march 26, 2006

finally made it to the pool today.   i went over to riverbank on 145th street and riverside drive.  the bldg was kinda hard to find if you've never been there before, and that was my first time there.  i kept having to ask people which bldg it was in.  it has a 50 meter pool, unfortunately (or fortunately for me) it was only 25 yards today and there were only 3 lanes designated for lap swimming.  when i said fortunately for me, it was because swimming felt completely foreign to me.  it was the first time in at least 2 years i had been in the pool, and before that i wasn't even swimming hard, just messing around, so it's been awhile.  for those of you who are curious, i was a whole 4 seconds slower than i used to be for a 50-yard breast stroke... that's alot. back in the day, that time would have been my cool down time.  it was awful. i think my technique is still ok though.  it felt ok.  time to take my swimming a little more seriously if i plan on looking semi-respectable in a swim meet.  i'm also kinda too lazy to work my way up to riverbank.  i need to come up with some sort of plan.

i found this vid, i nicknamed it naughty natalie.   it's not the type of thing you would picture her doing.  i can picture (fantasize) her doing a strip scene, no problem, but doing a rap, it's hilarious!!!


i've also updated my links section.  you'll notice a new animated gif.  if you've bothered to download my videos, you'll recognize it.  feel free to save it and use it on your site if you want.  just know it took me forever to get it within 500K... and i mean forever.  it started to piss me off.  now i wanna make the vid into a screensaver.

march 23, 2006

this morning i was scheduled to attend a seminar.  i didn't remember about it until i was walking out of my apartment.  the thing is, while i was getting dressed i decided to wear a t-shirt i hadn't worn in awhile.  it was all the way on the bottom of the pile.  clothes that are on the bottom of the pile are usually the most wrinkled - i know that.  my t-shirt was no exception, but since i'm not a morning person, i didn't think of that nor notice how wrinkled it was until i used the bathroom at the seminar and looked at my reflection while i was washing my hands... yes, i wash my hands after using the bathroom (that topic in itself will someday be written about - it'll be long so i have to be in the mood).  oh well.  it's not like i'll ever see anyone in that seminar ever again, and if i do, i'm sure they won't remember me and i of course will definitely not remember any of them, so who cares.

i've been seeing this cialis commercial on tv and in one of the statements the announcer says if you're using the product and have an erection that lasts longer than 4 hours, contact a doctor immediately.  is there a problem if you have an erection for more than 4 hours?  i would think both parties (or should i say all parties, if you like doing that sort of thing) would be ecstatic if someone could hold an erection for that long.  am i missing something?  STRONG LIKE BULL!!!

march 20, 2006

i have to be fair.   if i'm gonna be posting a vid with bill gates, i have to post a vid with steve ballmer (his microsoft buddy).  so here you go.  steve ballmer dancing around on stage.  it's been nicknamed the monkeyboy dance. when you see it, you'll know why.  it's worth watching.



march 19, 2006

i found my bathing suit and when i looked at them i remembered i had wanted to buy new ones 2 years ago which i think was the last time i wore them.   the reason i needed new ones was because they're kinda worn down.   i thought i had more suits, but i couldn't find them.  that pretty much scratched the swimming, so i went running instead.  i really didn't feel like running and it was really crappy, so later that nite i decided to spin, and when i was done my legs were fatigued to the point where they were shaking while i was walking around the apt.  holy crap, gotta love those powercranks...

i found this video, which is hilarious (it's in mpg format - 12MB).  i guess bill gates was doing a plug at some convention for the xbox 360 and ran onstage towards the mic.   ummm... i guess he should have just walked cuz here's a parody of steve jobs breaking on billy girl running.  i don't know if he runs like a girl or runs like a nerd or a combo of both - nerdy girl.  he's got so much money, i guess he really doesn't have to run or do anything really.  if i had that much money i guess i might run like a nerdy girl also... i'll never know.

 

march 18, 2006

we had a bday dinner yesterday for a teammate at sambuka on the uws.   it was good food and we stayed there for about 3 hours.  although our group has been hanging out, we still have fun conversations so the time flew by.  some had to get their butts up for the brooklyn half (pickup a ride at 6:45am or something crazy like that)... i didn't get outta bed until 10:30.  =D  i was busy today though, going up to harlem to help out a friend with some computer stuff and then hanging out with a couple of people and their kid on the ues.

something which completely cracked me up at the dinner was - someone mentioned taking a pic of the bday girl and the girl sitting next to her, he happened to call her sandra (anyone who was there will know what i was talking about). 

i'm gonna commit and try swimming tomorrow (as long as i can find my bathing suit and goggles).  i wanna see if my arm can handle the pain (i'm positive it'll hurt, i just wanna see how much) so i can train for the possible swim meet in june.  i haven't swam in a couple of years, but i would like to have a semi-respectable performance.

march 16, 2006

here's a handy utility.  it's a calculator that should have been a part of xp, but i guess it came out too late to be added.  it's a fancy standard, scientific, and metric converting calculator.  i downloaded it straight from microsoft's site, so it's not from some unknown hacking site or anything.  it's completely free and will not expire.  check it out... it's purple.   i think the only real requirement is that your os must be xp.

march 12, 2006

i've been looking for this video for a while now.  

jon stewart poking fun at gw when gw decided to take some questions from the floor and being flustered when someone asked him about his education cuts.  it's hilarious and just shows how much he knows about "his own" budget.  i'm still wondering who actually makes decisions and has all the power at the white house.

march 8, 2006

hmmm... not much going on, so there isn't much to write about.   the most exciting thing i've done all week was sorting thru a month's worth of mail (mostly junk). 

i came across this photo of eddie van halen.  it was taken back on march 5, 2006.  this is one guy who did not age well.  he looks like some crazy old strung-out rocker wannabe dude (click on the pic for a larger size). 


oh, the hospital was able to find my mri film.  i had to make all the phone calls to the records dept (why that was, i don't know cuz i wasn't the one that lost them).  the dr's secretary told me to tell them (records dept) to search the warehouse and they found it there.  my question is, why didn't they (the records dept) do that the first time i called them?  why did i have to specifically ask them to check the warehouse?  if the doc's secretary didn't tell me to have them do that, they would've just said they didn't have it again.  that just doesn't make sense.  the report of the mri is missing (it may be in between films - i didn't check - there's alot of film) but that's no big deal cuz i was smart enuf to make a copy of that at least.  i didn't get the x-rays back, but i don't care cuz i was able to scan those into my computer (just in case they got lost).

i'm going to post some info on email trackers in the articles and opinions section.  go check it out.   if you don't see it, that means i didn't finish writing it (i'm doing the blog first - the articles and opinions make me think too much so it's not updated as often).

march 4, 2006

i have added a running calculator to my site.   hope it's accurate.  if it's not, oh well.  email me and let me know and i'll get rid of it.  i will also add this to my links site.

march 1, 2006

yesterday, tuesday, was a day full of bad news.  first thing in the morn i had a doc appt and found out i'm probably gonna have to get my arm cracked open again (for the third time) and the mri for my wrist showed i damaged my wrist (something was torn and also debris).  that sucked.  to make matters worse, the first time i went to this doc i gave his support staff my x-rays and mri from before and they LOST them.  all i got from the doc's secretary was... i'm sorry, i don't know what to tell you...  not to mention the prior visit i had a ton of x-rays taken and they didn't have them on hand!!!  the x-rays had to get reprinted!!!  ALSO, now get this, the person who initially looked at the wrist mri stated there was nothing wrong with my wrist.  then my doc had the person in charge of the mri dept (very high up person) check out the mri scans and marked off where the tear was and stated i had debris that needed to get cleaned out.  hmmm... i'm having second thoughts about having surgery at this hospital...  it's an extremely reputable hospital and the doc is pretty well known too.

the other bad news was from amazon.com.   i had purchased a new cell phone from them because there was a killer rebate going on.  i had mailed it back in jan. and decided to go to the site and check the status since it was the end of feb.  well, it said i was denied, but didn't say why.  so... what would have happened if i didn't check the status?  luckily i kept copies of everything and after re-reading the requirements and looking at everything i filled out and mailed, there's no way i didn't fulfill everything so i shot off an email to the rebate people.  of course they sent me a generic email stating nothing and basically told me to contact the retailer (amazon).  that got me even more furious and i immediately sent amazon an angry email.   amazon in return sent me a generic email stating they sent my message to the appropriate dept to look into it.  i thought to myself, does that mean they just sent it back to the fuckin rebate company again and this will just become some circle with everyone pointing their fingers and each other?  that didn't sit well with me so i sent an extremely angry email asking for details on where it was sent and not some generic email that gave absolutely no info whatsoever.  i got a response pretty quickly and got details.  now i'll just have to wait a short 12 weeks before i know anything.

my advice on rebates:  keep copies of every single thing you're sending them, mail everything stapled together, if you're lazy, write down when you sent it, if you're not lazy, send it certified mail preferably w/ return receipt, although it usually goes to a po box. carefully read the requirements on fulfilling the rebate, such as:   what you have to send, when you have to send it, and when it has to be post marked by.  remember when you should receive the check and if not, check the status (cuz they're not gonna contact you), and as far as i'm concerned, although you wanna yell at someone and want an immediate response, do it thru email so you have something in writing, and when you send the email, make sure you keep a copy of what you write and do a screen capture of the info you fill out.

so yup, yesterday was a pretty damn shitty day.

today was pretty good though.  the team workout was painful but productive.  1/2 mile hill repeats.  the only negative for me was i felt like i had to pee the entire time and as i got closer to my apt the urge kept getting stronger... made it just in time...