All right, all right, I know… I haven’t posted in a while. So sue me. Things have been a bit hectic around here in D’Arque Bishop Land. I figure it’s about time I rectified that with an update or two. So, I apologize in advance as this is going to be full of random tidbits. :-)

First off, I finally gave in and got myself a Twitter account. You can find it at http://twitter.com/drkbish. The main reason I did it was because I found myself doing the status update thing more than anything else on Facebook, and decided that Twitter was probably a better way of doing it. Heck, it’d be nice for keeping friends updated when I go on trips like to E3 or to Las Vegas. Finding a decent client for the iPhone helps as well. Now if I could just figure out a way to put the Twitter feed on the main page of my site… (No, I’m not going to use LoudTwitter.)

My dieting is paying off quite nicely. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been losing about two pounds a week. As of this past Friday, I’m down to 209 pounds. In total, I’ve lost 49 pounds since starting my weight loss regiment, and only have about 14-15 to go. In fact, I haven’t been at this weight in over ten years. It’s been great… it’s surprising how many people have come up to me and told me they noticed I lost weight. In fact, while I was at my work’s Cypress location today, one of the CNC programmers told me that a number of the shop people were talking about how much weight I lost. My goal right now is to hit 190-195 pounds by the time June rolls around. At this rate, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. :-)

Actually, the one problem I’m facing now is a good thing, but still an annoyance. When I started, I wore 40 inch waist pants, and really should have been wearing 42 inch waists. Right now I’m on 38 inch waist pants; in fact, a couple of weeks ago I went through my closet, pulled out about 20 pairs of 40 inch waist pants, and either tossed them out or gave them to charity. However, the 38 inch waist pants are now beginning to fall off me. Within a couple of weeks I’m going to need to go out and buy some 36 inch waist pants. As nice as it is being able to go get smaller pants… I really didn’t need the expense. :-)

I’ve also had something of a social life these past few weeks. A few weeks back a group of us from the 30+ Club met up to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where half of us went to Body Worlds and the other half saw The Birth of Christianity: A Jewish Story. I went through Body Worlds… it was interesting, if a little creepy. Afterwards the group went to the Chocolate Bar (at Eric’s suggestion) where we had chocolate ice cream and chocolate cake. Two weeks ago we all met at Sean’s dad’s house for his bday, to celebrate the release of the soundtrack to season one of Red Cedar Place (long story), and to toast the house as his father was selling it after twenty plus years of ownership. Then, last Saturday, we all met at Indian Wok for some good Indian food. Either eating pho with sriracha, sushi with wasabi, and the like helped or my order got mixed with Brian’s, as the lamb vindaloo I ate wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting. It was hot, but not unbearable. I don’t know if I have any plans for this weekend, though… I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Ah, well. I think that was all that’s happened to me in the past few weeks, other than a fright involving the girlfriend that I’m not sure she’d want me to post about here. In any event, it’s time for me to relax for a few before I get around to doing my DDR exercise. How fun…

As I write this, I’m reminded of the old Despair demotivator (which they don’t seem to have anymore) that said, “If we don’t take care of the customers, maybe they’ll stop bugging us.” I’ve run into another example of that while talking to the corporate administrative assistant at work yesterday. I’ll avoid naming actual names, but this story amused me enough where I felt I needed to share it.

Of course, one of the most important luxuries in an office is coffee. :-) And of course, there are companies that specialize in providing coffee and coffeemakers to companies. We use such services at where I work, too; in IT, we’re a bit different in that while our coffeemaker was provided by the same provider the rest of the facility used, we had a different provider for the actual coffee as my boss (and I myself) prefer Community Coffee and the main facility provider sells Folgers. Well, a couple of months ago we decided to have the IT coffee provider provide the coffeemaker as well, and they came in and got it set up. The old one was put to one side, and I sent a note to the corporate administrative assistant saying it needed to be picked up. It ended up sitting there since.

A couple of weeks ago, the corporate admin assistant remarked to me that they had changed coffee providers for the main facility, but I hadn’t paid too much mind to it. Yesterday, the IT admin assistant asked me when the old coffeemaker was going to be removed, so I decided to go to the corporate admin assistant’s office and ask. When I got there, she shook her head and told me about Monday.

You see, on Monday, our delivery person from the old coffee provider had arrived on (what he thought was) schedule to restock our coffee and see what we needed, only to find his equipment put to one side and someone else’s where his employer’s used to be. So, he went to the corporate admin assistant and asked, “Did you guys change providers?” The admin assistant looked up in surprise and said, “Yes… didn’t your office tell you?!” He sighed, and said they hadn’t… but that he wasn’t really surprised. She then said flat-out that it was the office’s inability to even listen to our requests and fulfill them was what led to us switching providers. She asked if he could remove the old coffeemakers, and he replied he’d have to come back for them as he would need help, not to mention need to make room in his truck.

What he said next was the truly sad part. The guy told her that we were the fourth customer in two weeks that they had lost because of the office people not taking care of them. He then asked for her card (presumably for future business, as we had no problem with his service), and admitted he was very likely going to look for a new job as he didn’t see this one lasting the way they were hemorrhaging customers.

It’s just sad, really. I wonder if the office people realize just how much their attitude and lack of service is costing the company. If you don’t take care of the customers, you won’t have customers… and if you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business. I also hope the rest of the facility does well with their new coffee provider. We’re still doing well with our current one.

As for the last one… hope the delivery guy gets a good job, as he was decent. The rest of the company, well… if you go out of business, you deserve it the rate you’re going. We don’t miss you and are doing much better now with someone who actually knows customer service. :-)

Well, I have to say that I’m feeling somewhat better.

It took me a few days, but I’m far more mobile than I was at this time last week. I ended up spending most of three days laid up in bed on doctor’s orders; if I had to sit up in bed, I would be forced to support my weight on my hands as my lower back couldn’t handle the pressure. When I walked, I needed to use Mom’s walking stick in order to get around. One could argue that I could watch all the TV I wanted, but the problem there is how the room is laid out. The TV is parallel to my bed at the pillow level, as I do most of my TV watching when sitting at my computer desk. So, for the most part, I spent my days laying in bed, with my work laptop next to me so that I could keep myself entertained as well as keep up with support tickets from work.

Needless to say, by the time Thursday or Friday rolled around, I was going stir-crazy. Also, needless to say, I missed Meredith’s and Jonathan’s New Year’s party AGAIN. I know Merrie said it was a more or less quiet affair, but I still felt bad because this was the second year in a row I had to miss due to illness or injury. Hopefully NEXT year I’ll actually be able to attend their NYE party.

As for how I am now, well… my back still aches and I don’t dare lift any heavy objects. On the other hand, I can get up without difficulty and walk without too much of a problem. I was even able to drive in to work with few issues (other than my hip giving me some problems… go figure). I was slightly amused, though… the VP of HR saw me walking in a bit gingerly and asked why I was back at work. I answered honestly: I was feeling a lot better and I would go nuts if I had to spend another day working from home. Before anyone asks, I’m at the point now where I’m taking Advil instead of hydrocodone and valium for my back, so driving isn’t an issue.

So, all I have to do now is take it easy and hope I recover well. I have a full physical exam scheduled for Wednesday, so we’ll see then if any other action is needed. My only real disappointment is the fact that the Vegas vacation I had planned for next week will now need to be postponed thanks to my injury. It’s a shame, because I had been looking forward to the trip. (On the other hand, it’ll give me a chance to practice my poker…) For now, though, I’m just going to let my back rest and hope that some quiet recovery time is all that’s needed.

Normally I would be at work right now, doing tech support and database administration. Instead, I’m at home in bed, and will likely be stuck in bed for a few days on doctor’s orders. How did this happen, you might ask? Well…

A week and a half to two weeks ago, I started noticing pain in my lower back. It wasn’t TOO bad, but it was annoying to say the least. I decided on Saturday that I would call my doctor on Monday morning and see if I could get worked in to see him about the pain. Things were fine on Saturday evening, so I wasn’t too concerned. Then, Sunday, I managed to aggravate it badly after sitting in my desk chair for a couple of hours. I tried switching chairs, but that only made it worse to the point where I could do nothing more than lay in bed after 7 PM on my back, waiting for the pain to go away.

At 2:30 AM, I woke up, and could move around. So, I decided to sit up…

… and fell back down with a scream of pain loud enough to wake my parents.

From that point, my back started twitching and spasming, with each spasm being bad enough where I got to the point where I was gasping for breath and begging for an ambulance. An ambulance was finally sent for, and I got sent down to Houston Northwest Medical Center’s emergency room.

The prognosis from the ER doctor is that I badly sprained my lumbar muscles. He’s prescribed me a painkiller and a muscle relaxant, and has ordered me to stay in bed for the next few days to let it heal. I’m okay with that for now; I can access the company network remotely from my work laptop and also have access to my main PC via RDP. My main gripe is that I’m hoping I don’t miss Meredith’s and Jonathan’s New Year’s Eve party for the second year in a row. Ah, well… we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m just going to relax, take my meds, and hope I actually do get better, as this pain is really for the birds. Here’s hoping… :-)

Well, I’m not one to obsessively say “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Hanukkah”, “Blessed Winter Solstice”, and the like… but I’m hoping everyone has a very good holiday season of his or her own choosing. That said, I figured I’d post this holiday video card I saw on Kotaku. I’m sure about the only ones who’d be amused by it are Becky, Brian, and Jesse, but it’s cute nonetheless. :-)

I admit to playing a prank on coworkers today.

On my way to Festivus Friday night, I stopped by Spec’s and picked up a bottle of strawberry margarita and a canister of a particular snack food. I had plenty of the snack food left when I left the party, so I brought it home with me. When I left for work this morning, I brought the canister with me. During the day, I walked around the office munching out of the canister, with my hand strategically placed over the name of the snack. If someone were to ask me what I was eating, I’d hold the canister out and offer them some. They’d then try it…

… and in over half the people, they’d chew on it for a second, and then their faces would turn into a look of pure horror. One or two of them even spit it out. I just love watching the look on people’s faces when they have wasabi peas for the first time. :-)

I think the funniest encounter I had was with the CEO’s secretary. She tried a few peas, munched on them; her eyes grew wide and she quickly swallowed them. At that moment, the CEO walked in, saw the canister in my hand, and before I could even THINK of saying anything (not that I’d be so stupid as to try that trick on him), he smiled and said, “Ahh… wasabi peas. I love them; I always keep a canister in my pantry.”

Ah, well. It made for a fun and amusing day. :-)

Yes, Festivus was a lot of fun. I’ll probably make a post about it a bit later, but first I wanted to make an observation…

As is well known, back in March or so I made it my goal to change my eating and exercise habits, and lose weight as a result. I had noticed some changes (especially in terms of pants sizes), but more often than not I would hear from friends and colleagues about how much weight I had been losing. When I look at myself in the mirror, it’s kind of hard to tell. Well, late last night or early this morning, Ray posted some pictures from last night’s Festivus, and I was floored by how I looked. I’ll give you a bit of a comparison.

I had no idea I had lost so much weight. In all modesty, I think I look good… heh.

I’m kind of falling off the wagon this month thanks to Christmas et al, but I plan on getting back on the wagon once the New Year rolls around. I’m not eating like I was, mind, but I’ve been in more splurge situations than before. I hope to get closer to my target weight by February, but for now I’m just happy that my efforts are obviously paying off. :-)

In about two hours, I’ll be over at McCormick Manor (aka, Sean’s father’s house) for Sean’s annual Festivus party. Seeing as there are people who want to attend but won’t be able to, Sean and I have worked together to make a live feed of the event. In addition, Sean Loyless is making a live feed of his Festivus party as well, and we’ll have it set up where we’ll be seeing each other live. If you want to take part as well, just fire up Skype and add “VirtualFestivus” as a contact. You’ll be conferenced in as well!

McCormick Manor live feed:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/red-cedar-place—-festivus-2008
San Antonio live feed:
http://www.dailyhaggis.com/festivus

We’ll start broadcasting from McCormick Manor sometime between 7 and 8 PM CST. Consider this your chance to see me live and not in a set video like an interview. :-) If I don’t hear from you, have a happy Festivus, everyone!