Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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What the heck?

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Uhm … Hey, you people who run the TV stations. Yeah you. I want to ask you something.

It’s Friday night, it’s Friday the 13th, and I’m sitting here flipping through all the TV channels looking for a scary movie or two. I have normal cable, specialty channels, and movie channels too. Do you think I can find a listing for a scary movie at all? Nope!

I haven’t watch a scary movie- good or bad- in quite a while and I geared myself up earlier today to sit back and enjoy a good scare. But there’s nothing on! There isn’t even a half decent TV show on right now either.

I’m bored.

My husbands working this evening and I’m home alone. Why I would want to watch a horror movie when I’m by myself I don’t know, but I do.

I guess I’ll go through all the TV shows that I’ve stored up on my PVR (Personal Video recorder, very much like TIVO) and watch something that I’ve already recorded instead I suppose.

Anyone else sitting at home tonight hoping to watch either a scary movie or at least something half decent on the tube?





Friday the 13th

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It’s Friday the 13th today and I’m wondering how many of you have superstitions about this supposedly unlucky day?

When I first started writing this I was going to tell you that I’m not a superstitious person, but that was before I lost my post! I had finished the whole post and I clicked the “Save and Continue Editing” button. Nothing much happened for a while, then I got the dreaded WordPress White Screen telling me that something was wrong with my wordpress files or perhaps my server. My bet is that it was the servers that host my sites since they seem to go down for a few minutes each night lately.

Having lost my original post has made me a little bit superstitious. You see, I have never ever lost a post before. Yet, on a Friday the 13th I end up losing my first post. I don’t think this is a coincidence, do you?

I was going to tell you that I wasn’t going to be careful today. That I wouldn’t care if a black cat crossed my path, or if I broke a mirror. But I’m not going to say that now. No, no. Not now. I’ve already had one unlucky happening today! What else could happen if I’m not careful? Anything!

I think maybe I’ll just take my cue and stay in today. Well, it’s really cold outside anyways – it’s 0 Celsius, or for you Americans that’s 32 F. I can’t believe how cold it is for this time of year. Oh it just occurred to me that since that’s unusual that it must be another bad luck occurrence right?

What are you going to do today? Are you going to be a extra careful or just go about your day as you normally would? Do you have any favorite things that you do on a Friday the 13th such as going out to see the latest horror movie release or watching some scary movies at home? Maybe a Friday the 13th party?

I decided to go looking for some information about Friday the 13th and I found out that our superstitions about Friday the 13th might have come about because a number of tragic events in history have occurred on Fridays.

Wikipedia:

There have been a number of events known as “Black Fridays“ in history. Usually, these events are devastating. Some historians propose that the origin of the “Black Friday” was the simultaneous arrest of hundreds of Knights Templars on October 13, 1307 (Friday), to be later tortured into admitting heresy.

Is Friday the 13th really an unlucky day?

Strangely, there is evidence to suggest that Friday the 13th is actually unlucky. Psychologists have found that some people are especially likely to have accidents or fall ill on Friday the 13th. This has been attributed to such people feeling a heightened state of anxiety on that day (see nocebo effect). The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina estimates that in the United States alone, $800 or $900 million is lost in business each Friday the 13th because some people will not travel or go to work.

The date is also well-known in the motorcycle (biker) community: since 1981, motorcycle enthusiasts and vendors gather every Friday the 13th in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada. This tradition started on November 13, 1981 by Chris Simons as a gathering of approximately 25 friends. The event has grown substantially, with an estimated 100,000 people attending in August 2004, as well as music bands, vendors, a bike show, etc.

In the Spanish-speaking world, it is Tuesday the 13th (as well as Tuesdays in general) that brings bad luck; a proverb runs En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques (on Tuesday, neither get married nor start a journey).

I’m generally not a superstitious person, nor am I anxious, but given the information that I’ve found perhaps I will be just a bit more careful today. After all, I’ve had two very bad falls this year and I’m probably due for another one before the year ends. How ironic would it be if it happened today?

Tell me how you feel about Friday the 13th and if you have any superstitions or if you’ve had any odd or unlucky things happen to you on previous Friday the 13ths. Maybe I’ll make another post with the results of your replies.

Have a safe Friday!

Ugly Betty

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Has anyone been watching the new show Ugly Betty?

I’ve been taping the episodes and sometimes watching them on Thursday nights when they are aired, or sometimes catching up and watching on another night. It’s hard to keep up with favorite shows and try to get a peek at all the new shows at this time of year isn’t it?

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying Ugly Betty. If she can succeed at a snooty magazine then anyone can. LOL She’s naive, honest, and desperately wants to help and please her boss. The show is funny. It’s unfortunate that it’s up against some of the big shows that have been on for years, but I hope it makes it. I like it.

What do you think? Have you been watching any of the other new shows? Heroes, Six Degrees, The Nine, Shark?

VoIP forum

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My husband and I have been thinking about changing over to VoIP, and we’ve been trying to learn more about it.

What is VoIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. Some services using VoIP may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number – including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. Also, while some services only work over your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services allow you to use a traditional phone through an adapter.

We’ve recently discovered the forums over at Vonage. Reading the forums has been very helpful. You can learn more about Voip products and read articles there, and you can also read the latest news about VoIP technology. The forums are owned by Vonage, who established the VoIp information site over 4 years ago, and naturally Vonage also offers VoIP to it’s customers.

Visit the Vonage forums to learn more, maybe we’ll see you there.

The MRI

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Thirteen Things about Surviving an MRI
1. I had my first, and hopefully last, MRI on Wednesday evening.

2. I’d been trying to keep my cool about it, but on Wednesday I was very nervous. Why I don’t know. I guess I just hating having tests done on me. Plus the results of the MRI may reveal more about my Crohn’s disease – such as a worsening condition, or perhaps even worse, might not reveal much at all, meaning that the doctors will still be puzzling over just why I’m in so much pain. They know it’s Crohn’s, but they’re having trouble controlling it and pinpointing the exact source of my current problems.

3. I’m a nurse and I work in the emergency room so I know a bit about MRI’s, but you don’t really know something until you experience it, do you?

4. I went into the MRI knowing that I’d have to remove anything metallic that I was wearing, that the machine was noisy, and that the magnets that operate the machine have such a powerful force that my arms and legs might actually vibrate a little bit during the test. (nothing ended up vibrating)

5. I also knew, that even though I’m not claustrophobic that I might feel confined while I was in the machine.

6. What I didn’t know was how long the test was going to take, or that the machine would be so very loud that you really can’t think while you are in there. I also didn’t know that I was going to get an I.V. since part of my abdominal MRI needed to be done with contrast dye.

7. I didn’t tell the tech that was putting in my I.V. that I’m a nurse because I find that makes people nervous, and when you are nervous doing an I.V. it doesn’t always go as smoothly as it should. I turns out that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway since she wasn’t very good at I.V.s. She put in one of the smallest angiocaths – which is actually contraindicated when someones getting a contrast dye- just in case something goes wrong. Small IV’s tend to blow or block easily. She tied up my arm very tightly with the tourniquet for about 5 minutes – which likely collapsed my huge “don’t need a tourniquet” veins, hence her difficulties.

8. I then had to hold my left arm over my head outside the machine. I’ve had some shoulder problems in the past and while my shoulder hasn’t bothered me for sometime holding it in a position over my head for any length of time while cause it to start to hurt.

9. The test was supposed to take 45 minutes. I was hoping that it would be 10 or 15 minutes, how wrong I was! I think the test actually took closer to an hour since I went into the room at about 7 pm and came out at 8:15.

10. I was given earplugs to protect my ears during the test. It was a good thing because the machine is really loud. When it’s taking pictures or slices it thrums like a fast heart beat with a bam, bam, bam, bam noise. When it’s not taking photo’s it makes more of a chirping noise.

11. As I slide into the machine feet first I realized just how small the inside was. My head was resting on two pillows and when I finally got into the machine I think the upper surface of the inside was perhaps no more than 4 inches away from my face. That freaked me out a bit!

12. I decided to close my eyes for most of the test. I think that was a wise move because I felt calmer not seeing how closely I was surrounded by the machine. I was told not to move much – so by the time the test was over it felt like most of my body had fallen asleep. My shoulder was also aching terribly during the whole test given the position it was in. I think that was the worst part for me.

13. My advice to anyone having an MRI – hopefully not one that took as long as mine did – is for them to close their eyes and try to think of something else, take yourself someplace else. The machine sound was loud but it kind of had an electronic techno beat to it, so I tried to picture myself dancing away in a nightclub. It didn’t really work, but I tried!

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