The ER Visit

After the eighth day of constant searing stomach pain, I finally broke down and went to the ER. I was there from about 5:30pm to 1:00am. They took two vials of blood and offered me a morphine shot, which I turned down. Sure, I’m curious about it, but I wanted to be fully cognizant of everything they were doing and (hopefully) be able to go home afterwards. Also, narcotics make me fairly nauseous and considering I was there for stomach issues, I thought there was no need to risk further complicating things. I spent a long time laying there, watching tv- one episode of Plain Jane and two episodes of South Park. When someone finally reappeared, I got to pee in a cup. They then gave me anti-nausea meds and I drank Contrast before getting a cat scan.

Diagnosis: Gallstones. Treatment: Follow-up ultrasound in a week or two to determine whether I need my gallbladder removed via laparoscopic surgery. Cost: Astronomical for someone that is uninsured and lives paycheck to paycheck.

Although my blood pressure was kinda high (140/60) and my urine sample white cell count was high, my metabolic panel didn’t show anything unusual. Most importantly, liver function was normal, which means the gallstones aren’t blocking anything, so surgery may not be mandatory. I was running a fever of 100.4 though, which normally indicates an infection, however there was no visible evidence of infection/inflammation of my gallbladder (yet), so that’s a bit odd. They went ahead and gave me an antibiotic (Cipro) as a precaution and Lortab for pain. [Note: Surprisingly, Kroger beat out Walmart on the prescription prices by a little over a buck.] The doc suggested I try a liquid only diet if I can stand it, or at least low-fat until the pain gets better.

Today is my first day back to work. I’m feeling scared, relieved, angry, sore, tired and little bit sorry for myself. :P

Edited: September 1st, 2010

Do A Good Deed Today!

Please vote for the small town of Elmvale to win a community center; they really need it! All you have to do is click and enter the captcha words. You can do it as many times as you’d like.

http://kraftcelebrationtour.tsn.ca/top20/1697#matchup

(Contest closes @ Noon EST on Friday, July 23rd, 2010.)

Thanks!

Edited: July 23rd, 2010

Gratuitous Freeverse

I was on the Speech/Debate team in high school. I dabbled in a little bit of everything, with the exception of Discussion (because it just didn’t appeal to me) and did very well, but it was clear that my real passion was for the Interp events like Prose and Poetry. I made it to State in both of those events all four years and won first in each of them as a Junior and a Senior, took second as a Sophomore and placed third when I was a Freshman. (A progressive clean sweep, woohoo!) /end bragging rights

Considering that background, I guess it’s kind of odd that I don’t really care for Spoken Word recordings. Aside from Jim Morrison and Henry Rollins, there wasn’t much I could get into *listening* to; I tend to prefer reading the written word. I say “wasn’t” because in college, I discovered a compilation with some tracks that blew me away. They still do today. It’s called Home Alive: The Art Of Self Defense. The proceeds went to an anti-violence organization that provided self defense classes. (It recently discontinued operation, sadly.)

Anyway, I’m so obsessed with these two particular pieces that I just HAD to share them here. You can listen to them at the links below. Beware though… they aren’t exactly uplifting, to put it mildly.

Theory Of Mutation by Wendy O-Matik & Untitled by Kristen Kosmas

I can read like that, but I sure as hell can’t write like that. Wow. Just wow.

Edited: July 12th, 2010

A Wise Man Once Said…

“We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.” – William Somerset Maugham

Edited: June 15th, 2010

Government (Mis)management

The Department Of Education demonstrates one of the many ways in which they excel at customer service…

     —–Original Message—–
    From:   Student Aid
    Sent:   Wednesday, August 12, 2009 4:19 PM
    To:     Anastacia xxxxxxx
    Subject:        Not read: Balance remaining on Direct Consolidated Subsidized loan

    Your message was deleted without being read on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:18:57 PM (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada).


Edited: August 13th, 2009

Incommunicado

A storm knocked out my electricity on Tuesday morning. The power company said it might be a few days before they can get it back on. (The main box for the whole block was destroyed when a tree came down. The tree has been cut up and removed, but the box is a more complex fix.)

I’m checking my emails etc from the office before we open, on my lunch hour and prior to leaving for the day. If I am slow to respond or not around much, that is why.

I’m ok. A little bored, but not completely miserable. Yet.

Update Wednesday 8/5 7:30 PM – Yay, back on!!!!

Edited: August 5th, 2009

Site Stats July “09

I check my website statistics mostly out of curiosity. Every once in a while, I like to share them. Maybe other webmasters will find it interesting or helpful. Feel free to comment and share some of yours!

***

Browser: over 80% of my visitors use Internet Explorer. Surprisingly, Netscape is the next most used at 12%. Firefox is only slightly above 6%. The others are only a fraction of a percent. This makes me sad. Before I started using Wordpress, I used to focus on cross-browser compatibility. It was frustrating, especially when coding by hand in notepad, but I know I learned a lot that way. I feel like I’ve been lured out of the loop by convenience. By today’s design standards, I would suck.

OS: Almost 90% of my visitors use Windows… XP, 98 and NT- in that order, but Vista is only a fraction of a percent. Oddly enough, the next most popular operating system among them is “unknown.” In the list of unknowns, many appear to be mobile users. (The future of the web?) Mac users account for less than one percent. There are even some Playstation and Wii visitors. Neat!

Countries: Most viewers are from the US, France, Canada, Netherlands, China, Germany, Great Britain, South Korea and Russia. I know my geography, but there is one country I did not recognize- Brunei Darussalam, which Google indicates is in Southeast Asia, on the Island of Borneo. Wow.

Referrers: Most of my hits come from Steph The Geek’s, Adorable Audrey’s and Sybil Hawthorne’s sites. All girls I love, so this pleases me. I really don’t see anything that shouldn’t be there or that alarms me…. no unauthorized hotlinks or government agencies, as I might have a few years ago.

Search Key Phrases: They are telling this month, with most being foot fetish related :) Many people, apparently, also want to know “does faiuruza balk wear thongs?” If you can confirm that, please let me know, haha! Several visitors were also looking for “sexy navajo chicks,” but unfortunately did not find any on my site. :P Some were also hoping to find former Camwhores Selvios and Verotika. Sorry! Those wanting Juicy Little Fat Grl, did find a link to her though! :)

Pages: My rss feed and webcam pages are the most popular, as expected. A lot of people look into contacting me, but don’t. Understandable given that I rarely use instant messengers or chat and I can be slow to respond to emails when I don’t know what to say.

***

I guess I am a nerd, because I find this data absolutely fascinating. It excites me. It makes me speculate. It makes me want to create. It makes me want to be more active and update more often. I probably should not be looking at it, heh!

Edited: July 25th, 2009

The New Girl

I took an Old 97’s tune called The New Kid (swapped the genders, changed kid to girl, tweaked a couple of other words) and parodied it into a song about the camgirl world, ha!

Verse 1:
The new girl, she’s got money
The money I deserve
She’s got the goods but she’s not good for her word
I should be rolling in it
I’ve been a working stiff
As for the justice no one knows where it went

Chorus:
I’m gonna cam away
Until my dyin’ day
I will be remembered for the hot things I did
Believe me every year
There is another one here
Don’t you see I used to be the new girl
I am sorry to say
You’ll get carried away
Oh
You will be replaced
You will be replaced
I tell you again
Don’t get too settled in
Oh
You will be replaced
You will be replaced
by the new girl

Verse 2:
The new girl, she’s got my fans
The fans I used to have
She’s got the looks you know, but not from her dad
They should be kissing my ass
They should be so in love
There is no justice
There’s just dark stars above

Edited: June 21st, 2009

Favour For A Friend?

I am always wary of meeting interweb folk, but I knew right away that Sunny and Blake were my kind of people when I met them in Toronto while visiting Steph The Geek a few years ago. They are really special to me in that kindred spirit sort of way. It would mean a lot to me to be able to help them out. This where you come in!
Please register and vote for them to win an amazingly kickass vehicle by Nissan called the Cube. It only takes a minute and you won’t get any spam from it. I can’t begin to tell you how much of a positive life change this could mean for them individually, as a couple and for their kids.
The links are:
http://www.hypercube.ca/en/Canvas.aspx?id=9b9168c6-c8bb-46cf-bd27-d0fbf0a8d21d〈=en
and
http://www.hypercube.ca/en/Canvas.aspx?id=9b9168c6-c8bb-46cf-bd27-d0fbf0a8d21d〈=en
If you can remember, please try to vote daily. I’ll give you a friendly reminder occasionally! :) Thank you so much!

Edited: April 23rd, 2009

They Do Everything For Us

By Exene Cervenka

Because our skins aren’t thick enough, the walls are too thin , our muscles have not evolved , we are not strong enough to protect us from ourselves…
Look! Soft tan tissue – they are on the cover of the swimsuit issue. He wishes you were her. Because he is looking for something much much more sexier and voluptuous. So he takes out a personal ad that says: “Personality a PLUS …”
Those guys they do everything for us. Wedding rings, diamonds, we get to by stuff… STUFF… Lots and Lots of STUFF.
Shops, malls, homeshopping walls… is it enough stuff? Is it ’stuff’ enough?
We don’t know any better, I guess. And now home shopping replaces television trinity ministry in some homes, I guess. And now at least people are getting something for their money.
Taxes to taxes, dust to dust. They do everything for us.

Edited: April 15th, 2009

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