My good friend Packetknife now has a blog online.

PK is smart, smart, smart and his blog is worth reading.

Packetknife

Everyone knows that Skullaria Loves PK. Even Chip.

I've not been feeling well lately. See, I've got this problem that is going to drive me bonkers. I have sciatica. Its caused when the sciatic nerve gets compressed. In my case, I'm almost positive its because I have scoliosis, I'm overweight, and I sit *WAY* too much.

I always knew that computer users had to be careful not to get carpel tunnel or deep vein thrombosis, but I never knew that sciatica could be a problem as well.

I thought I had an ovarian cyst at first. It started a few days before my period, and I thought MAN! What CRAMPS! Unfortunately, it never went away. After 2 weeks of having difficulty getting through a work day, with intense pain at night, I got myself to a doctor. I really hate going to doctors but it seemed like this was not going to go away and was only getting worse.

Its better in the morning, but starts around 1pm. The doctor prescribed naprosyn for pain and inflamation and hydrocodone for pain. I've been going to physical therapy on Friday afternoons. The PT is not helping. Nothing is helping. The pain medicine helps some, but I can't stand taking it during the day, and usually by the time I take it at night the pain is bad so I have to wait 2-3 hours for the medicine to catch up to the pain. I have to go back to the doctor in a week, and I plan on asking to go to a neurologist.

What does it feel like? When it started, it hurt in the right side of my lower back, above my butt. It hurt to move my back to my left side or forward. Then I started developing numbness in my foot and calf. That was ok, I could tolerate that. Unfortunately, sometimes the numbness turns into pin pricks or burning in my calf and foot. The ache gets so bad in my back that I just sit very still and try not to move at all. That's what is driving me crazy and keeping me very close to home.

The doctor says that it usually goes away on its own. However, its not good that mine has already lasted so long without letting up. :(

I'm trying to keep my feet up more at work and get up from my chair more. I hate it, really when I have the most fun working at the pc is *when I forget to get up.* I probably need to find a software timer so I remember to get up and do my stretches that the PT gave me.

On the positive side, I have some side work to do that is going to be very fun.
I will be writing information security articles for Security Master. While I don't really need the work, it sounds like both fun and something that will be good for me. I will always jump at the chance to work with Mike Welch. He is one heck of a guy that has taught me a lot and that has my complete loyalty.

If you'd like to make Outlook 2003 download anything and stay in the system tray at all times, my friend EvilX sends the following registry hack:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Preferences]
"ShowBcc"=dword:00000000
"MinToTray"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security]
"Level1Remove"="adp;mdb;asx;mda;mdz;exe;com;reg;bat;scr;ade;bas;vb;

vbs;chm;cmd;cpl;crt;hlp;hta;inf;ins;isp;js;jse;

lnk;mde;msi;msp;msc;mst;pcd;pif;prf;scf;sct;shb;shs;url;vbe;wsc;wsf;wsh"


That's it for now. I'll come back at some later date and edit this to find dozens of typos to edit.
:)