I just had a call from the doctor’s office a little while ago with the results of the lab work. The good news from the phone call is that it’s not swine flu. (I’m slightly disappointed by that one; I was kind of enjoying the novelty of being the first person I know to get it. If I’m gonna be miserable, I at least want something unique!)
Also good is that my energy levels seem to be a little up from yesterday and my voice is working a little better. I’ve been concerned about a repeat of “The Great Silence” of 2002-2004, so it’s comforting to have my voice working a little better.
Bad news is, all the symptoms are still there. Still coughing up a storm, still generally sore (though not quite as bad), still running a fever. Stomach’s still not sure about food, but it’s willing to go along with the concept.
I was in bed asleep by 10 last night. The only difficulty is that with all the rest I’ve been getting, when I woke up at 4:30, I couldn’t fall back to sleep.
Category Archives: Assorted Ramblings
Catch-22
I’ve been sick for the past few days, but after a visit to the doctor’s office on Friday afternoon, I now have medicine that should help me get well a little faster.
But today got off to a heckuva start. Around 7:00 this morning, I took the day’s first batch of pills, one of them was an anti-nausea medication. About 10 minutes later my I found myself sick to my stomach as the pill tried to escape.
One of the stickers on the bottle says that if the medication causes an upset stomach, you can take it with some crackers or a small meal. Great advice I suppose, except the reason I need anti-nausea medication is that I can’t keep food down.
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It’s been about 14 years or so since I closed my Compuserve account in favor of an internet-connected BBS. I initially signed up for that account using my Commodore 64 and a blazing-fast 300 baud modem. (At that point, 1200 baud modems were fairly common, but a 1200 baud modem for the C-64 was a little too pricey for someone just a couple years out of college.)
During the couple of years I used Compuserve, I got to know Sue P, had discussions (and the occasional argument) with folks such as David Gerrold, established a few professional ties through my nifty technical skills, and eventually persuaded my then-employer to set up a technical support area on the service (a move which almost immediately gained them several new customers, and long before the term “World Wide Web” ever reached the mainstream).
Sometime in mid-90s, Compuserve was acquired by AOL where it became something of an online backwater, a “walled-garden” dinosaur in an online ecosystem inhabited by web sites which could be accessed via any standard web browser.
Back in April, AOL notified the few remaining Compuserve users of plans to shut down the service. Compuserve was officially shut down last week.
I haven’t used the service in at least 14 years, but I have to admit to being a little sad to see it go.
Hello Toothface Fans!
It’s fun to look at the web site statistics for Dactyl Manor and discover how people accessed the site. For instance, a huge number of visitors are looking for information about anime conventions (clearly I need to break out the convention list by genre in addition to location, date and event name); and although a growing number of people are using recent versions of Internet Explorer, there are still quite a few using versions 4, 5, and 6. (For crying out loud! Upgrade already! Or get Firefox! Sheesh!)
One of the other interesting statistics is how people arrived at this site. About half either came directly to a page they already knew, or followed a link from another page on the site. That’s pretty normal.
The two most frequent sources of external referrals are Google and Yahoo. No big surprises there either.
What did surprise me though is that the third most common source of referrals to Dactyl Manor is Luke’s Blog! So far this month, more than 330 people have arrived here via http://toothface.blogspot.com/. The actual number of referrals is even higher though, because a link to Dividing by Zero appears in the list of “friends” links on every page of Luke’s blog and people have been clicking those links too.
This of course raises the question, why are so many of Luke’s readers heading over here? What on Earth would cause so many people from the Lancaster Theological Seminary to visit my site?
And then it hit me, they’re looking for background information on their Pastor-in-training!
That certainly puts a new light on this site. I’ve never before had so many members of the religious community interested in my activities. (Hopefully none of them are offended by the Naked Eye Candy!)
And what should I say about Luke? He’s a friend, so should I be talking him up? Should I tell the tales of how for as long as I’ve known Luke, he’s been taking blankets and dinner to the homeless?
Or do I tell the truth and write about how for years he’s been carrying on with a married* woman? And to complicate the matter, this married woman, we’ll call her “Kate”, recently gave birth to Luke’s child! Does this guy know no shame?
And then there’s the question of Luke’s wife whom I also consider a friend. Does she know about “Kate”? I’m not really comfortable being the one to tell her, but then again, wouldn’t it better for her to find out from a friend than from a complete stranger?
And you also have to wonder, are the folks at LTS aware that Luke is a Cylon?
On the one hand, the ability to keep quiet is frequently a valuable (and quite rare) skill. On the other hand, isn’t there a responsibility to tell the truth?
It’s a tough call. But when I started to write Dividing by Zero, I knew it was possible that strangers might one day read it.
It appears that day is here.
*OK, sure. “Kate” is is in fact Luke’s wife, Kate; it’s to be expected that they’d spend time together. But it’s not nearly as sensational when you phrase it that way and I do want people to keep coming back.
Politicians and Serial Killers
I don’t have anything to add to this. Apparently politicians and serial killers have similar personality traits.
Any comments I might add would just be superfluous.
Busy Day!
A busy day today. So far today I’ve walked the dog, done some light grocery shopping, bought gas, fixed the lawnmower, mowed the lawn, and dug up the garlic crop.
And now it’s time for lunch. (No connection to the garlic.)
Decoupling
I just watched the final episode of Coupling and it’s easily one of the best series finales I’ve seen. (And I’ve still got the theme song stuck in my head – it’s very similar to the version Doris Day recorded.)
Katie was right. The show is definitely racier than most shows you’ll see on American TV. But it’s much more clever than vulgar. The two main characters are based on the show’s creators and the rest are archetypes based on people they’d each had failed relationships with.
Definitely worth a watch.
Decision Making
This is happily nothing to do with anything going on in my life, just a general observation I can’t get out my head.
In the corporate world, before scolding a subordinate for making a decision they don’t agree with, most senior managers prefer to increase the level of irony by first giving a speech about how important it that everyone be empowered to make decisions.
A Very Long Day
I woke up this morning around 4:30 or 5:00; long before the alarm clock’s scheduled cacophony. That happens now and again; usually I just drift back to sleep. Not today.
This morning as I lay in bed, my mind started drifting. First to a British sitcom I’ve recently encountered called Coupling. It’s meant to be a British version of Friends. The bare handful of episodes I’ve seen have been entertaining. (Who needs a TV when you have video streaming?)
Somehow my mind next drifted to dancing.
First to Blues dance. I’ve just finished two months of lessons and although I enjoy the dancing, it can be frustrating at times. Partly because I expect myself to be a lot better with it by now, partly because I’m having trouble “getting” the music (which makes it hard to dance to), and partly because I’m having trouble finding time to practice – either at home or at a dance. They have a Blues dance almost every Thursday at Glen Echo — Back Room Blues, but Thursday just seems to be a tough night to get away. There’s one on Sunday in the bumper car pavilion; perhaps I’ll make it to that one.
My mind wandered back and forth from Blues dance to Swing. It’s been somewhere around a year-and-a-half since the first time I tried Swing. I just took another month of classes on that one too as a sort of “refresher course.” I’ve known the basics of Charleston since last summer and now I have a handle on the mechanics of the turn-back variation. There’s a bit of frustration here too from the lack of finding (making?) time to practice. Plus I’ve come to realize that my leading can be a bit sloppy at times. I know the answer to that one at least: Practice, practice, practice. (Do they have dancing at Carnegie Hall? What about the Kennedy Center? Not that I’m nearly comfortable enough to dance for an audience of more than one.)
A little before 6:00 I decided that since my mind had already been racing around for a while, I might as well get up and get the day started.
It’s going to be a long one.
Swine Flu
As a public service, I’d like to present the following list of Swine Flu symptoms (aka H1N1). The CDC provides a far more comprehensive repository of Swine Flu information.
Swine Flu Symptoms
- High fever (100 degrees).
- Body aches.
- Lack of appetite.
- Nausea.
- Vomiting.
- Diarrhea.
- Strong urge to roll in the mud.*
*The urge to roll in mud may also be a sign that you’re overly involved in politics. Medical supervision is strongly recommended.