Introspective Exhibition

I've not posted much here, or on MySpace lately. I just wanted my friends here to be aware that I've been using Facebook mostly for my little life updates and memes. I hope I can reconnect with some of you there!

I miss politically incorrect commercials. Well, I miss being politically incorrect in general. ;)

I was reminded of one such commercial the other day when one of my patients with Parkinsonian tremors (for ex: hands/arms etc shaking when reaching for something) was holding out his glass for me to dump in the Metamucil packet.... and I think I got about half of it actually in the glass... at any rate - there was a chocolate milk commercial that ran serial ads on people coming up with inventive ways to shake their milk... I'm pretty sure one of them featured a guy handing his chocolate milk to his old shaky grandpa to shake it up for him. lOLz.

On a less humorous note, my fasting sugars first thing in the am have been in the 140s-160s. That's not even pre-diabetic, that's full blown "go see a doctor" time. Thing is, the sugars drop through the day as I eat and am more active, down to the 100s-120s. Sparing you much drama about having no health insurance and a probable new diabetes diagnosis, basically I'm covered now.

Oya - avoid Maxim Staffing for your temp/nursing/clerical/nurse aide jobs if you can help it, for many many reasons. Bastages took over 2 months to get my direct deposit going, blaming the bank, then telling me "oh - can you give us another voided check?" They also didn't take care of obtaining a parking permit for me until a week or 2 ago, they instead reimbursed me for paying 10-15 bucks a day out of pocket.(I started in July). Also also also, this was the first agency I've worked for that didn't have day 1 insurance/benefits. In addition to not giving benefits day 1(you have to work for them a certain timeframe or # of hours), they neglected to make me aware of my window of opportunity to enroll(which was the during the month of September). The corp benefits dept basically told me that even though it was the local offices' fault, that I was S.O.O.L... Well, after raising much hell, the local office is going to reimburse whatever policy I seek independently. Fortunately, I was able to get on the fiancee's benefits (yay for progressive domestic partner benefits!)

At any rate - one more shift tomorrow, then a well-deserved hiatus from work for 10 days... then back to the grind here at OSU. It's not bad. Hey, at least I can blog from work. ;)

"I'd better go take care of my little nun, or there'll be hell to pay."

HA!
I kill me.

I interviewed for and got the travel assignment I wanted at the OSU James Cancer Center. 11 bucks more per hour than my recent travel gig, but no housing subsidy. It balances out to being about the same, perhaps a little more. It's also got a much better nurse to patient ratio (1:4 typically). I'm really looking forward to it. It will definitely help build the resume, more oncological/surgical exp. It starts July 21st, nearly 5 weeks after ending my assignment at Mt Carmel West. Glad I stashed up some cash to get me through.

I did splurge a little this past week, though... I bought myself a Playstation 3 - the 80GB Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle with the dualshock sixxaxxis(sp?) controller. Playing Heavenly Sword was fun - especially the archery based missions - you can hit a button to slo-mo and guide the arrows in to the target by angling/leaning the controlers, much like the Nintendo Wii. I also bought a TON of PS2 games. I really missed Final Fantasy X, which I never finished due to a small accident on the part of my nephew overwriting my saved game 3/4 the way through.

Yesterday I went with Bethaney and an Outland friend of hers named Joe to the Ohio Peace Officer's Training Academy. We got drunk for the cops-to-be and were breathalyzed and run through a battery of sobriety tests. Yay for free booze.

9 months since my last musing?
You'd think that with my propensity for brooding I'd be living in a blog, but I've been really horrible about keeping the journal updated. LJ is my one and only true *journal*, I just keep the MySpace page around for contacts/keeping in touch. At any rate, a recap of the past 9 months or so(long post ahead, I'll have to review how to do a cut tag at some point):

I've still been here in Columbus, and until a couple of weeks ago, was working at Mount Carmel West as a travel nurse. A 3 month contract ended up having several extensions through May...We were living with the Marlin, then agency sponsored housing in New Albany til May, then we moved to Reynoldsburg on a somewhat-shortened 9 month lease.

Trish and I just spent the past week and a half in Springfield to catch up with friends and her family. It was and always is good to see the jbear(who needs to stop fucking losing weight already - you've proved your point! ;)). While we were there we went to Silver Dollar City. The water log ride was fun enough, but it was pretty embarrassing to not fit in most of the rides.

On that note, a month or so back I went to an information/education meeting on gastric bypass. I can get on Trish's insurance, and it covers it. Thing is, I don't want it. I want to do it myself. 350 is a lot of weight to carry around on your back, knees, and ankles. I know it's affecting my energy and patience, my relationships, and how well I tolerate work.

Trish is back at work at Chase, and I'm looking for work that doesn't involve floor nursing, yet doesn't suck when it comes to pay. There are no 12 hour day travel nursing positions currently open in the area anyway.

It's been pretty much decided that too much time is being spent on MMOs, and behind the computer in general. Yeah, I know, big revelation. Captain Obvious coming atcha. I'm glad that my newest games aren't absorbing me as much... I enjoy Age of Conan, but it's not the addictive obsession that Everquest, EQ2, EVE and WoW were. 9 years of MMO gaming. That's a lot of hours being stagnant.

Other news... Oya:
Mom burned down the house a month or so ago. Not intentionally of course, she dumped an ashtray with (apparently) lit embers in the plastic trash can in the computer room. 5 minutes and the place was toast. It's currently being completely rebuilt from the remaining studs on up. It'll be 4-6 months before mom and dad and Isaac have a place again.

Rachel got married last month. Her and Eric seem to be holding up ok.

Granny, now at..82? was hospitalized a couple of months ago and placed on a ventilator, and eventually a tracheostomy was placed... this is a woman who's hardly spent a day in the hospital in her life. apparently she had endocarditis - about 600ml of pus around her heart. She had a viral type infection with flu like symptoms for several weeks. She's extremely stubborn. I'm glad that dad and I pressed her to go in to the ER a second time(as if the first time weren't like pulling teeth :P). It's been one of those times I've been glad to be an RN - the family and friends would often hit me up with questions and terms, and I'd ease their fears and give them a 'lay' perspective. While she's off the ventilator and the trach has been removed, she still has minimal strength and use of her arms and legs from being sedated and bedridden for so long. She's since been discharged to a rehab facility to try to get her walking again. I think she'll do okay if she doesn't tell the therapist to buzz off.

And now we're back full circle to the Columbus vs. Missouri thing, and possibly/probably moving back down there in March. But I'll save that for another post. Night all.

..since my last update.
Well, as many of you know, I'm back in Columbus.
My assignment here ends at the end of October but I'm extending through November.
The gal will hopefully have an on-staff full time gig here shortly. It is looking very likely that we may be settling here permanently.

I received some exquisite news yesterday:
I am pre-approved for a mortgage. A rather big one. Finally, I can join the ranks of home ownership and start putting my money into something I (hopefully) can one day get it back out of. Any words of advice on house shopping?

Anyone wanna go with?

CD101 Presents Interpol
Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
Wednesday July 25, 2007; Gates open at 6:30 PM
$25.00 Advance / $28.00 Day of show
General Admission - All Ages
This show is outdoors!
Opening Artist: Calla

I'm back in Columbus for a few months, and I've just re-recorded vocals for "This is What Forever Is" with our guitarist Jim Dinan. I'm not sure if he uploaded a rough demo of it previously, but he's working on guitars and mixdown of a new version currently.

I'm also collaborating with original gossamer guitarist Gary Thrasher while I'm back in town, so we'll see if something new and noteworthy comes of it. ;)

I love my current machine, she's served me well, but she's not spiffy enough to run Oblivion (except on the very lowest setting 640x480 and WINDOWED), and Vanguard (not at all).
It's a Crazy Kenny/CCW machine that I had built back in 2003 or 2004 while I was in nursing school. Star Wars Galaxies online had come out that summer(was that '03?), I can't recall the exact specs on the board, but I know it's got an Athlon processor that runs at 1.2 gHz. I can't recall the exact type of RAM either, but I've got 1 GB. The sound is an SBlive value. Video is and NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 with 256 mb video ram. Back when I got it, it was a great value, I think I got it for around $650(just the tower), with XP as an OS.

I'm going to be buying a new box when I get back to Columbus the first week of July.
Unfortunately, my knowledge of hardware/slots/etc is WAY behind the times. Gary, Rich, whomever, help me out here.

1. BUILDERS: Should I run from CCW? (I know you're gonna say yes, but hey, they build a solid box for a reasonable price)
2. ONLINE: Should I buy at newegg.com?(best prices, but I dunno what to get, and I want someone else to take responsibility for the build and loading the OS)
3. OS: Can I get a box loaded with XP still? I'm not sure I wanna take on Vista this early in the game.
4. RAM: What type is good/best now? I think mine is a pair of DDR 512s, but I forget.
5. VIDEO: What type of slot do you want for your video? AGP used to be the best, now I hear it's EPCI or something else? I know I'm gonna need directX 9.0c compatible, v2.0 pixel/shading compatibility, etc. I think hat means I'll need a 6000 series or better NVIDIA, but I'm not positive.
6. HARD DRIVE: 7200 rpm hard drive, or is there better? I have a 500GB external I just bought, but I'm gonna be loading several space-hog MMOs and RTS on. 40GB is not enough, 80GB is probably ok, but if there's a great value on something larger, fantastic.
7. MOTHERBOARD & PROCESSOR: What's a good motherboard that doesnt have a ton of onboard crap sucking up resources for a decent price? I presume most new ones have USB 2.0 slots.
I hear Intel Duo Core is the way to go now. It's no longer as simple as a straight GHz rating... I'm not sure what I need but Vanguard suggest 3.0 GHz or higher. (I'm guessing that's a single processor).
8. DVD-ROM: I just upgraded the old box with a Sony CRX320AE for 50ish bucks.
anything special here someone recommends? I don't plan to use it much other than for loading games, but /shrug.

SO - here's the big main question/challenge/etc:
I want either a whiz-bang gaming laptop for under $1300, or a great gaming desktop (just the tower, as small as possible without getting into weird boards) for under $900. What components would you get, and where from? As mentioned before, I don't mind spending a little extra for someone else doing the build, loading the OS, and giving me some sort of warranty.

I of course don't need the BEST, but I want VERY GOOD that's gonna last me another 4-5 years.

On a side note, my entire CD collection and MP3s are now sampled down to my 500GB external drive at 256k.

P.S. NO RICH, I'M NOT LOADING LINUX/UNIX. :)
P.S.S. NO GARY, I'M NOT GONNA OVERCLOCK. :)

I'm watching the 2007 Crufts Dog Show (don't ask me why, I have no logical answer).
I've got an idea for a new drinking game.
Take a shot every time the Robyn Leach wannabe announcer uses the word'bitch'. 2 shots if he says 'erect'.