My PBS station is irking me. They promise me frontline, they deliver pre-recorded crooner concerts. I hate pledge time.

my internet is bugging me. all my site have been hanging up on loading in for the past 2 days. I ahve to stop then reload and it usually comes right up.

I have 3 more hours to be at work. I need a neck/shoulder massage.

a question on hospital bills. So I get a bill from Dr. for x, don't pay it because it hasn't even been to insurance yet. Then I get the EOB from insurance that says they paid x-y, and my co-pay is z. Do I send a check for z. And it's ok that x-y+z do not = x?

I feel old, lori. Very old. But I'd my reading glasses (previously only used so I could view 2048x1538 on a 21" monitor) to read the font.

Still, I have a million things I have to do customising wise. I guess now's a decent time to switch my phone theme--out with the classic TV shows, in with the sci fi. Except for that one guy who will always get Profit. Well, unless he falls in love with Dexter.

Then I get the EOB from insurance that says they paid x-y, and my co-pay is z. Do I send a check for z. And it's ok that x-y+z do not = x?

I wait until I get the next bill from the doctor that tells you how much you owe. Then read carefully to see where the discrepancy is, and then call people and ask about it. They will try and gull you from both ends. Don't even blink.

At this point with my dental bills, I'm waiting until their acountant yells at me. I can't make heads or tails of the fuckers otherwise. Dental office just charges me a copay at visti based on an estimate and sends any bills at the end of the month, once they've negotiated insurance to death. (Thank god I found a dental practice with a staff member dedicated to beating the system to death before coming after the patient. They aren't coming after me for the pre-crown work until I get the crowns because the stupidass insurance won't cover the pre-crown work until I get the crowns. Jackasses. Yes, crowns. Goddamnit. Which I might be able to put off until January and shove into a medical FSA or whatever that's called. I hope. I need a mommy.)

I'm currently annoyed with myself, because I turned my doctor's appointment from a relaxed work-day morning into an alarm-setting day-off morning. Lame!

Dude! My evening private (Navajo) voice student quit. She's buried under her college level Spanish class. Bummer. And the SO's student ended up sick. So we drove out there for nuthin. But it's our fault, we should have checked our mobile voicemail.

Still, bonus night off. Now to heat up dinner and watch Eureka with the SO.

Voice-stress ice-cream dispenser increases portions for the miserable

Demitrios Kargotis unveiled his Mr Whippy machine at the Ars Technica festival in Linz. It's a self-serve frozen custard machine that doles out portion sizes based on the amount of misery it detects in a voice-stress analysis. The sadder you are, the more ice-cream you get.

Employing voice stress analysis of the user's answers to specific questions, varying degrees of unhappiness are measured and the counteractive quantity of ice cream is dispensed: The more unhappy you are, the more ice cream you need.