Torn Meniscus = The Suck

To be more specific, torn medial meniscus. Here's the link so you can read the technical blather.

Anyway, I actually did this on July 1st, the Saturday of the long weekend. I dislocated my kneecap at the same time, I think. I know that it basically occurred when I was crouching down to get something in the cabinet in the island in my kitchen. (that's a lot of ins...) Anyway, I heard a massive CRRRAAACKKKK! I knew it couldn't be good. But, I just thought it was something else, and my knee wasn't really killing me - so I went out and cut the lawn. I came inside and I did this little plant of my foot and twist and I heard this "pop!" That's when I think I actually dislocated my kneecap. Unfortunately, I had dislocated my kneecap before last year and when I did, I went to the chiro and got it put back in place. I was thinking the same thing this time, but 4th of July weekend - no one around. It never occurred to me to go to the emergency room. Doh. Go figure.

Well, I had to go to Cali the following week, and I just kept getting chiro treatment for it, but I noticed that it wasn't getting better as fast as I remembered. In fact, it stopped getting better. A bunch of symptoms persisted. It still hurt. So, finally, about 10 weeks after the day - I went in to my primary doctor. He bent, asked questions and the like, then told me to get an MRI. Well, the MRI came back and sure enough, I've got it torn. Which, in my humble opinion, really bites.

So, if you've had this happen, let me know. I know that it's possible to fix the tear if it is in the correct spot, but there are few times when it works like that. And, my age is also working against me (46 in less than two weeks!) for a possible repair. The other alternative (if you followed the link) is just remove the tear and contour the meniscus. I'm not sure that helps me long term or returns any stability to the knee - which is a concern as you can imagine. But, like I said, if anyone out there actually reads this blog and has had it happen - let me know!

Till then, I'll be looking forward to meeting the surgeon next Friday.

It's my Anniversary! Yea!

It's my Anniversary! Yahoo! Yup, today in 1992 my beautiful wife Shanna and I tied the knot. Unbelievable! 14 years and 4 kids later, she looks amazing, gorgeous, vivacious and more. Me? Meh. I look older, have less hair and what I do have is going gray. Such is life ;)

Marriage is everything I never dreamed it would be. It is awesome. It's way more work than I ever thought. It's totally worth it. And, being that I know I've got God's girl for me (looooonnnnggg story), I know it's going to keep getting better.

Has it been perfect? No. Have we had disagreements? Most assuredly, we're bound to because I'm wrong so often :-p There's never been the threat of divorce - we agreed on that from the go. Homicide maybe, divorce - never.

One thing I know, I'm more in love with this incredible woman today than I was the day I married her. I love you Shanna!

So Google - Where was this picture?

Really. I got up before 8:00, went to check my mail and lo and behold NOTHING. Not a sausage! And it stayed that way pretty much until around 5:00 in the afternoon. There went my 26th! Geesh!

By noon at least the notifiers were letting me know that I had mail, but there was no luck in getting it through the web interface. I wanted to blog about it, but Blogger (where you're seeing this) was down too. I couldn't do my normal search - like on Google! - because I couldn't access the homepage either! Finally, I figured out that I could pull down my Gmail using a mail client on my Mac (Mail specifically is what I used) so then I spent the next couple of hours pulling down 6,000 (really, no exaggeration, in truth a shade of understatement) e-mails so I could see the most recent messages.

Anyway, everything is now up again but BOY man was that a scary thing. Hmmm. Maybe I'll consider putting up some of my blog stuff on my own server, and maybe I'll move my business e-mail back to my own server as well. It was just way to scary to have the interface go down like that for a full work day. I hope it never happens again!

Wonder Pets to the Rescue!

Indeed! A kiddie show to the rescue. The rescue from the mind numbing idiocy that is children's television to a large extent. In steps Wonder Pets, the operetta for the kids. No, it's not one of the masterpieces, but it is good fun and music is at the center of the action as the three pets (Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle and Ling Ling the duck) go off to save other animals in distress.

Seriously, I could see this becoming a cult classic with the college age kids in the dorms across America. LOVE IT!

Two New Shows - One Stays on the TiVo

Gee, can you guess which? Yup, Heroes. I watched both Heroes and Studio 60 tonight. Both were good shows, but... I liked Heroes better... for now.

Heroes was good (except the little Ali Larter strip scene at the beginning), had suspense and seemed cool. My only issue was that these heroes just so conveniently kept running into each other, but I'll cut some slack because I know they only have so much time to develop a plot.

Studio 60 was good. Loved Matthew Perry in it. And the other guy from the West Wing. Amanda Peet did OK. Of course I found the Crazy Christian bit interesting. Odd thing is, what they were saying was primarily true. But, you know, as a Jesus Freak, I'm not so sure I would care about someone having at (poking fun of) Christian doctrine on a comedy show, at least nothing quite so ancillary as the Rapture. Sure, if they got rude like Madonna is planning on doing on NBC (I think it's NBC), coming out on a cross and the like - yes, then I get upset. Listen, I think Madonna is a whack job who follows the virtually occult like Kabbalah teachings, yet another teaching that's all for accepting all religions and beliefs - except Christianity of course. That's OK with me, but don't go dissing my belief in a artistic presentation where you can't be touched, if you're going to dis me, do it to my face and lets have a chat. But I digress.

Anyway, both shows were good. Heroes has potential and that's the one I'm going with for now. Studio 60 has good actors, I just don't know if I can hang in with the show premise for that long. Of course, there are a lot of "old friends" in the cast like Timothy Busfield (30 Something), the guy who played the younger brother on Wings and others, but I don't know if that can get me to hang around.

That's my take. What's yours?

Shiver Me Timbers with a Bottle of Rum

Yes, yes. I know speak like a Pirate Day is now long past, but I couldn't resist putting this up anyway.

As for the rest of life... like what I've done most of the month: Went to Houston, taught Photoshop and InDesign, had an AWFUL trip, got a nasty cold (which I'm just finally getting rid of, I think... Lost 5 days of training revenue (which TOTALLY sucks), got an MRI on my wanky knee that I hurt on July 1st and cut the grass which was so long it took 2 1/2 hours.

Other than that... everything else is great! We had a guest speaker in to the church, a dude named Fergus McIntyre. Dude rocks. I was bummed that I had to leave before his last meeting to go to Houston. God has been good too, Halle had a birthday (which I didn't get to celebrate with her because I was in Houston - unfortunately), I got two teeth worked on - I know, most people don't celebrate that but I really needed the work on them! - and I'm prepping for my 14th wedding anniversary on September 27th. Yikes, was that fast!

Have a happy - and don't forget to check out my new podcast! http://biographypodcast.blogspot.com

I Like Vista - Not Love - Like

Blasphemy you say? No. I'll say it now, Vista (even Vista Ultimate) will never be OS X Tiger - never mind Leopard. But, having said that, I will say that I do, indeed, like Vista.

Maybe it's because I've been forced to use XP on a daily basis over the past 3-4 weeks, but I really noticed that Vista is a significant upgrade (at least if you've got a 2ghz machine with 2 gig of ram and a sick resolution - like the Dell laptop I get from work does) in elegance from XP. And, even if you don't have a great honking machine, the usability is still an improvement. Of course, you can credit that usability benefit directly to the fact that Vista liberally "borrows" from the Mac for it's interface. Even in elegance, Vista does borrow from OS X, specifically the effect it has when opening and closing windows. But, that isn't all the Vista has going for it.

First, Vista does carry several things that I've always liked about Windows and ALWAYS wished that the Mac had, into this century. Simple things like one click navigation or launching as an option. Honestly, it is the singular biggest thing I miss for the Mac and I've been hoping desperately for 4 years that someone would create a hack for me!!! That and the faithful Alt+Tab is still around - but now provides you with thumbnail images instead of just the logos of the app. Heck, that's better than OSX. And, as someone who is older, stares at a screen all day and wears glasses - I LIKE that feature. In fact, even with an Expose' like feature provided in the OS (and software that does it for me in XP) I think that if Alt+Tab worked like it does in Vista on a Mac - I wouldn't use Expose. So, what do you think of those Apples?

I know, I know. You all think I've taken leave of my senses. Don't worry, I'm only talking about a couple of features here! Regardless of how much I like the new look of Vista (and - I DO - including how customizeable it is PLEASE TAKE NOTE SOMEONE AT APPLE), I still far prefer OS X and Apple hardware.

Props out to where it is due though - Vista takes big steps in making the experience better. It's good at recognizing the hardware (at least on this box) and it works nicely, while also providing a nicer environment - including getting rid of that hideous Start button!

So, after all that, why still on my Mac? Start with the hardware. Gosh, my PowerBook is so much nicer to use. Better track pad, better keyboard, better touch. Screens are now a wash though because this Dell I'm using actually has at least as good a display as my PowerBook (but not as good as a MacBook). Then, procede to the OS. Even with being gussied up and made a bit more friendly, Windows is still Windows. I was trying to fix a partition (which I blew up while trying to adjust it so I could install Vista - that's a 3 day oddesy for you), and I HAD to go out to the command line to do it. I'm still working on that. It's also still Windows when it comes to how and where things work.

Lastly, and importantly, I'm also NOT planning on dropping $400 to get Windows Vista Ultimate. Oh, sure. By the time I get done upgrading to Leopard I will have spent that on Mac OS X - but if I had skipped all the other releases (which many folks do), the upgrade would still be $129 NOT $400. And, if you don't get Ultimate - or close too it - you loose some of the cooler features and connectivity of Vista. That SUCKS doesn't it? And that is why Windows is still Windows, Microsoft is still Microsoft and why I'm going to happily upgrade to Leopard and put it on my MacBook Pro :-) (when I get it that is) Then I'll install my copy of XP to run the one or two apps I need in Windows until all the pricing comes down!

So, there you have it. I like Vista, but I don't love it. It's good, and if you're stuck in a Windows world it at least gets you closer to the Mac. But as for me an my house? We'll take the Mac thanks!