I don't know what they were thinking, but the kind folks at Duckon ( especially Jan DiMasi) have asked me to be the Filk Fund guest at Duckon in June of next year.

Obligatory web link here: http://www.duckon.org/

Talis Kimberley is the Guest of Honor, and we've already started talking about collaborating - and that's got me as excited as my own concert plans.

I'm very happy about this - I have some new songs to inflict upon introduce to the folks who are there - as well as the anticipated medley of my hit. And honestly, I had figured that filk had forgotten about me a long time ago. Kids and budgets and work and the like don't make for good con attendance - and I've been pretty much absent since my Toastmastership at OVFF a few years ago.

I'm looking forward to it - and I hope to see a lot of people there that I haven't seen in a long time.

We're closing in on the #1 spot... keep up the voting! And thank you!

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She's lost one place! We're down to #3 - We can do it!

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Pre-Diabetes. Hemoglobin A1C is 5.9% .2% away from the Diabetes threshold.

So, no meds. Eat right and exercise, lose 20lbs and things should be better.

Piece of cake. Oh wait - no cake.

Easy as pie - No, no pie either.

Simple as un-buttered popcorn. Yum.

Call from the Dr. today - test results for my Glucose Tolerance Test are in, and they are "not normal". *sigh* I think the blood sugar monster has finally caught up with me. Into the Dr. office tomorrow - hopefully it's "minor" not normal, as opposed to "major" not normal.

Easter is the time for biting the ears off of brown rabbits.

Yummm...

Yes, that's me. Mr. Herniated. Herniated disk at c7, bulging on right side, pinching the nerve which is causing the numbness and tingling in my right arm, shoulder, elbow and hand. Mostly, the numb forefinger that I've had for weeks.

Oh boy. Next stop - Neurosurgeon. My guess is the answer will be "Surgery Now" or "Surgery Later" - disks don't repair themselves, even with drugs and therapy.

So, I'm a little depressed about this.

Getting old sucks.

The Captains recorded. And now we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Not bad for an initial trip to studio-land and us figuring out how to do this as a band. We must be good or something. :)

You can listen (and download if you are so inclined) the first Captains studio MP3 from the Captain's web site.

What, you don't have it bookmarked? Let me help you...

http://www.captainsofthechessteam.com/pieces.php#bittorrent

Enjoy.

The Captains of the Chess Team - the nerd rock band that I am proud to be a member of, took this last weekend to start our long awaited recording project. It was a blast, and while the final mix isn't "in the can" yet, it's turning out to be quite good. We're better than we thought we were. :) I can't wait to share with everyone, but for now, you can look at the pics and imagine. :D

I have it. In spades. At least my right arm. At the shoulder and the elbow. I'm told by my Primary Care Physician that it's likely due to repetitive motion from mousing and typing. Since that's my job nearly 12 hours a day, it's been difficult.

I'm wearing an ace support bandage on my elbow and my wrist - and I've now taken to wearing a sling while I'm on breaks or while I'm not actively working. I'm taking Naproxen (550mg 2x per day) and am in the middle of a course of steroids (medrol). It's all helping somewhat, but I'm still in pain most of the time, and my arm below the elbow tends to go tingly and numb if I put my arm in the wrong position for more than a few seconds. This includes the position it must be in to drive, so driving home is an interesting experience these days.

And of course, we are getting ready to ship our "green light" deliverable at work, meaning I've been doing documentation for the last week.

Yay me.

Ow.

Did a very guitar geeky thing this week.

After trying in vain to find someplace that would sell me a set of Lindy Fralin Blues Specials for several days, I did some research on other boutique guitar pickup builders, and found O.C. Duff. I hadn't heard Duff's (I have heard Fralin's) and so I sent him an email asking some questions and seeking his advice. He actually answered me, we had a nice conversation, and I order pickups from him that he is custom winding to meet the tonal requirements that I described. How cool is that? It's not a "set" - it's MINE. :) I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

( Details of what I'm doin' here, cut for the guitar tech ambivalent )

So if you ever are in the market for custom pickups for your electric guitar, I highly recommend O.C. Duff. I'll be sure to give a full review when I get them and get them installed.

The Captain's of the Chess Team have opened up their very own Online store.

You know you want a Captains of the Chess Team t-shirt! :)

http://www.cafepress.com/Captain_Chess

New items added continually as we have inspiration and time.

to my friend whim_wham! Hope you have an excellent (and dry) day! :)

My lovely and talented much better half got me tickets to see The Pretenders at Stubbs (in Austin) in March.

How cool is that?

May the best year of your past be the worst year of your future.

Well worth a read, if you haven't seen it yet. :)


2008 Foot-in-Mouth Awards | Epicenter from Wired.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7778963.stm

The world will never forget you.

After a night at the Marriot without kids, we spent the redt if the day cooking, napping, and playing Wii Sports as a family. The kids attempted to OD on their grandparents, and a goodtime was had by all.

Tomorrow we eat in the gluttony that is Thabksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving (US) to all!

We are here in rainy Southern California. The kids are still adjusting to the new time zone, but all in all we're doing okay. I'm still updating my Twitter stream and, for those who just CAN'T get enough, I'm uploading random photos from our adventures into the Mobile Uploads folder on my Facebook page. View at your own risk.