Paul's Journal

12/12/2010 16:35 #53248

Mike at his happiest
Category: shopping

He gets so excited about anything glitter based.

We spent the whole day christmas shopping for my parents at best buy. I hope they like their gift.

Then we went to pick out a tree for my mom at Adams. My father is done with real trees but my mom still wants one so my father asked me to get one for my mom. (e:mike) and I are really useless at making decisions like which tree is the best one to buy.

lilho - 12/13/10 13:56
awww, he's so cute. i love him. and i love glitter too...

libertad - 12/12/10 19:53
It's nice to see (e:mike) in his glory.

paul - 12/12/10 19:10
A. C. Moore in the best buy plaza.

tinypliny - 12/12/10 19:07
haha - I love that picture! Where was it?

12/12/2010 00:14 #53241

Paul Visco Facebook
Category: web

So I signed up for facebook. I played with it for a little bit. It did a good job of suggesting all the people who would be friends with me but then I felt overwhelmed with having to choose and interact with a lot of people who I am not very connected to. It reminded me of why I avoided myspace but it was worse because it has the potential for making you feel guilty about not being interested.

I found it ironic that my capture phrase was "reaming liberation."

At first I tried to integrate the "like" button with the blogs but it ruins it all if people started just "liking" and "commenting" on facebook instead of commenting on the blogs itself. Eventually, the facebook stuff would get out of sync or change format and the associated information would be forever lost. I can't seem to find one good integration point.

ajay - 12/12/10 12:18
The real reason why people join FB: :::link:::

I'm not sayin'.... I'm just sayin'....

tinypliny - 12/12/10 12:09
I see who you meant. Sameer aka the cool breeze aka Zephyr.

metalpeter - 12/12/10 12:04
Ok maybe I miss spelled it or thought you knew him I might be confussed (e:Heidi) knows him and uses like sam on here?

tinypliny - 12/12/10 12:00
Who is Samer?

metalpeter - 12/12/10 10:44
(e:tinypliny) Samer is on there........

I have my page linked to all kinds of things that maybe I shouldn't. If I had the time I would love to go to myspace and link it, and then just post from myspace

(e:paul) I just sent a friends request and as part of it I sent a bunch of suggestions now I'm not sure if they are all (e:peeps) But they all should have been at the party I some how don't think I saw tony though in the list but hey hope you enjoy it.....

tinypliny - 12/12/10 01:11
I get a minimum 2 unsolicited emails every month from ghosts from my past asking me to register on facebook. It makes me not want to go there. I don't want to speak with my past again.

tinypliny - 12/12/10 01:09
Citeulike - my citation website is trying a variety of integration strategies with facebook - but there is a lot of resistance among the users. :::link:::

I am not sure I understand why everything needs to be integrated with facebook.

paul - 12/12/10 01:07
Just don't leave estrip when you join. There wouldn't be much left without you ;)

tinypliny - 12/12/10 01:06
Maybe I should just join for the sole purpose of stalking my salsa teachers. I really have no other reason.

It is just awful that I miss the two of them and the dance class so much. It's like they are an addiction.

paul - 12/12/10 01:00
I doubt it is going to change my life very much. I just had to see how it all worked so I had a frame of reference when discussing it.

heidi - 12/12/10 00:55
booo. i liked that you were a holdout. :-)

12/11/2010 17:55 #53239

Robocalls restricted in NY
Category: web

(e:libertad), you will be happy:

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) -- As of Saturday, December 11, "robo"-calls are subject to stronger regulations in New York State.

Under a new law which takes affect this weekend, New Yorkers who've signed up for the state's "Do Not Call" list should no longer receive automated-message telemarketing calls.

I am still torn on if this means I should get on that list or not. At first my mom said yes but then I heard it was some sort of scam to collect more phone numbers.

libertad - 12/12/10 19:59
This is good news but it doesn't include political calls unfortunately. I am on the do not call list and it seems to work well once you get on it. Now I know that if my phone rings, it probably is somebody I know.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 21:38
Really?! They farm phone numbers out the donotcall website?! How ironic.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 21:37
Random people send messages to my cellphone with fake warnings about how my credit card has problems. So irritating - especially since I am charged for all those rubbish spam messages.

12/11/2010 17:00 #53238

Basra the builder
Category: pets

I gave Basra some peices of wood to push around. It keeps him busy.

paul - 12/12/10 02:01
The penis kind of gives it away.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 21:36
How do you know basra is male? Could be an aggressive female!

paul - 12/11/10 20:13
For one thing he is way more aggressive than other captive tortoises that don't get to roam around as much. I think between us playing around with him and all the animals in the backyard, he had gotten kind of badass and very sure of himself. That or its just more male hormones as he gets older. I will be interesting when he is 150lbs.

We picked the name because the army attacked the city of basra in Iraq the day we got him.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 19:50
Did you know that baserah means home or dwelling in hindi (and in a way, Urdu)?

tinypliny - 12/11/10 19:49
I wonder how Basra is different from his ancestor. Does he think more modern? After all, he did have that one run-away-from-home episode. What is he building? What does he think he is building...

12/11/2010 15:36 #53236

Starting to wonder...
Category: body

If I am going to die from this plague. I can't wait till my dermatology appt on Wednesday. It seems so ridiculous that I have money and health insurance and its taken two weeks so far before I can see a dermatologist.

Everyday I think its going to start going away and it gets worse. In a way it does seems like the original ones are fading but new ones are coming in places I did not have them before.

paul - 10/05/11 01:22
Oops I was wrong, it was not before the tongue thing. The red tongue thing started around 05/2010, 7 months before this. Its the painful tongue followed by the orange tongue that started after this.

paul - 10/05/11 01:18
Until I put this timeline together tonight, I never realized that this 3 week body rash from hell happend directly before the tongue issue started.

tinypliny - 12/23/10 23:30
Its SO unfair that you didn't post a follow-up yet!

tinypliny - 12/23/10 23:30
WELLL??? What did he say??? Come on! You have one faithful reader here who REALLY wants to know what the dermatologist's opinion was??? What was the diagnosis?? How are you now?? Has it gone down? Has it worsened?? Forget about the indirect inquiring minds... I WANT TO KNOW!!!

metalpeter - 12/12/10 10:48
Hopefully it is nothing serious, but what (e:libertad) said is true..... Sometimes it might not be a skin issue it is an infection issue that shows up on the skin... With out being a doctor I'm guessing that you being allergic to cats and other animals means you are having some kind of reaction to something you don't know about ...

tinypliny - 12/12/10 00:22
It's a kind of paint that is lightly applied and dries on your skin in a pinkish thin shell that you can just flick away later. But yeah, all that hair might be a problem. There seems to be many lesions where there is no hair, though.

Did you recently buy and wear some new sweater or maybe an animal origin coat of some sort... maybe cashmere or wool?

Also CMV/EBV may sometimes have very uncharacteristic presentations... I can't be sure. Do these bumps lose their reddish color/blanch when you press them? Are they tender when you press them?

paul - 12/11/10 23:03
(e:tinypliny) - I feel like taking two benedryl is way easier that trying to work any sort of liquid into chest hair. (e:libertad) - I figure at this point I might as well wait for a specialist.

libertad - 12/11/10 22:09
You could go to an after hours clinic. You don't have to see a dermatologist for skin problems.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 19:47
If you can get lactocalamine topical solution to apply, you could wean youself off benedryl. It is anti-pruritic (anti-itch).

paul - 12/11/10 17:21
No I don't scratch them. None of them have any broken surface. In fact they don't itch too much anymore and when they do I take benedryl which I am slowly becoming addicted to.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 16:42
btw, the mortality in dermatology wards is close to zero... unless it carcinogenic, which I think, its not.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 16:35
Are you scratching that area? I hope not. Maybe you should try an application of lactocalamine solution if they are itchy.