December 14

12:52


11:57 Today it was the peak of traffic incidents ever. An unusual number of people driving erratically in parking lots, backing up unexpectedly in my way, things like that. At home, i had 2 one gallon water bottles containing each ounces of oil and dirt mixed with CRC cleaner that i squeezed twice (with engine running) in a vacuum port and then in the throttle and then vacuumed from the bottom of the intake manifold of my "new" Elantra using a thin rubber hose attached to a pump and those are both gone and none of us remembers throwing them out. Had an appointment, went to DMV, finished the application for titling and registering the car, paid for custom plates because i don't wanna have problems like i had with the "sequence" plates with JKB. Got another temporary number, for 4 months, waiting for plates, but can't tape it on the rear windshield because of the radio antenna/heater printed on glass. Last time i put one of those there, when i peeled it out it came with pieces of the printed antenna. So i will put it as the current one on the left rear side windows, the next place recommended. I also ordered parts for a catch can, to prevent oil vapor from PCV getting in the intake.

December 13

5:25 Bugetul nu e gata. A început facerea bugetului, e timpul acela din an, emoții induse, dar pentru ce? Fa la la... Pensii, salarii bugetari? Acestea reprezintă mai puțin de jumătate din buget (anul trecut, bugetul a fost aproximativ 400 miliarde). O mică parte, câteva miliarde poate, sunt investiții vizibile pentru ochii lumii. Restul, de până la 400, dispare. Priviți în dreapta. 32 de miliarde la Ministerul Transporturilor, atâtea au fost disponibile anul acesta. Înaintea aprobării noului buget, cereți să se publice execuția bugetară la fiecare minister pe 2021. Puteți vedea pe pagina de fb a domnului Cîțu execuția bugetară la 6 luni, însă în procente. La Transporturi, 73% din 32 împărțit la 2, adică din 16 miliarde. A și o chestie. Dacă execuția se menține la 84% pe tot anul, atunci ar trebui să rămână surplus de 9%, adică diferența, 16 minus 7 (deficitul programat).

A nu, greșesc. O singură căutare după o idee norocoasă și iată am găsit și execuția bugetară! BVC, adică bugetul de venituri și cheltuieli. Ăsta e. Nu e tot bugetul (așa numit consolidat, de 400 miliarde). E doar bugetul de stat (ministerele), cam jumătate din 400, fără asigurări sociale (pensiile), chestiile locale, alte  bugeturi și bugețele. Venituri, 75 miliarde pe semestrul I, în Legea Bugetului, anexa 1 au fost programate 173 de miliarde pe tot anul. Cheltuieli, 59,3. Puțin mai mult decât salariile bugetarilor. Atunci de unde deficit? Și o întrebare și mai deșteaptă. Ce s-au făcut cu banii?

La 6 luni, venituri 75 miliarde, cheltuieli 59. Cât iese? 59,38/75,2, 79 la sută deci nu 84 ca mai jos. Deci de unde deficit de 7%?

Căutând bugetul general consolidat (stat + pensii + locale) am dat de ceva și mai interesant, încă neștiut de mine. Discret, dar nu secret! Priviți, admirați și găsiți sursa deficitului, că eu mă duc să-mi fac o omletă, la mine e 6 dimineața, după care mai dorm (dacă mă lasă greața, sâmbătă dimineața m-am apucat să re-fac frânele de la mașină, pe o ploaie din aia de decembrie, și după ce am desfăcut totul la o roată, cineva cred a venit în apropiere cu un câine bolnav, și-a făcut ăla treaba, acum știu și mă feresc, dar nu am avut ce face, trebuia să termin, am fost expus masiv, încă nu mi-a trecut deși mă tratez cu toate leacurile și tratamentele știute de mine).

A și o chestie. Citeam ieri în Cațavencii, PNRR-ul, un dezastru anunțat, a fost făcut de un singur om, tot așa, după multe chinuri și totuși aprobat așa dintr-o dată de UE?

11:49 The guy upstairs is driving me nuts. It's not that he walks and squeaks, but somehow he does it like following my brain wave, enough to drive you nuts in about 5 minutes. He never leaves during his days off (except maybe if i write here, then he will leave, briefly). Put some food in microwave, i was waiting nearby which i usually don't, saw a big spark in my food, don't know what it was, threw it away. Burning smell came inside the room, had to finally open the door. This morning i went for a short test drive with the car and Angela entered the shower without blocking the door.

1:54 Went for a walk. Same feeling, all people i meet on the streets are again, Hungarian actors. Came back, looked for mail. I was expecting the SIM card for the plan i bought for my new unlocked phone, got instead a package for the guy upstairs, put by mistake there by the mailwoman. Looks like a little book with soft covers. I left it there, i'm gonna add a sticky note on it. First thing, got to know his name which is not identical with the one on the papers from the office that keep falling from his door.

7:39/5:39 Ceaușescu, Daniela Vlădescu.

Ceva adevăr există în toată faza. Un tip din Câmpulung (eu) a fost colegi de generală cu Mircea Baniciu, făcut un revelion cu Daniela Vlădescu, Mircea Baniciu și altul (cel precedent) cu Serghei Mizil, alții, altele, normal, toți cu alte nume. A și unul mai înainte cu Alexandra Ungureanu (Shania Twain). I always thought this song was sang by Gloria Estefan and she was saying "Let's hear it from the boy". Whatever.

9:28 Oh Macron!

10:29/8:29 What comes @ goes @!

December 12

9:47 I believe it was only after they watched OBDII data in real time (injectors opening time, ultimately real time fuel consumption) they realized one major way in which a car could save fuel.

Until recently, on an automatic transmission when you were releasing gas pedal, the torque converter was disengaging and the engine was going down to idle while the car was running on inertia. Then the torque converter would engage again when pressing gas pedal. Besides the small but present risque of loosing vacuum thus power brake in the unlikely but statistically real possibility of disconnected engine to shut down for diverse reasons, the engine had to use fuel to idle, and that is up to 20% of maximum use at full engine power (by my observations reading real time data on Torque app, name coincidence, unrelated to what i'm talking about torque converters, requires a bluetooth connector that costs a few dollars).

So what they did was reprogram the transmission to keep torque converter engaged while cutting injector time to 0. Car's inertia would also keep engine turning with nothing coming in or out of it, usually at 2000 rpm instead of 750 at idle.  Not a significant source of engine wear, especially because there's no air or fuel coming in and no power output. However, for those seconds the car won't use any fuel as opposed to idling like in the old setup. Very similar to a manual when you release gas. (Up until these days i thought the difference in mpg between manual and automatic was by use of hydraulic, lossy, torque converter. Not entirely true). Yes it feels differently when driving, but can get used to. No difference on cruise control.

Downturn. It adds to car's inertia when breaking, torque converter should be disengaging when pressing brake pedal.

Another thing, most surprising but not to my 14 years old mind when i saw the first time brake pads and calipers and discs. Then i could not understand what is moving brake pads away from the rotor when releasing brake pedal. The answer, back then and always, was nothing. There was nothing that would separate pads from rotor. Supposedly, by releasing pedal, pressure in the hydraulic circuit would go to 0 and, by not having any force on caliper's piston, there would be no breaking force which roughly, is true. So back then i educated my mind to believe so. Aha, how stupid me!

However. In the event of having an air bubble in the system, which would expand when releasing brake pedal, the pressure would not be totally 0. Also, by inertia, when steering, and due to vibration and other factors, pressure of the pad to the rotor would not be always 0. Tiny but big enough to make for a few percents in fuel economy, depending on driving situations. So they finally added springs like i saw on my 2018 Elantra (and forgot to put back a couple of times which led me to re-do the whole thing, like yesterday during the storm) that would keep pads apart (maybe not if you had air bubbles big enough to beat those springs when expanding). (Yes there is a tiny hesitation in braking when comparing to non-spring situation on the same car, but again i think you can get used to it). Not talking about the situation when you have dust (mostly coming from new ceramic pads) settling on the clips where the pads are sliding to back and forth and that dust prevents your pads from totally releasing pressure on the rotors.

These two "little" things, that could have been fixed no problem decades ago and cost nothing, added together, lead to an increase of mpg by maybe 5-10 miles per gallon. What else?

11:30 "I'll huff and i'll puff". I think there's a lesson to be learned from this video. BTW, where are the tornado safe concrete rooms Bill Clinton wanted to be made in every house in the tornado alley?

I believe a house "3D printed" out of concrete that could be "laid" in a few days, which BTW is one continuous piece of concrete, would withstand a tornado.

5:19 Looks like Captain Pandemics to me...

December 11

2:05/12:05 Ar putea fi ceva adevăr în The Sun? Vin rușii. Bych what?

2:08 Rude-elf the long nose rain dear

12:22 I think i had intermittent slight brake locking (with low mileage, poor driveability), after just greasing (and not cleaning) the pad clips that were full of dust from the plates and the grease mixed with dust and didn't work well. One a crazy rain i went and removed the plates (front only, changed clothes twice) cleaned everything and greased again the clips. On a test again in rain, wind, groovy and wavy road i think it's better. I think i had an air bubble on the right but not sure. Last night i was thinking, an air bubble could expand after releasing brakes and press a little on the pad. Pedal in the last few days became kinda soft, looks a bit like a worn master cylinder (at this mileage?), but not sure until i air the rears too. But the reason i'm writing here is i think, after i covered some smoky holes , somebody came with a sick dog and let the dog poo somewhere nearby and the smell got me realy sick (and weirdly high).

December 10

9:53/7:53 O nouă afacere păguboasă catastrofală a statului. Un F16 nou costă... Asta în timp ce Finlanda cu un produs intern brut doar puțin mai mare ca al României, își trage 64 F35... Un F35 costă de 2-3 ori mai mult ca un F16 nou (care încă se mai fabrică) însă bate în luptă 20 F16... Cu jumătate de miliard România ar putea cumpăra 6 F35, jumătate de escadrilă, care ar face cât 120 F16... Dar în Finlanda statul nu se războiește cu populația... Sunt curios totuși ce ar face un F35 în fața unui Su-57 care apropo costă cam la fel... Asta în timp ce...

3:37 I don't have a phone because i didn't wanna pay 38 bucks for another month with Boost Mobile (yeah funny isn't it) while they have so much better offers for new customers. I called them trying to unlock the phone to go for a new plan or a new provider (Mint starts at 15) and they keep asking me for the old pin number (had service interrupted a few months, they gave me a new number but the service put together was more than one year, i would have qualified) and i don't know the old pin number, i don't know the current one, i ask for it when i need it and they send it to me in a message, but i'm pretty sure it's the same as the old one, last four of MEID number whatever) so i got mad and ordered an unlocked phone, a moto e simple (not e6), a 2021 model which has the same price of Amazon (150) as the older e6, i only hope it has the same camera quality. (I will never buy again a provider phone).

So i came back from the shop where i went to work on car (in the alley in front of bays) (too many distractions here, too much intoxicating smoke, too many bolts untorqued and nuts put upside down) where i re-did every bolt i've touched lately, added some grease on brake pads, some Gorilla tape on the crack of the panel under) etc.. when i found at the door the phone that was due tomorrow, i figure the locker (we have an Amazon locker at the office) is full, i figured maybe they wanted me busy setting the phone and plan so i don't tell the story from the shop right away.


At the shop while i was came a black customer in a black Cadillac, who looked like a guy i saw yesterday in the news. When he was about to leave, a smoke appeared, and i started to feel so tired i wanted to give up what i wanted to do and go back home.

It's not  the first time, at Spirit Mountain i met with that woman who died on the set and had an argument with her in the parking lot a day or two after she died in the news. Many others before. So i figure they just re-date the video or audio or whatever to get me involved somehow while they pull the actors from the scene making it look indeed terrible of my part.

When i was about to leave, another black guy in a black Cadillac, only a bit different and younger. Probably to create doubts in my mind.