I got to see the eye specialist dude about the issues in my right eye.  The problem had actually been diminishing over the past few days.  The dude looked at my eye for a while and then told me he thought things were ok.  He could see what made the optometrist concerned, and he hypothesized that there may have been an issue, with a virus or something to that effect at one time.  Despite that he felt things were looking good.  It looked like an "eye on the mend" as he described it and since I have been seeing the issue to a far lesser extent he felt there wasn't any issue to be concerned with as he couldn't see anything that made him concerned.

Good deal.

Going Green

I guess the answer is obvious but I'll ask anyway.  Is some of this "green" stuff a bit misguided?  I'm cool with going the "sustainable" route and conserving materials and energy and such.  That all has a logic I can understand, but sometimes I think sometimes people miss the target.

There was a news story on the local news about this couple who had a "green" wedding.  They made all kinds of moves that I thought logically did save energy and such.  Not that I think everyone should make as many sacrifices as they did but hey some were in fact I thought "green" moves.  Then they started showing other green weddings and it got weird.

Stuff like a couple who had everyone eat on wood plates...  wait what?  Are your usual pottery like plates somehow unsustainable, is there not enough clay around?  and what these wood plates are going to last... a few years at most?  I failed to see the environmental advantage there along with some other things that just seemed to involve a lot of green, as in plants, or wood, or such stuff.

Sports: MN Twins

Went to a Twins game last Wednesday on my day off with the wife.  We just got tickets at the gate.  It was Wednesday so it was dollar dog day ($1 hot dogs (that should have been obvious)).  If it was a night game we might have wanted to order tickets a head of time on account for the dollar dogs but walking up for a weekday day game before school was out worked just fine.  We sat in left field a couple rows from the wall and we had space around us to stretch out.  It was a good game.  Close game, good hits to our part of the field, manager ran out and threw a fit after a close play at home, one home run one section to our left, a late hit to win it for the Twins.

There is something about attending a baseball game that I like, even when in the crappy Metrodome (only 1 more year left!). Any other sport involves a lot of shill crap and stuff. At a baseball game the atmosphere is more relaxed, you can sit back and have a conversation unrelated to the game if you want. I like it.

Somehow the Twins are (as of witting this) in first place in a division where they're the ONLY team above .500.  I was really sure that Detroit would manage to hit better than they pitch, but nope, and I figured Cleveland was due for some good runs but not yet apparently.  Regardless of being in first place they're still young, just a couple games over .500.  All in all actually not bad at this point for what I expected.

Movies: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe recently.  Dear gord uneven special effects batman!  Some of the special effects are good.  Others are downright horrendous.  The equivalent of the worst green screen effects of all time.   I've seen better work on YouTube at times...  It is insane.    The pacing of the film is furious, but I guess there's a lot of material to get thru.   It's a kids movie and while not the best still an alright film, but I'd only marginally recommend it.

Gas Tax Holiday

So the concept of a gas tax holiday has come up in presidential politics.  I have hopes most people see this as what it is, just some stupid ploy.  Now I'm not opposed to the government messing with the free market.  I'm not one of those dopes that thinks if we'd never intervene everything will be ok.  I think there are times the government needs to and should be involved in the market in general.  At the same time I'm missing where making something somewhat artificially cheaper by lowering tax for a period of time is going to accomplish.  It might stink but the best way to encourage conservation and efficient use of fuel to me seems to be ... the rising prices.  I'm not opposed to stuff like economic stimulus packages, but I'm not sure such a tax break will do much in regards to prompting much spending or provide much relief.  Perhaps it is a big amount in terms of how you calculate how much that tax brings in but there's got to be a break point where if you give everyone a couple bucks it just has no effect on them...  Plop a big wad of cash down in some people's laps maybe I can see that having an impact, but not a few bucks at a time here and there over the summer.

The republican's here in MN actually proposed a similar move a few years ago.  If I remember right the public polls were so one sided (aka "this is stupid") they dropped the issue outright.  In fact recently a few Republicans joined with Democrats in MN to actually RAISE the gas tax over the next year(s) and use it to target transportation projects.  Bad timing maybe but they should have done that long ago.  The "loyal" Republican response of course is to run ads blaming the price of gas on Democrats...

GTA:IV

I'm about 20% thru the game.  Lots of fun.  Past GTA games (I didn't play SA) always had this very plain "ooh look gagsta stuff!" aspect to the plot.  Things just happened and a fair amount of even the main plot line was tongue-in-cheek.  Whatever the reason, maybe it is the dialog, but events really feel substantial and interesting now.  I just went thru my first major (I'm sure it won't be the last) betrayal and while it wasn't a moment I didn't see coming (betrayal in a crime story!) the results and such felt a lot more entertaining and engaging.

I've never gave a damn about what happens in the main plot line of a GTA game.  In this one, the characters seem more dimensional and I'm really curious to see what happens.

I had trouble with a mission from Little Jacob and finally finished that up and we became better friends and now he sells me stuff.  That's good perk from him.

I wish Niko wouldn't call with his cell so quickly after a mission to announce he's completed.  I've been killed once when I killed my target but his buddies were still alive, shooting, and Niko just had to stand up and make the phone call.  Also Niko made a call with the cops still after him while on foot as well... that got him nabbed by the cops there.  Each time this happens it interrupts the phone call and you don't get to hear the conversation you were supposed to hear.

Local Media Crap: Water is weird!

The fishing opener is nearing.  I don't fish.  I have no interest in fishing but a lot of people here in MN do.  So we get this story in the local paper.  Quote:

The late ice-out reminds us that it's a good thing water gets less dense and floats when it freezes. Otherwise lakes would freeze from the bottom up ... and there'd be no fish.

#####  ##### who writes / approves this crap?  If water behaved differently we wouldn't just be inconvenienced for fishing opener, life on the planet would be substantially different.  Cripes sake!