Surgery Update
Posted by mike | Filed under family, news
I had to go into surgery yesterday for what’s known as a bilateral sportsman hernias. Yeah, fabulous description huh? It turns out that i tore my abdomen wall in 3 spots on the right side and a single larger tear on the left side. They remedy this by stitching up the torn muscle and also applying a mesh patch behind and in front of the abdomen wall where the injury occured. These patches essentially allow the skin and muscle to grow through them to create a stronger abdominal lining than the areas without (once all healed of course). Yesterday was good as the novacane that they injected int he surgery area was long lasting and didn’t start wearing off until last night. I’m now trying to only take the Percocet narcotic that was proscribed when needed…the stuff really whacks me up. Over the next couple of days there will be plenty of pain, bed rest, ingestion of drugs, and of course sleep. Should be back int he full swing of things in 2 weeks though, so it’s not a very long recovery time. I can start running again in 3 weeks! 
If you are interested in learning more about this crappy problem, you can read everything you would ever care to know about it here: Sports Hernia
Smashing Pumpkins – Full Circle (another documentary)
Posted by mike | Filed under multimedia, music
What can i say, I’ve fallen into another Smashing Pumpkins binge…..this is yet another well done documentary called Full Circle. I believe this was shown in Chicago on a local Fox channel, sponsored by the local rock station Q101 back some time ago, prior to 2001. Follow the link at the bottom for the next page with the embedded 4 part videos.
Stout Tasting ’08
Posted by mike | Filed under friends, spirits
Fabulous time was had by all this Saturday for our first annual stout brew tasting party. I’m a bit flabbergasted on how to we managed to drink all of the beer that was brought but we only had 5 beers left and those were duplicates. Maybe that’s why i have a touch of a hangover this morning….hmmm. Anyway, here is a picture of the damage before and after. Full beer list also included following pictures.
The Line-up
Some Aftermath
Whats Left
Full Brew Review List for 2008 Tasting
- 1. Haandbryggeriet Dark Force – Russian Imperial Stout
- 2. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout – Milk/Sweet Stout
- 3. Obovoid Oak-Aged Oatmeal Stout – Russian Imperial Stout
- 4. The Czar – Russian Imperial Stout
- 5. Alaskan Smoked Porter – American Porter
- 6. Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout – Milk/Sweet Stout
- 7. Bell’s Expedition Stout – Russian Imperial Stout
- 8. Oak-Aged Ebenezer’s Brew (bottle 127 of 1521) – Russian Imperial Stout
- 9. Ten FIDY – Russian Imperial Stout (in a can, oh yeah!)
- 10. Oak Aged Yeti – Russian Imperial Stout
- 11. Old Rasputin – Russian Imperial Stout
- 12. Bell’s Batch 7000 – American Double/Imperial Stout
- 13. Bourbon County Stout – American Double/Imperial Stout
- 14. Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout – American Double/Imperial Stout
- 15. Moylan’s Ryan Sullivan’s Imperial Stout – Russian Imperial Stout
- 16. Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout – American Double/Imperial Stout
- 17. Stone Imperial Russian Stout (2005 bottle) – Russian Imperial Stout
- 18. O’Hanlon’s The Original Ruby Stout – English Stout
- 19. Eel River Raven’s Eye Imperial Stout – Russian Imperial Stout
- 20. Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout – Oatmeal Stout
- 21. Left Hand Milk Stout – Milk/Sweet Stout
I’m hoping we can do this again next year, this was an awesome event this year and everyone had a great time.
Smashing Pumpkins Documentary – Graceful Swans of Never
Posted by mike | Filed under multimedia, music
This is just a well constructed video documentary of the Smashing Pumpkins…one of my favorite bands. This was an unpublished sort of “behind the music” type of documentary that was only shown locally in the Chicago area in 2001. These videos cover the gamut back from when they were forming and up to the eventual breakup (thanks Darcy). This is called the Graceful Swans of Never and hope you enjoy it. Click the read more link to view the embedded videos.
Last Day
Posted by mike | Filed under friends, news
Today was the last day at my current employer of almost 6 years. It was a tough day today to say goodbye to so many talented people i have worked so closely with for so long. I am however looking forward to new challenges that i will encounter at GIS. Ultimately, in the end i know at a big company everyone is just a number and replaceable so there shouldn’t be any impact of my departure. 
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by mike | Filed under family, news
Just dropping in to say happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there, hopefully there is no shortage of good food, family, and fun. I know we had a blast hanging out with our family and the mutts! We even managed to get a walk in after dinner. Too bad there were gale force winds today otherwise it would have been a lot nicer out.
New opportunities!
Posted by mike | Filed under news
So, today i announced my resignation to my current employer and I admit; it’s the end of an enjoyable era for me there but it nice to get the burden off the shoulders. I will miss working with many of the highly talented people in our technology groups but i know that i will maintain friendships with those people outside of the company. As with most career changes, I hope to open doors previously believed to be closed, pursue bigger and better opportunities, and to continue to build my diverse professional portfolio. My first day at the new employer is December 8th. Who wants to get together to drink some beers and catch up?!
My new m-f+s home
Qwest Fiber Optic Ring
Posted by mike | Filed under news, technology
Well, i have to say it’s been worth the wait. We’ve been on 1.5mb DSL since it was first offered by Qwest where we live but it’s not very efficient or all that fast and certainly not up to par with it’s competitors in the area. Yesterday we finally upgraded to 12mb DSL and i’m still shocked at it’s speed and efficiency. I no longer have to wait for any streaming video to finish downloading before it starts or wait for hours for large downloads to complete. As a nice test, i downloaded a 1.2gb .iso disc image file from Microsoft yesterday and it took around 15 minutes….smokin!!! Best part is that the pricing is very competative, i am not paying a dime more for 10x speed increase…now that’s a bargin. 
Beer Tasting
Posted by mike | Filed under spirits
Got some good beers in this weekend including the following:
- Fort Collins Brewery – Z, smoked amber lager
- Victory Sunrise Weissbier – Left over from spring…
- Rogue Mocha Porter 650ml - Amazing….
All three of these beers were exceptional in complex, taste, smell, and consistency. They were all completely different as far as style but they were all a pleasant drink from start to finish. None of these brews were over 6.0% abv.
HTC Touch Pro
Posted by mike | Filed under news, technology
The HTC Touch Pro has just launched on Sprint and AT&T Wireless services in the US and it’s also soon to debut on Verizon later this month. This has to be one of the coolest phones to hit the US market since the iPhone. My contact is up and i’m no longer obligated to stay with Verizon. They are great but expensive and i really don’t like how they strip down and disable features on their phones. If you are in the market for a killer phone/PDA that runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and TouchFlo, check it out below.
