The Blog

If I had any choice - ANY CHOICE! - I would drop Charter Communications like a hot rock.

As is stands here in my Podunk county, they are the only option for high-speed internet. We also use them for cable television, since the cost of the internet by itself would be prohibitive. We have the lowest available internet speed and the lowest digital cable package you can buy, and our bill is 80 bucks a month.

I have my account set to auto pay every month. I never even look at my statements. I should probably do that from now on, since they let me get almost a month overdue on my payment without even telling me until it was too late. How did this happen? Read on.

My bank issued me a new debit card last month. Of course, they were late on it, sliding it in at the last of the month before it expired. I had my auto pay with Charter set up for this debit card. Since the new one had a new expiration date, they could not charge my card. Did they call me and give me a heads up? No. Did they slide me an email? No. Did they wait until my bill was late, levy a late fee, then call my house and leave hazy messages that sounded like cold sell calls? Yes.

I just realized today that the reason they were calling was that they couldn’t charge my account. It just hit me out of the blue. I paid the bill, along with this month’s bill, and the late fee of five dollars. I tried to get the fiver back, but they wouldn’t budge. At least it isn’t going to hit my credit.

I can’t frigging WAIT until AT&T gets DSL to my area.

My wife and I are going for our second doctor visit today. The first time around, we got to see the little bugger on an ultrasound, but I don’t think we get one on this go around unless something is amiss.

I think we do get to hear a heartbeat today, and that’s going to be a little surreal. I’ve stuck my ear up to her belly button, but can’t hear anything yet. Primitive attempts at communication have, thus far, gone unanswered.

The seventeen baby books that are on our coffee table reach the consensus that our little one is about the size of a small peach right now, or around 2 inches. It’s taking on a more human shape, with defined limbs and a big fat head that’s over half its total bodily volume. Its intestines are forming in the umbilical cord and are getting ready to migrate inside the baby.

I think it’ll probably be too soon to determine a sex. Unless, of course, those little intestines are working and we hear a fart instead of a heartbeat.

Update: We made it to the doctor, and we heard our heartbeat!  There was only one, thankfully.  The doctor there said it was fast, and sounded to him like a typical girl heartbeat.  That’s cool, but we won’t really know until we get another ultrasound and they see a pee-pee, or the lack thereof.

As you can probably tell, things have changed around here.  I got tired of the Wobbleshaft name, since it sounded stupid and I wasn’t keeping up with the comics anyway.  I bought the DavidNorrisOnline.com domain and linked it to my account, so now at least I can tell people my address without cringing inwardly.

Things will be added as I get time, so check back often.  There will be a variety of things to look at and read over the coming days and weeks, but right now my main focus is on this blog and the photo gallery.  Eventually, the front end will be a homepage of sorts, with bookmarks to all the more interesting sites and places I frequent, as well as a display of the weather and such.

Things are finally regulating here in netland, and I’m getting things the way that I want them.  The gallery is coming along nicely, with a theme that matches my spiffy new blog skin.

I used ZenPhoto for the gallery software on the server.  I found it much easier to use than Coppermine or Gallery2, and a lighter experience for the visitor as well.  The others had way too many features for what I really wanted.

In the days to come, I’m going to add a new blog for the baby business, and a page for the dogs and motorcycling.  The pages for the bikes and dogs will rarely change, as they’ll mostly just be info for new readers and visitors.

It’s amazing how quickly one can get busy and let their hobbies slide.  With the coming of spring there has been an avalanche of neglected yardwork, straightening up, and outdoor activities like motorcycling to attend to.  I’ve spent the last several weekends either riding the bike, riding the mower, or getting ridden about household chores.

Speaking of riding the bike, I’ve been taking it to work most every day.  What a rewarding experience.  You save money and have a great time, too.  Some of my friends and I took an awesome ride up through Houston Valley into Greeneville the other day.  They were on Harleys, and rode far more spiritedly than I expected.  I wished that I could have spent some more time with them, but I had to peel off and meet my wife for our first ultrasound!

As we speak, the baby is approaching lima bean size.  It’s got a beating heart already, which I found amazing.  Our due date is somewhere in the vicinity of December 6, but for some reason I expect it much sooner.

I was able to sell the old motorcycle.  Or, rather, my wife was.  One of her patients came by and took a look at it with her brother, who promptly bought it.  I then promptly took the money from the bike and bought myself us a new Digital Rebel XT.  You’ll also notice a new destination at the top of the page there, “Photography.”  It should be updated often, as I used to have a wonderful time shooting pictures with my old 35mm Rebel, but it got expensive fast.  The digital format, of course, takes that out of the equation.

That’s about all there is to say right now, really.  I just wanted to put up a post to let the loyal fans… okay, simmer down.  It wasn’t that funny… know I was still alive.  I’m considering a new comic, so hopefully there’ll be one of those soon.

Just… just listen. God love her soul.

Well, not exactly.  Howling is more like it.  Crying?

It’s a cruel fate that weather warm enough to ride a motorcycle in also brings too much rain to ride a motorcycle in.  Maybe things will hold up for Wednesday.

I saw I Am Legend. Like a lot of people, I was really into it. That is, until the last 10 minutes of the movie or so.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

It just kills me that they decided to off Dr. Neville. Not only that, the way that it was done was ridiculous. Anyone who knows anything about a fragmentation grenade knows that they will not go off with a huge fireball that incinerates a city block. But I digress. While Stumbling today, I found this alternate ending, and it’s a travesty– really the biggest balls up mistake in cinema history –that they didn’t use it in lieu of the pansied up version.

Here ya go:

Do you use GMail? Does it aggravate the Hell out of you when you click on an email link embedded in a webpage and Outlook comes clawing its way to the front of your screen? Here’s an easy fix you may not have known about:

Since you are using GMail, chances are you’re also using Google Talk. If you aren’t, go download it. It’s free, it’s light, and even if you don’t chat with it you’ll never know it’s there and it’ll tell you when you get mail. Once you’ve got it set up, click on the little “Settings” link at the top of the window. Right there, on the very first page of options, is a checkbox next to “Open GMail when I click on email links.”

Click the box and you’re done. No more Microsoft sluggishness and headaches, and your fresh, clean GMail account springs to life with the address already filled in. You’re welcome.

Since my wife has become infected with the virus that is my spawn, we’ve started up a blog for her to chronicle the ins and outs of her gestation. I’ve set it up as a subdirectory of this site.

It can be found at http://wobbleshaft.com/parents, or by clicking the newly created button at the top of the page.