Sunday, July 27, 2008
Here is a link for my niece's new TV series. They have changed the name to The Legend of the Seeker (the working title was Wizard's First Rule.) That is Bridget in the trailer.
http://www.legendoftheseeker.com/
Posted 9:27 AM by Michael (2) comments
Comments:
- I don't find her web site. Many listings of TV credits, but no fan-type stuff or professional bio yet. Does Regan have "legit" theater background too? Her current role should generate a lot of fandom buzz and make her a feature at the conventions that cater to the genre.
Post a Comment- Her legit credits include the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and a ten week run on Broadway in "Is He Dead?", a newly discovered comedy by Mark Twain.
Ironically, she grew up in San Diego and went about as far away to college as she could, UNC. When she graduated and moved to New York, the first legit stage job she landed was back in San Diego. You can go home again after all.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Last Thursday was my first appointment at The Cleveland Clinic in hopes of getting on their kidney transplant list. That list is shared between The Clinic, University Hospital and Akron General, all of whom do transplants. Toledo and Ohio State have separate lists which I could also try to get on should I choose. Whichever hospital does the transplant is the one you would have to go to for weekly follow ups so distance is a concern.
At the Clinic the normal first step involves meeting with six people and paying $6,000. The $6,000 is their consultation fee and does not include the myriad tests they then require before you're considered for the list. I don't know exactly what those tests would cost but $10,000+ is a good ballpark estimate. I told them I could not cough up $6,000 at this time so they arranged a limited meeting for free with only three of the normal six team members.
First up was the transplant coordinator, a woman named Jacyn(?). She would be my main contact throughout and was an impressive person. I learned a lot from her. On a scale of 1-10 she was a 9.5.
Next was the financial coordinator which turned out to be two older women, one of whom spoke a very accented english and the other so old as to hardly be able to speak at all. Because their office was an open cubicle next to a large (and noisy) waiting room this turned out to be a problem. All I have insurance-wise is Medicare and, though Medicare will cover a transplant, it only pays 80%, which will leave me with a huge financial responsibility. In addition a successful transplant means taking anti-rejection drugs for life. Those drugs cost $1,000 per week. After a successful transplant Medicare coverage is terminated at 36 months so as a then uninsurable person I would have to pay for those drugs out of pocket. Not likely. The financial coordinators suggestion? Transfer all my assets to someone else and apply for welfare. Umm... that's about ten kinds of illeagle. You can go to jail for that kind of scam. My pointing that out didn't matter to the financial coordinators and that was the only advice they were willing to give. These two are the best the esteemed Cleveland Clinic can offer? I rate them 0.0.
Last, a social worker. Every stereotype you've ever had about what a social worker would look and act like fits this woman to a tee, so much so that while waiting for my appointment in a very large and busy area I picked her out at first site. She called my name and off we went to a corner of a busy (and again noisy) room where she pretended to be a psychiatrist and tried to figure out if I ever wanted to fuck my mother. She didn't ask that directly but I'm sure you get my drift. She also demanded the names of six people whom she could call and ask about me. I told her I'd have to get back to her on that one. I was severely tempted to toy with her but didn't. What a waste of time. A 0.5 if ever there was one.
So... I dunno. The transplant coordinator is supposed to get back to me early next week with their initial findings. My feeling is that unless I can somehow prove the ability to pay the 20% Medicare won't cover, and the $1,000 per week for drugs, I'll be told not to darken their doorway again.
Posted 10:34 AM by whatley (7) comments
Comments:
- There was a banner in the main transplant area office congratulating themselves on their 3000th transplant. Where do all these people get the money? I was told I'm much younger than the average transplant patient so I'm thinking that most patients 1) have private insurance coming in and 2) are old enough that Medicare will still be in effect after the 36 months because they're over 65.
Post a Comment- Things are piling up. I need to excavate my garage so I can see the walls, but am never there to put out the piles for pickup. My niece got preggers and will be married to her pregger-boy Sept 6 and the family will gather in support. My sister wants me to drop in and work on her expectant daughter's rental house in Columbia Station. Betsy's daughter just bought a house and needs help with structural mods in Parma. I need to be in Ohio on Aug 30 for Betsy's parents 60th wedding anniversary celebration. Twenty-five percent of my cheap contractor's pay goes into the 70-mile daily commute. The rest just about breaks even for keeping taxes, insurances, utilities and caloric intake up to date. Entertainment budget involves peddling my three-ton, 40-year-old steel-framed Ross 10-speed around East Lansing. Good leggsersize. The MSU campus has many garden areas, empty roadways and pedestrian paths while summer keeps the kids away. There is also a long rail-to-trail path (like the one from Kipton through Oberlin to Elyria) that starts in Jackson, Michigan. I haven't explored that one yet.
You got simple stuff (light fixture fall down go bzzzt!) or complex (move roofline three inches to left)?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Everything in Google and Blogger seems to be coming through in German on my computer. I am running Sandboxie and cannot find code in the configuration file that defaults to German. Is this an attempt by the owners to globalize? Fortunately, the home screens have language selection options to reset. It doesn't stay put, however. Whenever one logs out of Sandboxie, all the changes are tossed, and restarting returns to German. Even when I manually enter the text URL (www.google.com) the www.google.de site shows up. For those monolingual among us, it is an impediment to productivity. Fie!
I have an interview in Lorain today at Emerson Power Products (formerly Lorain Products). They want an entry level design engineer, but will only hire on a temporary contract basis, and have no control over bringing contract hires on board as permanent employees. Once a year they get a budget from corporate HQ telling them how many "heads" they can add, or must let go. In addition, I have gotten a sense from Consumer's Energy in Michigan that they would like to have me join them. I am suppose to sit down with the Lab Manager this week and discuss my desired career path should I stay with Consumer's. We will see. I have not been contacted again by Agronomix in Oberlin after two interviews. They may not know what they want to do to grow their business.
Posted 8:23 AM by Andy (3) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- The Emerson job would be in a cubicle specifying telecommunications power system rebuilds. One selects products from the catalogs that fit the customer specifications, lays out the site dimensions and placement, orders the stuff and tracks the job through to completion. Over and over and over again. They mentioned four times in the hour-long interview that they were extremely "date-driven", meaning inflexible deadlines and excessive work loads. The emphasis is entirely on production throughput. Kind of like building vehicles, but without actual pieces to play with. There is no equipment construction being done in the US. All Emerson/Lorain Products stuff is made in Mexico or overseas. And I talked to a buddy from California who has been contracting with telecomm and cell-phone site builders for years. He said that the "Lorain Products" brand of power supplies is not the first choice for many site developers, there being other brands less expensive with more desirable features. Paul Stocker (Lorain Proucts' founder) is spinning in his grave.
Jackson, Mi. still looks good from here.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
I picked up my second tech client last week. Both accounts are pretty small time and won't generate much income for me but I do have to say that, considering my present limitations, their low requirements kind of suit my situation. And hey, ya gotta start somewhere, right? Anyway, here are two layouts I generated for the latest client's new web site; layout1, layout2. Whacha think?
Posted 12:56 PM by whatley (8) comments
Comments:
- IMHO, layout1 highlights the text information as it is shown. Layout2 needs a killer graphic with moving active elements on the right to balance the text info on the left side. Perhaps a video graphic presented as an under-all watermark would grab some tube views.
- Hmmm... yeah, I kind of see what you mean, though I think once the descriptive text goes in that might balance it. Extra links on that side would help too.
I personally like the second one better but feel the first one, more business like, would be a better fit for his client base. He hasn't said yet.
- Layout 1 only slightly bigger. And I would add one of the midtones from the graphic as a background for the text to relieve the brightness.
That's a personal preference because high contrast bothers my eyes.
- 1) The size of both layouts are called out by number of pixels (vs. percentage of available screen). Doing it this way ensures that a design looks the same on all displays and won't get pulled apart like taffy on bigger monitors. The downside is that you have to keep it to a bit less that 800 horizontally so even smaller monitors (which are still in the majority in a business environment believe it or not) can see them properly.
2) Buy some shades.
- I cast my vote with layout1. Three reasons: compactness of information on the initial page, edge definition focuses attention to the relevant information, better rendition across browsers (looked with Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari). One downside, image loading in layout1 needs a preload to avoid fragmentary loading.
One comment: "More Stuff"? A bit too casual. Could there be a better term?
Layout2 is good but IMHO would be stronger with a clear body definition, perhaps a faded border.
From a maintanence POV I would put the stylesheet(s) in their on own directory versus including them in the image dir.
- One other point. Layout1 degrades better if you disable the background images ... which suggests a more stable representation if there is a image loading problem.
- Found a css warning in layout2 (Firefox.
Warning: Error in parsing value for property 'display'. Declaration dropped. Source file: http://reganofinancial.com/layout2/assets/css/common.css
Line: 27
Layout1 is clean.
Post a Comment- The "Intro-Bio-More Stuff" was just to give the client an idea of how the headings would look. He will (eventually) provide me with all the text for this area.
Parsing error? Jeez, I've hit this over 20 times without any errors. Odd.
You're right about the fragmentary loading.
Thanks for taking such a close look.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Is there a secret policeman in the house?
Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" - and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.
Posted 5:58 AM by whatley (4) comments
Comments:
- I am celebrating my dependence by co-existing within society and realizing that nothing I have ever done seemed to make the least noticeable difference. So I am trying to learn to relax and not let stuff matter so much. After we're gone, someone else will come along and repeat the experiment anyway.
- Andy - I beg to differ. Human relations are as complex, if not more, than the weather. If the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in some remote South Pacific island can change the weather in London, then every life you have touched and every life they have touched, ad infinitum ... You have made both noticeable and meaningful differences in the 'experiment'. I feel your touch every day in ways subtle and often unconscious, but it is there.
Post a Comment- Why, that may be the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time. It ranks right up there with "I love you" and "When can you start work?" Thank you, John. Give your kids a hug for me.
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