jordanriane

Author: Jordan

  • Patience is a necessity

    On Tuesday of next it’ll have been three months since my accident. It’s so weird to see the progress I’ve made, which is a lot, but that I still have a lot more to go through in the upcoming months. Thanks so much to everyone that left comments, it meant a lot to me!

    Today I had my 30 day follow-up with my orthopedic doctor to get my wrist cast off and to check on my hip and tibial plateau. The good news is that my cast came off, and I had a little more mobility than he expected. The bad news? Looking over the xray for my wrist he noticed that I have about a 4.5mm gap by one of my carpels. He said this is because I have some sort of torn or damaged tendon. Either way, there’s a high chance I’ll be referred to a hand surgeon to have it repaired or reconstructed in the next few weeks. This is all pending though since I go in next week for an MRI on the wrist. I’m hoping it’s not too bad but seeing as though it’s been 3 months, surgery seems likely.

    My knee is doing perfect as far as healing goes. The only noticeable thing is some calcification forming over one of the pins, but it won’t affect any mobility as it’s on the inner side of my leg. The biggest disappoint during my appointment was my hip’s poor recovery. It’s been 11 weeks post-op, and the piece of broken femur that’s re-attached with three pins is still not fusing with my original femur. As such, I have to wait another 30 days for my next checkup, and still cannot do any physical therapy to start walking again. I’m also stuck wearing my hip brace for a long time, as he mentioned he’ll have me wearing this while I’m going through PT.

    The only real good news was that he was comfortable enough to allow me to increase the weight-bearing status of my right leg. I can put up to 30lbs of weight (or pressure) on the leg. So while it wasn’t what I wanted, it’s still something I can deal with. I was really just hoping to be able to start PT this month, so by October 6th (my best friend Amy’s birthday) and October 11th (Steve‘s birhday) I’d be able to go out and have some fun to celebrate their birthdays. But alas, my extreme dance moves will have to be put on hold for awhile!

    Other than that I’ve been quite busy with my hosting company, and two other side projects of mine. My goal right now though is to start getting back into freelancing full-time as my cast is now off. Reason being is not only has my money dwindled quickly (insurance, bills, yadda yadda) but all of my bills from being in the hospital have been coming in like crazy. I do have health insurance now which thankfully covers almost 90%. I still have a lot of bills to be processed but my biggest one ($235,000) is actually being processed right now so this is my main bill I’m worried about.

    Well, this post is long enough so I’m calling it quits! 😛

  • My Road To Recovery

    This post is long overdue, but I’m finally putting aside some time to write this. On July 9th I was finally released from the hospital after 32 days. 32 days that I can never get back, but 32 days I’ll never regret.

    I don’t remember my accident at all. However, for clarification, my use of the term “accident” implies the impact of Robert Slager’s (of Slager and Son Masonry) truck against my car and the time from impact until I was conscious moments later after a grateful bystander came to my side to keep me calm and whom also called 911. I remember 10 minutes beforehand where I had been at a stop sign answering a call from my sister Morgan. I told her I was on my way home and that I’d talk to her in 10 minutes or so since I wasn’t too far away. Next thing I know I’m waking up and hearing a man’s voice praying to the Lord for him to look over me. Then a huge wave of pain spread throughout my body. I couldn’t open my eyes, but my “guardian angel” noticed I was conscious and asked for my name, then phone numbers for my parents. He told my I had been in a bad accident and that the paramedics were on their way.

    Everything else was a blur that night. From the time I was removed from my car to getting to the ER, it felt like 15 minutes had gone by. In actuality it took 1 hour to extract me from my car, and another 15 minutes to drive to the hospital. I had been in so much pain that I was in and out of consciousness. After a short time in the ER, I was finally able to open my eyes and at that point just kept asking for my parents. I then remember the nurses telling me they were going to cut my clothes off, and I said the least expected thing. I told the nurse she couldn’t cut off my tops because they were my favorite t-shirt and undershirt. It’s a bit of a blur trying to remember everything that night. I finally got to see my parents, my sister Morgan, and Steve. My best friend Amy wasn’t there yet, but she came while I was in surgery.

    Forewarning: the rest of this post is unbelievably long. (more…)

  • Broken bones and a totaled car

    On June 8th around 9:40pm on my way home I was in a car accident. I was turning left when I was tboned by a truck being driven by Robert Slager (Slager and Son Masonry) going 55mph.

    I’d go into so much more detail but I’m typing this from my iPhone right now.

    I suffered a fractured left wrist, a fractured left foot, a severely fractured right tibula and knee, and a displaced and fractured hip ball. The right side of my face had deep lacerations.

    I’ve been in the hospital since the accident. Have had three surgeries for my hip so far with one of those fixing my wrist and foot fractures, and stitching my face.

    In an hour and a half I’m going into my fourth surgery to fix my fractured hip. I’d write more but my tummy hurts and I’m thirsty (but I can’t eat or drink before this surgery).

    So until then.. Wish me luck.

  • Playing catch up

    I’ve yet again managed to allow my website to plummet off the deep end. I let it go for a few good reasons though. I had been extremely busy with Holdfire, and ended up focusing most of my energy towards it to get things accomplished. As usual it took me a little longer than anticipated, but regardless I got it done.

    8187415 The past few months have been pretty decent. My previous relationship ended, only to have someone else come back into my life again (on my accord.) May 8th I celebrated my 23rd birthday with my best friend Amy, Steve, and another good friend, Davia. Although the best part was receiving a text from Steve telling me I had a delivery. So I went to my front door only to open it and see a package from ProFlowers. I opened it up and it was a gorgeous bouqet of 24 roses that were yellow, pale orange, pale pink and red. This alone was probably the only thing I needed to enjoy the rest of my birthday. We ended up going to Houlihans for dinner, and then to Durbins for drinks and good times.

    Steve and I went to a park for a picnic on Monday after dropping off his Macbook Pro at the Apple store to get fixed. It was a gorgeous day out, and what made it better was that he ended up asking me to be his girlfriend. One thing I have to admit is that I have honestly never had a guy ask me out to his face. Majority of the time it was maybe through the internet, or a text message but nothing as great as this. Things have only gotten better since then. He’s the first boyfriend in my life to have actually taken the time out to hang out with my friends, and receive the seal of approval from the one person who mean everything to me, my best friend Amy. My mom and dad love him, and he’s gotten along quite well with my siblings.

    Aside from that we’ve been up to so much. We went and saw Star Trek last weekend, and went to the Angels & Demons 12:01am showing on Friday. Last night we went out with my friends and his brother and friends to a local bar and had an absolute blast. I believe Friday we’re going to the 12:01am for Terminator Salvation so that’ll be flipping sweet.

    So, how’s that for actually updating my website and actually writing about something personal rather than some bullshit iPhone jailbreaking, or what software alternatives I’ve come across. I’m definitely going to try to update this more… That and I’m actually working on getting this site fixed up and active again.

  • Trying new things out

    For years I’ve stuck to the same software. Firefox for a browser, Thunderbird for email, iTunes for music, and Quicktime for movies. Recently I’ve gotten pretty tired of Thunderbird for it’s lack of other in-depth features. Then I ended up stumbling upon Postbox (Mac and PC). It’s built off of Thunderbird, but definitely has more bang for it. The biggest thing I liked was that when you loaded up an email in the bottom pane, it would have a sidebar of any media or links included in it that you can access right away without having to skim through the email to find. There’s a lot more features, but you know, I’m just a tad too lazy to blog about it.

    After that I decided I wanted to try to find other replacements for some of my software. I’ve replaced iTunes with Songbird (Windows XP or Vista), although the main factor being that iTunes was not too fond of Vista 64bit. My favorite part is that it’s built around Firefox so I can download other add-ons to enhance my experience. It’s linked to my last.fm account (which is integrated already), and I’ve got a few others like coverflow, showing last.fm data about the artist playing, and a few others for skinning. It has no CD ripping or burning features yet, although that’s on their to-do list. That was another problem with 64bit and iTunes, the CD rip/burn was inoperable. 😐

    My HD capture card came with proprietary encoding software from Arcsoft which was really lacking in any major functionality. The biggest problem was that encoding took longer than it should have. Armando, ended up finding an awesome free alternative to it, Super ©. It’s perfect because I needed to be able to encode to MOV with H264 video and AAC audio, and be able to chose the resolutions for it and fine tune a few other specs. Encoding is also about 75% quicker than what I experienced with Arcsoft’s prepacked bologna.

    Majority of my interest in trying out new software has mainly developed after I joined Wakoopa.com. It tracks the software (and webapps) that you use, and charts them for you. They do have up a recommended section for you and while it’s in beta, it hasn’t given me some decent choices. Majority of those were based on popularity and I was already aware of, so from just randomly browsing other users’ profiles I was able to find some other software to look at.

    Other than the few I’ve changed over I still haven’t (or won’t) find alternatives to my main programs like Photoshop, After Effects, Intype (well technically this replaced Notepad++), and Firefox. 😛

  • Jailbreaking your iPhone 3G (or iTouch.)

    I’ve had my iPhone 3G since September, and for months I had been reading articles on jailbreaking the iPhone. It felt like so much work when reading through all of the articles found, but the process was so easy and quick. Since I’m using a Windows machine, I went ahead and decided to use QuickPWN to jailbreak my phone. If you’re using a Mac, you’ll want to Pwnage.

    img_0028 It’s not really pertinent to include the steps of what I did with Quickpwn. It was a matter of plugging the iPhone into the USB port, and letting the software recognize the phone. Then you just follow the instructions listed (holding the power button a few seconds, then power+home, then home), and voila, it boots up with your jailbroken iPhone.

    You’ll want to backup just in case something goes awry during the process. However, I had no problems at all. Apps, contacts, and all files stayed in tact and no corruption. The main purpose for doing this was because I wanted to take advantage of a bunch of apps that are available through Cydia. Installer.app is included as well, but I prefer what is offered through Cydia at the moment.

    img_0033 One thing I would recommend before you download any app on your device, is that you google it online. I didn’t do this, and had some issues that I can’t resolve unless I restore my iPhone. There are some that are going to be buggy, and might not work entirely as it should, and there are some that are going to interfere with other apps that may be loaded as well. One website/forum I have been relying on heavily to find out any issues or recommendations has been modmyi.com which has a bunch of mods for iPhone, iPod, Mac and who knows what else. They are also very involved with apps through Cydia, so there is definitely a chance you can get help for something, or even request an app.

    One app that I would stay away is called Kate (RiPDev). Prior to configuring i I went to make a call only to have the mobilephone.app crash on me after 5 seconds of loading. It kept doing this repeatedly since at first I though it was a bad jailbreak, but then I remember I installed Kate. So I went to remove the app, only to still have to problem. Perplexed, I added it back. I then went and googled mobilephone.app, and one of the first results was from modmyi.com: mobilephone.app crash. Someone mentioned that Kate was the culprit on their phone and provided suggestions on how to remove it.

    I’ve been through a bunch of threads and have been unsuccessful at this point. Granted, I did get mobilephone.app working once I applied a trial license to Kate. However, once that trial expires you receive no warning and then you better get used to things crashing again. I’ve tried a few of the fixes to undo Kate’s fuckup, but none of them worked, and I didn’t want to resort to restoring. So I went ahead and just purchase a license for it, but don’t go through the trouble I did. Just stay away from it altogether.

    img_0030 Granted, the largest advantage of having Kate installed was being able to modify a lot of settings on the phone (but I should mention that there are certains apps that will achieve various effects–you just need to search for their names to get ’em.) But with Kate you can have 5 icons in your dock (there’s another app that can do this, but I don’t know it off hand), change the icons used for a good portion of apps, add privacy settings (eg: no content shown when a text message is received), and a bunch of others I have yet to take advantage of. So if you are interested in paying for the app, there is a chance is will be of value to you. Otherwise you get a short trial (I think a week) so if you don’t want to pay for it, skip out on it.

    Some of the other apps I have downloaded and enjoy:

  • Live.com Spambot, I hate you.

    A few weeks ago I read Jem’s blog “Live.com Fake SERP Referrals Are Pissing Me Off” but at the time never had the issue myself. Well, shortly after her post I’ve been having the Live.com spambot hitting up a couple of my domain with one-keyword search referrals. 100% of the Live.com “traffic” has been from spoofed referrals, and it’s not stopping.

    I really don’t care to contact Microsoft in regards to the issue–I’m just going to go all out and block the bot from accessing those websites. I’ll end up settings up a robots.txt file, but apparently that might not be enough as some user(s) are still experiencing issues with the bot avoiding the robots.txt file; Time to dig up the IP addresses being used so I can deny those too.

    If I honestly had some real results coming from Live.com’s search, I’d be apprehensive to blog anything associated with it, but so far I’ve yet to ever receive one legitimate search referral from it. I frequent my Mint statistics more than I should on a daily basis, so I can see what keywords I need to work on.. I just can’t afford to waste my time with fake hits. Stop skewing up my shit!

    I found a nice little tutorial on block bots on various levels ranging from an .htaccess redirect that sends them back to their own site, blocking their IP address, and a couple other variations. An anonymous comment from another entry, Live.com’s Referrer Spam Has Left Me In Despair provides a snippet you can add to your .htaccess file to also block the bot, given that it seems to ignore any robots.txt settings.


    SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "^msnbot" bad_bot
    <Limit GET POST>
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from all
    Deny from env=bad_bot
    </Limit>

  • Present Crisis Avoided!

    3133555915_286cbd4a5c_b For the first time in years I actually went Christmas shopping before Christmas Eve. Okay, so it was the day before but that still counts, right? I even went despite the fact that it had snowed 6.5″ throughout the day, and was still falling on the ground. Not to mention that it would eventually turn into sleet and add about 1.5″ of ice to everything.

    My youngest sister Nicolle wanted to tag along, and even though I had to shop for her I was definitely looking forward to her company. Seeing as though her and I are the closest, and we always seem to have fun it was a no-brainer. We ventured out to Target so we could take a look around to see what was on sale, and played it by ear. Picked out a new coffee pot for my grandma, and was a nice one at that! Got a few odds-n-ends for the kitchen as little stocking stuffers for dad. For Nicolle’s gifts I found this cute gold makeup bag with two little cases to go inside of it… So that’s when I told her to run along and go buy us some Starbucks. Ended up filling it up with about $60 worth of makeup and a few hair accessories. Hopefully she’ll like it.

    After that we headed off to Best Buy to pick up a thing or two, which I refuse to mention here for Armando’s safety! It should have been a 5 minute run but it turned into 30 minutes since we both ended up playing a bit of Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2. By that time the snow was piling up even more, although it was starting to turn into sleet. We only needed to hit up a couple more stores, and I left my Paypal credit card at home, so we went back home. Spent 30 minutes shoveling our monstrosity of a driveway, and made our way back out. Went to Kohl’s and oh gosh, so many sales going on. 3133555599_894640c591_b

    I’m a sucker for huge sales so I definitely spent time wondering around the entire place. Found some nice cubic zirconia earrings for her (she likes those huge ones, blech!) that were 60% off, and a Fantasy by Britney Spears perfume set that was 50% off regular price. Only person left for gifts at that point was just my dad. I was still a bit stuck on what to get him, but he was adamant upon having new sweatshirts, t-shirts, and socks so why deny the man some comfy clothes? T-shirts were $6 a piece (from $12), and some sweatpants that were 50% off. Although the one upset was that the set of Bobby Flay BBQ tools were slightly damaged. It was $75 normally, but again on sale for $30. It was almost too good to pass up, but Bed, Bath & Beyond was next door.

    3134375934_ccca75f3f2_b I think my entire total at Kohl’s was just $97. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use my 15% off coupon since it had to be with a Kohl’s charge card, which I didn’t have… 🙁 But hey, I did get $10 back, since they had a promotion for $10 for every $50 spent. I was still feeling like my dad’s presents were shortchanged compared to my mom’s new Tom Tom GPS so Bed, Bath & Beyond was next. Didn’t find much there especially since we were keeping on eye out for a Fiestware milk jug thingie but didn’t find such thing. Picked up some more wooden spoons (and ironically enough while dad was cooking some pierogi and smoked Kielbasa he asked where all the wooden spoons were!), a BBQ set, and silicone spatulas.

    When we were waiting in line to check out, you can’t help but be completely focused on the items all around the endcaps of the registers. Candies, little random trinkets, those “As Seen On TV” items, and god knows what else. But my damn eye had to fall on the PedEgg. Yeah, seriously, how many other items have I seen on TV that I’ve wanted buy? The Magic Bullet, SmoothAway, ShamWOW (dad said he was buying this for mom as a gag gift but it was mainly sold out in stores! ha!), Debbie Myer GreenBag…. I could go on but you get the point!

    3134219629_75df7e8043_b So I ended up picking up the PedEgg. I only did that because a month or so ago I was in her room while the infomercial came on and was just watching it in awe… Primarily due to all the shavings that they’d dump out of that damn PedEgg. Although the reaction wasn’t as classic as when we saw the infomercial for the Kinoki foot pads which looked like your feet was on it’s period… All in all I’m pretty ecstatic with the gifts picked up, so I’m hoping everyone likes it. I think I’m most looking forward to my mom’s reaction to her GPS, since she thinks she’s not getting it! K well it’s time to finishing wrapping up the presents, and then off to take a shower (so you know, I don’t look like shit when I’m forced to open presents on video camera…)

  • Christmas shopping is stressful

    The worst part about Christmas is picking out the right gift for someone. My mom’s gift was easy. She’s horrible with directions, and always ends up calling me to help her find her way to her destination. So of course the gift I got for her (and I believe it’s safe to write about it, since she’s too busy to read my blog) is a Tom Tom GPS unit. I researched for a few weeks on pricing, and was dead set on the widescreen version which was almost $100 cheaper on Amazon.com than in stores and other retailers. But the day I went to buy it, it was sold out. FANTASTIC! So I went to Wal-Mart and spent about $130 since it was on sale there, although not the widescreen model.

    The hard part now is finding Dad something comparable to the gift I got to my mom. So that means no sox, undies, shirts, sweatshirts.. I need (yes, need, as in I still have to shop for him…) to come up with something that’s going to be resourceful for him. The problem is that my constant nagging for a list from him, has done no good as I have nothing to refer to… He owns his own construction company, but any tool you can think of, he’s got. I think that’s why I’ve procrastinated shopping the past few days (and even right now) is that I have no clue what to buy. Everyone keeps suggesting to finish his company’s website, but I’ve had to put that aside since I’m at a block for it… Maybe a “Under Construction” (lol) animated GIF icon? O.o

    My grandparents are quite easy. It’s always a joint gift, and usually my dad goes all out anyway. But my grandma is in dire need of a new coffee pot. She’s had her current one for god knows how many years (probably as old as I am!) so I’ll be replacing that for her.. And then it’s just my two younger sisters (14, and 17.) I’m all for stupid little gifts leading into something better.

    Morgan loves horchata so when I was at Wal-Mart the other day I found this package of the stuff that requires only the liquids (milk or water I think) so I got that for her.. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out what else she needs. Or perhaps maid service to clean up the room that literally has no floor since it’s all covered in clothes..?

    Nicolle was another easy one. She uses my makeup bag all the time. I get woken at 5:30am sometimes to hear her ask “Can I pleeease pleeease pleeease use your makeup?” To which I yell at her grouchily to get out my room and “No you can’t!” Though that doesn’t stop her seeing as though after the last word is out my mouth I’m fast asleep again. So I’ll be getting her a nice little makeup bag with all the makeup she’ll need, so she can stop bothering me about it.

    The other person that I have to shop for is my boyfriend Armando. But he reads atourworst.org so he’s crazy if he thinks I’m gonna write about it. All I know is that I think it’s a super-dooper awesome idea, and he’ll just have to sit there and wait until either Christmas Eve or Day to get his gift. Although I’m sure it’ll be Day since I think he has family plans on the Eve.

    So this just leads me back to my dad. He always seems to spoil my mom around Christmas (and us kids.) I just wish I knew the perfect gift for him so I could return the years of lame gifts he’s gotten over the years.

  • Favorite TV Shows of 2008

    Over the years I haven’t been active with TV series namely because I always forgot about them. I’d watch the first couple episodes and then I’d forget about them until years later. “Hey, I’ve never seen that episode!” Hell, even being on the internet I was lazy with downloading. But this is probably the first year that I’ve paid the most attention to new series and seasons. I think the biggest reason is namely for streaming services being so popular. Hulu, Fancast and Surfthechannel have been the primarily websites I’ve been going to, so I can stay up-to-date! Hell, I think what excited me the most was that Netflix now seems to have current episodes for shows available for streaming. Even more awesome since the new Xbox dashboard has Netflix integration. Woo!

    key_art_fringe Fringe – Fox – Action / Drama / Science Fiction
    Oh my if there is any show that I need to keep watching, it’s Fringe. Being a Lost fan (and inevitably a JJ Abrams fan), there was no way I would miss it. I think what keeps me enjoying it is not only just the sci-fi aspect (X-Files anyone?) but the fact that Joshua Jackson is great in this show, as is the actor who plays “Walter Bishop.” Gotta love an old guy with witty quips. Fringe definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting more.

    key_art_sons_of_anarchy Sons of Anarchy – FX – Action / Drama
    Oh wow, I don’t even know where to start. SoA is about an outlaw motorcycle club that seems to loosely use the theme from Shakespeare’s “The Hamlet.” It’s definitely not my usual favorite (hello crime drama and sci-fi) but this has been an intense show. It had a short season (13 episodes) and is already over, but definitely give it a try if you’re looking for something new to get into. Can’t wait for next year!

    key_art_life Life – NBC – Drama / Suspense / Crime
    Cop dramas really do suck me in. Life is about a framed cop trying to tie together the pieces of the crime that put him in jail for 12 years. The first season goes more into the backstory, where as season 2 starts to really get more into his role of Detective, as well as other characters in the show. I love the eclecticCharlie played by Damian Lewis (Dreamcatcher anyone?). Hopefully the completion of the backstory doesn’t take away from Life.

    key_art_kitchen_nightmares Kitchen Nightmares – Fox – Food / Reality
    There is honestly nothing better then getting the charm of Chef Gordon Ramsey ala Hell’s Kitchen mixed in with real people. Kitchen Nightmares brings Chef Ramsey to the heart of failing restaurant’s to show them the err of their ways, to help them from their emotional and financial struggle. It helps you to really understand the inner-workings of family-owned restaurants, and also shows you what you never see–their kitchen. You also can’t deny Ramsey’s classic catchphrases.

    key_art_my_own_worst_enemy My Own Worst Enemy – NBC – Action / Drama /Suspense
    Christian. Slater. That’s all I need to say. I definitely won’t deny that I watched this show based primarily on the fact I’ve harbored a crush on him since Gleaming the Cube. The show started off fantastic–father finds out that he’s a split personality created by the people he works for. It’s sort of plateaued after he’s made of aware of it, but it’s been intriguing to see him deal with “waking up” as his spy alter-ego, and vice-versa. Hopefully it gets better before the season is over.

    Aside from those shows I’ve always been watching:

    • ER – With this being the last season, ever!, it was no doubt that I’d watch it. I think what really gutted me the most was the episode when Dr. Green made an appearance. Albeit for a flashback, but it was definitely a fantastic episode, and made me realize how many years I’ve been watching this show. Sad to see it go, but they’ve done a great job. Never cried so much while watching a tv show either (Life After Death).
    • CSI (Las Vegas) – I think the biggest hit I’ve yet had again has been the loss of Warrick in the first episode of the season. I read some spoilers that definitely were not right, so it was a huge shocker to me. This season has been nothing short of intriguing, so I’m hoping that with the loss of Grissom but the addition of Dr. Raymond Langston (Laurence Fishborne), will keep the intesity of the season it had with the original cast. I
    • The Office – For awhile there I felt like Pam was going to stay in New York forever and never go back to Jim. But now we’ve got her back, and hey look, Toby too! Some episodes have been lackluster while some have been hilarious. Honestly, nothing beats the continued Jim and Dwight hilarity. The entire cast keeps me coming back for more.
    • House – Knowing that each episode is going to feature an ailing patient with 25 different prognosis’ sounds like I wouldn’t watch more than one episode, but somehow the show keeps me coming back. I think with the variations on the storylines of the characters have definitely made it more impacting. I definitely can’t deny that I’m on the other side saying “What the hell is wrong with her?!!!” after the 5th [wrong] diagnosis. Damn you Dr. House, damn you.

    So what shows you are currently watching, whether old or new. I’m always up for getting into a new show (except Heroes!) so I’m all eyes.