Remember that colonoscopy thing I talked about...
It turns out that I had a precancerous polyp. It sounds bad, but the fact that it was found early is good. When he told me that I had this particular polyp, it made me think such thoughts as, "wow, I'm glad we caught this early" to "whoa, things are getting to serious here" and even "I...can't...breathe...must...escape!"
Moral of the story...with your health, it pays to be proactive. If you don't like that, then stick it where the sun don't shine!
An L-user just asked me a very good question, "can the Spam filters be set to delete messages from my boss." Obviously, the answer is no (for her), but for me on the other hand...it has merit.
Just discovered that the rest of the building is sans electrical power. No wonder my phone was otherwise quiet this morning. That would explain the generator chugging away in the background.
I hate spam, but probably not for the same reason most people do...
As a System Admin, everyone (and I mean everyone) must cc me every stinking time they receive a nasty-gram that squeaked through the corporate spam-blocker. I have no control over the issue, just a pat set of steps that I've sent out at least a half-dozen times that the L-user needs to follow.
And guess what - nowhere in the steps does it say, "...and please notify myself every time you receive an spam message!"
Morons.
Ever get tired of waiting (and waiting and waiting) for Adobe Reader 6 to load and launch?
I just found an article that details how to reduce the number of plug-ins that are loaded, therefore speeding up the launch time.
Yeah!
I have now officially had a colonoscopy. To tell you the truth, I was a little worried, but it was not all that bad. Granted having to obstain from solids for almost 48 hours was a bit of a nuisance, and drinking 4 liters of Golytely in a one and a half hour period was a bit of a challenge, and then beating feet to the toilet every 20 minutes or so got old, the actual procedure was a breeze.
Speaking of breezes, I never even felt the one exposing my backside. I was put on versed and valium - not only did I get a nice buzz, I couldn't remember it. I vaguely remember coming out and seeing them snip something from the colon wall on the screen, but that's it. In fact, if it weren't for that, I wouldn't have known I was under at all.
The best part was eating my first solid meal in almost 2 days. It was delicious - Drunken Noodle at Sweet Basil.
We have been talking about re-modeling the upstairs bathroom for quite a while. It has majorly needed it due to rotting wallboard above the bathtub. It was so rotten that tiles had to be taped up to prevent them from falling out (or worse yet - in). We have had a black plastic bag taped over the gap for probably 9 months. Also, the particle wood floor under the linoleum has been the consistency of sawdust for a while.
There was always something or other keeping me from working on this room, but no longer. As of last Saturday, I have systematically stripped the bathroom to the bare essentials. I have removed all of the rotten wallboard (and then some), the crappy particle wood floor is history, the chincy sink & cabinet are gone. I now have repaired the thin spots in the plywood underfloor by cutting them out and reinforcing the floor underneath and then replacing the plywood. I painted the surface with Killz2 (sealer/primer) and then laid another layer of plywood (tongue & groove this time) over that crosswise to add more strength. I'm currently screwing it down and will patch the divits made by the screws with Fix-It-All which is a generic patching compund. If all goes well, tomorrow will see the new tub in place complete with plumbing.
The Centaur is way too cool. I liked the Segway and this looks just as good.
I'd like one sore throat, two dust mites, a couple bad breaths, oh and could you throw in a black death?
I collect e-mail accounts like other people collect, um, oh, say butterflies. Currently I have (or manage) at least one account on each of the following sites:
and now thanks to Valette, I can add a gmail account.
Believe it or not, I use each one for different things at different times. Some for friends and family, some for web registration, one or two for when I travel, and so forth. Maybe I'll try to downsize...maybe.
So, does anyone else suffer from multiple e-mail personality disorder? I'm thinking that I should start a 12 step program to help those of us who suffer from this malady. I can see it now...
Me: "Hi, I'm Joat, and I suffer from MEPD."
Other MEPD-ers: "Hi Joat!"
We could talk about our addiction and discuss ways to better manage fewer accounts to maximize their use. Of course we would also have to talk about being able to sow misinformation on the net to disguise or Internet use and web tracks, but that is another topic...
Anyway, I'm guessing that the group thing wouldn't work out. I'd have to get another account just to keep track of all the group e-mails anyway.
Well, I've been home for a week now and have yet to write anything about my 3 days in New Orleans (pronounce Nar'lins with a southern twist). My activities can be summed up in this manner: Bourbon Street, city tour, haunted tour, Bourbon Street, Six Flags, French Quarter, Bourbon Street.
As you can see, we spent quite a bit of time on Bourbon Street.
The first night was great. The majority of the team was there and we wandered the 5 or 6 blocks sorta like an amoeba. People hung out together, but team members would come and go as things interested them. The team has a pretty hardy party reputation and it can be kinda interesting to see how they decompress after being on a 2 week assignment sans alcoholic beverage of choice. Needless to say, when they are unleashed on a city where it is not just allowed, but encouraged to walk around with an alcoholic beverage in your hand, they did all they could to oblige. The best part (insert evil snicker) was the next morning watching everyone trying to drag themselves out of the hotel lobby and into the bus for the trip home.
I and two other team members decided to stay over two more days and do some sight seeing. We decided to do an Off The Beaten Path New Orleans city tour offered by Grayline. It was a very fun and informative tour. There were only six of us, which led to a much more informal and enlightening trip. The most interesting aspect for me was the tour of the cemetary. Especially the explanation of New Orleans' above ground burial system they developed due to the high water table in the city. (It is only 35 feet above sea level, but many parts are actually below Mississippi level).
That night, the three of us did a Ghost Tour. That trip could have been better with a better story teller, but still I came away with a strong sense of "Wow, New Orleans has really had a messed up life". Afterwards, we went back to Bourbon Street. I had a great time, but my compatriots complained that the street was more crowded and not as fun sober. To each his own.
Saturday we did Six Flags over New Orleans. When we arrived, the park hadn't even opened up yet. Once in, we rode ALL the major rides. The favorite would have to be Batman - The Ride. You basically hang with your feet dangling and then get flipped around (and upside down) a few times. My least favorite was the Zydeco Scream. The first (forward) part was great, but when you do the whole thing backwards, you really experience something different (but only once for this thrill seeker).
After Six Flags, we went and shopped at an open flea market in the French Quarter. Some great deals...and some great trash. It was under a large pavilion and actually a pretty nice environment. I bought all kinds of stuff for souvenirs as well as a few dresses for my wife. Now we just have to wait 8 months for it to be warm enough for her to wear them. New Orleans isn't noted for cold weather clothing...
That's enough. If you made it this far, then you'll know I had fun and that it would be great to go back and spend more time roaming around. I wanted to see the swap (on a tour), but you could only do so much in the time alotted - at least I have a reason to go back.
I'm in a funk. I really don't want to be at work right now. There is much BS coming down from on high that it could just about squeeze all life out of the pogues down below.
I think I like it better out in the field, it's easier to ignore the monkey on high and do my own thing. I guess I need to just hang around here long enough to dull my sensitivity to dull & meaningless work.
Google has created a new service called Google Alerts (which is still in beta). If you routinely look at the same searches on a daily, weekly, or as it happens basis, you can now be informed if the ranking changes on that search.
Now all I need is a Gmail account to collect all those searches...
In my inbox this morning was a newsletter published by Brian Livingston that detailed a fascinating article on unsubscription links contained in spam. When I say fascinating, it's more like a weird techno-geek fascination as opposed to a gee that's a pretty cool toy fascination.
There is a company called Lashback that has adopted some offensive anti-spam techniques. They are now actively catalogging unsubscribe links that harvest e-mail addresses and then post those bad boys on their website. The average user may not necessarily make direct use of these techniques, but the larger companies that can block web addresses on a corporate scale can certainly use this info in their black box of tools.