OK boys and girls it's time for kewl new software with Jim. The word for the day is Skype. "So what the hell is Skype?", you say? I say, "Potty mouth!", then follow up with, "It's a chat client." But it's a lot more than just that. It's a text chat client, it's an audio chat client and it's a video (beta) chat client. Here's the Skype business model. The SW is FREE! If you've got Skype and your buddy has Skype, you can text, audio and video chat for FREE regardless of your coordinates on the blue marble we call Earth. Did ya hear that? Free communication from Skype-mate to Skype-mate! It gets better. Let's say I'm sitting here on my ThinkPad and I wanna call someone on a POTS (plain old telephone service) land line. Then you Skype Out. Skype Out means you pay $.017 per minute continental and some other paltry amount for international. At essentially a penny a minute, I decided to throw ten bucks into the tip jar before I got my drink. I was impressed to say the least. As I said earlier, the audio quality was amazing. But what was really cool was that I was just sitting there talking into my ThinkPad and getting great phone service. I usually spend between 8 and 14 hours a day in front of my ThinkPad. Now to have a phone wherever I have a network connection, that rates pretty high on my neato scale. Now, if you wanna take the next step, you can Skype In. For twelve bucks for three months or $38 for a year, you can buy a Skype In phone number and you can receive phone calls right to your PC.
So there ya go. If you've got a desktop PC, head down to RadioShack and buy a $6 microphone and plug it in to the mic jack or the line in jack. If you've got at notebook PC, odds are a mic is already incorporated into the keyboard area. Set up a Skype account, install the software and enjoy the kewl.
PS - Regarding the toes, the next x-ray is scheduled for Feb 01. Still hurts, but nothing agonizing. Thanks to everyone for all the offers of help, rides to work and help in general.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Ouch.
For those of you that have read the year end note, the irony is pretty apparent. As the note closed it said we were looking forward to the new year, bla, bla, bla and then followed it up with a PS informing everyone that I had broken my toe. So here's the details...
Karen and I were about to watch a movie an I ran upstairs to get a Clif bar as my movie snack. The upstairs isn't lit in the evenings as David's bedroom is upstairs. The Clif bars were in the room over the garage where the Christmas tree was and thus we had that room cordoned off with a 28" high baby gate. For those of you that know me well, there's only one speed at which to execute and that's full (fool?) speed ahead. As I went to dash through the doorway I hit the baby gate. Unfortunately, the baby gate was on the near side of the doorway meaning the lips that prevented the door from swinging fully also kept the baby gate from moving inward at all. In less than a half second my face was in the carpet on the other side of the baby gate and my feet were now about five and a half feet in the air. It scared the hell out of me, and for a brief second I though, "OK, I've had a spill, but don't think I'm hurt." Turns out I thought too soon. In the second half of that second, the baby gate then collapsed out and away from where my head was leaving my feet to free fall into the floor. The carpet made little difference.
The next day I went to the urgent care center and had an x-ray and in the absence of a radiologist was told that it looked like I had fractured the big bone in my big right toe. The urgent care physician also instructed me to go see an orthopedist ASAP which I did.
The orthopedist did not have good news. The official news was that I had splintered the large bone in my big right toe in at least three places and it appeared that I had also fractured the small bone in that same toe. They also said it was entirely likely that I had broken other toes, but that was not of real concern because unless it's the big toe they really don't do anything for "also broken" toes. Regarding the broken big toe bones the Dr. advised me to take this seriously as the big toe plays a pretty important role in balance and weight bearing.
For the time being, the pain is being managed by some pretty strong stuff called Percocet. No walking or driving or - they actually told me this - no child care if I take two.
I have to go back February 1st for a status check. I'll find out one of two things after this visit. 1) Fragments are staying where they need to be and the bones will heal fine or 2) the bones are not healing in the position desired and, most likely, surgery to correct or better the situation.
I'm pretty depressed about the situation right now and not by way of self pity. Karen now has the joy of caring for two boys each day and her days weren't walks in the park to begin with. I tried going to work this past Monday and aggravated my lower back while at work on crutches. Tuesday and Wednesday I was almost completely immobile.
If I end up not having surgery, then this will all be over by the end of February and we'll see how it goes with running and cycling. I was looking forward to a new schedule of working out in the new year before all this happened and now that's been pushed out quite a bit. I had even done a couple of rides before the new year so that I wasn't starting from zero on January 1st. I've started from less than zero before and I'll do it again. It just gets harder as you get older as most of you old farts know!
I'll hang in there. Pray for my wife, not me.
Karen and I were about to watch a movie an I ran upstairs to get a Clif bar as my movie snack. The upstairs isn't lit in the evenings as David's bedroom is upstairs. The Clif bars were in the room over the garage where the Christmas tree was and thus we had that room cordoned off with a 28" high baby gate. For those of you that know me well, there's only one speed at which to execute and that's full (fool?) speed ahead. As I went to dash through the doorway I hit the baby gate. Unfortunately, the baby gate was on the near side of the doorway meaning the lips that prevented the door from swinging fully also kept the baby gate from moving inward at all. In less than a half second my face was in the carpet on the other side of the baby gate and my feet were now about five and a half feet in the air. It scared the hell out of me, and for a brief second I though, "OK, I've had a spill, but don't think I'm hurt." Turns out I thought too soon. In the second half of that second, the baby gate then collapsed out and away from where my head was leaving my feet to free fall into the floor. The carpet made little difference.
The next day I went to the urgent care center and had an x-ray and in the absence of a radiologist was told that it looked like I had fractured the big bone in my big right toe. The urgent care physician also instructed me to go see an orthopedist ASAP which I did.
The orthopedist did not have good news. The official news was that I had splintered the large bone in my big right toe in at least three places and it appeared that I had also fractured the small bone in that same toe. They also said it was entirely likely that I had broken other toes, but that was not of real concern because unless it's the big toe they really don't do anything for "also broken" toes. Regarding the broken big toe bones the Dr. advised me to take this seriously as the big toe plays a pretty important role in balance and weight bearing.
For the time being, the pain is being managed by some pretty strong stuff called Percocet. No walking or driving or - they actually told me this - no child care if I take two.
I have to go back February 1st for a status check. I'll find out one of two things after this visit. 1) Fragments are staying where they need to be and the bones will heal fine or 2) the bones are not healing in the position desired and, most likely, surgery to correct or better the situation.
I'm pretty depressed about the situation right now and not by way of self pity. Karen now has the joy of caring for two boys each day and her days weren't walks in the park to begin with. I tried going to work this past Monday and aggravated my lower back while at work on crutches. Tuesday and Wednesday I was almost completely immobile.
If I end up not having surgery, then this will all be over by the end of February and we'll see how it goes with running and cycling. I was looking forward to a new schedule of working out in the new year before all this happened and now that's been pushed out quite a bit. I had even done a couple of rides before the new year so that I wasn't starting from zero on January 1st. I've started from less than zero before and I'll do it again. It just gets harder as you get older as most of you old farts know!
I'll hang in there. Pray for my wife, not me.
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