Update, after a busy busy time.
So, it’s November. Wow the time is flying! So much has happened. So little time to play with.
Masters: Week 10 has just ended. Loads of assignments to complete for the next fortnight, then study for the exams that will complete the 5 modules that will constitute the first semester of the Masters of Engineering in “Information and Network Security” that I am currently pursuing in UL. It’s been good so far to get back to UL as a student but this time with an appetite for success that wasn’t really there in the past (for whatever reasons..). There’s a desire now to get through this with good results. I like the subjects, I’ve got a good crew of classmates and the craic is good enough. It’s tough for sure with time management being the hardest part so far. I have no spare time to relax this year. At all. It’s fun learning how to use Maple, MSProject and things like that. Weird having to buy textbooks again, but good to have them to refer to anyway.
Work: I’ve completed probation, and am now a fully fledged employee. The shift is not the easiest to manage but it’s not that bad – I still get to sleep at a somewhat sane time and it’s consistent at least. Some shifts of course I’m up the walls and I mightn’t get back to the house till gone half 2 or 3 o’clock with lectures at 9 or 10 in the morning and another night’s work the following night. Learning a lot, still got so much to learn. Trying not to forget what I learned at the start – that’s kinda hard.
Car: The Audi is paid off. Finally. It’s now just a car, with no intention from me of making it any better. It’s got too much mileage to consider tarting it up any bit, and it’s a useful tool to use instead of a pursuit in its own right. I don’t have the time to do anything really useful to it other than put diesel in every month or so. At least my driving mileage has severely decreased now that I’m back in Limerick full time. Due another tyre change soon, may but top-tier all-season tyres on it to safeguard me through the winter.
Sport: Very little time to get out on the Reign for a cycle. :( No time in a boat in quite a while – no free weekend gets in the way of that, but that is what I’ve signed up for! Put a deposit down for a good road bike for the Bike-to-Work scheme – a 2011 Trek Madone 4.5, secondhand, with uprated lighter Mavic wheels with the blade spokes. I’ll upgrade a few bits and pieces on that bike, including as good tyres as I can get. I will cycle to work on it at least once ;) and I’ll have to cycle home for lunch to get the car to drive home when the shift is over. It’s not good to be physically pumped at 2am trying to get to sleep. It’ll be useful to have that bike for the cycle around northwest France next summer just before Dave’s french wedding.
Other stuff: 5 years since fun and games, so that’s an interesting milestone passed. Nothing else of note there that I’ll put down here ;)
Astro: been out maybe 3 times since the start of the summer. Been pretty crap for astronomers in Ireland recently – and pretty crap for someone that works evenings and has college during the day! Starting to see the utility of a good quality grab and go setup that will give good views without needing to cooldown – maybe a 100mm short refractor on an alt-az mount?
Sarah: She passed her Viva with flying colours, a very positive impression from the examiners and a trivially small number of corrections before final submission of the thesis document. Her hard work and perseverance (and slight craziness) paid off big time. She’ll get the hood in January.
BallyH mountainbike goodness
Saturday last (the 25th) was a day that was beautiful cycling weather, so it was arranged to meet up with Dave T in BallyH and do the brown loop. As I was a bit late getting to the carpark, Dave had headed onwards to meet up with the rest of the group to take it handy while I caught up. I unpacked the bike and changed really quickly, hopped on the bike, clipped in and started cycling. I next took a break at the log with the banana graveyard behind it, at the brown/white division. 8.5km without getting off the bike, and at a fairly hard (for me) pace at about 45 minutes from the carpark to there. Fairly wrecked at this point. Dave was under time pressure to move onwards so himself and a few of the group headed for the rest of the Brown. I decided to do a portion of the white with the rest of the lads that were left. Lovely sections of the white, to test out the new rear spring that I fitted to the Reign to support my 15 stone weight ;) so it was a lot of fun keeping the tires on the trail and *hammering* along. Slow enough on the climbs, but I’m getting to the stage where I’m getting my balance and weight right for going around bends and humps and hollows.Youtube videos to follow soon.
All-important: keeping the bike on the trail….
Confirmed – I’m going back to college.
It’s confirmed – I’ve got my offer for the Masters of Engineering (Information and Network Security) in the University of Limerick. I start in September, concurrent with my full-time position in Thomson Reuters. Roll on being a student again! It’s not going to be easy for sure as I’m goingto have to regiment my life to make sure that I don’t burn out. I’m planning on getting a better grade of a result than I did for my time in the degree courses..
iPhone battery life – skype sucks it away
Skype on the iPhone makes the battery go away too fast. 9 hours from removal from the charger and down to 47%
New work!
So I’ve started the new job. I’ve got me my new laptop (i5 2.5 quad, 4gb, 300gb) and a blackberry as well. Yesterday was getting my access card and getting set up on the company systems. I also got to see the toys I’ll be let loose on later – and there are a lot of toys.. Packed lunches are a good idea. It’s really nice to be able to wake up in Limerick and be at work ~10 minutes later. Another 3 weeks of orientation and training and I’ll be on the proper shift after that time. It appears that it is a great place to work, with a great group of people. Steep learning curve ahead!
Contacts!
I tried wearing contacts for the first time on Sunday. Bit of a devil to put them in and it took me about a half-hour to do it for the first time. Took another half-hour for my eyes to stop feeling really weird. After going for a cycle with them in I can really see the added-value for me to have them if only for cycling, and then later last night I found that I could use binoculars and get nice sharp views through them – makes a change from trying to squish my glasses up against the eyepieces. I’m waiting for the next clear night to set up the scope again and see what it’s like to go galaxy hunting while wearing contacts, and whether it’s worthwhile sourcing contacts that have that extra -0.25 diopters for proper night-time correction.
Car problems, car problem resolution
The A4 gave me a bit of a fright recently, and led me to believe that I had a big enough prospective bill that scrapping was a probability.
The symptoms were simple enough. A few minutes into a journey starting with a cold engine, the engine would stutter and misfire. The ASR light would come on, and the car would be significantly down on power (barely making it to motorway speeds) and the fuel economy went through the floor.
The VAG-Com scanner showed up a problem with the control of injector 4, and a misfire on cylinder 4. Pricing the spare parts was looking at over 1000 euro, with a big labour bill on top too. As the car is c. 180,000 miles on the clock this was not really economically feasible, so I went browsing the car review sites and small ads for cars to suit what I was looking for in a replacement.
I asked a few questions on some forums I frequent, and it was suggested by some of the regulars on tyresmoke.net to try changing out the injector loom in the head as this is a known problem with the PD engines as they age. So I phoned up Western Motors, they had a loom in stock at €70, I picked it up at lunchtime and went digging in the engine after work. Not the easiest of jobs, but the new loom is now in and connected, and the car is back running on 4 cylinders again.
Now to organise the timing belt for another 60,000 miles of paid off and hopefully reliable mileage.
car replacement ideas
If the A4 goes ‘kaput’..
Requirements:
- Diesel, comfortable, roomy
- leather seats,
- Decent storage – preferably estate.
- Powerful ;) At least 1.9 engine size, up to 3.0l (more hp the better)
- Desired engine type in order: V8, I6, V6, I4
- In order: 4-wheel, rear, front wheel drive.
Desires:
- multi-cd changer or iPod connectivity
- multifunction steering wheel
- sunroof
- roof rails
- Climate control
- Auto box, semi-auto preferred.
- Auto box, semi-auto preferred.
- Audi A6 diesel, ideally 3.0 quattro avant, sport/s-line. (3.0 estate still too expensive)
- Merc E-class diesel, preferably estate (problems with rust on pre-03)
- Merc S-class diesel – I quite like the lwb version.
- A4 quattro sport/s-line (Bit on the small side?)
- bmw 525/530/535 diesel (except the boot is smaller than the A4 in them)
- VW Phaeton
No ford/opel/toyota/hyundai..
So Goodbye to Galway, and coming back to Limerick!
After a useful three years in Galway, I’ve got another job now. I’m moving back to Limerick at the end of the month, to work for an american multinational based out of the Tech Park. I’ll be a Unix Systems Engineer working an off-shift, and I’ll get to take up a concurrent full-time Masters of Engineering course in UL.
Happy Days! A position that will further my career and improving my long-term career prospects, broadening my skillset, a step up in renumeration, doing a postgraduate course that is important to me, and it means that I’ll be able to spend more time with people that I care about (most importantly Sarah!). A side-effect will be that I’ll have all of my possessions and clothing in one place for the first time in three years and I’ll be able to chose what sport I can do in my free time as I’ll have all my sports stuff in one place to choose from!!