A little cheaper this time

So I took my car in for a bit of service this afternoon, though mostly for an oil change. Thankfully it came out quite a bit cheaper than the last time I took it in for a quick service.

I had the washer nozzles re-aimed, got a new valve stem cap put on, got the oil/filter/etc done.

I didn't get the speedo fixed, since in this particular model of car it involves replacing the whole instrument cluster and probably not getting it any more accurate. I'd rather spend the $200 on buying a new set of 10% larger wheels and tires. It's on my list for next fall after I make millions in California over the summer.

I also didn't get the brake pulsation fixed, because it's probably just due to the wheels being bent again, which is another thing that will be fixed by getting new wheels and tires next fall. I'll probably still keep the old rims and put some 10% larger winter tires on them, since slightly bent wheels don't really matter that much for winter driving.

The only other thing on the list for next fall is getting some rust patches patched over before they eat my whole car... Assuming the car doesn't explode before then, but I think that should be fairly unlikely.

Total damage was only $30.34. Sweet.

That fresh from the dentist feeling

... feels exactly the same as any other day. Turns out my teeth were pretty much spotless, even though I hadn't gone for a cleaning in 10-odd years. Go fig! I think there was one tiny little spot of plaque that needed to be chiselled away, but that was it.

No cavities or problems either. At least, no major problems. It seems that one of my wisdom teeth is impacted, but we're apparently just doing a "wait and see" on it for now, which suits me just fine.

Trading stripes for spots

So I upgraded my Mini to Leopard. I must say I'm very impressed, even though I was already using it for 2 months this summer. It does feel a bit odd now that there's some of my code in it, but I guess I'll just have to get used to the feeling.

The only thing that makes me sad is that I can't load it on my G3. Even if it had enough CPU for it, the 6 gig root drive is just too small to hold it all. It'll have to make do with Tiger, for now and forever. So sad.

Testing, Testing, 1 2 3

So I got my midterms back this week, and things are looking pretty decent. I aced Stats and Atmospheric, and goofed up my Calc. Pretty much went as I expected.

I actually managed to do so well in Atmospheric that the prof had me go over the answers to the test in front of the class rather than her.

Other miscellany: I got new shoelaces to replace my unicycle-eaten ones, winter is quickly moving in, HalfLife 2 is a pretty sweet game. That's all I can think of right now.

You just keep on trying 'till you run out of Cake

I picked up the Orange Box on Friday, and have been successfully wasting time ever since. This is a good thing, because I don't have much else to do this weekend, seeing as there's a bit of a lull between my assignments.

Peggle Extreme was thrown in as a freebie, which is nice because it was a small download and helped kill some time while the other 8 gigs or so got sucked through the glorious series of tubes that is the internet.

Portal was an absolute blast. The only thing bad about it is that it was far too short. It's really nice to see some innovation in the realm of first-person games. I think I'll need to add the Weighted Companion Cube plush toy to my xmas list.

Half Life 2 is a few years old now, but since I never played it back when it was new it's proving to be a real blast all the same.

I haven't even touched Team Fortress 2 yet, and I'm sure it'll be a while before I get through all the 4 halflife packages!

Definitely worth the $50.

Shoelace Malfunction

My unicycle ate my shoelace today.

I think in future I'll tuck my shoelaces into my shoes. Luckily I didn't damage anything else when  fell off.

Twirling, twirling, twirling toward unicyclery

Yesterday I was down at the bike shop getting a few repairs and upgrades to my unicycle. I got the wheel trued, got a quickrelease for the seat clamp, and got a pair of new pedals.

I spent a little time in the saddle this afternoon and managed to pretty much nail idling, as well as rolling into and out of the idle, and also get backwards riding down pretty good, including rolling in and out of it. Sweet! I can also free-mount directly into idling or backwards riding (in addition to the regular forward riding).