Rane

Picked up an iPad 2 as a promotion gift a couple of weeks ago, and I am in love. I honestly figured I'd use it as a way to chat and surf the web while playing console games, that way I could avoid a laptop. Since the living room isn't anywhere close to done I was really just taking advantage of a killer sale at Microcenter - 16 gig Wifi model for $350. I also picked up the Apple case for it, although I'm starting to wish I'd chosen a different one. The master stroke was picking up a wired Apple keyboard - my iMac came with a bluetooth version that really isn't all that important for a desktop, so I tossed the wired one on it and bonded the bluetooth one to the iPad.

What I hadn't really considered was the wide variety of truly amazing software for Apple's tablet thats available. I've probably spent over $60 so far, picking up some music apps that are simply unbelievable. Three stand out: Sunrizer, Reactable, and Sunvox. I'm still trying to figure Sunvox out - it's very complicated - but it's essentially a modular synth hooked up to an old school tracker interface. With Sunvox I can compose entire high quality tracks anywhere! Sunrizer is the opposite - it's just an amazing synthesizer. I can futz around on just the iPad, but it's also made me decide to pick up a MIDI interface that will allow me to toss the iPad into my studio - once it's been rebuilt. Reactable is honestly more of a gimmick, but it still allows for freestyle performances based on a moderate sized palette of sounds and samples.

There's more mundane stuff of course, such as loading it full of PDF scans of countless RPG rulebooks, some apps that make it very useful while actually playing table top games, and since I snagged VLC a while back before Apple removed it from the App Store I can load up any video file I have. (Currently it's packed full of old Looney Tunes cartoons.) Interestingly enough I haven't picked up any games for it - and probably won't ever get many - because my iPhone games work and I've got other things to do with it.

The iPad was originally a guilty purchase because I thought I was picking one up just to have it, but I've ended up carrying it around with me and actually using it almost everywhere I go.

Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and I feel so rough
No you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
Part of me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and I feel so rough
And you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Somebody
I used to know
Somebody
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

I used to know
That I used to know
I used to know
Somebody

So I have either a kidney infection, a kidney stone, or both. That by itself is certainly annoying - and painful - but as I'm on a host of medications to treat it I started thinking. At this particular moment in time my blood is absolutely full of chemicals. Currently I've got lamotragine, Wellbutrin, Seroquel, doxycycline, promethazine, acetaminophen, and oxycodone floating around in my body. Add a healthy dose of nicotine and a mild amount of caffeine (I can't give Coke up entirely even with kidney issues) and that's quite the cocktail. It's nothing special, just weird to think about sometimes.

I read the first three Harry Potter books a long time ago, then saw the first four movies. I thought the books better than the movies at that point. Recently I realized I'd never watched the last four movies and did so, and now I'm going back to read the four books. The Goblet of Fire book is better than the movie I think, but...wow. The Harry Potter in the book Order of the Phoenix is a really stupid git. Careless, thoughtless, arrogant and self-absorbed, willing to blame everyone except himself for his mistakes...I'm hoping there's some growth in Half-Blood Prince, because right now he's extremely unlikeable and the movies have taken center stage.

Mord Fustang tickets - next Wednesday at Opera, VIP area that's 21 and up only.

Who is Mord Fustang?

He's fucking AWESOME.

So the shot worked - my foot is better. I won't say fixed, because I can feel the fibrosis most of the time, but the pain is gone and I'm starting to get a handle on what aggravates it. We'll see if it's manageable or not - I really don't want to go through surgery.

I spent over $200 on clothes over the weekend, but in the process I've refreshed my wardrobe until summer. Liquidation sales were everywhere, it was actually pretty surprising - I think I picked up about $500 worth of clothes in total, capped with a $180 coat for $35. I still need a new pair or two of shoes, but that'll take some time. Starting tomorrow I join a gym - work has set up a deal with LA Fitness and the price is perfect. Considering there's one about a mile from the house I should be able to work up a routine. Amusingly enough though the more I go into image overdrive the less I consider doing anything with it. The overall hassle of dating and meeting someone seems more of an irritation than it's worth at this point, so I guess I'm doing all of this purely for myself. I'm going to pimp both the house and myself out, and I'm looking forward to every bit of it.

The house stalled a bit with my foot issues, but I've been trying to at least spend an hour or two every night tinkering on bits and pieces. If I can just get the library finished I know I'll get a second wind on the whole project. I've also decided to rip the door out separating the downstairs from the rest of the house. It's an awful door, it serves very little purpose, and the frame is heavily damaged. Besides, once I yank it out and clean the rec room I can move the litter box down there behind a nice folding screen and not have it in the library. This translates to even more shelving in there, to a point where it might actually end up holding ALL of my books.

My tax returns are large enough to cover a nice new 60" TV and living room furniture, so there's some incentive to get that area finished as quickly as possible. I've got the entire finished layout of the house planned out, and it will result in a) the litter box out of the way, b) an entirely new living room, c) a library, d) a dedicated music studio, e) a dedicated photography studio, and d) a dedicated, decorated, and comfortable guest room. I'll have the capability to truly entertain folks without anything getting in the way and offer an actual place to sleep versus a comforter and the couch. Granted, I have no idea if people will end up visiting, but with a clean and well-stocked house it's a solid potential.

On a final note - when it comes to music, at least: god bless the French.

A steroid shot in the foot FUCKING HURTS.

So my foot has been bothering me for a while. I have no idea if I've mentioned it before and honestly right now I don't care enough to go back and check. Suffice to say it has been hurting for 3-4 months with the pain gradually increasing to the point where I sometimes have a pronounced limp and I've taken to using a putter I keep at the office as a cane. About two months ago I noticed a lump on the sole of my foot in the arch. It's a lump of some sort in the deep tissue that happens to protrude enough to be visible. Since the pain varied wildly from day to day I put off going to the doctor until late last week. I walked in expecting a quick diagnosis of something like plantar fibromatosis - a cortisone shot and I'd on my way.

Instead of that however I am told in rapid succession that a) the rapid growth was a cause for concern, b) the placement made plantar fibromatosis extremely unlikely, c) whatever it is shows up as a dark shadow on x-ray, and d) the in between consistency of neither hard nor soft matched no easily identifiable profile. Those statements taken as a whole are cause for slight worry, but wen she said she wanted to get me in for an MRI as soon as possible my concern level ratcheted into the upper percentiles.

I know it's probably nothing, but it's still fairly unnerving because I've never suffered anything major before. Ever. I've never even broken a bone. The concept of surgery in any form is alien to me, and the thought of being incapacitated while recovering is nerve wracking. I had the MRI Tuesday which was a delightful experience in of itself, and now I'm playing the waiting game until the results reach the doctor. I can't shake a nagging feeling about the whole thing, though. I wish I could.

Last week I was in Disney, and it was a very nice vacation. It was good to get away from everything for an entire week, although the trip was lacking in something originally planned and that was a slight downer for brief moments. I did however have multiple epiphanies while I was down there, and the day after I got back I made some changes. It can be summed up briefly with - thanks to some advice from a wise woman I realized it's time to drop the scruffy look. It's not good for the ego, it's not good for trying to date, and it's really just an excuse to be lazy. Granted I might end up dating someone who likes the scruffy look, but that's something that happens in a relationship. You never, ever start scruffy, a lesson I'd forgotten.

The results so far have been extremely pleasing; by most observations I've heard so far I dropped about ten years, and that by itself is a reward. I'm also walking taller - I don't think I realized how much I was slumping given the stress factors over the last few months. The upshot is that I'm remodeling myself as well as the house and it's just as much fun.

I like the haircut I got, I think it works rather well.

Some new clothes, a new jacket, a new watch, more of my favorite cologne I haven't worn in years, and some extended minor grooming have combined to make me feel a lot better about myself. Onward!

Thanks to a recent security change my reporting code that reaches out to a known vendor interface is now blocked by Websense.



Good job, security - your work here is done.