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Upgrades

Apparently, I am now an “Engineer.” I found out when perusing Microvision’s latest phone directory. Whereas before I was a “Software Test Intern” and my counterparts have generally been under the title of “Intern-Software,” I have discovered that I am now a “Software Test Engineer Intern.”

Yay me.

Best Vim Tips Ever

How to move Vim’s swapfile and backup to another directory.

How to disable the honking huge toolbar.

Fixing The Car

I was recently asked just what “fixing the car” entailed during the last trip. Well, it actually had nothing to do with the ladder incident. It turns out that my roomate’s car has a bit of an overheating problem. Thus:

Kunlun Observes the Engine After the overheating
Preparing the Wires We got some wires
The Fan Connector Found the fan connector
Well Stripped Stripped the wires (My Leatherman Rocks!)
Cutting the Light Cut the headlamp case…
Cut Headlamp Case To allow a wire to snake in
Plugged In Plugged the wires in to the fan
Wiring Job And taped down all the wires

So, whenever we turned the headlamps on, the fan turned on too. The result? Much less overheating. A proper radiator cap picked up at an auto parts store helped futher.

Labor Day Weekend In Photos

Crater Lake

Crater Lake
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August In Pictures

Kaylee Graduates
Kaylee Graduates

Ryan is inspired by the Tube of Sound and Fire
Tube of Sound and Fire
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Intrepid Tripping

After getting back from Michigan/Ohio, I think I’ve been bit by the travel bug… Now I’m in Central Oregon, having just been to Crater Lake. I’m headed to the Redwood forests tomorrow morning, and then up the coastal highway Monday.

Its been an… “exciting” trip so far. I’m traveling with my roommate, and his car — a Dodge Intreppid — has already overheated a couple of times while driving up to Crater Lake. The problem is an apparently undersized cooling system and the failure of his cooling fans. So we took a couple of hours and we ended up hooking the fan up to the headlight circuit — it definitely seems to be helping. Then I took over driving, and almost immediately I ended up running over an aluminum ladder in the middle of I-5 at 60 mph. No joke. Luckily, we seem to have escaped with no major damage. About ten miles down the road, a doe and her two fawns were crossing an I-5 exit ramp. I barely avoided hitting the last of the fawns with an all-out stop.

We took these three occurrences together to be a sign that we should hole up in a hotel immediately, rather than press our luck and try to make it to Crescent City.

Categorized, A Look Back

I just finished categorizing the several hundred posts that I recently imported from GreyMatter. About half way through, I stopped editing the posts for numerous question marks that had replaced em dashed and apostrophes. Maybe some day I’ll get on my horse and fix that stuff too, but don’t count on it. For the foreseeable future, I’ll keep the original Greymatter posts around too.

Going through this process has given me a lot of insight as well. Certainly, my blogging style has changed significantly from the early days. I still post a lot about my life, but generally my posts are much less rambling, and much more focused on the title. On the other hand, I have kept the same website address for quite some time now, which is better than a lot of people do. Also, this website has grown into a veritable cornicopia of information about my life and my recent history. I remember things because of this blog that I certainly would have forgotten. I see a lot of how I used to be, and realize that I have changed, much but not all for the better. I reflect on past struggles and triumphs, and I feel good about who I am and what I’ve done, even while recognizing that I still have a lot of room to become a better person, and I certainly haven’t even scratched the surface of what I want to accomplish. All in due time.