The Ownage

I finally found a new doctor. Doctor Scott Steingard. He was recommended to me by one of my ex-coworkers. I really like him thusfar, as he not only really seems to know his stuff, but he was not the kind of doctor that sweeps in, grumbles at you over his clipboard, and then rushes out to see the next patient. He took his time talking to Christine and I, made sure to answer any questions we had, and even took the time to just chit-chat a bit. It was almost more like meeting a friendly neighbor than a doctor, yet he was also professional and knowledgeable.

Anyhow, here’s what’s going on as a result of my visit.

• I am back on my antibiotics (Keflex and Bactrim) for at least the next week (have another appointment next monday).
• Also will be on a daily diuretic. He wants to try and reduce all the the excess fluid and swelling I have in my feet and legs…the swelling is compressing the infected areas, making it hurt more and slowing down the healing.
• I am to take and log my blood pressure every day for the next week. We took my BP in the office and it was a high reading, but in the hospital it ranged from totally normal to high, so he wants to get multiple readings to see what the average is.
• I am to take a “baby aspirin” (aka low dose, usually 80mg) daily – I guess this is to thin my blood and help my circulation.
• I am to restart/continue on my low carb diet. He says that since I have been heavy for so long, that the veins in my legs are not in great shape, and the only thing that will really help is to lose weight. He made sure to set the expectation with me that losing 100lbs could take a year (I already knew this so was not a shock).
• Next appointment (Monday 3/15) I will get blood work done, to see if my abnormal LFT’s (my liver protein and potassium were low) have changed since I was in the hospital.

That’s pretty much it. Today I filled my 3 prescriptions, got some baby aspirin, and also some multi vitamins. He told me that cellulitis does not completely heal quickly, and to be patient and let the antibiotics do their thing.

I realized it was nearly a year ago when I first mentioned the Solar Project that I wanted to do. What better time to work on it than now, when I am in between jobs? Of course there is the no-income issue, but I’m doing okay for now, and I have some ideas to keep the cost low.

First, I had to decide how much solar power I wanted. This is dictated by 2 things. Cost of solar panels, and a place to put them. I definitely have the space, but cannot afford a huge array that can power the whole house. Also a solar setup which can power your entire house has lots of extra costs in the electrical hookups to your utility breaker box, plus code inspections, etc.

So, I’m thinking of providing solar power to something that uses a lot of juice, but only periodically, which is means the battery bank has time to recharge in between usage. A garage door opener fits this bill perfectly. It uses a lot of power to run a 1/2hp motor for 30seconds for open and close, and is only activated maybe 3-4 times in a 24 hour period. It also plugs into a single outlet with a standard plug, making it easy to isolate the circuit.

What else could do with solar power? Besides saving some $ for all the juice that the garage door opener usually uses, I also have a small power reserve for power outages. If there is an outage I can run an extension cord into the house and power fans, lights, and even a microwave oven (assuming I have a suitable power inverter, which I do). I won’t have enough power to be totally “off the grid”, but I will have enough to run bare necessities for as long as needed.

I have already purchased most of the items I need:

• An 80 watt mono-crystaline solar panel (can get from ebay for literally under $200). This sucker puts out 5amps of 17.3v DC power.
• A charge controller – This is an (thankfully) cheap electronic device that goes between the solar panel(s) and your battery bank. It keeps the panels from over-charging the battery by regulating the power flow when the battery is fully charged.
• A “pure sine” power inveter. A power inverter converts DC power (usually 12v) to AC (usually 110v). I got a 1500 watt pure sine power inverter. Pure sine inverters are needed to run electronics as well as large motors like a garage door opener. Pure sine inverters cost 2x more than the typical cheap inverters, because the cheap inverters use a simple circuit that creates AC current that looks like a square wave, which is too “rough” of a cycle for most things to work properly. A pure sine inverter puts out clean power that is just like the AC power from your utility line. The inverter that I got can output either 110v or 220v, and has a max output of 3000watts, which is more than enough to handle the startup draw of a garage door opener or even an 800w microwave.

There are some other things I will need to put this all together. Like a couple of 12v batteries, various cables and connectors. I am first going to build a self-contained mobile prototype, and then once I confirm that it reliably produces enough power for the garage door opener, I will move the solar panel to the garage roof and hardwire the battery bank, inverter, and charge controller in my storage room, then split the 110v outlet that my garage door opener plugs into, and make the other outlet of the pair a solar-powered one.

I’ll post pics and a video in the next followup.

I also thought about titling this post “McDonalds employees have no souls”. You will soon understand why.

I have always been interested in how things work. I read books on Quantum Mechanics and other Physics subjects because I want to understand how our world and universe works. I read about medical subjects because I am interested on how the human body works. I read technology stuff to learn about new technology and how it works, you get the point.

Along that line, I have always been fascinated with how people think. Not on the IQ level, but more like what were they thinking or caused them to make a particular decision, etc. So, I sometimes perform “social experiments”, to help me understand other people. Sometimes this just takes the form of thinking about a situation after the fact, pondering what made them say or do what they did, and what could have made things turn out differently.

Sometimes, I perform a more active experiment, where I will setup a situation with the intent to observe the result. For instance, I will sometimes give someone an opportunity to screw me over, just to find out if they would do so given the chance. If the cost is low, I know now they cannot be trusted, and in the future will not trust them with something important. They think they got away with it, but actually they revealed their true nature.

I digress. Today I went to McDonalds with the intent to buy some chicken nuggets for lunch. I was pretty hungry so planned on getting a 20-piece. I know from past experience that a 20-piece nuggets costs around $6.50.

I entered the drive-thru, and was greeted with “Hello, would you like to try some Chicken McNuggets, which are on sale, 4-piece for $1.00″?  I thought cool, I can get 20 for 5 bucks and save some money. I didn’t even know they had a “4-piece”, maybe it’s normally part of a kids meal or something?  Anyhow it immediately occured to me that there was a (relatively) big price difference between the 5x$1.00 nuggets and the 1x$6.50 nuggets. So I wondered what he would do if I said I wanted 20?

So I said “Sure! But I’m pretty hungry, so I think I need more than 4…how about 20 nuggets?”  ”Okay sir, 20 mcnuggets…please drive to the 1st window for your total”. Now I drive up, wondering if he blindly pressed the 20-piece button, or actually used his brain and rang up 5 of the specials. I was fully prepared to “lose” the extra money, just to find out if this guy had a soul or not.

I get to the window, and he gives me the total. Yep, he screwed me and charged me for a regular 20-piece mcnuggets! I watched the guy to see if he was snickering or had a manager watching him that made him feel like he couldn’t point out I could have gotten the exact same thing cheaper. Nope. He didn’t even make eye contact with me, just took my money and gave my change like a robot. Yep, this guy has no soul, and/or is just too zoned out doing his mundane job to even think about what he is doing. Sad.

On a semi-related note. I noticed they gave me like 10 containers of BBQ sauce, and on the receipt it said the sauce price was “$0.00″. Recently Alex went through the drive-thru, and asked for sauce, which they forgot to give him. He immediately went back through the drive-thru, and asked for only some sauce, and they CHARGED HIM for it…like 30 cents per sauce packet!  Again, the exact same guy who not even 2 minutes earlier had looked him in the eye as he asked for sauce that he did not get, then looked him in the eye again and asked for money, and didn’t even occur to him that this was the same guy, or that it was strange that someone would come to a drive-thru and only ask for some sauce…LOL! If that is not proof that these ppl have no souls, or that they are at least big-time zoned out, I don’t know what is!

This post ended up being way longer than I intended it to…sorry

When I went to the ER, I didn’t think I would be spending the night, much less being held prisoner for 2 more days. All in all it was not too bad of an experience, except for being stabbed by over a dozen needles! I apparently have very deep veins that are hard to hit, so it made a few of the blood draws interesting as they had to stick me 2-3 times in different places in an attempt to get some blood.

Anyhow the diagnosis was Cellulitis, so I got a LOT of IV antibiotics (6 bags I think total), and now have to take 12 days of oral antibiotics at home. I also got some Percocet for the pain, which ranges from moderate to excruciating depending on if there is any actual contact or pressure on my lower leg.

I’m considering myself lucky, as it could have been much worse, like a blood clot, or some kind of tumor that would have to be cut out. I owe many thanks to the folks who provided support for me (especially Christine and Terry). All of the well-wishes and concern did a lot to raise my morale. Thank you all!

Willingly making a doctor appointment today for the second time in my life (first time was for sleep apnea). I have ALL the symptoms of a DVT in my left calf, but also have a similar much smaller painful mass in my right calf, so who knows what it is. Could be anything from DVT to Cellulitus to Liponoma. Either way it’s probably not good. Wish me luck :\

http://flickr.com/gp/blazer0x/424T37

Well I just got my replacement card for my main checking account. And guess what, they screwed up yet again! I had a Platinum Check Card that had my picture on it, and they replaced it with one of the generic red debit cards. Seriously…can they do anything right?

So I’ve been having trouble with my debit and credit cards. The most recent of which are, I tried to buy some items at Home Depot on my HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) visa and it was denied. Also my main debit card expires at the end of this month, and I have not received a replacement yet. Lastly, and most minorly, when I access the online option to set ATM limits for my cards, my main debit account is not in the list.  So, I sent BOFA a customer service email (using their submission form/process), about each of these items. Here is their responses:

Me: ” My card is expiring at the end of the month and I have not
yet received a replacement card. Please advise. ”

BOFA: “Thank you for your inquiry dated 1/14/10 regarding the debit card. We will be happy to assist you.

Our records show a current replacement card was sent to you with an updated expiration date on 1/4/10…Please note that replacement debit cards are automatically mailed thirty to thirty seven calendar days prior to the expiration date.  As you have not received it a block has been placed on the debit card. If you would like a new card to be sent, please send us a message requesting a new card.”

So, they say that they send out replacement cards 30 days in advance, but instead they sent it out the same day that I emailed them, and then disabled it because I “have not received it”! FAIL!

Me: I do not have options to adjust my ATM withdrawal limits
for this account (but I do for my other card ending in ####). Can I get this option enabled?

BOFA: Thank you for your inquiry dated 1/14/10 regarding the ATM card limit. We will be happy to assist you.

Our records do not indicate a check/debit card for the account ending in – #### (my main checking account).

So…the reason that I cannot adjust my ATM withdrawal amounts for my checking account is because my checking account has no check/debit card??? WTF? What is this right in my wallet? This is the same card that they just sent me a replacement for, and cancelled it before it got to me!

Me:  I recently tried to use my Platinum Visa card associated
with this account (HELOC), and it was denied. Please advise

BOFA: We realize that these measures affecting your HELOC may be a significant inconvenience for you and we are committed to working with you. If you have not done so, we encourage you to contact a Bank of America Loan Specialist at 1.866.731.2688 with questions regarding the letter or your home equity account.

Gee, that sure is helpful. NOT! If I wanted to call in and sit on hold for 2 hours, I would have just done that instead of using their handy online customer service tool.

I had set a goal of “390 by Christmas”, which I did not quite reach. However due to my diligence of not partaking in all the sweets and fattening foods during the holiday I have now reached my goal with some pounds to spare!

Next goal is 380 by January 11th. Wish me luck!

Just walking around used to be such a chore, but today, wow…I don’t know if it’s because I slept all day, or my diet, or losing weight, but I just feel so strong and light on my feet, which should be impossible since Im still near 400 pounds, lol. NEED MOAR EXERCISE! I’m going out for a walk right now, at 11pm, that’s how much energy I have. And then when I get home Im going to grill a new york strip and eat it with a small salad….BOOYAH!

This weekend I will be migrating a domain to Google Apps. In other words, moving all the users from Exchange to Gmail. This will involve some DNS editing, as well as testing out the google-provided email migration tools. They have one tool that you can use to transfer your users emails to their new accounts via IMAP. I will be using this as well as giving the users the email upload tool, which allows them to transfer the email that they have stored in local PST files to their gmail account, as well as automatically reconfigures their outlook to access google instead (in case they want to keep using Outlook). It should be an interesting experience. The end result is moving onto a completely free (we are using education edition Google Apps) mail infrastructure, and no more headaches with mail servers, backups, etc.