So Much Going On

Man, I have not blogged in quite a while. It's not that I have not had anything going on, in fact, it is because I have had so much going on that I have not had time. I will just have to stick to some brief summaries. Who knows, maybe I will flesh it out later. All this stuff is not really in any particular order, so don't try to read anything into it.

So, every year, USAA (the insurance company) has a totally kickin' Christmas party. One of my friends works there and he has been able to take me the past two years. Last year they had the band Chicago play and this year they had Lonestar AND Styx. It was really cool. Here are some pics. 

There were a RETARDED lot of people at the party.  This is at the Alamo Dome.

The Keyboard was cool.  It rotated and stuff.  It also had smoke.

By the way, Styx ROCKED.  They are great performers and put on a much better show than Chicago.

So, while I was at the concert, I started to get some major pain in my lower abdomen and later found out that I have a hernia. That sucks. Now I have to have surgery. Because the U.S. healthcare system sucks, I had to put it off for 2 weeks in order to count the deductable towards 2009 instead of paying it all up for the last weeks of 2008. That is retarded, but it also let me put the money for it in my flex spending account. I doubt people in France have to worry about that.

Sorry, no pictures of that. ;)

Anyway, I later used the tickets that I talked about in another post and went with my wife and 10 friends to a Rampage hockey game in the corporate box. It was TOTALLY sweet. Since I went to the spurs game and the WWE match in the box, it was old hat to me, but it was Kasey's first time and she loved it. Actually everyone that went had a great time.

So, I also got a call from a good friend of mine inviting me to go to a Spurs game. He had FRONT ROW FLOOR SEATS and wanted to take me. That is … AWESOME! Ends up, I did have an obstructed view though. ;)

I did record the game and I was able to see myself on TV like 4 times. Also, it ends up that tickets in row 1 are actually the second row. I was surprised and it kind of sucked because the clearly rich kids were pretty annoying and the dude that sat in front of me was like 6'5" and all up in my way. The lady sitting next to us said that those seats were owned by Red McCombs. Go figure.

I have to say, it is a whole other experience watching a game from there. It was definitely cool, but the price of a two tickets is as much as it costs for two people to go on a 7 day cruise! SNAP! I am glad they were free to me! Also, it is harder to get a feel for the flow of the game without being able to look down on it. I did get to talk to Bruce Bowen though. He said "Man, it is cold in here." And I said "yeah". It was cool. Hahaha. Of course, he and I go way back. We went to the same university you know…. ;)

What kind of sucked was that I spent the first quarter just staring in amazement, the second taking pictures, the third wishing Kasey was there and by the fourth quarter, the Spurs were winning by so much they just had the second string in. Grr… Stupid me.

Let's see…. I had a great Christmas. I cooked the best pie I have made since Thanksgiving. I am sure that there are other things that are great too, but I have work to do and I am sure that Kasey will remind me eventually.

Oh yeah, I have pretty much given up on myspace. I pretty much hate it. They have too many ads all over the place and most of them are in bad taste, so I just stopped using it in favor of Facebook. I have to say, I like Facebook MUCH better. The coolest thing is that I can use the Facebook Blackberry app to update my status and upload pictures from anywhere. That is pretty sweet. Anyway, if you are on Facebook, find me there.

Suite Spurs!

So, my boss just gave me a ticket to tonight's Spurs game in the corporate suite.

AWESOME!

Thanksgiving

So, this year I made Thanksgiving dinner all on my own (ok, Kasey cleaned the dishes.  Thank GOD!).  It was AWESOME.

I have recently found that I like to cook with ingredients.  You know, not crap out of a box, but real food with real stuff.   I find that it is kind of like a chemistry experiment that you get to eat.  Mmmmm….

So, this year, I made:

• Turkey – Rubbed with Tony Chachere’s, injected with Tony’s Creole butter (This was the only premade thing that I used) and stuffed with my own stuffing
  
• Stuffing – Bread crumbs, butter apples onion, spices and cranberries
  
• Pie – Coconut oil based crust (TRY IT!) with granny smith apples
  
• Corn- Frozen HEB organic
  
• Green beans – Organic fresh and hand snapped (by me)
  
• Deviled Eggs – mayo and mustard mixed.
  
• Mashed red potatoes – with garlic and sour cream….
  
• Brown and serve rolls – Not from scratch, but Kasey insisted that I make these…
  
• Cranberry Relish – This came from a recipe on NPR and was AWESOME even if it sounds gross.   It is made of raw cranberries, a whole onion, 3.4 cup sour cream and 2 table spoons of horseradish.   Kasey was a bit timid at first, but now wants it on everything that she eats.  She even wondered what it would be like on the pie.  ;)
  
• Jalapeno stuffed olives for an appetizer.  ;)
  

It all turned out awesome, except that I think that I pushed the needle in a bit too far for a couple of the injections and squirted it right through because the stuffing was really salty…  It was still awesome though.

I did not fry the turkey this year, but I may next year.  I am not sure.  This one from this year was right behind the best fried turkey I have ever made and roasting is a lot cheaper.  The oil this year was $35!  I was like “SNAP!  That is a LOT!” and did not do it.  J

At the B&B

So, I am just really going through a bunch of pictures that I have and I ran across these.

Some time ago, Kasey and I stayed at a B&B near San Marcos with friends from church for our annual leadership retreat.  It was a pretty good time, but we were really busy the whole time.

Anyway, here are some pics of our room.  It was totally gay.

Headlights

So, the headlight covers on my BMW (e46 325i) have been jacked up since I got the car.  They are like all crazed and …  well crazy looking.  They really needed to be polished, so I did that last night.  Here are some pics.  Exciting huh?

Pretty ugly looking!

So, I taped it off so that I would not ruin the paint

Then I sanded them with 1000 grit and then 2000 grit sand paper.

I don't have a pic of this, but the next step was to apply Meguiars PlastiX - a great clear plastic polish.  It like fills in the grooves and rounds off the peaks left by the sanding.  I am a little worried that this will come off as I wash the car and will have to be reapplied every now and then.  Without it they lenses look very foggy when dry and very clear when wet.

The finished product.

Big difference huh?  

If you can't tell, I did this at night and this morning I was able to see that I left some areas almost untouched.  It seems that I was scared of ruining the paint, so I avoided the lower areas quite a bit.  You can see it a bit in this picture. I will probably fix it this weekend, but it is definately something that I will have to do in the day time. 

I am thinking of using an electric vibrating sander too, but I have heard that this can cause too much heat and cause the plastic to warp.  That would suck, but I am still going to try it.  I will just do it in bursts.

I really need to get a drill adapter for the polish too.

Sweet.

Food Bank

I don't really have time to write a lot, but I have a lot of pictures of taking my youth group to volunteer at the San Antonio Food Bank.  It was a great time, being both fun and fulfilling.  We spent three hours there and sorted something like 5 pallets of food donated from HEB.

HEB donates all of their damaged can goods and other non perishable items that would otherwise be thrown away.  By the time it sits in a warehouse and all that, some of it is not eatable anymore and some of it may not have been in the first place.  Our job was to sort out what was keep and what was trash.

After working here, most of the kids had an idea that there are many people right here in town who only have this to eat, the stuff that other people would consider trash.

Don’t get me wrong, I would have eaten the food.

When we got there, they treated us all to some “home made” pizza and soda.  It was delicious and EVERY single kid commented on how good it was.  However, I think the kids did not put one and one together and did not easily realize where the pizza came from.   I do not know for sure, but I would assume that the ingredients came from the food bank itself.

More Christmas Stuff

Here are a couple more things that I thought of that would be great gifts for Christmas

• AeroPress coffee maker (Amazon)
  
• Shoe Shine Kit (Amazon)
  
• Armani Gio Cologne (Amazon)
  
• Flexible cutting boards (Amazon) (they have these at Walmart too)
  
• Electric knife sharpener (Amazon) (not picky at all, as long as it WORKS!)
  
• METAL, NON GAY Retractable Badge holder (Here are some examples, but as long as it is not gay, I am cool)
  
• Wireless PC game controller (Amazon) OR (as in instead) a PS3 wireless controller (can still be used with a PC. I know how. I am a nerd. If you know I am getting a PS3, then this is the obvious choice….)
  
• Opera tickets - Rigoletto  (Austin Lyric Opera Saturday, 1/31/09 7:30PM CST)

I am sure that there are more, but this is what I thought of over the last couple of days….

Wasting Time

Here is a great way to waste your entire day.

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

It is a game where you have to get a block to a goal by making a contraption. It is pretty slick. My dad sent it to me. He found it on the Mensa website posted by some 8 year old.

Christmas List 2008

People are always asking me what I want for Christmas, so here is the list of things that would be cool to see under the tree. Keep in mind that some of the items are for my car, and it is possible that I will be getting a new car (probably like a 2006 BMW 530i… Sweet!) in March or so. Of course the things that I want for the car will make it easier to sell… This is by far not a complete list and I will try to update it. When in doubt, ask Kasey. J

 

Ray Ban RB 3183 "SideStreet" Sunglasses – Gunmetal frames and Polarized lenses. (Amazon)

New floor mats for my car (real BMW part, NOT some Autozone junk.) (Amazon)

The book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Amazon)

The book How to Win Friends and Influence People (Amazon)

The book When You are Engulfed in Flames (Amazon)

Sweet Ties

San Antonio Rampage Flex Pack (sarampage.com)

Asus EEE PC (newegg.com)

Royal Caribbean Gift Certificates (Royal Caribbean)

Seidio Rubberized Holster for BlackBerry Curve (CrackBerry.com)

The ridonckulously sweet keyboard (newegg.com)

PS3 (Amazon) and Final Fantasy XIII (Amazon)

Wallet – (double billfold!) (coach.com or coach.com) (I am really picky about this)

New Docs – 14 hole, smooth black size 10 U.S. (9 U.K.) (amazon.com)

iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver (THIS 560 model, or the 562 pet hair model) (amazon.com)

Starbucks Gift Cards! (Starbucks)

Some sweet new swim trunks (Please make sure that Kasey approves)

New arm rest cover for my car (eBay)

A trip to France (Either Paris, Lyon or Cannes. I am not too picky)

Headphones for work (these or these)

Louisiana Hot Sauce sample pack (Saw it at Big Lots for like $6)

4gb Memory Stick Pro Duo (these are for a PSP) (Newegg.com, but can be found at office max, office depot, best buy or circuit city)

ThinkGeek.com gift certificates (thinkgeek.com)

Elf

This is funny. An elf dance starring some of the kids from my youth group. huh huh huh...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Gah! YouTube

ok, so with the ongoing of Scott's Ghetto Best of YouTube 2008 going on, I have seen a LOT of funny ones.  While there have been many that made me smile, this one had me laughing so hard that people came over to my cube to see what was so funny...  Still not sure that it belongs in the Scott's Ghetto Best of YouTube 2008 though.  To really get in there it has to be a video that sticks with you througout the year.  Know what I mean?  I mean, I can just say "BLHUD!" and you'd be all like "Ha ha ha!" at least in your head.  If not, you would at least know what I was talking about.....

Anyway, here is the video I was talking about.

YouTube

So, this is Scott's ghetto best of youtube 2008.  Here are a couple of obvious ones.  Any others that you guys think should be added?

Blood!

Kick his...

Charlie

He was Injured

Scary Maze

ok, so those are the ones that I thought of within like 10 seconds.  So what YouTube videos have affected your life this year?

I got the box!

Due to my awesomeness, I currently hold the tickets to the entire corporate terrace luxury box for my company at the AT&T center to see the Rampage play the Chicago Wolves on Friday, December 19 2008.

Ten lucky people in addition to me and my wife will be rockin' it in luxury all evening. In addition, I also have three VIP parking passes.

I will now begin accepting bribes.

Seriously, I will consider all offers. If you want to go, just email me.

My Adventures in Self Surgery - Wrap-up

Before I begin, I must have a couple of warnings.

WARNING #1: THIS IS GROSS AND GRAPHIC. IT CONTAINS TEXT AND IMAGES SUITABLE FOR ADULTS ONLY. (Maybe PG-13, but just to keep it safe…)

WARNING #2: DO NOT TRY THIS ON YOUR OWN! IT IS DANGEROUS AND YOU COULD HURT YOURSELF OR WORSE (like die? Maybe, I don't know but don't say I did not warn you!)

So, I have not posted much about my adventure in self surgery for a while. For those of you that are just joining us, here is a summary. (Feel free to browse old posts for the full story). Basically, I have a mole on my shoulder. A doctor had suggested that I tie a string around it to cut off the circulation and then it would fall off. I did this, but after some initial swelling and 2 additional strings, nothing happened. Bad thing was, that I now had 2 strings stuck around the mole on my shoulder. That is the basic premise of what is going on.

So, now the new news. Saturday night, I was sitting around watching gossip girl and I thought that I would try to clip off the strings with a pair of cuticle scissors. As fate would have it, they did not work. I tried, but it seems that they were just too dull or that they were loose and would not get the string no matter how much I tried. I thought to myself "Well, how about a razor? I think that I have some for my folding razor knife in the kitchen…" (similar to a box cutter).

Sure enough, after checking, I DID have some blades. I went back to my recliner and tried to fandangle myself into position to slice the strings without slitting my throat. As it ends up, that is not an easy thing to do. "Well, I am here, I might as well go there" I thought to myself, and then I proceeded to slice at the base of the mole. Now, normally, this would be a quick, one stroke slice and then BAM, mole off. Because of the contortions I had to make in order to gain access to my mole, I had to use more of a slow sawing motion. It was pretty simple, but the blood did come. Luckily, I did have the foresight to grab a paper towel. The blood was more than I expected, but by far not too much. It was probably more of a pain in the butt than anything since it was slippery, and it was warm, which just served as a reality check that I was really cutting myself!

After the first initial cuts, Kasey, who had been sitting next to me in her own chair, but was completely oblivious to what I was doing, got up and went to the kitchen for a drink. She then noticed that I was bleeding and asked what I was doing, though I am sure that she knew full well what was going on. I told her that I was cutting it off and she offered to take pictures.

This gives a good idea as to what was really happening and how I had to contort. I did not have a mirror either.

This one is a close up that shows the mole and a little blood.

After taking the pictures, I explained that it would be so much more helpful if she could just cut it for me since she can get to it more easily. She quickly refused but stood there and watched. After about 2 or 3 more minutes of trying, I decided that it would be better to do this in the bathroom with a mirror. I also started to wish that I had rubbed the area with alcohol first. L

Kasey insisted that I take more paper towels with me. I tried to explain that I had plenty of white space on the one that I had and that it would not be necessary. She would have none of it though, and I walked to the bathroom with not one, but two paper towels in hand. Kasey, however, did not join me for the final moments.

So, in the bathroom, I could see the mole, but as soon as I started to cut, my hands were in the way, so I was still pretty much doing it blind. The good thing though, was that after just a couple of slices, it fell right off. SUCCESS!

The mole in my fingers

The mole in my hand

The mole on the paper towel

The spot on my shoulder where the mole was.

So, now I had cut about a pea sized piece of flesh from my body. Pressure to the spot for about 5 minutes stopped the bleeding and a band-aid over the spot seemed like a good idea.

I started to wonder though "What do I do with it now? I mean, this is a part of ME. Should I just throw it away? Should I burry it in the yard, maybe have a little funeral? Maybe I should eat it…"

Ok, stop right there.

Now, I know that this sounds pretty bad, but I will sometimes eat the skin next to my fingernails. Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about "Oooooh, some flesh to eat!". No no, it is more like I am biting my nails and there is a bit of skin hanging off, so I will bite it off. Sometimes, I don't get a chance to spit it out. Eeew, gross, I know but it's not like I am a cannibal or something. (or is it?).

In the end, I decided on none of those. Instead, I decided to cut it open to see what it looked like inside. I placed it on the napkin and sliced it open, which was NOT easy. It did not want to cut, but I did get it. I have to say that I was disappointed. It just looked the same all the way through. Just like plain old skin. BORING!

After that, I threw it in the trash along with the bloody napkin and the razor.

Over all, I will call it a success. After doing it, I wish that I would have done it a long time ago. Truthfully I was more worried about it bleeding for days and ruining my shirt than it hurting. In the end, it did not hurt that much. In fact, getting a tattoo was much more painful. (Don't get a tattoo).

 

Best Hockey Game Ever

Last Friday I went with some friends (Dale and Nichol) to watch the Rampage. Now, I go all of the time, but this night turned out to be what is likely the best game ever. The Rampage were playing the Iowa Chops (formerly the Iowa Stars?) and I have to say that it was awesome!  the only bummer was that Kasey decided not go go with us.  :(

When we got there, we checked with the helper people (not really sure what they are called) about playing an intermission game. They said that the only game that they had a slot open for is Dance for your Dinner. The prize was a $50 gift certificate to Boston's Pizza. Dale was chicken, but I signed up right away. I thought about it, but it end up that I have no shame. They told me that they would come and get me right before the first intermission.

After this, we headed to our seats, which were AWESOME. Second row, near the goal.

After the game started, ten seconds in, the fighting began. When it starts this early, you can tell that the teams have a beef with each other and that they will be playing hard core. The Rampage scored 1 goal the first period and then I was off to Do a Little Dance, Make a Little… Well dance…

Check it.

The guy I was dancing against, Les, was not really into it and only did it because his wife made him. You can see him in the back of the video in a white t-shirt like mine and a Kangol. When it was over, the announcer asked the crowd to cheer if they thought that Les was the best. There was a lame smattering of applause. Next the announcer asked if they thought mine was the best and the crowd went NUTS! I have to say, it is REALLY cool to be standing in front of several thousand people and have them all cheer for you. What a rush!

I won the gift certificate, but was told that it would be mailed to me in like 2 weeks. I did get to keep the rampage shirt though. Sweet!

After more fights and four more goals by the Rampage, we were told that we would all be getting free fries from Chick-Fil-A. Apparently they have a deal that if the Rampage score more than four goals in a game, everyone gets fries. I was pretty hungry, but found that we really just got a coupon to go get them later.

Anyway, it was awesome and here are some more pics.

Stevenson rocks.  He is Kasey's favorite.

Melrose Place

It seems that the CW network is talking about a new incarnation of Melrose Place! I read about this yesterday and I am pretty stoked. I loved Melrose back in the day and if this goes through, my domains melroseplace.tv and melroseplace.org may become lucrative. Of course I really need to get some content and start driving some traffic there. Sweet!

Party like a Rock Star

So, the other day, I tried a Rockstar energy drink for the first time. MAN those get me all kinds of hyper and they taste good too. Now, I just had the regular one, but I am interested in trying the juice ones. I have a pomegranate one, but I think one a day is my limit. After drinking it, I feel like I have enough caffeine for a week!

I looked online and compared the caffeine content to other drinks and one 16 ounce can is equivalent to 4 red bull cans (the small ones), 4.7 cokes, or about two cups of STRONG coffee. On top of that it has Ginko, and Guarana included that give you more energy.

It seems to also do a good job of curbing my hunger.

Pretty cool. J

New Phone

Today I got a new phone, a Blackberry Curve. My Blackberry 8700 served me well, but the Curve is much cooler and above all has a camera. Now I can show you guys the cool stuff I see every day! (I know that you are waiting with bated breath). It has GPS too. The only thing that this is missing is WiFi, but I have not figured out what it would be good for other than browsing the web faster.

I am super stoked. I may even pee myself.

As a treat to you guys, here is a pic of my cube at work. (Fun eh?)

I have been looking forward to New Phone Day for a long time.  (New Phone Day is the day that your contract is up and you can get another phone from your provider at a discount)

Nothing Going On

So I seem to be at a point in life where it feels like I have nothing interesting going on. Everything is pretty much regular. This is surely just how it seems for the now. I know that if I sat here and thought about it that I could come up with something interesting.

I know that I should just chill though. I need to just sit back and relax and enjoy this time. I mean, every single event in my life has built up to this one moment, right? It's because of it all, that I can sit here and tap these words on the keyboard, and I am thankful. I have my family, health, friends… That's great, but I do wish that I had some adventure in my life. Not drama mind you, that is completely different. It would be awesome though to spend some time in Mexico or even just to go camping for a while.

Having "nothing going on" does not mean that I have nothing to do however. I am super busy! Just nothing interesting, I guess.

Whatever.

Self Surgery Update

Man, this is not working.

Now I have a big mole with three strings tied around it. It had swollen up and got all nasty like it was going to work, but now it is pretty much normal. Of course, now I have the problem of three strings that I cannot get off.

I am totally going to have to just cut that bad boy off with a razor. I will not be able to do it, and I have to say that I am a little worried that whoever is going to do it will either not cut fast or smoothly enough and it will hurt a lot OR that they will not cut close enough to the skin and I will end up with a little mole lump left over. Gross.

People keep telling me to go to the doctor, but NO. This has become a mission now. What do you people think? Add another string? Cut it off? Go to the doctor? Anything I have not thought of?

Bee Girl

So, I was watching the Blind Mellon "No Rain" video the other day and I was wonder to myself "Hey, that bee girl reminds me of someone I know… I wonder what ever happened to the bee girl in real life…"

Ok, I know that she was just an actor, but whatever. I have a thought in my head and Google at my fingertips. Let's find out.

Ends up that her name is Heather DeLoach and she has an entry in Wikipedia and all that stuff. The Wikipedia entry also had a link to her myspace. Anyway, to make a long story short, now she is my friend on myspace.

Yeah, I know. I am cool. You are jealous. Wipe that envy green off your face.

;)

Paddle-less in a creek

The past several months I have been watching the financial industry and learning as much as I can about the whole economic crisis that we are in. I have been reading and listening and learning. After all of that I have learned one thing that is for sure: We are in trouble. Way up the creek and no paddles in sight. The ropes that the government is throwing at the problem have weights tied to one end and a shaky stick in the ground tied to the other. We are in serious trouble.

On the news the analysts and other people are saying that this is going to be a big recession, but not a depression. Honestly, I think that they do not want to admit that a depression is coming because they are too scared of what that will really mean.

This is the stuff that wars are made of. World Wars.

I am not saying that I have an answer to this, because I honestly think that there is not one. The only answer is to not have gotten into this situation in the first place.

Gordon Gekko said "Greed is Good" (Wall Street – 1987). Greed spurs development and innovation. It is the desires that we have that drive us and make the world what it is. The problem comes when we fool ourselves into believing that something that is clearly bad is a good thing because we made a few bucks or got a new house. It's all one of those too good to be true things.

If that is the way you think it should be, have I got a Ponzi scheme for you!

As I watch the DOW drop below 9000 yesterday and probably below 8000 today and into 7000 next week it gives me this feeling that I have not had for a while.

Not for some years.

This is the same feeling that I had as I watched the towers fall on 9/11, but in slow motion. Instead of hours, this is taking months and we are still in the middle of it.

This makes me want even more to just get in a boat and go.

Television

Last night I was outside turning on the water for my sprinkler. It was a beautiful night and I thought to myself "Man, I really need to spend more time outside". This got me thinking about the plight of the American (or as George W. would say "the 'Marican"). It used to be that we knew our neighbors, but now, we have a National Night Out, where we need to make a point to get to know our neighbors. (National Night out in Texas is tomorrow folks, so take some time to stand out in your front yard and wonder why you are the only person in sight.)

Anyway, it was a beautiful night and I had paused Smallville (on DVD) so that I could mess with the sprinkler. I started thinking of how I wanted to do more outside, but how I also enjoy watching TV. I thought of how people on TV always have time to do things that are interesting in one way or another (and they always have tons of money to do it with) and I realized: People on TV never watch TV.

Americans spend their evenings sitting around living vicariously through the box that their furniture is pointed at. They hardly go outside and have nothing to talk about other than what was on TV.

In just a few moments I can think of a bazillion things that I can do other than watch TV. I could read, I could play a game with friends, I could kill ninjas on the Playstation, I could go camping, I could go hiking, I could talk to some friends, I could … You get the idea.

Why do I always feel so busy and feel like I have not accomplished anything?

I hate the TV, but I love stories.

I guess it is like anything though, you need to take it in moderation.

Watching shows on DVD is a real killer though, since the next episode is right there, just waiting for you… Grr…

I want to live more life than watch it happen to other, fictional, people. We only get one life and it has an expiration date that we don't know…

Illegal Immigration Today

So, the Wall Street Journal had an article today about how the slowing U.S. economy is causing a new wave of immigration OUT of the U.S. of illegal aliens.

I had not really thought about this, but it seems obvious. A lot of the workers do manual labor and as home construction slows and budgets tighten, there will simply be less work.

It seems to me that we can now save billions of bucks on the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

That's great! More money for healthcare. Less money for the KGB, uh, I mean DHS… ;) (Department of Homeland Security)

The New Evil in My Life

So, this week I have discovered the SoBe Elixer: Yumberry Pomegranate. It is super good. I say that it is evil because it is $1.65 at work and I feel as if I need one every day. They recently started giving us free coffee here, so I have been using my coffee change that I have at my desk to buy them, but I am almost out of change. I only have about enough for one more and after that I will have to use real money.

I don't even know what a Yumberry is, but it has such a hold on my life that I cannot imagine living without it. I have not had this feeling in my life since I got my Blackberry, or my iPod or my TiVo before that. There are just things in life that you cannot get by without, yet you did fine before it was in your life. (I call those times the "Dark Ages")

I mean, what did people do before microwave ovens? It's just one of those things that after it becomes yours, you know that it has a permanent place in your life.

The sad part is that the Yumberry Pomegranate comes into your life for only a short time. Once you drink it all, you have only a memory of the Yumberry goodness in your heart. While it is uplifting for the day, tomorrow it is gone and you have to have another one.

It is not fair. It is evil. I love it so.

Self Surgery Update

I'll tell you what; this thing will just not go away!

Ok, so I do not have a lot of time, but here is a quick update, I have now tied a total of three strings around the mole, but it is still there. Each time there was a string put on it, it would swell to about the size of a pea and be very turgid (word of the day, look it up). Now though it seems to have shrunk to about half the size and is more flaccid (word of the day for tomorrow, look it up), but it is still holding strong.

I can pinch it and everything, and it has no feeling what so ever, so I am thinking more and more of just taking a razor to it.

I am sure that if I just put another string on it and wait, it will fall off, but I am getting impatent.

From John McCain

I will offer no opinion on this.

Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 777.68 after news that the House of Representatives did not pass the $700 billion bailout plan. In reaction from this,  John McCain's people had this to say:

"This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country," said a statement from Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain's top economic adviser, who had represented McCain on Capitol Hill over the several days.

In the final vote tally it was 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats voting to not pass the bill.

J

While I have no comment, I will ask one question though: Who would John McCain appoint to the treasury if he wins? (hint, read the quote again)

Carmen

I only have a minute, so this will have to be fast. I am pretty stoked because I got a great deal on opera tickets for this Saturday. Kasey and I are going to see Carmen at the Lila Cockerel Theater. It is going to be sweet. I will be sure to post a review of it and whatever other random thoughts I have. In the mean time If you are interested, you can check out the opera that I am going to here:

http://www.saopera.com/home.html

Here is a sweet commercial for it. This is for a different opera company, but… What can you do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd0FNpiBDyA

and listen to it here:

http://opera.stanford.edu/op4all/download.html

or read a complete synopsis here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen

Public Health Care

Let me start by saying that I am for public health care. Seemingly contradictory to this, I am also for a free market. This is not a contradiction however, I just believe that there are some things that people should have available to them as citizens, even above a minimum level.

Think of public schools. Over all, I believe that teachers should get paid more and that there are a ton of other improvements that should happen in our school systems, but this is not about schools. Regardless, every kid in the US is provided an education through high school. This is just a given and I believe that health care should be this way too. If you want additional or private health care above the minimum, I believe that you should be able to buy it if you have the means.

Right now, one of the biggest insurance companies, AIG, is failing because of bad investments. In a free market they should fail and disappear. This is the consequence for their mistakes. Instead, the U.S. government is going to float them billions of dollars so that they can stick around. Now, they will have the opportunity, using public money, to charge Americans for health care and make a profit. They will have to make a larger profit also in order to pay back the government.

To me, this seems as if the government is going to back track on having a true free market with loose regulations in order to keep the mystique of capitalism. This is 85 billion dollars that could be spent towards public health care. That 85 billion dollars comes from our pockets as tax payers. So, basically, instead of pushing for public health care, we as a nation are going to pay a company to pay their big shot executives a ton of money to charge us to go to the doctor.

In most states, you can visit your general practitioner for less than $85 if you pay cash.

That means that a billion doctor's visits could be paid for with this money.

That means that every American citizen could go to the doctor 3 times for free. No co-pay.

Or, that could mean that 850,000 doctor's student loans could be paid for. (There are only 301,270 doctors in the U.S. ) That means that they would have less of a personal financial burden and could charge less.

That could pay for malpractice insurance and thus lower the cost of healthcare to Americans.

Would it have to raise taxes to do these things? Well, the money is already coming from our taxes! (Well, our debt actually, but whatever. That is another story)

The bad thing here is that we as tax payers are taking on the risk for a company that has already shown that they cannot do a good job and we are going to let them screw us with higher premiums and worse service in order to make enough money to "pay us back".

That is stupid.

Yes, AIG does other things too and I understand that. I just do not understand why we are playing this farce of capitalism. If they fail, others will fill in the gap. Let them fail and use this money wisely.

Of course if you really want to see something that will make you sick, check it out. All of the heavy hitters got a lot of money from AIG already. If they go out of business, there will be less in their war chests for the next election.

 

Whatever.

Self Surgery Update

This is just a quick update for the world on myself surgery experiment. There have not been any exciting developments to report. It gets a little gooey and a little crusty sometimes. I have been keeping it clean and putting Neosporin on it to try to avoid any infection, but overall it has been kind of disappointing and slow. I did add another string though. It's a bit tighter, but it has not changed anything.

I know that this works. It works on bulls and it worked on Riggins (my mom's dog). He had a skin tag that was pretty big. I had my mom put a string on it and it fell off. I need to ask her how long that took I guess. I think that I am coming up on like 2 weeks and I am over all unimpressed.

Anyway, I will try to get a picture of it to post up here, but I am pretty lazy and have better things to do sometimes.

The Gym

So, a couple of weeks ago, Kasey and I joined a gym, Spectrum Athletic Clubs to be exact.

As I get older I see the world change around me. One of the changes that I see is my parents getting older. As they get older they are having more and more health problems. While some are hereditary, a majority of the problems that they are having are due to problems with their diet and a lack of exercise. It comes down to the basic logic of if you do not have a healthy lifestyle, then you will not have a healthy body. I do not want to start falling apart when I turn 50, so I have to do something about it now.

Kasey and I have both been aware of this need for some time. We have incorporated many changes into out eating habits that have good benefits. Simply put those are, more whole food, less box crap. More organic chicken, less beef (still organic though). Hardly any bacon at all (As a side note, I LOVE bacon. I used to cook up a pound of bacon almost every weekend and eat about 75% of it.). We have cut out hydrogenated oils as much as we can (no margarine or Crisco). I still really need to cut back on the amount of salt that I eat though. (I love salt. I like so much salt that like when you are at the theater eating popcorn, your lips get all puckered from the salt.)

Anyway, we both have pretty sedentary lifestyles. I have a desk job and Kasey has a recliner job. ;) We knew that we had to be more active in order to be more healthy, and besides, it makes you look better, which is great!

So we joined Spectrum.

Let me just say, this place is NICE. It is also EXPENSIVE. There is no way that I would have joined except that I get a discount through my job that makes it cheaper for Kasey and I than just going to Gold's Gym. I will post later about how nice it is and the things that I like, but check out their website to get a feel for it.

So, Kasey loves it for the classes. She has been several times and gone to a Pilate's class every time. She says that the best thing is the teacher. He looks like a short Mr. Clean, covered in tattoo's, and wears little stretchy shorts that no guy should wear, does not seem to be gay, pushes the class pretty hard, but most important to Kasey, he makes her feel good about herself while she is in the class. That is pretty important to a woman, and I am glad that she likes going.

I have just been doing weight training and hitting the treadmill some. I have pretty much been at least a little sore every day since I joined, so I am sure that something is going on in my body, but I have yet to see results after only a couple of weeks. I expect to see major changes though by November and that is going to be sweet. J

When you join, you get one session with a personal trainer for free. This includes an assessment and a work out plan based on your assessment. He told me that I am doing ok, but that my pulse is high and that I need to do a quick circuit style workout to get my heart rate up and keep it there. We then began the workout and it was pretty tough. Actually, I got sick. I started feeling light headed and told him that I needed to rest, then realized that I was going to hurl, so I ran to a trash can around the corner and puked up the peanut butter and Kashi crackers that I had eaten an hour earlier. (It still tasted like peanut butter!)

Since then I have done that same full body workout every other day but slowed down as I started to feel myself get light headed.

I have to say, I like the gym over all. I even like the soreness. It is a constant reminder of what the goal is and helps me to make better eating decisions.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that.

My Adventures in Self Surgery

I have a mole on my shoulder that is pretty big. I have talked to a couple of doctors about having it and a couple of others removed, but they always want a separate appointment, or to send me to a specialist. I am not really interested in either one of those options though.

The Last time I went to the doctor and mentioned it, he said "Just tie a string around it and it will fall off."

Huh. I had never thought of that. They do that to remove parts of bulls all of the time. When I was a kid, my parents would tell me not to tie a string on my finger or it would fall off. Simply cut off the blood flow for a long time, that part will die and fall off. What could it hurt to try?

Now, you have to understand, this mole is pretty big, but it doesn't have any feeling. I can pinch it or whatever all day long and it is no big deal. This fact helped to build my confidence in the whole process, because like most normal people, I am not that into pain or anything.

So, I thought about this a lot over the next couple of months and even tried it once. I simply made a knot in some dental floss and tied it around the mole. This did not work out too well, however, since I was doing it myself and the mole is on my right shoulder. It ends up that it is really hard to tie a knot in a weird contorted way like that. This attempt ended up with the loop of the knot tied around the middle of the mole. Now mind you, this probably would have worked, but would have only gotten half of it. If I would have stuck with this I am sure that I would have ended up with a jacked up half mole on my shoulder that is pretty ugly, so I cut the string off. Now, that is no easy task mind you. I had not really thought about it this far. How was I going to get this string off?

Well, I immediately thought of a razor, but I could barely tie it, so why would I be able to cut it without slitting my throat? I then thought that cuticle scissors would be the way to go, so I got my hands on some and tried to get at the mole. It ends up that my arms don't bend the right way to do perform that maneuver. I had to wait for Kasey to get home to cut it off for me.

When she got home, I explained the situation and she looked at me like I was simply crazy. Mind you, she was in the doctor's office when he recommended this procedure. After seeing what was going on, she reluctantly cut it off.

Some time passed and I thought about the situation and decided that this had to be a two person operation. In order to get the string in the right position, I was going to have to have another person do it. Kasey had said that she would not. It was gross. This dude Bryce said that he would do it, but I usually only see him at church and did not think that would be the best place to do self surgery. After thinking some more, I had to go back to a faithful way of getting things done. Screw it up and ask for help. J

So, this past Saturday, I was sitting in my recliner and started to tie the floss around it on my own. Kasey naturally wanted to know what in the world I was doing. I explained that I was getting rid of the mole and that I was having some trouble. I asked her to help, and seeing my situation, she rolled her eyes and helped get the knot in position. Sweet. I was on my way to having one less mole.

Monday, we had a Labor Day picnic to go to, and the mole was a little sore. Well, not the mole itself, it has not feeling, but I could feel every little tug in the skin around it, below the string. Other than that, it did not look different. It was a little paler maybe. I am not really sure. There was slight color change, but no big deal.

Tuesday, it did not bother me at all.

Wednesday, it started to get bigger and rounder. It kind of looked like a pea, except pink. It did not really bother me at all though. By the evening, it was a bit sore around the edges though. It had definitely changed color though.

Thursday morning (today), I woke up to find that it was pretty tender, swollen and light red. Not pink, darker than that.

I am really not sure how long this is going to take, but I wish that it would hurry up. I am thinking that it will be like two weeks or so before it happens. IT being the thing falls off. I have no idea how it will happen though. The only thing that I have to compare it to is having a wart frozen off. It just got nasty and then I picked it off like a scab after a couple of days. I wonder if it will be like that, or if I will just wake up to a little mole in the bed with me. Eeew.

I'll tell you what though, something needs to happen, because with the way it has swollen, the string will be really hard to get to and I am not sure that I could cut just the string off the way it is now. I guess worst case, I will have to get someone to slice it off with a razor blade. Any volunteers?

You Gotta Have Protection

Ok, so I am a computer nerd and I get asked for help with different problems all of the time from everyone. Even random people on the street stop me to ask "Will you fix my computer?". I have learned over the years to completely avoid places like Best Buy or anywhere that computer parts are sold. For some reason, people think that I work there and start to ask me questions and if I have one, the people that work there cannot help me. That is why I shop for parts online.

Anyway, here are some simple facts that people do not seem to understand and that cause a majority of problems on their computer.

1. The antivirus software that you got with your computer sucks and is not protecting you.
   
2. The antivirus software that you got with your computer is a demo (usually)
   
3. The antivirus software that you got with your computer will waste your time because it does not work because it is a demo, is expired and will not update because you will not pay the $60 a year to keep it up to date.
   
4. An unprotected computer will become compromised (read that as infected with a virus or Trojan) within 15 minutes of being plugged into a cable modem. (No, you do not have to do anything, just plug it in. Yes I am serious.)
   
5. Using Limewire will likely get you a nice trojan or virus on your computer.
   
6. Getting useful toolbars for internet explorer is NOT a good idea. (maybe just stick with Google's) It will make your computer SLOW.
   
7. Forwarding chain letters is NOT a good thing to do.
   
8. Downloaded little programs (like zwinkie) are NOT just cute little things. They are spying on you.
   
9. If you are on myspace and a "friend" sends you a link, then you find out that you have to log in again DO NOT DO IT. You are no longer on myspace and they are stealing your account. (not as much of a problem anymore. Myspace fixed some things.)
   
10. The updates from Microsoft and Apple FIX PROBLEMS and help to prevent invasions to your computer. UPDATE YOUR COMPUTER regularly. Yes, it takes some time, but not having a computer takes more.
    
11. All you have to do is click a banner and your computer can become infected. I have fixed many computers that have had porn spyware that would just pop up porno ads in the middle of minding your own business. The (not so) funny thing is that one of them was on our church computer that we use every service for playing music and showing the words on a screen. SOMEONE went somewhere they were not supposed to at some time and porn ads started popping up during a service. Some of the ads had SOUND and would play through the church sound system. ("oh baby, click me!") How's that for holy, holy, holy? Now the thing is, that does NOT mean that someone was looking at porn on the church computer. It just means that they probably clicked an infected ad. They may not even look like porn ads.
    

There are a lot more things that affect your computer, but computers rarely just start being slow, just because. 99% of the time, it is because of a Trojan, spyware or something like that. This is a list of things that you HAVE to do. If you ask me for help and you have not done these things, I will just tell you to do these things and hang up on you. ;) (Probably not, but do them any way to make our lives easier, mmm kay?)

1. Be prepared to loose everything! – go get a one or two gig usb drive and keep important files on it. Pretty much any documents that you would need if your computer was stolen. Burn pictures to a CD. Make 2 copies. Keep your CD's in a jewel case or sleeve and put the important ones in a cd box. Now since we rarely have paper pictures, I recommend that everyone have a cd box of just pictures. If you BUY a downloaded a program from the internet, save it to the USB drive. If you BUY music online, record it to a CD. If it is a free download DO NOT save it (it is basically saved on the internet for you and you can get the new version later if you need it). You HAVE to do this because it is a possibility that I will tell you that it would just be easier to start from scratch and reinstall Windows. A 2 gig USB drive can be found on eBay for like $10. That is more than enough for most people. Hey, also, you should know where your windows install CD's are. If you do not have them now, get them. You may have to contact the computer manufacturer to get them since some guys are now not sending CD's and force you to make your own. That is SO ghetto. (Thanks HP, you suck!). they may want to charge you for these. Do not pay more than like $15 or you are getting ripped off. Of course you may have no other choice.
   
2. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and get the latest updates for your computer. When it is done, DO IT AGAIN. Then DO IT AGAIN until there are no more updates to get. If you have a Mac, click the apple in the top left of your screen and click "check for updates" then DO IT AGAIN until there are no more to get.
   
3. If you have antivirus software that came with your computer (not something that you bought), uninstall it. Go to "Add or Remove Programs" from the Control Panel and uninstall it from there.
   
4. If you have a PC, go to http://free.avg.com/ww.download?prd=afe and download AVG Free antivirus. This is FREE and works great. Now you do not have to worry about subscription fees and all that junk. Install it and run it. You will probably see a bunch of stuff.
   
5. If you have a PC go to http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2008/3000-8022_4-10045910.html and download Ad Aware. This will find and remove spyware. Install and run this program. The free version will not run automatically, so you will have to remember to run this every month or so. (You will not need it as much after following the next step)
   
6. This is the most important step. I would really recommend that you take a minute and at least try to read this http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm if you just trust me and have no idea what they are talking about, jut get this http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip and install it. It is a zip file, so you will need to copy the files to another place in your computer and then run the mvps.bat file. This ONE THING will help you more than most of the stuff above. What this does is if a website is trying to load ads, or if your computer has a Trojan that is trying to do stuff, it just blocks it. Really it just routs it to a different place, namely your own computer. You may notice that some sites look different after installing this, but you will get over it. All you are missing is the ads. Do This. Of all of the things, do this one. Call me and I will help you do it if you need the help. If you have Vista, please read the main site (the first link in this number) because I do not use Vista (it sucks) and I may not be able to help you. If you ask me about it, I will not be much help and will likely be irritated.
   

Anyway, I hope that this helps. Next time you call, it will be $70 an hour (and that is a good deal. Geek squad charges $120!). ;)

Waiting

I know that one day I heard a statistic of how long the average person spends a year just waiting. Waiting in line, waiting for ... Whatever. It was a lot, but I don't know how much.

I wonder though if there is some statistic that takes location into account. I have noticed that if I go to an HEB on a nice side of town, I wait in line less time than if I visit one in a lower income side of town.

If I go to a McDonald's on one side of town, the punk kid will take my order quickly and give me my food without a problem. On the other side, they will take it after they happen to notice me in the middle of their conversation with their friend, mess up my order and take another 10 minutes to get it to me. All that time, I sit there and I wait. I get older. My blood pressure rises and my day gets worse.

I wonder what it would take to measure waiting time by location. It sounds like a great sociology grad students project.

I wonder what the effects of a project like this would be. Higher housing values?



In the mean time, I will just have to wait and see if it ever happens.

Email “News”

Ok people, I just want to take a minute to get on my high horse and let you in on a secret or two. All the "news" you get in an email or from a myspace bulletin is not always true. It is usually not. Check out this website:

www.snopes.com

Search for your email information and it will tell you if it is true or not.

A lot of the stuff about Obama is not true. He is not a Muslim, he did not diss the troops in Afghanistan and all that stuff.

You will NOT get a gift certificate for forwarding an email to your friends.

Bill Gates is not tracking your email and will not give you money for participating in anything

Kurt Cobain WAS murdered.

You should watch "Loose Change" on youtube. (Not related exactly, but still really interesting and eyebrow raising)

Ok, that was a little off track.

Anyway, people send these for various reasons, in the case of Obama and McCain, it is for political slander. In the case of most of it, it is sent by spammers. What they do is send these all over the place and have them forwarded to everyone and there mom. As they are forwarded they collect email addresses. These can then be harvested and used for spam. Without going in to all of the details, think of this, they also know who your friends are. They now have the ability to make an email look like it came from your buddy. or from you to someone that you know. Just leave that junk alone. Besides, perpetuating that kind of stuff makes you look stupid and gullible (Did you know that gullible is not a word any more? They took it out of the dictionary!)

There is one email that I got years ago that is pretty awesome....

My name is Billy Evans. I AM A very sick little boy.

My mother is typing this for me, because I can't. She Is crying. The reason she is so sad is because I'm so Sick. I was Born without A body. It doesn't hurt, Except when I try to breathe.

The doctors gave me an artificial body. It is A burlap Bag filled with leaves. The doctors said that was the Best they could do ON account of us having No money OR Insurance.

I would like to have A body transplant, but we need More money. Mommy doesn't work because she said nobody Hires crying people. I said, "Don't cry, Mommy" and and She hugged my burlap bag. Mommy always gives me hugs, Even though she's allergic to burlap and it makes her Sneeze and chafes her real bad.

I hope you will help me. You can help me if you Forward this email to everyone you know. Forward it to People you don't know, the too. Dr. Johansen said that for Every person you forward this email to, Bill Gates Will team up with AOL and send A nickel to NASA. With That funding, NASA will collect prayers from school Children all over America and have the astronauts take Them up into space so that the angels can hear them Better.

Then they will come back to earth and go to the Pope, And he will take up A collection IN church and send All the money to the doctors. The doctors could help Me get better then. Maybe one day I will be able to Play baseball. Right now I can only be third base.

Every time you forward this letter, the astronauts can Take more prayers to the angels and my dream will be Closer to coming true. Please help me. Mommy is so Sad and and I want A body. I don't want my leaves to rot Before I turn 10

If you don't forward this email, that's okay. Mommy Says you're A mean and heartless jerk who doesn't Care about A poor little boy with only A head. She Says that if you don't stew IN the raw pit of your own Guilt-ridden stomach, she hopes you die A long slow, Horrible death and then burn forever IN hell.

What kind of cruel person are you that you can't take Five freakin' minutes to forward this to all your Friends so that they can feel guilt and shame about Ignoring A poor, bodiless nine-year-old boy? Please Help me.

I try to be happy, but it's hard. I wish I had A Kitty. I wish I could hold A kitty. I wish I could Hold A kitty that wouldn't chew ON me and try to bury Its turds IN the leaves of my burlap body. I wish that Very much.

Thank You,

Billy "Smiles" Evans