Well, my tests turned out OK--I think. The echocardiogram didn't seem to find anything wrong with my heart, which is great. The carotid ultrasound went well, although the specialist didn't want to talk about it--she said that my doctor would get the results in a week. She spent a lot of time sounding out the area just under my left ear--I wonder what that meant? Oh, well. Bloodwork is the next step, I guess. I'm coming more and more to the conclusion that it was my high triclycerides and caffeine levels.

I'm off today, and my tests aren't until 9:30, so the kids woke up at 6:30 and crawled into Mom and Dad's bed to snuggle. Man, there's nothing like snuggling with your little precious ones. Not all the money we have, or the mansion or estate, or the Mercedes and the Jag, and....


Oh--we don't have any of those things. Good thing we have kids--they're what really make it all worthwhile, anyway. :-)


Time to go--soon-to-be three year old Drew wants to work on the "puter."

My brother is in Guam, and I haven't talked to him in far too long. I put all my long distance on my cell phone--I'll have to find out if Guam is covered in my plan. I hope so--it'd be nice to call him.

My network at work is driving me crazy right now. We can't figure out why the network is flooded with traffic. It's bringing everything down to a crawl.


We've brought in outside help, and more arrives tomorrow. If we find out that it's intentional, that someone inside our network did this on purpose (yes, I have reason for suspicion)--I'll charge them for every penny of wasted wages, lost time, and third party fees.

I'm going to the hospital, actually--Milton Hershey Med. On Friday I get an echocardiogram and a carotid ultrasound. Then they tell me if I've got any real problems. I think it'll turn out fine. I'm pretty sure that my problem was the massive amount of triglycerides in my system along with the copious amounts of coffee I've been consuming since January. When I talked with my dad on Sunday, he told me about the same thing that happened to him when he was my age, and the pieces all fit. In fact, I gave up caffeine after last Wednesday, and I already feel worlds better.


I still think I need to cut down on carbs and watch my diet (and hit the NordicTrack), but I don't think I've done any serious damage to my heart yet.

I passed out in my colleague's office. For a while now, when I laugh or cough too hard, I get lightheaded. It's been getting worse over the last three months. Yesterday I was laughing at a dumb thing actually, a missing entry in a database, and then I was getting up off the floor and asking Brad why he was on the phone. He was calling 911--I was out for 30 seconds or so. Strange. Brad stopped dialing since I was up on my feet, but I went to the doctor last night. The doctor said I seem to have a heart murmur I've never had before. The EKG turned out OK, but I have to get an ECG(?). And an ultrasound for my carotid arteries. I may have to wear a halter monitor to see what happens when I cough or laugh. It could be a nerve along my diaphragm that is compressed when I laugh and drops my heart rate. I guess I'll know more next week.

Fourteen years ago today I met my wife Denise. I guess I found my leprechaun after all! :-)

The RIAA has stated that the downturn in CD sales (a whopping 2.3%--hear the sarcasm) is due to piracy. Andrew Bowie has a different opinion. To mangle the phrase, "There are liars, damn liars, and then there's the RIAA."

From Curry.com:Crotch Grabbing OK, Playing CD on PC Not OK


Digital rights activists are angered by evidence that the new Michael Jackson CD "Rock Your World" will not be playable in PC CD-ROM drives. Sony's decision to bend the standard CD format has been branded "dubious" and "underhand" by the UK's Campaign for Digital Rights. The record label's decision to modify the CD singles so that they are only playable by stereo systems risks breaching trading standards, as no warnings are included on the packaging. [Adam Curry: CurryDotCom]

Peter Ford: It is great to see that folks are trying out SchoolBlogs and the community is evolving. Please feel free to comment,æask questions or post ideas, either via the comment function of this weblog, or by posting to the discussion group at SchoolBlog Newbies. Welcome!!! [Adam Curry: CurryDotCom] Hmmmm--Sounds cool. I'll have to check this out. We have our own Manila server at work, so I aven't kept abreast of the other school blogger sites.

I was out on the road between 12 and 3 yesterday, and I turned on Rush Limbaugh to see if he had anything of substance to say (usually he doesn't. Whether you agree with him or not--and I usually don't--you have to admit that nowadays he often tries to stretch 30 seconds of material to 10 minutes). His insight today? "Environmentalism is the new haven for displaced Communists." Part of this was in reference to Mikhail Gorbachev, who is now active in environmentalism, but Rush meant this as a general statement.
I think my friends would agree--the Rush leaps of "logic" have stretched to amost my level.

Back, with a Stat

Online Population now Half Billion [Slashdot]. Jay Leno had a good zinger: "Yeah, but since they all have AOL, only 30 or 40 of them can actually log on."