Month: November 2007

WARNING: Spoilers contained in discussion below…

So I don’t know if any have you been reading some of the spoilers on the net about the forthcoming movie, but it seems its going to involve time travel of some sort, what do you trekkies think about that?

So 3 or 4 months ago, when we didn’t have the cash, a Nintendo Wii was easy to find. But now with people starting to shop for the holidays, they are out of stock EVERYWHERE.

Here’s what’s bizarre. Right now, on gamestop.com, I can buy Guitar Hero III for the Wii for $89.99 including the controller, with $10 shipping and an additional $5 handling charge due to size. On eBay, they are going for around $125 plus $20 or more shipping & handling! I can order a Wii bundle with the console itself costing the retail price of $250, yet on eBay naked Wii consoles are selling for $350+.

WTF? How does this price gouging work when it’s available all over the place? And how do I capitalize on this sort of demand without being stuck with hardware myself?

So it is Monday.

The last week seemed to become one big blur. Wednesday last week my wife took our 5 year old into the doctors office because she had a cold that had been hanging on for about a week and the little boy across the street had just been diagnosed with Strep. So we thought it a good idea to have Katelynn checked out since they go to the same school and the school has a reputation for illnesses like this to get around.

Michelle and Katelynn went to the Dr.’s office on Wednesday morning and during the triage they heard a “crackling” sound in her lungs that they didn’t like. They hooked her up to a “pulse ox” machine to check her blood oxygen levels and when they were reading 84% they decided that she needed to go to the hospital for a more thorough evaluation (x-rays).

After the tests (and a few hours) at the pediatric emergency room, Katelynn was diagnosed with Pneumonia. The couple days that followed were pretty traumatic for her since she has always been a pretty healthy kid. She was given an IV and admitted to the pediatric unit. We were there for a total of 3 days. It was a tough stay for the whole family.

The rooms in the pediatric unit were nice. They had a bed for both the patient and the family member who was staying the night. The rooms were set up for one family, so we didn’t have to share (which I thought was a big bonus). I had the toughest time with the feeling of helplessness.

I have an issue with being a control freak. I have gotten a lot better, but the hospital stay really put me to the test. I hate feeling helpless and especially when it comes to the kids. It didn’t really hit me till day 2 when it was just Katelynn and I in the room watching the Disney channel and she reached over and grabbed my hand and told me that it would be okay. Hmph – I hate feeling helpless.

We were able to bring her home Saturday late-afternoon. A nice Birthday gift for her since Saturday was her 6th birthday.

She is not completely out of the woods yet. She has to take it easy and recuperate. She has her share of medicines that she has to take for the next week or so, but in the end I am happy that we are on the trail to recovery.

Today is the holiday observation of Veteran’s Day. For those who have served, thank you. For those who have served and fallen, I am grateful and saddened that you are no longer with us. For those — like me — who have not served at all, let us remember the vets who defend our liberty.

The list of fallen soldiers at http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/alphabetical.php is sobering and worthwhile to browse for a bit.

I ran across an interesting site today advocating banning male circumcision prior to the age of consent:

http://www.mgmbill.org/faq.htm

What’s interesting to me is that it’s already illegal to do this to girls in the US under the age of 18. What would be the political, social, and psychological ramifications of illegalizing infant male circumcision?

I just saw the video of this amazing truck race. I want one, plzthxu:

“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” –Abraham Lincoln

I read Pete’s most recent blog entry over at Fiddley Gomme and found myself wondering: what is the transportation security administration’s policy regarding alcohol on-board airlines? Well, a little Googling and I found this little tidbit:

With the exception of medications, any amount of liquid including alcohol greater than three ounces must be packed in your checked baggage.

Liquids, including alcohol purchased after clearing the security checkpoint are permitted aboard aircraft.

Yeah. No liquids. So that means that the bottle of water that I carried with me last year when I flew is no longer allowed to be carried onto the aircraft or even make it through a security checkpoint. And with the advent of the “no locked bags” policy (except for patented, TSA-approved locks which can be opened with a commonly-available master key, this means baggage handlers are free to rummage through your luggage and take any alcohol or other valuables you happen to be carrying in your bags.

I understand the need for air safety. Really, I do. However, the Post-911 world of air travel sucks. Buy a one-way ticket, get a mandatory trouser-free, shoes-off screening. Have your baby’s breast milk get examined for explosives. Lose your bottle of Southern Comfort to an impound, never to be returned.

I think the solution is to fly naked.

So for the first time in my life, my stock options vested. Yep, I got a (small) payout by cashing out some stock options I was granted when I was hired a few years ago. I also purchased some stock via my company’s stock purchase plan and sold it.

Now, my company does all this stuff through E-Trade. That seems fine, and the transaction was straightforward. But oh, my lands, the fees! Fees for the trade. Fees for the transfer into my E-Trade cash account. Fees for the completion of the sale. A fee to withdraw the money from my account.

I did the math. With my employee stock purchase plan, due to all the fees, I actually LOSE MONEY investing in my company unless there’s a substantial stock gain between vestment and sale. The options are basically free money, so “yay!”, but losing money because I invested it is just not something that I wanted to do.

There are a couple ways to solve the problem. If I doubled my ESPP contribution, I’d make some money. A little, but some. If I eliminated it entirely, I’d save all the fee money, but eliminate a regular disbursement — a kind of “forced savings” — that I like because it gives us infusions of cash while we budget for a lower amount.

Decisions, decisions. Regardless, E-Trade charges too many fees for my liking.

Some months ago, they installed a television screen in the tactical operations center in which I work. Luckily, my cube faces away from the screen, because as most of you know (thanks Jon fo the term!) I’m ADOSS — Attention Deficit Ooh! Something Shiny! The closed-captioning is turned on and the volume is off.

The only advantage I see to the all-news channels is that you can tune in any time of day, watch for thirty minutes to catch up, and then be done and do something else. When it’s playing for eight hours a day, you see the same story at least sixteen times every day unless something exciting happens.

And if something exciting happens… that’s all that’s on for those eight hours.

How inane.