Indianapolis, IN - STILL not working

Since the doctor only released me to resume work with restrictions, including a 20 pound lifting limit, occupational health cannot clear me to resume work. I'm now left with the choice of going to another doctor or complaining to the physician I've already seen and telling her that I need a referral to someone who can actually get things done. At this point I've been out of work for five weeks, still have shoulder issues, and don't think those issues are likely to get better on their own since they haven't already. About the only thing going for me is that my insurance remains in effect and occupational health pre-approved the maximum twelve weeks of medical leave, which leaves me until the middle of May to get this sorted out and still have a job. If I'm still screwed up after that, I don't know what happens next.

Health Insurance Reform passed?

Despite what they're trying to brand the bill as, this really isn't health care reform. It will, however, do a lot of things to health insurance over the next several years. Somehow a lot of people are still repeating talking points that were debunked months ago, so allow me to try address a few of the complaints I've heard with a somewhat intelligent rebuttal in a form that isn't restricted to 140 characters.

1. Some benefits of this bill kick in this year. There have been several complaints that we have to start paying for things now and see nothing good for years. That's just not true. Effective this year, health insurance companies are prohibited from having lifetime limits on policies and cannot cancel coverage (rescission) just because you get an expensive illness. Young adults can stay on a parent's policy until age 26, not just until they turn 19 or finish college. Seniors will see alleviation for prescription drug costs. Reuters has a pretty thorough timetable of benefits that includes those and a lot more.
2. You will be able to afford health insurance. If you make less than 400% of the federal poverty level (about $43k), you'll qualify for a government subsidy to ensure that insurance won't cost more than 10% of your income. The less you make, the lower the cost to you will drop; if you're making 133% of the poverty line (about $14k) you're eligible to get on Medicaid for free. As such, most of you reading this will likely qualify for a heavy subsidy. Here's more info on those subsidies.
3. You will have to have insurance. If you don't have an income low enough to qualify for Medicaid and still refuse to buy insurance when the mandate takes effect in 2014, you could face a penalty of either $695 per person or 2.5% of your household income, whichever is greater. Odds are, if you make less than $20,000, it will actually end up cheaper to buy subsidized insurance than to pay a penalty. Why are they forcing people to buy insurance? Well, the more healthy people have coverage, the more the cost of covering sick people can be spread out and the lower the costs will become for everyone. Also, many of the people complaining about this are healthy, 20-something males, a group that usually has the lowest premiums on the market already.
4. This bill, flawed as it is, is still better than nothing. If Congress had still failed to pass this, it would probably be at least another 15 years before anyone even attempted to take up health reform in a serious manner again. The current system is unsustainable. This new one is probably unsustainable in the long run, but taking any step to fix it is still an improvement. Hopefully the progress will continue in the coming years and actual improvements in health care will happen this decade.

Irritability

I really don't know what my problem is today, but I've been particularly bitchy today. It hasn't taken much to set me off about anything, I haven't felt like wanting to do much of anything, and the few things I have tried to do have proven to be nothing more than a total waste of time and effort. I would like to get off the computer and do something with someone in real life, but nobody around here seems to be available for anything and - even if someone were around - I can't think of anything specific I want to do.

I can think of a few things that I probably should be doing myself, such as writing stuff, cleaning my room, or even just ensuring I get a good night's sleep as I stayed up far too late last night. But even trying to convince myself to get off my tail and cook a small plate of pasta for dinner has been a lost effort, as I've been home here for over an hour and still haven't even nuked my leftovers from lunch. There are also plenty of other things getting on my nerves, mostly involving the roommates other than Delphi: they have left so much crap in the sink that it's basically unusable and their cat - which violates the lease - just loves getting in my way and clawing at everything.

At this point I almost wish I could get back to work, just to have some time to myself and something productive to be doing. It wouldn't be the greatest idea right now, as I'm still nursing intermittent shoulder pain, but I really should be doing something productive and making some money. At the very least, it would be nice to at least be doing something at all, even if not a particularly profitable venture, just to get out of the apartment for a while - perhaps a couple of days - and be in a quieter, cleaner environment. Having a friend or two around for most of that time would just be a bonus.

Really not sure what else to ramble on about at this point, though this blog post has already been one of the longest non-medical things I've posted in months. Really not sure that I even have anything of particular value to say these days, which is part of why I've been so quiet on here.

Emergency Room visit - Medical mishap

One of the medications I'm on says "take with food" on a plain, white label. It's not one of the scary red warnings, or even a yellow cautionary statement, just a simple white label next to the rest of the prescription information. After getting home from a game night far too late last night and being so completely un-hungry that the thought of food made me a bit queasy, I took the pills with just a cup of tea and went to bed around 4:30 AM.

This was a mistake.

I woke up around 10, well before my alarm was set, with a slight upset stomach. This rose in a steady crescendo to full on "you're throwing up now" nausea, and resulted in the sort of projectile vomit that wouldn't have looked out of place in a zombie horror film. It was reddish, though, which I took as a pretty bad sign; when I've gotten sick before it's always been a neutral color. I also had to use the restroom again. And again. And again. Breathing hurt. I felt extremely weak. I tried eating some mini-wheats and couldn't even eat a dozen of them as swallowing itself made my stomach protest. I lied back down for a while, but that didn't help either. Around 1:15, on the verge of throwing up again, I just told Delphi I needed to go to the hospital.

Upon arriving, I relayed the above information, then got to sit and wait for a while. The hospital was full, somehow, so it took perhaps 15 minutes for them to get me into a bed. I had to wait for some time between various stages of treatment: I had blood drawn, an EKG, an IV with saline drip and two nausea/pain medications, and a long, long wait while those all took effect. I was cold the entire time - my temperature was only 97.5°F when I arrived - and the blankets would not stay on top of me. They ultimately just chalked it up to a reaction to the medication, gave me a prescription for some anti-nausea pills, and told me to call my doctor tomorrow to let her know what happened.

On the way home we stopped by the store and picked up some Powerade, rice, and bananas, all per the doctor's recommendation that I eat really light for the next day or two. I'm supposed to just start with liquids for now and, if that doesn't cause me discomfort, I can eat the bananas and rice. The nausea medication's a fallback option for only about two days; I have just five pills that I can take so I'll probably save them unless there's really no other good choice. For now, I'm just sipping a bit of something and contemplating going to bed in the next hour or so.

Shoulder update - March 1

I never heard back from the doctor's office on Friday, so I decided last night that I'd go up there this morning. I went to bed around 12:30 AM, but I didn't even wake up until almost 11, then spent an hour and a half drifting in and out until I finally had the strength to get out of bed, get my clothing on, and get moving. The nurses at the doctor's office said that my doctor wasn't in on Friday, which is why I hadn't heard back, but I was assured that someone would call me back today, likely before 5 PM. In the meantime, I checked with the company's occupational health department and found out that one of my drugs - meant to alleviate muscle spasms that could trigger more severe pain - is something that I cannot take while driving (it's a narcotic) and that I have to be off it for 24 hours before I can resume work. As such, the earliest that I can go back is Saturday, and that's assuming there are no further issues. If I am cleared,

Of course, I wouldn't even be trying to go to the doctor again if there weren't issues. The pain isn't radiating up my neck like it was before, but it is over most of the area around my right shoulder blade, extending from my shoulder halfway down my back. It's pretty much localized - I could trace the area that hurts with a marker - but it does hurt quite a bit in some circumstances. Shifting gears in my car (e.g. from neutral to drive) was enough to make it uncomfortable. Holding things while using the restroom is probably the most uncomfortable thing I've done and it hurts for several minutes afterward. Trying to stab at my salad wasn't fun either. And, of course, the longer I'm sitting here typing the more it starts to bother me unless I maintain perfect posture. Strangely, playing video games is not making it hurt, which is why I've spent so much time playing Mario Kart and Smash on the Wii over the weekend.

I'll likely update this post when I hear back from the doctor later tonight or, at worst, sometime tomorrow. I don't think I can sit with my arm like this for much longer.

Edit (4 PM EDT): Just heard back from the doctor's office. Turns out that one of the medications does have severe drowsiness as a side effect; they recommended that I cut its dose in half to try counter it, but continue taking the other two as prescribed. I also will be getting referred to a hospital for an MRI; they'll call me to schedule the test. Results should come back within two days after I've been scanned, hopefully less.

Shoulder stuff update

I went to the doctor's earlier today and she agreed that it's probably at least a sprain, if not torn. I was prescribed various things for it, plus one other thing for another concern I brought up, and advised to put ice on it to try reduce the swelling and pain. If it hasn't improved by Friday I may have to go in for an MRI or something to ensure that it really isn't a tear or some other more serious thing. Meanwhile, I'll just be taking things a few times a day to mitigate it in the meantime.

Hospital Run

While many of you were following the ongoing events on Twitter last night, I'm going to try and consolidate that information into a single, coherent blog post now that I've had some sleep.

Last night, around 7:30, I was driving along the Interstate in Chicagoland. I kicked part of the truck out of annoyance at an open weigh station... then my shoulder started to hurt. No, it still doesn't make sense to me either. The pain came and went, but mostly came; by the time I'd arrived it was quite painful to even move that arm in any meaningful way. Writing was painful. Turning my head was painful. Don't even ask what it felt like to mis-shift a gear. The pain spread quite a ways, too: all the way up the right side of my neck to my jaw and about halfway down to my waist.

Concerned about it, I called the nurse line the insurance provides to get an opinion on it. The nurse was quite friendly, but also strongly recommended that I don't drive at all considering the condition my shoulder was in. Staying parked at a customer yard wasn't an option (it rarely is), so I had to just deal with it. She recommended that I go to an urgent care facility if at all possible, though. Nothing was open that late at night, so I figured I'd just kinda deal with it... then the pain got even worse and started spreading to my chest, which scared the heck out of everyone I was discussing the situation with. Storm Gryph said he'd take me to the hospital; I said I'd go.

We arrived at the hospital shortly before 11 PM. I was taken back for various paperwork, then waited a few minutes before some X-rays were taken. Around midnight I went back and stayed in an examination room for a while while the doctor looked into it. An hour later, I was told the doctor had ordered a shot of painkillers for me... and since it was 2 cc worth, it needed to be injected into my butt. I went from being uncomfortably warm in that room to shivering in the blink of an eye, but ended up taking it because my earlier Tylenol was wearing off. I couldn't even move for several minutes after that, but once it kicked in, I slowly rolled over and stood up. Shortly thereafter two more x-rays were taken, another round of waiting, and I finally had a diagnosis: a sprained right shoulder. I was told to be careful with it and given a prescription for Motrin. Upon being released, we went to a Walgreen's to get that prescription filled. The pharmacist had it taken care of within minutes, which surprised everyone; we all figured it would be an hour or so and would have time to get some much-needed food first. So we went for food, then - at four in the morning - I was finally back at the truck and went to bed.

I just want to thank Storm Gryph for playing taxi service, Dresil for being a coat hanger (sorry :) ), and everyone on Twitter who expressed their concern last night. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. :)

Further Confusion Summary: Thu-Sun

Long story short: the convention has been a complete disappointment in almost every way possible. I was able to hang out with a friend on Thursday evening. Friday was almost nothing worth mentioning, as every event I wanted to attend either conflicted with a failed attempt to see someone else or was rescheduled without warning. The room party I did that night turned completely unenjoyable; nobody seemed to even notice I was there after about an hour, Saturday was just more of the same: the patron lunch was a significant disappointment, the poker tournament was a cruel joke, and - with a single exception - nobody wanted to do anything with me. Today has been a continuation of the above: I've text messaged several people and haven't even gotten a response from any of them.

One person in particular - who will know who he is if he decides to read this - seems to have done a fantastic job of getting in the way of every single thing I've wanted to enjoy. Nearly every person I've wanted to hang out with has been busy with him and, apparently, busy in such a way that I was not welcome to join them. The room party fell apart right about the same time he showed up, as he managed to steal the show in such a way that I wish I could have commented on at the time. Even now, he's hanging out with several people that I'd thought were mutual friends, all of whom have explicitly said they're too busy doing things with and to one another for me to be welcome with them. As a result, I'm sitting up in the room, alone, and can't even get someone to respond to a text message or answer the phone.

This was supposed to be a hatchday present for myself, given that the con is right after I turned 24. Instead, I'm regretting coming out here at all and wish that I could somehow get my money back. I probably won't even be trying to attend a convention again - anywhere, of any size - for a long time after this.

Trouble with HTC Sync and Windows 7

This is probably the first significant issue I've had with the HTC Hero, and it's primarily a bug with Windows refusing to play nice with a driver installation. I'm trying to install the HTC Sync software on my PC, which also comes with a driver installation. But when it gets to the driver configuration, it doesn't do anything productive and just gives the following error... so, uh, help?


---------------------------
Device Driver Installation Wizard
---------------------------
ERROR: Path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\HTC\HTC Driver\Driver Files\Vista_x64' not found.



DPInst.exe: installs and uninstalls driver packages.

By default, the tools searches the current directory and tries to install

all driver packages found.



Usage: DPInst.exe [/U INF-file][/S | /Q][/LM][/P][/F][/SH][/SA][/A][/PATH Path][/EL][/L LanguageID][/C][/D][/LogTitle Title][/SW][/? | /h | /help]



  /U path to INF file

            Uninstall a driver package (INF-file).

  /S | /Q   Silent (Quiet) mode. Suppresses the Device Installation

            Wizard and any dialogs popped-up by the operating system.

  /LM       Legacy mode. Accepts unsigned driver packages and packages with

            missing files. These packages won't install on the latest

            version of Windows.

  /P        Prompt if the driver package to be installed is not better

            than the current one.

  /F        Force install inf the driver package is not better than the

            current one.

  /SH       Scans hardware for matching devices and only copies and installs

            those drivers for which a device is present. Only valid for

            Plug and Play drivers.

  /SA       Suppress the Add/Remove Programs entry normally created for

            each driver package.

  /A        Install all or none.

  /PATH Path

            Search for driver packages under the given path.

  /EL       Enables all languages not explicitly listed in the XML file.

  /L LanguageID

            Tries to use the given language in all UI.

            Useful for localization tests.

  /SE       Suppress the EULA.

  /C        Dump logging output to attached Console (Windows XP and above).

  /D        Delete driver binaries on uninstall.

  /SW       Suppresses the Device Installation Wizard, the operating system

            might still pop-up user dialogs.

  /? | /h | /help

            Shows this help.




---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

Final Family Christmas

Given that I'm going to be moving next month, this was the last year I had to spend Christmas with the family. It was... underwhelming for the most part. The gifts I gave went over reasonably well. I received the usual array of miscellanea that made it obvious they had no idea what to get me. Then the grandparents came over and things started going downhill. To summarize: between the offensive things they said in front of me and repulsive things they said loudly while I was in the next room, I'm quite glad this is the last time I'm going to see them.

There are many things that one can discuss at a family dinner. Politics shouldn't be one of them. Even that basic courtesy went out the window though, as within five minutes of the grandparents arrival they and my father were loudly talking about how the country was going to hell, how everything that's happened in Washington since Obama's inauguration has been horrible, and ... well, I'm sure you get the idea. I was trying to ignore it but every time I tried turning the volume up on the TV in the next room, it seemed like their conversation got even louder to match. I eventually gave up, said a brief hello, and locked myself in the guest bedroom with my ear plugs in to tune out everything else.

Then dinner came along and the conversation once again took a distasteful turn. Politics were set aside, but religion came up, as did the topic of unsavory clients at a tax preparation firm. Apparently, at least to my grandparents, someone who is an exotic dancer is automatically a hooker and queers are definitely people to be ashamed to know. I bit my tongue so hard I'm surprised it didn't start bleeding. If I hadn't made a conscious decision to be civil toward everyone and avoid burning bridges I'd probably have gotten up, packed, and left immediately.

Once dinner was over, another round of gifts were exchanged, during which yet another political discussion came up. I just sat around taking pictures of everyone and everything as a distraction; I'll probably delete the damn things after I move. I returned to the bedroom as quickly as I could without appearing like a complete ass and - even with the door closed - could still clearly hear the conversation take an even more vitriolic tone. Had anyone in that conversation said outright that they hoped Obama is assassinated I wouldn't have been surprised, as they said almost everything else under the sun. Conversely, any time I even implied Bush wasn't the best thing to ever happen to America, they swiftly countered that I should support him solely because he's the President. Logic clearly doesn't mean anything to far right Republicans, nor does the concept of being decent toward other people.

The grandparents left around 7:30 and I returned to the bedroom after that. I wish I could say I was sorry to see them go, but after hearing what came out of everyone's mouth, I don't think they could have gone fast enough. If anything, I'm relieved to know that I'm not actually related to any of them. But still, it's a rather jarring reinforcement that I don't really have a family after all. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing right now.

Itinerary for January

Between Further Confusion, moving, and all the other things going on, here's a short rundown of things that I have going on next month.

1st through 16th - Working

17th through 30th - Paid vacation

17th through 20th - Relaxing in Indy, prospecting for real estate

20th - I turn twenty-four years old

21st through 25th - Further Confusion!

26th - In Pensacola, saying goodbyes

27th - Driving to Indy

28th - Unpacking, turning in the U-Haul

29th - More real estate hunting, address changes, etc.

31st through ?? - Unpaid time off, three to five days, for more errands in Indy

I'll post the flight info for FC and more specific information about the move as those dates approach. I just wanted to get something quick up now while I still have the computer up.

Further Confusion and the rest of January

With Further Confusion just a short month away, I want to start planning things out. I've already booked the hotel room and plan on getting pre-reg done sometime this week. However, the plane tickets remain unpurchased as I'm trying to finalize plans, arrange rides, and so on. But while I'm already going to be out on the west coast, is there anyone in that area that would want me to stick around for an extra day? I'm currently planning on taking off Monday afternoon or evening but could easily extend that to Tuesday or even Wednesday given a good reason. ;)

After the con, I'm planning on flying to Pensacola for one last time, to pack things up and make a long overdue move. While the final details are still slightly sketchy, there's a 95% chance I'll have that taken care of and be more or less settled in up there by the end of January. I'll use whatever time is left on my vacation after that to start scouting out houses and the like. I'm still tentatively optimistic about having something worked out in time to qualify for the tax credit expiring at the end of April. If not, then I'm not sure what I'll end up doing, but I'm sure it'll all come out well in the end.

Why do weekends off tend to be exhausting?

Somehow I end up having the last two days off in Pensacola, and yet I don't feel any more rested now than I did when I got into town Saturday morning. I was up late last night with a friend (he left around 1 AM), then tonight I hung out with someone else, but now I'm so tired that I'm not sure I'll even be fully functioning during work tomorrow. I'm hoping I can somehow get one more day off and get to sleep at a reasonable hour for a change, but neither of those are sure things. It was a pretty good weekend overall, though; I saw a couple people that I was surprised to see, spent relatively little time putting up with my parents, and saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox which turned out to be an even better movie than I'd expected. I just wish that I weren't feeling so incredibly tired that I'm going to be struggling to keep up for the rest of the week... @_@

A few thoughts on climate change

After a few arguments with some acquaintances recently, I feel the need to clarify a few things about the science involved here. For one, the people denying that the changes are occurring clearly haven't even done their own research; I've yet to have someone provide even a single reputable source for any claims being made. By reputable, I mean a recent peer-reviewed scientific article, not coverage in the mainstream media by journalists whose coverage isn't worth calling news. At the very least, an article out of an established, reputable scientific magazine would suffice, but the only "facts" I've been presented are articles on Fox that are usually self-contradictory and easily debunked with about thirty seconds of searching on Google. If there were, in fact, a significant controversy over whether or not made-made global warming is a considerable threat to our future, why haven't there been serious studies by independent scientists that have found issues with the current consensus?

Even if you want to discount the data from the UK climate scientist over those hacked e-mails - the contents of which have been taken wildly out of context and overblown - that eliminates just one data set out of thousands out there, all of which point to a significant warming trend in the last few decades. In addition to things merely being taken out of context, there are terms being used that are perfectly understood by the audience (fellow researchers) even though their meanings are very different than would be used by the population at large. The obvious example is the remark about hiding the decline. The "decline" being referred to is a decline in temperatures as reported by the tree ring record, which is contradicted by the actual temperature measurements being taken at the time. Those who are complaining about this are, in effect, arguing that tree records are more reliable than thermometers.

Of those other data sets, NASA's data from weather stations puts the last significant trough at 1966. I've chosen that particular graph to eliminate even the complaint that the models are skewed; the data in that graph are taken from direct measurements, not extrapolations. The land-ocean graph looks roughly the same. The same graph also calls into question the allegations of a natural 30-year cycle, as there is a huge spike between the mid-60s and about 2000, followed by a period of relative stability; if there were a cyclical variation we would be experiencing a corresponding downturn in global temperatures. While the temperatures in the US this year have been exceptionally cool, they've been more than offset by sweltering heat in other parts of the world, particularly in Asia and the Arctic.

So why haven't temperatures risen much in the last decade? A fair question. Perhaps it has something to do with the sun being in one of its longest and deepest solar minima on record. Perhaps it's that the north pole ice is absorbing a lot of that heat energy, as evidenced by the drastic drops in arctic sea ice with the lowest level ever occurring in 2007 and the third-lowest in 2009. Perhaps it really is just a natural variability that's offsetting the human influence on the climate. I've no doubt that there will be plenty of research into it and answers in the coming years.

Tackling the issues facing the world won't be cheap. The plan itself isn't easy to outline and it'll be different in the various parts of the world. But the time to act is now, not in decades to come. The longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to turn things around and the greater the risk of reaching a point of no return.

Murfreesboro, TN - Mileage overload

I'm not sure what's going on lately, but it seems like operations is outright desperate to keep trucks moving at any cost. Including, apparently, the sanity of drivers. I had to start this morning as soon as my break was up to try keep things going, only to lose time in traffic and get to the consignee about half an hour later than expected. This wouldn't have been that big of a problem, except that I'd already been assigned another load to pick up by noon and, though the magic mileage book claimed it was just 35 miles away, it was an over 50 mile trek on state highways. As such I was nearly 15 minutes late, though for the second time in less than a week, my pickup deadline was nothing but a suggestion; nobody seemed to even notice that I was "late" for picking the load up.

I think I set a new record picking that load up. Between the time I arrived with my empty trailer and the time I left with my load, just fifteen minutes passed. They had a yard guy bring the loaded trailer right to me so I just had to drop my empty, do a U-turn to get the load, and drive straight out the gate. After a not-so-brief (20 mile) detour to scale the load out, I started heading toward Atlanta. I hadn't yet even had the chance to trip plan any of this out, as I was moving non-stop to try conserve as much time as possible, but operations just didn't seem to care. I received yet another work assignment less than two hours after picking my current load up. By this point, operations' estimate of what I can do and reality are now four hours apart; they seem to think that I can deliver this load by about 5 AM tomorrow when I'll just be coming off my break at that point and still have 225 miles to go.

As a result of all this time compressing by operations, I have to run as hard as I possibly can over the next two days just to get my load delivered on time. I may be forced to wake up around 1:30 AM Thursday. Though the mileage on this run is pretty good, it's going to leave me in upstate New York with only about seven hours to run on my 70. For once, I have some hours to pick up; I'll be getting nine hours back Friday night and eight hours on Saturday. This, however, is the only thing that gives me even a glimmer of hope that I won't be stuck in New York state for the weekend; I don't have much confidence in operations to keep from leaving me stranded once again. To make matters worse there's essentially no truck parking near where I'm delivering, so if they can't find me something immediately I'll have to scramble to figure something out on my own.

In other, almost related news, I finally have some confirmation of a few policies that my DBL had been leaving ambiguous. Most importantly, I finally had someone confirm that I can combine my normal (unpaid) time at home with my (paid) vacation weeks, giving me a few extra days to take care of things. I'll probably be using all that time in the second half of January.

Why can't I enjoy a day off?

The subject really just says it all here. It seems like every time I get a day off, or even during the week or so I had off at home, I end up spending most of my time completely miserable. Both today and last weekend, my entire time off was spent sitting at the computer, wishing I had something to do and, ideally, someone to do it with. I'm completely uninspired when it comes to try writing things. I'm really not even enjoying looking at porn, something that I usually can at least use to get my mind off things for a little while. And during the time I'm working, it seems like I'm completely isolated, as I don't end up having time to do anything for myself at all, which just makes me even more depressed when I have those rare occasions to do something and things just fall apart.

As I posted on Twitter earlier, I rather wish I could just beat myself unconscious for a significant period of time. I'm not suicidal - that goes too far - but I see little point in continuing the daily grind like I am now since it just never leads to anything satisfactory. The brief moments of happiness I have are almost always swept away either by work, by things going awry, or some other unforeseeable calamity that leaves me feeling even more hopeless about my prospects of ever actually getting more than a transient moment of happiness that's immediately swept away in another wave of depression.

Frankly I'm not even sure why I'm writing this. I doubt anyone's going to read it anyway, especially not anyone who could actually make me happy. That is, of course, if there really is someone who could cheer me up.

Sprint's sales department fails too

I had wanted to get the HTC Hero today. The reviews seemed generally favorable and, given that my current opinion is that a Windows Mobile phone is slightly less reliable than tin cans with a really long string, I figured that having a day off seemed like a good opportunity to snap one up. The nearest store to our operating center here wouldn't even be open until noon, so I waited to try call until that time. That's pretty much where things started going south.

Upon calling the store, I was greeted with the usual lengthy menu of options, complete with the paradox of being told "For Spanish, press two" in perfect, crisp English. After navigating that mess, I was briefly given hold music before an automated message interrupted to say that all associates were busy helping in-store customers. I re-entered my selection, only to have the same thing happen again: after fewer than twenty seconds I was kicked out of the hold queue, this time with a message telling me I should make an appointment if I want to talk to someone. That really isn't an option, considering that it's a ten mile drive each way and I'm not about to waste that kind of time going up there only to find out that I can't get what I want.

Having exhausted my options locally, I decided to try making a call to Sprint's main 800 number. It took several attempts of random button mashing just to get to a human being, but I tried. The first suggestion was that I try Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and/or Radio Shack if I want to find inventory that's nearer or information that's more useful than a Sprint store. I appreciated that information, then started to ask about the phone specifically and the plan I wanted. At that point, I was told I couldn't keep the 15% employee discount I currently have with the plan I would be required to switch to. Nowhere, on any of the information I'd ever been given about the discount, was there a restriction on what sort of plans it could apply to. I called them out on that and was told that no discounts of any kind were applicable. Never mind that I was already asking about a plan that would have increased my monthly bill by at least $30 even if I got to keep the discount, nor that I'd been a customer (albeit a very unhappy one) for two years. At that point, I didn't really see any point in holding back; I just said that Sprint had mastered the art of screwing prospective customers out of as much money as possible, thanked her for warning me that I would be getting screwed out of even more money if I decided to stay with them, and hung up the phone.

At this point, I'm seriously unsure what I want out of a cell phone company at all. The biggest problem, of course, is that all the major carriers suck. There is no national carrier that doesn't screw its customers six ways from Sunday and, given that I drive all over the place, a regional carrier isn't a viable option. There's also the fact I need an aircard or a device that allows tethering, services that I've never seen advertised by anything other than AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-mobile. I don't know what it would take to fix the cellular industry right now, but to me it seems like it is fundamentally broken in its current incarnation. It seems like they want to make it as difficult as possible to do anything, even giving them money, due to their bureaucracy and general incompetence. How can they possibly be this screwed up?

Time for a house?

So, after a few months of deliberations, poking around online, looking on various websites, and reading how-tos on how to buy a house, I think I may be ready to take the plunge. I've a mediocre credit score, but enough cash to make a substantial down-payment on a place. I'm still planning on looking near Indianapolis, IN; even given some of the recent issues I've had with furs in the area, moving up there would put me far closer to a lot of other people I'd want to visit; I'd be within half a day's drive of numerous major cities.

The first major hurdle to overcome, of course, is convincing work to let me take the time off. Somehow, at this point, that seems like the hardest thing to do. Once I have some time (hopefully a week), I just need to make the pilgrimage and start digging around. It's going to be a whirlwind trip, to be sure: I'll be talking to banks, real estate agents, homeowners, and probably more. It's going to be under some serious time pressure as well, as I may only get one shot to get this taken care of before that first-time homeowner tax credit expires. If it comes down to the wire I may make a few other negotiations with work, but I'm really hoping it doesn't end up as something like that.

If anyone in the midwest has some advice, or wants to see me while I'm in that part of the country, feel free to comment here.

I WAS a happy ING Direct customer

Up until now, I've been an exceptionally happy customer of ING Direct. Good interest rates and practically no fees for anything are two rather large selling points after all. But an e-mail I received earlier this evening made me seriously reconsider my relationship with them.

White dragons are healers

Blackwing, Timoran, and I were playing Wii Sports Resort bowling earlier this evening. Blackwing, in a fantastic show of overenergeticness and ADHD, managed to swing so wildly that his arm went straight up into a low-hanging ceiling light, shattering the glass fixture and narrowly missing the fluorescent light within. I don't recall him screaming, but he was whimpering and bleeding pretty badly from the index finger of his right hand.

At first we didn't think it was that bad, but then we realized that the blood wasn't slowing down and Blackwing was getting increasingly agitated from the injury. Timoran tried to handle it at first, but it just wasn't working out so well. Blackie was nearly screaming any time we even tried to run warm water over the wound to clean it out; in hindsight we really should have tried using soap despite his protests, or at least washed our own hands to ensure they were reasonably clean. At this point, some sort of weird instinct kicked in, as did memories of the first aid panel from MFM earlier this month.

While Timoran briefly handled the situation, I got Blackwing a glass of ice water as he was complaining about being quite hot and didn't look so good. I then  asked for a first aid kit, and Timoran was pretty quick to get out of the way after Blackwing said he felt like he was going to puke. I grabbed the gauze pads out of there and used just one first, but the blood soaked through in a matter of moments, requiring a second pad. That too didn't last long, but the blood was just going through a small portion of the gauze. I took a third pad, folded it into quarters, and firmly held it into place. It didn't soak through after a minute so I felt confident enough that it was going to hold. I got the medical tape, firmly taped it into place, then Blackwing promptly lost his dinner after I had it secured. He later said it didn't really hurt that badly when I did it, but I'm wondering if it's because those nerves were just overloaded and not able to register the sensation.

Things calmed down after he was able to get his head out of the toilet. Timoran was trying to clean the glass off the basement floor, while I took care of cleaning up the bathroom and ensuring that Blackwing's condition was stable. The aftermath resulted in Blackie being relatively silent for the first time all weekend. We finished cleaning it up, gave the injured dragon some mouthwash for the taste in his maw, and things have since gone back mostly to normal.

Overall, the incident has made me wonder if I really do have a knack for things like this. It's not the first time that I've responded pretty quickly when someone needed some medical attention. I have stayed fairly calm during it. At the very least, I'd like to take a proper first aid class so I can make sure that I get things right next time. While I still doubt I'd make it into a full on career, I do enjoy helping people like that a lot. It's just something to think about. At the moment I'm just glad Blackwing's okay and I feel like I owe it to the first aid panel from MFM.