Painkillers Galore

This post is much like a rant like that of my previous post, but of course a different topic. This post shall be based upon narcotic painkillers.

Two years ago I began to develop dull aching pains in my knees. I began seeing an Orthopedic doctor to see what the issue was and what was causing the problem. Physical tests, X-Rays, and an MRI showed nothing that was out of the ordinary (e.g., patella [knee cap] was not running off track, the cartilage behind the patella was not grinding down due to mis-alignment, etc.). Though the MRI results did state that there may be a possible cyst around there that may be causing it.

Starting from the beginning, March of 2007 is when I started seeing the Orthopedic doctor and by mid May they had placed me on a narcotic painkillers called Darvocet. Each pill contains 100mg of the active ingredient (Propoxyphene) and 650mg of Acetaminophen (Tylenol). It is weaker than Codeine thus resulting in needing to take higher doses for it to work effectively (3 tablets at each dose). Darvocet is a Schedule IV controlled substance. Nearing the end of 2007 I began seeing another Orthopedic doctor who briefly put me onto Oxycodone, which is a Schedule II controlled substance. After one fill of that I stopped taking it mainly due to the fact that is has higher addictive properties and I moved back to the Darvocet.

About 3 weeks ago, my doctor informed me that "Darvocet is falling out of favor with pain specialists and to begin taking Vicodin". Well of course I got curious as to why it was falling out of favor, so I looked it up to see what the deal was. It turns out that when the drug hits your blood stream, it turns into a different chemical which can cause various heart problems. If that isn't bad enough, the fact that it is a fairly weak narcotic, you need to take more for an effect. Taking more = possibility of more and/or more severe problems. Why I was even put on this medication in the beginning is beyond me given its history...

As of 2/23/09, I began taking Vicodin, which is a Schedule III controlled substance. Unfortunately, I have a very high tolerance to it resulting in it barely helping. Take Darvocet, risk toxicity; take Vicodin, doesn't work worth a damn. Great isn't it?

So that is my rant on painkillers and dumb doctors. Fun shit.

Google Chrome: So Disappointing...

So I had downloaded Google Chrome, Google's web browser, about four or five months ago when the first Beta version was launched. I was too lazy to begin trying it (mainly due to importing all my bookmarks) up until three days ago. Well, I imported my bookmarks, saved my home page, got all my preferences set, made it my default browser, watched some of the little tutorial videos to see what little features they had slapped into it, and started using it as I normally use a web browser; e-mail, MySpace, Facebook, forums, Blogger, etc. It all seemed fine and dandy and I really liked it until it got further into using it. Not sure which list to start off with--the Hate List or the Like List... Let's kick off with the Hate List. People always love hearing negative things about people and things--tis human nature. Here we go!:


Hate List: Why Google Chrome Sucks


No Spell Check

• Supposedly, according to some people and what I have read on the Google Help Forums, this browser does have spell check. Well, whilst typing e-mails and homework on my online classes, I never had any red dotted line under "muhc" (much) or "waht" (what). Now, based off my knowledge learned in the first grade, I'm pretty sure those are not the correct spellings of those words. But hey, I could be wrong. After all, Google owns the internet so whatever they say goes, right? Like hacking half the videos off YouTube when they took over because they are anal retentive copyright nut cases unlike the founders... Who were not... Obviously...

No Auto-Complete

• Okay, so we all know Firefox has the cool feature where once you type in your username/email for some site like Facebook or MySpace it gets saved so the next time all you have to do it type the first letter of your username or just click in the empty white box and tada! Your username (and others if you share a computer) show up--no having to type out the whole thing. Every time you log in... Well, you guessed it! Google Chrome lacks this one! I was fed up on this one after my second log in. If anything you would think that Google would have at least popped this little helper in there. I mean, who wants to spend those 7 excruciatingly annoying seconds typing in their username every damn time! Fuck knows I don't!

No Smooth Scrolling

• I'm sure not many people know about this feature in Firefox, but for reference, Google Chrome lacks it. Basically, when you scroll down a web page on any browser that doesn't have this (and when it is disabled on Firefox), you notice the page kind of jumps bit by bit as you scroll. Like sections. With smooth scrolling, the page glides thus making where you decide to stop scrolling more precise and on the spot you want it to stop at. Not ten lines too far. For those of you who use Firefox and are curious about it now, follow these steps: Tools>Options>Advanced>Check Use smooth scrolling. You should notice the difference.

Pages Not Loading/Broken Links

• This one is just flat out ridiculous. 1 out of every 3 times that I either opened the browser or opened a new tab and clicked one of my bookmarks the page did not load. The result was either a blank page with the bottom corner saying "Resolving host" or a page would pop up saying "Oops! This link seems to be broken!" And no, my internet was not down or disconnected, it was ALL the browser. The only time I got a page not loading with Firefox was due to my internet being finnicky or the server of the site being down. Just to be sure, at the same time that Google Chrome was still attempting to load Yahoo (my home page), I decided to open up Firefox. Guess what. It loaded Yahoo immediately. Now back to Google Chrome. I click refresh and its a miracle! It loaded! I don't know about you, but I don't need extra, time-consuming steps in getting my damn home page to show up.

Glitch On Gmail

• This one is REALLY interesting! Okay, briefing. Gmail, created by Google. Google Chrome, created by Google. The "Desk" theme on Gmail has a glitch only present in Google Chrome, not in Firefox. That's like a program specifically made for the Windows operating system not being compatible! It is so contradictory! See the screen shot below.

Fails To Be Set As Default Browser

• To put it plain and simple, I downloaded and installed Google Chrome onto my dad's desktop in his office. I opened up the options and clicked the "Set Google Chrome as your default browser". Nothing. No matter how many times I clicked that damn button, it just would not set as the default browser. I finally decided to hell with it all and just left his computer as is--all happy and joyful with Firefox.

So now that we know all the negative things about Google Chrome, let's move on to the next list. By the way, at this point and on I am going to stop doing hyperlinks unless a new website is brought up. ;) :P


Like List: Some Positive Points of Google Chrome


Simplistic Design

• I don't know about you, but one of my pet peeves is a program that is too crowded and has too much crap all over it. I give this to Google Chrome--a simple design. Everything you need is there, but without a bunch of other crap.

Stability-Processes

• Okay, so to make this easy to understand. Each tab that is opened in Google Chrome is its own process. Like a whole different browser window, but its a tab. So if that tab were to have an error, instead of your whole browser crashing, just that one tab crashes and nothing else is affected.

Tab Design

• The tabs being at the tippy top of the window appeals to me. Less space is taken up, in turn leaving more space to show the web page. To see what I mean, refer to Google Chrome home page.
  

One Box For Everything

• The address bar not only is for you to type in a web address, but also Google search (which can be changed to AOL, Yahoo, etc. if you go to settings). For example, just click the address bar and type in your search, like "HP laptop", and the standard Google search results page will load. Refer to the Google Chrome Features to see a very short video on it.

New Tab Page

• The new tab page in Google Chrome was something I actually liked. It would have thumbnails and links to all your recently visited pages and recently closed tabs. It was quite useful for me, but too bad a lot of things about the browser itself sucked so I don't use it now. Again, for a very short vid on it (when I say very short, even for the previous one, I literally mean very short; they are like 15 seconds long) just refer to the page of Google Chrome's features.

And that, my friends, brings my splurge on Google Chrome to an end. Overall, I'm pretty disappointed in it and really expected a lot better from them. I mean come on! No spell check?! What the hell! If a browser can't spell better than I could in the first grade, I have no use for it. And their OWN e-mail client, Gmail, has a glitch!

Oh, and one last thing. Google Chrome's Incognito mode. Basically its a little feature that allows you to surf the web with no history logging. You can find info on it at the features page and click on the "Incognito Mode" tab there and watch the short video. While using this feature, none of the sites you visit are logged in your web history so what happens in Incognito mode, stays in Incognito mode. They advertise it a "Want to get your husband that perfect gift without him finding out? Use Incognito mode!" Translation: Perfect for surfing a lot of porn websites without leaving a trace! I can almost guarantee you that the male population of the engineering team came up with this little luxury... For their own good ;)

So, if you choose to use this browser (or you already do), happy surfing!

Such An Eventful Day

Ok, so today was somewhat shitty, but at least it gave me a good amount to do for the day (trying to be positive).

So today was the first day of classes at good 'ol fun college. Of course I start the semester with my oh so favorite subject - English (sarcasm). Well, as if the thought of 3 hours of sitting in an English class every Thursday (4:00pm-6:50pm), what better to drive all that way during rush hour (30-40 minute drive as opposed to 15-20 not during rush hour) and arrive to a class where the professor doesn't show up?! Let me know when you think of something that tops that. So after sitting there with all the other disgruntled students until 4:30pm, finally someone walks in to give us an update (one student had gone to the secretary and complained ten minutes prior). So the secretary walks in "Ok, so we don't know where he is [the professor] and we can't get a hold of him, he isn't answering his phone. Technically after 20 minutes of a professor not showing up, you are all free to leave." Of course this is announced 30 minutes after the "start" of class!

So after my lovely half hour of sitting in a class full of bitchy and pissed off students I head over to the book center on campus to purchase my second required text for History (it was only $13 for a used copy! Cheapest college book ever!!!! Plus tax of course.) I happened to not have cash on me and as usual, the parent(s) pay for tuition and books. I had my dad's credit card number memorized along with the expiration date... Well, almost... The second set of 4 numbers I had totally forgotten... Let's add some more luck to that mix. My dad wasn't answering his cell phone and had left his office. Joy! So, I decided to drive my ass ALL THE WAY back home (during rush hour mind you in which the population of cars on the road most likely easily exceeds the population of BFF Karen's Podunk, Iowa town) to pick up my old math book from last semester and drive ALL THE WAY back (still rush hour!) to sell it back and use the money from that to buy my history book. Well, I get home, get the book, and begin heading back to campus. 1/4 back my dad finally calls me back to tell me the credit card number... After all that driving... At this point I felt like dying. I hadn't eaten since 11am (it was now 5:20pm) and I was beginning to get the whole sickly wanna puke feeling, stomach eating itself, dizzy, light headed, etc. Bad combo when you're driving all over the damn county (well, 3 cities). Luckily upon getting into the car to drive home earlier I had called my cousin who works at Round Table Pizza and ordered a pizza. So on my second drive home I picked up some dinner, got home, and wolfed down 3 slices and a soda. Actually I think I'm gonna finish my last three slices and grab a Pepsi after posting this...

So during this little journey, when I started out on my first journey home, I needed someone to bitch and vent to since I was a bit fuming. My boyfriend, Ian, was in class, so I couldn't call him. BFF Karen was too busy being all wet and naked at water aerobics to answer her phone, so she was unable to accommodate too. And another friend of mine who is a good go to person to vent was in the car with her boyfriend and couldn't talk. So I was left to fume without a venter... I think that's a word. If not, it is now.

In all, the first day of the semester proved to be an awesome day...