50th Birthday Gala, and Dragon Voice to Text Program

my 50th birthday came and and went, the wife pour off another gala party one of her specialties. It was a combination birthday party, now that we are both 50, we shared the spotlight. It's always nice to get together with friends, but to be that age and have all four parents attend is particularly nice. We had food stations from around the world, and games with candy prizes from 1962, and boy were they stale! I think a good time was had by all, now to figure out which one of the party guests gave me the flu!

My parents gave me the new Dragon speech to text program, it is the coolest thing I've ever seen! It's also just a tad bit scary to think that after only reading a four-minute script this program can type out just about anything I say. I remember the first computer I bought had voice recognition software, and it was horrible! You had to read in just about the entire Webster's dictionary for the program to work, and even then it didn't work well. If only now the good people at Dragon would develop a program to cut up my steak!

Great Trip, Great Times

Quick not from Boston, Nashua, NH was great! we had a blast up there with the wife's family, what a great group. We now are at my families casa in Medfield, MA. Can't wait to see what good memories this part brings. Sa all in a few, playing with the touch, pretty cool!

Winter Olympics, Kids Still Home, and Still Using Right Hand

Watching the Olympics, so far I haven't seen anything I couldn't do, I mean come on! I'm trying to figure out why speed skaters don't go in a straight line, all that side to side stuff has to slow ya down. And the moguls, is just me, or do they all look the same? The biathlon was cool, they actually showed it this time. Curious how they awarded the winter Olympics to a place that averages 50 degrees in February? Can't wait for curling, my all time fav, if I can live through the figure skating.

Waiting to find out if the girl has school tomorrow, the boy is already off for presidents day. She goes to school in the city, don't know if they are ready for it. Trying to figure out if the light rail is operating on a regular schedule, and if they are open, not observing the holiday. Like I thought, no school for the girl either. Not always right as a parent, but have a pretty good record.

I changed my mouse around to use it with my left hand, the right one isn't cooperating. I'm pretty much amphibious, can use either hand, but the mouse is a little different. Not sure if it's the mouse, or the way I sit, but I can't get it right. I changed it back, was thinking I should ride this out with my right, like you would a rented mule. Trying to figure out how to disable the right mouse button, keep pressing it when I don't mean it.

Atkins, Vitamin D, Multiple Sclerosis, Physical Therapy, and Skype

I was playing around this morning, using my Stumble button, and I came across something I had looked at once, but then forgot about almost immediately. Have you ever heard of Skype? It's a pretty cool site, reminds me of the old Netmeeting, minus the directories. You can do video chats with anyone who also has the program, and you call any ones land line for free. It's no MagicJack, but it has the video chat part, which is nice.

I think sometimes people are uneasy with the idea of others being able to see them while they talk? As you can see, I don't share those concerns! My mother lovingly looked at this picture and, what was her comment, oh yeah, she said I was disgusting! Thanks Maw, I'm sure you meant it with love. That was my leaf blowing outfit, I think it's a sporty look myself.

On the subject of leaf blowing, it did take its toll on my body. I am doing just what I thought I would be up for, sitting in my command center, doing this! The legs are shot, the right hand is little more then a paper weight! The Atkins type diet is going well, 275#s, and I'm feeling better with that type of energy, meaning not bogged down by eating a lot of crap. The vitamin D is doing it's thing I suppose, it hasn't killed me anyway!

I talked to friend from MN, she recharged me, reminding me not to give up. I don't think I am giving up, maybe my complaining looks like it? She is so right, now is time to kick it into high gear! Find the thing that gives me the most relief, and be thankful that it was available at all! I have decided it is time to check on the benefits of physical therapy for MS. I think some of the problems I'm having are stemming from the fact that I am so weak, the big difference being I can feel that now. I hope that makes sense, but I am coming off of 20 years of just feeling the buzz, maybe not being aware that the total lack of energy was actually weakness. I shall let you know.

Multiple Sclerosis, Alternative Energy, and LDN Therapy

Has anybody ever seen the Everex Green gPC's? We actually had one for about 2 weeks. I loved it, the boy wasn't crazy about, it was a Linux based system, so none of his gadgets worked on it. It was quiet, no fan, only drew 2 watts of power off the cpu. You could run Facebook, Utube, Meebo, hey, come to think of it, you could run everything on it besides his itunes! The more I think of it, I should have kept that $200 computer, and returned the boy! I was looking today, they appear to not make them anymore. You can buy them refurbished still, but they want $140 for one of those. Like I said the other day, I have an ongoing project to make a computer out in the shed, I know what operating system I will use, so that's one less thing to worry about.

I got the rest of my cans drilled today, I will begin the construction process this week. I am also looking into the possibility of running a space heater off of a solar panel. The only problem so far is that I have no idea what I'm doing! What can you run off a say a 45 Watt solar panel? Does that mean you can run a 40 watt bulb and have 5 watts left over? What about Ohms law, volts x amps = watts? OK, I don't know what that is about either, but I think it's important! How big a solar array do you need to run one of those things, it uses 1.263 kilowatts per hour? Is that a lot? They are making this difficult, in hopes that I will just knuckle under and pay the man to heat my home, but they are wrong!

Vitamin D goes as scheduled, nothing new to tell. I'm debating starting my LDN regimen, I think I would know now if there was a problem where it came from. Who do I check with to make sure one doesn't cancel out the other, or turn it into acid in my veins? That would stink, having medicine hurt me instead of help me. Truth be told, I'm not going to start another med, I worry I'm already taking too many different things. One to control blood pressure, one to sleep, one to keep me from going nuts, one for the legs cramps, one for the bathroom, and as always, my beloved shot. So, I just wait, and hope.