As we leave 2012…

Stardate 67003.0

What to say about 2012…

 

The Traitor was re-elected, no doubt through massive fraud.

A couple of high-profile shootings will probably result in a back-door repeal of the Second Amendment.

I started a new Trek fanfic project, putting my TOTMM stuff even further back on the back burner.  In fact, I’m not sure I’ll ever finish them, now.

Met some new friends, drifted away from some old ones, and generally lived my life.

Oh, and I hurt my back again.  Unfortunately, this time, the herniation has lingered for SIX MONTHS, causing pain not only in my back, but down my right leg.

Here’s hoping 2013 will be better…

If it quacks, it’s no doctor…

Stardate 66641.5

Yeah, you’re getting a second post this morning…

I went to a specialist (specifically, and Orthopedist) about my back on Monday, and I will never go back there.

Let me start at the beginning.  The pain in my back did subside a bit, but then came back, though it’s now mostly in my buttocks and legs, rather than my lower back.

So my Primary Care Physician sends me to get some x-rays.  The morning after, I get a call saying that she saw evidence of arthritis in my lower back, though my right knee (which has caused me pain since I was a young boy) looks healthy.  She then sent me to the Orthopedist for more specialized treatment.

He takes a look the same x-rays and says there’s nothing wrong with me… despite the fact that it took ninety minutes to walk the same distance that I usually cover in thirty minutes.

Yes, you read that right.  I was in so much pain that it took me THREE TIMES AS LONG to walk to the doctor’s office, and even longer to walk home.

And the quack had the gall to tell me there was nothing wrong, and that he wouldn’t give me anything for the pain.

Not only that, he began the universal (and militantly hated) refrain of “if you’d just lose some weight”…

And that was when I knew I would never accept treatment from him, no matter how bad it gets.

The following morning, I called my Primary and told her as much.  I also asked if there was anything I could be prescribed for the pain, but I never heard back about that.

I’m practically overdosing on aspirin and acetaminophen, and it’s completely ineffective.  I’m in just as much pain as before.  TENS helps a little bit, but it fades within minutes, and the electrodes don’t hold when I’m moving.

I wish somebody would help stop the pain…

e-Harmony can kiss my ass!

Stardate 66641.5

Y’know, I hate eHarmony commercials.  They never say that they outright refuse anyone who doesn’t fit their “ideal” profile.

Like me.

Now I’ll grant the fact that I’ve got a few eccentricities, but that’s no reason to tell me I’m unmatchable.  And what’s with letting me take the whole thirty-minute test just to tell me they don’t want to help me find the woman of my dreams.

Am I unworthy of finding a companion?  Am I deficient in some way?

And who’s to say one of those other people that eHarmony refused isn’t my perfect match?

eHarmony should start a new website, just for us rejects.  Call it Matchmaker’s Nightmare or somesuch, so we know we’re going into.

It seems insulting that the people who need the most help are the very people sites like eHarmony outright reject.

That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.

Ow…

STARDATE 66386.1

I’ve injured my back again.

I did it twice, a little more than ten years ago.  That time, it was the result of improperly lifting one of those big leather lawyer’s chairs

This time was the result of cutting down a tree in my dad’s yard.

It had to be done, though.  It was growing up against the power lines, but the city wouldn’t do anything about it.

So my dad had me come over and use an old pair of old-fashioned hedge clippers.  The ones that look like bolt-cutters.

Of course, most of the cutting was over my head, so I spent much of the day with my back bent backward.

Not a good idea.

But, physical therapy and occasional doses of Tramadol seems to be helping me heal… except for the pain shooting down the back of my thighs whenever I stand up.

I’ll let you know how things go…

That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.

An open letter to the United States Senate

Stardate 66051.1

I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to vote "no" on cloture for S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act, on Jan. 24th. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. It does not deserve floor consideration.  I urge my representative to vote "no" on SOPA, the corresponding House bill.

Over coming days you'll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation.  We hope you'll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation by voting "no" on cloture.

---

SOPA and PIPA are so badly and broadly written that it would allow the government to censor the Internet in ways used only by totalitarian regimes.  Should this pass, the world will be imprisoned by the Great Firewall of America.

This is not opinion.  It is truth.  SOPA AND PIPA MUST BE STOPPED!

At the end of 2011…

Stardate 66003.0

Well, here we are, at the end of another year.

Last year, I posted a short look back at 2010.  2011 wasn’t all that much different, though there were a few notable events.

I took a trip to New York City, the first since I was a boy.  I also met several of the friends I made through being a fan of Fox News.  Overall, I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.

But the New York Subway System has too many stairs for its own good.

We lost some good people and took out some bad ones.  Good stuff happened and bad stuff happened.

My computer died and was reborn, my PDA died and I bought a Blackberry to replace it.

Ultimately, I have say it the same way I said it last year.  There were some good days, but, for the most part, 2011 sucked as bad as 2010 did.

Here’s hoping 2012 will be better.

Have a Happy New Year, if you can…

That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.

My baby’s home!

Stardate 65787.8

Well, my computer has finally come back from being serviced, and it works quite well.

Windows 7 Ultimate (up from Vista Home Premium) is amazing, and runs almost everything even better than it did before.

Of course, there were a couple of hitches, most likely on the part of either UPS (which I used to send the computer out) or FedEx (which was used to send it back).

The lower left corner, at the back, looks like someone dropped it on a hard surface, and the 3.5 inch bays were mounted crookedly (the bottom brackets had been screwed down, but were so bent out of alignment that the tabs on the top of the assembly weren’t in the slots in the bottom of the 5.25 inch bay stack).

As for Windows itself, I’m amazed how quickly it boots.  While XP and Vista took as much as two or three minutes from POST to desktop, Windows 7 is up within 30 seconds.

The only major glitch I’ve found so far is in Windows Media Center.  While it plays DVDs beautifully (which was the main reason for having it), it won’t play TV.  I can’t watch my cable TV through it because I don’t have an IR receiver (actually, I do, but WMC won’t recognize it for TV, despite the fact that it uses it) and I can’t watch Internet TV because it won’t play Flash-based video (the screen goes black, with only the mouse pointer and controls showing, and even blacker when they’re hidden).

But the machine works again, and that’s what’s most important.

Of course, with the new motherboard, I’ll be able to expand the memory.  Though the first step is to replace the existing two 2GB cut-rate crap modules with a single 4GB quality memory module.  I’ve decided on one from G.Skill, which can be had for around $80 on NewEgg.  It’ll be twice as fast as the existing memory, too!  If they weren’t so expensive, I’d up it to 8GB modules, for a total of 32GB, but cost will limit me to 4GB modules, for a total of 16GB.

Still, stuff like Lightwave should absolutely fly…

All in all, I’m very happy with the results.

Now I just have to wait for Star Trek Online to go Free to Play…

That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.

Update on life’s happenings…

Stardate 65669.0

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog, so I figured I ought to let those who follow this, but not Facebook or the Star Trek Photo-Manipulation Archive, know what’s been happening.

 

As of early July, I am living without a gallbladder.  The surgery (officially known as a Cholecystectomy) was anti-climactic, with the sore throat from being intubated for anesthesia hurting more than any of the incisions.

For those interested, here is a video about the procedure I underwent:

A couple of weeks later, my desktop computer blew its motherboard, and I had to send it to Missouri to have it checked out by a friend of mine.  Originally, I thought it was the primary hard drive, but it turns out that was fine.

I’ll be switching to an Athlon II dual core-based system (replacing an Intel Core2Duo), but the new motherboard will have more PCI slots and capability of expanding to 32 GB of DDR2 memory, though I’ll probably only go up to 16 GB, as anything more than a 4 GB module gets prohibitively expensive.  The board will, however, take even better chips, right up to AMD’s top of the line Phenom II X6 six-core chip, but, based on reviews, a Phenom II X4 quad-core system will be enough for any applications I may need.  Still, I may get the six-core system, just for bragging rights, as the performance falloff isn’t all that much.

In the interim, I’ve been using my Dell netbook, which has limited things somewhat.

Oh, and I’m getting a new phone later today.

I would have gone with something Android powered, but I hate the candybar form.  Hopefully, in a couple of years, someone will have come up with a flip-form Android.

I’ll have to get it through Amazon Wireless, though, since Sprint no longer offers it directly.

More updates as things happen…

Oh, and I’m now taking 30 units of Lantus per day.

That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it!