Month: October 2007

so, my upcoming month:

  • doin nanowrimo
  • have to make a hugemongus presentation at work
  • have to make a business proposal/scope of work for a side project
  • i have to go to south carolina in the middle of the month for a few days of conference. the results of aforementioned presentation will determine if this is a good or bad thing.
  • have three home install calls scheduled in the next two weeks, assuming the internet gets its act together on shipping
  • i joined an advance reader book review scheme. basically, i have to read and review a book, which means i get to read the book weeks before it comes out. i gotta nail “The Jewel Trader of Pegu” by the 15th
  • in hindsight, that was a fucktarded thing to sign up for in august, cuz i am doin nano
  • Hellgate London arrived today. halfway through GH3. meedly meedly meedly. can’t sleep, games will eat me.
  • i need to get a new phone. i had been planning on getting a centro, but i scoped one out sunday. i loved the size/speed, didn’t like the action on the keys. where is ray charles to show me that there is action on the keys when i need him?
  • mostly over being ill – hooray for drugs. doctors said i don’t have anything incurable, and i don’t have strep (which was my main concern, since three co-workers, including boss, have been diagnosed).

i’ve been sick all week – low grade fever, sore throat, congestion.
wednesday night, i crashed pretty early.
last night, i barely made it home, i was falling over so bad. i did two side jobs after work, and was barely able to crawl into bed. i woke up at 10 and 11 when my phone rang. i drank two liters of oj, and had some soup, which is pretty much all i’ve eaten in three days (soup that is, not the soup i ate last night).

around 11:30 i woke up again – my fever was in the process of spiking – full auditory hallucinations, all sorts of weird sounds – loss of motor control, incredible fatigue. i went to grab my phone and my arm simply _would_ not move, it felt like it was made out of concrete. i was half-conscious at one point, and started yelling, just to try and drown out the noise that, on some level, i knew was happening in my head. that ended around three, at which point i fell back to sleep.

i figured i’d be better today. so wrong, so so wrong.

my sinuses are crazy, and i’m light headed/dizzy. i’m at work on willpower and dayquil at the moment, but when those wear out i’m going home. i had comp tickets to a show tonight, and i am definitely not going to be going to that. i was supposed to go to a surprise birthday party too…

surprise.

i feel like i am remote-controlling my body. i have vendor meetings at 11 and at 3 – i don’t know if i am going to be able to pull all the way to three.

fuck.

Talk about an action packed weekend.

Firstly, lets get the Yankees out of the way. Yup, they lost. Big. No, I don’t want your condolences, nor is it funny. I didn’t make fun of Mets fans to their face, I really don’t appreciate those same people not returning the favor.

Thursday night I made chicken wings. Lots of chicken wings. They were O.K., but I forgot my super-hot sauce for the spicy wings, so, while they were flavorful, they were not as hot as I wanted them to be. Drank gin & tonics, watched Yankees lose.

Friday, I took a mental health day. I was going to prep for a geekfest on Saturday, but that ended up getting canceled, so I beat Halo, and rearranged my whole bedroom instead. Funny thing about beating Halo – I started midnightish, and would have sworn I played for about two hours, but it ended up being like 4:45 by the time I went to bed. Good planning on my part. Funny thing about re-arranging your room. When your room is 104 inches wide, and your bed is 96 inches long, and about four feet wide? The diagonal of the bed is wider than your room. Go-go gadget fifth grade math!

Saturday’s geekfest being canceled, I read a lot, puttered around, cleaned, reorganized. Saturday night I went to the Knitting Factory to see Strung Out and a couple other bands with . The show was decent, but about 10 minutes into Strung Out’s set, I got kicked in the back of the head, right at the base of my spine by a crowd surfer. If I wasn’t wearing my hat, I woulda been in the hospital. As it was, I ended up seeing spots and dizzy for almost a half hour. I went outside and waited for and his buddy from Canada, who were coming downtown after attempting to escape the Arcade Fire show on Randall’s. I was pretty pissed about being hurt, and even more pissed about losing my hat. Amazingly, after the show, I found it in a grimy beer puddle. I washed the hell out of it and dried it. Good as new. Wish I could say the same for my neck/head.

Due to head-wound, I didn’t sleep Saturday night. This made Sunday very interesting.

Sunday was a culture day. I had planned on meeting up with to see Bladerunner late in the day, but that got kiboshed by cultural overload. I went to see Oliver Sacks at the New Yorker festival with Alicia, and was throughly enthralled, as I have been other times seeing him. The combination of his frightening intelligence, venerable experience, sharp wit and compelling subject matter kept us rooted for two hours. As a bonus, I got a pre-release copy of his new book, Musicophilia, which I read yesterday. It is, like all of his books, something which spawned a reading list for me. So many things to learn, so little time.

After Sacks I we went to the final showing of Iphigenia 2.0. To say the show was powerful is to sell it short. The Classical manipulation of the fourth wall was re-imagined in a way that actually made you squirm as an audience member, particularly since the twist of the tale was brought ’round again on our current military engagements. The acting was very tight, the use of staging/space very effective, and the use of dance and music were absolutely brilliant. Aside from some _very_ sparse stage elements, there was nothing in the scenery/costuming to suggest Greece, except for the dancing and music, which was tremendous.

Yesterday, I read Musicophilia, Tried LOTR Online (hated it), and got onto the closed beta for Sega’s “Universe at War“. This is particularly interesting since it is a LIVE game, so it is built for the PC and the Xbox 360 at the same time. I haven”t played enough to have a good feel yet, but I liked what I saw.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon/evening with Alicia. Since Lisa and I ended, she and I have been seeing each other with changing levels of regularity and significance. I spent a decent part of the weekend with her, and all of the cultural stuff. I continue to be enthralled and amused by the ways she knows me, and can challenge me on multiple levels.

This week I have a pretty hefty workload, but it is a short week, and my boss is out. Next weekend we are going upstate for Oktoberfestin, and Sunday, hopefully, will be a rain-date for geekfest.

If the fucking weather doesn’t turn soon, I’m moving to Canada. This whole August in October thing is major bullshit.

my debit card was erroneously charged this weekend to the tune of 1600$ (instead of 160$). i just got off the phone with the goddamn charge back people, who assured me my money would be refunded in 3-5 business days.

guess i’m eatin ramen until then.


I’ve been on that peak – it is amazing. Unfortunately, the Ballmer peak efficiencies do not extend to code comments, and tend to create some pretty crazy variable naming conventions.

I wrote an app that used all the major characters in Hamlet as string/variable containers. Without comments, it was a bitch to update later.

, back me up on this.

this weekend was pretty hectic, but also fun. rehearsal dinner friday, ‘s wedding on saturday. wedding was a blast. we had a crazy photographer, and a videographer to boot. my pics will be posted soon – the video i threw together with ‘s efforts/inspiration is online here. yesterday was a chance for me to cool my heels. i had a nice relaxing morning, a good brunch, and then played halo and watched football. i need to get better at halo dammit.

the only thing i didn’t do is my laundry, which might eat me tonight if i don’t do it. i have a hamper that looks a lot like madam trash heap.

today, though, has been a meat grinder – apparently everyone i work with is a mets fan or a eagles fan, based on the prevailing attitudes around the office today. best headline i’ve seen on last night’s action? Umenyiora 6, Philadelphia 3