Back From Physical Therapy.

My guy is ok, not as amazing as the last one I had, years ago. The workout is much the same, traction went surprisingly well, and getting into position for the TENS / Heat therapy was surprisingly difficult. I left feeling worse than when I entered, but I think it’s a pain of the “good” variety. I’ve got a worksheet of eight different routines to do twice a day… the bridge is the most problematic, but I think that strength will be built up pretty rapidly there.

All in all, it took about an hour and a half… I’ll be repeating the procedure on Thursday and Monday.

I have the xml automation about in place… a few bits of sample data to test for extra weirdness, and I think we’ll be ready to rock and roll.

Newt’s such a mamma’s boy… I leave the apartment for 2 hours, and he’s mister hello when I get back… I suspect part of it is the smells of the outside world, too.

OK, so it might be right up there with cold fusion and other technological flimflams . . . but it might not.

In this Discover magazine article, scientists (and more importantly, businessmen) believe they can turn just about anything — waste from poultry processing plants, manure, plastic bottles, old computers, garbage, you name it — into fuel oil, and do it cheaply. Read the article and decide for yourself.

Update: The article discusses a full-scale plant in Carthage which was to be running by the end of April. A spokesman for the company now says “The Carthage plant will be fully operational later this spring, by end of June we hope.”

kitty quiz

Private investigator came around this morning asking about Tom out front… I was sleeping, but a card left in the doorjamb had a case number and the investigator. They asked about his red Mitsubishi eclipse, and I told them that Tom hasn’t been around since at least march, maybe earlier.

I imagine it’s just a repo job, but I remember that Tom came East from California…and that he supposedly went to Paris.

Diet Barq’s Cream Soda is much better than Diet A&W Cream Soda.

Vampire Clue – “The closest shop to here is Discount Potions, right by Horror and 77th. I do wish those damn magic shops would stay still for a while.”

Physical Therapy tomorrow, Thursday, and Monday at 2pm.

Don’t forget!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

To everyone who has acted as a caregiver and nurtured a living thing. Newt brought me a dead lizard. How did he know?

*Huggo*

Won a cool 60’s style blue and purple tie-dye buggy at the theme party last night… Top door prize. D got an orange butterfly top, and the other prizes were a men’s tie-dye, and I forget what else.

That makes 4 vehicles that I’ve won, (not counting the groovy pirate buggy that I was given).

evil rumor – ribbed for her pleasure

Frankie, the new guy in my bro’s old apartment just came by to borrow the phone…I thought it would be a quick call, but it turned out to be like 7 calls over about 20 minutes.

I found out that he’s renting by the week, and he asks to borrow $20 form me, even though this is the 2nd time I’ve seen him. I’d gauge his age at 40, and he’s another scumbag of the same caliber of mike and mark. Needless to say he’s not getting any money form me. Then he asked for a beer. I told him that I have water, Cheerwine, Pink Lemonade, and diet cream soda… he wasn’t interested.

I’m going to keep my eyes open around here for the next 2 months. I don’t trust this guy.

The world’s precious supply of the beloved snack chip Pringles is threatened as a tornado recently damaged a Pringles factory in Tennessee. The earth’s Torengo supply is also at risk. Read the grisly details of the snack tragedy here. I suggest a moment of silence for the beloved reconstituted potato product. In a related story, I’m glad sholanda and her crew are healthy, if very inconvenienced by the weather.

Saturday, Dan-day, at least briefly. He’s doing me a favor by bringing me some groceries and letting me pay him back via check. It’s greatly appreciated… saves me a good deal of trouble, and he’s pretty busy this weekend.

Poked my nose in there and saw sis racing, so I went in there and promptly lost 3 races. 🙂 Good fun anyhow. A jerkie by the name of whatever was really annoying, but the power to teleport away is a wonderful thing to have.

cracked 1000 users this weekend and is now at 1002. hooray for that landmark…. speaking of landmarks, later this month is my lj’s 3rd anniversary.

vampire hint scroll shop “Scrollmania”, at Kyanite and 84th.

From metafilter:

One of the more interesting Senate races in 2004 is shaping up in Florida, where everyone but the electorate appears to know that Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley is gay. This open secret — which would help explain how a “dream come true” right-wing politician has a strong gay-rights voting record — calls into question whether respecting a person’s right to “stay in the closet” perpetuates the idea that homosexuality is abnormal. (Via Eschaton).

(as told to me via Mike Cohen)

from ldy’s entry

On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission is planning on authorizing sweeping changes to the American news media. The rule changes could allow our local TV stations, newspaper, radio stations, and cable provider to all be owned by one company. NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox could have the same corporate parent. The resulting concentration of ownership could be deeply destructive to our democracy.

When we talk to Congresspeople about this issue, their response is usually the same: “We only hear from media lobbyists on this. It seems like my constituents aren’t very concerned with this issue.” A few thousand emails could permanently change that perception. Please join us in asking Congress and the FCC to fight media deregulation at:

http://www.moveon.org/stopthefcc/

After the FCC and Congress relaxed radio ownership rules, corporate giant Clear Channel Communications swept in and bought hundreds of stations. Clear Channel has used its might to support pro-war political rallies and conservative talk shows, keep anti-war songs off its stations, coerce musicians into playing free promotional concerts, and bully them into performing at its music venues. In many towns that used to have a diverse array of radio options, Clear Channel is now the only thing on the dial.

Monopoly power is a dangerous thing, and Congress is supposed to guard against it. But the upcoming rule change could change the landscape for all media and usher in an era in which a few corporations control your access to news and entertainment. Please tell Congress and the FCC to support a diverse, competitive media landscape by going to:
http://www.moveon.org/stopthefcc/

You can also automatically have your comments publicly filed at the FCC.

Democracy is built on the idea that the views and beliefs of an informed citizenry are the best basis for political decision-making. Without access to fair and balanced news, the system simply doesn’t work. And media corporations can’t be trusted to balance themselves: news corporations have shown again and again that they’re willing to sacrifice journalism to improve the bottom line. That’s why we need many media entities — to keep each other honest, and to provide the information and ideas that make democracy happen.

Please join this critical campaign, and let Congress know you care.

Sincerely,
–Eli Pariser
MoveOn.org
May 8th, 2003

P.S. Here’s a copy of our recent bulletin on this subject. To sign up for the bulletin, just click here:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/

You can read the text of the bulletin here:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin12.html

Thank you for your kind indulgence.

Monopolies restrict our freedom of choice. And monopoly of the media is even more insidious, controlling not only what we can choose, but what we can know.

To sell our reality to the highest bidder instead of encouraging diversification is lunacy.

We each have a responsibility to protect our democracy, and protect our freedoms.

Consider this your call to arms.

Sleeping poorly at night, as the muscle relaxer wears off about 4 hours in, and tension begins shortly after… wake up to an owie, get an icepack, take a pill, and repeat.

I’m very glad that I’m not taking any form of narcotic, despite that. I don’t feel like being hooked on any medication, thanks… I have a strong will, but I prefer not to test it on something that can kill me.

Physical therapy went well – they evaluated my range of motion, and the facility is right next door. I should have a full-blown PT done about Wednesday of Next week I’d like to see if I can get a TENS unit

got gems rather than cash prizes in the scavenger hunt in There… I think the other hunters will be envious of our gain, as I gently persuaded Josie to let us have the actual sailor’s treasure rather than the $T300 prize at a cost of $T49 (or maybe 12 cents) because it cost her 349 to create the item. We’re the toast of There, and I wonder if Whimsy or Chias will be too envious… I suppose if asked nicely, Josie will reproduce the prize offering to them, too.

The search was outstanding. Ldy’s Sense of Direction and D’s innate knowledge of There (plus, she unscrambled the final answer first, with ldy only a hair’s breadth behind) caused us to crawl all over There, each of us in our pirate (or later, genie) garb. I treated myself to a new hoverboard… a sort of Atlantean pod racer, with twin sharks as the pods pulling a giant squid behind. When dressed as a pirate in bunny slippers, it’s quite a surreal sight to behold. There has served as a fairly strong time sink lately…visually stimulating, but more so, the people are quite a delight to be around. Sort of similar to the early days of LiveJournal… just a small core, and everyone seems to at least have heard of everyone else. Maybe three degrees of separation at the most there. Actually it has a lot of the macro-social elements of LJ… cliques are formed, different interest groups… people pestering the more artistically accomplished then themselves… but the punks and the whiners are easily dealt with. Press ignore, and they’ll never IM you. If you see them in a community or chat area, they become stick figures that speak nothing but “Woodstock Speak” of logical ors- like “|||| |||| | ||| ||| ||| |||| |||||” so you don’t have to see them say anything particularly offensive. There is one of those players that I can foresee blocking in the near future… not because he says anything bad, but he’s sort of socially retarded, and is a real IM-pest. I’m also glad that my There-stalker has moved on to greener pastures. I’m enjoying the attention of being a spokesmodel for D (and one shirt for Whimsy)… and am quite flattered that sales have been booming. I know I can’t take credit for the designs, and wouldn’t want to… but being out there and being able to promote for talented folks that really like what they do is a good feeling.

Sort of like my new job. I really enjoy working on my current automation project because the people there are enthusiastic, and realistic about the arrival of it. Telecommuting went very well yesterday, and is even better today, now that I’ve stopped the dang thing from going into hibernation every 10-15 minutes. I think I’ll have a process that’s about 80% automated done by the end of next week. (Maybe more so, if the data is only in a subset of different types, instead of a complete crapshoot each time.)

First Day Of PT – 2pm at 203

Hopefully FedEx will get my copy of PCAny to me quickly today. Holy cow.. PCAny requires 1.5 gig free on XP to run, as opposed to 30 meg free on 2000. Yet again, I am glad I have 2000.

An asteroid discovered in 1993 has been renamed for the late Fred “Mr.” Rogers. Here’s the CNN story.

That’s just fine, as long as 300 years down the road, there isn’t some Headline reading “MISTER ROGERS BREAKS FREE OF GRAVITY, RUSHES TOWARD EARTH, ASSURING ARMAGEDDON”

is at 997 members.
is at 97 members.

I keep hearing good things about X2. I refuse to get my hopes up… that way, if it is good, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I rarely nitpick about things as long as they get a good story out, and keep the powers straight.

vampire hint – Torment and 52nd – immolator 1