Archive for March, 2006

Today’s Irish URL

Thursday, March 30th, 2006

Mobile, Alabama isn’t often in the news, nor is it often connected with the Irish. However, some people there seem to think that they have been blessed with an Irish visitor. This is a YouTube video, in case anyone is a bit short on bandwidth.

I then Googled for some newspaper reports so that I could offer that as an alternative. However, there are precious few, and I had to look through about 20 Google entries before I came up with this link to a non-video recounting of the tale. If it weren’t before April 1st, I’d suspect an April Fools joke. However, it’s more like a St. Patrick’s Day joke.

Today’s morbid URL

Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

Ancient Egyptians had their worldly goods and sometimes their slaves buried with them in order to enjoy their afterlives. Here’s today’s equivalent.

TrustFlow results for <lj user=”chrishansenhome”>

Wednesday, March 29th, 2006


I tried out TrustFlow II for LiveJournal. The following people not on the friends list for are close by:

  • (250 – 300)
  • (300 – 350)
  • , , , , (350 – 400)
  • , (400 – 450)
  • , , , , (450 – 500)
  • , , (500 – 550)
  • , , , (550 – 600)
  • , , (600 – 650)
  • , , , , , , , , , , , (650 – 700)
  • , , , , , , (700 – 750)
  • , , , , , , , , , , (750 – 800)
  • , , , , , , , , , (800 – 850)
  • , , , , , , , , , , (850 – 900)
  • , , , , , , (900 – 950)
  • , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (950 – 1000)
  • , , (1000 – 1050)

Created by ciphergoth; hosted by LShift.

TrustFlow II: Who is closest to your friends
list?

Thanks to <lj user=”mc4bbs”>

Monday, March 27th, 2006

…I discovered this blog entry, which is absolutely hilarious.

I shall be hearing “the ahdwuk, the ahdwuk” in my head now for days.

Today’s Poetry posting

Saturday, March 25th, 2006

From the “Washington Post’s” recent competition which asks for a rhyme couplet with a romantic first line and a least romantic second line:

Love may be beautiful, love may be bliss,
But I only slept with you because I was pissed.

I thought that I could love no other
Until, that is, I met your brother.

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you.
But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl’s empty and so is your head.

Of loving beauty you float with grace.
If only you could hide your face.

Kind, intelligent, loving and hot.
This describes everything you are not.

I want to feel your sweet embrace,
But don’t take that paper bag off your face.

I love your smile, your face, your eyes.
Damn, I’m good at telling lies!

My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife:
Marrying you really screwed up my life.

I see your face when I am dreaming.
That’s why I always wake up screaming.

My love, you take my breath away.
What have you stepped in to smell this way?

My feelings for you no words can tell
Except for maybe “go to hell.”

What inspired this amorous rhyme?
Two parts vodka, one part lime.

(seen in ‘s journal.)

Pierced and tattooed

Friday, March 24th, 2006
You scored 20% modified, 25% extreme and 48% tolerant!
How to understand your results! (Read this before getting depressed over your score.)

Modifications Extremism Viewpoint
0 to 5 Tame as a kitten
6 to 15 Normal
16 to 30 Pierced and Stained
31 to 50 Modified
Over 50 Human?
0 to 5 Boring
6 to 15 Normal
16 to 30 Deviant
31 to 40 Freak
41 to 50 Far out
over 50 Inhuman
0 to 10 Go away. People like you scare me
11 to 20 Conservative
21 to 30 Sheltered
31 to 40 Well adjusted
41 to 50 San Franciscan
51 to 60 Hippy
61 to 80 Scary
Over 80 Punk

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 75% on modifications
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 75% on extremism
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 66% on tolerance

Link: The Piercings and Tattoos Test written by boogaturtle on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Do you get unsolicited credit card applications?

Friday, March 24th, 2006

I don’t get them anymore, after I listed my name and address with the Mail Preference Service here in the UK. However, I used to get them all the time, with my name and address helpfully filled in. I always tore them up and put them in the trash. It seems that tearing them up is not enough!

I bought a shredder a few days ago as my previous post mentioned, and I will now make sure that anything with my or HWMBO’s name on it or our address gets shredded.

Been clearing up

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

I bought a shredder yesterday and have busily been shredding old financial statements and bills. This is quite fun and looking at the old bills and cheques is somewhat satisfying as I feed them into the maw of the shredder.

I also got a pile of cards out of the drawer and began looking through them. Unfortunately, there were lots of cards from my ex, Tom, who was professing undying love and the hope that we would be together for the rest of our lives. I took almost as much pleasure at feeding them into the shredder as I did when I cut up his portrait with a Stanley knife a year after he dumped me for someone fatter, richer, and in Singapore. Not that I’m bitter, mind you.

So, shredding can be therapeutic as well as tidy.

Last of the antibiotics and welcome to <lj user=”spwebdesign”>

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

Finally got my last shot in the bot this morning. I am so glad that’s over. Now hopefully my toe will return to its normal size and the cardiologist will say encouraging things on Monday. My butt looks like a war zone, with bruises and plasters all over (I’ve gotten most of them off, I think…) However, if the infection is gone, it’s worth it. I may have a bourbon and diet Coke tomorrow afternoon to celebrate.

For those of you in the Boston area, I’ll be back there from Easter Monday through the following Sunday. If you’re amenable, I’d love a meeting for lunch or dinner some day.

has arrived and is now sleeping it off upstairs. We went to Tottenham Court Road for lunch and afterwards got him a mobile phone and together we went to Brick Lane to buy rye bread for tomorrow’s breakfast. Tuckered us both out.

Comment statistics (except for mine)

Monday, March 20th, 2006

Top Commenters on ‘s LiveJournal
(Self comments excluded from rankings)

1 65 65
2 52 52
3 38 38
4 35 35
5 Anonymous 26 26
6 25 25
7 18 18
8 13 13
9 13 13
10 12 12

11 12 12
12 12 12
13 12 12
14 11 11
15 11 11
16 9 9
17 9 9
18 8 8
19 6 6
20 6 6
21 5 5
22 5 5
23 4 4
24 4 4
25 3 3
26 3 3
27 3 3
28 3 3
29 3 3
30 2 2
31 2 2
32 2 2
33 2 2
34 2 2
35 1 1
36 1 1
37 1 1
38 1 1
39 1 1
40 1 1
41 1 1


Total Commenters: 42 (1 not shown)
Total Comments: 621

Report generated 20/03/2006 18:29:06 by ‘s LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.7


You’ll find the page to get this program for yourself here.

RIP, Humphrey

Monday, March 20th, 2006

The erstwhile pet cat of three Prime Ministers has died in retirement. Story is here. Sad, really. Apparently Cherie Blair dislikes cats and so Humphrey was turned out of the home he’d known since 1989 when Margaret Thatcher adopted him after he wandered into 10 Downing Street.

Number 10 has denied that Cherie Blair doesn’t like cats but they denied that peerages were being sold, too.

Amusing spam

Saturday, March 18th, 2006

I often look at the Subject: line of spam I get before deleting it from the server. (I recommend MailWasher Pro, by the way…it does a very thorough job).

Today’s gem is this one for one of those male penile dysfunction tablets:

The subject line is:

The fashion of newest creation
The further is ejaculation.

Would anyone like to try to complete this limerick? (Rearranging the first two lines to make them sensible is permissable.)

The body (minus the fake URL) is:

Wanna hold a brick on your dick? Try our Soft Cialis Tabs. (Warning: don

Foot update

Friday, March 17th, 2006

Went to Kings College Hospital yesterday to see the foot quack. He is happy with the progress of healing, and says that there is only a little ulcer left. He scraped away some dead skin and used something that looked very much like a set of wire cutters to trim my toenails. Very scary.

Even scarier was his comment that had I waited another day or so to come in I would have had to be hospitalised. So I cheated that by the skin of my…toes…yet again. He also said that when he scraped out the infection before (the squeamish might want to avoid the next clause) a piece of bone fell out. I’m glad he didn’t mention that to me at the time. They want to see me again on April 3rd. I hope that it will be entirely healed.

Now off to the nurse to get today’s shot in the bot. Next Tuesday is the last day for that, thank God.

Family news

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

I don’t often speak of my family, now that my dad has died. However, you may remember that when I had my heart attack, I mentioned that my brother and sister-in-law have split up. I got a call from my brother this afternoon and it’s as I have been fearing for a while: she’s been embezzling money.

My sister-in-law had power of attorney for my dad when he went into the nursing home. She paid his bills, made sure that the house was repaired (and then sold it when it was clear he wouldn’t be able to move back) and generally took care of things. However, she told me long before he died that he had made a will and divided everything three ways: my brother, my sister, and myself would each receive 1/3rd of the estate.

After he died, I heard nothing from her. There was no accounting, no cheque to settle the estate, no communication. My brother had told me just before Dad died that there was enough money to keep him in the nursing home for 7 months. That would have been about US$56,000. Even after the funeral expenses there would have been something left. I was suspicious. To be honest, I had been suspicious for a long time, since the manner in which she lived and spent money seemed to be above the financial resources of my brother. However, one doesn’t say things like that to your brother, really. So, the last time I spoke to my brother, I said that I wondered where all the money left over from my father’s estate was, and asked him whether there was any accounting and statement that he knew of. He promised to check for me.

Today my brother called me and told me that he’s found evidence that she has been embezzling funds from my father and from him to the tune of probably close to if not more than US$100,000. She seems to be having a really good time for herself, perhaps too good (he says that she’s drinking to excess and she’s traveling to Florida quite a bit). She’s moved in with her new boyfriend as well. Harold said that she has been forging his name to cheques, has been making cheques out to cash but not accounting for them, and has withdrawn nearly all the money that they had realised on the sale of my dad’s house on Elm Street.

Harold is pretty broken up about all this, and while we’ve never been close, he’s my brother at the end of the day. So I told him that he doesn’t have to give me any money that’s due from the estate until and unless he has the means to pay it. He’s got lots of friends over there who are taking care of him and helping him out. So I hope he’s OK. I may pop over there in June just to give him moral support and make sure that everything’s OK, and perhaps talk to the lawyer who handled the probate for my dad’s estate. (The lawyer is as honest as the day is long and he is also shocked and upset at this, so he wasn’t conniving at it.)

Oh, well, another day in the life of the Hansen family. For a century all Hansens died intestate. So we get one who made a will, and the money gets embezzled. What a pain.

UPDATE: In response to questions: yes, Harold is doing the detective work and is going to try to get as much of the money back as he can; and no, there are no children. He may try to use the threat of criminal prosecution as a lever in the divorce proceedings.

Foot update

Friday, March 10th, 2006

I have been under treatment since Tuesday…every day I’ve gone to the GP’s office to get shot in the bot and have the toe dressed.

Today I stole a look at the toe while the nurse was away getting a dressing. It actually looks pretty good on the bottom now…not out of the woods but not bruised and red. So I think that we’re turning the corner. Over the weekend I have to go to the Aylesbury Health Clinic to get my shot and the dressing done, because the District Nurses (=Visiting Nurses in the US) want to come in the morning and I am not free Saturday or Sunday morning. Hopefully when I return to Kings College Hospital on Thursday I’ll be well on the way to being cured and won’t need another weekend of antibiotics.

I’ve postponed my cardiac rehab appointment until next month as I’m not too happy to do that while I’m trying to take care of the other problem.

Thanks to all those who have sent good thoughts my way…much appreciated!

Today’s Romantic URL

Friday, March 10th, 2006

Fag hags of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your cheating boyfriends. Watch it here. Taste alert: the singing is on a par with the Mouseketeers and the lyrics are sometimes, well, regrettable. But you’ll be laughing so hard you won’t notice. Much.

It seems like they are going to try to save my toe…

Tuesday, March 7th, 2006

…but my toenail went away.

I went to Kings College Hospital Diabetic Foot Clinic today to begin the process of saving my toe. The podiatrist (a handsome guy named Tim) took a look at it, said, “You’re going to lose your toenail” and promptly pulled it out. I’m unsure whether this is permanent or temporary, but I don’t really care. Then he debrided the wound, dressed it, and sent me to X-Ray and Phlebotomy, then asked me to return. This started at 11 am and the entire process stretched until 2:30 pm. After my foot was photographed, and the vampires had their way with my arm (when I got in the number being served was 370 and my number was 422–I spent an hour waiting for blood to be drawn!), I returned to the Clinic.

Verdict: the infection has spread to the bone. Thus, besides doubling the amount of amoxicillin, flucoxicillin, and metronidazole I am taking, and giving it to me for two weeks instead of one, they are also sending a nurse around each day for two weeks to needle my butt with another intramuscular antibiotic and dress the foot each day. I return to Kings next Thursday.

The reason I don’t care if my toenail is gone is that I saw several elderly men there who had foot ulcers, and they were much worse than I was. However, at least one of them was still cheery enough to say that he was happy with the care he was receiving (he’d already lost his right big toe) and that the advances in diabetic treatment they’d made in the past few years meant that people like me and like his son (who was just diagnosed) will have better care and a better chance of keeping their limbs. He was so cheery that I myself felt better, and didn’t feel so sorry for myself. Oftentimes the certainty that you will receive care and that the doctors and nurses know what’s wrong with you and have a plan to treat it makes you feel better immediately.

So, the nurse will be coming over each day for 2 weeks to give me a butt injection (the first one happened at the hospital, and it wasn’t too painful, so maybe I’ll get through this and, hopefully, my foot and toe will be saved. Hoping for continued good wishes and prayers from those so inclined.

Today’s Video URL

Monday, March 6th, 2006

Remember, one never knows when the homosexual is about!

I feel sorry for myself…

Friday, March 3rd, 2006

…but I’m trying not to.

While I was in Singapore, I got a pressure sore on the third toe of my right foot. I was going to get it seen to, but in the excitement (if that’s the right word) around my heart attack I didn’t, and the nurse at St. Thomas’s looked at it but didn’t seem that concerned.

On Tuesday I went to the GP and showed her the toe. She was immediately concerned, and after some consultation prescribed two antibiotics and sent me to a foot clinic on the Aylesbury estate. I went there, they decided it was pretty well infected, debrided the wound (it looked pretty awful) and dressed it.

I returned today, they debrided it some more and think that I need more specialist care. So, they are sending me to Kings College Hospital Diabetic Foot Clinic next Tuesday for an X-ray (they think the bone may be involved) and a redressing, presumably. I then go to the Aylesbury at 1:30 pm for more examination.

I got a call at around 2 from the Aylesbury saying that there was a third antibiotic prescription awaiting me at my GP’s. I went there and got it, had it filled by my very friendly (and handsome!) pharmacist, went to the supermarket, and toddled home. I no sooner got my groceries unpacked when the phone rang. It was again the Aylesbury, saying that there was yet a fourth prescription antibiotic waiting for me. I’ve just returned from getting that one filled. I spend so much time at the pharmacy that they may make me pay rent.

So I have four antibiotics to take: one (amoxicillin) three times a day with no food or drink restrictions, one (flucoxicillin) that needs to be taken four times a day but not within an hour either way of a meal, a third (Cipro) that needs to be taken twice a day but not with milk, antacids, or iron (so no liver!), and the fourth (metronidazole) to be taken three times a day with food but no alcohol at all until a day or two after I finish the course! There are no guarantees that any of these will actually cure the infection, but it’s certainly true that any bacteria inside me will be dead pretty much within a week or so.

I am seriously ill, I guess, so I would hope those of you who pray might think of me during prayer; those of you who don’t pray could maybe think good thoughts my way? I would like to save my toe, if at all possible.

Diabetes is really a horrible disease and I would urge any of you who have a history of diabetes in your family to ensure that you stay in shape and get your blood sugar tested regularly by your doctor. If you have any symptoms (there’s a list of some here), be off to your doctor post haste.

Do insist that your doctor take you seriously. My story is pretty sad, really. I had a doctor in Manhattan who had a wonderful bedside manner. He practiced in Greenwich Village, and came well-recommended by a friend. Most of this doctor’s practice (this was the late 1980’s) was HIV-related, at a time when there wasn’t much you could do for people except treat the symptoms. I think that this may have resulted in his “specialising” in HIV treatment, and not keeping up with other branches of general medicine.

So when I became impotent in 1988, I consulted the doctor, who said that it was either in my mind or related to low testosterone levels. He recommended either a shrink or a testosterone test. I declined both. He had said in the past that my blood sugar was a bit high, but nothing to worry about. I can only assume that he was not using the blood test that tells what your blood sugar has been, on average, in the last three months. Instead, he was using a test that told what my blood sugar was at the moment of the test.

Three years later, I was living in Chicago, and went to have my eyes checked for new glasses. The optometrist looked at my retinas and said, “Are you diabetic?” I said, “Not that I know of.” He replied, “You’d better see your doctor.” I had diabetic retinopathy, and had to undergo laser surgery for that condition (right eye only). I remain under the care of the Retinal Clinic at St. Thomas’s and have an examination each year.

I came to find out that not only was the impotence probably related to the diabetes, but that peripheral neuropathy in my feet was also caused by the diabetes. I had had that for many years! Maybe since 1985 or so! I think I have been diabetic for more than 20 years. I might have caught it three years earlier if my doctor had listened to me when I described my symptom.

I know that others on my lj friends list have medical conditions far worse than mine, so I’m not looking for sympathy. But I hope that any of you who have any of the symptoms of diabetes mentioned in the above link get yourselves checked out as soon as you can, to perhaps save yourselves from the troubles that it can bring about in the future.

Today’s Lenten URL

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

If you enjoy piss-taking off religion and big business, go here, click on “Watch” and scroll down to choose your screen size.

You’ll be lovin’ it.

Today’s Toilet URL

Wednesday, March 1st, 2006

Would you use this loo?