Doctor Doctor

I spent the morning at the doctor. I had dermatology first thing then my alergist agreed to see me for my ear infection and I had to wait an hour or two later than normal to see him. This, of course, was followed by an hour waiting to fill perscriptions.

I done did it good this time. Swelling behind my eardrum with a lot of fluid. I'm worried because I had an infection like this as a child that went untreated and I ended up blowing out an eardrum. I mean severly, 3/4th of the thing gone. So I'm on heavy antibiotics and a anti-inflamatory med to try to get the swelling down.

I'm a serious mess right now. I can't think, can't concentrate and I'm really just blah. I know I should have gone last week but I was already scheduled to see him today so I waited. I'm an idiot, I know. Made two gals at work promise to bitch at me until I go to the doctor next time I'm sick.

So life is hell ...

k9
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Sunday Afternoon

I'm not good at being sick. I just won't let myself relax. I usually will sit here and work through it. I won't give in and I hate being in bed all day. There's no computer in there, there's video games but no sat dish or anything to keep me occupied. It takes alot to knock me off my feet. Takes a lot for me to give in and today I gave in in a big way.

I'm blaming Laurell K. Hamilton and her Anita Blake novels. It's a slow weekend, I opened my box set of the first four novels in the series and got completely lost. I read an entire novel today while lying in bed and feeling like death.

I'm up now. Watching 'confessions of a dangerous mind' off of TIVO. I'm too tired to explain, so hop over to imdb.com and check it out.

k9
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Sunday Morning

My hours have been extremely weird lately. I usually sleep until 8AM on the nose. Get up, take a shower and then to work by 9AM. Lately though, I've been up in the 6:30AM range and at work at 7AM. It's kind of nice to get a few hours in before the boss gets there and it's REALLY nice to be able to get off work by 1 or 2PM.

Alas, as I've changed my hours, so have our animals. The dogs now pee on the floor if I'm not up by 7:15AM. The cats (Thrashie in particular) scratch the hell out of my door to get me up because feeding time is when they want it, with no regards to my schedule. I guess the trade off is that if I feed them all early they leave me the heck alone for the rest of the day but ... sometimes it's a lot of stress to deal with 5 cats and 2 dogs first thing on a Sunday morning.

I feel worse. This dumbass plan to go cold turkey without seeing the doctor until I'm scheduled to see him Tuesday was probably one of the dumbest things I've done recently. I mean I've done quite a few dumb things lately but this takes the cake. I feel like this ear infection is getting worse and I'm sitting here taking more and more time to rest instead of fighting the damn thing.

I couldn't sleep last night. The dogs were barking over every little thing that moved. Was up until 2AM reading that Anita Blake novel. Actually finished it and started on another one. The novels are set in a world were vampirism was legalized and where society fights for the rights of the undead on one hand, while hiring executioners to kill vampires if they spread vampirism to unwilling participants on the other. The main character is a necromancer/executioner who gets herself into the creepiest of situations. They're worth checking out if you're ever in the mood for a pulp style adventure.

Tom Cruise is doing the preppie thing on the TV. 'Risky Business' was waiting for me on my TIVO from last night. I hate Tom Cruise, I hate this movie, and the only reason I'm putting it on DVD is that for some reason it was on my list of movies I want to get off of videotape. Personally, if Mayhem (the feline ball of fluff you is perched on top of the TV cabinet) "accidentally" jumps on my TIVO remote and hits that delete button ... oh well.

Come on Mayhem, jump ...

k9
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Much Later

Much later, still feel like hell. I'm a space cadet right now. Caught up on some DVD burning. Now have 30gigs free on this machine. It's just a drop in the ocean though as I still have 80gigs on the other machine to edit.

Today was a semi-big day for me. The coinster thing was brand new. I had always wanted to do something like that but never had the impulse to try it. Yesterday I actually used a "U Scan" checkout at Giant (grocery store), and paid for it right there without having to interact with a human being. That was actually kind of creepy. Even though I paid for it I still felt like security was going to jump me on the way out.

Didn't give in and take the filthy old car (Classic 80's Plymouth Reliant) to a car wash a high school was having outside of Staples. That's one thing I've never participated in. Probably for the best because I'm so spaced right now all I can do is smile and nod. Can't comprehend anything really and I wasn't going to be smiling and nodding at underage girls and being labeled a dirty old man while they wash my car.

Came home and ::gasp:: cleaned the bathroom. Got the scrubbing bubbles to work and scrubbed the tub really well. My mom uses some natural cleaner that smells like cucumbers but does ZIP to actually clean anything. I let the scrubbing bubbles at the tub and it's never looked better.

I must be sick, cleaning isn't one of those things I'm good at.

Took a bath and between the tub and waiting for DVD's to finish burning I read half of a Laurell K. Hamilton "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter" novel. I'm heading to my bedroom shortly and will probably get 2/3rds of the way into the book before falling asleep.

It's cold tonight. I have my green sweat jacket on even though it's warmish outside. Had the AC on because of my allergies. There's nothing worse than an allergy attack on top of an ear infection to make the world a very special place.

Not much else to say. Noticed that this blog is a little over 3 years old now. Want to thank my 3 readers for being here and listening. On that note, good night.

k9
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Grand Total ....

$92.87 from Coinstar.

I'm experimenting with the new blogger comments tool. Comments are turned on to anyone now so be good. Also note that they may change appearance at a moment's notice as I figure out what the hell I'm doing. :)

k9
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Ugg. Morning.

I spent most of last night collecting all of my change. I have two large mason jars full of change. I sorted through those for anything valuable (not throwing out my Indian head pennies, silver half dollars, etc.), and anything that wasn't actual money (subway tokens, staples, arcade tokens, etc.), then I set about finding the caches of change I know that have been sitting all over my rooms.

I spent about two hours last night doing this and even then I wasn't finished. I mean seriously, I wasn't finished. I woke up, looked at my night stand and found $.50. I went to my dresser and found $.80. I came in the computer room and on the highest shelf in one of my cabinets I found another $.35. It's everywhere, it's not substantial, but caches of coins seem to appear out of nowhere.

I don't like change. I don't like having that jing jing jing CLANK CLANG jing jing sound when I walk. I usually carry it around in my coat pockets and then dump it somewhere just to get rid of it. In college I'd never have any change because I'd spend all the time sticking it in candy or soda machines just to get rid of it. At one point I had so much candy in my bag someone was testing me over what I had and what I didn't have. I won that test by mysteriously producing English Jellybabies out of my bag when asked. I didn't share that I had a friend in England who had sent me them special in exchange for a copy of a WWF PPV, I just grinned evilly as they shook their heads and walked away from me.

So now I have a collection of all the caches of change. I've got it double bagged in a large ziplock bag and then put the bags in a large measuring cup. Right now, with the change settled, it fills a little over 30oz or 1 quart of change. I'm going to take it to the coinstar machine at the store later today (I'm wasting time here until the service desk opens so I can exchange my coins and get my money), and while the website says that 30oz averages to $56 or so, I'm thinking it's more. I don't actually want to count all this change, but then again, I have nothing better to do with the day.

I'm also still sick. Actually feeling worse than yesterday. Splurged yesterday and got some cold capsules and some soup. I haven't had the soup yet. I guess I should. Maybe for lunch. I also splurged since I had to go out and got Taco Bell for lunch. BUT for the first time in years I kept the order under $6 and simply got a nachoes bellegrande meal with a soda. Usually I get a gordita meal to go with it since Taco Bell never fills me, but you know what? I can make better food at home. Probably cheaper food as well. So I'm not going to pay extra for Taco Bell's version. The nachoes were just basic human need, honest.

In those rare hours that I was awake on Thursday I went through all my old video tapes. I wanted to make a list of movies that I have on videotape that I don't yet have on DVD. I weeded out old tapes that I no longer have a use for and am slowly but surely reducing my massive collection of tapes down to slightly smaller DVD form. Sadly, I think the list contains over 400 movies. Dear god, I was a busy boy with cable back in the 90's.

It is actually more cost effective just to capture them from my dish or get the cheap on eBay than it would be to transfer them from videotape. Plus it's better quality and less of a pain in the ass to do so. The only things I'm actually going to transfer from tape are my old wrestling collection and anything that has not yet been released on DVD or will never be on cable/dish. I might transfer my old Doctor Who's, since the BBC charges an arm and a leg for individual adventures, but we'll see.

And on that note, I'm off to shower and look spiffy. The amazing coinstar awaits!

k9

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Sick

It is one of those days, I'm sick as a dog with an ear infection. Ended up volunteering quite a number of hours to work this week as we've had a TON of stuff going on. At one point I had a pillow on my computer desk and propped my head up on it so I could still see the screen and work as I was half lying there.

The good news is that I'm off for the rest of the week. The bad news is that I'm dizzy and I have to go drive in a few minutes. I'm waiting for a movie to finish taping then I'm going to have to go out to the bank. My folks are away this week and I'm supposed to deposit something for my mom.

I gave up this week. I had been looking forward to Showdown: Legends of Wrestling 3 for Xbox. I'm dying for a new wrestling game. It came out and all the reviews were horrible. Well, except for Gamepro.com, but you can't really trust them. So I did some thinking and ended up buying a used PS2 with a hard drive attachment on e-bay. Got a good deal and sadly, the PS2 is a Mecca system for wrestling games. I ordered Fire Pro Wrestling Z for it and a gameshark so I can play import games.

I know, I HATE the PS2, but I really had no choice. The next new wrestling game *that I want* for Xbox won't be out until MARCH of 2005. Yes, that's right, MARCH 2005. It's insane. It really is. Everything for Xbox is one big wait. Halo 2? November 8, 2004. Maybe. Doom 3? Don't get me started. You'd think they'd know better by now, but they don't, they really have no clue how to market a game unit and I'm sure there are tons of consumers out there like me who end up buying PS2s because that's where the games are. It doesn't matter if I think the system is crap and I hate Sony, if I want to play good wrestling games, I'm going to have to get over it and buy a ps2.

The only plus is that I got it used on eBay so that $107 is going to some poor sap who bought one and realized it was crap rather than to Sony.

TAKE THAT, SONY!

Okay, okay, Sony won't give a damn in the long run. But I will. I've won a tiny little battle that no one will care about except me. But isn't that what life is all about?

Winning in obscurity.

k9
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A Bit Later

So I'm sitting here using Musicmatch Jukebox's super tagging function to update all my mp3 files. It's a function that comes in handy but I've never really played with it before. I want all my files to be perfect (or as perfect as possible) before they go on the replacement MP3 player.

I'm watching last night's rerun of 'Arrested Development' not only because I have a huge crush on Portia De Rossi but because it's a funny show. Probably the most demented show on TV today. Really. Honestly, it's not because of the crush at all. It is demented on the level of 'Dead Like Me.' Honest.

Still have this open, half awake. Rachael Ray is doing food make overs for guys. A 'Queer Eye' theme on "30-Minute Meals.' I don't think I have a crush on her. I've watched too many of these. She's loud. Waaaaay too loud. Right now loud is bad, very, very bad. Plus she's spunky all the time. I think it's a sham. I think at 4AM if there's no cameras around she's probably extremely bitchy and ready to kill someone. Well I hope that anyway because if she's this spunky at 4AM ... well that's scary.

Everything is scaring me right about now. It's one of those days. I want to be in bed but I can't be in bed because I'll only get comfortable and immediately get up and come back to this computer. Plus I don't have tv in my bedroom. I'm trying various ways of getting it there but ... well just leave it be. Let me be more awake to explain it.

I should rant. I think it is time.

WHY IS EVERYONE MISSING THE FACT THAT ALANIS MORRISETTE IS GETTING MARRIED?

She's marrying Ryan Reynolds. Who?

He was in 'National Lampoon's Van Wilder,' he was also on 'Fifteen.' What was that? A Canadian soap opera that aired on Nik.

Ding Ding Ding.

Alanis was on 'You Can't Do That on Television,' also on Nik.

So it's a marriage made on Nik.

Scared. Scared enough to head back to bed.

k9

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Home Sick

I'm back from the one day convention for work last week and I'm sick. I have another dreaded ear infection. It hit early this morning when I worked instead of sleeping. Just wasn't in the mood to sleep. It is the summer solstice so I'm sure that's what is making me weird today.

My new keyboard came in today. It's a Thermaltake Xaser III. You can find it for $9 paired with a mouse on e-bay. Or $20 elsewhere. It is loaded with extra buttons and it's a good replacement for my old microsoft office keyboard. I kind of miss the bulk already and hate the fact that it doesn't have a giant microsoft style delete key, BUT the extra buttons (pre-programmed to microsoft office functions) and the arrow keys arranged in a custom crosshair are nice. It also feels a lot sturdier (and a lot less noisy) to type with.

After my aborted nap earlier I was surprised because I had a UPS package on the front porch. It was a package from Creative Labs. Instead of fixing my old Nomad Xen Xtra they went ahead and replaced the whole unit. NOW I have to figure out how to transfer the rights for my old software (Red Chair Software's Notmad Explorer) to the new gadget. I'm also glad that I backed up my music files. Always, always, always, ALWAYS back your music up just in case. Same goes for a pda, hotsynch any chance you get. If you have to send it back, it's just easier to send you a new one in return ...

Otherwise, my folks are going to see my new nephew on Wednesday so I'm going to be HOME ALONE. Be afraid. Be VERY afriad.

Then again, I was sick the last time they went away and I'm sick this time ... dammit.

Dammit dammit dammit.

k9


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Waiting.

I hate waiting. I'm impatient. I'm horribly impatient.

My AC in my computer room died right before I went on vacation. After a wonderful fight with Sears, I finally got on the schedule to get the damn thing fixed. Of course they came to fix it while I was on vacation and, of course, they didn't have a loaner to replace it nor did they actually fix anything. They ordered parts and well, laughed as they said that they'd be back in a week and a half. "Maybe."

I came home from vacation and everything decided to bloom. I mean EVERYTHING. The last week has been an allergy hell. Normally I'd simply turn my AC on and it'd take care of itself but ... you can tell that I'm in such a good mood.

Also because of the heat I've been working 7AMs for the last week or so. I've not been very pleasant. I haven't even looked at jamesknine mail lately. I'll get to it. I promise. Just get me out of this allergy hell first.

k9
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Tuesday Tuesday

I have about ten minutes before I have to leave for two doctors appointments today. There's nothing of concern going on, just routine things. Though my allergies are REALLY bad today and, of course, the guy came to fix my air conditioner while I was on vacation, didn't have the parts OR a loaner AC unit and announced that he wouldn't be back until the 14th.

SEARS CAN KISS MY ASS.

Thank you very much.

So because SEARS CAN KISS MY ASS I have to go buy a fan for my window. Why? Because I bought an air conditioner for hot days like this and ... SEARS CAN KISS MY ASS.

The parts came in for it and he apparently said to go through the menu service to schedule a follow up in case they got here early but, you know what? Their scheduling is always for the week after you want so my choice will probably negate this guy coming out on Monday, delay it another week and put me in hell again.

One more time: SEARS CAN KISS MY ASS.

Thank you, thank you very much.

k9
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HOME

I'm home from vacation and I have a ton of mail to catch up on. I'm also getting ready for work, which I'm heading to in a half an hour. Dear god, I didn't miss it.

I'm tired. I was in bed by 10:30PM last night, which I never do. I was up at 5AM as the tradeoff, but I forced myself to toss and turn and stay in bed until 8AM.

You know, I didn't miss feeding the animals as the first thing I do each morning. Or cleaning the litterbox. Or putting the dogs out. Or putting the dogs in because they're barking and waking up the neighborhood. Or ...

I didn't do much on my vacation. I read, I slept and I took long hot baths to relax. It was everything I don't really get to do here without interruptions or time constraints limiting what I can do. I was SO pissed the one day when the hotel didn't have hot water. I mean how can I relax for an hour ("do not disturb" sign firmly on the door so the #$#@'ing cleaning ladies wouldn't interrupt my relaxation), if there's no hot water? Bastards.

I will give the holiday inn express credit -- much cleaner rooms and bigger bathtubs than red roof inn. I may have a new choice. Though their complimentary soap made me break out. ::Grumble:: Perfumed soap? Dear god. Just give me oil of olay and I'm happy. No fuss, no mess, no sneezing.

I'm SO not ready to get out of this chair yet and face the day. But I have to. And with that ...

k9
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Vacation

I'm in the last day of my time away from home, aka my vacation. It has been an eventful day. The hotel ran out of hot water and set off fire alarms for some strange reason about an hour ago. I, of course, thought it was my computer dying so I shut everything down and once the screaming alarm kept going, I grabbed my pda and ran downstairs ... to fine no one outside the building. No fire trucks, nothing. I walked back into the lobby and asked what was going on and everyone was a bit too casual. I mean come on, fire alarms are a big freaking deal, treat it like it is one.

Considering the future of this site. Strips are going at least until the end of season 30. We're going to hit 500. Once the "new" G4TechTV starts (and Patrick Norton, etc., leave), we'll re-evaluate new strips and new content. I haven't seen the network since the relaunch so I just don't know. Does that mean the site is going away if I decided to discontinue strips? Nope. Nopers. Nope. Nope and nope.

Looking around, we're one of the few sites dedicated to the channel. We'll be adding a hall of fame and a hall of shame down the line (TechTV memories), based on my own personal observations. We may be adding other new content, but it's all something I'll be thinking about on my ride home tomorrow.

One thing I'll be doing when I get home is to send my Creative Nomad Zen xtra in for repairs. One thing that sucks about high end music devices is the fact that the dreaded "my player only plays on one headphones" disease of all walkmen-type devices still apply. Thankfully, Creative will fix it for $20 in most cases when it's out of warranty. Well $20 plus shipping. Anyway, I'm NOT pleased that it's not working while on my vacation, but I am pleased that at least I can get it fixed at a decent price.

I'm also a bit peeved at Sony, speaking of handheld devices, as they've decided to discontinue the Sony Clie line of palm handhelds. I just bought a used Clie NX-80 with the 1.4 megapixel camera and great little keyboards. I know they changed the look and feel of the clies with the newer models, but damn, it was a great product and I'm really down that I won't be able to replace it down the line with another clie.

If you get a chance to buy one, you can't beat the NX-80 though. Decent keyboard, good camera (for a pda anyway), you can buy an attachment to add a joypad to it (which is PERFECT for Kalemsoft's line of video game emulators), great battery life, mp3 player ... add the fact that you can get them on eBay for under $200 and it's quite a deal. You can't go wrong with one.

On that note, I'm off to read then hopefully catch the new Harry Potter movie later on ...

k9
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