Just how old are you anyway!?

Here's a conversation I had with some Physics 212 students today during office hours (slightly paraphrased, but only slightly) -

Me: "Yeah, I took this class as an undergrad here."
Student #1: "Wow, how long ago was that?"
Me: "Let's see...it would have been Spring of 2000."
Student #2: "Really!? Did they have all of this stuff {the homework} on the internet back then? Or didn't they have that yet?"
Me: "No, we used stone tablets."

*sigh*
-Tim

Anderson Mini Pretzels

From the back of a bag of pretzels:

To ensure the long lasting freshness of this delicious snack treat try pouring the unused portioninto a plastic or glass jar. This will protect the pretzels from their worst enemy, MOISTURE. Thanks and we hope you continue to enjoy these healthful and tasty snacks.

I had no idea the plight of pretzels was so serious.

-Tim

Debt and Taxes

Filed my taxes this week! I used the federal free e-file program through TurboTax, and it worked pretty well. To make sure you actually get the free file, you have to go through www.irs.gov, and click on the obvious links to pull up a list of places that you can file for free. I picked Turbo Tax without doing any real research, but I did use their standalone program to file last year, and the online version worked pretty much the same.

It was surprisingly helpful for a free program. You have to create an account with them, but it pretty much holds your hand the entire way and explains everything very well. I ended up getting almost everything back from the federal taxes, and the return was approved the next day. The state taxes were another matter. Turbo Tax's system wanted $19.95 to file my state taxes online, but the system let's you print out copies when you're finished, so I just printed them and mailed them. Seemed like the obvious solution to me, although I was later told that Illinois actually has their own free e-file system in place. But what I really can't believe is how little I got back from the state. Don't they care that I'm poor? Makes that little bit of nagging guilt from shopping online instead of locally just vanish.

In fact, the online system worked so well, I can't really imagine what the program they charge for is like. It must make up deductions for you!

-Tim

Vet School Stress Test

Tamara is having a bit of a tough week. Since all of the vet students take the same classes and all of the professors know each other well, they are all aware of each other's schedule. This means that it's very easy for them to avoid having all of their exams on the same day. Instead, they have them all on subsequent days...see how much better that is!

This week, Tamara has to present a medical case to one class, take exams in two others, take a quiz worth 10% of her grade in a fourth, and proctor the Physics 212 exam in addition to all her normal class lectures and TA duties. Finally, just to add insult to injury, next week is actually worse! And, oh yeah, that whole planning a wedding thing, almost forgot about that. :-P

I went out to load up her favorite junk food tonight (and, of course, a single, long-stem red rose--what can I say? I'm a traditionalist). And I'll probably cover her 212 section on Thursday; it's the day after their exam, so no one's going to come anyway.

-Tim

Computer Upgrades!

I finally got to make some hardware upgrades to my desktop computer last week, and with the upgrades came a much needed reformat of win2k. I got a Samsung dvd burner, both for data backup and to take the place of my Lite-on dvd reader which had recently decided it no longer wanted to read cdrs. I also got a new video card to replace my ATI Radeon 9500, a Leadtek Nvidia 6600GT.

The video card has really breathed new life into my system, Doom 3 now actually runs at a playable resolution and speed! And I can play Need for Speed Underground 2 at 1600 by 1200 with all of the video settings on high! However, Tamara is still a bit skeptical that the performance boost was really necessary for Starcraft. I went with the Leadtek because it seemed to be getting the best reviews and because I had such a great experience with my Leadtek TV tuner card. The only problem is that I now seem to be toeing the line of what my power supply can handle, it's become an interesting balancing act.

Other than that, passing the qual means I'm finally starting to get reintegrated into the lab, which is something I've been looking forward to very much. The wedding invitations went into the mail at the end of last week and we've already started to get responses back! If you're reading this and still haven't responded, then you should go do it now!

Go on, it's ok, I'll wait for you....

...well, hurry up...what do you mean you've lost it? It's right there!

..ok, where were we? Oh right, Tamara's Mom and youngest sister, Natasha, are here trying to get Tamara's dress finished. Well, more specifically Tamara and her mom are trying to get the dress finished and Natasha is trying to drive the cats crazy.

-Tim

I demand a recount...

...because they actually passed me!!!!

-Tim