happy b-day Keri!

I hope you enjoyed your evening.

in other news:

The President's Priorities:
State of Marriage Took Precedence Over State of Louisiana
by Jason Leopold

Why is President Bush more concerned with the state of marriage than the
state of Louisiana? That's what the New Orleans City Business paper asked
in early February, a couple of weeks after Bush's State of the Union
address, in which the president called for a constitutional amendment
banning same-sex marriages, upon learning that Bush's budget proposal
recommended slashing $34 million from the New Orleans district of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, leaving the city with a $581 million shortfall for
flood control and coastal erosion improvement projects. Despite more than
four hurricanes that have whipped through New Orleans since 2002, leaving a
trail of destruction in their wake, and personal pleas to the president by
Louisiana's local and state officials to provide much needed funding to
rebuild the state's rapidly disappearing wetlands, the Bush administration
declined, shifting its priorities -- and federal funds -- into its foreign
policy initiatives. Bush said Thursday no one expected the levees in New
Orleans to break after Hurricane Katrina. There were warnings....
to read the rest of the article, click here

Happy Bday Keri, I too am sorry I missed out on your party.

Albert and Leo: thanks for the help. I figured it was pretty obvious we weren't in safe mode... since everything runs, we've played games on the compy, and a whole pile of drivers operate upon boot-up, but whatever, my brother doesn't seem to understand that. maybe that web article will help change his opinion. I sort-of figured that it would only be in safe-mode if I chose for it to be in safe mode, and that article certainly suggests that that would be the case. but noooooo... logic doesn't work for Sean... haha!

thanks again

Ed are you still looking for another job? There were several job postings in the career section of the saturday edition of the edmonton journal for a UNIX administrator and other computer administration jobs.

Happy Birthday Keri!
(sorry i missed your shindig on friday)

Thanks AL

And a big thank you to Paras and Andy.... Thank you for the gift... although Matt thinks it's funny that I can't seem to get the kazoo to work... he says it's my failure as a musician. Though he seems to like to rub it in that he can get it to work.

How did you know i wanted a new puzzle?

Happy Birthday Keri!

Further to that last post, and because I'm working on a library research assignment that involves finding strange studies, I found a randomized controlled trial about video games and laparoscopic surgery. Strangely enough, it was in The Journal of Endourology. I'd link to it, but I went to it through the UofA library proxy, and I doubt it would directly link for anyone else (besides, I'm not sure anyone would want to read the whole thing.) Here's the punchline:

Conclusion: Video game aptitude appears to predict the level of laparoscopic skill in the novice surgeon. In this study, practicing video games did not improve one's laparoscopic skill significantly, but a larger study with more practice time could prove games to be helpful.

-- Rosenberg et al. Can video games be used to predict or improve laparoscopic skills? Journal of endourology [0892-7790] yr:2005 vol:19 iss:3 pg:372-376

I was telling Andy about this already, but a study has found that laparoscopic ("keyhole") surgeons who play video games are over 30 percent better (ie. finished a standardized laparoscopic training exercise faster and with fewer errors) than those who did not play video games.

Hooray for studies that justify my wasted time!