Health
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Dreaming of a sick Christmas
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007So here I sit at work, 8:30am on Boxing Day, feeling rather crap. Yesterday’s holiday festivities (a wonderful 12 hour HD-DVD marathon of the first 5 years of Harry Potter) were tempered by the fact that both Brien and I seem to have come down with a flu of some sort. Because Brien is already on massive antibiotics for a case of strep we are pretty sure that it’s viral so there is little that can be done about it short of drinking plenty of fluids and taking it easy.
Taking it easy I said? Not likely with being the only PM in over the holidays and some massive amounts of work to do! Hopefully I can make today short and get home to rest and recuperate.
Taking it raw
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007The goodness of raw meat has graced my household today! I got a number of tubes of raw ground meat bits from a butcher and am slowly switching Skype over to a partially raw food diet. No surprise that he loves eating meat twice a day and I think he’s going to get along fabulously with the new raw diet.
Not to force Skype to be the only raw foodist in the house I’ve been doing my part and eating a fair amount of sushi of late. I did Wasabi Bistro on Saturday for Scott’s birthday party (Happy Birthday Scott!), and Hana tonight with Ken. Some would call Sushi twice in 3 days excessive - I call it just right.
Thanksgiving came and went
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007And yet again I’ve managed not to write anything for more than a week. It’s not for lack of time - I ended up with four and a half days off over Thanksgiving, I just didn’t seem to have the passion to write. That being said it was a great holiday and it really helped my mental health to spend a few days vegetating on the couch with Skype.
To keep me company on the couch I had a few new video games. Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, and Super Mario Galaxy have all come out in the last couple of weeks and are quite excellent games. It’s nice to see that video games are really coming into their own and becoming a viable mainstream form of alternative entertainment to plain old television.
Of those three games Mass Effect is by far my favorite so far. It’s Biowares latest saga and feels very much like KOTOR - one of my all time favorite games. It’s highly immersing and addictive and far too easy to spend 4 straight days playing. I’ve written up a proper review of the game which should post to Gear Live shortly.
Time to get back to the salt mines. Take care o’ readers of mine.
Update: The Mass Effect review on Gear Live just posted - check it out!
The end of a long day
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007Today was one of those days - the ones that never seem to end. From the moment I got to work until the moment I fled I was constantly juggling phone calls, action items, and requirements competing for a busy development teams time. Big stress means big pay, but sometimes it all just seems a little much. Oh well, 3 more days and the weekend relaxation begins anew.
Falling back into the sun
Monday, November 5th, 2007Today is a great day - thanks to daylight savings time I woke up to sunshine for the first time in a month and I feel great for it. I really think I do get SAD like my father and having sunlight streaming in my bedroom window when I first wake up makes all the difference in my day. I really should look at getting one of those full spectrum lights to put in my shower or something to kick start these cold dark winter mornings.
I’m willing to bet another factor in my bright-eyed outlook on the day comes from a relaxing (and productive) weekend. My dad passed through town and I got to hang out with a few friends I haven’t seen in a while. This combined with a good deal of time spent on my couch with Puzzlequest and iTunes content left me feeling relaxed, energized, and ready to tackle my week at work.
Funeral for an aunt I never knew
Saturday, October 20th, 2007Sitting in the crisp cold of an open-air stone mausoleum in Walla Walla lays the ashes of Tami Anderson, the estranged aunt I never knew. I’m a little confused as to how I should feel about the whole experience - I never knew her, talked to her on the phone, or really knew of her aside from knowing that my mother had a sister.
After getting the call nearly a month ago informing me that ‘Tami has died’ I’ve gone through a strange progression from barely knowing of her existence to slowly lifting the shroud of mystery that has long covered my mothers side of the family. I’ve reached to my mothers half-brother (trailer-park loser), searched the internet for her abusive and estranged father (rotting in a California Veterans Center, broke, drunken, and worthless), and sifted through death records looking for other half-siblings and blood relatives.
The more I learn the more I realize how my mother is a shining star - an amazing person who has made a name for herself, becoming a loving wife, mother, and friend. She has propelled her career to lofty heights, is a well-respected pillar of society here in Walla Walla, and has a network of friends that care for her. When I look at the rest of my mothers estranged family and compare it to the family I know and love it’s obvious that the two are night and day.
After attending the funeral today I feel strange about the experience. It’s weird sifting through all the photos of Tami and looking at her lives leftovers I feel like I should feel something, but I still not a spark of emotion or connection stirs.
I know my sister has some desire to reach out to the side of the family we never knew, but my brief brush with them has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I have no desire to dig deeper into the depths of that particular branch of my family tree, preferring to leave it to slowly age from this earth, myself and my sister it’s only real legacy.
Not the best of days
Thursday, October 18th, 2007Today is not my day in any way, shape, or form. I’ve gone from thinking I might be sick to actually being sick. Upon waking this morning I spent a good 15 minutes in the shower hacking up one of my lungs. Thank goodness I had a spare.
To make matters worse while driving to work today the check engine light lit up on my dash. With an impending trip to Walla Walla tomorrow for a funeral I’m a little nervous about it. I am currently calling University and Barrier Audi trying to get an emergency appointment so I can find out if it’s a serious problem or not.
Update: So I’m still sick, but I finally made it home to be sick in bed which is a marked improvement. On the way home I stopped by Barrier and they hooked up their diagnostic console to my A6. The good news is that it’s only an exhaust leak - perfectly safe to drive with on my way to Walla Walla this weekend. They set me up with an appointment for next week so I can get it fixed, and the only downside in the interim is that I’m spewing slightly more CO2 into the atmosphere than I normally would.
Off to bed - I need about 24 hours of solid sleep!
Like father like son: dental edition
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007Yesterday was another long day at the Vet getting Skype’s tooth socket checked out. The past couple of days the socket has been getting red and swelled and the vet agreed that it was infected. He’s on antibiotics again in the hopes that it will finish healing properly. If the antibiotics don’t help it’s likely there is a tooth fragment or bone spur in there and some surgery will likely be required.
Funny (and sad) that Skype is so much like me in this respect. Our bad teeth will be our undoing someday!
Halo 3 gamer fuel: the definitive review
Friday, September 28th, 2007
In the interest of expanding my life experiences and getting “my game on” I decided to try the much hyped Gamer fuel, Mountain Dew’s new Halo 3 themed “Dew with an invigorating blast of citrus cherry flavor” featuring 170 calories of sugar and 73mg of caffeine.
Initial impressions:
Upon opening the can I was struck by a fizzing fruity bouquet, with hints of pine. The smell reminds me of a mix between kool-aid and pine-sol. I poured a slight bit into a glass to inspect the rich red-orange colors. While in the white cup it looks suspiciously like very thin orange-ish fake blood from a great number of movies I watched as a child.
The first sip:
Pine-sol and kool-aid suspicions confirmed. The flavor is very artificial and tastes just like it smelled: lime and cherry kool-aid packets mixed with a pine-needle whisk. My mouth instantly got dry and gummy - the sheer amount of sugar in a sip is likely more than I usually consume in a day. Never being one to shy away from the challenge I take a big gulp.
The big sip was a mistake - my teeth started hurting, and shortly after swallowing my stomach followed suit. Now 10 minutes and 1/4th of a can later I feel like laying down and taking a nap. My mouth feels and tastes like a gummy bear crawled in, died, and is now decomposing slowly in the back of my throat. What have you done to me Gamer Fuel?
The verdict:
What freakish executive at Pepsi approved this hyper-sweet monstrosity? Why is it selling? Should I buy stock in companies producing medical equipment for diabetics?