My computer's been clunky lately and Thursday morning when I got home from work, the only thing that displayed on the screen was a folder labeled with a question mark.

Having no patience for such introspection from a very expensive appliance, I attempted various Mac-specific fixes to no avail. I dropped it off at Mac Specialists on the way to check on my Mom (who was in the hospital getting her Gall Bladder removed).  Friday I was informed that the hard drive is shot. Fortunately, it was still under warranty from the time it got repaired after being struck by lightning. I should get it back late next week.

In the interim, Kuroi, my netbook with the tiny keyboard, has been crashing with demoralizing regularity. Last night I had a friend look at it and discovered that MacAfee was dueling with the Norton  that was bundled with the machine but was ostensibly never activated.

It's slow and I can't do frame grabs with this set-up, but I can actually poke about online for the first time since Wednesday night.

In other news, after a brief scare where she tried to pick up her grandaughter and opened herself up,  Mom is doing much better, though it is a chore to keep her from lifting anything.

Dad goes under the knife in two weeks for a hernia operation. I'll be super mister butler man for six weeks thereafter, so I' withdrew (early enough for a refund) from the two summer classes I was taking. I may take them in one of the later summer sessions.

Anyway,  as compensation for having sat through that banality bombardment, here is Kem Kem's rendering of 'Rei' Yamamoto, from Yamato 2199..

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Due to the unanticipated cram session, aside from a brief nap in the car, I got no sleep from Sunday morning until Tuesday. Tuesday night my attempt at sleep was thwarted by the vast quantities of espressos and other caffeine delivery methods I'd partaken of over the previous days. Wednesday, I had to work late, had niece duty and caught up on current events...which, along with lingering caffeine had me staring at the ceiling in dread after I went to bed. Thursday, I took all manner of caffeine to keep from falling asleep on the way to work which kept me up most of that night as well. By yesterday I was punchy and stupid but too wired to sleep. Various chores and errands as well as an ill-conceived desire to celebrate my matriculation kept me up till a bit after 11pm by which time I think I'd had less than 5 hours of sleep all week.

I woke up today at quarter to noon.
Ahhhhh....Sleeep.
Everything looks more colorful now.
I felt so much better as I drank my coffee and pondered my day...except for this silly nagging fear that....(checks SENT folder) .
..oh %$#!
...oh dear.
..Yes indeed.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I got home from work, cut the grass, checked my grades online and discovered that I had gotten a C+ in Japanese...despite my many zeroes.

Whew!

I then went to make myself some raisin toast but....upon reflection, I decided I didn't need any bread after all.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:28 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:48 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Glad to hear it, and good luck on your grades!  Get a good night's sleep and settle things at your day job. 

Once that's done, we expect to be entertained.  After all, that's what we're paying you for...  What do you mean you never got the check? 

Posted by: Siergen at Tue May 7 20:41:28 2013 (Ao4Kw)

2 Hope everything turns out okay!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wed May 8 01:08:51 2013 (PiXy!)

3 I spent a merry hour paging through Ueyama's blog, collecting some very nice pictures of miniskirted pirates, alien cat girls, a certain robotic maid, and some aptly-described SAOppai. His various attempts at detailed muscular definition didn't work for me, but the soft-and-cuddly stuff was quite pleasant. Catgirl Chiaki for the win.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at Thu May 9 15:19:19 2013 (fpXGN)

4 You got me curious, so I just took a look. I saw Mahoro, a couple of girls from Dog Days, and some girls from Senran Kagura.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thu May 9 17:36:21 2013 (+rSRq)

5 Also Quartz Christie, from Mouretsu Pirates.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thu May 9 17:37:01 2013 (+rSRq)

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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I just woke up the first good night's sleep in over a week, rather excessive actually, having broken the 11 hour mark.  By contrast, since the surgery I've generally only been able to sleep in increments of 2 hours, usually much less.  The infection seems to be clearing up, the pain has subsided and as for the last remaining stone fragment, well, I've been coping with the mischief wrought by these things for the better part of a year. This will be gone in days.

I'm going to the University library to try and salvage my academic career, in the meantime here is some cheesecake to tide you over....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:35 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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^{In our last Brickmuppet adventure:
I noted that I was dealing with a fragment of a kidney stone that my recent surgery was unable to remove, a related infection, and a kidney that was painfully restarting after having been blocked for some months prior to the surgery. I'll be fine in a day or so, but...}


I got up this morning, bled myself, crawled into the chair and cut on the computer. The screen lit up white...and then went black. I did this 4 more times. Then I noted that the keyboard lights indicated that the machine was on...as did the noises from the iMac itself. I was dealing with a dead monitor. Normally this would be no biggie. Any normal person could just run it through another monitor. I, however, am not a normal person, but rather one of those thumbless untermenchen who are helpless before this most simple of fixes.

^{I am an iMac user}

Finally, the bridge closed.....I zipped along at exactly the speed limit and contemplated getting  off to use some fast food joint's restroom, but that part of town between the tunnel and my exit is not an area one wants to park for any length of time with a delightfully industrially engineered and beautifully labelled iMac box in ones back seat. So I squirmed and drove exactly the speed limit to my exit and...

TRAFFIC JAM...

Fortunately, I was able to turn into an industrial park, take a back road and get to Mac Specialists at 4772  Euclid Road in Virginia Beach.



Mac Specialists (formally Connecting Point) is one of, if not the oldest Apple stores in Virginia. It was set up as a computer sales and repair store and school back in 1980 and has been a Apple only establishment for most of that time. The store had an excellent reputation for service and greatly hyped Apple widgets in Southeastern Virginia for three decades. The store is no-nonsense and no frills but all service.  When Apple started its own line of hipster oriented, gorgeously designed, snobtacular stores staffed with vapid, beatnik. cult members, it threw the mom and pop shops (that had built the Apple brand for years) to the wolves. Apple cut them off from ordering new machines. Apple even opened an Apple store in the Best Buy across the street from Mac Specialists.

That was several years ago and Mac Specialists is still there, having persevered via sheer excellence in the quality of their repair work, Mac training and customer service. These qualities were made all the more glorious by the stark contrast to the customer service and expertise at the Best Buy across the street. I gather that Apple got complaints....I further gather that there were rather a lot because Jobs some years ago allowed Mac Specialists to start ordering and selling (but not displaying) Apple products. It's a store with NOTHING on display....but if someone wants to order an Apple they can walk in sit down, describe what they want and the parts will arrive...assembled.

Which is how I got Holo, my iMac.

The store does a bang-up job on repairs as well, when my iMac was struck by lightning some years ago they fixed it and saved the data. I've upgrade the machine to a two TB drive through them. Their bills are itemized minute by minute, part by part. The owner is extremely knowledgeable and still gives classes on using Apple products. The owner,  John Crow is a former Brown-Shoe who flew an A-6 Intruders. He is courteous and ethical and I have been thoroughly impressed every time I've been there.

He also let me use his bathroom.

Thus bled, I fled and hightailed it home the long way so as to avoid the evil tunnel/bridge combination.

I got home,  ran into the bathroom and as I stood there I heard the phone ring in the other room...Now, no one EVER calls me and this gave me the opportunity to reflect upon the fact that in the event anyone does I probably should not have the SpeedyCake mix of Seniorita as my ring tone.

Soon after, I picked up the phone an checked my messages, it was Mac Specialists. The computer was ready.

I hobbled outside, hobbled back in, grabbed a blanket, hobbled to the car and drove back to Virginia Beach.

I was informed that it was a really odd problem, but it was so interesting they were able to learn something. It seems to have been some kind of permissions problem in that the backlight for the screen was...denied permission to be on.

There was NO WAY to find this out at home but hooking it up to a disagnostic set up allowed them to determine it wasn't a hardware issue right away. When they figured out the problem they couldn't believe it and tested it 19 times before deciding that this bizarre thing had happened. It took them 17 minutes and  they decided to write it off as a "Whut!?" So my bill was naught.

More importantly, they let me use the bathroom.

I raced home, barely beating the Friday rush hour traffic. Along the way I alternated the radio between my MP3s and Rush Limbaugh who was...non-political today as today was one of his charity radiothons; this time for Leukimia. It was facts and figures and science in Rush's voice, but no news and almost no commentary.

Anyway, I made it home, bled and then set up the computer...Unable to make it through the tunnel during rush hour in my condition, I used MY COMPUTER WHICH IS FIXED to send my assignments electronically...and now I'm using it for blogging.

For those of you that endured that unpleasant story, there is Cheesecake below the fold.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:37 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Well, regards the recent operation...there were, in fact complications.

infection has set it. Not life threatening or anything just a very annoying and painful UT infection. Also the left kidney, which was blocked, (possibly for months) and had become inflated and weird has started working again, but is rather painful at the moment. Finally, there is one final fragment of the stone that caused all this woe working its way down and cutting as it goes.

Ouch.

Anyhoo I should be 100% in a couple of days though I'm really miserable now.

Enough of my whining.

I'm told that the last refuge of the pain addled blogger is cheesecake...so here.
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:39 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Because....Percoset.


















All by Yajirushi.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Well, today I went to get my stones removed. It did not go well.
Below the fold is a rather graphic description of my day.

I suggest you read Gone to Amerikay instead.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:35 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I've been withering under he onslaught of a particularly bad kidney stone the last few days. Tuesday was particularly unpleasant (though perspective is important). Yesterday I called to make an appointment with my urologist to get documentation for work because I'd had to leave my work area 4 times to pass blood Wednesday.
I was told that the earliest possible date was next week, unless I was there between 7:30 & 8:00 AM in which case hey could fit me in. This resulted in a 10:30 appointment. (?)
At 10:30 I arrived to be told that they couldn't see me until my X-rays had been done and the backup radiologist wouldn't be in until 13:15. ( I suspect that the fact that a backup radiologist needed to be called in was the crux of the problem). At 13:15 I arrived an was put in the rather large radiology queue. I finally got X-Ray ed and sent to the doctor who informed me that I have a stone slightly larger than a peanut M&M 2/3 of the way down my urinary tract. Given that these things generally have the texture of hedgehogs the doctor seemed surprised that I was walking as easily as I was. She pointed out that the pernicious pebble had passed through a particularly tight area to get where it is.
"Yeah...that would have been....Tuesday."
In any event, the thing may actually be too large to pass.

I also have a cold.

But there is good news.

 I'm now (FINALLY) scheduled to get the sonic de-stoneimitation treatment. This had been delayed a year due to the huge number of X-Rays I'd had last year. However, as it stands now, as of next Thursday, my guts will be a stone-free zone.

In the meantime ..."Ouch".

Picture is Unrelated:

^{I have no idea.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:21 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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If one got any"odd*" E-mails from me last night, don't open them. My account got hacked. From my observation of several message boards and mailing lists this seems to have been a common occurrence on AOL and Yahoo over the past few weeks. The issue has been resolved for now, and I'm looking at getting a real E-mail service.



^{*Note that if you are in Illinois, the subject DUCK SEASON IS OPEN does not count as odd.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Well, Wednesday night I got in after 11pm after the crazy, cold, wet car problem mentioned below. I fiddled about for a bit getting ready for work, went to work, got out 2 hours late went in to take my pre-calculus midterm and promptly forgot what numbers are. I don't have my grade yet but I don't feel good about it. Fortunately this class isn't as exam weighted in its grades as most.

The other exams went OK.

There's only one grade I've actually gotten back. The Japanese midterm was an even greater worry than the math. I missed a lot of classes early on and was struggling, so I went to class yesterday with some trepidation.

I got a 100. A one with two zeroes behind it. I don't know when I've ever gotten a 100 on an actual exam, "A's" yes but perfect? Certainly not in Japanese. Even better, the instructor decided to let me make-up the assignments I'd missed so I've gone from hanging on for dear life to sitting pretty in my hardest class, which at 6 credits a huge chunk of my semester GPA.  Happy day.

It's unseemly for southern gentlemen to gloat or emote so I'll just let these two young ladies convey my sentiments on the matter.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:27 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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The parking garages whose construction was used to justify the large increase in parking fees are now reserved for metered parking and faculty. the large garage for the Convocation Center is frequently unusable by students due to sporting events.

Which brings us to this.

One of the few remaining parking lots available to students at ODU.

Moments after this picture was taken my radiator hose broke.

Moments after that...it began to sleet.

3 hours after discovering just how awkwardly placed a Cressida's aft radiator hose is....I got home.

It's been one of those days. I may not get to sleep before work...in 3 hours.

Math egzam 2morrow...ghaaah!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:56 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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For some time now, I've noted that my 13 month old niece really likes my red T-shirt for some reason. Seeng me in it brings a big smile to her face. As a result, I've kept it handy and only worn it when she shows up.

You can imagine my horror when my sister relayed to me that my niece recently identified her colors as blue, green, yellow and "Unc".

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:11 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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While virtuously scouring the internet for content to further the causes of science and liberty, I, by merest happenstance, encountered this...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:55 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Aieee! Break out the aerosani!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:08 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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It sucks.

Yes, I got a flu shot this season and I can still barely sit up.


(picture unrelated)

Update: Released from Hospital at 2 this morning with a diagnosis of Flu, Bronchitis and Inner Ear Infection and most importantly, documentation for work and school. The flu-shot either did NO good this year or without it I'd be dead. I haven't had the flu this bad in 25 years or more.
I'm getting better though. I can walk all the way to the bathroom without resting now, I can drink fluids without going into cough spasms and I've held down solid food for 4 hours. I've been in bed over 40 hours of the last 48.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:20 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Looks acary...and potentially monstrous.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:11 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Back on the 15th I mentioned that I'd lost a few classes in getting transferred to the new catalog. One of these was English 110...freshman English, which I had taken many years ago at a community college, only to have it not be honored now by ODU. Well...imagine my surprise the other day when I attempted to register for the course online and was told that I don't have the prerequisites.
I'm a senior...I'm working towards (besides my actual major and minor) a TESOL certificate..more to the point ENG 110 is THE LOWEST LEVEL ENGLISH COURSE.

Can someone explain this?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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