I'd like to give everyone a head's up. My buddy Dave sent me a message stating that he's going back into surgery to repair a hole in his stomach as well as remove an abscess that was created by the infection. It is not entirely related to the stomach surgery he had(the one I had is completely different), but it certainly has complicated things. Japan does not perform gastric bypass so no one there is familiar with what he had done. He has not decided yet if he will have the surgery done in Japan or in the USA. Dave is upbeat and optimistic, and believes that the surgery he had done was far worse than what he's having done now.

I'd like for everyone to keep him in their prayers. He's a guy who has faced much adversity and he needs every little bit of help he can get.

I got paid today! Since I earned bonus last month, my check was a bit larger too. A good thing too, because I also took the liberty to set up a saving account with ING Direct. I'm going to start with a modest $50 deposit, with a recurring deposit from each check. I'm sure Goob is smiling right now. Let's just keep this between us though- responsibility cramps my style.

Work has been crazy lately. I'm still enjoying the 5 hour work days(I don't take a call in the last 3 hours of work). Today the phones went belly-up again tonight after midnight and it was rather strange having your phone beep in and out of service. They didn't bother moving us to the IP phones since we were all getting off shift soon. I'm sure tomorrow will be splendid.

I got a hold of Gary today, and he's been real busy lately. His daughter just graduated from law school in NYC, and he's been moving his parents to a new home as well. He mentioned that he is working on a new motion picture(not Indiana Jones IV, alas) as well as a new theatre production. He's excited about getting the site up and running, but right now he's busy. I await his call so we can get that site up!

I'm looking forward to this summer, but it looks like my break from classes has set me back in terms of my student loans. Since I'm technically not in class, they're running out of grace periods and it's going to be difficult to pay them all off. Does anyone know any good consolidation loan companies?

Soon after my last post's plea, my sister handed me rent plus a bunch more extra. I was able to pick up a bunch of stuff for my diet. Things like the salad that doesn't turn into green slime in a couple days and a lot of fresh veggies. I've also decided to train myself to get used to feeling hungry too. So far so good.

In other news, work is going good. I found out that I did make bonus last month(the lowest tier, but bonus is bonus!). The situation isn't as dire as I thought- While I still do have call after call after call etc, it only lasts until 10pm or so. After that the calls drop down to nil. The past few days at work have given me hours without taking a single call.

That is until yesterday, which was some crazy fun. About an hour and a half into the day, all of phones died, with 80-some people waiting to call in! It was crazy. For about an hour, I sat around, waiting for something to do. My bosses discovered that the IP Phones(I guess they use a different system) worked fine, so they began moving us over to those phones. Then they realized that the phones downstairs(where the cable TV agents are) were also offline, so they started moving them up there too.

It was crazy. We had some people standing around waiting for agents to leave from their shifts so they could take the phone, we had our supervisors offering green time(authorized leave without pay) to those whose jobs had availability, and I was stuck taking calls like crazy and getting to hang around the cable tv agents. When my lunch finally rolled around, we were treated to some special Mexican dinner which wasn't bad. I stayed within my limit, and enjoyed it.

After that, I didn't take a single call. The availability hit, and since we fulfill an overflow position(meaning, if the agents who are supposed to be doing tier1 do not get any calls, then niether do we). It wasn't until 1am that they offered me green time and I took it. Though I wouldn't mind sitting around earning an extra hour of work without actually working, I felt today was weird enough and it was time to head home.

I read Goob's message and he has finally admitted his love for Erika. I still think he's crazy, and it does seem rather fast, but I wish him the best. She is currently married and that's soon to change, but I hope they don't do anything regrettable that could jeopardize the legal(as well as moral) side of the divorce. I'm only glad that they're happy. Good luck, Goob!

I need your help, God. I saw my surgeon today and he gave me the news. Rather than searching for a hospital that will allow my surgery to be performed at my current weight(500lbs), he wants me to consider it from the other direction. He wants me to lose weight so that I can have it performed right here. I'll need to lose 50lbs before that can happen.

It isn't going to be easy, and I don't know if I can do it on my own. That's why I'm asking for Your help. I know I have the support of my friends and family, but I'll need support from You too. I need help to stay under my calorie limit, and to avoid foods that aren't very good for me. It's going to be more expensive because healthy food isn't cheap food, so I'll need your help to find the money I need too. I know this is asking a lot, but I hope you can lend me a hand.

Your sheep in Lockport,
Jeff Raven

I spoke too soon. Apparently the rosy picture I painted in the last post didn't last. Friday was jam-packed with calls until the very end. Okay? Not so bad, right? Wrong. While we were moved back to our usual places on Monday, it was balls-to-the-wall calls. I was already running late, I had a headache, and it was looking awful. Then the proverbial defecation collided with the rotary ocilator. It seems Buffalo area came up against an outage and we were told to perform an action that doubles our call time. I took about 3 of those calls before they said the long process wasn't necessary. 20 minutes later, I was told that the long process would be necessary again.

I had it. I was done. My boss detected this and told me that sick time can be used in this case. "Mental health is important too," he said. I agreed with him. So after 3 hours of taking calls, I called it quits and went home. I hope things improve tomorrow.

The weekend faired better at home than at work. I managed to get some shopping done with what little money I had, as well as get some Warcrafting done with Goob. Good to know he's done with school for the summer too. More time! I also found out my new shift that starts at the end of the month. It's going to be 3:45pm to 12:15am with Friday and Saturday off. Not bad.

Sunday night was reserved for some more crafting of the War, and then it was off to Spiderman 3! My next-door neighbor Julie paid this time(despite my repeated attempts to fill in) and I really appreciated it. She didn't have to, and it makes me appreciate how wealthy I am in friendships, if not in money. The movie was fantastic! I felt there were some things that could have made the movie better but on the whole Spidey 3 certainly reached its usual levels of awesome.

With the week off to a rocky start, I only hope things get better, and perhaps I should talk about this new work situation with my supervisor. Wish me luck!

So I was duped at work. They offered some training on the billing system to me a couple weeks ago. I asked before I volunteered if this would lead to moving or otherwise changing from what I'm doing now. I was told no.

They lied.

Turns out that the day of training we were told that we would be handling tier 1 calls in an overflow capacity, but only setting up trouble calls and balancing services. Fair enough- it wasn't too bad, and our call capacity did not increase very much. However, the next day we get a notice that not only would we have to move to a different part of the building, but we would also be taking only tier1 calls for the foreseeable future. When this ends they couldn't tell me, but from the sounds of it, its going to be a while.

Losers.

I was pretty angry about it, until I was halfway through the day. I take it all back, it's actually not bad. Since there is already a tier1 taking the bulk of the calls, we're still just handling overflow, and the time in between calls(with 5 available) ranged from 2 minutes to 5 minutes, which was awesome. After lunch, the time even stretched further. IN FACT, after my second and final break until the end of my shift, I didn't take a single call. That was an hour and a half of me just sitting around, wikipedia'ing bad movies and old cartoons. Sweet.

I got quite a bit done these last few days. I had a doctor's appointment on the 27th and things looked really good. My blood pressure was fine, and Dr. Pendyala and I discussed a few things I need to look at before the surgery but so far things are going smooth. He was quite happy with my weight loss so far and so am I. I just hope it keeps going.

This weekend I made some finishing touches to Gary's site, including a spiffy javascript method for putting up email addresses that avoid spam. I hope that's all I need, but if there are any changes necessary, I can make them.

Also this weekend I managed to get laundry done in quick fashion, as well as the dishes(they were gaining sentience). I still had time to visit my dad's place and I fixed my stepsister's CDROM drive. Turned out the cables where unplugged, so it was just a matter of connecting them back up and boom finished. I've been running low on money so my dad lent me $15 for gas. It's getting tough these days.

I also talked to my sister. In addition to paying me back, I asked her to pay $25 a week for rent, and she said no problem. Now I just hope I don't have to push her to collect. I shouldn't have to. Money is tight and I'm paying much more in electric and food. The burden is great.

Speaking of tight money, I saw the oral surgeon today. For the five extractions I need, it's $675. I need to have that up front before my insurance pays off any of it. I have no idea where I'm going to get this money, it may take me a couple months but I'm hoping to have surgery by then. I really do not know how I'm going to cover this.

Sunday night I did get some WoW in with Goob. It was fun even if it was only a few quests. Goob's my best friend and I do enjoy any time I get to spend with him. I am worried about this budding relationship he has with a married woman. I trust Goob to do the right thing but love has a way of making you do stupid things. From the little that I know of her it sounds like she wants a divorce. She may be an awesome gal but I do hope that she does things right in the eyes of God too. The least I can do is help protect Goob's immortal soul!

As most people know, I work in a call center for a major cable internet provider. We provide tech support for the internet only, whereas the cable TV goes to a different department. Now I don't usually post these because most people do not stand out, but this week I had someone AWESOME.

There was an outage happening in one of the areas we cover, and it took out both TV and internet. The outage effected several thousand people, and of course people are watching TV at midnight. The calls start to stack up, and we have a queue of about 20 waiting for us. I quickly learned about the outage and was able to tell most people that there was an outage and it will be a matter of time before it is fixed and to be patient. I also learned that the department that handles the cable TV side was ringing busy for people so they would start to call back and choose internet tech support instead. Fine, we can tell them too that there's an outage.

Except for one guy. He called in, was a TV-only customer, and proceeded to yell and scream that he had no TV. I politely explained to him that there was an outage, and it would be some time before it is fixed, but we are aware of it and it's being worked on right now. Unacceptable! He was a Vietnam veteran and demanded it to be up now. Somehow I was supposed to fix this internet problem myself just for him. Just because he was a vet. I told him there was nothing else I could do, but that didn't stop him. He had his daughter and grandchild over right now and wanted to watch TV with them but they couldn't and demanded to know what he should do. I started thinking of a few suggestions... like READ A BOOK? PLAY A BOARD GAME? TURN ON THE RADIO? Then I realized. It's Midnight. It's freaking 12am where he is. Shouldn't that child be in bed? On a school night? I did not express any of these thoughts to the customer but I really wanted to. Eventually the guy gave up and said he was switching to Dish Network. Sounded like a good idea, perhaps he'll enjoy their outages just as much.

Hooboy. The past few days have been a blur. Not in that everything has been going really fast... No. It's because I have yet to get a decent night's sleep. It started Thursday, when I had to wake up at 9am for my pre-operation class. It covered much of what I already knew and discussed with the dietitian. I still don't have a surgery date.

Later that day I met with a dentist and he gave me the bad news- I need my 3 wisdom teeth as well as 2 bad molars removed. I have no idea how much it's going to cost, but I hope it isn't a great deal. I'm broke as it is.

Speaking of expenses, my brakes failed on the way home on Friday. I had to wake up early Saturday to get it to the shop. Unfortunately they were very busy and I ended up having to wait until Monday to have it finished.

I did manage to pick up some of the computer components needed for my future rig. It didn't cost too much and I don't think I could have gotten a better deal. I've also checked out another site that will save me more than $100 on the rest of the parts... if they still have them once I can afford them.

All I need is for the pieces of the puzzle to fall in place, and hopefully things will work out. OISH!

What an awesome weekend! Not only did I finish Gary's website(located here), but I also did my laundry, performed an awesome trance radio show, gamed with Goober King, watched 300 with my dad, and now I'm about to finish the dishes. Not much else to say to that!

Next week I'll be visiting my dad's place, hopefully fixing my step-sister's computer. Looks like some memory problems but I'm hoping to at least pinpoint the problem.

Well I have some good news to spread. I have been officially approved for my surgery by my insurance company. This puts puts the meter up to the next notch! I've also weighed in at 506lbs so since February I've lost 24lbs using Slim Fast. It does work!

However, Dr. D was not able to give me a surgery date yet. There are a few things that he needs to do first. Since I am 506lbs, the local hospital may have a maximum weight limit because I will need to fit into the CAT scan machine. The machine is rated for 450lbs but I believe I fit inside the last time I was in the hospital. If the local hospital does have a maximum weight limit, I will either have to lose enough to be under that weight or I will have to have the surgery done at another hospital that can handle my size. The doctor said that currently he is booking late June so I might not be able to have it done as soon as May anymore. There is a possibility that if we get this cleared up it'll still be sooner rather than later. I really do not want to cancel my vacation trip to visit Amanda in Ohio.

Speaking of Amanda, I received a letter from her, hand-written. It was very touching and I feel I can only return in kind by sending one back. Hopefully along with something else too Stay tuned, folks!

Sorry for not updating recently. Apathy is a tragic thing.

The past few weeks have been uneventful for the most part, but some good things happened. Last week I hosted SW City's Birthday Block Party. It was mostly music for it but it was still awesome. I had about 15 listeners in all, and I know people appreciated the music.

Last week featured the new roll-out for the bonus at work, and I'm having trouble making the call time. It seems no matter how hard I try, I can't break that 12 minute ceiling. At least I have another week to get it back down.

My doctor and surgeon have been playing tag-team when it comes to my thyroid problem. My insurance has been sending correspondence to my surgeon but my doctor is the one monitoring the medication. They called me 3 times in one morning(when I'm sleeping) to confirm the increase in dosage. Oish! It's good that the surgery is less than a month away. I seem to have gotten stuck at 510lbs but this week before I visit the surgeon I'm gonna really work on the slim fast diet. It's harder than you think!

Got my car fixed on Friday. It needed new brake pads and calipers, whatever those are. It cost me a total of $540, the exact amount I had saved up for my computer parts. Looks like I'm waiting another 6 months to save enough for it.

Goober Zone was awesome on Friday night too. Goob introduced a new real-life friend to the show, and we all appreciated the voice of the lovely Erika, despite the acerbic wit and sarcasm bandied about. Goob's been hanging out with her a lot these days, so I'm sure we'll hear more from her as time goes on.

Speaking of Goob, we also fit in some crafting of the War on Saturday, and it was much appreciated. It's been several weeks since we got some good time in, and I've been often left to entertaining myself. Speaking of which, I played Halflife 2 again, and recently purchased its next-in-sequence, Episode 1. So far so good. The dynamic with Alyx definitely adds a new dimension to the game.

Anywho, that's it for this week. I'll be sure to update more often, even if I have to stray off the topic of myself.

The past week has been pretty amazing. Dave came home from Japan for his vacation and we met up at Dave & Busters. It's like Chuck E. Cheese's but for adults. We chatted for a bit, played some games(which I won an awesome travel-Connect 4 and a slinky), and it was great seeing him again. I also got to meet the lovely Atsuko, who was either impressed or amused by the few Japanese phrases I could remember.

The real fun of the week was yesterday, when we visited Cinco De Mayo, an awesome restaurant with Mexican fare, and then moseyed across the border to Medieval Times! It was an awesome show and I enjoyed it, but I think I might have enjoyed it more if I was 20 years younger. If you're curious as to what it really is, imagine being seated in an amphitheater with countertop tables in front of you, and in the center space about the size of a hockey rink a story unfolds that involves knights on horseback, a king and a princess, and lots of choreographed fighting and unchoreographed jousting. When the actors know what they're doing, it looks fantastic! It was one of Dave's favorite things to do and I was so glad to have joined him in it. It really was impressive and definitely worth the money to go there. I apologize for the quality of the pictures, it was difficult with the poor lighting. I only wish I had more shots of the jousting, which was awesome.

I was glad that Dave convinced Calvin not to buy the swords from the armory there(yes they had real weapons). I couldn't give Calvin enough information because I didn't know, but I was really glad Calvin didn't waste his money.

Sunday was somewhat anti-climatic. I went shopping, I cleaned part of the bathroom, and I did a single load of laundry, and several loads of dishes. Hurray! At least Goob and I managed some crafting of the war-type stuff.

My Dad's birthday was last week but we celebrated it on Saturday. It was pretty cool getting with the family again, probably something I should do more often. We had the usual cake and ice cream and dinner, and I missed DJing this week, but it was worth it. The title of this update comes from an old advertisement for the game Life that I played with some of my younger family on Saturday. It was rather amazing how fun that game was, and still is, in my mind. We used to play it all the time when we were younger and there were some obvious changes but the overall experience was the same. My dad made sure the cake wasn't sponge cake this year.

In between chatting with family and cleaning my dad's computer of viruses, I did get a chance to talk to my Dad about something. This whole surgery thing has got me thinking about my mortality- something I haven't really done. I feel like I'm on the edge of a realization- like wisps of smoke I can see but cannot grasp- about my existence and what it means. I keep going back to the thought that, barring any sudden events, I'll most likely live until 80 or so. Will I get to do all the things I want to do in that time? I'm 27 now, and I feel like the last 7 years I haven't done much but exist and work. My dad and mother were married at 20, and had kids then too. I feel like I'm missing out on something and it's clouding my thoughts. I only hope this surgery will help me reach 80, because without it it'll probably be only 50.

That's quite a bit for Saturday. Sunday was pretty good too, with major highlights being talking with Goob and playing some Warcraft, working on the Custom Hatter website(and getting the hardest part done and looking awesome), and especially talking with Amanda. She's going through some rough times right now and I hope and pray for her that she finds her way out of them. I didn't talk very much when she was talking with Goob and I, but I listened to her and that's pretty much what I do. I don't know if it's enough but she's always welcome to give me a call.

This week is going to be awesome. My buddy Dave has come home from Japan for a couple weeks and we've got some plans to meet up. Wednesday(which I have off :o) we'll be meeting up at Dave & Busters(a restaurant) and on Saturday we're hitting up Cinco De Mayo Grill for lunch, and then heading north of the border for some Medival Times dinner and show. I have never been there but it looks like fun. I'll bring back pictures if we take some. Woohoo!