If anyone has any horror stories to tell on any of the following subjects:

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:07 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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They do not belong in my toothpaste.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Nearly two weeks ago I attempted to expand the Windows 7 partition on my iMac. This resulted in a total failure to expand the partition, loosing all data therein and having an inaccessible empty partition on my hard drive....which prevented me from making a new partition from scratch.

I finally ended up taking the machine to the shop, and while I was at it I upgraded to the TB drive. Upon unpacking it, I placed it on my desk to check it out and make sure it was working OK. However I need the desk for homework, so Saturday I moved it up to the shelf where it lives and made an important discovery.



 In the back of an iMac is a vent. Here you can see it very clearly not marked near the upper edge, above the Apple logo.

That vent is extremely sharp edged. So sharp that after the resulting cut bled profusely...into the vent. The machine began to make a really....odd...noise, which I took to be blood congealed on the fan.

Yikes!

The cut bled for 3 days and I ended up going to the emergency room, where I had it lashed up securely, was given a tetanus shot and was informed that I was not to do anything with my left thumb for a solid week. ( No work and associated monies for Ken). As an added bonus the tetanus shot knocked me on my heels.

Of course I also had to take the computer back to the shop and sheepishly explain this fiasco.
Here's the thing: The Mac guy mentioned that this had actually happened to some of his other customers and he'd sent a consumer alert to Apple.

Now Steve Jobs has the most crackerjack industrial design team in the whole frickking world. Therefore it beggars belief that this is actually a design flaw. Thus I can only conclude that this is deliberate and iMacs are actually designed to collect DNA samples as part of a bloody biometric phishing scheme or perhaps they simply feed upon the blood of the unwary.

Anyway, beware. Steve Jobs wants your blood.

UPDATE: It occurs to me that some of my fellow Mac users may take violent and murderous offense at my post. Rather than proselytizing in the comments section of this post I suggest that you instead go here and ask yourself, 'where is your Jobs now?'

UPDATE2: Although it is ready, I still don't have Holo back yet due to the fact that I was not able to get through yesterdays obnoxious southeastern Virginia traffic before the store closed.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:33 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Shocking revelatory revelations to be revealed within 24 hrs...if I still live.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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UPDATE: All day long we waited while they poked her and did tests. The biopsies were completed today and between that and the additional pictures they took it appears that the mass that showed up on her X-ray is in fact fluid and scar tissue from the previous surgery.There is still some concern due to the fact that the incision is still experiencing fluid build up and additional scarring 9 months after the surgery, however, the scaring does appear to be just scar tissue and not cancerous.

No cancer.

Yay!

This does suck as it is causing her intermittent pain....but damn that is a relief.

*********************************************end update

My car  auto-cannibalized itself last week, the internet has been twitchy, due to utility line work , I managed to screw up my iMac when I tried to increase the size of the Windows 7 partition and school started today...except that my teacher didn't show up.

All of which is utterly trivial now...

 Last Thursday my Mom, told us us that her vision was blurry. She then  complained of stabbing chest pains and developed great difficulty breathing.

She was rushed to the hospital and after a day of tests she was determined to have...a severe kidney infection...which did not at all jive with her symptoms, but her heart was OK.

Today, she went to a doc-in-the box for a follow-up on her infection, and it seems to be well on the way to oblivion. The duty doctor was still perplexed about the pains and asked the Hospital to send over the X-rays they took the other night. They had been focused on the heart and so had apparently missed the gall stones...and the huge mass in her left breast.

She had a close run thing a while back with cancer on her right side (which is still clear after her second surgery last year). This thing is big and has come on very fast. (Since January)

We contacted her surgeon and he's seeing us first thing tomorrow. We won't know anything until then but he had the X-rays forwarded to him and he said to make preparations to go under the knife very quickly. I'm guessing Friday is the soonest because of the Kidney infection. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:00 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Dad is now walking (and has even graduated from a walker to a cane) and can get around the house on his own. He won't be 100 percent for six weeks or so but the surgery looks to have been a complete success. 

Also, I'm able to go back to work.

Wo0t!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of the coldest winters in decades followed by several days in the low 90s has apparently contributed to a high level of hornieness in the local pine trees. I have never seen the pine pollen as bad as it has been this past week. 

How bad has it been?

This bad....This is the neighbors truck...

My Moms car on Monday morning. (I'd washed it the previous afternoon)

The James River at the Huntington beach boat ramp.

^{Yes. That is a Mallard}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:43 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've been busy, sick, busy again and just got busier.

Dad returned from the hospital today.

The surgery went well. Having this second hip surgery out of the way is a huge relief to the whole family, as it means he will soon be able to walk without pain. The last few days I've been getting the upstairs handicapable. Today was spent getting him home from the hospital, getting him upstairs and reacquainting myself with bedpans and such.

Back in a few days.(Seriously..a few...as in rather less than 15 this time!)

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Whenever I ask "Oh good Lord...What ELSE can go wrong?", The Almighty answers my prayer with impressive alacrity.

Regrettably, I find this does not fill me with joy or reassurance.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Blue Bomber suffered a steering pump failure, a brake failure and an electrical failure all at the same time. It turns out that the steering pump was squirting power steering fluid into the electrical system....the brakes were unrelated. 

I can do homework...and..umm...stuff.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:35 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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New season.....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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^{Lucky Star girls are from...well... Lucky Star...(duh!)}

Banal Brickmuppet banality is below the fold. The above picture is unrelated.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:07 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I can has skylight!!

...by which time the damage was done.
The city has cut off the power to the end of the cul de-sac and forbidden anyone from being in the trailer after 5pm. The last few days have revolved around salvaging what little I can...some were surprising.  Protected by their wrapping and the drawer they were in, which itself was in the closet, two long forgotten 2003 and 2004 Masamune Shirow calenders were unscathed...The thing is, they'll be good again  in 2010 and '11.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:15 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My day began at 3 when I headed off to work. The current inclement weather caused several delays with incoming loads and I was, as a result a little late getting out. I went home to be greeted by 3 police cruisers, 2 ambulances 4 fire trucks and a patrolman who informed me that I could not drive down the dead end road where my house resides.

Hampton Roads was and still is being clobbered as I type this. Hurricane Ida, now a tropical depression, has hooked up with a nor'easter and the two have hit it off and decided to do the barometric boogie all over Southeastern Virginia.

It has rained unrelentingly for 2 days. Totals as high as 12 inches are expected by tomorrow evening. The wind is gusting as high a 67 kts.This is worse in some ways than the Hurricanes Floyd and Isabel. Total damage seems to be less but, whereas both of those storms passed fairly quickly this storm is lingering and actually intensifying a bit. Norfolk is flooded. Tides as much as 8 feet above normal have occurred and are expected. In Portsmouth the seawall was holding as of an hour and a half ago but as I drove through I noted a sand blow coming out of a manhole. The ground is supersaturated and is turning into something with the consistency of pudding. This is not a good thing as the trees have nothing to hold them against the fierce wind.

To wit....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:57 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:28 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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^{Lucky Stars Cosplaying courtesy of KL-Chan}

I've been sick so there's nothing today but some banality below the fold. As partial compensation, here is some completely unrelated promo art from Macross Frontier...wait...WHAT!!??

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:22 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Today, while at ODU to meet with my Japanese tutor, I used the Bank of America ATM in Webb Center. I got my 30 dollars, and my receipt and the machine ejected my card. I stared at the receipt rather ruefully for a moment. The balance was smaller than it ought to have been...WAY smaller. My vacation check does not seem to have been deposited. I should get this cleared up tomorrow morning. After pondering this for one too many moments I reached for my card...which then disapeared into the machine.

I tried to no avail to get the angry machine overlord to give me my card and then called BofA to find out how to go about getting it out, if that was possible on a Friday afternoon.
 It was not.
You see, as a security feature, Bank of America ATM machines shred cards that aren't removed with sufficient alacrity.

So I called the Credit Union and was presented with a phone tree which required my pin and account number...and was told by a robot that my account had been frozen...the robot then hung up on me.

SO..I cancelled my tutor session...drove across town in Friday afternoon traffic to show my IDs and (thank GOD) get my account unfrozen. Of course I now am going overseas without any ATM card, and a payroll discrepency that can be charitably described as [expletives deleted by standards and practices]. Said discrepancy will most likely be resolved soon but without an ATM card I can't get at the money overseas, and the new ATM card won't arrive for a week or more...I leave Sunday morning.

Of course I'm about to fly to Japan for 21 days....so it's very poor form to be griping...and I'm nowhere NEAR  the situation I was in last year when my apt burned down, but damn this is a big chunk of my funds.

Oh well...there will be no fires, broken heels or dislocated hip on this trip.
That is my itinerary and I am sticking to it!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:00 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Whoa, how much pondering time are we talking here? Note to self: avoid Bank of America ATMs in the future. I get that it's cheaper for them to send a new card than to be liable for fraud, but they could at least post a warning or something... this is the first I've heard of this security measure. Was freezing your account even necessary, what with the card being shredded?

Posted by: Andrew F. at Sat Aug 8 13:52:35 2009 (VbNCn)

2

Whoa, how much pondering time are we talking here?

Entirely too much obviously. A minute or so? I don't really know honestly.

Oh well, there are far worse things but it was aggravating.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Aug 8 13:57:44 2009 (V5zw/)

3

Ah, yes;  BoA.  In 2002, when both my folks died within six months of each other, there were those people and organizations that helped and those that shit all over me.  While ONE lady at the BoA in Gold Canyon, AZ has my thanks, I piss, PISS, on the rest of that financial institution.  Even three years later, they were still causing me problems... I shit on their pricks.

Find a better bank or put your money next to your guns.

If this seems too extreme for your comments, I apologize and ask that you delete this.  I merely added it to note that what you experienced is representative for their company.  Best of luck in J-Land... if you go near Hamamatsu, let me know I'll help you out via a friend.  Cheers.

Posted by: Tiberius at Sat Aug 8 19:59:40 2009 (TXmvK)

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Posting has been light. As compensation, here is the exact opposite of Möe...

^{Art by S. Zenith Lee (Link NSFW...and dark)}

As usual the banality is below the fold.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I was very proud of the assembly that held the clutch cable in in the Pickup of Peril. It consisted of several wood blocks bound by plastic twisty ties. This was due to the fact that....well, it's an '84 Isuzu diesel PUP ....which was banned by an act of Congress...and they just don't MAKE a lot of the parts for those anymore.

Alas, there is a reason that Isuzu uses a different method of fastening clutch cables in their production vehicles.
The whole thing fell apart...
...in the Downtown Tunnel
...as I shifted.

Fortunately, I was able to finesse the thing into gear by precisely choosing the correct speed to shift. My cunning plan worked for 30 miles, until, just short of the auto shop, I encountered a stoplight. Hilarity, profanity and much perspiration ensued.

To top off the day, while transferring the contents of the vehicle, I dropped my watermelon, which exploded most spectacularly.

 So I'm now alternating between pedestrianism and driving the big 12mpg van my folks never use...'cause...well...it gets12mpg....This state of affairs wil persist untill the old truck can be repaired....enough for me to insert the non standard bits. There is welding involved, in part because the auto shop expressed considerable disapproval at the unique ability the driver of my truck has to view the road directly below said truck from inside the cab. This will probably be a week.

Yes the pickup of peril is perilous, un-airconditioned and has, shall we say, "unconventional fastenings" in places...

.... but it is paid for and it gets 44mpg.

So neener neener neener!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:45 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The biopsy results came back yesterday.
My mother will not require any more surgery as they were clear.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:16 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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