I recently made 2 trips back home.  I noticed something during my travels: people drive crazy these days.

I have always set my cruise control at 2 miles per hour over the speed limit - sometimes 3 (on accident).  For the past 3 years I have been the fastest thing on the road, whizzing past semis and sports cars.  But in the 2 trips I've taken since gasoline prices were cut in 1/3, I ceased being the fastest, craziest driver.

Has anyone else out there seen a change in the way others drive compared to before the drop in gasoline prices?

And the LORD formed the computer nerd of the dust off His keyboard, being mainly the powdered remains of heavenly Chee-tos, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, which wasn’t easy, given the computer nerd’s deviated septum; and the computer nerd became a living soul, if you can really call it living.

And the LORD set up a vast network eastward in Eden; and before it He put the computer nerd whom he had formed, saying “here, I need an admin, get thee to it.”

And the computer nerd set about exploring the many files and folders on the network, discovering various digital wonders and delights, but there was one machine the LORD forbade him to access, speaking unto him: “All of this is created for thee to use and master, My pasty-skinned, soft-bellied creation. Except stay away from the Apple, would you? I keep My personal files on it, and thou shalt poketh around in them not.

“Not that I’m going to password-protect it or anything, because I trust you.”

From shirt.woot.com <12-3-2008>

I consistently have problems watching movies on my laptop (Vista) because the speakers are too quiet.  The problem exhibits itself across multiple media playback programs, and I have also noticed it on my desktop (XP).  When I want to listen to music or watch some video clips, the volume is fine.  I finally got fed up enough with the problem last night and found the following solution on Microsoft's website (link).  I have copied it here for ease and archival purposes.  I have not checked to see if there is a corresponding fix for Windows XP yet.

For 32-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Premium and of Windows Vista Ultimate

loadTOCNode(3, 'resolution');

1.	Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2.	Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftScrunchCodecPackMSDVD Note If you cannot locate the registry subkey, go to step 3 to create the registry subkey. If you can locate the registry subkey, go to step 6.
3.	Right-click the Microsoft registry subkey, point to New, click Key, type Scrunch, and then press ENTER.
4.	Right-click the Scrunch registry subkey, point to New, click Key, type CodecPack, and then press ENTER.
5.	Right-click the CodecPack registry subkey, point to New, click Key, type MSDVD, and then press ENTER.
6.	On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
7.	In the details pane, type the following new value, dolby_rf_on, and then press ENTER.
8.	Right-click dolby_rf_on, and then click Modify.
9.	In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, under Base, click Decimal.
10.	In the Value data box, type the value 1, and then click OK. Note Only "0" and "1" are supported values. If the dolby_rf_on registry entry contains any other value, the decoder ignores the value and uses the default value. If the registry entry is set to "1," the Laptop Mode is used as the default on the computer.
11.	Close Registry Editor.
12.	Restart the Windows Media Player or the Windows Media Center application.

For 64-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Premium and of Windows Vista Ultimate

loadTOCNode(3, 'resolution');

1.	Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2.	Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeMicrosoftScrunchCodecPackMSDVD Note If you cannot locate the registry subkey, go to step 3 to create the registry subkey. If you can locate the registry subkey, go to step 6.
3.	Right-click the Microsoft registry subkey, point to New, click Key, type Scrunch, and then press ENTER.
4.	Right-click the Scrunch registry subkey, point to New, click Key, type CodecPack, and then press ENTER.
5.	Right-click the CodecPack registry subkey, point to New, click Key, type MSDVD, and then press ENTER.
6.	On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
7.	In the details pane, type the following new value, dolby_rf_on, and then press ENTER.
8.	Right-click dolby_rf_on, and then click Modify.
9.	In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, under Base, click Decimal.
10.	In the Value data box, type the value 1, and then click OK. Note Only "0" and "1" are supported values. If the dolby_rf_on registry entry contains any other value, the decoder ignores the value and uses the default value. If the registry entry is set to "1," the Laptop Mode is used as the default on the computer.
11.	Close Registry Editor.
12.	Restart the Windows Media Player or the Windows Media Center application.

Who will you be voting for in the next presidential election?  It won't be long before people start to get their campaigns set up for POTUS 2012.

A note on the tired and almost forgotten election from 2008:
I for one am tired of being woken from my naps by people encouraging me to vote for this or that candidate, when I sent my advance ballot in more than a week ago.  It will likely make tonight seem anticlimactic.  My family has a tradition of ordering pizza on election night and watching to see the results.  But since they're 150+ miles away, I think I'll be taking a nap.  After all, I've already done everything I could to affect the outcome of the election, and how much of a difference will it make if I wait until tomorrow morning to read about the results in the paper or on a reputable Internet news site?

I got an mp3 player over the weekend.  It was one of two devices on display that had a standard USB plug - that is, the cable you use to hook the device up to the computer will also work on a whole slew of other devices (some of which are made by different manufactures).  Also, I already have some of these cables, because they do work on several devices and so are handy things to have around.  Now I just have to find some time to listen to music other than when I'm driving.

We were talking at lunch the other day, and a question came up.  An important question that could have a grave impact on your life if you answered it in a poor fashion.  I couldn't come up with an answer right away, and neither could anyone else.

What would you name your boat?

Continuing my Firefox Plugins series, I'm going to take to opportunity to talk about a couple of neat but relatively simple plugins.

Colorful Tabs is just what it claims to be - it turns the tabs in Firefox different colors.  I have mine set to match colors by hostname (website).  I used to use a fading setting of 5, but I think that was a legacy of an old computer monitor.  I recently disabled fading, and I can still read the tabs just fine.  There are options to set different colors for specific websites (I could make all Xanga pages show up in bright green).  I don't use those, but since I always open Firefox with a specific set of tabs, the colors are usually the same.  You can also have it generate colors at random within certain, specified parameters.  While this plugin doesn't do much for functionality, I really appreciate it.

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Another plugin that spices up the look of Firefox a bit is Fission.  Fission displays a progress bar in the address bar (where you type URLs).  This progress bar is almost like a background for the address bar.  You can set the bar to be different colors (I use the default light gray), or you can have it be just a small green bar in the far right side of the address bar.

A setting that I find annoying is "Connection status at the right of the address bar".  When I'm browsing the local campus webpage, all it does is change rapidly because of the short time it takes to load.  If I was having connectivity problems, this might let me know where the problem was, and it is something you have to opt-in for, so I guess it's not that bad.  Another fun setting is "Active link/mouse-over link in the address bar".  Anytime a link is active or the mouse if hovering over it, the address bar will change from displaying the current location to the location that the link goes to.  I'm going to leave this setting on for awhile, but I think I'll end up disabling it.

Fission is a much more useful plugin than Colorful tabs because it does show how much of a page has loaded.  Neither plugin is crucial to my Internet browsing experience, but without them, it would be much more dull.

Halloween is 1.5 months away, and do you know what that means?  That's right, Skittles.  In the nice little packages that I can carry in my backpack and eat during class, or give out to people.  I rediscovered Skittles a couple of times during college - during freshman year and last year, both times thanks to Halloween.  So while others are lamenting the commercialization of holidays, I'm enjoying my Skittles.  A lot.

As the next installment of my Firefox Plugins series, I'd like to talk about Adblock Plus.  This plugin is necessary on dial up and other slow Internet connections.  You can have it subscribe to a list of advertisements to block.  Also, it does a very good job of picking out content to block - that is, it rarely shows me an ad or hides something I want to see.

When it does miss something or overstep the line, you can easily do a manual edit.  For pictures, just right click and select "Adblock image".  When it tried to block some parts of my university's site, I just added an exception for any page on the university site.

This plugin also has several optional supporting plugins.  I don't know what they all do since I've never tried them.  But I can guess: some work to keep the subscription list up to date.  Others try to help you manage what to block.

Overall, this plugin is non-obtrusive and efficient.  I would recommend it for every Firefox user.

I had an eye doctor appointment today.  They told me that I was no more blind than I was last time.  The only reason I went was because my old glasses were broken.

Despite nothing new really being accomplished, this was a major step for me.  I have never visited a new doctor by myself.  A couple of times I went to the family doctor for routine stuff, but this time I went by myself.  And it's pretty amazing and terrifying to pay for your own doctor visit for the first time ever.  Even if you are still buddying off of your parents' insurance.  I even picked my frames out without any outside assistance.

I feel like I'm actually an adult for the first time ever.