Seth.Larson

If only kits were this easy.

The gauntlet of weird shit I’ve seen marketed has been thrown down.  Let the next challenger compete with PLACENTA BEAR!!!!!

Seriously, no joke.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/placenta-teddy-bear-turns-heads/story?id=9043347

“After the baby is born and the cooing in the delivery room begins, parents may do a variety of things with the placenta — maybe take a picture, poke it a bit, or just divert their eyes and let the nurse take it away.
Whatever parents do, it probably wouldn’t match London-based designer Alex Green’s idea of turning the baby’s placenta into a teddy bear.”

So… headed to Hawaii over Christmas vacation and it has me thinking I’d like to finally do something I’ve “considered” doing for a decade now.  Start the diving certification track.

The two major options in the U.S. are PADI and SSI.  I’ve been talking to some people I know who have done one or the other and comparing their requirements/offerings.  Many will say SSI is better because it requires you to be affiliated with a dive supply shop that is affiliated with SSI which seems somewhat fallacious to me.  Many other places say the PADI/SSI are really about the same “requirements” wise and that really who cares because what really matters is how good of an instructor you get.  Those outside the U.S. are often of the opinion that it doesn’t matter at all, some of the more localized options in Europe are the only real “step above” due to their knowledge requirements.

PADI

SSI

PADI E-Learning for Open Water Diver

Any input from people I haven’t talked to here, or anyone interested in also pursuing this?

I’m currently thinking the online PADI online knowledge course followed by  pool diving time.  Not sure

Or, maybe other countries just lack good programming.  Most of our TV viewing these days is probably crap reality TV, but there are also at least 4-6 shows any given person I know probably watches.  Other countries seem to average 3-4 and lets face it, when the only good shows are Top Gear, Doctor Who, and the news, that is likely to be the case.

So for those who didn’t hear about this on the news back when swine flu was first thought to be this Destroyer of Worlds™, Egypt decided to kill all their pigs.

I’m not sure why they did it, most of the world realized that much like shaving won’t get rid of crabs, killing all the pigs won’t get rid of H1N1.  Anywho in the end Egypt went on a bacon creating spree in the name of science.

Nowhere along this process did someone stand up and say “hey but we keep pigs randomly all over and they actually are a major part of our organic waste disposal”.  As a result egypt is swimming in its own waste.  Maybe now they’ll import some pigs and help the price out a bit for the farmers in the process.  Sadly there is no chance of that happening.  The Egyptian government claims that getting rid of the pigs was “change we need”.  Everything is much better without them.  Look at how clean those streets are without the pigs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20cairo.html?_r=4&partner=rss&emc=rss&topic=swineflu

And by pretty solid I mean fracking awesome…

Five minutes ago I completed and submitted the last of my coursework for my masters degree.  Today would mark the classroom end of the journey towards my masters degree.

I believe I’m going to try and walk in the fall graduation ceremony, that is of course assuming I get all of the remaining program papers turned in and take the comprehensive exam covering all courses taken so far, and all pre-requisite courses that I skipped.

Its over and this moment is so good I’d buy it a drink and maybe go home with it.

Mike had pestered me a few times about what I’d pick up if I were going to be building an all inclusive desktop for work.  I’d probably be salvage some current parts, but I definitely am 5′ish years old on some others.

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz - 229.99
• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 - 119.99
• Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB - 99.99
• G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 x2 - 54.99(ea)
• Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - 59.95
• SeaSonic S12II 430B 430W ATX12V - 79.99
• <Placeholder for video card> 150-200  (only really neccesary for gaming or possibly some graphics programs)

Some of this would be salvaged, some new.  Mostly encouragement for mike to get something more current.

Lilly is definitely not always a fan of emma.

Check out this site that tracks the prices on newegg so that you can see the best $/Gigabyte deal.

http://forre.st/storage