Trying to Make the Driving World a Little Less Annoying

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All Is Well Again

The world certainly doesn’t seem well, but my little part of it got significantly better last night. I was finally able to drive my car in Germany. Yesterday, after weeks of trying, I got the person helping me to understand what I needed for insurance. So as soon as I got home, I gassed up the car.

Oil Voodoo That You Do

So I picked up up a new long block engine for my car the other day (more on that later). In the process, I learned something new about motor oils.

150,000 Is the New 100,000

I’ve always had a fascination for numbers. Some numbers have always been more pleasing to me, like ‘3,’ ‘12,’ or ‘Seven of Nine.’ This is, of course, very odd, so I’ve had to resort to extremes to hide it, like becoming an engineer, or pretending to use Excel to make pictures.

iPhone vs the Automobile

One of the world’s most successful company right now is Apple. With yearly profits of around $30 billion, it is the most profitable company, earning more money than even oil companies like ExxonMobile.[1]

A big reason for its success is the iPhone, generating more than half of its revenues. The iPhone is a technological marvel, full of magic and made from the tears of rainbow unicorns. With seemingly an App for everything, there’s almost nothing that it can’t do. It spawned a revolution in smart phones. Billions of iPhones and Android smart phones have been sold in the last few years.

A Convenient Truth

I recently bought a set of tires[1]. Now, I’ve mention before how much I love tires. I just want to assure my wife everyone that my tire purchase is completely justifiable—one tire was leaking. Buying a new set removes the inconvenience of having to get that leaky tire fixed.

DFCO One

Things escalated recently. Technical jargons were thrown, tests conducted, graphs plotted, and favorite measurement units disparaged (“MPG or die!” “Viva le liters/100km!”). Yes, things can get ugly with engineers during lunch-time discussions, especially if one of them can speak French.

Happy 150,000 Miles!

My STI turned 150,000 miles today! I just seemed like 2 years and 21 days ago that it was just turning 100,000 miles. It’s amazing how time flies with these little ones.

Gas Mileage – The Numbers Game

When I bought my Subaru STI a few years ago, I had big plans for it. I would drive it in track events and I would modify it for asphalt-kicking horsepower (insert grunting noises here). Unfortunately, Reality had other plans for my car.

Tracing Further Back in Time

Well, Son of a Wampa. My Buick Skyhawk does exist.

I’m not only fortunate enough to be an obsessive data taker, but I’m also a compulsive data hoarder. Bonus!

Traces of My Life

I was playing around with Excel the other day, as engineers who obsessively collect data are wont to do. I had plotted an interesting convergence—three of my cars (if I count my wife’s) had almost the same mileage last week.

The mileage of my Honda Civic was overtaken by my wife’s Subaru Legacy, which was later overtaken by my Subaru STI. This took over 148,300 miles and 15.3 years of meticulous planning to achieve (note: no actually planning conducted).

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