I was looking for a backup CD-ROM of photos today, and found a disc of photos taken while I lived in Australia. The photo above was taken in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Apparently I was afraid that the camera was going to steal my soul if my eyes were open.

The photo was probably taken in November 1999, but since it was taken with something called a "film camera," I am not too sure -- there's no embedded EXIF data with that valuable metadata.

Guess which state had the highest percentage of support for McCain? It certainly wasn't his home state of Arizona. Not even North, South or Even Further South Dakota (Nebraska) could match the level of voting for McCain that our dear, beloved slack-jawed yokels showed last night.

Seriously? 2-to-1 for McCain? Let me know how that works out for you.

The obscene gesture that you can't see me making is directed to all of the Irish fans who were at Magness Arena on Saturday night.

After a fantastic Sunday of agony and pain (and a trip to the emergency room), it appears that I have some kidney stones to pass. I can not describe the pain I felt -- words fail me. I had a very small stone about ten years ago that passed without much incident and it hurt like hell. Sunday's pain was one thousand times worse.

It makes sense that the pain was worse, as the stone is much larger (11 mm). X-rays and CAT scans show that I have at least six other stones in my kidneys as well. Seems odd that I could build seven stones in less than two years, as I was X-rayed and checked for them at that time.

SInce an 11 mm stone won't fit down the normal canals, I opted for lithotripsy to reduce the size of the stones. Lithotripsy is the application of ultrasonic sound waves to crumble the stones into small fragments. Sounds pretty simple, right? Unfortunately, it's fairly painful and requires anesthesia to make the patient unconscious, so it's more involved than in-zap-out. Since I can't be normal, I will require at least two sessions as they noticed an erratic heartbeat while I was unconscious this morning.

The most fun part of all is that to expedite the release of the stones, a stent is inserted into the bladder to maximize the opening of the canal. Yep, I have a tube running from my bladder to my junk, and I can feel it in there all of the time. Blood in my urine and a continual discomfort in my nethers -- what could be more fun?

After a little troubleshooting, it appears I may have a cable card that is flaking out on me. Now the fun part: getting Comcast to replace the card in less than a month, if ever.