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So the last few days I’ve been dealing with a mild sinus infection. It hasn’t been that bad, just a bit of congestion and some mucus.

Today was different though. I woke up this morning, was feeling pretty good but blew my nose anyways to clear out the old sinuses. There was some mucus so I kept blowing my nose. I cleaned that up but I kept blowing my nose and there seemed to be more mucus. Rinse and repeat several times and there I was amazed by the amount of stuff that kept coming out of my nose. I didn’t even feel particularly blocked up either. With my sinus passages seemingly clear I went to work.

My day at work was uneventful save for the end where I started noticing the pains associated with a sinus infection. It was the start of these sharp pains behind my right cheekbone. They got worse after I got back home as the pain spread to behind my right eyebrow. For anyone who’s had these sinus pains for the first time, it’s then you realize how extensive your sinuses extend throughout your face. Fortunately, this particular infection was not as bad as the one I had in 2005 that was so painful, I couldn’t sleep. Still, I took an Advil tonight and that seems to have chased the pain away.

I’m hoping these pains mean the sinuses are finally clearing, otherwise I think I may need to see a medical professional soon.

Like many of you, I receive e-mails as an alumnus from my previous schools. Some come from a very general level, like from the university as a whole while others are more specific, like directly from my former department.

I received one such e-mail today from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. I’ve been invited to an informal student and alumni networking event a local pub. The goal is for alumni to pass along advice to students about school, careers, and life after university. I think this is a great idea. I’d like to attend, the only thing that gives me pause is that I never really used my mechanical engineering degree to do anything practical at all.

I worked for about ten months at a real mechanical engineering job after I graduated. I got fed up with my boss and the job and never looked at mechanical engineering again. As almost all of you know, I’ve been involved with the video game industry since. Am I the type of mechanical engineering alumnus they want to have around students? “You know that degree that you’re working so hard to get? Yeah, you may never use it again a year after graduation.”

I feel like I have lots of advice to give but I’m not sure it’s the advice the department or the students are looking for. Still, it’s free food and drinks though, so maybe it’s worth going anyways.

I believe some of you have already seen this but in this video above Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon plays egg Russian roulette with someone named David Beckham. Some of the eggs are hard-boiled and some of them are raw, thus the Russian roulette part.

Hard to believe Mr. Beckham would subject his perfectly coiffed hair to this.

As I alluded to in my last post, I’ve been fighting a cold since last week. It started off with a really minor sore throat that lasted about half a day and then it proceeded into sinus and nasal congestion. I actually took the day off from work on Friday to rest since I just felt generally crappy from not being able to breathe easy. It turns out that was a good thing, since I slept in until 2pm on that day.

My cold hasn’t featured any other symptoms other than the congestion. I don’t have a cough, chills, aches, or anything else. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had congestion this long. I’m good to go to work tomorrow but I’m most definitely gonna be all stuffed up still. When I blow my nose, all the mucus is clear, which I guess is a good thing. I’ve had colds before where my nasal mucus is this groovy green or slightly brown colour. It’s super interesting to see that but not this time around.

I can’t wait to breathe easy again!

Illness has befallen me, so I lack the energy to write the usual crap that you’re all accustomed to. Instead, you’ll just have to watch this video above. Remember when teachers used to show VHS tapes on a TV in class? It was probably because they just couldn’t deal with us stupid kids that day.

Anyways, in this video, everyone’s favourite associate producer, Jordan Schlansky accompanies Conan to a cowboy apparel store. You know, I think in this segment, Conan was meaner than usual with Jordan.

In a quest to eat healthier, I’ve decided to reduce my consumption of potato chips and cookies. I still like snacking though, so I sought out an alternative. I first tasted seaweed snacks when I was a kid. Some people I knew from Hong Kong gave me a small sheet of this dark green, impossibly thin wafer of seaweed. I did not like the taste. I’m an old man now and I’ve consumed so much seaweed in so many different forms since then that seaweed snacks are tasty to me. I like crisp texture and slight bit of salt on it gives it enough flavour.

The 7-11 by my workplace sells a 5g package for $0.99. I knew that was probably a rip-off so visited my local Donald’s Market. There, I was able to buy 24 of those 5g packages for $6.95. What an incredible markup 7-11 has on these things!

This evening alone I’ve eaten three packages, which isn’t hard to do since the combined 15g of seaweed doesn’t amount to much. Interestingly, a single package gives you your 100% recommended intake of iodine. I’ll try to stay the course for this healthy snacking going forward.

Conan took his show to Dallas for this week. While in Texas, he spent some time to experience what it would be like as a Mary Kay cosmetics consultant. What transpires is a combination of awkwardness, shame, and hilarity. If you liked the segment, check out this super cool, true 360 degree behind the scenes video, no seriously, it’s 360 degrees.

This evening I downloaded the latest OS updates for my trusty and old Dell Mini 9 netbook. This computer, which is now an ancient six years old, runs Windows XP. The updates included a notice from Microsoft. Next Tuesday will mark the end of extended support for Windows XP, meaning virtually everyone who still uses it will no longer get any updates from Microsoft. Any security exploits from then on will never be patched. The OS will be left to fend for itself in the virtual wilds.

Windows XP has always treated me well. It was the first version of Windows that seemed reliable, secure, and powerful. I was in my first year of grad school when I got my first look at XP. Through the computer science department, all students got free access to certain Microsoft products, which included XP. At the time, I was slightly hesitant to move away from Windows 98SE but I knew it was time, after all, this was 2002!

XP was the first version of Windows that I used that made going online seem seamless and easy. Streaming video, online gaming, torrents, and porn became very easy to access on XP. It also crashed a lot less compared to 98SE and 95.

I was so content with XP that I didn’t upgrade to Windows 7 until 2011. I actually had a copy of Vista at home but then saw how poorly received it was and decided not to install it. By the way, if anyone wants a copy of Vista Ultimate, you let me know.

Just because Microsoft is ending support doesn’t mean I’ll stop using my Dell with XP. It primarily is just my torrent machine now but beyond next week, it will still serve me well, even as the wolves circle closer with their new, undefended attacks.

A strange report emerged from Texas last week. According to a Houston TV station story, a college instructor taught the wrong class to her students and no one realized what was going on until shortly before the final exam was administered. That’s right, a whole semester went by before the instructor admitted she had been teaching the wrong material and the students couldn’t figure that out on their own.

According to the report, the students had signed up and were supposed to be taught an introductory course in chemistry. The instructor instead, taught a much more advanced chemistry class. This is where I start to ask questions. First, as an instructor, how do you not realize you’re teaching the wrong material? I was a teaching assistant for two years when I was at grad school. The first thing I did at the beginning of each semester was to announce and write on a board the name of the class that I thought I was teaching. Then everyone knows if someone is in the wrong place. Am I teaching the wrong class? Are some students in the wrong place? It gets figured out pretty quickly. How the instructor didn’t double-check her course assignment is beyond my comprehension.

Next, why didn’t the students clue in on this earlier? The news story reports that the students were all failing the class and getting terrible marks. Isn’t that out of the ordinary for a normal grade distribution? Especially for an introductory class. Also, wouldn’t the textbooks be different for two different classes? Let’s just say the intro and advanced chemistry classes used the same textbook. Wouldn’t it seem strange to the students that they didn’t start at the beginning of the book for the class? I fault the instructor and the institution mostly for this debacle but in my mind, there was ample room for the students to fix this earlier.

The school in question is part of the Lone Star College System which are essentially community colleges so perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on everyone involved but it still is weird that the problem wasn’t discovered until the end of the course. I’ve seen some strange stuff in my years in higher education but this was a first.

As I was getting ready for bed this evening I heard police sirens outside. That’s not strange because living in a big city, you hear that a lot. I decided to look outside my living room windows anyways because I’m curious like a cat. Just down the block, in plain view, I saw four police vehicles had pulled over an SUV that was stopped at the side of the street.

I grabbed my binoculars. All the police vehicles had their doors open and the officers were arrayed behind the doors with their guns drawn. This was no speeding ticket. I decided it was time for my telescope. Using that, I could see more clearly and in greater detail. The driver of the SUV had his hands stuck outside his window. The police ordered him to exit the vehicle which he did with his hands up. He walked back towards the police vehicles where one officer then cuffed him and put him in the back of a squad car. They then ordered his female companion out and she too walked back towards the police vehicles. She too appeared to be cuffed but not put into a vehicle. Everyone then seemed to start talking. A minute later, the female had her hands free. Then the driver of the SUV was out of the police car and he wasn’t in handcuffs anymore. About a minute more of discussion all around and the driver and his companion were walking back to their SUV. They started it and I saw the driver pull out a “clicker” and they drove into the parking garage of the apartment right across the street! They were literally just feet from their home when they got pulled over.

The rest of the police vehicles just took off in different directions. I’ve been hearing sirens going off since then. It’s clear something happened and the authorities are looking for a vehicle like that SUV. Oh wait, this tweet literally just got posted while I was writing this. Two people shot about a ten minute walk from my home. No wonder I’ve heard and seen so many police vehicles in the area. Well, I’d like to know more but I need my sleep. I’m guessing there will be news about this tomorrow.

UPDATE: Wow, according to this tweet, one of the victims made their way to the police station, which isn’t exactly close to where the shootings apparently took place.