This is a mix I’ve been playing with for a while, trying to choose some songs that I like, but are hard to mix. Some big BPM shifts in this one.

Mostly chilled by xbyo

Not entirely happy with the results, but worth sharing.

Tracklisting:

01. Jam & Spoon – Two Spys in The House Of Love
02. Massive Attack – Hymn Of The Big Wheel
03. Electra – Autumn Love (Rave Mix)
04. Zoe – Sunshine On A Rainy Day (12″ Extended Mix)
05. DNA feat. Suzanne Vega – Toms Diner
06. Sting – Englishman in New York
07. Chicane – No Ordinary Morning
08. Mazzy Star – Fade Into You
09. Portishead – Sour Times
10. Sneaker Pimps – 6 Underground
11. Chris Isaaks Vs Trentemoller: Dubby Games
12. Chris Lake – Carry Me Away (Original Mix)

Birthday Mix by xbyo

Boxing Day was Russell’s Birthday, so I thought it would be nice to take a trip back through some musical history and put together a mix that should bring back lots of memories and bring a big smile to his face.

Track listing:

01. Thunderbirds Are Go (00:00)
02. Trouble In My Life (00:10)
03. Rockit (04:45)
04. Strange Love (06:54)
05. True Faith (10:56)
06. Real Life (16:36)
07. Your Love (21:19)
08. You’ve Got The Love (25:59)
09. Going Back To My Roots (27:56)
10. Sweet Dreams Yeke Yeke (34:15)
11. Let The Music Use You (40:22)
12. I Feel Love (Rollo + Sister Bliss) (42:31)
13. Progen (Land Of Oz) (47:19)
14. Input (51:02)
15. Helyom Habib (54:25)
16. Go (60:08)
17. Let Me Love You Tonight (61:49)
18. Why Can’t We Live Together (67:29)
19. Josephine (70:32)

As I have said recently, I suffer from Crohns Disease, and had my first relapse recently which meant that I was hospitalized for 2 nights.

I was admitted as an emergency patients as I had been throwing up and having tummy pains for 3 days. Before I went to the hospital I called the insurance companies 24 hour nurse line to make sure they thought I should go and to get pre-approval.

In the ER department I saw the admitting doctor, and was given a CAT scan of my tum to confirm it was the Crohns. I was also given morphine for the pain.

Whilst in hospital I was on an IV line to keep hydrated, and received anti-coagulant drugs to stop developing dangerous blood clots. It turns out I had a narrowing of the small intestine, and some food had got stuck in the narrowing, which was backing everything up in the same way that road maintenance does when they are working on the motorways. Basically we had to wait for the blockage to pass naturally without me eating or drinking.

The bills have been outrageous – $15k for my 2 nights in a shared room, and then additional bills from the radiologist who reviewed the CAT scan, and from the various doctors I saw whilst in hospital. So far I have written checks for over $1500 and the bills are still coming in.

So what is this rant about? Well my health insurance is over $450 per month. It’s a company wide policy and we all pay the same premium. That coverage is just for me, my wife is on a policy from her employer. This is the first time that my Crohns has flared up, and I now seem to be better thanks to the advice from my Gastroenterologist and injecting myself every 2 weeks with Humira. I could easily be in remission from my Crohns for the next 10 years plus. Apart from Crohns I am in good health, and drink little and don’t smoke. My blood pressure and cholesterol levels are all perfect.

Today our office manager instant messaged me to ask me if it would be possible to change my coverage so that I can be on my wifes policy as the insurance company is raising our rates to over $800 per person per month because of me. Talk about moral blackmail – either I get covered on her policy, or all my colleagues end up paying an extra $350 per person per month to get the same coverage as they do now.

We are in a lucky situation, we both have good jobs and our employers both offer health insurance (although mine are trying to push me out). We can afford to pay the money that the insurance companies don’t cover, but what about those people less fortunate than ourselves?

At work some of my colleagues are quite Republican and think that the health insurance system in the USA is fine as it is and does not need reform. They have swallowed the FUD from the insurance companies about how people have to wait long times for treatment in Canada. What they fail to comprehend is that everyone gets treatment and no one is bankrupted due to health costs. They long wait times alluded to are often outright lies.

As a contrast to the US system I would like to tell you about my father. He will be 80 in October and lives in England, and got an appointment with a cardiologist who advised that he needed a pace maker. When he asked when the operation could be done he was told that they could do it the next day, but should wait until Thursday as he needed a few days off of a drug before the operation. He had the operation 4 days after his consultation, and they fitted him with a $20,000 pace maker. His total bill was $0. He never had to speak to a billing department and never received a bill from his cardiologist, the surgeon, the hospital, the anaeseologist or anyone. All covered by the National Health Service.

I can’t compare my coverage to other countries in the world, but comparing my experience to my fathers I would much rather have a government run health care system to the profit orientated system that the US has at the moment.

It’s amazing how much the insurance system now controls my life – I can’t ever hope to become self employed as the insurance companies can either deny me coverage or charge me an extortionate fee, and you need health insurance to live in the USA (even though 47 million people are). If I move to a new company the insurance companies can increase the premium, making life harder for me. (See here)

Comparing the US system to the rest of the world has been done many times before, Michael Moore did it in Sicko, and PBS did an excellent comparison of 5 industrialised counties systems compared to ours that I recommend people watch.

So now I am stuck – if I stay with my current policy it is going to cost everyone in the company more, and if I move it will likely cost everyone in my wifes company more.

It’s a no win situation, and could end up with us having to eventually move back to England.

Recently I was hospitalized due to a partial obstruction of my small intestine caused by my Crohns disease, and it has given me an insight into the health industry here in the states, and proof of how important insurance is. (It also is why there have not been updates to my site for a while.

It seems that when your insurance claims reach a certain amount they get denied whilst the insurance company reviews them, and I have managed to reach that threshold (about $10k).

What’s amazing though is when you see the amounts being claimed. When I went to hospital I went to the ER department, and saw the doctor who decided to admit me. That was about 11pm. I was admitted at about 8am having had a CT scan, and stayed 1 additional night.

The bills are starting to come through now. Each dept will bill separatly, and I’ve only had a few bills so far.

CT Scan: $3,600
MRI: $5,900
Hospital stay: $15,000
Follow up appointment with Gastrenterologist: $250

So we are already well over $20,000 without all the bills. My treatment was complete rest with no food or drink for 2 days, on a saline IV line to keep hydrated and some anticoagulants to stop me getting dangerous blood clots.

Whilst my treatment was good, I don’t feel it was any better than I would have got on the NHS, and I was sharing a room with someone else.

So how much would something serious cost?

DRILL PRESS:
A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings objects across the room, denting the freshly-painted vertical stabilizer which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL:
Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench at the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ‘Oh sh*t’

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL:
Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.

SKILL SAW:
A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS:
Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER:
An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW:
One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS:
Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH:
Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW:
A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:
Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

BAND SAW:
A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST:
A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:
Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER:
A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.

PRY BAR:
A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50-cent part.

HOSE CUTTER:
A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE:
Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as leather seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

DAMMIT TOOL:
Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ‘DAMMIT’ at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

Original by Peter Egan (http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Workshop/Definitions.htm)

Summer is fast approaching, and Chez Cole is proud to announce the addition of a hot tub for all visiting guests.

Installation is not complete, but we hope to soon be enjoying the summer evenings in our new Aruba LX hot tub.

Contact us for your summer booking – swimsuits optional (apart from Russell, then the are compulsory).

I’ve been playing with Ableton again, this time with some old favorites from 1989.

I experimented this time with running regular and accapela tracks together, and there is some flanging in there too for good measure.

Track Listing
Adeva – Respect – 119bpm
28th Street Crew – I Need A Rhythm – 129.3 bpm
Kariya – Let Me Love You Tonight (12 inch mix) – 111.7 bpm
Frankie Knuckles – Your Love (Original) – 117.6 bpm
Candi Staton – You Got The Love – 111.5 bpm
Candi Staton – You Got The Love (Accapella) – 110.8 bpm
Corporation Of One – The Real Life – 119.8 bpm
Loretta Holloway – Love Sensation – ~116.0 bpm
Black Box – Ride On Time – 118.7 bpm
Groove Is In the Heart – Deee-Lite – 120.9 bpm
Simon – Free At Last – 133.9 bpm
Illusion – Why Can’t We Live Together – 112.9 bpm

Runtime: 37:02

Listen:
[audio:passion.mp3]

Download:
Ableton – Passion

Something a bit more modern next I think.