Paul Ryburn's Journal

I’m delaying Part 2 of my advice to students asking if they should major in computer science.  I received some very insightful comments from a reader this afternoon, and the comments have caused me to somewhat back off my statement that math is not a premium kicker to go along with a computer science major.  I want to take a few days to ponder his excellent comments and then re-write.  Apologies for the delay for anyone waiting for Part 2 but I think it will be worth it.

Memphistanista reported on her blog this morning that The Pier has closed. The Pier was located on Wagner, facing the river just south of Union. It had been open since 1977. Memphistanista commented that she was surprised it remained open as long as it did – she hadn’t been there in 15 years. I often wondered the same thing about the Pier – never had anything against the place, but it just wasn’t on my radar because it was off the beaten path. The only time I ever went in there was to get drinks during Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest. Even though it wasn’t one of my hangouts, it’s always a sad thing to see a Downtown business close.

I saw on the event listings for today at DowntownMemphis.com that free H1N1 shots are being given at Calvary today from 5 to 7. Not sure if this is open to the general public or focused mainly on the homeless (Calvary does a lot of outreach work), but if you need a shot, you might want to check this out.

There will be a “Stars and Stetsons Kickoff Party” at Kooky Canuck on Saturday, January 30. This will be a free event with no cover to kick off the upcoming Stars and Stetsons party to benefit the Alzheimer’s Foundation. You can join Brian Elder from KIX 106 and pay only $1.06 for Bud Light from 8 PM to 2 AM. Nashville band The Mulch Brothers, who will headline the Stars and Stetsons party, will take the stage at 10.

A new tournament cycle begins tonight in Bardog’s weekly poker tournament in the Underdog Room. In addition to weekly prizes, you can accumulate points toward a grand prize over a period of several weeks. You get points for finishing in one of the top 6 spots in the tournament, and you also get points just for showing up, for bringing a friend who has never played in the Underdog Room before, and for answering the trivia question in Poker Jon’s weekly e-mail.

The Woot-off continues on Woot.com. I want some crap dammit! I’m refreshing Woot throughout the day hoping to catch it when they put Bag of Crap on sale.

There’s a new market called Trolley Stop Market that will open at 704 Madison in April. Their listing on Facebook reads, “TSM is committed to promoting, selling, & serving locally grown food & artisan goods. Breakfast & lunch available Monday – Friday 7:00 – 3:00 pm. Look for local veggies, fruits, mushrooms, nuts, herbs, plants, flowers, grains, breads, granola, honey, beef, poultry, pork, seafood, skincare, pottery, candles, & much more.” You can become a fan of the market on Facebook to keep up with the latest updates.

Looks like snow and ice is in the forecast for Friday. Wintry mix conditions seem to bring out the worst in everybody in this town. You have the people who drive down the highways like they’re in a demolition derby. You have the people who panic and buy months-long supplies of bread and milk at the grocery store. You have the people who complain that Kriner Cash is the devil when he doesn’t close the City Schools when the first flake falls. And then on the other side of the coin, you have people who needlessly stress everyone out with their “Memphians are lazy and just use ice and snow as an excuse to get a free day off, nut up and shut up” BS. Reading the comments in any CA article related to winter weather just makes me hate everyone.

Plans for tonight:  Hmmm don’t know.  I want to get a couple of hours in on PokerStars, but there’s no reason I couldn’t take the netbook somewhere and have a beer while I play.

This isn’t a question from a specific reader, but one I get from college students from time to time when I’m out at the bars.  People read that my current job title is Webmaster, and that I’ve done both ASP.NET and PHP programming.  In college I majored in Computer Science/Math for my BA at Rhodes, and Mathematical Sciences with all 34 hours in Computer Science for my MS at the University of Memphis.  So, people ask me, “Is computer science/information technology still a good major?”

My answer is a qualified yes.  However, I’m going to break the answer into a multi-part post, and since I’m a poker player you have to suffer through one of my poker analogies to get to the answer.

Okay, here’s the analogy:  In Texas Hold’em, you get dealt two cards of your own, and you work with those and the five community cards on the board to make a hand.  If one of your cards is an Ace, and an Ace shows up on the board, you have a pair of Aces.  Not a bad start, which is how I view majoring in computer science or information technology in 2010.  Not a bad start.

Here’s the thing, though.  If your other starting card is a King, giving you AK, you have a premium starting hand.  Why?  Because if somebody else also has a pair of Aces, your King kicker will give you the better hand.  A starting hand like A7, on the other hand, is not terrible but it’s not premium, because that 7 is not a great kicker.  It will lose to anyone holding A-8, A-9, A-10, A-J, A-Q, or A-K.

So, here’s my point:  Computer science/IT is not a bad place to start if you want to major in it, but you better have a good kicker to go with it.

What’s my idea of a good kicker?  Well, I’ll give you a day or two to ponder it, and then post my thoughts in Part 2.  I’ll give you a hint though:  Not the usual side areas of interest to most computer science students.  For example, I have a background in math, but in 2010 I would not consider math a premium kicker.

More to come…

While we were playing trivia at the Saucer tonight, the managers had a meeting.  I talked to one of them afterward, and he said they’re planning a beer dinner, consisting of several courses each paired with a beer.

Either he didn’t tell me the exact date or I forgot, which is entirely possible given the fact that I had many unpaired beers there tonight.  I think he said it will be in February.  They had their last beer dinner in 2007 if I remember correctly, and they far exceeded expectations.  If the upcoming one is anything like the last one, definitely worth attending if you’re into beer.  More details to come.

Get ready for another art show at the Majestic Grille. This one, on Monday, February 8 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM, will feature the work of artist Blas Blanco Cuenca and his longtime instructor and friend Paul C. Clements. The work will remain on display through March 26. The event is free to the public and the restaurant does not take commission on works sold – all money goes to the artist.

There will be Spanish wines on special and other drink specials. In honor of Blanco’s homeland, Chef Patrick Reilly will create Spanish tapas for the reception. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Shelton Clothiers is bringing back their Wardrobe Packages. Two suits, one blazer, and one pant, or three suits, for $885. Sleeve and cuff alteration is included. As a bonus for February, they’ll throw in a free shirt and tie with every wardrobe package purchase.

MPACT Memphis has changed the date of its Soul of the City gala “due to circumstances beyond our control.” New date is March 12. That gives you two extra weeks to buy tickets and get excited about the event. I’m just an MPACT whose… circumstances… went beyond its control… Beyond its control… beyond its control… I need control… we all need control. Domo arigato MPACT Roboto…

Wow and this isn’t even a drunk post.

MPACT is having its happy hour at Pearl’s in just a few minutes, by the way, at 6 PM. There you can learn about getting active and achieving a healthy lifestyle. Sounds like a great program, but I’ll probably skip it and drink some beer at the Saucer instead. I’m hungry too. Maybe I’ll get some chili cheese fries. I’ve been hungry for chili cheese fries ever since I posted that pic of Christy chowing down on them a couple of weeks ago.

Apologies for the lack of posts the past two days… yesterday I just didn’t have anything.  Then last night I decided it would be a good idea to play in the 11:30 poker tournament at the Silly Goose.  It wasn’t.  I was dead tired today, too tired to post at lunch.  So I went and got Indian food and became mayor of the Indian cafe on American Way that I go to for lunch.

And besides, Sunday’s post, about John D seeing a dead beaver in the road, was so fascinating that I figured it deserved 2 days at the top.

Got more stuff coming in… got an upcoming party at Kooky Canuck to tell you about in a future post (and don’t forget, it’s Super Tuesday tonight with $5 34 oz. mixed drinks).  I’ve also been doing some thinking about whether computer science/IT is a good major for college students in 2010.  Right now I have to head to trivia though.  Time to win some more beer money!

Woot.com is having another Woot-off, meaning they’ll be offering various items on sale throughout the day.   Might be an idea to open a new browser tab and refresh it frequently.  If you see “Random Crap” as the item, buy immediately if their servers don’t crash when you try.

Yesterday I had a reader e-mail and ask me for a recommendation for the best anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-everything program.  I figured my answer might be useful to others, so I’m going to post it.

I didn’t recommend a specific software program… instead, I recommended that he go to www.lifehacker.com and search for “anti-virus,” “anti-spyware” or whatever he’s looking for.  In the search results, look for anything marked “Hive Five.”  In the Hive Five threads, readers give their recommendations for the best software packages (usually free software) in various categories.

I search LifeHacker to see what’s best whenever I need a utility program – ZIP/compression software, an FTP client, etc.  Some of the best techies in the world read LifeHacker and post comments, and they’ve never steered me wrong.

Ughhh… trying to clear the cobwebs out of my head this morning.  Memories from last night include several Foster’s Oil Cans, Paul’s Drunkass Food at Denny’s about 2 in the morning, and sending a drunk e-mail to the elusive and mysterious Kimmy Kim when I got home.  You know it’s a bad night when Denny’s appears on the agenda.

My friends are all talking about how today is a REALLY BIG DAY because the NFL playoffs will be on… sounds like they’re all gathering at Calhoun’s to watch.  There needs to be a bar for people who don’t give a rat’s ass about pro football.  Actually, that would not be a bad idea… the female-to-male ratio would probably be quite favorable.  I’ll probably take the netbook to the Saucer, and fire up PokerStars when the gang heads south.  I was 2-tabling for a while yesterday, with a $1/$2 fixed-limit Hold’em game going on one table, and a $1/$2 Omaha Hi/Lo game on the other.  Once I accumulate enough frequent player points to maintain my PokerStars VIP status for the month (about 4 hours of play away), I’ll switch over to no-limit Hold’em tournaments and Sit’n’Gos.  Of course, at 6 I’ll walk over to the Silly Goose where they’ll be selling selected beers for $1 domestics, $1.50 imports.

Let’s see what’s happening on the iPhone this morning… on Twitter, John D says there’s a dead beaver in the road at Harbert and Belvedere… on Foursquare, Susie’s at India Palace again, seems like she spends as much time there as I do at the Saucer… on Words with Friends, I’m starting a new game with Bama Lawdog, even though she’s been known to cheat by handing her phone off to friends to help her find words.

Six days until the Jersey Shore Pub Crawl… I ran into Memphis’ biggest and orangest douchebaguette last Monday (she’s been coming to Pint Nite at the Saucer a lot lately), and asked if she was going  to the pub crawl.  Surprisingly, she said no.  Too bad… the pub crawl is a place where she could be herself and she’d fit right in.

45 e-mails in the inbox… most of them notifications that people bought crap from my online stores.  Yay.  Gonna clean out the e-mails and count the minutes until the bar opens.

Sunday morning has arrived.  That means a new week has started, and therefore it’s time for a new “Brick” Quote of the Week.

The Saucer carries several delicious New Belgium beers, but this week’s quote involves one they don’t carry, New Belgium Sunshine Wheat.  They do have a beer with a very similar name, Sunset Wheat by Leinenkugel.

So, a customer came in and asked Brick if they have Sunshine Wheat.  “No, but we have Sunset Wheat,” Brick replied.

Then she thought for a minute and added, “Maybe that’s what they call it after dark.”

The Silly Goose just sent out a message on Facebook asking for help.  You see, they have a lot of extra beer that seems to be getting in the way, and they need people to help them come and get rid of it.  So, tomorrow night, Sunday, January 24, they’re putting the beers that are taking up space on special – $1 domestics, $1.50 imports.

Hmmm… cheap beer, and an excuse to avoid dealing with Brittney next door at the Saucer for the evening shift.  Looks like my plans for Sunday evening are set.

I just got home from my morning Mountain Dew run to Walgreens.  By the cash register I noticed that they have “kissable body spray” and “chocolate body paint.”  So if you want to spice up your sex life, you don’t have to drive all the way to one of the adult bookstores out by the airport… just go to Walgreens.