Who passed the gas?!

For years, I've heard about the warnings behind propane and gas grills  I mean, I've been using gas grills since I was about 14 years old and have never had a problem.  I simply thought the dangers were overly exaggerated.  Well, I guess not.

The gas grill I have now was left by the previous owner of the house.  It's basically a huge grill, way larger than I would ever need, and because of that it of course sucks up the propane like a thirsty camel in the desert.  As an added bonus, upon moving in and first opening the grill, there was the lovely surprise of an entire family of rats living literally inside the grill, with them scattering in terror upon lifting the lid.  I had been wondering where that strange odor was coming from and...well...er...

In any event, the grill got cleaned, etc., and I've been using it off and on ever since.  For such a large grill, something that is built in to some concrete and tile and was probably fairly expensive, it's bloody awful.  In fact, it works way worse than any of the Weber's I've owned and I can only chalk it up to the enormous size of it.  It's one of those things where nothing ever cooks even close to evenly on the thing, almost to a maddening degree.  It also takes forever for it reach its ideal temperature.

I've taken to cooking pizzas on the grill, though, and it's become a favorite thing of mine.  For whatever reason, though, this particular day about 2 months ago the grill wouldn't light.  This was a first.  Now, I've always gone against the grain and lit the grill with the lid down.  I know, I know...they say DON'T do this.  Yeah, whatever, pish tosh.  So, again, I'm clicking the igniter and nothing's happening.  I was a bit tired that day so I kind of had a lapse in judgement, where I silently thought to myself, hey, did I forget to open the propane spigot?  Weird.

Well, no sooner had I convinced myself that might be the case, after a little bit of time, I decided to push the igniter again.  It was like in slow motion...where as my finger was slowly pushing the trigger, my brain was saying "...but you did turn the gas on...and it's been pouring into the lid for the past 45 sec...".  And that's when I had fully pushed the igniter.

WHOOOSH!!!  No kidding, the lid literally flew open like Arnold Schwarznegger had pulled it with all his might, and also all the smaller doors in the back and front blew out equally loudly.  For a moment, I thought I was in "Christmas Vacation", when the uncle lights his stogey at the Christmas tree and burns both his coat and his toupee.  The kaboom noise was beyond belief, especially since all the doors are pretty heavy, and I stood there and let out a very loud "Aaaaaahhhhh!"

My first thought was...am I on fire?!  Nope, I seemed okay.  Did I lose any limbs?!  Nope, they're all there.  Actually, I think I'm alright.  What about the house?!  Is IT on fire?!  Nope, it's okay.  In fact, the only damage seemed to be the doors and the lid blowing up with such tremendous force.  Wow.  Let's just say I was extremely lucky for once.  I also looked around sheepishly.  Had any of my neighbors seen me do this?  Nope, I don't think.  Nice.

After collecting myself, I continued on and placed the cooking stone on the grill, and so on, although slightly shaking still.  I felt like a total idiot.  What was I thinking?!  Geez.

And so, yes, apparently all those warnings about the gas grills, propane, gas, etc., is real.  It's no joke so take it seriously.  Meanwhile, I still light the grill with the lid closed...I'm just more careful now.  Some people never learn ;)

Why Post?!

There are many things in modern society that I could rant about for hours upon hours but one that never ceases to burn my proverbial arse is the classic user review.  I'm referring to pretty much any user review at this point, whether it be a product on Amazon or a restaurant/food establishment on GoogleMaps, or even a product on, say, Macys.com.  It really doesn't matter where it is these days; it's all completely pointless.

I mean, why do we DO this?!  It's all so very confusing.  Let's think about this historically, mind you.  I think the whole reason the user review began was to give businesses a chance to have regular folk speak out about products that they love or don't really love rather than having professional paid writers/reviewers do it, probably with a percentage of them being slipped a dollar or two to lean one way or the other.  That's how it started, I think.

Like many decent ideas, this has completely gone astray.  These days, you have people with absolutely no idea what they're talking about whatsoever saying "this is the greatest" and then you purchase said product and you're like, um, this is bloody awful.  So, what's the point?  I know, you're going to say "it's all a matter of opinion".  Is it though?  I would argue 'no'.

For example, this has been a long standing argument in the film category for decades, where one person says film A is better than film B.  Sure, this is where subjectivity comes in...provided that the person(s) doing the talking has actually some knowledge about film ('...knowledge', you say?  What's that?!).  Have you ever been in a conversation with two 10 year olds arguing over which cartoon is better?!  That's what it's like.  If you have no knowledge on said topic, you can't possibly defend your position.  This is one area where user reviews have really failed for any Joe Schmoe can leave a review and have absolutely zero clue about what they're saying, and you, the reader, don't really have any idea if the source is trustworthy.  Ah, but it says 5 stars, right?!  It HAS to be good!

Another major failure is that the paid reviewers actually knew how to write and use grammar, etc.  Wow, that's really gone out the window, hasn't it?  Ugh.  Some argue that language skills are overrated and unimportant (all that matters is math, right??) but I would still say that without communication you might have the greatest ideas in the world but no one will ever know about them if you can't share that info.

And then, lastly, user reviews can fall into the category of "business wars", where people have a weird biased competitive liking of a certain business so they'll post over bloated reviews just to pump up sales and state their opinion.  Even worse, the business itself will have their friends and family post bloated reviews just so they show up higher in the lists, or purposely post negative reviews about other businesses to try and drag them down.  I also can't fail to mention the most bizarre of the user review...the one that is reviewing, say, the material on a CD or album and instead it's talking about how the UPS man delivered the product 2 days late.  Stranger even yet, there's also the occurrence where the category could be about a movie and the reviewer is instead talking about a video game.  It's all very puzzling.

I think there's only one thing to do, really, and that is to completely nix the user review idea and (gulp) go back to professional reviewers.  Having said that, we do need to put regulations into place so that businesses can't pay to inflate their sales but we've really no other choice.  The way things are, there's a billion tons of data out there for us to peruse; unfortunately, it's 90% garbage.

It's Not Allowed

There are two foods that are simply banned and not allowed in my household:  Cheetos and Doritos.  Yes, that's right, there's an "if you see this snack, call 1-800-XXX-XXXX" 'wanted' style poster on my kitchen wall, warning everyone of the potential danger.  They're armed...and dangerous.  Beware!

They're probably 2 of the worst foods for you, although I have no proof to back up that claim but that is a logical guess.  They're also 2 of the best foods for enjoyment...ever...in my opinion.  In fact, they so "have my number" that I simply can't resist them, hence why they're not allowed in the house.  I've gotten a bit better at resisting the Doritos urge (my personal favorite is the Tapatio variety...my god) but the Cheetos urge, my crutch being the Flamin' Hot variety, do tend to call me in like Satan on the steps of the Vatican.

I liked regular Cheetos, especially Crunchy but sometimes Puffy, enough as it was, but once they invented Flamin' Hot it was all over.  I mean, it was immediate and complete total love.  It was like someone invented the perfect food to literally do me in.  Resistance was futile.  I'd just look at a bag and could feel 5 lbs. of fat forming around my abdomen.

And then, I got older, and my stomach got worse and worse.  These days, if I eat something like Cheetos or Doritos, it's pure bliss going down and then hours of pain after.  Due to this, I've had to really stack up my resistance factors but still the evil does call to me on occasion, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Last week, I stupidly read a headline that said something like 'people were going crazy over this new Flamin' Hot variety'.  Dumb, dumb, dumb, because I immediately was on a quest to find a bag of the new Flamin' Hot Cajun Cheddar Cheetos.  This prompted an accidental bumping into Crunch Buffalo Cheetos at the store.  Foolishly, both varieties ended up in my pantry at the same time and, no joke, both disappeared within a matter of days.  Having said that, the stomach pains still haven't stopped.

The funny part is that neither lived up to the hype.  I mean, I could almost argue that the flavor wasn't that great.  Ah, yes, but it's something about that damn crunch that gets me every time, coupled with the heat, and so the addict in me comes out in full force and the next thing I know over half the bag is gone.  On average, it takes two sittings to down a bag and that's only because I force myself to stop; I mean, I could easily eat the whole bag in probably a matter of 7 minutes.  When they say that these foods are chemically altered to psychologically stimulate people to eat them, it's no joke.  This sh*t is powerful.

Even weirder, though, we as a society seem to be obsessed with "crossover foods".  They're everywhere these days, and why?  I have no clue.  I personally don't like them...I mean, the regular Flamin' Hot Cheetos are literally a perfect food - how can you possibly perfect it?!  And yet, we try, and then idiots like myself down the bag in a marathon fashion while not even liking the flavor.  In fact, it just makes me that much more likely to now go buy a bag of regular Flamin' Hot Cheetos so I can down those since I didn't get satisfied the first time around.  It's clearly a ploy.

Back to crossovers, though, why are we obsessed with this?  I get emails all the time lately about the BBQ Chicken pizza.  I mean, huh?!  If you want BBQ chicken, why not just eat BBQ chicken?!  Why do you need that in pizza form?  Then, we do pizza flavored other things.  It's all very puzzling and it personally drives me a bit nuts.  Now, I'll admit that I do like some of it, that is when I do indulge, but for the most part I try to steer clear, if nothing else for the sake of my poor stomach and intestines.

For this round, Cheetos definitely won.  Score - Cheetos 10, me 0.  Ah, but I'll avoid ya next round, I swear, I swear.  Oh, if only.

  

Scatterbrained

I hadn't realized that I missed posting in June.  Hmph!  I've been trying to post at least every month but apparently I forget on occasion.  Even worse, I get these ideas for a blog post that come to me usually at odd moments, and I mean to write them down really quickly but by the time I get to my computer they've flown out my other ear, to be lost for all eternity.  I do remember one of them, though, and perhaps I'll still post it so I'll leave that out for now.  Other than that, though, I'm at a loss.

So, how are things with everyone?  I will say things are decent here.  I've of course been incredibly busy, hence the lack of writing in some regards, and time is simply passing by at a continually alarming rate.  I did manage to get the EP printed and released (check!).  I also managed to get some t-shirts in motion (double check!).  I am still struggling with the second EP, a task which feels like it may never end at this point, but I literally almost work on it nightly, doing my endless tinkering.  Just call me the tinkerer; it's better than the other words that some have called me.

I also had my 6 month follow up at the derm's office.  Yes, that's right, I have 5 more spots that have formed on my head.  Oh joy!  If these are surgically removed, I'll be up to 17 total.  Ridiculous, especially for someone who 1) never leaves the house and 2) basically lives in darkness.  I can't help but feel like this is a conspiracy of sorts.  At this point, I'm considering getting a toupee since at least it would cover up the majority of my head from the sun on the rare occasions that I actually leave the house.  Hell, Thomas Dolby just did it, why can't I?!

Knowing my frustration, my dermatologist finally offered me the option of using the chemo cream option to help burn off any remnants on my scalp before they turn to all out cancerous spots.  And so, I've been doing that for a week and a half and...low and behold...absolutely nothing.  My next door neighbor used this same cream and his entire scalp and face turned beet red, with the skin coming off like a really bad sunburn, etc., which means that the cream is doing its job.  For me?  Nothing, apart from a slight shinier sheen to my skin.  I mean, how can I possibly have the skin of iron that the chemo cream can't penetrate when I'm obviously so very susceptible to actual skin cancer?!  Yes, folks, this is my life.  I'd be a liar if I said I was shocked by the irony in this.

In other news, my eye conundrums simply continue but so far, fingers crossed, it doesn't seem like my retina has torn again...yet.  I had a lot of fun with ordering glasses this year, however.  Imagine trying to take an eye test, where they're trying to figure out the correct prescription for you by asking which version in the little hanging glass thingy looks better, and then imagine that you can't really see straight to even tell.  Yes, that was the fun I had, and I literally had to order about 6 pairs of glasses from Liingo.com before more or less getting it right (it's actually hard to say that because, well, I don't see well enough to say that with full confidence).  I will add that all the folks that I dealt with at Liingo.com were absolutely amazing so I can't recommend them enough.

I eventually decided to get more expensive lenses put into my frames because I figured it might be a better idea given my situation.  Well, this opened a whole new can of worms because apparently your basic level optician doesn't seem to understand that you may not see well enough to answer the questions in a straight forward manner.  This led to minor arguments, discussions, sending glasses back repetitively, and so on.  My personal favorite was that this particular optician, of which I don't think has any business being in the business, insisted on taking my new frames that I had just perfectly fit to my face and then bent them in a manner that's left them completely crooked.  Hmm.  Yes, that's service in 2024 for ya.  Needless to say, I don't recommend this optician; in fact, I'll go out on a limb - she's a complete idiot.  She may be nice and sort of pretty...but she's a complete moron, in my opinion.  Avoid at all costs!

I know I had something else to share but I'll be damned if I can remember what that was.  I seem to say this more and more these days.  The older you get, the less you remember, and sometimes that's actually for the better.  And so, I'll end here.  More later...hopefully.

Yet Another Month

It's been awhile since I've posted but figured I'd poke my head out here.  I've been extremely busy between work and music so I've had little time for anything else.  I'm busy enough that I usually am quite stressed in general, running around the house like a lunatic, trying to get as many tasks done as I possibly can in the smallest windows of time possible.

I've got my day job, music, writing, both large and smaller house related projects to figure out, artwork for CD's, sending off songs and mixes for potential new video ideas, usually some doctor's related appointments, normal chores, and of course play time with the cats.  I usually end my days with watching at least a portion of a film before passing out and going to sleep.  Most of my days are fairly exhausting, to be honest.  My cats are convinced that I'm boycotting them.

I've lost track of the last time that I mentioned Mohs.  I had my "last" appointment almost a month ago and so my head is starting to look more healed.  I've had 12 excisions so far...and I go in again in mid June to be reevaluated, of which I'm fairly certain I have at least 3 more spots that will need to be removed.  This madness just never ends AND I rarely ever leave the house - seriously.  In fact, I didn't really leave the house much before but now that I have to douse my body in sunscreen even if I'm running over to Starbucks for a whole 3 minutes, it's made me even more of a hermit.  I'm sure the neighborhood thinks I'm a guitar playing vampire or something along those lines.

On top of that, I've been fighting with my vision again.  I had a weird occurrence just a little over a week ago where it seemed that I saw a lightning bolt out of the corner of my eye.  Well, there was no lightning, mind you, and the vision in my bad eye suddenly got a bit worse as did the distortion/crooked lines issue.  I finally got ahold of my retina doctor but he doesn't seem too terribly concerned at the moment.  This either means that weird things are to be expected in an eye that's had 2 retinal detachments or that he's looking forward to making more cash for a potential boat purchase when I have to go in for a third surgery.  This remains to be seen, I guess.

Has anyone else had issues with progressive lenses?!  My prescription altered greatly with last year's retinal detachment and so my new glasses are pretty wonky.  The reading/progressive area is now fairly powerful and I'll tell ya...I can't see sh*t usually in these glasses.  I mean, it's ridiculous.  I heard somewhere recently where some people suggest NOT getting progressives, which are ridiculously pricey, by the way, and instead just having multiple pairs of glasses for different purposes.  It sounds like a pain in the ass either way but I'm thinking I might explore it since I'm getting tired of bumping into things constantly.  Hell, even pouring coffee can be challenging at times, especially with a bad eye.  I can't even count how many times I've spilled or knocked something over in the past month.

That's pretty much my life at the moment.  As soon as something amusing happens, I'll be sure to write about it here :)

You are Reading "Low Value Content"

I was slightly amazed to look at my stats and see that people actually read this blog.  Wow?!  I'm seriously both honored and humbled.  I know my Marillion Weekend posts from over a decade ago get a lot of hits so that's probably the majority of it, but then again I'm getting daily hits so I'm thinking that maybe people are just randomly stumbling upon it.  My thinking is that people are so wanting something to read now and then and not have to deal with pay walls, signing up, etc.  Well, you're welcome...and thank you for reading!

Due to the number of hits, I made the goofy decision to maybe try signing up for Google AdSense.  Now, I say that like I know exactly what that is, of which I don't.  I get the concept...you know, those annoying little ads that display on the side and title bars of a page that then take you to some bizarre product that you didn't even know existed, and now maybe are a bit scared to know that it actually does.  You get the drift.  And so, I signed up for Google AdSense...and received a bizarre "no" in response.

Why?  Apparently, I have "low value content".  Hmm.  Now, in expanding upon what that means exactly, I had to waste about thirty minutes of my time skimming through page after page after page of, well, ridiculous rules and regulations.  Everything limiting porn to guns to the war in Ukraine to politics...  On and on.  Then, it moved into "unoriginal content" via screen scrapes, "doorways", content that can easily be found on another site, created by AI, and so on.

Let me be frank - I'm pretty sure I haven't exposed my naked body or anyone elses in this blog.  Fairly sure, actually, so I should be safe there.  As for guns and the war in Ukraine, again, I'm sure I haven't crossed any lines.  I don't believe I have any "doorways" unless that's considered a link to my other blogs, which would make absolutely no sense to me at all.  So, I have to guess that I'm being accused of either screen scraping, which is pretty outrageously bizarre, or they're simply saying that my content has literally no value whatsoever to anyone in the world.  Hmm.  Yeah, that doesn't hurt at all :)  Thanks Google!

Needless to say, I deleted the request for the AdSense account and shrugged my shoulders.  I guess in this world you can post as an authority on any number of topics that you may actually know nothing about, and that's apparently okay.  However, if you just maintain a regular "blog", of both your thoughts wrapped in with some comedy and silly things that happen during your day to day life...well, sorry, you're kaput.  Oh, I probably shouldn't say "kaput"...that'll probably generate on a report somewhere.  Yep, flagged again.

And so, dear reader, of whom I at least greatly value your eyes and time, I just felt it was my duty to let you know that you're indeed reading "low value content".  You've now been warned.  And yes, I write every single word...the old fashioned way...using my brain and fingers.  You have my guarantee!

A Cut and a Chunk Here

And so, the beat goes on...  Have I mentioned that I've had more Mohs done?  Yeah, it's a blast, seriously.  Mohs in general really isn't that big of a deal but when you're in the "blooming" phase, as my doctor recently put it, it simply gets very old quickly.  I'm now approaching procedure number 12 and from the looks of my scalp, I believe I'll have at least 2-3 more to add to it afterward.  I keep telling her, "...but I don't want to bloom!  I don't want to bloom!"  I'm not sure who's watering the seeds but I wish they'd stop already.

I've always been a very careful person and I've rarely had any accidents, falls, major cuts, no operations up until about 4 years ago, etc.  Well, at this age I seem to be making up for lost time.  I've lost count of the number of scars I have, especially on my head and facial area, and now I even have one on my left forearm.

So, this latest one is considered an "excision" rather than Mohs.  What's the difference?  Well, from what I can tell, it's simply that they cut, dig, and sew up right away, whereas with Mohs they cut, dig, and then study under the microscope.  If you're lucky, they then sew; if you're unlucky, you start over and do it again, kind of like some weird boardgame where you keep getting put back to the "go" square.  The bottom line is that one you're out in about 35 minutes while the other is 2-5 hours, depending upon how many times you go back to the "go" square".  Sounds great, right?  And you thought Monopoly was tedious.

Strangely, this excision on my arm is very itchy.  In fact, it's been nearly impossible to not scratch it, although it's the area around the excision that itches, and that's mainly because once you've been cut in this manner you more or less lose all feeling in that exact area, at least for a while.  It's a strange thing having all these little patches with no feeling.  I also have noticed a large amount of orange bruising on my arm which caught me slightly off guard.  Other than that, it's been pretty easy and straight forward, and I will honestly say that it's way easier addressing wounds that you can see right in front of you versus something on the back of your head.  You have to get pretty good with a mirror to slather antiseptic from a cotton swap while looking in a mirror at the back of your head, that is if you don't want to slather it accidentally on your ear my mistake (unless that's the intended target, of course).

All of this is going on while I still have a healing Mohs spot on the back of my head.  I don't know why but the ones on the back of my head heal much worse than the front.  My skin is fairly sensitive so I tend to get mild eczema break outs around the stitches...it's all fairly annoying.

I will say that I'm now getting to know the other "regulars" at the derm office, often chatting with them in the hallway, comparing notes, and so on.  I recently chatted with someone who readily admitted he's a nudist...yeah, you do the math on that one.  Honestly, I don't even want to think about getting these sorts of cuts down...well, there.  Geez.  He showed me one of his scars but luckily not one in that area.

Ah, life...  As they say, it beats the alternative!