Danger! Offensive comments ahead!
Archive for April, 2003
Supertroopers….
Apr 30th
Watched this movie the other night. Just the beginning of the film, with the 3 potheads getting pulled over, then the officers pulling away without telling them they can go, getting about 10 carlengths down the highway, then smoking their tires in reverse to get behind them again, then pulling them back over was so funny I about fell over. The guy in the backseat ate an entire bag of weed and an entire bag of shrooms to get rid of the evidence, and it started to kick in about the second time the cops came up to the car and he wispers to one of the other guys “I’m freaking out” I about fell off of the couch again. Then the 3 potheads are put in the back of the cop car, the cops go to some place (can’t remember now, I was fixing a snack at the time), and they pan back to just the 3 kids in the car and the one that ate the shrooms is licking the glass between the front and the back of the car. I did fall down that time.
Food good…
Apr 28th
So, tonight, Ryeth was out running some errands. I got this strange desire for a couple Bojangle’s Chicken Biscuits. So, I called her cell phone. No answer. Out of service or something. About 20 minutes later she notices she had a missed call on her cell phone and calls me back. She asks me what I want, and I start to tell her I had a hankering for 2 chicken biscuits. About that time I here someone say “May I help you” over a pathetic sound system. Turns out she was calling me back as she was pulling into the drive through at Bojangle’s. How convenient was that 
Self Review forms suck…
Apr 28th
OK, where I work we have to fill out these self review forms, then our managers fill the same forms in about us, then we compare.
I *HATE* that process. Here’s why. You are expected to rate yourself compared to the other workers in the company based upon a series of traits that my employer considers important. However, if you aren’t a manager (and you aren’t if you are doing this self eval), then you don’t directly see how well your fellow engineers do at this stuff, so how do you accurately rate yourself? The scale is relative, which means you need an idea of what “normal” is in order to determine if you are above or below average. If you aren’t a manager, then your idea of “normal” is going to be based upon most likely a very limited subset of what really constitutes normal and can actually be very off.
Maybe that was a bit excessive…
Apr 28th
It’s hard to believe, but Ryeth and I finished off 3 bottles of wine yesterday just between the two of us, and we aren’t typically drinkers. It took from about 6pm until midnight, but it was still enough to make Ryeth wake up feeling a bit hung over at 7am this morning
We first had a bottle of Toad Hollow Amplexus. This is a sparkling white from Toad Hollow. The joke about this wine is that they snuck the bottle label past the wine bottle approving agency (whoever that is). Amplexus is the biological term for mating frogs So, the label on the bottle shows two frogs stepping out of a reed stand, suppossedly just after having amplexus The wine itself is a fairly dry white with a bit of an aftertaste or twang to it. I only give it a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 since I don’t necessarily like that aftertaste.
The second bottle was Henry Estate Oregon Gewurztraminer. Again, it was a dry white with a bit of an aftertaste. Not the greatest in my books. I give it a 6 also.
The third was a Moselland ArsVitis Riesling. This one was much better. No aftertaste, lightly sweet but not so sweet as to start tasting syrupy after a few glasses. Much easier to drink. I give this one a 9. It’s the second bottle of this wine that I’ve had and both times I thoroughly enjoyed it. Last time I found it was at World Market. I’ll have to go back and look for more. I keep intending to keep a bottle around as a decorative item because it has a really pretty artistic painting on the backside of the bottle that is meant to be viewed through a clear spot in the glass on the front of the bottle with the wine acting as both a magnifier and a color adding agent, but I keep drinking it instead
Ryeth woke up feeling slightly ill, I felt fine. Hmmm…wonder if she got more of that Riesling than me or if I just had more stamina I’ll have to try and count glasses of that Riesling in my mind to make sure I didn’t get shorted. Although, I guess my slight weight advantage helps me out here too.
Getting up is a bitch…
Apr 28th
Man, it was hard to get up this morning. I had to have someone talking to me and making me a latte just to get me to pry my eyes open. Maybe Ryeth should have gotten out a Zest bar and held it under my nose to see if that really works Household science experiments can be fun…
Whoda ever thunk that?
Apr 27th
Hmmm…listening to Ryeth comment about girls acting sleazy in large groups. She says, “I don’t like it when people act sleazy en masse. It cheapens being sleazy.”
Food idea…
Apr 25th
So, a little while back, Ryeth posted about interesting foods. This one is *very* simple, but also *very* good
Toast some bread. Let it sit to cool off. Once it’s cool enough that it *won’t* melt the butter, butter the bread (a good thick coat is better). If the bread’s too hot, the butter melts and the bread gets soggy. That’s bad. Next get out some good jelly (I used Strawberry Preserves tonight) and put that over the butter. Then eat. It’s good
Healing sucks…
Apr 25th
You know, they had to make an incision in my shoulder to do the surgery. In the process, they cut the nerves that ran to the downside of the incision (just the local ones running through the skin, not any big bundles of nerves or anything). Now that I’m healing, the nerves are getting reconnected differently. The sensation of touch now doesn’t feel anything like touch. Weird.
South Park…
Apr 25th
I’m so pissed. I love South Park. It is the most irreverant comedic program on TV today, and it routinely has up to date episodes that talk about things you just saw on the news a couple weeks earlier. It has respect for absolutely nothing (which is great in my mind since I have respect for next to nothing myself 
) Aside from being more funny, there is a very important reason why I appreciate South Park’s lack of respect for typically inshrined institutions in America. If you have some sort of ingrained respect for something, you tend not to look at it in an objective manner. It’s the same reason I think at least some of the theological courses in college should be taught by atheists. If you have Catholic priests always teaching you how to read the bible, they tend to perpetuate the mistakes in interpretation that they made in their lives on in the minds of their students. The Bible is, after all, the worlds largest andmost complex instruction manual, and it doesn’t come with a cross reference, an index, an easy to follow table of contents, or sidebar explanations of what things mean. That implies that a person who truly wishes to try and follow the Bible has to read different parts of it, commit them to memory (not necessarily the exact verbage, but the sentiment behind the words), then try and apply all applicable portions of the Bible to the question at hand. If you have 3 different places in the Bible that talk about some particular thing, then a life-long christian will likely have already been told how to think about that thing and will fit what those 3 places have to say to their idea of how things should be. A person with no indoctrination at all will instead apply those 3 portions of the Bible more objectively and sometimes come up with a different answer. So, getting an objective look on things is often very enlightening. In the same vien, not being reverant about things gives the same kind of fresh, objective perspective. That’s what I love most about South Park.
Now, to the reason I’m pissed. They have over 100 episodes done now and I only have about 48 on DVD. I also own every DVD they’ve put out so far. I want to know where the rest of the episodes are and when they are coming?
Hi ho, Hi ho, It’s off to work I go…
Apr 25th
Geeze….I am *SO* far behind on work. I’m basically a full 3 weeks behind on everything at work. Now I’ve got to start trying to catch things up. Then, on top of that, I’ve still got mounds of insurance paperwork and stuff like that to take care of so that all the hospitals and ambulance drivers and other people get paid for my health care. I think I need a vacation from being beat up…
Doctor followup visit today…
Apr 24th
Well, that was good. I’m feeling better than I was two days ago, that’s for sure. Two days ago I finally felt bad enough to go see the doctor. I was actually in bad enough shape that she sent me over to the hospital across the street for a CT scan and alerted a general surgeon in case that was needed. It turned out I didn’t need to surgeon and they just gave me a prescription and sent me home.
I went back in today for a two day followup and both the doctor and the assitant that takes you back to the exam room commented on how much better I looked today. My T cell count was less than half of what it was 2 days ago. I’ve gained back 5 lbs. in just 2 days. I feel much better now, but it’s going to take up to 2 weeks before I’m fully back to normal.
Damn I felt bad. The actual symptoms started on Thursday of last week, and I took that day off and rested. I felt better Friday, so I acted normal. Then Saturday it started up again, and it just got worse on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. My problem turned out to be colitis caused by the antibiotics they gave me during my shoulder surgery. A layman’s description of colitis is that it’s a yeast infection of the colon. Now, any women reading this consider that the typical vaginal canal is only about 6 inches long and the colon is roughly 3 times that at 18 inches long and you can imagine how bad a severe case of colitis might hurt. Next, consider that a woman can quit having sex when she has a yeast infection, my colon has to work just as long as I’m still eating and drinking. So I don’t get a break, and considering how long I put off going to the doctor, you can imagine how bad the problem was…
Now they have me on Flagyl to correct the problem. Flagyl comes with a nice warning: Don’t take with alcohol. I did a little research, and as it turns out, if you drink alcohol with Flagyl, you’re subject to acetaldehyde poisoning. You see, your liver first breaks ethyl alcohol down to acetaldehyde and then another enzyme in the liver breaks the acetaldehyde down to acetic acid (vinegar). Acetic acid is a normal metabolite that the kidneys recognize and flush out of the system. Acetaldehyde on the other hand is a toxic chemical and when it builds up in the body it makes you *very* ill. So, Flagyl keeps the enzyme that breaks acetaldehyde down to acetic acid completely busy all the time. If you drink alcohol with Flagyl, the acetaldehyde builds up in your system and you start “vomiting like a madman” (direct quote from the doctor at the hospital that prescribed the drug for me). Hmmm…methinks I want to avoid “vomiting like a madman”…
Anyway, that’s all for now.
My first entry…hmmm….
Apr 24th
Well, I’ve been pretty ill since I created my account. I had a motorcycle accident about 3 1/2 weeks ago.
OK, quick break from my story just to note that I am watching American Pie for my first time right now and they just did the scene where Jim and some girl are in Jim’s room and everyone else is watching via the webcam….OH MY GOD! That was so pathetic!! Two premature ejaculations in a row without even getting undressed with everyone watching!! How embarassing would that be the next day?
Anyway, I hit a deer on my motorcycle. It tore me up pretty good. It gave me a total separation of my right AC joint (aka, my collar bone got separated from the rest of my shoulder on my right side). Then, as a result of the antibiotics they gave me in surgery I had more complications and problems that resulted in another trip to the doctor yesterday along with 3 x-rays and a CT scan to diagnose my problem.
But, now that they figured the problem out, I’m feeling better. I should be back at work and able to get things accomplished tomorrow.
I had lots of fun this evening going to coffee with our (Ryeth is my wife) friends this evening. I’ve missed a lot of those Wed. evening hang out sessions due to my wreck, but I’m finally able to start going again.
That’s if for now…I’ll add more as things happen
Auto insurance in NC is such a racket, the Sopranos should be running it…
Apr 24th
Posted by dledford in social commentary
In NC, there is an insurance board that sets prices that the insurance companies in the state have to follow. But, unlike you *might* expect from a state insurance board, they don’t set maximum rates, they set *minimum* rates. Not only that, but it’s basically run by people from the insurance companies themselves. What a total crock of s**t.
So, I learned a lesson with my accident. If you are involved in a wreck and the other person is at fault, their liability insurance covers your vehicle and all medical bills. If you are in a wreck and it’s your fault, then your vehicle is covered by collision coverage, but you have to have a separate medical coverage to get anything for your medical bills. If you are in an accident and no one is at fault, then it is covered under the comprehensive coverage, but again that’s only your vehicle and nothing for your medical bills unless you have the separate medical coverage. Well, I hit a deer. That’s covered under comprehensive. Fine. But I had no idea I had to have separate medical coverage so they aren’t paying a penny towards all that. So far, I’m sure the medical bills have already hit $6,000+ and it’s all going against my health insurance at Red Hat. Red Hat is self insured, United Healthcare is just the plan administrator, so that means all my medical bills are going to be coming out of Red Hat’s bottom line next quarter. That sucks. I feel really bad about doing that to Red Hat, but I couldn’t pay off all those medical bills right now if I had to, so that’s the way it’s going to be.