Aaahhhhhh…… nooo….. Canucks must play better!

Ok, bit of an update. After my last entry I headed down to the Bellingham Linux Users Group Linux Fest with Cuv, BSpudd, and Cadiolas. It was a lot
smaller than expected, with one room full of systems, one room with people
(local venders) selling things, and a guy doing a raffle, and one room with the
VanLUG and a lone *BSD guy. The fest consisted of demos of
linux in action (yawn, I see it every day), tutorials (I accidently
dragged the guys into the KDE one, mistakenly
thinking it’d be educational, and finding it was in fact a “this is the ‘K’
menu, to use it, click on it… to click on it, move your mouse….” yea, scary
stuff, and I’m very sorry for doing that to ya’ll!), and talks
(the security one we went to and was moderately interesting, except that it was
done by a consultant, and some of the time he was simply talking out of his
ass… it was nice to see that he had some of the same ideas that
my boss has). The main event was a talk by
The Illiad on
‘gatekeeping’ and syndication, and he did a good job. After the main talk we
all got togeather and headed out for beer, and caught up. Twas very good.

On monday afternoon I headed in to the Valley Laser Eye Center to get a
free check up / consultation. I have been meaning to do this for a while, just
to see, after I met a an older gentleman who had just had his eyes done when I
got my wisdom teeth pulled. They basically give you a full check up, with all
sorts of cool gagets (some of much better quality than yon average optimitrist
it seemed), to see how good of a candiate you are. Apparently I’m very good,
and even with my really crappy vision (7 and 8 IIRC) the lady said it’d be a
90-96% chance of 20/20 the first try. The cost has gone down a lot as well from
when this technology first became available. Both eyes would cost “only” $2950
(inc taxes) (that’s including the optional $500 post-op checkups at 1 week, month,
6 months, year), and that includes any “touch up” that is needed. Ironically if I
were to get this done, now would be the perfect time, as I’m not working and could
easily afford the 4 days of crappy vision, and with $ from my tax return, I’ve
actually got the funds. The only thing the lady said was that at 50 I’d
probably need reading glasses. Well, newsflash, I’m going to need glasses at 50
anyway, same as I do now, so having that restriction isn’t going to
kill me 🙂

Of course, I’m not going to jump in just yet. Mom, dad, don’t worry, you’ll have
lots of time to talk me out of it, as the $2950 in the bank is still needed for things
like rent and food. I could also just wait for another 5 years until the
technology gets that much better, or hell, 10 more years, or 20, or… but then
I’ll end up at 60 wearing glasses same as I do now. Don’t get me wrong, having
a laser slice into my eye is not something that makes me feel
warm and fuzzy, but the thought of being able to wake up in the morning and
see, does. We’ll see how it goes.

Another thing I looked into the possibilities of joining the police force (RCMP,
local, whatever). Again, mom, dad, this is by no means an immediate thing, even
if I decide to do it, so there’s lots of time to let me know how foolish it is
🙂 I figure that in my current situation I’m in the right place for a
career/life change should I decide to. Heck, who hasn’t wanted
to be a cop right? The main thing against me (other than the 8 years of driving
a desk accumulated around my middle) is my eyes (abby police require 20/40
uncorrected, and 20/20 corrected, but they also allow laser surgery, so if I
were to actually become a member, that’d have to happen first. There’s other
things, like becoming RCMP is different than becoming an Abbotsford member…
RCMP has 6 months of training in Regina, while abby has two three month stints
of training, but it’s done in New West. Lots of other things too, the less than
great (but nothing to snort at) pay compared to that of a programmer, the fact
that you have at least 5 years of “grunt work” as a General Duty officer before
you have any real chance of moving up to the extradoublesupercool jobs (computer
crime, undercover, etc).

Like I said, this is mostly just a complete shot in the dark, a whim if you
will, but hey, if you gotta dream…. (More on this in tomorrow’s entry).