Beer Goggle Dreams

And the universe hits me again...

2012-05-22T02:13:14Z

21:00 PM 05/21/2012

Our dog Richie is currently in the hospital.

On Friday after coming home from work I noticed that his ears were sitting funny. Turns out they were swollen. We called the local animal emergency line later that night and they said to put him on Benadryl and see if he gets better.

Well he got a little better the next day so we didn't think of it and kept talking ot the vets and giving him the Benadryl until my sister who works for a vet office came down and basically rushed him to the animal emergency hospital where they gave him a shot and prescribed some Prednesone steroids.

The next morning (Sunday) he wasn't much better and wouldn't take the medicine. So with the help of my sister we managed to get the prednesone in him and waited to see how he was the next morning.

This morning he was in pain and barely able to walk. My sister came up and we rushed him to the vet she works for and they got him in first thing. And...he's been there all day today.

They did bloodwork and he's got low protein counts and low white blood cell counts and as of this evening he's accumulating fluid in his belly. An ultrasound showed nothing out of the ordinary except a couple of gall stones. They've sent out for a urinalisys and have requested old bloodwork from his regular vet office but at this time they don't know where he's losing the protein.

They've got him overnight on an IV but the doctor admitted openly that she doesn't know what's the cause of all this.

It just doesn't feel like home without him around here. :-(

I think I'm going to change clothes and go to bed early now.

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PHone lost, phone replaced, phone found and returned, and a warrior's dash...

2012-05-20T16:20:34Z

09:42 AM 05/20/2012

Well yesterday I lost my phone while riding my bicycle.

Why was i riding? To try and ride to work for my health to see what the ride is like.

Why am I suddenly getting into shape? Because myself and others at my office are going to do the Warrior's Dash in Wisconsin this year. (Google it. I'm too tired to provide a link.)

*Charlie Brown wa-wa voices in the background*

Yes I _am_ insane why do you ask? ^_^

Seriously I need an excuse to get back into shape and the Warrior's Dash is a darn good one because I've wanted to do something like this for years. (Okay maybe you don't have to Google it - it's basically a fairly long and messy obtacle course. Pretty grueling.) There are a number of different classes and one specifically for the 40+ year range so I don't think I'll feel too out of place.

The good thing about this is I posted that I was "IN" for this with my co-workers. That means that my normal crippling fear of embarrassment works for me this time not against me. If I fail to start the event I lose standing with my coworkers and that's not going to happen. No shame in competing and losing but much shame in not competing when you said you would.

Let's cover some things here before I continue:

1) I'm not in as bad a shape as people think I am. I'm not going to die of a heart attack just because I compete in an obstacle course.

2) I'm aware of the risks in shaping up as quickly as I need to (August 18th) before attending this. In fact it's every bit right on the "clean up then die" track record that my family seems to have.

3) If you aren't going to support me in this I don't want to hear it. Period. I can't afford the negativity. As a support person I get enough of that in my life already.

Moving on...

The best cardio solution I've found for myself is to ride my bicycle to work every day or as close to that as possible. That's 40 minutes of cardio a day approximately. Yesterday, before I had to turn back, I rode halfway to my office. Of course at that point I sat on the halfway bench and realized I no longer had my phone. I then walked the bike back down the bike trail to where I knew I last had it. Didn't find it so then I rode the bike home.

Then my wife insisted that we walk back up the trail and look for the phone. So I walked back up the trail to the bench again and back down the trail where my wife picked me up in the minivan.

I was tired after that but not inordinarily so. That means I should easily be able to ride the bike to work in the morning even if I have to stop halfway. The bike path technically opens at sunrise so I'll be just on the edge of that if I leave the house by 6 am. I have a 7 am start time and normally leave in the car at 6:10 and arrive at 6:20 - 6:25 depending on traffic. So I estimate that If I leave by 6 I should be able to get there by 6:45 without a problem. Especially since the bike path is an almost straight shot to my office with no other traffic really. There are 5 intersections along the path. (Three major, two minor) Hopefully at that time in the morning the traffic should be doing the separated waves thing so I'll be able to cross those quickly enough.

It's not going to be easy. It's already hard for me to get back out there. Especially with all the stuff around the house, the fact that we had to shell out for a new phone yesterday so I'm worried about money, and a number of stumbling blocks. But honestly I'm putting all those in my own way and my honor is on the line here. And I've got very little time to get to a certain level of fitness.

So yeah...I know the risks...I know the plan...I just have to execute it.

So no negativity, no "I'm just saying", no "Well I'm just warning you.". NONE OF THAT. I. WILL. DO. THIS.

As to the phone we reported it lost to ATT and the police. Then we went to the ATT store and I got a $0.99 iPhone 3Gs in replacement. Today the finder of the phone called my wife's number and returned the phone to us. So not only do I have a new phone now but I have an 8gb iPod touch once I jailbreak the old phone. So that all worked out. Still can't hotspot with the new 3Gs but I'm going to likely get a work phone to do that with in the future.

On a lighter note...I'm a hypocrite. I once swore that I would never ever buy another Blizzard game because of what they did to the BNETD people. (That one you _CAN_ go and Google because it's too long to explain.) Unfortunately it's been far too long at this point and I so missed bashing monsters on a tiny screen so I allocated money and bought Diablo III.

And it's awesome. :-)

*runs off to bash virtual monsters*

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Don't call me...

2012-05-12T23:58:14Z

18:51 PM 05/12/2012

Look...I'm not trying to be a pain here. And frankly I do like to talk to my family and relative and friends.

But...

I now spend almost 9 hours of my 11 hour workday on the phone. Often long phone calls that last an hour or more as I try and solve technical problems.

I'm not saying I don't want to talk to you people but please have the respect enough to understand that if I don't feel like talking to you on the phone there's a reason.

Over a cup of coffee, over the dinner table, text messages, email, even video calls possibly. Just not the damn phone.

When I get home from work the last thing I want to do is have an extended phone conversation.

It's most definitely NOT something the person on the other end of the phone is doing. Seriously. This is one place where "It's not you it's me." actually applies.

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envelope to forehead Bing, Bong, Bang...

2012-05-10T03:45:16Z

*bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!*

Oh for Goddess' sake dog! There's nothing in the shadows!

*bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!*

I already checked there dog! Stop!

*bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!*

*sigh!*

Anybody know where I can get Prozac for puppies?

In all seriousness we're slowly training it out of him but between the barking and the licking of cabinets/stove/washer/anything that stands still long enough it gets annoying sometimes.

Another thing that gets annoying sometimes is people who don't post regularly to their blog. *cough* *cough*

Sorry folks. Been really really busy.

It's nice having a job it really is but damn it takes up a lot of time. I'm currently working 10 - 11 hour days and often under heavy stress. I like the work but damn it's tiring.

To amuse myself though I now have some virtual fish on my iPad, have finished watching all of The Galaxy Rangers cartoon on Hulu, and am currently trying to figure out what to do next on a great many fronts.

BTW - Kahn Academy is an awesome tool for learning. The collection of videos definitely leans towards the hard science/math collection but they do have history and finance and a number of other subjects as well. The format is awesome and easy to understand and if you are a gamer you'll recognize the achievement ladder structure right away. Heck it's almost like a gamer growth tree where you start out in one place and and from there you can choose what you do next. There are plenty of practice exercises and you can't move on in practice until you complete ten in a row of the current subject. Very very game-like. Complete with achievement awards.

Now they need to put some of the other skills up there like language and writing and...well...a whole bunch of things! If you're having trouble with anything math or science related I highly recommend the site and the iPad application.

That said I've loaded the app on my daughter's ipad and will likely use those to help her get ahead in the math and science department.

In other newa...

Managed to get all my Instructibles ebooks working in iBooks. That means I now have a good start on a digital library. Looking at our physical library I may revise our no books leave policy because there _are_ books here that I will likely never use and are definitely no longer relevant. (Nothing hard and fast but a lot of the older computer books while they do have certain things in them that are nuggets of information those nuggets can often be found elsewhere now.) *stop checking my forehead dear I'm fine.* (...) *and stop checking for a pod under the bed!* I'm not getting rid of a lot but some things just need to get cleaned out every so often. And a book about paying for college from the 90's is not really relevant to the current economics for example.

All that aside my wife got a Kindle and I got an iPad so we both have good ebook readers and that means we can have quite a few of our books on the go now.

Though honestly nothing will ever get me to give up the paper book. There's just so many reasons why. :-)

Still haven't figured out a good plan for the office furnature in the workshop. The plan in the house is set well enough but we have to set it in motion. The first step is getting that damn crappy armoire out of here. My wife has amanged to empty it but carrying it to the curb is going to be one hell of a pain. After that it's the dresser into that corner and the rolltop desk where the dresser used to be. Then the one bookshelf goes into our daughter's room and the one small art desk comes out. (She uses it only for dumping stuff on top of anyways.) Finally we set up my wife's corner, table, and hutches then move the lateral file under the one table. Her office space in the house will then be complete. Then I'll be able to work on mine more outside...

Still looking to complete certain projects this year if money allows. Let's see...

Repair the air compressor.

Transfer the boat title and get plates and stickers for the whole thing this year.

Get the timing chain and a muffler installed on the truck so I can pull said boat.

Finish the basement. Including stairs down from the main floor in the back hallway.

Move my computer and electronics stuff into the basement as well as a seating area if possible.

Move all the servers into the new computer rack but leave them outside in the workshop.

Maybe move my grandmother's love seat down there when it's refinished.

Get multiple gardens set up starting with the one in the back of the garage. It needs tilling and cleaning again.

Finish outer repairs to the house and paint it.

Install a fence to close off the back yard so we can let the dog out and have a quiet place to eat/sit outside with friends and family. Maybe a gazebo.

Break up the front two pieces of walkway and remove the culverts under them so water flows freely. Put in foot bridges.

Organize the workshop so one side is all craft stuff and the other is vehicle stuff.

Do all pending vehicle repairs and upgrades.

Paint inside the house.

Replace the attic fans. (Probably with a 16" Rotron in the one spot then 5" Rotrons elsewhere. They're all heat rated and better than the cheap fans they sell for attics.)

(...)

Okay this list is unlikely to be done this year unless we get a lot of money first. And with my schedule lately...

Other plans include:

Set up a dedicated study time and area for my daughter. Start with Kahn Academy videos and practices from that.

Draw more.

Write more.

Learn how to be comfortable with my drawing tablet.

Virtualize most of my servers.

Get all my DEC/PDP gear at least up and running if not running all the time. (The Vaxstation 4000-60 will likely end up running 24x7. The Microvax 3400/Microvax II/Microvax III/and PDP 11/04 not so much.)

*scifi ringtone from iPhone in background*

Oh crapola. One of $biggest_client's servers just went down. Gotta go!

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A happy holiday to all concerned!

2012-04-08T21:46:23Z

15:35 PM 04/08/2012

So once agian a holiday is upon us. I am currently working with my Linux laptop while the rest of my wife's side of the family plays Mexican Train with dominos. (I'm not a fan of dominos but I like Mahjong. Go figure. Also I'm jealous of their table. It's a huge dark stained piece with wonderful straight backed chairs. Pre-stressed. It's awesome but we have neither the money nor the space for such an object. Unfortuantely.)

Biding time today until I can get back home and get more things done. (Our house is a disaster.) That said I managed to get Google Sketchup working on my Linux laptop and it seems to work like a charm. It won't contact the 3D Warehouse but honestly I don't care about that because I can always download from that site directly. Unfortuantely the one plugin to convert the free Sketchup export files to something more transfer friendly causes it to crash so I'll install it on the Windows machine and see if it works there. If it does that then I should be able to output to something that can feed a 3D printer without too much trouble. Now I just have to get a 3D printer...

A good relative (my cousin I've not talked to in a while - have to rectify that) gave me a heavy bag this weekend. Already filled so all I have to do is hang it. It'll be nice to have something I can take my agressions out on. For now it'll go in the basement but eventually I want to make/get a fold-up stand for it so I can put it other places.
( In the cleaning department... )

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Yet more of it's always something...

2012-04-04T02:59:04Z

21:42 PM 04/03/2012

So...I just got my internet connection back up. Looks like my ADSL bridge has failed. Fortunately I had another in stock from when my dad got rid of DSL at his house. Still want to put the much hardier Cisco in there but can't seem to come up with a "dumb" bridging config between a WIC-1 ADSL and Ethernet 0/0. :-(

On top of all this I have work to do so I may need to go back into the office tonight. It's not far but it's just annoyance of having to go back into the office.

I realize I haven't been writing online as much as usual and it's not just work that's the cause. I'm writing offline...on paper. I'm using that as a relaxation tool - quill with a metal nib, dipping ink, and all.

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In for a penny in for a pound...

2012-03-17T17:30:44Z

11:44 AM 03/17/2012

So really screwed up at work this last week. I forgot that the quality of the conversation with the client is often more imporatant than getting all the callbacks done in an emergancy situation. I know exactly where I screwed up and am taking steps to correct it and have indeed written down the exact failure points. In fact I'll likely turn them into a KB article for work that covers handling the phones and board during an emergency.

Speaking of which I'm on track writing a bunch of KB articles and SOPs for work so that new people can handle the simple things and I can focus on the more difficult problems. I'm not concerned about being replaced because all the other people are doing this as well and it's so we can all cover each other's tasks. Not a problem. I and the other guys are all master techs and some of us are known for being better at certain things than others and all this stuff is just basic fix-it stuff that can easily be handed off to make our load a little easier.

And load is really part of the problem here. My numbers are up and down glucose-wise and I know it's due to stress. I'll be able to handle it because I know I can but I've got only about 3 more months before I see the doc again and I need to handle it before then. And that adds to the stress...which changes the number...which adds to the stress....*insert timey wimey ball here*.

Went to the Goodwill today and found one of the inexpensive cascade fountains that I like for $9 when it would normally be $30. It works fine but is loud when empty so I can only think that was the reason it got donated. It'll likely go on the mantle or out in the workshop. I've missed the sound of running water.

Making progress getting things done arouns here. Not fast but steady. Already planning on getting a battery backup for the satellite multiplexer and the DSL modem among other things. Hopefully put that in today. Also making progress on getting all the servers out into the workshop but due to the weather I'm going to need an exhaust fan out there very soon. And I'm definitely going to have to run the A/C unit out there this year. I'm hoping we can get Central Air this year and then I can dedicate the 1200 unit to the workshop.

Speaking of weather it looks like I'm going to be planting extra early due to the strange weather. That also means that the summer is probably going to be quite a bit hotter than usual.

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So much for freedom of speech!

2012-03-06T03:34:49Z

Reposted from a lot of places:

The legislative branch just sent a bill to to the president to be
signed. This bill severely restricts your freedom of speech by making
it illegal to protest disruptively in the general vicinity of anyone
afforded protection by the Secret Service - like presidential
candidates or the president himself.

What is disruptive?
"knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct
of Government business or official functions, engages in disorderly or
disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to, any restricted
building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes
or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official
functions;"

That means that shouting from the gallery of the capitol could land
you in jail for a year. Or shouting in the vicinity of a politician
under Secret Service protection.

Read the law yourself. I've linked to the final version here that was
sent to the president to sign. See for yourself what the politicians
in DC think of your right to protest.

By the way, protest is SUPPOSED to be disruptive. THAT is what makes
it EFFECTIVE! THAT is why our founding fathers identified the right
to freedom of speech with the very first amendment - it meant that
much to them!

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c112:7:./temp/~c1124tlEDC::

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A visit to the Mitsuwa...

2012-03-04T15:42:28Z

08:32 AM 03/04/2012

So me and a couple of friends went to the Mitsuwa Marketplace which is a Japanese mall about an hour or so away from us.

And it was awesome as expected. ^_^

Picked up some snacks at the grocery store there and with one exception were things that didn't affect my glucose levels.

I got in no particular order:

Dorayaki (Baked Red Bean Cakes) - very sweet but also very very good. Not something I can eat every day because they are basically light pancakes filled with sweet red bean paste. Way too much sugar.

Instant Miso Soup - Yu-Ge (white) and Asage (mixed). I got these because they look simple and quick to cook when I'm hungry, don't have hardly any carbs in them, and might be fun to try. I could in theory cook this at work even though it says it's four servings. I didn't really look at the salt on the package just assumed that part would be bad for me. But salt is okay for me right now even though I'm shooting for a good balance of things.

The aforementioned dried squid. I discarded the package so I don't have the name handy. Honestly it was salty and chewy and actually quite good. Tentacles get stuck in my teeth though. It was mostly tentacles. There were some of the flat dried full squids there but I chose the slightly smaller package in case I didn't like it.

Nori Maki Arare - basically seaweed wrapped around a cracker. I haven't tasted these yet but the numbers on the back look good for me.

Sen Cha - some loose green tea that I'm going to try in the Kuerig machine at work now that I have my individual filter.

Hoji Cha - roasted green tea. We'll see what the flavor difference is there.

Milk Coffee - this was darn good. I also don't have the brand but it was a small square plastic bottle with a white label and grey/black lettering on it. It didn't have a lot of sugar in it but wasn't as bitter as you'd expect. I like it.

Other than that there were a ton of things to try and frankly since things weren't too expensive comparatively I'll definitely go back there. Honestly I found more snacks that were healthy for me to eat there than in most regular US grocery stores. (Even found a gum that my wife can chew that has regular sugar in it and no Apartame.) And if these are things that are healthy for me to eat while I'm sitting in the chair at the office then so much the better. :-)

As far as Japanese food goes though there's two goals. The first is to reclaim my taste buds from bad fast food. That's taking time. The second is to discover what tastes I like that I can eat. Removing almost all the sugar from my diet is helping a lot. I've always likes savory food but recently it's become much more appealing to me. (I wonder if you can put cinnamon in curry...)
( In other gnooze )

Getting it together...

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The joys of odd food...

2012-03-04T03:53:56Z

21:53 PM 03/03/2012

I have eaten dried squid...and liked it!

(...)

Wait...what? ;-)

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I haz oven nao!

2012-02-27T01:38:03Z

18:30 PM 02/26/2012

After having the part sitting on the counter for months I finally managed to get the oven repaired. Ran it up all the way to 550F and it took less than 15 minutes to get to full temp.

So I baked some french fries from scratch! ^_^

Anyways it's good to have the thing fixed again. I can think of quite a few things I'd like to try baking and especially things with organic cinnamon in them. I'm rapidly becoming a fan. I wonder if you can make cinnamon rye bread...

In other news the snow started melting already. Hopefully it'll be gone by the end of this coming week. Of course it matters very little anyways because I haven't manage to get any seedlings started. And it looks like my chives have either gone dead or dormant. I'm hoping I didn't kill them from too much plant food. :-/

Still typing on the new-to-me notebook. The battery should be in this week so I should be back to normal functionality very soon. I mean the whole point of a notebook it portability right? Anyway it's experienced some glitches but nothing major. My biggest complaint is how long the wireless card takes to come back from sleep. Well into the 30 - 45 second mark. If I'm doing anything local I don't notice it but if I'm waiting before launching something network related like Thunderbird or something it's all too annoying. Regardless the new battery is a 9 cell 7200wh one so it should be good for at least a couple of hours if I keep the backlight down. Not sure with the 15" screen on this thing though. Somewhere down the road I'll upgrade things in this box because the upgrades are fairly cheap now and I'm not ready to shell out for a brand new notebook yet.

Did something good today and gave two of my spare notebooks to the neighbor kid. He's expressed a desire to learn computers and I/T stuff so I gave him two older notebooks loaded with Mint Linux 12. I told him that they are specifically meant to be a learning experience for him so I wouldn't be anserwing a lot of questions. He's got the aptitude so he should do well. :-)

And really I didn't need those two boxes anyway. ;-)

Still working on getting my glucose under control. Lots of factors involved not the least of which is my current work environment which is pretty stressfull most of the time. A big part of it though is learning to eat right again. Not take in those carbs if I can avoid it. (Hence my dilemma about the fries this evening. I love them but I really shouldn't have had them.) The other part is exercise. Thankfully since I'm no longer in pain every day I can get a whole hell of a lot more done. All that aside the numbers are currently fluctuating a lot. I'll get it all sorted out. (No lectures please! Had a lifetime of those lately. I will take suggestions though.)

Priced direct-burial ethernet cable on E-bay yesterday. It's about $100 for a full box. I don't really need a full box of snot cable and Mashblock kindly offered to check if he has some so I may take him up on it. I only need about 50 feet or so. (I haven't made a direct measurement yet though so it may be less.) If Mashblock doesn't have it I can probably get some from another friend who works in the wireless business and puts up wireless internet access points on roofs and towers and such. Either way once the ground is soft it'll delay me having to trench the yard and for the moment that's a good thing.

Finally managed to get started on reading a fresh book. I'm about a third of the way through the last Alagaesia book. For some reason I'm reading it slower than I usually do. Either Paolini has become more wordy or I'm slowing down in my old age. ;-) Still it's nice to get back to actually being able to buy a new book once in a while. That reminds me...I'm behind on the events of a certain Chicago wizard...

*goes back to reading his book*

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Random Runcibles and Bankrupt Pants

2012-02-22T18:00:58Z

11:31 AM 02/22/2012

So the new job has kept me busy busy busy. The only reason I've got a chance to post right now is I had to take the morning off because my daughter got sick on the bus this morning and that means she can't be in school according to the rules.

She's sleeping quietly on the couch now and will likely be fine tomorrow. (I just woke up from a preemptive nap myself. I've been running a little stretched lately and definitely was able to use the extra sleep. That will get cleared up here soon enough as things at work are going well and I will be doing a little more dispatch and scheduling and a little less technical work. The two are supposed to be mutually exclusive and the former definitely doesn't happen as much after-hours as the latter.

In other news I reclaimed a laptop from a co-worker that had a bad motherboard. It almost wasn't worth repairing but my neighbors had me order a replacement motherboard for their laptop and I got a deal and was able to get the board for this one as well. Now all it needs is a new battery. It's a Dell Inspiron E1505, 15" Core2Duo, 2gig ram, and it was able to just up and run with my existing SSD installed with Mint 11 Linux on it. That laptop can also be upgraded to a 2.35 Ghz chip pretty cheaply but even with the old 1.6ghz and the SSD it just seems to fly. Faster than the 2.16 ghz C2D of the same year. Very strange.

Managed to get the garage connected with the house via gigabit ethernet cable. It's not pretty because I have blue Cat5E strung arially from the house to it but it works thankfully. With time and money this spring I'll get the yard trenched and a pipe put in between the two places and that'll be a great improvement. In the meantime if I find a cheap price on fiber and gbic connectors that arial cable may turn from blue to orange. What I'm most worried about with that is local lightning. If something hits close it will easily induce a current in that wire and probably kill the two switches at either end. Then I'd have to buy gigabit switches as well.

As for other things our daughter is gettng more used to not getting her way but it's still the typical teenagerism. Went to play Mahjonng at a friend's house and half the time she kept asking us if we were ready to go. That didn't work so she was a little perturbed but she didn't have a full scale meltdown so that's good.

Slightly irritated that I haven't started any seedlings yet. I've been so busy with work that I may have to just order starter plants this year. I _WILL_ have a garden this year dammit. Still really itching to have some sort of hydroponics setup but until I get other inside things taken care of that's not happening.

We're getting almost three grand back from the taxes this year (even some from the state) and while a chunk of that has to go to the mortgage this month some of that is definitely going into house repairs. Maybe I'll finally be able to buy the bags of concrete I need to fill that hole in the basement wall and start finishing out that space. That would be awesome.

Well my daughter is up and showing signs (and sounds...ugh) of still not feeling well. It's probably just the 24 hour thing my wife had the other night so I'm not too concerned. And my wife just arrived with food so I gotta go so I can get back to work. Later!

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Now is the winter of our disconAUUUUUGHHH!

2012-01-29T21:16:32Z

14:24 PM 01/29/2012

So I go back to work tomorrow and that's a good thng. I've been idle for far too long.

I do want to put something out here though for anybody who was even peripherally involved in this whole ordeal about my kidney stone and blood sugar.

It's not your fault.

All of this was going to happen anyway. For instance the reason the blood sugar got all whacked out in the first place is that I consciously chose to ignore good practices and habits that I'd kept for seven years as well as ignore what my body was telling me. This would have happened no matter if I had just gotten a job at a bowling alley versus the tech support position I currently hold.

My fault.

Oh and those of you I work with that may end up reading this? That half-day I came in to work after the lithotripsy had absolutely nothing to do with having to go back into the hospital. It was a foregone conclusion and would have happened anyway. Best that it happened sooner versus later.
( Gory medical misc behind the cut tag... )
Still I should be able to be considerably more active now that I don't have that chronic low-grade pain any more and I can concentrate on not only work but preventing this from happening ever again. Even today I'm up and doing some things - the usual laundry and dishes.

Throughout all this my wife has been top-notch as expected. I've always known she has this sort of strength in her but it's nice to see it out in the open. She also rested most of this weekend BTW and a well deserved rest it was.

Tomorrow I'll go back to work and do the best I can to set the stage so I can have a good structure to handle all this without a problem going forward. Not too many changes really just stuff I used to have in place that fell to the wayside.

Two final notes of annoyance:

First - the damn sonic people have _already_ billed me and had the gall to send a letter asking me for an "assignment of rights" to let them deal with the insurance company and oh yeah BTW pay us $3300+ immediately. Yeah. Not gonna happen. Years ago I asked our insurance company how to handle this and was told "Don't pay them anything until we tell you to.". I'm going to take that to heart and include "Don't sign anything they ask you to." as well.

Second - I've been cold the entire time I've been out of the hospital. It's going away as I get more active so I'm pretty sure that's just shock to my system. I think I will obtain some Monty Python killer rabbit slippers though. ;-)

Off to do more laundry...

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One cystoscopy later...

2012-01-27T00:43:37Z

I'm _definitely_ stone-free now.

Last night at about 11:30 pm the pain woke me out of a sound sleep. It was pain in exactly the same place as before. Tried the Vicodin they gave be but it didn't touch it. Waited until 2 am to see if it was temporary then called the Urologist when it didn't go away. He sent me to the ER for "pain management" and an appointment for a kidney stent.

Meanwhile I tossed up all my dinner and anything else in my stomach due to the pain, got rushed from triage into a room where they gave me 2mg of something strong and that's when the Urologist scheduled me for the stent installation.

They get me into surgery around 9:30 am and the doc uses a camera and a grabby so to speak to remove the remaining piece of stone as well as install the stent.

I wake up and have been in recovery all day today. They've temporarily changed my glucose meds due to the dye used in the cycstoscopy so my wife's picking that up here in a little bit.

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Sonically yours...

2012-01-26T00:41:09Z

18:36 PM 01/25/2012

Just a quick note. Got the sonic hammering done today and it should have completely broken up the stone. I'll know more when I have the follow-up visit.

Meanwhile...the pain is gone. I don't know if it'll come back but the low, groaning, ever-present pain in my side that I've had for years is gone. Let's hope it stays that way.

Goofed up my sugar today though just from stress. 196 right before we left for the hospital, 269 waiting for the procedure, 286 after the procedure, 196 after I got home. WTF?

I took my meds during dinner tonight and I'll get back on track tomorrow. Tonight is for sleeping...

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Today's exit strategy...

2012-01-24T14:48:45Z

So talked to the doc this morning and he's sending me home with an oral medication. Not sure what the plan is but sad as it is I will likely go home, take a shower, get dressed, and go to work. I can't afford not to.

So thus begins another round of constant glucose testing among other things. Not thrilled by that but don't have a choice in the matter. One thing I'm going to do this time is make sure people stay out of my face about it. Last time I had people constantly up in my grill about what my numbers were all the time. I know you care people but WTF? I'm 42 years old - deal with your own lives and I'll deal with mine.

Regardless I'll get it all back on track. The workshop, the job, the house, everything.

Oh great Celestia! I have to order seeds next month and get them started! Wonderful. That alone will be a project.

That said seven years between reminders about one's stupidity is not too bad in my book. I know I can do better but honestly it's annoying.

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Might as well get this over with...

2012-01-23T23:43:33Z

17:37 PM 01/23/2012

Currently posting from a hospital bed. Nothing serious except I had some icky medical issues related to a kidney stone last night and some blood sugar.

Everything is currently fine. I'm scheduled to have the 1cm+ stone pulverized by sound waves on Wednesday.

And since my blood sugar was high at the time they're keeping me here until it goes down.

To all family members: It's OKAY. Don't panic and go nuts on me. I have some limited internets and Skype so I'm good for now. I'll post a full account of what happened later.

I just figured I'd get the info post out of the way. Likely I'm not getting out of here tonight but that's not a big deal and really depends on my A1C test results.

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Snowpockolyps II - Electric Broom Boogaloo!

2012-01-21T03:17:06Z

20:46 PM 01/20/2012

So home safe and sound right now. Had the quarterly meeting of the place I'm working at today at a restaurant and it took me about 30 minutes to go a distance that usually takes me about 5 - 10 maximum.

And...I locked my keys in my car...while it was running...at the restaurant...in front of my co-workers...and my wife had to come and unlock it for me.

Fortunately she works on the same road I do and she was able to stop by on her way out from the office. I owe her one for that...but not too big a one.

Don't let up...SOPA/PIPA will be back...

Watched a good chunk of the internet get blacked out in protest the other day and that was a really really good thing. Big companies and small artists alike put forth the effort to black out their websites and put up notices informing people about how bad this legislation is. I am ashamed to admit that I was remiss in this one as I did nothing. (I have no excuse. "I was working." doesn't cut it because a lot of artists that make a living with their websites did it and if it cost them something of their daily income then I could have spared some of my time.)

Unfortunately while this is a nice temporary setback for the individuals funding SOPA/PIPA there is no way this is the end. They'll do like they have done in the past and slip it into a bill for funding faith based schools run by orphan nuns or something and it'll pass at 2 am with very little dissenting vote from those not paid millions of dollars by vested interests. (Side note: If so much of this lobbying money is being thrown around why isn't the nation debt being paid down??)

And then we'll be stuck with another bad law.

Because here's the thing - the US legal system is currently constructed so that it's very easy to make laws but very hard to get them removed. The best reason I can fathom for this is that the legal system has obviously grown over time to fit the needs of those using it as a career platform. So the more laws they can make that benefit themselves and the harder they are to remove then the safer their lives as lawmakers are. (That leads, best as I can tell, to a society of elite lawmakers/kings with a silent class of servants that do not step out of line for fear of breaking an unknown law.)

So...obviously...the time to fight these things is when they first get created. We need a public service that...

1) Watches the government as they create proposals.

2) Translate those proposals into common language.

3) Does automatic alerts of these laws to a network APP for phones or tablets or TVs or indeed anything networked. Perhaps by category.

The problem with this system is that it's spammable. You could in theory create a billion tiny proposals that mean nothing and flood the system hiding the real proposals for laws that you want to create.

Then you'd have to make the public service bigger. Which would introduce more errors into the translation of those proposals to common language. Or put the entire service at risk of infiltration or even being bought off.

As usual there are no easy answers.

But...BUT...if you _could_ make that system fairly secure...AND...people didn't get lazier about their governemnt than they already are...it woud be a good way to keep some of the legal stuff in check.

Maybe.

But honestly I think the best thing that people can do is just pay attention. Don't let them pull things over on you. You're smarter than that.

"People are dumb, panicky, and you know it!" is only a phrase from a movie. I have faith in people. They can do a lot.

You. You can do a lot.

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Halfway to useless...

2012-01-13T02:16:02Z

So it's snowing out and I'm very tired. I have remote work to do tonight and I'll start that in a minute since I fell asleep after shovelling the driveway and walkways and didn't get back up until recently.

In the meantime I've decided that my Amazon Wishlist was far too realistic so I've been perusing a site called thegreenhead.com which is full of all sorts of weird items and adding them to my Amazon Wishlist via their browser button. ( http://amzn.com/w/1QA1VNLYUXBQX )

Some I'm adding because I like them, some I'm adding because I could make them given the opportunity, and some I'm adding just for whimsy sake. Regardless I'm at around page 108 of 277. I think with what's going on outside unless I have to get wood for a fire I'm going to easily reach that page 277.

What the heck will I add after that? Maybe start in on Etsy...

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I've decided I shall diminish...

2012-01-07T00:44:26Z

...though my name isn't Galadriel.

Looking at the current political climate it's now unsafe to say anything over an open channel. (F-List protected, encrypted, or otherwise.) Therefore I will restrict my posts to fantasy, philosophy, and all things except politics and/or government.

We're entering some dark times. Have your papers ready, up to date, and upon you.

Me? I'm just going to work for a living for a while, fix things, and maybe try and make some art in my life.

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Fireclay question...

2011-12-30T12:36:33Z

So looking over my rather long E-Bay watch list and this is one of the things I have on it:

http://ds5.org/3667

It's a premixed fire clay good to 2500 degrees. What I was thinking about using it for was to create a proper height and sealed dome for my existing enameling "hot plate" style kiln that would allow me the height to do bangles and bracelets.

The idea is to use the existing metal dome, cover it in the fire clay, and continue down with the clay so it lifts the metal dome up about 2 - 4 more inches from the top of the heating element. I'd also embed a hook or bale or something into the top of the dome to allow me to remove it easily. Probably have to use either stainless wire or uncoated copper or something for that. (A bit concerned about heat transfer to the hook as I want to retain as much heat as possible inside.

This design would also allow me to add a pyrometer to the setup and not affect the work inside as much. Still need to get a pyrometer btw. A couple more weeks at least before I can think about spending for that.

Off to work...

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It's four o'clock in the morning dammit! Listen to me good!

2011-12-27T10:35:54Z

03:32 AM 12/27/2011

So...awake again. This time I went to bed at around 11:00pm and woke up around 3:00am. And my mind is already full of things from work. Wonderful. (Oh and the title is just a title. No wife issues here.)

Not a bad thing really as it's been a long time since I had things from work to focus on. I've got a few tasks I'm behind on but I really need to run them by others to find out what the company procedure is about them. I'll hopefully do that today.
( Cut to spare people from my rambling... )

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Post holiday funk...

2011-12-26T21:06:47Z

14:17 PM 12/26/2011

Well the Yuletide season is sputtering to a close and all that's left is the cleanup and the return to work. (Not to say there aren't still bright times ahead - such as friends coming to visit.)

Before all my muttering and talk of the holidays some housekeeping...

I've been writing in this web journal for a long time now and I'm quite grateful that LiveJournal has been available to me this long.

But with the constant decrease in reliability of the LiveJournal servers I'm quite glad I bought a Dreamwidth account now. I cross-post to post but honestly the Dreamwidth site is becoming more and more my primary site. (I'd love to be able to go through my friend's list on LJ and find the same people on DW but there doesn't seem to be an "app" for that.)

So from this point on I will still respond to posts made here but I'm going to transfer my flag to Dreamwidth (http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org Yes...that's a pony as my avatar. Deal with it.) I will also be buying a slighty better paid account as soon as I can afford it. I figure I should support the things that help support me. (And if you think having an LJ account hasn't supported me by giving me an outlet you haven't been reading what I've written.)
( Now! On with the show! )

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The world needs more co-ops...

2011-12-19T01:57:36Z

19:10 PM 12/18/2011

So sifting through my friends page and I notice that shinga of Head Trip had her Wacom tablet die on her. I'm currently seeing if I can dig one up for her but if you've got an old USB 3x5, 4x5, or 6x8 Wacom tablet you're willing to part with head on over there and talk to her. (The thread about the tablet is here: http://headtripcomics.livejournal.com/92708.html )

The world needs more people helping other people. Co-Ops seems to be a good solution to that in the short term. You pay in a little money each month ($5 - $10 - $20 and NO MORE WITHOUT APPROVAL OF ALL CONCERNED) and it builds up in a joint account. Each person submits a list of things they need and they all vote on the method in which those items are addressed. Then over time the money gets spent on the items to help each of the people paying into the account. I'm sure there are bugs in that plan but nothing that can't be worked out.

Other than that though there are _always_ things people can do to help out other people if only letting others know that someone needs a hand. Boosting The Signal as it were. ;-)
( In other ganooz... )

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Welcome to The Next Iron Fence!

2011-12-16T05:32:09Z

Today our contestants are...

The Corrupt Government of The United States of Amerika!

and...the people.

Unfortunately as of today the people can no longer speak freely lest they be swept up and sent to a far away place of darkness without consideration or even a mock trial. So...by default...for the moment...the people lose.

Those of you living outside the US - stay there. It's going to become very very ugly here very very soon.

(In case you don't know what this is all about go here and read while you still can: S.1867 / HR1540...)

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