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.