random tire size information

I just had to search all over for this information, so I thought it might be handy to have all in one place.

To calculate a tire's diameter (found at tirerack.com):
Tire size example: 195 75 R14
1st we need to get all of the numbers in the same measurement - the first part of the tire size is in millimeters and the last part is in inches. You can use a converter or multiply inches by 25.4 to get millimeters, or divide millimeters by 25.4 to get inches. This works either way, but I'll be using millimeters for the example.

we'll say the 1st number of the size is s (section width)
2nd number is a (aspect ratio)
skip the letter - it is the style of tire, and doesn't play a part in this
3rd number is w (wheel size)
    Aside - if you want to know more about tires, hit up the wiki page

2(s * .a) + w = d

working with our example:

2(195 * .75) + (14*25.4) =
2(146.25) + 355.6 =
292.5 + 355.6 = 648.1mm

If you have changed tire size and want to know how to calculate your new speed (found at ehow.com):

n = new diameter
o = original diameter
s = speedometer reading

•   If you want to determine how fast you are actually going now, compared to what your speedometer reads:

n * s / o

we'll use 733.5 for our new diameter

733.5 * 55 / 648.1 = 62.25
So if your speedometer says you are traveling at 55 mph, with the new tires you would actually be traveling 62 mph

•   If you want to know what your speedometer should read in order for you to be traveling at a certain speed switch your diameters:

o * s / n

648.1 * 55 / 733.5 = 48.6
So if you want to go 55 mph, you would need to be traveling 48 mph according to your speedometer.

To determine your actual traveled miles you will need a trip meter. You will need to divide the new diameter by the original diameter and then multiply your metered miles by that number:

733.5 / 648.1 = 1.132
we'll say the trip meter reads 203 miles traveled:
203 * 1.132 = 229.8 actual miles traveled

To figure your mpg, just use the new number of traveled miles instead of your trip meter reading:
229.8 miles / 15 gallons = 15.32 mpg

I know this isn't something I would normally post about, but it needed to be all in one place. I would create handy dandy calculators, but I don't know how to do that.
Good Luck!

Hollywood Undead masks (American Tragedy) 100th post!

So, last year for my daughter's 13th birthday I made her a mask board along with 6 masks. Earlier in the year I styled her a pair of sneakers to match. It is so much fun trying to find decent pictures of their masks for reproduction. Here are some pics:

Here are the blank masks

I didn't have a light board so I made one

Charlie Scene

Danny

Funny Man

Johnny 3 Tears

J-Dog

Da Kurlzz

(had a little trouble with the sculpy/mask/oven/my blondness, but it works)

  

All together with personal bandanna

And shoes too.

She was pretty thrilled and they are still hanging on her wall / being worn. This year we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. Yeah, we're well rounded ;)

Andouille - Johnsonville

I don't know that I've ever had andouille sausage, so grain of salt and all that.

BzzAgent strikes again, this time with Johnsonville Premium Cooking Sausage. I went to my Kroger and they had 2 of the 5 varieties, Chicken Italian Style with Cheese or Andouille. I picked the Andouille and went home to make dinner.

I grabbed a box mix of Dirty Rice and sliced up the sausage and threw it in.

This was really tasty. We normally have left-overs if I make any version of rice and sausage, but not last night. I didn't even get a chance to take any pictures it went so fast.

Disclaimer - I received 1 package free from BzzAgent, but I will be purchasing it for myself in the future.

A review - Göt2b POWDER'ful

I am not one to keep a diary, so I'm not sure why I thought I would be able to blog without some kind of reason. Nothing interesting has been happening lately, so I haven't had a reason to write. um, yay?

I recently signed up to be a BzzAgent, mostly so I could get some free stuff. I like to try new things and I don't like to spend money, so there you go.

The first thing I got was a notice for this hair powder stuff. I had some hair powder that I had gotten about 6 months ago that I liked, so I thought that would be a good little trial. Turns out it is the exact same product, Göt2b POWDER'ful, but on the plus side I knew I liked it.

Göt2b is not a line I usually use with any frequency, but they had hair powder when I was looking for some, so that's what I bought.

The directions say to put a small amount on your hands and work into the hair, but I am lazy and skip steps sometimes. I sprinkle it directly in my hair where I am looking for some omph and rub it in vigorously. Then give it a little brush or finger comb to make it look presentable and that's it.

 If I want more I use this stuff and tease my hair too.

The Pros:
It definitely provides volume.
It is pretty easy / simple to use.

The Cons:
These are negligible as far as I am concerned.
It makes your hair feel weird, sort of wet/dirty, it doesn't look that way though.

All in all, I like this stuff pretty well for what I use it for. It isn't an everyday product for me so this stuff lasts quite a while.

I don't really need the sample bottle they sent me + I have a blog = why not give it away on the blog? If you have any interest in trying some Göt2b POWDER'ful, hit me up in the comments.

Burmese Vegetable Gardens - a nuisance? Updated with video

As a little bit of back story, for those of you who may not be aware, Fort Wayne is housing several groups of Burmese refugees. It has been an issue at times as we both learn each other's customs, but it has been a very good thing for us as a city. I thought.

On the afternoon of October 12^th, I came home to find that the garden (mostly in my back yard and with a small part in an apartment complex yard) that had been there all summer had been demolished, as well as several others, including one larger than the one mostly on my property. I have made several phone calls today to find out what happened.

XXXXXXXX (redacted) Apartments houses a lot of Burmese refugees and that is where some of this begins. We have a neighbor named Akai(sp?) that lives in those apartments and built a fabulous garden over the summer. Since he is feeding so many from it, we told him, mostly through gesture, that he could spread out onto our yard.

Several calls into today, I have discovered that someone complained that the gardens were a nuisance to Councilman Hines. This resulted in Neighborhood Code sending many notices resulting in the demolition of all of these gardens. None of these notices came to our house, even though the garden was clearly on our property more than that of the apartment. As far as I can determine, it has been put down to obstruction of the drainage ditch that hasn't been maintained in the 8 years that I have lived there, as well as the possibility that should an emergency occur, they wouldn't be able to exit the premises. I know this last one didn't have anything to do with, at the very least, the garden (mostly) on my property. I have since found out that Apartment complexes aren’t zoned for gardening, so it was also an Agricultural Nuisance.

I am concerned that a phone call to a councilman culminated in the destruction of so many of the gardens in XXXXXXXX (redacted) Apartments. There were several and all have been taken down, some with skid loaders. I am also concerned that this apartment complex in particular is being harassed about gardens when I have personally seen multiple apartment complexes with gardens that have no problems with neighborhood code at all.

These weren't really just everyday gardens. They were quite amazing, created from fallen limbs off of trees. They had a kind of cross between a hallway and tunnel that you could go through to get all of the vegetables hanging down, these having never touched the ground. It was fenced in to keep critters out, with the fencing also created from fallen limbs. If anyone in the Green movement had seen it, it probably would have been touted as a wonderful way to recycle fallen limbs as well as creating a large garden area on a small area of land. I really wish I had before pictures to post, but I didn't think about it and I didn't want to offend by taking pictures of what I'm sure they think of as just a garden. I do have some video footage of the after, but I will have to link to that later, as I haven’t gotten it pulled off of my husband’s phone yet. *Updated*

I am so very disturbed and saddened that this has happened. It wasn't necessary and it was a huge waste of several people's time and hard work.

I redacted the name of the apartment complex to prevent furthur incedents.