Words are inadequate

Very little throws one off one's stride like an unexpected illness. Stupid sick.

E's been coughing and staring blankly for the past week. Thought I'd dodged it but Tuesday night I started having less and less brain. Today (well, last night) it's been sinuses dripping and coughing and all that fun stuff. So of course it's started raining again. Dragged self to urgent care; doc says it's viral; dragged self home.

This is not at all coherent; I'm noting it mostly as a reminder that I got sick again.

Stupid sick.

Fascinating interview with William Gibson in the Paris Review: "For years, I’d found myself telling interviewers and readers that I believed it was possible to write a novel set in the present that would have an effect very similar to the effect of novels I had set in imaginary futures. I think I said it so many times, and probably with such a pissy tone of exasperation, that I finally decided I had to call myself on it."

PURE EVIL.

Irregular Webcomic, David Morgan-Mar's daily Lego-based comic with about a dozen storylines, has come to an end after well over three thousand strips. Not to worry! He's rerunning them all from #1, with new annotations. So now's the perfect time to jump into one of the geekiest and consistently funniest webcomics around. (DMM's other big venture, Darths & Droids, is nearly at the end of Episode 3. I really hope he covers episodes 4-6 as well. Luckily, according to the FAQ they'll be covering episodes 4-6 as well.)

Making the Grade, a history of maple syrup, and a good follow-up to my earlier discourse. [via rbandrews]

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Last night's sleep was not precisely restful. I dreamed I finished up the %&$ Space Story and attached it to an email and sent it off to the editor in question. About ten seconds later I got back an email response consisting of "No." I was kind of shocked, until I realised that I hadn't actually added in any of the stuff I'd meant to and been asked to. Then I was just miserable and mad at myself for blowing my chance at getting it published.

I used to dream a lot more, and even lucid-dream about half the time. I stopped in late 2002/early 2003 when a lot of other things in life were going pretty wrong, because my dreams were all ending up like that one.

Came down with a 48-hour head cold on Thursday night, but I caught it early enough to not stress myself. Spent Friday doing not a whole lot other than sleeping and staring blankly, and was functional enough to do some gaming on Satyrday.

Sunday night uilos and I went to see Mr and Mrs Amanda Palmer, for whom the line was literally around the block. It was a good show: they were kind of adorable, and Neil read a few poems and "Orange," the story he read at Balticon in 2006. I'm not quite sure what I think of Amanda's music; I enjoyed it but I don't feel inspired to run out and buy albums.

We're visiting DC (ABG, Dar concert, possibly other things) this weekend, and I'll be working from work for a couple of days as well. Possibly I can use some of the travel time to do some writing. Here's hoping.

Mostly I've been recovering from this %&$ con-crud / post-con-crud cold. I think it's about 90% beat at this point, so I can start doing something more useful with my afternoons and evenings than "taking a nap," "working extra hours to make up for having taken an hour-long nap," or "being kinda brain-dead on account of having worked extra hours."

I'm pretty well settled in at this point. I've gotten used to being a stand-up guy, and with the addition of an extra half-inch mat I'm not even aching in my arms any more. The emergency barstool, like all flat surfaces, has turned into an emergency paper-holder. Which is a good indicator of how often it's being used for its primary function, which in turn is a good indicator of how well the standing desk is working out. Bottom line: highly recommended where feasible.

The next step of course is to see a physical therapist about my shoulder problem. My right shoulder hasn't been fully happy in a long time: the corner desk I used for a good many years kept the mouse / trackball far enough away that I had a consistent "mouse knot" around the middle of my back on the right-hand side, and then there was whatever stupid thing happened to it several years ago that had me actually seeking PT (which helped a lot but didn't fix everything, partly because it wasn't until the last session that the guy realised that hey, even though it's the shoulder that hurts, the problem's in the back muscles). And then to top it off I had six months with an uncomfortable new desk at work. Bleh. I've a recommendation for a PT who's reasonably close by, and will be looking into that next week most likely.

Now that I'm mostly done being sick I suppose I should look into getting out and running again, too. Walking everywhere and eating a little better has been good for me; I'd like to keep it that way.

In addition to accomplishing a handful of things off my List, yesterday was a day for two major achievements.

First, I updated my computer-building credentials by successfully replacing the memory and hard drive in the work laptop. This involved popping the keyboard out and replacing it without breaking any of its flimsy plastic clips or losing any of the keys (except Home, but who uses that anyway?). My small hammer with several different screwdrivers built into the handle is now officially my go-to computer disassembly tool.

... excuse me, a little brown sparrow just landed on my open window, cheeped at me a few times, and flew away.

Where was I? Right. Secondly, and more importantly, I convinced/shanghaied/bullied uilos into going to the doctor for the persistent crud she's had since before Origins. Likely this only worked because she'd given it to me as of Satyrday morning, and by yesterday I was in pretty miserable shape. But we now have a regimen each of amoxycillin and an irritation at the need to submit claims to the insurance company. Just like home. (BC has a waiting period so we're safe from the dangers of socialized medicine for another couple of months.) The amoxy seems to be doing its job; I'm much more functional today.

Yesterday I also reread the first two ABC books[1] in reverse order, since B is technically a prequel to A, while C is a direct sequel to A that builds on backstory from B. I'm not sure whether I recommend this reading order or not. Probably not; it feels better to let the backstory fill in the gaps in the 'main' story. (In other non-news, if you believe in reading Magician's Nephew before LWW I have nothing to say to you.) Also, reading in pub order means you don't get "how Muire met Kasimir" twice in a row (it's the start of A, and also the last thing that happens in B).

Onward, with reinstalling a bunch of software for work. Yay fun.

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[1] Also known as Elizabeth Bear's Edda of Burdens series: All The Windwracked Stars, By The Mountain Bound, The Seas Thy Mistress. A, B, Sea. What? Stop looking at me like that.

Friday: Wake up, notice severe soreness in throat. Think "sinus drain from weather change." Be vaguely spacey all day.

Satyrday: Throat still sore, although maybe a little less so. Notice shortness of breath when walking down a flight of stairs carrying a bag. Think "head cold." Go to farewell party for close friend anyway, followed by gaming until midnight. Zone out in car ride home.

Sunday: Throat less sore, nose stopped up, higher brain functions impeded. Spend day on couch instead of going to belly dance show.

Monday: Spaciness has subsided, throat is slightly worse. Go to work. Chow down decongestants like chalky oval candy. Notice that voice sounds like that of Leonard Cohen's chain-smoking brother. Contemplate the possibility of strep throat.

Tuesday: Wake up with throat in same condition as Friday, and nose stopped up. Admit defeat. Visit "urgent care" clinic; receive urgent care in ~1.5 hours. Acquire diagnosis of "acute sinus infection" and prescription for very large amoxicillin pills. Go to work, perform brainless tasks, make mistake that goes unnoticed until long after time to go home.

Wednesday: Wake up with sensation of "recovering" instead of "being sick." Think "see, i would have been just fine even if i hadn't gone to urgent care." Smack self, remind self of antibiotics. Revel in nose running like faucet instead of being stopped up like drain. Write LJ post.

Don't get me started on that subject: "Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about. . . installers."

An all-too-common phrase, illustrated. [Via mikailborg]

papersky's elf policy. (See also stakebait's, in comments.)

A reason to use Google Wave. Tempting. [Via shadowsong]

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Yay for Washington State. Three boos for Virginia, and a bonus boo for McLean. (Really, McLean? Barbara Comstock? Really?)

I'd go back to bed but work is crazy busy for this week and next. At least I'm over the fever I brought back from Washington. (Having learned, or remembered, that when I get cold, I want to curl up in a ball and whimper and not have to do or say anything, and that when I'm sick I get cold really easily.)

My favorite highway interchange: "There's even a train station in there somewhere."

Brown Out: the true story of Van Halen's "no brown M&Ms" clause. Absolutely bloody brilliant.

Via rislyn, Depression's Evolutionary Roots. I need to read this again before I can have anything coherent to say on it, I think. It's. . . thought-provoking.

"'The primary difference between these two subspecies of Formicidae is that the one on the left has longer legs and therefore a greater height from the ground,' Tom Swift said tolerantly." --xiphias

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I had a really good time last weekend, for uilos-definitions of "weekend." Wednesday night I took her out to dinner at Kazan, where by sheerest coincidence we were joined by a dozen other cool people. Then we went back to the apartment for cake and games and "please take some of these books away now."

Thursday and Friday were slow, though I did get a decent bit of writing done. Satyrday we went out to Reston for some gaming, and also to retrieve an 8x8 pan that we'd left somewhere last October. (I know it was October because we also got a jar of roasted pumpkin seeds we'd forgotten we left, which she pronounced "stale, but edible.") Played a dogsled-racing game twice, which is good: the first time I thought it was great, the second I could see ways in which it irritated me, so now I won't need to pick up my own copy. And other good stuff as well, of course.

(Unfortunately I think that the intense climate changes between rooms in the house in Reston caused me to come down with a summer cold. The space under my eyes is filled with sand and I've been a little drifty the past couple days.)

Sunday continued the weekend's tradition of being pretty darn cool. We slept very late and lazed around a lot, and eventually made it out to Adams Morgan to meet tamnonlinear at DC Tribal Cafe. I'm a little surprised by how much I enjoy watching the dancers. Something about the flow of movement, and the energy, and the beat of the music. It's entrancing, and sexy in a way that's more "oh, nice" than "WANT," and it pulls me out of myself in a way that not much else does.

Also stopped in the used bookstore next door, which has some of the oddest stuff. I found an archy and mehitabel collection, and a volume of Piet Hein's Grooks, which always make me happy.

Last night we buried Keishi out in the woods. I haven't anything else to say about that, really, but it feels wrong to let it pass without notice.

Tomorrow I get on a plane to go spend a wonderful week with nixve, and then the weekend after I get back I'll be camping at Assateague. The back half of September, however, is suspiciously empty. For now.

Now that all the flu symptoms are gone and the stiff/sore neck has almost unloosened, I'm not really "sick" per se. Just easily tired pretty much all the time, and with the attention span of a . . . um . . . one of those things over there. You know, running up the walls and eating the neighbor's birdseed. Makes me want to shout "You damn kids, get off my lawn!" Anyway, Lyme disease reminds me a lot of mono. Only without the fun parts, where you get the disease in the first place. Of course my bout with mono didn't have any of the fun parts either. I came down with it several weeks after a four-hour trip to get dumped.

Right, focus. $manager is awesome and allows me to work from home. Of course, today that meant I had to come in for half a day to put out the fires that sprang up in my absence (which consisted of reading the email thread that was rather amusing in its increasing franticity, writing to a half-dozen people to say, 'It doesn't really matter to me, so go with that one,' and convincing all my co-workers that I haven't died yet) and set up the work computer for VPN/VNC access. This did convince me that I probably oughtn't be trying to do eight hours' worth of work in an eight-hour period, since four in four nearly wiped me out. Thankfully working from home means I can do eight in more like twelve, allowing for breaks for things like letting my eyes glaze over for ten minutes or so, or forgetting where in the red-pen-covered document I am in converting changes.

If I'm not back to at least functional by Monday I will be displeased. I suspect $boss will be as well but I might be making that up. I don't really know.

On Monday Patient First in Laurel gave me a prescription for ten days' of doxycyclene (antibiotic) which they filled there (the max that they'll fill), and another for eleven days to complete the three-week regimen. I tried to fill the eleven-day prescription today. Turns out United Health Care, my insurer, won't cover the second prescription until next Monday. It's "too soon." Stupid bloody insurance system.

Origins post next. Probably tonight or tomorrow.

Another twenty-four-hour bug (well, probably thirty-six). At least this one started last night, so it will be mostly done by the time I get in the car. And the last one wasn't contagious, so I doubt this one will be.

It is clearly bringing out my latent brilliance. I don't know ahead of time whether I will be too warm or too cold in the car tomorrow. Solution: wear pants that turn into shorts! I am so smart.

Now if I could just figure out why I'm hungry. Might have something to do with not having wanted any lunch, perhaps.

1. Fastest cold ever. Sleeping late two days in a row, and taking yesterday off from work, seems to have done wonders. (I woke up yesterday thinking "I feel alright, I guess I can go in to work . . . oh, it's ten o'clock. Never mind.") My natural defences have rallied and forced back the invaders of congestion, so that said invaders' territory has been reduced to the end of my nose. They still make occasional forays into my throat, but I expect that by tomorrow or Satyrday they will all be driven into the sea.

2. Which is good, because work is busy and this weekend looks to be even more so. Silver Springx2, ABG perhaps, and cracking the whip over my laundry minions.

3. However! My reward teapot (dark green) arrived on Tuesday and was waiting patiently for me when I got home. It is the cutest teapot I have ever seen. It reminds me of nothing so much as the sugar bowl from Disney's _Sword in the Stone_, despite being entirely the wrong color and almost entirely the wrong shape.

4. Speaking of which, at Technicon uilos shared some Assam candies that tasted almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. It's good to finally know what that tastes like.

5. And papersky points to a beautiful poem by Yoon Ha Lee.