It’s officially here! And there is snow on the ground. So close.
Category Archives: Life
Great weather
Terrific, yesterday I mention the joys of the coming Spring and it is now snowing!
Spring needs to get here
There’s been some nice days since the last snow storm, a tease of things to come. We hit daylight savings time last weekend which is clutch. It’s still light out at 7pm which I love. Everyone seems to be in a better mood when that happens. Makes a difference when you aren’t at work for all day light hours.
Happy New Year!
Here’s to a better year in 2013! Keep your friends and family close!
Well, that wasn’t cool.
I should have written this a week ago, but Hurricane Sandy was no joke! The coast got pounded and up here in the north, the wind put on a clinic! Shoved a tree onto our house, thousands of trees down across every county. It’s been a long clean up, there are still people with no power out on Long Island. We were out for 4 days, which was terrible while many around here went a week!
You really don’t know what you have until it’s gone. It’s going to be a months before the state is really back to normal.
Rain Rain Go Away
Hurricane Sandy could destroy us all! That’s what the media loves saying at least. There’s a lot of envirnmental things going for Sandy that could let it cut a huge swath through the East Coast. There’s going to be a lot of damage but there is no way to tell what direction the storm is really going to take. If it does make a left tomorrow afternoon, it’s going to go right over us. I’m on a hill so flooding isn’t a huge issue, but the amount of water this thing could dump on us would overwhelm the local water ways and sewers. Hopefully it’s gradual and not too punishing. Winds could hit 70mph which is a crazy thought. Trees are going to drop like it ain’t no thing. Losng power is the greatest threat, the coast is probably going to get mauled. Can only hope we skate through this one, last years October blitzkreig did a number on us, took a good 3 full days for things to get back to normal around here. Sandy has the potential to do much worse.
At least it’s not coming tonight, there’s awesome TV on. Hold on tight.
Cornea Transplant: Week 13 or so
Went to my 3 month check up and the last stitch was taken out. My vision is still very blurry, which was a surprise to Dr. Perl as the transplant is very healthy and clear. Ran some tests to check for any internal (retina) problems and they all came up negative. The theory now is that the suture that goes around the incision area is causing distortion in the cornea. The suture isn’t coming out for another 5-6 months so it’s more or less a waiting game to see greater improvement. I’m still going to be on 3 drops of lotemax a day for 2 more months and the best news is no more guard over the eye while I sleep. That’s awesome as putting it on every night had been a chore after 3 months.
Xbox Music
Microsoft recently released their Xbox Music service to the public. At this moment the software is out for the Xbox only, in about a week it’s going to come with all Windows 8 products. It’s the second or third relaunch of their services (laying Zune to rest) and it’s good. But something really bothers me about it.
The continued penny pinching of the Xbox user base. Xbox Music is direct competition to Spotify, Last fm, Pandora and the others in the army of internet radio. All of these services are well entrenched with their users and many (namely Spotify) work on a huge array of devices. Xbox Music is going to only work on Microsoft devices for at least 6 months. It’s going to be the center of Windows 8 for music. You’ll be able to stream internet music for free, just like Pandora and Spotify with commercials (you can also purchase music), or go through the pay wall for the premium ad free, unlimited skipping service (called Xbox Music Pass). That sounds great and the software is pretty slick, no other program looks like it and it makes itunes look pretty ancient.
Here comes the stupid. Without the Music Pass, this services is gimped and useless on the Xbox. You can only listen to 30 seconds of a song. It’s an elaborate preview service. With the pass, you can actually use it the way it’s intended. You also have to have a gold membership to use this service. The money hoops for this on Xbox are completely insulting. This new service is made and run by Microsoft, why on Earth should a Xbox Gold member, who is paying upwards of $60 a year be required to pay MORE? Add it as another value to getting a Gold membership! This is a fledgling service that needs to impress people enough to drop whatever music service they already live with. That’s hard enough to do without giving people reasons NOT to use it. Anyone without Windows 8 is pretty much locked out as well…it’s not going to come to Windows 7. The loophole is that the Music Pass works with the Zune software but the amount of people using that is pretty small AND it’s not using the new design so the interface is a different experience (although the Xbox Music UI is heavily based on the Zune software).
The value that Microsoft is giving to it’s loyal player base just keeps getting smaller and smaller. The $10 hike for Xbox Gold membership was shady enough, this is just unbelievable greed. Lucky for Microsoft, Nintendo still has their head up somewhere above the clouds for their network, so that’s still no worry. They can even continue to point and laugh. Sony on the other hand just keeps making the right moves. They’ve matched many of Xbox Live’s features (for free) and the PS+ membership is a great value idea.
My plea to the powers at be in Redmond, WA: Stop trying to squeeze your fans out of every single dime, it’s going to come back and bite you. With the next generation looming on the horizon, you need to get all your ducks in a row. You better quality test that thing because EVERYONE is going to be watching for you to do a header into the dirt and you’ll be the ones responsible for a mass exodus from the Xbox platform.
Cornea Transplant: Month 3
It’s been three months since the surgery! In the passed, week or week and a half I’ve noticed the biggest improvement in my vision. It hasn’t been sudden, very gradual, but the double vision effect really seems to be coming together. It’s still there, but it is definitely better. That feels great, very reassuring that it’s going to keep getting better. Despite the left eye still being very blurry, this is the second biggest improvement since the surgery. The impairment of the scar left right away, but the blurry and double vision replaced that impairment. Now that it’s really getting better this feels more like a success.
Goodnight summer!
It’s an official wrap for summer. Fall made it’s stand yesterday and it was actually a great day. Hit about 80, got cloudy and then some rain in the evening. My cousin Joy got married and all went well, so a good start to be sure. It’s pitch black at about 730 now which stinks, it gets close to 50 at night, which stinks, but the days are a pretty great temperature. It even smells like fall. For some reason this season is never late. Less than 2 weeks from October now so the leaves are going to start changing, bare trees not too long after that.
Time keeps ticking, gotta make changes.
Cornea Transplant: Month 2
Had a check up with Dr. Perl today and the transplant looks healthy. I’m right on schedule and he took out a few more stitches. There’s one smaller stitch left and one that goes all the way around, so that’s most of it. Cut my eye drops from 4 times a day to 3. Still very blurry, but that is expected.
Cornea Transplant: Week 6
Nothing remarkable to report. The redness completely cleared up a few days ago, but vision remains the same as last week.