Posts

2018 Volvo XC90 T8 Plugin Hybrid

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The price for premium fuel here in Metro Vancouver is the highest in North America, reaching $1.799/L (about $6.80/gallon) earlier this week. Luckily, the last time I needed to fill the tank in the T8 was over a month ago! Since picking up our XC90 at the end of January with a full tank of gas and 12 km on the odometer, I've filled it up 3 times. Using an app that calculates consumption based upon distance traveled and fuel filled, our 3 month average fuel consumption is currently 4.58L/100 km (over 51 mpg). We’re averaging over 1000 km per tank. Not bad for living at the top of a mountain, hauling our large family around, and even helping my daughter move all her things between apartments from city to city.

Breathing Deeply

While Roam Mobility worked fine for us in Portland, coverage in rural areas is severely lacking. Despite their access map showing coverage along Highway 20 as far east as Hamilton, in reality, we lost data on the outskirts of Sedro Woolley. At the campground, I switched in the AT&T SIM card and all is good again. Data is my oxygen.

My Summer of Ingress: Day 2 - Downtown PoCo

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29 June 2015 Day 2 wasn't as impressive as yesterday, but I was still able to earn over 330k AP in my quest to level up in Ingress . My biggest accomplishment was deploying 580 resonators and getting that much closer to the gold Builder badge. I concentrated on two areas today in downtown PoCo (Leigh Square and the PoCo Trail) for a total of 5 km of walking. AP earned: 337,595 Resonators deployed: 580 Distance walked: 5 km My Summer of Ingress Total Distance Walked: 19 km

The World Around You is Not What It Seems

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My Summer Of Ingress: Day 1 - 29 June 2015 Today was a big day of Ingress for me. I walked over 14 km in two sections of south Richmond! I started at the dog park at the end of No. 3 Road and did a lot of doubling back for keys and creating fields for about 9 km of walking. I then parked the car near the Britannia Shipyards and walked into Steveston for another 5 km. My feet are very tired, but I also feel a great sense of satisfaction. I measured the actual walking distance from my car with my Garmin Fenix GPS watch. The Ingress app actually credited me with 18 km. AP earned: 482,715 Portals captured: 104 (93 uniques) Resonators deployed: 896 Missions completed: 13 As a bonus, I also hacked 3 AXA and 3 Ultra Link Amps. I had to Jarvis and recapture one of my portals at the end to finish a mission, but then I hacked another Jarvis to replace it.

Omega Speedmaster Professional: Secret Enjoyment

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To the average person, the Omega Speedmaster Professional looks like any other wristwatch. It doesn't attract a lot of attention and that's one of the main reasons why I enjoy wearing it. One time someone looked at the Speedmaster on my wrist and told me that the second hand was broken. I just smiled noncommittally and didn't bother to explain. There are things about this iconic watch that I appreciate and I don't care if other people know it or not. While my particular Speedmaster has not been on the moon, it has a heritage and a place in space history that holds special interest to me. I like that it is manual wind and it gets life from its user. The main reason I enjoy this watch so much is that I didn't buy it for myself. A few years before my 5-year-old son was born, I decided to buy something that was worthy of passing down and the Omega Speedmaster Professional was what I picked. So I'm borrowing it for now and giving it good use until the time is right

Mechanical Watches Are Living Machines: Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch

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I used to be obsessed with the accuracy on my mechanical wristwatches. I kept records and measured time and it bothered me if a watch as plus or minus more than a few seconds per day, until I came to the realization that none of them would ever be as accurate as any of the solar-powered atomic watches I had. That's when I accepted that every watch had a specific purpose and role in my collection and that my everyday survival did not depend on up-to-the-second accuracy. The solar atomics are soulless robots that serve well, by my mechanical timepieces are living machines given life through movement. The time I spend winding and adjusting and listening to each one is a little night time ritual that gives me much pleasure.