THE PACK Message Boards

Alright! My computer is up and running! I used my cousins XP and now it works!

been busy. lotsa stuff happenin.

-bought my first car. its actually in my name, makes me very happy^^ auto autions are great, got a decent 95 civic for little over 2G. the previous owner modded it a little bit. has a new radiator, plugs, and lots of new wires and tubes. also has this aftermarket intake that makes it sound retarded.

-got a temp job doing gruntwork for a catering company. kinda blows, but is pretty simple, and the bosses seem to like me. Hopefully means a quick raise.

-theres only 1 friggin store in louisville that carries 40K. and it is small and has short hours. but... suppose thats better than nothin.

-found my manual for C&C first decade. now i have teh cd keys to instal it. yay.

-the radio stations here blow. well, the one rock radio station blows. thank god FM99 streams.

-i had to re-pre order halo 3. gotta find a way to get my 30 bucks back from that EB Games in VA Beach.

w00t. i finally have time to post somethin, but not much to say. oh well....

Several developments...

Took Cristobel in and had a Condensator installed. It collects particulates that would otherwise go in and clog up the engine, reducing its lifespan and affecting the horsepower and gas mileage. The same place also installs the newly-approved flex-fuel switch kit and I ordered one. They're waiting on it to come in, but after it's installed I'll be able to run E85 fuel as well as straight unleaded gasoline. Me so stoked!

And today...went into my doctor, got Alien-probed. They found a polyp a few months ago and were going to take it out today, but it'd pulled a disappearing act. Polyp is GONE. There were a few patches in the near vicinity that looked like basal cell carcinomas so those were biopsied and sent to the lab for analysis. We're currently in a holding pattern waiting on the lab results.

If they turn out to be malignancies, I'm probably going back into the hospital for a cecectomy, which is basically an appendectomy + interest. If you know your anatomy, the cecum is that pouch at the end of the large intestine that has the appendix hanging off of it. Surgery would remove that and shorten me by another 3-4 inches...

Keeping fingers crossed that they're benign and I don't have to miss Burning Man AGAIN but given my medical history I'm assuming it's the Revenge of the Mutineers Glad I'm covered under the state high risk medical insurance pool...

My wife Cathey is home from surgery; she's had her right hip replaced, meaning that now both her hips are artificial. It'll be a few weeks before she's able to move around to any appreciable degree, and she's hurting a bit off and on. But, it's done, and by September or October, she'll be able to move about normally.

Glad to hear that she made it back from surgery.

As for me, since I made the original announcement in here - (I also am posting this in Conventions):

I am indeed going to Dragon Con now.

Same here Scott, i hope she has a speedy painless recovery

I start work at Wal-Mart to night, It's gonna suck. I can feel it in my bones. I wish i didn't have to work grave yard shift.

Scott: all the very best for Cathey's recovery.

Anubis: Just think, it could be worse. You could be working in a real graveyard...

This sucks.

I just suffered a detached retina yesterday and underwent surgery last night to fix it. I'm back to visual and health Square One and laid up in bed for the next week.

Doctor said if I'd waited two more days, I'd have lost the eye.

It gets better. I can't resume exercise for a WHOLE MONTH which means I'm out of the Andalusian Regionals, and probably the Friesian Regionals, too.

And here's the real rassafrackin' dingdong whammeroo. I can't travel to higher elevations because they put a bubble in my eye to keep it sealed while it heals. This will be in place for up to two months which means I can't go to Burning Man, either. This together with missing the Festival of the Andalusian is tearing me up because I've been in full-speed ahead gear-up mode for both for the past month.

Ghods Damit! When I said "I need to make time to catch up on my Harry Potter reading," I didn't have this in mind!

I'm sorry to hear that That really, really sucks...
Get well soon though

Sorry to hear about your setbacks, Vrikasatma. Hopefully things will sort themselves out.

Cathey's progressing along, walking with a walker and getting around the house. Pain overall isn't a major problem; she's already down to over-the-counter ibuprofen.

Man, is this the month for medical heaviness or what?!?
I know Leo is dramatic, but we're veering towards the operatic here.

Sadness indeed. Yet temper that with the fact that the retinal damage was found before you lost sight in that eye, and it becomes a bit of good luck.
What caused the detachment? Did you fall or was there a really hard landing that got you?
I'm sorry to hear this happened, but there was probably a reason for it...at least you're still here, and all of a piece.
So, start baking up a storm!
AND-Get better soon...

I :google:d "retinal detachment" and turned up a possible cause.

It can be attributed to my cataract surgery from last month. Retinal detachment is one of the hazards of cataract surgery and they told me that, so I was kind of on watch for it.

Now, everyone said that I was too young for cataract surgery; forty-somethings usually don't get it. Forty-somethings also don't tend to get colorectal cancer either, but there it is.

The cataracts came up from the prednisone that they treated me with shortly after my cancer surgery, because I had a full hysterectomy. Mom had hers done years and years ago, had prednisone, and has cataracts herself.

Furthermore, when undergoing cataract surgery at a young age (like myself), the chance increases to 7 in 1,000. And, if the subject has heavy myopia (near-sightedness), like me, the chances go up to something like 16 in 300.

I guess I just got struck by lightning. I'm mentally preparing myself for another bout when I get the other cataract currently forming in my right eye taken care of. Fortunately my eye doctor is REALLY good; they have people on call 24-7 and they'll come in anytime, even in the middle of the night. All I have to do is call the paging service and this time I know what to watch out for.

And...I know you're trying to make me feel better by saying "There's a reason for it," and thanks for the offer, but I'm not 100% convinced in that belief. Sometimes things work out for the best but that happens more often in books and movies than it does in real life.

Sometimes...the Worm eats you.

I'm also a proponent of acknowledging that medical problems happen randomly. I'm a big fan of creative visualization, and I've got the audiobook copy of Rhonda Byrne's The Secret on my iPod. (Two icons of the 2000s in the same place and time--pretty scary.) But, I disagree with her on her claim that disease is allegedly entirely because we allow it to exist in our minds. I've met people who couldn't possibly conceive of their problems. How could someone who has no grasp of diabetes after I explain it to him half a dozen times have mentally created the illness for himself? That concept also tends to sound a bit like what people accuse Catholicism of doing--making it your fault. Yes, smoking and drinking causes health problems, but I see a lot of people who did everything right come down with cancer. Cancer happens effectively randomly. You can lower your odds by doing everything right, but there's always the one smoker out there in his nineties who has to rag on the weight training bicyclist athletics instructor who got breast cancer before she was forty. (It's kind of like the one person who thought he could have been stuck in the crashed car when it exploded if he'd have had on his seatbelt. Never mind the thousands who die unbelted because their brains were splattered across asphalt.)

Note also that you're experiencing the one thing causing another. Fixing one problem using contemporary medicine causes another, and fixing that leads to yet another. Another liberating thing about transhumanism is that it would give us the ability to start over with a fresh body every now and then.

If God came up and said, "Diane, you're gonna get cancer. No way around it, it's gonna happen. But, I'm gonna let you choose which cancer to get" and trust me, the second to last type of cancer I'd have picked would have been colon cancer (pancreatic would lead the field, because getting that is a death sentence).

The scary thing is that I *did* do most everything right: avoided processed as much as I could, whole foods, whole grains, olive oil, daily exercise. But, I also spent most of my twenties and thirties in the company of smokers because my parents impressed it into me that being around tobacco smokers was eminently preferable to being around pot smokers. Ironic, that... And yes, colorectal cancer has been connected to second- and firsthand tobacco smoke.

Yeah, this is the latest domino-drop. We just opened up a nasty can of worms and right now, I'm thinking we'll never see the end of this, that I'm going to spend whatever years I have left to me, in and out of hospitals and treatment for this, that and the other.

Okay, so in six months I get another lens implanted in my right eye, no more contacts but a month after that's done, another retinal detachment. What's next? What does retinal surgery lead to? What backlash am I gonna get from the four daily drops of prednisolone, Vigamox and Cyclogil they have me on? And what about the FOLFOX chemo I had a year and a half ago? It killed the colorectal cancer but is it going to give me another kind of cancer that the FDA didn't foresee?

This is starting to read like the "Corrupted Wish" game...yeah, I asked for more time to catch up on my Harry Potter reading, but I sure as schitte didn't have this in mind...

On Rhonda Byrne: Yeah, that TOTALLY sounds like "blame the victim/you're only bringing it on yourself." There's a special corner of Hell reserved for people who keep that line of bullshit going.

On most other fronts I'm a proponent of Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" and similar philosophies. Indeed, I employ and rely upon them. I just don't think people create every illness. It's an established fact that people do create some problems--smoking, drinking, overeating--plenty of hard literature. It's beyond doubt, unless you're a lobbyist for the tobacco companies. But, I don't believe that people with pancreatic cancer or brain tumors caused their disease. And, again, how can someone manifest by belief a disease one has never heard of?

Proof of concept scenes being shot for Freeborn. Exciting stuff!



You guys deserve a bit of an update -- I haven't fallen off the face of the planet yet.


Let's see. I think I may have mentioned graduating with my Bachelor degree in computer science last year. I did quite well and I landed a temporary position (an internship of sorts) at the University of Washington as a software developer. They were impressed enough that they gave me a full staff position with good benefits and starting salary (three times what I have made in the past).

They were sad to see me leave, but I don't take to the idea that it's my lot in life to work on Someone Else's Ideas. To that end I have partnered with a co-worker and founded a start-up company. It would be unwise to divulge much to that end, but we have already received a small bootstrap investment and have been working diligently on our product.

The numbers are against me, but I'm young. It's the experience I'm chasing, so I can't really lose.


Best wishes to the Pack!



-- Vilkacis

Okay, one door closed and another is looking like it's gonna open. The latch has been flipped, the sash has been cracked, and within a month's time it could possibly open all the way.

My apartment rent just went through a big (20%) hike and we're within spitting distance of four-decimal rent here. I let slip an angry sigh; even though this is a good, safe neighbourhood, and the rest of the city is starting to tank sociopolitically, I'm not sure whether the extra $300 a month is worth the security. Brinks will cover a standalone house for one-third of that.

So I started looking around for alternatives. I was on the verge of exploring buying a house in the country when I heard about an eco-village a few miles north of here getting ready to open and actively soliciting members.

I checked it out thoroughly and was pleased to find that the community will have a workshop for metal and wood, among other artistic materials, but they also have a farming plot and their own Farmer's Market booth established. They have financial assistance for low-income applicants towards a down payment. Basically the only thing they don't have is a barn and pastures but I'm not planning on moving Tagie anytime soon anyway and they have large animal facilities at OSU-Corvallis. The village is, essentially, a condominium subdivision with a half-acre farm plot and green building techniques and materials.

I talked to Mom about it and she told me to gather as much information on it as I could (one step ahead of her...already doing). I'm going up on Saturday to make contact and get in the loop. Touching wood, if all goes well I could be celebrating this year's Holidaze in a brand new house in the country.

I'll keep you abreast of developments.

Bad news: Ecovillage is a no-go Read up on it more and my family can't swing it. Personally I think Mom's afraid that I'd have been making a foolish and irrevocable step; but, having cancer was a very foolish and hard-to-fix step and getting into a new house is a birthday party compared to that...

Good news: The bubble's out of my eye and it's slowly but surely healing. Still can't go to Burning Man

Semi-good news: With my eye healed up, I can go back to the barn. Still too little time before the Regionals for me to swot up and get in shape, but I can at least pit-crew and we're still taking Tagie. Cyndy's signed him up for five classes and is playing it by ear to take him into three more.

Fairly good and definitely exciting news...
Texas Pack members may want to pay attention...
Because Cyndy's talking about taking Tagie to the Nationals in Dallas-Fort Worth. And if he goes, I'll probably go. I'm still getting things together to be able to afford it, huddling with the rest of Team Cyndy, and finding out what's involved. But right now the chance of me finally going are about 60% likely.

Partics:
The Andalusian Regionals will be at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center, Ft. Worth TX, October 16-21.
We'll probably arrive a couple days early on the 14th.
Most of the classes Tagie has qualified for are on Saturday the 20th.
I'll likely be staying at the Residence Inn. That's where Team Cyndy stayed last time, and we'll probably be sharing a room.

Would LOVE it if I could hook up with some of the local Pack! Only don't howl around the horses...

Sorry to hear about the Non-Burning man, but the bubble is out and you can at least go to the Andalusian Regionals.
Keep a positive outlook: it'll drive people around you nuts!
Be well, and be happy!

Great news! Tagie won the English Pleasure Championship in an upset victory!! He is the top-ranking Half Andalusian in the Pacific Northwest in English Pleasure!

Kind of bummer news, though: We're not going to the Nationals this year. Can't afford it. But we're making plans to take a big contingent next year. So Texas people...you're still on Vrikasatma/Meritage watch, it's just been pushed back twelve months to October 2008.

Wait a minute...I just looked at that.

WHERE THE HELL HAS THE DECADE GONE?!?!

WHERE THE HELL HAS THE DECADE GONE?!?!

Been trying to find that out for sometime myself.

It's been a long decade from my end. I've done well, but it's been long. Everything that I was supposed to enjoy after the end of the nineties kind of got pushed back--I finished medical school, only to learn I had to do a three year residency of additional slave labor, and other things like that.

Well, we all know how the decade kicked off...then a war, then another war, then I got cancer which I'm still feeling the repercussions from...

Again I say, ye gods. Time flies when you're having fun...

yea, i'd say the decade went to hell in a handbasket and never really got out...