So far my curation website is going great! I have set it all up and gotten a big start on it. So far it has been split into 6 different sections, a home page, and then pages on engine options, tranny options, body options, suspension information, and helpful forums.
I have entered in the information for the engine options, body options, and helpful forums so far, and plan to continue entering more as I find it. An interesting thing that I found was in researching forums I found 1 or 2 that I haven't seen before, so those may be able to help me in the future. I found the different transmissions available on this year silverado, but I am having a very hard time finding which packages and engines each tranny was available with. This is going to be the next step I will take, I have looked on the web and had no luck so I may take another trip to Chevy and ask some of the employees there. Then, I will research information on the suspension in the different 01 silverado's. I have not started researching that one yet but I think there should be plenty of information on it online.
This project is going great so far, and I genuinely enjoy adding to my page. I see it as a way of recording information for myself, since it is about the type of truck that I own. The only trouble I have been having is finding every piece of information that I want. Some stuff comes up very easily in research and some I can't find anywhere, so to fix this I am just going to broaden my research to books and other people, like a dealership.
here is the link to my site: https://sites.google.com/site/01silveradobasicinformation/
Monday, May 27, 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
Curation Update
So far, I don't have 1 most significant peice of information. I have basicaly just found a bunch of basic information, which is what I'm trying to do. The information I am looking for and have partialy found is engine options, trim packages, suspension types, transmission options, and any other factors of the truck. My next step is to continues finding this information, I have already found what engines came in it and the specs of those engines and I've found the different transmissions and specs on those, so now I need to find the rest. My next step is also to create the website, i plan on using the goolge site thing provided on the humanities page.
Overall this project is going well and I really enjoy it. The fact that I am researching something I find to be very interesting makes the rewsearch process a lot easier and more enjoyable. I have had no trouble finding the information that I need taking advantage of wikipedia and different blogs. The information i want to find is also easy to find so it's working out well.
For my interviews I talked to two of my friends with differet trucks and Mr. Vodika, explaining the project to them and asking about if they would find a website like this helpful. They all said that a website soley about their specific year truck would be really helpful since finding information when they need it can be tough since there is so much stuff out there. I also plan on going to Chevy and asking them about like common things that the truck came in for when it was new and their opinions on the truck compared to other trucks. I have not had a chance to do this yet but I plan on it.
Overall this project is going well and I really enjoy it. The fact that I am researching something I find to be very interesting makes the rewsearch process a lot easier and more enjoyable. I have had no trouble finding the information that I need taking advantage of wikipedia and different blogs. The information i want to find is also easy to find so it's working out well.
For my interviews I talked to two of my friends with differet trucks and Mr. Vodika, explaining the project to them and asking about if they would find a website like this helpful. They all said that a website soley about their specific year truck would be really helpful since finding information when they need it can be tough since there is so much stuff out there. I also plan on going to Chevy and asking them about like common things that the truck came in for when it was new and their opinions on the truck compared to other trucks. I have not had a chance to do this yet but I plan on it.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
A Car Guy Considers Love and Passion
1. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us
2. But for a man to love his passion: that is perhaps the most rewarding task
3. because
4.Love for a passion is not at all biological like love for another human being
5. rather
6. It is something they must learn
7. So a REAL passion is hard to develop, but oh so captivating
8. because like in a relationship between a man and woman where
9. each of them loses themselves for the sake of the other person
10. A man with a true passion loses himself in that passion
11. And when your passion is for cars and trucks, you really lose yourself
12. Cus when you've gotta fast car, you think you've got everything
13. and while with love for another human being you
14. No longer possess anything of your own
15. When your love is your passion for cars and trucks it's all your own
16. and its full of excitement
17.
18.
19.
20. Because whether your burnin' rubber of flyin through mud
21. There's somethin' bout a truck
22. that just makes you want to yell
23. TRUCK YEAH
24. And when you're in a fast can you
25. always trust yourslef and your feelings
26. And get risky
27. Bending the rules and Breaking the Law
28. because
29. somethings just go hand in hand
30. And for a car guy its fast cars and excitement
31.Whcih is what pulls you into the deep passion
32. And when your love is for a passion that you can makle a career out of
33. Now that's something to be proud of
34.
1. Rilke 68
6. Rilke 68
9. Rilke 71
12. Montgomery Gentry, "Something to be Proud of"
14. Rilke 73
21. Kip Moore, "Somethin' bout a Truck"
23. Tim McGraw, "Truck Yeah"
25. Rilke 23
27. Brantley Gilbert, "Bending the Rules and Breaking the Law"
29. Dierks Bentley, "Country and Cold Cans"
33. Montgomery Gentry, "Something to be Proud of"
I chose this theme because it plays off Rilke's ideas on love. I soft of related his ideas on love between a man and woman to the love a man has for his passion. Because I think in some cases this love may be even stronger, and can really pay off. But it relates to some of the difficulties and side effects of love like Rilke talks about, and shows some advantages to the love for a passion. I specifically chose to talk about a passion for cars and trucks, because I can relate to that topic. And I think I played the lines off of each other well because it started out going from the book, then shifted in love for a passion for cars and trucks, and ended in a sort of closing statement on the love for your passion. Which I think sort of is a good connection between Rilke's ideas and my own.
2. But for a man to love his passion: that is perhaps the most rewarding task
3. because
4.Love for a passion is not at all biological like love for another human being
5. rather
6. It is something they must learn
7. So a REAL passion is hard to develop, but oh so captivating
8. because like in a relationship between a man and woman where
9. each of them loses themselves for the sake of the other person
10. A man with a true passion loses himself in that passion
11. And when your passion is for cars and trucks, you really lose yourself
12. Cus when you've gotta fast car, you think you've got everything
13. and while with love for another human being you
14. No longer possess anything of your own
15. When your love is your passion for cars and trucks it's all your own
16. and its full of excitement
17.
21. There's somethin' bout a truck
22. that just makes you want to yell
23. TRUCK YEAH
25. always trust yourslef and your feelings
26. And get risky
27. Bending the rules and Breaking the Law
29. somethings just go hand in hand
30. And for a car guy its fast cars and excitement
31.Whcih is what pulls you into the deep passion
32. And when your love is for a passion that you can makle a career out of
33. Now that's something to be proud of
34.
1. Rilke 68
6. Rilke 68
9. Rilke 71
12. Montgomery Gentry, "Something to be Proud of"
14. Rilke 73
21. Kip Moore, "Somethin' bout a Truck"
23. Tim McGraw, "Truck Yeah"
25. Rilke 23
27. Brantley Gilbert, "Bending the Rules and Breaking the Law"
29. Dierks Bentley, "Country and Cold Cans"
33. Montgomery Gentry, "Something to be Proud of"
I chose this theme because it plays off Rilke's ideas on love. I soft of related his ideas on love between a man and woman to the love a man has for his passion. Because I think in some cases this love may be even stronger, and can really pay off. But it relates to some of the difficulties and side effects of love like Rilke talks about, and shows some advantages to the love for a passion. I specifically chose to talk about a passion for cars and trucks, because I can relate to that topic. And I think I played the lines off of each other well because it started out going from the book, then shifted in love for a passion for cars and trucks, and ended in a sort of closing statement on the love for your passion. Which I think sort of is a good connection between Rilke's ideas and my own.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Faults in Education
The TED presentation that I've found to be the most interesting so far was Austin's presentation on the talk about the flaws in our education system. After hearing his presentation I genuinly want to look this guy up and watch his talk so that I can hear more about what he had to say. I found this one to be the most entertaining for a couple of reasons.
The first reason is fairly shorty and simple. Basically the talk itself looked really visually entertaining. Instead of just having a guy walking around on stage talking about his ideas, it was like an animated white board that the presenter was drawing these funny detailed images on that made up this whole scene which basically represented what he was explaining. It was really cool to see him draw out his presentation rather than just talk to us. And not only did it make it more entertaining, but I feel like his drawing made it easier for me to understand and follow what was going on.
The second reason i really enjoyed this talk was because I agree with what the presenter was talking about. Basically what I got out of it was that our education system is flawed and runs like an industrial assembly line. Grouping people by age rather than interests and abilities and focusing on the same information to pump into each student. And the presenter talked about how this is not the best way for our education system to work. He said that all students are different and have different skills and abilities that are better or worse than others their age, and they should be grouped more based on that. Also that the standardization of the content that we learn is blocking our creativity, and not just our creativity but out interest in school. He shows how the reason that most students find school boring is because we are sitting in a desk while someone is explaining boring stuff to us. Because of this, he shows how kids have a hard time paying attention (usually just because they are bored out of their mind) so many kids then get diagnosed with ADHD, and get doped up in order to pay attention. In explaining this he also shows the correlation between standardized education and ADHD.
All this stuff that he talked about is stuff that I both find interesting and generally agree with. I think our education system needs to figure out a way to reorganize itself and focus more one each individual student, and what their skills and abilities are, and what career would actually be best for them. Rather than standardizing the majority of the content that we learn. The only thing is I really don't know how they can do that, so I plan on watching the whole of this TED talk and maybe getting some ideas.
The first reason is fairly shorty and simple. Basically the talk itself looked really visually entertaining. Instead of just having a guy walking around on stage talking about his ideas, it was like an animated white board that the presenter was drawing these funny detailed images on that made up this whole scene which basically represented what he was explaining. It was really cool to see him draw out his presentation rather than just talk to us. And not only did it make it more entertaining, but I feel like his drawing made it easier for me to understand and follow what was going on.
The second reason i really enjoyed this talk was because I agree with what the presenter was talking about. Basically what I got out of it was that our education system is flawed and runs like an industrial assembly line. Grouping people by age rather than interests and abilities and focusing on the same information to pump into each student. And the presenter talked about how this is not the best way for our education system to work. He said that all students are different and have different skills and abilities that are better or worse than others their age, and they should be grouped more based on that. Also that the standardization of the content that we learn is blocking our creativity, and not just our creativity but out interest in school. He shows how the reason that most students find school boring is because we are sitting in a desk while someone is explaining boring stuff to us. Because of this, he shows how kids have a hard time paying attention (usually just because they are bored out of their mind) so many kids then get diagnosed with ADHD, and get doped up in order to pay attention. In explaining this he also shows the correlation between standardized education and ADHD.
All this stuff that he talked about is stuff that I both find interesting and generally agree with. I think our education system needs to figure out a way to reorganize itself and focus more one each individual student, and what their skills and abilities are, and what career would actually be best for them. Rather than standardizing the majority of the content that we learn. The only thing is I really don't know how they can do that, so I plan on watching the whole of this TED talk and maybe getting some ideas.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Remix and Origionality
I am really not a big fan at all of remixed music, but that is basically because the type of music that I have ever heard remixed has not been music that I liked in the first place. It is not at all because I don't think that what these remix artists do is creative and original. I think that if you're going to take something that has already been made, and recreate it to become something completely different and new, than not only is it an original work but also a very difficult thing to do. For example, in class we listened to Danger Mouse's album of mash-ups called The Grey Album, where this Danger Mouse guy took songs from the Beatles The White Album and Jay-Z's The Black Album and mashed em together to form different mash-ups of both artists songs. While I wasn't a huge fan of these songs because I don't really like rap music, I thought that they were put together well, and actually sounded surprisingly good together. And I feel like that has to be original and creative because it has got to take a lot of time and skill to be able to combine two completely different types of music and make a good sounding song.
Another good point is that remixes like this are origional because, like the origional songs they are based off of, no one else has made them before and they were created completely out of someones hard workl and imagination. It's that persons own peice of work, like Maddie said in her blog post, "no one is ever going to make a remix EXACTLY like this"(Hauser), it is the remix artists origional peice of work.
It's like a whole new method of creativity. You are using others work to help produce your own. I think Alyssa describes this process best in her blog when she says that, "what you are doing is taking a bunch of different elements and putting them together in a skillful way, making your own artistic choices to create something new that has never been done in that exact way before" (Policarpio). So basicaly, instead of creating something out of nothing, you are creating something totaly new out of something already made, which is still very creative and original.
Car companies do this all the time. Many companies have "mashed up" their vehicle models with other models from a different manufacturer to create their new model for the next model year. This is evident in multiple ways.
First is technology. One company is almost always the first company to come up with some nifty trick, like say back in the day it was seat belts or power locks. And then, other companies are soon to follow suit, keeping their origional designs and mechanics, but incorporating this other manufacturers new gizmo.
The other thing is the the actual mechanics of a car. Many companies have mashed up their cars with another manufacturers engine or transmissions, and made new models or their car that is still their car but it is just incorporating, or mashing up, features from another manufacturer. Chrysler, for example, used to put Mitsubishi engines in all of their small engine cars. They were still Chrysler cars and in no way Mitsubishi's, but they just incorporated their technology and incorporated it differently to fit in their cars, which also takes creativity and ingenuity like mixing up songs.
My point with this analogy is that mash-ups don't only happen in music, it's just that that's where its mostly criticized, but the idea of mashing things up happens in almost every industry. One company takes ideas from another on new ways of doing things. It's basically the same concept. So, if this technique is used so much in so many ways, and the products of "mashing things up" are unique, then I believe mash-ups and remixes are totally unique, and take just as much creativity and effort as original works.
Another good point is that remixes like this are origional because, like the origional songs they are based off of, no one else has made them before and they were created completely out of someones hard workl and imagination. It's that persons own peice of work, like Maddie said in her blog post, "no one is ever going to make a remix EXACTLY like this"(Hauser), it is the remix artists origional peice of work.
It's like a whole new method of creativity. You are using others work to help produce your own. I think Alyssa describes this process best in her blog when she says that, "what you are doing is taking a bunch of different elements and putting them together in a skillful way, making your own artistic choices to create something new that has never been done in that exact way before" (Policarpio). So basicaly, instead of creating something out of nothing, you are creating something totaly new out of something already made, which is still very creative and original.
Car companies do this all the time. Many companies have "mashed up" their vehicle models with other models from a different manufacturer to create their new model for the next model year. This is evident in multiple ways.
First is technology. One company is almost always the first company to come up with some nifty trick, like say back in the day it was seat belts or power locks. And then, other companies are soon to follow suit, keeping their origional designs and mechanics, but incorporating this other manufacturers new gizmo.
The other thing is the the actual mechanics of a car. Many companies have mashed up their cars with another manufacturers engine or transmissions, and made new models or their car that is still their car but it is just incorporating, or mashing up, features from another manufacturer. Chrysler, for example, used to put Mitsubishi engines in all of their small engine cars. They were still Chrysler cars and in no way Mitsubishi's, but they just incorporated their technology and incorporated it differently to fit in their cars, which also takes creativity and ingenuity like mixing up songs.
My point with this analogy is that mash-ups don't only happen in music, it's just that that's where its mostly criticized, but the idea of mashing things up happens in almost every industry. One company takes ideas from another on new ways of doing things. It's basically the same concept. So, if this technique is used so much in so many ways, and the products of "mashing things up" are unique, then I believe mash-ups and remixes are totally unique, and take just as much creativity and effort as original works.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Networked knowledge
"The idea that in order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these pieces and build new castles" (Popova 1).
I like this because I think it is basicaly saying that in order for us to have thoughts and ideas, we have to combine every experiance and observation we have had so far in our lives. That what we think and create is just a combination of what we have taken in throughout our life. We take everything we have seen others do, and nature do, and combine it to make our own creations and ideas.
This is a lot like what Austin Kleon was saying in the video we watched in "How to steal like an artist". That artists must steal others ideas in a way and change and transform them to make them their own. I think he even said, actually, that our thoughts and ideas are a combination of what we have taken in throughout our life.
I like this because I think it is basicaly saying that in order for us to have thoughts and ideas, we have to combine every experiance and observation we have had so far in our lives. That what we think and create is just a combination of what we have taken in throughout our life. We take everything we have seen others do, and nature do, and combine it to make our own creations and ideas.
This is a lot like what Austin Kleon was saying in the video we watched in "How to steal like an artist". That artists must steal others ideas in a way and change and transform them to make them their own. I think he even said, actually, that our thoughts and ideas are a combination of what we have taken in throughout our life.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Tenacity
The best definition of tenacity that I have heard has to be when Leonard Brody said, in Tenacity vs Intellect: what makes an entrepreneur?, that tenacity is, "taking ten punches to the stomach and getting up for the eleventh." This is truly what tenacity is, the willingness to keep trying and trying at your goal no matter what obstacles get in your way. Your tenacity is sort of like your ability to persevere, or your level of mental and physical endurance.
The context in which Leonard talks about tenacity is its role in business, which I see as the perfect place for such a trait. When trying to be an entrepreneur and run your own business, you run into obstacles all of the time. Mainly because business is a risk. It is one hundred percent different than a pay check job, because there's no guaranteed money. You might make money, or you might lose money, and i think that just dealing with that idea in the first place requires some tenacity. You have to spend money to make money in a business, and you have to have the tenacity to do everything you can to ensure that you actually do make money, otherwise you'll lose your ass on your investment.
I have some idea of what I'm talking about here because I am trying to work out a couple businesses myself. Both of which I put out money to buy something, and try to turn the product around for profit. Both have been very successful for me. And while I have made some money, I have definitely gotten a taste of some of the difficulties in running a business.
The business I am trying hardest at now, and am having difficulty with, is flipping cars. Let me tell you from a first-hand experience, this business takes a lot of tenacity. I have to look on Craigslist everyday and file through dozens of adds trying to find the perfect deal. And this is not easy task, because not only do I have to find a car for a good price, but I have to find one that I can buy, fix, and still sell for enough to make profit. Then when I find one I have to call the seller and deal with the headache of scams, misleading ads, and people who don't know how to bargain. Then if I get through that and actually find a decent deal, I have to drive anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour and a half to see the car in person and decide whether or not its all its cracked up to be. Then after all of that, if I actually find a good deal (which rarely happens), I have to try and wheel and deal with the seller some more to get down to my ideal price.
And that's just buying the car. After actually acquiring a car to flip, I have to fix the car. Surprisingly, this is actually the least frustrating part of the process. But when it comes to time management, fixing the car gets exhausting. The one succesful car I flipped, I did this past summer. Now over the summer, I worked at a bodyshop everyday from 8 am to 8 or 9 pm, so i would spend a couple hours each night after work working on that. This changed my schedule to 8am-9pm: body shop 9:15-10:dinner and shower 10-12or1am:working on flip car.
Then after the car is finally fixed, I have to sell it, which is also no easy task. People never want to pay what you need to make to earn a profit, and you have to know what kind of people are looking for what. i had to learn to say no to offers that were too low, and eventually accept an offer that was good enough. But let me tell you, after going through allllll of this effort, and finally taking the cash for that car I put so much effort in, you get one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment ever. I feel like all of that hard work and time and effort and reward are all part of owning a real business, and if all of that doesn't take at least a bit of tenacity, I don't know what does.
The context in which Leonard talks about tenacity is its role in business, which I see as the perfect place for such a trait. When trying to be an entrepreneur and run your own business, you run into obstacles all of the time. Mainly because business is a risk. It is one hundred percent different than a pay check job, because there's no guaranteed money. You might make money, or you might lose money, and i think that just dealing with that idea in the first place requires some tenacity. You have to spend money to make money in a business, and you have to have the tenacity to do everything you can to ensure that you actually do make money, otherwise you'll lose your ass on your investment.
I have some idea of what I'm talking about here because I am trying to work out a couple businesses myself. Both of which I put out money to buy something, and try to turn the product around for profit. Both have been very successful for me. And while I have made some money, I have definitely gotten a taste of some of the difficulties in running a business.
The business I am trying hardest at now, and am having difficulty with, is flipping cars. Let me tell you from a first-hand experience, this business takes a lot of tenacity. I have to look on Craigslist everyday and file through dozens of adds trying to find the perfect deal. And this is not easy task, because not only do I have to find a car for a good price, but I have to find one that I can buy, fix, and still sell for enough to make profit. Then when I find one I have to call the seller and deal with the headache of scams, misleading ads, and people who don't know how to bargain. Then if I get through that and actually find a decent deal, I have to drive anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour and a half to see the car in person and decide whether or not its all its cracked up to be. Then after all of that, if I actually find a good deal (which rarely happens), I have to try and wheel and deal with the seller some more to get down to my ideal price.
And that's just buying the car. After actually acquiring a car to flip, I have to fix the car. Surprisingly, this is actually the least frustrating part of the process. But when it comes to time management, fixing the car gets exhausting. The one succesful car I flipped, I did this past summer. Now over the summer, I worked at a bodyshop everyday from 8 am to 8 or 9 pm, so i would spend a couple hours each night after work working on that. This changed my schedule to 8am-9pm: body shop 9:15-10:dinner and shower 10-12or1am:working on flip car.
Then after the car is finally fixed, I have to sell it, which is also no easy task. People never want to pay what you need to make to earn a profit, and you have to know what kind of people are looking for what. i had to learn to say no to offers that were too low, and eventually accept an offer that was good enough. But let me tell you, after going through allllll of this effort, and finally taking the cash for that car I put so much effort in, you get one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment ever. I feel like all of that hard work and time and effort and reward are all part of owning a real business, and if all of that doesn't take at least a bit of tenacity, I don't know what does.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Mechanical Philosophy
Simplicity. Everyone thinks this makes things easy in life. If something is simple, it is easy. But I have found that that is wrong, sometimes simplicity can be the most blood-pumping, frustrating things out there. Let me give you an example, about two months ago in auto shop, I was assigned a car with a window that did not work. So I pulled in the car, tried to roll down the window, and sure enough nothing happened. Now I had done numerous windows before this one, and every time before it had been that the window regulator had gone bad, a common problem. So I ordered a new window assembly and began removing the door trim.
Typically, it is fairly easy to remove a door trim. There is usually a screw around the handle, one or two screws on the bottom of the panel, and then a uniform line of clips along the inner edge of the trim. This was a rather fancy car though, an expensive Audi, and it was "too good" to be easy to work on. So after about twenty long minutes of searching, I had discovered that I needed to pop of the trim panel by the handle (which is difficult to do without damaging the door trim), which concealed two screws, and I had to pop off the arm cushion, concealing an additional screw. After this I popped off the panel and looked at the window assembly, realizing taking it out would be no easy task.
The regulator itself (the silver part in the picture) was easy, just three easy bolts, but the hangers on each of the arms (the black parts in the picture are the arms, and the smaller silver parts on the arms are the hangers) were shoved up behind the top of the door. Eventually, after about half an hour of trial and error that took a painful toll on my hands, I had found the perfect wrench and the intricate form in which I had to fit and move my hand, I began unbolting them from the glass. This itself took about ten entire minutes because of the lack of space I had to move the wrench.
So finally, I had taken out that devilish window assembly. It was time to put in the new one, which was an equally difficult and time consuming process, basically having to do the opposite I did to take it out. After it was installed, and the trim was put back on, I turned on the car and tried the window. It didn't go down. I felt like I had just x'd out of a hundred page paper that I never saved. Frantically, I took the trim panel back off, and checked everything. The assembly was installed as it should be, there was power going to the regulator, all the switches were connected, I was dumbfounded. Shamefully, I sat back in the passenger seat trying to think of how I would present this embarrassing failure to Bex, and even worse, the teacher whose car it was. Then suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I had noticed something. The window lock switch was flipped, the windows had been locked. In utter disbelief, I flipped the switch and tried the window, and as the glass moved down, my anger went up. I could not believe it, all of that work and frustration, and the whole time it had been as simple as a locked window.
Something as simple as the window lock being engaged had caused so much frustration, which could have been avoided if it weren't for my ignorance to the simplicity of the situation. If I would have thought about the window as simply as I could, and every part that could play into effect, I would have thought to check the window lock before even starting. This applies for all car problems, the most basic principle of auto repair is being able to see the car in its simplest form, all of its parts, the building blocks of the car.
This brings me to Democritus, and his building blocks, atoms. He believed that, "Nature really is built up of different “atoms” that join and separate again" (Gaarder 46), much like cars are made up of different parts, that can all be replaced and rebuilt. Democritus used atoms to look at the world in its simplest form, and thought that not only was everything made of atoms, but there were different types of atoms, such as soul atoms, much like there are different types of parts in a car, and that, "When a human being died, the soul atoms flew in all directions, and could then become part of a new soul formation" (47), much like when a car is totaled, its parts are reused to make new cars, or repair existing cars.
His ideas can be applied to repairing cars, an everyday problem that I face, by looking at a car like Democritus looked at the world around him. Take the window problem for example. I should have looked at the window and its related parts in their simplest form, part by part. If I would have checked everything that could be causing the problem, instead of just jumping to a conclusion, I could have avoided the frustration.
The other way his ideas play into fixing a car, is that in order to fix a car, you need to know how whatever section your fixing operates. And the only way to understand that is by learning about all of the parts, or "atoms," that make it up. So when learning how a car works it is necessary to look at the car the way Democritus looks at nature. So if you can mentally take apart a car, seeing it in its simplest form, and how all of its parts fit together, there is nothing on that car that you can't fix.
Typically, it is fairly easy to remove a door trim. There is usually a screw around the handle, one or two screws on the bottom of the panel, and then a uniform line of clips along the inner edge of the trim. This was a rather fancy car though, an expensive Audi, and it was "too good" to be easy to work on. So after about twenty long minutes of searching, I had discovered that I needed to pop of the trim panel by the handle (which is difficult to do without damaging the door trim), which concealed two screws, and I had to pop off the arm cushion, concealing an additional screw. After this I popped off the panel and looked at the window assembly, realizing taking it out would be no easy task.
The regulator itself (the silver part in the picture) was easy, just three easy bolts, but the hangers on each of the arms (the black parts in the picture are the arms, and the smaller silver parts on the arms are the hangers) were shoved up behind the top of the door. Eventually, after about half an hour of trial and error that took a painful toll on my hands, I had found the perfect wrench and the intricate form in which I had to fit and move my hand, I began unbolting them from the glass. This itself took about ten entire minutes because of the lack of space I had to move the wrench.
So finally, I had taken out that devilish window assembly. It was time to put in the new one, which was an equally difficult and time consuming process, basically having to do the opposite I did to take it out. After it was installed, and the trim was put back on, I turned on the car and tried the window. It didn't go down. I felt like I had just x'd out of a hundred page paper that I never saved. Frantically, I took the trim panel back off, and checked everything. The assembly was installed as it should be, there was power going to the regulator, all the switches were connected, I was dumbfounded. Shamefully, I sat back in the passenger seat trying to think of how I would present this embarrassing failure to Bex, and even worse, the teacher whose car it was. Then suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I had noticed something. The window lock switch was flipped, the windows had been locked. In utter disbelief, I flipped the switch and tried the window, and as the glass moved down, my anger went up. I could not believe it, all of that work and frustration, and the whole time it had been as simple as a locked window.
Something as simple as the window lock being engaged had caused so much frustration, which could have been avoided if it weren't for my ignorance to the simplicity of the situation. If I would have thought about the window as simply as I could, and every part that could play into effect, I would have thought to check the window lock before even starting. This applies for all car problems, the most basic principle of auto repair is being able to see the car in its simplest form, all of its parts, the building blocks of the car.
This brings me to Democritus, and his building blocks, atoms. He believed that, "Nature really is built up of different “atoms” that join and separate again" (Gaarder 46), much like cars are made up of different parts, that can all be replaced and rebuilt. Democritus used atoms to look at the world in its simplest form, and thought that not only was everything made of atoms, but there were different types of atoms, such as soul atoms, much like there are different types of parts in a car, and that, "When a human being died, the soul atoms flew in all directions, and could then become part of a new soul formation" (47), much like when a car is totaled, its parts are reused to make new cars, or repair existing cars.
His ideas can be applied to repairing cars, an everyday problem that I face, by looking at a car like Democritus looked at the world around him. Take the window problem for example. I should have looked at the window and its related parts in their simplest form, part by part. If I would have checked everything that could be causing the problem, instead of just jumping to a conclusion, I could have avoided the frustration.The other way his ideas play into fixing a car, is that in order to fix a car, you need to know how whatever section your fixing operates. And the only way to understand that is by learning about all of the parts, or "atoms," that make it up. So when learning how a car works it is necessary to look at the car the way Democritus looks at nature. So if you can mentally take apart a car, seeing it in its simplest form, and how all of its parts fit together, there is nothing on that car that you can't fix.
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