Look Ma, no booboos!

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/24/poof-no-injuries-motorcycle-airbag-suit/

It looks like motorcycle jacket developers are finally implementing airbags to prevent injury during a fall off a bike. I for one really welcome this because single vehicle crashes account for about half of all accidents. I mean imagine half of all accidents having people walk out with only bruises and no broken bones. Most of the impact is on your torso during this kind of accident. I'm also assuming that everybody wears helmets :P Anyway, follow the link to see the video of how the system works!

The price of life

v.s.

It's funny when you think of how much certain things are valued in our society. In recent days I have had a few eye opening experiences to say the least. The medical industry had an overall inflation rate of 5.5% last year, more than any other industry, as if it wasn't overpriced enough. A year's supply of bi-weekly contacts cost me $325.00 from the doctor. I can find them as cheap as $190 online, but I won't be able to use my $120 yearly contacts allowance from my insurance if I go that route. It's interesting how the price from a doctor is roughly $120 more than what it costs to buy the same thing online. So out of pocket I'd still be paying the $200 no matter what route I went!

But lets stick with the price of contact lenses for the sake of argument. I get 52 lenses for a year. that makes each lens cost me roughly $3.85. Each lens is about 14.5 mm in diameter. That's a lot of money for such a tiny piece of plastic. You may argue that it's not the material that is so costly and it's all the fancy research and development and equipment required to manufacture said lenses. I argue that is not the case.

The Intel Core 2 Duo CPU has 291 million transistors packed into a space of 143milimeters-squared (about 12mm across). A transistor is one single logic gate (the basic building block of modern computing). The complexity of this system can not even be compared to a simple contact lens, yet you can buy one of these CPUs online for under $100. The factory to fabricate the CPU is so expensive that CPU manufacturers can no longer afford to build them in the United States. Each factory costs around $2.5-$3.5 billion dollars to make (http://www.cpuplanet.com/features/article.php/1499981) The machinery requires a level of precision within 65nanometers (for the Core 2 Duo). That's roughly .00000256 inches. On top of that, the manufacturing facility must be cleaner than a surgical table and no dust must be present because one spec of dust on the chip would ruin it. So the quality control in this process has to be even more strict than the medical field. Yet this ultra complex device is only worth about 26 of my contact lenses. That's only half of my year's supply! Imagine if you'd have to buy a new computer every 6 months like you have to buy contacts.

I conclude that at least in the contact lens industry the items bought and sold are completely overvalued, and I'm sure there are many other cases in the whole medical industry where the balance is even more skewed.

Last weekend

I took a long time to write about my weekend this week, but I really had a great time. On Friday I went out to John Barleycorn with some friends. I hadn't seen most of them for months! The night ended pretty early for who knows what reason, but at least I got plenty of sleep! I guess we're all getting old and can't stay out like we used to!

Saturday was a sad day. My 3 week old pro lens broke all of the sudden. I went to use it and what do you know? The AF motor didn't move the focus ring! Man, you'd think when you drop a load of cash on a specialty lens from a good brand, that you lens will last longer than 3 weeks. At least I can get it repaired under warranty and the lens is insured. But The lens will be away for about 2 weeks. That's no fun!

On Sunday Kristin and I had a St Paddy's day dinner party. That was really a lot of fun. We made corned beef and cabbage from scratch. We even corned the beef for a week! Everybody had a blast. Even Dino had a great time. He danced and partied like crazy!

Banks

No wonder the banking industry is in the mess it is. I've been trying to get a mortgage set up with one bank, which I was told is "very good" and I swear the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing there. I was assured several times that my loan would be approved by close of business on Friday, but when I called on Friday I was told that for some unknown reason the "underwriting department" hadn't finished their credit approval. They have had my paperwork for several weeks. Earlier that week I had sent them an official bank statement instead of printouts from the web, like that mattered. But even with my t's crossed and my i's dotted, they still are functioning with half a brain.

On Monday I called and was told that the approval still hadn't went through, but I should still be able to close on Thurs with the documentation I had already provided. I call on Tuesday and provide every single document humanly possible to the bank for the construction side of things (the official contract, and proof of payments already made to the builder). And somehow as of now, they still don't have the loan approved. So wait, I already provided you with all my bank statements, home cost spreadsheets, and the appraisal has been done already.... soooo, what is the hold up. The bank's response now. The "construction loan dept" wouldn't look at my paperwork at all until they received a signed contract from the builder... Wait, why didn't you tell me this before??? So anyway, they had all my other paperwork in one form or another for weeks, but somehow they still can't turn this around in 48 hours? banks....

Update: I just received a call from the appraiser, who was apparently just contacted for the first time today to do the appraisal! wow, just wow. hi left hand, how are you? I'm right hand.

A random job

I applied for a random job today. I figured, what could it hurt? They're planning on laying off a lot fo people. Even though I don't think I'll be one of them for several reasons. It doesn't hurt to see if any companies nibble on the line. And hey, if I actually get a really good offer, maybe it was meant to be anyway! Life's fun like that.

I've been going around town with my camera all weekend. It has been an experience, but I have learned that it will make my neck hurt if I carry it around for hours. I need a backpack if I am going to do that more often. next time :)

The Photography of Cooking

Most everybody loves cooking with friends and family and I've started to notice that it really brings out a lot of laughs and smiles. This really is perfect for photography because you have the opportunity to get a lot of impromptu shots and the people being photographed will love it because they're in such a good mood! These pictures are also great additions to anybody's photo album because so many warm memories are wrapped up in those cramped moments in the kitchen. I should do more of this type of photography, because even if I take a bad photo it still seems to come out good. But that's the thing about memories, you don't need an artist to sculpt them, you just have to remember.

OK I changed my mind

I LOVE my camera. I had a great time photographing just about everything yesterday! And people do enjoy my hobby as much as I do, hehehe. But seriously, I'm excited because it is looking to be a super fun hobby from here on out. I'm getting used to the camera, and I'm getting better and better at taking good pictures with it.

I also had fun Saturday when I went out with K and another friend. We had some good conversations and we really had a blast. I made country fried steak as well that day, but it tasted more like pork chops than anything because the recipe called for a bread crumb crust.