Read this current article to get a quick overview on my general thoughts on the subject. There’s thousands more like it – but you won’t be seeing them publicized on the national news. BUT, what you would’ve heard on the national news in 1975 is the story Newsweek broke about Global COOLING. Yes, cooling. 32 years ago.

Don’t believe me? Look it up.

The question remains why our world is in a position to further the global warming myth. At some point, money and power are surely involved – but on my birthday, I refuse to expend the mental power necessary to allege such claims.

So should we keep burning oil and such? My opinion is no. I love the idea of hydrogen cars and other alternative power sources. I wanted to build a home using only solar and geothermal heating/cooling. Why? Because the fact that we will, at some point, use up the earth’s natural resources is real. The “fact” that the earth is warming any more than it would in a normal cycle… is, well, a lie.

Anyway, right before I was dialing, both of my arms went completely numb. I was already hunched over, sitting on my left hip and my head resting against the window glass. The 911 operator came on and asked questions… most of which I don’t remember. Actually, I don’t even know if it was a male or female to be honest. So the ambulance couldn’t find me, 911 called me back to ask me where I was again… and then the ambulance pulled up. I couldn’t believe this was me… I WAS THE GUY holding up traffic as the police truck was now behind me clearing traffic from the right lane. Oh boy. I was helped to the ambulance, told that my car would be towed to the blah blah auto shop. Sorry, I wasn’t listening… because I was now puking. Yeah. Great. Regurge McGriddle.

I get to the hospital in so much pain I couldn’t see straight. They told me right away that it was a kidney stone. Fun! They loaded me up with drugs, which was deceivingly helpful, and I called Kyle for a ride. He took me all the way home, which was great. Even though the hospital found out where my car was for me, I was in no condition to drive. So I’m waiting for Kyle, and the pain comes back. Pop some pills.

I popped pills for the next 24 hours when they stopped working and I had to go back to the ER for more IV. As I was leaving I actually went to the bathroom and passed a stone! Great! I was thrilled but still uncomfortable. Back home for more pills. 24 hours later – back in the ER… this time, 2 does of morphine with no results. And this is after taking twice the recommended dosage of Percocet all day. They gave me something else through the IV, which finally worked… except – I thought I already passed this thing? Another CT scan and sure enough, the big one is still there. Wonderful. Back home to pop more pills.

Finally, late Friday night, the final stone passed. Saturday night I started to get over the drugs, and I was back to work on Monday with a sore back and side. A week after that now, I still have soreness in the kidney, but nothing I’m taking anything for.

It turns out it was a calcium stone, which is the most common type. They don’t know exactly what it’s from, but some of the things besides genetics are coffee, chocolate, tea, and a long list of other things. It’s evidently just the way your body processes certain types of things. An excess of vitamin C can actually cause them too… I’m gonna ease up on my supplement. So much for my mom saying my whole life, “you can never take too much vitamin C – you’ll just pee it out.” Yeah, you will, either as a liquid or a sharp jagged rock.

Which brings me to my current dilemma – the ladybug. Ladybugs somehow start to swarm the windows and doors here as winter approaches, inevitably finding a crack to get inside. They may be cute one at a time, but literally hundreds of them clumped up in the corners of windows and screen doors (inside) is disgusting.

This brings me to my current pleasure… watching 2 of them die without having to do anything. Bugs are stupid, as if someone needed to tell you that. There’s a florescent ceiling light above me, a round one, which is basically sealed to the ceiling. But of course, the ladybug finds a way into this light. The only problem for them, is that they quickly forget which way they came in, and can never get out.

There’s plenty of other bugs there already; their dead carcasses creating raison-like silhouettes on the frosted glass. The 2 ladies who recently joined them seemed excited at first, half-flying and hitting the top of the light, only to be bounced back to the bottom and creating a ‘ding’ from their hard shells hitting the surface. They’ve stopped flying now. Occasionally while their walking around they’ll bump into each other – sometimes 2 or 3 times in a row as if to say “why the hell did you lead me in here?”

It seems hunger may have already got the best of them, as they are running into the old bug carcasses from weeks past and, from what I can tell from the shadows, nipping at their bodies. Most likely not getting anything worth while, they slowly pace on opposite sides of the light, maybe it’s getting hot. Well, they wanted out of the cold… be careful what you wish for.

About 3 inches apart now, they’re maintaining their current positions – not walking around, but shaking fairly violently. I’m smiling. They stop, then shake again, sometimes making a last-ditch attempt for a crevasse to slip out. Sniffing around the dead bugs again, pulling, shaking… they know they’re time is almost up. They’re even starting to nip at each other, probably realizing that the only meal in their new universe is the other. They’re staying on opposite sides of the light now.

Another has landed on the outside of the light now. Maybe the 2 called for help? Or more likely, another sad attempt to attack my world gone awry. He’s mad he can’t yet find a way in, but I’m sure he will.

He made it in.

I’ve tired of their antics so I armed myself with my can of bug killer. I’ve sprayed towards the ceiling next to the light, hoping to get the fumes into the dome. I’m waiting…

Attacks on the dead bugs have gotten vicious now. I’m amazed at this survival mode. Shaking franticly with the hopes of a last meal. One has stopped moving and the 2nd of the first 2 bugs is already trying to either eat it or revive it. The 3rd lady has been devouring the largest carcass that greeted them, breaking it into 3 pieces.

Sleep my pets… sleep… calm your shaking, for your last minutes should be spent peaceful.

They’re shadows are still now… calm. It’s over for now. Until the next one arrives.

She’s here.

I have an idea: watch the god damn road in front of you and keep your foot on the gas so I can get home. I’m not interested in taking a 45 minute delay, waiting in line to see an accident heading the other direction.

Rubber-necked idiots.

On a brighter note, we have a new futon-ish thing in the basement now. Looks nice and modern, is mildly comfy to sit on, but only sleeps one. Still gonna need a blow-up bed for company.

They replied with an apology for the ads not being correct and rewarded me by pulling ielliott.com’s AdSense account saying that it didn’t fit the AdSense program or it’s advertisers.

Are you kidding me? It’s a blog site with lots of different content about a lot of different things. There are millions of blog sites like mine who use AdSense to make a few extra dollars and are evidently at risk of losing their accounts also.

For being such a big supporter of Google’s products as I am, it’s a shame I have to call them dirty ho-bag slutty slags.

E

Did you know the World Cup is only played every 4 years? That’s crazy. Stupid soccer.

I’ve made a lot of progress on the new web project I’m working on. The design is done and I’m about a week or so away from finding a programmer to wire up the backend. If anyone knows a PHP/JavaScript/MySQL/XML programmer – have them get a hold of me. I may be interested in taking on a partner instead of farming out the work to India or Romania. There’s a teaser page up now… I’ve only told a small handful of people about this so far, but here it is for all to see: WorldAura.com

I’d like to thank all the people who sent condolence messages regarding the loss of my grandpa. It made this last week a little easier. The stress of last weekend and the week leading up to it really caught up to me this week. It was tough not just laying on the couch all night every night. I got behind with everything and that gives me anxiety attacks – but once I get a list made, it seems to help. I think I’ve said this before, but I use Remember The Milk to keep all my lists together – it rocks. Better than a Honey Wiess with a Zoloft kicker.

July is turning out to be a cluster-fck of a month. Besides the obviously bad last weekend – I’m gone this next weekend, packing to move the weekend after as well as seeing Deann and hopefully Heather at some point, then the weekend after that I’m moving. Then I get one weekend to do something for myself before I’m out of town again… I can’t wait until September – I don’t think there’s anything going on then. Oh, but then October I get to help side “our” house. And by October, I mean all of October. :|

Read ya later.

E

Kat has a blog at Numine.com that I stumbled onto a while back and make sure to check every once and a while. The reason I’m telling you this is because I love the way she writes…sure, she’s a writer and I’m not – but it’s the fact the every couple of days you hear about how she’s feeling about something. It’s rarely impersonal, and many times, it’s probably more personal than she’d like (having it open to the public and all).

I had made a small supportive comment a few weeks ago about a post she made about her anxiety issues – as many of you know, I deal with my own – and just realized she added a link to my site on her front page! Thanks, Kat! :) The only place I have on my site for links is my Powered By page – and since Kat is providing motivation, you’ll find her at the top of the list!

Ok, so I should get to why I’m posting with the title “Blahbiddy Blah” – it’s not at all that Kat’s blog is “blah” – quite the contrary. The point of it is the fact that even the smallest things that may seem like I’m saying “blah blah” in my head, could actually be interesting to you people. I don’t really think that way… I tend to think of more event-driven things to write about… and then sometimes don’t even write about those.

So enough with all the thoughts that go through my mind not going right up to the site… I’ll do my best to let it flow straight from the brain to the fingers. Stay tuned.

I thought, just maybe, that their piss-poor play over the previous 14 games might turn around for the NCAA tournament… maybe stir up a little passion – just a little – but no. Between sloppy passing, lazy defense, and shooting that made them look like an elderly pick-up team – Wisconsin never had a chance in hell of winning right from the tip (when Chappell won the tip by hitting it to a group of Arizona players). Maybe someone would want to get a rebound? Anyone? Oh, Joe – you want a rebound. Anyone else? No? Okay, great.

It’s embarrassing. I came back to work with my Badger jacket on and could feel the stares of people wondering why I had red on.

There’s so many disappointing things from the last 15 games of the season I’d like to rant about, but to be honest, I’ve looked forward to next years team for the past 2 or 3 years – so I’ll just focus on that. I just hope I’m not let down again.

As for the rest of this year’s tourney — I’m hoping Wisconsin-Milwaukee can get another win on Saturday. If they do, I might just adjust my wardrobe until next November.

Now that that’s all cleared up, let me touch on the Badgers – cuz it’s been a minute. Bucky is 8-4 in the conference going into tonights away game at Northwestern. With a win, Wisconsin could find themselves in a 3-way tie for first place with Ohio State and Iowa. Pretty amazing that they’re where they are after slipping for so long. All they have to do is keep winning. Sounds easy enough. ;)

So, Saturday will be a long day – visiting an old friend, a little shopping, and then heading out with Heather and her brother and his wife for dinner and drinks. Sunday Bucky plays Minnesota at home – Heather’s coming to the game with us and then we’re all going out to dinner afterwards – I think Deann might even show up!

What’s been up lately? Musicnotes is currently redesigning our site, as well as implementing a new internal search system… it’s taking quite a bit of time and energy from everyone, but the results will definitely be worth it. There is also the potential for some big, big news soon… I’ll know more on Monday…

I gotta run. I’m heading down to my dad’s for dinner and to watch the game on ESPN2HD – if Charter would ever get off their ass and actually pick up the HD version of ESPN2… until then, I’m stuck with stretched out players on the widescreen.

I’ll try to post again soon. If I don’t – get over it. I did.

Here’s some background on the situation:
First, Charter Communications is the main (if not only) cable provider in Madison, and a good portion of Wisconsin. Charter has an On-Demand service that allows you to purchase and watch a movie at any time, also pausing, rewinding, and stopping the movie. HBO and other movie-tier subscribers can also watch any shows or movies from the channels they subscribe to as an On-Demand product.

Sounds great, right?

In the second quarter of 2005, Charter started carrying the MOXI cable box, branded by Motorola (at least mine is). The MOXI box is a new type of cable box that allows integrated DVR (which Charter now charges $14.99 per month for – up from $9.99 per month previously – per a notice from Charter it’s because of increased costs). For those who don’t know, DVR is a digital video recorder which allows you to record, pause, and rewind TV.

Sounds like a marvelous product.

What Charter has failed to tell it’s users, is that On-Demand service does not work on the MOXI box. Sure, they charge you the full price of the cable package you order – which includes the cost of having access to the On-Demand system – but you just won’t be able to use that. Sounds fair to me…

When I first called Charter with my error code 0×8, I thought it would be an easy fix – maybe they’d have me restart the box as they uploaded some software fix to my box. To my surprise, the Charter agent told me, “Yeah, we’re not supposed to say anything… but… the On-Demand doesn’t work with that box.” So I simply asked for a different box. The problem is, the only box with a DVR is the MOXI box.

Hmmm.

So, what you’re saying is… you’re charging me for a service (On-Demand) that I don’t have access to because I’m overpaying for another service (DVR)? (And the DVR service is questionable at best due to reasons such as program info blanking out 2 days out of each week, but that’s another post). That actually sounds great… I’ll stick with that plan thank you very much.

I asked the guy how long it would be before it would be working, and of course I get the standard line about them working on the issue as fast as possible. This was 6 months ago. Since then, I’ve had to call Charter with a few problems (besides the On-Demand not working), and I’ve asked if it’s “working” yet. Each time, I get the line about how they’re not supposed to say anything, but it doesn’t work on that box.

THEN WHY OFFER THE SERVICE? Actually, you’re not even offering it, you’re charging me for it as a built-in cost of your service.

This should have class-action written all over it. Maybe I’ll forward this post off to the local news – they sometimes like a consumer rip-off story to air. Maybe that would get Charter’s attention. Or maybe not. As a monopoly in this area (except for satellite), the cost is extremely high for even basic cable, and people pay for it by the thousands because they have no other options. People like me who live in an apartment simply aren’t allowed to mount a satellite on their deck.

Trust me, I’ve had satellite TV before, have satellite radio now, and would switch away from Charter in a second.

Any lawyers interested in a class-action suit? Contact me… I’ll be the first to sign up.