There is no pain
There is no pain. Not when I keep my arm still. It has only been eleven days since the accident. I’m sure it’s all part of the healing process, even the sharp pain felt during lateral arm movement. My Doctor thinks that it is just a slight tear in my rotator cuff. Nonetheless I’m going, today, to get the x-ray he ordered.

The waiting game
I sign in and sit in the waiting room at the entrance to the x-ray place. It is not long before they call my name, if only to verify my information and insurance. I sit, again, to wait. It is not long before I hear my name called, again. This time I am walked to the back where they verify more information and I am told to sit in a secondary waiting room. Another short period of time passes and I hear my name again, but this time I am lead to the x-ray room.

A previous injury
The tech has me flip my collar up, rather than remove my shirt. She asks, “How did you put on a tie if you can’t move your arm?” Ignoring the reply, she positions me for the first shot. She raises her voice as she moves behind the protected partition used for operating the x-ray. “So you’ve had a previous injury on this shoulder?”

My perplexed reply: “Not that I’m aware of”, as she has me reposition for another shot.

Her voice still raised and clear, now sounds perplexed, “Oh, well it might not be anything”. Another position and another shot. “I know they’re looking for a tear, but I need the radiologist to look at this”.

Now concerned, I ask “What is it?”

She responds, “Go ahead and sit in that chair, I think you have a broken bone, but they have to verify”.

Broken
While waiting for verification they have me return to the first waiting room. Though it feels longer, it is a short time later that the woman at the front desk yet again calls me over. “We have your doctor on the phone”.

I have only spoken to my doctor in the confines of his patient rooms, so this feels strange. He informs me that I am indeed broken and he is working on a reference to a specialist. He suggests I stop by his office to retrieve the required information.

The receptionist provides me with a digital copy of my x-rays and sends me on my way.

I had both a cat and a dog while growing up. I wasn’t there when either one of them died; I had moved away and they were no longer as large a part of my life as they once were. I was sad when I heard, but I was able to move on.

Then there was Stan. Stan was a great cat. He would talk (yowl) with you as if having a conversation, play like a kitten, and no matter what room he was in he would come to cuddle in the crook of my left arm every night when I whispered ‘bed time Stan’.

When he got sick I would have done anything for him, though I did not have the money for high-end treatments, we took him to two vets; the second was more optimistic than the first. We followed directions and took him home. For a short time he looked better, was eating normally and was himself.

Throughout the Christmas holidays, his symptoms returned and we had to begin force feeding him liquified food.

One day I got a call after just arriving at work. He wasn’t doing well at all. I rushed home and went to him. He wasn’t himself, he even snapped. I believe he no longer wanted to struggle through feeding. I calmed him down and got him into his carrier. It was a long, quiet drive to the vet.

They ushered us into the sterile room quickly and asked if we wanted to stay with him, which I did. I held him, pet him, said my goodbyes and told him what a good cat he had been. As the vet did what needed to be done, I saw the life fade from him. I kissed his head and promised to remember him always.

Later we decided to get a Christmas ornament to commemorate him: several years later we still haven’t, we just can’t find one special enough.

In the past I’ve attempted, in many posts, to stay in character. I may do that again in the future, but for now, I’ve decided that I’m going to be a bit more real for a while.

Part 1

A formal discussion

I missed a phone call. When I look back at my call records neither method shows that my phone rang. None the less, the voicemail was there. “Would you give me a call please?” He must have finally received the telegram!

Telegram? Oh yes, I went shopping for a ring back on February 9, I even showed it to her niece. After confirming that it would be delivered on or around February 15, I proceeded to order the telegram. It stated:

“I AM WRITING TO YOU TO INFORM YOU OF MY INTENTION TO ASK YOUR DAUGHTER’S HAND IN MARRIAGE -(STOP)- A MORE FORMAL DISCUSSION ON OUR NEXT MEETING IS WELCOME -(STOP)- LOOK FORWARD TO SPEAKING WITH YOU -(STOP)-“

As soon as I could break away from work I walked out onto the patio and dialed him. One ring, two rings. On the fourth ring he answered. I stated that I was returning his call. A jovial conversation ensued, where we agreed to meet for drinks that evening.

Concerned for time, I was sure to leave work promptly. I arrived at the designated meeting spot with a few minutes to spare. Texting a warning to him about the parking situation, I found an outdoor table near the entrance and ordered my drink.

As I received a text from him informing me of his slight tardiness, the waitress returned with my drink and stated “I know what you’re doing!”

Curious, I asked what she meant. Her response was rather clairvoyant, “You’re asking a girl to marry you!” Astounded, I informed her that my intention that evening was to discuss just that with her father.

She recommended a shot to steady my nerves, which I politely declined.

Anxiously waiting, I heard a familiar voice. Aghast, I discovered that her child-hood friend, that friend’s parents and boyfriend, and that boyfriend’s mother, were arriving at the entrance.

I greeted them, and was introduced around. Her friend asked me where she was. I explained that I was meeting her father; the return inquiry was “Why?”

My dry reply, “You know why.” was taken with excitement, after which she was sworn to secrecy and entered the restaurant with her party.

He arrived without pomp or circumstance, ordered his drink and we began to converse.

In the end, he gave his blessing, and we went on our way.

Part 2

Setting the plan

I must admit, I knew the call was coming and that the telegram arrived, for on Thursday night we were out with her elder sister and nieces. While she headed to the restroom, her sister made mention of the telegram arriving. I thanked her, as I had been concerned about its whereabouts.

After speaking with her father, I called her to let her know I was on the way. Once that conversation was complete, I contacted her elder sister, with whom I quickly ensured that her niece would require our services as chaperons to the zoo to complete a school project. This project, we decided, needed completion post-haste.

Shortly after arriving home, she received a call from her sister, informing her of the urgent requirement for a school project. She checked with me to see if it was ok to change our plans.

I asked a few questions, and agreed to the plan change. We then proceeded with our evening as planned.

Part 3

I love it when a plan comes together

The following evening we, along with her family, went out to a local establishment to dine and listen to her ex-boyfriend’s band play. This allowed for much jocularity. Her family, fully aware of the upcoming event, used the evening to tighten up the plan with me whenever she would leave the table.

The evening wound down and we went our respective ways, ready for bed.

Part 4

The plan in motion

As morning broke, she sleepily rolled out of bed, turned to me and asked, “Did we get engaged, or did I just dream that we did?”

Having answered the question, we began to get ready for the day.

Her niece arrived shortly thereafter and we bundled into the car. Conversations of family, friends, and the school project ensued.

After finding a parking space, we seamlessly entered the grounds, arriving at the first exhibit; “The Savanna”. We proceeded to take pictures and videos as we wandered the zoo.

Not knowing the rules and regulations of such things, we sought out a staff member to inform us of how and when to visit the giraffes.

As the appointed hour neared, we made our way to “The Giraffe Encounter”. This is where we waited for an interminable amount of time to pay our dues and enter the feeding frenzy.

Rushed through meeting our intended giraffe, and feeding it 3 pellets a piece, with particular attention to a rather long tongue, we were then ushered to the rear of the platform to ask any questions we might have.

Wow, did I have a question to ask.

As she was explaining to the staff member about the school project and he subsequently was directing her niece to take photos out rather than in, I fumbled in my pocket.

Upon finding my designated item, I knelt with the open box facing her. She turned to me and I asked.

I have been recommending (and using) Mozy unlimited personal backup for quite some time. On February 1^st, 2011 I received notice that they will no longer be offering unlimited data backup for a low price; as this is what sold me on Mozy, I have decided to cancel my account.

The advertisements and reviews of the new Mozy plans bluster how it can save users money by giving them the ability to back up up to 3 machines instead of one per license. That’s great if you don’t want to back up much data from each system.

In the process of moving away from Mozy I’ve tried three other backup programs, they are Backblaze, Carbonite and CrashPlan.

Backblaze offers unlimited storage for ~$5 per month, with a free trial period. After installing Backblaze I was expecting to select what files to backup; I didn’t have to. It began backing up everything, that’s great!

Did I say everything? After digging through the configuration I found an exclusion set, it wouldn’t backup executable files or iso files by default. I removed these filters, however the software informed me there were certain types of files (such as the iso file) that it would never back up. This is when I uninstalled Backblaze.

Carbonite offers unlimited storage for ~$5 per month, with a free trial period. After installing Carbonite I was informed that all I had to do was right click on a folder and choose “backup” to back it up. After the 15^th folder this became annoying, especially when I was informed that the folder may contain files that it wouldn’t backup by default and that I would have to select by hand. After looking in vain for a built in configuration tool, I uninstalled Carbonite.

CrashPlan offers unlimited storage for ~$5 per month with a free trial period. The interesting part about CrashPlan is that it offers backup to ‘friends’, or any other person with CrashPlan installed; input your secret code and it’s backing up. This portion of CrashPlan is free to use even after the trial expires. When setting up CrashPlan it automatically detected files to backup, however it did offer an override configuration (like Mozy) that allowed me to choose what files to back up with a simple check. There were no excluded files that I could find in the configuration. For now this is my choice of plan, it is what Mozy was, plus more, for the same price.

I spent a brief allotment of time in the quarters of a shipmate today. Gazing around, I observed pictures and place-mats hung with care, doubtlessly colored by his fledglings. This reinvigorated my desire to have children. I absolutely look forward to the day I become a father, when I will hang my son or daughter’s masterpieces with care in my cabin, educate them in the ways of the ship, and one day, if they wish, have them assume the role of Captain.

Earlier this year I attended Phoenix Comicon, this is when I broke down. I broke down and started looking at Twitter – no, I do not have an account, but I started watching people’s tweets. I now have several people, including Wil Wheaton, I follow using the RSS feeds provided by twitter in Google Reader.

The more I read his tweets and blog, the more I feel that I missed out on not playing any D&D while I was younger. Yes, I know it is amazing; I’m a geek that did not play D&D.

This has caused me to begin reading a GURPS lite edition rule and guide book, if I understand it well enough, and think I may like the system; I might be tempted to play some, diving deeper into my geekdom. Oh no!

Stay tuned for follow ups if I decide to play!

Last weekend the ship’s company went to Phoenix Comicon, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

During the last days of the convention we were holed up in a hotel for a night, rather than spending it on the ship. As the crew remained awake for a few hours past normal, it was apparent that a food run was required – to the web! After researching the nearest places to us that were open at this early hour, it was decided to hit the nearest 24 hour McDonald’s.

This was a mistake.

The lights were off, the place was shut. After reviewing the building, the hours posted showed that it should be closed – wtf? I brought my cell phone out and loaded the McDonald’s website, it continued to claim the restaurant we were at was open 24 hours – thank you for nothing internet.

A crew member familiar with the area of town stated that another McDonald’s nearby had been 24 hours as long as they could remember, this was verified by the website. Off we go!

This was a mistake.

Again, the lights were off, the place was shut. After reviewing the… wait, haven’t you read this part before? Sufficed to say, the web was wrong. After much travel, running low on fuel, we did find a verifiable McDonald’s restaurant that was open 24 hours and found our food.

My crew and I are rather reliant on the websites of companies, and their being up to date. In today’s world of Twitter and Facebook, it was an eye opening experience to find that McDonald’s, and possibly other large companies, are unwilling to keep their sites up to date. In the future we will be quite wary.

Four customers were refused entry to Cheeburger Cheeburger during regular business hours.

The entire week we all looked forward to going to Cheeburger Cheeburger. It has been some time since we have been to this wonderful place, and at least one member of the group had not been before. When we arrived, at 8:03, we saw customers being served, so went to the door. A piece of paper on the door informed us they were closed for a ‘private party’. Flagging a waitress, who happened to be outside, down, I asked if the party was inside only. She (not so kindly) informed me that it was for the entire location, and that they closed at 8:00, when they normally close much later, so they could finish serving those who had entered already then clean up for this party.

I was understandably upset, but we went on our way – to an inferior restaurant for an inferior burger and a complete lack of shake selection.

I am still upset over this; we felt as though our entire week of looking forward to this wonderful place had been wasted, that we were turned away unfairly, and that even though it was all reserved, they would be missing out on many Saturday night customers, AND possibly lose future customers due to this unannounced closure.

I hope when I return this won’t happen again.

After watching a film at the Chandler mall I found that I was hungry, though I did snack during the movie. It was eventually decided (because Chili’s was closed) to go to Applebee’s – this was a mistake. I ordered the “cowboy burger” a dish I have had in the past. What came out looked nothing like a burger… In fact it did not look appetizing at all! I proceeded to eat this thing they called a burger, it was horrible, I did not finish it. I have now rated it as one of the five worst burgers I have ever had.