Nice! (Love Montreal... was just there last weekend, in fact. If I could find a good apt there, I'd spend a good chunk of the year...)
Don't forget though - you live in a larger city, which doesn't help much with heat in warmer months. I live right in downtown Burlington by the waterfront. This summer I used my AC for three days, and was perfectly comfortable. Nights here dropped into the 50s or 60s almost every night this "summer". Most friends who live at higher elevations (which VT has plenty of) don't even bother owning AC.
Of course, its also all dependent on what's "comfortable" for you, so YMMV...
Boy, I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty glad I'm circumcised then - if I was more sensitive than I am now, I'm pretty sure I'd be an addict.
And by the by, before you get all righteous saying you'll leave the choice up to your kid... that's essentially choosing uncircumcised... you recognize that, right? "Why yes, I'd love to voluntarily have someone remove a large piece of the most sensitive bit of my body..."
Riiiiight. (And to anyone that's made that choice, allow me to be un-PC and say you're insane.)
Everyone should take a look-see at CrashPlan - free app that runs in the background on macs, pcs, and linux, and lets you back up to/from any of them. Including (and this is the good part) a friend's computer over the internet.
You and a friend each do initial backups to external drives for speed, then swap drives, take them to your respective houses, and plug 'em in. Now Crashplan does incremental backups offsite (and onsite too if you want). Keeps multiple versions of files, regularly checks for data integrity, encrypts - its the backup solution you'd design. The only thing that it won't do is let you restore to a bare drive and make it bootable (at least on a mac or windows, haven't tried linux.)
And no, not a shill for the company, just a very very satisfied customer.
CrashPlan rocks, *especially* for a free app.
I have no problem paying for basic health care and if people are stupid enough to go to the emergency room instead of calling their doctor or going to an urgent care clinic (the kind that are open all night and can do most things up to and including minor surgeries for reasonable prices) then they have nobody but themselves to blame. Emergency rooms are for life threatening emergencies most other needs can either wait until morning or you could go to urgent care clinic instead.
re: your comments on emergency room care and paying for normal non-life saving medical care. If I had to guess I'd say you have a high-paying job and are healthy. Either way, you speak from a position of privilege and its obvious. Now, I'm in the same boat, thankfully, but I recognize the difference. *Most* people don't stand a chance of paying for standard care. Especially with costs as they are now. People who are too poor to afford to pay to visit a PCP when they get strep will either
a) just ignore the problem until it goes away or gets worse. (Bad for them, costs everyone more in the long run.)
b) walk into an emergency room, give a fake name, get the care they need eventually while passing the cost on to the rest of the taxpayers, and then go home. (All of which is made possible by the litigious nature of medicine in this country. An ER *cannot* turn anyone away that could turn around and sue if their condition worsened.)
What really needs to happen to the US medical system is tort reform. If you'd like more on the subject, walk into any ER, and ask any nurse or doctor. They'll agree, and give you lots of well-thought-out reasons why.
In the mean time, frankly, if my government wants to spend huge sums of tax dollars, I'd much rather they
a) consult us first, do the best they can to make measured decisions they think we'll support, and then spend the money inside the country -- thereby directly improving the quality of life of myself and the citizens around me
than the alternative we've been getting instead:
b) screw my opinion and spend billions a day fighting a bogus war none of us wanted.
Why is it that this country can go along with the more expensive b like quiet powerless little sheep, but the moment our government decides to spend our money on our country in a manner that isn't killing other people in a far off land, we get our panties in a bunch?
The real difference between the Palm Pre and the iPhone when it comes to developers, is that all Palm's standard apps that come with the phone were written with javascript, CSS, and HTML. They're "eating their own dogfood", so to speak. The automatic integration with the rest of your online life (facebook, mail accounts corporate and personal, im, sms, etc) is something brand new. As is the way they've worked out multitasking - well thought-out to work especially well with the finger input method. (Not to mention copy-paste ability! Who would have thought that would be such a special thing.)
This phone looks exciting, both in photos, and watching it in action. I for one will probably get one when it comes out - I was close to making my Treo 755p my last Palm, but I'd say this has brought me back to the fold.
Next stop, the all-important price point. If they want to compete with the iphone, they're going to have to be around $200 with contract...
I'm sorry, I really am, but four rockets attached to balsa wood held together with elmers glue and c-clamps (yes, seriously - check out the gallery), and there's a chance the wings might not stay intact? A *chance*?!?! Personally, I wish them all luck because they've obviously put in a *lot* of time and energy, but... I think those rockets are going to fire up and tear this thing to pieces as it flies all of 2 feet intact.
Rockets...
Elmers glue and c-clamps!!!
Dylan? Seriously? Come on now - I'm sorry, and this might make me unpopular, but the man was a whiner with a horribly annoying voice. I don't care what story he was telling. That, of course, is just my option, but regardless - to actually rank him with Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Handel, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Mozart is just your saying you really enjoyed one particular artist and its him. Does "The Times They Are A-Changin'" really belong in the same list as the Sistine Chapel?
That the Matrix deals with just exactly the issues you're saying it doesn't:
What Neo really represents: Is he human? Is he just another program introduced by the Architect to cull the dissenters from the Matrix and make ever-more-perfect iterations of the simulation world?
Good needing evil and vice versa: Not only in this case does good need evil, evil also needs good. In fact, Neo coming back from "death" and "killing" Agent Smith in the first movie is what showed Smith that the "purpose of life... is to end" but that it the end could come on his own terms, setting him free to pursue his own nefarious goals. Also, Smith's assimilation of first the Oracle and then Neo are what ultimately cause his demise - you can say this is because as total opposites of each other, Smith and Neo cannot exist without each other... or that Smith's "assimilating" Neo's abilities allowed Neo to eliminate him from the inside out. Either way you choose, once Neo dies, so does Smith. (And if the Oracle and Seraph are back at the end of the film, shouldn't that mean that Neo should also? They were all "killed" by Smith's assimilation, and you'd expect that programs would be more irreversably effected by Smith than Neo.)
Not to mention, the whole "world as illusion" motif from the first movie, which certainly took a bit of time to wrap your mind around. At which point, they showed us Neo's ability to sense and act within the two overlapping worlds... gave us the Architect's speech and its ramifications... there's plenty to think about here if you want to look deeper than the very cool fight scenes and special effects.
Last but not least, do a search on Amazon and get a listing of all the books that have sprung up dealing with the series and its origins in (and perspectives on) theologies, mythologies, and general world views...
Having said all that, I whole-heartedly agree that LOTR is a much deeper creation, because it was first created as a book, for which more detail is just a part of the process. (A process which Tolkien took to a much more impressive length than most other authors.) Still, the Matrix movies are fun to watch, and while there may be plot holes and imprefections... when was the last time any action movie really gave you any deep topics to discuss in a coffee shop or theology class?
Did anyone else catch the fact that the name of the giant "head" Neo interacts with at the end of the movie is called Deus Ex Machina in the movie credits?
Funny, that the greeks used such a device to neatly tidy up loose ends in their plays, as happened here... only in this case, it was a god from the machine both figuratively and literally...
From dictionary.com: deus ex machina \DAY-uhs-eks-MAH-kuh-nuh; -nah; -MAK-uh-nuh\, noun: 1. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, a god introduced by means of a crane to unravel and resolve the plot. 2. Any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an apparently insoluble difficulty.
In times of affluence and peace, with technology that always seems to arrive like a deus ex machina to solve any problem, it becomes easy to believe that life is perfectible. --Stephanie Gutmann, The Kinder, Gentler Military
But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that, when situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any natural force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or some other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable and institute the unobtainable. --Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium
Deus ex machina is New Latin for "god from the machine"; it is a translation of the Greek theos ek mekhanes.
I'm sorry... but I have a '98 1.8T Passat... and I actually laughed out loud at the statement "incredibly strong right off the line." I literally have to hit the gas hard two seconds before I need the car moving into traffic when pulling out of my driveway. Two seconds may not sound like much, but it means I've got my car moving forward *before* the nose of the car I want to get behind gets to me! Which, as you can imagine, scares some of those drivers just a bit.
On the other hand, once up to 30-40mph, the car is much more fun to drive. Its just the low end where its asthmatic.
Yes, we unfortunately have to use Notes here at IBM. However, having a mac client is awesome for me because it means I can telecommute without needing to have a PC running to do it!
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Nice! (Love Montreal... was just there last weekend, in fact. If I could find a good apt there, I'd spend a good chunk of the year...) Don't forget though - you live in a larger city, which doesn't help much with heat in warmer months. I live right in downtown Burlington by the waterfront. This summer I used my AC for three days, and was perfectly comfortable. Nights here dropped into the 50s or 60s almost every night this "summer". Most friends who live at higher elevations (which VT has plenty of) don't even bother owning AC. Of course, its also all dependent on what's "comfortable" for you, so YMMV...
Vermont really does get a lot of summer.
Y'all clearly aren't from 'round these parts...
Or Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. (Travel through time, see the beautiful fall foliage, chat with Uncle Dad!)
You're worried that at the moment of your death you're going to think about a Twinkie?! You, my friend, are in *far* worse trouble than OP.
He might be, but at least its a decent way to go!
Boy, I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty glad I'm circumcised then - if I was more sensitive than I am now, I'm pretty sure I'd be an addict. And by the by, before you get all righteous saying you'll leave the choice up to your kid... that's essentially choosing uncircumcised... you recognize that, right? "Why yes, I'd love to voluntarily have someone remove a large piece of the most sensitive bit of my body..." Riiiiight. (And to anyone that's made that choice, allow me to be un-PC and say you're insane.)
Everyone should take a look-see at CrashPlan - free app that runs in the background on macs, pcs, and linux, and lets you back up to/from any of them. Including (and this is the good part) a friend's computer over the internet. You and a friend each do initial backups to external drives for speed, then swap drives, take them to your respective houses, and plug 'em in. Now Crashplan does incremental backups offsite (and onsite too if you want). Keeps multiple versions of files, regularly checks for data integrity, encrypts - its the backup solution you'd design. The only thing that it won't do is let you restore to a bare drive and make it bootable (at least on a mac or windows, haven't tried linux.) And no, not a shill for the company, just a very very satisfied customer. CrashPlan rocks, *especially* for a free app.
I have no problem paying for basic health care and if people are stupid enough to go to the emergency room instead of calling their doctor or going to an urgent care clinic (the kind that are open all night and can do most things up to and including minor surgeries for reasonable prices) then they have nobody but themselves to blame. Emergency rooms are for life threatening emergencies most other needs can either wait until morning or you could go to urgent care clinic instead.
re: your comments on emergency room care and paying for normal non-life saving medical care. If I had to guess I'd say you have a high-paying job and are healthy. Either way, you speak from a position of privilege and its obvious. Now, I'm in the same boat, thankfully, but I recognize the difference. *Most* people don't stand a chance of paying for standard care. Especially with costs as they are now. People who are too poor to afford to pay to visit a PCP when they get strep will either
a) just ignore the problem until it goes away or gets worse. (Bad for them, costs everyone more in the long run.)
b) walk into an emergency room, give a fake name, get the care they need eventually while passing the cost on to the rest of the taxpayers, and then go home. (All of which is made possible by the litigious nature of medicine in this country. An ER *cannot* turn anyone away that could turn around and sue if their condition worsened.)
What really needs to happen to the US medical system is tort reform. If you'd like more on the subject, walk into any ER, and ask any nurse or doctor. They'll agree, and give you lots of well-thought-out reasons why.
In the mean time, frankly, if my government wants to spend huge sums of tax dollars, I'd much rather they
a) consult us first, do the best they can to make measured decisions they think we'll support, and then spend the money inside the country -- thereby directly improving the quality of life of myself and the citizens around me
than the alternative we've been getting instead:
b) screw my opinion and spend billions a day fighting a bogus war none of us wanted.
Why is it that this country can go along with the more expensive b like quiet powerless little sheep, but the moment our government decides to spend our money on our country in a manner that isn't killing other people in a far off land, we get our panties in a bunch?
Discuss.
This phone looks exciting, both in photos, and watching it in action. I for one will probably get one when it comes out - I was close to making my Treo 755p my last Palm, but I'd say this has brought me back to the fold.
Next stop, the all-important price point. If they want to compete with the iphone, they're going to have to be around $200 with contract...
Wouldn't sticky on one end for nerves involve bare nerve endings? That prosthetic had damn well better not need to be removed ever...
And/or puberty.
I'm sorry, I really am, but four rockets attached to balsa wood held together with elmers glue and c-clamps (yes, seriously - check out the gallery), and there's a chance the wings might not stay intact? A *chance*?!?! Personally, I wish them all luck because they've obviously put in a *lot* of time and energy, but... I think those rockets are going to fire up and tear this thing to pieces as it flies all of 2 feet intact. Rockets... Elmers glue and c-clamps!!!
Dylan? Seriously? Come on now - I'm sorry, and this might make me unpopular, but the man was a whiner with a horribly annoying voice. I don't care what story he was telling. That, of course, is just my option, but regardless - to actually rank him with Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Handel, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Mozart is just your saying you really enjoyed one particular artist and its him. Does "The Times They Are A-Changin'" really belong in the same list as the Sistine Chapel?
Clearly, I cannot take the mp3 in front of me!
;)
(anybody want a peanut?
-T
That the Matrix deals with just exactly the issues you're saying it doesn't:
What Neo really represents: Is he human? Is he just another program introduced by the Architect to cull the dissenters from the Matrix and make ever-more-perfect iterations of the simulation world?
Good needing evil and vice versa: Not only in this case does good need evil, evil also needs good. In fact, Neo coming back from "death" and "killing" Agent Smith in the first movie is what showed Smith that the "purpose of life... is to end" but that it the end could come on his own terms, setting him free to pursue his own nefarious goals. Also, Smith's assimilation of first the Oracle and then Neo are what ultimately cause his demise - you can say this is because as total opposites of each other, Smith and Neo cannot exist without each other... or that Smith's "assimilating" Neo's abilities allowed Neo to eliminate him from the inside out. Either way you choose, once Neo dies, so does Smith. (And if the Oracle and Seraph are back at the end of the film, shouldn't that mean that Neo should also? They were all "killed" by Smith's assimilation, and you'd expect that programs would be more irreversably effected by Smith than Neo.)
Not to mention, the whole "world as illusion" motif from the first movie, which certainly took a bit of time to wrap your mind around. At which point, they showed us Neo's ability to sense and act within the two overlapping worlds... gave us the Architect's speech and its ramifications... there's plenty to think about here if you want to look deeper than the very cool fight scenes and special effects.
Last but not least, do a search on Amazon and get a listing of all the books that have sprung up dealing with the series and its origins in (and perspectives on) theologies, mythologies, and general world views...
Having said all that, I whole-heartedly agree that LOTR is a much deeper creation, because it was first created as a book, for which more detail is just a part of the process. (A process which Tolkien took to a much more impressive length than most other authors.) Still, the Matrix movies are fun to watch, and while there may be plot holes and imprefections... when was the last time any action movie really gave you any deep topics to discuss in a coffee shop or theology class?
Did anyone else catch the fact that the name of the giant "head" Neo interacts with at the end of the movie is called Deus Ex Machina in the movie credits?
Funny, that the greeks used such a device to neatly tidy up loose ends in their plays, as happened here... only in this case, it was a god from the machine both figuratively and literally...
From dictionary.com:
deus ex machina \DAY-uhs-eks-MAH-kuh-nuh; -nah; -MAK-uh-nuh\, noun:
1. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, a god introduced by means of a crane to unravel and resolve the plot.
2. Any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an apparently insoluble difficulty.
In times of affluence and peace, with technology that always seems to arrive like a deus ex machina to solve any problem, it becomes easy to believe that life is perfectible.
--Stephanie Gutmann, The Kinder, Gentler Military
But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that, when situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any natural force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or some other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable and institute the unobtainable.
--Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium
Deus ex machina is New Latin for "god from the machine"; it is a translation of the Greek theos ek mekhanes.
On the other hand, once up to 30-40mph, the car is much more fun to drive. Its just the low end where its asthmatic.
My two bits, YMMV (literally)
-Tim
aumaninc@hotmail.com
aumaninc@aol.com
There now, I feel I've done my little tiny part. :)
- No toque los gatos en mis pantalones, senior!
Yes, we unfortunately have to use Notes here at IBM. However, having a mac client is awesome for me because it means I can telecommute without needing to have a PC running to do it!