I’ve mentioned before how audiobooks make great mp3 player content while I’m jogging. I just happened across audiobooksforfree.com, which has a great, ever-growing collection of free, legal audiobook downloads. Looking for some rights free content for your mp3 player? This is another great resource.
Finally out of short term debt again
This is for my own records more than for any of you 😉
I’m finally out of debt. No job/paycheck for like 10-12 weeks all told, coupled with a lot of vacation activity coupled with some ridiculously profligate spending (I prolly bought about 10 ps2 games alone since I left Bowdoin) left me with a $2500 credit card balance.
A month and a half of fiscal responsibility and a moving expenses payment from Skidmore later and I’ve zero debt again. Woot! Time to buy me a zoomy game or two 😉
In my best monty python impression…
…I’m not quite dead yet! Another trip to the docs this week, more prepscriptions (an anti-inflamatory this time) and more theories about what’s been going on. Short version: fainting/passing out – bad reaction to the antibiotic. Abdominal pain: combination of ecoli infection which is now almost certainly gone, and a muscle tear somewhere in my abdominal region, this last item leading to the anti-inflamatory. As you can imagine, I’m much relieved, though since the diagnosis and prognosis have been wrong once already on this I’m still a little apprehensive. I’m waiting on lab test results and also have to go back in for bloodwork and a followup visit, all of which I hope will ultimately lead to a clean bill of health.
Meanwhile I am definitely feeling much better, and the doc even cleared me to return to exercising and even better, drinking coffee 😉
Still sick, medical industry pissing me off
So…this place is going to be quiet for a while, sorry to say. I’m getting sicker rather than better, starting to think something else is going on with my health beyond the initial diagnosis. I had fainting spells this weekend and the worst attack of whatever it is that ails me on Friday night. The dizzyness seems to come and go and the fainting spells where I literally had to fall down have only happened twice so far, but as you might imagine they were freaky scary. Meanwhile I can’t get in to see a doctor no matter what I try, the best I’ve managed is an appointment for this coming Monday. I now think I can’t wait that long and am heading back to the emergency clinic this afternoon as soon as the dizzyness passes. Assuming nothing dramatic happens I’ll post here with details on what happens from that.
The secret to great scrambled eggs is…
…a chopstick? Strange as it seems, it’s true. Great scrambled egg texture anyway. Instead of using your spatula to mash your eggs about the next time you go for scrambled eggs for breakfast, use a chopstick instead, and use a swirly motion on the eggs as they cook. Makes for a much better texture to the eggs than the typical spatula mash.
We’re talking old school baby!
These folks have been running a retro gaming internet radio show for the past 3 years and somehow I never ran across it until now. Interviews with developers from the dawn of electronic gaming, the homebrew scene, classic game reviews, tips on equipment, these folks cover it all. Cool stuff if you’re into the old school gaming scene or just want to reminisce about the games you played in your youth.
The shows are downloadable as mp3 files, or you can order up a DVD. Enjoy!
Keep track of the electoral votes
Updated regularly, this site can help you keep track of who’s likely to win this November’s election. It’s been depressing watching Bush steadily take over since the convention. Let’s hope Kerry can show something during the debates or it seems likely we’re doomed to 4 more years of Bush.
New firefox is out
One and all should go grab the new version of firefox that’s out, it’s the best browser available these days by a long shot. Mac users will find this handy – instructions on how to make sure firefox ALWAYS opens new links in a tab instead of in a new window:
For the users that complain that links/URLs from external apps don not open in tabs but new windows you can change the behavior as follows. you need to edit the mozilla startup script(I have been doing this way back by entering some code manually but now they have in entered for you you need only comment and uncomment a line.) To do this edit //firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox You can do this on the command line with vi if you know how or you can use textedit in the finder(you must also right click/control click on your firefox application and select show package contents to do this in the finder). in the script about 190 lines down you will see two lines “_open_type=”window”” and “#_open_type=”tab”” comment the window line so that it looks like #_open_type=”window” then remove the # sign from the tab line. Now firefox will spawn new tabs from links from external apps… Hope this helps some users out there…
I got these instructions off of versiontracker.com, kudos to db23 for posting this.
Simpsons map
And now for something completely useless, or almost – a nicely done map of Springfield, with an comprehensive set of locations from the show mapped onto the town. This is a good candidate for flashification imho, imagine binding this with a bunch of media assets from the show (audio, still images, video and so on).
New health issues for me
So, once again my body is complaining. This time I’ve come down with an internal infection, probably e coli bacteria, and it’s attacked one of my internal organs. Fun stuff. I’m on a course of antibiotics to fend it off, and hopefully it will clear up without too much trouble. But anyway that’s why I haven’t posted in about a week. I’m feeling somewhat better now. The worst thing for me is, no exercise for at least a couple of weeks, and I had stopped exercising a few weeks ago when I first started feeling sick, so by the time this is all through I’ll have gone at least a month without any real exercise. I’ve already lost 4-5 pounds (I was 157 when I weighed myself this morning), and I think it’s basically all muscle mass I’ve lost. Lame. Let me tell you, this aging business in conjunction with crappy genes is the pits.
