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.

Rumors about the death of TiVo have been greatly exaggerated

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News from yesterday shows that TiVo has "signed a deal with Comcast":http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/03/comcast_and_tiv.html, which is a "huge boost":http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=TIVO&t=5d for the company, especially after it looked like that deal "wasn't going to get done":http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000683027751/. I think that being able to get their product out there in front of everyone for a low monthly fee (based on what other cable companies are doing with their rentable DVRs) we are going to see a lot more converts to the "cult of TiVo":http://a.wholelottanothing.org/2003/04/why_dont_you_ow.html.

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.

Bingo night!

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Last night Kim had a hankerin' for some bingo, so we headed over to the Diamond for the evening session. Bingo is a funny game; nowhere have I seen people trying harder to assign patterns to random number events than there. "Oh, sure... the first two numbers he pulls are the ones I needed last time." As if the little plastic balls with no cognitive abilities and no memory were just playing a little game and taunting you. I especially enjoyed how the old folks directly across from us were ripping on the caller (the guy pulling the numbers) as if he had anything at all to do with the numbers popping out of the little vaccuum tumbler machine thingy. After the bingo session (no, neither of us won, although I was within one number twice) Kim went to hit the slots, and I went to play some poker. There was a pretty long list for $3/6, so they started a new table and I got a seat. The action started pretty slow as everyone was just trying to get a feel for the table, and then it turned into magical loose table like that one "at the Rio":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001316/. All kinds of crazy loose passive play, 8-handed flops, etc. Of course I was only playing for about an hour and got only a few playable hands. Two good wins though... once with AJo (a notorious trouble hand) which I raised from early position, got two callers, hit an ace on the flop and had them call me the whole way down to the river. The other hand I had AKs in the small blind, raised to get the big blind out, and only got called by Star Jones across the table. Flop came all undercards, but with 2 of my suit! I bet out and was called, and then bet $6 in the dark before the turn card came out (it was a queen, and not my suit, btw). Star thought about it for half a second and said "He bet in the dark? He can have it." and folded. I think if I had waited until the card had come out she would have called, but by representing AA or KK I got her to throw away whatever she had, maybe she had hit a pair on the board. I don't know if I would have spiked a pair on the river or made my flush, but I'd love to think that my in-the-dark bet got her out of there.

Kim came to collect me with me up $20, so $15 for bingo plus $3 for snackies for us plus $1 for the woman who cashed out my chips meant I had made $1 for the evening! Kim was bumming because she had lost another $40 at the slots, so on the way out we passed by some sort of Monopoly nickel slot machine and I threw in $10. A few spins later, we landed on Boardwalk, collected 300x the nickel bet, and cashed out up $7! Total for the evening +$8 and lots of fun.

Minimum wage

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While I normally like to leave matters of politics to "Moon":http://moonoverpittsburgh.blogspot.com/, I heard a "segment":http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4526336 on NPR this morning about Sen. Ted Kennedy trying to attach a rider to the "bankruptcy bill":http://talkingpointsmemo.com/bankruptcy/ making its way through Congress that would raise the minimum wage by about $2/hr. Points to Ted for trying (he's made several attempts over the last few years to raise the minimum wage, actually) and also kudos for trying to attach his rider to something that's "actually related":http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2003/04.html#11 to what the bill is about. The minimum hasn't been raised since 1997, and according to "this site":http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html the "actual" value in constant dollars today is only $4.42/hr. I don't know how anyone reasonably expects that a person could actually have this be a living wage, especially not if they have dependants. If you happened to read "Nickel and Dimed":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805063897/ then you have an idea as to what a struggle it is to make a living on low-wage jobs.

The Republican argument against the wage increase is a good one; they claim that this will price workers out of jobs. Um, I didn't think that slinging burgers at McDonalds was something you could outsource overseas (although you can "outsource the drive-through":http://a.wholelottanothing.org/2005/02/you_just_got_se.html, weird). Of course Congress has voted 6 pay raises for themselves in the last 8 years. Good thing they haven't priced themselves out of their jobs.

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.

I thought they were nerds...

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While reading "this Slashdot blurb":http://it.slashdot.org/it/05/02/25/1328205.shtml?tid=95&tid=158&tid=218 about floater ads (heh, I said "floater") I realized that people on /. looooove to bitch about the NYT's "soul-sucking registration", and will do so at every opportunity in an article intro. Do they just want to remain willfully ignorant of the "NYT permalink generator":http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink and continue to rage against the machine? You would think that something like that would spread quickly among the nerdarati.

Flickr, flickr, flickr here you are...

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_(Imagine the title sung like The Cure's "The Caterpillar")_ I've been so impressed with the "Flickr":http://flickr.com/ photo service that I plunked down some money to open a Pro account there last week. It finally got turned on earlier this week, which has let me upload some of my backlog of "photos":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/ to my "new photo page":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/. It's a great application, even with just the free account. I'm trying to get "Paul and April":http://apadventures.net/ to get an account as well to put up all those fabulous climbing shots; and with all the neat tagging and Set features, we could have everything totally organized and searchable. Wanna find all the pictures of April at Hueco? "No problem":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/search/tags:april,huecotanks/tagmode:all/. Want to get an RSS feed of all photos tagged "boobs"? "Knock yourself out":http://www.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=boobs&format=atom_03.

I think I convinced my dad (who "visited":http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralboy/tags/dad/ this past weekend) to open an account, and I'll get him a Pro account for a belated Xmas present, and I might do the same for some "certain roomies":http://apadventures.net/ if they want to open an account too. ;-)

"Robin":http://firepile.com/robin/ has also opened an account, and has started "putting up pictures":http://www.flickr.com/photos/firepile/ too, mostly of "her cats":http://www.flickr.com/photos/firepile/tags/cat/. I like that you can go in and put "annotations":http://www.flickr.com/photos/firepile/5304138/ on people's pictures (if they let you)... sort of adds to the whole community feeling, as well as all the "photo groups":http://www.flickr.com/groups/rockclimbing/.

Sites like "Flickr":http://flickr.com/ and "Google Maps":http://maps.google.com/ make me think that innovation on teh Intarweb isn't quite dead yet.

morning flowers

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morning flowers, originally uploaded by feralboy.

The dew was very pretty this morning, so I had to go and snap off a few shots. Dammit, when is my Flickr Pro account going to kick in so I can start uploading and tagging my backlog of photos?

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/

New tunes

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New albums out recently from both Fatboy Slim ("Palookaville":http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/fatboyslim/palookaville) and The Chemical Brothers ("Push the Button":http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/chemicalbrothers/pushthebutton). Also out at the same time is a complete remix album of PTB called "Flip the Switch":http://www.chemicalbrothersremixed.com/. Out of the two, I like the Chemical Bros' new offering a whole lot more. Huge beats, Q-Tip shows up on track 1... what's not to like? I particularly like the eastern-sounding "Marvo Ging", and the slightly eerie "The Big Jump". The FBS album is not as good, at least for the first few spins I've given it. "Don't let the man" is fun and recognizeable, both from the 5 Man Electrical Band hook "and the sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply" and the fact that it was remixed on the last SSX game I bought. The other songs are not as catchy, proving to me that Norman Cook is a better remixer/house DJ than an original composition writer. Bonus points for getting Bootsy Collins (awww, shizzle!) to help him cover Steve Miller's "The Joker", tho.