My Dad's chosen to take early retirement, effective March 31st. He's been thinking about it for a while, and the deciding factor is apparently his health. He's not the kind of man that can leave a problem un-solved, so he's back at his old habits of taking work home and working at his home computer until midnight. He needs more rest to fully recover his health. So, now he's going to get all the rest he needs!

Posted by: Boviate at 09:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'd like a way to take hot tea with me to class in the morning. So I've been shopping for a vacuum thermos bottle.

Amazon sells several, but I noticed something interesting. These are all metal vacuum bottles made by Thermos Nissan:

• 16 oz: $30.00
• 26 oz: $28.93
• 34 oz: $27.99

Shipping is free for all of them, so they're not hiding the cost. The pricing model they are using confuses me.

Also, I'd rather use a smaller one, but it is cheaper to buy the big one. I could just leave it mostly empty all the time. But I don't want to fill my backpack with a huge, mostly-empty bottle every day.

Posted by: Boviate at 11:26 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I had a good test today. No, a great test. Many of my former comrades would believe such a thing could not exist. But! I knew the material. I liked the material. It was fun to share what I knew with someone else, even if only a TA grading essays. (It was a history test on the Gilded Age.)

The other reason I'm happy is that it's the last exam I'll have to take until early April, if I have read my syllabi correctly.

As a side note, my stats prof is not trying to make any friends– our midterm is during the first class session following Spring Break.

Posted by: Boviate at 09:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The first-person-shooter Counterstrike has a level designer, so you can make your own maps to play. The following video is a run-through of the best map I can recall seeing. That is, I suspect it would be no fun to play competitivly. But the effort and precision with which it was made amazes me.

(Found via the Lileks Bleat.)

Posted by: Boviate at 11:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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("Death destroys everything and takes pity on no one.")

Most of you will have seen the news of a commuter plane crash near Buffalo. Turns out I knew one of the victims; I'd worked with him when he was a FSA manager at UB and I was a student manager.

Personal stats: my current total of people I knew, that have died via:

• Car Wrecks: 2
• Plane Crashes: 3
• Gunfire: 1
• Cancer: 2
• Drug Overdose: 1
• Old Age: 2

Posted by: Boviate at 05:36 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I mentioned that I was given two new ties last week. Well, what good's a tie that you don't wear? So Friday morning, I put on a button-down shirt with one of the new ties. It looked good. But as long as I was wearing a tie, I put on a pair of nice slacks. With nice slacks, I wore some dress shoes. Having put on all the rest of it, I tossed on a sport coat and went to class.

When I was younger, I regarded "dressing up" as an outrageous imposition. But you know what? I look good. The major downside was that my friends kept asking about the interview I had that day, as none could imagine any other reason to dress formally on a regular school day.

I also had to do a little teaching, after one of the guys quietly informed me that I'd forgotten the bottom button of the coat. He was rather sceptical that leaving the bottom button unfastened is, in fact, the traditional way to wear such clothing. I think he really believed that I was pulling his leg about the button tradition.

Posted by: Boviate at 10:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What an unpleasant week. I did get through three exams in three days. When I was done, I just about keeled over. I hadn't realized I was that tired.

When I got back to the apartment, there was a fancy gift bag on the table, with a card, addressed to me. It's a "thank-you" card, signed by my flatmate's family. Today's the day they all go to swear their citizenship oaths, so I'm presuming the gift was in thanks for my giving them a ride to the citizenship examination a few weeks ago. It contained two ties, which amused me, because I've not worn a tie in Buffalo. But I guess I look like the kind of guy that could use a tie or two. Which is not entirely inaccurate.

So tired. I should stop blogging and take a nap or something.

Posted by: Boviate at 05:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's tuition bill time. I just mailed a check for $4350.25 to a P.O. Box in Massachussets. I'm sure that it's a money-processing company that is cheaper than the university taking the money themselves, but I wonder that no state senator has thrown a fit about outsourcing our state university functions to foreign states.

Part of the bill is mandatory medical insurance. So I am now covered if I should fall ill. I haven't compared rates, but I may be getting a great deal on that, as the rest of the insured cohort (university undergrads) are all quite a bit younger than I am. Although they are more succeptible to alcohol poisoning and car accidents than my age-group is. Hmmm. Now I'm wondering.

But rather than research relative casualty rates, I need to get back to my Stats homework.

Posted by: Boviate at 08:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I talked with a Marine Reserve recruiter today. If I choose to join the reserves, I'd have to take a different specialty, as there are no aviation units anywhere near Buffalo. I'm pondering becoming a LAV-25 crewman, MOS 0313.

Posted by: Boviate at 06:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's been nice and warm today, although windy. Yesterday there was more than a foot of snow on my complex's lawn; today over half of it has gone.

Snow isn't the only thing melting. Ice melts too. I realize most of my readers are aware of that fact, but sadly, some people in the region were surprised.

Posted by: Boviate at 06:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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