10 thoughts on the day, October 26, 2013.

1. HP's all-in-one 21" Android thingamajig is available for purchase directly from HP's commerce site for $399, but if you can wait, B&H has it for preorder at $349 through today.  This is a 21" touch-screen with 1920x1080 resolution.  That's an extremely awesome price, just for the HD touch-screen alone.  I think the touch screen and simple interface might be good for retired folks who are technophobes.  If you can wait six months, I'm sure there'll be refurbished models on WoOt for $299 or less.
2. If you want to watch a video that'll freak you out about the future of medicine as it relates to bacteria and antibiotics, check out Frontline's "Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria".  To whittle it down to a single point: Uncontrolled outbreak at the NIH.
3. Chris Mooney's got a great write up over Johnathan Haidt's analysis on the psychology of politics -- between red and blue -- based on his book, "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion".  Basically, conservatives seek fairness while liberals seek compassion.  Funny, but I grew up realizing that there was no fairness in life, and at the core of humanity, compassion is the most important moral trait we look up to: See Mother Theresa.  I mean really, if you're going to be engulfed by the lack of fairness in this world, you're probably going to grow up to be a bitter, old person.  I'm butting heads with a bitter old conservative online right now, as a matter of fact -- I'm going to post his stuff one of these days.
   
4. Had a client come back the other week, six months after we had gone through design development, with all new programming.  The core concept was changed, and all we're being asked to do on the main floor, is to make it function better and look nicer.  By way of how their company is run, everyone that works there has to buy in.  But of course, you know what they say about too many chefs.  I was leaning towards TBNT, because I don't need to be anyone's design puppet.  As egotistical as that sounds, you only have so much time on this Earth, and being told what to do is a waste of it.
5. I'd seen on Nightline the other morning that first-born tend to have the highest IQ of siblings, while the youngest is the rebellious one.  That's probably true of my family where my brother's got bona fide smarts and I'm the rebel who does things my way -- and only my way.
6. I've been playing Poko Pang.  And Line Bubble.  And Line Pop. And Sushi Ninja.  It's like working, but playing: You have to play hard to move up in the world.
7. Major series of CMEs yesterday, such that we have an ongoing R3-level radio blackout potential, though no auroras because the CME was directed away from Earth...well, at least nothing to write home about.
8. Just made banana muffins.  They're like banana bread, but in muffin tin.  I don't use a recipe.  I learned from the Joy of Cooking book a long time ago that muffins are all basically the same ingredients, so I just work off memory of what's in it, and roughly the proportion of things.  Tastes good, BTW.  Piping hot, moist and not too sweet.
9. Life doesn't stop.  You're not that important in the grand scheme of things.  So really, just enjoy your life.  Unless of course, you are important in the grand scheme of things, in which case, why are you wasting time reading this?!?
10. I try not to think about the future, because if I do, I think I might get a panic attack.  (I sometimes get those nightmares where I'm back in college and it's senior year and I hadn't gone to my classes, I'm sure I missed some courses, and I'm not quite ready to confront that reality that I might have to study for another year or two.  That's when I wake up in a sweat, thankful that my life was the opposite of my nightmare.)  You just trust that one remains flexible to adapt to whatever future may come forward.  As Talking Heads said, 

"And you may ask yourself, where does that highway go to? 

And you may ask yourself, am I right or am I wrong? 

And you may say to yourself, my God, what have I done?!"