Published on Wednesday 20th April 2005 .
Our new NordicTrack C 2420 Treadmill came today. The 300-pound behemoth was a pain to get into the house from its original position at the top of the driveway. Pete and Katie came over to help us get it into the house. We ended up unpacking it in the garage and taking the treadmill into the house without the box - that probably cut at least a good 30 pounds between the box and parts that had to get attached to the base.
After we got it into the house, it probably took another hour or so to put it together. Some of the holes for the screws and bolts were a little tight since they weren’t threaded. Pete and I perservered, and we got everything put together. The display is huge, and it sort of reminds me of the Enterprise-D’s computer GUI. I’ll post a pic of the treadmill in the house at some point, but I’ll have to find Chris’s camera first.
Published on Sunday 17th April 2005 in Uncategorized
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I finally tried del.icio.us after seeing site after site declaring the social bookmark site’s greatness to the world. While it is a great idea, storing bookmarks in a database to allow you to access them from any browser, anywhere, I don’t think del.icio.us is right for me. I’ve got plenty of bookmarks that would be fine to post publicly and share, as this seems to be the purpose of the site. However, I also have plenty of bookmarks that go to private and protected sites that I would rather not share with the world. Even though the sites are password protected, having the address out there on a site as popular as del.icio.us is just one less step for a h4×0r to compromise the system. Call me paranoid, but I just don’t like having those bookmarks out there.
To satisfy my programming heart and personal desire for an online bookmarking site, I’m just going to make my own. I’ve been doing so much PHP/MySQL and C#/ODBC programming lately, I might as well just add another project to my list of things to do.
Published on Sunday 17th April 2005 .
I was searching iTunes Music Store for Funky Cold Medina (lyrics), and I was disappointed to only find some lame dance remix and not the original track. I was hoping to use one of my five remaining free iTunes on it.
Since I could not find Tone Loc’s hit, I went browsing from the iTMS home page. I saw that I either already had or could care less for Today’s Top Songs (requires iTunes), so I checked out Today’s Top Albums (also requires iTunes). That’s when I saw that Garbage had released a new album called Bleed Like Me and it was the number 2 top album for today. I downloaded it and I’m listening to it now.
What I can say so far is that I like it. Bleed Like Me sounds more like their self-titled debut than it sounds like Beautiful Garbage. Beautiful Garbage is my least favorite album from the band, partly due to its sound lacking the power the first two albums had, and partly because it was released at a time when I was listening to more pop and R&B than rock. I’m going to burn it to CD and pop it into the car (I wish I had an iPod again) so Chris and I can listen while we drive from store to store tomorrow today.
Published on Thursday 14th April 2005 .
I wish I had a camera with me, but at the time I didn’t. On my way to the doctor’s office yesterday, I see a sign on the side of the road that says, "DO NOT PICK UP HITCH HIKERS." At first I thought it was an odd sign, but then I realize that I am passing by the Elgin Mental Health Center. I’m sure the sign is just a warning to those not realizing where they’re driving. It was semi-amusing, nonetheless. I’ll post a pic one day when I remember to have a camera with me.
Published on Wednesday 13th April 2005 in Uncategorized
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I came across Spamusement while looking at away messages. I have been browsing the site for way too long. It’s funny stuff. I am stopping at this one for now:
The caption says, "An iPod is waiting for you…"
Published on Monday 11th April 2005 .
I got another free iTune today from the vending machine at work. That makes me 6 for 8, still much better than the 1 in 3 odds on the bottle 
I just checked for iPod mini winners on the winners’ list and was disappointed to see that it lists winners only as recently as March 23rd. I was surprised, however, to see that winners went as far back as January 31st. I had no idea the contest had been around that long.
I’ve redeemed my free iTunes cap, entered myself into the sweepstake for the last time (the sweepstake ends today). I’m hoping that none of the spam filters on my e-mail accounts have rejected any messages notifying me that I’ve won an iPod mini. But then again, if a filter had rejected a message, I would assume that Apple would then try to contact me via my mailing address. I don’t think I’ve won anything besides the free music, but I won’t stop hoping.
All kidding aside, I had my CT scan today. I had to drink this stuff called gastrografin, which is a contrasting agent that absorbs x-rays. It tasted horrible in water, but not so bad in orange juice. I suppose I’m glad I took it orally, as it can also be administered as an enema 
The gastrografin isn’t the cause of my etherial glow (I’m not really glowing). I had an IV of radioactive iodine to help with the test. I’m not exactly sure of what went on with it, and I didn’t care to ask at the time. I think I’m going to WebMD it or something. When the nurse first started the IV, she warned me that I would feel warm. Sure enough, I had a burst of heat run throughout my circulatory system. It was the weirdest sensation, but my mom said that it was the iodine itself giving me the burning sensation, not the radioactivity. I had assumed as much, having dealt with radioactive materials in physics labs.
The nurse informed me that usually the doctor gets the results in about 48 hours, but with the weekend, it may be a little longer. So, I wait. In the meantime, I’ll be drinking plenty of Gatorade to flush all the junk out of me.
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