Brian the Automator

We've got awesome doctors, except that they're impossible to get in to see.

As I sit here in the ER for the 25th time (and that's a conservative estimate) with the doctor telling her that they're just going to take some vitals and make sure "nothing's wrong" so that we can "enjoy our day", I've become pretty much a raging ball of fury. For most of her life, Nicole had been healthy as a horse. She was very active, athletic, and "normal". In 2001, Nicole was having some big issues with sinus infections, so she went and saw an ear, nose and throat specialist. He advised her to get a sinus surgery, because her sinuses were formed in such a way that bacteria found it easy to hang out and cause trouble. Sinus surgery was flawless, and she got treated with antibiotics afterward, which I guess is pretty normal. The only problem was, she was getting worse. They threw Cipro and many other heavy-hitting drugs at her, and she got worse. Turns out that if you feed someone too much antibiotics, you kill off the "good" bacteria, and fungus has a field day. Fungal infections that attack the body are bad news, and this was pretty horrible. She was sick on and off for the better part of a year. After that, her appendix got removed. It happens, whatever. After that, she complained of horrible nausea. Her gallbladder function I guess wasn't too good, so away that went. Not having a gallbladder kinda sucks though, because there are minor and annoying complications when you don't have one anymore. It's not as useless as the appendix. After that, it was foot surgery. She had a plantar fascial release done on her right foot. Crappy, but whatever, she got dealt a crappy hand. Now here's where it REALLY starts to suck. She's had osteoarthritis for a while now… Started getting worse around 2003. Kind of young to start getting arthritis problems, but whatever, I suppose it happens to some people. So, off to see a pain clinic where they start shooting steroids into her back. It doesn't get better. Doctor repeatedly shoots her with steroids, and actually once has the audacity to laugh at her when she started crying because getting needles stuck in her spine was apparently a terrifying ordeal (go figure). She had another medical issue, which I won't mention specifically by name, but she went and saw the best doctor in the city in that field, apparently. We felt lucky to be in such good care. He prescribed her steroids because her levels didn't look right. "Magically", she had about 3 months where she felt perfect… Wasn't sick, arthritis was completely gone… it was like she got a totally new lease on life. Well, obviously since I'm writing this, that ended. It turns out that her adrenals stopped working. Unfortunately, the only way to test WHY that is, is to test her without using steroids. The problem is that every time she drops a steroid dose, she gets horribly sick (steroid withdrawal). This could be something she could just "suck up", but the problem is because she's immuno-comprimised (because of the steroids), she picks up every little bug, and she has to jack her steroids back up to compensate. So, she can never get off of them to find out what the problem is. She also tore an ACL this spring because steroids weakened her ligaments. Good times. I'm absolutely fed up, and I feel that at several points since 2001, doctors haven't done their job (causing her to have a horrible systemic fungal infection, and shutting down her adrenals). This has been really stressful - physically, emotionally, and financially. She's been on boatloads of painkillers on and off for her injuries/ailments, and it just feels like no one's taking us seriously anymore. Anyone have any history with malpractice claims? I'm about as non "sue-happy" as you can get, but I'm really feeling backed into a corner on this one.

Yeah, I think it went online just back in June. Pretty sweet.

The games aren't available online, but XM-175 is now available online.

I'm an XM subscriber, and the baseball coverage is great. You get EVERY game, as well as XM Home Plate (a 24/7 baseball talk channel). You can also listen to XM Home Plate online (you might even be able to get a free trial). Can't recommend it highly enough. As far as I know, now programming is podcasted... As far as time-shifting goes, I don't think that's possible (outside of the normal play/pause feature on radios that have built-in recording).

I forgot Vic Mackey...

Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) from Battlestar Galactica.

This is something I've been looking at for the past half a day. I have to say, I hesitate to even post this thread, because it could easily become a can of worms. Music obviously can affect your mood, but these ambient sounds take things a bit further. There are sounds that are as innocuous as helping you relax and energize. Conversely, there are sounds designed to simulate the effects of the illegal of most illegal drugs (cocaine, heroin). I'm not really much of a "new age" person, but I'm extremely open-minded as I think there's a lot of uncharted waters around the mind. Was a bit skeptical of this, but then I tried "French Roast" (which is supposed to simulate the effects of caffeine) and 5-HTP, a "naturally-occurring amino acid, a pre-cursor to serotonin". To my astonishment, the effects were as sort of as advertised (although, certainly muted, to some extent). After "French Roast", I was awake after having my normal afternoon lull (lunch coma). Last night, I listened to 5-HTP, and my mood improved drastically. Now, there's certainly the idea that since I wanted it to work, I got a placebo effect. If this is something you're interested in, you NEED to use headphones (the over-the-ear noise-cancelling variety, if you can), and you need to make sure you're "ready" for it to work (much as you would if you were meditating). Most of the "doses" take 25 minutes or so to listen to (so, you certainly need to be patient), and I noticed that the 5-HTP affect lasted about an hour after the "dose" ended. This is something that's perfectly legal, and the idea isn't new at all. I used to do something similar with a pre-recorded mp3 for a 20 minute "power nap" that really did keep me going, in a much safer way than getting jittery on caffeine did. I think it's really interesting, although we're started to the realm of "digital drugs", and it's just a weird concept to deal with. Scary, cool, or snake oil?

Yeah, I don't think it's that big of a deal either. I know we've had spelling and/or grammar mistakes in our articles before because I had to rush to get something out there.

Best of luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

I'm taking my cat's blood sugar every 3-4 hours, night and day. Trust me, pets are important.

Players have high on-base percentages when they take more pitches? Crazy.

Thanks for posting the update, Patrick. Looking forward to this finally being over.

Can't you just email whoever the DJ was at that time?

Wow, I'm sure Juan Salas was thrilled that Maddon essentially just charged him for an earned run.

In this case, there was no reason to ban Adam from the blog. He wasn't criticizing TH publicly, only in an email to the president of the J/S. He also did correspond directly with Adam, but only after posting the incendiary blog comment.

It's not the cost of the ticket that's the stinger, it's the points on the license.

I think there's a difference between your career and Tom's. Tom's a beat writer, and generally, it's their job to remain objective and "professional". You're in sports radio, and while you're certainly there to inform, the idea there is more about entertainment of the fan-base you're entertaining. What brought you to Brewerfan represents that sort of culture clash (we're "uppity", you're "crass"), so I'm sure you understand what I'm getting it. And I'm not saying that sports radio isn't a profession, just not "professional" in the more reserved/business/customer-is-always-right usage of the term. Honestly, I think it would be OK if Tom just gave somewhat snarky replies, but like I said earlier, he ups the ante with the "sitting in your underwear in your parents house eating doritos"-type comments, and that shouldn't fly with a newspaper company, despite the fact that the line between print media and internet posting has gotten very blurry.

It's hard to say. Obviously the way in which the statement was constructed, it echoes the tone and sentiment that seems to be common from Tom. Given that it was a weekend, and Tom was out of town, perhaps Garry and Tom had a brief conversation, and both parties walked away from it thinking they had an understanding. The real hell broke loose after Tom and Garry talked, and the message was posted on the blog. I would assume that they'll have another conversation about how the situation was handled. My assumption is that nothing else will come of it (as far as disciplinary actions or whatever). Hopefully though, someone will relay to Tom that truly taking the high road (meaning, not trying to get the last word in and slam someone) when you are a media figure is the only acceptable action, from the company's point of view.

I doubt anyone encouraged TH to put Adam's name and email out there. In the email chain, TH alluded to the idea that he did it because he was mad, and then went back and edited it out. Garry should have probably helped Tom word-craft his statement to the public in which he was relaying that he wouldn't comment in the comments section anymore.

I've emailed the J/S about this using the "report abuse" feature of their comments section. Hopefully they delete those particular comments soon.

Regarding the correspondence, in my previous message, I don't want to make it sounds as though I was trying to defend Haudricourt. The reality is that if he were to post on our site in the manner that he did in the comments section of his blog, he'd be banned. The long and short of it is that once Adam's name and email were posted in TH's blog, he obviously became very upset about that. TH initiated the email thread to Adam after he talked to Garry Howard about not posting comments anymore. This came on the heels of his now infamous blog post (later edited) with Adam's full name and email address. In the email thread, let's just say the tone was "heated" on behalf of both parties. Adam said he was considering pursuing legal action, and TH railed on him for claiming that Adam was trying to get TH fired/disciplined/whatever. I think the problem that still exists here, as that Tom doesn't realize that journalists shouldn't "fight fire with fire" when it comes to interacting with the public. Instead of recognizing that, he just went into shutdown mode regarding commenting, as if it would be physically impossible to not up the ante with more personal attacks. TH did seem remorseful of throwing down Adam's name and email, but not remorseful at all about calling him out. As far as the "tables being turned" if it were the JS that had dirt on Brewerfan, I'm not even going to go there. Digging up dirt on other media sources isn't something I want to perpetuate, and I don't feel as though it serves our mission here at the site.

Go to court .. you'll more than likely get a reduction of the fine and points off your license.

I was forwarded the email chain by Adam and have read through it. I don't feel comfortable sharing it, because I'm a third party and this was a private conversation between two people. Adam was obviously upset with his name and email address being bandied about as "payback" for his email to TH's boss, and TH's apology was riddled with the same sort of condescension that led to the original complaint. Obviously, from MY tone, it sounds as though I'm taking Adam's "side" on this, but I'm really trying to remain objective about it. While I would have probably emailed TH directly instead of his boss (at least until it was clear that I wasn't satisfied, as a consumer), posting someone's name and email as revenge crosses a pretty big line. I don't believe I'm going to comment on this any further, because this is sort of a tough situation for me. On one hand, because from my experience, I feel Tom's pain as far as taking things personally when people say some pretty nasty stuff about me... But on the other hand, I'm not a journalist, I'm a Brewers fan and a consumer of Brewers information, so I do expect the paid professionals to be pofessional in their public communication.

I got this message from Adam who wanted to share his side of the story: After receiving this e-mail, I thought the issue was settled. I did not write a response, nor did I post any of this information anywhere. However, as you know, Mr. Haudricourt was not finished. Saturday afternoon rolled around and all hell started to break lose. I received an e-mail from a friend alerting me to what Mr. Haudricourt wrote in his blog. Again, my e-mail was a letter of complaint, not a letter to the editor. I am unaware of any professional business that publishes a "complainers" name and e-mail address. I did not actually see the blog before it was edited, so I am unaware of exactly what he wrote. Shortly afterwards, I received two harassing e-mails. About an hour later, I received an e-mail directly from Mr. Haudricourt. Mr. Haudricourt's e-mail was similar to his blog. He admitted to putting my name, but not my e-mail address, in the blog and that he wished to stay above the fray, to take the high road in the matter. Honestly, Mr. Haudricourt's actions and arrogance made me mad. As a result, I fired off another e-mail to Mr. Howard and Ms. Brenner. I have yet to here back from either. A short while later, I sent Mr. Haudricourt another e-mail. In this e-mail, I did tell him that I was going to look into civil action against him. I also told Mr. Haudricourt that he acted unprofessionally. Unfortunately, with the little bit of law school education I have, I do not know if a civil suit is actionable. Regardless, Mr. Haudricourt sent me a response today. In short, Mr. Haudricourt essentially admitted that he put my name and e-mail address in the blog so that others would attack me (although not in those words). In addition, Mr. Haudricourt has continued his arrogance and defiance, trying to make me look like I have a personal vendetta against him. I will be happy to provide any and all e-mails in full, mine and those from Mr. Howard and Mr. Haudricourt, should anyone desire to read them. They are definitely quite interesting. Feel free to post any or all of this message, but again, I ask that you edit/omit my last name and e-mail address. I urge anyone who wants to complain about this incident to do so. Please e-mail Ms. Brenner at bbrenner@journalsentinel.com. All I ask is that everyone be nice and courteous. Sorry for the long read, but thanks for your time. Adam I'd like to reiterate his message that if you'd like to give your opinion to anyone at the J/S, you do so with class. Thanks.