Car #10

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Xist

ChrisFix says to use WD40

WD40 and a clean piece of cotton fabric can do wonders.

[Xist]

All that I have done with this car was drive, gas, get an occasional oil change, and try to clean up after my family, which keeps spilling red drinks in the back seat.

I keep having a frustrating day and deciding to buy 79¢ Frosters from Circle K.

I guess that I can say "Let's get sparkling water, you pick!" but I just realized that if I bought insulated cups, they shouldn't spill when dropped.

Apparently, a classmate bought one for $80.

Eight-eight dollars is far too much for a floormat for a 20-year-old car with hundreds of thousands of miles, but what is the right price for a cup?!

Anyway, I bought it, it fits, and if both Mom and my brother drop their drinks on the same side, it should contain it.

If I drive a Camry of this generation for 10 years, then at least I will get a lot of use out of it.

I made an effort to clean my original rear carpet floormats, but I don't think that I have ever fully cleaned the car.

I will have a spill in one area and clean it.

I vacuumed the car when I passed my classes and treated myself to a drive-through carwash.

I don't know that I have cleaned all of the upholstery, though.

Probably not, I continue to defer maintenance.

Yeah, I keep planning on doing that once I have Mom's house cleared out.

The floor on the other side, where nobody has spilled anything [recently] still has spots, so I will try to make a few minutes to quickly clean.

Anyway, I bought blue Dawn and hydrogen peroxide from Walmart, and poured them and just enough water in my water heater to cover the mats, soaked them, hung them to dry inside the can, soaked them in my bathtub, and scrubbed each for one minute.

There are still stains, but they are definitely cleaner.

I brought in the water heater, dumped it in the bathtub, and am soaking the front mats.

[Piotrsko]

The moment you mix the peroxide with anything it starts to outgas the O2 leaving just water. The stuff will go flat sitting on the shelf in the original container if unpressurized by opening. The fizzy might be capable of cleaning, by bubble collapse. Makes a great oxidizer for kerosene, though albeit at higher concentrations than commercially available.

[redpoint5]

$88 isn't terrible.

My dad just spent $225 like a sucker on the official Tesla Model Y floor mats. That, after spending something like $40k on a new Model Y like a sucker. Keep in mind he hasn't worked in 15 years, and never earned more than $35k in a single income household.

That's about the only criticisms I have of my dad, so he's pretty great.

I plan to throw the carpeted mats in the wash periodically rather than spend on the rubber ones. Possibly a mistake now that the 3rd girl has arrived.

[Xist]

I see multiple places that I mentioned that my second year is through Zoom, which transcribes if we request it, but I swear that I mentioned wanting to strip the timestamp from the transcripts to make it easier to read.

It seems like each time the speaker pauses it gives a new time stamp.

Everyone knows how William Shatner performed Captain Kirk, but I can't find examples on-line, I just see people referring to it when someone uses an unusual amount of commas.

This says that Shatner originally spoke that way because he was nervous and had difficulty remembering his lines, but when he returned for the movies, he needed to watch the show to relearn how to deliver his lines: https://heavy.com/entertainment/star...ch-style-fake/


I always remember a cartoon from when I was a kid with a Kirk parody saying "Set phasers to shake and bake," but there were pauses after each word, so it was more like "Set, phasers, to, shake, and, bake."

Zoom would transcribe it as:

[The Enterprise] 16:00:00
Set

[The Enterprise] 16:00:01
phasers

[The Enterprise] 16:00:02
to

[The Enterprise] 16:00:03
shake

[The Enterprise] 16:00:04
and

[The Enterprise] 16:00:05
bake

I found the page I saw before (and swear that I shared here) about using Notepad++ to strip timestamps, but it doesn't work.

She mentioned using another program, which I will try later, but I had over 6 pages from a little over 20 minutes.

There are many errors in it, too.

Either I need a vastly better transcriber or I need to record video.

We are prohibited from recording video.

Do you care?

Plus, my eyes really don't want to focus anymore.

I constantly need to move my head to adjust my progressive bifocals to focus my eyes.

[edit: Wildcards work. I swear that I tried this before and Word gave me an error, but searching and destroying ??:??:?? eliminated 821 annoyances.
edit2: I highlighted each section that was just my professor talking and used search and replace to remove the rest of the name tags. Then when a classmate talked, I searched and destroyed all of the name tags except the first one.

The professor said she was putting us in breakout rooms and I hoped to be able to figure out what was going on without bothering anyone too much, but nobody else joined, so I downloaded everything for today, and read a bunch of it before the professor hopped in and said that she put us in our groups for a project, but nobody wanted to work with me, so she was going to talk to my classmates.

I haven't heard back, so I guess she couldn't persuade anything, and I need to solo a group project--again.

Unfortunately, I forgot to save the transcript, and it didn't save automatically.

I lost the last hour and 13 minutes of a 3-hour class.

That's pretty wizard.

[redpoint5]

Never liked Shatner. He's lucky he got Star Trek. Probably my 3rd favorite captain (even Janeway is better).

[Xist]

I had a CEL for a misfire and a bad coil pack.
I thought I was long overdue for replacing the spark plugs, but maybe not.
They were oily, but maybe from the bad valve cover gasket that I replaced 18-24 months ago?
I had already bought spark plugs and other maintenance items, but didn't take the time when working two jobs and then trying to move 3 adults when two had hoarded for 20 years and tried to prevent me from moving anyone's stuff.
I left them and my tools in Show Low.
I pulled Denso plugs, while the car, which only has 132,000 miles, would have come with NGKs.
They are supposed to last for 100,000 years, so they were probably still good? $259 for spark plugs, coil packs, and a spark plug socket and extension because I can't find mine.
I keep wondering how much a shop would have charged.
One mechanic volunteered that they upcharge parts and almost everyone would charge an hour labor, if not two.
RepairPal didn't give me estimates for spark plugs and coil packs, I don't even think that I could search for both through them, but I found the other through Google.
Neither suggested related repairs, at least not this one.
I believe that it estimated 2 hours of labor for each part, while I did it in my driveway in 10 minutes and 13 seconds.
I have not replaced the zip ties yet.

I have passed all of my classes with at least one A.
Last quarter, I had two.
Cs don't earn degrees in grad school, they are failing, so I have only earned As and Bs.
Curiously, my first site was with a male SLP at a school, and went well.
Then I was assigned a female SLP in a clinic in Chandler, and after two days, my coordinator sent me back to my first place because the second wouldn't work with me.
Then I was with a male SLP at a school, and it went well again, but then they tried to assign me to another female SLP in a clinic in Chandler, and I wasn't even able to start, they agreed to work with me in the spring, and when I followed up as summer was ending, and the first 4 weeks of the fall, they kept saying "We haven't finalized that."
Then they had me and a classmate come in for an orientation, where they told us a little bit about their company, and answered every question with "We haven't finalized that."
They had said we would probably do teletherapy with a school, but she told us that one SLP did that, but the one she wanted to work with the other student... did evaluations...
Does she do enough assessments for me to get enough hours?
That wouldn't be fun, but it would be great training!
"I don't know what else she does for us. She didn't respond to my e-mail."
An SLP who doesn't communicate well?
Not a good sign!
Two days later, the lady called saying that SLP doesn't see clients with them, she was sorry, they couldn't help me.
Then I had a virtual interview with two female SLPs with a third clinic in Chandler, 2.7 miles from the last one, and they started out asking what happened with the other agency--by name.
What did they hear?
They didn't seem to like any of my answers and I didn't expect to hear from them again.
I just wanted to get in somewhere and work lots of hours for free!
A few hours later, someone with a similar name sent a text and she assigned me to work with a female SLP in a school.
This was a month into my 10-week quarter.
I needed to get started!
I immediately e-mailed her "Great to meet you, Ma'am, I am excited to get started! What do I need to do?"
"Why don't you observe me in 3-4 weeks and then start working with kids the next week?"
I wouldn't start working with kids until finals week or fall break.
I told everyone that I would do everything I could to start as soon as possible, and she kept not answering questions and not even answering e-mails.
A classmate told me that SLP was difficult, that was her first site, but she also said "Your first e-mail was too aggressive. You should have kept it short and just said" and then she listed several things, which would have made a much longer e-mail than I wrote.
She also told me that I shouldn't have sent her tons of e-mails when she didn't respond, just another one, and been patient.
When I didn't hear back within 4 days, I e-mailed her "Hello, Ma'am. Is there anything I need to do to get started?" and she would reply, but not necessarily usefully.
She had suggested that I came in for 2.5 days a week, saying that most of her sessions were in the afternoon, but then said "Your school requires you to be here 25 hours a week, so why don't you come in (four days a week, including during class times that my school and I both shared with her) or (five days a week)."
"Ma'am, this is for maybe 10 clinical hours? Would it be possible to only come in 4 days a week?"
"No, you need to come in 5."
I asked my clinical coordinator about it, he ignored me, I asked again, and he said "You do need to be there 25 hours a week."
All of my classmates said they came in less than that, but the SLP insisted on spending that much quality time with me.
"Yes, Ma'am, I apologize, I misunderstood."
I told my coordinator when she first suggested that I didn't start working with kids until the last week or later, when she didn't respond to an e-mail, and every other red flag.
I told him "I really don't think she wants to work with me."
When I apologized for misunderstanding, she told him that she didn't want to work with me, and he was furious at me for a third party never wanting to work with me in the first place?
I had been doing hearing screenings with Audiology, but the first one happened before my placement fell through.
I wasn't able to make the second and then when I asked "Should I plan on helping with the hearings screenings because it is unlikely I will be able to start at my site first?" my coordinator responded "I will inform the audiologists that you are unavailable, you need to start at your site.
They had me come in for some meeting and then said "Actually, we are going to discuss how everything is your fault!" and blamed me for things outside of my control for 90 minutes.
I successfully argued that I wasn't to blame for everything, but to what end?
My professor just slumped in his chair, folded his arms, and looked away.
Then they had me come in for something else and the professor walked in yelling at me that everything was my fault.
"Sir, you claimed that last week, and I said [summary]."
He tried to blame me for the same things, I reminded him of what I said before, and then he slumped in his chair, folded his arms, and looked away.
Since I didn't get enough hours through hearing screenings, he had me do simulations, which are terrible, and we don't learn anything.
He wanted me to start before completing finals, I asked "Can I wait until I complete finals so I can increase my chances of passing?"
"Why are you blaming your professors if you fail?!"
"What? I suggested that the more I study, the better I should do."
So, I did 20 hours of simulations in the library, which wasn't quiet at all, in 3 days, and then they scheduled me to meet with them virtually for 2 hours on Monday, the same day that I had clinicals (at my previous school, with the male SLP)--and class.
Not only that, but the first day of class, I also needed a flu shot.
They kept reminding us and then said "We will offer free flu shots, but we haven't finalized the day."
They decided to do it on the first day of class, the assistant said that none of us would be able to come in, and only 3 of my classmates did.
I had always been able to go to the local pharmacy and the VA would cover it.
The VA said they still did and showed dozens of local pharmacies that should cover it, but to call and verify first.
I called 10 places and each of them said "The VA has denied everyone, you would need to pay."
Safeway would charge $60.
I asked my classmates if any of them needed to pay for a flu shot.
"No, you just go into [local pharmacy] and it is free."
"Not if you have the VA."
"We don't know who the VA covers! Why would we?! Figure it out yourself!"
"I am figuring it out, I just asked if any of you needed to pay. Apparently not."
I ended up paying Costco $20, but they made me miss my very first class, and I keep earning worse scores than I would like in that professor's class.
That is a rant for another time, I have class in 20 minutes!
I asked both ChatGPT and Google Gemini to summarize that and it was far too vague.
I may return and try to sum up, but I can't promise anything.

[freebeard]

That is a rant for another time, I have class in 20 minutes!

Whew!

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Not sure to which extent a valve cover gasket would make spark plugs get oily.

[Piotrsko]

It could actually seal the system such that the pressure causes minor seeps past the seal where the bolt holes protrude. Only takes a couple drops to have a massive, even, very thin coat