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Inspired by my friends who are participating in the “Julio Challenge” I decided I would take a crack at it. I thought that I’d come up with 30 great acoustic versions of songs. And so, so without further ado my 30 Awesome Acoustic Arrangements. Obvious alliteration is obvious.

Motörhead – Ace Of Spades

Who’d win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God? Trick question, Lemmy is God. This version of Ace of Spades totally changes the feel of the song. This was actually recorded for a Kronenbourg Beer promotion.

Foo Fighters – Everlong

Quite possibly one of my top 5 favorite acoustic songs, Foo Fighters originally played this in the Howard Stern Show studio.

Cash – Hurt

I took this one from SPG’s list, The Man In Black doing Nine Inch Nails. Not much more explanation necessary.

Metallica – Tuesday’s Gone

Originally a Lynyrd Skynyrd song, Metallica recorded Tuesday’s Gone for their cover album compilation Garage Inc. The song shows their musical talent, and offers a great spin on a classic.

AC/DC – You shook me all night long

Many classic rock songs translate very well into acoustic versions. I just like this song, no real reason why. Ha.

Slash ft. Myles Kennedy – Sweet Child O’ Mine

I’m not really that big of a fan of GNR, but there’s something about Myles Kennedy’s voice and the simple acoustic version of this song. Its stripped down and far from Axl Rose’s “Sha-Na-Na-Na-Na-Knees-KNEES!” in Welcome to the Jungle

Eagles – Hotel California

Another one of those songs that require no explanation.

At this point, I really found myself sucked into the performances on the old MTV Unplugged show.

Aerosmith – Dream On

Oh how the mighty have fallen, now this guy is a judge on a reality show. This is the real Steven Tyler.

STP – Plush

Another of my top 5 all time favorites.

Nirvana – Lake of Fire

Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night

I suppose I bent the rules a bit by including two Nirvana songs from the same performance. I couldn’t decide which was better, I’ve always been partial to Lake of Fire but I just heard Where Did You Sleep Last Night again tonight while looking these up.

Noel Gallagher – Wonderwall Acoustic

I can never remember which brother caused all the problems in Oasis, but I do like Noel’s version of Wonderwall

Pearl Jam – Jeremy

Keep an eye out for Eddie Vedder’s crazy face.

The Smashing Pumpkins – DISARM

I included this one as a tribute to Billy Corgan’s hair, its also a great song.

Alice In Chains – Down In A Hole

Alice In Chains – Would

Just like Nirvana, I couldn’t pick just one Alice in Chains song from this set. Layne Staley is defiantly missed. RIP

Our Lady Peace – Superman’s Dead

The album Clumsy is one that I dust off every once and a while. OLP’s front man Raine Maida has a very unique sound that really comes through in Superman’s Dead.

Live – The Dolphins Cry

In doing research for this post I learned that Live played live for the last time in 2009 at The Palazzo, which would have been a great show. The Dolphins Cry is one of their best songs, this is Ed Kowalczyk playing it on his own.

Days Of The New – Touch, Peel And Stand

I really don’t know anything about Days of the New, except that I really enjoy this song. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Stone Sour – Bother

What really blew my mind when Stone Sour’s album came out, is that this is the same Corey Taylor AKA #8 of Slipknot. Listen to Bother, and then check out Wait and Bleed

Sugarcult – Memory

A decent pop-punk type band from the late 90′s early 00′s. An acoustic version of one of their most popular songs.

The Best Deceptions – Dashboard

No acoustic song list is without an Emo entry, I figure what better band to represent that genre. I think at one point the crowd is actually louder than he is, that’s kind of cool. I’ll admit it, this song was on my iPod in college.

Cute Without The “E” (Cut From the Team) – Taking Back Sunday

A great slowed down version of a really awesome Taking Back Sunday song. In my top 5.

I also wanted to include a “WTF” section, mainly a couple songs/bands that you wouldn’t imagine playing acoustic sets.

Deftones – Digital Bath

It was hard to find a decent acoustic Deftones song due to some of Chino’s vocal problems at the time. Digital Bath uses some effects on his voice that help it on the acoustic version.

KoRn & Amy Lee – Freak on a Leash

Acoustic Korn seemed strange to me, but with Amy Lee of Evanescence it kind of works. Check it out for yourself.

Shinedown – Simple Man

Another Lynyrd Skynyrd cover makes the list.

The next two songs come from my “Sing Along” playlist from high school and college. Both of these were songs that my friends and I could throw on and we’d all know the words.

Extreme – More Than Words

Mr. Big – To Be With You

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green day

Great song. Honorable mention to the Rancid live version Video

Tenacious D Wonderboy

The D might not be the most serious band on the list, but you have to appreciate Kyle Gass’s guitar talent.

So that’s my 30, what do you think?

I know its not acoustic, but I have to include a solo that completely changed my opinion of Prince. Solo is @3:30. George Harrison would be proud.

After the collective techno-orgasm everyone had this morning, its time to have a cigarette and think about things. One of the longest technology rumors has finally come true, and the company that originally passed on the idea of an “iPhone” now will have their own model that operates on their network. So should you line up in February and get your very own? Maybe. Honestly, Verizon customers have waited this long it would be in their best interest to wait longer. The iPhone released today is an exact copy of the AT&T iPhone 4 with a CDMA chipset rather than GSM. This means that it is a phone that is already halfway through its lifecycle, which historically has been one year between iPhones. Assuming that the next iPhone follows suit, it should be released this June. Recent changes to Verizon’s upgrade policy will lock you into your next phone for 20 months. This means when Apple trickles down its newest wiz-bang, must have feature this summer you will not be eligible to put it in your pocket until October 2012 (Unless you pay full retail). Another thing to take note is that in usual form-over-function style, Apple has chosen not to include Verizon’s new 4G LTE hardware because the “chipsets force design changes [they] wouldn’t make.“. In Q1 and Q2 of this year, Verizon is releasing a selection of devices that will operate on their new network, which is the fastest of the 4G-labeled networks in the US.

Bringing the iPhone to Verizon is a good thing for all Verizon customers. It brings a great deal of exposure to Verizon’s network, as AT&T has had in the last few years. Verizon has also said that they have taken extra care that their network can support the coming onslaught of new customers with data hungry iPhones. Improvements to their network to support this demographic means improvements for all Verizon customers. This should mean increasingly better data coverage, call quality, and overall level of service.

In closing, be smart about the choice you make in the next month. Explore your options when it comes to contract, so that you aren’t penalized for being an early adopter. Or just wait and see what happens this summer. Apple isn’t disclosing if the two US iPhone models will be on the same release cycle, so there may be a Verizon iPhone 5 this summer or it may be another year.

Since the car has been back on the road for a few days, I decided to take it over to the weekly Las Vegas Cars and Coffee show. “Cars and Coffee™ Las Vegas is a weekly Saturday morning gathering of auto enthusiasts from 8:00am – 11:00am where hundreds of proud drivers from the Las Vegas area and beyond will congregate to kick tires and have a cup of coffee.” A few people approached me and asked about the car, and the build. I was happy to start participating in events again, as it has been over a year since I’ve had a car in a show.

After Cars and Coffee, I returned home to try and troubleshoot the high idle problem I’ve been having. Basically whenever I put my foot on the clutch, the car drops its idle to 1500 RPMs and holds it until the car comes to a complete stop. There is a known problem with the TPS sensor wiring on the SRT-4 breaking over time, and causing high idle. I had some leftover wires from a repair kit I used in the past, so I decided to try and repair the sensor harness.

This also gave me an opportunity to try out my new head lamp that my Wife made fun of me for buying.

While the rewire didn’t fix the problem, it was a good idea to do it anyway. I did some more research and discovered that the harness for the IAC sensor had gone bad. I ordered the repair kit this morning.

After messing around with the sensors, I moved on to the RedLine Tuning QuickLift kit. This replaces the factory hood prop with two gas hood struts. The kit comes with very good directions, but drilling and riveting your car can always be nerve wracking.

So the original exhaust system I had on my first car looked a little bent when I tried to bolt it up to the new car. I originally didn’t want to run it like that, so I tried ordering a 3″ turn down tip for the center section of the system I already have.

I bolted it up and mocked up what I was going to use as a hanger, built from the hardware section at the Home Depot.

After spending some time under the car, I came to the conclusion that this would not work as easily as planned. The toggle bolts I bought were way too big, so I would need to drill approx 1″ holes in the frame rail of the car. I tried a couple other ideas, but ultimately I ended up bolting the side exit rear section to the car again. On second thought, it doesn’t fit too bad and it still looks pretty nice.

Drove the car to work this morning. It did pretty well on the side streets, I’ve put about 15 miles on the clock since the rebuild. I’m still getting a bit of a hanging idle, so that will need to be sorted out.

In between eating leftover turkey, I spent some more time in the garage working on the car. I installed the front strut tower bar, ran the vac lines, and tucked my boost controller up on the cowl.

A few front end shots

I also did a quick test fit of the door sill plates that I had powdercoated by Juan @ SnailMotorsports

Next, I need to extend the power wire for the starter so that I could tuck the harness the way I wanted to. I went with the most overkill butt connector, but I know that the connection will never come loose. The connector came complete with the biggest shrink tube I’ve ever seen.

Once the wire was made longer, I was able to complete the wiring and tie down the battery. The rubber tie down is only temporary until I can make something cleaner.

Then I tackled the task of building my intake. I decided to skip the $200+ aftermarket name brand intake and build one using a coupler and filter I already had, and a pipe from eBay that cost a totaly of $29 bucks.

More or less the engine bay is done now. I may change up some of the powdercoat, but that wont be for a while.

I started wrestling with the front bumper. With the AGP Race FMIC you have to trim some sections of the bumper a bit to clear the larger than stock core. I was able to get it to bolt on, but the bumper needs to eventually come back off for more trimming.

At this point, the car was roadworthy enough to take a test drive around the block. The only thing that absolutely needs to be done is the exhaust, right now it is running open downpipe. Parts of the interior need to be reinstalled as well, since I was planning on installing the stereo at this time too.

The car did great on the street. There were no major issues. I am getting a little bit of a hanging idle, which could be the tune learning the larger than stock throttle body, or the TPS sensor could need replacing. Either way, I’m not worried about it. For the first time in months, I was able to pull both cars into the garage.

So I haven’t been updating lately, mainly because I have been spending most my time buttoning up the car. I was able to successfully Helicoil that powdercoated intake manifold

I also decided to use a smaller, universal overflow tank instead of the AGP hard can. It tucked behind the windshield washer tank nicely.

The rear brakes were removed in preparation for my Rotor Pro brake rotors.

The fuel tank was finally dropped, and the factory canister removed. The fuel return line was ran and the regulator set in place under the hood.

Rear RotorPros installed

At this point we were basically ready to install the turbo. We installed the newly ceramic coated hot side and then called it a night.

Yesterday, while I worked on the fuel tank install, Gabe welded up the front intercooler mounting location. If you remember from the disassembly day, it was cracked.

I installed the walbro 255 and then reinstalled the tank. I chased a few of the bolts with a die to clean their threads. I also started securing the return line with -6AN hose clamps.

AGP Race FMIC installed.

Turbo, O2 housing, and other accessories installed.

Hardpipes, BOV, battery and CAI installed.

After that we flashed it, primed the fuel system a few times to check for leaks, and cranked the car with the coil pack disconnected to build some oil pressure. Then, we fired it up…

So far so good!! No fluid leaks, we did have some small issues with the fuel return line not being tightened enough so there were a couple drips of fuel, and the bolts for the turbine housing needed to be tightened. Otherwise, the motor sounds like its running strong.

So what’s left? Well, the side exit didn’t quite make it through the original car’s accident. It wasn’t super obvious, but the rear section of the exhaust was slightly bent, which put the oval tip too close to the rear wheel. I’m planning on buying a 3″ turn down and just dumping the exhaust in the center rear of the car. I’ll miss the look of the side exit, but this is the easiest and fastest solution. Otherwise, the car is just about done. I’ll keep updating as it gets closer to getting back on the road!

Edit: this is what I will be using on the exhaust system

Amazon.com

Hopefully I can find one local, instead of having to wait for shipping.

Bolted a few more things on the car last night.

First, I blocked the top coolant port for the now deleted oil filter cooler due to the big filter kit. I’m not sure how well this will hold, but I’m willing to give it a try.

After that, I installed the radiator fans and the intake manifold, top coolant hose, fuel injectors, and rail.

I have a nice powder coated intake manifold, but one of the bolt holes for the TB is stripped. However, I have to pull the mani back off to run the fuel return so I might helicoil the stripped hole and install the PC’d manifold afterall.

Recently a developer released an extension for Firefox called Firesheep. It was released to demonstrate the poor security model on many popular websites, and how a user’s information could be “sidejacked” while on a public wifi access point. Basically a website encrypts only the initial login, but does not protect the session’s cookie after that. Someone on the same network, using Firesheep, can intercept that session cookie and allow them to do anything the user can do on a particular website. On an open wifi hotspot the cookies are basically shouted through the air, making these attacks extremely easy.

Currently, Firesheep is available on PC and Mac (Linux is coming soon), and requires Firefox version 3.6.12 or newer. Firefox 4 beta is not supported.

While at my local Starbucks, I fired up Firefox and Firesheep on my Mac to see what it would do while I surf the web.

If I double click on any of the entries, I’m quickly logged into the service as that user. Easy enough.

Hopefully the various web sites affected by this will take notice and implement safeguards to prevent their users from falling victim to this type of attack.

I found my old digital camera over the weekend, and got the bright idea that I’d stop using my Canon SLR in the garage and just keep this one out there for taking build photos. That way if it gets dirty/broken I wouldn’t care. That being said, get ready for some crappy quality pics

Got the Koyo radiator ready for install. Teflon taped the drain plug, if you can even see what’s in that picture.

Koyo installed.

Started installing my coolant pipes using T-bolts when I realized I dont have an 11mm deep socket to tighten them with. Started with a normal wrench, but got bored and so I moved to other parts until I can buy a socket today. Catch can installed

pwerks crash bar installed

Rage clutch pedal pivot and shifter bushings installed

I’m going to pick up the socket tonight on the way home from work and maybe do some more work tonight. I’d like to get everything on the front side of the motor done so that all that’s left is the turbo, exhaust, and fuel pump/return line.

Never trust a geologist from Portugal.

Just like many other people, I have browsed craigslist looking for a good deal. Recently a friend of mine mentioned he was looking for a new car, so we started browsing the Cars & Trucks section to see if there were any bargins to be had. I quickly came across a deal that just had to be too good to be true:

A 2006 Chrysler 300C SRT-8, in what looks to be very good condition, for only $3800. It must be my lucky day. The advertisement lists “Nevada” as its location, and the only method of contact is by email. If you notice the background in the pictures, it looks very green to be Las Vegas. Also, the entire ad appears to be one big image file. Clearly there is something sketchy going on, and I’m sure this isn’t the first advertisement like this on craigslist since they have banners and warnings all over their site about fraud.

However, craigslist warns about people shipping cars and clearly the advertisement says that the car is in Nevada. So I thought I’d have a little fun and contact the “seller” to see what’s going on here. I jumped over to gmail and created a new account. Name: Ross Jefferson, Email: rossylovescars@gmail.com. Then I used my new account to contact our seller, making sure to use wording verbatim from the posting.

After only a few minutes, I received a response.

His email raises all the classic craigslist scam flags. A price that is too good to be true, he is in Portugal but the car is in Detroit, he will pay shipping, and he would like to use eBay as an escrow service (despite the fact that the car isn’t being sold on eBay). Someone seriously shopping for a car should stop here, delete the email, and flag the craigslist post. I’m interested in seeing what would happen if I play along so I continued to chat with “Daniel”. I copied the VIN number he provided and came across something interesting on a google search.

It looks like all the pictures in the ad were scraped from a legitimate car sales site, complete with other information about the car. I emailed Daniel back to see what he would say.

Daniel quickly replied.

It seems like the transaction would go through very easily. eBay would handle the payment, he pays for shipping, and if I don’t like the car I send it back. In order to keep the conversation going, I needed to provide him with a shipping address. I didn’t want to use my own, so I came up with the next best thing.

It was interesting and a little scary that there was actually someone on the other end reading my emails and replying. At first I thought that this was all some automated system replying with standard responses. But when I asked a question, I actually got a response.

Just as he described, 3 hours later I received some very official looking emails from “eBay” about my new purchase.

I was welcomed to eBay Motors and they reiterated how I would be protected through this entire process.

Something else to note, was that the actual message with the directions for payment was filtered by gmail’s spam filter. They even take that into account by sending the following email from “eBay Support”

Once I removed the purchase directions from my spam folder, I saw the action that would kiss my $3800 goodbye. Western Union.

Upon further inspection of these “eBay” emails, I noticed that they actually did not even come from eBay at all.

So what have we learned? If something seems too good to be true, more than likely it is. Craigslist is doing their best to warn users about scams, but you need to use some common sense to protect yourself. I had a little fun researching for this post, and I hope that it helps someone protect their money. In the end, I have learned to never trust a geologist from Portugal.