My life with dialysis and kidney disease
Archive for June, 2005
Liszt Sonata
Jun 11th
I have finally gotten the music to the Liszt Sonata, and can’t wait to
begin learning it. Before someone starts to think I’m really good…
I’m not.
I just absolutely adore that piece, and want to see how far I can make
it. This has me thinking though that I’d like to find an inexpensive
way to record some things. Anyone have any suggestions For someone who
has a couple of decent mics and a laptop? I’d love to find a simple way
to power the mics, and have them record into the laptop where I can edit
and manipulate the information. I’m clueless though… does someone
make a simple soundcard or preamp that works externally and has the
correct input for mic cables?
If I find a way to do this easily, I might have some lame recordings up
of me playing soon.
…. now back to your regularly scheduled weekend.
Stumble Upon
Jun 10th
Ok, so I’ve already spoken briefly about Firefox and why you’re lame if you don’t use it. But I haven’t talked very much about the extensions and plugins that make it so wonderful.
From your Firefox browser, select Tools, then Extensions. Next, click on Get More Extensions.
You will be whisked away to a world of wonder where extensions of every conceivable nature await you. My personal favorites are these two:
Tabbrowser Preferences – This extension allows you to better use the functionality of tabbed browsing that Firefox offers. It’s a must have.
StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is an extension which allows you to surf the best selected sites in any given area of interest. It starts by asking you some basic questions about what sorts of things you’d like to see, then begins to transport you to interesting places every time you click the "stumble" button in your toolbar. Where does it get these sites? Well, there are others using this extension, and everyone can "vote" on sites as they visit them. So other people with similar interests are continually recommending things for you to see when you click "stumble".
It’s great… It has totally changed web surfing for me. OK, perhaps that was a little dramatic. But it has really improved the time I choose to spend surfing.
I input a few interests like web-design, graphic design, and nanotechnology, and can at any time find some new site I’ve never seen before dedicated to these things. Throw in a few things like open source and development, and you’ve got your hands full with more resources and information than you can handle.
Need an email client to email all of these cool links you find to a friend?
Look no further than Thunderbird. This is Mozilla’s POP/IMAP email client that will steal you away from Outlook in an instant. Not only is it more secure, but you will be cooler using it. So cool in fact, that you can practically feel the coolness oozing out of your fingertips and onto your keyboard.
But wait, what are we supposed to do about Microsoft Office?
No problem …
Head on over to openoffice.org for a very complete, and functional alternative to the MS office suite.
It includes a very capable word processor, spread sheet application, and a power point application.
What more could you want… a unicorn perhaps?
…. sorry, they don’t exist.
Kopf Schmerzen
Jun 10th
As happens from time to time my blood pressure takes a digger while I’m sitting at dialysis. The reason for this is because a significant amount of my blood volume is being removed in the form of extra liquid I’ve ingested. If this change in volume happens quickly enough, or if the drop is just too big, I suffer a few negative side effects.
That’s basically what’s happening right now, and the reason I have nothing useful to say.
So thanks to a significant electrolyte imbalance, my head’s aching a bit, and low blood pressure is causing everything else to become a bit "foggy".
Why are you telling us this? you ask….
I don’t know. I guess because I’m awesome, have a blog, and need to post something today.
Did I mention I’m awesome?
Blogwise
Jun 10th
Blogwise.com is a very cool directory/listing of blogs. If you enjoy
reading blogs, and don’t know where to find a diverse collection of
them, look no further.
I need to go to sleep… Good Night
Herbie Returns
Jun 8th
Herbie Fully Loaded…
What is going on? Am I the only one who remembers how much fun these movies were to begin with? Why do they need to ruin a great thing? I could go on and on, but do I really need to? I think not…
This is a great segue though into this summer’s movies.
Anything you’re looking forward to? Anything you’re not looking forward to?
Star Wars Episode III turned out to be a keeper, against all odds. I haven’t decided yet if George Lucas purposefully made the last two movies horrible just to make this one seem so much better. But whatever, it was worth it, and it made me excited about light sabers again.
War of the Worlds
I’m a little excited about this one. I’m not sure what to expect, as Tom Cruise has something to do with it. I know I know, he’s SO awesome. But while you’re thinking of good movies like the Outsiders and Legend, don’t forget he also did Mission Impossible II and Cocktail. Still, it should be interesting enough as a summer offering, and will certainly be worth it, if for no other reason than to see Tom Cruise sprint somewhere as we do in every movie of his.
Batman Begins
Christian Bale … need I say more? This guy makes movies, and he will make this one.
Send me an email… tell me what you’re looking forward to seeing this summer.
