January 30, 2004
Another Geek Quiz
| You are 48% geek | You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.
Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. |
Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com
January 27, 2004
Upgrade and New Games
The upgrade to Panther went smoothly, and it does seem a might snappier. The acid test will be next IM-fest with badger, since that's what was bringing it to it's knees before.
Tried installing FFXI on the desktop, since L (the woman I'm trying to get to know better) has just switched from Evercrack to FF; she was enthusiastic about the idea "Come, let us level up together!" Unfortunately, the jerks at EB Games sold me a used copy of FFXI as new, so the registration code was invalid (having been used by the first owner), so I have to go back and get a new one. I may do that tonight, if the weather is decent and I get out of work early enough; if the roads are slippery or I can't get to the mall in time, it'll have to wait until Saturday.
I also bought, and played a bunch of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. Fun, fun, fun.
January 21, 2004
Thinking About Upgrading
to Panther (OS X 10.3) No compelling reason, but I've read that it's snappier and has fewer visits from the hypnotic rainbow wheel OF DOOOOOM! I really like my little Powerbook, but there are times (particularly when IMing) that it just sits there spinning for what seems like forever, spinning, spinning, spinning, before the interface unfreezes.
January 20, 2004
The Elixir of Life
The sleep study w/the CPAP mask was an ordeal. It felt like it took forever to get to sleep, even though with no nap or caffeine the day of the study I felt dead on my feet when I got there. When I got up to go to the bathroom at 3:40 AM it felt like I had just been lying there all night--I didn't even need to go that badly, but I needed to get up and move. If the mask and straps (plus all the same wires as before) wasn't constricting enough, it just didn't seem possible to find a comfortable position with the mask except flat on my back, and after a while knowing that I can't shift to my side feels very confining. I finally did fall asleep deeply enough to be aware that I was waking up when they woke me at around 6:00 AM.
But now I finally get to drink some coffee.
January 19, 2004
Three Cheers for Paranoia
All weekend I've been fretting and waiting for a reply from LT, a woman who replied to my match personal (very flattering, she rejoined match to write me when my ad showed up in her weekly dose of spam from match which she had never bothered to turn off when her sub expired). She really does seem to fit the Geek Goddess label: used to work for a place that did Am1ga peripherals, dot-bomber in Seattle, 38th level recovering Evercrack addict, wants a guy who won't whine when dragged to a StarTrek con (semi-joking), now a pro chef about to open her own cafe/gourmet food shop. Has a toddler.
Anyway, she wrote me early in the week, and we exchanged emails and she seemed very interested and interesting, she suggested we get together and geek out somewhere, I said sure, where and when? ...and then nothing all weekend.
Finally I broke down and wrote again, pushiness be damned, and asked whether she had received my last email.
She had, and replied, but I hadn't received her reply. Damn you match.com! You give with one hand and take with the other! She's in SF right now for a big food trade fair, trying to pick stuff to carry in her shop when it opens, and gave me her hotel room number.
The upshot of which is that after the gaming group left (we had been watching football this week, since the local team was in the playoffs; they lost in a pretty disappointing fashion. Didn't help that their QB was injured early in the game in an uncalled illegal late hit.), I called her at the hotel and we had a nice long talk. She was pleased that I had followed up on the email, because she had been wondering whether I had been scared off by her mentioning her toddler, and (I think) even more pleased that I had taken her up on calling her at the hotel. She'll be in SF until Wednesday, but I think we may meet on Saturday, depending upon whether she feels said toddler needs extra mommying after the five-day separation.
Feeling pretty pleased with myself, in overcoming my (self-made) adversity. Yup.
Ready AIM? Fire!
I'm playing with Fire (Hah! I slay me!), an open-source multi-IM client for Mac OS X, but so far the only service I can connect to is AIM--which iChat is perfectly good for in the first place. The Fire home page indicates that they've had a problem with Yahoo IM since Jan 8, thanks to Yahoo changing to a new protocol. The MSN problem I'm having is probably just me forgetting my MSN userid or password--I have to check next time I'm at work, which is primarily where I use MSN, since most of my cow-orkers use that.
Had a nice chat with badger from her sick-bed via IM yesterday; I'm hoping to make a habit of it. Trying to get her on the phone has always been hopeless, and I miss talking to her. Email just isn't the same. We send eachother interesting links, but rarely have sustained conversations; instead we just post comments on eachother's blogs. Nothing wrong with that, but it's talking at a party, not one-on-one.
January 17, 2004
Reactions
Well, I think I understand my sleep specialist a bit better now, since the first reaction of most of my friends when I described the CPAP thing I'm going to have to wear was "Can't you just have surgery?" As Dr. P was explaining the options and his recommendation, I kept wondering why he was spending so much time explaining why in my case they really didn't recommend surgery, almost like he was trying to persuade me to give the non-invasive route a fair try before demanding that they carve up my adenoids, uvula, and soft palate. The palpable dismay of some of my friends was kind of unnerving, though. On the other hand, so was my friend K wanting to call me "Robo-J".
January 14, 2004
I've Got Them Ole Sleep Apnea Blues
And I can't get a breath when I snooze,
I snore and I choke,
and my brain gets half-woke,
and my blood oxygen fails to diffuse...
Yep, I've got it, and I've got it bad. I have to go in next Monday night to get fitted for a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine and get another study done while I'm hooked up to the machine. The upside is if it works, I'll finally be getting a good night's sleep.
January 13, 2004
My Horrible Death
You will be sucked dry by a leech. I'd stay away
from swimming holes, and stick to good old
cement. Even if it does hurt like hell when
your toe scrapes the bottom.
What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
brought to you by Quizilla
January 11, 2004
My First Football Party
Went fabulously well. A football party? Moi?
Well, some of my gamers are normal people, and they like normal people stuff, like watching our home team try to advance to the championships, so they asked if they came early, could they watch the game (obviously half-expecting me to say "Never! Not while there's a breath in my body?"). I thought this sounded like a fine excuse to cook, so that's what we did.
I made callaloo, and my grandmother's chocolote-chocalate chip sour-cream bundt cake, and bought a couple of cases of beer (most of which is still sitting in my fridge or pantry). D ordered a bunch of chicken wings from the local place and brought some chips, salsa, pretzels and such.
So we watched the game, and the home team managed to pull a victory out of its ass in overtime, having trailed the entire way before tying with less that ten seconds to spare. So yay us, I guess.
Still, we had a good time, and everybody loved the callaloo and cake, and then we watched a bunch of Alton Brown on Food Network and everyone went home happy.
For some reason, though, my right foot is really killing me, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. It feels a little bit like when I had fascistis (inflammation of the fascia), but worse in that it aches even when I don't put weight on it. I can't think of anything I did to it--it just started hurting more and more as I was sitting there watching TV. Walking on it is possible, but uncomfortable. My current plan is to take 600 mg of ibuprofen as an anti-inflammatory and soak it in a hot tub, then sleep and see if it's better in the morning. If it's not, I might have to call the doctor, because at the moment it's bothering me too much to go to work (although apparently not too much to blog).
January 08, 2004
January 07, 2004
New Year's Resolutions
Since people who write down resolutions (of all kinds, not just New Year's) are more likely to keep them, and making concrete, measurable goals works better than vague ones, here are mine:
- Go to the gym four times a week (I'm planning M, W, Th, Sa)
- Write at least one blog entry in Blogosophy every week (most of the others I have no trouble keeping fed, but Blogosophy takes work and I tend to let it slide until I have time to "do it right"--which never comes).
- Cook an actual meal at least twice a week. I don't eat out all the time, but I do tend to just heat up soup or make a bowl of tuna instead of really cooking. I actually enjoy cooking, but I'm reluctant to do it just for myself; the point of the resolution is to help me get over that.
- Until the "to read" pile is clear, read at least two books from the pile before allowing myself to buy another new book. At first I thought about not buying any new books until the pile was clear, but I don't think I have the willpower for that. Still, read two before I buy one ought to start cutting through the backlog.
- Ditto for the DVD backlog.
January 05, 2004
Where There's Life...
Oh, yeah, before I go to bed, I should mention that I got another response today to one of my personals. Unfortunately, the woman's profile wasn't available--maybe because it hasn't been approved yet. I'll wait and see if it appears tomorrow before I ask her about it.
Sleepy Time
The sleep study was a pain in the patootie. The wires and straps and stuff weren't so bad in and of themselves (though it was a big pain to have to call the nurse to get unhooked to go to the bathroom), but the medical center was much noisier all through the night than I'm used to: if it wasn't the garrulous old man nattering on and on to the nurses about his church group and his other medical experiences (doesn't the old fart have to sleep at some point? Isn't that the whole point?), it was the TV in the nurse's station, or something else entirely. My apartment has a lot of noise from the traffic, but that I'm used to; it's pretty rare when I can hear somebody's voice, even from TV or the radio, unless it's someone shouting in the parking lot.
It seemed to take forever to get to sleep, and I never really felt settled in, but I know I slept because suddenly the nurse came in and told me it was morning. I'm not sure I can remember a time when I felt less rested, but I was glad to get out of there, even if it meant going to work for the first time since December 15th. Now I have to wait until January 14th for the follow-up consultation with the sleep specialist to find out about the results.
I am so looking forward to my own bed in a few minutes. I have to wash my hair again first; I didn't get all the vaseline goop they used to attach the electrodes completely out this morning, and I don't want to go to sleep with patches of it still sticky.
UPDATE: I forgot that I wanted to catalog all the wires. Let's see, there were:
- several (3? 5?) electrodes on the scalp, to measure brainwaves
- one electrode on the temple and one on the orbit of the eye, to measure eye motion
- one electrode below the lower lip to measure relaxation (the lower jaw relaxes when you sleep), and maybe to see if I grind my teeth in my sleep
- a microphone at the throat to record snoring
- two electrodes on the upper chest for heart rate
- a strap on the upper chest and one on the lower to measure breathing
- a sensor on the tip of my left index finger to measure blood oxygen
- two electrodes on each leg to measure whether my legs are restless
- a video camera recording the whole thing
Isn't modern technology wonderful?
January 04, 2004
To Sleep, Perchance to Breathe
I'm going in to the Sleep Center tonight to get checked out for sleep apnea. Wish me luck. Actually, the thing that bugs me is that I have to go in at 8 PM--no idea why--which means I have to cut my Sunday night gaming short. I don't want to cancel, because we haven't met in about a month, what with the holidays and all, and I want to give people their presents. Oh, well.
January 03, 2004
Blogging from the Comfy Chair
Combined with the wireless, the new furniture turns out to be a lovely place to blog from. I do need an end-table to put my drink on. The only drawback is my cat has learned that when the chair is fully reclined, I make the perfect mattress. He tries to climb in my (notebook occupied lap) and then up my chest, until I can't resist the purring and put the computer aside and recline the chair for him.
Salt on the Wound
J1 has updated her match.com profile to say "Part Mid-Western Babe, Part Geek Goddess"
Where did she get Geek Goddess? Why, from my profile, thank you very much.