BryanPeabody.com

Some new photos after the recent paint job and some additional decorating.

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I’ve had a little time over the last several weeks to start getting the hot tub room togther. I’ve mostly hung pictures and wind chimes, plus added a palm tree to the room. The thatch for the walls and ceiling came a couple weeks ago but I haven’t have a chance to put that up yet.

South America/Carribean vintage travel poster.

Side view of the room

Looking in from the kitchen.

A minor touch but I like the island look and feel that it has.

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A couple days ago I mentioned my doctor suggesting that I start using a Neti Pot. On my way home from work last night I stopped at Walgreen’s and picked up this one.

Before I get into the details let me say that as silly as this thing seems and as skeptical as I was, I am now a believer.

In the package you get the Neti pot itself, 30 packages of salt and a tiny little plastic spoon to stir with. Setup was easy. Fill the pot with lukewarm tap water, stir in half a package of salt (they recommend starting with half until you get use to it) and you are ready to go.

As I tilted my head and started to pour I got a sensation of drowning and stopped. It was shorted lived as I could breathe fine through my mouth while pouring. Starting again I tilted my head and poured. After a second or two the water started trickling out the other side of my nose. I think I might have been pouring to fast because the water seemed to get backed up in my sinus cavities and never reached a full stream as the tutorial video does. I started coughing and had to start over a couple times. I think this will take a while to get use to.

One odd side effect was that the water backed up in my ear and felt like swimmers ear. It also popped when I blew my nose to get the excess water out. It only lasted an hour or so and didn’t cause any major problems that I could see.

Overall I like the results. My sinuses feel clear and good, as do my ears. In fact, I can hear better. I hadn’t noticed any problems hearing but I can definitely tell a difference. If you are having allergy/sinus problems it is worth giving this a try.

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Today I had my first appointment with a new doctor since my last one retired. It was pretty good, I like him and he seems like a good doctor. He told me that some of my anxiety issues were likely coming from my asthma medicine. He switched me off of Advair and on to a different breathing treatment. I have high hopes that it will work.

Now, the really interesting part. We had a long talk about my allergies. One of the additional things he recommends was using a Neti Pot. I had never heard of it and did some research on Google. The thing looks like a gravy boat that you mix up warm water and non-iodized salt in. Then you proceed to pour it up your nose and out the opposite nostril. Yes, really. Take a look at the video, it’s so wrong. But I’m more than happy to give it a try. Apparently it is an alternative treatment that has been around for centuries in India.

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During last summer I got interested in learning a foreign language. I took a class and didn’t care for the formal group setting. Instead I decided to try a software based learning approach. After researching software packages I settled on Rosetta Stone. The software is very good (with a few exceptions) and I enjoyed working with it overall.

Fast forward a few months. I have finished level 1 and I am comfortable with what I have learned. I haven’t used the software in weeks and I have gotten busy with graduate school and work which has left me with little time to devote to my language learning. In fact, now that I’ve gotten the basics down I’d like to eventually try another language. Which leaves the question of what to do with the software. I thought I would try to recoup some of the $189 dollars that Rosetta Stone charges for their product by selling it on eBay.

A few weeks ago I posted the auction and 5+ days into it (with bids over $150 I might add) the auction was canceled. I questioned eBay on this and they said the auction had violated intellectual copyrights and Rosetta Stone had reported the auction and requested it be canceled. This makes me more than a little upset. At this point I am stuck with a product that I’m likely never to use again because a company wants to control a product that they sold to me. Once I buy something it belongs to me and I expect be able to do whatever I chose with it (with the obvious exception of pirating it or put it on a torrent). Selling it or transferring ownership should be a simple transaction.

So, it appears that I am stuck. It would be nice to figure out another way to sell this product but in the mean time I am stuck with it. I’ve bought a lot of software and this is without a doubt the worse experience I have ever had. I can guarantee that I will never buy another product from this company or recommend their products to anyone else.

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Being overly busy this year it has taken a couple extra days to put this post up. Lent started Feburary 6th and this year I’ve decided to get away from giving up anything computer related such as Google Reader like last year. Instead this year I am giving up soft drinks.

I think this might be tough considering my addiction to them. Back when I was in college I could drink a 24 pack of Mt. Dew in about 2 days. Which probably explains why I can’t have (and haven’t for years) caffeine. Assuming I can do this, I’m hoping it will have the added benefit of helping me lose some weight.

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My parents mailed me this out of the Messenger-Inquirer. They couldn’t get over how much it looked like me. After seeing it, it kind of does.

Does anyone know who this is?

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A couple semi-before pictures of the hot tub room. I wanted to grab a couple photos before I got too far along in the tiki room make over. I just hung the lighted moving picture tonight and tried it out. The photo doesn’t really do it justice. It doesn’t get much better than sitting in the hot tub (with the blue underwater light on), the picture turned on with the waves crashing into the beach and Jimmy Buffet playing on the surround sound speakers.

The palm tree is still slightly crooked and I need to find a way to keep it upright. The moving picture is at the top of the wall. In the lower left hand side, is a vintage travel poster that I’m planning on hanging over the hot tub on the brick wall. You can see one of the indoor/outdoor speakers at the top corner of the wall.

A slightly better lit photo of the room. Later this week I should get the bamboo matting that will go on the walls and ceiling. More photos to come.

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I got this back in the mail today. I had mailed this to him about a year ago. Took forever but it is worth it.

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Yesterday was the first day of graduate school at the University of Louisville. I decided to take the online class this semester. I figured that it would help ease me back into school and would be better since I wouldn’t have to leave work early and make up the time the next day.

I was impressed with what I have seen so far. The class is taught through UofL’s blackboard website. The lectures are presented through a sideshow player that shows the lecture notes and plays audio of the professor giving the lecture. I wasn’t expecting the latter. My best guess going in was there would be the notes and reading assignments in the book. The audio was definitely a nice touch.

The class doesn’t seem too bad either. I’m taking an introduction to database class this semester. Considering I’ve been working with databases for the past 10+ years, I’m not expecting too much trouble from the material. At least I hope not. I was a little surprised that they chose to use IBM’s DB2 as the working database for the semester though. I had assumed MS SQL Server or MySQL. At least this will give me some exposure to a new database.

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