frissonic

I'm sorry for your losses. You're right: you hear things like this, and sports takes such a back seat. I hope you can take solace in the memories you have of these people.

Can't wake up before 7. I needed to be to work by 6 today because I'm leaving early and don't want to burn PTO. Unfortunately, I'm going to be burning about 3 hours today. I guess it's okay, but still ... I'd rather not burn ANYthing--sick leave, floating holiday, PTO ... but something's taking a hit today. Ironically, for the very reason I'm leaving early--to go to the hospital for another round of MRIs to figure out this back issue.

i heard that too. question is: WHERE is he going? maybe he's leaving for NC so he can pack and move to WNY? maybe? hopefully ...?

They haven't fired Regier or Ruff; there is NO WAY they let him go for a single tweet.

if by "subliminal," you mean "hitting you repeatedly over the head with a sledge hammer, you are correct. :)

apparently, the bills are in the early hunt for mario manningham. thoughts?

just had a meeting with some higher-up engineers for one of our aircraft. one of our other writing team is also from buffalo. he was completely unaware of the williams potential signing, and he and i were chatting before the engineers showed up. as soon as they walked in and heard the conversation, one of them piped up and said, "WIVB reported that williams was at the airport picking up his fiancee. you don't do that if you're not planning on signing." come to find out, this guy in his mid-60s grew up in the syracuse area, and he's a HUGE bills fan. he was pissed that he had to interrupt HIS GR listening to come to this meeting. chatting with me and the other writer totally made his day. we've been swapping bills emails since the end of the meeting. three words: intra-office networking. f***ing awesome.

Ha ha! Definitely not. I was non-plussed by the Bledsoe thing, and even the Music City Miracle was great ... up until "the bathroom break" (Bills scored the go-ahead TD with seconds left, I thought "this is in the bag," got up to hit up the bathroom, came back, and my college roommates were laughing their ###### off to the point of tears. I saw the screen and just about broke my roommate's TV with a throw-pillow). That was a pretty bad day. But this ... holy effing it-shay. This is psychotic. He signs, we are INSTANTLY a better d-team. However, as my buddy pointed out, we improve the pass rush and possibly some of the run ... but we still need help on defending in the secondary. BUT getting Williams puts a metric sh**-ton of pressure on the O-line, which puts more pressure on the QB ... possibly making the secondary not as large an issue. Bah. Just sign him and announce it already, for hell's sake.

Moat's interview in GR was absolutely mind-blowing. He's *way* too happy and excited. He knows something, and he can't say it. I haven't been this excited about the Bills ANYthing since halftime of Superbowl XXVIII.

just seen leaving buffalo medical group, per GR. possible physical? gah ... let's hope so.

Valium. In a world where Lortab can't even phase this back issue, Valium is doing its job. I can sit up, I can actually function, I can get work done, I'm *NOT* taking a sh**-ton of time off of work ... Yes, Valium is making life liveable. And yes--I got an MRI. Absolutely nothing showed up. No slipped disc. No torn muscle. No masses. Nothing at all ... yet I still feel like I've had a million knives driven deep into my lower back, traps, lats, and occipital muslces ... but *not* with the Valium.

so, iOS 5.1 was supposed to fix battery life. crock of crap. i drained 45% in *standby* over night. that's ridiculous. nothing running in the background other than facebook, which with 5.0.1 would have drained the battery *maybe* 5%. really kind of pissed at this ...

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSTFafMlk-o[/meda] This song came on Strangeways Radio. Went on an Alabama 3 kick for several hours.

http://www.timelapseplus.com/ for any of you budding or seasoned photographers, if your camera doesn't already support time lapse photography, this thing is going to set your world on fire when its released. i got in early and supported the project. the engineer guy is taking a LOT of feedback from the project backers and incorporating the best ideas into the firmware. for this coming road trip i'm taking to buffalo, and with the stops we're making in moab, i stand to make some pretty sweet time lapse vids. won't have to drag a laptop out to the shooting location; can just leave the device attached to the port, secure it with some velcro to the tripod, and let it do its thing for the next however many hours. i'm hoping to capture the rising and/or setting of the center of the milky way, something like this: http://youtu.be/KySThq5CxLI

Digitizing and dumping of our entire DVD collection. On our desktop computer, we have a grand total of 7.5TB of storage, split over 6 drives. 3 2TB drives, 3 500GB drives. 1 drive is dedicated to movies for our home theater network. We've had over 300 movies kicking around in DVD/BD format for years--yea, decades. Over the course of the last several months, I've been ripping them to this drive. It's been a labor-intensive effort, but it is done. Right now, an overwhelming vast majority of our movie discs are sitting at the local exchange shop, awaiting to be checked and tallied for a cash offer. I have an idea of what they'll fetch, but realistically speaking, I'm just happy to have them gone. At this point, I'm past keeping movies on disc when there are so many various ways to store them withouth taking up a lot of shelf space. I'd rather do that and have a more clean looking environment than have them kicking around. AND the beauty is that ANY of these movies can be played on our TV, or on our iPhones (not AirPlay; Air Video). If you're not familiar with it, I'd highly recommend checking it out.

if i know i'm going to be out for a while, regardless of how well whatever pain meds i'm on may work, i *always* bring an extra dose for the exact reason you mentioned. also as a general rule, i try (not so successfully) to take a minimum dose as well, so a) i don't get addicted, b) i don't end up building up a tolerance as fast. case in point: i used to get wicked severe tension headaches ALL the time. this recent back flare-up is bad, yes--but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the sh**-storm headaches i used to get. we're talking hospitalization on some occasions, with an IV drip of what the doctor called "a migraine cocktail (torodol, thorozine, and benedryl. trust me--you feel precisely nothing ... until it wears off, then you're back in the 3rd inner ring of hell.). anyway, most of the time, when i'd go to the med clinic, i'd be prescribed a muscle relaxant and a pain killer. the pain killer, almost invariably, was lortab. at first, one 5 mg pill would be enough to kick my ass to the curb from monday until thursday. that was 12 years ago. now, it takes a minimum of 10 mg to even dull the pain, and it lasts maybe 4-6 hours. not cool. especially when i'm only prescribed 20 5mg pills. at best, that lasts 2-3 days, after which i'm calling back and asking for a refill, and i end up looking like a freakin' pill junkie. thankfully my primary physician knows me well enough to know that i'm not, and he more often than not helps with refills. anyway, to LGR4M, indeed--ensure that you take your recommended dose as prescribed, but if you're out and about (AND you're not behind the wheel), bring a secondary or tertiary dose just in case. cuz yah--pain at that level can drive one to suicidal tendencies, even if you're never of that mindset as a general rule. i kid you not, i had my wisdom teeth taken out in portugal. i wasn't able to do much of anything for about 2 weeks other than sit up, drink through a straw, and eat pudding. good luck man! and thanks for the tests advice. i'm going to go in tomorrow (day off, thankfully).

wicked screwed up back. can't sleep more that 4-5 hours, and that's just from sheer exhaustion. can't get to my chiro until tomorrow. popping ibuprofen like they're little blue red hots. muscle relaxants and pain killers aren't even helping. a buddy suggested getting an MRI and look into steroid injections because this happens pretty regularly. if I were 12, i'd throw a "fml" in here, but really, this is but a hiccup. all things being equal, this is minor compared to what a real "fml" could be. so I guess from that perspective, I don't have much o complain about.

the site is back up. the pic they have of kassian is just hilarious. he looks like a grumpy little kid.

holy shizac. did not see that coming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwTv45OW5Yw

Here you go. This should solve it all. :) http://xkcd.com/627/

They're not exactly rock bios, but I've been reading a lot of Neil Peart lately. His lyrics have always fascinated me, and I thought his books would make for interesting reading. I was not disappointed. "Ghost Rider" has been my favorite, simply because of the subject matter (written as a documentary of his motorcycle trip after his wife and daughter died.) I find ways that people cope with such severe loss to be a fascinating read. Of course, I find Neil Peart fascinating on his own. I'm a big fan of drums. There are maybe a handful that fall in line with Neil on the 1-10 scale (Danny Carey is one, but that's just because Tool pretty much ignores anything conventional. You know you've got a good groove going when my wife says "Whoa ... that's slick," referencing the intro to "Ticks and Leeches"). Also reading the Dick Cheney auto-biography, "In My Time" and "Steve Jobs." In queue, there's Bush's "Decision Points," "The Anatomy of Peace" byThe Arbinger Institute, and a few other.

I can do that! Tech manuals are my bread and butter. :)

maybe it's just me ... but i think i just discovered what constitutes "too much".

oh yah. my other hobby is blogging, though i've lapsed pretty severely as of late. read all the crap i write here. when you say "get back into music," do you mean as a musician? producer? both? neither? i have this long-term dream/goal to recompose ravel's "bolero" entirely on a keyboard--all 13 movements. i've been picking through sounds and samples, and have contemplated helping to fund this kickstarter project to hopefully generate a billion more sounds. :)