Monthly Archives: August 2004

Baby Got (Bad) Back

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Right. All this blogging and sitting hunched over reading everyone and everything I can isn’t good. I’ve had back and neck and shoulder problems since… God, donkeys’ ages ago, and it’s gotten worse in the last 6 months or so.

Why yes, that coincides with beginning the blog. Never mind that now.

Stress just makes it worse. The day after getting back from the California trip where the long massage I’d had made everything feel great, my back started to tighten up and I got those warning twinges in the side of my neck and between my shoulder blades. Yep, pretty much the first morning at work, I was hurting again. Stress.

It’s not terribly painful, but it’s an “on the edge” kind of ache; the kind where if I turn the wrong way, or even get badly startled, I’ll get a neck spasm. Which is not good, because the last really bad one I had kept me off work for a couple of days and required a trip to the doctor for an adjustment (he’s an orthopedist). And this means getting all bent up like a pretzle.

The other day I discovered that there’s a chiropractor/massage therapy practice nearby, and decided to go in for an evaluation. Turns out that something I was told years ago was true – my right leg is slightly longer than my left. And this throws all the muscles and joints on the left side off, in an attempt to compensate. It looks like I’ll be going to the chiropractor at least a couple of times a month, but on the upside each visit comes with a 20 minute massage.

I had a free trial massage last night that was just 10 minutes.

Let me tell you, that was the longest 10 minutes of my life (in a good way). My neck, shoulders and the small of my back got worked over pretty good. The masseur was a very strong young guy – kind of weird not having a female massage therapist, but given how much schedule meshes with theirs, I think I’ll continue with the guy.

He had knuckles like rocks, and he seemed to know exactly where all the knots were in my shoulders and at the base of my spine. Oy. OW. However, I can tell it helps.

I’ll be unlearning some old bad habits… slouching! Stop slouching! Or I’ll end up with that tech-worker’s hump thing, which we don’t want.

Hell…lo Yes, I’d Like To Order A Pizza

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Get Fuzzy 08/29/04

Funnies Stuff

Bucky Katt is at it again: he proposes to make dinner for Rob and Satchel. He says he shall require a plump rat, a sprig of catnip, and a throw rug. Cotton.

I think I know what the throw rug is for.

Food Stuff

We didn’t order a pizza tonight, we marinated some salmon in a ponzu-like concoction that consisted of soysauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, toasted sesame seeds, ground multi-colored pepper, and garlic. This time, there was a little wasabi in there. Last time, I grated some orange zest in there. Either way, it was good: we marinated it for about 20 minutes on each side, ending with the skin side up. Then I drained off most of the marinade, rubbed a little olive oil on the skin, baked in the same dish at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, flipped it skin side down, and it finished baking in about another 15 minutes or so.

It was very good.

Blog Stuff

I was tinkering around a lot under the hood and messing with uploading photos and things. Somehow, I got the missing image borders working in Mozilla – I have no idea quite how. It started when I gave in and started a Blogger blog just so I could comment on other Blogger users’ blogs without having to be some lame-o Anonymous type. Then I had to tinker around with Hello(free photo uploading software for Blogger) because I realized belatedly that I had created my new blog bass-ackwards. I may use it for photos, or for something completely different: it’s called Razzberry Vinaigrette and it already has a comment because I left one at Bard’s nifty new site, Writ in Ether.

In the course of tinkering and peeking under the hood at the new template, I realized it had the right CSS combo to get the image borders working right in Mozilla – at least partly. Then I somehow managed to get it working right over here.

With me so far? No, I didn’t think so. I bumbled my way into the solution somehow.

Church Stuff

Father Durst went out on a limb today in his sermon… damn, that’s ANOTHER category… wait a minute…. there. Okay, he said something very brave and probably foolhardy: he mentioned that someone had said to him in the previous week that they were bothered at the sight of two men exchanging the kiss of peace. This would be Fr. Ted and Mark, his partner of 8 years. Since he stated in the sermon that they are both very open and matter-of-fact about their relationship, I don’t think I have to maintain radio silence on the matter any more (which means the big fat sloppy hints must go). Anyway, he tackled the matter as a side-theme in his sermon – the main theme was the parable of the banqueting table from Luke 14:1,7-14. All are welcome, and so on. The upshot was that he and the mystery person resolved their differences (I hope permanently), and Katie and I wondered who it might have been. I really hope this resolution won’t be one of those spiritual and emotional band-aids that keeps falling off and getting stuck back on over a nasty little festering bit.

I like Fr. Ted and Mark, but better not make an ass of myself in the upcoming Bishop’s Committee meeting on Wednesday (630pm, doofus, don’t forget!) or I’ll end up as sermon fodder.

And that really seems to catch us up. There’s more, but that would require yet another category.

Colin The Assarian

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The TAR recaplet from Miss Alli at TWOP:

Colin puts the Colin puts the “ugh” in “Ugly American” this week as he decides to stage an international incident over 50 dollars. Snarky local authorities (why yes, they do speak English…does Colin speak Swahili?), lectures on contract law, bugged-out eyes, and an aggravated girlfriend combine to make him appear to be just about the biggest jackhole they’ve ever put on this show. And remember, we know Wil. Elsewhere, the Twinkies learn that even stopped instincts are right twice a day, Chip learns that being a generous tipper is a dangerous game, and Nicole learns that it’s always smart to carry small bills. Oh, and Shecky the Comedy Camel’s many relatives are out in force as the teams make their way to a non-elimination point. Next week, the Twinkies will be cash-free, so look for them to [head-tilt] “manipulate” strangers out of their money. That should be fun.

I have to add that this episode has generated even more “hits” in my Bloglines feed search than the last one, when Charla and Mirna got eliminated. And it’s the first time that requests for Bittorrents showed up in the aggregator, too. All kinds of people had lots to say about the episode this week, much of it surprisingly consistent:

  • Colin’s an ass (hole, hat, tard, etc.)
  • Christie should get away from him, not apologize for not supporting him
  • “Do you speak English? Yes, do you speak Swahili:” Best. Putdown. Ever.
  • The Twins are not as think as they cute they are

Due to the RNC coverage on Tuesday, next week’s episode will be showin in Chicago at 8pm according to the local CBS affiliate’s schedule.

Dueling Tributes

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The Repubs’ tribute to Johnny Cash is causing a ruckus, some fans plan a protest tribute of their own – they’ll dress up as Cash and sing his songs.

Johnny Cash's Finger

He was his own man, that Man in Black. I wonder what he’d think? The Cash estate have not objected, because the Cash tribute is part of a program honoring a longtime friend of the musician’s, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee).

Keillor Discovers Pithecanthropus Republicanii

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Via The Smirking Chimp: Garrison Keillor lambastes the Right with near-Elizabethan virtuousity.

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.

In college one of my favorite courses was on Elizabethan poetry and prose. There was a large subset of the selections we read that covered the near-orgasmic glee with which Elizabethans heaped scorn and abuse on each other. They loved the English language with a passion – and it showed in the fabulous things they wrote, especially when they were giving somebody a well-deserved literary lashing. Keillor’s essay almost comes up to that level.

I wholeheartedly agree with his assessment: the rest of the world thinks we’re an ADD-addled nation of cultural morons, armed to the teeth and full up to the eyeballs in arrogance. He’s right. The mild-mannered singing radio host from Minnesota is right. We’re better than that, or we used to be. We’re devolving into separate political species – Pithecanthropus Republicanii, and another that I call Bilittorapithecus Democratensis. And the second of our great national tribal gatherings is all set to start, complete with competing gatherings featuring the 21st centure equivalent of throwing bones in the air and dancing around enigmatic monoliths.

As a member of the second tribe, I won’t be enjoying next week’s coverage very much. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to start gathering my tribal regalia – the ABB button will definitely be worn.

Air America Radio on Windows Media

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Yay! AAR has a Windows Media link on the “Listen Live” link. This means that I could listen at work without a delay, and also means I can listen to Randi Rhodes again. Now that my schedule keeps me shackeled to my SABRE set until 6pm or after, this is a damn good thing.

Great American Shout Out

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Al Franken had an idea: what if everyone in America that disagreed with Bushco’s agenda ran outside at the same time(10pm Eastern?) and shouted“Oh no ya don’t!” or equivalent local colloquialisms.

In Chicago, this means we’ll run out and yell “You’ve got to be (fuckin’) kiddin’ me!” (suburbs) or “Don’t even go there” (downtown) or “Oh no you di’int!” (Southside).

In New York, they’ll apparently holler “Fuggedabouddit!”

Set Dental Phaser On “Annoying Whine”

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phaser.gifI had a dental appointment earlier this evening to do something or other to an area between two back molars. This involved some drilling and physical effort on my dentist’s part; he all but had to put a knee on my chest to get the leverage he needed to install something that felt like the world’s largest popcorn hull between the two teeth.

Then there was some mysterious tinkering with liquid ceramics (huh?) and catalyzing hardeners and half a hardware store’s worth of grabbers and wrenches and long pinchy hemostatmajiggers.

This process is repeated several times. Every time he sets the ceramics (or whatever the hell that stuff is that he injects that hardens up real quick) he uses some gizmo that looks like a small blow dryer. He says it hardens the goo with ultraviolet light (huh?).

What it amounts to is that he sticks a dental phaser in my mouth, set to “Annoying Whine.”

And now I see via ***DDtB that something like the fictional Classic Star Trek phasers are not that far-fetched. Law enforcement and military applications galore.

Eesh. Meanwhile, my mouth is feeling better, but I probably shouldn’t have had the sesame seeds in my rice for dinner. I forsee flossing in my future.

I’m In The Taxi of The Despicables

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It’s official. Colin and Christie are my new favorite TAR team to despise. More taxi shenanigans, and boy did sweet karma bite him in the Xtreme ass: a flat tire, a tantrum in which he attempted to short the hapless taxi driver, and very nearly, a stay in the Kilimanjaro International Airport hoosegow.

And still this team came in first and won a trip to the Caribbean. However, the laggards finished up most satisfactorily; the idiot twins drove right into the gate of the location of the skydiving stunt, but in spite of a big honkin’ red and yellow flag that they both saw, one twin overruled the other and followed a team more lost than they were. So they pulled out and followed the other team right into a turnaround and back into the gate they just left.

Idiots.

They were last, but it was non-elimination, so they lost all their money.

We wasted 30 minutes on the Taxi-Assiness of Colin, and there was no Roadblock task shown, probably because the mellerdrammer at the airport was so damn compelling.

Also, there was some interesting melting down going on in Nicole’s head, because she was freaking out that Brandon paid full price. Chip attempted to explain that a hundred US dollars is a hell of a lot of money pumped into the local economy but she wasn’t buying any of it.

Poor Christie found herself apologizing for not keeping out of Colin’s face while he had his asshat on. And he actually clapped for her to keep up with him at one point, as you would for a wandering dog or toddler.

Yikes. Lots of people were wondering this week if Mirna was right about him after all.

Next week, Colin takes a job as a fudgepacker (we wish). No, he appears to be making mud bricks. And bad Phil! That voiceover was a spoiler!

Speaking of spoilers… maybe some major ones for TAR 6, but I’ll pretend I didn’t see them (even though it’s totally killing me. Killing me with the stings of a thousand unused honeybees from last week’s Roadblock.