Monday, December 9, 2013

I'm Saying No To Poisonous Drugs

That does it. The cough is coming back. I am SO done with this nasty blood pressure medicine, and the doctor who refuses to listen to me that it's been making me sick. I've felt worse since taking this garbage, and had higher blood pressure, than I did on no medication at all. 

I've been reading "user reviews" on WebMD and now I know I'm not the only one who's had their BP GO UP on Benicar. Plus, I'm suffering many of the same nasty side effects as other people, such as nauseating head pain (probably from the soaring BP), extreme lethargy, muscle and joint pain, periodic blurred vision, dizziness, inability to think clearly, high blood sugar, high cholesterol. Others have had kidney failure. 

One thing almost everyone with bad side effects seems to have in common is a doctor who refuses to believe the drug is causing the patient's ill health, even when presented with the fact of the improved health of the patient after discontinuing the drug.

I feel 90 instead of 50. 

I'm going to be the boss of my health and quit taking this poison before it kills my kidneys. Or me.

I just wonder what the recovery time is. I don't want to go to another doctor while I am suffering from these crappy side effects, only to have them try to treat me for diseases I don't actually have. That is what this doctor's been trying to do, too, instead of backing off the poison and giving my body a chance to hit the reset button. 

Nothing is worth feeling this bad. 

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Monday Night Update on Jonesy

Thank you to everyone for all of the love and support for the sick fur boy. We both appreciate it.


Jonesy on Monday evening at the overnight Vet's office.
Jonesy spent Monday at Livingston Animal Hospital, our regular vet. They did an ultrasound on his kidneys, and heart, and did a needle aspiration of an unknown mass on one kidney. They aren't sure if it is cancer or not. The lab results on that won't be back for 2-3 days.


Monday, August 12, 2013

Monday Afternoon Update on Jonesy

Today Jonesy is obviously feeling better than he was on Sunday, but the jury is still out on his overall health.

This is how he looked at the regular vet this morning, after I had picked him up from the Emergency Vet where he spent the night. The Emergency Vet gave him the awesomely cute bandana. He didn't seem to mind having that on his neck. What bothered him was the IV line thing wrapped around his leg.

He's at the regular vet all day for more tests, including ultrasounds of his kidney and heart. Then he has to spend the night in the ER again so they can keep giving him fluids and monitoring him.

Tomorrow we should know more about what's causing his issues, and if its fixable.


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Book Review: I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

I don't like cops who are thugs. Whenever Michael Bennett has the opportunity to abuse a criminal, he takes it. Whenever Michael Bennett has the opportunity to abuse a perceived "bad guy", he takes it. 

Sure, he treats his kids well, but that's not all there is to being a good person. He's not home enough to qualify as a decent parent. This time he even forgets one of his kid's birthdays! He won't win any Father of the Year Awards in this decade. 

He treats Mary Catherine as if she were a pet dog, expecting that she will always be there at his home waiting for him, with a smile on her face, regardless of how he treats her. I was so happy when she finally leaves, and very sad when, at the end, she is basically forced to stay with him against her will.

The story was at least interesting, until you realize that there is no real resolution as in the previous Michael Bennett books, but that it is, instead, a convoluted setup for the next book, and an excuse to get the whole Bennett clan into Witness Protection. Personally, I find the idea that you can "hide" a family consisting of a single dad with 10 adopted kids of various races preposterous. They'll stick out no matter where they go.


Monday, May 20, 2013

Book Review: The City & The City by China Mieville

I decided to read The City & The City because it won a Hugo Award. So far it has made me question the sanity of everyone who voted for it. It's made me question my own sanity for continuing to read it past the first 5-10 pages.

First, I really hate when writers feel the need to invent new words for everything. It takes the reader out of the story when they have to consult the cheat-sheet they are required to create and maintain in order to keep up with the story and the over-use of invented terminology. Sometimes this amounts to needing to create an English translation of the story while you are reading.

Another thing I find annoying is bad grammar and punctuation. This book has an over-abundance of both. Proper punctuation is sparse, and there are too many extremely short, non-sensical sentences. I had to read some sentences three or four times to figure out what the writer meant. Good punctuation would have resolved the problem.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Stupid Writers of SPAM

I found this in my SPAM folder, and thought it was too hilarious not to share. You'd think they'd bother to at least learn grammar and spelling if they're going to attempt to intimidate you with an email, and convince you to send them money.


Day 14: London and Tampa, 14 May 2013 (Tuesday)

(this is a placeholder until I have finished writing it)

Day 13: London, 13 May 2013 (Monday)

(this is a placeholder until I have finished writing it)

Day 12: London, 12 May 2013 (Sunday)


So much for my trip to Cardiff. (Insert one Googol of curse words here) Now I'll just have to plan another trip to the UK. 8-)

I felt so sick I wound up staying in bed all day. I only left the room once to go downstairs to get new codes for the Internet and that was around 11pm. I just threw my jacket on over my pajamas. I didn't care what anyone thought.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Day 11: Kirkcaldy and London, 11 May 2013 (Saturday)

Another overcast and windy day in Scotland. I can see why my ancestors settled in the North Georgia mountains. The flora and fauna, landscape, and winter weather are all very similar. I woke up a bit early for me, so I took a shower. Amy opted to shower after breakfast.

The breakfast at the Dean Park Hotel was a traditional breakfast. I ordered eggs and "bacon" (we'd call it fried ham in the US), and Amy ordered haggis with hers. I have no desire to ever try the stuff.

We ventured back to the room for Amy to shower. We discovered that check-out was at 11:00 am (they neglected to tell us this when we checked in), so we had to rush a bit to throw everything back into our suitcases. This left us about two hours to wait for Amy's friend Dawn to arrive. We just sat in the bar and chatted. I don't recall a single person coming over to ask if we wanted to order anything. Just as well since we didn't. We just chatted about the weather, what time we needed to catch the train back to London, the fact that Amy didn't want to join me for the trip to Cardiff, etc.

Day 10: London and Edinburgh, 10 May 2013

We originally planned to go to Cardiff today, and Edinburgh on Saturday, returning to London late on Sunday. However, due to procrastination (and who hasn't done that?), the place Amy wants to stay was available only on Friday night and not Saturday night. So, we switched things around. Edinburgh today, leaving late on Saturday and heading for Cardiff where we plan to stay overnight, then do all of the Doctor Who stuff on Sunday. Stay tuned for how that works out.

I got up at 6:00 am this morning (those who know me will know that this isn't easy for me to do), showered, had breakfast in the hotel, and made it to the Kings Cross National Rail station 35 minutes before the 9:00am train departed. Not bad! That only required one change of trains on the Tube.

7:16am Awake, mostly. Need coffee to be sure. Catching early train to Edinburgh.


Friday, May 10, 2013

Day 9: London, 9 May 2013

Ah, and exciting morning (not really). Since we didn't get to the hotel until about 3:45am, we slept late this morning. I had to do laundry today, or start wearing dirty clothes. I tried various ways of using Google to find a self-service laundry nearby, but all I could ever find were Dry Cleaners and industrial laundry companies. But, thanks to our adventures on the Night Bus, I saw two different coin-op laundries that were near enough to the hotel that I figured I could get there on the bus.

I packed all of my dirty laundry, and the soap Amy bought for me on one of her treks to Tesco, into my small wheeled suitcase, and set off. The front desk confirmed that I should go right out of the hotel, then left. I really should know better than to believe any hotel employee would actually know how to get anywhere around where they work. I wound up going the opposite direction down a one-way street. This wasn't a problem walking, but it also meant that I couldn't catch a bus going in the proper direction. I also wound up walking about 3 blocks out of my way (I realized this later), and then was faced with a 3-way intersection, and had no idea which way to go.

Day 8: London and Birmingham, 8 May 2013


Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Day 7: London, 7 May 2013


Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Day 6: London, 6 May 2013


Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Day 5: Prestatyn, Talacre Beach, London, 5 May 2013


Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Day 4: Prestatyn, Portmeirion, and Lots of Northern Wales, 4 May 2013


Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Day 3: London and Prestatyn, 3 May 2013


Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Day 2: London, 2 May 2013

Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Day 1: Arriving in London, 1 May 2013

Seriously, I MEAN to keep up with this, but it just never works out properly. So, watch this space, as I plan to go back and fill in the details. I just wanted all of the days to appear in the right order on the blog when I am done.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Day 0: Leaving for London, 30 April 2013

I wound up working entirely too late on Monday night, trying to finish everything on my to-do list before being out of the office for two weeks. I failed. I did, at least, get all but one thing done, which I hope to actually finish by the end of this week anyway.

I got home around 4:30am. No sweat, I still have 9 hours before I have to leave for Deb's house in Plant City. Deb is giving Amy and I a ride to the airport, and our cars will be safe at the Plant City Gang's house (where most of the Stone Hill meetings take place), while we are away.

I reached the end of my ability to stay awake around 6:30am, so I took a bit of a nap. However, I slept a bit too long, and had to rush getting everything done after I woke up. Packing was a bit unusual since I didn't have to play "toss the cat out of the suitcase" a single time. I usually have to throw them both out several times. Nor did either of them lay on top of the clothes on the bed while I was gathering everything. Usually they have to lay on everything to make sure I take a sufficient amount of cat fur with me when I travel. I guess they knew something was up, and they were too busy sulking.

The last bit of my packing was more like throwing, sorting the electric plugs by "need vs don't need" in an effort to not take anything along unless I actually would need it. There was also a bit less time to finish than I originally planned because when I double-checked the departure time it said 6:15pm, and not 7:30pm, which it had originally been. I had completely forgot that the flight was leaving earlier!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Hell of Renting a Holiday Flat in London

You know that saying "Where are we going, and why are we in this hand basket?"

Well, all of our plans for renting a holiday flat in London have gone to hell. In a hand basket.

To back this story up a bit, I am going to the UK for my 50th birthday present to myself. Yes, I don't turn 50 until October, but the weather is better in May. My friend, Amy Kerr, is going on this trip with me.

Amy wanted to rent a holiday flat instead of a hotel. I liked the idea, so we began our search in March. We should have started in February since many properties we viewed were already reserved, but there were still a lot of nice ones available. The fact that our search parameters were rather narrow didn't help much. Parameter 1: Two bedrooms, both needing to have at least a double bed - most of the 2BR holiday flats are designed with families with children in mind, and have two twin beds in the second bedroom. Neither of us wants to sleep on a twin bed. Parameter 2: Within a 5-minute walk of a Tube Station. Parameter 3: Not too far away from the center of the city.

After many rounds of "Sorry, the website hasn't been updated, that flat isn't available" or "that one isn't available, but we have this other one if you're willing to spend just a bit more" ("just a bit more" was usually twice the price), or just no response at all, I FINALLY got a positive response at the end of March!


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Book Review: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

I have been reading Stephen King novels since he first started writing them. He got way ahead of me when I went to college, and I've never been able to catch up. Now I read his novels from my to-read list when the notion strikes, which usually means I need a good "Holy Cow!" kind of read.


I decided to read "The Colorado Kid" because it was the inspiration for the TV show "Haven," which I love.

I had no expectations of this story going in. I hate clouding my judgement of a book (or a movie) beforehand by reading the opinions of others. I save the "what did everyone else think?" part for when I have my own opinion to compare. I will admit that I read a couple of the reviews for "The Colorado Kid" when I was about 3 pages from the end. I just had to know what others thought. I had a feeling how the story would end, and I had a suspicion that many would be displeased by it. I now see that Mr. King's statement in the Afterword was correct: people either loved it or hated it, and the two camps are usually divided by the opinion of the ending.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Getting to 221BCon From the Atlanta Airport


A friend asked me to write her directions to get from the Atlanta Airport to the hotel for 221BCon. I thought I would share a modified version with everyone.


Here is a link to both terminal maps:

There are 6 terminals at the Atlanta Airport: A, B, C, D, E, T. These directions work for all the terminals. 

When you get off the plane, go to the giant "Hallway" and look for an overhead sign that directs you to baggage claim. You'll be going to the center of the terminal, then taking an escalator down to the underground train. Be sure to get on one that is going to Baggage claim. Just following people won't necessarily get you pointed in the right direction, but following the biggest crowd will. If there are too many people on that train, just stand there and wait for the next one. They come about every 5 minutes, and the crowds go in waves as planes land and dump people all eager to be the first to stand at an empty carousel in baggage claim and wait for their luggage to arrive. There's no need to rush. Even though the airport is enormous, it's still hard for the baggage to beat you to Baggage Claim if you go straight from your plane.

If you find that you've got on a train going in the wrong direction, don't freak out. Just get off when it stops, and go to the opposite side of the platform area, and get on that train.

Once you get to Baggage Claim, go up the ginormous escalator, and then go to the side where your airline is. There is Blue (North), and Red (South). Both sides look the same, except that your luggage will only be in one of them.

There should be a MASSIVE board in the center of Baggage Claim on the far wall telling you which of the 8 carousels your flight's baggage will appear on. Go there, find your bags, and then come back to where you entered the Baggage Claim area. 

This will make sense once you're there, but turn right from the Blue/North Baggage claim, or Left from the Red/South baggage claim, after exiting Baggage Claim (NOTE: you should not have left the building!), and head back toward where you came off the escalator, and keep going down the hall. You should see signs for MARTA. That's the train to take you away from the Airport.

It's a teeny #47 on this map, to give you an idea of where you're going. This map has baggage claim on it, too.

You MUST buy a Breeze card to ride MARTA. They don't take cash on the train. There are vending machines as you walk into the MARTA area. http://www.breezecard.com/ 

The card costs $1.00 and is reload-able, so hang onto it. If you are going to take MARTA to get back to the airport to go home, then just go ahead and purchase two fares ($2.50 each) when you buy the card, and you won't have to worry with it again later.

When you go through the gate to get to the trains, you just tap the card on the spot indicated. No sliding it through a slot required.

You want to take the North Line on a train that says it is bound for North Springs (there are signs on the side of the train stating it's ultimate destination), and get off at the Dunwoody stop. It's near the end of the line, so it's about a 40-minute ride.

If you take the train bound for Doraville, then you will have to get off the train at the Lindbergh station, and wait for the one bound for North Springs. I recommend waiting at the airport station for the right train, rather than having to change trains at Lindbergh. The website says that the Red Line trains depart around every 15 minutes, so it won't be a long wait if you get there, and it's a Gold Line (Doraville) train that arrives first.

Here's the MARTA Rail map, so you can see where you are going. The airport is the southern-most stop: http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedFiles/Schedules_And_Maps/Rail_Map/MARTARailMap2010.pdf

When you get to the Dunwoody MARTA station, exit the train, and follow the signs to the Kiss Ride area. That's the best place for people to be picked up and dropped off. Call the hotel (770-457-6363) and ask for them to send the shuttle.

That's it. See you at the convention!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Teri's Virtual Garage Sale

I decided to post the links to my Virtual Garage Sale items here on my blog, instead of posting a bunch of stuff on Twitter and Facebook.

Check back daily for updates. The name of the item is a link to where I have posted it for sale.



Small computer desk on wheels




Oak magazine rack.


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Gallifrey Photo 2012

Thanks to various influences, lethargy and procrastination among them, I only recently got the digital copy of the photo I had taken at the 2012 Gallifrey with the majority of the 1996 Doctor Who Movie cast.

(back row): Yee Jee Tso, Eric Roberts, Philip David Segal, Paul McGann
(front row): Eliza Roberts, Teri Sears, Daphne Ashbrook

I have to say that they were all incredibly nice, and I enjoyed getting to meet them all (most of them for the second, third, or fourth time!). If you ever get the chance to meet any of them, I can highly recommend it!

Friday, February 22, 2013

A One Quarter Book Review of "The Disappearance of Olivia"

UNCLE!

Somebody tap me out. I'm done. I can't take it any longer. If I read another page of "The Disappearance of Olivia" by Nancy E. Ryan I may have to resort to removal of my eyes with a plastic spoon. I am only 26% through the book, according to Kindle, and that's as far as I'm going to get.

I no longer recall how I heard of this book, but when I bought it last year I was under the impression that it was published by a regular publishing house. Since I wanted to review it here, I looked up the publisher and discovered that it is CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Ah, this explains much.

The writing style is juvenile. No, I don't meant it is aimed at teenagers, I mean it reads as though it was written by one. By one who did not pay very much attention in English class. Almost all of the sentences are short and simple; nearly none are complex. Any attempt by the writer to construct complex sentences results in complete nonsense. The prose and the dialog are riddled with misspelled words, bad grammar, missing or misused punctuation, and an over-abundance of cliches, most of which are American cliches spoken by characters born and raised in England. This is another peeve I have -  people who think English is English everywhere. It isn't. But that's a discussion for another day.

Here is an example of a typical paragraph:
Olivia sat in her chair paralyzed for almost two minutes and then almost like in slow motion she headed for the Bombay. She didn’t say a word as she poured herself straight gin in a tall glass. She appeared to Daniel to be processing this information with that brilliant mind of hers.
...
“Oh dear god!” shouted Olivia, before downing her entire glass of gin. “Daniel, if this is true, it is almost unfathomable,” said Olivia. “How am I supposed to take this? What does this mean? This must be a lie. What else do you know?”


We get both a "shouted Olivia" and a "said Olivia" in the same paragraph. I suppose the writer wanted to make sure we knew that she hadn't switched speakers mid-paragraph. 

As for "downing her entire glass of gin," YIKES! I'd say a case of alcohol poisoning is in Olivia's immediate future. At the very least she's about to be VERY drunk, and will have one hell of a hangover. I'm not sure that the writer knows much about drinking alcohol. Yes, I do think this was written by a young teenager.

Needing to satisfy my curiosity about the author, to know if this really was written by an adolescent, I consulted the Internet. Here is what I found on Amazon.com:
Nancy E. Ryan was a New York and New England media executive for 40 years. After accomplishing her goals in the media world she decided to try her hand at writing. Nancy now lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida with her husband Barry O'Brien and their two Bichon Frises, Nicholas and Alexander. The Disappearance of Olivia is her first novel. Nancy engaged the talents of Alan Forray for The Disappearance of Olivia. Alan is a writer, media consultant, and newspaper columnist with over thirty years of experience in journalism, entertainment, and education. He is a graduate of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

I am not sure who is to blame for the bad writing: Nancy, Alan, or both. I seriously hate to think that someone with 30 years experience in journalism could write so poorly. Although, it does say "journalism, entertainment, and education," so I am likely making a bad assumption that Mr. Forray has 30 years experience in Journalism.  I suppose it could be combined, overlapping experience: 18-20 years of attending school, including college (education), plus delivering the paper as a kid and working on the school newspaper (journalism), plus a job at a movie theater or amusement park (entertainment) would easily add up to 30 years. I know plenty of people who use similar fuzzy math to pad their experience on a resume.

Finding out that the book was written by adults made me sad. I always expect competent writing from adults; I am frequently disappointed.

This is the paragraph that finally made me throw in the towel:
After Daniel’s revelation neither Daniel nor Olivia could swallow another bite of food, including an amazing chocolate soufflĂ© and a creme brulĂ©e that was simply magnificent, but now not even a thought. Daniel asked Olivia if she would be ok if he took a shower. She hardly heard him, and just gave him a faint smile.
There are so many things wrong with that paragraph that I do not know where to begin.  But all that gin Olivia drank a minute ago seems to be having an effect.
Daniel stood in the shower for a very long time, just letting the soothing water wash the stress of the day from his entire being.
When he got out, Olivia was naked and waiting in bed. The gin had really relaxed her and also numbed her thoughts.
Silly me. I expected that she'd be out cold, snoring away, after drinking that much alcohol at once. Unless she was an alcoholic, but it was never said to be the case.


After suffering through one quarter of the book, which wasn't as badly written in the beginning as it was where I left off, I just couldn't stand to read it any longer. Reading for fun is supposed to BE fun. It's not supposed to induce the desire to hurl your book across the room in frustration (this temptation is especially bad when you are reading on your iPad). It's not even written so badly as to be hilariously badly written. It is just your everyday version of badly written.

I am curious to know how it ends, but not curious enough to keep reading. Nope. No way. No how. Not if this were the last book on Earth and I was bored out of my skull. This will just have to remain one of the unanswered questions in my life.

Monday, February 18, 2013

The Alternate Dimensions of the Orlando Airport Parking Garage

Today, finding my car in the Orlando Airport parking garage was a bit of a challenge.

When I left on Thursday, I parked on the first floor in row G. Easy enough to remember.

I returned from Los Angeles today, and, after retrieving my luggage, set out to find my car in the parking garage. An escalator, elevator, walk-thru tunnel, and finally another elevator later, I emerged on the first floor of the parking garage. Only, this wasn't the floor that I parked on. I know that I parked on the first floor, but this first floor was full of rental car agencies. I know I did not walk past rental car agencies when I left last week.

So, back into the elevator I go. This time I go up to the second floor, thinking perhaps the buttons are somehow mis-numbered. No rental cars here, so the floor looks right, but it's the second floor and not the first and my car was not there.

I hauled my luggage back to the elevator, and back down to the first floor. This time, when the doors opened onto the first floor of the parking garage, it was the correct first floor, and I found my car!

My first attempt at finding the first floor of the parking garage failed due to its having been temporarily relocated to an alternate dimension. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!