Weekend miscellany

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* It's time for me to turn in my geek badge. Saturday morning I was futzing around on my work machine, which really is my primary machine nowadays because I'm lazy, installing the latest version of "Firefox":http://mozilla.org/, when right after it completed my screen went black. Alright... I waited for a few seconds, and then just figured I should do a hard shutdown. Upon rebooting, my machine wouldn't go back to the windows login screen. It would show the XP startup screen for a few seconds, then kick right back to the BIOS screen and start all over. Nothing I picked worked; Safe Mode, Last Known Good, etc. I started looking online for problems relating to startup and "mup.sys":http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1082631480, which is the last line that would load before the reboot, and it sounded like it was more of a hardward issue. I took out one memory stick, and then the other. I even tried different slots, and to no avail. Figuring this was too important to screw up or try to do a rebuild on (and re-installing all that damn software, ick.) I brought it to Best Buy. Picked it back up yesterday, and it turns out that there were some corrupt sectors on the disk (head crash, maybe?). Fixed those, and now my machine is back to normal. All I would have had to do it pop in an XP disc to boot from, and try the repair routines, but I've tried that a few times and broken things enough to force a wipe and reformat, so I simply gave up and wussed out. * In the car I was listening to "Whad'ya know?":http://notmuch.com/ on NPR, which is one of my least favorite NPR shows, but it was on, so (shrug). It was the part of the show where he reads questions people have written down and gives his glib, unfunny answers. One was from a woman who wanted to know if she should be the one proposing to her boyfriend. Long story short, she was trying to use the peer pressure to goad him into saying yes. He sounded very un-thrilled, and then finally said yes. I would have probably done the same, and then screeched out of the parking lot and left her there for trying to put on so much public pressure. Show is "here":http://notmuch.com/Show/index.pl if you want to listen to the uncomfortable-ness.

* Poker continued to be good to me, and even with some ups and downs it was a +$500 weekend. I hit "another":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001479/ ~$250 hand (this time in just a straight $3/6 hand, to give you an idea of how much betting and raising was going on), this time in like a 7-way pot with pocket kings. I've tightened my live and online play up considerably lately. A-x suited in early position? Throw it away. K-10 offsuit early? Throw it away. So far it seems to be working out well.

* House inspection tomorrow. I'll be bringing my camera and taking a zillion pictures, first to give you all a better idea of what it looks like inside, and second so Kim and I can start coming up with a bit of a strategy on getting started on the fixing up. Her lease ends 3 weeks after we close, so we're hoping that we can at least get the flooring and painting in the bedroom done so as not to have to move furniture all around after we're already in. She's quite the ebay maven, so we're going to try and find "everything":http://search.ebay.com/pergo_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8 there and save some bucks.

Portugal

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DSC_1549, originally uploaded by DaveEC.

My dad finally got his Flickr account set up, and started uploading pictures over the weekend. So far he has his photos from a recent trip to Portugal up; check them out.

Poe and his hematoma

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Poe and his hematoma, originally uploaded by feralboy.

So, yesterday early afternoon Poe came back from his usual rounds through the yard with his one eye closed. I couldn't really get a good look to see if he had something in it or what, but his hair around his eye was a bit sticky, so I though maybe he got bitten. Sure enough, a big bubble of blood started to form right above his eye while I looked at him.

Took him over to the vet and dropped him off. They called back later to tell me that he had a nice puncture wound above his eye, and nearly lost it. I don't know who he scrapped with, but I think it actually might have been his brother, who was sniffing around while I was looking at Poe and getting growled and hissed at by Poe the whole time.

The vet cleaned him up reasonably well, got him up to date on his booster shots, and gave him a feline lukemia test (it was negative). All in all, very happy to have my boy home and safe.

Me = not dying

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So, my bloodwork came back. I have a slightly elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) level which signifies non-cardiovascular inflammation. What that really means is I have the slightest of slight cases of IBS. All I really need to do is eat a little bit better, lower my stress (the biggie) and get my regular exercise. I was sorta hoping it was H Pylori, so I could treat it and be done (because I'm lazy), but just knowing what's going on is a relief. The rest of my numbers looked really good... i have _fantastic_ cholesterol levels, both LDL and HDL, and everything else falls in the normal range. I go back in 6 months to get my CRP checked again, and hopefully I'll have a normal number by then.

Stalker-iffic

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"Google Maps":http://maps.google.com/ has now added seamless satellite photos to its already stellar map service. I guess when they bought KeyHole last year that it was bound to happen, eh? So far it seems to be pretty cool, and makes finding "pictures":http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.254443,-110.758721&spn=0.006845,0.009795&t=k&hl=en "of":http://maps.google.com/maps?q=416+Noble+Street,Pittsburgh,PA&t=k&hl=en "addresses":http://maps.google.com/maps?q=309+South+Braddock+Ave,Pittsburgh,+pa&t=k&hl=en a whole lot easier than that Microsoft Terrawhatever site from a few years back. In other news this afternoon is my followup appointment to find out what's going on with my poor belly. I'm sure it's not going to be anything bad, but of course I'm completely nervewracked about it.

News flash

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Had an offer on a house accepted today. Wahoo! *Update as of 6:15 p.m.:* Contract signed. Earnest money check being dropped off tomorrow. Loan application being filled out tonight.

*Update as of 11 a.m. next day:* After some careful consideration, the house is too expensive per sq foot for what you actually get, so we're bailing. "Onwards":http://tarmls.com/scripts/mgrqispi.dll?APPNAME=Tucson&PRGNAME=MLSPropertyDetail&ARGUMENTS=-N632851996,-N282522,-N,-A,-N4761188 and "upwards":http://tarmls.com/scripts/mgrqispi.dll?APPNAME=Tucson&PRGNAME=MLSPropertyDetail&ARGUMENTS=-N632851996,-N282418,-N,-A,-N4761188!

Busy week

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First off is belly update; went to the testing lab this morning to have my blood drawn, and my followup appointment to actually find out what the results are is next Tuesday. I've felt pretty much the same since my appointment last week, so I'm hoping I can just take some antibiotics and be done with this. Laura is in town for her spring break this week; got in late last night and is still napping now while I'm working. She'll have my car and a map to get to toole around Arizona this week while I'm working, and we can try and do something fun this weekend too. Desert Museum is always a popular spot for the out-of-towners.

I've got assues

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I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon to find out what is going on with my butt. For the last few weeks I've been less than happy with what's been happening. Regular readers of this site will know that I'm a champion pooper, and "proud":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001363/ of it. Lately, well... let's just say they've been less than the beautiful works of art that I've been used to. Plus, I've been feeling all sorts of full and gassy, with tons of burping and farting to go along with it. That part has actually been fun, because Kim can't complain about it... "But honey, I've got A Condition." Yesterday I went to a new physician that came recommended from "April":http://apadventures.net, because they do lots of "alternative" medicine as well as the regular M.D. stuff; things like acupuncture, sports massage, herbal therapies, etc. While I didn't get to meet with April's doctor, I did see Sunny, the nurse practicioner. She was completely awesome. She had recently moved from Seattle, where she even moonlighted as a piercer at night because so many of her patients were coming in with infected piercings that she decided to start doing them herself. She's also very anti-drug (except when necessary), which is refreshing, especially in this age of antibiotic over-prescription and resistant bugs. She was a model for living well... she has a 27-year old son, and she didn't look like she could be much older than 40 herself.

We talked about possible factors in my feeling, well, poopy. One of the things we discusses was my recent home shopping, which in a hot market like Tucson is a very stressful situation. "Hey, here's a decent house. Would you like to put money on it right NOW NOW NOW?!?!?" Um, sorry if I can't make a snap decision for the most amount of money I'll ever spend on anything. Damn me for being such a comparison shopper. Sunny is also in the midst of home-buying, and felt my pain. She was unsure based on the initial exam what was going on... could be "IBS":http://www.aboutibs.org/, could be "_H Pylori_":http://www.cdc.gov/ulcer/md.htm. I'm going to a testing lab later this week to get all sorts of bloodwork done, which will show if I've got an infection going on or not. If it is _H Pylori_ I'll actually need to take an antibiotics cycle, no way around that. I'm sort of hoping that's it, because then I can just get it treated and be done. If it's IBS, then treatment path is not as clear.

Oh, I'm also getting other baseline stuff done, checking cholesterol, etc. About time I started checking those things on a yearly basis. My followup appointment with Sunny to discuss my labs is in about 2 weeks. I'll keep ya posted.

warm scorchin'

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dusty, originally uploaded by feralboy.

Because of the "recent":http://moonoverpittsburgh.blogspot.com/2005/03/boy-on-bike-on-being-boy-on-bike.html "posts":http://moonoverpittsburgh.blogspot.com/2005/03/cycling-incompetence-and-communal-good.html floating around from friends about their rides, I've realized that I've not been riding nearly as much as I should be, especially considering that Brian is "fighting through slushy 20-degree mornings":http://www.anklebiter.net/log/archives/2005_03.html#000758 while I have the luxury of riding in "75-degree sunshine":http://www.weatherunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=tucson,%20az.

This week I've found a new favorite riding loop for after work. Down Houghton, and then ride down Old Spanish Trail to the "Saguaro National Park":http://www.nps.gov/sagu/ and back. It's a beautiful ride, with smooth tarmac and gently rolling hills. You go past all sorts of beautiful desert landscape, as well as some fantastic homes. I've gone twice this week, and I'm planning on going again today, and this time I'll bring the camera so I can share a bit.

Recently I made a few modifications to my fixie; namely I took off the rear brake and put in a quick-release axle on the front in case I need to put it on my bike rack (dropping the car off in the morning for servicing comes to mind). Few more things left... I'd like to get a better seat instead of the stock one, maybe the same "split seat":http://www.thebikebench.com/profile.asp?prodID=477 I have on the road bike. Also, I need to pick up a cyclocomputer to have a better idea about my speed and mileage so I can know when I'm slacking.

Less boob tube

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The head of the "Feral Marketing Department":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001398/#comments and I were chatting this morning about TV and shows, and he mentioned that he's probably cancelling HBO at least, perhaps until the Sopranos are back on. I've been thinking for awhile about my own TV-watching habits for awhile as well. When I "moved":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001199/ here I put the bulk of my crap (including "amazingly oversized TV":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20031210_apartment/P1010015.jpg) into storage. I did pick up a small-ish set for PS2 playing in the guest house, but for the most part I haven't missed my TV at all. Part of the reason is that not having DirecTV installed here has made me watch a hell of a lot less television. Another reason is all the "stuff" that I have going on as well; relationship, biking, climbing, poker, etc. I'm house-shopping now, and giving serious consideration to not getting any sort of pay service when I find a place.

Right now there are 3 shows that I try and watch on a regular basis: "24":http://www.fox.com/24/, "The Daily Show":http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/, and "The Simpsons":http://www.thesimpsons.com/. I'll catch the occasional "CSI":http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi/ or "L&O":http://www.nbc.com/Law_&_Order/ with Kim at her place (with her huge rabbit ears and no cable), but for the most part that's it. I've found that all my TV needs can be met by the Intarweb, even with my "woefully crappy connection":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001356/. I have "Azureus":http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ running with some filters set up, so when I get on the computer Tuesday through Friday mornings, I'll have last night's Daily Show sitting and ready for me to watch. 24 I can either catch at Kim's, or I'll have that downloaded (with very good quality, I might add) a day or so after it airs (it'd be faster if my connection speed were better). When the new seasons of Sopranos and SFU(Six Feet Under) air, I'll be able to add a filter for those and see them next-day as well. I'm not alone in doing this, either. You can just take a look at any of the "big":http://www.tvtorrents.ws/ "TV":http://www.btefnet.net "Torrent":http://www.orbdesign.net/bt/ sites and see all the popular shows pop up within hours of airing, sometimes sooner if they can catch a wild feed.

All that combines to mean that I'm not sure I feel like forking over the extra money every month. Granted, my TiVo has been "sad and lonely":http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/6563571713523346.JPG in storage, but since they're "on deathwatch":http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000100030115/ anyway I don't know how relevant that is. I've seen the idea elsewhere, but I really think TiVo needs to allow you to do something similar; have an internet connection and act as a BitTorrent aggregator to bring you down "long tail":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail shows.

One reason to get cable might be to be able to bundle high-speed web access in the package, making both more affordable. Another could be for HDTV, although I would have been more inclined to go for an all-HD service like "Voom":http://voom.com, which apparently is about "ready to take a dump":http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000290033928/. I'm not even sure what sort of OTA(Over The Air) HDTV is being put out by the local affiliates, but I don't have high hopes for that either.

*Update:* Hey, I just saw that a new season of "The Shield":http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/the_shield/ has started, so time to add that to the Azureus list. The only problem with being so unconnected from prime-time schedules is that I don't know when new shows are airing, like "American Chopper":http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/amchopper/amchopper.html or The Shield.

Target acquired

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Target acquired, originally uploaded by feralboy.

The fire department came today to try and get our "little reptillian friend":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001378/. The space they needed to get into to grab him was too small for their pinchy stick, so instead of tearing up the floor they had to just leave him. If he has actually been there as long as April thinks he has, I don't think anyone (or any pets) are in any danger, but it's still a little unnerving to think about A HUGE FUCKING POISONOUS SNAKE 10 FEET AWAY FROM ME RIGHT NOW! (This all-caps message has been brought to you by dooce.com)

Snaaake, a snaaaake, oh it's a snaaaake!

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he is death incarnate, i tell you, originally uploaded by feralboy.

No, I'm not referring to the Badger, badger, mushroom song, I'm talking about a real, honest-to-goodness rattlesnake under the storage shed. According to April it's been there since they moved in, but this is the first time I've noticed it. You can bet I'm calling the fire department tomorrow to come and get rid of it.

Man, I see "so much":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001203/ "wildlife":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001223/ "out here":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001370/.

The Great Prairie Dog Round-tailed Ground Squirrel Rescue of 2005

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gotcha, originally uploaded by feralboy.

Manson decided to upgrade from "lizards":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001359/ to something larger and cuter today. Tapping away at the keys, and then in he comes with a mouthful of fur. Sure enough, it's the "cute little guy":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/4869952/ in the picture. I shoo the cat out, and corral the critter into a garbage can, which he immediately hops out of as soon as i get out "into the courtyard":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/4869969/, so I have to spend another 15 minutes trying to coax him into something "larger and deeper":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/4869971/. Finally get him out into the "back":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/4869990/ "pasture":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/4870005/, and distract the "cats":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/4870009/ while he "makes":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/4869978/ his getaway.

"Full set of photos here":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/sets/122580/

Hate hate hate

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My general distaste for phone companies has been "well-documented":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001318/ here, but now I have a new target for my ire.... Qwest! The DSL connection at the house kinda stinks. On a good day, I can muster about 100Kb/s download speeds, which isn't much better than the days of 56K modems. This lack o' bandwidth was never more apparent than last week and early this week, which each time we had a fix to the software release for work that meant building 3 new project installers (dev, test and production) and uploading each one. At 83 megs apiece. Which took about an hour FOR EACH ONE! This is totally unacceptable.

When I first moved here I tried to call Qwest and see if they could bump our service up to the 1.5 Mb speed, and I could bask in glorious bandwidth, soak myself in illegally downloaded movies and television, and not dread trying to do remote database operations over our VPN(Virtual Private Network). At the time they told me that our local loop was about 21,000 feet from the nearest "central office":http://www.dslreports.com/coinfo/clli/TCSNAZTV, which was just over the 20,000 foot cutoff to get said service.

This week my download speeds have been pitiful for some reason; only like 30 Kb/s, which for $70 is so bad I wanted to scream. Called tech support, sat on hold for 20 minutes, and then finally talked to Natalie. She wasn't super-helpful, although she did tell me my local loop distance is exactly 21,267 feet. Woo hoo! I asked what would happen if they tried to upgrade my speed; would they just flick a switch at some data center? Change a card around in the "DSLAM":http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dsl9.htm perhaps? Would I be able to connect, just at a reduced percentage of the 1.5 Mb (sorta like now with the half 256Kb I get), or would I get no connectivity at all? Natalie sorta never answered that question, and instead put me on with Laura from the billing department so I could at least take the phone service off the account, since everyone has cell phones, and the only thing plugged into the wall at all is the DSL modem.

*Laura:* "Sir, for the standalone service through Qwest, you need to have the 1.5 Mb service." *Me:* "No problem, that's what I want anyway." *Laura:* "Ok, but it says here on my system that you're not qualified for the 1.5. In fact, you're not qualified for any service!" *Me:* "Then that means, I'M NOT REALLY HERE! THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE! RUN AWAY! AAAAAAHHH!" *Laura:* "..."

So, the best part is that I can't take the phone line off the account, so it's costing me more for the slower service that I'm not even supposed to have, when all I want is high speed (which I'm REALLY not supposed to have) and no phone. Laura pretended to be sorry that she couldn't do anything (while I know she was sending secret mental messages like "You aren't even supposed to have DSL at all you ungrateful jerk! Quit rocking the boat!", while I wondered how an unqualified line ever got DSL service in the first place, and someone must have been able to circumvent "the system" at Qwest. I just want them to _try_ putting me on the 1.5 Mb line, stop charging me for a landline that nobody is using, and we'll see what happens from there. She told me she'd talk to the DSL technical manager and someone would be back in touch with me. I'm not holding my breath.

Me = old

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Today I turn 31. Hooray for me! I had a good weekend, although I didn't go to Heuco with "the kids":http://apadventures.net/. The weather forecast looked a little crappy, and I had some stuff to do around here, including a little pre-birthday dinner with friends. Turns out it "rained but was climbable":http://www.apadventures.net/archives/2005/02/seeending_in_th.html both days, so a little bit of a bummer that I didn't go, but I had a fine time here as well. Did the dinner thing, and also got out for a lovely bike ride on Saturday (lovely until I got a flat on the back tire and didn't quite realize it until I bent the rim a tiny bit).

This coming up weekend is the group trip to Vegas, which should be loads of fun. I hit the casino for a bit yesterday for the free food and sports pool, but it was the coldest cards I've ever seen; I think I played 3 hands out of the big blind over the course of 4 hours, and steadily had my stack ground down each orbit. Oh well, it happens.

The weekend after that my dad and evil stepmother (not really, but we like to call her that) will be out visiting. If you want to make sure that you get a lot of family visiting when you move away, go someplace where it's warm in the winters. Since I've been here for the last 5 months, I've been visited by both "sisters":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001340/ (although Laura's visit doesn't really count, since it was when "she helped me move":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001199/), my best friend, my "mom and stepdad":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001300/, and my evil stepmother (twice!). My dad coming out completes the friends and family circuit, and I'm excited for him to see me in my new environs.