 |
Weblog
|
Travelogues
|
Photo Essays
|
TheAngryPen
|
Friday, May 11, 2001
After years of waiting, I'm finally about to get broadband internet access from my house. Is it DSL? Nope. Is it cable modem? Nope. It's 802.11b wireless! That's the same technology, which also goes by the name of Wi-Fi, that's popping up in airports and Starbucks' around the country. A networking company out of Dulles, cleverly sensing a demand that is going unfulfilled by the cable and DSL providers, has put wireless transceivers all around my condo complex, with a microwave link back to one of their buildings in Reston. I'll be getting up to 1Mbit/sec upload and download speeds, and if I want, I can do it from anywhere in the complex. Although, if all I want is to surf the web sitting in my usual chair or in my bed, that's fine too, and much more likely. (Now, if only I could have gotten this BEFORE Napster got neutered, that would have been even better...)And what a nice coincidence that, just as I acquired a phone-cord-chewing cat, I now have much less of a need to have phone cords running through my house! (In all fairness to Jade, she hasn't really been chewing cords much lately. Of course, maybe that habit will return when her appetite returns. Who knows?)
posted by MES 11:05 AM ET | discuss | link
Thursday, May 10, 2001
A very good friend of mine is a Director of Photography and he shot this commerical. Lemme know what you guys think.
posted by LT2 2:57 PM ET | discuss | link
Oh, also, at that veterinarian Q&A last night, the subject came up about cats and high balconies. The vet said that yes, "high-rise syndrome" is a danger. Since the weather's been nice, I've let Jade out on the balcony almost every night, under my supervision, and she's shown very little interest in jumping up on the railing. However, any time a bird flies by the balcony, she goes on red alert, and I know that if one ever actually lands on that railing, Jade's goin' over the edge. But, here's an interesting aspect to "high-rise syndrome":Surprisingly, the farther the fall after a certain point, the lower the mortality rate and the fewer the serious injuries: cats reach their maximum velocity after falling about five stories, and begin thereafter to relax into a horizontal position that slows their fall and distributes the impact. Last summer one cat survived after falling 46 stories, which is believed to be a record.Another page (although a very unprofessional-looking Geocities one) says that "a cat's chances of surviving a fall of 7 to 32 stories are twice as good as its chances of surviving a fall of only 2 to 6 stories.) So, I guess it's a good thing I'm in that zone. My apartment is on the seventh floor, and the fall from my balcony is actually nine stories, because of the parking garage. So, go nuts, Jade! (Here's a much more comprehensive and professional page about high-rise syndrome.)
posted by MES 11:20 AM ET | discuss | link
While you're waiting for our next Everest update from Laaz' friend Doug, you might want to check out an audio diary made by David Breashears last month as he made a pilgrimage back to Everest five years after the big disaster. Part One aired this morning on Morning Edition. The RealAudio will be posted there later today, Part Two will come tomorrow.UPDATE: here's the link to the RealAudio.
posted by MES 11:03 AM ET | discuss | link
I think the mystery of why my cat doesn't eat has been solved. My vet, who, along with her colleagues, seems pretty much stumped, referred me yesterday to a specialist in internal medicine. The earliest appointment I could get was for tomorrow. But, by a happy coincidence, last night a vet from a nearby animal hospital was at my condo doing a little Q&A session, and I described what was going on and he instantly said it sounded like Jade had hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver syndrome. So, of course, I looked that up on the Internet, and I'm now convinced that's what's going on. Take this quote, for example (emphasis mine):This syndrome is often brought on by a stressful event, which can include anything from a recent vaccination to a change of address. The most common presentation of this disease is an overweight cat that, due to a stressful event, becomes anorexic (stops eating), starts to lose weight, and begins vomiting. The anorexia usually lasts more than two weeks, but it can cause hepatic lipidosis in as little as one week. There is no age or breed disposition.Except for the vomiting, that's a very good description of what's going on. Basically what happens in hepatic lipidosis is that after not eating for 3 days or so, the cat starts metabolizing her body fat for energy. This is particularly true of overweight cats. But the cat's liver isn't able to process all the extra fat, so it builds up in the liver, which is when things start getting dangerous. So, what I expect is going to happen tomorrow, is the specialist is going to do an ultrasound and take a biopsy of the liver, and find that Jade does, in fact, have hepatic lipidosis. Then the treatment starts. What's the treatment? Force feeding, by means of a tube inserted into the stomach, either through the abdominal wall, or through the neck into the esophagus. Apparently, I'll have to feed her through this tube for 6 to 7 weeks before she'll start eating on her own.The disease is very treatable, and of course, the earlier you catch it, the better. I think we've done pretty well, or at least I hope, since she's not vomiting yet, and I don't think she's showing any signs of jaundice. Luckily, they say that once the cat recoverse from HL, it's unlikely to happen again.
Now, the only thing bugging me a little bit is my vet. She's kind of been on the right track all along, in trying to stimulate Jade to eat (starting with giving her smellier foods, then force feeding her, then giving her Valium which has a side effect of being an appetite stimulant), and warning me that if she continued not eating, there could be problems with her liver, but I never got any sense of confidence from her. She sounded like she was just grasping at straws to try to find an explanation. She certainly never mentioned hepatic lipidosis. But I don't know, maybe she was just dumbing things down for me. Anyway, I'm definitely going to think about switching vets to the guy I spoke to last night. After listening to him talk for an hour and a half, I was very impressed with him. We'll see.
But, the important thing is that I think Jade will begin her recovery tomorrow.
posted by MES 10:52 AM ET | discuss | link
Wednesday, May 09, 2001
Here's a map of the route we'll be taking up Shasta. Despite it's ominous name of Avalanche Gulch, it's actually the easiest, safest route up the sumbitch. Just to the right of center, you should see a long gulley going from the base of the mountain all the way to the summit. It has a long line of red dots running its length. This is Avalanche Gulch and the dots are major landmarks. Check it out whydontcha.
posted by LT2 10:53 AM ET | discuss | link
I've had a Hotmail account for about four years now, which I use any time I have to give an email address to someone I don't trust, and so it gets anywhere from 10-20 spam messages a day, which I normally just delete without thinking twice. But the subject of one that I got today just made me crack up:"FILTHIEST YOUNGEST WHORES ALLOWED BY LAW!!!"
And I just have to wonder, how exactly is whore filthiness regulated? Is that covered by federal regulations, or is it done at the state and local levels?
posted by MES 10:01 AM ET | discuss | link
Tuesday, May 08, 2001
So good news, after sitting on the waiting list for a total of nine days, I got on the Mountain Adventure Seminar's Mt. Shasta trip in June. These are the same folks through whom I did my mountaineering training last weekend. A trip which I will be posting a lot about as soon as I get my pictures back from Sav-On.
posted by LT2 5:47 PM ET | discuss | link
I have nothing else to say. I'm just posting this to make Blogger work.
posted by MES 4:51 PM ET | discuss | link
The first two of these Minute Maid ads are really funny. Especially the Bobby Knight one.
posted by MES 4:22 PM ET | discuss | link
Monday, May 07, 2001
Good news for TiVo 2.0 users! If your TiVo's been upgraded to version 2.0, and you just hate the new fast-forward auto-correction, there's a way to put it back the way it was. (I've been running 2.0 for five months, and I'm still not used to the new autocorrect!)Here's what you do. First you turn on "backdoors" mode, by going to Search by Title, and enter the following:
"2 0 TCD"
(That's 2 space zero space TCD but without the quotes) then hit thumbs up
Then hit ENTER-ENTER-REWIND, it'll ask for an "offset" value, enter 1000, then hit ENTER-ENTER-REWIND again
Then hit ENTER-ENTER-FFWD, it'll ask for a "delay" value, enter 750, then hit ENTER-ENTER FFWD again
Then, to make it take effect, you have to go to any show, play it, hit pause, and do a frame advanceCouldn't be simpler! One thing to be aware of, if you reboot your TiVo, you'll have to go through all that again. But it's definitely worth it. The time it takes to go through those steps is less than the amount of time you'll spend watching the last commercial of each break from coming out of fast forward too damn early.
posted by MES 11:44 PM ET | discuss | link
