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Paul's Journal

paul
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05/15/2008 13:12 #44347

The flu or death
Category: crohns
I started to feel sick last night a bit before bed. Then when I woke up this morning, I felt nauseous. Now I am sick to my stomach and have a headache and am achey. God, why now - can't I just have one freakin moth malady free. I felt so great since the appendix thing. I actually have not had one sick day since then.

Its the one thing I hate most about this supposed Crohn's thing is that I never know if I just have a cold/flu, which I think I do this time, or if this is going to be the beginning of something terrible.
libertad - 05/15/08 20:09
Sorry. Maybe the new mop will make you feel better? I'll remove the shipping and handling charges. Hope to get it tomorrow.
james - 05/15/08 13:51
feel better soon. Like, in ten minutes soon... or else!

05/14/2008 19:47 #44340

Resco Radio - Mobile Internet Radio
Category: mobile
Okay this might sounds like a cheezy advertisement but it is really written out of the pure enjoyment of using this application.

You may have seen me without my iphone this week. Thats because it now lives simcardless in the bottom of my bag after I discovered a new program called Resco Radio for my windows mobile. Between that and the much higher connection speed of my windows mobile Tilt phone I am in mobile internet radio heaven.
I have been listening to German radio on it non-stop all week and to make it even sweeter, it now records any shoutcast station to the storage card as MP3 so you can listen to it later. So that is a mp3 plays an unlimited amout of free radio from around the world and can even store it for later use.

If you have a windows mobile PDA or smart phone - YOU FREAKIN NEED THIS NOW! Here is the link on Handango for the PDA version
and the smartphone version

Its 19.99 but you get a 30 day trial to start. It is the best mobile internet radio app out there, well besides streamtuner for the nokia n810.
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The ipod part of the iphone might have a slick interface, but its really not cool when you own about 4 songs. I have relied on internet radio for music for so long it was hard to give it up for the iphone. Now the icandy has mostly worn off. At least till the 3g iphone comes out and it has internet radio.

imk2 - 05/14/08 21:45
omg, i'm so getting this
paul - 05/14/08 20:08
It does any streaming radio. NPR included!
imk2 - 05/14/08 19:58
does it get talk radio too? like npr stuff and bbc?

05/13/2008 20:57 #44332

Random Mix of Things
Category: random
Food
Friday night, we went to Europa Bistro on Elmwood and I had pheasant, it was totally delicerific. I would suggest anyone who loves European food head on over. (e:matthew) had polish Golabki which looked pretty good too.
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Garbage Pile
I called the city to pick up the "garbage" left over from our bathroom demolition. It costs $82 for 12x3x3ft.

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I thought that was reasonable as the wood was going to just mold in our garage and a lot of it was just garbage (broken glass, old plastic doll house, etc). I put it out and the city guy said he would come by in the morning to assess the cost, we would then have till 1PM to bring the money down to city hall and they would take it away.

The thing is I put it out on Thursday night and Friday morning at 9:20 I got a call from the city saying I forgot to put my garbage out and need to reschedule. The thing is I did not forgot, someone must have taken it all. I find it hard to believe because a lot fo it was no reusable in any way. Like I could see someone taking the wood, but every scrap of everything? Well, it was free so I can't complain. I would have put out more stuff from the attic.

Air Pollution
According to this article I was reading, air pollution increases the risk of Blood Clots. The really surprising part was the picture of pollution in Beijing. I had no idea it was so bad. It seems so far removed. Apparently, they are going to reduce pollution just before the olympics by shutting down factories, stopping construction for two months and reducing traffic

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Imagine what it feels like during the "clean" time if you live there. Imagine the impending doom feeling of it coming back after it is gone.

I guess it was bad in riverside when I lived there one summer - but not like that photo. Someone, recently wrote or told me about some chinese friend driving down the way to Niagara Falls and saying how it smelled like home - was it one of you guys?

Work
Is so freakin' crazy. I am back to loving it but its just crazy how much there is to do! I launched one of the apps I was working on today and the the department that uses it seemed to really love it. I think tomorrow is going to be a really dramatic, life changing day. Hopefully, in a good way.

I also saw this cancer fighting robot surgeon in a conference room the other day. It looks like the future.
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The Fireplace
I keep working on the fireplace in the side parlour/office. It is starting to look really nice.

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I am so glad I stripped it, even though I am painting it because the detail stands out so much now. I think I am never oil painting again though.
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hodown - 05/14/08 20:52
Your hiz-hizouse ('member that?) looks amazing! Also I'm sure that's some sort of govt programmed robot designed to implant humans with computer chips. just another step closer to robots ruling the world.
libertad - 05/14/08 13:52
That was my friend from China that I was telling Mike about who must have in turned tell you. He said that the pollution is so bad where his parents used to live that they were forced to move.
imk2 - 05/14/08 06:35
yeah, there was a ton of air pollution when i went to beijing. there was never any sunlight the entire 8 days i was there. you can see it in the pics, all of them are cloudy; but the odd thing is is that is was so incredibly hot that you felt like you were melting. i mean, it was like a 1000 percent humidity all the time and like 90 degrees. i can only imagine what it would have been like if it had been sunny.
tinypliny - 05/14/08 00:23
Where is this conference room? Is it in the Washington building? Seems odd that they would drag the robot all the way from the main hospital...

That fireplace looks PRETTY! I wonder if the detail was hand-carved. Some ancient craftsman must have spent time delicately whittling away the wood back in the 1700s. Fascinating.

05/13/2008 01:15 #44324

Mother's Day 2008
Category: holidays
(e:mike) and I went to Wegmans to get everything for our Mother's Day dinner. We managed to top my mothers multi meat meal maximum with 6 of our own meat options. (e:terry) and (e:matthew) also played crucial roles in cooking and decorating. Actually, they were really tiny portions of meet because they were just part of the wraps. I think we ate more veggies than meat per person.

We had:
Calamari, crab legs, chicken, sirloin, shrimp, sea bass

Along side:
bean sprouts, carrots, pickles, olives, chopped ginger, chopped garlic, orange peppers, hungarian peppers, wakame salad, sweet potato

On:
Rice noodles and Romain lettuce leaves

It was a Korean style inspired meal but had no real Korean flavors. My parents really seemed to love it and it was fun watching everyone create their lettuce leaves.

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For dessert we had watermelon with strawberries and whip cream along side chocolate cookies.

My mom drank tea made with one of the pretty tea balls we bought in San Francisco.

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Before anyone reams me about eating Sea Bass, we bought it because at wegman's it was the only fish labeled sustainable.

It was so delicious and the perfect texture.
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We got my mom a digital camera. The same one as (e:mike)'s but in pink. At first we weren't sure if she would like but then she took to it right away.

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Wegmans has so much good food int he prepared lunch section. That is where (e:mike) and I ate lunh to get ready to prepare dinner.
They even had polenta
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And they also sold mini fresh herbs for around $1 which I think it s great idea.
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This, however, was a horrible idea? Who thought that blueberries were so awesome but just lacked a convenient carry case? Worst of all it still says you have to wash them?

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liquidfemme - 05/14/08 19:21
Blueberries to go! I love it in a totally frivolous way. Huh, you work at Roswell too!
tinypliny - 05/13/08 23:41
You know, those blueberry bottles remind me of the fake castles in the hotels at las vegas and the Aladdin disney movie castles.

05/11/2008 03:40 #44301

Maybe never another confernce
Category: conference
Getting a virus at a conference is one thing. Getting the norovirus is yet another. I am so glad this was not me.

For most techies, it's generally not good to be associated with a virus of any sort. But folks at Sun Microsystems and organizers of this week's JavaOne software conference in San Francisco may have felt especially queasy when they heard that local health authorities were tracking an outbreak of stomach flu at the Moscone Center in recent days.

With up to 70 cases reported, the city health department said it suspects the culprit may be the highly contagious norovirus - a real virus, not the computer kind.

Symptoms usually last only one or two days, according to a bulletin that city officials issued this week. But they can include vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, aches and even low-grade fever. And the virus can spread easily from contact with someone who hasn't washed his or her hands, or from touching a contaminated surface.


tinypliny - 05/14/08 00:25
Ew. Makes you think twice about touching doorknobs at public places. ICK. :/