Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

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Would you settle for a lesser site?

Friday, April 25th, 2008

When you’re designing a web site, you want it to be the best right? I mean … not just average looking but something you will be proud to put against those featured on showcased sites right?

You’ll often find me posting and answering questions in forums when my mind needs to be somewhere else for a few minutes. Sometimes I find myself reviewing sites. When reviewing someone’s site, I often point them to CSS Showcase sites (notably CSSMania because of it’s topics) just to give them a view on their competition. I think it’s very important to see what your competition has for a site and making sure you’re up to par with them esthetically. I mean, you’re product might be better than Company B but if your site looks like it was done when Netscape 3 was out … most people won’t look past the first impressions.</p>

Yes … it’s true unfortunately. The classic line of “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” doesn’t work in the Web Design industry. If your site looks great and it’s trendy, clients will come.

So … when you’re designing a site, don’t settle for less! Go look at what the others are doing and aim higher.

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Posted in Writing | 3 Comments »

Hi-lift mounted on rollcage

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Many jeepers are looking for ways to mount their hi-lift jack on their Jeep. I decided that I wanted to keep mine as far away from Mother Nature as possible, especially with all the salt that goes on our streets in the winter time.

So with that in mind, I found out that many were mounting it behind the backseat on the rollcage. Found a few write-ups and went on from there. Notably one found on JonFund.com with a few modifications since I didn’t have a welder.

Here’s what it looks like:

What you’ll need:

  • 2 x 2″ Heavy Duty Muffler clamps
  • Drill
  • Grinder
  • Wrenches
  • Lock
  • Wing nuts
  • Railing from garage door – this is what I used instead of the 1/16″ Steel L Bracket since I don’t have a welder

Let’s get started

Check the base of your jack. You’ll see that there are 3 holes in it in a form of a triangle. I used the 2 bottom ones to fix it to the clamp.

Now for the other side

We drilled 2 holes in the railing so that we could fix it to the clamps. When it was installed and tightened, we used a grinder to make the U-bolt flush with the nuts. A hacksaw will do the same. Drilled another hole at the bottom of the railing, rested the jack on it and attached the lock… and voilà!

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Posted in Writing | 2 Comments »

Tires sticking out of the Jeep flares

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

The SAAQ clearly states in their special documents for modified vehicles that:

“La partie supérieure de chaque roue doit être recouverte d’une aile sur toute la largeur de la bande de roulement.”

In english that would translate to

“The higher part of each wheel must be covered with a wing over all the bandwidth of bearing.”

(If that made sense, thank the AltaVista’s Babelfish translating system. If not, thank the AltaVista’s Babelfish translating system hehe)

As you can see from this picture, my tires stick out at about 1″ to 1 1/2″

Last year I got pulled over because of this and I basically just thought it was some kid cop that had a really boring afternoon and needed to fill is ticket pot or something but then last Sunday, I got pulled over again *sigh* for the same reasons so … I need to do something about it.

If you are in the same shoes as me and you live in the province of Quebec, you might want to fix that because they are really looking at getting everyone.

Finding a solution

At the beginning, I was looking at 2 choices: 1) Get extended Jeep flares and 2) get 33×10.50 tires which immediately meant new shocks, springs, wheels and since I’m running a gear ratio of 3.07 *sigh* new axles. Needless to say that option #2 quickly went out the window unfortunately. As much as I would have LOVED to change my current setup to this one, money-wise, it’s just not feasible.

Solution: New Jeep flares

There are quite a few extended Jeep flares kit out there and it’s all a matter of durability. Before doing anything to my Jeep, I literally spend days researching everything by reading on various jeep forums out there. After said research, the choices were:

Decision: Xenon Flat Flares

After looking through pages and pages of info, reviews and testimonials from other Jeepers I decided to go with the Xenon Flat Flares because of:

1) The price: Alltough still expensive, they are cheaper than the Warn and Bushwackers flares.

2) The durability: From the countless testimonials, they seems to be very durable

3) The look/shape: I really like the shape of these. Many jeepers tend to do something similar to the original sahara flares in order to get more flex. I’m not one for off-roading in really rocky situations and I don’t go every week-end, but at least, they’ll cover my tires and if I ever do get to do more and need the flexing space, I’ll have it.

So they’ve been ordered. Not sure when they’ll get it but let’s hope it’s soon.

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Re-painting the Jeep flares

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

black jeep flares loking more like like light grey

Are your Jeep flares loosing their luster? Black looks more like washed-up gray?

There’s a really easy fix for that. It’s called Krylon Fusion paint cans. Seriously!

What you’ll need:

  1. 3 cans of Krylon Fusion Black Satin paint cans
  2. Very light sand paper

Step 1 – Sand off the residue

Take the light sand paper and rub gently on the flares. This is just to remove the debris and old paint that was there so the new paint will stick better to the plastic. When you’re done sanding, just take soapy water and clean the flares.

Step 2 – Tape of the Jeep

To paint the flares you have 2 options: 1) remove the flares completely 2) tape off the jeep.

I went with option #2 as it pretty easy and less knuckle scraping.

Step 3 – Start spaying

When you Jeep is nicely covered, start spraying. Like any spray paint job, you need to spray evenly across the surface in a horizontal manner. From left to right and right to left, etc…

Apply 3 generous coats, the third being the coat that makes sure you got every inch of flare painted and your done.

For more pictures, check out my Re-painting jeep flares set in my flickr account.

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Posted in Writing | 4 Comments »

Symphony X in Montreal – What a show!

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Mike Lepond from Symphony X

Wednesday afternoon, my husband and I drove to my parents to drop off Alexandra where she would spend the night while we drove to Montreal to go see Symphony X. It’s only 1 hour and 30 minutes away, so the road trip is short. We got to the venue – Le Medley – 10 minutes before doors opened and the line was already a few blocks. Luckily, we ran into my husbands band mates just a short block away from the venue so we got in with them.

Since the show was a general admission show, as it usually is in bars, we decided to go to the balcony to check out the first 2 bands – Into Eternity and Epica. We picked 2 chairs on the side and sat and watched.

When the first band got on, I noticed people coming through some doors that lead basically backstage where *most* of the time it’s people from the bar bringing up cases of beer to the bar on the balcony but just when I decided to look that way, I notice this slim guy with long hair and a goat-tee stepping through, he looked at the band playing and took a seat just 2 tables away from us. I turned to my husband and said: “That looks alot like Mike Lepond” (the bass player for Symphony X. He said : “No way!” So, I ignored it and watch the band playing and enjoyed the music and every so often I would turn and look at the guy again. Finally, I said to my husband: “Hun … that IS Mke. Just look at him!” we started laughing ’cause some kids sat down just beside him and they didn’t clue in. So, Yves (my husband) got up to grab a beer and decided to go talk to him.

I was right ;) It was him!

Very nice guy! Yves didn’t talk to him for too long ’cause he didn’t want to bug him or have other people notice him and bug him before the show. But he did go and brag to his fellow band-mates tho :p One of them came up and chatted with him (for quite a long time). I then decided to go and say Hi to him and wish him luck with the show. I also told him that I hoped they continued to make music for years and years to come to which he replied “Yeah! Me too!”.

The first band was almost done playing and Yves’ bandmate was still chatting him with him. By that time, a few kids noticed Mike and asked for his autograph. Yves got up and went to Mike Lepond and Steve (bandmate) and told him jokingly to stop bugging the man. When Yves walked back to our seat, those same kids started following him and asked him is he was Russell and if they could get his autograph. I started laughing ’cause quite frankly, my husband looks nothing like Russell. It was dark and I guess in person, Russell would look slimmer … maybe! Funny stuff!

When the second band started playing, I went to the car and got my Rebel XT back in the club with me. I had my 50mm f1.8 lens with me. Nice and small. When the second band was done with their set, we made our way downstairs and into the “pit” and waited for Symphony X to start. I wasn’t expecting to get any decent shots since I don’t use flash and focusing is a challenge on it’s own, imaging in a pit of sweaty, rockin’ fans :o

I managed to get a few (91 in total) very nice, mostly sharp pictures:

and my favorite

The show itself was totally awesome. Russel Allen is, in my opinion, one of the best (if not the best) front man in this day and age. The poor guy had the flu and doctors told him that he wasn’t suppose to sing but that wasn’t going to work. We (the crowd) helped him out and sang some of the choruses for him and he also joked around

Allen: “God I wanna sing”
God: “No”
Allen: “Why?”
God: “Because!”
Allen: “And than Satans down there and he is like….”
Satan: “ROCK ON MUTHAFUCKAH”

And he did! And we love him for it!

The setlist was great:

  • Set The World
  • Domination
  • Serpents Kiss
  • Masquerade
  • Paradise Lost
  • Egypt / Death
  • Babylon
  • Inferno
  • Smoke
  • Revelation / Divine

Encore

  • Eve of Seduction
  • Sea of Lies

Originally, the encore was suppose to be “Eve Of Seduction”, “Of Sins and Shadows” and “Out of The Ashes” but due to Russell having a really hard time singing by the end, they changed that up a bit. It’s too bad ’cause I REALLY wanted to hear “Out of The Ashes”! Oh well … next show maybe :)

For more pictures, check the Symphony X set in my flickr account ;)

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