Blake Noble

CCS has a PA location, in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia I believe, and they have a track for automotive design too. Why not try there if you're set on going? I'm not sure on how close Brookeville is to either city, but it could save you room/board costs if you could commute. I had dreams of going there my Sophomore/Junior year of high school, but I researched about and discovered many of the same negative realities that balthazar mentioned above. $40k is not something you want to take a risk on throwing away. Personally, I wouldn't dare limit my major to one very, very narrow and particular focus like transportation design. I can hurt your chances of finding work in another, similar field if there isn't an occupation open. Also, another reality I've discovered is that someone with a major in the automotive/transportation design track actually has just as good of a chance at working for GM as someone who has a simple BFA degree with a solid, well assembled portfolio and a few years of working for another company under their belt. One particular designer I've read up on actually only had a BFA degree (his name escapes me at the moment though).

Conservatives are nuts. Nazis ate nuts and Hitler had a pair of nuts. Therefore, Conservatives, without a shadow of doubt and question, are Nazis.

I still miss my Firebird.

YouTube has slowly become quite the cesspool since Google took ownership of it, not only in comments, but in general site quality. Videos sometimes refuse and keep refusing to load and the two new redesigned players they brewed up since they started taking a steaming dump on the site were/are awful compared to the original. The original player wasn't broke, Google, so why the fuck did you feel the need to try and fix the sunnabitch? The WMV Nazis are always skull-fucking some great video by stripping the sound out of it because they feel someone is making boo-koos and boo-koos of bucks off of including a 45 second clip of "Enter-fucking-Sandman" in it. Uh, how? Seriously. That is something I would like explained because I don't even see how that could be done, even if YouTube is paying some schmuck pimple-assed teenager out of Wisconsin $5 bucks a pop to make videos. I haven't seen any uploader try to lay claim to any copyrighted song in, well, literally forever. And sites like Vimeo or whatever still just aren't as good as the original YouTube.

Think that guy was related to C.F. Martin? Seriously both dudes are named "F. Martin" and were from PA. Sorry ... ignore me. I'm having a six-stringed moment.

What do I put on my weiner? Disappointment. Hot dogs ... well, I honestly hate them. I probably haven't eaten one since I was 7 or 8 years old. That doesn't mean someone else can't enjoy one for me, though.

what is this i don't even

I traded my 360 for an Alpine White Limited Edition SG. I think that just about says it all.

Zip it and throw me a frickin' bone here. Replace the geriatric W-Body Impala with the car above and evverryyybody happy.

And suddenly it's 1994. Put a big check mark on option 1 on the print-off of Big Ed's e-mail, ok big fella? Thanks.

This song and the '93 Cavalier my parents used to own forever ruined my childhood.

As far as music goes, I'd just buy up a bunch of Sabbath, Floyd, Zeppelin, CSN/Y, Dire Straits, Fleetwood, Joy Division, Walsh, Eagles, Police, SRV, Hendrix, Television, etc. on vinyl and make it through alright. Hair is hair. IDGAF as long as I'm not the one with a mullet and muttonchops.

During some recent plundering for vintage tube amps and old guitars (I still have a dream of stumbling across a Leo Fender-era Fender-something for under a $100 or, even more unrealistically, thrown aside, dismantled but complete in a plastic bin in a dumpster or on a curb for me to scoop up), I stumbled across a sturdy old '60s or '70s metal frame Lasko-looking something at a local antique shop for a few bucks and some change. The heat here is getting unbearable sometimes during the day. Maybe I'll go back and take it home.

If I could live in any other frame of time, I'd have to go with the late '70s/early '80s for two reasons only: cheap vintage guitars and cheap muscle cars. I could suffer through all of the bullshit to buy a '65 Strat and a same-era Twin Reverb for less than $1,000 and a '70 442 Olds for less than $2,000. ... :/

Strap yourself in. It's only going to get worse.

Yup. Just about what I expected to see.

Hey, hey, eyyy-eyyyyyy ... Drive EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! err'yday. Wish I still had my Firebird. I'm probably going to check out a few that are around here later today.

Merry April 28th. Have a 502 Bad Gateway error. :/ *fap, fap, fap, fap*

A wise guy are ya? Them's fightin' werds down hurr. Don't expect too much from factory GM brakes -- or any set of brakes really -- on Deltas and Epsilon cars. It seems they like to chew 'em up quick. The factory brakes on my parents' Aura went at 41k miles. I've heard similar stories as well concerning N-Body Grand Ams and Aleros.

I've realized this car has turned out to be a bigger money pit than anything I've owned thus far. I've been out: $115 for exhaust issues/upgrades (that still didn't address/fix the main problem) $375 for plugs, wires, and a coil pack I didn't need (how I let myself get taken for a ride ... I'll never know) $325 for a new ICM + labor $125 for a new catalytic converter That's just about a grand total of one grand. Adding in whatever it's going to cost to fix these fuel delivery issues, it's going to push well beyond that mark. It only cost a mere $500 to get the Regal back on the road. The Firebird gave me great service after fixing a few cheap odds and ends before ... well I don't like talking about it. The Sonoma was starting to develop a few issues, but nothing that would have turned out to be like this. While I loved the Monte, it would have turned out to be just as bad of a money pit. I'm actually thankful now, though, that I couldn't find many parts for it, so that sort of saved us from each other in a way coupled with my own outrage and aggravation over the expense of new parts. I don't count the Cutlass because that's different in my opinion. Well ... you know, if I didn't buy it and spent so much on it, I probably could have had a better car by now. So yeah. It does count, never mind. I have college in the fall. And I don't need to be worrying about a damn car all of the time. Something is going to have to give here.

You have worn pads. I had something similar happen to the Firebird that ended with the passenger side rotor, pad, and caliper being completely seized. The pad was worn down to the metal backing (this was only a short time after I bought it, so I didn't know the pads were that far gone yet). It didn't show much of any loss in stopping power or make any loud noises, either. Check the pads out.

Well, now the SES light is back again and the car is sputtering badly in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear. I'm betting on the fuel filter, which is a job I can't do (I don't have the means to fix the sender, either). The clutch is also getting ready to go. The return after letting off of it is very delayed and I think it's slow about engaging and disengaging completely in first gear. Personally, I'm starting to get annoyed ... and usually that means ... EDIT: And this is tempting as well. But it has issues of it's own: http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/cto/1711829164.html EDIT AGAIN: I also know of two F4 Firebirds for sale or trade ...

Deep clean the carpet, seats, and headliner, use some dish-washing liquid and bleach on the ashtrays, clean the glass off really well, and hang a pine tree on the rear-view. It works. Trust me. I smoke occasionally in the Camaro and this is what I've done and will do yearly to keep the smell out. Non-smokers can't tell or smell it.

I drive a Camaro. /joke The Cutlass, though, will prove itself at next month's Mid Somernight's Cruse. I had planned to drag it out this past weekend, but it's done nothing but rain the last few days.

I take it you essentially lump the '78 - '80 (3rd gen) Monte in with the '81 - '88 model (4th gen) ... ? I do see your point, though.