No More Oink

British and Dutch police today shut down the world’s biggest source of illegal pre-release chart albums and arrested a 24-year old man in an operation coordinated between Middlesbrough and Amsterdam.

The raids, which were coordinated by Interpol, follow a two-year investigation by the international and UK music industry bodies IFPI and BPI into the members-only online pirate pre-release club known as OiNK. Source

I am legitimately upset about this. This was such a horrible thing to wake up to. I feel as if a good friend of mine is gone. I used Oink almost religiously. If i heard about a band or CD i would check it out on Oink before i went out and bought it or saw the band live.

Now it's gone. I wish i could write a more eloquent piece on how Oink changed my life, but i am far too upset right now to do that. Perhaps i will at a later date.

My Internet History: Screenames (Part 1)

Like most people, i have had a plethora of screen names, internet alias', or whatever you want to call them. Here is a run down of most of them that i can remember:

Backstabber- Came from the song of the same name by the hardcore band Dystopia. I also published 4 issues of a zine called Backstabber. This is probably the most used alias and the most versatile. XBackstabberX or Backstabberzine have both been used for email and message board names.

DeleteYourself- Named after the song by Atari Teenage Riot. Also used as both email and message board names. Have also been shortened to Deleteyou a few times when there was a character limit.

Flood- This was first used when i joined staff at the Xbox fan site Xbox Addict. Many thought it was in reference to the character in the game Halo, but it was actually a nod to the Tool song and the producer of the same name (who has produced records for Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode, and many more). Has also been used with X's around the name.

Voorhees28- An old AOL screename/email address. Voorhees is the name of an old UK hardcore/punk band and 28 is just a random number i picked. I used to get people iming me asking if i was from Voorhees,NJ all the time.

DrodNoSklz- My good friend from high school Doug Luke once said that if i was ever to become a rapper, my name would be D-Rod No Skillz. "D-Rod" coming from my name Derek, and "No Skillz" because he claimed i was not good at anything. He really was a great friend. I took the name in jest and used it as another AOL screenname/email address.

AllThingsOrdinary- Yet another name taken from a song title, this one being a song by the late indie rock band The Anniversary. I named my record label after the song and have also used it on several music oriented message boards. When the character limit was exceeded, i commonly use ATOBuffalo.

That's all for now. Check back soon for the next part in my look back of my history on the internet.

Unconscious Shaving

One of the weirdest things that happened as a result of my appendix being removed is my stomach is now shaved. They did not warn me ahead of time that they were going to do this, nor did it occur to me that it might happen. I just woke up after surgery and noticed that most (not all) of the hair on my stomach was shaved. It was just shaved shorter than it was, no part was shaved all the way down to the skin.

I completely understand why they did it, but it would have been nice to know beforehand so i wouldn't have been so shocked when i awoke from the anesthesia.

Note to people with hairy bellies: Don't ever shave it unless you absolutely have to, it itches a LOT when it's growing in.

Addiction isn't fun

I don't like taking medication. I think i am becoming dependent on it because when i don't take it for a while, i get very anxious and in a bad mood. Ten minutes after i take a pill i start to feel better, but i want to feel better all the time

This is not fun. I have been taking under the daily recommended doses, but this still happened. I just want the pain to go away so i don't have to take these things anymore. I'm having a check up with the doctor tomorrow morning, hopefully he will tell me it won't be much longer.

a part of me is gone now

Before Tuesday, i had never had an IV in my arm. Before Tuesday, i had never had a CT scan or an EKG test. And most importantly, i had never had surgery before Tuesday, October 9th, 2007.

Going into to the emergency room with a pain in my right abdomen, i knew there was a chance it was appendicitis, but i didn't think it was likely. After almost 8 hours of waiting and tests, when they finally told me that it was in fact appendicitis, i didn't know whether to be scared or relieved it wasn't something worse. I know now it was an hour, but it felt like minutes from the time they told me to when i went into surgery. When they put the oxygen mask onto my face in the operating room, i felt like i was in a dream. Right after that they said they were giving me something and i'd go to sleep. I didn't believe them, but i was out of it almost instantly. I don't remember dreaming, but i do remember waking up. I was in a recovery room. I couldn't see well without my glasses, but i could make out a nurses station and other hospital beds far away. I remember feeling pain and saying "ow" repeatedly until someone came in and gave me some pain medicine. I asked them where my glasses were and they thought they were left in the operating room. I was scared for a minute that they were lost, but then i quickly got over that fear.
It felt like i was there for only 10 minutes but i was told i was in there for over an hour. They apologized for moving me out of there so quickly because they ran out of room and had someone else coming in. I didn't mind, but they seemed very apologetic. I saw my mom in the hallway as they pushed me towards my room. I couldn't tell for sure, but she seemed worried. Looking back, i have no clue how i managed to move myself onto my new bed, but i did and this seemed to please those who brought me into the room.
A minute later my family and Eva came into the room. Dustin cracked some jokes as he usually does, and my mom and Eva made sure i was ok. It meant a lot to me that they all waited up to see me. I wish they would have stayed longer, but they were only there for about 10 minutes. It was probably due to it being after 1am and visiting hours were long over.
Prior to this, i had a mild fear of hospitals. Staying in one for a night helped me get over this fear (for the most part). Everyone who i encountered was very nice and made me feel very comfortable.
The next morning, Dr. Jordan came to see me. I missed the first few words he said to me, so i wonder if this was the doctor who operated on me. It very well might have been because he proceeded to tell me that i was very lucky. Apparently my appendix was very bad and probably would have burst in a couple of hours if it wasn't removed. Thinking about this scares me to no end. If i would have ignored the pain for longer than i did, it would have burst and i would have gotten an infection that could have led to my..... It's hard to type, but i could have died. To think that i was close to my possible death is very unsettling.

So now here i am, lying on my couch as i have been for the past 4 days. It seems like much longer than that, it feels like i have been here for weeks. I have watched a ridiculous amount of movies and haven't read nearly as much as i'd like to have. By the looks and feel of it, it'll probably be at least another week before i can go back to school so i have plenty of time to read .

This is also the first time in my life that i have been taking medication regularly. I have been taking 500MG tablets of generic loratabs every 4-6 hours. Going from taking not medication to several times a day taking a controlled substance is very weird. I am constantly drifting to sleep and have taken more naps than i ever have. I guess this is nice, but the loss of time is a little unnerving.

Discount in Buffalo

Lake Erie Monster, a fellow blog from Buffalo,NY, recently posted a video of the late pop punk band Discount playing Buffalo in 1998. This video is so painful to watch because i was asked to go to this show but opted not to because i didn't know who Discount were at the time. A year later i finally got around to hearing Discount, and i've been kicking myself since.

You can check out the video here.