For my birthday, I ordered myself a copy of Stargate SG-1, “The Complete Series” from that website. I had found them via an add from facebook. They were selling it for $50 less than I was able to find it anywhere else and I jumped on the it immediately.

I became suspicious when I received an email from them with my tracking number…. it was shipped from China (the movie piracy capitol of the world). When it arrived yesterday, I became even more suspicious when I opened it up. The box looks legit, but the contents were shoddily packaged and the print on the DVD’s looked kinda crappy. After putting in 3 of the DVD’s (chosen at random from the 54 in the box set), it became apparent that they are bootlegs… the sound and picture quality aren’t very good.

So… being the fascist that I am…. I called the MPAA in Los Angeles, CA and spoke to Bob in the internet department. Apparently, dvdentertainmentshop.com is a known shipper of bootleg DVD’s. They seemed shocked that I found them via a facebook add, but said there wasn’t much I could do.

I contacted paypal to dispute the charge, but their reply was that they only deal with people who never receive a product, not with sellers who market bootleg products. My bank won’t help either.

So… lesson learned, moving on… a little wiser now.

In a nutshell…. do not buy from dvdentertainmentshop.com. While you will get what they sell… what they sell isn’t what you want.

My earlier optimism isn’t quite working out the way I had hoped, and I’m now sitting on the lower side of the fence.  Rather than posting a bunch of depressing crap, I think its best just to give it a break.

Hopefully… things will turn around soon.

I’ll see you when I see you!

I spent a good chunk of my youth in the foster care system, some homes were good, some were horrible beyond words.  The last home I was in (before I turned 18) was one of the good ones.

I fell out of contact with them some 15 or so years ago.  Life got busy, people moved, and my computer puked all over itself (wiping email address and phone numbers).  I did searches on the web from time to time, hoping to find contact information but all I’d get is old address and disconnected phone numbers.

Then, last weekend, everything changed.  My foster sister, Debbie, found my sister Jenifer.  Information was exchanged, and I got an email!  After a couple emails were exchanged, I got phone numbers for my foster mother, brother, and sister.

I immediately picked up the phone and started making calls.  I can’t tell you how good it was to talk to them again!!  I spoke to each of them for at least an hour and played catch-up on their lives and let them know how things were on this end.

Each call was a good thing and it really raised my spirits, with the exception of one piece of news: my best friend from high school, Dewayne, is no longer with us.  I guess that means that I have no reason to attend a high school reunion, as he’s one of the very few classmates that I’d want to see.

I also found out that my foster sister and brother have accounts on Facebook.  While I normally shun things like that (I think I’ve made it clear how much I hate myspace), I created an account so that I could see their pictures and such and found that I actually like it.  Actually… I’m kind of addicted to it.  Its a great way to stay in touch with friends (did I just say that?).

I’ve also found old friends from work and school on Facebook.  Some of them I havn’t seen since the mid 80’s.

Life is good!

My doctor has pulled a magic trick out of his hat and changed my pain management regiment slightly by adding something new… and it appears to be working.  I’m cautiously optimistic.

I was able to go to the 2009 Spokane Motorcycle show yesterday, walk around for a couple of hours, and come home with very little pain.  This is just short of amazing!

Now, if I could just get off all the opiates… there’s a chance that I could get off of my ass and back to work!

Time will tell if the new regiment is going to be sufficient to make that happen, but I’ve got a glimmer of hope on the horizon… and that’s more than I’ve had for a damn long time!

Wish me luck!

I’ve been in a funk for quite a while now, and posts will probably be few and far between until I can find my happy place again.

I did see my neurologist a few weeks ago.  There’s no change with the neuropathy.  After sticking me with needles and holding a tuning fork against both of my feet, he declared that it’s gone static… which is what they expect to see.  He also said that my symptoms were classic for what I have going on down there (feet hurt like they’ve been beaten with a stick, feeling like they’re asleep, and no tactile sensation).  He doesn’t expect it to get any worse or better.

Hurray for me!

I also saw my physician last week.  Oh… what a good time that was!  For a man who can sit and listen, he doesn’t seem to hear much…. nor does he seem to remember anything.

Every time I see him, I have to recite my entire case history.  He always asks if I’m still working (“um… no… you put me on disability and haven’t released me yet”).   This last visit made me want to grab him by the neck and slap the crap out of him.   It’s time to find a new doctor… I’ve had it.

I’m sick of just being prescribed medicine to dull the pain (which the current dosage does not do) and want something… ANYTHING… that will make it so I can leave the house without making it so that I’m flat on my back for the next 2 days.  I want desperately to go back to work, earn my share, and get off of this crap disability.

Unlike a lot of people out there, I hate being on disability.  It’s a lot like being on welfare (at least to me).  It’s that damn mid-west work ethic that was instilled in me I guess.  Sitting around on your ass with your hand out is unacceptable to me.  I need to pull my own weight.

It would also be nice to have a social life again.  Since I’ve gone out on disability (a year and 4 months ago), only one friend has come to see me… and I’ve only seen them twice.  I only get phone calls from “friends” when they need something (ie. they broke their computer).  I guess I need new friends too.

Sorry about the downer post, but I’m in a rather dark place at the moment.  Hopefully I’ll have something a little more bright to post next time.

I haven’t forgotten about it, I’ve just run into a few technical snafu’s as of late (ie. most of my old hardware doesn’t have drivers for Vista 64).  This has made creating the video blog a little challenging for me.

But fear not, gentle reader, for I have a thought in my head on how to get it going again.  I’m hoping to have something together soon for your viewing pleasure!

Until then, may I suggest you play a game?  How about…. Virus 2!

My wife and I finally agreed that it was time for me to get a new computer.  She had actually started pushing the idea a while ago… I was the one who was balking.  My old computer was just that…. old.  I wasn’t able to play the new games that I was getting, and that’s why I finally decided to make the plunge.

Of course, not all is good on that front.  This has got to be, by far, the most challenging build I’ve ever had.  I’ve put together dozens of computers in the past, but the configuration of this beast has been a real challenge… so has fitting all the parts into a case.

In case you’re curious on what exactly I got…. here’s the list:

• ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/HDMI AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
• AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
• (2 of these) OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) (8GB total Ram)
• (3 of these) XFX PVT98WYDFH GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card (yes… I ordered 3 of them… my motherboard supports it!)
• CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W Power Supply
• (3 of these) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (1.5TB total in RAID5)
• LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit
• Xclico A380Plus case

For those of you who that meant nothing to… I’ll put it simply: It has a very fast quad core processor with 8GB of memory, tons of hard drive space, and 3 video cards hooked together to act as one (they call that configuration SLI).  It’s a tiny God!!  The case looks like this:

Now go take a nap or something

We had good food, good family fun, and presents galore!!  The kids got the XBOX 360 and Rock Band 2 that they wanted, I got a new rotisserie oven and other great things (Thanks for the Texas BBQ, Dad!!!), and my wife was very pleased with the shiny item that she found in her stocking (a sapphire and diamond ring).

As for the snow outside… well… it’s back at it today.  The past two days were pretty warm… around 4oº F (4.4º Celsius).  This caused quite the melt, though it didn’t really make much of a dent in what we had on the ground.  Last night the temperature dropped again and all that melted snow froze solid.  Now it’s snowing like mad and there’s a very slick layer of ice under it.  Sounds like fun driving to me!

Here’s a few pics from this morning:

Of course, now we’re making plans for New Years Eve (which is only in a couple of days).  That should be an absolute blast as well!!

It didn’t stop snowing until Friday.  After all was said and done, we had gotten around 27 inches (68.6 cm) of the white fluffy crap.  While having snow for Christmas™ is great, that much all at once wasn’t.

My car, while it has all wheel drive, also has air dams and such, leaving very little clearance between the road and it’s lowest point.  This means that when there’s an ass load of snow on the ground, we’re pretty much stuck where we are (or risk ripping chunks off the car).  Essentially, we’ve been stuck in the house since last Thursday.

Here’s a few pictures of the damage… click on the thumbnails for a larger view:

While this is pretty and all, being trapped because the road sucked much butt was a pain in the butt.  Thank goodness we have a deep freezer full of food!

But then, last night… something amazing finally happened…. the city plows came to our dead end street!!  This was only, of course, after my neighbor called and yelled at them.  Thank you, neighbor!!!  I was starting to get concerned because I run out of my meds tonight and the perscription has been filled and waiting at the pharmacy since last week.  Now we’ll be able to pick them up!  Also… I haven’t been able to ship any Christmas™ packages yet… so they may be late (sorry Dad!).  I’ll be sending those today (overnight if possible).

Oh… and if you’re wondering why I put a “™” after Christmas… it’s because the holiday has been totally commercialized.