Gymno

succumbing to peer pressure

Monday, March 09, 2009

Who oversleeps for an 11am meeting?!

Apparently, this gal. And without even a good excuse - I bolted upright in bed ten hours after going to sleep, and three hours after two alarm clocks went off! I should have at least had a good bender story as an excuse.

Books!

I finished Anathem a couple of weeks ago, and although the bottom line story is a bit of a cliche, the math, aliens, and philosophy in between more than make up for it. As a friend of mine recently pointed out, it's pretty amazing that anyone thought there would be an audience for such a book, but I'm glad someone did! I haven't read either, but I wonder if Anathem isn't the Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow for the math geek crowd.

Having just read Anathem and Little Brother, two of the best books I've read in years, back to back, I'm a bit ruined now. Inevitably, the next thing I pick up will disappoint. So I spent a couple of weeks cleansing the palate and playing catch up on issues of Ms. and Mother Jones. Yesterday I started The Lost Painting, on loan from a friend in exchange for borrowing my Lonely Planet: Dublin (where we both saw the painting in question at the National Gallery). So far it's a quick, enjoyable read, but I'm keeping my hopes modest.

Nathan Fillion

I don't know why people keep giving him jobs, when his presence on a project inevitably spells doom, but damn I'm glad they do. At least, I think I am. I haven't really been paying enough attention to decide whether Castle is worth the trouble.

Subaru

My check engine light keeps coming on, every few weeks (three or four times since January). It only stays on for a little over a day, conveniently going off before I have a chance to take the car in. I know Subarus have a tendency to trip the check engine light if the gas cap is loose, and the first time the light came on was minutes after filling the tank. But the other times have been a day or more post-fill-up. So. What are the odds I can keep ignoring whatever is tripping the light for the next 10 weeks? No other obvious defects - no over-heating, weird handling, etc.

5 Comments:

Blogger reyn said...

I like to think that Fillion isn't a Judas that spells doom for a project, but rather an individual doomed to continually do a great job and have his show cancelled anyway. Serenity, Firefly, and Slither were awesome, even if Fox didn't realize it. Drive was terrible, but that wasn't Fillion's fault.

8:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i am certainly not going to pretend to have an valid car knowledge, but it could be one of your fluid levels running low making the check engine light come on. ryan's truck just did that -- the fluid (i think it was the coolant, but i could be wrong) had dropped *just* below the fill line, and his check engine light came on, so it could be that it's something that's sloshing around intermittently tripping the light? i dunno, there's my (probably not even) 2 cents' worth :)

btw, when do you head to cali? i'll be in our neck of the woods in a month for a wedding, but don't know if you'll still be around...

11:26 AM  
Blogger Sid said...

Re: Nathan Fillion: Admittedly, I'm speaking from a POV of geek love, but I don't think this guy is the kiss of death at all! I think Fox is the problem, as most of the projects he was involved in that failed also shared Fox as a common component. They just don't recognize genius when they have it. I'll cite Futurama AND Family guy as additional evidence.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Fallon... how the HELL does HE keep getting work?! Unfunniest SNL cast member ever.

Re: Subaru: There are only 3 engine warning signs that you shouldn't ignore: the engine oil light, the engine temperature gauge and the brake light. If you've just got the generic 'service engine soon' or 'check engine' light, you can probably afford to wait. You can trigger that one just by switching the gas station you fill up at which triggers a fuel tank mixture code.

If you're really worried about it though, and have a little cash to spare, pick up a scangauge ( http://www.scangauge.com/ ). Not only does this sucker let you troubleshoot your car by giving you the diagnostic code your car's computer is spitting out, but you can use it to give you real-time trip computer functions too! Think instant mileage, distance to empty, percentage of engine load, etc. Fun times!

Of course, I'm not a mechanic, so YMMV.

1:59 PM  
Blogger Sid said...

Here's something from real mechanics:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/how_to/4267896.html

You can probably get by with something cheaper than the scangauge according to the article.

Also, on review, 10 weeks might be a little long to go without getting it checked out if the light keeps coming on...

2:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Megan -- I'm not commenting on your post (sorry), but was just thinking about you and wanting to catch up. I've lost your email address, and realized I could find your blog... I'm so happy for you that you have a date! Congrats!

If you have a minute sometime, I'd love to hear how you're doing and what I've missed lately. My email is lydia.mylastname@mynewschool.edu. :)

Lydia

5:32 PM  

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