Dustin Doyle

An update on my life

2009-04-11T07:08:40Z

Since it has been four and a half years I thought I should update my journal. Actually I am thinking about getting back into Live Journal again. This time I will also keep a journal myself instead of just reading other people's.

Since the last update I have graduated from college with a two year degree in computer programming. I then got a job making custom rubber parts at Hiawatha Rubber. After that I got my current job at Genisys Software. I do some software development, but mostly hardware setup, installs, and SCO Unix server administering for our office and customer sites. We develop software and setup computer systems for the rental industry.

Since the last update I got a new car, a black 5spd Mazda MX6. Its engine blew up three years later. I suspect oil starvation in a sharp outside angled turn is what caused it. When it blew there was black smoke so thick the headlights of the cars behind me where nothing but faint orange globes. It really was beautiful how the smoke swirled around both sides of the car inward like the contrails off of an air plane. I towed it back to the house and planned on selling it to a junk yard, so I took the insurance off of it. Two days later it and my brother's car were totalled in a hail storm. Luckily he still had storm coverage on his car.

I then bought a beautiful red 5spd 93 Dodge Stealth V6 SE. Four months later I slid down an iced slicked hill at about five miles an hour into a nice laddie's SUV's trailer hitch. Her trailer hitch slid over the bumper and smashed the front face/bumper cover, the top part of the front frame clip, radiator, hood, and AC system. I am hoping the cost to get everything but the AC fixed to like new condition will be less than a thousand dollars. I will upload some pictures of the damage on Monday.

I still have my 2003 Honda XR 400. It just needs tabs(registration sticker) and I can legally ride it again. My new job has me dragging a laptop with me everywhere so I can't use the bike for transportation as much as I used to.

Current status

2004-09-21T21:57:01Z

I have been meaning to update my journal for a while.

At the end of July we moved into our new house in St. Michael. It seems to be almost twice the size of the old house, my bedroom definitely is. The house did not have Internet access for almost a month, now we have DSL. The service is all right but it does go down occasionally, and the modem takes forever to boot up. We still do not have cable TV. I never did watch TV much, but I miss the comedy and a few good shows that are on. Yesterday the sod for our lawn was installed. Luckily it has been raining ever since so that I do not have to move sprinklers around every hour.

As for my motorcycle. I found a hole in the exhaust that was causing the problems. I patched it and it runs like new. Sadly the hot exhaust gas managed to melt some plastic and the wires for one of my turn signals. It should be a cheap fix. The hole was caused by a crack that grew where I bent the muffler.

Note to anyone thinking about riding motorcycles for the first time: If the bike keeps stalling on take off. The correct procedure is to feather the clutch out more, not to keep adding throttle until it takes off without you and uses the muffler as a wheely bar.

I think I took my last college computer programming class yesterday. Hopefully I should have my degree in my hand soon.

dustind @ 2004-06-30T13:38:00

2004-06-30T18:44:48Z

My motorcycle is acting up for the first time in its two year life. It runs fine at idle, and wide open, but occasionally looses power for a second at any throttle setting in between.

I think I graduated from college on Thursday of last week with my associates degree in computer programming. There is a small chance I will have to take another fraction of a credit class. I am not happy that they waited until now to tell me.

I am having a lot of trouble using Live Journal. There are times when the pages just will not load at all.