Stupid Hurts

Normally it is no sponsor no race, but the guys over at http://www.brocycle.com/ are trying their best to put together an alleycat. And make alleycats a common thing here in Birmingham.

“The Connect-4“

Registration for the race is on Saturday September 27th at 6pm, and race starts at 7:30pm so please get there early. You may want to bring a bag to carry stuff, but it’s not a requirement, plus I will bring a few extra just in case. Registration costs only $5 and that will cover the cost of beer at the after party for the racers and volunteers. This race is open to all types of riders, but there will be two divisions: fixed and other. don’t want to discriminate against our freewheel friends.

We are going to need a couple of volunteers. I am going to volunteer, but I am sure we will need a few more.

If you want to help out instead of race email the guys over at Brocycle.

Thanks!!!

Stupidhurts.org if in the midst of being completely rebuilt. It is taking a while because I was going from Wordpress 1.3 to Wordpress 2.6. So pretty much everything was outdated. You will see the site go up and down and change several times over the never few days while I get it right, but eventually it will get there. The next step is to find an elegant way to handle my pictures.

Stupidhurts.org has never been updated to a more recent version of wordpress because of the fact it just hasn’t been worth how long it would take considering the site worked fairly well. When I originally built the site I have kinda odd needs, so a lot of the code is heavily hacked and changed. It is part of the reason I am so careful about backing my site up. Partially because I know that if something happens I pretty much refuse to recode it again. The last person saw the back end of my site and the lots of notes referring to the hacks said it was being together by spit and love.

Since I had a seizure and fell down two flights of stairs at my sister’s house were I landed on my head and my broken hand yesterday. I have had some time around the house, so I have decided to try to rebuild my site locally on my computer before I try to upgrade the live version. After setting up a suitable server on my Mac using MAMP which is awesome. It took about two hours to track Wordpress and all the plugins to be semi-sure the site has the same functionally as this one. It doesn’t yet, but give it time, and a little spit and it will. I did get after 4 hours get the important thing done. I got a gallery integrated. I am actually a little excited about showing that one off when I am done.

Now to get out and shot and new banner.

As you will notice Stupidhurts.org was down for a few days, and thankfully it’s back up now. I screwed up and let the domain name expire and I had to work get it back basically. I was actually sweating for a few hours that I was going have to have to come up with a new blog name. You really don’t realize how awesome your blog name is until you almost lose it and you are given the suggestion “sillyhurts.org” by a registrar. No thank you. I am a bit attached to mine.

It has actually been a long, long week. I actually was forced to cancel the my trip Dragon*con. Partially because my seizures have been really bad this week, and I found myself at the Dr’s office again this weekend, but also because someone else canceled my pass. So among other things, I didn’t get to speak at the panel like I had planned.

And finally in a bar during a conversation with several people about the difference between wrestling and wrasslin’. And I after I pointed my favorite crystal meth billboards are gone, I found out I was the only person at the table who has never done drugs they were not prescribed. I have lead a sheltered life considered the crazy stuff I have gotten into in the grand scheme of things.

So I got selected to speak on a panel at Dragon*con next weekend, and my first thought honestly was, “that will make a great blog post!” Dragon*con is the largest science fiction, gaming, comics, art, and film in the US. And I was contacted to take part in a panel on “Freedom of Speech and Privacy Issues for Sex-Positive Bloggers and Pod-casters.” I am pretty excited about the entire thought. I am pretty much going to speak about people who work in the sex industry who have blogged about it who have had privacy issues and other negative repercussions.

Now I just have to figure out how to get to Atlanta.

I’m sitting in one of my favorite lunch spots that the bank execs and help desk guys go to during the day for milk shakes and chicken nuggets. It is the only fast food fast place I know of that they open the door for you and refills your soda at the table. I normally don’t eat there because of the crowd during the short time they are are open, but I had a meeting downtown today. This is one of the best places to eavesdrop during the day. You get to hear gems like; “I didn’t find out it was illegal till later, I have to worry about internal spooks now” and, “do you think she just does coke to fit into those dresses?”

I was also riding the high this morning from getting my name in the paper without breaking any laws or dying a horrible death. This picture was published in the “Seen“ section of the Birmingham Weekly.

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And lastly I managed to bluff my way into a job as a poker dealer. Now if I only knew anything about poker.

There is a coffee shop I hang out at sometimes during the day to get work done because I love the scenery and the people are always interesting. Well last week someone basically batted their big brown eyes at me, and I ended up photographing and art show free. The kinda work that normally run $100-275 dollars, maybe more since I did the post production work to. And that took about 4 hours. I can’t really post any of the shots I took here on my site without the artist permission or giving them proper credit. But in the end the show was a success and I had an great time.
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And honestly getting lucky shots like this made the entire night worth while. [newline]

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I had a neurology appointment today. After the usual poking and prodding (I have lost ten pounds because of the drugs) I got to talk to my doctor and hear a phrase you never want to hear in medicine, ” uh-oh.” We were talking about the fact I am having seizures daily still after trying 4 medicines. Several of these medicines have been at the safest highest dose. And I am showing no real improvement at all, and in some areas I am actually getting worse.

He noted, that having tried this many drugs for little over a year now with basically no results, that it’s more likely than not I will continue to have seizures unless there is brain surgery. Truthfully there are two problems with that. The first is the fact no one actually knows whats wrongs with me, so I would rather them not melon balling my brain. It is the only one I have, plus I have put a lot of time into it. The second problem is the fact I don’t have insurance. Doctors don’t work for free typically, so even if they knew where to dig, I couldn’t pay them. So for now, they are trying a left field drug and anti-depressant.

After leaving the clinic I was heading to the coffee shop because I needed to see my friends. I kinda needed some reassurance at that point. Being alone probably wasn’t a good idea. Taking my usual route I woke up in the ditch with people standing over me which meant I’d had another seizure on my bike. One of these days I am going to break my laptop when I do that.

I was trying to explain the short term memory loss that accompanies seizures for someone and I couldn’t really put it into words for them effectively. Then last night I ended up with the perfect example.

I was out eat eating with friends and I stepped out for some air after I started to feel funny. After I stepped back into the restaurant and started back into my plate several Emt’s walked up to my table carrying turnout bags and asked if I was ok. I kinda looked up at them, and then look over to the people I was eating with, and asked “how long was I gone for?” Looking out the window I had to have been out for at least 5-6 minutes because there was a firetruck and an ambulance on the street. I didn’t remember passing out, but touching my cheek it was a little sore from hitting the ground.

I only recalled going outside, and coming back in. So having to explain the situation to Emt’s and convince them I was in my right mind was a bit of a challenge. I showed them my medic-alert bracelet which essentially says, “If I am not dead or bleeding I don’t need a ambulance,” and ad-libbed it from there

I can’t believe I forgot to write about this.

A big reason of the part of the real I returned the first bicycle was the customer service I received when I dealt with them. There was the first time I went in riding my Allez and I was asked if I was riding someone’s bike. That was deeply insulting. And most recently buying a bicycle that was assembled incorrectly from them.

I was out on my first ride on the bike when and, when I approached a stop the cog and lockring fell off, and so did I. Having just crashed at 30 mph a few days earlier you can imagine what this felt like.

So the next day after I shot a letter to corporate I took the back wheel down to the bike shop to have them repair it. I calmly explained to the guy what happened and that there were metal shavings on the hub indicating it was put together wrong, I wanted him to tighten the lockring, and I asked if they used assembly lube like most other shops. I waited 15 minutes in the front of the shop before the tech handed me my wheel and asked me if there was anything else, at which point I spun the lockring off with my fingers. So he took it back in the back again to try again, at that point I found out they don’t use assembly lube another strike against them. I returned home to find out in an email from the corporate office that it wasn’t their fault and they would leave it all in the dealers hands.

Even that adventure aside I have been inspired to shot a few pictures the past few days and those have left me in an amazing mood.

I got this one from the Jones Valley Urban farm this weekend. I had a great time walking down the rows and rows of plants.
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Click it for the larger version it is worth it.

There are a lot of new pictures in the gallery to.