August 20 2015
Website upgrade
I spent a few hours making this blog more efficient. Before I had a brand new folder containing a modified copy of the original blog template. I was soon manually updating the same link in every folder when I wanted to change something. I stumbled on something called an iframe and now I use the same page but point to .html content to fill the center. I even found a way to have javascript resize the pixel height! Unfortunately.. There seems to be a bug where the page doesn't load which happens occasionally. Dragging the mouse where the content should be and then clicking the link again fixes it... I think I need to find a way to re-run that javascript code every time myiframe updates.
As for bus news!!.. Charging the batteries did the trick. He got it running. Phew!.. I'll be reunited with my bus again for a short visit on the last weekend of August for my first trip home.
(8/20/2015)
August 15 2015
style update
I made a simple update to the style page about an idea I've been thinking about. Also my dad back home discovered that the two major batteries in the side compartment are indeed the engine batteries. One of them is getting a trickle charge treatment for 24 hours.. Hopefully that works and she'll turn over once again!
(8/15/2015)
August 9 2015
Getting closer
I've been hard at work getting this blog finished. Most of the links point to where they should, however most are still only place holders.
In other news... the first weekend after leaving for California.. The FUN BUS's engine battery has died and refuses to start. It's not completely surprising because I knew it was coming. When I was tearing down some aluminium ceiling panels I exposed some live wires. I knew they were live from the fireworks display dancing across the aluminium panel I shorted them with. Whoops!!
In two weeks I'll be on my monthly flight home and I'll see what can be done, and hopefully prime the fuel line and get the air out of it. Running out of diesel is not fun. Barely chugging down US1 in the fast lane, thinking your bus has a serious problem wasn't fun either.. But that's another story I have yet to add. ;)
(8/9/2015)
July 31 2015
Welcome to your new home! After getting tired of Wordpress limitations I spent some time learning how to write my own dang blog. I spent the entire day making the splash screen from scratch. Thank the gods I also gave up finger pecking after 25 years.
So!... Hours after buying the fun bus, my work sends me off to Redondo Beach California! Good news is that I'll be able to completely pay off the bus by the time I get back in 6-14 months! But now all I can do is plan for the future. As I do I'll write more posts and update the links. Over the next few days I'll retroactively add my adventures thus far.
Hang tight!
Read more 7/31/2015
Bus shopping!!!
(June-July)
It's one of my favorite things to mention. Seeing the ideas sprout through their current state of reality. "You can get a school bus for less than $2,000!!" Which was exactly where I started looking. I found out that old school busses are so plentiful, if they never migrated down to mexico, they'd practically be free. Both eBay and Craigslist had hundreds of ideal 40' busses for cheap. But true to my nature I wondered how far I could go!
A nice big greyhound style coach quickly became my new favorite. with so much storage below they practically had a basement! These floated around the $10,000 mark, but when compared to endless property payments and bills.. What is $10k in the long run?
Knowing that this decision would impact the rest of my life, I decided to save up and hold off until 2016. There were so many choices and I had to make the right one.
Read more April 03, 2007
An idea is born!
June 11 2015
I saw it before, a picture of a converted bus scroll by as I trolled Facebook. Before, I simply grinned and acknowledged what a wild idea it was. That was before I graduated. Long before I snagged a really good job at a highly sought after engineering company.
The 2nd time I saw that same post scroll by it started a chain reaction of research and investigation that ingnited a raging flame of excitement and hope within me! The more I looked into bus living, the more that flame grew. I would be able to own a home that wouldn't actually own me instead! So I asked myself what it would take to make me happy.. a quick look around my living space and you would see more junk than a well stocked makerspace! Old computers, servos, wire, circuit boards, and endless containers of sorted electronic tidbits. I would need a bench to engineer, my computer to game, and the freedom to sleep 8 hours without something looming over me, constantly reminding me that peace is temporary.
It was time to put this idea to the test. I cautiously slipped the idea into a conversation with my folks who I was living with at the time... They loved it!! After my research we easily chatted about this wild idea and were swept away in imagination.
But what kind of bus should I get?..
Read more April 03, 2007