Dean's Daily Log

More Car Woes

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:40:11 GMT

Was driving back from the bowling alley last night, when I heard some pinging in my engine. Then, just as I'm (thankfully) getting off the Highland Park bridge, the check engine light comes on and the engine dies shortly thereafter.

I'm able to coast off the bridge and pull onto the sidewalk/non-existent shoulder. I ended up just across the street from the last time my car died. This time I was able to get a tow truck in about an hour (jano lent me her DS, crosswords make the time fly).

So it looks like my radiator developed a hole, I'm not quite sure how. I don't recall driving into anything or hearing an impact, so it may just be age (havn't needed to replace it in the 7 years I've driven it). It's gonna run around $380 to fix it.

I think we're approaching the breaking point for buying a new car. Being disabled on the side of the road twice in the past 6 months is pretty annoying. I'm thankful that it hasn't happened on 28 or a bridge where there is absolutely no shoulder. I'm not eager to start carrying a car-loan, since dropping $400 every 3-4 months is still better than making a car payment.

I'm thinking a Mazda3 hatchback would be a solid choice. And apparently as a CMU employee (grad-students are employees, aren't we?), there's a discount on new GM or Ford (which includes Mazda) cars. Other options include the Costco Auto Buying program (which the internets is not impressed by) or Enterprise's Used auto sales.

Diseased

Wed, 02 May 2007 18:44:55 GMT

So, I've been sick for the past week. It started as just a throat tickle last Monday, but quickly became a full blown sore throat on Tuesday. I then developed a lovely dry cough that's been making it rather difficult to sleep.

So I stayed home Wednesday and Thursday, but went to my group meeting on Friday morning. Apparently I manged to infect my advisor and at least one other student during that brief (3-hour) encounter.

Health services thinks it's just a virus, and gave me some prescription strength decongestant and some cough syrup. I thought it was helping, but coughing kept me up last night, and I feel pretty lousy today.

This is all flurious's fault, since he had something similar the week before. He got over it much more quickly, the bastard.

So if anyone I saw at gala gets sick, my apologies in advance!

Chain Letter

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:29:13 GMT

I got an actual chain letter today in the snail-mail. It's your typical pyramid-scheme "send-a-buck to the names at the top of the list".

The twist is, they claim it is legal because you're selling the letter, not just sending money to get rich.

"7. Keep a copy of the letter so you can use it a second time. Mail it out again in six months, but mail it to the address you receive with each dollar. It will work even better the second time"

"When you handle a lot of letters, an electric opener is great"

"STAY COOL...Keep your job until you have had time to plan your next step"

From the testimonials attached (wait, how did these get added to the letter after it'd been sent?):

"I am naturally skeptical and I have tried at least 35 letters similar tot his one in a six-month period".

"When I got this letter, I said, "yeah, sure" and pitched it. Then I later remembered hearing that skepticism breeds failure while belief leads to success. So I rescued the letter, bought a mailing list and sent them out."

Bad Cat!

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:53:37 GMT

Poor flurious. I don't know what he did to piss her off, but Aki keeps pissing in his room.

NREC Protest

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 05:36:59 GMT

So, I had a meeting on campus so I wasn't able to personally witness the protest of NREC last Friday. Our plan of action was basically to lock the building down really early, and just ride it out, and there was no way I was getting there before 6am.

Anyway, looks like someone posted the videos on youtube. The first in the trilogy can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGQmPGdZUTo

I have to say, since the protest dispersed by 12:30, I think their resolve was rather weak. I mean, a lot of people don't even come in until noon!

*Edit* Pittsburgh Organizing Group has a link to all media related to the protest: http://organizepittsburgh.org/m2/media.php

I was on the news today...

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:29:15 GMT

It went something like this: "Disabled vehicle on Butler St. just west of Highland Park Bridge".

I wondered what the helicopter was doing hovering over my car for 10 minutes.

Mad-props to flurious for getting out of bed at 6 am to get miriya52 to the airport for her flight on time. I owe him a solid.

Boo to Amica road-side assistance for not being to get a tow-truck out to me in 4.5 hours. I finally gave up and let someone who stopped to ask if needed help call his friend. This guy had originally stopped at 6am, so when he saw I was still there he knew I was having problems.

I think a total of three (unique) cars stopped to see if I needed help. Oddly enough, the cops never came by and tried to get me to move.

I'm hoping it's just the axle half-shafts, because if it's the transmission it's going to be pricey. Boo. Automatic spell checking is pointing out that "Axel" is actually a male-given name, and not the correct spelling for the car/wagon part.

I'm glad whatever it was chose to break before I got on the bridge or 28, because that would've been a real mess.

*EDIT* My mechanic finally got a chance to look at the car. The right side axle assembly separated from the transmission. That repair should be reasonable, but he doesn't know if there was any damage done to the transmission, and won't know until after he replaces the axle.

If the transmission is damaged, it'll be time for a new car. Ugh.

What we'd be doing with Robots if it weren't for lawyers

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:05:40 GMT

Riding Robots.

A new low for telemarketers

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:42:28 GMT

I got a call this morning. I pick it up, and I hear: "Please hold for our associate" followed by music. After I hung up, they tried a second time.

So now, not only are the telemarketers calling you at home, but they're trying to put you on hold also.

lulz

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:30:44 GMT

NREC is being protested! http://www.organizepittsburgh.org/

Never mind the agricultural, de-mining and education projects at NREC, apparently we're only dealing out robots of death.

I'll be sneaking in the back gate that day, and taking pics. I wonder how many are going to last the 1.5 mile walk in the March cold.

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:52:19 GMT

Bunch of Savages in this Town, Part II

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:17:06 GMT

It looks like someone broke into our apartment today between noon (yes, I'm lazy) and 6 pm (broad daylight!). Around 10pm we started noticing things missing, and then saw that the back door had been pried open.

Casualties:
-My Canon G3
-Anna's Canon S200
-Anna's Cell phone + charger
-My 1Gb mp3 player
-Anna's 256Mb mp3 player
-Anna's headphones
-My Gameboy color and Gameboy Advance (they left the socks I kept them in though!)

Untouched:
-Both our computers
-PS2, TV, Home Theater System
-My headphones?

The police came and took a report. When we were initially looking for Anna's cell phone, I called it a couple times, and the dudes actually picked up. Hopefully the cops can activate the GPS feature and find them, and/or track the items to the various pawn shops in East Liberty.

When Anna asked me if I had borrowed her headphones, and we couldn't find them anywhere, I thought she had just gone crazy and forgotten moving them. Then we found the broken back door. Mea Culpa! That sounds so much better than "my bad".

I think we need to get a new guard kitty.

Aggressive Marketing: not just a euphemism for a scam..

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:12:54 GMT

... or is it?

A couple of weeks ago, at Bloomfield Italian Days, I foolishly entered a drawing for a GMC SUV. Today I get a call, saying that while I'm still in for the drawing, I have been "selected" for a 3 day, 2 night trip to Orlando or Las Vegas, including airfare and accommodation.

The catch, of course, is I have to go in (with my significant other) to listen to an hour long sales pitch. Sounds fishy, but maybe worth it. So I tentatively agree to go, and drag Anna along, this Thursday.

Well, I did some digging on google for the company, Sun Stream Vacations (their site is only a link to a drawing), and learn that they go by several different names, Sun Quest, Sundance etc, all based out of Wilkes-Barre, PA. There's a 16 page thread on Scam.com here about their "marketing techniques."

Needless to say, there are some caveats to the trip. Namely, the sales pitch is to sell you 30 weeks of vacation to the tune of $11,000, plus fees. The trip requires a $50 "good-faith" deposit when you book the trip, and the two nights at a hotel are actually non-consecutive, and 30 days apart. Plus the usual "subject to availability" Sunday-Thursday nonsense.

So yeah, I don't think I'm going to be driving out to Cranberry to collect my "free" trip.

Alright, I think I used enough sarcastic quotes for night. My work here is done.

I'm moving to the Netherlands...

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:18:32 GMT

...since the Senate approved suspending Habeus Corpus for detainees. Along with allowing some "aggressive" interrogation...I guess we won't have to fly our suspects to Syria to be tortured anymore.

Seriously, do we have to resort to facism to fight terror? I'm still trying to decide if this is worse than not letting me carry my toiletries in my carry-on.

p.s. I've picked the Netherlands based on a number of factors, including: 1) Libertarian polices regarding a certain herb. 2) The Unversity of Utrecht has some people doing robotics stuff 3) The Dutch the world's tallest pepole..

Pittsburgh passes smoking ban 14-1...

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:33:05 GMT

...and NYC considers limiting trans-fatty acids in restaurants.

Welcome, friends, to the slippery slope.

Liberal Media Rip Bush a New One

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 21:31:17 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060912/cm_thenation/15120539

People in lab coats make things sciency

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:30:43 GMT

For your bulk bereavement needs...

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 04:05:15 GMT

Costco sells caskets

Bunch of savages in this town...

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:55:39 GMT

Last night as I was moving some stuff out of my old apartment, I came down to discover someone had vandalized my car.

They had thrown a large glop of dog poo on my driver side back window. I do not know what I did to offend the poo-flinger, needless to say it was not a pleasant experience.

Weirdest-thing Evar

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 13:23:18 GMT

Beast Enders

The Furries are Coming!

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:16:54 GMT

That's right kids, Anthrocon 2006 is being held right here in Pittsburgh at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center June 15-18.

Let me bid a warm welcome to all the furries and plushies to our fair city.

Slacking in San Jose

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 04:22:10 GMT

So I took last week off to hang out with miriya52 at her parent's place in San Jose.

We spent the first three days in Yosemite (rhymes with "Dolemite" according to my office mate). Way too many pictures of half-dome can be found here and here.

One interesting thing we saw: a Japanese film crew were filming a movie or show or something. There were some large Japanese men in rather scary costumes, and some very small cheerleaders in furry-shiny hats. There should be a pic somewhere in the first link.

We climbed to the top of Upper Yosemite falls our second day. 8 miles and 2700 vertical feet of switchbacks. But we had a helluva view from the top, and made for a pleasant place to have lunch.

Went on a horse ride the third day, then headed back. I was saddle sore for a couple days.

We also went into San Francisco, wand we met up with my cousin and her husband. They live in the Mission district, and aside from the crack dealer out front, and the prostitutes on the corner, their loft is quite nice. Ate some awesome vegetarian sushi (mmm, sweet-potatoes) with a couple of large Sapporos, then headed to North Beach and China town for...

Dinner at the Stinking Rose and a vocal Jazz/Blues performance at Jazz at Pearls. Dinner could have been better, but the Jazz was awesome. Nothing like excellent improvisational vocal jazz, and Kim Nalley was fantastic.

Last day we drove down to Santa Cruz, where we went to the beach and I tried to get some color on my belly. Was largely unsuccessful, due to fear of skin cancer. Ah well.

The flight home was a bit of an ordeal. I do not recommend two stop-overs (Houston and Detroit). Made a 4.5 hour direct flight last 12 odd hours. Take the red-eye if you have to.

Don'tcha stop

Mon, 22 May 2006 18:47:50 GMT

So I went and got an oil change yesterday, and was a bit surprised when they told me that all three of my brake lights weren't working! I was pretty sure it wasn't caused by a bulb burning out or otherwise simple/cheap fix. After googling for "camry brake light short", I came up with a message thread of someone with similar problems.

In addition to the brake lights (of which I was unaware), for the past several months I've also could not shift out of park without using the "Shift-lock override" switch. Well, it seems that this symptom coupled with the brake lights, means the switch attached to the top of the brake pedal is defective. I ordered the part (at a cost of $23) along with the Hayne's manual.

Working under the dash on the driver's side is not a lot of fun. Disconnecting and reconnecting the wiring harness for the switch was particularly painful. But after 45 minutes, I now have working brake lights, and am no longer (as significant) a hazard to public safety.

For heaven's sake, won't somebody please think of the children?

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 16:12:55 GMT

I just got a call from the Narcotic's Officer's association or somesuch, trying to raise money to fight the "War on Drugs".

The telemarketer gave a nice little spiel about how the drug traffickers have all the latest technology and that public funding isn't sufficient for the narcotic's officers to combat them yada yada, would you be willing to help support the war on drugs.

I answered "I don't support the war on drugs", and instead of taking the opportunity to engage in a rational debate about the merits of prohibition instead of legalization and regulation, she asked:

"Let me ask you one thing, wouldn't you say the number one priority in our community is to protect the safety and well-being of our children?" followed by immediately asking for $25. That's the point where I say "not interested" and hang up.

I wonder where the money these telemarketers raise really goes. Is it to general department funds, or is it just going to union fat-cats? My cynicism suspects the latter.

A day that will live in infamy

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:30:25 GMT

Had a frisbee game today. We lost, making our season perfect in some sense of the word.

But worst of all, I threw a Callahan during the game. I hang my head in shame.

I also bought a computer off FleaBay. If it's as promised, it'll have been quite a steal. We shall see.

It's 3am, and the fire alarm is ringing...time for an update!

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:27:50 GMT

Seriously, someone throws their cigarette butt down the trash chute at 3am, sets off the fire alarm in the whole building. Will probably be 20 minutes before someone gets here to shut it off.

I had a 7 hour project meeting today, that was an experience. It started off as a tutorial for the toolkit we're using for FPGA programming, but ended up with us coding a ring-buffer by committee. Was seriously a waste of time.

On the plus-side, the project bought lunch. It was Indian, which I usually boycott, but the dishes involved homemade cheese in an orange curry, giant samosas, and tasty flat bread, so I may have to reconsider. Ate too much, food coma made rest of meeting even more insufferable.

Also had a frisbee game tonight, so didn't end up doing much for V-day. My V-day effort was severely deficient. After the 7-hour meeting, went to Geagle to pick up a card and flowers only to find they were entirely cleaned out. Failure. I don't think I'm in trouble though... Also, we lost the game (we're now 0-6), but I ran around and got my exercise, and it's generally a fun time.

Fire trucks are here, fire alarm still going off. bleh.