when recommended isn't recommended

So I took my car to the dealership... second time since I got the car in 2001. I figured that I would ask them to do a few of the recommended maintenance things that I never bother to do. Basically adjust the valve clearance, replace the ABS high pressure hose, replace the ABS fluid, and inspect the SRS. Of these things the only thing that is still recommended is the valve clearance. No maintenance required for the ABS or SRS unless there's a problem. Great!

Why the discrepancy? The only thing I can think of is that my car was built before they knew how long things like the ABS or SRS would work before breaking. Now they advise to stay away from those things. Leave it alone unless there is something wrong. I guess it's good enough that I already fixed my ABS thice (replaced three sensors).

So why bother bringing it in? The valves haven't been adjusted in AT LEAST 70,000 miles (although they seem fine), they're fixing my A/C (which I don't have the time or the facilities to deal with), adjusting the rear caliper (because I'm lazy), and they can check out why my car has no power on a warm start on a hot day. But I didn't ask them to fix it. Just tell me the issue and I'll deal with that myself if needed, or do nothing. Not worth paying labour to fix that.

My car should have 170,000 miles on it by the end of the summer. Nice.

i love maps

The companion map to the road trip.

more info about where i'll be living

I will be living here:
http://www.equitycorporatehousing.com/market/propertymarketing.asp?PropID=2238

update

It feels like it's been forever, but I guess it's only been a week since my last post. An update on things.

School is almost done for the year. It's flown by incredibly quickly, and I'm happy about how I've been able to establish many very close friends here at SOM. While there is the occassional overly dramatic (probably staged) fits of jealously between the two groups, it's good. As I've been saying a lot recently, "I like food." Let's just say that my "work" groups at school have become somewhat food oriented, which is totally cool with me. Only issue is that so far I've only made contributions to one group while offering very little in return to the other. Seriously, things would be different if it wasn't for the vegetarianism. Chinese food isn't exactly vegetarian friendly. I'll think of something...

Despite how awesome school is (weird), I'm really looking forward to the summer. I've got my dream job out in Seattle working for Microsoft, and I'll also be taking advantage of the wonderful excuse to drive across the country... TWICE.

Trip 1: New Haven, CT to Seattle, WA
We'll cover 21 states and DC in this trip - Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington. States I haven't been to before are marked in bold.

Also amazing is that I'll be able to visit a few friends on the way. TC and Darin in DC, some of my Cleveland peeps in Cleveland, Scott in Houston, Ly Ann in Austin, Steven in Arizona. Unfortunately I'll be missing Peter in San Fran. And of course Patrick. He'll be along for the entire ride.

So what will we see? A quick rundown of sights, big and small. The George Washington Bridge, The Garden State Parkway (I hate NJ), Washington DC, Old Town Alexandria, PA Turnpike, Breezewood, Pittsburgh, CMU, Boulevard of the Allies, the mile-long GM plant at Lordstown, the crazy OH highway patrol, Chinese food in Cleveland, the steel mills in the Cuyahoga Valley (which we talked about in Employee class - Mittal Steel), Skyline Chili in Cincinnati maybe?, the red highways of Alabama (if they're still red), New Orleans, French Quarter, Garden District, Houston, Astros game, Austin, West Texas, most of Arizona and New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, maybe Canyon de Chelley, maybe Monument Valley, the Extraterrestrial Highway (at night!), Yosemite, San Francisco, Pacific Coast Highway, Mt. St. Helens, Seattle, In-N-Out burgers at some point, Jack in the Box at some point, Broadway perhaps, Pike Place Market, the original Starbucks, West Seattle. Good times!

Trip 2: Seattle, WA to Boston, MA to New Haven, CT
Why Boston? So that I can drive the entire length of I-90 in one trip. Why? Because I can. I'll start at the western tip by the Alaskan Way, and end by Logan Airport in Boston. I'll probably stop at Billings, MT; Rochester, MN; Cleveland, OH and Boston, MA. I'll be back just in time for Orientation where I'll be an SYA. I'll be visiting states in this trip - Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, maybe Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 31 states for the round trip. At the end of this trip, the only states I would be missing are North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.

We have been through a lot together.

Oh yeah... almost forgot about Welcome Weekend. It was awesome. Beautiful weather, tons of activities. Nothing like going from the club fair to playing sports to studying while having Cava to helping announce a hockey game. Yes. Announce a hockey game. Seriously, the opportunities here at Yale are limitless.

summer travel

Rough map

I need to get my a/c fixed.

boo silverstar - update

For those who checked this blog a year ago, you may remember my post about replacement headlamps. You can find the original post here:
http://paulip88.blogspot.com/2006/04/boo-silverstar.html

My dad and I had a similar discussion today. Why? One of his Silverstar headlamps has died. Predictably. About one year after installation. Dud.

it's been great knowing you

First Internet Bank and I go way back. We were first introduced to each other during my lucrative internship at Progressive Insurance after my sophomore year in college. There, I had about one week's worth of work to do in about 14 weeks. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time browsing the Web and doing all sorts of "research," most of which was in no way related to work (ok... so it was related in how I was going to spend on the money I was making).

Aside from doing tons of research on computer components, which catapulted me to the Top 10 internet users at the 30,000+ employee company (and got me a nice chat with my manager about how I did download this large manual on the programming language I was supposed to be learning), I explored banking options. After all, I needed some good place to stash away all the money I was getting for my supposed "work" that I was "doing." This is where we first met up.

The rest of that is history. It's been a good 6 years. However, I have to say that our relationship just isn't as passionate as it used to be. It's still nice how you treat me to free ATM usage wherever I want, but sometimes it's the little things that count. Like being there when I need you the most. It's OK for some other bank's Web site to be down, but it's really starting to bother me when you're unavailable on occasion without any real reason. Why?

Then today I found out that maybe there are better banks out there. Read this:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/commmm.asp?fedid=2758613

Maybe it's really time to move on... I have been seeing someone else. You know about this other bank. We've done stuff together before. ING Direct is a bit stingy though. I can only use sketchy budget ATMs. You let me go wherever I want. I guess that counts for something. But really, I could use a little bit more love over here.

hell week

I'm taking a little break. Basically, I've already put in a 44 hour week. And no, that's not including the 15+ hours today. I guess if that's included, then I've done about 59 hours of stuff so far this week. Over the hump.

So why? I've been spending a ton of time on Student Government this week. We're transitioning to the next year's officers these weeks, and we also had some preparation work to do for a meeting with Yale SOM's Board of Advisors. I've also been putting in about 3 hours a day working on the Yearbook, which should be completed within the next day. On top of that, I've also got a simulation to work on for one of my classes and two cases to write up for this week. In other words, I've been busy. The good thing is that I'm still being social... that is, I'm still talking to people.

crappy blogs

So like you, I read other people's blogs. Mostly those of friends that I like to keep tabs on. However, I have a little problem with one of them. The content that's being put up is just total crap. It's one thing to create a blog and then neglect it. That used to be more of a problem when there wasn't RSS and I would need to do work to see if there are any updates. My current problem is something else. This one individual had been updating their blog, but the updates are just total crap. Apparently this person's life now focusing on a few things that I'm just not interested in.

So... should I just stop reading the blog? Should I have a little chat with this person to let them know how I feel about the quality and diversity of the content? Or should I suck it up and continue reading this blog with the hope that eventually the tide will turn and the topics will return to something that's even marginally interesting or informative? Choices...

good times

April looks like it will be a good month.

We had three parties this weekend (of which I went to one). Tons of sports going on. I played Bocce at happy hour on Thursday, and I’m about to head over to the fields for the first football/soccer game of the spring. Plus there was an ultimate frisbee game yesterday that I missed plus a softball game today which I’ll also miss. Plus, April Foolery is upon us - activities for every day of the month. Check out what’s in store for the month here.

Good times.

Overall, people are pretty laid back now too, which is a plus. I’ve still been spending a ton of time at school, but it’s mostly been split between working on the Yearbook and spending time with friends doing nothing. Not too bad.

And Spring Break was fantastic. You can check out my Morocco photos on flickr.