What a way to end the year

I would like to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year, although I highly doubt that 2005 will be safer that 2004. In fact I think that it will probably be much more dangerous that 2004. Hopefully I am wrong.
Today I have to go to a funeral of a close family friend. He and his wife live(d) across the street from my parents and always were kind and friendly. His wife was able to attend my wedding, but unfortunately, he was too ill. I wish he could have been there. Two key memories that I have of Sid were his German Shepard, which he loved, and his restaurant supply business. I remember having about 50 pens from his business disassembled in my desk at school when I was younger (I used the springs as a form of rocket launcher). Looking back on 2004, it was a good year for me. For one, I got married to a girl that I knew would be the one for me the minute I met her. Secondly, I was for the most part healthy, and did not have any surgeries. I was also able to go on an awesome rock-climbing trip at Smith Rocks with a good friend that got me totally hooked on climbing. I should also mention the post-wedding trip (we did not call it a honeymoon). We spent 2 weeks in the Czech Republic site seeing and partying with two friends. It was very memorable for many good reasons. There were many other reasons why 2004 was a good year, i.e. family, friends, music, movies, but I don't have the time to extrapolate on them. See you in 2005.

Tidal Waves, The Cold Part Duex, Ranting about Lasik.

Can you believe that over 40ooo people at last count were killed by this Tsunami? That is like a quarter of the homeless people that hang around the Shelter in Greektown. The weird thing about this is that, in speaking with my Indian coworkers, people did not even know what a tsunami was as they have not occurred in the Indian Ocean in well over 500 years. In fact, the only place where there are sensors for Tsunamis are in the Pacific Ocean. I guess there will now be some in the Indian Ocean.
The Cold Part Duex
So, I am on day 3 of my cold. I feel much better than I did yesterday, but now my ears are plugged. I also found out that over half of the people who I was in meetings with last week are now also sick-- some with the flu. Now this is not just an out of the blue thing. One of our directors, who happened to be in the meetings with us, has been coming to work every day, after taking care of her family, each of who has been slowly acquiring the flu (one by one). Now, not to be too pissed off, but helloooo! You have been exposed to the flu and now you are coming to work, where you have to sit in close quarters with other people. Thanks a lot. What is it with people coming to work sick. What, just because you are sick other around you should suffer? Go home or stay in your cube! Hopefully this will all pass soon as I have big plans for next week.
LASIK
So I decided to embark on a quest to eliminate the need for glasses. After 24 years of them, I cannot take it anymore. I am so tired of not being able to see with out them, fumbling to find them after I have removed them, and dealing with them when they are on. For those who have to wear glasses, you probably understand what I am talking about. There is also the constant fear of breaking your glasses in an inconvenient situation. For example, I have had glasses break on an airplane on a Sunday, in the evening. Go a day without clear vision. It sucks (Sorry to the visually impaired). The activities that I like to participate in also do not function well with glasses. Can you imagine being 500 ft on a cliff and having your glasses fall off, or better yet, going down a hill at 40 MPH and having your glasses fog up. It sucks. So back to the point. I started researching Lasik, and decided it was for me. After some secondary conversations with physicians and my family (My dad had RK and my mom had lasik), I decided to make an appointment. Now, being that I only have one set of eyes, I choose to avoid the places that treat the surgery like a fast food order. Also, being of proud American stock, I also decided to avoid Canada (More or less because I didn't want to deal with crossing the border). So I went to a physician that my friend Dr. Jer recommended. To make the story short, After all my research, I still spent 45 minutes peppering the guy with questions, and surprisingly enough, he was patient enough to answer them. The big question though for him was "why are you still wearing glasses?" You see, if a physician does not believe in a surgery to have it done on him, then it must not be good right. So he explained that he had a severe eye infection/ disease that could be reactivated by the laser, and that he had spoke with a group of lasik experts who also did not recommend the procedure for him. I was satisfied with this, as well as with the list of surgeons who had also had the procedure done by him. So, next week Jan 6, I will hopefully be free of glasses. I am actually really excited. No if this stupid cold would just go away.

The first post

I have been contemplating joining the blog community for some time now, and I guess I just felt like doing it today.
What to write about? Hmmmm, I need to be careful as I work in the tech sector, so I don't need someone from work getting offended, so I think I will pass on that. I could write about how I have this nasty cold that is driving me f-ing crazy. I hate getting sick. It slows me down too much. The only time being sick ever helps me was when I was in school and needed to study for an exam. You see, I have one of those brains that has to multitask. I cannot just do one thing at a time, as my mind moves too quickly to other topics. Some in the medical profession would call this ADD, ADHD or some other term to get one to take prescription drugs, but I look at it as an advantage. Parents should really allow their children to nurture this, rather than attempting to stifle it with drugs. I have done quite well, and much of it I can attribute to the fact that my mind can multitask. OK, back to what I was saying. Studying a single topic is a difficult thing for me, and when I am sick, I slow down to a point where my mind does not want to do ten things at once. So I can focus on text or formulas, and the exam it self. I think my best essays were written when I had the flu.
This time I am not happy to be sick, as it is a slow time of the year at work and I could be taking off early to climb, snowboard or even cross-country ski. But no, I am sitting here with a box or three of tissues blowing my snot box until I see brains. And what is with the amount of mucus that ones body can create. Seriously, can't my body find something better to do? Maybe produce muscle mass, increase my tendon strength in my hands, but please stop the mucus production. Hopefully this will pass quickly as I am scheduled to have lasik next week. More on that in another post. I am going for another cup of tea, and maybe some garlic spread.