[Shrek] A Not So Positive Post

I think all the snow is starting to irk me a little, so while I'm in a bad mood allow me to mention a few people that have raised my ire the last few days.

The douchebag driving the Pontiac Aztek who pulled out in front of Fiona and I Tuesday morning on the snow covered roads. Good thing you fishtailed in front of us because if you hadn't we would have plowed right into the back of you. I'm sure the Honda Accord in the oncoming lane that nearly drove into that snowbank was happy to see you too.

And speaking of Tuesday morning, the meteorologists who called for "a dusting to an inch" that morning that turned into 3" to 5" made me wish I could screw up as often as they do and still keep my job.

Continuing on the subject of snow, I'd like give a shout out to how well the city of Worcester has cleared the roads after all this snow we had in the last 30 days or so. And by "how well" I mean "could you possibly have done a worse job?". A word of warning to people heading to the city, if you park at a meter and can't get to it to put money in the "parking enforcement officers" will still ticket you.

Even more on snow, why does the city of Worcester demand people shovel the sidewalks that abut their property (and for folks that live on Meadow Lane, sidewalks that used to abut their property) but the city doesn't clear crosswalks and handicap ramps from snow? There's also miles of unshoveled sidewalk abutted by city property.

I'd also like to mention that one of the biggest morons in morning talk radio, whose name I refuse to mention because he's such a jerk, got one of the nicest guys I have ever met fired and replaced him with someone that is nothing more than a parrot. I guess I should be a little happy for SW (full name withheld, but most will know who he is) because he no longer has to work for that train wreck of a station in WTAG, but being out of work in this economy does suck so I wish him well.

Here are a few things I've been reading the past week or so...

The new Governor of California Jerry Brown is cracking down on workers who have a state paid cell phone. Not exactly a huge cost savings, but every penny counts.

Speaking of debt, ever wonder how they come up with credit card numbers? It's a quick, interesting read.

As a music fan I found this very funny. No mention of greatest hits or live records, though.

The bowling alley here in Worcester has a rotary phone, so I found this an amusing little tale.

Regis Philbin, the King of morning TV, has announced his retirement. I can't recall the last time I watched his show, but whenever it was I recall thinking he was a little out of it and looked like he was being led around like a small child.

And to make sure I end on a positive note, here's an uplifting story about a Southwest Airlines pilot doing a good turn for folks that suffered a huge tragedy in their lives.

[Shrek] That slippery slope of winter weather

With snow and sleet falling from the sky soon to be followed by our personal favorite freezing rain, this looks like a good time to enjoy a second cup of coffee and post an update.

First off, thanks to everyone's e-mails and mentions of concern over my latest bout with A-fib. As my cardiologist predicted in one of my early January visits I converted to regular rhythm on my own (although it took a tad longer than he expected). I'm on new meds that should help prevent a recurrence, with the only draw back being no more alcohol for the foreseeable future. To be honest, it's an easy trade off.

Fiona and I had yesterday off, not for Martin Luther King Day specifically, but because we were laid off for the day. It happens every year on MLK Day, so it's not that big a deal and we sort of look forward to it. The funniest thing about it was many years ago in contract negotiations the union that we belong to asked for MLK Day to be one of our paid holidays. The company refused, and instead decided to give everyone an additional 8 hours or personal time. Since those negotiations the company has closed every MLK Day. Go figure...

With yesterday off we went out to breakfast, but I had to avoid my normal radio listening because WEEI was full of people angered by the Patriots loss to the hated New York Jets. I'm a believer that listeners that call into radio shows, no matter the topic, all fit into one of two categories; people that have no idea what they are talking about or who call to ball wash the hosts. I've seen very little evidence to the contrary.

The one positive thing about the game is it was never really close, so I was resigned to the loss early and was able to get an incredible amount of work done that I'd have usually done on Monday, allowing for me to get even more stuff accomplished. I celebrated getting so much done by not going to work because of the weather, sleeping late, and watching TV.

With tonight's Worcester Sharks/Portland Pirates game, already postponed once in late December due to the blizzard, being put off again until tomorrow I'll get to catch up on my DVR watching. We used to DVR a lot of shows, now it's down to a few and we catch many of those as they air anyway. Our rule of thumb is if we reach four episodes of a show on the DVR, we're really not watching it anymore and it's time to think about getting rid of it. Hawaii Five-O was one we bounced; The Mentalist is one we keep no matter how many back up.

[Shrek] A Little More On Plagiarism

Folks I've talked to the last few days will laugh (or cringe) that I'm still talking about this, but I'm still a bit peeved about the Union Leader ripping off a blogger. Our friend Josie pointed out something last Wednesday that really put things in perspective. She reminded me that not so long ago newspapers looked down their noses at bloggers as "inferior" and "without integrity" because there were no checks and balances that are involved in "real journalism". And now in a practice not limited to just this latest incident it's newspaper reporters stealing from bloggers and calling the content they steal their own.

So much for "integrity" and those checks and balances.

On a more positive note, here's some of the things I've been reading the past few days...

If you think you don't like taxes check out these angry witches casting spells to protest taxation in Romania. If that turns out to be successful their next spells should be to make the fast food we buy look like the pictures in the ads.

Those of you with kids or grand-kids (or maybe knowing some will be in your future) should check out the tape trick. An ingenious idea if you ask me. Also of interest is definitive proof that the study that linked vaccines with autism is totally fake.

I was sent this link by some friends from down under of pictures of massive flooding in Australia.

And lastly, if you're a hockey fan you need to check out this Puck Daddy post for something I'll bet none of us have ever seen before.

[Shrek] Go get 'em Joe!

There is nothing worse to a writer than to see your work stolen by someone else.

Now I'm not talking about someone "borrowing" your words and then giving you credit, because there isn't much cooler than that. I'm talking about people just out and out stealing your words and then claiming they are their own. It's happened to me on the hockey and sports blogs I contribute to, and I've had message board posts "stolen" and added to newspaper/blog stories without credit being given.

Each time it's happened I've gone after the people responsible to get the credit I felt I deserved. The vast majority of time it just takes one e-mail and all is resolved, but occasionally it takes what would seem to be more effort than it's worth. But I do it anyway.

Now I don't know who "Joe" is, other than he's the writer that owns a site called Backyard-Hockey.com. It's a nice little site with lots of good stories that he obviously takes a lot of time preparing, and I read it whenever there's a new post.

So I was pretty disgusted when there was a post on backyard-hockey saying the Manchester Union Leader plagiarized one of backyard-hockey's stories. Now it did turn out that one e-mail set everything mostly straight, but it still amazes me that someone could be dumb enough to take content from a niche site and think that anyone interested in reading the information wouldn't recognize the information as coming from a blog dedicated to that topic. It also amazes me they offered no apology.

So, on behalf of the Union Leader, allow me to apologize to Joe...I'm sorry there are lazy writers that try to steal the content and hard work of others, and I'm sorry that what was once a proud newspaper but is now a shell of its former self couldn't say the words "we apologize" to you.

[Shrek] What's interesting this week? (1/3)

On the promise of posting more even if I have very little to say, here's some stuff I've read over the past few days folks might find interesting.

From Discovery.com there's an interesting posting about active black holes and how they were at least 100 times more common 10 billion years ago. So what happened to these once ravenous monsters? Click the link and find out.

Triplepundit.com asks "Does “100% Recycled” Mean Anything?", and their "Yes. Sort of." answer was pretty informative.

After the huge blizzard last weekend dumped huge amounts of snow here in the northeast this story from Tywkiwdbi has some great pictures of a REALLY deep snowfall.

Speaking of the blizzard, Newsday has a great look at the journey of sportscaster Kenny Albert from St. Louis where he was calling the NFL game for FOX to the Big Apple where he did the play by play of the New York Rangers game for MSG.

And one final note, Fiona and I are working up a series of posts where we'll reveal our top five favorite authors. Watch in the next few days for our posts about our #5 choices, and the future installments as we count down to our top favorites.

[Shrek] My 2010 reading list

Lamentation (Ken Scholes) ...421
U is for Undertow (Sue Grafton) ...403
Black Ops (WEB Griffin) ...784
The Last Templar (Raymond Khoury) ...532
The Killing Hands (P.D. Martin) ...392
The Sanctuary (Raymond Khoury) ...629
The Breach (Patrick Lee) ...376
Innocent Mage (Karen Miller) ...652
Awakened Mage (Karen Miller) ...714
Monster Hunter International (Larry Correia) ...726
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson) ...600
The Sign (Raymond Khoury) ...565
The Apostle (Brad Thor) ...532
The Accidental Sorcerer (K.E. Mills) ...551
Witches Incorporated (K.E. Mills) ...562
The Girl Who Played With Fire (Steig Larsson) ...642
Marine One (James W. Huston) ...513
Book Of Souls (Glenn Cooper) ...372
Naamah's Kiss (Jacqueline Carey) ...784
The Ezekiel Option (Joel Rosenberg) ...415
The Sculptor (Gregory Funaro) ...385
When Boston Won The World Series (Bob Ryan) ...192
Shadow Magic (Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett) ...440
Wizard Squared (K.E. Mills) ...549
Zero Minus Ten (Raymond Benson) ...272
The Facts of Death (Raymond Benson) ...290
High Time To Kill (Raymond Benson) ...304
Doubleshot (Raymond Benson) ...304
Never Dream Of Dying (Raymond Benson) ...320
The Man With The Red Tattoo (Raymond Benson) ...289
Devil May Care (Sebastian Faulks) ...278
Red Sox Rule (Michael Holley) ...207
Dynasty (Tony Massarotti) ...299
Pursuit Of Honor (Vince Flynn) ...517
The King's Bastard (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...640
The Uncrowned King (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...396
The Usurper (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...489
The Professional (Robert Parker) ...332
Early Warning (Michael Walsh) ...391
Monster Hunter Vendetta (Larry Correia) ...647
The Last Pope (Luis Miguel Rocha) ...310
City Of The Sun (David Levien) ...439
Where The Dead Lay (David Levien) ...402
The Amber Room (Steve Berry) ...390
The Romanov Prophecy (Steve Berry) ...387
The Third Secret (Steve Berry) ...376
Dead Or Alive (Tom Clancy) ...950

Total pages: 21,986

[Shrek] So where have we been? (part 2)

Part one can be found here.

So off the the cardiologist's office we go, and after a couple more tests I'm presented with three options.

The first was to do nothing and hope it goes away on its own (which is can and does often do). Despite this being mostly a non-issue most of the time doing nothing didn't seem to me to be the best option.

The second was to undergo a transesophageal echocardiogram, where they would put a tube down my throat to check for blood clots on the back side of my heart, and them if that turned up clear undergo an electrical cardioversion. If you've ever seen a TV medical drama you've seen them perform an electrical cardioversion when they shock someone with the paddles.

The third option was to take blood thinners for a few weeks, and then undergo the electrical cardioversion.

Tube down my throat? Pass. I took option three.

Back home we went, and I spent the weekend getting used to having A-fib in preparation of going back to work Monday. I figured fatigue was going to be my biggest issue, so I did what I could to see how far I could push it before I had to stop and rest. By Sunday night I figured I was good to go, and went off to bed. But my heart had other ideas, and I was up most of the night. Well, so much for being a chicken. Looked like the tube for me.

So back to Dr Maki's office Monday morning, and we schedule the procedure for later in the week that will be performed by a different member of their practice. It was at the University campus of UMass/Memorial, which was good for me because my mother works at the Memorial campus so that would be one less thing to worry about. I was told it would be early in the day, but they wouldn't know the exact time until they called the day before. well, a teenager must do the scheduling at UMass because I was told to be there for Noon, and only a teenager would call noon "early". I arrived at Noon as instructed, and not being a patient person when I was still waiting at 3pm I was a little less than thrilled. I told them they had until 3:30 and then I was out of there, and amazingly enough at exactly 3:30 they took me into the procedure room.

They prep me for the transesophageal echocardiogram, and explain to me that with the sedation I'll be getting everything will be easy and it will be over before I knew it. That's easy to say when you aren't the one having a tube shoved down your throat. Although when it was over they turned out to be right. The procedure was to be done by a "fellow", which is a doctor that's gone through all his training and is a full fledged "MD", but is now beginning additional training in a specialty. I don't recall his name, but I do remember he was a nice guy.

As I'm laying on the table, laying at sort of a 30 degree angle so my right side is higher than my left side they begin by giving me a sedative. "Give him 1 to 25" is what I think the doctor said, and we chatted for a short while about, of all thing, the Red Sox and WEEI (the sports talk radio station in Boston). All of the sudden he asks me "what were we just talking about?", and I reply what we were talking about. He looked at the nurse and said "give him another 1 to 25"...

...and that's the last thing I remember until about two hours later when I suddenly realized I was back in my room talking to Fiona.

It turns out the sedation I was under is refereed to as "conscious sedation", which apparently numbs my brain so I have no memory of the transesophageal echocardiogram because they need me conscious and able to follow instructions while the procedure is going on. When they do the electrical cardioversion the patient is given enough regular anesthesia to knock them out for a couple of minutes. From there I was good to go.

Except (and isn't there always an "except"?) once you have had A-fib it can return, and mine has a couple of times. Each time it's gone away with 10-12 hours...except (there's that word again) for the this time, which is at about 36 hours and counting. Knock on wood so far everything is OK, so if it doesn't clear by Monday I guess I'm calling the doctor again.

Now that that long story is over, hopefully there will be more frequent posting, even if it's just quick posts containing some interesting links we've come across.