Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Head's up

I'm pretty sure everyone is going to migrate to blogspot already has done so, but definitely check your old web server when you're done (if you were ftp'ing to your own site like I was). Apparently, when you migrate, blogger dumps a whole bunch of crap onto your server, and in my case, it increased the amount of server space I was using by 169 mb. Which is nutty when you think that this website, blog and fanfic together, and my mail only make up about 106 mb. Blogger's back-up caused me to go over on my space and as a result, my host is charging me for overusage. It's so annoying. I'm currently downloading the back-up files and deleting them off the server so I can avoid the extra fees in June. So, for those of you who are/have migrated, double-check your old digs. There might be a little surprise for you there (but I hope not!).

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

LotD

Sorry, another link of the day, but it's a good one, I promise! Answered! Life's 25 Toughest Questions. Still no answer to "why?" though.

I keep composing blog entries in my head while on the treadmill (when you're running in place for 30 minutes plus, you think of many, many things). The thing is, by the time I come home, I'm way too tired to commit words to the screen. That's the awesome thing about running, by the way -- I sleep straight through the night. So I apologize for the lack of creative and innovative content lately, but I can't promise to do better in the near future.

Friday, May 14, 2010

LotD

What would you cut from the federal budget? Eric Cantor gives you the opportunity to vote, "American Idol" style, at YouCut.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

LotD

I'm a big fan of some of the social nets provided to citizens in the EU, but even I was shocked by some of the spending in Greece. Retirement at age 40? Bonuses for showing up to work on time? For using a computer? Wowzers. Five Areas of Greece budget waste. No wonder people are protesting in the streets; these are tough perks to have to give up.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Privacy, schmrivacy

FYI. A new site, spokeo.com, could be considered similar to a traditional phonebook, except that in addition to your address and phone number, it also features such personal goodies such as your approx credit score, home value, income, age, etc. It even displays pictures you may have put on Facebook or other such sites. You can remove yourself by first searching for yourself on their site to find the URL of your page, copying the URL, then going to the privacy link on the bottom of their home page to open another window with a form that will allow you to remove yourself.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Disease o' the Week

So I'm a big baby when it comes to any kind of physical discomfort. I don't like pain and I don't like when I have as much as hangnail. There are times when I think I have a great threshold for pain, such as when I'm curled up in a whimpering ball on the sofa because of migraine pain (I didn't say I was graceful about it), but let's be honest -- no one would ever describe me as stoic and quiet when it comes to suffering, no matter how minimal.

As of late, or rather as of the last 6 months, I've been experiencing what can only be called a major stomach ache. It's been occasionally debilitating and has all the nasty symptoms one might assume one might have when one is suffering a 6-month stomach ache. The worse symptom was the fact I could not eat without instan pain. Chomp food, swallow, stomach erupts into a big ball of flaming gas; it was like there was an exploding sun in my belly. But as stoic and quiet as I wasn't being, I still refused to go to the doctor. I mean, it's a STOMACH ACHE and I so have my pride; I didn't want to be known as the wimp who shuffled off to the doctor for something so... trivial.

Finally, last week the pain got to me. I had a tough time eating, the pain had traveled to my back, I felt like I was having a heart attack, and it was just miserable. After a bunch of tests, which included testing for George the Amoeba, I was diagnosed with (ta da!) gastritis. Which, by the way, is totally not sexy, but is a lot better than all the other options my doctor casually tossed my way. "You might have an infected gall bladder," he said, "or pancreatitis, and while we're in the neighborhood, we'd better check out your liver as well." He also mentioned the dreaded "U" word -- ulcer -- and the possbility of an amoeba or similar single celled organism.

So after getting all of those possible diagnoses and being totally afraid I'd have the one I can't spell (pancreatitis) or grossed out by a worm in my stomach, it was a relief to learn I simply had gastritis, which with the help of many, many pills, will eventually go away without any need for surgery or anything too crazy. The pills have their own side effects -- I'm now a burping/hiccoughing machine -- but the stomach pain and heart burn are starting to dissipate. I should start to feel better in about 4 to 8 weeks and am currently researching changes to my diet to avoid this from happening again. I never want to be on this many prescriptions (3) again if I can help it. Because of this, I'm slowly cutting back on my caffeine intake; those who know me in Real Life(tm), be afraid, be very afraid.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Paper paper

So much for a paper-less world. I've got a small forest in my guest room. What's crazy is that I trashed and shredded paper back in October/November in anticipation for the move and then I did the same again back in February. What does it tell you that even after all that, I still filled two bags with paper? All this paper, btw, is the paper that came in the move, not additions in the six months since. I still haven't started shredding yet. Quite frankly, it's overwhelming.

The paper keeps coming. The new arrivals congregate on top of the dining room table, just a pure mess due to the last 6 weeks of just dumping and going. Some stuff is easy to trash -- catalogs, mail flyers, advertisements, mail for other people who used to live here -- but then there's the grey area like credit card applications and somewhat interesting information that you're not sure whether to save or trash. So it all just sits on the dining room table trusting that someday someone will come and figure out what's what. Someday has finally come and it's just kind of an unfun way to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon.