All of the nurses said it is very rare to have Dr. Garro's patients stay for more than one night, but nonetheless they kept me there for two. Well, the surgery itself was a success, but I don't think anybody anticipated the amount of bleeding that I was to endure...

"Have you been known to experience excessive bleeding?" I remember that question being asked during the pre-op appointment by one of Dr. Garro's nurses. Throughout my entire life, up unto this point, ( my experience was quite the opposite... )

This is why I was quite startled to discover that during the night after the surgery I was swallowing large quantities of blood. Throughout the day pain had definitely been a factor, as I had felt that for the 3 hours I was unconscious they had me sleeping under a pile of bricks... despite the fact that immediately after waking up I was feeling spectacular and was carrying on a nice conversation with the hot nurse in the recovery room. It wasn't until after they moved me to the corner so I could wait that extra hour longer than expected for my room to be cleaned that I began to feel my body's delayed reaction from the surgery. They shot me up with two syringes of 8mg of morphine and two sets of two pills of Tylenol 3 to try and alleviate my pain, but I was convinced that neither of those medications were having any effect.

I didn't start to swallow blood until the night nurse was on duty, who seemed to speak or understand very little english. ( Read More... )

So here I am, finally home from my extended stay, a bottle of Percocet in hand, still bleeding slightly, and hoping that this is all going to pay off soon and no longer have to live my life with constant sinus pain hopped up on Claritin D and unable to breathe... But most of all, I am looking forward to being off that damn liquid diet and finally enjoy a real meal for a change.

Woot! This is the best news I've received all week:

Mother 3 Fan Translation Released!

After 2 long years of work, I, and thousands of other english-speaking fans, can finally enjoy this fantastic game! And I give major props to the hackers at fobby.net for completing one of the most difficult and time-consuming english translations of a video game ever. I have been keeping up with the progress of this project since the beginning and watching all of the goof sample videos they have been posting on YouTube, so you can imagine the excitement that I expressed when I heard the tink of new mail only 20 minutes ago :)

For those of you who don't know, EarthBound (Mother) is the craze that brought Ness and Lucas (among other things) to Nintendo's Smash Bros. series. ( But for me, it is so much more... )

And it couldn't have come at a better time, too. The latest game I have been working on has been heavily influenced by this game series, and finally playing the 3rd installation is enough to properly whet my inspiration throughout development.

Octagon Global Recruiting Explore the possibilities...

Interesting new company. Seems they have the potential to do a lot of good for this world.

Emo cult?

"Only after her death would they discover how she had secretly chatted online to emo followers all over the world, talking about death and of the "black parade" — a place where all emos believe they go after they die."

Goth got a reputation of sinister vampire death cults and plain not giving a shit... Emo lives on a reputation of over-dramatization and suicide. What the fuck happened?

That's right! Your unfriendly faraway vampire has returned, ready to wreak havoc on LJ once more.

Coming soon, to a comment near you.

There always seem to be those moments, those times when things just stand out and make you think how strange and unreal reality might be.

At work today, I was doing my usual maintenance of the office computers. Well maybe not so usual, as I was installing the newest version of our backup software, of which the older version I had just finished installing a week prior. Well, the new version of said software our company bought was a Pro version, so the configuration files, job files, and schedules weren't compatible... meaning I had to basically repeat the entire process all over again that I had just done a week before, on top of creating disaster recovery discs for all the machines and re-running the backups for every user. So, while running these backups, we discover odd network I/O failures that are interfering with our backups. Turns out that our backup drive, sitting on the network line, is undergoing a drive failure... so bad that the hardware is thrashing away at itself. We scramble to grab all the important data from the drive while we still can. Shut down. Run diagnostics. Wait. And we begin to research the cost of purchasing a new 2 terabyte RAID network drive, to prevent this from happening in the future. (FYI, for those of you who don't know what RAID is; it has the ability to actively mirror its data over several parallel hard drives so that, if one drive fails, the data can still be recovered.)

And while waiting through this until the backups can be safely run again, I begin to stare out of the window of our 9th story office in the middle of McLean Virginia. McLean is a very active city; there is a mall across the street, many high-rise office complexes, industrial lawn-mowers cutting every blade of grass, pedestrians running around from street to street and parking lot to parking lot, and far more traffic than any one sane person can handle. After watching the town from above for a few minutes, I begin feeling very voyeuristic, realizing that most of the people in the world below are completely unaware that any of them may be being watched at this very moment. I start wondering what the chances are that any one person, at this moment, would witness a major accident, a hit-and-run, or even catch a pedestrian getting run over by one of the many vehicles sharing the road with them. There is something very appealing about knowing the real truth to a situation that nobody involved could even be sure of.

I start doing the math. 500 windows on the building in front of me, 4 buildings all facing the same street. If only 10% of those windows contained a person inside, maybe a 1% chance that any one of those people would be looking out of their window at any given moment, and a 50% chance that their eyes are focused on just the right spot... And in this moment what I see snaps me back into reality as I watch, very clearly and distinctively, the front bumper of an SUV slam directly into the side of a young woman's knee. I stare at them, my eyes wide and my jaw an inch dropped, as the man, suited in business attire, hops out of his seat to face the young woman. I witness the argument, the apology, the man who walked in from behind helping her to a seat on the curb, her frantic phone call, another man rushing out of the office building with a bagfull of ice. No ambulance was called, no police, not even a single car... she is helped into the SUV and quickly driven off, the other two not far behind... And I've finished my math. Do you know the answer? ... One. Only one person in all of two-thousand windows would have witnessed this entire spectacle. And that one person... was me.

The rest of the world returns to normal, oblivious to what had happened just moments before. Business as usual. Only these 5 would remember what had happened on this day. Does anybody ever wonder what might have happened at this very place only minutes ago, as they span their distance over miles and miles of the same earth? Do they ever wonder what events they may not have missed had they been looking in the right place? Are our experiences in this life so rare and unique that merely moments in front of our eyes can change the events we witness, the weight of our memories, the very way in which we think?

Announcing my latest user script: TrollBridge for LiveJournal.

This is a user script for use with a supported web browser, such as the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox. It is a nice, simple way to hide comments from journals and communities from annoying and spammy users. Effectively putting the Troll back under his Bridge.

To use, install this script and you will notice a troll icon () next to people's names in the comments. Clicking this icon will mark the user as a Troll and hide his/her/its comments from you! If you want to Un-Troll a user, simply scroll down to the very bottom of the comments page and click on their name in the list.

This script was requested by eracerhead, and is still in beta. So feel free to use this journal as a bug tracker / feature requests / support forum.

Known Bugs / Future Plans:

• Currently only works on un-themed comment pages. Support for themed comments may be available at a later date. If you absolutely NEED a particular theme to be supported please post the name of the theme, and a link to a journal entry with comments.
• Does not work for Friends Pages when the user posts to a community.

Well, I haven't posted here in a while, so I guess it's time for an update.

I've been working on a bunch of different things lately. A while back, I finished the Google Map I made for Baltimore-Washington UU's. It's quite neat, they gave us a lot of praise for that, and it was loads of fun learning how to create maps with javascript.

I've also started working on a new design for our company website, starting with the logo. But man, it needs a change... It's been the same way for over 6 years, hardly even follows modern internet standards, and the graphics are mediocre at best. But this means I've been playing around in photoshop a lot lately, and brushing up on my skills. I think I've got something quite awesome in the making :)

Oh, and speaking of photoshop, I've also been creating a bunch of neat icons, mainly for the MySpace - Add Image Links 2 Greasemonkey script I've made. Well more like updated, but I changed the structure of the code around completely, and added so many new features to it that basically only the concept was retained (which I didn't come up with). But that's my contribution to Open Source for the week.

I also posted 2 new photographs on my deviantArt page. So go check them out. Direct links are here: [Glowing Colors 1] [Glowing Colors 2]. Stephanie was the model in both pictures, the drawing and photography is by me. It was a collaborative effort coming up with the colors.

The new alchemy club is awesome. There are 4 rooms, each with their own dance floor. And you can't hear any music from another room in any of them.

Although it was very interesting for the first night, the bouncers were learning how to search the clubbers, and the valet parking was disorganized at best. Also, the bartenders, which are the same ones as usual, were sluggish during the open bar, but possibly due to the fact that there were no taps or fountains. When I ordered a rum and coke, they poured it right from the bottles... lol.

But all in all, it was a lot of fun. Much bigger than Nation, even though there is a lot of getting used to. I was a bit weary of the big stage at the entrance in the middle of the whole club, but it seemed to work as the night went on. I think as it goes it will get better, and the clubbers will get used to the new venue. But my night was quite awesome, and it was worth the $5 parking, $8 cover and the $20 I spent on drinks.

OK, so I finally fit the profile for one of those surveys that maroonmd signed me up for, and, unsurprisingly, it was for alcoholic beverages. Now, I know I signed a confidentiality agreement, but when I saw this product in the bunch I laughed my ass off in how absolutely crazy the idea was! So, naturally, I have to share it with everyone >;)


I removed the name, to keep confidentiality, but here it is:
( Sports VODKA?!? )

Yep, this drink will definitely improve your game! Might even be safe for those long car rides to the office!

UPDATE: Btw, you LJ-ers. If you haven't heard, LJ just implemented a chat client that uses Jabber (same as Google Talk). It's in beta now, but soon they will make it so you can conversate directly on the LJ site. It otally owns!

Is the headline the newspaper should've read. At least it would've made it a better movie.

Well, actually it wasn't terrible, pretty decent action scenes. And Kevin Spacey totally saved it.

But what was up with Superman? Why is clark such a wimp, and when did Superman turn emo? Just look at his hair for christ's sake! Boo hoo, Lois Lane got a new boyfriend and the world hates me. I should kill myself with kriptonite, and then they'd see how much they need me.

meh, at least it saved us from the estrogen.

Or rather, Week. It was a very interesting one, to say the least. Been having to deal with dumb drug addicts, and stupid people. But then again, when do I not? However, the quantity this time was a lot greater.

Anyway, my weekend-long party was a success! I had loads of fun, and just about everybody I invited showed up, so the place was packed with hoardes of people. No cops were called, and the only major problem was that someone took my parents' expensive universal remote. But I guess whoever it was felt guilty (or they realized it wasn't usable outside of our house) and returned it. But they decided to throw it under a car and leave it out in the rain, so it was soaked, then made up some dumb story to try to cover for it. Oh wells, at least we got it back.

I also sprained my ankle real bad wrestling with Angel and Jello. I had her in a good reverse pin, too. Didn't start feeling my ankle until much later on in the night, and it swelled up real bad. I guess she wasn't too thrilled that I shoved a cupcake down her throat, muhahaha >:)

We also got tons of pictures, courtesy maroonmd. You can find them in my scrapbook. Got some good pictures of people chilling, raving, and wrestling, and of people blowing fire, smoke, and kisses. Just check it out.

( Pictures )

I saw this and just had to post it.

( 10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong )

I had a great time at the MSI Concert last night, and took some wonderful pictures!

Just check out My MSI Concert Gallery in My ScrapBook.

Mmm, today LJ just released their new feature, the Sponsored+ Account Level. Which gives users about 1/2 of the features of a paid account, but nearly 3 times as many than an ordinary free account. So I'm upgrading to test it out. Which means I now have 15 userpics I can mess around with :)

So, I figured, since I created a Greasemonkey script to remove all the ads in Myspace to make it look and feel like how the web should be (Ad Free!), then maybe I can make one for LiveJournal. Of course, I realize that doing this is incredibly evil and shouldn't ever be done to a well-made, high-quality, open-source designed web site like this one... But, well, I can't resist >:)

Must represent the broke fools of the world who want a powerful voice on the Net!

Expect it to be finished today, and I'll post the result later. Anybody using the Firefox web browser can install the free Greasemonkey extension to use these scripts. So if you are interested in using this script to upgrade to a Sponsored+ account, or know anybody who might be, direct them to my blog.

Then it's time to upload my next slew of 9 new userpics >;)

EDIT:
OK, I've finished the script. You can find it here: LJ Sponsored+ Slicer
It's short, and simple, and works very well... I've tested it fairly thoroughly, and it works great! Not sure if Paid accounts can benefit from it yet, but I'm pretty sure all ads are disabled for paid accounts.

BTW, if you don't have firefox or greasemonkey, click those links to download them.

More information can be found on the comments of this post.

The universe is a strange place. Things happen for almost no reason and they will surprise you. But then looking back on it, it seems maybe there was a reason for everything.

So yesterday, I got a call from just the right person on just the right day at just the right time. This person I feel I've known for so long, yet I barely know her at all. Seems we've both been going around meeting the same people, but we never really got to know each other. So I take her to see Slither (which by the way is an excellent movie), and afterwards a bottle of jager. And so we got to know each other real well. And what can I say? She has one of the most unique personalities I've seen in ages. She is absolutely fun to be around. And she is an incredible tease. but, wait wait wait, can't fall this fast. Don't want to fuck this one up. But it feels so good....

I had a fairly fun weekend, just chilling and not going to crazy for a change... But I think I have to get the brakes fixed on my car, which wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't broke... Grr, I was expecting to have been paid for the website by now.

Anyway, read this if you're interested:

( All my favorites... )

EDIT: added some, and it changed the order around...

Well, not too much has happened lately. I've pretty much just been keeping up with work. Although, I did finish the website I've been working on for VSE Basketball. However, there was a bit of a dispute against the cost of the website. The guy who runs VSE is an old friend of mine, we used to MUD together on GoG waaaay back, and when I started my own MUD (Bloodlust Battlefield) he became my Head Builder (and created about 90% of the world). And, considering this was the first website I've created with a Content Management System (using PHP and MySQL), I figured I was giving him a nice discount. Unfortunately, he was expecting me to charge him a lot less... But I think I've convinced him that my price is right, and now we're just figuring out how he can afford to pay me :P

As far as the dating scene goes, it seems there just aren't enough cool, single girls out there... at least in my area. Whenever I meet someone I like who likes me back, she is with some overprotective boyfriend so it ends there. And it doesn't appear as if I could get Angel back with me, especially since she has a new boyfriend now. But I don't know if I want her back anyway, at least not right now. However, she does appear to be growing up now. She's doing fine in college, and is considering joining the air force, which I think would be a great plan for her so she can get some discipline in her life.

I spent most of today installing our new print/fax/copy machine, which is actually quite neat and works very well (for both Mac OS X and Windows, I might add!). We have it installed on our network, and it prints so fast the page is done printing before I can run down the stairs and grab it! But I had to install their complicated software package on all the computers in the house (we have 4 of them), and it takes like a fucking half an hour to install it on the Windows machines!... But whatever, it works, that's what counts the most.

( Now, for the memes... )

Oh yeah, I also created a whole slew of new userpics for LJ to widen my range of self-expression. So, expect to see them in your comments. Unfortunately, I couldn't use them all because free accounts are limited to 6! So, if any nice person wants to buy a paid account to make a depressed(ing) guy happy, it would be greatly appreciated :)

MM, the Prodigy concert last night was lods of fun. It's too bad that half the people who wanted to go weren't able to.

It was interesting, Brittany tried to spike my hair up, but it ended up looking like horns, or just really fucked up dreds, lol. Then at some point she just tied it in a knot on top of my head. People said it looked very interesting... lol.

But I managed to find my sister through all the crowds of people, and she got me in sidestage while Prodigy was playing. So I got to see him all up close and personal. It was an excellent view. The lead singer with the dreds even came right up next to me, and I stared him straight in the eyes. It was awesome. My sister rocks!!!

I think Brittany just ended up passing out in the room upstairs, and missed the whole show... Then they closed off the main room and opened Alchemy, so we got to dance for a while. Then we left and I drove them all home, still tripping a little, and we all talked about intelligent things. So all in all, the whole day was awesome.

Now for the bad news... I had a bunch of people over the night before, and apparently someone spilled water all over my keyboard and fried it. So now I have no fuckin keyboard to use (I'm borrowing my moms right now). Urg, it pisses me off!

This past weekend was a real tragedy. On Saturday, 2 separate accidents caused death and/or serious injury to people I know.

The first, was an accident that killed Austin and Mike. Austin was the boyfriend of a very good friend of mine, Ashley. And Mike was his best friend. Austin was apparently driving way too fast on a back-road in Waldorf, and flew off the side of the road into a tree. The result was a big bloody mess. Ashley is really going through a rough time right now, so we're all trying to be there for her.

The other accident was involving a friend of mine, Tim. Apparently he got into a car with a drunk driver, who ran a red light and smashed into a car with 4 passengers. The driver died, and Tim and the other passenger were both rushed to Children's in DC. He's in the ICU strapped to a breathing device and is apparently recovering OK. Tim was only 14, and he was always the youngest of the people we used to hang out with in the Park. So we always tried to keep him out of trouble so he wouldn't end up like us. And now he's in a hospital struggling for his life. Here's an article about the accident, with pictures. It was a horrible mess.