First time in awhile

For the first time in awhile, I went out. I met up with Miriam and some of her friends a Old Pro in downtown Palo Alto. The evening wasn't too crazy. There was some new randoms from her work place. I had trouble making it there though because I wasn't able to leave work until like 7pm. It was fun getting out for the evening. Allie, oddly enough, had separate plans for her friends, also in downtown Palo Alto on the same evening, but those fell through and then she got sick. Otherwise, she would've come too.

Journeyman

Here's a show I am disappointed to see go. It might have been kept on for a full season had the writers strike on happened when it did. I know a lot of people had trouble getting into the show too. I personally enjoyed the show a lot.

Obviously Married

I looked at my ring finger today with no particular intentions. I started playing with my ring. That's when I saw it. It is official. My ring finger is now has an indelible ring of reddish coloration under my wedding ring. It's weird. It's like, I had the thought that,"Well, there really is no going back now." I can no longer take off my ring and expect no one to know I'm married. I never did this for that particular intention, of course. In fact, I was often concerned when I had to take my ring off out in public because there was no identification regarding my wedded status. Now though, the mark is unmistakable. The worry changed to, "What will people think if I have to take my ring off and they see this mark? Will they think I'm trying unsuccessfully to hide the fact I'm married?" It's funny how this stuff works; no middle ground.

Pop goes Mensa

Every once in awhile, even the elite among us must venture into the realm of pop culture. MENSA, it turns out, is not exception, apparently. Their chairhuman just came up with his "Top ten smartest shows of all time (in no particular order)". Leave it to a MENSA member to list a top ten of anything in no particular order. Now, it must be made clear that MENSA in no way takes itself too seriously beyond the actual endeavor to find smart people. This is a group of people that freely laughs at themselves. So, in an effort to give closure to any readers of my article here, I ask forgiveness from both MENSA chairhuman Jim Werdell and Fancast for re-publishing their list, as follows (my commentary is in red):

1. M*A*S*H – It had smart repartee and was so much more than a comedy. Yeah, I'll watch its reruns when I'm bored and nothing else
is on.

2. Cosmos (with Carl Sagan) – Sagan was able to communicate something
extremely complicated to the layman and do it well, and that’s unusual for a
scientist at his level. It should be noted that Carl
Sagan became an outcast among his peers in the scientific community because of
his attempts to make science accessable to the everyone.

3. CSI -- The way they use science to solve their programs is intriguing to
viewers. Only if all the worlds problems could be
solved with a bit of science within an hour.

4. House – Again, it’s high level type of show; it’s the personality that
makes it a winner, plus it deals with science. I am
enjoying this show, but find I can't watch its reruns.

5. West Wing – you had to pay attention to stay up with it. The repartee was
fast and furious and you needed a fairly high level intelligence to keep up with
it. I did enjoy this show a lot. It would've
been nice if we really had a President like that. It's
impossible.

6. Boston Legal – It’s primarily because of the characters. The story lines
are okay, but the characters are incredible and the writers give them great
dialogue. I can watch this sometimes.

7. All in the Family – The show dealt with social issues before its time and
was on the forefront of trying to show people’s feelings, beliefs and the
complexities of personality, in both a serious and comedic way. This was an important show in its day. It's ironic that a
show with its social content couldn't be aired today even though we all think
things are better now. I think its more that we are happy with how
effectively we are hiding the underlining issues now.

8. Frasier – The repartee was sensational; the main characters were very
good. Even though they portrayed people who were likely of high intelligence,
they also showed their weaknesses. This is a great
show that I can enjoy watching over and over.

9. Mad About You – It’s a personal favorite, I loved the characters and the
back and forth. It was very smart. This was a good
show that went deep into human relationships. Sometimes a little too
deep.

10. Jeopardy – It’s about the only game show that really tries to test
people’s intelligence. There’s very little luck involved, and there are few game
shows like that. I don’t watch it all that much honestly, but from what I’ve
seen it tests more than knowledge, it tests intelligence too. It's fun at times, but isn't really about smarts; instead about
who can memorize the most information.

Nothing like San Diego

There's nothing like going to San Diego and then not being able to just relax and do nothing. I was there recently, and missed the great weather and the rainy weather too. Why? I was in doors all day at a convention for the engineering software I use called SolidWorks. I learned a lot, and was able to make a lot of contacts with others in my field. However, the only time I got to really get out and enjoy San Diego was after the sun was down. The block party that shut off several blocks of the Gaslamp Quarter that the convention organizers put on one evening was a lot of fun. Nothing beats the flow of free beer.

So far, so

My cuzin Les has been bugging to do sumfin with her for awhile now. We live in the same general metropolis for a few years, but haven't had a good chance to just hang out other than at family events and whatever. We made arrangements to meet up last Friday. Thoses plans fell through at the last minute. Instead, we met up this Friday. Even that got pushed out to later in the night. We ended up meeting up around 9pm, had a later dinner at Pizza Antica at Santana Row. The quality of food at Pizza Antica has been slowly been going downhill. I'll save that review for another day. It was nice to just chill and chat though.

Allie and I hadn't been out to a desent place for awhile, so I figured last night we'd hit up Straits, also at Santana Row. We were actually both impressed with the quality of food there. Its funny how much we end up talking about work, even over a nice dinner. We had also planned to goto the movies, maybe to see National Treasure. Nothing is out that is all that interesting right now, and National Treasure was more a compromise than an actual desired choice, so we changed our minds, hit up Blockbuster and watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and The Quiet.