Double Trouble

This morning I woke up and found my left shoulder mildly dislocated. I’m not sure how it happened, but I been noticing that over the last two weeks my left arm has become more and more sore. From what I can tell, I’ve been favoring my right side. This has begun to stress my left side and in particular my left upper arm. There’s a lot of strange popping/rubbing in my shoulder that I don’t remember. By the end of my work shift my left arm was in more discomfort/pain than my right. That in itself is concerning.  I’ll try to speak with the orthopedist tomorrow, but I’m sure it’s fatigue related and that I may have unfortunately discovered an existing issue I just never knew about.

I spent some of today working with JDiddy during break time bringing up a new Linux LAMP (web page) server. For those of you who know me, this will come as no big surprise. I’m a huge Linux nerd and love bringing up/working on servers. We’re trying to get him a decent platform to launch his new web site on and it’s given me a chance to coach him on setting the system up. It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to coach any one at any thing in such a regimented manner and honestly it reminded me how much I like teaching others new things especially when they’re excited about what they’re learning. Good stuff. I can’t wait to see what JDiddy does with the new site and I’m pretty excited to pass on the new skills I’ve learned over the last six months building this one.

Fall is definitely here in downstate New York. The morning and nighttime temperature is in the low 40s. I came out to frost on the Stang this evening. I can definitely feel a cold draft drifting through my walls. I had to cave and turn on the heat earlier last week. It’s just too cold this year (some five degrees on average) to not do that. The summer was very mild (some ten degrees on average) than last year so it would make sense that fall/winter will follow suit. If that holds true though we’re definitely in for a very cold wet (read: lots of snow and ice) winter. My hope is my shoulder heals before the major snow falls in December.Pirate mime

Minor issue with my plan to roll out Pirate Radio– my main hard drive is slowly failing. I’m hoping it holds out long enough to kick out a new episode, but if not I do have a spare (though arguably slower and smaller IDE verse the existing SATA) hard drive to fall back on. I rue the thought of reinstalling Windows XP and all my applications, but it is what it is at this point. Quick flashback, over the summer it appears I may have run my PC too hard during 90 degree temperatures and cooked the hard drive platter. Not good, but the HD is some ten year old (bought in 2001) and way beyond the eight year meantime to failure average. Again– it is what it is.

Finally, today’s “Random Picture of the Day” is a pirate mime. I had no clue until my recent search of the WikiCommons that such a beast existed, but here he(?) is in all his wondrous mime glory. He would say “ARRR!” but he’s a mime. Alas, he can say nothing. He can merely glare at you with his buggy eyes and wave his dull short short in anger. It’s sad really and I’m sure Sally Struthers will soon start some sort of charity to help pirate mimes out. For now though– he suffers in silence while we mock him over the Internet. We rock so much indeed.

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My Beloved Mets & 2009

NY MetsMathematically speaking, the NY Mets were eliminated around two weeks ago when even if they were to hypothetically win every game they had left in the year and the lead wild card team where to lose every game left there would still be no way the Mets would have more wins then that other team.

As a die hard Mets fan this did not persuade me to give up on watching my team. No, like the true fan I am I wore my orange and blue ball cap every day. Every day I tuned in for as long as possible to watch them play on TV. And every day I watched them at least try to win or even sometimes manage to win games. They lost no more than they did the rest of the year, but this week that all came to a grinding halt. Over the past three games including today‘s 7-4 embarrassment, the Mets lost to the most losing team in baseball– the Washington DC Nationals. This meant the worst team in the Major League Baseball system had swept the Mets without a blink or whimper. In all, this basically summed up the entire year in a nutshell.

Let’s put this in perspective for those of you who are not baseball fans or those of you who may not understand just how bad this is in terms of losses. The Nationals have lost 103 games this year. They have only won 55. There are only four games left in this season. That means the Nationals have a .348 win percentage. For those of you out there who are not statistics majors, that means that just below 35% of the time the Nationals will win a game. A decent team will post a win percentage of around .500 (50% chance of win) and a great team will be around .600 (60% chance of winning– the NY Yankees right now are at .646 and the winningest team in the MLB). The Mets pulled in at a mediocre .421. This is way below average and just above really bad. Any bad team’s main goal is not to get 100 losses and with 92 in the books the Mets are nearly there though they will not reach that horrible 100 loss plateau even if they lose the last four games (which they just might– they’re playing slightly better Houston Astros who are at .465).

Like I said in the beginning of this blog entry though, mathematically speaking the season ended some two weeks ago; but with some 20 games left I wanted to watch my team finish with honor, with dignity, and to see this season out. Today the season did end though not officially, but in my heart as a fan. I watched the bats come as alive as they ever have this year mustering a 4-2 lead. I then watched my team’s multi-million dollar closer (the finishing pitcher whose supposed to shut down the game) Francisco Rodriguez blow the game. He loaded the bases, proceeded to walk in a run, and then gave up a grand slam home run to a batter who was rated lackluster at best. Last year Francisco Rodriguez earned the nickname “K-rod” on the LA Angels where he had the most saves ever in a year. Rodriguez holds the MLB record for saves in a single season with 62; which he set in 2008. This year he mustered some 50% of that effort at 34 for the year. Before we get too down on Rodriguez I must point out he has six blown saves and five relief losses. Those numbers are no worse than 2008 when he saw seven blown saves and three loses. He simply had more opportunities to win with the Angels.

It seems though even he has gotten caught up in the injuries, management problems, and general malaise that has taken over the Mets this year. And with that the season ends for me– what happens in the next four games will not make these past three games any better; nor the 92 other losses disappear. With still many starting players on the injured list and Jose Reyes (the staring short stop) looking like his injury may last until Spring Training next year this one is done. And with it– goes the hopes and dreams of another year.

I think SNY‘s Bob Ojeda (himself a former Mets all star pitcher) said it best during the post game wrap up, “You can blame the coaches and the players somewhat. The real person you have to hold responsible is the team’s manager. You can think about firing the whole team, but realistically the manager is who needs to be held accountable.” I could not have echoed any better sentiments. How much longer can Jerry Manuel stay? I’m not sure, but I do sure as Hell miss Willy Randolph. The Mets may have swooned in the post-season with him; but at least they made it past October 4th and worse yet– I didn’t stop watching before October 1st.

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New Polls Feature

Development continues on df.com pretty steadily. The latest feature available can be found in the right menu bar, under “Latest Poll”. We’ve also added a Polls Archive section that will track older polls as they expire (permanently located in the top menu under the Contact link sub-menu). You can vote once per Internet connection on each poll to keep things fair as possible (I know… people will still abuse it, but whatever). I think this is a viable feature for those of you who simply do not have time to fill out the Contact form or comment on a given page/post. It also adds another nice layer of both feedback and interactivity. I’ve found during my tenure of a decade plus in the Internet industry if there is one thing people really like filling out– it is polls. Maybe because it’s a quick way to kill time. Maybe because people just like expressing their opinion. Either way, I hope you participate and voice your opinion so we know more about what you would like from df.com. As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to use the aforementioned Contact form to shoot us any suggestions for polls that you may have.

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Random Video Clips – “Undefeatable”

Every now and then I run across a video that goes beyond viral in nature and becomes something truly more. For these select few videos I have a title. I dub them “Random Video Clips”. My introduction makes as much sense as this fight scene from “Undefeatable“. The real title of the movie is “Cui Hua Kuang Mo”, which was made in 1993. It was later imported into the US and translated as “Undefeatable”. For you English majors out there that is not a real word, but hey– this is Kung Fu not rocket science. The point is this scene is called by many a movie buff the “most ridiculous and incredible fight scene ever”. You’ll see why in a bit as soon as you hit play and I’m sure you’ll agree. With that, I give you “Undefeatable”:

If you have a clip you’d like to see nominated as the “Random Video Clip” drop me a line via the Contact form and let me know where I can find it on the Net.

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Surgery Scheduled

shoulder-joint-ligamentsVisited my orthopedist today. Looks like 10/14/09 will be the day of my surgery. I have a rip in the area marked to the right as the articular capsule (#2), which creates instability in the head of my humerus (the bone that makes the top portion of your arm) and allows it to pass out of the shoulder socket. We discussed therapy, but honestly with this being an ongoing issue for some four plus years my orthopedist doubts there will be any success with that sort of treatment. If it was going to heal– it would have healed already.

The good news is the surgery is pretty non-evasive and is performed in a same day surgery manner. I literally will leave the hospital a few hours after post-operation. The whole operation should be rather quick and recovery time is six to twelve weeks including therapy. That puts me at 100% by Christmas, which is nice.

Until then I will have to wear a sling for the first few weeks and limit my motion though I was told I could use a mouse within 48 hours for brief sessions (yes– I asked how long until I can blog again because I’m that much of nerd).

The success rate is pretty high and my biggest enemy would be infection. With all the pain I’ve been through over the last few years I am glad that the worst of it will be over within two months or so. I also look forward to being able to do normal things such as pick up my youngest daughter or play catch with my oldest daughter. Those thoughts alone are both keeping me focused and driven to seeing this through.

I appreciate all your kind words and thank those of you who have been sending me get well wishes through Facebook. Your thoughts and wishes are appreciated.

If I can pull it off, I’d like to squeeze out one Pirate Radio before surgery and then follow up with another show as soon as I’m feeling well enough to do so in what will most likely be early November. I’ll let you know as those plans begin to gel and be sure to keep you in the loop.

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