blanderswake

I bought a '91 Ford F-250 4x4. Frank, the guy I got it from, bought it from the local school district. The truck was built with a 5.8 liter engine, which was the smallest available in that model. I believe Frank thought it had a 5.8, because he used spark plugs for a 5.8 engine. I discovered that it has a 5.0 in it. It's a non-driveable pile because of this. I suspect that a school district mechanic had a 5.0 Mustang and decided to swap the two engines. Wouldn't that amount to theft? I know Frank and I both bought it as-is, but neither of us was told it had the wrong engine.

I know in theory this seems like a good idea. But are we really stupid enough to trust a computer to drive our cars? I know everyone's going to counter with, "Well, commercial airliners take off and land themselves." Yeah, except when they don't. Sometimes the systems fail, catching the pilots by surprise and - CRASH! I also think airplane companies would have higher standards for their systems than GM and Toyota would. Gotta get the cheapest junk possible to increase your profits, right?

Ever have a DVD player that wouldn't give you your movie back? Ever had your GPS send you the wrong way down a one-way street? Ever had a programmable thermostat dial the heat up to 106 and refuse to shut off? Hoo-BOY, I sure want some of that crap drivin' my car!

And what about this: "Well, someone who's blind, drunk or too young to drive would be able to travel alone!" Anyone who would allow that is an idiot. Maybe your car gets your kid to wherever without killing him or anyone else. He exits the car and gets abducted by some perv while your car drives home to wait in the garage. At least you were able to sit and not have to bother with driving him there. I hope the driverless hearse doesn't act up.

Go ahead and ridicule me. The really insane people are the ones who have blind faith in a box of wires.

I have a 1991 Ford F-250 with the 5.8 engine. I've had trouble with it stalling and being hard or impossible to start. I changed the spark plugs and air filter and it sat in the garage for 2 months because it wouldn't start. I replaced the fuel pressure regulator the other day and got it started. On the way to work, it died. It would start and run for a few seconds but the battery seemed to be dying fast. I finally started it and revved the crap out of it and made it to work. No problems on the way home. I think my alternator may be a bit weak. Could that be what's making it die? I also have a check engine light on but haven't found a free tester that works on a '91 Ford. It seems to run nice and smooth when it's running.

I'm working on a science fiction story. When one of my characters gets angry, is it OK to use profanity? I don't want to have some say "Good gosh golly darn it!" or simply say "Marklar cursed at the others." It would just be occasional, not like a Ray Liotta movie or something. I thought with a lot of blood and gore, a little foul language wouldn't be out of place.

On 2/13/2014 I reported a gas leak in one room where I work. It was supposedly checked and they couldn't find any leak. The next day I was working in there and was overcome by the fumes. I was taken to the ER, and second shift was cancelled by order of the gas company. Other workers were told that it wasn't because of what happened to me. The incident is not counted in the "days since last accident" report every day. The HR woman and the meat puppet in charge of safety both told me while I was still in the hospital that the leak had been found. Why is upper management basically ignoring the whole deal? I can't sue them, can I? Are they just afraid of being reported to OSHA again?

I found a Bricklin for sale online. The seller doesn't know much about the car. He even has the name and year wrong (thinks it's a kit car). It needs a lot of work like paint, one piece of glass, maybe some interior work. It's Ford powered, so it's either a '75 or '76. I can't find anyplace online that gives a value for one in this condition.Any idea what it's worth?

What's the best option as far as drawing cartoons for a living or at least for supplemental income? I'm a middle-aged guy who absolutely hates his job. My workplace is disturbingly similar to "Dilbert." I can draw cartoons pretty well. I had an editorial cartoon published in the local paper. The problem there: I don't have a lot of political ideas to work with. A daily comic strip would be great but there are two problems with that: trying to compete against 40,000 other artists and coming up with something funny for every day of the week. Sure, "Cathy" and "Broom-Hilda" aren't funny, but I'd want to do better.

So that leaves either a web comic (not real crazy about that idea) or graphic novels. Does this sound interesting?: A "horror" story with a lot of humor in it, and more of a cartoony style. I seem to write better comedy when I write something serious, so I'd approach it that way. Would my book have a chance or would it sit there unsold on the shelf? Any Ideas/advice would be appreciated!

Oh, and this wouldn't be anime/manga either. I prefer to just work with my own style.

I got an acer Chromebook a few months ago. At first it worked OK, once I figured out how some of the stuff works, but lately it's been freezing up on me. It seems limited to Facebook. I've cleaned the history and it looks like there's no possible way to defragment. Is there something else I can do to fix it?

My stepson is 31. He's a great guy, a little too shy, but he's really responsible and a hard worker. But a couple of months ago at work, he was unjamming parts with a crowbar and ended up whacking himself in the head with it. He got about six staples to close the cut. At first he seemed fine. He drove over to our house and mowed the grass for us (we didn't know he had staples.) As time goes on, though, his behavior keeps getting stranger. He was going to run off to California. Why? He had to go to court because he's being sued by AT&T. I looked at the paper he got in the mail and it was about a class action suit AGAINST AT&T. Pretty soon, he couldn't drive his car or go to the grocery store because AT&T said so. He's being sued by them for five million for selling one of their companies. His roomate bugged the house. The people at the grocery store are messing with him. We try to help him, take him to the doctor or to the bank to change his account information - "No, I'm fine. I don't even know what we're doing here. I don't know what good it's going to do." We just can't get through to him about anything.

We want him to see a neurologist, but he says, "Go ahead and make the appointment, but I'm not going." I'm worried that he could have swelling that could be getting worse and putting him in danger. He said the ER didn't do X-rays, but who knows? I don't know how he's getting by at work, considering how his personal life is going.

My wife had a malpractice case. The judge wanted it wrapped up in one week, so the jury only deliberated an hour and a half on Friday night. They sided with the doctor, but two of the jurors were disgusted with the outcome. Do they just go by the majority? We live in Illinois, btw.

I was wondering about '97 and later models with four-wheel-drive. I thought I'd like to unload my Blazer and get an Explorer, but I'm worried the Ford would have discs in back. My Blazer is jacked up in the garage right now with its discs and calipers horribly eaten up by salt. I feel like drum brakes would be more protected from the 14 inches of salt we get whenever it snows.

What brand name and model would be good for a three-cat household?

I'm not a gun owner (not anti-gun, either) so I'm sure I don't know all the terminology, but isn't "lock and load" a bunch of crap when referring to firearms? Lock on the target and then load your gun? That doesn't sound too smart. I remember a fertilizer commercial about thirty years ago where a container was locked onto the machine to load the fertilizer into it. "Lock and load," the voice-over said. Did people just start screaming this out because it sounded vaguely like a gun reference? Or did the fertilizer folks get the phrase from an actual step of the use of a gun? Sorry if this sounds stupid!

I wasn't sure what category to put this in.

I need a name for a burger joint in a comic strip. I want something not already used for a real or fictional restaurant. I Googled Boffo Burger, Banzai Burger and Billy Bob Burger and they were already used. Any ideas?

I have a lot of questions, so bear with me. I want (need) to be a cartoonist. I already draw pretty well and have even taken a cartooning class and have studied some books on the subject. I'd like to develop a comic strip in hopes of selling it to a syndicate and if possible sell some one-panel cartoons to magazines. I want to draw the sort of old fashioned way - paper and ink (no dealing with computers). What paper and what ink? I've tried using Sharpies and I don't know if I like them that well. It's more convenient than pen-and-ink, though. How big should I draw the strip? I measured the ones in the paper and doubled them, but I think they should be bigger. For grays and shading, I've heard of a tint that you can trim and fill in parts of the drawing. Where can I find that? Or can you shade with pencil?

Also, I have agreed to illustrate a children's book. It would be in color. Would watercolor over an ink drawing be the best method?

Got any good books or websites you can recommend?

I just bought a '98 Ranger that has two remotes for the door locks. One works and the other doesn't. I replaced the battery, but still no luck. Is it a bad remote?

I just bought a rust-free '98 Ranger XLT Supercab, 160,000 miles, 4.0 with automatic and the usual options. We were planning on getting a truck and I was only interested in Rangers and Dakotas (and I'm a GM guy!). I wasn't finding ANY Rangers in our area, then this one showed up. The price was reduced from $2800 to $2500. My wife said to offer $2000, which I did. Then I went to $2300, and he sold it to me for $2400. Come to find out, I was only supposed to get it if he agreed to 2000. I checked Kelly Blue Book, and our truck should have gone for around $4300. I'm happy with the deal, but she keeps after me about paying too much for a truck with 160,000 miles (gonna break down all the time, you know). She can't wait to run around in HER new truck, though!

Is KBB pretty accurate about what you can expect to pay?

How good of a truck is the Dakota? Specifically a 2000 to 2004, 4x4, automatic with any engine. I know full-sized Dodges had some bad ball joints; any problems with the Dakotas'? How's the transmission? Are the 3.7 and 4.7 engines good? And gas mileage? I saw someone's answer to a similar question, and his 4.7 Dodge gets better mileage than my V6 Blazer.

I have an '83 Honda CM450A. It's got a chrome front fender that I'd like to replace with either (black) plastic or painted steel. JC Whitney used to sell a plastic one for about 14 bucks, but now they're about 40. I'd like to spend 30 or less. I also don't want to paint the one I have in case someone wants to put it back to stock someday, and I don't really care for the shape of it in the first place. The fender itself is about 4 and 1/2 inches wide, with a mounting bracket 5 inches wide. Is there something that will bolt on sorta? I don't care if it's a Kawasaki or Harley or whatever, as long as it looks right and it's CHEAP!

I've seen on here that a lot of people write books on Microsoft Word. Is there any limit to the amount of words you can put into it? I'm working with an HP mini laptop, so I can't really save my work on a CD. I thought I could e-mail the different chapters to myself as a way of saving them. I know it's probably a bit of a hassle, but would I be able to write a decent-sized book with what I have?