Work is tying my brain in knots these days. Writing my first grant proposal, just finished writing a set of IDL dicom i/o routines, pondering how to incorporate them into my existing image processing software, trying to decide on a postdoc candidate to hire, talking to anyone who'll listen about research projects for the future, and all the while waiting for Purchasing to order my friggin computer. I submitted the purchase request over two weeks ago, and as of this afternoon it's still sitting on some bozo's desk at Stanford, albeit with an assortment of mediocre excuses. Given my experiences ordering equipment at MGH and now Stanford, i suspect Purchasing departments must hire based on some sort of inverse IQ test.

So given that i'm concentrating on about twelve things at any given time, more assorted musings is all you're gonna get.

Some comments on the first official week of the 2003 NFL season:

• Saw about 3/4 of the Monday night game between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia, and oh man do those Bucs look scary. Their defense absolutely pasted McNabb and company. The offense wasn't brilliant, but it gained momentum in the second half and produced two unbelievable touchdown catches for Joe Jurevicius. The second, where he tipped the ball into the air, over a defender, and dived to catch it in the endzone, was about as close to football Jordan as i've ever seen.
• Saw bits and pieces of the Niners yesterday as they destroyed the Bears. A good start, now let's keep it going. I was at Mad Dog in the Fog in SF while the game was going on, hanging out with Mike K and former PETE drummer Bill W, in town for a few days from Chicago. Great to be able to rehash the old days over a few pints of Boddingtons and some bangers and mash.
• I'm not the first to say it, but it looks as if the Raiders' tank may be just about empty.
• St. Louis looks primed to repeat the ignominy of last season after a thoroughly disheartening 23-13 loss to the Giants. Kurt Warner gets sacked six times, fumbles six times, and gets a concussion. And he didn't look particularly good either. But moreover, the egomaniacal, convention-be-damned Mike Martz twice elects to go for it on fourth-and-long instead of kicking a field goal in the fourth quarter. He gets stuffed twice, the second time effectively ending the game. When he could've kicked a field goal, tried an onside kick, and gone for the tying TD. The man is a jackass, plain and simple. And now rumors are coming out that he kept Warner in the game after he knew he'd suffered a concussion. Oh well, i can't complain ... it feels so good to see the Rams play so bad.

V and i travelled about 850 miles in the span of 28 hours last Friday and Saturday. Danny drove us down to L.A. on Friday night and dropped us off at newlyweds Michelle and Sean's around midnight. We then stayed up drinking and talking until 5am before finally succumbing to sleep. Despite being thoroughly grungy and exhausted, we arose at 8am to go pick up a U-Haul truck, drive to Veronica's aunt's house, and load it with a variety of furniture and boxes from the de la Mora's old house. After a quick bite at Carrow's we hopped back on the 5 and coaxed our aging truck back to San Mateo, which we reached at 9pm. My parents helped us unload, for which we took them for dessert at Heidi's Pies, then we came home and hibernated.

My pet peeve of the day has to do with Apple. V and i are going to be setting up a wireless network now that her computer will be moving to the newly-obtained desk in the living room. Better than running an ethernet cable across two rooms. I did some research and decided that a Linksys 802.11g router ($99) and an Airport Extreme card ($99) for Veronica's eMac would give us the most affordable, current, and versatile system. So i wandered by the Apple Store in Palo Alto on my way home from work today to look at and most likely purchase the wi fi card. I picked up the box and noticed a disclaimer reading "Compatible with Airport Extreme-capable systems only". I'm thinking, "The eMac isn't even a year old, it's compatible, right?" Thank god i asked the smarmy Apple "genius", who gave me a curt answer: "No". There was an web-vid a few months back parodying the Apple switch commercials in which the narrator says "And i love upgrading Macs ... it's so easy! With a PC i had to remove the old hardware and put in a new part, what a pain! But with my Mac, when i want to upgrade i just unplug the computer, pick it up, drop it in the trash, and go buy a new one! What could be simpler?" That rang true today. I asked the clerk what computers did work with the fledgling Airport Extreme hardware, since the only thing i could find on the web or on the box was that "all new Apple computers are compatible". He said "Well, the new iMacs, and ... umm ...". I guess i'll have to go with a garden variety 802.11b system and a regular Airport card. But this "don't upgrade, just buy a whole new system" philosophy drives me nuts.