Dave Mancuso dot Com

Hmmmmmm–interesting. Even if John Dean says the 70 percent of D.T.’s information was inaccurate, I’d still be curious to know who he/she was. Dean announces the identity on June 17.

Well, it looks like it’s really happening. I had heard of in-fighting in the Maine legislature over this, and I guess the purchase can still be stopped, but it’s interesting to see the demo school laptops being rolled out.

We’ve considered this in our own schools, but the cost is staggering. In a PA school budget year with severe setbacks in retirement funding, investment reductions, charter school payments, and more, it doesn’t seem likely.

It would be interesting to see this at the 12th grade level, or somewhere in the HS, but it’s possible these efforts could be better spent setting up a foundation to help get families computers and Internet access. Most districts have families who have no computers at home–this would help even out the haves and the have-nots.

Well, my tests turned out OK–I think. The echocardiogram didn’t seem to find anything wrong with my heart, which is great. The carotid ultrasound went well, although the specialist didn’t want to talk about it–she said that my doctor would get the results in a week. She spent a lot of time sounding out the area just under my left ear–I wonder what that meant? Oh, well. Bloodwork is the next step, I guess. I’m coming more and more to the conclusion that it was my high triclycerides and caffeine levels.

I’m off today, and my tests aren’t until 9:30, so the kids woke up at 6:30 and crawled into Mom and Dad’s bed to snuggle. Man, there’s nothing like snuggling with your little precious ones. Not all the money we have, or the mansion or estate, or the Mercedes and the Jag, and….

Oh–we don’t have any of those things. Good thing we have kids–they’re what really make it all worthwhile, anyway. 🙂

Time to go–soon-to-be three year old Drew wants to work on the “puter.”

My brother is in Guam, and I haven’t talked to him in far too long. I put all my long distance on my cell phone–I’ll have to find out if Guam is covered in my plan. I hope so–it’d be nice to call him.

My network at work is driving me crazy right now. We can’t figure out why the network is flooded with traffic. It’s bringing everything down to a crawl.

We’ve brought in outside help, and more arrives tomorrow. If we find out that it’s intentional, that someone inside our network did this on purpose (yes, I have reason for suspicion)–I’ll charge them for every penny of wasted wages, lost time, and third party fees.

I’m going to the hospital, actually–Milton Hershey Med. On Friday I get an echocardiogram and a carotid ultrasound. Then they tell me if I’ve got any real problems. I think it’ll turn out fine. I’m pretty sure that my problem was the massive amount of triglycerides in my system along with the copious amounts of coffee I’ve been consuming since January. When I talked with my dad on Sunday, he told me about the same thing that happened to him when he was my age, and the pieces all fit. In fact, I gave up caffeine after last Wednesday, and I already feel worlds better.

I still think I need to cut down on carbs and watch my diet (and hit the NordicTrack), but I don’t think I’ve done any serious damage to my heart yet.

I passed out in my colleague’s office. For a while now, when I laugh or cough too hard, I get lightheaded. It’s been getting worse over the last three months. Yesterday I was laughing at a dumb thing actually, a missing entry in a database, and then I was getting up off the floor and asking Brad why he was on the phone. He was calling 911–I was out for 30 seconds or so. Strange. Brad stopped dialing since I was up on my feet, but I went to the doctor last night. The doctor said I seem to have a heart murmur I’ve never had before. The EKG turned out OK, but I have to get an ECG(?). And an ultrasound for my carotid arteries. I may have to wear a halter monitor to see what happens when I cough or laugh. It could be a nerve along my diaphragm that is compressed when I laugh and drops my heart rate. I guess I’ll know more next week.

Fourteen years ago today I met my wife Denise. I guess I found my leprechaun after all! 🙂

The RIAA has stated that the downturn in CD sales (a whopping 2.3%–hear the sarcasm) is due to piracy. Andrew Bowie has a different opinion. To mangle the phrase, “There are liars, damn liars, and then there’s the RIAA.”