteries are what kills the environment, because of the way they are manufactured and the nickel is mined, it is actually worse for the environment.

Anyways I think thats all I have to rant about right now, I'll post something about my 3d models probably tomorrow, kind of swamped at work right now.

Shhh

This won't be posted on RD, because I'm lazy, and some of it has already been posted on RD.

Anyways. work on the Omni/GLH-T/GLH-S continues the badges have been put onto the GLH-T (really want better badges for the GLH-S before continuing with badging it). The exterior 2d gauges have been done finally, by Silver, and I got a working fuel gauge which means now you can fill these cars up and go, and apparently with the Omni a full tank will get you a long ways at 70mph in 5th.





And a new Concept Car Competition has come out, for a Reasonably priced car. so I entered, the car will be the Rauss Iota, exacting specs are to be determined but as of now it will have a 1.6l turbo (low pressure) with 150hp, and 161 ft-lbs torque.