Sites To See

The SOLE purpose of this weekly series is to call attention to sites that I think many would find most interesting—in one way or another.  Just to be clear, inclusion in this series is not necessarily meant as a recommendation, and I have included sites that are rather disturbing to me.  The link below each image is to the site itself, and each image is linked to the particular post from which it was taken when applicable.  Please, go see for yourself.

 Link:[5 Precious Things]

 Link: [a3Genealogy]

 Link: [Ann's Rants]

 Link:  [Frog on the Pumpkin]

 Link: [Gathering Clancy]

 Link: [Good Day, Regular People]

 Link: [Kathy's Kampground Kapers]

 Link: [Left Coast Rebel]

 Link: [More Than Burnt Toast]

 Link: [My Mad Mind]

 Link: [Nice Deb]

 Link: [No Spring Chicken]

 Link: [Oh...You're "American"]

 Link: [On A Rainy Night...]

Link: [Photographing New Zealand]

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Come Monday...Integrated Advertising

While trying to watch (my vision is still significantly [impaired]) an episode of [Through the Wormhole] on [OnDemand], some thoughts on how to improve televised advertising came floating through.  If you are not familiar with watching shows on OnDemand, some of them do have some advertising included, but the advertising blocks are usually much shorter than what we are subjected to on regular TV.  Furthermore, the advertisements are often much better matched to the content of the show.  In fact, they were a few times during that Through the Wormhole episode when I did not realize that I was now watching a commercial for Google instead of some more of the show about [quantum computing].

The more I paid attention to those thoughts, the more it made sense that the same thing would be of great benefit to both the advertiser and the potential consumer, as well as the broadcast networks, on regular TV.  For advertising is still being presented in scheduled blocks 3-7 minutes long, which was greatly appreciated by most in the past, I am sure.  For this gave the viewer an opportunity to go get a snack or take a bathroom break—much to the frustration of the advertisers paying for the show to be on the air in the first-place.

With the advent of the [DVR] age, we now have the ability to pause a show anytime we want to.  We have had this ability on a somewhat more limited basis for quite some time, actually.  For one could pause any show they had previously recorded on their [VCR].

Of course, one of the main selling points for a VCR or DVR is having the ability to skip over the commercials, but with them being placed in much smaller blocks of no more than 90 seconds at a time, it wouldn’t be worth trying to skip over them.  That is, unless you are better at stopping when the show comes back on than I am.

Besides, if commercials were better matched with the shows they were being aired during, such as a commercial for a fine wine during a gourmet cooking show, more may be more inclined to watch them, but if more commercials were as great as that old Tivo commercial, it wouldn’t matter when they were aired.

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

A Sunday Drive

Back during my childhood, our parents would often load up my brother and me after Sunday morning church services for a leisurely drive around where we lived.  Even though we were seeing mostly familiar sights, it was still good to see them, and this is why “A Sunday Drive” sounded about right for the name of a weekly series revisiting familiar sites that are well worth seeing again and again.  The link below the image is to the site itself, and the image is linked to the post it was first included in here.

 Link: [Acts of the Apostasy]

 Link: [Alaska Nitty-Gritty]

Link: [Brian's Home]

 Link: [Country Captures]

 Link: [Ozarks Sew 'n' Sews]

 Link: [Photo and Travel]

 Link: [Photos by Senior Hiker]

 Link: [Spockgirl Musings]

 Link: [The Brick Street Bungalow]

Link: [Writing Straight From The Heart]

Please Also Visit: 

 [FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Sites To See

The SOLE purpose of this weekly series is to call attention to sites that I think many would find most interesting—in one way or another.  Just to be clear, inclusion in this series is not necessarily meant as a recommendation, and I have included sites that are rather disturbing to me.  The link below each image is to the site itself, and each image is linked to the particular post from which it was taken when applicable.  Please, go see for yourself.

 Link: [2012 The Project Continues]

 Link: [Completeist]

 Link: [Digital Existence]

 Link: [Dog Daze]

 Link: [Ex-Fundamentalist]

 Link: [Fashion Spot]

 Link: [Fresh Faith--Transformed By Grace]

 Link: [Green Eagle]

 Link: [Hood's Happenings]

 Link: [Horse Laughs]

 Link: [I Shoulda Been a Stripper]

 Link: [I'm THIS Close To Going Amish!]

 Link: [Leftwing Nutjob]

 Link: [Libertarian Republican]

Link: [Mennonite Girls Can Cook]

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

The Doctor Was In

As I told you last time, my wife made an appointment for me to go see (pun intended!) our [endocrinologist], [Dr. Daniel F. Lyons], yesterday, in the hope of determining if my current vision problems are just a Type 2 [diabetic] complication or something more serious, and I am happy to report that it was confirmed that I did not suffer a stroke and that my vision problems are just a result of my blood sugar levels being way too high for way too long.

Be assured that I have much more to say about this, but it will have to wait until later today.  For my vision is much worse in the hours right after I wake up than it is after I have been up for a while.  The rest of the story will be added as an update to this piece as soon as I am more able to type and do all of the other things that must be done to publish something over the internet—I promise (even though I am not supposed to).

***Update***

June 22, 2012 6:30 p.m. CDT

Okay, I can see a little better now.  It is still quite a struggle.  So, sympathy for me would be most appropriate.

At least the doctor was sympathetic.  In fact, he didn’t even rub it in that he had warned me that I was taking quite a risk with my health by not taking the [Metformin] and [Nololog 70/30 FlexPen] he had prescribed to keep my blood sugar levels under better control.

In all fairness, I am not one to refuse to take medications when it is clear that they are absolutely necessary.  For the main reason why I was not taking what he had prescribed was on account of the cost.  For even with insurance, my wife and I’s prescribed medications cost almost $300.00 a month in [copays], and I was not suffering any complications from my Type 2 diabetes while I believed that my wife really needed to take her meds.  After being married to me for the last 234 years, she would probably tell you that she needs to take a lot more, but I would rather not get into that right now.

All in all, the trip wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared, but this is certainly not to suggest that I would like to make a habit of it.  For most of the medical facilities around here are of the new modern design with huge open spaces, which are undoubtedly a wonder to behold to those who have the energy to walk for more than 50 yards at a minimum.  No, this is not the distance from the parking lot to an entrance.  For what I am talking about is what you face after entering one of these cavernous enclosures, which have several acres under one roof.

Perhaps having to walk so far to get to work may have been the reason for why so many of the staff in the clinic acted like they didn’t have a clue, nor cared to ever find one?  When it came time for blood to be drawn for testing, the little lady asked me which arm I preferred to have impaled, and after I told her that I wanted to be stuck in the back of my hand on account of the veins in my arms being very deep and having a tendency to roll, she kept feeling for a vein on the inside of my right elbow.  So, I attempted to further explain that trying to draw blood from a vein in my arm is often a futile (for the [phlebotomist]) and very painful (for me) exercise, but she kept right on with what she had been doing.  When I asked her why, she informed me that she had to check my arm first on account of procedure, which is a crock.  A little later, the truth came out that she didn’t know how to draw blood from the back of a hand, which is baffling to me.  For I understand that it requires a smaller “butterfly” needle, but you can actually see the veins in the back of my hand.  Another med tech finished the job.

Hopefully, the sweet young thing in charge of weights and measures did know what she was doing.  For she confirmed my suspicions about having lost a considerable amount of weight in the last 8-9 months by informing me that I am down to 310 pounds, which is still way too fat for my ever-shrinking frame, but certainly better than the 406 pounds that I topped out at.  In regards to my frame, I have lost another ¼ inch, which has me down to 5’ 9 ¼” from the 6’ 0” that I was before I became so sick.

Alas, I have no doubt that you are finding all of this absolutely fascinating, but I need to try to publish a Sites To See before my wife wakes up and starts yelling at me for not finishing my chores yet.  Sigh.   

Les Bons Temps Rouler!

If you are not quite as hip as I am, you may not know that Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler! is Cajun French for Let The Good Times Roll!, Which is what we have been having around our house for the last week or so.  Well, at least my wife and her mother have been.  For my vision is still messed up, and they have been having entirely too much fun laughing at me for walking into walls and tripping over “stuff.”

Hey, they even let me stumble around with my shoes on the wrong feet for two whole days!  Nope, neither one would confess to setting me up to put them on the wrong feet in the first-place.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I’m sorry, but that really was a stupid question.

Whatever was wrong with my left side is better, thankfully, but it is still a struggle to type.  So, it may still be a few more weeks before I can get back to keeping you-all fully informed and thoroughly entertained.

I go see the doctor this Thursday, who will undoubtedly have me fixed in short order.  Do you think I might make sure of just what my wife means by that?  She did, after all, make the appointment.