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Random

…
When the evil shredder attacks,
these turtle boys don’t cut ‘im no slack
…
mommy wow, dup di dup di doo,
I’m a big kid now
…
sometimes some crimes
are slipping through the cracks
but these two gumshoes are
picking up the slack
…
wherever i go, heeeee goes,
my buddy, my buddy,
my buddy and me
…
with your powers combined
i am captain planet
…
silly rabbit,
trix are for kids
…

what i meant to say is that gsm is great and i got to just put my sim card in the old phone i ordered off ebay and i have all my phone number and i’m good to go. word.

caffeinated, i’m blubbering all over my blog, that’s ok though. not much sleep last night, Sly and Robbie kept me up until 1:30 and then it took a while to get home with buses and all that. I also watched The Motorcyle Diaries because I was near the theatre after my appointment with the radioation oncologist. it got all these coping with cancer brochures and stuff. i think things are still just sinking in. seeing ladies with hats in the waiting room. probably breast cancer chemo patients. i was feeling fortunate to not be battling with anything horific sofar. i’m gonna go in to 3 weeks of radiation therapy at some point here, i’ve gotta schedule when i can best do that. it’s not pressing and i’d most likely to be ok even if i didn’t but i’m not taking chances with this is i don’t have to. tuesday i have an appointment to do the simulation, i bet i get to see all kinds of wicked pissah medical gear and lie on a platform where lots of strong strong people have rested their butts while they got zapped.

ok, back to work.

Groundation

Yesterday I headed out to see Groundation at the Elbo Room in the Mission. Soooo Goood, and happy people too. Amazing grooves. I’s good to have some kick-ass live music. I got a ticket to go see Sly and Robbie play on Wednesday and hope to go out to see Ojos de Brujo tonight, hopefull I can score a ticket off someone who had too many or had a no-show friend. Setting myself up for a dejected walk back home but if I do get in I have high expectations. A mellow weekend, I gotta get out more. I’m still not super physically confident but I’m starting to jog across the street from them to time and dance to some reggae, that’s therapeutic anyway :) Good for the body, good for the mind.

Uhm, Cheesy Survey

Go the email that asked me to forward this but I couldn’t choose whom to send it to, seemed like such an annoyance. So uhm instead of replying just pot it up on your blog and leave a comment that you did so. I understand if you don’t. I’m just curious how well this translates to blog world.

1. What is your Full name: Volker Claus Neumann
2. What color pants are you wearing now : brown corduroys
3. What are you listening to right now: HIM - New Features
4. What are the last 2 digits of your mobile phone number: 01
5. What was the last thing you ate: cajun turkey sausage, miso soup, tomato/mozz/basil salad
6. If you were a crayon what color would you be? poop
7. How is the weather right now? clear with wisps of clouds by the moon
8. Last person you talked to on the phone: Rui
9. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex: speech/voice/inflection
10. How are you today: HA, I was super caffeinated
11. Favorite Drink: I really like Ting
12. Favorite Alcoholic Drink: Unicum (for its mystique)
13. Favorite Sport: ultimate
14. Hair Color: red but not red red
15. Eye Color: blue blut not blue blue, no wait blue blue
16. Siblings: 1 sister, a step bro and step sis
17. What do you do for a living? ‘puter programmer in the fantasty sports world
18. Favorite Month(s): March, September
19. Where do you call home? Floyd, Virginia
20. Last Movie you watched: Amores Perros
21 Favorite Day of the Year: Yesterday, all my troubles seemed…
22. Are you too shy to ask someone out? absolutely
24. Chocolate or Vanilla: swirl them in some root beer
25. Hugs or Kisses: hugs
26. Do you want your friends to write back? hi everybody
27. Who is most likely to respond: blog comment spam
28. Who is least likely to respond: louis the pug
29. Living Arrangements: up on potreto hill in san fran, looking to move
30. What books are you reading? El Hobbit - Tolkien, The Souls of Black Men- DuBois, The Hawkline Monster - Brautigan
31. What’s on your mouse pad: optical - who needs a mousepad. there’s a jesus on my nalgene though.

Oh these late nights when I can’t drag away from the computer, let’s see, I’ve installed the Yahoo Palm sync software, burned some cd’s for friends in peru, updated the firmware on my I-River IMP-550, written some emails, made fun of a guy on the blog, put a new skin on trillian, read about IRA’s, played a game of backgammon, tested the new firmware with Ornette Coleman, installed Google Desktop Search to try it out, im’d with Brad, posted this silly post.

It really is bedtime. Really.

Someone Else

I’ll let someone else do my writing, maybe I’ll provide an analysis later on.

Quoted from a travelbog.org page this is just precious.

Give me back my camera! no I don’t want a photo of me sunbathing with some hot chicks to make my mates back home jealous.truth be told these girls were to young for me to even look at but they wantedto practice they’re english so we graced them with our inteligence(how do you spell that?) for a little while.

I can barely beleive this kid. He actualy made me laugh out loud. I guess Im just being elitist. I like the humility about spelling intelligence though.

Oh my god this music is sooooooooo goooooooood. I’m glad I was around for it. Thanks Sister who went to Greencorps and met Firgs who was friends with the brother of one of the Drew who was in the band. Something like that. Correct me if I’m wrong. Yay Murphy’s.

keychainguy

Game 7, before the Sox beat up on the Yankees I borrowed Steve’s keys to go out and grab a six-pack. I got home and still had the keys. Oops. So it was photo project time :) Photoshop is just so much more of a pleasure on my new computer.

Palm Desktop CSV Import

Yay, it’s been a while since my last geek post.

Since I got my Palm Pilot IIIe at a yard sale for $5 last Saturday I was tooling around with trying to get my contact (address book) data that I have in Mozilla Tunderbird into the Palm Desktop application so I can carry around all that info.

I exported the Thunderbird data into a CSV (comma separated values) file and went to do the import into Palm Desktop and all worked OK except that the email address always showed up in a work phone # field. I guess I could have lived with that but it was driving me nuts so I got in touch with customer support which wasn’t very helpful. Newsgroups had no answers. Finally I decided to find some independent Palm discussion forums and there was my answer, yes, there’s a bug in Palm Desktop 4.1.4 that either Palm support folks don’t know about or refuse to admit. Anyway, I found my answers in this discussion thread, basically one can create a .tpa file which tells the application which fields in your cvs file to match up with the predefined Palm fields.

So if anyone out there is trying to to the same thing, I hope this shows up on a search for you and that you’ll find my Thunderbird CSV —> Palm Desktop TPA import file handy

Download it here http://dirtmine.com/volker/geek/thunderbirdTpaFile/thunderb.tpa, to use it just drop it in your Palm Desktop directory. I’ve only tested on Windows. If you have any success on a Mac I’d love a comment, both for me and for others’ benefit.

(update: today i figured out that yahoo address book does the appropriate imports/exports to accomplish this task. Haven’t tested it but it looks like it should work.)

Hours Of Fun For Your Feline Friend

It’s questionable whether you should try this at home on that little rat that might be living in your house… today at lunch I got a new trick to play on the favorite kittie of your choice, firstly the tricks that I already knew.

1.) Put a sock on its head. It’s completely predictable. They back up. And then they back up some more. When they hit something they reel up, turn, and keep backing up. Then they back up until they hit something else, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

2.) Put some scotch tape on the pad of its foot. It’ll kick and kick with every step. If you put tape on more than one foot it just kinda lies there convulsing.

3.) Hold your beloved kitty close and start spinning until you’re dizzy. If the kitty throws up that might be gross so wear old clothing. When you’re good and dizzy, put kitty down and watch it spread all 4 legs as far as possible trying to maintain balance. When it starts walking it’ll most likely run into a chair or a wall and then it will hate you until you feed it next.

and the new one I got from my co-worker Angelique today over Malaysian food but haven’t gotten to try…

4.) Tie a sock around its waist at the base of the belly where it meets the hind legs. Apparently kitty just flops around somehow unable to feel its legs or control them or whatever. I’ll give it a shot one of these days when a kitty acts up. (Note: Upon reading this Angelique says to gently/lightly tie the sock. It doesn’t have to restrict, only touch.)

Of course remember to feed your kitty after all of this so they’ll be your best friend again as long as you have food.

CD Shopping

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone CD shopping for real so I indulged at Amoeba Music and Rasputin Music in Berkeley today and got me (in the order of the stack):

— Future Sound of London / The Isness
(Reccomended by Miles, a kid I met in Huaraz, Peru who had a pretty sick knowledge of reggae singles, his tape collection got stolen a few days before I talked music with him, poor kid. I think I burned him a thing or two)

— Jaga Jazzist / The Stix
(Reccomended by Ida from Norway [whom I also met in Huaraz] while we were sitting in Lima, Peru listening to some live Jazz. Jaga Jazzist is playing in the Bay Area soon at the San Francisco Jazz Festival

— The Roots / The Tipping Point
(I have all their other albums. This one came out when I was travelling. So now I have it)

— People Under The Stairs / “O.S.T.”
(Been meaning cop one of their joints for years now)

— Ojos de Brujo / Bari
(Heard first at the Vagamundo bar in Huaraz, Peru I asked the barman what he was playing. It was written in my little book and now they’re playing soon for Jazz Fest so I had to get this for certain! Flamenco taken to the next level. I have high hopes for this one.)

— Zebda / Essence Ordinaire
(A coworker once told me that Hip Hop sucked except for French Hip Hop, so I had to go get some French Hip Hop. Gerald from Belgium turned me onto this group in Cuenca, Ecuador. I copied him some A Guy Called Gerald. He liked it.)

— Gilberto Gil / Kaya N’Gan Daya
(Huanchaco, Peru Jason and I were sitting around by the beach. He was making jewelry, I was kicking the hackysack when a guy approached selling some scratched old and probably stolen CD’s. I bought a few, this was among them, scratched hopelessly beyond playability. Bob Marley covers taken Brazilian Style)

— The Great Bluesmen (Vanguard)
(I copped this record from the collection of my stepdad Sparky and loved it so much that I digitised one of the records and made a CD of it. Well I found a professionally produced version used, It’s good to have.)

— Handsome Boy Modeling School
(I had it on mp3, thanks Simone, but the tracks were all out of order. I found this used and had to get it, I like to be supporting Dan the Automator and Prince Paul even if it’s just through a used purchase.)

— Bjork / Medulla
(I actually was supposed to get Gling Gl� on a reccomendation but I didn’t write it down so I bought Medulla, I doubt I’ll be disappointed since I love Selmasongs and Vespertine,… Bjork’s latest studio works.)

— dead prez / RBG
(I think I read about this on someone’s blog… I wonder if it was this one. The Prince Far I collection was just too much for me to get today as well.)

— Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry / The Wonderman Years (2 Discs)
(Reccomended by Nicole at Alex and Becca’s wedding)

— the moldy peaches
(Played to me by Jochen the Austrian in Coroico, Bolivia and I got to copy some from him and had to buy the CD to support the group.)

— Charlie Brown Jr. - Acoustico
(Reccomended by some cats in Buenos Aires, I think I bought one CD from this guy in Bueos Aires but I got some Carlinhos Brown instead which is different. Gotta try again. It’s supposed to be Brazilian Hip Hop.)

$204.21

I’m glad I don’t spend money on Cigarettes or Crack or something. I feel great. This has been a long time coming :) And I was glad to find record stores that had just about all I was looking for.

99 Bottles...

What a wedding, thanks Alex and Becca :)

Read It On My Blog

So it’s been a while. Kinda had my hands full for a bit there, finally found myself a nice Saturday to decompress and just hang around. cook a yummy breakfast, hit some yard sales.

Interesting developments here, and I’m not sure if how to tell this, chronologically, blurt it, like a thriller, like a choose-your-own-story, I’ve got a lot to say…

Here goes something,…

I don’t want any fucking mysteries about all this…

It was maybe a year ago I found two eety-bitty needle-head size hard spots on my left testicle, hmm, they’ll just go away I thought and I’ve got a big trip to plan and I’m not gonna worry about this right now and I’m abuot to bust out of Boston and it’s just too much to worry about…

We are whisked away to a bike ride in Bolivia where I was a bit uncomfortable ‘cause that darned left nut had gotten a bit harder and swollen and after hours of biking was definitely noticeable, I rode on my right butt cheek most of the way down. Hmmm, something’s definitely up, shit, but I’m in Bolivia and will be back in the states in a month, ok, let’s ride this out.

Back in the US, the problem persisted, I was trying to figure out what to do about it all getting antsy to go see a doctor but medical fees were frightening me, when I got a job offer out here in San Fran that was perfect because I wanted to move out here anyway and it meant some insurance so I could get my little affliction taken care of.

So insurance came through. I made an appointment with a doc and he referred me to get an scrotal ultrasound and go see a urologist… another few weeks pass and I finally get to see the urologist last Thursday.

He examines me and says there’s a 95% chance of testicular cancer given my symptoms. Either way he’d have to give me an orchiectomy because the odds of a malignant tumor are so high and they need to do a pathology report on the tissue anyway, plus it was good getting this growing brick out from between my legs.

“The sooner the better” he said. “Doing anything this weekend?”

So I signed up to meet him at the office at 2:30pm on Friday.

I spent most of the evening on the phone with relatives, slept a good sleep, took friday off of work and ha me a nice lazy morning. Coffeeshops. Mellow walk around the neighborhood. Some yummi Sushi. Once at the office I was shuttled around to do an EKG to make sure my heart was ok for general anesthesia, some blood tests (AFP and Beta-HCG) and a chest X-Ray.

These test are basically designed to let the docs diagnose what I’ve got and how far it’s spread. Whee… So I was supposed to get the surgery at about 5pm but had never had surgery and didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to eat for 6 hours before. Crap. We had to push back to 8pm. I could have watched the Prez debate but I wasn’t really in the mood. I was more intent on thinking. Pondering. Relaxing.

At 8:30 it was time, I got some stuff squirted into my blood stream and became very sleepy. I awoke shivering though I wasn’t cold. They put something else in to my blood stream and I stopped shivering. The doc said he’s see me in the morning and soon I was carted away to my room where another guy was waiting.

We were quite the spectacle. A 35 and a 27 year old sharing a room in the hospital. Our total age was probably less than that of most other individual patients on the floor. The nurses kept making comments about that, we were the Kindergarten :)

I slept a morphinated sleep, the only painkiller I took in the hospital stay. After that it was just bedrest for me, no more drugs. Saturday I waited a long time to get a CT Scan that helps determine if Ihave any abnormally large lymh nodes in my body, signs of cancerous advancement. I also got injected with some radioactive isotope that penetraded around my bones for a scan later in the day. I got to see an image of my skeleton on the screen. That was totally worth the 30 minutes of lying still :)

My belly was hurting,in nurse-speak I wasn’t moving my bowels or passing gas and since I can’t much demand anything of my roomates and the insurance would cover it I ended up staying in the hospital until Monday morning when I had started farting and pooping again. Yay Poop!!!

I took Tuesday off work and started heading in again on Wednesday afternoon. I’ve been kinda doped up though not getting a lot done but it’s good to stay in the loop being that we’re starting a new phase of the project.

I heard from the urologist and it turns out I’ve got Seminoma, a type of cancer cell, well hopefully it’s all gone now after the initial operation but there’ll probably be a radiation therapy treatment to eradicate any holdout malignant cells. There’s no sure way of knowing if they’ve spread so it’s best to Kill’ Em All! My dad (being a doctor) has gotten all the charts faxed to him in Germany and is consulting some specialists there so it’ll be like getting a second opinion.

So now I’m lying here cause sitting still hurts a little bit. Can’t lift nuthin’. Got half my pubes shorn off and coered by a plastic layer so I can actually take a shower and I pop a Vicodin if it hurts too much.

I was gonna rant about the health system where you have to put off getting something treated until you are insured and then it just gets more extreme and even puts you in danger but I’m getting hungry and am about to dart off into the kitchen to make me some yummy miso soup. Mhhhhhh.

I feel good. This is all a slight stumbling block but there’s no good reason I should not be able to move through it and be kickin’ it around just like before, but well, with one less nut. It feels weird having a prosthetic nut but I guess it’s better than none at all, and hey, imagine the pick-up lines ;)

O yeah, wanna see something gross ?

Finally Internet

Woohoo, after figuring out that i need to explicitly tell my new wireless router to connect at 10Mbps I’m now up and running from home. Stupid D-Link doesn’t autonegotiate. What type o’ shit is that?