This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon
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After long last and many trials and tribulations, the September Top Ten for my email contest has been released to the public. Click through to find out the results…
September 2004
For anybody that doesn’t know, in mid-October there was a major hard drive crash on my mail server, and when I (stupidly and unthinkingly) synced my laptop with the server I lost almost all the mail for the last half of September and the first half of October. I’d had local copies of everything even after the drive crashed, but when the server came back up and my mail client syncronized, it said “Oh, these aren’t supposed to be here” and wiped everything. […] I spent many many hours painstakingly manually matching the log files up against the emails I had actual copies of to ensure I did not double count anything. This was a pain because the logs showed time received whereas the easiest to access info on the items I had copies of was the time sent. After all this though, I know I have counted every message I have any evidence for at all, and am sure I have not double counted any of those messages.
Bug Inspection: No bugs.
House Inspection: Lots of little things like a door that sticks when you lock it and sprinkler heads that need replacing and places where the molding doesn’t line up quite right. And things like that. But NOTHING MAJOR.
Mortgage Company: The house without the screen appraised for the amount we were going to pay WITH the screen. Which SHOULD mean the mortgage company will get off our backs about the screen and approve it as is, and leave the screen issue to be between us and the sellers and stay out of it. Cause the house is already worth more than we contracted for it by enough to pay for the screen. We will hopefully know for SURE tomorrow.
As things stand right now though, it looks like this will go forward, and we will close on December 30th.
Yesterday I did someting which is just the height of geekdom probably. While I was AT THE MALL to help Amy do some Christmas shopping for her mom and grandma, I used my Treo smartphone and ordered two items from Amazon. While walking in the mall, past stores which may well have had what I was ordering. Go me!
Rebecca had lots of problems with Amazon this year. I saw her warning, but went ahead and did most of my Christmas shopping at Amazon this year anyway. I did a little bit more at ThinkGeek and got one thing from CafePress. And yeah, I reluctantly got a few things in actual stores due to Brandy’s influence.
I did almost all of the shopping Saturday morning. Then little dribbles since then. I believe I am done now. The things I bought at the mall via my Treo on Amazon yesterday were the end of my shopping.
We have mailed most of the presents leaving from here already. One more box will go out in the next couple of hours. CafePress and ThinkGeek have not shipped yet. Neither has the CafePress one. As for Amazon… Out of 22 items ordered since the beginning of December… 13 have already shipped… (of which 7 have already been received)… which leaves 9 items which are “shipping soon”. They all say they should arrive at the 24th at the latest… but we shall see!
Anyway, ordered from Amazon while at the mall on my phone and ignoring the stores around me. Love it!
Um, now it is time to leave for the house inspection. Gulp. By the end of the afternoon we should know about that, and what the mortgage folks say. Gulp!
True to her comments on my last post, Brandy has gone and made herself a blog. She is calling it Drunken Sailor. Not sure what kind of things she will be posting, but of course I will be checking in regularly.
As I do with anybody who is in the current “top twenty people emailing Abulsme in the previous year” list who has a website that I know about, I have added her to the “Friends’ Sites” listing on the left. We’re now up to 9 out of 20 having websites. (Since Brandy is on that list twice at the moment.) Not bad. Almost to the 50% mark. But not quite.
Well, Marilyn also one made a page with my help. But she hasn’t updated it in years (since the day she made it), and doesn’t have access to it to update it even if she wanted to, so I don’t think it should count and I don’t link to it. Shame though. If it did then we’d be up to 11 out of 20 (since Marilyn also has two addresses on that list right now).
Anyway, back to Brandy. So far she is saying stuff about cheap fruity wine and getting my bird drunk.
We’re watching a movie right now, so she probably won’t post again until morning. But we shall see! :-)
The bank is hesitating at approving the escrow arrangement on fixing the screen enclosure. There will not be any official word on it until Monday, but the wording so far is they are “concerned”. They may want the sellers to put a larger amount in escrow (which from what I hear they can not afford) or they might want us to put down a bigger down payment (which we can probably swing if we absolutely need to, but it will be hard to arrange with essentially one weeks notice). We will find out for sure Monday. That is also when we will also find out the initial inspection results. So by Monday evening, we should know a lot better what the situation is.
But my rough guess is that the chances of this purchase actually happening have dropped from around 90% to closer to 60%. Odds still on our side (barely), but also a BIG chance of it not happening. Which would really piss us off. Because we have everything in place. The only reason there is any issue at all is because the seller’s bank is threatening the seller with foreclosure if they don’t sell by the end of the year, and because there is a shortage of screening materials in Florida right now. Nothing whatsoever to do with us. If we could only get the seller’s bank to hold off a few more weeks, then there would be no problem at all. We have no issue waiting. It is the other side that can’t.
Grrr!!!!
I hate this. We will be most upset if this doesn’t go through. Grrr!!!
There is rapid movement on the house front.
11 Dec 2004 – I get my final relocation check.
13 Dec 2004 – Repairs are in full swing at the house.
15 Dec 2004 – We get word that repairs are on schedule EXCEPT the screen enclosure. It has been delayed because the screen contractor is waiting for the materials to be available to do the work. (There is a shortage because practically everybody needed to have this done after the hurricanes.) We were offered the option to take the repair money for the screen in escrow, and move forward to get the deal closed by the end of the year. Closing by the end of the year is much better tax wise. But we could tell them to just finish it and we’ll wait. We think about it overnight.
16 Dec 2004 – We are told we don’t really have the option of waiting. While our interest rate lock is good until late January, the people selling the house are in financial trouble. The bank has been holding off foreclosing on them because they have a contract with us, but are getting impatient. They have already waited since September. The house will be foreclosed on them if they have not sold by December 31st. After that, while the bank MIGHT sell to us, all bets are off, and most likely the place would just go up for auction or some such. We have checked with several people and the stuff with the screen seems to be fairly low risk. And we want the house. So we gave the word to go forward. This brings us to now.
18 Dec 2004 – If all continues to go according to schedule, they will be finished with the repairs on the house.
20 Dec 2004 – We have scheduled the main house inspection and the bug inspections.
21 Dec 2004 – The mortgage company appraiser will look at the site.
22 Dec 2004 – The legal survey will be done.
23 Dec 2004 – We have to officially decide if we are NOT going to proceed based on any of the results above. If anything came out bad, this will be when we can back out.
25 Dec 2004 – Christmas
TBD Dec 2004 – Sometime in the week between Christmas and New Years, exact date to be determined shortly, we will close on the house.
All of Jan 2005 – We will slowly transition from where we are to where we will be, maybe stretching into Feb 2005 if we need it. But hopefully not.
Of course, all of this is still contingent on a bunch of stuff.
The place has to actually finish repairs on schedule and not run into any unexpected delays.
The place has to pass inspection, with no unexpected issues popping up at the last moment
The final mortgage approvals all have to go through with no problem. (We’ve had pre-approval for forever, but the final final approval won’t happen until just days before closing.)
My deposit of that final relocation check has to actually clear and be available.
No sudden unexpected needs for money in the next two weeks.
No planet killing asteroids smash into the earth in the next two weeks.
So it could still fall through. But at the moment it is looking good. We shall see.
And then, if all goes well, we’ll have to tighten the belts and get used to paying a full mortgage again (about 25% more per month than I paid in Pennsylvania at that — but it is a bigger nicer place fit for a family of three with room to grow rather than a size perfect for a single guy). That will be a big change from the generous deal of a rent Ivan’s family is letting us stay where we are for. (Thanks again Ivan! You are awesome! I’ll officially let your dad know when we want to close this out as soon as things are actually final… I’m thinking we’ll close it out in February… but that is still a little TBD.)
Anyway, while we transition things will be tight again for awhile. So that probably means no trip to the inauguration this year. Not to mention no new car, new GPS, new computer or random trip any time soon. Maybe later in 2005, but certainly not up front. It will take a number of months for things to fully stabilize again.
This stuff is nerve racking!
But it will be good.
 I got a lot of flack from a variety of people when I posted the kidney stone picture a couple weeks back. It was gross and stuff, and why would I post it. But you know, I went through some pain for that. It was kind of an accomplishment. And it is kinda neat. At least I think so. So I’ll do it again. Yeah, it is a little gross, but so what.
Ever since the last episode right before Thanksgiving I’ve had occational twinges of pain. Nothing as bad as that first night though. Just discomfort mostly. At worst I’d take one of the Tylenol with Codines that the doctor gave me and it would get better and be gone in a few hours. For awhile. It would happen every couple of days. In between I’d feel mostly fine, although perhaps not 100%.
Thursday evening after work I started to feel a little uncomfortable. Not bad though. Just a little. I was tired though, after not getting much sleep after my flight home the night before. So I went to bed early. Like at 9 PM. I woke up when Brandy came to bed a little before 2 AM. I got up for a quick bathroom trip. But there was some pain. Not a huge amount, but some. And it felt like it was moving a little, and almost out. Sure enough, a couple minutes later, with some help from me and some strategic use of tweezers, I passed another stone. (I know, too much information… too bad!)
It was huge!!! It dwarfed the other one from the other week. (But for some reason it had hurt less… dunno.) I’ve been having kidney stone episodes every couple of years since 1996, but this is the biggest one yet. I know lots of people have bigger ones, and sometimes ones too large to pass that require surgery to get out. But still. OUCH!
After some of the other ones in previous years, Rebecca has said something like “The size of a grape-nut? That’s nothing! Tell me when you pass a watermelon!” OK, so no watermelon. But I did a little better this time. More like the size of a pea. That is it in the picture above, next to the one from Thanksgiving week. See how much bigger? It is also a much different color. That probably means something, but I don’t know what. And while in the picture it looks like it might be soft, trust me, it is a stone. Completely hard and solid.
I am actually amazed how little this one hurt. I hurt a lot more with the little one, and other ones in the past. This one caused twinges over the last two weeks and it did hurt off and on, but when it finally passed, it almost didn’t hurt at all.
Afterwords, it did hurt some, and I took another of the special Tylenols. Since then I have been up. I am getting tired again though. And I need to be at work in a few hours. And the Tylenol has me all groggy. (But pain free!) Now that this one is out, maybe this series of stone episodes will be done and I’ll be OK for a couple of years. Or maybe there will be more next week. Dunno. Guess I should do that follow up with the doctor soon. They were going to give me a refferal to a specialist, but hadn’t done so yet. I’ll call them up later today and get that moving I suppose.
I think I need to go to bed now.
I just saw this news on Drudge. It makes me very sad.
Brudnoy, in cancer’s grip, prepares for end
David Brudnoy’s voice has filled the cars and kitchens of the everyday and the elite for nearly three decades, his thoughts shaping the way tens of thousands of listeners view the world beyond their doors. But yesterday, the radio talk-show host could muster little more than a raspy whisper as he confided that a rare form of untreatable cancer has overwhelmed his body, and he expects to die within days.
”I’m ready,” said Brudnoy, 64, in an interview in his room at Massachusetts General Hospital, oxygen tubes in his nostrils and the light from a picture window highlighting deep caverns that have opened on his face.
”I’ve said innumerable prayers within
tradition and other traditions,” he said. ”I think whatever happens I will be able to contend with it.”
”I don’t believe in pitchforks and harps,” added the declared agnostic.
(via Drudge Report)
I started to listen to David Brudnoy when he first came onto WBZ. Must have been around when I was in 8th or 9th grade when he replaced Larry Glick, who I had listened to on the same station before him. But while Larry Glick was essentially a comedian with a light hearted show on interesting and quirky people, David Brudnoy was all politics. Um… and movies… :-)
But he was not of the ilk you usually hear on talk radio today, with extreme positions and everything cultiovated to cause controversy and to push a political agenda. No, Brudnoy took an intellectual approach. He made sure he knew his facts when he approached a subject, and while he had strident views, would make sure he understood in depth those of his opponants as well. His obvious depth of knowledge and background research set the tone. If you came on with Brudnoy you had to know your stuff, and you had to argue based on reason and facts, NOT on emotion.
I was hooked. From the day he came on the air, until I left for college, I would fall asleep each night listening to David Brudnoy on WBZ Boston.
In a way you could not find anywhere else on radio or television, except perhaps PBS and NPR, on Brudnoy’s show you got long in-depth detailed discussions of the issues of the day. And it was not “dumbed down”. Brudnoy expected… and got… listeners who educated themselves and did their homework and thought through their arguments. If a caller was not able to articulate themselves or defend their argument well, they would only be on a minute or two… but unlike other shows, if a caller was smart and well reasoned and knew their stuff, Brudnoy would sometimes keep them on for the greater part of an hour.
Unlike PBS and NPR’s typical commentators, Brudnoy was not a Liberal. He was not a Conservative either. He was a classical die hard Libertarian willing to take on “both sides”. For me at the time it was a refreshing and eye opening viewpoint that I was not hearing from other channels. I did not know such a point of view existed, and it appealed to me immediately. As I listened to Brudnoy religiously through until my graduation from high school, his style of argument, his intellectualism, and yes, his political views influenced me greatly during my formative years.
Did I agree with everything he said? No. Not even close. I often disagreed violently. In some cases I simply could not believe how someone that seemed so smart on so many things could be so wrong on others. But the process of listening to him, and the way he articulated his viewpoints and backed them up rationally was refreshing and deeply affected how I approached things myself.
Many of the opinions and ideals I formed while listening to the Brudnoy show still guide me today, although perhaps softened a bit with the years. And because of listening to Brudnoy, I got involved in college talk radio at WRCT in Pittsburgh. My time at WRCT, perhaps more than anything else during my college years, is what I would identify as the “critical experience” that formed me in that time period.
Once in college though, I did not listen to Brudnoy anymore. At least not often. With KDKA in Pittsburgh at 1020 and WBZ in Boston at 1030, I just was no longer able to get the station reliably while living in Pittsburgh. I’d still listen occationally when I was visiting DC or Maryland on holidays, but I fell out of the habit. When I later moved to Virginia and later New Jersey and Pennsylvania the schedules were just not right. I never remembered to tune in, and with the FCC letting other stations crowd in on the old “clear channels” like WBZ, it was harder to get good reception. I missed it though.
For the last 10 years Brudnoy has been struggling with health issues of various sorts. He has been close to death many times in those years. After recovering from one of them, he wrote Life is not a Rehersal. Reading this book was my major exposure to Brudnoy since I was a regular listener in high school. It is basically his life story, most of which as a listener I had no inkling. While he made some very bad choices at a few times in his life, he also struggled through a lot, and came out on top, and with his dignity. It did nothing but increase my level of respect for this man.
Over all the years though, I never called into David Brudnoy’s show. I never felt quite worthy. In retrospect, I think I could have been a good caller. But I never felt like I had just the right thing to call in about. Now I regret that.
David, you are leaving with the same self respect and dignity you always showed in life. Aside from family and friends who I have known personally, you are probably one of the biggest influences I have had on my life. I thank you for that. You will be missed.
The comment spamers have started to get me. They got about a dozen old posts over the last couple days. So I am now requireing registration to post comments. Sorry for the inconvienance!
I’m about to get on a plane, they are boarding Zone 4 and I am Zone 5, so I have to shut down. I haven’t fully tested the required registration thing yet. I will when I get home later tonight.
 Rebecca’s baby has traveled back in time from the future! I found him!!!
(Well, actually Brandy found him, then told me, and I’m sure Rebecca and Chris already know… after all, he must have contacted them, right?)
Gideon
Band Members:
Gideon Hart – Vocals Guitar Bass Keyboards
Non conventional instrumentation, opium den songwriting, huge guitar tones and hyptonic rhythms are key. Listen up.
Opium den soungwriting. Yup, that has to be the little Morrow, coming back via the DeLorean at 88 mph. He’s just hiding the “Morrow” part of his name to be discreet. I know it has to be the same Gideon Hart, because there can be only one.
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