Are We There Yet?

Sinus infections are terrible. There are few things I fear about the winter more than sinus infections. Well, those and psychotic salt trucks. Don't get me wrong, I know there are fates worse than a sinus infection. I've witnessed the charming and sloppy arrivals of both my adorable kids with no less than a huge chunk of respect for my wife's "tolerance". I've been the unwilling host on multiple occassions for kidney stones making mass exodus towards the freedom afforded by the sewer system.

But when staring at a computer screen for 9+ hours a day is your job, the pulsing pain from eye socket to eye teeth of a sinus infection is the pits.

After foolishly believing that the nagging cough and congestion of the past 10 days would clear up after "just one more day", I finally dragged my sorry kiester in to the doctor's office so he could proclaim the existence of said sinus infection. Five minute wait, five minutes with the nurse, another five minute wait, and a final five minutes with the doctor. A pretty exciting 20 minute doctor visit, isn't it?

It wasn't until visiting the local Walgreens to fill my prescription that today's imponderable question presented itself.

Why does it take so freaking long to get a prescription filled?

I'm not trying to disrespect pharmacists or anything, but is it really that difficult to transfer 20 pills from one bottle to another and print a label up for the container? Why did it take 40 minutes for Walgreens to do this? Am I leaving out the voodoo ritual that gives the pills their potentcy? Are the pills custom made by the pharmacist on-duty with his Chemlab 1100 Chemistry Set (methane tank for bunsen burner not included)?

I guess that'll teach me to forget to bring a long a book next time.

Back in November, I received a 20GB iPod as a gift from my bosses on my 5-year employment anniversary. They also gave me an FM adapter so I could listen to it in my car, which is a welcome accessory to make my daily 1 hour round-trip commute go more quickly. I've read a lot about iPods and dreamed of owning a portable mp3 player for quite some time. All I can say is that everything good you might have read about iPods is true.

For Christmas, I asked for and received the Belkin TuneDok Car Holder for my iPod, which makes listening to my iPod in my car even easier. It fills a cup holder in my car that sits next to the cigarette adapter where the FM adapter plugs in and securely holds my iPod as it faces me at a comfortable viewing angle while I drive. While the FM adapter doesn't maintain the high quality of the mp3s on the iPod, I'm not going to buy a new car radio just for that reason alone. All in all, I'd say I'm set up pretty well.

Having used this setup for several weeks now, I've come to wish for a few minor tweaks I'd like to see in the iPod to make it even easier and more "portable friendly":

• The iPod makes a "clicking" noise as you scroll through entries on the display. It'd be handy if this noise could somehow be a part of the audio output of the iPod rather than come from a teeny internal speaker. While plugged in to my FM adapter in the car, scrolling through entries is a visually accomplished task - something that's not very safe while driving. The click can't be heard over normal interstate noise or music that's already playing on the iPod. The click exists to assist in navigation by tapping another sense, but it is too easily drowned out under these circumstances.
• "Power Profiles". Modern notebook computer can decrease screen brightness and cut back on processor speed when running on battery to conserve power. I'd like something similar for my iPod so that I can define different settings for how my iPod operates based upon the current power source. If it's on battery, I want the backlight display to turn off as quickly as possible. When it's plugged in, however I'd like it to stay on longer (again - something to assist me while driving). It'd be nice to be able to have the equalizer work in the same way. If my iPod is plugged in to a power source, chances are it's in my car or connected to my computer. In both cases, I'm using an external audio player with its own equalizer to listen to the music. If it's unplugged, chances are that I'm using the headphones and would like to use the built-in equalizer. While these two examples are contrary in that one seeks to conserve power while the other consumes more, they're just examples of how power profiles provide more flexibility and customization for this awesome device.

My "What am I Playing" sidebar has remained relatively static since April of last year when I was randomly selected to participate in the closed beta of World of Warcraft. My thoughts on MMORPGs and the economics of playing one are a well-known book of rants to my circle of friends. I won't bore you with them here as they are hardly unique in their perspective.

However, after playing WoW for 7 months during the beta before it hit retail shelves, I was completely incapable of denying the game my 16-digit credit card. Blizzard is like a drug; I haven't said no to one of their games since WarCraft II. For those of you keeping track, that's WarCraft II, StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood Wars, WarCraft III (*cough* $80 collector's edition), and WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne. It was once a dream of this young programmer to work for the well-respected company that brought worlds to life with beautiful artwork, meticulously balanced and varied gameplay, with a healthy dose of humor and wit added to keep things fresh and entertaining at all times.

It is with great relief that I look at my life today and give thanks that it was never more than a pipe dream. I pity Blizzard's programmers today.

Nick Bradbury has a funny entry in his blog covering what he calls past incidents of Freudian typos. Most people are familiar with Sigmund Freud and his line of work. People sometimes refer to Freudian slips where something unintended takes place or is said, but a reasonable explanation might be available for why its occurrence might subconsciously have been done on purpose. The obvious question is was it really a mistake at all? Freud believed that all of these things, intended or unintended, revealed information about the person and their subconcious.

One of my professors in college that taught me assembly programming (and a joke of a database class) was named Treu (pronounced troy). He was generally regarded as an evil man that delighted in the suffering of his students buried under the mounds of reports and code assigned to them. At a decidedly technology oriented university, this was a man that insisted on printing everything out and handing it to students. Back in 4th grade, that worked well for studying and reviewing your 20 word spelling list. However, when you're handed 40 pages of code that wraps on to new lines and cannot be searched or compiled, the word excessive comes to mind. Most people that survived his classes quickly pushed him from their minds to prevent further mental trauma.

Unfortunately, I will never forget this man. Every time I set a boolean value to TRUE and transpose the the 'u' and 'e', I am reminded of good ole Professor Treu.

Now excuse me while I go call my therapist.