I've been looking at a Wii on and off since they came out, but never really got to the point of really wanting one.

But I'm getting closer - what I really see myself doing is playing the sports games on it, Tennis and Baseball seem like the most obvious candidates. I'm not really interested in other games of theirs right now.

Anyone have any of tennis games? Are they as fun as they look, and do they still provide a challenge after a while, or do they get pretty boring?

Thanks!

Has anyone else tried using Live Mesh? A friend recommended it but I haven't tried it yet. It allows you to remote desktop to a computer that has the software installed through a web browser. You can sync folders as well.

I saw this from a friend online, and couldn't resist posting it here:

It's genetics!

First reaction: of course not! But I get pretty confused when thinking about politics, and then it almost starts to seem like it is.

One thing that I've learned up from spending too much time on the internet is that people really like to complain about money. The rich complain that they pay all the taxes. The poor complain that the rich have all the money. If both claims are true, what are we arguing about again? Of course the tax line with which we force income re-distribution is going to be perceived as unfair if you're on the wrong end of it, just like it's much easier to agree with Robin Hood if you're not the one being stolen from. Shouldn't there be some line that everyone can agree on?

In my ideal mathematical world, there exists a solution to the system of equations describing how government should be paid for, what it would span, and who it covered. But this world is far from ideal, and no one can say what is Fair. Arguing politics seems pretty useless to me because people simply feel differently, and there is no right answer in feelings, unlike in math. Even considering the salaries politicians get, I'm extremely glad I don't have to do it for a living.

Rube Goldberg Cocktail Machine

Big version can be seen here.

Short version: Iraq war is top right in purple. Current Bailout is soft yellow in larger yellow. Pretty equal boxes.

Billion Dollar Comparison

Has everyone seen this?

geekchartbig.gif

As a heads up to everyone, Nat and I will be hosting a halloween party again this year. We'll send out an evite soon, but wanted to let everyone know. We can fit a pretty good amount of people in our house, so feel free to invite your friends.

If there is interest, we are also happy to host a pumpkin carving party. We all seemed to have fun with that last year.

No comments on Adam's career because I too have been questioning a career change, except I'm thinking about nursing. I figure if my job occasionally is going to make me cry I might as well at least get a deeper satisfaction from it. Not that my job really makes me cry...I just don't seem to have the motivation and/or drive. I love the perks of my job, and it's hard to argue with staying with something that enables my life, which I adore, but when I meet with my boss and talk about my 5-year goals at the company, I'm pretty hard pressed to come up with any. I'm definitely stagnating here.

I can start nursing pre-reqs at the local community college pretty cheaply. If none of my college courses count, then I need 34 units at $26 a pop = $900 total. After two years of CC classes, depending on scheduling, I'll be ready to start coughing up nursing tuition for 7 semesters, $2000 per (not sure, think it's a semester) at SFSU, assuming the state finances improve and SFSU resumes having classes. So, current estimated outlay is $15000, which is underestimating because the total with books and fees is more than I want to think about now.

But how much is it worth to me? Paying money to take a salary cut...I'm ok with that. Working towards another career that I may or may not love...how to know? I think I need some volunteer experience in a hospital anyways - maybe that's a good way to find out while getting another pre-req out of the way. I've also been thinking that if I end up having kids, I could start school afterwards, maybe once they're in school. It would certainly be easier to have the corporate benefits while popping tykes out than try to fund it on my own. But then that's pushing it out 5+ years...back to that 5-year plan again!

Trying to get my deposit back from my former landlord. Wish me luck!

After pimping the laser girl so much last night at game night I feel obligated to write in and say she was grumpy today when I saw her, and it made our 10-minute appointment much less fun then the last time.

But I guess I'm not really paying for pleasant company :)

I also realized that the one I'm going to seems to have an older-looking laser...possibly the newer and more expensive places have better cooling/pain managing lasers? No idea. But the process is awesome!

Red Remover

Red Remover Forum for User Levels

Took me 3 lunchs to beat all levels (including the bonus levels) on bonus. Not nearly as interactive as Fantastic Contraption, but still a lot of fun.

Or at least a healthy distraction for Adam.

There is discussion of a huge upcoming life decision in this post. But first I need a bit of personality back story.

I remember being a sophomore in high school. That was when I got my first hands on experience computer programming. Sure, I'd tweaked around on a commodore 64 when I was younger, but that was primarily just to load whatever game I wanted to play. In 10th grade, we all used graphing calculators (TI-85) in math class, and we were taught how do do simple programs. The entire class was walked through how to write a program that calculates the quadratic equation. I had older friends who did more advanced programming, and I got interested enough to fill up the memory of my calculator with all sorts of random programs I'd written.

And tron of course. I didn't write that program, but we all had tron on our calculators.

When I filled up the memory on my calculator, I would have to delete programs that I no longer wanted. After a while, I reached a point where there was nothing on my calculator that I wanted to delete anymore. So I decided it was time for an upgrade (TI-86 baby!). However, for the price of a TI-86, I could get an old computer that ran DOS or linux. This would give me way more space to program, and would let me do cooler things. And if I spent just a little more money, I could get an even better used computer, that would do even neater stuff. This is how I ended up spending $1,000 (roughly 10x the price of a TI-86) on my first computer, a brand new machine with (if memory serves) a 2GB hard drive, 16MB of RAM, and a pentium 166MHz MMX processor. I think it was a loss leader at Fry's. I remember Goldie was there with me when I got it, and we were creeped out by the salesman.

Recently, I had decided that I needed some software on my home computer. I wanted a newer office, and a newer adobe suite, but I couldn't afford them. Last year, I could purchase them both for about $300 total, while now it would cost me over $2,000! Holy crap! I was really missing the ol' student discount.

So I applied for admission to PCC. I figured I could take a couple accounting classes that I wanted to take anyway, become a student again for a while, and get my software. Win-win. I applied, was accepted, and signed up for an accounting class.

But you need six credits to get a software discount. The second class I wanted wasn't offered at the PCC campus near me, so I started looking around for other classes that may be helpful.

Most of the other accounting classes looked dumb. I debated a video editing class, and a sociology class, but I wasn't sure I would have the time to spend on homework for a video editing class, and the sociology classes didn't interest me.

Then I was like, heck, if I have to take another class, why not take one that could potentially be beneficial? I'll just take something like anatomy and physiology, which is a prereq in case I ever decide to go to pharmacy school. That makes the decision easy.

Of course, that little thought opened the floodgates. I am nothing if not an obsessive compulsive researcher; before doing anything of consequence, I spend tons of time analyzing all my possibilities from every angle. This has sent me on a rampage looking into all things pharmacy school. Luckily, there is a pharmacy school literally across the street from where I work, I know people that work at the school and we currently have a pharmacy student intern. So the resources I have available to me are virtually limitless.

Unfortunately, I managed to bring up for debate an issue I had hoped I could keep dormant for a while longer. And all because I wanted to save some money on software.

Here are the key points:
* Pharmacy school would take me three years to complete. The school I would go to is accelerated, as this normally takes four years.

* The first two years would be classes, with a six week rotation after the first year (likely I would do this at my pharmacy).

* The third year is all rotations. Seven rotations, each six weeks. One would be at my pharmacy.

* School days the first couple years would be roughly 8am-3pm M-F. Every other Thursday I would spend time at an off site pharmacy gaining experience. This "off site" experience would be done at my pharmacy.

* The curriculum is actually very well organized. Information is presented based on topics, so we would spend (e.g.) two weeks on Topic A, then one week on Topic B, etc, instead of having four separate courses going concurrently.

* To get in to pharmacy school, I would need about three terms of prereq classes. Each term would be one evening class (anatomy and physiology), with the possible need for two other classes to be taken depending on how they interpret my transcript.

* If I applied now, I wouldn't begin school until August 2010. That gives me one year to get everything in line (prereqs and business-wise).

Anyway, that is a summary of the program details. But my mind is debating many other things.
1) Am I too burned out to go back to school again? Isn't 24+ years in school with two advanced degrees (I have a masters in addition to my PhD) enough?

2) How would this affect Natalie in the pharmacy? Would it put too much stress on her with me occupied most days in school?

3) Would I even be a good pharmacist? I like big picture things, not small details. I already struggled with this for my PhD.

4) How would the growth of the business suffer without me there daily helping nurture it? How much time could I realistically spend at the business while I'm in school? How much time does the business actually need me to be there?

5) What does this mean for starting a family? I would be 32 when I finish pharmacy school, which was about when we had planned on having kids. But that plan was originally based on the assumption that we would have had four or five years as post-school "real" adults with a "real" income to live a little...

6) Can I handle going through three years of pharmacy school knowing that I already have a pharmacy? I can totally see myself become super condescending and arrogant towards everybody at the school if I start getting burned out in the program. (I'm sure some would argue that I would become *more* condescending and arrogant :)

7) Can I handle being 32 when I finish school?

So what are the benefits of going to school again? If I had a pharmacy degree Natalie and I would have way more flexibility in running the business. Natalie would be able to have way more days off, would have less job stress, and we would be able to save ourselves tons of money (by not having to pay for additional pharmacists except when needed).

Also, if I had stayed in academia, I would have had to do a 3-4 year post-doc. I have lots of friends who are just starting these. I would very likely finish my pharmacy doctorate before they finish their post-doc. Thinking about it that way doesn't make it sounds so bad (except that my friends are actually getting paid, albeit not a whole lot, to do their post-doc).

This is the kind of decision that I basically need to make in the next few weeks. If I wait a year, I will NEVER go to pharmacy school because I'll be even older when I'm done.

Sorry for the length of this post. Much of this is just helping to hash out my own thoughts on the matter, so thanks for letting me ramble for a while. Any opinions on the matter are appreciated.

Generally, most video game spoofs are pretty lame. But for some reason, I laughed a lot at this Legend of Zelda spoof (start from Season 1 Episode 1 down at the bottom):

http://www.atom.com/channel/channel_legend_of_neil/

It's a bit not work-safe... so be warned (language and suggestive scenes). There are definitely moments where I laughed out loud. Perhaps it's because I'm so sleep deprived today but I laughed quite a bit. It has Felicia Day too (from the Guild and Dr. Horrible).