Is Genetic Engineering of Crops Unnatural?

I had a really fun conversation with my coworkers this afternoon. I was so into the conversation that I abandoned my euchre game, so you know it had to be good. Somehow, the subject of genetically modified crops came up, and the idea that they were unnatural. I've read a number of articles on this, and how it has effects throughout the world, and I thought I would share my opinion. In order to do that, though, I had to say some pretty outrageous things in order to make sure that people would be interested in arguing. Keep in mind that an argument isn't necessarily a bad thing when two people with opposing viewpoints are defending their position.

My proposal was that, nothing that we do can be considered unnatural. My argument is hinged on the fact that you believe in evolution. If you don't believe in evolution, then my argument won't hold water. The reason I say that we are unable to do anything unnatural, especially with regards to genetic engineering, is that there is the possibility that in the future the same genetic mutations that we are inducing in the lab may have formed of their own accord. Right now, many people would argue that crops that are genetically engineered in the lab are unnatural, and shun those crops. Some norther african countries will not accept genetically modified food stuffs for fear that it will hurt their trade agreements with europe. So instead of feeding their people, they starve in order to avoid these "unnatural" crops.

Genetic engineering has been going on for centuries, it is only recently that we have improved the process and become much more efficient at it. For as long as men have farmed the earth, farmers have chosen among their best crop and stock to produce the next season's crop. This is genetic engineering! It doesn't involve test tubes or microscopes, but it does effect the genetic makeup of the next round of crop in much the same way. By only planting the seed of his best crop, the farmer is reinforcing the mutation, if any, that caused those particular plants to produce the best harvest. He is at the same time removing from the genetic field the crops that may have mutated to produce less at harvest. As this process is repeated season after season, the genetic makeup of the farmer's crop is mutated and modified to produce better results. Perhaps one year the farmer discovers a patch of corn in his field that the insects do not bother. He decides to use those seeds to plant his entire field the next season, and discovers that none of his crop has been eaten by insects. The farmer has effectively genetically modified his crop to be pest resistant. This is, in fact, exactly what farmers have done for centuries.

Now that we have the capability to effect these changes in a much more rapid and extreme manner, some are calling it unnatural. If more people had an understanding of genetic engineering and how it has been carried out for as long as we have tended the earth, I think fewer people would fear this type of crop. I'm not arguing that these changes are either good or bad for us, only that they should not be considered wholly unnatural on their face. After all, we are a part of nature, and if we are part of nature, how can anything we do be considered unnatural?

It is a pretty out-there argument, and I know it is hard to digest that kind of idea and accept it. The whole point of my making the argument though is just to get people to reconsider what they feel is natural and part of nature. Are we, as human beings, part of nature, or are we outside of the bounds of nature? If you consider humans to be outside of the bounds of nature, then everything we do is unnatural. However, if we are part of nature, then everything we do must be natural. Is it possible to have it both ways?

An example I brought up was to imagine that you are a chicken farmer. One day, through no interference of your own, a four legged chicken is born. Was that natural? Take it a step further and suppose that you then breed the four-legged chicken and find that all of the offspring have four legs as well. Is that natural? Can what you have done be considered genetic engineering? Is breeding different from genetic engineering? If so, how? They are tough questions. I know I'm just getting myself in trouble now, though. If I ever make an offhand comment about something being unnatural in the future, people in the office are going to jump all over me :-)

Must...Stay...Awake

I'm in my Finance class right now, and I'm really struggling to stay awake. Not because the class is boring (which it may be otherwise), but because I didn't get any sleep last night. Saturday night I stayed up pretty late (3:30am?) with Corbin. I slept in late too, which was a mistake. I didn't roll out of bed until 11:30, and so I had a terrible time getting to sleep last night. I kept Corbin happy until 2:30, then crawled into bed and stared at the ceiling for an hour. I just couldn't sleep. I'm not sure when I actually fell asleep, but I do know that my alarm was going off at 7, which means that I got very little sleep last night. For some reason, it didn't really phase me throughout the day. I was pretty good all morning, and I was still going strong at my Dentist appointment in the afternoon. The two cups of strong coffee probably helped that out. I dropped by Jimmy John's on the way to class for yummy Billy Club on white with no tomato. They even had a no cholesterol bag of salt & vinegar potato chips, which is a rare find there. I got to class and munched down my sandwich, and was alert throughout the first hour of class. The second hour was a completely different story though. The temperature in the room was going up, and my eye lids were hanging down. I tried not to look like I was falling asleep, but it was tough! I hope we get out of here early tonight so I can go home and crash on the couch. I know Jenn will be there ready to watch Average Joe : Adam Returns, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it through the whole thing. Ugh, must...stay....awake....

New Phone

Another notice I received over the weekend was that AT&T Wireless was going to upgrade my cell phone for free. They are going to upgrade me to a T226, which is a newer model than the phone I have. I looked through the feature list, and this looks a lot more like a downgrade! My current phone has calendaring functions, BlueTooth and IR communication, color screen, and lots of other nice features. The new phone does not have calendaring, it operates on fewer frequencies (850/1900 vs 900/1800/1900), half the memory, no profiles, and no voice activated dialing. The only features the t226 has over the t68i are polyphonic ringtons and twice as many colors on the screen. It has downloadable games, but I think that is a huge ripoff. Why would I want to pay $5 a month to rent solitaire?

The thing that really bothers me is that the notice that I would get a new phone requested that I send back my old phone. I paid an additional $50 as part of my plan to get an upgrade from the basic phones to the t68i. Now, they want me to trade in that phone at even cost for the t226 which is an inferior model. No thanks! Give me a shot at selling one of them on eBay or something, but don't ask me to just throw it away. My buddy at work brought up the point that, based on how my contract is worded, the t68i may not actually be my phone until the end of the contract. That would really stink. I like my phone! I drove Jenn nuts trying to figure out which plan and phone to buy. I want to keep my t68i.

Evidently I'm not the only one on the web who isn't a huge fan of the t226. A quick google search turned up quite a few other folks who were less than excited to receive a t226. I think this would have been awesome if AT&T sent a phone that was truly an upgrade from the t68i, like the t616 or some other model. I figure the reason they are doing the upgrade is to get folks using the 850 network, which is what Cingular uses as well. AT&T has a roaming agreement with Cingular in our area, and their have been talks that Cingular might buy AT&T Wireless. If that happens, my plans to switch providers in May when my plan is up will be pointless. I dunno, I'll check out this new phone, and if it has better reception, I'll use it, otherwise I'm sticking with my t68i.

Property Taxes

Over the weekend, we received a notice from the Jenn's employer. It said that we were delinquent on our property taxes and would need to pay a 10% penalty. It also said that, since Jenn was a government employee, her wages would be garnished until the tax was payed. We were both really surprised by this because our property tax comes out of an escrow account managed by our mortgage company. We got the letter on Saturday, so on Monday we made a couple of frantic calls to both the lender and the county to see what was going on. The county treasurer told us that the tax was paid in full, including the penalty, and that our current balance was $0. Great! So we called that lender, who told us that they wrote a check in the amount of the tax. Our escrow account was charged only for the amount of the tax, not the delinquency penalty. I guess the lender just ate that fee. So in the end, we got all upset over the weekend over nothing. Hopefully we don't go through the same thing again six months from now. We're thinking that what happened was that, since we refinanced last spring, the tax bill went to the old lender. The new lender never received it, so didn't pay the bill. They only paid it when they received the delinquency notice from the county. I'm just glad that it is all worked out, and no one is garnishing Jenn's wages.

Witch Hunter Robin

I've been watching a new cartoon on Cartoon Network called "Witch Hunter Robin". I saw a couple of commercials for it and it looked sort of interesting, so I setup the DVR to record it. It comes on Monday through Thursday at midnight. I missed the first couple of episodes, and so I'm still a little fuzzy on portions of the plot, but it has me intrigued. The story revolves around an organization called the STN. Specifically, it focuses on the Japanese unit of the STN referred to as the STN-J. The STN-J is responsible for hunting down people who were born with a witch gene, and to capture them before they become dangerous. Evidently, when the witch gene is awakened, the person is able to use powerful magic, and is usually overcome by the sense of power and goes on a killing spree. The STN-J has a system for tracking the folks with this gene, and attempts to get to them before or just as their power is awakened.

Robin, who is a new member of the STN-J, is called a craft-user. She has the ability to make fire at will. From what I understand, she is still struggling to understand whether she herself is a witch, and if she might eventually be hunted by the same people she works for. She is also conflicted, since she is using the same power that the targets of her hunts are captured for using. It seems a lot like the plot from Blade Runner. With each new episode, we learn a little bit more about the STN-J, Robin, and the crew she works with. In most cases, the STN-J attempts to capture the witches alive, and transport them to a place only described as the factory. The STN-J group is made up of a handful of people. Amon is the leader of the hunting party. Robin is his faithful side kick. Michael is the computer expert who mainly stays back at the office and provides the group with updates on their target. There is another craft user in the group, although her name escapes me. She has the abiliity to "scry" items. Using this power somehow lets her learn about the use and history of an object, as well as who may have been in contact with it.

The episodes are 30 minutes long, and have a very mysterious X-Files feel to them. The characters are usually outfitted in very gothic attire, and the mood of the series is very dark. Each episode focuses on the hunting of a new witch, and small bits of back information are given during each episode to help explain how Robin became part of the STN-J. For some reason, I just can't stop watching this series. If you are ever up late and looking for entertainment, check out an episode.

Game of the Moment - Metroid: Zero Mission

Woohoo, a new game! I've been drooling to get the new Metroid game since I heard about it in development. Zero Mission is the "retelling" of the original Metroid game from the NES. Essentially, it is the original game redone with the nice, new graphics that are possible on the GameBoy Advance, and with some of the newer powerups. Oh, and you can save your game and recharge your weapons, which was a feature sorely lacking from the original. It makes that game go by very quickly with these new additions. I nearly finished the game in a five hour sitting on Sunday! I reached Mother Brain, the original big bad boss from Metroid, in about three hours. I had a little trouble defeating her on the first try, so I adventured around a bit more to collect more power-ups before taking her on again. This time I defeated her with ease.

And this is where the game takes an interesting turn. I thought I would be done with the game, since this was a remake of the original and Mother Brain was the final boss. The self-destruct sequence started, and with a bit of frustration, I managed to reach my ship with just 5 seconds left to go. I was expecting credits, when a new level opened up. My ship crashed into a new area of the planet, and I was stripped of my power-suit and all weapons. All I had left was a charge pistol that couldn't kill squat. It turned into a stealth invasion, which was pretty exciting! Rather than blasting anything in sight, I had to be careful to maneuver in such a way as to avoid the bad guys, and evade the line of sight of the security systems. It was something new for me to see in this in a Metroid game, and I really enjoyed it. Throughout this section of the game, the space pirates (who in the following games use the Metroids to develop new types of weapons and enemies) were patrolling the area. If I was seen, they would give chase. I had to stun the pursuer, and then quickly find a place to hide so that they would turn the alarm off. Eventually, I reached a ruins area that was evidently part of the character's past. After defeating a very strange enemy (a knight with a mirror image of Samus in a ball), I not only got all of my power-ups back, I received a new suit (Gravity Suit). The new suit also identified some of the power-ups collected earlier in the game and only identified as "Unknown Item". One of these was the plasma rifle, which was an upgrade to my existing gun. I tracked down a new power-up, the super-bomb, and then continued through the space pirate ship. I reached Meta-Ridley, which was the souped-up version of the Ridley I had defeated earlier in the game. Ridley manages to make an appearance at least once in each of the Metroid games, and showed up twice here. I was killed, and I decided to call it a night.

I am pretty sure that Meta-Ridley will turn out to be the final boss. If it does, I have read that defeating the game turns on three new options: an image gallery, the original NES version of the game, and a HARD mode. I can already play the original Metroid from the Prime disc on the GCN. I linked up the Fusion game so I could see that gallery, which didn't really get me excited about this new gallery. I am interested in playing the hard mode though. One of the nice things about the Metroid games is that there are multiple ways to play that can keep the game interesting. You can play for time, highest collection percentage, or lowest collection win. The game tracks how long you take to win, and trying to beat your best time can be quite a challenge. Also, there are hoards of power-up items throughout the game. Trying to complete the game with 100% of all collectible items could take months. On the flip side, defeating the game while collecting the minimum number of power-ups can make the game extremely challenging. I think this game will keep me happy for quite a while!

Under the Weather

I'm not feeling very well today. I started sometime last week. I had a little tickle in the back of my throat. It hit me full force on Saturday. My throat hurt and my nose was running. Probably just a cold, but it had me beat. I was up with Corbin until 3am, and then I had a hard time falling asleep. Sunday I made DayQuil my new best friend. That night, I made a run to Marsh at 12:30 to get some NyQuil. I slept like a log, but I could have used more sleep. Hopefully I can get to bed early tonight and finally shake this thing. My big fear is that I will infect Corbin with it, which would be really bad. The last thing we need is a sick crying baby. Jenn has been absolutely amazing though. She didn't get to sleep until 4am last night, and even then only for a couple of hours before Corbin was back up again. She was just laying down with him again at 7:30 as I was getting ready for work. Hopefully one more night of rest will get me back into shape so that I can help her out more.

Martha Stewart

I'm really getting tired of hearing about Martha Stewart on the news. Yes, she was found guilty on all charges. Until the sentencing phase is complete, I don't need to hear anymore about this case. It doesn't effect me at all. She's just a regular person who made a bad decision. Happens all the time. Some folks are trying to make this into a lot more than it really is though. You can't hear a report on the case without someone bringing up the fact that she's a woman, and that it is because she is a woman that the courts are going after her. Please. The courts are going after her because she broke the law. That is what they are supposed to do. Last night I heard a representative from a women's rights group claim that no one else in the industry is being prosecuted for illegal financial transactions, and it was because Martha is a woman that she is being targets. Good grief, has she never heard of Enron, MCI WorldCom, or any of the hundreds of other businesses whose executives are serving jail time or paying enormous fines for their crimes? Martha isn't being prosecuted because she is a woman. She's being prosecuted because she took advantage of a situation in an illegal manner.

For anyone that isn't familiar with how the law works, I've recently completed my MBA coursework in this area and have at least a general understanding of what happened and why it is illegal. Insider trading is against the law. What is insider trading? If you are an insider to a business, meaning that you have access to records which have not been made public by the business, but are known to the business, and you make financial trades based off of that information in order to make a short term profit, you have broken the law. In this case, Martha Stewart was a stock holder in ImClone, a company that was hoping to market a new drug for treating cancer. During the FDA approval process for the drug, the FDA decided to hold the release of the drug. When the ImClone CEO learned of this, he left a message with his friend Martha to let her know. Obviously, the stock was going to lose a lot of value on this news. Rather than wait for the news to go public, both of these folks cashed out a large quantity of their stock before the price changed.

So who is the victim here? It is hard to say. Certainly Martha is not the victim, although some folks would like to paint her in that light. With securities fraud, it is difficult to pinpoint who the loser is. In this case, the victim is whoever bought the shares of ImClone that Martha was selling. Probably a mutual fund, or another investor. Fortunately, ImClone recently received approval for the use of their drug, and their stock price is higher than the price at which Martha sold her shares. Sort of ironic. Some folks dislike Martha. That's fine, but I don't need to hear about that either. The demonizing of Martha seems to be a hot topic on most networks as well. If they aren't depicting her as the victim of the good ole boy network, then they are depicting her as the bitch queen of the universe. I'm not sold on that idea either. Everyone can fall prey to making a bad decision from time to time. She's just human like everybody else.

We're Listed!

The Boilercade is now officially listed at Arcade Controls!! For now, it is on the front page of news, but when it falls off there you can find the link on the examples page under the upright cabinets section.

Boilercade

I finally got around to finishing up the web pages for the Boilercade. The arcade cabinet has been finished for some time, but I never got around to getting the web pages detailing the construction completed. Actually, the cabinet still has some items that I would like to add to it, such as logos on the sides and marquee, a trackball, a coin door, and maybe even a faceplate to cover the monitor. I haven't been very motivated to get those items done though, especially since it works and we can play on it now.

All of the game consoles have been installed in the cabinet, and now I spend a lot of time in the basement, playing on it. I don't spend as much time on the MAME games as I thought I might, but I'm still getting a lot of good use out of all of the effort that went into building it. I can't thank Hack enough for all of his help with the woodwork. There is no way I could have done half the job he did. I submitted the site to Arcade Controls. If we get added as a project, I'll provide an update to announce the good news.

Late Night Excitement

And no, you filthy minded perv, I'm not talking about in our bedroom. In the wee hours of Thursday morning of the week we returned from the hospital, there was quite a commotion on our little cul-de-sac. It was around 3am, and Jenn and I were both awake. Jenn was trying to sleep with Corbin in the guest bed, and I was trying to get some shut eye in our own bed. I noticed that our court was very brightly lit for such an early hour. I pulled the shade of the window to the side only to see that there was a circus of fire equipment outside. As I counted, there were four fire engines, a rescue truck, and an ambulance lined up on our little street. All of them had their lights flashing, but there were no sirens. The engine closest to us had the flood lights on, and it looked like firemen were going in and out of the house two down from our own. I checked in on Jenn to make sure everything was okay, and let her know what I had seen. Koby was very interested in all of the commotion as well. I watched for quite a while, and I could see that the men were particularly interested in the chimney of the home. I assumed that there had been a chimney fire. After a while, the lady who lived there went back into her home with her two young sons, and I thought that everything must be okay, so I went to bed.

The next day, I received an update from my neighbor as to what had happened. The family had been burning a fire that evening, and when it got to be bed time, there were still some hot embers in the fireplace. They decided to leave the flue open and go to bed. The twin boys slept in front of the fireplace, and mom went to bed. Around three, one of the boys woke as he had wet himself. He woke up his mom, and she immediately noticed that there was smoke on the ceiling. She searched the house for a fire, but couldn't find one. All of the embers in the fireplace were out, and there seemed to be no source for the smoke. She called the non-emergency number for the fire department and explained the situation. She asked if they could send out someone to check it out, and asked that they not wake everyone in the neighborhood up. The fire department said that she would need to call the emergency number instead. So she called the emergency number and again explained the situation. She asked again that someone just come and take a look, as it did not appear to be an emergency. The operator said that one truck would come out to assess the situation. It must have been a slow night in our town, because we got four engines. I guess it is normal protocol to send out a rescue truck and ambulance for any fire related 911 call, so that is why we got those, but for four engines to show up for some smoke was pretty extreme.

The firemen checked the house from head to toe, and they couldn't find any other source for the smoke. The fire marshall decided that what must have happened is the smoke became stagnant in the chimney. The weather had been pretty mild, and he said that, without enough heat, the smoke can get trapped in the chimney column. A downdraft must have occurred, forcing the smoke back into the house. Since the flue was open, there was nothing to stop it from coming back in. This caused the house to fill with smoke. I guess the house was pretty noxious with the fumes, so they used a special fan to suck out all of the smoke and carbon monoxide. I can't imagine how it must smell. Everything must be okay, though, as they installed a new swingset the next weekend, and they spent every night in the house.

Big News

My brother is going to be a daddy again! He had been holding off telling everyone until after Corbin's birth because he didn't want to steal our thunder. I thought that was really nice. They are already four months along, which means that they are going to have two little ones under 15 months of age. This explains why he recently traded in his car for a minivan. They originally wanted to have 7 kids, and at this pace it looks like they should have no problem with that. He is a little concerned about his insurance situation, and money situation. His current job doesn't provide insurance coverage, so he had to COBRA the coverage that his wife had when she left work. That will last through the birth of this child, but they will need something else after that. He has another job prospect lined up, and hopefully that one can provide him with some decent coverage.

I can't believe it!

I actually did pretty well on the final exam in my law class! I thought for sure that I was getting a B in that class. I got my test back last night, and I did well enough that I'm on the borderline between an A- and an A. I'd be happy with an A-, but I would be thrilled with an A, as it would allow me to retain my 4.0. The law class was scored out of a total of 1000 points. We received 250 points just for showing up to class, 250 points for participating in our group presentation, and then 250 points for each of two exams. I scored a 199 on the first exam, and had full credit for class participating and attendance. I scored a 241 on the final exam, which gave me a total score of 940. In order to receive an A, you had to score 95% or higher. an A- was 92% - 94%. I'll cross my fingers that the instructor bumped me up the percentage point to get an A, but if not, that is still okay. It was a very, very difficult class, and I'm pleased with an A of any variety.

Disturbing

While cruising through the government websites that provided the GIS information, I found one for registered sex offenders. Recognizing the caliber of people I graduated high school with, I wondered if any had the dubious honor of making this list. Sure enough, I recognize two names from my high school that are on the Howard County Registered Sex Offender list.


Todd Haworth
Offense: Sexual Misconduct with a Minor


Scott Evans
Offense: Child Molest

Way to go fellas. Way to represent.

Public Information

It is sort of amazing the amount of information that is available on the web. We hear every day about folks suffering from identity theft, or private information being released on the web. A buddy of mine at work pointed out another source of info. Does your county provide a Geographic Information System (GIS)? Hamilton County, Indiana, does. You can look up the entire tax filing for each property in the county. Want to know where Reggie Miller of the Indiana Pacers lives? Just pull up the digital GIS info and checkout 14301 113th Street E. Poor Reggie had to pay over $60,000 in property taxes last year.

That this kind of information is available on the web just completely boggles my mind. You would think that this would be protected some how, but since it is of public record, anyone can get to it. I'm sure Reggie doesn't want folks dropping in, or even looking at his tax records. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there is much he can do about it.

Fun Game

Here is a fun and simple game. See if you can beat my high score.

Financial Advisor

Jenn and I went to a financial advisor (American Express Financial Advisors) to discuss our savings plans for the future. We both wanted to start saving for a college education now, so that we would be well prepared by the time our soon to be born child reached college. I was also worried that my life insurance was inadequate, and that my retirement portfolio needed better management. We spoke to the advisor for a little over three hours, and he had a lot of good things to see. We both felt a little relieved to be getting a professional on the case to help us out. Right now, we are very lucky in that we don't have enormous debts hanging over our heads. We are in a position where we can live our lifestyle without worrying about money, and we want to make sure we can keep on living that way. With Jenn leaving her full time job to raise our kids, we are losing a significant source of income. We will need to watch our budget a bit more, but we have been living off of my salary for a while, so I'm not too concerned. The benefit of having Jenn at home to raise our kids far out weighs the money we are giving up. Plus, the cost of daycare is just outrageous.
Next week we will go in with a bunch of our old bills and bank statements so that our advisor can start putting together our plan. I'm excited to get this started, as it will be one less worry on my mind.

Serenity Now!

My law class is finally over!! Yeah!! I really struggled in that class. Not because I didn't understand the material, but because it was so difficult to determine what to study. There was enormous amount of information that we covered, and the instructor gave very little indication on what information he felt was most important. Several students in the class were very upset over the format of the class. On the first day, the instructor indicated that each lesson would be provided by one of the project groups in the class. That presentation would count as part of your final grade. There would not be any writing assignments. Participation in class would contribute to your grade, and then two exams worth 250 points each.

I expected that each group would present for up to maybe an hour, and then the facilitator would teach the rest of the class, reinforcing the points he felt were most important. Instead, as soon as the presentation was over, class was over. One class, the group finished their presentation within an hour, so we went home. Class is supposed to last four hours! This didn't help on the exams. I studied for what I thought was important on the first exam, but it wasn't enough. I scored a 199/250, which was average for the class. The instructor does not grade on a curve though. Instead, there are 1000 total points available for the class. He indicated that you would receive 100% credit for the presentation and participation just by showing up. That left the two exams. The grading scaled was figured as

Score	Grade
950 - 1000	A
920 - 950	A-
900 - 920	B+
800 - 900	B
780 - 800	B-
760 - 780	C+
660 - 760	C
600 - 660	D
<600	F

So after the first exam, it was impossible for me to get an A in the course. The best I could hope for was an A-. On the other hand, I could show up and do nothing more than right my name on the paper and pass the course with a C. I didn't even need to get half the points available on the exam to get a B in the class. So I was really torn about how much effort I wanted to put into the last exam.

I'm not used to writing with a pen, so the blue book exams were pretty tough on my hands. It took me two and half hours to complete the five exam questions, and my hands were killing me by the end. I probably could have put more down on the last few questions, but I was just tired of thinking about all of that stuff, and my hands hurt. I figured that I already had my B from the first few questions, and I had very little chance of getting my A-.

This course gave me a real distaste for the law. I don't feel that the judicial system is working properly, as it does not appear that the goal is to promote justice. Instead, it is a place where attorney's are encouraged to use every underhanded trick in the book to increase their odds of getting a favorable judge and jury, and then to bend the rules and push the interpretation of laws to the breaking point. I don't understand how this system can work. It just reaffirms my choice not to get into law earlier. Blech!

Full Screen Video on Second Monitor

For the longest time, I had been experiencing an issue with my laptop setup when playing videos. I have my laptop screen set as the primary monitor, and an LCD connected to the DVI port of the laptop set as the secondary monitor. The desktop is extended to the secondary monitor. Whenever I play videos using Windows Media Player 9, the video is displayed in a window on the primary screen, and full screen on the second monitor. If I drag the window to the second monitor, the primary monitor goes full screen and the second monitor gets the window. This was a minor nuisance, as I don't usually play videos, but it was a problem. Today I finally decided to hunt down the answer. I found that it had to do with the overlay settings for my NVidia graphics card. The overlay property for the card was set to automatically mirror video as an overlay on the other screen. Once I disabled the property, the full screen video was gone. I could still expand the WMP window to display full screen if I wanted, but I wasn't forced to see it on both screens.

If you are experiencing this issue as well, here are some step-by-step instructions on how to turn it off.

1. Right Click on your Desktop, and choose the Properties item
   
   
   Right-Click Desktop Menu
   
   
2. From the Display Properties Dialog, select the Settings Tab
   
   
   Display Properties Dialog Box
   
   
3. Click the Advanced button in the lower right corner
   
   
   Display Settings Tab
   
   
4. From the Advanced Settings Dialog box, choose the GeForce tab
   
   
   Advanced Settings Dialog Box
   
   
5. From the additional menu on the left, select the Overlay item
   
   
   GeForce Settings
   
   
6. On the Overlay Settings, notice that the Full Screen Device is set to Auto-Select.
   
   
   Overlay Settings
   
   
7. Change the Full Screen Device to Disabled
   
   
   Disabled Full Screen Device
   
   
8. Click the OK button
   
9. Click the OK button on the Display Properties Dialog box
   

Now when you play videos in Windows Media Player, the non-windowed screen will no longer play the video in full-screen mode. To revert to playing full screen, just go back through these instructions, and change the full screen device to Auto-Select.

Getting Closer

Jenn had another checkup today, and it looks like things are progressing towards a delivery. The baby still hasn't fully dropped into the pelvis, and Jenn hasn't dilated much, but the doc did say that she was about 50% effaced. The Dr. made sort of a funny comment. She said she would just love it if Jenn broke some membranes over the weekend. That is something you don't hear everyday! The doctor is still a little concerned about the size of our baby. She doesn't want Jenn to experience any more pain than necessary, so as soon as the baby is able to deliver, she will likely induce the delivery. It would be great if everything fell into place over the weekend, but from the sound of things, the delivery is still a couple of weeks off. We have another appointment on Tuesday to check on progress. I'll have another update for everyone then.

Game Crazy

I went game crazy this weekend. Jenn was going out shopping with her mom, and I had a list of things that I wanted to get done. I needed to get a pair of steel toed shoes for work, and I also wanted another pair of Columbia pants. I could get both at Galyan's. I needed a hair cut. I wanted a new body pillow, because Koby has the disgusting habit of drooling all over the one I have now. It is no fun to crawl into bed at night only to find a soaking wet, cold body pillow in your spot. Eeesh! I also wanted to get a GameBoy Player, which is a device that lets me play GameBoy games on my television screen.

I started out going to Great Clips, just down the road. They were having a $5.99 haircut deal, and it was an hour wait to get in. I put my name on the list, then headed to the bank for some cash. After robbing the bank, I dropped into the Target to find a body pillow. To my dismay, they don't stock them. The clerk said that they only stock them in the spring and fall, when college students are moving about. I thought that was pretty strange. I also stopped in at McVans Video Games. Jenn has been asking me about Super Mario Brothers, from the old Nintendo. I stopped in to see if they had either the original, or the GameBoy remake of it. I stuck out.

After my haircut, it was down to Galyan's, where I found a pair of steel toed shoes and a nice pair of pants. The pants have removable legs, so they can be shorts too. They are one of the few kinds of pants that can fit my enormous legs. The mall was crazy. The entire place was packed, and traffic in and out of the mall area was absurd. I scooted out of Galyan's, avoiding as much mall traffic as possible, and hopped over to BestBuy. I quickly found the GameBoy Player, but I was also side-tracked by a copy of the original Diablo for the PC for $9.99. I loved this game, so I decided to grab it. These were going on gift cards, so the money didn't bother me.

My next stop was at the EBGames store. This is where I got into real trouble. I found the Super Mario Brothers Deluxe game right away, which was the GameBoy version of SMB. Unfortunately, the clerk then let me know that I bought two used games, I could get one for free. Now you know I can't pass up on that deal. So I looked and looked, and I found a used copy of Dr. Mario, which is a puzzle game that I love. I also found a copy of Soul Caliber 2 for the GameCube. Soul Caliber is currently the most popular fighting game for the Cube, so I decided to give it a shot. Then the clerk told me that if I got a EBGames membership for $10, I could get 10% off of my used games and a free magazine subscription. I must have had sucker written all over my face that day.

I got home and had just too much fun the rest of the weekend. I installed Diablo and played that for something like 5 hours. I played Soul Caliber way into the night. I played Dr. Mario until my ears couldn't take that old time 8-bit music anymore. The next day, Jenn and I played some Soul Caliber, and I hooked up the GameBoy Player to play some Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga and Metroid Fusion. Other than spending too much time reading my law book, it was a fantastic Sunday. The snow was coming down, and we had a fire going. I'd like to have another five days in a row like that.

Woowoo

I'm a dork, and I can prove it. I just won 3rd place in a contest to name a video game from an obscure picture. The prize you ask? This crappy picture:

Shopping Trip

I went on a shopping trip this past weekend. I needed to get a couple of birthday gifts for Jenn, and I also wanted to look for a Gameboy Game. I wanted a game for the Gameboy because I figured there would be times in the hospital when Jenn and the baby would both be resting, and I couldn't sleep. I wanted something to keep me occupied. I know this is probably wishful thinking on my part, but you never know. Plus, it was a good excuse to go hunting for a game.
I read a bunch of reviews online, and it seems that Mario & Luigi : Superstar Saga was a good game to get. It is a role playing game (RPG) with Mario & Luigi center-stage working together. I like RPG games, and I've liked the majority of Super Mario Brothers games that I've played, so it sounded like a good deal to me. I went to the Castleton Mall first, as I wanted to make sure I got Jenn's birthday gifts before I did anything else. Once that was done, I checked into the Electronics Boutique at the mall. They had a really small selection of Gameboy Advance (GBA) games, and were sold out of Mario & Luigi : Superstar Saga (ML:SS). So then I headed over to BestBuy. The only copy they had was running in the GBA SP demo model. Otherwise, they were sold out as well. Next, I headed over to the Walmart. Once again, sold out, save for the demo model. Finally, I stopped at the new EBGames store. They had a copy left, and at a decent price too: $29.95. I'm pretty happy with Nintendo for pricing the GBA games as low as they do. It makes them a lot more accessible than the $50 GameCube games.
So I've played ML:SS for about an hour and a half, and it is a lot of fun! There characters have a lot of personality, and the game has that indescribable fun-ness that the Super Mario Brothers series is famous for. I even caught Jenn playing it for a few minutes the other night! So I may not end up with the time to play it, but I'm prepared in the case that it should happen.

Hectic

Life is getting more and more hectic. Here is a rundown of what I did yesterday

0700 - Alarm Went off
0725 - Got out of bed
0735 - Out of shower, getting dressed
0750 - Chugging breakfast (SlimFast) heading out door
0805 - Arrive at work
0815 - Retrieved first cup of coffee - begin checking e-mail
0845 - E-mail replies completed, start work on document revisions
0930 - Break for meeting with product vendor
1030 - Continue to next meeting to analyze what went wrong on last project
1130 - Break for lunch. Play three games of euchre. Have cup of noodle soup
1230 - Return to desk. Checkout Yahoo News, Slashdot, Fark, and the Nintendo forums
1330 - Resume work. Continue coding on new project software upgrade. Second cup of coffee.
1715 - Work day over. Get colleague and head to Windows User Group meeting
1800 - Arrive at IWUG meeting. Eat pizza and chat
1830 - Meeting starts. Discuss wireless networking
2015 - Meeting over, head home
2030 - Arrive home. Assemble new glider (rocking chair) for baby's room
2130 - Finish glider and dispose of box. Watch last half of CSI
2200 - Review glider with the wife, and find that it is good
2215 - Sign on to forums.
0030 - Think about getting some sleep.

Needless to say, it made for a really long day. I crawled into bed around 12:30am, but I didn't fall asleep until well past 2. I'm not sure what it was. I was hot, uncomfortable, the dog was lying next to me. The IWUG meeting was pretty informative. It gave me some ideas on how to protect my network, and how to find out if there are some attacks running against it.

New Addiction

I have a new vice: the Nintendo NSider Forums. Nintendo completely revamped their website, and enhanced the forums section of their site. Now, if you go and sign up for an account, you can read and post messages to fellow gamers. The site is focused on Nintendo products, but that is fine with me, as I spend most of my time on the GameCube lately. There are also some incentives to keep posting and reading messages. There is a ranking system that gives you an improved rank based on the number of messages you post, the time you spend online, the number of messages you read, and the number of message boards you read. I'm currently a Tektite, which is one of the critters you find early in the original Legend of Zelda game. I go by the username JadeMason, so if you get over there, do a search on that to find my messages. I have already progressed through the ranks of Goomba, Cappy, and Pirahna Plant. Next I'll be an Oktorok. Woohoo! I am such a dork. There are also some additional incentives to be active. As you increase in rank, Nintendo will send you different offers in the mail. In addition, if you get a certain amount of notariety on the boards as a good user, the staff at Nintendo may select you for Sage status. It is essentially an honor they give to people who post consistently, and post useful or pertinent information. It is a little shady on the details, but I think Sages get discounts on some games, and are encouraged to write reviews for Nintendo that may be quoted on boxes, or in print.
Lately, I've been spending more and more time on the boards. I would say that the majority of the folks there are young kids. Many of the messages are relatively brainless, and have very little substance. As an example, I must see the thread "Which Smash Brothers Character is the Best?" at least twice a day. It is a totally subjective question, and about 80% of the responses are "I like character X because he's da bomb!" Fortunately, there are enough intelligent people on the board that I can usually find an intelligent conversation pretty quickly. Not only that, but these folks are all video game addicts like myself. My current stats show that I have been on the message boards for 2102 minutes since 12/29/2003, and I have posted 187 messages. So I'm spending a little over 3 hours each day logged into the boards, and I post a new message about once every 11 minutes that I am online. Yep, it is like my very own personal form of crack. :-P

USA Baby

Way way back in August or September Jenn and I went looking for some baby furniture. We knew that we needed a crib and a changing station. The first store we stopped in was pretty scary. Then we went over to USA Baby. They had a nice selection of furniture, and a lot of cute sheets and blankets. We selected a crib, a changing station, and a glider. We got to the register, and a guy smacking some chewing gum took our order. This guy was your stereotypical greaseball salesman with his hair all slicked back and chomping on his gum. He told us it would be six to eight weeks to receive the furniture. In November, we got a call to let us know that our furniture was ready, except for the glider. We went and picked up our stuff. We loved it! The crib and changing station looked great. We asked about the glider and they said it was still on order. At the end of November, still no glider. So Jenn gave them a call to see what was going on. We got a message back that said that the company in California that manufactures the glider never received the Purchase Order. The message said that they would re-fax the order and put a rush on it. They said it may still take six to eight weeks. That was cutting it pretty close to the due date, but still okay. So Jenn went into USA Baby on Sunday with our friend Karla to pick up Karla's bedding (she is pregnant as well) and our mobile. Jenn asked about the status of the glider. The clerk said that she didn't have any updates since the PO was issued, but that she would call on Monday to find out. Today, Jenn gets a call from the clerk. They've lost the PO!!! Again?!?! Evidently, even though the message said that they were going to re-issue the Purchase Order, they never got around to it. So for the last month, they've known that our glider wasn't on order, but they didn't do anything about it. Jenn was assured, again, that they would put the order in and put a rush on it. The attendant said that we could probably get the glider in two to three weeks. Even if they meet the two week deadline, that is putting us dangerously close to Jenn's due date of Feb. 18th. Not only that, but why have they bungled this order so badly? We've never gotten a really good vibe from the staff at USA Baby. One girl working the counter was wearing skin-tight leopard print, just what every expecting mother wants to see. A coworker of mine related a story about how he went in at the end of the day on Sunday during a one day sale. The clerk was closing the store, but assured him that if he came back tomorrow, he would receive the discount. So he dutifully went back the next day and spoke to the same clerk, who acted as if he had never seen him before!! So from now on, we are going to avoid USA Baby, and I would recommend that you do the same.

Video Games

I'm a video game freak. I know, a real shocker to any of you that know me. Over the Christmas holiday, I logged some serious hours on the GameCube and PC, playing several games. I finally finished Metroid Prime. I love that game. It was a huge! I received it for Christmas last year, and I played it quit a bit. I got right up to the last boss, but then got frustrated when I couldn't beat him right away. I stopped playing it for a while, but then in December I started a new game. This time I got all the way through. However, now I have a new difficulty level to defeat!! Woohoo, more game time :-D In addition, I received a couple of new games for Christmas: SSX3 and Halo. I loved SSX Tricky, so I was really excited to start playing 3. I wasn't disappointed. The game has a lot of the same mechanics as the last one, with a couple of new maneuvers thrown in for good measure. In addition, this time you can race down the entire mountain. Before, you could race down a single track, but then would need to restart. Now, all of the race tracks chain together to form one enormous track. My best time down the entire mountain is just under 25 minutes. That's right, 25 minutes of continuous racing down the slope. I don't know how the developers pulled it off, but it is really amazing. I was in the habit of starting playing at around 10pm (when Jenn went to bed) and crawling back up to bed around 3:30 or 4 in the morning. Fortunately, I could still sleep in until 11 or even noon.
I haven't played Halo much, but what I have seen is pretty fun as well. This is a game that I have on the PC, that originally came from the XBox. It is a lot like Half Life, only you have teammates that help you out. Sometimes they aren't much help, as they tend to shoot each other in a crossfire. They do make good alternative targets for the enemies when you are trying to make a quick escape though.
So now I have quite a collection of games that I have not yet completed.

• SSX3
  
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
  
• Neverwinter Nights
  
• Halo
  

I know that when the little one arrives, I'm going to be much more interested in spending time with him/her than on the arcade. So I'm going to do my best to get as far as I can in the next few weeks. This is also good practice at sleep deprivation, which several people have told me I will experience with the child.

SSX3 threw in a really interesting wrinkle though. I beat all of the racing challenges with a gold medal. On my last race, however, I earned a Platinum medal. Hmmm... Platinum, what could this mean. I went online and learned that Platinum medals are earned for getting an outrageously good score. Evidently there are some really high goals set for earning them. This is going to make it much more difficult to finish this game in time. I must dedicate myself to my purpose.... :-P

Online Banking

My bank is terrible at online banking. I've been trying to make my mortgage payments online, and it has been nothing but a headache. My checking, savings, and mortgage are all through the same bank, so I thought this would be a simple matter. Oh no. I was so wrong. My normal mortgage payment is close to $1100. I normally like to pay $1450 so that I can pay down the principal faster. During the first month of our mortgage, I sent a physical check to my bank for $1450. This worked great. I saw online that my account was credited with a payment for that month, and that the extra was against the principal. Perfect! Later that same month, we received our escrow balance from our previous lender, and decided to apply all of it to the principal of our mortgage. I went online and did the balance transfer: $1800 from checking to mortgage. I thought, "Yeah, our principal is going to go down a lot!" Wrong! Instead of applying $1800 to the principal, $1100 was credited as the following month's payment, and the rest went to the principal. I though, "Well, that is close, and now we can skip a month's payment." I would really have liked to have the principal paid down, but I really wasn't too concerned.
So two months later, we decided to make a large payment so that the principal would get paid down again. We paid $2400 this time, online yet again. A week later I checked our mortgage info. Grrrr!!! They had counted that as TWO payments, and only applied $200 to the principal. I was pretty irate with that, so I called the bank. The operator had no idea why that happened, but suggested that in the future I pay less than two months payments in a single payment, and that it would get creditied properly. This meant making two payments a month, but since it was online, that would be easy enough. He backed out the transaction and gave us our single month's payment, and then $1300 against the principal. Okay, so now we should have our normal monthly principal payments, plus the $2350 of extra principal we had paid for the year.
So now it is December, and we have a January payment coming up. I go online, yet again, and make a payment of $1450. This should be no problem, right? The payment amount is less than two months of payments, and I have not yet made another payment this month. So this should go through just fine. Today I checked our mortgage info. Next payment due: January 1, 2004!!! What!!! That can't be right. So I check the transaction history for the mortgage. All of the $1450 that I paid was put towards principal. What the hell is going on?!?! So I call the bank again. The operator is just as confused as I am. I asked her if there was any way I could specify if I was making a principal payment or a normal payment, and she went to talk to her supervisor. The answer: no. Evidently the transactions are entered online, but then are processed by hand by someone at the bank. That doesn't seem efficient at all! So each person who processes the payment has to make a judgement call on what you wanted to do with your payment. This person saw my payment, and decided that, since I had already paid my December mortgage, that this payment must be principal only. Grr!!! The operator suggested that I wait until the payment due date to make my online payment. My concern there is that 1) I'm going to incur a late fee, and 2) my credit rating is going to get smashed. She eased my mind a bit by telling me that I had a 15 day grace period to make a payment, and if it is done within that time, no mark will be placed on my credit. She also said that credit reporting is not done until the following month, so if there is a problem, I can always call back.
I really wish these folks would get their system in order. They need to clean up the interface so that I can specify how much is principal, if it is a normal payment, and how many payments to spread it across. It is ridiculous that this is not automated. The bank should not be making a best guess each time I make a payment. And I definitely should not have to call the bank every month to straighten out their errors!

Piracy

Piracy is a very hot topic right now. The music industry is actively pursuing those who illegally download their products. The MPAA is running ads encouraging people not to promot video piracy. Video game companies have developed complicated measures of piracy protection. Most of these methods fail to stop the growing tide of digital piracy. I know that I used to be guilty of the same crime. In college, I didn't think twice about downloading a CD from a file sharing system, or searching for a serial number, password, or crack for a new video game. Sometimes these products would be available in our dorm before they were released to the public. I thought I was really clever to get all of this stuff for free.

My attitude regarding piracy has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. Our office used to run a server that everyone would copy their MP3 collections to. A lot of the songs were from CDs that we owned, but it was difficult to tell. Then I started to read articles about companies that were sued for millions of dollars for keeping just such a system. Ours was promptly dismantled. Then I started to think about the industry that I was in. I was in the business of selling software. We create custom software for our customers. Due to the nature of our product, we generally do not attempt to install any protection measures, as there is very little desire by most to steal what we make. Still, we make software, and if our customers were able to take it from us without paying for it, it would really kill us. After thinking about that for a while, I decided to delete any software from my PC that I did not have a legal right to. This got rid of a lot of games, but I found that open source software provided a lot of the same applications and some of the games that I liked for free. And open source software was legal. I had a legal copy of Windows NT, and a legal copy of Office 97. As much as I despise Microsoft, I felt better about running a copy that I had a right to rather than one that I had stolen. Even if I did not own those, I could always run a version of Linux and Open Office freely and legally.

The next thing I did was to delete all of the music that I had downloaded from file sharing networks. I miss a lot of that music, but I still have a large collection of music that I really enjoy. My stand on downloading music now is that, it is okay to download a song if your intent is to discover new music that you might be interested in. However, downloading entire albums is not okay. Just as you wouldn't walk into a record store and steal the physical album, you should not download the album from the web and think it is okay. Many people are convinced that, because it is easy, and because you never leave your house, then you can't really be stealing. That is wrong. If you are downloading music that you have no right to, and you never intend to purchase the music, you are stealing. Just as you can go to a store and listen to any track, I have no issue with someone downloading a track from a CD to listen to see if they like it. If you do like it, then buy the CD. Or, if you just like the one track, open iTunes and pay 99 cents for it. Lots of companies creating iTunes clones which are making it cheap and easy to download the music you like legally. There is not excuse for downloading libraries of music and feeling as though you have no responsibility to pay for it.

What really disappoints me are the people who are now pirating movies. We had an intern this past year who downloaded The Hulk and Matrix Reloaded before they ever hit the theaters. A couple of people that it was really cool, and watched the movie. Movies are so different from music. Music you can listen to while you drive, work, or exercise. You can mix your favorite tracks into a personal CD, or compile a library and listen to it over and over. Movies are much more intimate. As the recent issue of Wired points out, you wouldn't sit down and create a mix DVD of all of your favorite chase scenes, and play that while you work. Downloading movies takes a long, long time. The files are huge. Not only that, but usually the quality is very poor. You end up with some joker in a theater with a handycam, or else a pre-release version of the movie with editing markers all over the place.

Now that I am taking a course on law, it has become crystal clear for me: downloading copyrighted material that you do not have a right to is wrong. Shoplifting a DVD, a CD, or a video game from BestBuy is the same as downloading those items from the web. It costs $0.99 to download a song from iTunes, or $9.99 for an entire album. Those prices are sure to fall. If you really want the disc itself, checkout eBay or SecondSpinfor a cheap used copy. That is legal, and it gets you the official disc and contents. If you want a movie, go to BlockBuster and pay $4 for a new release, or checkout NetFlix For $20 a month, you can get unlimited movies from NetFlix with no late fee. And those prices are sure to fall as well. In short, if you are holding off on going to see a movie, or buying a CD, because you know that you can get it on the web, you should realize that something is wrong.

Car

PepBoys took care of my car yesterday. Everytime I called to get a quote on the work, I got a different number. I was going to be happy with any repair that was under $1K. Hare had quoted $1250 at the minimum, and originally asked for $1450 for the repair. That's just ridiculous. The average of the quotes from PepBoys was around $400. The final amount I paid was $782. I wish it were lower, but I feel better about that number than the others. The break down goes

Description	Cost
Rack & Pinion	300.00
Rack & Pinion Labor	170.00
High Pressure Hose	110.00
High Pressure Hose Labor	40.00
Return Hose	60.00
Return Hose Labor	100.00
Alignment	60.00
Tax	32.00
TOTAL	$872.00

I complained a bit that I could have found the Rack & Pinion at Advanced Auto Parts for $220, so they gave me a 10% discount on the entire cost. That was about the same as the difference in the cost of the parts. So my final bill was something like $782. I'm just glad to have it all done with. The car drives a bit more stiffly than it did before. It is sort of hard to describe. Driving the Bravada is very smooth. The power steering in that car makes driving effortless. I have to use quite a bit more effort in my car now. It is not bad, it is just different from the way it was before. I'm sure that I will get used to it within a few weeks of driving. I need this car to hold together for another three or four years before I can start thinking about getting a new car for myself. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'm Really Tired

I keep thinking of the new Saturn car commercial where the bad drivers warn you about their driving. The first person says "My husband is going to cut you off when the light turns green." The next one says, "I'm driving with my knees." Finally, the last guy looks over, very haggard, and says, "I'm really tired". I crack up every time I see that last one. Right now, I totally identify with it though. I played volleyball last night, and I didn't get the gym closed until 9:30. The players keep wanting to play later and later. I'm going to have to start kicking them out. Then, I woke up at 4:40am this morning so I could get ready to go to Lafayette for work. We had an end of project meeting on-site scheduled for 7am, and I had to meet the crew at our office to travel together at 5:45. So I'm dragging right now. I've had three cups of coffee, but I think I am beyond the rescuing reach of coffee. I'm just getting the jitters. "I'm really tired"
On the upside, I get to leave work an hour earlier if I want to. Our core hours run until 4pm, so I must stay until at least then. Then I can go home, play with the dog, and pass out on the couch.

Solved!!!

Wooohoooo!!! I have finally put together the evil, horrible, outrageously difficult puzzle that my mom found for me last Christmas!! The picture on the left is of the pyramid, finally solved. I've been struggling with this thing for a long time. When my mom gave it to me, she said it was a very difficult puzzle. She and Jenn had already taken it apart, and it did not have the solution. I played with it for a couple of weeks, and to Jenn's infinite delight, I was not able to solve it. Usually when I get a puzzle, I have it solved in a matter of minutes. This one truly humbled me. My friend Jason is also very good at puzzles. When he stopped by, I let him take a crack at it. It stumped his as well. Double-joy for Jenn! I was so frustrated with this puzzle. Not only was the answer not forthcoming, but just getting partial solutions to hold together was difficult. The pieces are made out of some type of plastic or acrylic. They slide very easily. If the structure is not sound, the whole pyramid comes crashing down, mid-construction. This can be very frustrating when you have been concentrating on a particular formation for a couple of hours. Below is a picture of the puzzle with all of the pieces laid out.


Midway through this year I decided to give up and just search for the web for the solution. The web has everything right? wrong. After endless googling, all I could find was that the puzzle was made by Kadon, and sold through their website GamePuzzles Worse yet, they no longer sell this puzzle. The best I could find were a couple of old images which had not been removed from the site yet. They still sell the pyramid puzzle with four length side, but not the five length side like mine.

I was starting to make headway on a solution though. I had come up with a couple of simple rules that I knew I had to follow when forming a solution. The 'L' shaped pieces were the key. Due to the 90 degree angle on the piece, they could only fit into the puzzle in a particular way. If you were looking down on the puzzle, and you placed one of these pieces in, the section that sticks up must fall away from the point of the triangle. That probably doesn't make any sense unless you are looking at the puzzle. Also, some pieces have a nice fit. For instance, the piece shaped like a 'C' fits very nicely with the 'L' shaped piece, when placed in a particular way. I took this as a sign. After trying what seemed like countless combinations with the 'L' pieces, I finally found the one that works. Yeah me!

After some further research on the web, the best I could find were two math wizards that also own this puzzle. They each documented their solution, but I don't know if I understand how to read their solution! In any case, I'm releived to have this challenge behind me. Now I get to be the one to enjoy as other people struggle with this puzzle.

Thieves

Have you ever noticed how much a mechanic's coveralls look a lot like a prison jump suit? I'm beginning to think that they mean the same thing. After doing some research into my car's problem(s), I've discovered that Hare is making an attempt to seriously gouge me. My car does have a problem. It is bleeding power steering fluid all over my garage. I have to put a quart of fluid in every week to keep it from running dry. When I took my care to Hare, they said that my power steering gear had blown all of the seals, and that I would need a new steering gear and hoses. They quoted me $1430. After recovering from my heart attack, I started looking into this more.

After consulting with my mechanicly inclined coworker, he concluded that I needed a Rack & Pinion. I took a look at Advanced Auto Parts and NAPA, and both had rack & pinion units for under $300 for my car. The parts portion of the Hare quote was $1000, so this was a huge savings. So I called Hare, and they said that they would do the install for me for $550. That's not bad, I'd cut my costs in half.

Then I started wondering if I could get a better deal on the labor. I gave PepBoys a call. They said that they could perform the install for $232, and would charge me a $75 fee to return the core. Awesome! My costs have ben halved yet again. So then I asked what the cost would be to get my part from PepBoys. The rep told me that they did not carry the rack for my car, but they used a local company to refurbish them. The rep said that, if I could afford to lose my car overnight, they could have the rack refurbished for $130, bringing my total cost of repair to $362.

So with a little research, I went from a breath taking, Touretts inducing $1430 repair charge, to a much more manageable $360 repair charge. I'm so glad I didn't just give Hare the nod to fix my car. It is really sad that I have to work this hard to get a fair deal for fixing my car.

Continued Diagnosis

I've done some follow-up diagnosis on my car. It looks like I need a new Rack & Pinion, and maybe some new power steering hoses. I ordered the Hayne's repair guide for my car from Amazon. It had quite a bit of good information in there. The pictures and descriptions helped me to understanding what I was looking at, and what needed replaced. I also consulted with my coworker, who used to work as a mechanic. He agreed with the Hare mechanic that I needed a new rack & pinion, but the price was outrageous. We visited NAPA Online and Parts America to get a better idea of the real cost of the parts. The Hare mechanic told me that the parts were going to run between $800 and $1000 based on if I got the GM part or a third party part. NAPA had the third party part for $300, and Parts America had the same part for $250. Hare was also asking $425 for 5 hours of labor. I'm not sure I can really argue the labor, but a markup of more than 100% on the parts makes me angry. Another thing I learned is the term "core" as it applies to replacement parts. The part from NAPA was $300, with a $160 core fee. The core fee is returned if I send NAPA the rack and pinion that gets replaced. I'm sure that Hare was going to charge me the full price of the part plus core, and not give me the core deposit back when they sent the manufacturer my replaced part. What a bunch of hosers!!!

Pirates of the Caribbean

We picked up a couple of flicks from the Blockbuster next door tonight: Pirates of the Caribbean and 28 Days Later. Tonight we watched Pirates. We both liked it! It reminded me quite a bit of the The Mummy in the way that wry humor was woven into the dialogue. It was very clever. The special effects were very impressive as well. I was very surprised to learn that this is a Disney film. Usually Disney is a little shy about making a movie with this much violence. Johnny Depp was actually watchable in this film as well. After Sleepy Hollow and The Ninth Gate (never, ever, upon pain of death watch The Ninth Gate), I was pretty sure I never wanted to watch another film with Depp in it. This film saved him from that fate. Depp seems to be hit or miss in film. I liked Edward Scissorhands, but he didn't talk much in that film either. What's Eating Gilbert Grape was a fantastic film, although very depressing.


Orlando Bloom also plays a role in the film. For Lord of the Rings fans, you know him better as Legolas. It probably wasn't too much of a stretch to go from playing the elf to playing the Will Turner. Both are somewhat conflicted reluctant heros. Keira Knightley plays the love interest. She has a few good lines, but she spends most of the movie with her lips pouted out like a fish out of water. I'm not sure if they shot her full of collagen before the film, but at times it looks like she is incapable of closing her mouth.


I'm getting side tracked though. In all, I thought the movie was very good. If you haven't seen it yet, I would recommend it.

Kill My Car

This has been a rough week. I had the whole issue with AT&T Wireless concerning my cell phone. Then I had to straighten out a payment with the bank. We made a very large payment, and wanted the overage to go towards the principal. Instead, the bank counted it as two payments, with the excess against principal. So I had to call them to get that straightened out. And now, my car is becoming a pain in the butt again.

Last Friday I took my car in for an oil change. The low coolant alarm had been sounding intermittently. It would come on for a second, then go off. Sometimes right as I started the car, other times while I was driving. I checked the coolant level, and it was fine. So at the oil change, I asked them to inspect the wiring harness. They told me everything was fine with the harness, and that they could replace the sensor for $55. Since it wasn't a real problem, I told them I would just monitor the coolant level. As I drove out of the shop, I saw that the light wasn't coming on. It still hasn't gone off, so I'm suspecting that it was just a loose wiring harness after all.

So Tuesday morning I pull my car into work, and as I turn the wheel as I'm parking, I hear this faint buzzing sound. It sounded sort of like an electric motor revving up. I didn't pay any attention to it though. That night, as I pulled out of the parking lot, the sound was much much worse. Every time I turned the wheel, the whole car groaned. I was pretty sure that it had to be a power steering problem. When I got home I saw that there was a big puddle of red oil in the garage. My car has been leaking power steering fluid like a sieve! I thought it was very suspicious that this would happen right after a visit to the mechanic.

I had Wednesday off of work, so I took the car back to Hare Chevrolet. I explain to the mechanic what was going on, and he takes it back into the garage. Over 45 minutes later he comes back out with a sour look on his face. He explains that the power steering gear has blown out all of its seals. I told him that it was pretty coincidental that this would happen right after an oil change. He said it was just an "unfortunate coincidence". Whatever. He took me back into the garage to have a look at the car. It was up on the lifts, and I could see that power steering fluid was all over the place. He showed me the parts that he was talking about, and explained that the seals could not be repaired, but that the entire power steering gear would need to be replaced. GM had the part for total replacement cost of $1430, or I could get a third party part for $1200. According to Kelley Blue Book, my car is hardly worth more than $5,000. I've already spent over $2,000 on my car this year replacing all of the tires, replacing a power steering valve, and replacing two bent rims. To keep this heap running I've got to pour another $1400 into it!!! No way!

Needless to say, I was not in the best mood for the rest of the day. Rather than having the service performed, I had them top up the steering fluid levels. The car is still going to leak like mad, but I can get a bunch of fluid from a parts shop for fairly cheap. The largest container at Pep Boys was $2.99. I figure that I can just leak oil for cheaper than I can replace the part. I'm going to have another mechanic take a look at this before I have the fix done. I may also try to pull one over on a car dealer by just trading it in. New cars cost just as much as used cars, with all of the discounts we receive. If I can get a dealer to not notice the leak, maybe I can get a good deal. Maybe....

Niece got Game

Nadia is on the web! Our Kate and Travis have put together a site to journal Nadia's development over at http://kateandnadia.blogspot.com. She is certainly a coy little girl. We saw her at Thanksgiving, and you could tell that she was happy, but she didn't want to smile and let on that she was happy. What a little flirt! It will be a lot of fun watching her grow. And pretty soon she is going to have a friend at these get togethers!

New Class - The Ethical and Legal Environment of Business

I've started my next class at IWU: ADM 518 - The Ethical and Legal Environment of Business. The facilitator for the class is Rod Haywood (big guy in the middle). This class is a little intimidating, but it looks like it is going to be a ton of fun. The reading is pretty tough. Nothing but hundreds of dry pages on the law, with a few verses from the Bible thrown in for good measure. Rod makes the class though. When I first arrived for class, he was standing at the front, almost brooding. But as soon as class started, he lightened the whole room. The entire class was laughing at times. He kept the mood very light, and presented the material in such a way that it was interesting. I thought the case studies were interesting to begin with, but he was even making the defintions and such fun. This is a huge relief. Our last instructor was, how should I say, a bore! He just read the book to us, then read us the book answers. This is going to be much, much better. The first thing Rod did in class was to cancel all of the writing assignments. There were assignments due with each class, and it is a huge relief to have them removed. Now I can just concentrate on the reading, and try to understand it. The faciliator made the tests sound pretty tough, but hopefully I can pick this stuff up quickly. I wouldn't want to damage my 4.0!

AT&T Wireless Sucks

I've just about had it with AT&T Wireless. Back in May of this year, I aggravated Jenn to no end as I attempted to find the best wireless plan out there. My work had mandated that we all get cell phones, and was willing to reimburse us for $20 of the expense each month. For those who already had cell phones, this was a boon. For me, however, it was just a boo!!! I didn't have a cell phone, and I didn't want one. We had a great deal on Jenn's phone from Verizon, at just $20 per month for 100 minutes. Unfortunately, they weren't offering that deal any longer. I decided to look around, and settled on the AT&T Wireless National GSM plan which had 300 minutes each month for $29.99. It included free incoming text messages, free voicemail, free call waiting. It seemed like a great deal. I added the mMode internet access for $2.99 a month so I could play with that as well.


And thus began my slow painful torture by AT&T. I received my first months bill, and I only had 200 minutes per month. I scratched my head. I was absolutely positive that the web site advertised 300 minutes per month. So I gave my friends at ATTWS a call. Oh, their mistake. The original plan had 200 minutes, but the web offer provided for 100 more. So the operator not only added the missing minutes, but also gave me an additional 60 minutes for the next month for my trouble. Woohoo, I thought. Way to go customer service.


Then in July, I received my bill and it had a $26 activation fee. What the hell?!?! I had signed up for the 2 year service agreement, which indicated that the activation fee would be waived. Another call to my friends at AT&T. Somehow, they had lost my signature for the two year agreement. The $26 was the activation fee that automatically was given when the two year was not received, and the one year service agreement was enacted instead. The operator offered to send me a new 2 year agreement, and assured me that if I filled it out and sent it in, the $26 fee would be credited to my account. Okay, accidents happen. No biggie.


So I'm on my way back from a client one day in July, and I look at my phone. Instead of the big AT&T Wireless network indicator at the top, it says Cingular. That's odd. Maybe they have an agreement with Cingular that I can call on their network now. Another call to AT&T. The operator tells me that yes, AT&T and Cingular have entered into a roaming agreement to cover areas of Indiana that the current AT&T network does not reach. Awesome! Now I can make calls from more areas right! And I have the national plan with the no roaming, no long distance gurauntee, so no extra charges, right? WRONG! Cingular charges a $0.75 per minute roaming fee while on their network. I just about blew water through my nose (I was taking a sip at the time). Wow! That is an outrageous per minute fee. I guess I'll just have to watch myself to make sure that I'm calling from the AT&T tower, and only use the Cingular tower in an emergency. No problem the operator says, my phone has the ability to choose the tower to talk to, when multiple choices are available. Okay, not a great situation, but still not bad.


I start traveling to Lafayette on a daily basis for a project in August, and I notice that, for the majority of the trip, I'm on the Cingular network. That sucks, because if anyone from work calls, I'm going to get charged roaming. I'll just cross my fingers..... Crap it's ringing!! I had over $7.00 in roaming fees that first month alone. Suckage! But I notice something else on my bill. AT&T Voice Dial service has been added. What the crap!?!? My phone has built in voice recognition, I don't need that service. I saw that the invoice was credited for the same amount as the service fee ($3.99), so I thought, well at least I can remove it and not be hurt by it. Another cheery call to what are becoming my enemies at AT&T. Operator person is more than happy to remove the service, and can't understand why it was added in the first place. In any case, my account has been changed, and the October bill I receive in November should show that.


Ahh, sweet November. Should be a repreive from my monthly wrestling match with AT&T right? No, they got lonely and decided to do something else to get me to call. I receive my bill (again, in excess of $45 on a plan of $29.99), and I not only spy the Voice Dialing charge, but now they have added Text Messaging as well! Grrr...... Speed dial AT&T. "Due to high call volume, there is a long wait to get an operator. The current wait is.....10 minutes". Blood.... pressure.....rising...... Must... control.... rage...... So after 10 minutes of playing on the web waiting for an answer, I get Chevon. Poor Chevon. Immediately after answering the phone, she goes into a coughing, sneezing, hacking fit. Evidently she has a cold. I hope they don't share headsets. Wait a minute, YES I DO! I explain to Chevon the myriad of problems I have had on my account. I tell her that I don't want VoiceDial, which I was charged $0.77 for this month (who knows where that came from). I don't want Text Messaging, I never did! I'm also tired of the mMode internet access, which I never use. A few sniffles and sneezes later, Chevon takes a look at my account, and can't figure out why I've been getting these weird charges. She then laughs and says "Yeah, we have a few thousand account change forms to work through today. This happens all the time." Chevon, let me tell just how reassuring that is, that this service slamming is a known and epidemic problem for AT&T. Grr.... Chevon puts me on hold several times (Her computer is slow today you know) and works through crediting my account and removing the services. When she is done, she has credited my account for $6.55 worth of monthly services I either never asked for, didn't use, or don't want. She assures me that they will not show up again either. Thanks Chevon, go get a tissue.


If you are in the market for a cell phone, do not, I repeat, DO NOT get an AT&T Wireless GSM plan. I spend more time on the Cingular network than I do on the AT&T network. I guess it is a small blessing that the contract was shortened from 2 years to just one. In May of next year, I'll probably be switching my services over to Cingular. I can use the same phone, and they have better coverage in all of the areas that I travel to.

Lottery Scam

Every once in a while, I receive a forward from a relative or someone afraid of a new internet virus, or claiming that if you forward a message that a charity will get a dollar. These are almost always hoaxes. Then there are the more criminal Nigerian E-mail scams, where the sender claims to have some money to move, and needs your help. I usually just discard those as well. But today, I received a lottery hoax. I've copied the message below:

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Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 18:16:37 +0000 (GMT)
From: "internationallottouk1" Add to Address Book
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!
To: internationallottouk1@telstra.com
Message-id:
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: iPlanet Messenger Express 5.2 HotFix 1.14 (built Oct 29 2003)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-language: en
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Content-disposition: inline
X-Accept-Language: en
Priority: normal
Content-Length: 1737





INTERNATIONAL LOTTO UK.
IL 9001 SANGRIHAM COURT,
ABINGER GROVE,
SE45TS.


FROM: THE DESK OF THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT,
REF:EE/EGS/16-DD2751144 AND BATCH NO:53/1014/NBM.

ATTENTION: Sir/Madam,
RE/AWARD NOTIFICATION

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today, 2nd of DECEMBER, 2003,
of winners of THE INTERNATIONAL LOTTO PROGRAMS held on the 4TH NOVEMBER, 2003
as part of our END of the year bonanza.

You or your company, attached to ticket number 034-1416-4612-750, with serial
number 6521-11 drew the lucky numbers 31-51-22-24-39-43, and consequently won
the lottery in category B.

You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of US$2,500,000 in cash
credited to file REF:EE/EGS/16-DD2751144

This is from total prize money of US$12,500,000.00 shared among 5 winners in
this category. All participants were selected through a computer balloting system
drawn from 96,000 names from Middle East, Asia, Africa, Canada, Europe and
North America and Oceania as part our International Promotions Program, which is
conducted annually.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Your fund is now deposited with EQUITY TRUST ENTERPRISES LIMITED , a security
House insured in your name. Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask
that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been
processed and your money remitted to your account. This is part of our
security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of
this program.

We hope with a part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high
stakes US$1.3 billion International Lottery.

To begin your claim, please contact your claims agent;

MR. LAWRENCE SMITH
EQUITY TRUST ENTERPRISES LIMITED,
LONDON,
TEL/FAX:+447092013604
SATELLITE PHONE: +8821646685846.
EMAIL: lawrencesmith7@zwallet.com
lawrencesmith7@doramail.com

for due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account
of your choice.

Remember, you must contact your claims agent not later than 31st of DECEMBER,
2003. After this date, all funds will be returned as unclaimed. All
correspondences to MR.LAWRENCE SMITH, either by fax or email, should have this EMAIL sent
along with it and also, your FULL ADDRESS, YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE and your
EMAIL ADDRESS to which this email is sent, should be clearly and BOLDLY WRITTEN
IN YOUR RESPONSE with your claims agent.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember
to quote your reference and batch numbers in every one of your correspondences
with your agent. Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, do
inform your claims agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our
promotions program.

Sincerely,

CAROLINE JENSEN.
THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
THE INTERNATIONAL LOTTO uk.

N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to
disqualification. Please do not reply to this mail. Contact your claims agent.






----------------
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Yeah, that seems pretty authentic. First red flag: I've never entered an international lottery. Ever. But somehow, I've won one!! Yeah me! Second red flag: They never used my name. Somehow, the lottery knows the e-mail address of the lottery winner, but they don't know my name. Hmmm... I'm still ecstatic that I won the lottery, but that's a head scratcher. Third red flag: I'm getting an e-mail about my winnings. Hmmm.... why wouldn't they call me on the phone? Oh well, at least they notified me right! That was downright gracious of the lottery to do that. Uh-oh, red flag number 4: I need to contact a collection agent. I would think that I would need to report to a lottery office. Not an agent. Especially an agent who is using e-mail addresses zWallet and DoraMail. Hmm.... the collection agent has an e-mail address at the Doraemon fan site. Yeah, that makes sense.

Okay people. I'm gonna say this once: You are not lucky!!! Life is unfair! Bad people are out there attempting to prey on naive people. When you receive an e-mail claiming that you have millions coming your way, throw it out. It is a hoax. If you don't believe, take at least two minutes to try to verify ANY information in the e-mail you received. Do a google search on hoaxes with the title of the e-mail. On my first search, the number one hit led to a warning site on internet scams. It specifically discussed this scam. The e-mail I received matches their example almost word for word. For dupes who follow up on this e-mail, the person at the e-mail address then attempts to get you to send your bank account number so they can "wire your winnings to the account". Whoops, they must have accidentally put a minus sign in front of those winnings, because your account is now mysteriously empty!! So even after all of my warnings, if you still think that somehow you are the exception, please, please, create a new and empty bank account before sending out the account number. I would hate to think that you lost your life savings over one of these stupid scams.

So the moral of the story is, don't believe everything you receive in your e-mail.