Last night

I was at a point after the game that I could barely see straight, due to being tired and the knee pain. And that was with A doing the sweeping and mopping of the house instead of me while we were doing game preparations, and I was generally trying to stay off my feet. I went on home before 'Salem', took some pain reliever, plugged up the phone to its charger, and just went ahead and put my leg up on some pillows and my CPAP on, and I was asleep so quickly. I did not unpack the computer, change clothes, or bring my laundry in from the car. It's still there, actually.

Tonight I need to:

• Write a book review that's due tomorrow.
• Stop by the library to pick up a book that's on hold.
• Put my leg up for a bit.

What I'd like to do:

• Watch 'Salem' with YKWIA and 'A' if I'm up to it.
• Straighten up the house just a bit (it's not bad, just needs a bit of tender loving care).
• Play a video game or two to relax.

I'm going to start with putting my knee up for a bit, now that I've eaten and checked online for fun things to post (I didn't find anything just now). I'll be glad to find out what's wrong with my knee on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed that it isn't too bad and will be something that will heal quickly. Thanks!

Hahahahahahahahahaha!

So far tonight I have come home, put my knee up for awhile, flooded the bathroom, gotten something to munch on, and frittered an hour that should have gone to game notes on Facebook. But I found this and laughed hysterically!



Of course, these dice would have been made from people, if you know your Star Trek, so they're really more appropriate to Call of Cthulhu than Dungeons & Dragons, I think. But if you've gamed for long enough, yes, there were dice with crayons. I've seen them, although by the time I got into things in the early 90s, they were printed.

Really???

What Is Your Medieval Profession? (Created By Greg Summers on March 20, 2014)

The Court Jester

You are very energetic and funny, you love to make other people laugh and feel goofy. You entertain people at a very dark, medieval time, and for that they are grateful. Your heart leads your life, and you just enjoy the ride. 'Tis most splendid!

Whee!!! August 23rd!!!

One more tonight...

Don't you love it when you have a song in your head (in this case, Ed Sheeran's 'Sing') and so you turn on the radio and it's actually playing. I guess I'm a radio psychic! :)

By the way, I finally got a pair of Atari joysticks to go along with an Atari 600 XL computer I found on eBay, and they work, and this afternoon before I went over to my friends' house, I played Dig Dug, Gyruss, and Q*Bert. :) Ready Player One indeed! And I love the Gyruss music, even though it's old-style computing music and a kind of plinky. And after all, it is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor:



But then, I wish my phone's version of Tetris had the original theme. :)



(It's called 'Korobeiniki'.)

Sigh

Today I have visited three Kroger stores (one twice!), schlepped to a doctor's office to pick up a friend, and generally have been up and walking on my knee way more I should (it passed from uncomfortable to pain about 9 am). Grand total today (and it's not even the end of the day yet!) for steps is 12,297 (that's 6.89 miles--a personal record) so far. Tomorrow is another early morning as the MRI is at 7:15 am. Now I think it's time to elevate the leg and head on to bed.

PS I checked into the pay situation and as near as I can figure, it is correct. Which sucks. Apparently the government just got an extra helping of my taxes.

PPS You know, YouTube has a video for just about anything. Yesterday I was with YKWIA and we watched parts of a boy who had been eaten by a crocodile cut out of the creature that the villagers had hunted. They then proceeded to eat the crocodile, probably as part of a funeral feast, which seems a little odd to Western cultures, probably but I suppose represents a fundamental belief in conquering over that which stole away the life of a child and also to not waste good meat. Still, it was a little disconcerting.

PPPS Here is the final count--12,501 steps, almost 7 miles. Argh!

Put that on my to-do list

I woke up a little while ago and looked to see if my pay had hit my account and found that it was quite a bit less than I expected. Now, last pay day there was an error in calculating my personal time off (I have two jobs at one place, with two pay grades--I don't know how this doesn't happen more) and I got paid about $60 too much. Having been the honest type who brought it to their attention, I expected my cheque to be less by more or less the same amount, although I knew the taxes would affect it somewhat. Now I find that instead I'm about $175 less than normal. So somehow I lost $115 in all of this. I know I'm not the best at math, but I don't think it should be that much. I'm thinking that the PTO I should have had this time didn't get put in, as the amount would be about right. So tomorrow it's definitely on my to-do list to investigate. Unfortunately, my pay statement isn't available online yet, so I can't figure it out now, and my print statement doesn't have the complete breakdown, so what I get tomorrow won't help. I'll just have to wait until it's updated online, which should be some time tomorrow. But in the end this puts me in a bind, meaning my rent will have to be a few days late to pay other bills, which means I'll have to pay additional fees and overall I'll be at a deficit for July, which is when I also have a quarterly payment that's due. Not happy. :( I guess honesty sometimes bites you in the foot.

If it's a case of my PTO not being put in for this pay period, I'll just leave it as is and take the PTO later. I'm pretty low on it right now, since I don't really use it for vacations but rather in little increments for appointments. But if it's another error, then hopefully we can get it fixed.

The article is actually about rural Guatemala, but there is malnutrition throughout the world

even in places like the United States, which has its 'food deserts' and a reliance on cheap carbs for many who are living from paycheque to paycheque. But the article asks an interesting question and provides ideas for what governments and non-profits are doing to help people.

In a land of plenty, a reporter’s snapshots of malnutrition

What if every politician, political appointee and influential executive at a Forbes 500 company in the United States was encouraged to spend the night in the circumstances of one of the least fortunate of their constituents or customers? Would that make a difference?

So I go on Friday and have an MRI

Which frankly, I thought I was over having to have them because of the screws in my ankle, but no, apparently they're not concerned about metal embedded in bone so much as metal in the brain or eyes. But that's good, because we can determine what's wrong with my knee. I got a phone call at home from my regular doctor today while I was in the waiting room at the orthopaedist, and the voicemail said the results of my Doppler ultrasound were in and while there were no blood clots, they would be referring me to an orthopaedist. So I called them and explained that I was at the office of one right then (my insurance doesn't require referrals, and I thought I'd get an idea of what was causing my pain in my knee, as opposed to just going to physical therapy blind). Apparently I have a popliteal cyst (also known as a Baker's cyst), but that's not what's causing the pain. The specialist didn't actually say what he suspected, but went ahead and explained my x-rays and the narrow-looking space between my bones in my knee were deceiving and the spacing actually was wider than it looked, although there was wear and tear. (Not surprising, I'm 47 and have had knee issues on and off for years). But what he put on my sheet in oh-so-nearly-unreadable-doctor-handwriting is that there was a possibility of a meniscal tear. The MRI should show the structures of the knee including ligaments, cartilage, and tendons, so we'll have a better idea then of what's wrong and how to treat it. The MRI is Friday, and then my follow-up appointment is Wednesday, so I'll know more then. I'm hoping it's minor and can be treated conservatively with rest, icing, maybe a brace. But I'm resting it quite a bit now and icing it as needed, and it's not getting better. If it's bad enough for surgery, that could be an issue because it's my right leg and I might not be able to drive for awhile. I said something to a co-worker about that being a fear and she said, 'I guess it would be back on the bus for you.' But what she doesn't realise is that the nearest bus stop would be a quarter of a mile and across a major roadway--the same one where I was hit when I was able-bodied--and so that just wouldn't work. I'd have to be off from work from anywhere from a week to six weeks or so, barring complications, depending on the procedure, it looks like. I have plenty of extended illness time, but still. I don't want to miss that much work. But for now, I don't even know what the diagnosis is, or how bad, so I'm going to try not to worry about it.

This made me laugh the other day

It was on Facebook. That might have been something Bill shared, too, given our mutual love of Ireland.

Is anyone else having an ad screen pop up while reading my blog?

I do sometimes, randomly, and if I let it count down it comes back to here, but if I click on the link to skip the ad, it takes me to the advertised web site. I'm not sure what this is, if it's something Google's doing or what. I'm using Chrome as my browser. I haven't noticed it on any other website, including other Blogger blogs. I don't know how to stop it, either. But if you are having it pop up, let me know in the comments, and that way I'll know it's not just me. Weird. And if it is happening to you, I'm very sorry. I decided a long time ago not to put ads on this site, and I'd like to keep it that way.

I got Great Cthulhu himself!

What Lovecraftian God Are You?

You are Cthulhu, the High Priest. You are the Old One of the Sea, served by the fish-men, known as Deep Ones, and all other beast of the ocean. You are the god of the artist and dreamers you can spread your insanity through.

Thanks to Bill Hart for sharing on Facebook. He came up as Shub Niggurath, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young. I told him good luck on finding minions. When we were in the game together, his character was in charge, and we found a book bound in human skin that, if authentic, would cause anyone who read it to turn to dust (I think, definitely it would kill you, but our game master has a better memory than mine and will point out if I'm wrong). Anyway, Bill was most unhappy when it turned out that no one in the group would do what he said and read the book, and he had a small mutiny on his hands. :)

I love Call of Cthulhu. Especially as YKWIA runs it.

About time...

Graduation Heals World War II Internment Wounds

Miyada was 17 when he was sent with his family and more than 17,000 other detainees to a patch of desert land near Poston, Arizona, shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II. A teacher later sent him a letter expressing shock that he couldn’t finish high school and included a diploma — but Miyada always regretted that he missed the celebration.

In May, Miyada met Newport Harbor’s principal, Sean Boulton, during a Memorial Day service at the high school and Boulton invited him to walk with the 560 seniors who would be graduating. Boulton even found a copy of the program from what would have been Miyada’s graduation day in 1942.

“My name was on there,” Miyada said. “I wasn’t able to attend, of course, but my name was there anyway. It was very emotional.”

After two years in the camp, Miyada moved to Michigan, where he was drafted. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army in Europe and then earned a doctorate in chemistry from Michigan State University. He eventually became a professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Kudos to the school for inviting this man to finally walk in graduation. It was a great injustice that so many were sent away into internment camps for the sin of being Japanese-American, yet as his story shows, the same government had no trouble drafting him and sending him into war. The Allegiance musical, whose site hosted this story, also tells a story of internment. One cast member is George Takei (Sulu from 'Star Trek'), who himself was sent to an internment camp in Arkansas as a boy, and who worked very hard to get the play off the ground. I really wish I could watch it on Broadway.

After the Cthulhu game

we decided that neither of us were up to watching 'Salem' tonight, although it's a very good show, so we set the DVR to record and will watch it later, when we're not so tired. I've cleaned house, helped A with some of his chores (and he helped with mine), washed a dog, and did the game, and so I'm ready to get some rest. I'm not quite falling over tired, like YKWIA was, but I'll be there soon. Besides, this way we can watch with A, who has a much earlier morning schedule and so always has to watch later anyway.

Now I'm home and it looks like a thunderstorm may be brewing. The clouds at dusk were very dark and ominous. I got home before any rain, though, which is good.

Tomorrow the work week starts all over and I have a copier down (it went down right before the end of day Friday). Hopefully we'll get that back up and running. Tuesday I have an appointment to see an orthopaedist about my knee, which has been doing a bit better this weekend, but I was off it almost completely yesterday and about half as much as usual today.

Okay, I think I'll try reading a bit before bed and listening to some music. Tomorrow I should be able to download the rest of Ed Sheeran's album x. I was able to get 'Sing' when I pre-ordered the .mp3 album, but tomorrow is the release date.

Hope your weekend was wonderful and relaxing. Good night.

Happy Solstice to you

Here in the North, we celebrated the longest day of the year. Down in the Southern hemisphere it's the longest night. No matter what it was for you, I hope you had a good one.

Just finished watching

The Book Thief. I do have the book by Markus Zusak on my Kindle, but have not read it yet, so I can't tell you how close the movie is to the book. What I can tell you is that this movie made me cry for the better part of the last hour, but it was very uplifting as well. It is the story of Liesel, a young girl who cannot read yet has a fascination for books, stealing her first, a guide to grave digging, at her brother's funeral. Set in Hitler's Germany prior to World War II and up to the end of it, and shown through the eyes of a child, it is the story of a lonely quiet girl who slowly bonds with her foster parents, the boy next door, and the young Jewish man their family is hiding. Narrated by Death, we are assured that everyone will die at some point, but the way these people live their lives is a legacy that fits into story around them like the words that become so important to Liesel. It is the story of decent people, cruel people, people of all walks of life and temperament, of survival, and love. As Death says, 'The only truth I truly I know is that I am haunted by humans.' I highly recommend it. I liked it so well I went ahead and ordered it on Amazon. Next up on the DVD queue for A and me to watch is Twelve Years a Slave. I'm also going to put The Grand Budapest Hotel on it, which had a preview on this DVD, because I think YKWIA, A, and I would all enjoy it.

Agenda for today

1. Get up. (This took longer than it really should have, but it was nice to sleep in.)
2. Get some food in me. (Tortillas and cheese for brunch.)
3. Take my meds. (The potassium refused to go down. It dissolved in my mouth in a nasty manner.)
4. Listen to the end of Rick Dees' countdown. (He's not as good as Casey Kasem, and I hate when they change the songs as an advertisement for his show, but still....)
5. Water flowers inside and out. (My prayer plant is not only growing like a weed, it's blooming, a lovely purple (the flowers are tiny, but still....) Not bad for nearly killing it early on.)
6. Add water to fish tanks.
7. Work on the game notes. (Yay, finished!)
8. Get a haircut. (Decided not to for now.)
9. Read a book I've started, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Katherine Howe. (This switches between the 17th-century and and 1990s Massachusetts, a mystery involving witchcraft then and now. I'm not far into it, but it has potential, and I'm enjoying the writing so far.)
10. Watch The Book Thief, which I have out from Netflix. (See review on next entry.)
11. Celebrate the solstice.
12. Generally relax. (This I've had no trouble doing, as I didn't have any caffeine until after 6 pm and I really dragged in bed back and forth throughout the day.)

An even quicker note

To say,  yes,  I am alive and well.  Between work and after work things I have been very busy,  and the one day I've been home I crashed to sleep by 7 pm without blogging at all.  I just got home and it's almost 11:30 pm.  So I am going to go on to bed.  But I will try to catch up tomorrow and over the weekend. Thanks for your patience.

Just a quick note before bed

I need to get up early tomorrow morning and go into work to make up some time for leaving a little early for my dental appointment today. I also need to drop something off at a friend's before work, so that means I need to get up even earlier than I'd originally planned. Of course, I tried to get up at 6 am and wound up getting up at 7:55 this morning. I've just been dragging out of bed the last few days, both work and weekend days, so I don't think it's just oh, I have so much to do and so little time and work has been somewhat more stressful than normal. And I'm getting a decent amount of sleep. I really think I need to recharge my batteries, have a bit of a real vacation, but I have very little personal time off (I tend to use that for things like today's appointment, rather than fun stuff, and when I was off with my ankle they used two weeks' worth of time that should have been extended illness, and I never got it corrected, so that was my fault, and it's been too long now). Even if I could have a week, I think I'd feel better. The next day off is July 4th, but I don't see taking any extra days with that long weekend.

Today they adjusted my upper partials (apparently it wasn't user error, but rather it was hanging up on a canine), and then a tooth came off of the lower partial, so I sat around for an hour at the dentist while they repaired that. But these are my temporary partials--I get impressions made at the beginning of August for the permanent ones. Unfortunately due to my appointment taking longer than I expected, I wasn't able to give A a ride home from his appointment, but I did feed him dinner when he got home. :) I visited over there for awhile and did some things to help out with something, and then I came on home. My knee is hurting (7 days till I hopefully find out why) and my ankles are swollen. I'm going to have to ditch my sandals despite the heat; the New Balance walking shoes do so much better for my ankles, as they have much more support and orthotics in them to boot. I'll save sandals for skirts and capris, and just keep to the others for my normal pants.

Okay, I've downloaded my readings from my glucose monitor and cleared the readings on the machine. I've charged it while I've typed, which should bring it back to full by now. I think I'll take my nightly meds and head on to bed, get this knee elevated, etc. I hope you had a good start to your week. Last night's news stories left me sort of down. I also found someone on Facebook with whom I've been estranged for years, my father, and that saddened me, too--not enough to contact him, as I think I gave as much into that relationship as I could have, and it's good to have an idea of where he is, because, well, I like to know where the people I've put into my past are, but it saddens me, too, because as a child I desperately wanted to be loved by him, and even after my parents divorced tried to keep things going, only to have him end things over petty greed and lies. I know now that I will never have the nurturing I wanted or deserved, and I tend to forge ahead as if I never really had a father, but of course, I did, and not the one I wanted in my head, but the one I actually had. But I do know as we both get older (he's a senior citizen now), I think of the whole situation with some amount of regret. I wonder if he does the same of me. I'll probably never know.

Poor baby

Gertjie is a nearly four-month-old rhino. He is currently at a sanctuary, where he is making headlines as videos of him snuggling with his keepers, going for walks, and being bottle fed go viral. He was found crying inconsolably at his dead mother's side early in May after poachers killed her and took her horn. It saddens me that people would kill these endangered beasts for the prize of their horns, to satisfy greed, and to do so to a nursing female, leaving the young rhino to die. I am glad there are folks at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre who were willing to take the Gertjie in and help save his life.

Orphaned baby rhino Gertjie refuses to sleep alone after witnessing his mother's death at the hands of poachers

Right after I posted this, which I had stumbled upon, I found something else in my Facebook newsfeed that saddened me (I follow the National Geographic). Oh, I don't understand how anyone can do this. What a grand fellow, an elephant about my age, somewhere between 45-50, one of the largest in the world and beloved by both tourists and those who strive to save these wonderful animals alike.

Beloved African Elephant Killed for Ivory--'Monumental' Loss

World Famous Elephant 'Satao' Killed By Poachers In Kenya

“Today it is with enormous regret that we confirm there is no doubt that Satao is dead, killed by an ivory poacher’s poisoned arrow to feed the seemingly insatiable demand for ivory in far off countries. A great life lost so that someone far away can have a trinket on their mantelpiece,” the statement said.

The poachers cut off the elephant’s face and stole the tusks, but conservationists who have studied Satao for several years identified his body from the ears and other marks on this body earlier in June and immediately reported to authorities.

Today we watched two things of interest

The first being the Leonardo DiCaprio/Tobey Maguire version of The Great Gatsby which, with the exception of some anachronistic music, was very entertaining. I thought the acting was well done, the costumes were to die for, the settings were dead on, and the spectacle of the parties superb. It had real style. But then, it was directed by Baz Luhrmann, so that isn't unexpected. And although my memory of the book isn't very clear, refreshing my memory with a plot synopsis online shows that the movie touched on all the main points, as it should have. I could have used a little more jazz and a lot less rap, but that's really my only gripe.

After the movie A retired to Masterpiece Mystery on PBS in the bedroom and YKWIA and I watched 'Salem' on WGN in the living room. I must say that series gets progressively better each week. There are four more episodes to go this season, I think. That should get us through a good portion of the summer, and then all our shows should be over for now until 'Doctor Who' starts up in August.

I am home now, but it is, however, quite late (nearly 1 am), so I am going to head on to bed. Hope you had a good weekend. Good night.

Yesterday I went to the doctor

But it wasn't a completely satisfying visit. On the one hand, the nurse practitioner and doctor were very happy with most of my lab values from the endocrinology visit a couple of weeks ago, and were glad that the changes we made then are having a positive effect on my health. On the other hand, the nurse was concerned about the swelling in my ankles and the some pain I've had in my legs (especially the right, although that could be from my knee), so the doctor sent me straight over to St Joseph East hospital's radiology department and they did a Doppler ultrasound to double-check for blood clots, which wasn't likely, but they didn't want to overlook the possibility. My knee, however, was not quite ignored, but they thought sending me to physical therapy would be the best course. Now, I know I have arthritis in my knees, but I don't think this is normal arthritis pain. Today I walked across the hospital to pick up my mail and back to the library and the pain was so intense on the way back that I was fighting back tears. I'm normally quite good with chronic pain. This isn't the same as that. I've been trying not to overdo ibuprofen, so I haven't taken any for awhile, but I took three tablets (600 mg) this afternoon and borrowed a pillow from the inpatient unit. I then put it on top of one of those library step stools (you know, the little black round ones that roll but push down into place when you step on them), and then used the combination to raise my leg under the desk. That really helped. But I also decided it would be best to see an orthopaedist to determine the cause of my pain before going to therapy. So I called Bluegrass Orthopaedics and made an appointment. Unfortunately, they can't see me till the 24th. So I'll have to deal with the pain until then.

We're not playing the game on Sunday due to Father's Day (Brenda usually goes to a movie with her husband.) We have The Great Gatsby (the Leonardo DiCaprio version) out from Netflix, so we'll probably watch that. Tomorrow I'm taking a friend to an appointment. I'd like to go to the farmers' market and also the library. The Lexington Public Library has acquired some land at Palumbo and Man O'War that used to have the Jaguar dealership, and they're planning on replacing the Eagle Creek branch in a couple of years, which means that while it will be close, I wouldn't call it within walking distance, being across two main roads and maybe a mile away. Or at least, not quite as convenient if someday I could actually work there. But hey, I'm glad they will be getting a new branch. I wonder what will go in where the library is now?

I should go work on the game notes even though we're not playing, but instead I'm going to go put up my leg and elevate it on some pillows. And yeah, I will probably fall asleep. I'm going to try to do a little reading, though. I have so many good books on my 'to read' list and have been failing miserably at doing so. Also, Windows 8.1 really, really wants to restart my computer to do some updates, which may be good, as I'm having some issues playing videos on YouTube where the videos are freezing, and I type things here and it's like the buffer needs a good emptying, because it keeps hanging up. So hopefully that will help. Good night.

This is really amazing

YKWIA showed it to me. It's a shadow dancing troupe from Hungary called 'Attraction'. This is their 'Britain's Got Talent' audition. They do an amazing job of using their bodies to tug at emotions.

Listening thanks to Amazon's new Prime Music

Learn More About Prime Music

Amazon launches Prime Music, an ad-free music streaming service

'The 100'

was very good tonight, for the finale, and had a great twist at the end, which I won't disclose here. They're showing the episodes from the beginning again starting next week, so if you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out, especially if dystopian survival stories are your thing.

I broke down and called my doctor's office today about the knee issue, and getting a general checkup, and I have an appointment at 8:30 tomorrow morning. I just got in a little while ago from my friends' house and from watching the show, have put away groceries, have eaten a light snack, and I am very seriously considering going to bed. But first I must mention something YKWIA found and it so hurt his brain that he called me this afternoon and told me. It's a reality show, 'I Wanna Marry Harry', where American women are set up Bachelor-style to supposedly get coupled with Prince Harry (as in the fourth in line for the British throne, if I'm doing my math right), when in actuality he's just a guy who's not-really-that-closely-resembling Harry and the girls don't get it. As if the Queen would allow her grandson to pick a wife that way. Apparently if you start to get an idea that this whole thing is fishy, they bump you from the show. Gee. I think reality shows in general are stupid (and they shouldn't call them that, as they are far from it; unscripted might be a better term), but this one seems dumb, dumb, dumb.

YKWIA also showed me a 'M.A.S.K.' episode (you know, the animated series from the mid-80s) that was set in Australia that is, shall we say, beyond the pale of racism. The Aborigines are drawn as dim-witted savages who make ape sounds when encountering a guitar. It's like they took the worst of racial stereotypes of Africans and American Indians and put them together and set them down in Australia. They also blew horns (yes, the mighty horned marsupials) and had lots of minted gold in their temple under Ayers Rock. It was terribly 'ooga booga' and just plain horrible and the worst thing of all is that this series was released in Australia. Hello, the Aborigines do have TVs. Granted it was 30 years ago, but that's really no excuse. And don't even get me started on Bruce Sato, the inscrutable Asian that no one but Matt Trakker can understand because he speaks in riddles. Also, you really have to suspend disbelief, as YKWIA pointed out. After all, where do those masques go in terms of storage when they're not using them? In the vehicles, right? So where does the motorcycle one store its, or the sports car with a low roof? YKWIA also pointed out that Matt Trakker is quite possibly the worst father in the TV world. He leaves his son Scott with random strangers or a ineffectual robot, usually right where he's going to go into danger, only to need a rescue from the team. It's yet another one of those precocious kid with either cute robot or animal sidekick that was once so popular on TV (often having both, like the original 'Battlestar Galactica' with Boxey and his Daggit, but sometimes one or the other (Wesley Crusher on 'Star Trek: the Next Generation being an example of annoying super teen, or the Bear on 'BJ and the Bear' as the chimpanzee companion to the trucker BJ.)) It was a plague in TV land which with any luck has run its course. Dont' believe me about the racism? Check out io9's article: The time M.A.S.K. took a super racist Australian vacation". It's a little inaccurate (Scott says at one point that the Aborigines are doing a 'war dance', not a 'water dance'), and the author admits to knowing nothing about Aboriginal culture, but hey, he got that it was racist as hell. Sorry to trample over a beloved childhood show, but, goodness it's so wrong.....

Okay, enough about TV; time for bed.

Not feeling the best tonight

A walk was out of the question today as I've been having a lot of pain in my knee. This has been going on since the beginning of May, and I think it's past time to have it looked at. Unfortunately, when I got home there were storms coming in, so no pool visit, either. So I watched the news for a bit and then propped my leg up on some pillows where it felt better for a good long while.

I'm hormonal, and while I was doing fine at work, interacting with my best friend, which is sometimes difficult (think dealing with Sheldon Cooper from 'Big Bang Theory' or PL Travers from Saving Mr Banks) was nigh on impossible. So I took him to an appointment and then dropped him off at home so I could go sit in the hut alone and away from folks and wait for my menstruation to begin, which it is just now starting to, so hopefully I will feel better soon. I'm not weepy or anything like that, just a little irritable and not thinking at my best.

I found out that my colleague at our hospital in Los Angeles had her position eliminated, leaving even fewer librarians in our system. Today I also found out that the job I'd applied for at the Lexington Public Library was filled. So that was disappointing, and I'm starting to feel more stressed over job security. I mean I have none, we know the library won't be going to the new building in a couple of years, but I'm afraid they'll make cuts before then, and the job hunt, while pretty active, is not going well. I've revised my résumé, which I'll update soon online, that is more concise, leaving the full list of things for more of a vita. But there's nothing in the area that I can drive to in a reasonable commute at the moment.

Tomorrow I have to:

1. Call my family doctor and make an appointment about my knee and also to get my refills renewed.
2. Call my dentist to see about adjusting the partials, which I haven't been wearing because I can't get them in.
3. Call my student loan administrator about recertifying my income contingent repayment and discuss some issues with them.
4. Call my optometrist and order new contacts.

All that in addition to a full day tomorrow at work. Then there's the season finale of 'The 100' to watch with YKWIA, assuming I'm up to company tomorrow night.

Okay, time for bed. Good night. Hopefully tomorrow will not be quite so depressing.

I went for a walk earlier

which is, of course, healthy and I'm glad I did, but it really kicked my butt and I wound up coming home, hydrating a bit, turning the fan on, and plopping onto the bed for 'a few minutes', and then fell asleep from about for four hours, which probably defeated the purpose of going in the first place.

Getting up, I took my nightly medicine (so glad my phone reminds me now with a little sound that is like a shaking pill bottle), made a salad to bring to work tomorrow, changed purses, and then sat down and put my pills into my container for the next week and figured out what needs to be refilled Thursday. Then I suddenly remembered my phone bill was due today. Now, unlike some bills, I have until midnight to pay on time, but it was almost midnight. I signed in online and there was a problem accessing the website. It signed me in, but kept saying there was a problem and to hit the back button, but that only gave a 'loading page' error. So I tried the backup of using my handset to pay, using the application for my carrier, and that was going great until I got to the expiration date for the credit card and the drop down box sat there and laughed at me and did absolutely nothing except get larger. No drop down, no keyboard coming up to type anything up, just bigger. So I went back and tried the website again and then, no doubt since it was after midnight, everything was working again. Grrrr.... Oh well, at least it's paid, even if it looks like it's a day late rather than mere minutes. It's my fault for not doing it before I laid down, but I really didn't expect to actually fall asleep, as I didn't feel tired so much as needing to cool down and chill for a few minutes. [Postscript: If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know this last statement is ludicrous. I was obviously lying to myself, as any time I go horizontal I pretty much fall asleep. So let me retract that. Apparently when the endorphins gave out, I crashed, even though I didn't 'feel tired' prior to that. I should have given a bit of thought to that before I wrote. Sorry about that.]

Awww...

YKWIA showed me this the other day. I liked it very much.

You've probably seen this

It's made its rounds through Facebook, of course. But I find it an absolutely concise, correct, and hilarious description of the beloved film:



By the way, this was actually written by Rick Polito in 1998. For more, see this: Quirky 'Wizard of Oz' Synopis is Going to Follow Writer to the Grave.

I loved 'The Young Ones' back in the day

and this is my favourite scene:



So I was sad to hear of Rik Mayall's death today. He played Rick, who was an anarchist sociology major who wrote odes to Cliff Richard and was really over the top. (In the video, he is the one with the odd haircut and rat-tail braid.) He and the others made me laugh uproariously many times. I liked what Adrian Edmondson (Vyvyan) said about his colleague:

There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing. They were some of the most carefree stupid days I ever had, and I feel privileged to have shared them with him. And now he's died for real. Without me. Selfish bastard.

Had a great Cthulhu game

in which we all survived, thankfully, despite dealing with lots of Deep Ones and a Star Spawn. I'm posting mainly because I kind of dropped the laptop from about an inch or two above the floor and broke the transmitter for the wireless mouse, although it still works, just the end came off, but also wanted to check to make sure the computer itself works and can connect to the Internet. At the moment I'm connecting through my phone's hotspot, and it seems to be working pretty well. In fact, it seems faster than my cable connexion.

Next up is the show 'Salem', which we've been watching. So, I should go now. Hope you had a great weekend.

It was a good run while it lasted

I took out time out of my day's activities, around 6:52, to watch the Belmont as California Chrome attempted to complete the Triple Crown. Sadly, that didn't happen; instead Tonalist won, leaving California Chrome in a tie for fourth.

We haven't had a Triple Crown winner since 1978. Carter was President. Grease was the big movie of the year, and disco was in full swing. The last horse who accomplished this was Affirmed; he is buried nearby my home on the Darley Stud horse farm, which I have visited. I was 11 years old when he won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont, and firmly in my horsey-girly phase, as a friend calls it. I particularly loved the books of Marguerite Henry, such as Black Gold, King of the Wind, Misty of Chincoteague, Stormy, Misty's Foal, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, and Brighty of the Grand Canyon. I was particularly taken with the story of Black Gold, winner of the 1924 Kentucky Derby, who wnen he was seven ran a race where he broke down yet still finished the race on three legs, leading to his euthanisation and burial at the New Orleans Fairgrounds. Black Gold never raced in the Preakness or Belmont, instead winning several state derbies. But he had spirit, and I suppose it is the spirit of horses I admire so much, even though, despite living in 'The Horse Capital of the World', I don't really have much experience with them and in fact have to avoid them because I'm terribly allergic to them. :)

Anyway, I'm sorry that California Chrome's dreams were dashed. But at least it was a safe race and I hope he continues to excellent things.

I came across this early this morning

I hope you enjoy watching this momma and baby reunite after workers save the calf, who fell into a well. Thanks to Vanessa Irvin Morris for sharing on Facebook. Given the dwindling numbers of elephants, I find it heartwarming that there are people who will do what they can to save these beautiful animals.

I feel like Sleeping Beauty

except without the prince, the fairies, and I'm pretty sure she didn't wake up with her hair sticking up and feeling slightly hung over.

See, I went to bed very late last night. It was almost 2 am. I couldn't sleep after the storms and 'The 100'. Then I got a call from an insomniac friend at 6 am asking if I could please fix his internet connexion, which had been down all night. So I did that (I just had to unplug and replug in the router). I went home and I tried to get a little more rest to no avail, and had just enough time to clean up in the sink without washing my hair. Now, I'm one of those people who simply must wash my hair every day, for it is fine and oily and it goes flat and awful when I leave it that long. I can't even wash it in the evening and have it look fine the whole next day. So I sort of fretted over my hair all day.

Despite the lack of sleep, work went well, and I was very busy. After work I paid my rent and signed my new lease. Then I came in and debated on going for a walk (I should have) before lying down for a half hour, thinking that it was early enough surely I wouldn't sleep the evening away. That was at 5:30. I got up at 10:45, so I got over five hours of sleep. Now I'm up for water and medicine. The way I feel, I think I'll be able to go back sleep some more.

So I feel like I wasted a perfectly good evening, but at least I got some rest. Tomorrow I'll be helping with some baking and a grocery run, so I'll need to be rested, and even though it's a slower clinic day on Fridays, it's my catch-up day for all sorts of things.

I have a confession to make

Remember the reminiscing I was doing the other day regarding old school computing? That is, my old Atari, in response to the video of kids reacting to the old ASCII system?

This coincided with a message from eBay saying I should change my account password due to a breach. Now, I've been on eBay about twice since I opened the account a few years ago, once to get something a friend was interested in, and once to replace a puzzle I accidentally broke of said friend's. But I do have an account, so I dutifully went to change my password.

I was still thinking about my old Atari 800XL, and so I typed it into eBay's search engine, and found several listings, all more expensive than I would have spent--about $100, which is what the system cost when my mom bought hers all those years ago. Then I happened upon a 600XL computer that was one model below mine, but takes the same cartridges, purportedly worked, and was about a third of the price of the others.

So I bid on it. And no one else did. And the next thing I knew, I'd won the auction. I also bid on a joystick, and won that one, as somewhere along the way I divested myself of my joysticks. But I kept my ROM packs, mostly games, about fifteen in all. There's something thrilling about getting down to the wire and bidding on something in 50 cent increments. So have to watch that! :) Today I received the computer (it came very quickly--it was Monday when I won the auction). Tonight I took it home and hooked it up to my bedroom TV and yay, it works. I tried a couple of ROM packs to make sure. So as soon as the joystick gets here, I can play the games I loved, such as Joust, Dig Dug, Centipede, Frogger, Gyruss, etc. So I logged back on to eBay and left very positive feedback to the seller, who was very reasonable, included the connectors I needed to get it hooked up, and got it to me very quickly.

I'm afraid I'm a bit of an old-fashioned video gamer. I still have an old Nintendo system, too, one with cartridges for Gauntlet and Gauntlet II. :)

That I'll probably keep, but there are other things in my house that I might do best to put on eBay. Things like Elvis records from the 60s in great condition, an old Game Boy system that I've never really used, a wallet that is too small for my phone these days. I could have my own online garage sale. This has possibilities....

Okay, it's almost 1:30 am. I got home late because I was waiting for a break in the weather, where it was storming. Time for bed--7 am comes early. Good night! May you dream of little pixelated protagonists saving the world from evil.

I must admit, I have a great affinity for

Hufflepuff:



Thanks to YKWIA for showing me this great Hufflepuff anthem. :) Check out their other videos, as they're quite good. There's one for Slytherin and Gryffindor with Ravenclaw on the way.

And just because you're good, I'll throw in a zombie Christmas carol:

This saddens me

Yale Study: 12 Percent of US Children Abused

A university research group arrived at the cumulative estimate of mistreated American children by examining the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System Child File, which includes data on every child in the country with a confirmed report of maltreatment.

Case reports accumulated between 2004 and 2011 showed over 5.6 million children had experienced maltreatment during that specific seven-year span.

"Confirmed child maltreatment is dramatically underestimated in this country. Our findings show that it is far more prevalent than the 1 in 100 that is currently reported," Christopher Wildeman, an associate professor of sociology at Yale, a faculty fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and the study's lead author, said in a news release.

It's actually 12.5% overall for 2011 rates according to the study. When broken up by ethnicity, they found black children experienced maltreatment at a rate of 20.9%, American Indians at 14.5%, Latinos 13%, white children at 10.7% all far ahead of Asian/Pacific Islanders, which was only 3.8%. Girls are more likely to be maltreated (13% vs. boys at 12%). They also found the risk for maltreatment is higher in the first years of life. The study was published in today's (June 2nd) issue of JAMA Pediatrics [Subscription only, but you can view the abstract]. Here's the citation:

Wildeman C, Emanuel N, Leventhal JM, Putnam-Hornstein E, Waldfogel J, Lee H. The Prevalence of Confirmed Maltreatment Among US Children, 2004 to 2011. JAMA Pediatr. Published online June 02, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.410.

Sleepy

I've walked 7742 steps today, which is 4.35 miles and burned 777 calories. Not bad for a weekend. I have also cleaned my friends' house (slowly, taking my time), did a couple of loads of my laundry (it's so nice to be caught up on that; I just have a small hamper each week), went to Lowe's and my friend got something but I found some glass shades which match my lamp pretty well to replace the one I broke. Then YKWIA and I watched some things that hurt my brain, including 'Mice Bikers from Mars' (although I liked 'Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys', as it had a lot of humour. Then we did a total turnabout and watched 'Salem', which just keeps getting more interesting. Now I'm home, the lampshades are on, my groceries are put away, but my laundry is going to wait till tomorrow, I'm afraid. It's sitting neatly in the dining room for now.

Okay, I'm going on to bed. Hope you had a nice weekend, and good luck in the coming week.

Well, it's a start

I decided to start small and walk for 15 minutes around my neighbourhood, listening to Abba's Gold album. It turned out to be .68 miles in 16:11 minutes, burning 171 calories, and going a max of 3.1 mph and average of 1.9 mph. Not bad for a woman who's nearly 300 lbs and has a knee that's bothering her right now. I've actually burned more calories today than I've eaten. And I added 2,000 steps to what I had already. I went ahead and put breakfast into the tracker, too. Now I'm hydrating. The weird thing is even though I perspired a bit and breathed a little heavy, my heart rate went down, but then I'd been back in the house for a couple of minutes before I took it, so maybe it just went through a cool-down in the last few minutes, as I did walk a little slower at the end. Oh, well.

We're not playing the Cthulhu game today. I called Brenda this morning to let her know, as I thought she might not have gotten the message I left on her voicemail last night, which was true. I'm going to stop by the grocery store for a couple of things and then go over and clean my friends' house, go do some errands with one of them, and then visit. I'm not sure if we'll watch 'Salem' tonight or later in the week. But at least this morning has been fairly restful.

Well, I must say

since going to the endocrinologist I have faithfully taken all of my diabetes medicine on time, as scheduled, and have been watching what I eat better. In those few days--

1. I have not had much of an appetite (one of the drugs shrinks the stomach so you don't eat as much)
2. I haave not had any of the side effects from the one drug that they put me back on at a lower dose (and hopefully won't)
3. My morning blood sugar values have dropped about 80-100 points
4. I've lost about 8 lbs (in three days, probably some of that is water weight, as I go up and down within 10 lbs pretty easily. But this happened last last time I was on that oral medication it stayed off for quite some time). I need to lose 30 to increase my insulin sensitivity and maybe decrease the insulin I'm taking.

So I'm hopeful. So hopeful I'm going to put some clothes on and go for a walk. :) At work they're doing a thing this month where we track our steps on a calendar and work our way up to 10,000. Since I'm tracking my steps anyway, and my Sunday steps usually are not many, I thought I'd take a short walk today and then try to build up throughout the month.