I have tried two more brands of contacts, both hydrogel and toric, with little success. The first pair had the right eye not so bad, but the left was blurry. Ultimately, my appointment was for Sunday, and when i was late i received a phone call. Oops! I guess i've been relying on those reminder calls a bit too much.

He looked at them and they seemed ok, though he caught the left contact being off (rotationally). He mentioned he could correct for it by getting me a lens that would (mostly) work at that rotation, but it sounded a bit to risky. Math is good and all that, but it sounds risky to rely on the contact being off.

So, second pair. That was weird. When the light was on i saw better. And, he didn't see anything wrong when shining the light in my eye. Ostensibly, when my pupils dilated, the contact moved and my vision was worse. I was able to see that difference easily. Ultimately, i was seeing double vision on that second pair, with a shadow of each letter to the right, slightly up. I thought i was funny when i could position my head at the right angle (no pun intended) to see the letters without the shadow to the side.

He had one lens from the third pair, the other being on order. It was no better.

He said i was the worst case he had ever come across. Aside from being happy about the title, it looks like contacts are not for me. He said maybe there is a curvature of my eye too slight for the machine to pick up. Or, possibly, all the contacts had defects. Whatever the case, he suggested i was unlikely to find a good pair, and we agreed that i would just give up. I know the doctor from the community, and i trust his judgement. I'll just have to suffice at feeling special. :)

Okay, first came Take Our Daughters To Work Day, which was implemented as Take a Child to Work Day, now "officially", Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, but personally i consider it Take Our Cuties To Show Off Day.

Ostensibly, the original reason was to encourage the young ladies about the work place. Or was it to let mothers be known. Regardless, this well intended practice was aimed at women, for women, by women. In a sense, (good) discrimination to fight (bad) discrimination. Adding boys to this messed the whole thing up, right?

If the purpose was for the girls, that would mean the girls should be tweens. Old enough to understand, yet young enough to not have angst. 70 years ago, the participants would have been teenagers, but times have changed. Teens are the real tweens. They're young adults we treat as children, regardless of so much evidence otherwise. But, i digress.

Now, it seems the (average) age group here is 3-5. Parents spend half their time taking care of the children, and the other half attending events for the children. The only benefit seems to be showing off the children. And even that is discriminatory. They only show their children to friends, and seem wary of anyone else.

Just before, i heard one mother ask if child if he went potty already. Seriously? This is the kid you bring to work? Though, i guess it lets us see the more motherly side of these women (few men seem to take the option, and the ones who do, rarely show off) and they probably don't want to bring older children, for fear of what they might say.

Next up, bring your mom to school day. Wait, they already have that useless thing too...

I love books. Well, i love reading them. There are people who do love books, such as an erstwhile coworker that told me she cried when they were lost or damaged, or something like that. She convincingly conveyed to me that she was emotionally attached to her books. She also no longer works here.

I used to work at OLDE, which put me close to John King Books which has over a million books. Though he's just one match away from retirement, i visited a lot during lunch. It was under 10 minutes each way, leaving me over a half hour of perusing each day. Too bad i was only there a few months.

Regular bookstores seem to be going away. Also, there price of a new book at a decent bookstore is high. And, with the advent of online bookstores, the brick & mortars are even less attractive. Well, until i tried looking for a book on Java. There's a bajillion book's on Java, each with its own target audience. Then there's a bunch of versions of Java, how well the target audience is hit, and we have confusion. Even Amazon's reviews were to no avail.

So, off i went to the bookstore. Well, actually, off i went to Home Depot to get new drip pans for my range. I asked someone where to find drip pans, he pointed and gave me the aisle number, asked a second person when there. Minutes late i was checking out. Awesome.

So, i decided to go to Border's, which used to be close by, and found Books-A-Million in its stead. After some initial hesitation i walked in, walked around, didn't seem to be what i want, and left. Eventually, my sister called me back and found a Barnes & Noble not too far away.

Walking in to B&N had some (very) slight nostalgia, and had i had enough time, it'd feel like a candy store. I did have a half hour or so, so i walked around before asking for help. So many books. So many topics. So much variety. And people just sitting and reading. On closer look, they're not holding the books nicely. And look at all the bent covers. Don't you people know how to hold a softcover book? Hold the binding in one hand, possibly pinching a little above it with the thumb and forefinger, then gently push apart the pages. Otherwise, the binding breaks, the cover bends, and you just helped make a book unsalable at normal price. Part of doing business, right? Perhaps, but it still isn't right.

Ooh! What's this, toys? What's a book store without toys? And half price! I came back on my way out and got an Extreme Thumb Wrestling Kit for $5. List price is $9.95 and the big red sticker meant it was half price. There's no ring and only one cape, but who can resist your own mask and mask holder?

But where were the computer books? Ah, ask the man at the information kiosk. I was mildly embarrassed when he pointed to the next bookcase over, and was soon perusing what they had. I settled on Oreilly's Learning Java, 4th Edition, which seemed right, even though it's a version behind. The $50 is more than i would pay online, but i knew that i would be paying more for the pleasure of holding it in my hands before purchase.

I got in line to buy my new candy. In front of me were a couple teenagers. One wearing those pajama pants people call clothes, with a boy with two earrings. It's noting new, but i still find it remarkable. Eventually i was up to bat, and the twenty something asked me if i wanted to join the club. I knew i would hardly ever buy books at the store, so when i found out it is usually $25 a year, it was easy to say no. I told her i usually purchase online. I mentioned Amazon, she mentioned bn.com was comparable, i mentioned they (used to) filter their comments, she said she would look at it or something. It was goodbye at first fright. Well, she asked.

On my way out, i finally found the car which i had parked directly in front of the building. And while looking to back up, my younger brother drove by. I stalked him until he parked in front of the next store, said hello, and left. All in a day's work.

And now the paperweight is on my desk. It's about time i stopped posting and started reading.

The punchline for this week's story line arc at Userfriendly is significant to any slashdotter with less than a seven digit UID.

Just reviewed tearablepuns.org. I laughed, i cried, they were tear-able.

Here's the ones i liked, some reworded:
  (Yes, i reviewed all of them.)
  (I rejected some because i've heard them before.)

The number 13? Not on my watch!!
The two crows that tried to start their own flock were charged with attempted murder.
If attacking clowns, go for the juggler.
I gave away my dead batteries free of charge.
I'm still working on a construction joke.
You can't explain a pun to a kleptomaniac. They take things, literally.
I tried to make a belt out of watches. It was a waist of time.
What do you call a herd of giggling cows? Laughing stock.
What do you call a sleepwalking nun? A Roaming Catholic.
I know a guy who is addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop anytime.
Secretary, please tell the invisible man I can't see him today.
She got fired from the hot dog stand for putting her hair in a bun.
A boy swallowed some coins. The doctor checked him out and said, "No change yet."
This book on beating gravity is great; i can't put it down!
After surviving mustard gas and pepper spray, he was considered a seasoned veteran.
My flashlight died. I'm delighted.
C, E Flat, and G walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, no minors."
It was nice when i let my fingernails grow a little. But now it's getting out of hand!
I _would've_ kept off the grass, but I don't understand sign language.
A guy stayed on a merry-go-round for three days. He set a whirled record.
No one seams to like my jokes about patch work! I've tried sew hard...
When the shoe salesman offered me Velcro shoes, I said, "Sure, why knot?"
Two silkworms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
Male deer have buck teeth.
That was a very emotional wedding. Even the cake was in tiers.
Did you hear about the guy who lost his left arm? He's all right now.
She gets her way by pretending she's sad. She's an expert in sighcology.
She applied at the post office but they wouldn't letter. They said it's all mail there.
The roundest knight at the Round Table was Sir Cumference. He had too much pi.
What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta.
Witches' parking only: All others will be toad.
That theatrical performance about puns was just a play on words.
When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
Without geometry, life is pointless.
I dyed my hair today. It was the highlight of the week.
About Rosh Hashana: shofar, so good.
My doctor told me to cut down on sodium. I took his advice with a pinch of salt.
The paint catapult won the competition with flying colors.
Never trust atoms. They make up everything.
I can have dinner at a native American restaurant. Who needs reservations?
A pun at maturity is fully groan.
As a couple, oxygen and potassium make are OK.
I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it.
Noone laughed when i fell while skating. But the ice sure cracked up.
Pinning pictures on a bulletin board seems a bit tacky.
A man drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong currant pulled him in.
The man who fell into an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
The calendar's days are numbered.
He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how his Mercedes bends.
He often broke into song because when couldn't find the right key.
What's the difference between a democratic system and a feudal system? In one your vote counts, in the other, your count votes.
The best way to communicate with fish is to drop them a line.
She was only a whiskey-maker's daughter, but he loved her still.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it will remain stationery.
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
Hungry? A boiled egg is hard to beat.
A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.
Corduroy pillows are making headlines.
The egoist took revenge on another, I for I.
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
Dreaming in color is a pigment of your imagination.
A pessimist's blood type is B-negative
---
Submitted a couple:

Bobby told Billy he stopped a stampede. That's was the biggest bunch of bull he ever herd.
Useless people online are e-feckless.

As i am having a harder time reading things up close, it seemed like a good time to get new glasses. Off to a local optometrist i went, a member of the community, and got my new prescription. I warned him i'd being going to Zenni for the frames, which he seemed to not be enthused about. Though he mentioned the reason being quality, and i do believe he was earnest in his comments, the loss of profit from selling designer frames had to be in the background somewhere.

Zenni isn't as cheap as i thought it would be. I didn't want to get the thick "1.57 Mid-Index Single Vision", base lenses, so i took the recommendation for "1.61 High-Index Single Vision" @ $19.95. As if that wasn't enough, my prescription caused an "extra fee" of $12.00, making the upgrade in lenses a whopping $31.95. That's more than the frames! (The frames were $23.95) Once at it, i splurged for the "Oleophobic (oil and fingerprint resistant) premium anti-reflective coating" @ $14.95, grumbling internally at how (at least some of) this stuff used to be free. The sub-total was $70.85 for that pair, and i took another.

The second frame was the same frame, but absolutely nothing special about the lenses. I figure, it's really the frames that break, not the lenses. And, should i lose my glasses, it's not so bad to wear the thicker lenses whilst waiting for a new pair to arrive. That pair was a (sub-)total of $23.95, lock, stock, and barrel. Over $45 less. Sheesh! and stuff.

The glasses were $94.80 and shipping added $4.95. Luckily, i found a "15% off order over $75" coupon code which removed $14.22, and i got charged $85.53 for the two pair. Not bad, but a whole lot more expensive than i originally thought. (I figured $20-$30 for both!)

The glasses arrived a couple weeks later and work nicely. I showed (shown?) the glasses to my sister, mentioning how the thicker lenses were only noticeably thicker from the side, and even then not that much. She agreed with the former comment, took some issue with the second, and mentioned the reflectivity was different as well. I attribute that to the coating. Later, she mentioned concern that the thicker glasses might weigh more on the nose, meaning comfort could be a concern.

So, the next day, i weighed the glasses. My old glasses weigh in at 27 grams, the thicker lens glasses are 20 grams, and the thinner lens, 19 grams. Holy 1 gram Batman! Is that really real 32 bucks? I think not, and it has been duly noted. (A quick resolve to a weighty decision, you might say.)

I'm still reflecting on the coatings. Well, actually, i'm not. But i kind of think that i might want to think about them at some later time before having to make a decision about a subsequent order. Add a few more words and that might actually represent what i'm feeling. You know what i mean, right?

I called joke-a-day some years ago and remember two. Q: How do you make a cheesepuff? A: Chase it around the block. A cop stopped someone for speeding and asked for his license and registration. Reviewing the license, "Hey, it says here you need glasses." The driver responds, "I have contacts." The cop screams back, "I don't care who you know, you still have to wear your glasses!" Cheesy, punny jokes, who could ask for more?

(Did i just end two paragraphs in a question?)

(Was that three?)

(Stop it already!)

I tried contacts some time ago and didn't like them. Anything trying once is worth trying twice, right? So, i opted for the more expensive exam and a couple weeks later received my Acuvue Oasys lenses. (I picked up the contacts on Monday on the way home from the office, and the new glasses had just arrived in the mail. What luck.) The lady up front showed (shown seems wrong here) me how to put them in and take them out. (No hokey pokey though.) I had a much easier time putting them in, as she put it, i didn't have an issue touching my eye. Taking them out was a pain. She showed me by dragging them down with one finger and then picking them up from the bottom of the eye. I remember pinching them off. And youtube videos show that, and the optometrist confirmed it. Pinching is the way to go. And oh, so much easier.

She told me to wear them 2 hours the first day, and increase by 2 hours every day, for 8 days. This would help me get used to them. (The optometrist told me later the first day could (should?) be 4.) I wore them home for two hours. Things seemed brighter and crisper, but not as clear. The next day at work i realized i could only read by blinking a lot, as things got blurrier immediately after a blink. My right eye has a harder time reading (optometrist suggested it could be due to a bad prescription when i was younger, causing my brain to develop it only so far) but reading on the computer was hard. I could do it when i leaned close(ly?) to it. Large or further away letter were not such a problem. I looked online, i scheduled an appointment, and saw the doctor the next day.

A reading test showed (bah!) what he expected, my right eye was weaker. He was surprised i couldn't read the bottom line. He looked into the eyes and saw nothing wrong with the contacts or my eyes, it was not rotating out of its orientation, and suggested i had a problem that is rare for soft lenses, and very rare for this brand. Apparently, i'm his second case ever. I forget the name for it (it's a simple name) but the lens cups up over the eye leaving a spaces between the eye and the lens. Blinking flattens it which is why it gets better. This is really an issue that crops up with hard lenses. IIRC, he said It can also be sen by the optometrist. However, in soft lenses, the effect would be too small to be seen, and as such, he has to rely on my reports.

So, he got another sample set of contacts. Different brand, though also silicon hydrogel and toric. For the right eye he found an exact match. The left eye is too strong a prescription for him to keep in stock, so he gave me something else and compensated with a lens from his drawer. (Math works?) Reading test with the right eye showed no difference, that is, the same issue existed. The left eye was showing me double vision. (Guess not.) The lens was bad. Off with its head! He got me another. The same issue existed (no, not the double vision, silly), and he had no more brands to try.

After touching upon the difference between silicon hydrogel and hydrogel lenses, he explained that silicon seems to be better (more breathable), and as it has been the product of choice for some years now, advances in anti-rotation have gone to it. Rotation is a problem for toric lenses. So the hydrogel lenses might rotate a little. Nonetheless, that was what i should try, and he said he would order two, no three, sample sets for me to try. He also went into expense, and how it should affect if i want fortnight or monthlies, but i pushed that away as i have not yet decided if i want to wear contacts or even how often. I'm trying to see how it goes, and i have too little information to go on. And now i am not sure if anything will work anyway!

So, it's back to glasses for the next week.

[After posting this, i saw the tagline: Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder. -- Dr. Laurence J. Peter Weird,

BTW, the latest changes made slashdot uglier, but i'm seeing faster page load times. Maybe it was worth it.]

when a n00b copied a file to a dos machine that being did not understand that 'ban proliferation' would be appended to nab.efilorp . this cause much confusion since 'proliferation of nuclear technology' and 'prolife' are not the same thing except when giant, atomic powered robots are trying to make giant atomic powered babies.

Why did Roy stop having sex with his wife? because she was a Dena Sore.

true story kids.

One Philosophy I would like to resurrect it that of the beginning and end of the 'world.' Whenever a Life begins it is the creation of a world. Whenever a Life ends it is the end of a world. This is the many worlds theory. In the wheel of time it says there are neither beginnings nor ends to the 'wheel' of time. This is a Great lie.

Following the 'many worlds' theory, thus the beginning of many worlds are known. They say we do not know when the world ends. This is another Great Lie. For we carve into the most durable of products the ending of many worlds. the ends of our ancestors. The world is not a planet, a planet is just a rock in space. the world is not a nation, a nation is just a factor in how a rock in space is measured.

The TV calls 'hangman' The wheel of fortune, As in it is fortunate to die. For some this is true, that is the function of death to end worlds. There need not be as many worlds created as worlds destroyed. Though I was taught, I was taught of the book of lies. when they ask when the world was created they are teaching me of a close relative. When they ask when will she die, they make many false answers. They are partial to their lies for that is what they were taught and that is what they do, exactly what they are taught.

They invent disease that they may charge for healing. they invent technologies that they might have greater wealth through lies. They have many questions, for they are taught to question everything. I am alive and well. My close family member of whom I speak of, is doing well. I have no idea when my world will end, Nor the world of the close family member of whom I say was the 'beginning' of the world as told to me.

When they were told to 'question' everything they began the process of making all information questions (I site the Jeopardy TV show) Recently someone afraid of the Truth used my command position to utter the following command "the only question is: Is the world worth saving?" Obviously my acolytes immediately questioned the order demanding to know who uttered such a command. Because children they may be, but they are not dumb.

May the Source be with you my legion of Nerds.

Slashdot used to be a safe site to visit, it never made noise when you didn't want it to, making it the go-to site for quiet, in-office news aggregation.

Not anymore. I just had to mute my laptop due to a slashdot auto-playing video advert.

XP was a (had become) a mature operating system. I abhor the fetish of "newer is better" that reigns in our industry.

Cuireann mé marc ar an lÃ. CuimhnÃm.

The legal impossibility of a Christian polity in America is formally declared in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The so-called 'free speech' and 'free exercise' clauses of the First Amendment are purely secular mandates. They are a rejection of the Catholic notion of the common good, mandating that there be no restraint whatsoever on things that damage souls and ultimately destroy the State itself. They grant as lawful precisely what many popes have called unlawful: unconditional freedom of thought, of speech, of writing, and of worship -- as if these were so many rights given by nature to man. The language of the First Amendment reflects the Protestant-borne, Enlightenment-bred faith of the deistic Framers in the ability of unaided human reason to define and sustain liberty apart from Trinitarian Truth; that is, without a cooperative effort by the Church and the State. Thus, all manner of violations of natural and divine law, including the "right" to murder children in the womb, and the coming "right" to "marry" someone of the same sex, are found lurking in the secular mandates of the First Amendment. The true Church foresees these errors. Oddly enough, the Secular State itself will not be able to endure its own mandates.