This Nerd Heard…

Okay.  My server has been down for a while but its back.  It took me a while to get it going again after a hosting relocation.  My server is now hosted about 2600 miles from its old locale in sunny Florida.  I’ve also moved it off of an old Dell Optiplex PIII to a virtual machine running a more modern processor.  This should allow it to take advantage of the latest power saving features.  Always pays to be as conservative as possible.  No need to waste resources.  More to come, eventually.

Alright, on Thursday night, I finally slept through the night without waking up in pain.  It was rather nice.  On Monday, the doctor took the splints out of my nose.  It was amazing.  I thought the splints were small pieces of plastic but they were larger than a book of matches.  He took them out of my nose whole.  He also cleaned out all the congestion that I had.  For the first time in a week, I could breath through my nose and it definitely felt easier than it had ever been.  But, the congestion hasn’t gone away.  I can barely breath through my nose again.

My nose is also still very sensitive.  If I push on the end of my nose enough for it to change shape, it hurts.  Understandably, the harder I push, the more severe the pain.

On the food front, I am able to eat Trader Joe’s cheesecake.  I’ve also been eating eggs on occassion, though the doctor still wants me to stick to clear liquids for the most part.  On Monday, I’ll be going back to make sure that my stitches are all looking good, and to receive clearance to return to work on Tuesday.  Not exactly excited about that, but the time has come.

It’s been a while since I have posted anything and that is simply because I don’t feel well at all.  I had surgery almost exactly a week ago.  I had surgery on both my throat and nose.  The worst procedures on each being a toncillectomy and somnoplasty.  The purpose behind the surgery was to widen my airway, making it easier to breath.  This is, by far, the most painful surgery I’ve ever had.  This is the fourth time I have had to have surgery.

What is so miserable about it?  Well I have never thought that there was anything worse than a sore throat.  Man do I have a sore throat.  I am constantly eating cold/frozen food items in order to try and numb my throat.  I’ve also been taking pain killers on a regular basis.  Last night though, on my way to the Bay Area, my throat started hurting before it should have.  This has occured again this morning.  My throat is killing me at the moment and I shouldn’t need to take pain killers again for another 2 hours.

Here are the top reasons for my discomfort:  1) Very painful sore throat. 2) Inability to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time (often 10 minutes is a long time for me right now).  3) Experiencing nausea. 4) Difficulting breathing due to what I presume to be swelling

Today, when I see the doctor, he will be removing some plastic splints that are in my nose from the somnoplasty. Hopefully that will make it possible for me to breath through my nose again and then it will reduce the stress on my throat and other parts of my body.  Otherwise, at this rate, I won’t be ready to go back to work next week.

This isn’t the geekiest thing in the world but my brother pointed me to a website that deals with common English errors.  This all started when I accused him of being at the “beck and call” of someone at work.  Because most people, myself included, don’t properly enunciate their “d” when they say this, it sounds like “beckon call.”

That prompted him to look for this site.

When people misspell or misuse words and phrases, it really bothers me.  The funny thing is that I’m not the world’s greatest speller myself.  But the site has so many common errors that one could spend hours looking through them.  Some are mistakes that I make on a regular basis, and will have to spend much time working on correcting them. 

Edit: The reason we discussed the spelling is that we were talking about this using IM while at work.

So, as all of my co-workers know, I had surgery back in April to try and help me sleep better.  I seem to have this problem where my tongue blocks my throat like 30 times an hour when I sleep.  Well, I had that problem.  I had a genio-glossus advancement (tongue advancement) back in April.  It seems that I’m down to a mere 7 events per hour but am still having trouble breathing when I sleep. 

So now I am getting a UPPP (soft palate cleanup), and a nose job.  I kind of look at it like porting the engine on your car.  You clean up all the intake (and exhaust for that matter), to make sure that you get as much oxygen flow as possible.  I’m completely excited about it though even though I hate surgery.

The big day is coming up in less than a month.  A doctor at Stanford is going to do it even though he’s not contracted on my insurance.  My previous surgery would have cost $7000 there but after talking to the doctor he’s worked out a deal where I’ll only have to pay him $2000 plus whatever the insurance company will give him.

He is the most awesome doctor in that regard.  He’s the number one doctor in the world in his field and could charge anything he wanted and there are people who would pay it.  But he’s a down to Earth guy and worked that out for me.  Thank you Dr. Nelson Powell!!!

For ignoring the internet completely for the past week or so.  Work has been rather busy, or at least it was at the start of the week.  On Thursday, I didn’t come in because I had a doctor’s appointment in the Bay Area.  Friday, I had a meeting that I was falling asleep through and didn’t come in after lunch because my garage door fell off the track and wouldn’t close.  In fact, I waited for someone to come and fix it (I have a home warranty until Tuesday).  Within hours, it almost completely fell out of the track and almost crushed my car.  I mean seriously, it was hanging on by a thread.  Now the home warranty people are saying they don’t cover it *sigh*.  It’s like $1000 to replace the door and fix the track.  That really sucks.

Well, I got my settlement today.  It came a lot sooner than I had anticipated.  I thought that I was due to get something like $96 back, but I can’t remember.  It has been a long time since I filed my claim.

What I did see though, disappointed me in a way.  I was hoping to use the money to get an HD-DVD drive for my Xbox360 when they come out.  Well, at least to partially pay for an HD-DVD drive.  But, it doesn’t work for that.

It is useful for:

• Publically available software that will run on a Laptop, tablet PC, or Desktop. I assume this covers Mac software
• Computer Hardware
  • Desktop, laptop or tablet PC
  • Printer
  • Mouse
  • keyboard
  • monitor

It won’t even cover an HD-DVD drive for a desktop, it seems.  Since it is valid on purchase made since July 18, 2003, however, I can use it to receive reimbursement for an older purchase.  That means I can still use it for an HD-DVD drive for the 360 but it wasn’t half what I was expecting.  Oh well, I guess it is “free” money.

My brother used to work for AMD in Texas.  His group was sold to another company and he quit AMD to work at this new company.  They didn’t direct deposite his last check for several weeks, and never mailed him his paycheck stub.  Pretty unprofessional for such a large company. In California, where AMD is headquartered, a company has to pay a final paycheck on a person’s last day if they give at least 72 hours of advance notice.  We decided to see what the laws were like in Texas.  We found this site.

That page contains final paycheck laws for every state.  If you look you’ll see that Wisconsin’s law states “Any employee, except a salesperson paid by commission, who does not have an employment contract and who quits or is fired: next regular payday but not more than a month later.” (Wis. Stat. Ann. §109.03).  Can you imagine that? It suggest that in Wisconsin, they don’t have to pay you more often than once a month.  In fact, they may not even have to pay you once a month.  It is unclear.

Tennessee could be even worse: “Next scheduled payday or 21 days, whichever occurs later.” (Tenn. Code. Ann. §50-2-103).  What if they only have to pay you ever 45 or 90 days in Tennessee? You could go months without getting your final check and then go months without getting your new check if they allow pay periods in excess of 30 days!  It may be cheaper to live in places other than California, but I’d rather live there than either of those two states!  Check out your state here.  If it prompts you for a zip code, put in any one you’d like.  I like to use 90210 when any site asks for mine.

Have you ever felt so tired that you just want to put your head down on your desk and take a quick 3 hour nap?  I feel like that every day.  Some days are worse than others. There are times when I don’t even want to get out of bed.  I was diagnosed with “Obstructive Sleep Apnea” back in November.  Apparently, I’ve had this problem for most or all of my life.  It explains why I slept away junior high and high school.

My problem stems from my tongue. It is apparently a bit large and has a tendency to obstruct my throat.  The probelm intensifies when I fall asleep since my muscles relax.  Thus, I end up with a “respitory disturbance” and my brain forces my body to wake up.  This happens to me about 23-30 times an hour on average.  Or did, until I had a tongue advancement to correct the problem.  Now I don’t know the frequency of these occurences.

I had a sleep study here in town almost two months ago that indicated I was in the “normal” range (less than 5 per hour).  I have a hard time believing that.  So, I went to the experts at Stanford and had another study done.  I should have the result in about 1 to 2 weeks.  I expect that will indicate that I am still in the 23-30 range. If I am in the normal range, then there must be something else wrong with me.

In any event, as Ozzy Osbourne would say, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Yesterday I installed a “Whisper Aire” whole house fan.  Is it quieter than other whole house fans that I have seen in operation? Absolutely.  But it is by no means a whisper.  I installed it right outside of my bedroom door, I had no choice.  It was the only location that would work.  Surprisingly, it isn’t any louder in my room on the lowest of its five speeds as it is on the highest.

So why am I so seemingly disgruntled?  I spent hours in my attic rerouting an electrical line that was in the way, cutting a hole in the ceiling, adding framing to support the fan, etc etc.  I’m still not done.  I have to put in new insulation.  On top of that, I ran the fan almost all night last night and the house didn’t get any cooler than it gets when I put a fan in the front door.  I’m hoping that it is  becaues I ran it on its lowest speed (about 1200 CFM of air).  Tonight I will run it at full speed (2200 CFM of air) in hopes that I can get my home as cool as the outside world.

 My local utilities company actually recommends that I install a 3600 CFM fan but that would have required cutting ceiling joists.  Plus the fan I bought comes with an insulated door which is rather handy since it is almost impossible to get to the location that the fan is installed.

I will keep you all up to date (which wouldn’t likely be anyone).