Hey, once I hit 80 I expect to take a nap every 4-6 hours anyway. What's the difference?

I intentionally searched out a school that had a reputation for being as liberal as it gets, and while the students and environment outside classes were awash with left wing ideology, all the classes themselves were solidly fact-based. Sure, we might have had a slightly higher number of classes available in women's studies, say, but ideology certainly didn't bleed over into physics, math, computer science, or even English or art history.

This, I think. I would have actually said "go back and time and learn to work 8 hour days and fill the rest of the time with something else of your choosing."

That said, and despite the fact you dismissed it, hobbies and pet projects are the way to go. This could include technical hobbies, which might even be part-time businesses, if you're really driven to work. I spent five happy years running a web-based computer game on the side when I was a PC tech, for instance. Trying your hand at some new technologies (mobile app, programming, database stuff) might be a fun way to branch out.

Besides that: try classes. There's a lot of neat stuff blossoming online. Coursera, Udacity, and the like have a number of technical and nontechnical subjects. You could also try a traditional class, if the combination of location, price, and timing is right.

And if that's not enough, read a few books, go for a few walks, dabble in some things, and chase after whatever seems fun.

Now you've got me thinking of the weird stacked donut wax creatures from Brin's Sundiver series. What were they called, Jophur?

I always loved the Cube design. Would have bought one if it wasn't horribly priced for what you got. Also, the lack of dual monitors killed the deal. I still want to pick up an old Cube case sometime, not even the working box, just to have one on my shelf as a memento.

The Pro is nifty looking by my tastes, but I drifted back to Windows desktops years ago because of the price. I still like Mac laptops though.

I'm more or less in the same category. I've explored just a bit more than you perhaps, but I still find picking a bottle to be a wild guessing game. Honestly, the app as phrased sounds silly. I don't want to find inexpensive substitutes for "expensive" wines, because I don't care about expense, and I don't believe price has a lot to do with flavor, other than perhaps at the very low end. What I would like is an app which can record wines I liked (regardless of price) and show me more wines that are similar to it, while guiding me away from wines similar to ones I didn't like.

The number of wines and varietals is a huge obstacle. I can remember at any given time about five brands, tops, that I probably liked last time I tried them. Without keeping an extensive journal which accompanies me everywhere, most of what I try, good or bad, is quickly forgotten.

Maybe the casino has a secret room in back where they always keep at least one more person praying for the casino than is on the floor praying for themselves? Assuming a mathematical equivalence in prayers, the casino should win most of the time. :)

I'm starting a movement to have it changed to "copywrought" because I think it sounds nicer.

Maybe both? I remember even when tapes were prevalent there was still an expensive early release intended just for rentals, and a later public release. When 'Fear and Loathing' came out on tape I tried to get my hands on it and was told it was $100 for the earliest copies. If I waited another three months for the public release it would be a more reasonable $20 or whatever.

The CEO of a company I used to work at gave that kind of rundown during a lunch-n-learn session. His conclusion came down to they needed to bill about three times what staffers were being paid to make a profit. That's fine, I understand that, but they were paying me $15/hour and billing $100/hour. He'd more or less said to my face he was ripping me off. It may vary by industry, but I'd say the $20/$95 difference is well into hefty profits rather than a thin margin.

I'd say offline mode has worked well for me most of the time, but a few times it has choked and refused to load the app I wanted. Maybe two or three times out of thirty-ish tries? So not a huge pain, but certainly aggravating when it fails.

Good story. I don't think I would have thought to take an insurance to small claims court. I always assumed that was more for interactions between individuals or local business, rather than with MegaCorp. Highly educational. Glad it worked out for you, too. I know several people fighting with insurance companies over lousy valuations, I'll be sure to mention this to them.

It goes both ways, though. Early on when I tried some online dating I spent too long talking via computer before actually meeting, only to find out some part of the physical/personal components didn't match up. Felt like I'd wasted a bunch of time on something that wasn't going to work. Not disagreeing with you, just saying you can go too far the other way.

I know how you feel. Around Y2K multiple groups put out "top 100 books of the 20th century" lists. I compiled several and set out with the goal of reading 250-ish of those books. Many were fantastic, some were obviously quality but left me not really happy in retrospect for having read them, and a small but substantial chunk I either hated all the way through or (later) just gave up on after 40-60 pages of misery. If I couldn't get into them by that point, I figured I wasn't going to. Some back-to-back combination of Edith Wharton and Samuel Butler broke me, I think.

Interesting. Now I feel even sillier for running back and forth on the same first few screens, thinking I was probably missing something. "I'll try this way for a bit. No? Okay, let's try the other way. Gah, I'm dead again."