mc chris

Friday night I went out to Austin for some good times.
A friend of mine was in town for a concert and we decided to go together. We met up in early afternoon and later went to Emo's for the start of our scheduled fun. Manager's Choice - meh. Pong - a band of aging guys in pretty dorky matching outfits (sweatbands included), handing out brightly colored glasses that make you see rainbows, blacklights, playing music with a beat but the most repetitive and stupid lyrics. Enjoyable if you didn't pay too much attention to the music.

mc chris :)

In the genre of nerdcore rap with a voice that sounds like a ten year old girl....
He's everything his website advertises him to be, talented with the tunes, and in between songs a pretty good stand-up comedian. He can really manage a crowd, plus my amusement quota was more than fulfilled and there was much giggling (yes indeed, it's important to listen to his lyrics and not ignore them).
His website is here and after you enter, you can click on some buttons at the bottom left to hear a couple of his songs. To learn about him, click here.
The after-show movie at the Alamo Drafthouse was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Oddly enough I hadn't seen this movie (though I thought I had) and it's even possible that I haven't seen the first one... but I know for damn sure I've seen Raiders of the Lost Arc. Craziness. Anyhow, mc chris was there though not really a presence. His only instruction to us was to "make "ooh" noises when they touch the statue's boobies" and to be quiet - no talking. :)
It was pretty silly, and of course most enjoyable. My friend is quite a pleasure to be around as well and made it even better.

MySpace.com

So my sister was recently lured into the vast evil of the myspace realm. Even worse, she has insisted I join. She desires to put lurid little posts in the comment spaces, she wants to add me as a friend, add me as a friend of her husband (she created and maintains his myspace account), and post various questionably humourous things on the page.
I hesitate... and I hesitate more....
I just don't think I'm quite ready for a myspace account.... perhaps I never will be.
That is all.

Do post any comments you may have about myspace and/or my readiness - positive or negative.

(**Nannie and Papa - go to www.myspace.com, click the browse button, and see some of the vast underbelly of people's connectedness online.)

Funny Haha

I read my comic strip this morning and it was so dorky that it was immeasurably funny to me. So I must share.

Hmm that's a bit small, so for those of you without superpowers, click here to see it full size.

Also in the funny charts, someone has attempted to make that silly politician Foley's IM's into something innocent. I will tease you here with just a fragment:

Editorz (7:46:42 PM): Noo because I was bitten by a radioactive reindeer the other day
Editorz (7:46:55 PM): and so im turning into a deer
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): are you
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): yes its awkward
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): and my hands are starting to look like hoofs
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): and that’s a disadvantage in the hand modeling biz
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny
Editorz (7:47:23 PM): no antlers
Editorz (7:47:24 PM): people think antlers are the same as horns

It's quite amusing to read the whole thing, and it also shows how ridiculous it is to claim the IM's as non-sexual. The conversation goes on and on, with ponies, hand modelling jobs, and oh those towels! It's posted on The Poor Man Institute and I must give them kudos. Link here.

I hope you enjoyed my slice of funny for the day!

Read Any Good Books Lately?

Yes and no.
I picked out two books by the same author from my gorgeous bookshelves and happened to fortunately read them in order because they were a series.
Dorothy Cannell, The Thin Woman, The Widows Club
The first book was very cute, it had a lovely heroine and I spent a lot of time become emotionally invested in the woman. She ended up the winner at the end of the book, the challenge reached, the crime solved, the weight promblem dieted to death, the man on his knees, her life all came together like it should in the end. Happy endings.
The second book took all those happy feelings away as she fell apart emotionally as her life began to fall apart. :/ I'd spent the whole first book really liking this woman and I couldn't easily emotionally distance myself from her. Out of a weird perversion I needed to finish the book (and it got marginally better the last third of the book) so I determined to do it as quickly as possible to limit the depression and desperation that got transferred to moi.
The End

Tracking

Yes, I track everyone that visits my website. Rather I have a free program that does. So I know how many visitors I have, how often you come back, how you got to my website, etc.
Recently someone serached my blog for "ex girlfriend" O_o
I also got a visit from someone who googled "India" and "scooter" :)

For anyone interested, you can sign up at Statcounter.com

RoyCon!

The 50th Anniversary party of Connie and Roy, family friends. It was German themed with appropriate weird foods, beer, and a polka band! They hired the Bohemian Dutchmen, who did a splendid job oom-pah-pah-ing the evening away, as well as including Edelweis, the ever-present Chicken Dance, the Cotton-Eye Joe (unfortunately missing the necessary lyrics to shout out "bullshit!"), some nice waltzes, and a shaddish. It was good to touch base with most of the people there and I was surprised that I knew many of them. Connie and Roy were very happy and sweet as per usual and there were good feelings all around. I declare a successful party!

Waco Trip

Off to Waco at Friday noon (well a little later but noon was the plan). We took the cute little trailer my dad built for my parents to sleep in. An unexciting journey, I slept and read... and had a vanilla frosty. I realize my parents are randomly just as indecisive as moi - kinda good to know, kinda not. We dump the trailer and head back into town to meet A3 for dinner. We met Amy at the bank and got to chat with her co-workers and help pack up some of the Relay for Life paraphenalia. Italian at Mama Baris for dinner. Except for the kid - chicken strips and fries - children's menus are just criminal these days, nothing but unhealthy fried foods (rant on. stop.). Back to the house, kid to bed, time to help Amy color the posters she's making for decorating the tent. I thought about trying to do a color scheme but couldn't decide and so it all ended up random. Plus, because we had waterproof markers, they smeared all over the place and we decided to distract the eye from it with the clever use of dots of all colors like confetti all over the poster. Yay! To bed, to bed, and because my parents brought the trailer I got to forego the couch and sleep in the actual guest room.
Morning up, pizza for breakfast :) and the Little Mermaid (came out Tuesday, my sister is highly attuned to Disney releases and don't think she doesn't have as many Disney DVDs as she can find). Josh, Aaron's brother, came just in time for lunch. Kid to naptime, everyone else to chat and diddle away the day. 4 PM Amy begs me to come help set up, so I do. We do the easy-up tent, the other sleeping tent, pom-poms, posters, signs, tables, folding chairs, etc. We also sorted shirts and small gifts into smaller bags with names for the people at Amy's bank. Btw, it was a SNL themed event, the credit union was the Spartans, and I enjoyed the set-up and time before the event started much more than after it started.
After all our tasks were done, I quickly got bored... and hungry... and then cold... plus annoyed. For a while hunger trumped all, but it went hand in hand with annoyed. The event started and the first lap was the Survivors' Lap. It was kinda cool to see all the people who had defeated cancer walk by, but I'm not one to stand and cheer for 30 minutes...
Kids at the event outnumbered adults 3 to 1. Dislike immediately settled upon me. I'm surprised I made it 2 days as a teacher. Individual children.. mm okay, small groups of children... mm maybe, roving gangs of youth.... no. Watching children brings me no idealistic visions of a brighter tomorrow; instead I wonder at the humanity of living. I compare Bush to a child - ego-centric, selfish, lacking complexity, lacking subtlety, bleh - though for the sake of fairness on my list I do rank children above that nasty man. It made me realise something about why I enjoyed New York so very much - there are tons of people, just not all that many kids. I appreciate that it's Waco, it's a sinless place to bring your kids for a big party. It just wasn't the place for my jaded child-grumpy little self.
People started arriving - Aaron and Josh, with Andrew and my food (finally!), Mum and Dad with goldfish :) , more walkers. The time came to light the luminaries and for the speech of the night. The stadium lights went out and the candlelight was pretty nice, but when the "speech" started off with horrifically sentimental music, I decided to duck into the tent with Andrew and the portable DVD player rather than subject myself to 30 minutes of torture. I was already grumpy enough, thank you.
Shortly after all that ended, my Mum, Aaron and Josh decided it was time to go. I could either stay or go home at 4:30 so I went home, deicded I would attempt to get on a regular sleeping schedule and leave others to the inevitable fun of the big party. To bed, to bed. I actually fell asleep in the car for a short while because it was so nice and warm inside and surprising cold outside (50's - cold for Texas at least).
Breafast tacos in the morning, plus the box of free donuts my father couldn't resist the night before. We amused ourselves until we had to leave (shortly after 12) so we could get to the Byers' anniversary party back in Wimberley.
My apologies for a pretty boring post.

Out for a Movie

Today Mrs. Davidson called over and invited me to go see Flyboys with her. Always delighted to get out of the house, I said yes. She took me by the post office so I could mail my application packets (PACKETS MAILED! FINALLY! - now I get to wait.. :/ ..) and we also stopped by a gas station to get some candy (she claims they never have the Almonds Hershey bars at the movies).
Plus we got cokes and popcorn as well (though she pretty adamant that Mr. Pibbs was not nearly as good as Dr. Pepper).
The movie was decent, presentable to me because it had handsome young men and France involved. Mrs. Davidson (whose second husband, a fighter pilot in WW2 has died fairly recently) had a little more sniffling than would someone without her memories. She's not one to hide her feelings or overdo them either, and it was quite sweet and endearing.
People respond differently to Mrs. Davidson, and I'm not sure if it's her attitude or the get-up she was wearing. She had a denim jumpsuit with a scarf wrapped around it and a beige cowboy hat with a silver ring around it set with big hunks of turquoise. The people we ran into were uniformly cheerful and helpful, most going out of their way to treat this woman like a queen (except for the popcorn girl, but that can't be helped really as I'm fairly sure nothing would spark her into being more than an automaton).
All in all, good times. :)

My Daddy 3

Okay, better update. The doctor called back and they had found evidence of a baker's cyst in his knee through the sonogram pictures. Just for extra fun, my dad's had burst, making it more unpleasant - as in, now there's fluid around his ankles, etc.
For all the gooey details, I found a website - bigkneepain.com
Cute n'est pas?
And for all of you who want to know.... full details follow. Eww.

A Baker’s cyst is a membrane-lined sac of fluid that forms behind the knee.

A Baker’s cyst is formed when synovial fluid (fluid that is produced by the joint lining to lubricate and protect the joints) escapes from the knee joint capsule (also called the synovial sac or synovium) and forms a new sac outside the joint at the back of the knee.

There may be a slight bulge or noticeable lump, most visible when standing.

Baker’s Cyst is named after the British physician, Dr. William Baker (1839-1896), who published the first reports on synovial cysts of the knee joint. A Baker’s cyst is also called popliteal cyst as it occurs in the popliteal space - the area behind the knee joint.

Causes:

Conditions that cause an excessive amount of synovial fluid to be secreted, such as arthritis or torn cartilage in the knee, may lead to a Baker’s cyst. Advanced osteoarthritis is the most common cause of a Baker’s cyst in older adults.

Synovial fluid (a thick, sticky fluid that lubricates and protect the joints) is secreted by membranes lining the knee joint and is contained in the knee joint capsule. Excess synovial fluid may accumulate and the pressure may cause the knee joint capsule to herniate into the area in the back of the knee.

(Excessive fluid within the knee joint is called knee effusion and is often referred to as water on the knee)

Even if the knee is healthy, a Baker’s cyst may form if a normal bursa at the back of the knee (bursae are sacs containing synovial fluid that reduce friction in moving parts of joints) forms a tunnel that connects to the knee joint capsule and synovial fluid drains into the bursa at the back of the knee and causes it to swell. This cause is more common in children.

Symptoms:

In some cases there are no symptoms. The amount of swelling varies. Large cysts are obviously more problematic. Symptoms include discomfort or pain behind the knee and/or a feeling of fullness or tightness that worsens when standing. There may be difficulty bending the knee.

Occasionally a Baker’s cyst ruptures, causing acute pain behind the knee and pain, swelling, and redness of the calf. Since the symptoms of a ruptured Baker’s cyst are similar to those of a deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot in a deep vein) in the leg, immediate medical attention is needed to rule the latter out.

Treatment:

Treating the cause of the Baker’s cyst, e.g. arthritis or torn cartilage, usually reduces the swelling. If the Baker’s cyst is caused by torn cartilage, surgery to repair the cartilage may be necessary.

Reducing inflammation in the knee, whether from arthritis or an injury, may be achieved by temporarily reducing activity, elevating the knee above heart level (placing the knee on a pillow while lying down), applying ice (wrap ice in cloth and apply 20 minutes at a time, every three or four hours), wrapping the knee in an ACE bandage to provide compression, and anti-inflammatory medication. For more information on knee osteoarthritis, click here.

If the Baker’s cyst is not causing problems, no treatment is necessary. Baker’s cysts often eventually disappear without treatment. If the cyst is extremely large or painful it may be drained or surgically removed.

Aspiration: A Baker’s cyst can be drained using a needle/syringe but usually recurs if the primary problem causing the Baker’s cyst is still present.

Injection of corticosteroids: Cortisone (a powerful anti-inflammatory) may be injected to reduce the amount of fluid being produced. Again, this may only help temporarily.

Surgery: A Baker’s cyst can be surgically removed if problems persist despite treatment of the condition that caused the Baker’s cyst. Surgery is usually not necessary.

In rare cases, a lump behind the knee may be a tumor. Always seek a proper diagnosis from a qualified physician.

My Daddy 2

Went to the doctor, who was concerned, so then we went to south Austin to check out the possiblity of a blood clot. Nope, safe from that. The most likely culprit is my father's use (abuse) of his knees/calves. The fun part? Hearing my dad relate what happens in doctor's offices. Apparently they went up close to his groin and worked down his leg, and it tickled. So he'd be giggling while a professional had their hand up his shorts. :D

In other news, people are fascinated with new vending machines that sell iPods, cell phones, headphones and other accessories. They are not in Japan :P but in San Fran, Vegas, and random airports. They're so thrilled they take video clips of themselves using the new machines and post them on YouTube. Article - Clickee! Videos - Clickee!

Also, Shaq disses the new NBA game balls. Clickee!

And finally, a Taiwanese guy named Wang made it in the States to become a New York Yankee, and people are showing the love. Kudos to Matt for finding the picture.

My Daddy...

... has something wrong with him. His knee is swollen, his calf is swollen, his ankles are sometimes swollen. He's having some trouble walking, especially steps. He jokes of blood clots and losing legs.
He's worried, which makes us worried.
Doctor's appointment tomorrow morning.
Wish us luck.

Zorbing?

One of my favorite bloggers is visiting New Zealand and he keeps finding weird things to do.
His latest is particularly noteworthy. You get in a giant ball full of air and go rolling.
Hmmm.
Link here.

Water Ballons!

Water balloons will never grow old, but here is a slightly different take. It's bursting in super slow - motion and is quite entrancing. Enjoy!


In other news, I hate application essays. The Miss World Contest 2006 is over - Congrats to Miss Czech Republic. My cat snores. Too many people are taking guns into schools.

Mrs. D

Last night I went to my neighbor's house and spent three hours playing gin and chatting. It reminded me of my childhood and it made me feel much better. So even though I'm stuck out here with nothing to do, at least I know I have a friend across the street. :)
Plus I whooped up in gin!

Little Piggies

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home. This little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none. This little piggy cried "Yes! Yes! Yes!" all the way home.

Cat Gladiators

So my cats now enagage in a simulation of the Gladiators show - minus the big padded shoving/whacking sticks. It surprised me really. Looking back I realize it wasn't a sudden manifestation, but somehow I guess I never expected it to reach these levels of drama. There was the early tension, the chasing, more recently the occasional swatting. Now they remind me of the lion fight scenes with Scar in The Lion King. It's brutal. But apparently still all mildly fun and games to the participants. Hunh.

Chicken Little

Hmmm. G-rated movies. I wasn't exactly sure they still existed... But they do. What has this movie got in its favor? Umm.... there's tons of music! Animation! Cute aliens! Great voices! 'Twas well done. Is it now my favorite movie ever? Uh, well no. Will I ever watch it again? Maybe, if there isn't anything better on and I really want to see a movie. It was cute.