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| Thursday, April 28th, 2005 | | 4:22 pm |
Boring day...
Yes I am still alive... Well looks like the Bill-Pay thru my bank worked fine, I checked my mortgage website and local phone service web site and money was deposited in the appropriate accounts. SO I guess it is reliable? Well I guess there is always next month to give it another chance... | | Monday, April 25th, 2005 | | 11:35 pm |
Well looks like no conventions this year...
Went to the Dentist today, and my mobile O2 still caused an incredible strain on my system. I'm thinking that I'm probably not going to be able to Attend the Atlanta Summer Sci-Fi con in June or Dragon*con in September. I would need to load up on the large O2 tanks and probably need to be in one of those Scooters to get around, plus I would need to get a hotel room at the Summer con even though it is just 8 miles down the road from me. I guess If I were rich I could hire a "Personal Assistant".
This is kind of Ironic. I have all the paperwork for the Handicapped parking permit, but I have to bring it to the DMV in person. So that is an actual major amount of effort to get the permit, when in reality I really don't save myself that much effort if I got the handicapped parking. So actually getting the Handicapped parking permit is my last priority on my list of todos... The Drs offices are often valet service, the supermarkets and stores usually have plenty of good parking during the day. I guess if I was going to a crowded resturant during the dinner rush the permit might help me, but what my life has become it really means very little... :( It is reaching the point where I'm driving the car just for the hell of it just to keep the engine active, although I can get my prescriptions and banking done via drive thru. So I guess the cost of gas is not hitting me as much as It would have a year ago before everything started to fall apart.
Current Mood: pissed | | Sunday, April 24th, 2005 | | 10:23 pm |
Are people on LJ getting lazier?
I've noticed on more than one show fan community that people are repeating the same posts over and over again as if they don't read any of the previous posts. So when on a particular show something happens and there are now 5-10 posts asking the same questions, now I could understand if it was just bad timing, but these posts are all spread out over a 1-2 hour period, and a large percentage of the people watch the show in other than Eastern Time so often there is like a 3 hour block where people post the same exact question. On one comminuty I posted a question and then literally had 20 people respond with the same exact response, you figure that when they see that there are 5+ responses that they might read to see if the question is answered and if they are going to respond, they might think better about it if they are not going to add anything to the conversation. If someone first responds with a simple yes or no and then someone responds a few hours later with a full screen worth of info than at least theorhetically the response adds value. But when someone responds 5 minutes later with "No" and then 20 other people respond with "no" (and it isn't a survey but a simple questions) they might realize they aren't adding anything. I'm just confused...
Current Mood: perplexed | | 9:28 pm |
A Kitty story...
One of my friends (the one who loves to bootleg DVDs) had a crazy cat, very pleasant but would attack out of nowhere (well more than the average kitty, kitty was responsibly for drawing more blood than the red cross). Well when his wife got pregnant Crazy Kitty got sent over to his sister's. Well the Crazy Kitty is no longer attacking all the time. There are two other kitties and two pre-teen kids in the Sister's house so now Crazy Kitty is too tuckered out on a daily basis to be attacking people (I suspect Crazy Kitty is also getting dressed up in little outfits, but have no proof). At least this is what I was told, I don't necessarily believe it, as I can't imagine this Crazy Kitty not being CRAZY...
Current Mood: disbelieving | | 12:59 pm |
Well trying Bill-Pay
Well figured it was free, so tried the electronic Bill-Bay option with my bank (not the Automatic, I hate automatic, each payment requires a click by me). I have web site access for the 3 bills I am paying to see if it works. I had heard horror stories about the bill-pay services in the past but that was several years ago, and figure that with web access on both sides of the transaction I can at least check up and see if it is reliable. That is 3 more monthly stamps that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kattgrrl and her ILK won't be getting from me anymore :p | | Friday, April 22nd, 2005 | | 4:12 pm |
| | 3:34 pm |
Interesting post relates to my old neighborhood...
brooklyngirl posted in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) brooklyn_usa some of her photos taken of a small amusement park in Brooklyn...
http://www.livejournal.com/users/brooklyngirl/186090.html
Turns out that was where I grew up, the 5th pic is one of the apartment buildings next to the apartment building I lived in. Funny thing is the amusement park was named after "Nellie Bly" who was supposedly a famous reporter around 100 years ago. But for the first 18 years of my life I had no idea it was named after a real person. If anything it was a rundown amusement park with lame ride. Only cool thing was that it had Miniature golf and it was cheap and close by (within the range of being close enough to not officially break my family rules by leaving the neighborhood, but big enough to hang out in and not get kicked out for loitering. ;) | | Thursday, April 21st, 2005 | | 12:14 pm |
Comedy Central "CON"...
Watched a few episodes of "Con" on Comedy Central http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/conskylerstone/ . Basic premise of the show is that a guy wants to get a free Dinner at a 4 star resturant or a free spa treatment at a ritzy spa, and goes about putting together a CON in order to get it for free...
The only problem is there are a few factors that make the show a little unrealisitic (perhaps probably intentional so as they don't get sued for teaching people how to REALLY Con free meals)
1) It takes place in Hollywood, where calling up and saying "We are making a pilot for a TV show, can we shoot at your establishment in you will get free advertising in lieu for free services" would work. Outside of LA (or maybe even NY City) would that work? Perhaps you might get a bite, but how many times would you just get a "No" on the phone.
2) He has a crew of friends to back him up by pretending to be Camera Men, and Producers, and etc, etc, etc. Jeeze in real life how many people could you get to assist you in getting a free $100-$200 meal/spa treatment before you were running at a loss favor wise??? Yes, I got a free $200 meal, but I have to spend the next 4 weekends helping people move from 3 story walkups... :p
3) Guy has a friend that looks like Brad Pitt, so they are able to fake a "Brad Pitt" appearance at the resturant to get a free meal. Actually I knew a guy who looked ALOT like Brad Pitt (I heard that he once was visting the Atlanta "Hollywood Cafe" and a bunch of Tourists saw him eating there and went crazy and started to chase him because he looked so much like Brad Pit). And to be honest I haven't spoken to the guy in over 5 years, so my one possible ability to play "The Con" falls thru due to lack of contact...
In a sense it kind of reminds me of those PBS woodwork shows. It is always going great and looks like a dooable project until the host goes and uses their 10,000RPM Motorized Mitar Saw to make the table legs just "perfect" and those of us with just hand tools end up with an ugly, wobbly resemblance of a table.
Current Mood:  confused | | Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 | | 12:20 am |
Dates in your life story...Part 2
Well today would be my Mother's birthday. She passed away late December 2001. She was 71... I have a pretty good memory of it because it was the first time I had flown (especially back to NY) since 9/11 at the time. Unlike my father who had passed away rather quickly after getting sick, she got sick early 1996 and slowly withered away. Originally it was a stroke, but it was effectively Alzhimers that really took her and then eventually just plain heart failure. By late 1998 she was pretty much a shell, and when I went to visit her (my brother had moved her out to Indiana so she could be in a nursing home near him and the kids) it was as if she wasn't really there. As a matter of fact when she did die, it was weird because it was as if she had died years before, and the body hung on.
On a positive she was a rather open person, didn't have to worry about holding back emotion. Perhaps that was because her father ran off to Join the Navy during WW2 (more actually to join the Black Market, and then ran off with an English woman to Australia till my Mother and her younger brother were legal so he could be a total deadbeat dad and she didn't want that to occur to her kids) I think that really helped develop her fearful personality, if there was something to be afraid of, she would find it. I remember one time my father was late coming home from work (it was raining hard and the subway was running slow) and she was totally panicked that she insisted that I run to the subway to meet him (the fact that there were 3 possible paths to the subway and I could very well have missed him in the process seemed to be a flaw in the though). So I find that the over cautiousness and sometime fear comes from my mother. And she was the Master of being Passive-Aggressive, it was amazing what she could get people to do with her Passive-Aggressive ways. Only a year or two before she got sick did I begin to understand the passive-aggressive ways.
Sadly I was not a great son after moving to Atlanta, the last few years we talked alot, but from 1991 to 1995 I had only been to visit her once. Part was I hated NY City and couldn't wait to get away, but I made plans to come visit (now remember this was a tiny NYC Apartment, Two small Bedrooms, 1 TINY Bath... So my brother who was visitng the week before decides to stay a week longer, so there are now 6+ people (My Mother, Me, My Brother, SIL, 2 Nephews and my brothers friend, you don't want to know) are now living in the apartment. You know real quickly that sharing a bathroom (take your smallest bathroom with a tub and remove all possible walking area) with 6 other people is not a pleasant experience, and I had grown up sharing it with My father, mother, brother and myself which was umbearable... So I couldn't take it and Delta had hourly flights to Atlanta so I flew back early. I felt sad as that was the last chance I had to be with her before she got sick, but I suspect my brother and SIL knew what they were doing in their own Passive-Aggressive game.
The one oddity, which I don't understand, but kind of do understand. My parents were forever yelling at each other, think Frank and Estelle Costanza from "Seinfeld". She would call my father a "Crazy person" since he was kind of Manic Depressive" but when he died, it was like he all of a sudden became "A Saint" So I guess all his negatives were melted away in her mind and he only spoke good of him (not a bad guy, but he had plenty of major faults) and sometimes when she would talk about him, I had to hold my tongue because I remembered how revisionist her history had become.
On a odd note, my mother always assumed that my brother would drop the ball when it came to the family stuff so always assumed I would be the one to pick things up, But it turned out that my Brother was "The Goto Man". Partially because he had a family so was in that mindset and my job had me doing alot of travelling as a consultant, but to be honest I was (and am probably still am) in Selfish Mode where my primary concern is ME, whereas my brother with his family had been in the mode of having to put others ahead of himself. I believe I would have picked up the responsibility, but since my brother was the one grabbing to pick up the responsibility I was more than willing to let him run with it. So in a way I let things down, but perhaps not because it was apparent my brother was doing the job...
Current Mood:  nostalgic | | Monday, April 18th, 2005 | | 11:49 pm |
A viewing recommendation...
Next week Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" is starting to re-air their "Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law". When Turner Networks got hold of all those film libraries they ended up owning the rights to a bunch of old 60s & 70's cartoons. So they took a lesser known "Superhero" called "Birdman" and created a bunch of 15 minute cartoons involving him as a now a overworked corporate Lawyer and defending cartoons for crimes. So Harvey Birdman over the episodes defends Fred Flinstone for being a "Mafia Don" and Boo-Boo-Bear for being the "Unibomber" and Shaggy and Scooby Doo get arrested for Marijuana Possession. It is a really great show, so if you can stay up or tape the show it is on Cartoon Network at Midnight ET (actually two 15 minute episodes Midnight and 12:15, repeated 3:00am-3:15)
If you love those old cartoons from the 60s and 70s and like seeing them totally messed with, this is a must see. These episodes are available on DVD, but for those who don't want to rent them, check them out. If I've ever made a recommendation that you agreed with, then please don't miss this show, you won't regret it...
Just look at these Screenshots...
Court Scene
Fred Flinstone on Trial
Speedbuggy on the witness stand...
 | | 2:11 pm |
Chipping away at Childhood memories...
Some of my earliest memories was visting the corner candy store in Brooklyn (actually it was 3 corners away, but they were the small one-way streets so crossing them was allowed at even a very young age). This place was called "Harmony" and probably every kid in a 10 square block radius (now we are talking about some of these blocks containing Apartment buildings with like 160 families PER building so that was ALOT of kids) Visiting "Harmony" was a daily occurrance, spend 25 cents on some candy (then of course due to inflation 35 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents, $1) and maybe baseball cards maybe a plastic model car, etc, etc, etc. A friend in the old neighborhood told me that they didn't renew their least so they closed down on March 31st. Another staple of my youth gone... :(
Now when my mother got sick in the mid 90s and I had to shut down the apartment, I did stop by "Harmony" and it kind of seemed quaint, esepcially when my ability to buy as much candy as I wanted was outweighed by the idea that 1 or 2 twix bars was more then I really had a desire for. But when a kid imagined being "Alone by himself in a Candy Store" that was the place I would have imagined myself...
Current Mood: nostalgic | | 1:38 pm |
How does a construction contractor not have a cell phone in 2005???
Well found a company to fix my wooden fence gate problem. But the guy is now over 1 hour late for showing up. I called the company and they said the guy does not have a cell phone, so they can't contact him... How the hell does someone who works on the road and does stuff like construction contracting NOT have a cell phone in 2005??? Jeeze, I caught hell from my boss in 2000 for not having a cell phone, and they would pay for it then, now it is alot cheaper... *bangs head* I mean I could understand if you are sitting at a desk all day, perhaps there is no need for a cell phone, but if you are constantly on the road and had to make appointments or delay or cancel appointment???
Current Mood: bewildered | | Saturday, April 16th, 2005 | | 10:49 pm |
| | Friday, April 15th, 2005 | | 9:03 pm |
Not a good O2 day...
Well took the mobile (shoulder slung) O2 tank and went to the Supermarket. Things are not working like I had hoped, I was exhausted and had to stop several times in the supermarket to catch my breath. They sent me a full blown mouth mask as it seems the nose-breathing isn't helping me when I go mobile, I will give that a try and hopefully it will be better. But when I'm around the house the nose breathing is relatively fine, but Mobile and it is useless. This stinks... :(
Current Mood: pissed | | Wednesday, April 13th, 2005 | | 9:05 pm |
Things change...
Now the first time I saw Lisa Hartman on this show, I thought she was a goddess, but looking at screenshots of the show, I'm not "Feeling the love" that I once did...
Perhaps in 1977, it was just any attractive blonde with big hair was considered similar to "The Farrah Mold"???
Perhaps my tastes have evolved? But I'll admit that Farrah Fawcett or Cheryl Ladd still make my heart go pitter-patter...So wouldn't that still apply to Lisa Hartman? Perhaps because Lisa Hartman became even more of a babe during the early 80s that her appearance here dosen't do my memory justice??? | | 2:38 pm |
Another game of "Will I be able to Order from the Italian Takeout Place"
Well I have a desire for good italian food, so I will attempt again at 5pm to order from the Good but Unreliable Italian Resuturant down the road...
Ok, here are the choices, Betting starts immediately
1) They will not answer the phone
2) Delivery Guy not available today
3) They don't have any of the food I want
4) They don't have some of the food I want (they tell me ahead of time)
5) They don't have some of the food I want (the don't tell me, just don't charge me when it is deliverd without the missing food)
6) They don't have some of the food I want (they charge me anyway, I have to call them back and complain)
7) Everything shows up as ordered...
8) OTHER (Explain)
If there is a combination I am not aware of, please use #8 Other to Explain...
Edit: Ok, I place the order in a few minutes, won't post the results till 7PM ET... ;) | | Tuesday, April 12th, 2005 | | 6:52 pm |
It is all in how you read it...
Here is an article that had the title of Study: Cloned Meat, Milk Nearly the Same
http://start.earthlink.net/article/hea?guid=20050412/425b47c0_3ca6_1552620050412-2012437196
Now the first time I read the title it was as if the Cloned Meat and Cloned Milk are nearly the same. Now at least where I grew up you didn't want your Meat acting like Milk and your Milk acting like Meat, two totally different items that should not be smililar. But of course the article was about how Cloned vs Non-Cloned was very similar. But the title confused me, perhaps my lack of an English teacher in 7th and 8th grade have given me tooo much of a disadvantage??? :p
Current Mood: cheezy | | 12:32 pm |
Respitory Therapist today..
Well the Respiatory therapist will be coming by soon to make sure the equipment is working, and make adjustments to settings, etc. Fun, Fun, Fun... | | Monday, April 11th, 2005 | | 3:54 pm |
Keep me away from open flame...
Went to the Dr. today, and my Oxygen level (which had been borderline needing oxygen assistance) was now way below the appropriate level, one of the reasons I was out of breath for even the slightest exhertion. So now I have one of those loud O2 machines in the house and I'm hooked up. A tried a few things and didn't get so tired so perhaps this will be a big deal. I even have portable canisters, but I'm not so good at using them, when I was a little kid I fell and broke my nose and have a deviated septum so am more of a mouth breather, and the portables by default are setup for nose breathing. Sometime this or next week a respirtory therapist will come and visit so I actually can learn better how to use better the machines (and they may need to be adjusted how much air they put out for my specific needs)
And I got the paperwork filled out for Handicapped Parking, see the women just LOVE the side slung O2 tanks and the Handicapped parking... The installer told me to avoid being near an open flame, luckily I barely cook and a microwave dosen't count so 99.999% of the time I don't have to worry...
Current Mood: aerated | | Sunday, April 10th, 2005 | | 6:36 pm |
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amused
And I figure well if it has to be remade, this is probably the way to do it...