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Paul's Journal

paul
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01/08/2008 11:54 #42788

The clear liquid diet day
Category: health
More love for my new carrier
First another bonus to ATT. I just called a number I saw at our Human Resources for ATT discounts and when I called the representative, she applied a 24% discount to my account. That is a seriously significant discount.

Clear Liquid Diet Day
I didn't even start with my first clear liquid drink of the day but decided to weigh myself just to see how much weight I will lose through the whole laxative process before the scope tomorrow. Looks like I weighed in at 138 - and that is before. Just how little can I weight, like how much is (e:paul) without the food in him. I really don't know how laxative are going to help get any more out of me. Seeing as my body seems to take care of that by itself.

Here is an example day from

Breakfast Hot tea with lemon juice and 1 tsp sugar (no pulp); Apple juice (8 oz); Gelatin 1 cup
Lunch     Hot tea with lemon (no pulp) and sugar; Grape juice (8 oz); Fruit Ice (1 cup); Consommé (8 oz.)
Snack     Fruit juice (apple, cranberry or grape, 8 oz); Gelatin (1 cup)
Dinner     Hot tea with lemon and sugar; Apple juice (8 oz); Consommé (8 oz); Fruit Ice (1 cup)

I think I am just going to need to be sedated. Does vodka count in clear liquid diet? I seriously get crazy just missing one meal as I don't have much reserves.

Mind you just before thanksgiving I weighed about 150. So I figure at this rate I should be down to 100 lbs by summer. I think that is my target "die at" weight. That was supposed to be a pun on diet but it just sounds sad. Kind of like (e:vincent) said - if you get down to 150 and then you get sick it's too on the edge. Welcome to my life.

I am so freakin' scared. Things like this scare me to death. For some reason I am not really able to handle this so well. How are other people so good at coping with body based problems? They just make me feel so temporary. I think had it been anything else I could have lived with it. Save for maybe some injury to my penis. But messing with eating and sleeping ruins everythign for me. In my sad, non social existence, going out to eat was probably the only fun thing I did - and now that is ruined. There is nothig else to do in the winter fr me. I guess i oucld program more, or pick up some other stupid hobby but I really miss the social interaction that is eating.

At least I have a job that I can do without much physical effort. Imagine if I had a physically stressful, non-union job right now. I would probably end up being fired and losing my health insurance if I had any to begin with. I guess I am lucky in a way and should stop complaining. But it doesn't make it any less scary. I suppose it would all be much better if I had a doctor I communicated with I think the scariness is not really knowing anything or what to expect.

I cannot wait until my gastro appointment on the 24th. I will call tehm today and ask if there are any other earlier appointments.
mike - 01/08/08 22:19
good luck tomorrow! maybe they will solve everything and then you can eat lots of bacon !!!!!
fellyconnelly - 01/08/08 22:08
man i can't even miss 'snack time' without wanting to punch somebody in the head. I'm so sorry for you and hope they get to the bottom of this soon!
jenks - 01/08/08 18:32
oh yeah- and what's the ATT discount? is it a roswell thing?
jenks - 01/08/08 18:29
I freaking hate sites that only work in IE! the national grid online billpay site is like that too.

Good luck tomorrow paul. If I'm that neck of the woods I'll come say hi. What time is your appt?
paul - 01/08/08 12:13
I can't eblieve the blue cross site only works in IE. And by works I mean it suck to use in IE. Everythign is a pop up window, so much data seems wrong, it is so slow. It says my primary care's gender is B. Is that B for boy?

I woudl say it is possibly the worst site I ever used.
paul - 01/08/08 12:09
I called they put me back on the waiting list. I also called (e:imk2)'s doctor to see if she would take me as a patient but no one was there ;( so I left a message.

01/07/2008 11:48 #42780

Removing Wrinkles With Dermitage
Category: web
I am constantly amazed at advertisements that promise to remove wrinkles. They seem to make the usage of the product do more and more. Remember when they promised to remove fine lines and wrinkles.

But their site looks so trustworthy
I think this one, dermitage can't be real although their website is real pretty. It is one of those sites that give an sense of trust, even if it is fake or not.

image

Can it be real?
I mean look at the face on the advertisement that gt me thinking about this dermitage site. I don't think anything could help, that is unless they are advertising some sort of face iron. Like can anyone even be that wrinkley without photoshop's help? Why would they make such a horrible advertisement?

image

Pretend blogs
What I really hate is when companies start blogs to try and pretend someone wrote about their product. An example being dermitage. Clearly, someone from the company wrote this blog at dermitage.blgospot.com
Does anyone believe these kind of pseudo advertisements.

Promises
Here is some information about their scammy promises

stats
Can these quantcast stats be even sort of accurate
pyrcedgrrl - 01/07/08 22:16
I don't see Dermitage on here, but this is a fun site:
:::link:::

01/07/2008 11:22 #42779

AT&T wireless customer service
Category: mobile
I seriously cannot get over how good AT&T customer service is. Every time, I called they have answered within a minute or two and they have always been able to help me without transferring me.

For some reason my bill was $210.00 which I knew was wrong. Turned out it should have been $74.00 which is a big difference and they had double charged me for everything. I think it is their web based system that fucks stuff up. Every time I added or removed services with it, I ended up with multiple charges. Also when I tried to switch from the 700 minute family plan to the 500 minute family plan online it told me I had to wait till next month but when I called she changed it right away, retroactively.

From now on I am going to talk with a live person. I just was so afraid being a former sprint customer and havign dealt with their terrible customer service.
leetee - 01/07/08 11:56
(e:Uncutsaniflush) and i have the most amazing plan we got from AT&T when we were still in Tennessee. Then, AT&T was bought out by Cingular and they had terrible customer service. Now, we are back to AT&T and, knock wood, have not needed to use their customer service. Besides, we don't want to talk to them and give them any excuse to change the plan we are on -- i can call anywhere or from anywhere in the US Canada or Mexico without any additional charges... no long distance or roaming!!
paul - 01/07/08 11:52
Sprint was seriously the worst company I ever dealt with, ever!
mrmike - 01/07/08 11:37
Interesting. I'm thinking of bailing on Sprint as soon as my plan expires.

01/04/2008 20:28 #42752

God Damned Intestines
Category: health
I had like one good day just before the party. It was weird. I felt a lot better and then it all just went downhill. This mornign was the worst as I had these horrible waves of nausea mxied with about 10 visits to the bathroom throughout the night.

So next Wednesday I have a colonscopy that requires me to go on a 24 hour liquid and laxative diet. That should be fun, adding to the constant intestinal pain and cramping I have been having for over a month now. It is worst when my stomach is empty so i imagine this is going to be beyond painful.

I have this horrible feeling I am going to die soon. Maybe I can just die beforehand.

It still seems unreasonable to me that up to this point, almost two month after the initial bad symptoms started I still haven't had a since blood test to check anything or a single stool sample. Only one xray. I keep reading all the literature from the different organizations for intestinal medicine and they all talk about blood tests to check white blood cell count and iron levels for anemia and stool smaples to check for infections and parasites as a first step.

I freakin' cannot wait till my doctors appointment with the gastroenterologist on the 24th. I would pay like 10 fold the amount to hve it tomorrow.
paul - 01/05/08 14:34
Jeff is doing it at The ghetto hospital near my house.
metalpeter - 01/05/08 13:33
I really can't imagine what you are going through. That diet that you are going to have to do sounds even worse. I wish you the best of luck.
jenks - 01/05/08 11:39
good luck paul... blood tests might add a little to the picture, but what you really need is the scope- that really should give some answers. And they say the prep is the worst part (by far), and most people say even that's more annoying than anything else... Where are you having to done, btw? Is jeff doing it?
james - 01/05/08 11:00
I am with Felly. Call those mother fuckers and deliver the stool sample to the top of their desks if need be.
libertad - 01/05/08 10:30
I'm sorry you haven't been well. I hope that someone cancels an apt. or something so you can get in sooner.
fellyconnelly - 01/05/08 07:48
its crazy that you haven't been given blood tests... i thought that was one of the first things that they do for illness.

and as for waiting for the gastroenternoligist... i would be calling the doctor's office everyday and asking if there are any cancelled appointments!

01/02/2008 23:08 #42732

Talking about Buffalo
Category: buffalo
I saw this buffalo Rising cover in my mother's bathroom. I just can't believe how full of themselves they are.
image

I am excited to see what happens with the new Elmwood Taco and Subs.
image

Is Elmwood becoming a ghetto or what? I am glad I left for Linwood before all the businesses closed. Why is everything shutting down? Seriously, it seems like more things are empty now than I ever remember. Are the rent prices just too high. If you drive from one end to the other so many places are closed down. This house is at the corner of West Delevan and Elmwood - notice the smashed out upstairs window.

image

image

I was debating buying hertelvillage.com or not, lol.
carolinian - 01/04/08 23:58
It's the predictable cycle of

1. Place with cheap rent gets cool bohemian stores
2. Rich folks attracted to bohemian lifestyle move into bohemian place because they want to be hip
3. The low rent that attracted the bohemians stops being low
4. Bohemians move to a new place with cheap rents.

Elmwood Village is in stage 3.





drew - 01/04/08 23:45
Wow. We didn't pay NEAR that much.

I'm not so worried about Elmwood, but I haven't been here long enough to know what I'm talking about.
empireoflight - 01/04/08 23:17
Any major city downtown costs 5x what you get in buffalo, at least. It's a landlord's dream, "city living" at affordable prices, but what you get is 90% riff raff that can't afford to spend any money at the shops and richies from the burbs that get turned off by said riff raff and won't touch downtown commerce with a stick.
paul - 01/03/08 18:17
Really, I thought they were too expensive, that is why I moved away from elmwood. We though about buying a house in the village but I wasn't willing to pay over $200,000 for an average size house near the strip.

Here is a perfect example at :::link::: going for $215,000 in the elmwood village. Here is another at $229,000 :::link:::

I can't believe the prices actually now. I paid the same thing as this little allentown house :::link:::

And really is someone going to pay $229,000 for 372 Prospect :::link:::
empireoflight - 01/03/08 17:41
The problem is property values are far too low to support loaded clientelle needed to fuel a true "hopping" neighborhood. Maybe if property values skyrocketed somehow, deadbeat landlords would sell and rentals would become single-families.
joshua - 01/03/08 09:54
That is why I thought the whole thing about Elmwood Village being one of the top 10 'hoods in the nation was completely bogus and manufactured. In my 7 years of living here I've never seen so many empty commercial properties between Forest and North, not to mention several other properties that have always been revolving doors and jinxed real estate, now occupied presently or formerly by Sahara Grill, Falafel Bar, Brodo (anybody remember Flour Power?), whatever Elmwood Panhandler is now, whatever Elmwood Bagel Shoppe will be, the former New World Records - I could go on and on. We do have some serious success stories in the neighborhood, and I am not glossing over them, but the idea of Elmwood being a stable community is an illusion.

What makes me angrier is that people and orgs like... well... Buffalo Rising are complicit in this overt dramatization because its good for their member businesses and advertising revenue. The "strip" is still the place to be in this area as far as I'm concerned though, and I'd never live outside of a block or two from where I am now if I could help it... I do like Ashland, Lancaster and many of the side streets. It would be a radical lifestyle change for me if I actually had to get in my car or take long ass walks in the snow every time I needed a gallon of milk. I have to be honest - if I couldn't stumble out the front door every time I wanted coffee I'd be devastated!
james - 01/03/08 00:46
shit's fucked in Buffalo? Get out of town!

I am willing to bet a few landlords need to die before all the sore spots are fixed. And friend, I just might be willing to do the deadly deed.