All I want for X-Mas is a Massively Painful Tooth Extraction

On the second day of Christmas my Oral Surgeon gave to me 3 of my own teeth in a handy little manila envelope.

Okay, not the best way to spend the day after Christmas but my deductible was already met for the year and I've been meaning to have my impacted wisdom teeth removed for a long time now, like 10 years. I scheduled my surgery for the 26th and was fully intending to work the remainder of the week until my Earned Time Report revealed that I had time to use up before the first of the year. I used my surgery as the justification for the time off.

I foolishly thought that my recovery would be relaxing I even had visions of myself enjoying the rest of my week off. I figured I'd ski, play a little World of Warcraft, catch up on my blogging. But beginning with the Doctor not being able to start an IV to save his life, I have ten holes in my hand to prove it... my wisdom tooth experience was seriously awful.

I was lead astray by my wife's recent easy recovery from her last wisdom tooth experience. She was totally herself the very next day, only needed one Oxycodone for the pain and never even swelled up. I realized that I was having three out and it would be worse than Mandy's was but "I heal up faster than she does" I thought to myself. "Oh No. Not this time" Karma replied. That's what I get for thinking that men are stronger and heal faster than women. Or at least that I'm stronger and heal faster than Mando.

Now (four days and more disgusting misery than I will go into here) I'm back to 95% and my cheeks no longer bulge to create a profile that closely resembles Peter Griffin's.

Sunny Sorthern California?!?

So I fly out to Santa Anna California for work, for a week. I was sorry to leave the snow but figured that the warm sunshine would be a novel change. Well poop on me it has rained everyday and we fly back tomorrow first thing... oh well such is life. Expect a real post tomorrow.

Cheap Lift Tickets- Get Some

Want to ski on the cheap this season, but volunteerings not up your ally? Here's the skinny on a new deal for you.

Having been a college student I understand the quest for cheap/free skiing. I admit, I've abused friendships for skiing hookups. Now, for the sake of kharma, I'm prepared to be exploited since I have the hook-up. The trouble is that I only get so many passes a year and I'm an insanely popular guy. So although you can't all ski for free I still want all my friends to ski affordably. Fortunately, for you all there is a new website that offers ski tickets at discounted rates- liftopia.com.

The site is easy to use. You can choose the mountain you'd like to ski and look at a calendar to see when the skiing will be cheapest, or you can pick the day you want to ski and compare the cost of tickets at all the mountians in the program.

This weekend I ran into Mando's Aunt Pam in the parking lot of the mountain I volunteer at she and her grandsons had purchased lift tickets for the day for $7.00.

$7.00!?! That's less then the price of a hot chocolate in the lodge for a days skiing.

Now the deals aren't always this great and it looks as though the deals get better as the date you are skiing gets nearer, and there are a limited number of "hot" tickets available, but it can't hurt to check it out before you drive up and pay $60.00 for a few hours of bliss.

10 Ski Hangover Tips

I love how tired being outside in the cold for a full eight hours can make you. You could almost call it the skiers hangover.

The first day back on the hill is always one of the most tiring. You start using muscles that your body forgot it had and has let shrivel up like grapes to raisins. Your boots feel more like a medieval torture device than a tool for enjoyment as they smash your metatarsals together the agony altering your mental state to one that is not conducive to fun.

Then there is the burning, forced into an unnatural knee bend for hours at a time your leg muscles build up enough lactic acid to dissolve a VW Beetle. Much like drinking however these unpleasant side effects are no deterrent. Knowing full well the torment our bodies will suffer we shrug as we hit the slopes saying "But it's so much fun".

As I sit here fighting to keep myself upright, (can you say weak core muscles) I think a list of tips for preventing and recovering from the Skiing Hangover might be in order:

1. Drink Lots of Water- besides the loss to sweat your body loses a ton of hydration through the rapid movement of air across your skin, and the water will help your body to flush out the acid that has built up in your muscles which is causing your soreness.
2. Moisturize- I'm not any sort of metro-sexual (not that theres anything wrong with that) but lotion is a must for skiers. That tightness in your face and the itching all over is a direct result of the sweat, wind and cold dry air drawing all the essential oils out of your skin. Your skin will recover much faster if you replace your lipids.
3. Eat Chicken- or any other sort of protein rich food really, using those muscles that you haven't used in 9 moths causes little microscopic tears to the muscle fibers, your body needs protein to repair those fibers which in turn creates more muscle.
4. Stretch out- Stretching is a great way to release the lactic acid that has built up in your muscles, if it burns without hurting then you know your doing it right. Each time you build muscle mass without stretching the muscle actually shortens a tiny bit. Over time this shortening will reduce your flexibility which increases your risk of injury
   
5. Sleep- your body is most efficient at repairing damage and building muscle when it is at rest, getting a good long nights sleep will help you to feel renewed.
6. Check your gear- Ski gear is expensive but having an equipment malfunction the next time your out could completely ruin the experience (imagine yourself chasing a ski all the way to the bottom because the brakes have seized up)
7. Keep your gear clean- Sounds obvious but ski gear is not the easiest stuff to wash, well it's not bad to wash its just not easy to dry. Over time the salt and sloughed off skin cells collect in your gear and begin to fill up the oh so important dead air space. Your wicking layers are also heavily effected by body cheese build-up which limits their ability to move moisture away from your skin.
   
8. Check you feet and shins- The marriage between your feet and your ski boots is the most important component to your successful skiing. If your boots are loose and rubbing then not only are they causing you discomfort (and probably blisters) they are also increasing the distance you have to move your foot to activate your skis.
9. Make plans to ski again- nothing takes my mind off of the discomfort of post skiing soreness like picturing myself attacking the slopes again. I always visualize myself a little better than I have in the past.
10. Ski Sooner- When the soreness in your muscles is ALMOST completely gone is the best time to get back out there and do it again. Your body will try to add more muscle to compensate for the new workload. If you wait long enough between ski days you'll constantly be in a first day mode and your development will be slow.

And now it's time to practice what I preach time for #1. followed by 8 hours of #5.

I'm Skiing for Free- Wanna Know How?

Skiing is one of my favorite past times, in fact it is my favorite outdoor activity bar-none. I daydream about skiing from the last ski day I get in the spring until the first one I get in the winter. Since I started skiing I've always had this pipe-dream of being on the ski-patrol. Paid skiing, saving the injured, and being the fastest bad-ass on the mountain what could be better right. By the time I was old enough to seriously consider professional shooshing as a vocation my financial obligations blocked me from my dream.

However, not being able to afford to wear the white-cross will never deter me from my goal of skiing for free. This year I have a new plan see. I'm going to volunteer for an Adaptive Ski Program. Many mountains have adaptive ski programs for people with a wide range disabilities. In most cases the program is a not-for-profit that exists separate from the resort itself. Adaptive skiers pay the resort for their lift ticket, like any other skier, then volunteers from the adaptive-skiing organization provide, equipment and instruction during lessons which last up to two hours.

In return for this service the non-profit gets to offer season passes to its volunteers, who receive no other compensation for their time. To protect against insurance liability problems the adaptive instructors are "hired" by the mountain and are on the payroll even though they never take a check. So allow though I may not be working for ski-patrol, I am at last working for the mountain.

In exchange for 18 days of volunteering; 6 days of clinics (instructor training), and 12 days of instructing (each day si about 7 hours), I'll receive 1 season pass (worth about $500) and 12 one day vouchers (worth about $60) which I can give to friends or family members.
At first I thought this to be a great deal, then I did the math...

Hourly Wage=Compensation Recieved/Hours Worked
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Compensation Received= $1220=$500+$720 (12 Vouchers @$60.00)

Hours Worked= 126 Hours (18 Days @ 7 hours)
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Hourly Wage= $1220/(126 hours)

Hourly Wage=$9.68/hour

...alright so I realize that $9.68 an hour isn't such a great deal after all. I was about to buy a season pass and skip the whole thing. Then I started thinking about how often I actually make it to the mountain when I don't have a season pass, maybe ten times a year, not as much as I'd like for sure. By volunteering I ensure that I will ski at least 12 times this year. Then I expect that I'll be skiing with who ever takes a voucher from me. Sorry folks you get them for being my ski buddy not just my friend. So thats likely to be at least 6 more days on the mountain.

Then the final thing that I have to figure into the value of this experience is less outwardly apparent. I'll be helping people, and getting to share in the joy they get from skiing maybe for the first time. Many of the people I will be working with will have never experienced anything like this. I'll get to feel good about myself that's gotta be worth something.

So maybe I won't be the rogue hero, the ski-god who lives on snow, and skis like a fiend, but I will be a hero to someone.

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Employee regulations prohibit me from discussing the resort at which I will be volunteering which is why the name of the mountain has been conspicuously left out

The Greatest Kara Run Ever- Moved

This post has been moved to my new blog Lifebloomer. Lifebloomer will be my WoW specific blog with stories from my MMO misadventures. If you'd like to read post that formally lived at this location. Click here.

Threats from Within- Corrupted Windows Processes

Taking my own advice first I wracked my brain to try to remember what else I had done when I had some success ceasing the pop-up juggernaut. I isolated RUNDLL32.exe as my most likely culprit ended it and have had no problems since. I've found some less than clear information on what rundll32 is. My new favorite resource BleepingComputer.com explains that Rundll32 is a system process but that there are many cases where rundll32 is a cover for a malicious file. The illicit file is placed in the wrong folder, and the system file will still exist in the correct place:

The additional "rundll32.exe file is placed in the Windows System folder, where as the legitimate rundll32.exe is located in the C:\Windows\System (Win9x/Me), C:\Winnt\System32 (WinNT/2K) or C:\Windows\System32 (WinXP)"

Based on this information I tried ending RUNDLL32 from my process tree. I'm not sure if the one I closed is a windows process so ending it indefinitely could lead to problems in the future. For now the only difference I've noticed is that opening a program no longer automatically makes it the focus. Not a big problem, you just click the window and off you get. It may be proof that RUNDLL32 was doing something. Moving forward I intend to remove the malicious file. Beyond that a few of my guild mates are computer techs and they've offered their services to try and help me, but I'm thinking I'll see someone more local maybe he'll do more good than harm (unlike yours truly). While my problems may not be solved and this may not be closure I'm sure sick of talking about it so no more updates until it's really fixed (if ever).

The Schanden Continues

It has now been a full week since our computer troubles started. I have had the computer back to a working order four times. Each time has required hours of frustration and many helpful suggestions from friends who are more computer savvy than I. Now conventional wisdom would say that success is the adequate completion of requisite steps, it would also say that repeated success would require repetition of those steps. In my case I must be forgetting which steps I had taken in the past, because I cannot seem to solve the problem this the fifth time. I do not know or remember exactly which micro-steps I must have taken while waiting for macro-steps to complete. I must have closed some process or deleted some file that I am not doing any longer and short of once again haphazardly closing processes I no longer know what to try. It is obvious that the many problems that I have managed to remove are not the problems that most needed removal.

I think I must need professional help, oh and a computer guru.