haijak.com

So I have been sick for most of the last week. By sheer force of will I've been able to keep both lungs in my chest.

I also learned that my computer isn't happy with the latest build of Windows 7. It Blue Screened 5 times in 2 hours. Now I'm back up and running. My computer is 100% healthy. I'm about 95% healthy.

The picture on the left was a lucky shot. The little guy climbed up onto the window sill. it was dark inside and bright outside, so he didn't see me. I was able to get one good shot before he decided to move on. I thought you all would like it.

Last Friday Apple's marketing department announced, the latest version of their web browser was downloaded 11 million times in the 3 days since it's launch. That made the internet look like this. To be fare there were a couple of dissenting opinions. However nearly the entire internet thought this was huge amazing news, that showed how Safari was gaining a lot of ground.

Today Mozilla announced that their latest security update, not a major release, was downloaded over 150 million times in it's first 24 hours. Yah Apple makes me laugh. The press release is desperately trying to make their browser seem relevant, but you can't blame them for that. The tech press on the other hand makes me cry when they treat every word from Apple as though it is some kind of important event. That is just really sad.

Yesterday all the television broadcasters across the US had turned off their analog systems. Television in America is now entirely digital. And I bet none of you even new it happened. I don't know a single person who gets there television over the air waves. Even my Grandmother who lives near Detroit and gets great OTA reception has cable.

Sure there are millions of people who have OTA television, but nobody cares about them any way.

I just read a thing about American Idol haters. He basically just asks the question why. Most replies are dumb, some are good. Mine is in there if you look for it.

American Idol is the highest expression of the fact that the recording industry is concerned with nothing, half as much as they're concerned with making money. Any conceivable way for a record label to make a buck, it does. This show is a way to get ad revenue from the process of finding a gullible nobody who can sing, get them to sign away every right that isn't tied down by the constitution, research the market to see if their album would sell, and sell the album. In the end the contestant gets a couple of hundred thousand dollars in their pocket, and a story about how they were famous for a year or so.

It has nothing to do with finding actual talent. It's all about creating a One Hit Wonder. Reference the album list of all the contestants who got deals. Their first album sells well, then they fall off a cliff. Sure Clarkson beat that trend with her second album doing much better than her first, but by her third she was back on the total crap track.

That is only the beginning. What I don't like is that they think their audience is so stupid that they can't see this. There isn't even any way for viewers to track the voting in a live website. For all anybody knows the votes are absolutely meaningless. In all likelihood, the producers choose remaining candidates, to ensure an interesting show. How blind do you have to be, to believe that they are leaving something as important as show dynamics, potential ratings and subsequent advertisement revenue to something as fickle as public opinion. The producers will want to know how people are voting, to measure what the demographic likes and dislikes, but they certainly can't let something so random make decisions for them. Suppose a contestant has some crazy outfit and then suddenly gets fewer votes. Therefore he gets kicked off by the rules, when previously he was always the front runner. The producers know he generally is the favored contestant and should continue. They also know that he needs to change his clothes. So even though the public voted him off he will continue and someone else will be removed, maybe because the contestant made a bad joke off camera one of the producers didn't like or maybe because they started showing some independent thought and disagreed with some suggestion.

My poorly made point is, that American Idol and all other reality shows, assume that their audience are idiots, and what pisses me off the most is the fact that the show's success proves them right.

OK so last week I told you about my trip to the dentist, and my prescription for antibiotics. Well I didn't realize at the time but that prescription was for 2000mg/day. 500mg per tablet, four tablets per day. That is a massive dose of penicillin.

I have never had a problem with penicillin before. My mother has, she never takes the stuff. Generally I have a stomach lined with rock, nothing bothers it. But most of the time antibiotics are 250mg tablets three times per day. Occasionally four times. So this dentist gave me twice that. And only now after five days of a seven day prescription, does my jaw stop aching. For the last three days I have had, on and off several other side effects. The short list includes nausea, cold sweats, urine that smells of pure ammonia, and over the last 24 hours some nasty diarrhea. Also something else that I would call general weirdness. I feel slightly distracted, spacey, fuzzy.

Last night and today have been the worst so far. I had to call out today from Anderson today. I am in no condition to to look after a bunch of kids. Maybe if it was 3rd shift, where the were sleeping nearly the whole time, I would have gone in. I'm not in any condition to handle their behaviors for 8 hours today.

So when I make my next appointment, I will have to seriously talk to the dentist and let him know that penicillin doses of that size should be avoided. maybe half that much for twice as long would be good.

Quick back story: 3 of my wisdom teeth came in just fine. One got about half way and stopped. Occasionally something gets stuck in the gum wrapped around it. It hurt a little when touched for a couple of days, then get better on its own.

This week, the standard wisdom tooth pain wasn't from touching, It has been aching. And it hasn't gotten better in a couple of days. Today was my first time at a dentist in nearly a decade. I went where my father and sister have been going for a couple of years now. She thinks one of the doctors is hot. I can't confirm that, I'm not sure which one she is talking about. The receptionist who gave me forms and took my money certainly is though. She makes a good incentive for a return visit.

I went in thinking I was going to have to pay $500 or more to have my wisdom tooth removed. I was pleasantly surprised when it was much simpler than that. My teeth are fine. The doc was surprised at that when I told him how long it had been since my last visit. He said the problem was just a nasty version of what I have experienced before. It's an infection. A simple antibiotic is all I need.

We agreed that in the long run the tooth will have to come out, and since it has been so long I should have a cleaning as well. So I will head back soon for that cleaning. When I know I can afford it, this tooth will come also. Maybe I'll get the cute receptionist's name and number. Probably not... but maybe.

Michael Moore wrote a piece for The Huffington Post about the bankruptcy of GM.

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

Today I met with Brad who just got a new computer, and needed help getting everything set up right.

It is an idea I have toyed around with for a while, but never really pushed. I just couldn't actually imagine that people would be willing to pay enough to make it worth while. Well this man did. My father knew him from the gym, and when he heard of the Brad's computer troubles he suggested calling me.

It went well. I got all the major problems taken care of in two and a half hours. The rest we will work on later. He will also need help with his computers at his office as well, so that will be more work.

He also said he would have some others call me, who he new were having similar computer problems. I'm usually very skeptical when people say they will recommend me to their friends and family, it's never turned into anything in the past. But I tend to believe him for some reason... Time will tell.