Honey, I didn't hear a damned thing you said!

Vonage

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:51:10 GMT

I will say, their customer service is useless!
Two phone calls, three emails and still they aren't addressing the problem I'm having with setting the fucking think up.

The installation instructions are:
Modem to Vonage adapter to wireless router.
Problem:
The Vonage adapter needs my PPPoE settings. Fine, I hooked up my computer directly to the adapter to get online. But something about the Mac and Firefox (and Safari) cause their settings website to think that I'm not set up directly to the adapter/that I'm connected wirelessly and thus not allow me to the settings page.

This is the issue I've gone around and around and around with Vonage about. They just aren't understanding that I'm set up per their instructions but can't get to the settings site.
Ok, FINE. I drag out my old Sony laptop and use Internet Explorer, and surprise, I can get to the website!!!
I set the PPPoE information and the adapter starts working. I then hook up the wireless router and... you guessed it, it no longer works! This is the point if I had hair, I'd be pulling it out!
I undo the adapter as Shan needs to log into work.

I'm sure there is someway to make the router work with the adapter, but I'm completely computer illiterate, I have no shame in admitting to that fact.
But I have one idea to try before I say fuck it and call AT&T to have a second landline installed...

I try modem to wireless router and plug the adapter into the router.
And wouldn't you know it... it works. Yup, two days of fucking with settings, getting all annoyed with Vonage and all I had to do was ignore their instructions and do it my own way.

Vonage

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:05:58 GMT

You already suck as bad as AT&T!!!

Now waiting for Tier 2 support to call me back.

I'm highly unimpressed.

Follow up to...

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:58:30 GMT

tattooing your shaft HURTS.

OH MY FUCKING GOD! I finally got a decent, not all welty and red, look at the tat this morning.
It fucking rocks!!! I must say, out of the 7 tats, this one is by far the best one so far.
Its about 80% completed. Just one more session in about 2 weeks.
Alas, not enough time to have anything resembling a decent amount of hair growth by the time Dore and Lazybear roll around, but I'm thinking it sooooooooo worth it!

So if you're in the mood for ink and looking for an artist, go talk to Shadow at Gotham.
Greg and Gauge are also excellent artist, but Shadow really impressed me with this tat.
He took my rough drawings and took the design to the next level, far beyond what I had anticipated.
While I sure do miss Mikal from Black and Blue Tattoo, Shadow has taken the style Mikal helped to create and really add his own flare to it.

I already have him thinking about a full back piece (winged lions), but that one will take a year or two to complete. Damn budgets!!!

Oh no you don't!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:44:31 GMT

I will NOT catch a cold... this sore throat will go away RIGHT NOW!!!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:27:24 GMT

tattoo on shaft HURT!!!

How can I be...

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:03:03 GMT

all bitter and jaded when the grooms were looking all sexy and dapper!!!

And it wouldn't be a gay wedding... if I hadn't in fact been swatting zbear's butt right before this pic was taken! :)

damn squinty eye!

But where are the grooms?

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:24:11 GMT

Waiting for zbear and his partner Shane to pick me up so I can go watch them get married at city hall.

Their late for their own wedding!!!

For the record....

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:01:48 GMT

In one night, Shannon acknowledged that 1. I was right, and 2. She is stubborn!

Productive

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:37:29 GMT

Now that I've fed my bodies need for drugs and I'm feeling sooooo much better, I've been a busy bear.

New IRA set up.
Doctor appt for Monday is now set up.
Tease kevin_v5
Cancel rarely watched premium tv channels
Cancel rarely used early nights and weekend from cell phones.

When AT&T finally cuts off my employee discount, must find new long distance carrier.

Uh...???

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:55:07 GMT

I was about to get up and pop a percocet.
That CONSTANT stabbing pain, slightly to the left at the base of my skull pain, that I've had every hour since my surgery was hurting...

I'm sitting here, rolling my neck and... CRACK, SNAP!!!

Uh... the pain went away. Not eased up, but 100% GONE.
An odd flushed feeling, almost like the entire left side of my head was congested.

Now 10 minutes later, the pain is easing back.

Let me preface this by mentioning my trip to the headache specialist this morning.
You know, the appointment that took 3 months to get, all the while my addiction to opiate based narcotics had continued to grow.
Anyhow, his suggestion. STOP the drugs... ok, fair enough.
But replace them with 5 other drugs, with a list of 6 alternates. Uh...???

I'm supposed to see my primary doc in a month. I guess time to see if I can get in sooner.

CRAZY!!!

ARG!!!

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:44:54 GMT

They gave Shan a Windows based computer for her new job.
I can't figure out how to get the stupid thing to connect to our network.
Search, it picks up our network as the strongest signal and when you try to connect, it comes back saying Windows is unable to connect to the selected network. The network may no longer be in range. Please refresh the list of available networks and try again.

What the???

Sunday night...

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:24:07 GMT

After dinner I fell a sleep for about a 2 hour nap on the sofa.
I woke up very groggy and was thinking, "shit, I have to get up early in the morning to FINALLY go see the headache specialist!"

It took about 45 minutes before I realized that its actually Saturday night and not Sunday night.

I hate when that happens!

UGH

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:17:43 GMT

Big packet of paperwork from Social Security arrived in the mail today.
The insurance company filed the paperwork... there is stuff on it I do not understand.
There is stuff on it that seems wrong. Biggest mistake, while I was out on disability for my foot surgery on 11/29, it is not what I would call the date I became disabled as it says. That would be the date of the brain surgery.
And where they got my mom's phone number as mine, is beyond me.

Guess I have to call the insurance company on Monday.

Ok you marrying people

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:58:36 GMT

Here are the wedding rules...

1) On the day of a gay wedding, it's bad luck for the two grooms to see each other at the gym.

2) Superstition suggests that, for good luck, the couple should have: Something bold, something flirty, something trashy, something dirty

3) It's customary, at gay and lesbian nuptials, for the parents to have anopen bar during the entire ceremony.

4) Gay wedding tradition dictates that both grooms refrain from eating any of the wedding cake because it's all carbs and sugar.

5) It's considered bad luck for either of the grooms to have dated the priest.

6) During the first dance, it's considered unlucky to use glow sticks, flags, whistles or hand held lasers.

7) For good luck at the union of a drag queen, the bouquet is always thrown in the face of a hated rival.

8) The reception hall must have a disco ball and at least one go-go dancer.

9) The wedding singer is not allowed to play/sing “Let's Hear It For the Boy,” “It's Raining Men,” or “I Will Survive.”

10) The father of the Bottom has to pay for everything !

Ooooooouch!!! :(

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:26:07 GMT

Bathroom
Low Light

!!!CAT!!!

!!!TRIP!!!

Hip
Doorknob
OUCH

Foot
Door
OUCH

:(

Smile!

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:45:53 GMT

Better late than never...
The face is slowly recovering. And yes the images are reversed, and I can't figure out why, and I'm too lazy to be bothered with uploading a corrected version. The cheek with the mole is the one that didn't move. You can also tell because the left eye doesn't close very well yet.

May 27, 2008

June 19th 2008

TWITCH pt. II

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:29:37 GMT

Now my left bottom lip is doing the twitch thing. YAY for movement, BOO for annoying!

Too bad its not the top lip, then I could go around in a constant twitch snarl!

Itchy and scratchy

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:35:30 GMT

I'm peeling! Ewwww...

No one like my mother...

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:58:00 GMT

can stress me out, like no other person can.

I can hear you now!

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:38:46 GMT

I'm not sure if it was finally getting up on the roof and adjusting the antennae for the cell signal booster thingy on the roof or the new hard case for my iPhone with a built in antennae booster, but I went from 2 bars to a full 5 bars in the living room.
I guess the real test will be Shan's phone when she gets back from Sacramento on Friday.

Of course, now that I look out the window, I see that I didn't pull the cable enough, and part of it is hanging in front of the window. Grrrrr

1, 2, 3...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:55:00 GMT

P1080148, originally uploaded by gregorbehr.

just a test...

Good, bad.

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:44:30 GMT

I saw my neurosurgeon this morning.

We reviewed the MRI results and things look good. No further growth from the tumor.
Oddly, there was a haze on the image... he said that its common for tiny fragments of the metal drill bit to break off as it grinds away. So now my brain is metallic, uh... ok.

Bad news, which I pretty already much already knew... the balance isn't going to improve on its own.
Options:
1. Learn to deal with it. Perhaps more physical therapy will help me cope, but really won't change the issue.
2. Another brain surgery to go in and cut out the nerve and finally give the right side of my brain to take over the balance control.

Hmmmm.... possibly improving my balance, or avoiding a horribly traumatic (to me at least) surgery, that of course doesn't come with a 100% guarantee of success.

I'm thinking for now, I'm going to just leave it.
I'll talk to my primary doc on Wednesday to discuss some additional physical therapy.
I want to start walking down the hill to the hood... I've done it once. Takes me over a hour and oddly, there is a straight away that freaks my ass out because it kinda kicks the vertigo up. But it would be good workout. And of course, actually going to the gym!

Now if it only wasn't so fucking cold and windy, that it makes me not want to go outside. BRRRRRR
Don't you just love June in SF!

Flickr

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:49:23 GMT

I seem to be Flickr stupid. I just can't figure out how to navigate it.
I can't figure out how to post more than one picture at a time.
I can't figure out how to set it so I can post a picture on LJ, but not allow further downloads off of Flickr.

Photobucket is so much easier, but they censor pics... bastards!

A nice day!

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:38:26 GMT

Friday... so so.
The yucky part was of course the no meds and that balance test.
My mother and grandmother came for a late lunch and I met up with a few of you at the Edge, then 440 followed by dinner.
I then did a little jaunt south of Market with a friend, to one of those seedy "clubs". But I was home and dead tired by 12:30.

Actually getting my first really decent night's sleep in the past few months, I had a really relaxing and energy building massage down in the Castro at 10:30 this morning.
It was very nice of my massage guy to knock his price down by 45%, as he knows I'm now long term disability and quickly heading to a fixed income.

I then hobbled my ass over to Gotham Tattoo in the hood for my 12:30 appointment with Shadow. [insert, grabbing a slice of pizza along the way]
We were supposed to have a 4 hour session, but the appointment after me canceled. So we kept going.. and going... and going. So outside of a few smoke and piss breaks, we had a SEVEN HOUR tattoo session!!!
All I can say is for once, I'm happy I have pain meds in the jumbo economy family sized bottle... and that I'm smart enough to carry some with me!!!

Shadow was able to finish off half the coloring in one session!
I go back on the 30th to do the other half of the coloring, and then probably mid July to do the touch up work.
Sigh... while I love the tat and I'm glad he was just as willing as I was to crank out as much work as possible, I'm still not going to have much hair grown back in that spot by the time Dore Alley/Lazybear Weekend rolls around. At least I should be past the itchy and scratchy point... I hope!

I must say, if you're ever thinking of getting a tat, give the guys at Gotham a chat.
You do of course have to connect with your artist, get a good feeling for their style of work and be able to convey your ideas and love the final drawings before you commit to it on your body. And I'm glad to say I've been able to do this with Greg and Shadow.
But beyond that part, everyone at Gotham has been really cool and understanding. Between the 2 foot surgeries and that little notch in my skull, they've been friendly and funny and done everything possible to make me feel welcomed, relaxed and very high on my list, feel "safe". They've gone beyond just the professionalism of making sure I'm ok during the tattooing, but real concern for my well being given all the other stuff I've gone through this past year.

Oh and some not work safe pics of the tat tomorrow :)

Balance tested.

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:14:49 GMT

I survived 48 hours without my nausea meds... only threw up once.
I managed to be off the pain meds for 24 hours. Until this headache thing is figured out, I NEVER WANT TO DO THAT AGAIN!
I was only able to get about 3 hours of sleep and once I got out of bed this morning, I did my best not to cry like a huge baby, but didn't really succeed. Yeah, whatever... I cry :P

The testing itself was HORRIBLE! Lets create ways to make you dizzy, when you're already dizzy so we can evaluate your dizziness. Someone very evil came up with this logic, but I will say the technology was interesting. Via some high tech goggles a computer reads your eye movements to make its assessments.

The specialist opinion... the nerves on the left side of my brain did not die as they should have once they were cut to remove the tumor. This means the right side of my brain isn't taking over in controlling my balance because my brain doesn't get that its sending impulses to severed nerves.

While additional physical therapy may help in assisting me to get used to the condition, it may never change!

I'm meeting with my neurosurgeon on Monday to discuss it. My hope is that he'll have some other suggestions.
Of course, the one I'll say NO to, is... "well, we can open your skull up again and remove the nerve..."
its a scar, not a fucking zipper! Who knows, maybe nuking it is an option? I'll just have to wait and see what he says on Monday.

One bit of news that I'm assuming is good, the other surgeon, the ENT one called while I was doing the testing and in his usual annoying/half ass inormative way, he said the MRI results were ok, but we'd chat more about it...
Since I don't see him for 3 months and he didn't say to call back and make an appointment, I'm guessing there wasn't anything major he wasn't telling me. But I'll have the neurosurgeon look up the results so he can tell me on Monday.

So there we have it, not the recovery that was expected. Then again, does life ever go as one plans?
Breathe.... :)