Facebooking

So another thing that happened over the weekend is that I joined Facebook. I've been considering it for a while now. For the most part it seemed that there were more people using it more actively than they did myspace. A good number of my family members are on facebook and not myspace. So it's really an effort to get more in the loop with more people that I would like to be better connected to. I'm also tired of how annoying myspace pages can be. I really like the fact that facebook doesn't have the crazy backgrounds and it doesn't take 3 years to load someone's profile because of all the music and video clips that they have on it.

Facebook does have other advantages though. Overall, it integrates incredibly well with my greater digital life. You can configure it so that when you update twitter, it also sets your status on facebook. Also, I've got it set to import blog posts from this blog as stories on my wall. It will also import items I share from my Google Reader list and post them on my wall. So in a sense, facebook has quickly become a kind of hub where someone can go and in one centralized place, keep up with me.

So other than facebook, I finished getting the yard cut yesterday. After it rains today though, I'm probably going to have to cut it again Saturday. Hopefully it doesn't get too thick between now and then. I've also got to get a new belt for the lawnmower. I guess the jungle was just too much for it. I went to blow off the driveway and it gave out on me.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

A Busy, Non-Busy Weekend

Overall, we have put another good weekend in the books.

Friday went well. The doctor said that my heart sounded and looked great and just to come back in a year. We had dinner with Courtney and Edwin and Harry and Heather. Courtney and Edwin suggested a place called Zea's. All their meat was cooked on a rotisserie and it was pretty doggone good. So we had good food and a good time catching up with them and then unfortunately had to come on home since we couldn't find a dog sitter.

Saturday we didn't really do much of anything. I played some Gears with Edwin online and then DeAnne and I made our first real trip to Wal-Mart in probably 2 weeks or more. Things have been so crazy lately that we just haven't had time to make a real grocery run to the store. We really didn't need that much either since we haven't really ate a whole lot at the house lately.

Anyway, after we got home DeAnne made me download Dr. Mario on the Wii. Courtney introduced DeAnne to this revised version of the classic and she's been obsessed ever since. I had to tear her away so we could go eat dinner with Dad and Sherry. After we ate dinner, we came back home and I started playing the new Prince of Persia on the 360. Don was nice enough to let me borrow it. It's a beautiful game and I'm really enjoying it so far. I haven't gotten very far, but I don't think the game is very long either, so maybe it won't take me too long to get through it.

Sunday was the first time we've actually both been able to be at church for both services and Sunday School and D.T. for weeks. It was really nice, too. We had lunch with DeAnne's Mom (it was like the weekend to eat with people evidently) and when we got back, I started on the one thing I dislike about the spring and summer more than anything else: cutting the grass. Or rather, hacking down the jungle in this case. I've got to finish up this afternoon and then I'm probably going to have to do it all again Saturday since it's supposed to rain again this week.

So that was the weekend. I'm proud to say that we are both now fairly healthy. I'm fully recovered from the stomach bug and while I still have a little bit of a cough, I think I'm close to being rid of it. Also, I joined facebook on Saturday. If you read this and you're on facebook and I haven't added you as a friend yet, then look me up and add me. Finally, be sure to check out the video I posted on Saturday from the new Batman game. I've watched it several times and every time I watch it, I get more excited for this game.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Batman: Arkham Asylum

There's a new Batman game in the works called Batman: Arkham Asylum and it looks awesome:

Two Days Down

I apologize for not blogging the past couple of days. If you've been coming here and happened to notice my twitter updates, you know that I caught the stomach bug. I don't think I've ever had it that bad before. I even ran a fever Wednesday afternoon. I'm feeling a lot better this morning though, so hopefully I'm past it.

You'll have to forgive any poor spelling or grammar this morning. I'm having to write this from my phone. It seems that the storm has taken out our internet connection. We'll be leaving for Mobile in a little while for my cardiologist appointment. Our dog sitter backed out on
us, so we're not going to be able to stay like we planned, but we're still going to meet up with Courtney and Edwin for dinner. I'm just hoping that the weather lets up for the drive down there. Looking at the forecast, it should, but you never know.

Have a good Friday and a good weekend and hopefully I'll be back to normal on Monday.

--Paul

EDIT: After checking the blog Saturday morning, I went in and re-edited this post. It looked horrible and I apologize. I guess I need to look in to how things appear when I email them in from my phone.

Doing Better

DeAnne's doing better. She was a little weak all day yesterday, but she wasn't sick on her stomach any more. Hopefully it was short lived and I don't wind up with it. I thought I was doing better until late yesterday afternoon. For some reason, I got hot and couldn't get cooled off and once I got hot, I started coughing again. I guess we'll have to see how things go today.

The rest of the week should be fairly busy. We've got a software vendor coming on-site at work to help us install a new product. He'll be here through Thursday. The software is actually pretty cool. In a nutshell, it scans a PC and creates a white list of every file on the machine that's executable. Then it locks the PC down so that only those files on the white list can run. So if you've got this on a PC and you plug a USB drive that has a virus on it into the machine, the virus files aren't on the white list and can't execute and install. The biggest catch is that the machine needs to be clean before you install the software or you'll just white list something bad.

I started playing the GTA:IV download add-on last night. I didn't get very far, but it's pretty cool. It's awesome that they can take the graphics and game engine on the disk, install some files on the hard drive and then you've basically got a whole new game. The town and all is still the same, but it's new characters, new missions, new weapons, new radio content, new everything outside of the map and the graphics. It's the way that all game makers should do expansion type content from now on.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Always Something

Overall, I would say we had a pretty good weekend. We didn't really do much Friday, but Saturday, we spent all day out at the Point A camp grounds with DeAnne's family. It's the first time the reunion has been at Point A, and while some of the out-of-town family weren't crazy about having to find a new place, I thought it was pretty nice. I was really surprised at how many people were there camping. The place was pretty much full. So we had a good time with that. We finished up the night playing a round of Mexican Train dominoes until about 11:00. It's a fun game, but it can really go on forever. I think both DeAnne and I ate our weight in food. Each. There's always a pile of food and it's always good, but I think we may have both overdone it this year.

Yesterday was pretty miserable for both of us. DeAnne was helping host a shower at her Mom's, so she went off to help with that as soon as she woke up. I went to church and stayed at the house trying to catch up on the laundry. Both of us were having stomach problems though. I never threw up, but last night after DeAnne got back from her Mom's house, she started complaining about being nauseated. It eventually happened and then happened another 3 or 4 times until I think she finally passed out from exhaustion around midnight. She was on the couch and I didn't hear her get up anymore past 12:00, so I'm hoping she's past the worst of it and that she'll be better today. After her being sick for a month and then me being sick for 3 weeks, the last thing we really need is for her to be sick for another couple of days.

Speaking of sickness, I think...think...I may be getting over mine. I'm still coughing, but it's not as hard and not as often as it was. I've finished taking all my medicines, so I'm a little worried that since I'm not back to 100%, I may relapse, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

So that's about it. Hopefully this week won't be as crazy as last week was. We've got a trip to Mobile on Friday for my annual heart checkup, so it'll at least be a short work week. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

I'm Really Beginning To Like Glenn Back

Edwin just emailed me this video.  The more of Glenn Beck I watch, the more I like the guy.

Weekend, Here We Come

Well, we've made it to another Friday. We should have a fun weekend. As I've mentioned before, DeAnne's annual family reunion is this weekend. It'll run tonight and all day tomorrow. Her family is just crazy enough to be a whole lot of fun to be around. You never know what to expect or who will be there.

I'm still coughing this morning, but it's not nearly as bad as it has been. I went back for a follow-up yesterday and the doctor said that my lungs sounded a lot clearer than they did on Monday. He said by next week, I should be back to normal and if I'm not, just to come back. Hopefully this will be the end of it. My stomach and back are sore from the coughing and I would give anything to make it through the night without waking up.

DeAnne spent the night with her Mom last night. They're on their way to Montgomery this morning for DeAnne's follow-up with her back doctor. She's been doing fine since the last time he saw her. The meds he gave her really seemed to help calm her back down and it also helped her get over her cold. I think the cold may have played a part in her back hurting even. I don't have anything to prove it, but that's the first time she's been in that much pain since her surgery and it's also the sickest she's been since then.

So, that's about it. I'm still exploring twitter, but so far, I think I like it. More so for the updates from the people I'm following than giving updates myself I think, but we'll see. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Here We Go A Twittering

So one of the big new craze things on the internet is Twitter. Twitter is a fairly basic social networking site that allows you to write messages that have a maximum length of 140 characters. It's designed to keep people you know up to date on what you're doing. You can see some of my "tweets" from yesterday in the little window I added on the right of my blog. There aren't very many actual people I've found on twitter yet, but there are a number of companies and blog website that I follow that have twitter accounts where they might post information before they write up a story. For instance, DISH Network has a twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/dishnetwork. They're handling some customer support requests and have given out some clues as to when new channels were coming online. I haven't decided how much I actually like posting my own updates yet. I'm going to give it shot for a little while and see how it goes. If you're on twitter and want to follow me or if you're not on twitter, you can still view my page at http://www.twitter.com/jpdubose.

I'm going back to the doctor again this afternoon for a followup. I'm feeling like I'm a bit better, but I guess we'll see what he says once he listens to me.

Also, don't miss the extra blog I emailed in yesterday about Glenn Beck's 9-12 Project. You all really should go and read this website through. It's great stuff.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

The 9-12 Project

I just wanted to email this in to the blog real quick.  It's a link to something called the 9-12 Project.  It was started by Fox News anchor Glenn Beck.  It's a grass-roots movement with the objective of mobilizing the people in America who feel like the country isn't going in the direction it needs to be.  Just take a look at the website, especially the "9 Principles" and the "12 Values", and if you agree with what they're doing, keep an eye on the website and get involved where you can.  It has links to a site where you can type in your zip code and get contact information for both your state and federal elected officials and things such as that.  The site address is:  http://theglennbeck912project.com/

--Paul

It's That Time Of Year Again

Well, this weekend marks the annual "Snell Family Reunion". It's for DeAnne's mother's family. Her sister and brother-in-law came in from Utah yesterday. We went over to Kinston yesterday afternoon thinking that they would be making it in around 6:30 or 7:00, but they managed to get there early, around 5:45. It's good to see them again. We haven't seen Sara since last year's reunion and at that time, Mike (Sara's husband) was in Iraq, so we haven't seen him since Christmas of 2007. It was good to see them, I just wish I wasn't still sick.

Speaking of being sick, I had a decent day yesterday, but last night was pretty rough. I don't think I got that much sleep. I ended up going and getting on the couch so I wouldn't disturbe DeAnne so much, but I don't know how much that helped. I do think it's improving though. I can feel the mess in my lung rattling around some, so I'm pretty sure it's starting to come loose. It's just a matter of getting it to come out.

That's about all I've got for today. Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

I Saw The Doctor Again

Well, I went to the doctor again yesterday afternoon and he gave me a good work over. I had a chest x-ray, did a breathing treatment, got a shot of steroids, a shot of antibiotic, blood work, and then he prescribed me another antibiotic and an oral steroid. The antibiotic shot actually clogged the needle, so the nurse had to get another needle and poke me again, so I ended up having four shots yesterday. It was a long visit but if all this mess gets me better, then I'm more than happy to have gone through it.

Last night marked the first episode of 24 I've been able to watch in HD and it was great. The FOX channel seemed to be having some problems with hiccups here and there, but it wasn't anything to the extent of what was going on on ABC the other day. I did check on ABC the other night and it looks like whatever was going on, they got it fixed. Hopefully everything will be good for Wednesday when Lost comes on.

Well, I know it's short, but I've got to get going. Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Had A Good Weekend

We had a great weekend, actually. Other than me still being sick, that is. Courtney invited us to a party she was having to get to know some of her co-workers at her new job. We rested up on Friday and went down Saturday and came back yesterday afternoon. The party was fun and we just had a good time overall (as always).

I'm going to call the doctor again today and see if he can't try something else. I finished my antibiotic on Friday and while I've started coughing up some stuff, it's not really gotten any better than that. I feel okay, but just can't stop coughing still and I can still hear all that mess rattling around in my lung.

Edwin and I had some time Saturday afternoon while the girls were out to try out Left 4 Dead. We're hoping to play it online, but since I was down there and we hadn't had a chance to play online yet, we figured we'd just check in out in split-screen. It's a pretty cool game. It's totally built around co-op and helping out the team. It's made for a team of 4 (as in the title), so the computer was controlling two of our team members, and it did okay, but I could see where having a fully human controlled team would be ideal.

So that's all I've got for today. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Is It Ever Going To End?

Last night I had a relapse or something. I think I had a fever again and I felt terrible for most of the night. For some reason though, I think I'm feeling better this morning than I have all week. The crud in my chest is definitely loose when I cough now, so that's an improvement. Maybe I can shake it over the weekend. We're supposed to be going to Mobile for the weekend, so maybe that'll keep my mind of my sickness.

Well, after DISH turned on our HD locals and I told DeAnne that she would get to watch her Thursday night shows in HD, out of the three they turned on there's something wrong with ABC. The station continually breaks up and pauses and pixilates and it's to the extreme that the channel is just un-watchable. I had already changed all of our DVR timers too, so it recorded Grey's and Ugly Betty before we realized what was going on. I was able to change the Private Practice timer back to the SD channel, but I'm going to have to find another way for her to see the other two shows.

Instead of her shows though, we watched "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist". It was a pretty good movie. I've come to really like Michael Cera, the guy that plays the lead male role in the movie. He was also in Superbad and Juno. He just seems like he'd be a cool guy to hang out with. Anyway, "Nick and Nora" was pretty awesome.

Have a good Friday and a good weekend.

--Paul

Still Sick, But Some Good News Yesterday

I'm still sick but it seems like it's starting to break up. Or maybe I'm just being overly optimistic and wishing it would break up.

I ended up coming home a couple of hours early from work yesterday in an attempt to get some rest and try and fight off the sickness. I turned on the TV and low and behold, DISH has turned on the Montgomery locals in HD! We're missing WAKA (CBS), but we've now got the other three in HD. So we're finally going to be able to watch the majority of our shows in HD. I'm pretty excited. The main reason we switched to DISH was to get some HD channels. Not long after we switched, the cable company added all the locals except for FOX. I was a little disappointed, because we watch more stuff on the networks than we do other channels. Since then though, DISH has added a pretty steady stream of other HD channels and began promising more locals in HD. I decided to wait it out and now I'm glad I did.

Well, it's time to go. Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

I'm Trying Not To Complain Anymore

I really am trying not to complain about being sick, but I don't think I'm going to be able to hold out. The coughing is really starting to drive me crazy. I'm sure DeAnne's tired of it. I'm beginning to wonder if the antibiotics are doing any good. It's been a week now since I went to see the doctor. I've got a few days left of them, but come Monday, if I'm not any better, I guess I'll be going back to see about trying something else.

There's really not much else to talk about. Being sick has pretty much taken control of my life. I'm exhausted because I can't get a good night's sleep. I would love to just take a day off and rest, but I really can't afford to.

Something we did splurge on with the tax refund (or rather, I splurged on) was a GPS. Amazon was running a deal on a Garmin 205 last week, so I decided to grab one. We went to DeAnne's mom's last night for dinner and just to try it out, we let it run on the way over and the way back. It's pretty cool. We don't go places very often, but it'll be nice to have when we do go somewhere. It'll also be nice to have for business trips. It's also cool just to have when you go out of town, even if you know where you're going. It'll tell you how fast you're going and give you an estimated arrival time plus it's kind of neat just being able to see where you are.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Still Not Feeling Any Better

Well, that may not be entirely true. I guess I do feel a little better, but I still can't stop coughing. The cough is really about to drive me crazy. The cough syrup that the doctor gave me helps for a little while, but take last night for instance. I took some before I went to be and it lasted until about 4:00 this morning. I've barely been able to stop since then. I had to get up and go to the couch just so DeAnne could get some sleep. The stuff in my lungs does seem to be loosing up though, so maybe it'll come on out in the next day or two. I've got 4 days of antibiotic left, so hopefully by the time I finish that, I'll be better.

Something cool for all of you who read this that go to Carolina or those that don't that may be interested in the church we attend: I've added a player to the church's website for Bro. Matt's sermons. You can go to the church's website: http://www.carolinasbc.com and click on "Listen Now" on the right or you can go there directly.

I've only got the sermon from March 1 up so far, but once I get the CDs, I'm going to start working on getting some of the older ones up there also. Hopefully, I'll be able to get each week's Sunday morning sermon up that same afternoon. The player is actually pretty neat. Down at the very bottom of it, there are buttons where you can subscribe to it through iTunes, so if you have an iPod, when you plug it in and launch iTunes, it will download the latest new sermons and copy them to your ipod for you. If you have a webbrowser on your phone you can go to http://www.sermonplayer.mobi/carolinasbc/ and download the sermons to your phone. Or you can also download an independant player to your desktop that will update via the internet so that you don't have to go to the website every time you want to listen. Also, on the "Details" tab, you can just download the raw .mp3 file if you want to keep a copy or burn one to a CD. Then the "Bible" tab actually has a searchable Bible you can use while you're listening.

That's all for today. Have a great Tuesday.

--Paul

Tired of Coughing

I had hoped that by now my sickness would be winding down, but it seems to still be going strong. I got to coughing so bad last night that we had to leave church. It's still pretty bad this morning.

As you can imagine, with me not feeling well, we didn't do a whole lot this past weekend. Friday we just sat at the house and watched TV. We did hang out with Bryan and Adrienne some on Saturday night. We haven't had much time to do anything with them lately, so it was nice to spend some time with them. I managed to make it through Sunday School and Morning Worship yesterday, but I was pretty bad off during DT, and once singing was over, I couldn't cover up the coughing anymore.

If the weather would just decide if it wanted to be Spring or not, then that would probably go a long way towards helping out. It would just be nice if both DeAnne and I could be healthy at the same time for once. She was sick for a month and now just as she was starting to get better, I've come down with this mess. Hopefully I can shake it before too much longer.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Overslept

Sorry, but no real blog this morning.  At some point in my cough-inflicted sleep, I must have turned off the alarm clock.  Apologies and have a good weekend.

--Paul

Well, It's Not Flu

The Doctor said I didn't have flu or pneumonia, so that's good. He didn't really say what I have though either. He gave me some antibiotic and some cough syrup and said if that doesn't clear it up to come back. I did have a slight fever when I got to the doctor's office yesterday and I was feeling bad enough that I just came home after getting my prescriptions filled. I still haven't decided if I'm going to try and go to work today. The doctor didn't say anything about staying out of work and I hate to waste the time. Of course, if I get there and start feeling bad, then I can just come home but I hate to get ready and all just to turn around and leave. Also, with the laptop, I can do some work from the house. I don't know. I think I'm going to try and go anyway.

At any rate. I'm running late and the dog's barking at something, so that's going to be it for today. Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

Sick, Again

Well, DeAnne may be making a speedy recovery from her sickness, but it looks like I'm now coming down with something. I didn't feel too good either Monday or yesterday and last night I started coughing. This morning, I'm coughing pretty steadily. It's a dry cough and I don't have a fever so I'm hoping if I can get to the doctor today and start taking some meds I can head it off before it gets too bad.

I did get to watch 24 last night and man it was good. I've been trying to hold off on any declarations until closer to the end of the season simply because the story could go south at any time, but after this week's two hours, I think it's safe to say: Best. Season. Ever.

We've still be watching American Idol and except for a couple of the contestants, I've been pretty disappointed with who they've picked this year. Maybe it'll get better once we get into the top 12, but so far, there's a lot of dead weight.

I think that's going to do it for today. I'm not moving as well as I normally do, so it's probably going to take me a little longer to finish getting ready this morning. Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

The Xbox Is Back!

The xbox finally arrived yesterday afternoon. DeAnne called me and after about 30 minutes and her emailing me pictures of what she had connected, she finally got it up and running. I was surprised when I got home that she had already quit playing Fable. I figured she would be playing the dog out of it, but she didn't. One of the funny things about it all: In Fable you can purchase and rent property and make money. Every five minutes your income from your businesses and rentals comes in. This is true even if you're not playing the game. When you load your game, it sees how long it's been since you last played and figures up how much gold you've earned. After two weeks, when I loaded my game up last night, I had earn about 980,000 gold.

I also started downloading the new Grand Theft Auto IV add-on pack. It's probably going to take a while to get it downloaded though. The package is about 1.8GB. That's about equilivant of the amount of space that 500 songs on an ipod take up.

I didn't get to see 24 last night. I was tied up with something else and couldn't make it. Hopefully I can watch it tonight.

That's going to do it for today. Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Welcome To The New Week

It's a new week and yesterday also marked the beginning of a new month. It's hard to imagine that two months of 2009 are already gone. Next week, daylight saving time begins. I know that's only because they moved it back a few years ago, but still. Time really seems to be moving fast.

We had a good weekend. We went over to Enterprise on Friday night to look for a loveseat. I promised DeAnne that we could use some of the tax refund to buy a loveseat for the living room. We've never really had enough seating in the living room, so we're going to move the chair and the ottoman into the office for a sitting area type deal, and then have this new loveseat where the chair used to sit. We didn't find anything in Enterprise though. We wound up getting something from Barrows on Saturday. We were hoping to just be able to get the loveseat that matched our couch, but they've discontinued the line and we couldn't get it. So, we ended up with something that's kind of like a loveseat, but the end of it has a chaise on it. You would just have to see it to understand. It's going to be a few weeks before it comes in because we wanted a different fabric, but I'll post pictures when we get it.

So that was Saturday also. We also did a little clothes shopping. I needed some new shirts for spring/summer and DeAnne's always in need of a few things, so we got me three shirts and her a pair of pants. I still need a couple of pairs of jeans, but we couldn't find anything. The biggest downside to being of average height and weight is that everybody else in the average is looking for the same size pants your are.

Sunday, we just laid around in between church. TBS was running the Lord of the Rings triology, so we just watched that for four or five hours. Church was really great yesterday. It really seems that the Lord is moving at Carolina. Here lately, each week has been better than the last.

DeAnne's doing a good bit better. She's not 100% yet, but I think she's finally past the worst of it. Thank you to anyone and everyone who prayed for her.

I think that's about it. Not a bad post if I say so myself. The xbox is being delievered today. I don't know who's more excited to get it back, me or DeAnne. I just hope she doesn't kill it again in a week playing Fable. Oh, and 24 is two hours tonight. Awesome. Have a good Monday.

--Paul