Hell Week

My posting has been a bit spotty as of late, but this uber-post should be a pretty good recap, if I can get my left arm to stop spasming while I type - I think it's the chocolate I just wolfed down.

I've been joking that this period (Saturday through Saturday) is my Hell Week, but this is a little nuts.

• Two finals on Monday, one Tuesday, and one Wednesday, with another exam today, another final Saturday, and a final presentation Monday.
• Another bug making its way through our house, which meant that I couldn't even start on my take home-final (due Tuesday at midnight) until almost 11 PM Tuesday (thankfully, I was a ble to get an extension of a couple hours to complete it).
• My first B- in graduate school, after I find out I missed the cutoff on the final exam that I needed for a B by just 5 points.
• Wireless has gone kaput for good on my home computer, which very much limits my mobility in studying
• A flare-up and re-staging of my sister's breast cancer, meaning an immediate entry into radiation instead of proceeding to surgery after finding a lump at the collarbone.
• My first project being completed, then finding out there was a bug which forced me to spend all day Wednesday repeating debugging, while I was home taking care of aforementioned sick family folk. Thank goodness for VPN technology.
• Realizing I may not be able to go to the Summer Blogger gathering, because...
• I might be going directly to Phoenix because of new health problems with my father. They tried to insert stents to relieve heart blockages, but realized that at least two of the vessels were essentially non-functioning, which means probable triple-bypass surgery. They did perform a PED scan, and found a tumor the size of a golf ball in the upper right lung, and are unsure if it is into the lymph nodes. They also found three ppolyps in the colon. All that means chemo and radiation before they can even get to heart surgery.

We had been making plans that I would go to Vegas for the bloggerment shenanigans and meet up with my father and uncle there before flying back to Atlanta with my father in tow for a visit. That way, he's somewhat monitored on a cross-country flight and finally gets to visit.

Unfortunately, that may not be possible now, so in addition to pulling out of the blogger charades, I might be going back and forth to Phoenix just as I was going back and forth to New York while at Emory.

I've decided to take the summer off from classes, which is probably for the best.

Now if I can just make it through these last couple of exams without falling on my face, I'll be fine.

At least I now know I can't do like I used to and get 5 hours of sleep over three days with a work schedule and school schedule. Apparently, I am not 21 anymore, and that would only work in Vegas when I'm not worrying about work or school, but only dealing with shenanigans.

Also, shenanigans allows me to link to a really silly stupid movie clip which most of you probably know.

Winner winner

I'm off to do my fourth final exam in 48 hours.

Before leaving, I happened to find out I won this little contest, so thanks to that, at 10 PM ET I will see you in...

Happy Anniversary

For the Chicago folk.

25 years since this lovely rant...



and of course, this year marks 100 years since the Cubs' last World Series title.

We might want to be frightened that they are in first place, until you remember it's April and they've choked for 99 years in a row, so there's no need to be concerned about the coming apocalypse quite yet.

H/t to Baseball Crank.

Home court advantage

I haven't written about the Hawks since the draft last year, when we were hoping that the Hawks would get both Al Horford and Acie Law.

I didn't write anything before the season, though there was some hope that the Hawks could threaten to make the playoffs for the first time in nine years.

I didn't write much during the season, including the one game I went to during the year - a game against Utah where the kids imploded in the third quarter and we missed the Hawks coming from behind to win.

I didn't write anything after they clinched a playoff berth with a "red-hot" 5-5 stretch run.

Did we think the Hawks had a good nucleus after the draft ended last year? Yes.
Did we think they could make the playoffs? Yes

Did we think they stood a chance upon making the playoffs? No. Did we think they would win two games against the #1 seed with 66 wins? No. Did I think we would show up in force and actually make Philips Arena sound like it should? No.

But it's happened, and the Hawks are guaranteed at least one more home game. Are the Hawks really this good, and coming together at the right time, or does this show how the Celtics and the rest of the Eastern Conference pale to the West?

It's probably a little of both. The Hawks would be 12th in the West, but they do have a good nucleus of players (lousy draft picks of previous years notwithstanding) that can provide some excitement - it's been a lot of fun to watch Al Horford, Josh Smith, and Joe Johnson shine as much as they have.

Considering how lousy the rest of Atlanta's teams have been lately, it's a welcome relief. (I don't want to talk about the drat, either, and the Falcons getting the second coming of David Carr.)

But I imagine Philips will again be very loud Friday night, whether they win or lose Game 5. That's how it should be.

Gateway Drug?

That is an odd comparison for Guitar Hero. I read this morning and, since I did a post on it last night, it actually is relevant.

'Guitar Hero': Gateway Drug to Six-String Bliss

No word yet on whether Heroin Hero has come out yet.

America, FUCK YEAH! Courtesy of Guitar Hero

If I had free time (which I don't) I'd probably be addicted to this game like this guy.

IRS plus efficiency equals terrifying future

Apparently, the IRS installed a new computer program that allows for records to be updated daily instead of weekly.

We should probably all be very frightened, long-term, of this development.

Short-term, though, it means that the election-year bribe tax rebate stimulus checks ($600 for single folk, $1200 for married couples, $300 for each dependent child) will actually begin to be direct deposited on Monday instead of in May.

Let's be glad they lack the motivation to become as well-motivated in other matters.

Going Country

See, this story is a reason why playing online is sometimes better than playing live.

A woman in Wyoming got arrested last night while playing a poker game around 1 AM. She didn't get arrested for playing poker, though - she got arrested for leaving her three kids in the car in the parking lot while she went inside to play a tournament.

File under redneck.

It seems much easier to me to fire up the computer and play a little while snuggling on the couch with the kids who are watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...but that's just me.

Hat tip to Wicked Chops for the story which gave them an excuse to run half-naked Christina Aguilera pictures.

Next Phase

I found out over the weekend that one of my summer courses was about to be cancelled.

As it was the only one I was excited about anyway, I decided that with everything else going on, it would probably be best to drop both summer classes and take the term off.

That way, I can focus more on work and family, and if something happens that requires a quick cross-country trip, I can do it.

It's a good thing I'm a semester ahead at this point and I can still finish it in 2009 even with taking a semester off. I'd been thinking about it anyway, but the last week affirmed it, so I'll have a little more free time from May through August.

I hate writing these kind of posts

Well, I was hoping that I wouldn't hear any more bad stories for a while, but I guess that is not going to be the case.

I found out while speaking to my father today that I now really will have to worry about genetic history even more than I already did.

Apparently, in assition to the emphysema and heart disease he already had, he's now been diagnosed with lung cancer. He started coughing some blood, and well, that's a problem. With everything else in his history, they did some checking, and voila.

Should I be surprised, given 40 years of drinking and smoking? Not really. I expected it to happen eventually. I'm surprised he made to 70 given his history.

Does it mean I'm ready for it? Not really.

Because of the heart disease and blockages, doctors may not be able to perform a PET scan until they can insert a permanent stent to clear the blockage, or worse, perform bypass surgery.

Then, they'll know how far it has spread, if it is operable (probably not), and any other options that might even be possible.

So, that means that in the last year, we've had scares of colorectal, breast, and lung cancer within the family.

That's three, OK? These things are supposed to happen in threes, that's three, we can stop now.

Fucking A.

Season Tickets Available

Finally, I will get to go to a school that has a football team.

Unfortunately, I will prbably be graduating right before they start to play. But that won't stop me from being one of the early ticket-holders at the Georgia Dome come 2010.

Georgia State will play in the Colonial Athletic Association (in I-AA, or FCS, or whatever it is called now).

And Emory still does not have a football team.

Long Day's Journey

In looking over my posts yesterday, I realized it's been almost two weeks since I did anything other than post a clip, or a link to another story. Basically, I haven't really been writing anything.
It's easy to see why, though. In the past two weeks, I have:

• Gotten food poisoning
• Gotten that vicious little stomach bug that everyone seems to be getting
• Worked on three group projects, two individual papers, and had four quizzes with nothing lower than a B (so far)
• Traveled to Athens on G-Day
• Traveled to Columbia, SC (APO stuff)
• Played very little poker (aside from one live game for a small win) due to aforementioned travel, school, and illness
• Seen my home computer get pretty much fried while working on my last CIS project
• Get fried by the state of Georgia and the Post Office on Tax Day

That last item might explain why I haven't written anything substantive lately. The laptop, less than two years old, is crapping out on me so I haven't done much on that computer that requires a lot of detail or brainpower. It's put me on a bit of tilt trying to revive it. I didn't think it would crash on me this quickly, but I guess there's a good reason Gateway got bought out with a share price under $2.

I will be very, very happy when May 1 rolls around and all of my exams are done. It's been busy the last few weeks, and boring at the same time, hence the lack of substantive posts. I haven't had the time or motivation to really write anything.

It happens.

Race to the bottom

With folks like these...



and these....



on the Democratic side, it may end up being McCain can win even while telling conservatives to screww off all year.

Screw it, I think I'll vote for Bob Barr.

I'd find better clips, but it's late and I'm lazy.

Glad I did not miss an episode...

Previously on Lost:

What?

For the Mets fans

Boy, I hope all you Mets fans enjoy this song during the eighth inning of every home game this year....

Hooray for RickRolling. H/t to Gothamist.

Cuteness dump

Picture dump time.

Sammie's got her cowgirl boots on and she's ready to party.

Peek-a-boo!

Alex winning a poker chip set a few weeks ago. Like father, like son.

At church, in front of lilies, sitting still for approximately 1.5 seconds.

Outside of church, about as cute as you can get. I keep using that word a lot.

Alex with his dinosaur cake at his birthday party. The dinosaur is loud, Especially at 4 AM.

Sammie, in the play area, working on her model pose.

Packing bags

In one of my more sane moments today, I started looking at where I may end up the rest of this year.

I haven't had a year like this in a while. Since Alex was born, I've cut down a lot on the volume of trips, so realizing a lot may be on the horizon is, well, different.

Pensacola
New Orleans
Kansas City
Cincinnati
Tampa/Orlando
Washington DC
Toronto (might need to get the passport after all)
New York
Boston
Las Vegas
Puerto Rico
Texas

Tickets for the Legends of Francase tour to be available soon on Ticketmaster.

Fitting that this was in Bellevue

It's April 2 now, so I don't think this was a gag.

Apparently, a man in Bellevue, Ohio wanted to get under an umbrella, -ella, -ella, eh, eh, OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!

No, the alleged felon does NOT look like Rihanna. Not many folks do.



{insert Rihanna picture here for google readers who don't get lovely pictures}

The splinters must have hurt something fierce. Especially by the FOURTH go-round. Amazingly, his family did not want to talk about him rocking out with his **** out with the umbrella hole in a friggin TABLE.

I've been to Cincinnati. It didn't seem THAT strange. Skyline Chili was OK, I guess.

But, um, yikes.

Whupped

To quote Lili von Schtupp, I'm tired.

I just figured out the schedule of what I have left to do this term, and it isn't pretty for the month of April. Basically, it's icky next week, then easy for a few days, and then starts to bludgeon me for about two weeks.

In all, tehre are three group presentations, two individual projects, five quizzes, one test, and then my five final exams. My last item is a group presentation on May 5, after which I will crawl into a bottle of tequila to celebrate Cinco de Mayo...probably at Sidebar because it's right next door to Robinson.

Heading to New Orleans on May 9 for the Circuit event festivities sounds like a much better idea.

Heading to Las Vegas on June 6 for the Summer Poker Blogger Thingamajib sounds like an even better idea. I may only take one class this summer, in order to catch my breath a bit after this term, and what better place to catch my breath than the middle of the desert?

I'm really, really, really close to heading out for this one if everything falls into place...