Benign

My sister just left the doctor's office and called me.  She had a growth/tumor on her Thyroid and the doctor ordered a biopsy recently.  Thankfully she found out today that it was benign.  She was especially worried because she's known people with thyroid cancer and the fact that my parents have both lived through cancer in the past few years.

This does remind me of a child's medical dictionary.  What is benign?  What you will be after you're eight.  ;-)

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Audio Advertisements

I think these bug me more than anything on-line, though expanding ads might be tied with these for annoyance.  Those are particularly aggravating when I'm trying to read a short news article and the expanding ad blocks the entire article!

I understand that advertising is needed to support sites and that if I don't pay for premium service (where offered) I will usually see it.  I don't have a problem with this.  Using Firefox I can block images from common ad servers so a certain number of ads never appear.  Others I simply ignore.  However, it is difficult to ignore an ad that starts playing sound (typically synced to a video).  It is especially annoying though when you've already scrolled past it and must look through the page to turn it off.

Sounds should be off by default.  I avoid sites that play music which you cannot easily turn off by default.  I would rather tell a site that I want to listen to music rather than have to manually turn it off each time I visit.  And of course these ads are worse because periodically they can refresh and a new one that you have to mute will come up.

Unfortunately there must be enough people that actually click on these ads that they stay around.  I only wish this weren't so... :(

~Matt

PS Have I mentioned that I love Firefox 2.0's new features like built-in spell check?  ;-)

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Good night

Well I'm leaving the internet for the night. I'm over at my sister's place. I didn't intend to be here this late, but I just kept watching the shows she was and eventually got hooked into watching an HGTV show as well. Oh well, it wasn't that bad anyway and I wasn't sure what to cook tonight. Now I might just have a bowl of cereal since I can't find my menu...;-)

~Matt

December Visit

Yes, you read that correctly, a visit is coming up in December.  I will be flying to California on the 15th of December arriving late at night and leaving Sunday night to arrive in Cincinnati around seven Monday morning.

It will be insane, but it was my only free weekend before the end of the year.  My grandma will be visiting and this will be my last chance to see my parents in California before they move.  Furthermore their move to Tennessee will probably take them a while and may involve several months of staying with relatives while their new house is built (unless they buy an existing structure) so I'm also looking forward to just seeing them.

All this is to say that I will be back in the great state of California for the December weekend of the 16th and 17th, though my stay will be confined to Orange County. I won't have the time to travel elsewhere.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Where was I

yesterday?  Busy at work.  Then I didn't go on-line yesterday evening, so I forgot to blog in the morning and didn't have an opportunity later.  I'm trying to get back into the daily rhythm and missing days doesn't help this.  I shall endeavor to be more focused and dedicated.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Relaxing

That pretty much sums up the day today.  I had time to cook dinner with two of my nerfs (spaghetti and garlic bread), then we made yogurt pie.  Later I took them to McDonald's when I picked up Ryan and gave them each a free Monopoly McFlurry coupon Ryan had given me earlier.  We came back and enjoyed those along with some apple crisp while we watched the old animated 101 Dalmatians.  Tomorrow I go back into the work-day grind.  However, I am starting to enjoy Sundays as a day of rest.  I don't work on Sundays unless I chose to (as when I'm filling in as supervisor for the Titanic exhibit a couple days).

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

On the Left

Today was a good day at work, though the exhibit was rather busy for a time. Additionally I had a working lunch as I met with my supervisor to talk about an upcoming event and the problems in obtaining staff to work. However, it was the latter part of the day that was the most interesting. I started talking to a fellow staff member. We started talking about TV shows first (she really enjoys Heroes which I have started watching and am addicted to, ;-)) and somehow began to talk politics. She revealed that she is a die hard Democrat (at one point she exclaimed "I like taxes.").

Despite this we had an extensive interesting discussion. We were both calm and rational (though of course I would argue that her thinking was deficiently leaning to the left, ;-)) and enjoyed the discussion. She talked one point about the Republicans that work with her husband and aren't so nice. I think it is sad that people can't always discuss politics more calmly. There have been people I work with that I discover are liberals. Some of them I avoid any mention of politics because I know they won't be rational or willing to hear alternate viewpoints.

Nothing that I heard today inspired me to start voting Democrat but it was fascinating to hear explanations from a liberal--to hear why she thought the way she did. She thinks Clinton was a great president and that not only will the future show this, but that Bush is a horrible president. She also thinks FDR was an awesome president (whereas I think he wasn't that great at all--I think the New Deal really messed up the country). Anyway, it was a new experience discussing politics and I really enjoyed the day.

~Matt

I feel more informed already

I must thank the AP (courtesy of the Jerusalem Post on-line) for such an enlightening article.

Al-Qaida says it has mobilized 12,000 fighters
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt

A new al-Qaida in Iraq audio tape said Friday that the group has mobilized 12,000 fighters.

It must have been agonizingly difficult to craft that piece of journalistic prose.

But wait, here is another!

Al-Qaida vow to reach J'lem, blow up White House
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt

Al-Qaida in Iraq leader vowed in an audio tape released on Friday that his fighters will never rest until they have reached Jerusalem and blown up the White House.

I have no idea why they bothered writing more than the headlines.  I'm going to assume that either the authors weren't paid by the word or their editors didn't have much funding left!  And no, I didn't cut anything off, you're seeing the entire articles.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Oh, isn't that nice?

Here was my other e-mailed attempt, finally coming in the next day! Blogger must have had some major problems yesterday, or perhaps only hates me. *shrugs*

~Matt

Interesting

If you saw this post this morning it was a double-post. I tried to make my previous voting/Titanic post via e-mail twice, but it didn't seem to take, so I re-sent it. Apparently it finally came through at eleven last night. Interesting...

~Matt
[2006.11.10 07:25]

A note on recent posting

Yes I'm back, but I can't spare the time to go to my blog and post directly.  If you see a Cicero quote at the end of the post (such as below) then I'm posting from my Gmail account.  If you see a mention of Givaudan or Maintenance then chances are I sent something from my work account during a break.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Do I yet draw breath?

Aye, I do.  But I've been quite busy.  I'm working between 65 and 70 hours a week.  If I don't have a Museum event then I only have one weeknight a week free (I haven't had one of those for the past 3-4 weeks--only this past Sunday have I had the evening off).  I'm enjoying much of my work (bigg's the least), but I'm so busy.  So yes, I'm alive, but busy and trying to find time for everything critical.

E-mail is the most vital thing I do on-line so I've been active there, and I manage to keep up with web comics (Schlock Mercenary had a great lead-up to Halloween!).  If you haven't heard from me then drop me an e-mail, I should reply.  Other on-line activities I've regretably had to cut back on.  I hope that won't last too long.  I'm in the middle of scrutinizing my budget over the past month and hopefully sometime during this month I'll be able to see if I can afford my own internet access (which I certainly hope works out--life will be much easier amongst its current stress).

For now, adios.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

This is only a test, right?

Yes, I am testing this if I have a couple of minutes to spare.  I hope this publishing via e-mail will work.


~Matt

Matthew Graubner
Maintenance & Repair

Givaudan Flavors Corp.

I'll be around?

I have everything but my clothes moved into my apartment, and I'm just waiting for the washing machine to finish with them. I'm going to go over there now and start putting more things away. I should be back on-line later tonight to post my long overdue Superheroes episode revisement, and check some e-mail, but after that I have no idea when I'll be on-line next. I work at both jobs tomorrow and so I won't be home until after ten, so I might go over to my sister's to check e-mail, unless I'm too tired. *sigh*

~Matt