Much as I tried, I just couldn't finish off the blog until Monday afternoon... my eyes kept drifting shut last night and I had to postpone the final cut until well into the afternoon the next day. I do a fair bit of work to bring this to my faithful few readers each week, and I won't let the quality suffer. Much. :)
Dec 29 - Back to the (g)rind.
It seems that I can't keep from mentioning something new to do with All Things Bacon every so often. This week: Bacon In A Can from SupersizedMeals.com. At only $9.95 for a can that contains up to 50 slices of pre-cooked bacony goodness, it's quite the deal and is available by the case. Which won't go bad for a long time; the shelf life is tagged at ten years. A decade of bacon bliss in every can!
The power failed around 10pm PST, plunging most of Victoria into darkness for several hours, which was odd as the high winds of earlier in the day had died down many hours ago. Though not as bad as the massive outage that hit on Thanksgiving this past Oct. 13th, it was still a surprise. I was still able to shut down my various electronics thanks to the UPS systems I run, and enjoyed reading a book by light of two blindingly powerful LED flashlights. The gas fireplace was still blazing merrily to keep the room warm, and the carbon monoxide detector was ready in case the circulating fans were disabled from the outage. I am growing to appreciate my laptop in such situations as well, as its built-in battery means the power can be out for hours and I can still be entertained... though offline from the internet. *sigh*
With the power off, I was unable to play with my plasma globe... yes, that's right, one of those really cool things that you don't know what else to do with a few years down the road. Thankfully, when I had 'net access again, I came across a site that tells you all the cool things you didn't know you could do with a plasma globe. Where else, but on the internet? Now I can breathe new life into my glowing conversation piece, which is something I searched years for and finally found... and there are some enthusiasts out there who know more on the subject than any hundred other people - the details! One fact I found fascinating was that 99% of the visible universe is made up out of plasma... to be taken with a grain of salt, of course, as most of what we can see are sources of radiation, such as stars.
Segueing a bit, apparently there is a lot of research going in into cold plasmas, if you can get your mind around that. Normally, plasmas are hot - VERY hot, in most cases, and since they are their own state of matter, this can lead to some very interesting things. One such application may be the creation of shielding for spacecraft, similar in operation to the kind often pictured in sci-fi TV battles, though cold plasma would operate in a radically different manner than Trek-like shields. Something similar was recently discovered by accident at a 3M plant in the USA too. So that plasma flatscreen TV you have been eyeing at the local FutureShop may be the foreshadowing of things plasma has yet to show us... and the shows you watch on it may indeed foretell the future. Just watch out for burn-in!!!
Dec 30 - Mystery Illness
This is for those of you who are wondering if I am ill or not. Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Details are sketchy, but a plan of action is in place to see if things are correctable...
I'll spell things out as plainly as I can. I have not found any specific details as to what is going on, so I don't want to worry folks, which seems unlikely as only one person has actually asked me if I was sick to date. This tells me that either I haven't been clear enough in my blog or that nobody really noticed... edit: except Lucas, who raises some good questions in his comment at the end of this week's blog. While I am not dehydrated, the diet I have been on has not changed substantially in the last 4 years, nor does it include much, if any, junk food any longer. Turkey is my staple meat protein, and the herbal supplements / vitamins I've been on are the same again as they have been for many years. I will make a point of raising GI issues with my MD next appointment, thanks for the reminder.
See if you can fill in the blanks to form a known illness: symptoms include nausea an hour after meals, lack of appetite, irregular difficulty with waste expulsion, occasional dizziness and a general lack of energy. These began several months ago, and are possibly related to my problems earlier in the year which I believed were solved when I switched to a lactose-free diet. Guess it wasn't as simple as that. I do not have plumbing pains or related abdominal issues, nor am I suffering from gall bladder attacks of any degree. Though I am on a waiting list to have my gall bladder removed( up to 12 months away )I may be 'bumped' or sent to another area on the Island to get it done if my symptoms persist or worsen... assuming that it is the cause, in some manner. Unknown right now.
A visit to the doctor this morning was not incredibly informative, but a plan of action was hatched. In addition to the enzymes I am taking, I am going to switch to a new type of antacid, one which will hopefully correct the digestive issues and get me back on track. My new doctor wants to try this first, before suggesting other courses of action - I hope that the nausea goes away and that I get back my sense of hunger again. Feeling woozy and weak at day's end is no fun, especially when you stare at food of any description and feel not the slightest hunger twinge in your belly despite not having eaten all day... not being a light eater, I like solid meals on a regular basis, and this really unbalances me.
I hope that the new antacid brings things back INTO balance, but there's no guarantee, as there are too many possible illnesses that fit my symptoms. Thankfully, I am not showing signs of other more serious illnesses, so I am hoping that my new doctor's recommendations will prove effective. Fingers crossed.
Dec 31 - New Year's Eve
I spent a few hours visiting my parents for dinner, then back to my place for a quiet evening in front of the fireplace. Surprisingly, I was unable to find any 'event' taking place for New Year's Eve around here; lots of advertising for parties taking place in local bars and restaurants, but nothing like the Niagara Falls New Years Eve Party at all. There is a nice online listing of local events here though, which is great. So, I rang in the new year online, watching the ball drop live in Times Square at 9pm locally, then surfed a bit without finding any west coast feeds, like Seattle or Los Angeles... ah well. It's 2009.
The tradition of New Year's Eve got its start way back in 46 BC with the Romans, who as we all know really knew how to party. Which has lessons for us in the modern day, as we are easily distracted from major issues facing the world today by modern media - Hollywood and major league sports follow quite distinctly in the ancient Roman's footsteps by pulling our attention towards trivial entertainment, when we should instead doing our part to get the world on track, like some people have been for a while now.
As for me, I watched the fireplace flames flicker out as the year changed, and wondered what was in store for myself... and for us all. At least the LHC didn't suck us all into a black hole a few months ago!
Jan 1st 2009 - Where did 2008 go?
One thing I'd like to do this coming year is read more of the classics, and I've found a great site that lets me do that from home: ReadPrint.com. You can find thousands of books to read online, from dozens of different authors including Chaucer and Shakespeare.
Upcoming movies I'm wanting to see: The Watchmen, The Road, Terminator: Salvation, Land of the Lost( with Wil Ferrell ), Thundercats, and perhaps even Gatchaman - the last is a movie that some may remember as Battle of the Planets / G-Force from 80's cartoon TV. Go Firey Phoenix... or something.
In the blizzard of 'Top Whatzits' of 2008 lists, I pay more attention to the techie side of things, of course. Over at WorthPlaying.com they have been counting down the Top 10 Games of 2008, for consoles and PC. I find it grin-inducing that both Fallout3 and Left4Dead made it on that list, for as you all know I enjoy most things post-apocalyptic and apparently many gamers share the very same interests. Which bodes well in case the world DOES end; there will be a lot of unhappy zombies out there once the surviving gamers figure out where the local gun shop keys are. FPS training at work.. but I guess it helps to live in a country stuffed with firearms too.
Along the lines of stupidity from the above thought, we have: The Stupidest Products of 2008! While the majority of the list items seem mostly sex or scatologically inclined, there are some exceptions, such as the Fender Stratocaster coffee table and the fork chair. Who thinks of these things? Better yet, who in their right mind thinks they will sell, especially since oddball and boutique stores have been packing it in faster than adherents to the Atkinson Diet in the past 6 months.
I'm also still investigating the idiocy that is Imperial Majesty Cruise LINE - there are quite a few places online where people have voiced their concerns, but this one in particular had a gem about telemarketers and the Canadian National Do Not Call List, from the entry by 'Annoyed Canadian Girl' on Dec 11, 2008. I quote it here in its entirety, as it amply illustrates the frustration consumers feel when loopholes in our systems are exploited by ethically bankrupt companies:
As for those who are posting about Canada's National Do Not Call List —that list does not apply to this company. If you read the Term of the NDNC List, you will see that:
If it is a NON Canadian company working INSIDE Canada, and calling in Canada, they have to abide, if it’s a NON Canadian company working OUTSIDE of Canada and calling TO Canada, they DO NOT HAVE TO FOLLOW THE DNC LIST.
Although, I’m pretty sure that if you request to be placed on their DNC list, legally they HAVE to place you on that list.
This all reminds me of a quote from one of more favourite sci-fi animated series, Futurama, where the main character Fry( the lowly intergalactic delivery boy )discovers that ads are beamed directly into people's dreams in the future. He responds: "Not in our dreams! Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ballgames. And on buses. And milk cartons. And t-shirts. And bananas. And written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree!" Seems he forgot about the internet, mailouts, pamphlets, billboards, newspapers, books, clothing, and of course telemarketers. Yeesh - too much!
Jan 2 - Two of 2009
Work is going well enough; I'm doing a lot more paperwork as a manager, with a ton of reading as well - not unexpected at all, and my smaller branch is the perfect place for me to do that on slower days.
I had my apartment shown not once, but twice, today. I've been leaving it in showroom condition every day that I am working, as my landlord seems to be getting quite a bit of interest in it, which is good. Though most everyone loves "such a cute little apartment" they inevitably comment that it's "small" ... well, yeah, it looks smaller with all these bookcases, the couches and a big coffee table. Ah well, not my prob. It does annoy me that I have to take down my window insulation sheet during the day, but since the days are all well above zero degrees now, sometimes with decent sunshine, it's not a major heating issue. The house I am moving to doesn't have central heating, which seems to be the norm here in BC and that still rings oddly to me. No furnaces? No insulation? No ducts? Single-pane windows? No central A/C? What gives? I'm sure home inspectors in this province make a killing, being so busy!
I was also pleased to see today that Wikipedia.org has reached their goal of raising $6 million to continue their fine work of bringing the sum total of human knowledge to everyone on earth. Though the modern internet has meant that the venerable encyclopedia salesman has been out of a job since the mid 90's, when the encyclopedia made the jump to CD-ROM and from there to its many current online formats.
I spent a portion of the evening playing Mass Effect on the Xbox360, which I mention only because I recently started playing the game again, as in this week, after a year-long hiatus. Why is that? Simple: I hadn't got used to the controls, and the story hadn't 'grabbed' me yet, so I shelved it soon after I bought it. Now that I have spent a little time with it, the depth that BioWare invests its games with is starting to come through; the game plays like a SciFi movie in many ways, which really pulls the player into the universe being presented. Making a difference on a galactic scale is fun!
Jan 3 - Green for RPG
Rain has come and washed away the snow; the grass is still green underneath out here, which still amazes me when I see it. Not that people are cutting their lawns much here in the winter, but not seeing huge swathes of dead brown lawns is an incredible pick-me-up during the winter. I commented last year about how flowers bloom here year-round; coming up in a month is the Victoria Flower Count, when people call in the number and locations of blooms they spot for a whole month. In my view, it is like giving the birdie to the rest of Canada during the height of the winter snows, saying "Hey, we live in a place where there are flowers blooming in February... so how's that snow accumulation, Toronto?" This is why I love Vancouver Island... one of many reasons that so many people love to live here.
I had an interesting game session online tonight, which surprised me as I haven't played all that much NWN in the last few months. I ended up having to make a few moral choices, as well as personal ones, for the character I've created - which though upsetting for the character, had me scratching my head at points to try to follow the logic of the person running the game session. I gave up near the end and simply retreated to my tavern's office, as I was too tired to make sense of the fractured plot any longer.
Though I do enjoy the way such roleplaying games let me stretch my characterization skills for my writing, they do tend to take up an inordinate amount of my time, as one has to wait for others to respond to one's typing... and since I type VERY quickly, this can lead to some toe-tapping waits. Given that the alternative is voice chat, I am not sure about that... as I shudder to imagine that every dwarf one runs across will have a terrible Scottish accent, and vampires will all sound Transylvanian - bleh!
Jan 4 - Weekend Warriors
Working the weekend... seems so long ago that I looked forward to weekends, in my high school days. Though I worked them then as well. Hmmm... I think the only time I ever had weekends free was back in grade school, when I was too young to have a job; I've been working since I started high school, and haven't stopped since. University was fun to juggle jobs, school and life in general, and I managed to fumble a few things before it all got sorted out in an educationally painful manner. Live and learn.
I finished re-reading another favourite series by David Weber and Steve White, set in the Starfire universe which was based on a tabletop strategy game of the same name. Similar to Starship Troopers, but far more logical in terms of technology and especially strategy( infantry rifles versus hordes of giant monsters? Puh-leaze! )as well as making sense of combat in three dimensions, albeit with a few sci-fi twists tossed in to spice things up. While some people deride the books for being 'simplistic' I enjoy them for what they are: fun space opera set in an uncertain universe, with man-eating bugs. Joy!
It reminded me of the first time I saw a space combat simulator, running on an ancient floppy-based PC with monochrome graphics. Called Starfleet Orion, it was the first game to try to bring to the computer the complexity of combat in space... and it succeeded, despite the incredibly basic graphics that the Commodore PET( ancestor of the Amiga! )was barely capable of. I never did manage to play it, but I watched over the shoulders of a few older kids playing it and was entranced, especially given that the Atari2600 had nothing like it. Nowadays we have lovely bits of game code like the freeware Space Combat Simulator, which looks to simulate actual combat with real-world physics. No warp drive here. A really mysterious site is SpaceshipSimulator.com, debuting in 2010... and that's it. Check back in a year!
Something that I wished had made it to actual hardware was an idea presented at the Baltimore WorldCon back in 1998. Similar in execution to Space Camp, the idea was to take two 'crews' of a dozen people and have them face off against each other in combat, commanding the 'bridge' and 'engine room' of their respective ships. They would spend a weekend 'sealed' in the simulator, with quarters, a mess and whatnot to simulate being aboard a starship. It seemed like a great idea, but sadly even the name has vanished into obscurity... and what with the popularity of MMORPG's nowadays, spending a weekend with your friends now means chatting with them via headset from your couch.
No Comments on last week's blog... have we seen the last of the Spider and his pals? TTFN.
Dec 29 - Back to the (g)rind.
It seems that I can't keep from mentioning something new to do with All Things Bacon every so often. This week: Bacon In A Can from SupersizedMeals.com. At only $9.95 for a can that contains up to 50 slices of pre-cooked bacony goodness, it's quite the deal and is available by the case. Which won't go bad for a long time; the shelf life is tagged at ten years. A decade of bacon bliss in every can!
The power failed around 10pm PST, plunging most of Victoria into darkness for several hours, which was odd as the high winds of earlier in the day had died down many hours ago. Though not as bad as the massive outage that hit on Thanksgiving this past Oct. 13th, it was still a surprise. I was still able to shut down my various electronics thanks to the UPS systems I run, and enjoyed reading a book by light of two blindingly powerful LED flashlights. The gas fireplace was still blazing merrily to keep the room warm, and the carbon monoxide detector was ready in case the circulating fans were disabled from the outage. I am growing to appreciate my laptop in such situations as well, as its built-in battery means the power can be out for hours and I can still be entertained... though offline from the internet. *sigh*
With the power off, I was unable to play with my plasma globe... yes, that's right, one of those really cool things that you don't know what else to do with a few years down the road. Thankfully, when I had 'net access again, I came across a site that tells you all the cool things you didn't know you could do with a plasma globe. Where else, but on the internet? Now I can breathe new life into my glowing conversation piece, which is something I searched years for and finally found... and there are some enthusiasts out there who know more on the subject than any hundred other people - the details! One fact I found fascinating was that 99% of the visible universe is made up out of plasma... to be taken with a grain of salt, of course, as most of what we can see are sources of radiation, such as stars.
Segueing a bit, apparently there is a lot of research going in into cold plasmas, if you can get your mind around that. Normally, plasmas are hot - VERY hot, in most cases, and since they are their own state of matter, this can lead to some very interesting things. One such application may be the creation of shielding for spacecraft, similar in operation to the kind often pictured in sci-fi TV battles, though cold plasma would operate in a radically different manner than Trek-like shields. Something similar was recently discovered by accident at a 3M plant in the USA too. So that plasma flatscreen TV you have been eyeing at the local FutureShop may be the foreshadowing of things plasma has yet to show us... and the shows you watch on it may indeed foretell the future. Just watch out for burn-in!!!
Dec 30 - Mystery Illness
This is for those of you who are wondering if I am ill or not. Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Details are sketchy, but a plan of action is in place to see if things are correctable...
I'll spell things out as plainly as I can. I have not found any specific details as to what is going on, so I don't want to worry folks, which seems unlikely as only one person has actually asked me if I was sick to date. This tells me that either I haven't been clear enough in my blog or that nobody really noticed... edit: except Lucas, who raises some good questions in his comment at the end of this week's blog. While I am not dehydrated, the diet I have been on has not changed substantially in the last 4 years, nor does it include much, if any, junk food any longer. Turkey is my staple meat protein, and the herbal supplements / vitamins I've been on are the same again as they have been for many years. I will make a point of raising GI issues with my MD next appointment, thanks for the reminder.
See if you can fill in the blanks to form a known illness: symptoms include nausea an hour after meals, lack of appetite, irregular difficulty with waste expulsion, occasional dizziness and a general lack of energy. These began several months ago, and are possibly related to my problems earlier in the year which I believed were solved when I switched to a lactose-free diet. Guess it wasn't as simple as that. I do not have plumbing pains or related abdominal issues, nor am I suffering from gall bladder attacks of any degree. Though I am on a waiting list to have my gall bladder removed( up to 12 months away )I may be 'bumped' or sent to another area on the Island to get it done if my symptoms persist or worsen... assuming that it is the cause, in some manner. Unknown right now.
A visit to the doctor this morning was not incredibly informative, but a plan of action was hatched. In addition to the enzymes I am taking, I am going to switch to a new type of antacid, one which will hopefully correct the digestive issues and get me back on track. My new doctor wants to try this first, before suggesting other courses of action - I hope that the nausea goes away and that I get back my sense of hunger again. Feeling woozy and weak at day's end is no fun, especially when you stare at food of any description and feel not the slightest hunger twinge in your belly despite not having eaten all day... not being a light eater, I like solid meals on a regular basis, and this really unbalances me.
I hope that the new antacid brings things back INTO balance, but there's no guarantee, as there are too many possible illnesses that fit my symptoms. Thankfully, I am not showing signs of other more serious illnesses, so I am hoping that my new doctor's recommendations will prove effective. Fingers crossed.
Dec 31 - New Year's Eve
I spent a few hours visiting my parents for dinner, then back to my place for a quiet evening in front of the fireplace. Surprisingly, I was unable to find any 'event' taking place for New Year's Eve around here; lots of advertising for parties taking place in local bars and restaurants, but nothing like the Niagara Falls New Years Eve Party at all. There is a nice online listing of local events here though, which is great. So, I rang in the new year online, watching the ball drop live in Times Square at 9pm locally, then surfed a bit without finding any west coast feeds, like Seattle or Los Angeles... ah well. It's 2009.
The tradition of New Year's Eve got its start way back in 46 BC with the Romans, who as we all know really knew how to party. Which has lessons for us in the modern day, as we are easily distracted from major issues facing the world today by modern media - Hollywood and major league sports follow quite distinctly in the ancient Roman's footsteps by pulling our attention towards trivial entertainment, when we should instead doing our part to get the world on track, like some people have been for a while now.
As for me, I watched the fireplace flames flicker out as the year changed, and wondered what was in store for myself... and for us all. At least the LHC didn't suck us all into a black hole a few months ago!
Jan 1st 2009 - Where did 2008 go?
One thing I'd like to do this coming year is read more of the classics, and I've found a great site that lets me do that from home: ReadPrint.com. You can find thousands of books to read online, from dozens of different authors including Chaucer and Shakespeare.
Upcoming movies I'm wanting to see: The Watchmen, The Road, Terminator: Salvation, Land of the Lost( with Wil Ferrell ), Thundercats, and perhaps even Gatchaman - the last is a movie that some may remember as Battle of the Planets / G-Force from 80's cartoon TV. Go Firey Phoenix... or something.
In the blizzard of 'Top Whatzits' of 2008 lists, I pay more attention to the techie side of things, of course. Over at WorthPlaying.com they have been counting down the Top 10 Games of 2008, for consoles and PC. I find it grin-inducing that both Fallout3 and Left4Dead made it on that list, for as you all know I enjoy most things post-apocalyptic and apparently many gamers share the very same interests. Which bodes well in case the world DOES end; there will be a lot of unhappy zombies out there once the surviving gamers figure out where the local gun shop keys are. FPS training at work.. but I guess it helps to live in a country stuffed with firearms too.
Along the lines of stupidity from the above thought, we have: The Stupidest Products of 2008! While the majority of the list items seem mostly sex or scatologically inclined, there are some exceptions, such as the Fender Stratocaster coffee table and the fork chair. Who thinks of these things? Better yet, who in their right mind thinks they will sell, especially since oddball and boutique stores have been packing it in faster than adherents to the Atkinson Diet in the past 6 months.
I'm also still investigating the idiocy that is Imperial Majesty Cruise LINE - there are quite a few places online where people have voiced their concerns, but this one in particular had a gem about telemarketers and the Canadian National Do Not Call List, from the entry by 'Annoyed Canadian Girl' on Dec 11, 2008. I quote it here in its entirety, as it amply illustrates the frustration consumers feel when loopholes in our systems are exploited by ethically bankrupt companies:
As for those who are posting about Canada's National Do Not Call List —that list does not apply to this company. If you read the Term of the NDNC List, you will see that:
If it is a NON Canadian company working INSIDE Canada, and calling in Canada, they have to abide, if it’s a NON Canadian company working OUTSIDE of Canada and calling TO Canada, they DO NOT HAVE TO FOLLOW THE DNC LIST.
Although, I’m pretty sure that if you request to be placed on their DNC list, legally they HAVE to place you on that list.
This all reminds me of a quote from one of more favourite sci-fi animated series, Futurama, where the main character Fry( the lowly intergalactic delivery boy )discovers that ads are beamed directly into people's dreams in the future. He responds: "Not in our dreams! Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ballgames. And on buses. And milk cartons. And t-shirts. And bananas. And written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree!" Seems he forgot about the internet, mailouts, pamphlets, billboards, newspapers, books, clothing, and of course telemarketers. Yeesh - too much!
Jan 2 - Two of 2009
Work is going well enough; I'm doing a lot more paperwork as a manager, with a ton of reading as well - not unexpected at all, and my smaller branch is the perfect place for me to do that on slower days.
I had my apartment shown not once, but twice, today. I've been leaving it in showroom condition every day that I am working, as my landlord seems to be getting quite a bit of interest in it, which is good. Though most everyone loves "such a cute little apartment" they inevitably comment that it's "small" ... well, yeah, it looks smaller with all these bookcases, the couches and a big coffee table. Ah well, not my prob. It does annoy me that I have to take down my window insulation sheet during the day, but since the days are all well above zero degrees now, sometimes with decent sunshine, it's not a major heating issue. The house I am moving to doesn't have central heating, which seems to be the norm here in BC and that still rings oddly to me. No furnaces? No insulation? No ducts? Single-pane windows? No central A/C? What gives? I'm sure home inspectors in this province make a killing, being so busy!
I was also pleased to see today that Wikipedia.org has reached their goal of raising $6 million to continue their fine work of bringing the sum total of human knowledge to everyone on earth. Though the modern internet has meant that the venerable encyclopedia salesman has been out of a job since the mid 90's, when the encyclopedia made the jump to CD-ROM and from there to its many current online formats.
I spent a portion of the evening playing Mass Effect on the Xbox360, which I mention only because I recently started playing the game again, as in this week, after a year-long hiatus. Why is that? Simple: I hadn't got used to the controls, and the story hadn't 'grabbed' me yet, so I shelved it soon after I bought it. Now that I have spent a little time with it, the depth that BioWare invests its games with is starting to come through; the game plays like a SciFi movie in many ways, which really pulls the player into the universe being presented. Making a difference on a galactic scale is fun!
Jan 3 - Green for RPG
Rain has come and washed away the snow; the grass is still green underneath out here, which still amazes me when I see it. Not that people are cutting their lawns much here in the winter, but not seeing huge swathes of dead brown lawns is an incredible pick-me-up during the winter. I commented last year about how flowers bloom here year-round; coming up in a month is the Victoria Flower Count, when people call in the number and locations of blooms they spot for a whole month. In my view, it is like giving the birdie to the rest of Canada during the height of the winter snows, saying "Hey, we live in a place where there are flowers blooming in February... so how's that snow accumulation, Toronto?" This is why I love Vancouver Island... one of many reasons that so many people love to live here.
I had an interesting game session online tonight, which surprised me as I haven't played all that much NWN in the last few months. I ended up having to make a few moral choices, as well as personal ones, for the character I've created - which though upsetting for the character, had me scratching my head at points to try to follow the logic of the person running the game session. I gave up near the end and simply retreated to my tavern's office, as I was too tired to make sense of the fractured plot any longer.
Though I do enjoy the way such roleplaying games let me stretch my characterization skills for my writing, they do tend to take up an inordinate amount of my time, as one has to wait for others to respond to one's typing... and since I type VERY quickly, this can lead to some toe-tapping waits. Given that the alternative is voice chat, I am not sure about that... as I shudder to imagine that every dwarf one runs across will have a terrible Scottish accent, and vampires will all sound Transylvanian - bleh!
Jan 4 - Weekend Warriors
Working the weekend... seems so long ago that I looked forward to weekends, in my high school days. Though I worked them then as well. Hmmm... I think the only time I ever had weekends free was back in grade school, when I was too young to have a job; I've been working since I started high school, and haven't stopped since. University was fun to juggle jobs, school and life in general, and I managed to fumble a few things before it all got sorted out in an educationally painful manner. Live and learn.
I finished re-reading another favourite series by David Weber and Steve White, set in the Starfire universe which was based on a tabletop strategy game of the same name. Similar to Starship Troopers, but far more logical in terms of technology and especially strategy( infantry rifles versus hordes of giant monsters? Puh-leaze! )as well as making sense of combat in three dimensions, albeit with a few sci-fi twists tossed in to spice things up. While some people deride the books for being 'simplistic' I enjoy them for what they are: fun space opera set in an uncertain universe, with man-eating bugs. Joy!
It reminded me of the first time I saw a space combat simulator, running on an ancient floppy-based PC with monochrome graphics. Called Starfleet Orion, it was the first game to try to bring to the computer the complexity of combat in space... and it succeeded, despite the incredibly basic graphics that the Commodore PET( ancestor of the Amiga! )was barely capable of. I never did manage to play it, but I watched over the shoulders of a few older kids playing it and was entranced, especially given that the Atari2600 had nothing like it. Nowadays we have lovely bits of game code like the freeware Space Combat Simulator, which looks to simulate actual combat with real-world physics. No warp drive here. A really mysterious site is SpaceshipSimulator.com, debuting in 2010... and that's it. Check back in a year!
Something that I wished had made it to actual hardware was an idea presented at the Baltimore WorldCon back in 1998. Similar in execution to Space Camp, the idea was to take two 'crews' of a dozen people and have them face off against each other in combat, commanding the 'bridge' and 'engine room' of their respective ships. They would spend a weekend 'sealed' in the simulator, with quarters, a mess and whatnot to simulate being aboard a starship. It seemed like a great idea, but sadly even the name has vanished into obscurity... and what with the popularity of MMORPG's nowadays, spending a weekend with your friends now means chatting with them via headset from your couch.
No Comments on last week's blog... have we seen the last of the Spider and his pals? TTFN.
6 comments:
Ok, since you have now mentioned about 5 times that no one has asked directly about your illness and the quality of your pooping, I'll take the hit for the team:
What's ailing you Peter?
What has the MD (please note: Medical Doctor not naturopath or any other unregulated practitioner) said?
Note Further: I do see a Chiropractor/Massage Therapist and know they have roles, but it is in those roles they should remain.
What's your new course of action?
How/Why did you become Lactose intolerant recently? Is it possible that the LI isn't really LI but by adjusting the diet thinking that's what it was threw your pooper further out of whack?
Additionally:
"See if you can fill in the blanks to form a known illness: symptoms include nausea an hour after meals, lack of appetite, irregular difficulty with waste expulsion, occasional dizziness and a general lack of energy"
Since you seem all keen on the Self Diagnosis: These are very generic symptoms that many many illnesses/situations would cause.
Let's start with Dehydration. Are you drinking enough (2+ litres/day spread out through the day).
Lack of Protein. You've cut the red meat and other sources of protien from your diet. What have you replaced them with?
Stress. You stressed? you've undertaken quite a bit in the last year.
OverTired. You getting enough sleep?
GI. Your prime concern is the pooping/nausea. Your G.I is out of whack, obviously. This may be nothing more then not properly acclimating to the new diet in BC. Even if you are eating the same junk-foods (Celtic Bread, Arby's etc) that you gorged on here in Niagara, out there, the ingredients/preservatives/prep etc may be different enough to throw stuff out of whack. Since you've had dramatic reactions (to whatever the cause) and reacted with dramatic changes (cutting dairy, enzymes and whatever the new third thing will be) the system isn't being given much time to settle... just change after change...
The host of G.I issues that this could be is long. let's start with Crohn's. Have you been checked for Crohn's/Colitis? YOu should go have a barium test done. Try for a swallow, but if you need an insert, sorry about your luck. A Doctor should have referred you for one of these already. (and blood work).
Could also be IDB or one of many other GI issues.
Sympton Refresher:
"See if you can fill in the blanks to form a known illness: symptoms include nausea an hour after meals, lack of appetite, irregular difficulty with waste expulsion, occasional dizziness and a general lack of energy"
Flu? Do you have the flu? These are pretty prototypical flu symptoms. 'cept you'd be pooping a lot instead of jammed up... but that's not unheard of either... (How's your Fibre?)
There's a ton of issues this could be. Its probably a combination of a couple issues that are going on. But including the stress and dehydration. I obviously do not know the full details of your Gall Bladder issues, and i am certainly not a Doctor so to accept my diagnosis would be foolish. And i haven't googled or WebMDed (shudder) your symptoms. This is simply three minutes worth of consideration.
Your symptom list is too general and too common for any reasonable attempt at self diagnosis no matter how 'knowledgeable' you or your friends [myself included] think they are. If you think it is serious enough, go see a real Doctor (not saying you haven't, but make sure you have). Get your cues from him/her and react accordingly. If they say "ride it out" then ride it out, don't decide that isn't good enough and self-prescribe a herbal concoction. They can cause just as many issues as over medication and incorrect medication can...
IN FACT:
What types of medication are you on?
What Types of herbal suppliments are you taking?
Are you currently taking a daily vitamin?
Are you doubling up on any of these? (ie: Iron Suppliments and a DV that includes iron etc)
How do any of the above react when combined and added to your digestive enzyme?
Health is a serious thing and we all want you to feel good Peter, we just don't want to read that you can or can't poop good... it's... awkward... and really leaves not too much room for conversation.
Don't google you symptoms and pick the most glamourous or severe result. Please go see a pro and listen...
Anyways, I digress. You asked, I am throwing this out there in response.
To my faithful blog readers: Things are cool. not much going on. Some new stuff, the same old stuff. moving soon, painting sooner, losing weight (165.4lbs... wow!) feeling good (tired but aren't we all).
PLease note: No spell check and i couldn't be bothered to re-read all this Bullsh!t.
have a great (but slightly less great than me) 2009 and i hope you all visit me at my new blog spot:
www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8609498125896730021&postID=8228930299652524299
Thanks and keep on rocking!
Luke
Thanks for the VERY informative comment, Lucas - some very good points. I've considered them all to date, and agree with you that at the moment, it is too early to tell exactly what the cause(s) may be.
Thanks for taking the hit. Aside from the blog counter, I really have no idea if people are reading this, so thumping the stick a few times extra may generate responses... as it did in your case. I'm not fishing for anything in writing this; I know as well as any that medial details are not something friends want to read about. Thanks. :)
"While I am not dehydrated"
I'll doubt this. Most of us are dehydrated. We just don't drink enough water anymore.
"the diet I have been on has not changed substantially in the last 4 years"
Sure it has. A Tomato in BC is different then a tomato in ON. Different bacteria, different washing, different regulations etc etc... especially if you shop local or "organic" (OrgSCAMic more likely...haha).
"nor does it include much, if any, junk food any longer."
Yah, whatever, full loaf of Celtic bread by yourself while eating Arby's and hammering the 2litre of Root beer by yourself...
"Turkey is my staple meat protein"
Meh. Turkey's boring... you eating a lot of veg out there?
"the herbal supplements / vitamins I've been on are the same again as they have been for many years."
Familiarity breeds contempt. Bring a list of all the supplements and vitamins with you to the MD. You can literally OD on them. Remember pharmaceticals use herbal ectracts and bases.
"I will make a point of raising GI issues with my MD next appointment"
Realistically, they should be raising it with you if your issues are raising the right flags. But mention it. Never hurts. When's the next appt?
------------
So in your first line about "Mystery Illness" you mention that "details are sketchy" but you have "a plan of action".
Well what's this plan of action and how can you have a plan action when your details are sketchy?
Shouldn't you wait until the "Mystery" part is removed before you develop a plan of action?
Throwing my own words back at me is not, at first blush, a help, though I gather the intent is there, somewhere, thanks.
I'll refrain from any further mention of illness, until as such time as a precise medical diagnosis is reached, or I am hospitalized; simple enough.
I trust this will keep folks content, instead of listening to me vent needlessly about my own fear and worry to my friends, as blogs should not apparently do so.
Until next week's update then.
OK SO you want people to read and comment, but just as long as they don't reply and have or try to start an actual conversation? Ok. Done.
If you are simply looking for a pity party, you have the wrong group of friends... we have never been the types to coddle. We're all there when the chips are down, but we are not gonna sugar coat it.
You wanted a discussion about your mystery illness and now you don't when i am asking further questions: "Like what's the new plane of action?" and "How did you arrive at this plan of action?"
So really it is your choice: If you want comments and inquiry, be prepared for them. if you don't, don't beg for them.
LN
Well I have a few questions since I have no idea what is going on. Last I heard they were in Florida.. how did they end up in BC ? before or after you ? How about your sister.. what ever happened to her ? No updates on how you are feeling with eating.. need some updates. oh and where do you work.. ok that's a start :)
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