![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Time for an update
Oct. 25th, 2009 09:50 amI had a 3 day weekend this week (fall break), ostensibly for me to do grading and comments (which is due tomorrow noon, and which I will start... tonight.) Jono has gone away to Connecticut, which means I have the whole house to myself.
So naturally I spend Friday sleeping a lot and watching Big Bang Theory on sketchy Spanish youtube (tu.tv) because we finally have fast internet again. We started with AT&T DSL, but due to faulty wiring in the wall, the speed was not fast enough for watching any sort of videos. Jono was okay with it until he tried to watch the new Venture Bros episode, and then tried to listen to music via Songza. But now we have Comcast, which is more expensive, but also mega-fast.
Big Bang Theory is... enjoyable. I'm glad that they have settled on a level of geekiness that is not offensive. In the first few episodes, there was a sort of "ha ha look at the nerds" sort of feeling, where we "the audience" is supposed to side with the clueless waitress/wannabe-actress from across the hall. Now we "the audience" side more with the geeks and relish their accomplishments and obsessions as valid topics. Sheldon is an interesting study -- after some initial dilly-dallying around "obsessive-compulsive" (breaking into Penny's apartment to organize everything), he's developed a more stable set of behavior that strikes me as "asperger's" (correct me if I'm wrong)-- He takes language literally, has difficulty understanding sarcasm, follows a strict set of habits, and fears any sort of uncertainty. The other characters deal with his idiosyncrasies, which is quite nice. If he were indeed simulating asperger's, however, I would like him to actually say it as such, so that the general populace can understand that ... "Hey, I shouldn't take social interactions for granted".
I've also been playing Farmville, which is this facebook game where you plant fields and harvest them for money to buy animals and trees. One thing that I really like is that you get points for going to friends' farms and helping them. It's like incentivised altruism. Plus this way you get to see how their farms are going. This also encourages you to make sure your farm is looking good for the visitors. It's a good way to build interest in what is actually a pretty repetitive game. Right now, my incentive is to design a pretty farm that is uses different design principles.
One thing that I really don't like is that there are certain items that you can't buy for yourself, but instead must be given to you. I'd understand if the items were just pricey gifts -- I like giving people presents. But it's frustrating that I can't get the same items through hard work on my part. Not only that, these items aren't just cosmetic -- they affect game play. For example, you get a mega bonus by having 10 different types of trees. But you can only buy 9 types. I feel like I'm waiting around for handouts. I think I'm going to finish designing my farm in the next few days, and then stop.
So I guess that's the type of government that I'd prefer -- one that rewards action/merit, one that rewards altruism, but not one where it's mandatory that I rely on assistance in order to get ahead. I think this is my problem with the health care system here -- There isn't an easy way to be outside of the insurance system. If you don't have insurance, you end up either paying a lot at regular doctors' (even though they give insurance companies discounts..??), or paying competitive pricing at veeeery sketchy places. Insurance is great, but why does it dominate health care? And why is it that we're working to put everyone on insurance instead of making sure that honest competition exists in the health care industry in such a way that the care providers are accountable to the care receivers (me)?
Anyways, I still need to make a dentist appointment, but I don't know who to call -- there's two dentists down the street from my work, which makes it convenient, but one of them looks sketchy and the other is super-booked. There's the dentist that I went to previously who looks pretty decent, but she's in San Jose.
So naturally I spend Friday sleeping a lot and watching Big Bang Theory on sketchy Spanish youtube (tu.tv) because we finally have fast internet again. We started with AT&T DSL, but due to faulty wiring in the wall, the speed was not fast enough for watching any sort of videos. Jono was okay with it until he tried to watch the new Venture Bros episode, and then tried to listen to music via Songza. But now we have Comcast, which is more expensive, but also mega-fast.
Big Bang Theory is... enjoyable. I'm glad that they have settled on a level of geekiness that is not offensive. In the first few episodes, there was a sort of "ha ha look at the nerds" sort of feeling, where we "the audience" is supposed to side with the clueless waitress/wannabe-actress from across the hall. Now we "the audience" side more with the geeks and relish their accomplishments and obsessions as valid topics. Sheldon is an interesting study -- after some initial dilly-dallying around "obsessive-compulsive" (breaking into Penny's apartment to organize everything), he's developed a more stable set of behavior that strikes me as "asperger's" (correct me if I'm wrong)-- He takes language literally, has difficulty understanding sarcasm, follows a strict set of habits, and fears any sort of uncertainty. The other characters deal with his idiosyncrasies, which is quite nice. If he were indeed simulating asperger's, however, I would like him to actually say it as such, so that the general populace can understand that ... "Hey, I shouldn't take social interactions for granted".
I've also been playing Farmville, which is this facebook game where you plant fields and harvest them for money to buy animals and trees. One thing that I really like is that you get points for going to friends' farms and helping them. It's like incentivised altruism. Plus this way you get to see how their farms are going. This also encourages you to make sure your farm is looking good for the visitors. It's a good way to build interest in what is actually a pretty repetitive game. Right now, my incentive is to design a pretty farm that is uses different design principles.
One thing that I really don't like is that there are certain items that you can't buy for yourself, but instead must be given to you. I'd understand if the items were just pricey gifts -- I like giving people presents. But it's frustrating that I can't get the same items through hard work on my part. Not only that, these items aren't just cosmetic -- they affect game play. For example, you get a mega bonus by having 10 different types of trees. But you can only buy 9 types. I feel like I'm waiting around for handouts. I think I'm going to finish designing my farm in the next few days, and then stop.
So I guess that's the type of government that I'd prefer -- one that rewards action/merit, one that rewards altruism, but not one where it's mandatory that I rely on assistance in order to get ahead. I think this is my problem with the health care system here -- There isn't an easy way to be outside of the insurance system. If you don't have insurance, you end up either paying a lot at regular doctors' (even though they give insurance companies discounts..??), or paying competitive pricing at veeeery sketchy places. Insurance is great, but why does it dominate health care? And why is it that we're working to put everyone on insurance instead of making sure that honest competition exists in the health care industry in such a way that the care providers are accountable to the care receivers (me)?
Anyways, I still need to make a dentist appointment, but I don't know who to call -- there's two dentists down the street from my work, which makes it convenient, but one of them looks sketchy and the other is super-booked. There's the dentist that I went to previously who looks pretty decent, but she's in San Jose.
