Surgery, RSS, Wikipedia, and Mixed Drinks

A week ago today I had my fifth surgery to correct what seems to be a chronic pilonidal cyst. It's been a week spent on the couch and almost always heavily doped up. I'd post a picture or two but I'm hoping to increase--not decrease--readership of the blog. Hopefully this will be the last surgery!

Today I enjoyed very much talking to my brother Michael on the phone as well as chatting and sharing pictures using Hello. If you haven't used Hello I highly recommend you install it and give it a try. It's one of Google's tweaked software titles. Like Google it's very fast. Pictures can be dropped from Windows Explorer ([Windows] + E), sent from Picasa, or dropped from a web browser. It's one of the short list of software titles everyone should have on their computer.

For some time now I've heard and read about an open community development called Wikipedia but hadn't used it. Yesterday a Slashdot article led me to discover for myself what the hype has been about. I have been blown away as I've discovered this incredible resource. I wish I'd have had access to this when I was in elementary, junior, and senior high school. It's wonderful. The best part is that it will improve with age as people add articles and correct and add to existing ones. One interesting thing I learned today is that Wichita has a flag. The article about Boston is very good!

Another discovery I made yesterday is Atom/RSS. Like you I've seen the small orange buttons on webpages and blogs. Kirsten read the RSS Specification and a number of other tutorials to me (remember, I'm taking narcotics for pain). It was fun to learn together. We have a great time;) After learning what RSS IS I began to use it. I added several RSS subscriptions to my aggregator of choice, Mozilla Thunderbird. This allows me to read my favorite news sources (Slashdot, Wired, Make, Business 2.0, WSU News, and ACM Queue) just like I read Gmail in Thunderbird already. RSS puts all the news and blogs that I read in one place. I no longer have to go to many different websites to get the information I read every day. Why did it take me so long to discover? I took it one step further when I added this blog to my list of feeds. It is an atom file. See the link in the upper-right corner of this page for the feed url.

I must give two plugs before I end this post. First, last week Kirsten bought me the Microsoft Keyboard Elite for Bluetooth. Most people that know me even a little know that I mostly despise Microsoft and their products. This is one exception! The feel is superb but the other features make it special. The mouse and keyboard each have a smooth scrollwheel with horizontal scroll. The keyboard is bluetooth and has an ample number of programmable buttons. The media buttons are also nice as they allow me to control Winamp without moving my hands from the keyboard. With this new keyboard I rarely have to use the mouse which, by the way, is excellent. In fact, it's a slightly improved version of the one it replaced. The second plug is for Tigerdirect.com. If you haven't shopped from them you should. I recently purchased two new LCD monitors, mounts, and a video card from them. One of the monitors had a dead pixel, was slightly yellow, and the red intermittently went out. I called them and they rushed a new monitor out to me with free shipping. They also had UPS email me a shipper label to return the faulty monitor and they allowed me to add anything to my order and take advantage of the free shipping. Of course this is a win-win but it's still a win for me. Nice touch. It turns out that the main problem with the monitor is a faulty video cable and could have been replaced by me for a few dollars. The new monitor arrived today and works brilliantly (get it?).

Kirsten and I have tried the Raspberry Fucker, Redheaded Slut, Seabreeze, Brain Hemmorhage, Banana Daiquiri, Mudslide, Purple Hooter, Jagermeister, Irish Cream, Sex on the Beach, Buttery Nipple, Mocha Mint, and Woo-woo. There are many more we have marked to try. We're pacing ourselves ;) Leave a comment to let us know what your favorite drink is.