Posts about me (TJ) and my life that doesn’t fit into the other categories.
Today I just replaced my car’s engine and cabin air filters, because they were due for replacement according to the maintenance booklet. This is the first time I did any of the maintenance myself on my current car. I had replaced the engine air filter on my old car, but my current RAV4 is nothing like the ML350 that I had, so this is a new “experience”.
I realized I haven’t updated this blog for several months. Just posting to show that I’m still alive and kicking. It’s not that I have been working so hard that I didn’t have time to post, but I just haven’t done anything that I thought was worth posting on its own. This doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing anything. I try be out and about on the weekends, especially now that the warmer and nicer weather of spring is upon us here in North Carolina. I visited a lot of the local parks, and I’ve tried a number of restaurants. I don’t know if I can be classified as a foodie since I don’t think my taste buds are very discerning, but I like trying new restaurants and I love delicious food. I haven’t really traveled outside of the area I live… at least not for fun. I had business trips, but I can’t really do touristy stuff when I am on the clock.
Below are some photos of some of the fun stuff I’ve done over the last couple of months.
2014 has passed, and here we are at 2015! 2014 has been a pretty eventful year for me. I finished my PhD degree and got a job, and that entailed a move from upstate NY down to North Carolina. That’s a big change for me, and I’m still getting used to life after school. It’ll take time, but the future looks bright. My New Year’s resolutions is to make some new friends in NC, get better at my job, and to lose a couple of pounds. Compared to when I graduated in May, I have lost a few pounds since moving to NC, but I can still stand to lose some body fat. I also probably gained a few pounds over the holidays too.
The holiday season has arrived and we are only a few days from Christmas. I’m looking forward to a short vacation in a few days. As a new employee, I don’t have many vacation days, but combining my vacation days with Christmas and New Year gives me a week or so of not having to work. No more spending a month back in Metro Vancouver during the winter, but a break is appreciated nonetheless.
It’s been about three and a half months I’ve moved from Upstate NY down to the Triangle region of North Carolina for work. I’m still trying to get used to my new job and surroundings. Having a full-time job means my schedule is less flexible than when I was a student, but I always try to go out hiking and exploring on the weekends, and here is just a round-up of what I’ve been up to. I’m not going to write much and let the pictures do most of the talking.
As I posted a little while ago, my iPhone 4S stopped working. I got a new phone, but I still wanted to see if the iPhone was salvageable, so I spent a few bucks and bought some tools on Amazon to open the 4S up to take a peek. Since the phone is dead, I might as well take a look inside for the slim chance that I can find where the problem is. Given how popular iPhones are, instructions on taking the phone apart are easily found online. I followed this set of instructions and managed to remove the logic board from the phone. The iPhone 4S and all the innards I took out can be seen in the photo below. The parts are tiny, but the disassembly is doable with a little bit of patience and organization (so you don’t lose the screws). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the problem, and chances are the phone needs a new logic board, so I just put the whole thing back together and stuff it on a shelf for now. It was a good little exercise.
Speaking of taking stuff apart and then putting them back together without making any repairs, I also took my washing machine apart. The last couple of weeks I noticed that the washer leaves soggy clothes after the spin cycle. The tub spins as far as I could tell, so I took apart the washer to check for clogs in the hoses. I have a pretty common Kenmore direct drive washer, so disassembly instructions were easy to find. The process is actually pretty easy. I went as far as taking the pump out to check for clogs, but I didn’t find anything. The funny thing during the whole process was that I was able to take the washer apart and take the hose clamps off with a small pair of pliers, but then I found that I couldn’t put the clamps back on with my pliers. I ended up having to buy a pair of tongue-and-groove pliers the next day in order to put the hose clamps back on. Below are a few pictures of my washer with its cover off.
It’s been almost two months since I moved from upstate NY to my new place of work, and I’m slowly settling into my new environment. I worked at the new company for about a month and a half now, and that’s going okay so far with me finally starting to do some actual work. I’ve figured out where to buy the basics and even found a place to play badminton, and I’m exploring the area when I have time on the weekends. I’ll try to go out more and be more sociable, since it’d be harder when winter comes a long and works piles up. As for my apartment, I finally got my new, reclining couch in the living room, so I have all the major pieces of furniture now. It took a while, but the apartment is slowly starting to look like a home. It’ll take longer for me to truly become comfortable with this area I’m living it and with the working life, but things are on track so far.
After about three months of what mostly was vacationing and not doing much work, I finally said goodbye to Troy and RPI, my place of abode for four years. I packed whatever I can into my little RAV4 and took the long drive to a new city and area to start my working life. It’s been two weeks since I’ve moved and I’m still trying to settle into my new surroundings. It’s going to take time to get to know the area and become comfortable with the environment. I didn’t really start hiking and exploring the Capital Region until 3 years into my studies at RPI, and it might take longer in this new place because I’ll probably have less free time now that I’m a full-time professional. As for work, first week is the usual orientation, but there is challenging work lined up for me. The work will keep me busy and might become difficult, but I’ll make the most of the opportunities to learn and develop myself, and hopefully work on projects that make a real difference. Wish me luck.
Years ago… well up to two years ago I had the habit or writing a yearly reflections article on what I did in school and just life in general. I forgot or didn’t bother to do it for 2013, and now it’s 2014 and I’m finally done with graduate school, so I might as well summarize my whole graduate school experience. My four years of grad school has been good overall, and I can’t complain much given that I graduated “on time”. Read on to find out my thoughts on my grad school career, looking for a job, and various other things I did while I was trying to become Dr. TJ.
Recently I went a trip with a few travel buddies to Acadia National Park in Maine. We had a pretty good time, and this post contains some photos and highlights of the trip. This was probably the last long-ish vacation trip I’ll have for a while, since I’ll be starting work soon. Yes, I did finally find a job, but I’ll leave that for another post.
