March 31, 2004 | Filed Under Food, Life | No Comments
I feel like I need to clear my head. Not that it is cluttered with anything, at least not anything important; it’s just that today, I have not been able to focus on any one thing for a period of time. It isn’t quite as bad as that woman on the commercial, the one that is now convincing a large number of adults in our country that they too can have ADD. (bwhahaahah – um whatever). It is more along the lines of feeling bored with most of the thoughts that are in my head.
Here is a run down of some of the random but nagging thoughts currently playing:
I should go running. I should work out more often than I do. I should read more. I should write more. I should really seed the yard this year. I think the month for that is April, but I’m not sure. I should go look that up. The phone hasn’t rang ONCE today, that is weird. I didn’t take anything out of the freezer for dinner. I guess I’ll make chicken. I am pretty tired of chicken. Last night I had strange dreams but I cannot remember what happened.
I feel better now.
* * * * * * * * * *
March 27, 2004 | Filed Under Holidays, Life | No Comments
First, I will educate you on the concept of re-gifting, and the various degrees in which it exists.
Re-gifting is the practice of taking an item that was given to you (as a gift), and giving it to another person (as a gift). This would make it a RE-GIFT. Re-gifting comes in many forms:
3rd Degree – You receive a gift that you either don’t like, doesn’t fit you or maybe it is just the wrong color. You appreciate the thought, but it just wasn’t the right gift for you.
Example: Someone gave Tim a bottle of Red Wine for his birthday. Tim doesn’t drink wine — as a matter of fact, he hates the stuff. Tim took the wine to a dinner party and gave it to the host & hostess. He did this because his mother taught him that a guest should never arrive empty-handed.
2nd Degree – You receive a gift from a close friend or family member. You already have this exact item. You stick it in the closet for a few months and later wrap it to give to that birthday person that you forgot about — until now.
Example: I received one of those fancy cork screw sets for my birthday last year. I love it, and use it all the time. For Christmas, I received another one, exactly like it from somebody else. I put the box in the closet, and I gave it to someone as a retirement gift last month. I did this because I like this item, and nobody knows it was a re-gift — until now.
1st Degree – This is by far the worst of the degrees of re-gifting. It is the one where do something horrid, such as returning the gift that someone gives you and using the money (or store credit) to buy something for the person who gave you the gift in the first place.
I am GUILTY of doing just that.
My Story: My cousin gave me a gift-card to JC Penney for Christmas. I forgot I had it until last week when I realized that her birthday was coming and we were all going to go out to dinner. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she told me she really preferred gift certificates or cards to places like JC Penney. I made an honest effort to purchase something for myself, but I didn’t find any shirts or shorts or anything else that I liked. Maybe it was my mood – maybe I just don’t like shopping.
My original plan was to get something for myself and then buy her a gift card. Since I found nothing I liked, I walked up to the counter and waited for the clerk to acknowledge me. When she asked how she could help me I was embarrassed to say what I wanted.
“Are you ready for this? This is going to make me sound like a bad person, but… I want to take the fifty dollars that is on this gift card,” I said as I placed the card that looked like Christmas on the counter, “and put it on a different gift card. Can you do that?”
She looked at the card and she told me they still sell cards like that, and why not just use it because it isn’t Christmas-y It is just a picture of a gift.”
I explained that I am re-gifting it, back to the same person that gave it to me for Christmas, so I would really just like to put the money on a card that at least LOOKED different. She assisted me with my transaction without seeming to pass judgment. I told her she was my hero of the day.
I gave the card to my cousin today… the re-gifted one. And, unless she is aware of this site, she doesn’t even know it.
* * * * * * * * * *
March 25, 2004 | Filed Under Cholesterol, Health & Doctors | No Comments
I finally got my Lipid Profile results back. They drew the blood — what was it, about a month ago? Either way it was an interesting conversation.
“Your cholesterol is really high,” said my doctor. We need to make some drastic dietary changes and get you on different medication.”
“STILL? REALLY? You’re kidding me. What is the number?” I asked in disbelief.
“257,” he replied.
“NO CHANGE AT ALL? Are you SERIOUS?” I was pretty upset by this news, and I don’t think I even tried to hide my disappointment. “Do you have any idea how much Colestipol SUCKS? Try a mouthful of SAND sometime – better yet – try it twice a day for 3 months.”
He looks at the chart. He looks up at me and says “ooh you know this is the wrong date! I’ll be right back. These were your original results.”
I looked at his pretty assistant and she smiled at me. I said, “Salad with no dressing. Baked potatoes with no butter and pasta without sauce, and he shocks me by telling me there was no change. That is just cruel.”
The doctor returns and says “I’m VERY impressed! it dropped by a LOT. 217. Usually the best we expect is a 10-15 point drop but yours is lower by a LOT! This is GREAT! Keep up whatever you are doing!”
I am happy to announce that:
I Lowered My Cholesterol!
Granted, I still need to get that number even lower – but that test was actually ONLY six weeks after starting the Colestipol and diet changes. I’ll have it tested again in about two months to see if it’s even lower.
* * * * * * * * * *
March 23, 2004 | Filed Under Dennis & Clan, Ranting | No Comments
Setting: Pero’s living room. He is sitting on the couch drinking water. His shirt and jeans have minor soiled areas, indicating he was doing yard work earlier. The television is on at a low volume, on Bravo cable network channel.
-=phone rings=-
Pero waits for the Caller ID to display the caller’s name. His expression is one of annoyance. The caller is Dennis. Pero has reinstalled their family’s computer twice since December. (The first time they had -been surprised- by the notorious Bla$terW0rm virus. The recent fix was less than a week ago because the System configuration file gets corrupted repeatedly).
He had returned the computer to them two days ago, and he has received at least five phone calls from Dennis, asking fundamental questions such as, “It wants tells me I need Quicktime 3 for this game. Should I install Quicktime 3?” (No, Dennis. Your computer has a newer version. The game should still work so if it lets you skip the QT install.) Many more calls like this one at all hours of the day and night have been pouring in. He sighs, and pushes the button.
Pero :. Hello?
(you can hear kids screaming and fighting in the background)
Dennis .: Guess what? It did it again.
Pero :. Which part? It does a lot of things.
Dennis .: My wife is pissed. She thinks I did it. It always breaks right after I install something. It doesn’t do it to her.
(kids screaming, young child crying)
Dennis .: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
(whimpering)
Dennis .: YOU HAVE a VOICE. USE IT.
(unintelligible mumbling)
Dennis .: Sorry. I am so sick of this thing. It keeps doing this. She is pissed at me like I did it.
Pero :. You have to be more specific than that?
Dennis .: It has that message again.
Pero, rubbing the top of his head. Facial expression is one of exasperation.
Pero :. Missing or corrupted system file, right?
(kids crying, Dennis says nothing… for almost thirty seconds.)
Dennis .: Yah that one. Why is it doing this? It wasn’t even the same game.
Pero :. I don’t know really. I only ran it for one day before giving it back. If you get your Win XP CD, we can fix it. I think there is something with your hardware conflicting with XP. It happens sometimes, so I don’t know what is causing this.
Dennis .: (sighs) O k a y.
Pero :. Put the CD in the drive, and push your power button.
Dennis .: Don’t I have to shut down?
Pero :. Not this time. It didn’t boot into Windows from what you told me right?
Dennis .: (getting punchy) NO I done told you it won’t start to Windows.
Pero :. You have to calm down or I can’t help you. Put the CD in and turn it off When you turn it on, watch the screen because it will prompt you “hit any key to boot to the CD” You only have about FIVE seconds so you have to be quick. Once it gets booted to the CD the screen will be black and have a letter C: prompt. Let me know when you are there.
Dennis .: No, this screen is blue. It says Copying setup files. Should I turn it off? It only gave me five seconds to hit the key. I think I missed it I can’t read that fast.
Pero begins running his hand through his hair while Dennis is ranting.
Pero :. No. If you just turn it off when it is writing to the drive, you could ruin your hard drive. Let it copy the files. Then I think it is F3 to exit. The screen will tell you what key to exit.
After four more attempts just to boot to the CD to get to the recovery console. Pero begins walking him through the steps to repair the corrupted file, reading each command one word at a time, sometimes using phonetic words for letters, such as: type Mike Delta – space temp (so it says MD TEMP) and hit enter.
Dennis interrupts him several times to complain about the computer some more. Many of the steps have to be repeated five to six times each.
Pero then informs Dennis that Once this is done the sound and video drivers will have to be fixed. Because by replacing the system configuration file we erased Windows information about where the drivers are. It’s not a big deal, we can fix it.
Dennis .: OH my god everything is huge. It’s all fked up. What is wrong with this computer? I hate it. This is such a pain in my ass. It’s wasting my time.
Pero (thinking) Yah well I know I’ve wasted a lot of my time on it. Reinstalled twice it for free, It doesn’t screw up when it’s here, so I don’t know.
Pero :. Doo-ooOOOd. You are going to have to calm down. I can’t walk you through this if you are too annoyed already to even listen to me.
Finally they managed to get it booted normally, and after a few attempts managed to get the drivers loaded.
Pero :. You need to be thinking about what you are going to want to put on it for an OS, because I can guarantee you this is going to keep happening. You may be better off with 98 Second Edition. I’d recommend Linux but it will be a lot of new stuff, and your games may not work with it, so either 98 or 2000. Win 2000 may not run your games either – the thing is we won’t really know unless we tried them.
Dennis .: Ok. well thanks. We’ll buy you dinner sometime or something.
Pero, having heard this before .: Yep. sounds good. Good luck. Hopefully it will work for a while. If this happens after a shut down, I’d just leave it running all the time.
Dennis .: I thought that was bad for it.
Pero :. No. Eventually you’ll have to re-boot it now and then, but I leave mine running constantly. It won’t hurt it. You may check the settings for the monitor just to make sure it at least turns off. Talk to you later.
Dennis hangs up without saying Bye.
(to nobody in particular)
Pero :. How rude. Nice talking to you. You’re welcome, I like to help. Have a good afternoon. Tell the kids I said hi. G’bye.
* * * * * * * * * *
March 22, 2004 | Filed Under Random Thoughts | No Comments
Here are some words I received in my e-mail today. Italicized text has been edited from the original wording.
so….my dear and most wonderful digital friend pero, here is the text of a postcard i picked up along with some good soothing (buddha is on the cover of one) massage music whilst on the book hunt:
(post it if you deem it worthy…otherwise just enjoy)
taoism: shit happens
buddhism: if shit happens, it isn’t really shit
hinduism: this shit has happened before
islam: if shit happens, it is the will of allah
catholicism: shit happens because you deserve it
protestantism: let shit happen to somebody else
judaism: why does shit always happen to me?
(nice work, i say.)
take good care ’til we meet again.
kate
* * * * * * * * * *
March 20, 2004 | Filed Under Getting Old? Me?, Life | No Comments
As I was laying on my kitchen floor, flat on my back and looking up at the ceiling, I noticed the cobweb beside one of the recessed lighting fixtures.
“Interesting. I wonder how long that has been there?” I said out loud to nobody in particular.
I suppose now I have to explain how it came to be that I was laying on the kitchen floor. I had been sitting in my living room, chatting with a few AIM friends and drinking coffee (at ten thirty at night, which is just one of those things I do from time to time since I am on a reverse schedule than normal people). I eventually became aware of the need to take a break, excused myself, turned on the away message –and although I had no need to do so, I RAN towards the kitchen. I believe that my intention was to slow down as I came to the 90 degree TURN to get to the half-bath which is off the laundry / garage area.
Once I hit the kitchen threshold, I realized that it is a very bad idea to run on a tile floor in sock-ed feet. I slid for a second stretched into what seemed a lot longer, then pivoted as I tried to save myself by reaching for the counter and found myself laying on the floor staring at the cobweb on the ceiling.
* * * * * * * * * *
