Jay McGavren’s Journal

Diana has to follow certain procedures when taking patients down to MRI, because the magnets in the machine can disable watches and make other stuff fly across the room. Well, I stumbled across a site that depicts what happens when you’re not careful:

> Flying Objects!
> “Once you’ve been in the MRI field for any length of time,
> you start hearing all of the various horror stories about
> things that have flown into a scanner. Often, newcomers
> don’t take the real danger of flying objects seriously
> until they witness an oxygen tank or gurney flying into a
> magnet themselves. This page will contain a collection of
> pictures and stories of metalic projectiles.”

http://www.simplyphysics.com/flying_objects.html#

Because I’m lazy, here’s a copy-paste from my post to Morning Cafe:

My wife is so cool - she hit thinkgeek.com for my presents. I got a shirt with Pi to 4493 digits, a set of neodymium magnets (finally, something that will actually hold papers on the fridge), and a cold soldering iron. The clippy iPod Shuffle didn’t come from ThinkGeek, but is still damn cool (and won’t fall out of my pocket like the last one did).

My son (age 4) asked for a “Batman kitchen”. He evidently doesn’t know that they make Dora and Barbie play kitchens, but not Batman kitchens. Well, Santa came though - he got a Batman AND Spiderman AND Superman kitchen. (We found a generic one and some decals to put on it.)

Been playing Secret of Mana with Lenny - he asks to every night. (Except last night, when he asked to play Return Fire. The kid’s got good taste.)

It’s a shame we have to go that far back in the gaming museum to find a good multiplayer adventure. When I am king, every game will feature a multiplayer component. (And while I’m not into censorship, options to turn off blood and gore would be nice.)

We watched the second episode of The Lost Room last night… DAMN, this show is cool. I’m really glad it’s a mini-series, too, because it’s not going to have time to get lame (ahem, Invasion, maybe but hopefully not Heroes).

Of course, this is TiVoed, so everyone but me probably knows by now whether the ending will kill my buzz. We’ll see, as soon as tonight.

Lenny asked to play chess again over the weekend… He’s no grand master, as we have to keep going over how the pieces move, but once he had it all in his head, he was actually thinking a move or so ahead. Remember, this kid’s only 4 1/2.

I actually credit a lot of my strategic thinking ability to the chess games I had with my Dad when I was young, so this is a great sign.

Wow. There’s no way I’d have waited this long to pick up Shadow of the Colossus if I’d known exactly how good it was. It was ambitious enough to attempt even one creature that you actually climb on top of, but they made over a dozen. And then they actually *try to shake you off*?! Bugtesting this thing had to be a bitch.

The effects are spectacular, too - running for your life on horseback from a towering monster is twice as terrifying when the screen is shaking, the world is a blur from the speed, and the only thing emitting from your stereo is thundering chaos. And the story… I’ve always gravitated toward songs without lyrics, so a story without words is near perfect in my eyes.

On the downside, I’ve been having dreams all weekend where all I can see is those glowing eyes staring down at me…

Q. What is your occupation? Software develeper.
Q. What color are the socks you’re wearing? Black.
Q. What are you listening to right now? An electric fan.
Q. What was the last thing that you ate? A nice egg-bacon-and-bagel brunch, prepared by my loving wife.
Q. Can you drive a stick shift? It’s been years; probably not.
Q. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green.
Q. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My wife’s friend Holly (tech support stuff).
Q. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes.
Q. How old are you today? 30.
Q. Favorite drink? Coca-cola.
Q. What is your favorite sport to watch? Soccer.
Q. Have you ever dyed your hair? No.
Q. Pets? A standard poodle, Max.
Q. Favorite food? Sweet-and-sour pork.
Q. What was the last movie you watched? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2004).
Q. Favorite day of the year? July 4th.
Q. What was your favorite toy as a child? A “worry bird”, which was basically a fuzzy ball with a beak.
Q. Hugs or kisses? Hugs.
Q. Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries.
Q. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes.
Q. Who is most likely to respond? My mother-in-law.
Q. Who is least likely to respond? My wife (who doesn’t read her e-mail).
Q. Living arrangements? With my wife and son, and my mother-in-law as a roommate.
Q. When was the last time you cried? Real men don’t cry.
Q. What is on the floor of your closet? A box of old compter parts.
Q. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Lacey.
Q. What did you do last night? Played video games and watched the aforementioned movie with my wife.
Q. Favorite smells? Ground coffee beans.
Q. What inspires you? The work of leaders in the software industry.
Q. What are you afraid of? Avian flu. Bioterror.
Q. Favorite dog breed? Standard poodle.
Q. Number of keys on your key ring? 7.
Q. How many countries have you lived in? 1, been to 2 others.
Q. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? No.
Q. What are your favorite hobbies? Software development.
Q. What is your life’s purpose? See above.

…according to the books I’ve been reading lately…

-Shun all hedonism.
-Find work that is meaningful to you.
-Discard thoughts of profiting from your work.
-Have a clearly stated goal, and a means to obtain continual feedback on your progress toward it.

It is with great glee that I watch the demise of Tower Records, because I can almost see the RIAA crumbling with it.

And it’s all the sweeter because at 50% off, their prices are almost reasonable. I picked up some Quantic and Cinematic Orchestra that I would otherwise never get without paying Amazon shipping.

Just ran into my boss in the hall, and toward the end of the conversation, I realized I had been fidgeting with my wedding ring throughout. I guess this is better than my previous habit of stroking my (then) new beard, or the habit before that of patting my (then) new beer gut. Next I suppose Diana will convince me to get a nose job (not really), and I won’t be able to stop fiddling with that.