Friday, July 27, 2007
Jay: Happy Birthday
To blogger John Beck, who seems to be back. I hadn’t checked in a long time.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To blogger Mitch of The Window Manager.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Jay: Gout Cold Sensitivity?
The foot that it the locus of this bout of gout seems to be outrageously sensitive to cold. It feels cold when it’s not, and cold seems to make it worse.
I first noticed this last night, when I couldn’t sleep until I covered the foot with a blanket, after which I felt better, but as if it could still use another. I probably hit the right balance, as more would have risked spiking the pressure sensitivity side of things.
It wouldn’t surprise me. I first developed a cold-sensitive elbow that acted arthritis-like when I was a teenager, courtesy of a bumbling old doctor jabbing a needle deep into my elbow in an effort to draw blood. Which he did, ever so slowly, but the elbow was never the same.
It became even more of a weather indicator and cold sensor, joined by the other one, after I broke that forearm and injured both elbows at the end of 1990.
I’ve had other joints and my back seem sensitive to cold, though the elbows were always the worst.
This is pretty extreme, though, as if it needs to be soaked in hot water at length. I finally put a sock on the one foot, which merely reduced the sensation.
Man, I hope this goes away fast and stays away longer this time.
Jay: Gout It Out
I am starting to sense a prescription for anti-gout drugs in my future.
If you have it, you know what I mean. It’s amazing that something with such a goofy name and reason for being could be this painful and distracting.
It’s not dehydration today, either, though I might have made it flare back worse late yesterday by getting less hydrated than I should have, despite Deb’s best efforts. Today, well, you could say I have frequent, clear indicators of being well hydrated.
It’s still mainly the left foot, but I’ve had hints of it or worse today or recently in the other foot, ankle, elbow, hand, and knee. This is making me look back and wonder about how much I was having gout symptoms over the years.
I’d rather avoid making an issue of it, and I’ll damn well try to avoid seeing the doctor before my next scheduled appointment, in early October (though I likely will have seen him a number of times before then and could probably just bring it up and provoke an on-the-spot “appointment").
At least last night I actually ate something rich in purines. We had steak burritos with refried beans. Mmmm… steak. Leftover steak is also what I’ve eaten so far today. None of this current episode is anything like the time it flared after I ate a ton of cold cuts for a few days. Weird.
Deb: Endgame.
You can tell this baby is getting close because I’m getting weird. Our good pal survival of the species has come to visit and he’s annoying. Especially if you’re married to me and have to endure the hormonal emotional crap. Nice thing about the third time is that you know what it is and that makes it easier to ignore. Mostly at this point it’s just this weirdly intense desire to follow him around like a little lost puppy. I mean, he’s all the way in the other room right now and that’s too far.
The body knows, doesn’t it?
I’m coping by crocheting frantically, ignoring the housework, and watching all of the Gilmore Girls that I missed in the middle of the series. Just finished Season 3. Interestingly enough, watching Milo Ventimiglia as Jess again just makes me entirely sure that he’s insanely talented. Because if I didn’t know that the same guy played Peter Petrelli, I don’t think I’d have guessed it. Well, except for maybe the voice, which is just too damned appealing not to ring a bell at some point. But still.
Back to the work. I’ve very nearly got another set of coasters finished, and I want to be able to photograph them this afternoon while the light’s decent.
Deb: OK, then.
I’ve sort of avoided saying much about the Etsy shop here because, hey! There’s a link in the corner! And you don’t come here for the sales pitches, I’m sure. But seriously, folks, it’s like being able to sell the things has lit some sort of giant creative fire under my butt, because what’s going in there is just getting better and better. I’ve absolutely gone coaster-mad. Probably because it’s July in New England and such things are vital. There’ll be more listed in a little while, and the ones that are there are downright awesome. They’re what we’ve been using, and they rock. I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Deb: IM IN UR BLOG, MAKIN’ YU LAUGH
If I could always start the day by laughing this hard, I’d probably be a much better person for it.
Jay: On Another Note
In the post below, one of the songs, Timothy, is about survival cannibalism. Disturbing enough, but you know what freaks me out when I imagine it?
It was raw. Yuck. Give me Soylent Green instead any day.
Okay, back to writing the “about” page. Just had to share that thought after the song in question played…
Jay: Name That Artist
I’ve already cloistered myself in the office to start working. I’ve been trying to supplement the day by coming in here after the kids go to bed, catching the all too brief brief window of “still wakeful enough” before I can’t handle more than surfing, playing Snood, or reading a book. This is an attempt to limit the morning surfing and use what has often been my most productive, creative time of day, once I’ve had a couple coffees.
But before I start, let’s try the playlist thing again. First 25 songs by title, you figure out the artists. Actually, the first song is always one I’ve selected to hear first, and the following ones are from it randomizing, but close enough. Leave your answers (or commentaries, appropriately) in the comments.
1 - Dreams
2 - Hometown
3 - Telstar
4 - I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You
5 - Sealed With a Kiss
6 - I’ll Set You Free
7 - Timothy
8 - Thank God I’m a Country Boy
9 - Day By Day
10 - I Get Around
11 - Running Scared
12 - Peace of Mind
13 - It’s a Miracle
14 - Vacation
15 - Dancing in the Street
16 - Midnight Confessions
17 - The Mighty Quinn
18 - Xanadu
19 - I Get Weak
20 - Marble Halls
21 - Spanish Eyes
22 - Remember (Walking in the Sand)
23 - House of the Rising Sun
24 - Mad About You
25 - Doo Wah Diddy
People besides Wayne are allowed to play. I bet Charles would do especially well.
Jay: But It’s a Friendly Neighborhood
You’re a Spider!
It seems like you have eyes in the back of your head sometimes, and you have an uncanny knack for creeping people out with that ability. You really enjoy eating wraps, though you like them even more if you made them yourself. You work tirelessly so that you can eat, but are good at getting rid of annoyances for other people. There’s always just a little more drama than necessary when you’re around. Oh, what tangled webs you weave!
Take the Animal Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To my youngest brother, Michael, who is 36 today.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To former blogger Jim Schwab.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Deb: “…people arguing over things that they really have no right to be arguing over…”
Y’all understand, of course, that what I’m talking about are the non-negotiables. A small group of pretty damned bright men summed ‘em up once as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” they’re also prominently featured in that nifty Bill of Rights thing that people used to think was pretty cool. For example, I’ll talk shit about John McCain where and when I want to, and I consider any discussion of my right to do so completely out of bounds. So far as I can tell, the bulk of politics at this moment in time is made up of people trying to take things from you that they are not within their rights to take. Certain basic rights are not subject to a vote. Period.
So yeah, talk about whatever you want to. I’m all about the speechifyin’. But I’m not impressed with the ends it seems to be the means for, lately.
Jay: Compromise
I saw that Seagate has announced it will no longer make IDE (PATA) drives after this year. It’s the first, but others are expected to follow. Whoosh!
I’m still stuck on my first impression of SATA, from setting up a server with SATA RAID. It was slow and the machine never worked right. Despite its recentness, my successor is trying to retire that particular server as soon as it can possibly be arranged. I concurred vigorously when we talked about it.
Apparently I’m stuck in the past, and SATA has been one of the fastest adopted new standards ever.
That reminded me of the problem with my new machine, lacking adequate IDE connectors on the motherboard. I couldn’t order the $96, 500 GB SATA drive, so I figured I was stuck. I decided to see what was there at smaller sizes that could be purchased with available PayPal funds.
Thus I have a 200 GB SATA drive on the way for $44.50, plus a couple USB keyboard for $3.50 each. If I don’t get around to trying the setup until they arrive, great, there’s my keyboard solved too. Otherwise it’s the same plan to test install with IDE and not activate it, and I’ll have inexpensive spare keyboards. That and a spare 200 GB IDE drive to use in something.
Yay!
Deb: Understanding and agreement are two different things. So are people and their arguments.
What, exactly, has happened to us, anyway? I’ve been thinking about blogging again and thinking about getting along with people and thinking about friendship and I realized that after one brief, tense period right around the time I started blogging, I stopped dismissing other people out of hand based on their political beliefs. I have no problem at all getting along with people I disagree with, no matter how strong the disagreement. And I get the sense that especially among bloggers, this is an increasingly weird way to feel. Because I get the sense that folks with other views are supposed to be dismissed out of hand as mentally deficient, and thus unworthy of any kind of acknowledgement, much less friendship.
This makes me terribly, terribly sad.
It also strikes me as interesting that blogging has made me far more tolerant of this sort of disagreement. I think we all had a lot of anger for a couple of years, there, and now it’s much easier to see how somebody who believes differently can believe differently. The thing is that so much of the blogosphere was built on that anger that it’s practically a requirement to be taken seriously as a political blogger. That’s not only weird but also a damned pity, since what drew me in in the first place was the fact that thoughtfulness was prized, even amidst the anger. If I want pissed-off soundbites, I’ve got the MSM. I don’t need blogs for that.
One of the things that really bothers me about all of this is that several times recently, both online and off, I’ve said something to the effect of, I can see why people think x is a good idea and immediately been told what an idiot I am for thinking that x is a good idea. I didn’t say I thought it was a good idea, just that I could understand where the people advocating it were coming from. Have we really reached the point where a lack of hatred of people who disagree with us constitutes some sort of ideological treason? Do you have to hate an idea so violently that you can’t even acknowledge it to have any credibility?
Bizarre.
Maybe it’s because I’ve grown to dislike both major parties pretty much equally, and maybe it’s because I think they’re both wrong right at the very base of the way they approach things, and maybe it’s just because I realize that the Diebold folks can’t read my mind and count any non-hatred-filled thoughts as votes and thus expressing sympathy for a view is a far, far thing from making it happen, but the way the debate is being framed disturbs me at least as much as the arguments themselves. (Of course, this could be because 99% of American politics right now is people arguing over things that they really have no right to be arguing over, but that’s an entirely different post and not one that I’m likely to write any time soon.)
Anyway, it’s a pity. Probably the inevitable outcome of all of the arguing over things that we have no right to be arguing over, but a pity nonetheless.
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