Smog Ahoy

Third time's a charm: On my third attempt, I finally managed to make an appointment to take my minivan in for smog-related repairs on Wednesday. The first time I called, I got the answering machine and nobody called me back. The second time, the guy in the shop said the owner was at an auto mechanics' convention and I should try again on Monday. Today, the owner answered and said that Wednesday would be just fine.

I hope, since the van only failed one element (low speed NO emissions), and then not by very much, that the repairs won't be too complicated, and that I'll only be out the $100 co-payment on the Bureau of Automotive Repair program.

Medical News

This morning was my annual physical (I see my doctor quarterly anyway for diabetes follow-up appointments, but this was the annual all-over physical). My diabetes is under excellent control; without medication (diet and exercise only), my A1C level is 5.2 (range 4.8 to 6.0 normal), which is perfect. Cholesterol has finally managed to come up to the low-normal range. Only bad part is blood pressure -- running about 10/5 points too high, even with medication -- and weight. After a low of 275 pounds a year ago, I've slowly drifted back up to 290. This must stop, and reverse, for that matter. Dr. Matthews urges me to "get back on the wagon," so to speak.

I know what to do. The question is whether I can do it. Smaller portions. More walking. I did it when I was first diagnosed two years ago and lost sixty pounds from my all-time peak. I should be able to do it again.

DVDs and Me

One of the things we never did after Interaction was to produce a Masquerade Video, although we do have the raw camera shots on a DVD that John Maizels gave me on the last day of the convention. I loaned this to bovil once and he gave it back to me along with a cleaned-up version that has a bit more functionality and will play on my DVD player, not just on the DVD drive on my computer. So, I was asked to make a copy of that DVD. I have two DVD-RW drives. I have what purports to be software that will allow you to copy DVDs. The DVD I was trying to copy wouldn't have been copy-protected -- it's not a commercial release. The software said it copied correctly. I can view the copy using the DVD drive on my computer. But the copy won't run in my DVD player -- it says it's not the right format. I wonder what I did wrong.