Too picky for our own good

... or, the Adventures of Geriatric Jesus and Rock and Roll Judas

Mr E got us tickets for Tuesday night's touring company performance of Jesus Christ Superstar because Corey Glover (former lead singer of Living Colour) was cast as Judas. Ted Neeley, who had played Jesus in the 1973 film version of JC Superstar, was reprising his role, which had me a little concerned...

Concern got deeper during the Overture, when the seemingly requisite encounter between apostles and Roman soldiers took place in bullet time. Oh, and the costume designer had gone for a late-medieval / early MC Hammer look, so the soldiers had halberds and some of the apostles had baggy pants. But then Mr. Glover pretty much nailed "Heaven on Their Minds", though his vocal style was, perhaps predictably, much more rock 'n' roll than Broadway, and I got a little happier.

Then Jesus made his entrance. And my disbelief landed with an almighty whump.... he just sounded too old. Oh, and he sang the consonants, not the vowels. And he would extend phrases until he was at least a measure behind the "orchestra". Later on, the actors portraying both Herod and Pilate did the same thing, so I can only think that somebody in charge thought it was a good idea.

... graah, there's such a thing as knowing too much, especially at $56 bucks a ticket plus handling fees.

On the other paw, Mr. Glover, the young woman playing Mary Magdalene, and the chorus all nailed it. Still left the performance bitching, though.

lolcat perfection

moar funny pictures

Progress report

Didn't count calories for two weeks, and it looks like I'm going to have to get up early to exercise (yuck), but I'm still stable at 143 lbs going into the high fat season. w00t!

Wish List

[little kid voice]
Dear Santa,
I wanna XBox 360... an' Mass Effect... an' thumbs so I can play it.
[little kid voice]

Has it really been two weeks?

(I can't even justify it by saying "Time flies when you're having fun." )

Surgeon put me on half time 'til halfway thru December, which has made life much more interesting. Also tried a new NSAID, which got fired after 4 days for inducing migraines, making it the evil opposite of a pain reliever.

Weight loss has slowed down; jumped off the diet for Thanksgiving, partially because there was a lot of real good food around, and partially because I kept getting faint, and I wanted to be sure I wasn't overdieting. :D I've come up about two pounds from my low weight, hit on the Friday after TG, and I'm not worrying about it. Having a hard time working exercise into my schedule, though...

Actually watched and enjoyed an Xmas special. Hope that's not an indicator of mental instability. :D

Why must food equal comfort?

On the plus side, I've so far managed to resist buying the stress-relief bag of nacho cheese Doritos... but, boy, do I have the munchies today. (I'm at 144 lbs. I'm going to stay good. Stay good, Ab, stay good...)

Dr. appt today at 3pm, we'll discuss WHY DO MY HANDS STILL HURT?!?!?!? Except possibly in a bigger font. :D

The Long Haul...

In at 5am to put mods into production (and a good thing I was that early, as there was a bug I hadn't found in primary testing). Since Mr. E is out of town helping his sister, Kid A had to come in to work with me. Drag her to school at 7:45am, off to physical therapy at 10am, back to work when they're done pulling my thumb off, then pick the kid up at school at 4:30pm.

Then we sleep. Okay, we may have dinner first.

Dang, we were so grown up in the face of getting up early, we skipped Heroes last night. We'll watch it on G4 this weekend.

Gotta brag to someone, and you're elected

My weight is under 150 (if only barely) for the first time in... oh, decades, probably. The BMI calculator says I'm in the normal range, as does my waist to height ratio. (Haven't had the guts to look at my waist to hip ratio... should do that.) Dang, I hate having to buy new clothes before the old ones wear out. No, really. :D

So, I'm shooting for 140, during the holiday eating season. Never said I was that bright... on the other hand, I started the First Successful Diet and Exercise Routine of the 21st Century right before Thanksgiving, so I've done this before.

What I did on my summer vacation

Ingested hydrocodone.

Watched Space: 1999, courtesy of Netflix. Wow, another precious teen-age memory, now overwritten with the unavoidable fact that Season 2 was total crap.

Mugged a few monsters, while calling it "work hardening". Do you know that adding four levels of Rogue to any other character class makes Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark a whole lot easier? (With a 14 INT, I can usually get 5 Rogue skills, taken at levels 1, 7, 12, and 17, up to a base of 20 points each. You get just enough Disable Traps, Open Locks, Search, Tumble and Use Magic Device to make it all the way through the expansion.)

Read a lot of books.

We now return to our normal program schedule...

Took it radically easy for the last two months (with the exception of the occasional monster muggery). Right paw is still hurty; physical therapist keeps reminding me that it was jacked up for over a year and will take a while to heal. Positivity is running on batteries, but I'm trying to carry on... ;) Today's my first day back at work. Whee.

Update

Surgery on my right thumb is scheduled for next Thursday (haven't received the packet yet so don't know the exact time). We are now at maximum alligator status at work, and I don't even get to take effective pain relievers for the next week. (No NSAIDs allowed. Cries.)

Interesting times...

Off to see the hand surgeon...

updates to follow.

First day of high school!

... I keep singing "Sunrise, Sunset". :D

You know you're raising a nerd when...

... you get your daughter Halo 2 and the cutest pair of cat earrings for her 14th birthday. :D

Move Review: Stardust

Great fun; I'm a sucker for a movie with opening and closing narration. I haven't read the original, but the story certainly felt like it had been written by Neil Gaiman, as it uses many of his repeating tropes (a young person from the ordinary world crosses over into a magical world, discovering the truth about themselves in the process of their adventure there, etc.) Yes, a lot of the acting was over the top, but it was fun to watch Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro masticating great hunks of beautiful scenery. Recommended as long as you're in the mood for a fairy tale of Victorian England.

Progress!

I'm below 160 lbs (if only barely) and my pants are getting looser... Yes, yay!

Let the Countdown Begin!

2-1/2 weeks until my appointment with the hand surgeon. Um, yay?

Monday Urban Wildlife Sighting

... a family of quail crossing the Spokane Arena parking lot. They always make me smile.

Lazy Linking

Bad thumb day, go read Digby instead.

Weekend Media Consumption -- The Bourne Ultimatum

I really wanted to like this movie. I liked the two previous Bourne movies, I like spy thrillers in general, and it featured a character archetype I'm a sucker for (the amnesiac reluctant warrior). But... For reasons known only to him, Paul Greengrass shot the entire thing in unsteady-cam. It's a little jiggly in the ads, but on the big screen... I'm trying and failing to come up with a description for the camera work that doesn't insult folks with neurological problems. Even during quiet scenes, the image jumped and jerked around the screen. I went in to the theater with a little headache, and left with a big one. It might be tolerable on the small screen.

Why Do SciFi and The Discovery Channel Hate Me?

There is a very short list of shows I'll actually go out of my way to watch:

• Dirty Jobs
• Doctor Who
• Eureka
• Mythbusters
• Survivorman (new episodes coming!)

Of course, Dirty Jobs and Eureka are on at the same time. So are Doctor Who and the new episodes of Survivorman. Is this fate's way of telling me to watch less TV? Or does the universe want me to get a DVR? ;)

Q Are We Not Men?

A We Are Devo!

Whilst following up on a Dell ad I saw the other night which had an awfully Devo-sounding song (it's by Devo, that's why it sounded like Devo) I saw that they're touring again! And will be playing in Puyallup this September. Sounds like it's time for

NERD ROAD TRIP!!!

Happy old nerd. :D

Say It Isn't So!

The Weekly World News is shutting down! No more Bat Boy... no more predictions of the end of the world... no more strange stories from South America... and to whom will Thrash sell his stories now? (obligatory Chill reference...)

Sadness...

Weekend Media Consumption

I managed to hold off on purchasing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows until 9 am Saturday. :D We hit the local independent bookstore on the way out of town; I read aloud to Mr. E for most of the trip. We made it to Chapter 20 by the time we got back in town. Now E is in Potterus Interruptus, as he's going to wait to hear the rest of it until Kid A can read it to him on their camping trip, and that isn't until August. (On the other hand, I powered through it on Sunday so I could pass it along to my Mom. Still contemplating it; guess it made an impression.)

Where were we going? Portland, for a concert by Rush. They've still got it. Hope I'm that energetic at 50+... ;)

*bleep*

Just poured hot coffee (the extra-acidic stuff from the very bottom of the pot) over the tip of my left thumb. Why did I sell off that DEX for more INT-based skills? (And why weren't my INT-based skills sufficient to prevent me from pouring coffee at a funny angle in the first place?)
:D

Spotted on a church sign

"God doesn't believe in atheists, therefore atheists don't exist."

Ha, ha. (pokes self) Hmm, I still appear to be here... does that disprove their premise? Any logic-choppers out there?

Yay! Rain!

Thunderstorms rolled through last night, and it's raining this morning. Ahhhh. :D I needed the break, the grass certainly needed the break, and the air isn't quite so brown. Yay!

Monday positivity

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix didn't suck.

Mr. E. very kindly washed the wrist braces I use at night -- the smell was getting appalling.

Kid A. got her summer reading book (an abridged Bulfinch's Mythology) and is quite enjoying it.

(old fart) We've tickets to the Rush concert in Portland next weekend (/old fart).

More suburban wildlife

Sunday evening the family went for a walk at dusk; as we passed a neighbor's house, we spotted two raccoons. That could explain why the cat sometimes runs into the house all fluffed and big eyed. We told the raccoons about our other neighbor's sweet and juicy (not to mention early-rising) chickens, but I don't know if they listened.

This morning Spider-squirrel ran straight up the wall of the mini-mall and into a wall vent. Clever place to hide food. Maybe it is a mutant. (Yeah, I know, if it's a spider-squirrel it is the result of a scientific experiment gone awry, not mutation.)

Spidersquirrel...

On my morning walk to the bus stop I pass behind an office building (a six-storefront micro-mini-mall); the walls are rough concrete with the aggregate exposed. This morning I saw one of the local squirrels doing a Spiderman imitation. It was so quiet out I could hear the scritch of its claws on the rocks as it traversed the building. Cool. :D

---

that's it for today -- my fingers are starting to get sore in addition to my thumbs. dang entropy.

Pointing device number four...

In the ongoing (but not futile, dang it!) struggle to make my computer environment less painful, I've moved on to the fourth pointing device for calendar year 2007. Oy.

Started the year with a regular mouse; made my thumb hurt because I had to hold my thumb up.

Tried two versions of Evoluent's vertical mouse, with the hope that resting my thumb on top of the mouse would help. But that turned clicking into a pinching motion, because I had to stabilize the mouse with my thumb. Sigh.

Then I bought the low-end Logitech trackball, but I had to use my thumb to click the button... no good.

So last Friday I slapped the touchpad extension onto the ergo keyboard I'd brought from home. I'd left it off because it made it more difficult to fit the keyboard into the tray, but I've found using the touchpad on the new laptop to be less painful, so what the heck.

I think what I really need is biofeedback training to learn to relax my thumbs... ;D

edited to add: stopping now, thumbs hurts. :(

Writing. At least, thinking about writing.

Though I've resolved to start writing fiction again, I've not actually gotten around to it. Well, that's a bit of an overstatement. I am actively working on two projects -- I've a novel in world-building (which is the part I enjoy, so sometimes I find it hard to stop) and a short story in research. Both are activities which require more reading and cogitating than typing, which is my current nemesis. (Check the entries tagged "thumbs" for the gnarly details, hypothetical new readers.)

Deep down, though, I'm afraid to start the actual writing process. There are a couple of reasons for it; for one, I've got a real problem finishing projects. But I'm also facing a genuine physiological limitation, which makes my resolution to start writing again seem a bit ill-timed. ;) I can't handwrite, and I can't use the computer for more than 30 minutes. And I'm having a hard time adjusting to the voice dictation software. I can successfully use it for business communications, but I'm finding it difficult to speak prose.

I had an idea on the way to work this morning that I think is worth a try: I'll find some prose that I think is stylistically close to mine and "type" it out using the voice dictation software. It'll give me some training in using the software for prose, and give the software some training as well. :D

Transformers

Big, dumb, and loud, as I expected. Some nice laugh lines. The climactic battle gave me a headache. (I hate jerky-cam.) Overall, not entirely a waste of time.

"Live Free or Die Hard"

If I had thumbs, it would get two thumbs up. Plot and action were only mostly improbable, the laugh-lines were not forced in, and I actually didn't hate Justin Long's performance, much to my surprise.

(Hey, my standards are low, but they're mine.) :)

On the "looking forward to it" front from the previews: War -- Jet Li and Jason Statham? *squee*

Timing is everything

Why did I start counting calories right before my sister arrived in town for a 2-week visit? I know I won't be good... how many calories are there in a margarita, anyway? ;)

It is still, however, all good. :D

Netflix

We're giving Netflix a try, and I find that I'm much more likely to slap a movie I'm not sure of into the queue than I was to pick it up at the rental place. I think it's because there's no immediate expense when I queue up a movie at Netflix, so it reduces the perceived risk of renting something I don't like.

(So far, we're happy, but it's only been, what, a week? I'm sure we'll find *something* to kvetch about.)

edited to add: now, if we could get a combo Netflix/Gamefly membership? *That'd* be nerdvana for sure.

Good to go

I've officially out of brain camp, aka counseling. Now I've got to stay sane all on my own... I think that's achievable. :D

Thumb update, part whatevs

Since I spent the weekend doing nothing (darn summer viruses), my thumbs feel great! That's a little hard on the ol' work ethic... Yesterday I read tech docs, today I'm watching code in the debugger. That's work, ennit?

You know you're a grup when...

... you can sing along with the oldies music they play outside the bank to get the teenagers to move along. ("Don't Ask Me Why", Billy Joel, Glass Houses, 1980.)

We won (mostly)!

With much grumbling about Microsoft and how this would be so much easier in Linux, my compatriot J got the wireless network running. Our main technical difficulty: The used router I got back in '05 really wants to be connected directly to broadband, and we're running dialup through one of the PCs. So we had to go static IP instead of DHCP, just to get things up and running.

And, for some reason, the NIC on the motherboard on the PC with the dialup doesn't even show up in the BIOS, so it's talking to the router wirelessly. I found an old 10/1o0 card in "the pile", and may whack it in there.

But, by the end of the night, all the PCs we had on were able to see each other, share the internet connection, and share the printer. Victory! And the multi-player in HoMM III (the whole point of the exercise) looks like it'll run happily over TCP/IP.

Don't you just hate it...

... when you find a flaw that's been in the code since 2002? The kind that makes you say, "That's not just a bug, that's a Madagascar hissing cockroach!" Maybe it's time to pursue my career in the ballet...

LOLCat needed

Has anybody seen a "PMS Cat will claw out your eyes" cat macro? :D

Gaming, sweet sweet gaming

Thinking back, my computer gaming career started with Diablo, in autumn 1999. Patrick introduced me to it, and over the course of the next few years I literally wore out the CD-ROM drive in my laptop playing it. I think I can find our printout of Jarulf's guide... I usually played a Rogue, Patrick a Warrior, and Edgar a Sorcerer. Both Edgar and I racked up a good number of ears from Patrick's Warrior, because he kept wandering into our lines of fire, the silly boy.

I almost wore out my anticipation gland waiting for Diablo II. I asked for it for my birthday, as it was close to the predicted release date, and actually received it six months later. (Darn software developers.) Played the snot out of DII and DII: Lord of Destruction, though we didn't get as much multi-player goodness out of that.

About the time I got tired of DII (Gasp! yes, it can happen) I found Dungeon Siege. (Oddly enough, I saw Patrick playing it... there may be a pattern developing here.) Hmmm, hacking and slashing (and spell casting and bow shooting). Plot? Whatevs. Tasty. :D Same goes for Dungeon Siege II. Now I just need the expansion pack. And the PSP game. (Not sure about the movie. Pluses: Jason Statham! Ron Perlman! Minuses: Burt Reynolds! Uwe "worst movie director since Ed Wood, and I think Ed might have been better" Boll!)

Then, in December 2002, came the big one... Neverwinter Nights. Though I'd only played 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons once, I fell in love with this game. Made a point of trying to play all the main classes, prestige classes, and interesting class combinations. Bought all the expansions. Started writing maybe 13 zillion mods. Got involved on the forums. Seriously thought about getting a job with BioWare in Edmonton. (I was tickled pink to be able to put "Started playing D&D in 1978" on a resume. And you said gaming was a waste of time, Dad! ;) )

Then we got an Xbox. So much BioWare goodness! Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic! Played thru light side and dark side, tried all the character classes. (Haven't finished KoToR II yet -- ran out of thumbs.) Bought Jade Empire the second it came out and finished it almost as quickly. Gave Morrowind a shot, but it was almost *too* big. That and Fable await me when I return to gaming.

I shan't even mention the PSP. :D

Our latest project is to get the kiddo's PC set up and networked for family gaming. Dang, I've got to get well...

Progress!

My sinuses hurt more than my thumbs! Um, yay? ;)

Braiiiins...

For some reason, I'm out of go today. (Couldn't really muster much excitement this weekend either.) Time for the Geritol... okay, maybe a multivitamin. :D

I'm a graduate too!

I've been seeing a cognitive-behavioral therapist since late April, and she thinks I'm ready to go on an as-needed basis for appointments after my next one... Yay! I'm going to graduate from brain school!

Let's hope I don't jinx it by talking about it... :D

Thumb update

My right thumb was doing better, until I unwisely typed for an hour Tuesday night. *sigh* And my appointment with the hand surgeon has been rescheduled for the *end* of August. My manager has recommended another clinic, which has a hand surgeon that Denial Care will pay for; I'm steeling myself to call and see if he has any appointments available before end of August.

End of an era

Today is the kiddo's last day of middle school... we've already received her schedule, booklist, and summer reading assignments from G-Prep. (Oh, and the payment schedule *flinch*) Big changes are a-coming, and I'm actually feeling pretty good about it. (Weird, ennit?)

Dear Spokane

First in a series of rants...

Dear Spokane,
When attending a public event, such as a high school graduation, there are a few social guidelines to follow, which you seem to have forgotten:

• Remove your hat for the national anthem
• The band playing is not a cue for you to start talking loudly with your neighbor
• Ditto for the speakers
• When your baby starts crying or your infant starts fussing, that's your cue to leave the room

Crikies, people, weren't you socialized as children?

Positivity? On a *Monday*?!?

Things to be positive about:

• As part of my commute, I'm walking about an hour a day. I'm also trying to use my exercise bike at least three days a week, with a goal of five days a week.
• There are a lot of squirrels in Riverfront Park, and squirrels make me smile.
• The thumb thing gives me a plausible excuse for a mid-life crisis. :D
• Home made sandwiches for lunch.
• Other advantages of riding the bus: I can't get a wild hair and drive to the store for snacks. Somebody else has to worry about traffic. Being near people I don't know helps build up my stranger tolerance. :D

Hey, that wasn't that hard! ;)

Patience...

Well, my right wrist/thumb is *almost* back to where it was before the cortisone injection... 2 days to 2 weeks, 2 days to 2 weeks, she mumbled, trying to think positively...

I've a big bucket of nothin' scheduled for the weekend, which has helped in the past. Now, if I can figure out how to stay entertained w/o using my hands... last time I watched the Lord of the Rings Special Extended edition. Maybe this weekend I'll watch Firefly/Serenity... have to get the offspring to change the discs for me. :D

Posted without comment

Breaking the rules

I figure I can post about work if they're in the news, right?

Synopsis: a guy driving a stolen Jaguar walked into the building very early Wednesday morning and made off with some stuff. Two of my teammates saw him leaving. Now we have a security guard. Oh, the feeling of safety makes me swoon. ;)

(might just be my connection, but these links load s-l-o-w-l-y, be warned)

KREM thinks we're a computer store

KXLY stuck with "local business"

The Spokesman-Review

What? Already?

Crud, I can't post about work, and I've given up 98% of my hobbies because of the dang thumb thing -- I appear to be out of topics already. Well, at least I got past 1 post... :D

Doctor visit

Well, I seem to have survived my visit with the doctor yesterday. For some reason, I let him talk me into putting the cortisone shot into my right wrist; his reasoning was that it it has by far the worst symptoms and we'd be better off to find out if the cortisone works on the bad paw, so to speak. The problem is I am RIGHT handed, and the shot has pretty much taken my right hand out of commission. My fumbling attempts to cope using my left hand would probably be funny if it was happening to somebody else.

He was fairly clear that the best I can expect improvement is two days after the shot, and it can take up to two weeks to take effect. That's a long time to think positive. :D

I also asked for a referral to the hand specialist; they appear to be rarer than unicorns, as I was unable to get in before the middle of August. The person scheduling the appointment said she would notify us if anybody canceled, but I'm sure she says that to all the folks just keep them from coming over the counter at her when they find out how long they have to wait for an appointment. So, given the lag time between appointments, I'm probably not going to get surgery, if I need it, until some time in the fall. I'm sure we will all be tired of my whining by that point in time. :)

(edited for word-o. still mastering the voice dictation software...)

And now for something completely different

A happy post! 'cause I'm trying to make "happiness takes practice" one of my operating assumptions...

I've started taking the bus to work (as my carpool expired -- dang you, Patrick, why'd you have to move? ;) ). Since "you can't get there from here" best describes attempting to commute directly between home and work, I end up at the Plaza downtown, and get to walk the rest of the way. So I walk through Riverfront Park twice a day, which is nice, especially now that the river is turned on. (Repeated solar exposure does threaten to turn me a color other than fish-belly white, but I guess I can adjust my self-image appropriately.) The walk takes 20 minutes to half an hour, depending on how much I feel like hurrying, and is a good way to wake up. The bus ride itself is just long enough to read a little. Best of all, since it's an express bus, it runs limited hours, so I can't stay late at work. :D

So, walk == nice, park == nice, not having to park here == nice (the cars only get broken into occasionally), self-limiting work hours == nice, reducing gas usage and emissions == nice -- more than offsets having to get up a little earlier to catch the bus.

Petty, maybe...

... but, yes, I did change my template because I'd picked the same one that Kim had used. :D

Insert Alice Cooper on the Muppet Show here

I'm sure we could have a wonderful and enlightening discussion about education here, about the pros and cons of year round education, pedagogical variants and techniques, differences in learning styles, heck, how the schools have to serve neuro-diverse and neuro-typical alike...

But I'm going to kvetch about my daughter's schedule. Yeesh! She's in the last two weeks of middle school, and I swear, they've got something scheduled every night until we reach sweet, sweet summer vacation. As a family, we've always sought to avoid overscheduling (it doesn't look very fun for anybody involved), and now the school district is doing it for us! (One could call that service, I suppose... )

Gotta admit, though, the bands sounded really good. It's so nice to not dread the concerts... ;)

deQuer-what?

deQuervain's tenosynovitis, to be precise -- inflammation of the tendons that control the thumbs. I have managed to mess up both hands, thus the name of this blog, for I am truly a Nerd without thumbs. In an attempt to get better, I have, to date, given up:

• computer gaming
• xbox
• card games
  
• reading paperbacks
• piano
• needlepoint
  
• ... everything else that requires fine manipulation
  

In other words, just about everything but TV and b*tching about my thumbs. And using the remote hurts. Good thing Mr. E is usually in charge of that. :D (Complaining doesn't strain anything. You've been warned.)

I've done splints, ice, rest, physical therapy, ever stronger NSAIDs, and my least favorite drug ever, oral methylprendisolone. Next is injected cortisone, possibly autologous platelet infusion, and finally surgery. All whilst being my family's sole source of income... it could lead to drinking heavily. Except that it hurts to hold the glass. :(

I've a doctor's appointment Monday, after which I'm sure I'll have lots more to say.

Begin where?

... at the beginning, I suppose.

Inspired by faireknitter, I've decided that blogging may be the easiest way to communicate with family and friends. Anticipated topic areas:

• My thumbs -- I've been thumb-wrestling with deQuervain's for almost a year. deQuervain's is winning. Yay.
• Being a nerd. Specifically, being a XX-chromosome over-40 nerd. I can feel you falling asleep now...
• Science fiction fandom.
• Writing.
  
• Politics, feminism, family, and other topics guaranteed to get me in trouble. :D