leejacksonaudio

Consider custom systems from Sager. I bought one - a 10th generation i9-10850K, about a year or so ago, when 11th generation was barely the top - and it's done me yeoman service as a music writing machine. I've tried it out on some game situations, and it's done well. Their web site is a bit blingy, but peel back the outer veneer and you'll find some good, well-customizable laptops to be had. Give 'em a shot. https://www.sagernotebook.com/home.php

Sort of like drinkable gingerbread, but in a good way. You get the top notes, but not the bready sub-notes. I'm hooked.

Current Mood: Guarding Sleeping Beauty Across from me sits my wife, sound asleep in a reclining hospital chair.

Situation: a patient is stuck in a hospital room for almost two weeks. There's a disused dry-erase whiteboard next to his bed - not big, just enough to write some words on. The patient in the bed is a bit of a wiseass and has got some brand new dry-erase markers coming today from Amazon. He's not much of an artist, but he can write rather well. Give him some "Current Mood" things to say. Keep 'em PG-13 at the worst, preferably PG. Example: Current Mood: Wound Up and Run Down (with a poorly drawn watch next to the text). ...hey, I didn't say my example would be a good one. That's why I'm reaching out for ideas. Feel free to insert your own Current Mood here as well. Fire away!

Talk to your doctor and lay hands on an emergency supply of Zofran (generic name - ondansetron). It is the most powerful anti-nausea medication I have ever run across. Dissolve one tablet in your mouth, and bang goes your need to barf, in 98% of cases I've encountered. And I suffer from chronic post-gastric-bypass nausea attacks at times. You never know when one of those is going to hit - my wife has to carry Zofran around in her purse for me.

Good lord. To me, this is nightmare central. I wouldn't be able to handle that.

Forgive me for breaking this out of my "Essential Info" thread, but this has more potential for feedback and discussion that would be out of place in that thread. Feel free to share your own experiences. Let me bring you up to speed, if you haven't been reading my thread. Here's the tl;dr version. I'm sick with cellulitis, a skin infection that requires multiple intravenous antibiotics delivered over a special IV called a PICC line in my upper arm. They're a chore to place, but aren't supposed to hurt going in if done right. Meanwhile, I've got BAD right shoulder and arm pain that keeps me from laying down flat on my back for any length of time. If I do lie down, I start hurting. BAD. Megabad. Fast forward to Monday, July 11. First try at putting in the PICC line in my upper left arm. Should only take 20 minutes max, so I try to grin and bear the pain in my upper right arm since the PICC line nurse promises a quick procedure. She gets the line stuck in my left arm going in, then can't get it to come back out. The twenty minute mark comes and goes. My pain hits 9.5 on the 1-to-10 hospital pain scale, with no pain medicine. The nurse has to leave the line in my arm until the next morning. Call off the procedure, finally give me some Dilaudid. Tuesday, July 12. I'm in a radiology lab. They're going to give me moderate sedation and pain relief (ha!) - Versed and Fentanyl, intravenously - while they try to resolve the situation. Again, they lay me down flat. Turns out the PICC line went off course and got stuck in soft tissue, not a vein on Monday. Again, 20 minutes comes and goes, and I hit pain level 9 in my upper right arm again. They pull out the line, then ask if they can start from scratch. I tell them hell no, not with this pain. I finally pass out from the pain. At some point I get Dilaudid again, and finally get some pain relief. Wednesday, July 13. After some haggling on Tuesday, I get a doctor to do a third attempt under general anesthesia. They give me Propofol, Fentanyl (again), and other stuff. Once I wake up, I wake up straight into level 9 pain in my upper right arm, since I'd been laid flat, and since by now, it's apparent that Fentanyl does absolutely nothing for me for some reason. They let me sit up and they give me Dilaudid. I also learn that my PICC line is installed on my right arm - the one that hurts so bad. While it's not a direct cause of pain, it does cause some occasional soreness. I've experienced a 10 out of 10 once before, but never have I experienced three straight days of 9 or greater. I don't ever want to do it again. What about you? What is the worst pain you've ever felt, on a scale of 1-to-10, and how did it happen? Be sure to use care in marking sensitive subjects with the spoiler tag.

It's starting to look like I *might* be on another long course of IV antibiotics again, long being anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks per the infectious diseases doctor. How and where I get them (hospital, LTAC, skilled nursing center, home) is up in the air at the moment, thanks to Medicare's limitations. I should know more by Tuesday at the latest. If I do get long term IV antibiotics, I'll probably wind up with yet another PICC line (ouch). I'm getting 3 IV antibiotics right now, which they're having to administer one at a time. I'm sure they'd like to give me two at once if they could (there are 2 leads on a PICC line). And as much as they hurt for me going in, I'll admit that PICC lines are more comfortable for the first couple of weeks once they've been installed. They get a bit itchy after that, but if they're still administering two or more IV antibiotics, they're worth that small problem, IMHO.

Bob Gammage. I'm headed back to the Emergency Room. I woke up this morning to red, swollen, warm legs - not the kind of thing you want to see when you're already on two strong antibiotics. I wound up having to send pics over to my infectious diseases doctor, who told me to get myself into the ER for intravenous antibiotics. Looks like my weekend is farked. Sorry, folks.

If you want one where you can get good feedback, try Scribophile. I was a member when I was actively writing. Good stuff.

I am currently enjoying the hell out of a Health-Ade Kombucha, with cold-pressed Pink Lady Apple juice in it. Good stuff.

This is true, and quite ironic to boot. Good catch.

Agreed on Zhou's wreck. The longer the world feed goes without showing the crash, the more you've gotta worry about the guy in the car. Mad props to Haas, at long last! After almost 3 years, a double points day, with K-Mag in 8th and Mick in 10th! And Mick breaks it open with his very first F1 point! You've gotta love it.

Kind of, but not by me. James Grote, the guy who did the original altered cover, did it under the alias of "Gigadeth Productions" back in 1998. This was later shortened to just "Gigadeth," if I'm not mistaken. (Check out my history of Grabbag at https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/music/the-history-of-grabbag/ for details.)

Same thing I think about any of the ones based off of Gigadeth's altered cover. It's not going to be one of my favorites.

I don't really mind the Total Meltdown Grabbag. It keeps to the original melodic line, even if it does shuffle the sections around a little bit. Megadeth, on the other hand, I have never liked, and have publicly stated as much on several occasions. Why? They covered the Gigadeth cover version, not my original. Enough said.

Yeah, Lee Daniels liked the cover very much. <grin>

A trick question. There has yet to be an "official" cover, at least one that I've granted "official" permission to do. :) Now, there have been "unofficial" covers that kick ass. I don't have links to them right now, though. Maybe later.

About the same. It's a cover of a meh cover.

Just bought almost $70 worth of British comestibles from Goodwood's British Market.

Put simply, they took the original theme and Nerfed it. Dumbed it down and made it easier to play. Some people like that sound. I don't.

Nope. I've known about it from the start.

Definitely not my favorite cover version. He changed notes and modes. Without asking. Not cool.

Please check out my latest release - "DeadBeard Fantasia," now available on Bandcamp! It's one of my commissions, done before I got sick, based on "DeadBeard Theme" by Corey Burton. Grab a copy today! https://leejackson1.bandcamp.com/track/deadbeard-fantasia

Going through some old, old stuff while I recuperate led me to discover the following unused ambience file from Duke Nukem Forever, circa mid-2000. More info on the YouTube post. Enjoy with your favorite beverage.