“Let us think the unthinkable
Let us do the undoable
Let us prepare to grapple with ineffable itself 
And see if we may not eff it after all”

Douglas Adams

  • I’m Ryan. This site is almost entirely vanity, with a touch of learning tossed in. I live in the Ann Arbor, MI area and work for the University of Michigan (no, I will not be able to help you get…

  • Fastest way to my inbox is through ryan.vis@gmail.com

  • I’m done with WordPress. After being compromised, again, I’m done. No matter what security extension I install, no matter how automatic the updates, no matter what I tweak, WordPress continues to be compromised. I even went so far as to…

  • Yesterday I paid off my last student loan. It took nearly 16 years to do so, a stretch of time that, frankly, is embarrassing. I financed my college education completely on my own; my parents held to the belief (in…

  • Chelsea MI’s relevant ordinances regarding removal of snow and ice. Sec. 26-89. – Ice and snow removal. It shall be the duty of the owner or occupant of every parcel of real estate within the city which adjoins a public…

  • I’m getting sick of writing these. On January 19, 2014, Myrtle Hulst passed from this Earth. She was 84, 4 months short of her birthday. She is survived by 2 sisters and countless nieces, nephews, grand nieces, grand nephews, and…

  • Lots of good pulls in this Atlantic article, but some highlights: The entirety of Season Six is when Moffat’s fascination for plot twists and open-ended mysteries (in our house, we describe this unfortunate tendency as “plotty-wotty”) took over the show,…

  • I live online. That’s a statement means different things to different people. To people before my generation, that may mean I’ve made a choice disconnect from “real life” and spend it staring at a series of LCD screens. To those…

  • I was a big fan until this season. And then, after the second episode, I just gave up. I think the inherit conflict in the show’s structure finally got to me. It’s not that the show doesn’t give fans what…

  • You, like me, have a Windows 8 machine which has the sounds randomly drop out. Your drivers look fine, everything is up to date, but this annoying thing keeps happening. Fear not, there is a solution, courtesy of Tech Support…