Timing belts, kettle bells, and Planar graphs
Yes yes, I’m still alive. Sorry for the long time with no posts. I’ve been very busy over the last few weeks.
Timing belt on a 1990 Acura Legend gone wrong
Firstly, I had quite the misadventure while working on my girlfriend’s new car. You see, this particular Acura had 118,000 miles on it, and had no record of the timing belt ever being replaced. Seeing as the timing belt is supposed to be replaced every 90k miles, I figured I’d better go ahead and put a new one on for her (and I’d be doing it myself, since the labor for this particular job is usually around $600 or so).
Anyways, everything was going just peachy until I got impatient and cross-threaded a bolt which was to hold the thermostat in place. The bolt’s head snapped off, and I nearly lost my own head due to frustration. I ended up having to remove the thermostat housing, which required removing the intake manifold, which required removing about 53249238283432 different coolant and vacuum hoses. Seriously. I think that car has about 30 coolant hoses and 50 or so vacuum hoses.
3 (or so) weeks and many new parts later, I finally had the car back together. And yes, I did get to drive her around everywhere during that time. Le sigh.
Kettlebells are awesome!
Now, for a slightly lighter topic. A couple weeks ago, I decided to order a kettlebell from dragondoor.com. Wow, this brutish blog of metal is really pretty cool and addictive! I’ve only been working out with it for about a week, but I can already tell a difference and its probably the most fun workout I’ve ever done.
Planar graphs and misc
Finally, the most important explanation for my lack of posting: School. I’ve got tons of studying and homework to do, and only about 3 weeks left of class. I have two math tests on Thursday, both of which I’m still not very well prepared for. I’m learning about graph theory right now for one of the two classes (combinatorics).
-Jeff