Public Service Announcement

I was just watching Wheel of Fortune, and I am forced to the conclusion that there are lot of people that don't bother to prepare for the game.

Since the contestants win money by correctly guessing letters that might be in the puzzle, simply using the normal distribution of letters in the English language dramatically increases the chances of winning. I mean, there's a REASON that one has to 'buy' vowels: they constitute 5 of the first 12 most common letters.

For those that would like a quick and easy 'tool' to remember, the most frequent 12 letters in the English language are (in order)

ETAOIN SHRDLU

If you'd like to see the full distribution, you can either see it as a graph in alphabetical order, or in the most- to least-used order.

If anyone reading this should happen to find themselves on WoF, and win whacking great wads of money, you're welcome to show your appreciation by sending some of it to me.

Goofy Weather

One of the common sayings here in Montana is that if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes, and it'll change.
Well, it's going to take a bit longer than 5 minutes, but we're looking at a nifty little change in the next few days: from the high-70's of today to a chance of snow this coming Friday.

Ya gotta love it...

The patient survived...

Got the replacement cable for my laptop via eBay today, got it installed, and the patient has survived the surgery.

I could have bought the cable outright for something like $10, but figured it was worth seeing if I couldn't win it via an auction -- which I did, getting it for $0.99. Shipping, either way, was pretty close to the same, so I saved 9/10 the price by being willing to wait a couple of days.

Mr. Laptop is a happy camper once again - his display is bright, regardless of what angle it's set at, he fires up into Linux just like he's supposed to, and even as I'm typing this he's getting a few program updates (which, by the way, are free for Linux, and don't require the system to be rebooted except in rare cases).

The USB port in the back has been soldered back into place, and supplemented with a little extra mechanical fastening to help keep it from coming loose again, too.

Life Is Good! :-)

Deart Santa:

My wish list for Christmas this year is very short and simple:

Any 2 of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show models and

a case of Body Butter.

Thank you.

Modern Medicine

I had the "pleasure" of a physical at the doctors office today.

Blood pressure - OK
Pulse - OK
Temperature - OK
Heart - OK
Lungs - OK (even for me being a smoker)
Cholesterol - OK
Weight - OK (even lost a few pounds since last time)
General health - OK

I did manage to cause mild hysterics with the nurse when she took my temperature: instead of a regular thermometer (or even one of the sexy digital under-the-tongue jobs), she used one that took my temperature via an ear -- which prompted me to comment "Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'stick it in your ear', doesn't it?". Once she'd settled down again, she said she'd be using that for the rest of the day...

All in all, it has been determined -- to some degree of certainty -- that I am not, in fact, dead.

w00t.