The near miss

It's a typical morning. It's about 9:15 AM and I'm on my way to work. My commute is about 30 miles, with a little less than half the distance being expressway (no lights). The other majority of the commute are highways, but they have stoplights. On the particular stretch on road I'm on, there are plenty of stoplights. (In Texas, lots of high speed roads have stoplights.)
I'm driving along, with my current speed probably around 60 mph. As I approach a stoplight, I notice a large amount of cars in the left turn lane. There are just enough vehicles to fill up the whole turn lane, but not enough such that they stick out into the left lane. No worries, I just keep on driving.
Suddenly, a car(I'll call it STUPID car) in the left turn lane, about 3 cars from the front, decides that he doesn't want to turn left and he switches into my lane (the left lane). I'm currently going 60 mph, and have no time to do anything. All I could do is SLAM on my brakes as hard as I could and hope for the best. There was no time to check my side view mirrors or to even honk my horn. Without knowing if anyone is to my right, I wouldn't switch lanes over. On my left side, the turn lane was filled with cars, so I couldn't swerve left.
My anti-lock brakes engaged and I could just see the distance between my car and the STUPID car decreasing quickly. A jolt of adrenaline shot into my veins as I braced for impact. I had never slammed my brakes so hard for so long. I just held on to dear life.
Luckily, I slowed down fast enough and STUPID car sped up enough to avoid a collision. I was probably about 10-15 feet away from STUPID car before his speed overtook mine. I was probably still going 20 mph at this point. If he had decided to switch lanes a fraction of a second later, I'm sure I would've collided with him. It's the closest call that I've been in for quite a while (except for the hit-and-run that I was in just a few days earlier, but I'll save that for another blog post).

Snow in Austin!!!

It snowed today in Austin today!! The weather forecasters were actually right for once. They had predicted this two days earlier!! It has snowed less than a handful of times in the 10 years I lived here, so it's a big event for everybody. The strange part about the day was that the sky was totally covered by clouds during the snow, but half an hour after it stopped, the sky was bright, clear, and blue!

(According to my blog, the last time it snowed here was on Jan 16, 2007).

America's Most Stressful Cities 2009

America's most stressful city

Future Direction

In the past few months, I've been working on some side projects (along with my brother). I've been programming for the iphone in my spare time, developing games and apps. I literally have been getting only 4 to 5 hours of a sleep a day because I'm spending so much time on it.

The first game has been released and has been out for a little over a month. You
can check it out at:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318923457&mt=8

This project was meant to be just a learning vehicle. I didn't expect much out of it. The sales of this game have surpassed my expectations (which were quite low though). Now I am convinced that I can actually do quite well developing games/applications.

The next application will be bigger, better, and will hopefully make some real money.

At this point in time, I'm seriously debating whether to leave my full-time employment and develop iphone apps full time. My day job is definitely mundane and I've lost most/all interest in it. I don't feel that my current employment is rewarding anymore. I dread going to work in the morning and look forward to the end of the work day, so I can get home and do some programming.

I've examined my financial situation, and have enough cash savings to live without any income for a year. My personal situation is also perfectly suited since I'm single, young, and can still take risks. If I fail after a year, I can always go back to engineering. I don't have much to lose, but I do have a lot to gain. Even if I don't strike it rich, but do make enough to live on, I think I would be happier than I am now.

Based on my current thoughts, I think I will leave my current employment before the end of year. I don't want to act rashly, which is why I want to let the thoughts settle and see if I still feel this way in a month. If so, then I'll start taking the appropriate action.

I'd really appreciate any feedback/comments since this will be a risky life taking decision!

The best $35 I've ever spent!

Due to my recent surgery, I have been unable to mow my lawn. As a result of my laziness of not mowing before the surgery, my backyard resembled a jungle! I had weeds over 2 feet tall. Other people I've talked to indicated they've already moved their lawns 3 times already.

Because I wanted to make things look nice, I hired a lawn mowing service and it's definitely the best money I've spent! It was well worth it to not have to mow. I'll probably continue using the service until after I've recovered which could be another month to 6 weeks.

My shoulder

I had surgery on my shoulder two weeks ago and had my stitches removed today. Everything is good except that I've lost all my range of motion on my arm. For example, I can't lift my arm high enough to reach the turn signal while driving. Doctor says it'll take about 6 weeks of physical therapy before I regain most of my range of motion.

The doctor did say that he made my shoulder extra tight (due to the type of damage that was present) so it shouldn't dislocate anymore. I'll be glad once everything is healed up and I'm back to normal!

In 1999:The most significant achievements this year by the White House and the Republicans leading the 106th Congress

Please Read: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/05/business/congress-passes-wide-ranging-bill-easing-bank-laws.html

Choice quotes from the article:
Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century

The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation's financial system. The original idea behind Glass-Steagall was that separation between bankers and brokers would reduce the potential conflicts of interest that were thought to have contributed to the speculative stock frenzy before the Depression.

This is a historic day.

the new law could lead to an economic crisis down the road

"I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010," said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. "I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness."

Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Congress had "seemed determined to unlearn the lessons from our past mistakes."

"The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown," said Senator Bob Kerrey, Democrat of Nebraska.

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I'll let you draw your own conclusions from the article.