Me: "Did they post your MRI results yet."  Hubby: "Yes."  Me: "Well, what does it say."  Hubby: "It's full of medical speak, I'll just wait for the docs to..."  Me: "Print it, gimmie."

--T12 and L1, nothing.
--L2-S1, all variations of:  Broad-based disc bulge/left lateral osteophyte and facet hypertrophy. Mild to moderate central stenosis, minimal right foraminal stenosis and severe left foraminal stenosis with impingement of the exiting left nerve root.

*GoogleFu* 
Me:  "All that just to say "your lower spine/discs and nerve pathings are rather ****** up." 

Anyway. Maybe the 10% better hubby felt was from the round of oral steroids. Now we have to wait for the specialist back doc to have appointment space.  

Aunt passed away over the weekend, she was 94. I never actually met her as she lived in OKC but it made me think about how many people in my family lived to be 90+. Grandma who passed earlier this year was in her 90s as well. Of course, my mom died in her 40s so there's that. 

In less death related news, went to a museum over the weekend because they have all of my son's favorite things; space, dinosaurs, and rocks. Then we came home and made wooden swords while watching Star Trek 4. Was a pretty good little weekend even though I had to work a little bit on Saturday.

Got myself a new phone after 7 years, was a good run for it, but the battery kept giving out, and even when fully charged only lasted a handful of hours in standby, without doing much. The "get a new phone" experience sure has improved in that time, at least there's something to be said about being stuck in Apple's sect-ish ecosystem. A quick bluetooth coupling, some minutes of copying the setup and files and you're done.

Moved my netbanking access and my digital signature app for all bureaucracy related shenanigans to the new phone. Which is an iPhone SE 2022, by the way. I may have yuuuuge hands, but I prefer my devices small.

It is a real pity that Apple's going to discontinue the SE line. The next one will probably have to be one of those bricks. Yuck.

Edited September 15, 20232 yr by majestic

3 hours ago, majestic said:

The "get a new phone" experience sure has improved in that time, at least there's something to be said about being stuck in Apple's sect-ish ecosystem. A quick bluetooth coupling, some minutes of copying the setup and files and you're done.

Not really unique to apple. Android has the same thing. Now going from one to another is a different matter entirely.

Edited September 15, 20232 yr by Sarex

7 hours ago, Sarex said:

Not really unique to apple. Android has the same thing. Now going from one to another is a different matter entirely.

I recently migrated some low grade trash Android phone to a newer Samsung for a friend and the experience was not nearly as smooth as it was with the iPhone (turn on new phone, it automatically couples with the old one, you press one button, enter your password, set a pin code, done - zero configuration work on the new phone, except for telling them that they can stuff their touch ID some place where the sun don't shine ).

Makes sense, given the wide range of Android devices available. Much easier to get easy migration paths done when you only support a limited amount of devices with a tightly controlled operating system. Not a dig at Android. I mean, the migration.

I hate everything else about Android though, the system is a mess, especially on Samsung phones. Apple might be a creepy sect, but their phones have a settings menu that contains, well, all the settings you need. Android looks like the Windows 11 control panel in comparison, just without the search function that makes it easier to find the setting that you're looking for.

Edited September 15, 20232 yr by majestic

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Apple might be a creepy sect, but their phones have a settings menu that contains, well, all the settings you need. Android looks like the Windows 11 control panel in comparison

I have zero knowledge of Apple phones, but you can open up the "dev mode" on Android phones and tablets for a ton more settings. Most of which are too techy for me to bother with.  I mostly use it to make the devices/screen not shut down/off from lack of touch-input while plugged in. I might've turned off some of the more battery-hungry graphic features and the like too, I forget tho.

That said, it's not like PC-level control or anything remotely like that.

Edit: this was tablets/phones up to 2-3 years ago. I have no idea if you can still do it or if they blocked it on super recent devices.
EditEdit: looking at the phone, I also turned off auto apply updates when phone restarts, forced it to always use mobile service even if detecting wi-fi, some other UI stuff.

Edited September 16, 20232 yr by LadyCrimson

38 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

Edit: this was tablets/phones up to 2-3 years ago. I have no idea if you can still do it or if they blocked it on super recent devices.

Yes, and Android phones still let you manage the phone via ADB (the Android Debug Bridge). It was practically the first thing I figured out when I bought an Android phone...the iPhone I'd previously been using going straight into a trash compactor being the next. Don't think I ever got so consistently enraged at a piece of tech than the year or so I had an iPhone, it was utter misery.

Edited September 16, 20232 yr by Bartimaeus

Was fun to go back to form at work - process failing because the memory was below a threshold ? Easy solution, set the threshold to 0

I went to see Tim Dillon today. I listen to his podcast all the time, but this is my fist time seeing his stand up in person. He did not disappoint, one of the absolute funniest people on the planet in my opinion. It helps that his comedy style is my favorite style of comedy, which is to say WILDLY offensive comedy. He says thing that are so ****ed up that I feel kind of dirty for laughing at them, but I couldn't stop myself from laughing if I wanted to because it's so hilarious, plus there's always a kernel of truth in there, it's not just sheer absurdities. Anyway, a good time was had.

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yes, and Android phones still let you manage the phone via ADB (the Android Debug Bridge). It was practically the first thing I figured out when I bought an Android phone...the iPhone I'd previously been using going straight into a trash compactor being the next. Don't think I ever got so consistently enraged at a piece of tech than the year or so I had an iPhone, it was utter misery.

I regularily get enraged whenever I have to change something on my parent's Android phones. My father's phone in particular is always in danger of being smashed in a fit of rage because its pull down menu for some reason has a second pull down menu that contains settings not found in the regular settings menu of the phone. Because reasons. My mother's phone on the other hand hides settings menus behind on/off toggles. They're not just toggles, they're literally buttons you press to access the settings, say, you just turned on wifi, now there's no wifi settings menu to be found. Why? Because you have to press the freaking toggle to reveal the settings. It is a toggle. It should NOT also be a button to find a settings menu once toggled on. Never mind how difficult it is for my mother to access that menu, what with her Parkinson's disease, she's more likely to toggle something off than actually get into the menu she needs.

Whoever came up with the user experiences on those phones should be retired, in the intelligence agency meaning of the word.

8 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I have zero knowledge of Apple phones, but you can open up the "dev mode" on Android phones and tablets for a ton more settings. Most of which are too techy for me to bother with.  I mostly use it to make the devices/screen not shut down/off from lack of touch-input while plugged in. I might've turned off some of the more battery-hungry graphic features and the like too, I forget tho.

That said, it's not like PC-level control or anything remotely like that.

Edit: this was tablets/phones up to 2-3 years ago. I have no idea if you can still do it or if they blocked it on super recent devices.
EditEdit: looking at the phone, I also turned off auto apply updates when phone restarts, forced it to always use mobile service even if detecting wi-fi, some other UI stuff.

You really can't do anything techincal on an iPhone, not even copy the pictures you take to your computer without using Apple's software for it. It is highly restricted and not all that customizable, which is fine for me because I treat my mobile phone as an oversized brick hat can also send text messages and can be used to sign documents and bank transactions online. Well, I also have Microsoft's authenticator app because I need that for work and pay parking fees with it. Every now and then I play Angry Birds.

Edited September 16, 20232 yr by majestic

For whatever reason, I have no energy today. Weight lifting was rough, I had to will myself through it. Usually, once I do a set and the adrenaline kicks I'm chomping at the bit to do the rest of the sets but today I must have been all out of adrenaline. I did it anyway. It's been months since I've had an off day, I suppose it might have been good to take today off. Oh well. 

Maybe I need to get some of that Frank Thomas stuff? You know, the "by the way, she'll like it too" stuff. 

Edited September 16, 20232 yr by Keyrock

I have to play tech support for my wife's iPhone and my own Android. I also had iPhones given to me as work phones and I don't hate them but I do hate going back and forth. 

Never had any issue updating from Pixel to Pixel or Samsung to Samsung or any of the flagship phones but it can be a little iffy going from two vastly different Android phones.

During a slight fit of irritation re: Steam's search results (I already use the ignore-10-user-tags ability), I clicked ignore-title on over 1600 games and DLC's. I suppose it's slightly better. Losing battle tho. Sadly, ignored titles seem to still appear sometimes in the "Category" (RPG, Action etc) browsing pages vs. an actual typed-in search or the "Top Upcoming"/Top Sellers links.

Call of Duty sure has a lot of DLC's.
 

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by LadyCrimson

On 9/16/2023 at 3:13 PM, ShadySands said:

I have to play tech support for my wife's iPhone and my own Android. I also had iPhones given to me as work phones and I don't hate them but I do hate going back and forth. 

Never had any issue updating from Pixel to Pixel or Samsung to Samsung or any of the flagship phones but it can be a little iffy going from two vastly different Android phones.

My plan is to ditch Android next time I get a new phone to get away from Google, but I don't any part of Apple's walled garden either. I want to get a phone running Linux. Those do exist but currently the options are VERY limited and prices are very high for rather dated hardware. The hardware I don't so much care about, I'm not a power user; I make calls, text, use GPS, listen to Pandora and Spotify, and watch the occasional video. So long as it has a halfway decent camera, i don't much care if it has the latest greatest processor. Hopefully a more affordable option comes along in the next year or two; I'm willing to pay more for The Penguin, but there are limits to how much more. In an ideal world it would be a RISC-V powered phone running Linux, but that's almost certainly too far away for my next phone. Some day.

1. Buy helmet online from specialty outlet.

2. Receive helmet, it's the wrong size.

3. Online store says return it with original invoice that works as proof of purchase.

4. Invoice that came with the helmet is for a completely different person and order.

5. Their only method of contact is through social media.

6. I don't have any social media.

well babies and gentlemen, it appears i have been scammed

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by Bartimaeus

Worked, been back for a couple of weeks now but I still have alot of pain in my neck, so I've taken to sacrificing my knees for my neck to continue getting better by driving our small tug instead of bodycarrier at work. It's seat turns around 180 degrees and you can sit and reverse trailers while facing them, real handy when you don't want to hang out the window and look where you're going. It's a bit of a faff though and feels real weird, so I just used the mirrors instead and everyone was shocked how well I managed it. That hurt a bit, not gonna lie. Only reason why I don't use mirrors while driving a bodycarrier is that it has some POS mercedes inline-4 that shakes the tractor so badly that you can't see where you're going, making it extremely unsafe to use them. I've been pushing for us to get Volvo inline-6s (Balanced and smooth running) same as the tug has on our soon to be delivered new tractors, another plus is that the volvo engine has never really let us down except a faulty radiator hose, while the Mercedes engines breaks down atleast once a month. Savings and increased useability 👍 Also told them to mount side window wipers, because c'mon, we really need that to see out the sides.

18 minutes ago, Azdeus said:

Worked, been back for a couple of weeks now but I still have alot of pain in my neck, so I've taken to sacrificing my knees for my neck to continue getting better by driving our small tug instead of bodycarrier at work. It's seat turns around 180 degrees and you can sit and reverse trailers while facing them, real handy when you don't want to hang out the window and look where you're going. It's a bit of a faff though and feels real weird, so I just used the mirrors instead and everyone was shocked how well I managed it. That hurt a bit, not gonna lie. Only reason why I don't use mirrors while driving a bodycarrier is that it has some POS mercedes inline-4 that shakes the tractor so badly that you can't see where you're going, making it extremely unsafe to use them. I've been pushing for us to get Volvo inline-6s (Balanced and smooth running) same as the tug has on our soon to be delivered new tractors, another plus is that the volvo engine has never really let us down except a faulty radiator hose, while the Mercedes engines breaks down atleast once a month. Savings and increased useability 👍 Also told them to mount side window wipers, because c'mon, we really need that to see out the sides.

I've always been a fan of Volvos. I don't get to drive one, but I do get to drive a Mack Anthem, which is the next best thing from what's available here in the states IMHO. One feature that I really like on Macks is that they have a 2-stage accelerator pedal where if you push the pedal down further past the first "stop" it will temporarily drop you down a gear and change to more aggressive shift points on the automatic transmission. That's super handy for pulling hills when you are loaded heavy and more than makes up for the fact that Macks have the controls for going into manual mode and manually switching gears on the center console rather than the steering column, given that 95% of the time I would want to manually switch gears would be to drop it down a gear earlier than it would on its own to help pull a hill.

3 hours ago, Keyrock said:

I've always been a fan of Volvos. I don't get to drive one, but I do get to drive a Mack Anthem, which is the next best thing from what's available here in the states IMHO. One feature that I really like on Macks is that they have a 2-stage accelerator pedal where if you push the pedal down further past the first "stop" it will temporarily drop you down a gear and change to more aggressive shift points on the automatic transmission. That's super handy for pulling hills when you are loaded heavy and more than makes up for the fact that Macks have the controls for going into manual mode and manually switching gears on the center console rather than the steering column, given that 95% of the time I would want to manually switch gears would be to drop it down a gear earlier than it would on its own to help pull a hill.

That reminds me of the time I got to shotgun one of my driver friends in his Volvo FH16 750 dual clutch edition, granted he only had 33 tonnes loaded, but that truck went smoother up an 11% incline than my car does, I noticed the shift more from the change in sound than anything else, amazing stuff

Switched from copper to fiber for phone 5 months back. Now getting what sounds like packet loss, called ISP tech and it seems like my router is the problem.

Disconnected everything except the ER-X, still got noise. Disconnect that and noise goes.  Switched to a spare ER-X and copied config, still getting it.   I guess I use PPPoE in the router, but surprised that would cause VoIP issues 5 months after I set it up.

Pain in the neck

Im starting an interesting project remotely in Zimbabwe for a public sector financial institution

Its going to be interesting to see the efficiencies and how the project goes. I dont question the customers knowledge or commitment because every public sector  financial institution I have ever worked at is always well staffed and people are professional 

I just want to see how the resources are allocated and how quickly things get done 

You know it's gusting pretty bad when you lift a trailer on the fifth wheel and the windgust causes the trailer to slide to the side... Very well greased fifth wheel though, must be said.

Well ceasing use of PPPoE seems to resolve the phone problem. No sense to me why that would cause issues with the VoIP through the ISP modem but eh.  Moved family over to the ISP router as well.  Annoying issue but at least that fire is out

 

Edited September 20, 20232 yr by Malcador

Hubby had his round with the back specialist. In colloquial terms, "You're boned."  ... pun not intended.

In some cases there is apparently no more cartilage, so it's essentially bone rubbing bone when he moves no matter what. There is no fixing that. Meaning even if it feels somewhat better at times, he can't/shouldn't do anything re: excess movement stress/wear even at small levels, like he was hoping (example: light gardening/handy man-ing). Pain management is about it.

So next week they're going to try a short term local anesthetic (not steroids) in the area, as a test to see if it helps with pain. If it does, the steroid injections might work/help. If it doesn't, no point in the steroids. Anyway, I think hubby is - understandably - pretty down. Not just about pain/discomfort but the "even if it feels better, shouldn't/can't do anything" because there's a pretty high danger of it becoming even still worse.

Thus I'll continue to be the strong person re:shopping/lifting/moving and whatever else. I also have a great talent for writing checks to get others to do things for us.

Edited September 21, 20232 yr by LadyCrimson

It sounds like he would benefit from stem cell therapy. Insurance won't cover it, but I've heard it is miraculous.

edit: I mixed up HGH and stem cells.

Edited September 21, 20232 yr by Hurlshort

Maybe a mobility scooter to help getting around?