Entries Tagged 'updates' ↓

The pic is the lovely pyromaniac I have left behind. :’(

Travel was uneventful, which is usually best. After a 3-month absence, my apartment is still here and unflooded (no hurricanes or even rain here, apparently), the phone and internet work, nothing smells weird, and I am really hoping there are no dead animals in either of my kayaks, this year. I made all my flights, they were all on time, and I wasn’t in any middle seats.

My car still works. I reconnected the battery, put the license plates back on, and drove it a little, feeling the whumpy whumpy of the flat spots on the tires. I got $90 worth of groceries, which feels like nothing; it always does when you start from nearly zero.

My job is still here, and all the people I love, whom I work with. Now I have a new next-office neighbor, Edna, who is an awesome developmental researcher, a set of skills I wish to exploit. Heh heh. I have put my Algonquin 8x10s on my office wall. They may not be the most artfully-placed things ever (wall space = limited), but they remind me, and make others jealous. Their purpose is fulfilled. I renewed my campus gym membership and parking tag (total price for the year: about $300; kind of a bargain, in the case of the parking permit). I got my accumulated mail (nothing from U.S. Immigration). I have migrated my Outlook settings from the summer back into my desktop machine, and am working on synchronizing the files, now. I watched the Fall Convocation on le internets, and then sneaked into the after-convocation brunch to chat with people I haven’t seen all summer. Nice :)

Ah, to be back home. Perfect? No. But it’s home, and there’s something to be said for not worrying every day whether it’s still there ;)

Just got back from 4 days in Algonquin Provincial Park. We stayed on North Tea and Manitou lakes, in really very lovely campsites. 1 day was kind of miserably cold for a few hours, but otherwise it was awesome. Alex, her brother Geof, his wife Veronica, our friend Brad, and I all went. 2 canoes and 1 kayak (I got the latter; insert squeal of excitement). It was way rad. :) I don’t have most of the pics, since my camera had some bad batteries… and bad backup batteries. But I have a few, and here are three:

It’s in Terminal C, right outside gates 16 and 17, near an old, kind of dead pay-per-use internet service station thingy. No, I’m serious: it’s cool. Please remember me in your President/Oscar/Webby acceptance speech.

The secret alcove of WiFi

I haven’t seen my wif in holy cow a really long time (about 2 months? I’ll have to check), and now it’s time for the summer of togetherness that we tend to have every summer around this time. It’s like a tradition, at this point.

I’m currently leeching WiFi from Presidents Club in the Secret Alcove of Free WiFi, in Concourse C. I’ll make a map of it sometime, because it would be greedy to keep it to myself. It’s way awesome for three reasons: (1) free WiFi in an airport that charges for regular wireless (2) there’s an outlet right here for plugging in (3) it’s sneaky because it doesn’t look like you’re anywhere near a Presidents Club (I think the signal is coming through their back wall or somesuch).

Travel: Better than average. I shall count the ways:

1. I did not have to leave stupid early this time. 2 days after Memorial Day, apparently even the 10:40 a.m. flights are cheap.
2. Both of my monstrously heavy bags (bag A: clothes and whatnot; bag B: camping equipment) came in at just a pound or so under $50, so I only had the one bag charge. I can’t  believe I’m excited about this. How quickly we get used to oppression…
3. MFE-IAH flight –> Exit Row! At check-in, I used the kiosk to look at my seat assignments and was surprised to find previously-unavailable exit row seats! The ticket agent told me that they don’t let people have exit row seats until they’re physically present. I’ll be checking from now on.
4. In Houston, I had a sandwich. Did I pay $8 for it? Yes. Was it one of the best turkey-on-wheat sandwiches ever? Also yes. Tender, non-processed turkey, swiss cheese melted over it, delicious sliced high-quality yummy bread… I want another one.
5. Hidden Alcove of Secret Free Internet!
6. For the flight from here to BUF: Exit Row!

I realize things can turn ugly at a moment’s notice with any kind of travel; your hopes and expectations are focused and singular, and they are the reason for all aspects of your situation, at all points in time during the trip; maybe that’s why they’re so fragile. However, if things get crappy, I’ll try to remember the good times (i.e., now).

I knew when President Obama was elected that we were all in for some disappointments. I thought it possible he’d be just as bad, in a different way, as the Bush Administration. What I did not consider was that he would BE the Bush Administration.

He’s been pulling 180s on his campaign promises since January, but this week he dropped a bomb. In honor of our country’s complete, bipartisan rejection of a five hundred years of legal and human rights progress, I made a flowchart:

Habeas Corpus Flowchart

How to get a fair trial in the U.S.A.

… and her little brother:

Courtesy of my backyard. Happily, they do not seem to be living there. Just passing through.

So far, the Swine Flu hasn’t really lived up to its early media-fueled pandemic potential. Thank heavens. Still, people down here on the border are making a big show of reassuring the public, despite the fact that we haven’t had (so far) any more cases than anywhere else in the country. But big gatherings are still suspect. btw, sorry for the bad photos. Handheld little snappy camera with ISO 400 max.

Our commencement ceremonies were changed in subtle but noticeable ways. No touching. I was on the stage shaking hands and routing traffic (me: not shown), and after a few shakes, I was told to stop. No touching. This made me realize how much the touching is usually a part of the ritual. It’s a production line of touching. You get touched to be hooded, then handshake that simultaneously serves to hold you back until it’s time to walk across the stage, then the President shakes your hand, hands you the degree, and poses for a picture, then the Dean shakes your hand and sends you to the individual photographer (offstage) who probably touches you to pose you. Well, none o’that. Me, I put a reassuring (I hope) hand on arms or shoulders, the President cleverly put a hand on the back, with the other hand holding the opposite end of the (probably empty) degree tube, and then — weirdest of all – the Deans. No props, and no reason to be there except to congratulate the grads.

As you see, they settled for a weird hand-clasping, praying-type half-bow (or full bow). The whole thing struck me as kind of sad.

In more interesting news, these tubes are cool. The stacks of tubes on shelves seems to fit the medieval academia feel of the funky robes.

In other news, the big square-topped stick in the foreground? I got to carry it last year. It’s called the MACE! I guess graduations used to get rowdy, back in the old days. KEEP IT DOWN YA FRIGGIN’ UNDERGRADS ELSE I’MA MACE YA!

Here I am at the First Annual Doctors Hospital¹ at Renaissance  (or DHR, as the cool MDs call it) Behavioral Health Conference. I have to say I’m impressed.

Speakers
The speakers are excellent, which is surprising, given that we’re tucked in such a far corner of the country. Predictably, many of the experts are from Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio², but they really are experts in their fields. We also have researchers  from Boston (Harvard Med) and Tennessee, with international folks originally from Cuba and Colombia. Everyone has big lists of national and international accolades, presidencies, and frickin’ insane publication counts³. The organizers made dang sure this wasn’t a “lame local professionals” thing. Barry Mills, who does research on dangerousness, criminality, etc., was one of the presenters. It’s always nice to meet someone whose papers you’ve been stumbling across in major journals for a decade.

Filthy Lucre
The level of funding for this one-day-only, 150-participant conference is kind of unthinkable, from a social-science/mental-health perspective. Someone said it cost around $30,000. But it’s associated with a medical center, of course, and funded by training grants from pharmaceutical companies. Of course. The door prizes⁴ are Bose Wave Radios, Mont Blanc fountain pens, Tumi luggage, a PS3, ipods, portable DVD players, and a 37″ Toshiba plasma TV. That’s maybe three to five thousand bucks, I’m guessing. The programs are slick and professional, and the venue — though small — is very nice. I guess that’s what happens when you have a super-lucrative corporation or three funding your conference, instead of dues from a few thousand university professors. The registration fee was $35. I’m going on and on, I realize, but every time I come in direct contact with the financial influence of the drug companies, I’m left agog.

Expansion of My Mind
With one exception, every presentation has just been excellent. Solid, research-based, well-delivered, etc. Being funded by drug companies, I expected rampant conflicts of interest, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. Only two guys (no female presenters) had lucrative non-grant affiliations with Rx companies (experts on boards etc). Two more had received grants from  Big Pharma, and the rest seemed relatively untouched by the moolah. At least in any direct way.

The first talk (at seven friggin’ thirty a.m.) was a research-intensive review of the apparent reality, etiology, neural correlates, and unsavory comorbid associates of fibromyalgia. I’ve been hearing the same things everyone else in the medical field has been hearing, for years: fibromyalgia is some kind of attention-seeking hypochondriasis experienced by whiners. I’ve resisted this interpretation as somewhat demeaning to the sufferers, but I have still internalized it, I guess. I know that because of how surprised I was to see the evidence: solid brain imaging studies, self-report, other-report, functional impairments, objective measures, and on and on. They all point to a true syndrome with the what seems to be the level of evidence I expect to regarding the reality and specificity of a mood disorder, an anxiety disorder, or many physical impairments.

Humor & Snark

1. It can be jarring for a psychologist to go from an academic or mental health environment to a medical one. We often feel a bit like kids from the poor side of town, with ripped jeans and home haircuts. The medical profession’s term du jour for psychological/behavioral health professionals is Allied Behavioral Health. “Well, we can’t use any words that would imply that they’re part of the medical community… but I guess we don’t want them as enemies, either. How can we phrase that?”
2. From a presentation on bipolar disorder and suicide: “Now, keep in mind that a man who’s lost a wife within the past year has four times the risk for suicide, ah, compared to a woman who’s lost a wife.”
3. In a Simpsons vein, one of the presenters had a voice — nasal, slightly singsong, more tenor than bass — that sounded freakishly like Professor Frink’s. I realized this as soon as I heard him say, “…but this is the *ventral* striatum, in contrast to the *dorsal* medial striatum, which everyone here is clearly familar with.”

1. From the pamphlet, “Separate professional fees will be associated with your physician” [↩]
2. Though all are from nationally-competitive research & treatment organizations, which Texas — perhaps surprisingly — has quite a few of [↩]
3. Seriously, how do those MDs get pub counts like SEVEN HUNDRED by the time they’re 50? Does their research take longer than 10 minutes? Do they have institutional review boards? Do they ever have to apply for funding? I guess it’s a pretty sure bet that these guys don’t teach classes… [↩]
4. I didn’t win anything, but a colleague won the PS3 [↩]

Hooray! I have phone and internet again! And it only took a FRIGGIN’ WEEK! As I had begun to suspect, the cable modem was fried. Interestingly, so was my little Belkin 802.11g router, I think. Hm. Adding to the mystery, when I boot into Ubuntu (the machine the modem is physically hooked to dual boots), the clock now says something like, “January 8, 12:42 pm” or such. Counting backward, January 1 at 12:01 a.m. would have been sometime last Thursday morning, which is when I lost service. So, power surge killed modem and router in one blow? But they’re both plugged into surge protectors, and the protectors did not blow a fuse or trip off.

Anyhoo, $70 later I have a new router that’s way faster than any of my receiving equipment can possibly take advantage of. But it works, and here I am. Of note, this would have been fixed faster if the first 3 days of phone calls hadn’t gotten me repeated (and vague) reports of an outage in my area. I’m not sure there ever was an outage. If so, it was never really acknowledged or explained. On Monday, the CSR finally said, “there’s no outage; your equipment just doesn’t seem to be working.” So that’s frustrating. Was there an outage? Grrr.

In honor of feeling all internetty, here are some joyful Star Wars parody doohickeys just for Alex. Warning: one is Robot Chicken, and though it’s not the MOST offensive one ever, it has some, um, content. A little bit.

1. Comic based on a recent forum moderator’s comment, “there’s no homosexuality in Star Wars.” ORLY?

2. Teh Robot Chicken – Star Wars Episode II.

Finally, a comment on a news story I saw just now: The NYT calls Obama’s recent deal with Chrysler (in which the car maker declares bankruptcy in return for federal moolah and the ability to perhaps save itself in an alliance with Fiat) “…yet another extraordinary intervention into private industry by the federal government.”

Okay, I’m not going to argue the general fact that our President has pursued a very pushy — perhaps unprecedented — agenda of government interventionism in this economic crisis. But singling out this case as “extraordinary intervention into private industry?” How does this even possibly compare to the bazillions of taxpayer dollars flung willy-nilly at the banks and insurance companies over the past months? Here, Obama is intervening to make them declare bankruptcy. And isn’t that what they were going to do anyway, if they hadn’t gotten any government money?

Sometimes the media misses the boat. Me, I want to hear more about the extraordinary interventions into my friggin’ pocketbook, driven by massively over-lobbied financial institutions paying off congresspeople. Since that little ongoing debacle has cost this nation crazystupidtimes more money than the car manufacturer deals ever will, I want to see it front and center, with the critical tones the media seems to have reserved for the car industry.

And now that I’m all riled up, time for work.

Grrr. Arrgh. I signed back up with Time-Warner Cable for internet and VOIP phone this past year becauase AT&T (literally the only other game in town for me) was so horrendously bad with the customer service, and charged the same price for a lower internet speed. But TWC has its own problems, as evidenced by the past four days:

Thursday – No internet, no phone. Tried all the tricks I know, with the modem resetting and the hey hey hey. Called TWC. Was told there was an outage in my area, but no word on what it was or when it would be fixed.

Friday – Still no service. Called again. Same answer.

Saturday – Still no service. Called again. Same answer.

Sunday – Still no service, but able to at least leech some WiFi from  a neighbor (thank you, unwitting benefactor of internets!). Did the online chat with a CSR at TWC’s homepage for the Rio Grande Valley. He had me reset the modem, etc. I did so, as I’ve done a dozen times since Thursday. No dice. He tells me he can’t do anything else, and I have to call the customer “service” number (my sarcastic quotes just slipped right in there. Huh). Not having any phone service, this is not feasible.

Monday (now) – Still no service. On the phone with CSR again. This guy tells me there is NO service outage, and my equipment must be faulty, because they’re getting no response from my modem. Soonest appointment for a technician: Thursday afternoon.

I have not heard my wife’s voice in a week. All work and no Alex makes Darrin something something.

So I’ve been kinda busy this week, but I finally took a look at my mail and my bank account. In the mail, I had helpfully been sent a new debit card, with a new number and everything (for real this time). The message with it said there may have been fraudulent charges on the old account number, so this was a precaution. Fraudulent? Surely not.

Then I checked out the charges on my account, and I found LOTS of charges from organizations I have never in my whole freakin’ life done business with, to the best of my knowledge. I’ve listed them here, in handy table form, in case anyone else on the internets is interested:

My bank (USAA! W00t!) will probably remove all the charges. And yes, the APL*ITUNES is fraud. I’ve never bought a thing from them. I have issues with Apple’s invasive, annoying itunes software, so I’ve refused to install it, which means I never buy music from their site.

Situation resolved. As far as I know.

UPDATE: I have just noticed that I received two packages in the mail. One was some kinda acai berry supplement, addressed from:

Advanced Wellness Research Inc.
1269 N Wood Dale Rd
Wood Dale, IL 60191

and the other was an unsolicited gift pack of extremely cheap women’s cosmetics, from

Distribution Center
6205 Lookout Rd Ste D
Boulder, CO 80301-3334

I most certainly did not order either of these things, and I think they match up with some of the fraudulent charges on my credit/debit card (note: the second one was addressed slightly wrong to me). The return addresses are so vague (well, the second one, anyway) that the only way to figure out if it’s something relevant is to open it, which I did. And then the postal guy said I couldn’t refuse the delivery after opening. >:(

So, I guess the scam is to send you some cheap-a** stuff, under conditions that will nearly guarantee that you open the packages when you receive them, and charge your credit card, which number was obtained through some data breach somewhere, and hope that you will accept the charge since you have some sort of product now in your possession. Whatever. I’m not returning this crap, I’m certainly not going to *use* something so shady in provenance, and I’m absolutely not paying for it. Suck on that, you cheap dimestore hoods.

I’m always telling Alex she should look elsewhere for auto maintenance and service. She goes to the dealer. The Dealer. Dealers have a tendency to be overpriced, take excessive time to do things, and treat customers pretty poorly when things don’t go well. They keep their customers coming back by terrifying them with tales of unauthorized car repair disasters.

View Larger Map
Well, today I see why Alex likes this place. Yes, there was a hassle with this appointment (twice in one week she’s come up here after confirming an appointment, only to be told there is no appointment), but she says this is a rare occurrence. Her friendly customer service guy, Paul, was apparently in a bad mood the last time she came to a failed appointment, but she says generally he’s friendly and efficient. Today he got me in and situated in five minutes, and he has a soldering iron next to his maintenance forms. Bonus points for the soldering iron.

The car is now being repaired. Alex says she has had multiple experiences in which Paul has told her that certain things were near needing replacement, but repair/replacement was not yet necessary. More points for (apparently) not gouging my wife. This time it’s replacing rear brake drums. Honestly, I could probably do that without too much trouble. But I’d need tools. And I’d need jack stands. And I’d be out in the not-so-warm weather for a few hours, and probably do a couple of back-and-forths to the parts store. And if I did that, I wouldn’t be sitting here in the WiFi-enabled customer lounge, sitting in my ergonomic little faux-leather chair at a well-appointed computer workstation, blogging about my very first John Bear dealer maintenance experience while eating the apples and cookies provided for customers.

If the car is out within an hour (Paul’s projection), then the experience is even better. I can no longer blame Alex for resisting looking for places that are cheaper and closer to home. Shoot, who wouldn’t want to websurf and eat free munchies while their car got fixed?

Here I am in Austin. I agreed to come along (all expenses allegedly will be paid) for the Texas Faculty Association convention tomorrow. Um, I mean today. Gotta get to sleep. The reason I agreed, despite my busy schedule, is because San Antonio is on the way to Austin, and I hadn’t been to the temple in ages. So I flew from Harlingen through Houston into San Antonio, then went to the temple, then drove to Austin. Seriously, I probably could have driven to Austin in about the same amount of time. But if I’d done that, I wouldn’t have been able to read John Le Carré´s lovely little novel, Call for the Dead, the very first George Smiley book. It’s a sweet little read.

Anyway, everything more or less worked out, and I ended up being at the temple from about 6:30 until 10:00 pm. I was surprised how much I missed it. Then drove here to the hotel in Austin, arriving a little after Midnight, what with missed turns, Google Maps being just flat wrong a few times, etc.

And now here I am, once again, in an opulent hotel room all alone. I know there’s no easy fix for this separation-from-Alex thing, but it seems like there ought to be. :(

Tomorrow I will spend the day voting on things, apparently, in the Union’s headquarters building, right next to the state capitol. Have I mentioned that Austin is a pretty awesome town? It is.

Note: On the way up here, I saw a bumper sticker done up in the color scheme and pattern of the Texas Flag, that just said, “SECEDE”. It got me thinking that it would be pretty cool to collect secessionist paraphernalia. Texas, Alaska, Quebec, New Hampshire, Vermont (I think?), and I’m sure there’s a good deal of posters and whatnot from Eastern and Western Europe. That would be a lifelong hobby, for sure, but you’d have a really interesting collection after a while.

This graphic is awesome and frightening. I like how the measurements for human-powered transportation are reduced to whoppers instead of gallons of fuel. Makes me feel better about my bike. And happier that my arm is better. And lazy that I’ve been driving for almost a month.</p> <p>In related news, the GOP is openly derisive of the idea of investing in anything that might increase bicycling. One guy has plans to specifically destroy any funding for bicycle infrastructure from the stimulus plan. I guess fiscal responsibility is a “when I feel like it” thing with some people.

The acronym is my own. It means “Laughing So Hard My Face Falls Off.”

I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Ralph Nader, but this is so frickin’ awesome. I mean, it’s made of nothing but awesome, possibly down to the molecular level of analysis.

RUSH LIMBAUGH IS ON WELFARE

I was at this flash fiction workshop today, and we did an exercise with lists (naturally this made me think of my sister-in-law, Susan) that I think produced bloggable results. I don’t claim this is some kind of high literature (this will become obvious); but it was fun to write, and perhaps it will be entertaining to someone else, as well.

Advice

You must not show mercy, but that’s not because you don’t have empathy; you simply have a job to do. You must not show fear, or he will use it to defeat you. It is best not to show anger, though you will be tempted; instead, try a tone of condescending cynicism.
When you send the woman, she must be the strongest, smartest, most beautiful woman you can find. you must not show mercy, even though everyone knows she will die. She has her job to do.
You must not kill him too quickly, or there will be no suspense. Your defenses must not be absolutely impregnable, no matter what the brochure says, or he will have no chance to demonstrate the superiority of Western technology. Your plan must not be perfectly devious, no matter what your IQ tests show, or he will have no opportunity to demonstrate the superiority of cleverness and homespun grit.
When you capture him, you must torture him. He will understand; he has a job to do. Often, you will have to torture the woman you sent to kill him, as well. Remember what I said about mercy. Your prison should have a hidden flaw; not too obvious, or he won’t respect you. You will capture him again, and he must truly believe that he will now die, or he may not find the strength to defeat you.
Though it seems unnecessary, you must explain your almost-perfectly-devious plan as he is placed in an overly complex and theatrical situation that should kill him, if all goes well. All must not go well.
Yes, it must be overly complex and theatrical; you must be who you are. Consider utilizing lasers, construction machinery, undersea environments, aerospace vehicles. Yes, you must explain your plan. Out loud. You owe him that much.
In the end, he must rescue a different woman, not as strong or as smart as the one you sent, though I’m sure she has her virtues. In the end, he must defeat you, for reasons too complex to explain here.
When you die, remember who you are. Scream a little. Writhe. Die badly. Give him a show. Then, you may want to find the woman you sent. Maybe she will forgive you.

In other news, I seem to be missing people, today. Especially my old internship friends, whom I haven’t seen for a year and a half. :(

After an incredibly frustrating morning in which my time was wasted, fun things were foregone, and I had to drive all over this frickin’ burg with an arm that felt like daggers were being driven down between the bones every time I had to shift a gear, I finally got my little shoulder immobilizer (and a 500-pack of ibuprofen). The immobilization really does help. Now to see if I can get any work done. Sadly, I may need to go to school (meaning: drive) to get the files I need, since they seem to have corrupted themselves on my flash drive. Hm. Vexing. But the day has settled down into basic pleasant Saturday, finally.

BTW, Amanda and Laine were both kind of right (he said, with an embarrassed expression). I have a sling, and I have drugs (if only ibuprofen), and I have a paper that shows me exercises to do, lest my shoulder seize up on me (!!!). The doctor’s opinion, after an x-ray that clearly showed I had several bones, was that I might have slightly dislocated it, or damaged, torn, or “snapped” a muscle in my rotator cuff. AGH! If it’s any of the latter items, then my follow-up next week will be unpleasant, I’m thinking. At least financially.

All in all, I’m annoyed at the pain and the restriction of my activities (probably for a few weeks), but very happy it wasn’t worse.

so, I did an endo in a little dirt and grass field not far from home, just now. My laptop and other sundries were in my bag on my back. Luckily, I broke the fall with my FRIGGIN’ SHOULDER! Holy ow. As soon as I got up, realizing what had happened, the pain kicked in. Major pain. It has calmed a little as I have begun learning how to not anger it. My hand and forearm work just fine, but anything requiring my upper arm to move away from my body is several kinds of agony. Ow.

So, I am pumped full of 1000mg of ibuprofen, had a hot bath (getting out was not easy, and drying is going to have to be of the “drip” variety for a while), and now I’m in an odd position on the couch, from which I can protect said shoulder. Ow. I don’t think it’s out of its socket or anything; my guess is that I just tore or strained some muscles. Ow.

So, no kayaking tomorrow, for sure (couldn’t lift a paddle, let alone a boat). No biking (I tried that on the way home; no dice). I suppose I could walk, as long as I keep arm-swing to a minimum. >:(

Some of my three readers may  know that I have a soft spot for Yoaní Sánchez, a Cuban blogger who risks her freedom to blog about… normal stuff. She rarely says anything overtly critical of any specific aspect of her government’s policies. She just writes about life in Havana, and she does so very well.

So, when she wrote about Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, it made me somewhat moist in the eyes. I’ve translated her brief post, below (all translation errors are my own): Continue reading →