This weekend Matt came down from Lexington and helped me install some upgrades on my car. We added a new SRI intake, rear motor mount, and a set of solid shifter bushings. The car drives a bit better now, and shifting is much improved. I am very happy.
Sunday Matt hung out for breakfast, and we invited Ben and Kristin over as well. I do enjoy cooking when there are people around to share with, and it was nice to have everyone over.
I also took the plunge and bought myself a new iPhone, which arrived on Friday. So far I like it, but it's not without some issues. Mainly, AT&T service isn't all that great down here. I can put the phone in the same place twice, and one time it will have 2 bars, the other it will report no service. We also don't have 3g here, so data over cellular is painfully slow. On the plus side, the wifi seems good, and most places I go tend to have wifi, so at least I can still get data. Doesn't help with phone though. Time will tell if it's worth it, I guess.
That's about it for now, hopefully this week will be calmer at work than the last couple. Only 4.5 weeks until GenCon!!!
- Location:Workin' for the Man every night and day
- Mood:But I never lost a minute oh sleep worryin' bout the way things might have been
- Music:Underway at Seven - Alvin Youngblood Hart
Check out some of the publicity photos.
I'm hoping against all hope that he works with Danny Elfman for the score... he would be PERFECT!
- Mood:
excited
Shamelessly stolen from
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kesh - Location:Home
- Mood:
nerdy - Music:Green Day
I called a week and a half ago, they walked me through all sorts of bs checks they determined that they would have to send a tech out. I scheduled a tech for Thursday afternoon. Thursday, no tech comes by. I call back about 7 PM, get fed some obviously bullshit story about the tech having to dig up a line at another support call, and they reschedule for Friday morning. Once agian, nobody comes by. Only this time we get an automated call at about 3 that they've rescheduled for Saturday Morning.
When I get home from work I'm all sorts of pissed off because now not only have they not shown up 2 days in a row, but I don't want to have to get up early on Saturday. Call back AGAIN, get it switched to Saturday afternoon. This time a tech actually shows up. He switches out the modem, takes the one that had been disconnecting back with him. The new modem runs fine for about 4-5 hours, then it drops sync and refuses to re-sync. The only way to get it to work it to leave it unplugged for at least an hour, then it'll work for about 4-5 hours agian.
Thankfully I had an old old modem from when I first got service, so I swap that in, and we're back to random PPPoE resets, but at least it works MOST of the time. The tech that came out left his cell number "so if there were any further problems I wouldn't have to go through the 800 number again". Kevin called and left a message in his VM on Sunday, and I called and left one on Monday. Nothing. Finally, when Kevin gets his next day off (Thursday) he calls and actually gets the guy on the phone. Guy promises to have someone out "first thing" on Friday (yesterday).
So all morning yesterday nobody stops by. Kevin calls the guy back around 11:30 or so and was told that the ticket was put in for 1-5. Again (wait for it) NOBODY FUCKING SHOWS UP. So far we are 1 for 4 in terms of someone actually comming when they're supposed to.
This morning I got on their online chat and explained to a completely unhelpful agent what's going on. Here are a few excerpts:
Scott Spearman > (long description of everything that's mentioned above)
AT&T eAgent > Just one moment please.
AT&T eAgent > In what way can I assist you today?
(Gee, I'm complaining that nobody comes when they're supposed to come fix my connection, and you dont' know what the fuck to do? What a fucking surprise!)
Scott Spearman > I want someone to actually come out when they're supposed to and fix my connection, and I want the credit I was promised. I've already wasted 12+ hours waiting for appointments that havn't been kept, and I have very little patience for this anymore.
AT&T eAgent > I can schedule another appointment for you, as the tech should show for the appointment. If you are needing credit for your account you will have to contact our Billing Department at 1-888-321-2375 Monday-Friday 8am-6pm.
Scott Spearman > I've already had 3 service appointments that have not been kept. How do I know that someone will show up for this one?
AT&T eAgent > The only thing that I can do is schedule the appointment. As I said, the tech should come out for the appointment.
(Right, just like the tech SHOULD HAVE FUCKING COME OUT FOR THE OTH
I've already looked into what it would cost to get cable internet service out here, and at this point I'm really thinking I may well just go ahead and switch. I have no confidence that anyone is actually going to show up this time, and evne if Ithey do I doubt they'll actually find and fix anything.
- Mood:
pissed the fuck off
Instead, I replaced the air filter in my car, and cleaned the K&N filter in
kesh's car. The K&N filters are kinda interesting. Instead of a paper filter that you just throw away, it's a cloth filter, coated with an oil that catches and holds dirt. You spray it down with a cleaner, and hose it out. Give it a fresh coat of the oil, and back in the car it goes. It's several times more expensive than a paper filter, but once you buy it, an $11 recharge kit can clean and recharge the filter many times.Speaking of cars, I'm really beginning to think about ordering one of these for my car.
dragoon3428, you wanna come down to Pikeville and help install it?Also, I'm headed up to Columbus for one day at the end of the month to attend Origins. Anyone else on here going and wanna get together for lunch/gaming/something?
Expect a post later describing some internet trouble I've been having the last couple days, along with some work updates.
- Mood: calm
I left a comment on the site, but considering the guy runs it himself and has moderation for comments turned on, I'm sure it'll never see the light of day. So I'll just post up here instead.
I first saw a trollish link on Fark to the "article" (I use the term loosely). I clicked through, just because the author claimed to have actual statistics (turns out it was a waste of time. Basically the article links to the VAERS, which the CDC maintains as a list of POSSIBLE adverse reactions to vaccinations. The VAERS report is actually a pretty interesting read. My problem is with what the author of the article tries to do with it.
FIrst, the author claims that "Math = over 18,000 kids "suddenly died" after vaccination according to the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)". Actually, the math shows that 14.2% of ALL events were serious events. There were 128,717 case reports, and 14.2% of that number is ~18,277 (obviously where the author got the figure that "over 18,000 kids 'suddnely died'". Now, first off, serious events are not just death... it also includes "life-threatening illness, hospitalization or prolongation of hospitalization, or permanent disability." So unless EVERY serious event was death, not "over 18,000 kids 'suddnely died'". Now, according to the actual article, over 1991-2001, incidents of death ranged from 1.4-2.3% of all reports. So, if we calculate using the maximum of 2.3%, that means that there were ~2,960 reported deaths, at a maximum (note, I've not looked into the full data, just the stuff in the "Serious Adverse Events" section.
Now, we know that there were, at most, 2,960 deaths, which is a lot less than "over 18,000". Now, lets continue this trend. The calculations so far have not taken age into consideration. According to the introduction, 52.8% of the reported events were for what I would classify as children (<18 YOA). If we assume that the indience of death is uniform across the entire age range (which I know is a stretch, but I don't have time to dig into real figures, and apparently neither did the original author), we now wind up with 1563 children's deaths.
The author then tries to link vaccination to SIDS. He cherry-picks a few quotes, but misses the entire rest of the paragraph he picks one of his quotes from:
A clinical research team follows up on all deaths reported to VAERS. The majority of these deaths were ultimately classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Analysis of the age distribution and seasonality of infant deaths reported to VAERS indicated that they matched the age distribution and seasonality of SIDS; both peaked at aged 2--4 months and during the winter (15). The decrease in deaths reported to VAERS since 1992--1993 parallels the overall decrease in SIDS in the U.S. population since the implementation of the Back to Sleep campaign (15). Carefully controlled epidemiologic studies consistently have not found any association between SIDS and vaccines (16--19). FDA and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed 206 deaths reported to VAERS during 1990--1991. Only one death was believed to have resulted from a vaccine. The patient was a woman aged 28 years who died from Guillain-Barré syndrome after tetanus vaccination (20). IOM concluded that the majority of deaths reported to VAERS are temporally but not causally related to vaccination (20). A similar conclusion was reached regarding neonatal deaths temporally reported to VAERS in association with hepatitis B vaccination (21). (emphasis mine)
So in short, there's been no demonstrated link between vaccination and SIDS, and in fact only ONE DEATH has been linked to vaccnation.
I guess what I'm saying is that just because someone posts something that claims to be supported by real evdence (even if the evidence itself appears to be credible), don't trust it. Always review the evidence, the citations, and make your own determination. I didn't really plan to even address this nutjob's claims, but they were just so easy- literally 3 minutes of flipping through the CDC's report had given me more than enough ammunition to fire a shot across the bow.
- Mood: amused
A month ago we made it in to Lexington for almost a week. It was nice to visit with family, but there was another purpose as well. We had previously secured tickets to a couple of shows.
First, we went to Cincinatti to see the Derek Trucks Band at Bogarts. The band was great, and you can really tell that Derek has been playing all his life. He pulled some very nice licks, and made it look easy. The venue, on the other hand, could have used some work. They had security at the door that would put a prison to shame... everyone was frisked, and the list of prohibited items included things like lighters, knives, inkpens and pencils. The venue itself is pretty cramped, and the bathrooms were some of the worst I've ever seen (yes, these even put the bathrooms at Tolly Ho to shame!) The show was definitely worth it, though, and I would encourage anyone who likes decent rock music to check them out. The show was in support of their new album, Already Free. You can also sometimes check Derek out if you see anything with Eric Clapton- Derek is the guitarist with long blond hair that usually plays with Clapton.
Then, on Sunday, we went to Louisville for what is quite possibly the most entertaining concert I've ever been to. We went to the Louisville Palace (an absolutely beautiful theater) to see Buddy Guy and BB King. Buddy Guy was up first, and started with one of my favorite songs from his new album, Skin Deep. He went on to play for around an hour and a half. He even walked out to the lobby while playing, with a wireless mike and guitar pack, and stopped to let people take pictures with him. The man <B>REALLY</B> knows how to work a crowd. BB King then came up and played for another almost 2 hours. His style is dramatically different to Buddy's, but it was definitely a good show. He would start a story, and play two or three songs releated to the story by the time he got to the end. It was really interesting to watch- I think most of his band had been with him for at least 15 years, and they ALL know exactly what was going on and what changes to hit. The whole group are excellent musicians, and it was a treat to watch them all interact with BB. All in all I'd been wanting to see both of these guys for the longest time, and the only way it could have been better is if they had both taken the stage together. Unfortunately they were not touring together, and had not had any time to put a couple numbers together.
This past weekend my dad and I went to Snowshoe Mountain for a little ski vacation. We used to ski many years ago when we lived in Penn, but hadn't been in probably 15 years, until we did a day trip to Winterplace earlier this year. We drove up Sunday (it's about a 5 hour drive from my place, with the last hour on some very twisty country roads- whee!), and stayed at the Inn at Snowshoe. Snowshoe's set up backwards from most ski resorts- usually everything is at the base of the mountain, and you take the lifts up to ski. At Snowshoe, everything's at the top of the mountain, and you take lifts to get back to all of the shops and restarunts. The Inn is actually 5 miles down the back side of the mountain, but it was substancially cheaper. On Sunday night we checked in, ran up the mountain to get my rental gear, and to get some dinner. We parked in the public parking and caught a bus over to Village Center. We wound up with several employees on the bus (which were pretty much the only people around on a Sunday night) and they all universally recommended that we eat at the Fox Fire Grill. We found the place pretty easy- it was done up like your stereotypical mountain lodge, with lots of wood paneling and the like. The recommendation turned out to be very good, as the food was good, and very fresh. The only real thing that you could complain about was that the kitchen was a little slow. We would visit Fox Fire again for lunch the next day. I had a burger topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, pork BBQ, and an onion ring- quite possibly the most bizarre, but tasty burger I've ever had. The skiing was pretty good- it was warm, in the 50's, but they had a good base of snow, and the resort crew had done a good job keeping the trails groomed. I'd taken a lesson back at Winterplace, and it was a good thing, too. The trails at Snowshoe are much longer, and I swear steeper, even for the beginner trails. We did a handful of runs before breaking for lunch. After lunch my dad and I split, and I went back to the bunny slopes to try work on my technique.
The bunny slope was nice and wide, and the grade was fairly shallow. It was only about a minute or two down, and then a couple minutes on the chair back up. I probably ran it about 15 times, and I was starting to get the hang of parallel skiing by the time I was done. This is a big improvement from the wedge technique they teach you in the beginner lessons. Once the lifts shut down we ran back to the hotel and relaxed for a while before heading back up the mountain for dinner. DInner was at the Cheat Mountain Pizzaria. We had a really nice pizza with an olive oil and pesto sauce, lots of cheeze, some pepperoni, ham and a few other things I can't quite remember.
Tuesday was originally planned to be a whole day of skiing and then staying in a Super8 that night before comming back on Wednesday, but both my dad and I were pretty weak in the legs by Tuesday morning, so we ran the morning, had a coffee, and headed home. Got home right around dark. I feel like I'm skiing better, I just need to loose some weight and get my physical conditioning up a bit more. The biggest disappointment for me was just my own physical shape.
The last note of import is that I've recently picked up a new computer- an Asus Eee 1000HE. I've wanted a netbook for a while now, and the Eee is new, and the price is reasonable. The 1000HE runs WinXP Home (will probably be upgraded to XP Pro at some day) and comes with a 160GB hard drive (will probably be upgraded to a SSD at some point) and 1 GB of RAM (already upgraded to 2GB). What I really like, however, is that the battery will last up to around 9 hours or so, even with the screen brightness set reasonably and the WiFI on. The keyboard is also fairly easy to use, as compared to some other netbooks I've tried in the past. It seems to be a good investment so far.
- Location:Home
- Mood:
tired - Music:None
Everything was going fine until I discovered that only one of the tuners in the receivers can access sat 119 at a time. 111 and 129 are just fine, both tuners can hit them at the same time. However, if one tuner is pulling from 119 (which happens to have MOST of Dish's SD content), and you try tune the other tuner to a channel that's on 119, it gives an 004 check switch error. It doesn't matter which tuner it is- whichever one is the second one started, it'll 004 on me.
Have to call the installer service company tomorrow and see what they say. I don't know if this is a common problem with a simple solution, or if it's going to involve sending someone out.
Finally, my HDMI and new speaker cables should be arriving via UPS tomorrow (big shout-out to Monoprice- www.monoprice.com). VERY reasonable cable prices, quick shipping, and excellent customer service.
The past two weeks have been kinda hectic. The other programmer at work took off from the previous Wed to this Wed, so I was stuck at work alone, doing the work of 3 people all by my self, while still trying to advance my own projects. More pain than it was worth, and I'm really starting to wonder if my time at this job may be coming to an end sooner than later. I'm just not sure the pay and other compensation is worth the frustration anymore.
So anyway, the other programmer comes back to work on Wed, and I take off Wed-Fri to come up to Lexington and visit with family. Unfortunately Kevin can't come, so I'm missing him terribly.
Wed I met my dad and sister at Slade, and we went out and hiked to Natural Bridge. My dad had never seen the bridge, and lamented this fact last time he was down, so we decided it would be a worthwhile time to go and look around. The weather was actually pretty pleasant, albeit chilly. I dressed about right and achieved my goal of returning to the car neither cold or sweaty. I really much prefer to hike in the cooler months, I just don't do well in the heat. I didn't bother to take any pictures, instead just choosing to hike and relax. On the way back we stopped at Miguel's Pizza and had a very good, very hot pizza. It's famous among the climbers in the area, and it's a neat little shop to sit in. Not only do they run a little pizzaria, they also have a campground, and sell climbing gear. All in all it was a neat little shop to hang out in for a while, and the pizza was pretty good, too!
Yesterday was spent around the house. My dad and I hung the Christmas lights outside, after going through and repairing all the sets and replacing all the burnt out bulbs (over 150 bulbs replaced this year). I'll try get some pictures of the house around Christmas, as I didn't bring a tripod this time.
Today I went out and did a little bit of shopping. Visited Half Price Books and found a couple LP's and some CD's. Ran through Circuit City without buying anything, picked up a few more sets of lights at Lowes, and ran by the Rusty Scabbard to pick up a copy of Monty Python Flux. Also ran by a gourmet shop called The Mousetrap to pick up some spicy salami and cheese. Tried a couple different cheeses until I found one that worked well with the salami. Came home and had leftovers for dinner. As tends to happen with my family I'm getting a little bit bored, since we mostly spend time sitting around watching TV. I'm going to have to try find something more fun to do tomorrow.
I think that's about all of note for now, I'll post more details once I'm back in Pikeville. I'll probably be heading back kinda early on Sunday, since the last forecast I saw called for some pretty nasty weather...
Oh, almost forgot, Kevin and I snagged some awesome seats to a B.B. King and Buddy Guy show in Louisville in mid-Feb. I CAN'T WAIT!
- Location:Lexington, KY
- Music:John Mayer and Buddy Guy
- Mood: amused
- Music:Time Is _-_ It's A Beautiful Day
Sirius just ran a cover of "Black Dog". I'm guessing it's supposed to have a more reggae groove to it. It really is dreadful. The singer sounds like he's trying to do a really bad Elvis...
Another interesting note: now that XM and Sirius have merged, the real reggae channel is now called "The Joint". This amuses me.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Info
- Mood: thankful
I'm on a mailing list for the opera house, since I occasionally go to shows there.
I just got a message with a special promotion. Everyone who gives blood is entered in a drawing for a pair of free passes, and all blood donors get a certificate for 20% off admission.
You can get a discount on Sweeney Todd tickets... by GIVING BLOOD!
- Mood: hee!
- Music:I Got Mine _-_ The Black Keys
One of the things that I've found to help is to just remember to make some time for myself every day. Ideally this time is right after work, but there's no requirement for that. I just like putting it there because it helps me separate my WORK time from MY time. I just make a point to do something just for me. It might be something as simple as putting on a CD and just listening for a while, or a nice long bath, or a little time with a good book. Some days it's getting together with friends to do some gaming, and some days it might be going out to a nice country road and opening the car up. But each day I try do something that's just for me, where I don't have to worry about anyone else, or any problems that may be going on.
The other trick I've found is to keep a list of things that need to be done, and try cross one thing off the list each day. With me it's usually something housework related- a load of laundry, cleaning up a room, something like that, because I'm bad on getting it done on my own. At least that way every day I can find one thing that I've accomplished.
I'll try post up soon about running Weekend in the Realms. I had a good time, and I think my players did too. I also made a couple new friends!
- Mood: calm
Quote from Apocalypse How on Discovery, re the Earth being consumed by a black hole:
"The black hole will simply dine upon the Earth. Because the side of the Earth closest to the black hole will feel a stronger source of gravity than the side that's farther, because it's closer to the black hole. And only one thing happens when that occurs: you break apart into two pieces. And then those break into pieces, and those break into pieces. And Earth just descends as this stream of particles down into the center of the black hole. It would be a bad day for Earth."
"Not only are you ripped apart into countless pieces as you descend into the black hole, you're getting extruded through the fabric of space and time, almost like toothpaste through the tube. There's a word for this, by the way. It's called spaghettification. You become spaghettified."
I've recently auditioned the two floorstanding/tower speakers in the new B&W 600 line. The 684's were much better than what I had, but still lost a bit of punch and muddied the sound a bit compared to the 683's.
I spent last night bolting the plinths to the bottom of a pair of new 683's, and putting on the floor spikes. Got them assembled and put roughly in position last night, and I've spent today tweaking position and aiming. Last night the sound was incredible and beautiful right at the center of the sofa, but if you got more than a few inches to the left or right, it got too heavy to whatever side you'd leaned to.
I've now aimed them to cross in front of the sofa, and the "sweet spot" is much wider now. As you move left or right, you move closer to that speaker, but farther from it's reference axis. You also move closer to the reference axis of the speaker that's now further away, so the sound stays more balanced.
I've spent all day listening to some of my favorite music again on these new speakers, and I'm continually blown away. I love these new speakers!
Posted using TxtLJ
- Mood:
WTF????
General Lloyd Fig Newton.
I had to go check. Yes, Fig is a nickname. You can find a biography at The Air Force site
