Weekly Wrap Up (2025.09.13)

Or, adventures in vehicle maintenance part 2, or something. Also yes, it’s been 2 weeks

I mentioned previously, that I had push mowed the yard because the mower was acting up. I went ahead and changed the oil and oil filter this week. It’s not super hard to do, but it did involve a ton of waiting.

Primarily because it drains sooooo slowly. The funnel and container wedged in there nicely, and I moved it so it was “leaning downhill” but it still took like 45 minutes to drain.

One side note, just for anyone seeing this, the juice bottle is fine, the Oil is not caustic to the plastic, hell plastic is basically made from the same stuff. I saw one post online suggesting a milk just but milk jugs apparently have seams which can leak. The juice bottle is much more robust. I also didn’t use it for long term storage. Lastly, don’t put gasoline in a juice bottle, that might actually melt it, not positive though.

Then I had to get the oil filter off. I might have an oil filter wrench somewhere, but if I do, I don’t know where, so I followed another method I found online. I drilled a hole through it, jammed a screwdrive through the hole, and turned it loose that way. This sounds easy on paper, but drilling into the filter caused more oil to come out, which meant more waiting. Also, the oil filter seems sturdy, but it’s basically a plastic sleeve around a paper frill inside. So You can’t drill into it from one side and get any leverage, you have to go all the way through, and even then, the plastic starts to split as you apply pressure.

Anyway, I got it off and swapped, filled it with around a quart and a half of new oil, and it started up. I originally was just going to keep the old oil in that juice bottle, but I decided that since I had an empty oil can, it would be better to put it in there instead, and mark it as used.

I’d also like to add that this $2 funnel from Walmart worked super great, despite that it says it’s for “Diesel exhaust fluid”. Just the perfect size for the mower.

TV

It’s been a bit of an NCIS time lately. Specifically, the new Tony & Ziva show, which only had a few episodes so far, and the older NCIS Origins, which is a prequel show. They are both pretty different from each other, and their own origin show. Hopefully they can keep that up a bit better than L&O Organized Crime, which kind of just kept losing itself over and over and over.

Origins in closer to NCIS in nature, with it’s ensemble cast and crime drama procedural pots. It’s set in the early 90s though, which means it’s also got a lot of “LOL Look how hard it was back then” jokes. It follows Agent Gibbs, who is the leader of the group on NCIS, when he was young and new.

Tony and Ziva is set in modern day, and is a sequel, and frankly, it’s nothing like NCIS. It has the characters and backstory of NCIS, but it’s following the modern style of an over arching plot. It also is designed ot be much more humorous in it’s situations, as Tony and Ziva work to clear their names, solve their relationship issues, and travel around Europe. It’s honestly, a pretty good show, even if you are not super familiar with the show NCIS it’s based on. There is a quick series of flashback clips in the opening to sort of, explain their relationship (They were sort of together, she left, they had a kid though, and then she sort of came back and Tony had their kid for a while because she needed to deal with her own trauma, basically, they were never married or really a proper couple).

I’m honestly, not super familiar with NCIS, I know the mile high view and mostly watch it off and on with my wife. But Tony & Ziva is pretty good so far. Funny too. Much more spy caper nonsense than crime drama procedural.

Just a side note, the whole “Universe” around NCIS is goofy and fascinating to me sometimes. NCIS is a spin off of the show JAG. NCIS has several spin offs of it’s own, LA, New Orleans I think, I want to say there was another straight NCIS colon something show. Anyway, it’s also crossed over with Hawaii 5-0, the new one, which has it’s own weird, in continuity relationship with the old 80s Hawaii 5-0 show. I am pretty sure there are a few others in there as well I am forgetting, I just think it’s funny that this old ass Hawaii 5-0 show, is in technically in continuity with this new show where our heroes have to outsmart rogue AI powered cars for an episode.

Movies

On the front of terrible things to watch, I watched Joker, again, ad Joker 2, for the first time. Joker is still kind of lame. Well acted, but it’s dumb. The plot is identical to at least one or two older movies, one of which is Taxi Driver.

Joker 2 though. What a dog. None of the characters is even remotely likable, but worse, they aren’t even unlikable, they just… are… Like, nothing really happens all movie, there is a trial, some population unrest thst is mostly off screen. None of the Batman undertones with the Wayne family show up, though Harvey Dent is the prosecutor. The songs are not even that good or anything. Like why get Lady Gaga to sort of mumble out of time nonsense in a dramatic way. It’s fucking Lady Gaga.

Gaming

I made an attempt to play Final Fantasy XIV. An attempt. I have played before, years ago, I was like, maybe level 20. I don’t understand the model exactly. Because something say its free to Level 60 or something, like some early content is free, which I can handle living with. But then I log in and it says my subscription trial has 3 days.

I also had no real clue where I was or what I was doing. I didn’t recognize the camp place at all, last I remember was being in a much larger town, though not really a city.

I decided to just, not. If I want an MMO, LotR Online is right there waiting for me.

On other gaming, more Beatstar. Probably until it shuts down. I do have some vague goals that are mostly achievable before October 31st.

• I want to make it to the max level of 29. I am currently at level 25. I need to earn like, 270 stars to get to 29, even at an average of 3 stars a song, which is probably low, thats only 90 new songs to play. I can easily average 15-20 new songs a day.
• I want to unlock all of the Deluxe tracks. This should be doable, it basically means playing the regular tracks that have deluxe unlocks once, then rolling the roulette wheel for cards to open the case. There are still a few hundred of these I think to unlock.
• The trickiest one, I want to play every song, at least once. There are like, 1200 total songs I think, regular and deluxe combined. I have done… maybe 400-500 total. Its doable.

Something I am not at all striving for is to make it to the global leader boards. Just playing every song once will likely me in the top 1% of players. Most of the top listed leader boards are, quite frankly, very likely cheaters. I have a very hard time believing that even the most diligent player has Diamond Platinum on EVERY song.

Total side note, that occurred to me, there was a brief moment in Forza Horizon 4 where I believe I did have the top score on the Global Leader board for a Drift Zone.

Music

Nothing new really, but I have been very diligently ripping my daughter’s CDs for her. I finish them up and I will have copies of every CD in the house. Much more convenient for sure.

He says while also spinning vinyl records….

Link List for Saturday 2025-09-13