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I left for Jackson Thursday morning. I’m usually not traveling on holidays, so it was weird to see an empty Dogwood Festival as I was driving by. It was great to spend time with family but I was feeling tired most of the day.

On Friday afternoon Dogwood Festival was packed. Yes I went out there on Black Friday even though I didn’t think I would. I bought of couple of Christmas gifts and a strategy guide for myself. I went to see Casino Royale late in the afternoon. It’s a very good movie for the first two hours or so, but after that I was wishing it would hurry up and end.

Today I went to the Northpark area and didn’t buy anything. I have gotten some ideas for Christmas presents over the past couple of days. Tonight I finally got to the end of The Dark Tower book, which is the seventh and final book of The Dark Tower series. I really liked the book, but there were times when I was wishing that he would hurry and get to the end. Am I getting more impatient in my old age? I guess I can understand why a lot of readers were disappointed and felt like they needed more answers. I’m just glad that I finally made it to the end.

It’s seems like it’s been a month since I left Starkville. I’ll be glad to be back home tomorrow.

MSU’s new president has been really good about shutting the university down and giving students and faculty extra days off. I was planning on asking for tomorrow off, but I found out that the president had already given us the day off.

I hope everyone has a great holiday. I’ll be heading to Jackson. It’ll be nice to see the family again. I hope to avoid all that Black Friday stuff. I’ll probably continue my holiday traditions of eating, shopping at Dogwood Festival, watching DVDs, and taking in a movie at the theater in Clinton.

Today I voted. One again it was quick and painless. The new touch screen machines were interesting. I decided to see what would happen if I tried to select another candidate’s name after I had made my choice. It gave me a weird noise that was an obvious indication that I was trying to do something that I couldn’t do. I think the checkboxes next to the other names had even been removed at that point. I thought about pushing the back button down at the bottom, but I decided against it. Anyway, the person that I had intended to vote for in the first place was the one who was selected in the end, so I don’t think there was any harm done. The machine gave me the option of printing out a paper ballot to verify my selections and I did.

I don’t think there’s anything exciting happening in the Mississippi elections this year, but I haven’t really been paying as close attention as I have in some previous years.

A little over a month ago I ordered RAM for my old laptop from an eBay store called System Electronics. They had mostly positive feedback and I’ve had good experiences buying things on eBay before, so I figured it would give it a try. I used PayPal to make the purchase.

The LCD on the laptop died the next day and I decided not to put anymore money into it I started thinking about buying a new laptop. I emailed System Electronics the next day asking if they could cancel my order. A few days later I got an email saying that my PayPal transaction had gone through. I sent them another email asking if they could cancel the order. A few hours later they responded saying that they had mailed the package that morning and that I should refuse the package when it arrived in order to get a refund. When it arrived about a week later it was left in my mailbox. I took it to the post office unopened and asked them to return it. I sent System Electronics an email informing them that I had mailed it. About two weeks later I hadn’t heard anything from them so I emailed them asking them the status of the return. A correspondence that lasted over a week took place. Basically, they claimed that they never received the package and told me to check on it at my post office. They asked for information like the return date, the address I sent the return to, the tracking number, etc. I knew the return date because I still had a copy of the email I had sent on the day I returned the package. I sent it to whatever the return address on the package was, but I did not right it down beforehand. I didn’t get a tracking number because I simply told the guy at the post office to return the package to the sender. Last Friday, System Electronics said that they would go to their post office again and check to see if there was a package on hold. I still haven’t heard from them again even though I have emailed them since then. This isn’t the first time that they haven’t contacted me by the time they said they would, but I guess they are tired of dealing with me now.

I guess I would have been better off selling the RAM myself on eBay. Maybe they are being honest and they never received the package, but I think I’ll stick with places like crucial.com for those kinds of purchases. More lessons learned.

I took one of those online tests today. This one was a brain test that’s supposed to tell you more about how you think and learn. This is what it said about me. Sounds a lot like me.

Will, you are Left-brained

Most left-brained people like you feel at ease in
situations requiring verbal ability, attention to detail, and linear,
analytical ability. Whether you know it or not, you are a much stronger written
communicator than many, able to get your ideas across better than others.

It’s also likely that you are methodical and efficient at many things that you
do. You could also be good at math, particularly algebra, which is based on
very strict rules that make sense to your logical mind.

I got my order from Contacts1st today. It’s been less than a week since I placed the order.

I’m still making my way through Battlestar Galactica. It’s nice to see GOOD sci-fi on TV in the post Star Trek era. I think I’ve even helped create 2 new fans. I ordered Season 2.5 over the weekend and it shipped yesterday. I can’t wait to watch it all.

I rented a game called Black today. I hope it’s worth the time. Since I got it for free it won’t be a big deal if it’s a bad game.

Today I wrote an OpenGL program for the first time in at least a year, probably closer to two years. Funny how the the little things can give you the most trouble sometimes.

I like the cooler weather.

I have astigmatism, so the contacts that are best for me cost a lot of money. I have worn toric lenses over the past few years, since they seem to help people like me the most. I had heard about a new brand called Acuvue Advance for Astigmatism, so I asked the doctor about them when I saw her a couple of weeks ago. She said that they would be better for me since I like to sleep in my contacts. From reading I learned that their shape was designed so they don’t move around on your eye as much as the toric lenses and they hold more moisture. I’ve been wearing a trial pair of Acuvue for Astigmatism and haven’t had any problems so I am switching to them. They are made of a different material, so handling them was a little weird at first. Other than that, everything has been okay.

Today it was time to order the new contacts. I usually go to the same site to order them each time, but this time I decided to shop around. One trend I noticed was that the more you order, the larger rebate you got back. I wasn’t planning on ordering more than a box for each eye, so that didn’t help me any. I also noticed that on most sites you had to spend a decent amount of money to qualify for free shipping.

After looking around I decided that I could get the best deal from Contasts1st.com. I looked at reviews of the site and the main complaint seemed to be that the shipping time could be a little long. I’m not in a big hurry though. I have one last pair of toric lenses that should last me until I get the new ones. I liked the fact that they allow you to fax or email a scanned copy of your prescription to them so they won’t have to call your doctor’s office. I was a little nervous about ordering from a company I had never heard of, but I think everything will be fine. As long as my contacts haven’t been opened when I receive them, I won’t complain. The total cost is about 25% cheaper on this site than they are on the site I normally go to. That’s good enough for me.

P.S. – I learned today that OD means right eye and OS means left eye. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but I didn’t take the time to look it up.

I was asked to participate in a 14-day study that ended yesterday. I had to keep track of what of beverages I was drinking each day. I was even given a Palm Zire to record all the beverages that I had each day. I tried to record them as soon as I drank them, but that wasn’t always convenient. They asked for information such as: the size of the drink, the time of day, the type/brand of drink, the type of container it was in, what I was doing while drinking, if I drank alone or not, etc. I’m being paid enough to make this worthwhile. I probably missed a couple of beverages here and there, but for the most part I was pretty diligent about recording them. I wonder if I ended up drinking less because I knew I would have to record a lot of information into the PDA every time I had a drink. I wish I could keep the PDA.

Participating in this study made me realize that I drink way too many carbonated beverages. At least 75% of what I recorded was some kind of carbonated drink, with a few waters and 2 sweet teas in there somewhere. There was no alcohol, however. I used to drink a lot more water and I need to get back in the habit of doing so. I’ll be sure to start that…tomorrow.

I read last week that 37 degree programs at Mississippi’s state universities are being put on probation because they are not producing enough graduates. The programs that were put on probation at Mississippi State (my alma mater) are:

• Trade & technical studies, bachelor’s
• Manufacturing technology, bachelor’s
• Political science, bachelor’s
• Computer science, PhD
• Computer engineering, PhD
• Environmental toxicology, PhD
• Veterinary medical science, PhD

I thought this was interesting because I got my master’s in computer science last year. I thought about the possibility of pursuing a PhD while I was in graduate school, but it was only for about a split second. I have a vague memory of hearing that the PhD program in computer engineering was in trouble when I was in school, but I didn’t know about the one in computer science. It looks like they might be merging the computer science and computer engineering PhD programs in the future.

I’ve pretty much completely made the switch from eBay to Amazon.com for selling all the old games and DVD’s that I don’t want anymore. I mostly use the money to buy new games and DVD’s. I get more money than I would if I traded them in to GameStop or Sam Goody, I just have to wait before I get anything. When an item is sold, Amazon.com sends me an email with the name and address of the person that bought my item, how much I’m getting, and other useful information.

I’m at the point where Gmail is becoming my main email service. As most people with Gmail accounts probably know, they scan your email and deliver advertisements in the right side of your browser area based on what’s in that particular email. I like the way Gmail handles tracking numbers and street addresses. If Gmail sees a tracking number (UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc) in your email, it’ll give you a link that you can click on to track the package. It saves me the trouble of having to go to the individual websites and going through the steps to track packages that I’m expecting. If Gmail sees a street address in your email, it’ll usually give you a “Map this” link that allows you to map that address using Google Maps. So, if a friend sends me his address in an email, all I have to do is click on that link to see where he lives and possibly get directions.

I get the “Map this” links with the emails that come from Amazon.com telling me that my items have sold and where I need to ship them to. If I notice the links and I’m bored when I’m scanning the emails, sometimes I’ll click on the links just out of curiosity. No, I’m not going to stalk these people. I just think it’s interesting to look at satellite imagery of their neighborhoods and their houses. It may give me an idea of the kind of person I’m selling my stuff to…or maybe not. Oh well, it helps pass the time.