When It Rains....

I don't mean to whine, but things haven't been going well lately. Not for me, in particular, but for a lot of folks that I know. It just seems that I keep getting bad news. :( This blog entry is bound to be a bit of a downer so, if you're in a particularly good mood, you might want to save this read for later.

Just a couple days ago, Liz's grandma fell down while out taking a walk and broke her hip. She's in Memorial hospital in Sheboygan following her surgery to repair the hip but she should be heading home very soon (if she isn't home already). Certainly, not earth-shattering news, but not good news, either.

Recently, Liz's sister, Theresa, has been diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. This condition restricts blood flow to her arms. Due to this, she's been having problems with blood clots and it's taken a bit of a toll on her already. She had an angiogram a couple days ago (which, in itself, does not sound pleasant) and, yesterday, she had a bit of a fall-out from the procedure and had to be rushed to the ER due to pain in her shoulder. I spoke with her last night - she's doing fine now that they've got her on some pain medications. The doctors think the pain was caused by some scar tissue (from the incision during the angiogram) coming loose. Pretty soon, T is going to have to have surgery to correct her condition. It doesn't sound like it's horribly serious, but it's more serious than I wish it was. I think about her all the time and hope she's doing well.

And now, this morning, I got another dose of bad news. Most of you already know that I help moderate a forum out at JavaRanch. Well, a couple days ago, a fellow moderator, Philippe Maquet went in for surgery due to a heart condition. During the surgery, Phil passed away. You know, I barely knew the guy, but I just can't help feeling horrible.

Man, I seriously want to curl up in my bed.

Here's hoping everyone is doing well and taking care.

Love you all,
Corey

Album Review: Fallen by Evanescence

So, as I said, I picked up this album a week or so ago now. Since I have little else useful to talk about right now, I suppose I'll do a little review of the album.

The debut album of Evanescence, Fallen has really done well. For those of you that don't know, Evanescence is an alternative band that fringes on Goth and Rock music. In a nutshell, it's the kind of music you'd expect to hear in an over-dramatic detective movie when the lead actor has to interrogate some punk in a scary goth vampire-wanna-be nightclub. If you can imagine that scene in a movie, you can imagine this music. :)

Although my description may sound scary, the music in this album is probably much closer to the mainstream than you'd expect. I suppose that's probably one of the reasons for the success of the album. Although it's somewhat mainstream, it's edgy enough to keep you from feeling guilty about listening to it. The music isn't too punk, too metal, or too goth, but it certainly has aspects of all. The music isn't revolutionary, but it's good and a bit infectious. Evanescence has certainly created their own "sound" and the distinctiveness of lead singer Amy Lee's voice adds to that.

The lyrics tend to be a bit dark and sometimes rather depressing, but the music is generally anything but. Probably the most well known songs on the album include "Going Under" and "My Immortal." Those tunes seem to get the most airtime on the radio, but I'm not even certain they're the ebst tunes on the album. "Bring Me To Life," "Tourniquet," and "My Last Breath" are all great songs and keep this album from being 2 hits with a lot of filler.

Overall, I'd give this album an 8 out of 10. If you know and enjoy any of the songs I've listed, you'll probably enjoy this album. The music is solid and Lee has one of the best voices I've heard in a long time.

Upset of the Year!

I'm not talking about the poor excuse of a defense that led to the Packers ultimate demise, nor the Jaguars coming from behind to beat the Titans with only seconds to play, nor even the upstart Texans knocking off the Chiefs, who started last season 9-0 (oh how the mighty have fallen). I'm referring to the destruction of my fantasy football arch-nemesis, the Nate-meister himself. With his team ravaged my injuries and mediocrity, my collection of has-beens and never-will-bes plodded along to their third victory of the season. It wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.

Through my first three games of the season, I've taken on my three closest friends in the league and my team currently sits at 3-0, despite lackluster performances. Based on the fact that, at worst, I'll slpit my games against my buddies, my season has already been a success. Poor Nate doesn't even get to play me again so he'll have to wait a whole year for a chance at redemption...only to be beaten again, I'm sure. (He'll never beat me - ask his about paper/rock/scissors sometime.) Yeah, so I jest. With my impending victory over Nate, I had to trash talk a little. I was really lucky his team played poorly 'cuz mine did too.

Anyway, Liz is off to Austin...again. I dropped her off at the airport this morning and I must say that I've been seeing that place more often than I care to. With my purchase of my new video game last week and lack of spousal supervision, I'm sure I'll spend too much time playing games and not enough time getting things done this week.

I suppose I have little else to talk about right now. The weekend was quite low-key, as I mentioned before. Liz and I had nothing pressing to do and we took full advantage of that. The weekend was spent hanging out, playing games, and watching football (Liz did some shopping, but I stayed home to watch football).

Well, for now, this is the victorious M.C. signing off.

Corey

Lazy Days

Hey all,

It's Saturday and it has been one lazy day at the McGlone household. Liz found out just yesterday that she's going to have to fly to Texas next week for work. She'll be leaving on Monday and coming back on Friday. So, for today, we're just chillin' at home and relaxing.

Nate turned me on to a new video game last week called City of Heroes. It's an online game (so you play with other people) in which you play a superhero. The game is quite a bit of fun and the fact that Nate and I can play together is certainly a bonus. Well, Dave picked up the game this week, as well, and now Lizzy is getting into it. While I've been sitting here watching college football, Liz has been flexing her superhero muscles (or her superhuman flame shooters, if you will) with Nate and Dave.

I've been working with a woman in HR over at Mayo to get my new job all lined up. I start on the 18th of next month and, sometime between then and now, I need to get a physical. Apparently, one must be physically fit to press the buttons on a keyboard. The guys at Relion are certainly disappointed that I'm leaving, but they've made it very apparent that, if I'm not happy at Mayo, they'd love to have me back. That makes me feel good, at least. If Mayo doesn't work out to be the job I'm hoping it will be, I can always go back to them. I suppose there's something in that whole "burn no bridges" cliche.

Despite me leaving Relion, I have a feeling I'm still going to be working with those guys for some time. I offered to help them out outside my normal work hours at Mayo and they've certainly jumped at that offer. If nothing else, this might be a great opportunity for me to make some nice money, working a full time job and working for the guys in my spare time.

I'm afraid to say that I'm still working on getting the Ireland pictures together. There are just so many of them, it takes a lot of time to go through them all and make sure they all face the right direction, etc. With Liz out of town next week, perhaps I'll have some extra time to get those done. Some of them didn't turn out, but some are just awesome. You just have to love digital photography.

Anyway, I suppose that's just about enough babbling out of me. I need to go and change the laundry, anyway. Take care, y'all.

Corey

The End Of The Road (Sort Of)

Well, most of you probably already know that I was recently offered a job working for Mayo Clinic. Anyway, I've been debating what I was going to do over the last couple days. Yesterday, I told the guys here at Relion that I'd be leaving and taking the job at Mayo. Certainly, they were disappointed that I was leaving, but they understand and, fortunately, I'm able to leave on good terms. So, for now, I just need to get things straightened up around here for the guys. I'm excited about working at Mayo, but I certainly feel bad about leaving the guys at Relion. I'm waiting to hear back from HR to see when they want me to start.

Anyway, after work last night, I made a stop at Best Buy. I picked up a new video game that Nate turned me on to - City of Heroes. It's an online multiplayer game (so Nate and I can play together) all about superheroes. So, for an hour or so last night, I was a rampaging superhero covered with venemous spines and I thoroughly thwarted the evil-doers. All in all, it's a good time. Of course, it's fun to have Nate along through people through the air willy-nilly with his telekinetic powers. :)

I also picked up the new Evanescence CD, Fallen. So far, I've listened to about the first 6 songs. So far, so good. There isn't a great deal in variety in the music, but it's good. I must say that I'm pleased. I'll have to see how the remaining few songs are.

Lizzy will be back home tonight. Her plane lands around 9 tonight so I'll have to be at the airport to pick her up. It sure will be nice to have her home again.

So I suppose that's about it for me. I'll talk to y'all later.

Corey

Oh! What Beefy Legs You Have, My Dear!

Fantasy Football update (for anyone that cares - that's probably just Nate):

This week, my mighty kicker, Morten Anderson, managed to hold off the onslaught of Viking offensive players that is Onterrio Smith and Marcus Robinson. I came into last night's game up by 3 and won by 5. Let's all give a big huzzah from decrepit kickers that can't kick a 44 yard field goal because it's just too bloody far. Now, as long as Anderson doesn't die of extreme old age (I'm expecting to see a headline soon that reads "Anderson, Flutie, and Rice Found Dead Amidst Puddles of Prune Juice"), I'm all good.

Of course, next week, I have my greatest challenge yet. I take on, the one, the only, Nate-meister, himself (who is somehow in first place - does anyone know if he sold his soul to the devil known as John Madden?).

This is the part where I'd love to talk smack and tell Nate how he will surely be pummeled into oblivion, but I gots nuthin'. My team consists of no-names, has-beens, and hold-outs. Huzzah. There's just something about the tandem of Jeff Garcia and Rudi Johnson that fails to strike fear into my opponents. *sigh*

Well, for the sake of saving a little face, you're gonne eat it, Nate! And when you lose to the likes of Morten Anderson and Emmitt Smith (who is also in his 9 billionth NFL season), your disgrace will be supreme.

Gah! Leave the Country for a Few Days and Everything Goes to Hell!

Well, I'm trying to catch up on what I've been missing while Liz and I were away. We'd catch bits and pieces about the presidential race while we were away - from what I hear, Bush is starting to pull away from Kerry.

While reading Nick's blog, I spotted this article that he linked to: Gun Ban Set to Expire. Just when I thought I couldn't hate the guy any more, I find that he's going to allow uzi's and AK-47's back on the streets to garner votes from the NRA. I know the NRA has a lot of clout and certainly a lot of money, but you can't tell me that allowing this gun ban to lapse is a good idea.

It just seems that every time I see Bush, he seems more arrogant and conceited than the last time I saw him.

Yeah, so I'm venting. Sorry.

On a side note, it's seldom that I run out to get a new book that just hit the shelves. Perhaps it's my "grew up in the 80's stuck to a Nintendo" persona, but books just don't drive me out to the store the same way video games and CDs do. However, I've found an exception: America (The Book), by the writers of The Daily Show. For anyone that doesn't know what The Daily Show is, it's a satiristic news show that is aired on Comedy Central. Certainly, someone would scoff at the mere idea of a comedy show on Comedy Central but, as much jesting as they do on the show (and there is plenty of jesting, let me assure you), it's a really good show that looks at some pretty serious political issues. In fact, I usually find it quite enjoyable to see senators and the like letting loose with Jon Stewart (the host) for a while and not acting like robots.

I'm guessing that this book will be added to me shelf quite soon.

MC is Back in Da House!

Hey y'all!

Well, there you have it, Liz and I are finally back from Ireland. The trip was great, but it sure is nice to be back home and driving on the right hand side of the road again. I won't go into the trip in great detail here - I have a ton of pictures that I need to get cropped and I'll put 'em up somewhere on the web for all to see. I'll let you know when I've got it together.

Some big news while we were away - Andy and Mandy are now engaged! I read about it in Nate's blog so it must be true. ;) If you happen to be reading this, Andy (or Mandy), congrats, man! In addition, if you're reading this, why the heck don't you have a blog yet you lazy son of a...?

Anyway, I'm still on Eurpoean time - I was up this morning at 4:30 so I'm going to keep this short. I just wanted to say "Hi" to everyone now that I'm back in town. Take it easy, y'all.

Corey

Later Y'All!

Well, it's time for Liz and I to head out on vacation. As of 3 PM this afternoon, we'll be on our way to Ireland for 2 weeks. :) The flight(s) will last until about Noon tomorrow when we finally land in Dublin. Of course, along the way, we lose 6 hours crossing time zones so the travel time isn't as bad as it seems, but it'll still take quite a while.

We got everything packed up last night so I think we're pretty well set to go now. A friend of ours is going to drop us off at the airport so that we don't need to park our car there while we're away and, after that, we're in the clear.

Anyway, I just figured I'd let you all know that you're now free of my meaningless rants and boring stories for the next couple weeks. Of course, once I'm home, I'm sure I'll babble on endlessly about what we saw and did and put plenty of pictures online.

So long, everyone. Take care and I'll see you all again soon.

Corey