Birthday time!

more animals

But I actually got:
A lunch box
And a booster pack

Fired by another doctor

But in a good way, this time. :D Had my last appointment with the hematologist today; my blood counts are in the normal range (except for my platelets, which are a little elevated -- a possible indicator of continuing iron problems), so she told me to go forth and sin no more. She was happy to see a patient leave her practice under their own power.

My kind of election coverage

Why, from the Weekly World News, of course...

At a shocking press conference this morning, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced that he has a half-man half-bat half-brother.

Little things, part whatever

As I was walking through the park to get to the bus plaza, the bells in the clocktower started playing... "Michelle", by the Beatles. It was smile-ful. (Yes, it's a word 'cause I say it is.)

Small victories

... I figured out how to use chopsticks to put my hair up (thanks, Youtube!)

... we've identified good gluten-free brands, making shopping quicker.

... White Box Pies makes tasty tasty gluten-free desserts. And they're a locally owned small business. Double victory!

... I managed to NOT watch either the Democratic or Republican National conventions. :D

Hey, I'll take what I can get. :D

It's been a month?!?

more animals

Yeah, that's just an excuse.

More to follow. :D

Happiness is...

... a gluten-free chocolate eclair from White Box Pies. Hand delivered by family members, no less. :D

Some poetry

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

posted 'cause I was thinking about it*, that's all

(*because I just called my period "the blood-dimmed tide".)

I'm *so* shallow

I'm watching Earth: The Biography on the National Geographic Channel, mainly because the host (Iain Stewart) has a dead sexy Scottish accent, and I'm all full of *squee* because he's talking about the Lake Missoula floods which formed the Channeled Scablands. Sexy guy talking over shots of home sweet home... yep, shallow. :D

"Lost tapes of the Doctor Who composer"

Whoa.

A hidden hoard of recordings made by the electronic music pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme has been revealed - including a dance track 20 years ahead of its time.

Delia Derbyshire was working in the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in 1963 when she was given the score for a theme tune to a new science fiction series.

She turned those dots on a page into the swirling, shimmering Doctor Who title music - although it is the score's author, Ron Grainer, who is credited as the composer.

from BBC News Includes samples of her work.

Edited to add: Whoa squared; there was a link to this article about the founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the sidebar:

Almost un-noticed by the wider world, one of the pioneers of electronic music has died. Without Daphne Oram, we may never have known what the Tardis sounded like.

Electronic music - as much a part of today's life as whistling a tune to yourself - grew up amid milk bottles, gravel, keys, and yards of magnetic tape and wires.

These were the sort of "tools" typically scattered around the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in the 1950s and 60s, when they were used to generate wonderful and ethereal sounds for the airwaves.

The mother of this great legacy was Daphne Oram. Aged 18, and armed with a passionate interest in sound, music and electronics, she started work at the BBC in 1943 as a sound engineer.

linkness

Celiac followup

The appointment with the gastroenterologist went well (except for driving to the wrong office -- see, I knew being early would pay off some day, as I still made it to my appointment on time). I got to see my biopsy and blood test results, which both can be summarized as, "Broken!" The doc was surprised that my bone scan came out normal; when I passed that on to my mom, she said thick bones came from my dad's side of the family. He referred me on to a dietician so we can make sure I'm getting proper nutrition, and then we'll have a follow up biopsy and blood test in six months to ensure I'm recovering.

I like good news. :D

Living the single life (or, I hate wasps)

Mr. E and Kid A are off on the West Side this week, so it's just me and the cranky old cat. Sunday before they left we went out to make sure the Emergency Back-up Car would work for me this week. Gee, when you don't drive a car for a few months, the wasps do like to move in. Mr. E found the nest (under the frame) and he and Kid A dispatched about 8-10 wasps in the next half hour.

So, Tuesday I went out to drive to work (had an appointment with the gastro doc), and, being a bit paranoid, I kicked the driver's side door -- and out come two wasps, logy in the morning chill. I opened the door and out popped two more. While I was doing the "eek, wasps!" dance, I noticed they had started a new nest on the door sill. So I kicked that off the car and squished it.

Victory! or so I thought. The little goobers relocated to the mailbox. Oy.

Almost normal....

... my hemoglobin count, that is. It's almost to the bottom of the normal range! And my bone density scan came back normal as well. It's nice to receive some good news. :D Also, the doc was very happy -- she's an oncologist, and she appreciates having a patient who is getting better with minimal intervention.

Flawless Victory!

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration... it only took four hours and two chat sessions with Qwest tech support, but we've now got DSL and wi-fi set up. (Yes, the wi-fi is secured.) I'm posting from my PC in the basement, which desperately needs a new keyboard... ah, that's why I only used it for gaming.

Holiday weekend omnibus post

Mr E and I went to see Wanted on Friday (Kid A was off at Silverwood with friends). Big, loud, hyperkinetic, and bloody, AKA my kind of movie.

Then we checked out the gluten free selections at Huckleberry's. Bottom line: they have a slightly better variety than Yokes, and for some products the prices are lower.

Maximum force family togetherness on Sunday; went shopping with mom and sisters, while Mr E and Kid A hung out with Cousin D (who needs to eat something! he grew six inches and looks like stretch armstrong). Amazingly enough, I'm a size 8. Whodathunkit? Then dinner at Mom's -- big T-bone steaks and all the fixin's (except for the French bread).

Fie

There's a touring show of Avenue Q! Yay!

They have west coast dates in Seattle and Portland! Yay!

... which were last month. Boo.

Dude! dude-dude-dude-dude!!

Diablo III.


whoa.

A lovely weekend

The family spent the weekend in the Tri-Cities hanging out with the Elizabethans. It was very good to see a lot of folks I haven't seen in a couple of years (darn job) and I was actually warm* the entire time!

*for certain values of "warm" including "bleepin' overheated". but my hands didn't hurt, so all was good. :D

Hey, Food Network!

So, I was chatting with the technician who was administering my bone density scan and she mentioned that she has friends with celiac, as well as friends with dairy, fish and nut allergies, making dinner get-togethers challenging.

And I thought, "That needs to be a show on Food Network!" You start with two chefs who have access to the contents of an average suburban grocery store, then you give them a challenge, like a dinner party for 10 with certain food allergies, and go! Shorter challenges could be things like coming up with a sack lunch for a kid on a gluten free casein free diet.

Mr E named the show for me when I told him about it: "I Can't Eat That!"

C'mon, Food Network, it'd be huge.

Smile... grumble... smile

On today's lunchtime walk, Mr P and I headed down to a local chocolate boutique so I could look for gluten free chocolate. It exists, but you definitely pay the "we're making sure something isn't in it" surcharge... I suppose I could countenance a $3.00 chocolate bar once a month, though...

Spotted on today's walk

A marmot chasing a crow. :D

Internet handles I wish I'd thought of

'Modus pwnens' -- suggested by a commenter at Sadly, No!

'umop apisdn w,I' -- a moderator at Talk Rational.

more to follow, I'm sure

That's just weird

I Google'd "gluten free fandom" to see if anybody's thought of that, and this here blog was hit number 11... could be my tags, I guess. :D

I'm not *trying* to be strange...

... but I keep managing.

In dialog format:

"Hey, you hurt your hands? Whatcha got, carpal tunnel?"

"No, it's deQuervain's tendonitis."

*blank look*

"Well, it's kinda like carpal tunnel, but it affects the tendons that control my thumbs."

"Oh, okay."

Two years later (or thereabouts):
"Oh, you can't eat wheat. You got a wheat allergy?"

"Well, no. I've got celiac sprue."

*blank look*

"Okay, it's autoimmune problem that is kicked off by the gluten in wheat, which causes my immune system to attack my small intestine, causing all sorts of problems absorbing nutrients."

:D

Gluten free shopping spree!

The whole family went to the local Yokes last night, to stock up on gluten free foodstuffs. They've recently created an organic section, in which most of the gluten free foods can be found. Highlights:

• Yay! Gluten free beer! Boo! It's by Anheuser-Busch (spit)!
• As I feared, explicitly gluten free foods cost more than their regular counterparts.
• But there are a lot of regular foods that are naturally gluten free (Rice Chex, corn tortillas) as long as you take a careful look at the ingredients lists.
• We found gluten free flour and the xanthan gum required to make it work. Mr E is making pizza crust tonight (from gf mix) and may tackle gf banana bread this weekend. We cued up a bread machine for purchase next pay day. :D
• I never realized there was that much wheat in food.
• Still need to work on getting more fresh fruits and vegetables into our diet.

All in all, it was more expensive than a regular stocking run, but we've got enough to keep me fed for a couple weeks, so it's a win overall.

Gluten free, day one

diary format...

Breakfast is business as usual, as Rice Chex are already gluten free. :D Fortunately for my co-workers, black coffee is also on the good list.

The One-A-Day I was taking had some suspect ingredients, but I had a bottle of less-adulterated multi-vitamins already available. However, the glucosamine-chondroitin is also suspect (and I just bought it, sigh). I'll have to find a new brand for that.

9:30 am: Blue Diamond Natural Almond Nut-Thins (Smokehouse flavor) are full of win. Crunchy and salty and tasty.

11:00 am: Lunch! Two corn tortillas + cheddar = tasty. But gone too fast; should have packed up some salad to go with it. Ah, well, I still have plenty of Almond Nut-Thins... oh, and I was thinking of taking aspartame out of my diet too, but couldn't resist the lure of the Diet Pepsi Max.

11:31 am: ITCHY! Prolly psychosomatic, but still... ITCHY! ALL! OVER!

1:00 pm: went for a nice walk with P, down to the river and back, with only a little bushwhacking along the way (is it really a shortcut when it's darn near vertical?)

2:30 pm: had some of the leftover cheddar for snackies. The Almond Nut-Thins are too good... the box is supposed to have 4 servings, and I think I've already had three of them. Oops. :D

6:30 pm: Mr E defeated the pizza crust in single combat; a bit heavy, but tasty. The Red Bridge beer is, meh, beer. I think I may switch to wine....

Yep, it's celiac

... on the plus side (she says, grasping at straws) my follow-up appointment isn't until July 15th, so I don't go on the "say goodbye to lots of things you love" diet until then. :D

And, this should sort the anemia, and perhaps some of the bone and muscle problems. So, this is a beginning as well as an ending. (How's that for positivity? To be honest, I spent the weekend mourning for the anticipated loss, which appears to have gotten it out of the way.)

edit to add: Now I will be the world's worst houseguest! "Nope, can't eat that... nor that... sorry, can't have that... heck, just pass me a carrot." Actually, this will probably be more work for Mr E than myself, as one solution to this has him baking a lot more.

Better news

Just checked with my manager, and we do not currently have any projects planned for the weekend of Faire! And my sister doesn't arrive from Texas until after Faire! So I might actually get to go this year! Yay!

Epic DO NOT WANT

On the plus side: I lost three pounds during the prep for the colonoscopy and the drugs are quite good for the procedure itself. Also, colon is whistle clean.

Minus side: duodenal changes indicative of celic? Oh, *bleep* no, I loves my gluten containing foods (she says, eating cheerios for breakfast). No beer? Ever again? Nooooo!

Now, the 10 day wait for the test results... oy.

Should change the title to "Nerd out of warranty", eh?

This is what anemia feels like...

Role Reversal

I really love ThinkGeek . I get regular promotional e-mails from them, because I love knowing what the latest nerd toys are.

So, I just got their Father's Day promo e-mail, and it's chock full of stuff that makes me go "oooh, pretty". However, Mr. E's reaction would be more like "meh". Funny old world, eh?

I like specialists

So, just got back from my visit with the hematologist. Okay, she's an oncologist who sees hematology patients... First off, I love it when the doc comes in and says, "My gosh, you are pasty!" We got a good laugh out of that. Also, she cut straight to the point: oral iron hasn't worked, so I'm going to get an iron infusion next week. We'll see if that gets rid of the bleepin' headache.

Got another CBC (complete blood count) which was even worse than the one from last week. Yay! And the phlebotomist got nothin' from my left arm, which led to "Andromeda Strain" jokes.

What I'm not looking forward to: the alien probe of both ends of my digestive tract. That's the down side of seeing an oncologist; she wants to make sure it isn't cancer. I can be cool with that.

Bad life choices...

... include putting "Teardrop" by Massive Attack on repeat on a gray and rainy day. :D

(Wednesday) Okay, add "Losing It" by Rush, after one has realized that one's piano playing and disc golfing hobbies are pretty much hosed... gads, this fourth decade of life isn't for wimps.

Creepin' crepitus

Yay! Now my elbow's giving me the occasional creak!

That's why I trust Roger Ebert's reviews...

... he's one of us.

Fanzines beget blogs

Fanzines were mimeographed magazines that were circulated by mail among science fiction fans in the days before the internet. They still are, for all I know, although now they're generated by computer printers. I first learned about them in a 1950s issue of Amazing Stories and eagerly sent away 10 or 20 cents to Buck and Juanita Coulson in Indiana, whose Yandro was one of the best and longest-running of them all. Overnight, I was a fan, although not yet a BNF (big name fan). It was a thrill for me to have a LOC (letter of comment) published on such issues as the demise of BEMs (bug-eyed monsters), and soon I was publishing my own fanzine, named Stymie.

The Ides of May

It's our twentieth wedding anniversary! w00t!

We're going to go out to dinner with the fruit of our labor, aka Kid A. (Who, when I said "fruit of our labor" to her, replied, "I think you did most of the work".) It'll be a combined anniversary / happy 4.0 GPA party. :D

Edit to add:
We went out to The Melting Pot. Ordinarily I like to avoid chain restaurants, but the idea of a fondue dinner was irresistable. Ended up running $50/person, so it's not something we'll be doing very often, but it was a fun night and quite filling. :D I discovered that Hemingway drank mojitos for a reason... whew.

I gave Mr. E a Munchkin expansion pack (#4, Need for Steed) and he gave me a 2GB Swissbit, in the airplane-friendly no blades configuation. I'll be putting the 512MB Swissbit stick into it and passing it on to Kid A. I'm also converting the Car Wars design spreadsheet (that I did for our 10th anniversary) into a web app. Hmm, guess #20 is the nerd anniversary... of course, for us that also applies to #1-#19. :D

Movie Review: Iron Man

Wow.

Just, wow.

Snappy writing, good score (from a composer I wasn't previously familiar with) , good special effects, only a little of that darn shaky-cam*... it was full of win for Mother's Day.

*look, if I wanted to watch a documentary filmed with a hand-held camera, I would.

Some goals

Blatantly ripped off from David B posting at TalkRational:

The secular people I know pretty much universally share some, many or all of the the following characteristics, which I cite in no particular order.

A respect for truth - sadly a respect not shared by many of the religious.

A life affirming stance, and a general acceptance of the idea that the very transitory nature of life makes it the more precious.

A fascination with understanding, as best they can, life, the universe and everything, and accepting the implications for their personal survival after death of their growing understanding.

Courage in the face of their forthcoming personal oblivion.

A will to good, without hope of reward, or fear of punishment, in any putative hereafter.

A sense of deep awe and wonder when contemplating the wonders of life, the universe and everything.

A sense of ethics.

A sense of wonder and awe faced with the greatest creations of mankind, in the fields of science, music, literature et al.

It's good to have something to live up to... ;)

Movie Reviews: Revolver and Forbidden Kingdom

Revolver
A thin veneer of heist/con movie wrapped around a thick incomprehensible core of Freudian psychobabble. (A man's only enemy is his ego? What?) Personally, I blame Madonna. Please, please, please, Guy Ritchie, go back to your roots.

Forbidden Kingdom
Yay! Jackie Chan and Jet Li, together at last! Boo! The standup has this teenage kid I don't recognize in the middle of the hero lineup! Eeep! The same teenage kid isn't mentioned in the TV ads at all!

However, it turned out to be a fairly solid wuxia film, using the "modern kid is sucked into fantasy Chinese world by magic maguffin" conceit, beautifully filmed on location in China. And the teenage kid wasn't that bad.

Another month goes by

And nothing much changes. Yep, that's my life. :D Arthritis and me are getting along pretty well, and the anemia is backed into a corner, I think. (Follow up blood tests are next month.)

The rolling RSI has made its way to my shoulder, though. Any hints, Oldest 14 yr old?

Alternative commuting

I realized this morning (as my carpool pulled into the snowy parking lot filled with chaotically parked vehicles) that I stopped driving myself to work over a year and a half ago. And I can't really think of any disadvantages:

* I can tell my management that I can't stay late, my ride is already scheduled
* If I need to come in early, I can carpool with a team-mate who lives in the area -- then I get to go home when he does, instead of doing the "in early, out late" thing
* I can't up and drive to the grocery store when I've got a craving :D
* I get to walk through the park if I take the bus, though I've been doing that a lot less since I started carpooling with the high school students

I'll have to ask Mr. E how much gas money we've saved.

*expletive deleted*

feels like I'm anemic again. le sigh.

*squee* USB edition

I don't know how many of you have seen Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex; Mr. E and I are watching it (courtesy of Netflix) and what do I run across today but this:

Tachikoma spider bot

Movie Review: In Bruges

Not exactly the fish-out-of-water/buddy-hitmen movie the ads led me to expect. Recommended nonetheless, with the caveat that the prosthetics effects house did a very good job (spelled "ewwww" by Mr E. I wasn't looking). Thinking back, there was some tasty foreshadowing.

Gave myself +2 nerd points for figuring out that Carter Burwell did the soundtrack by a third of the way in.

Since AMC is showing this one as part of their indie-film series, the previews were not what I expected. Ordinarily in front of an action film you get guy movie preview, chick movie preview, date movie preview, horror movie preview. This time we got quirky indie preview, quirky indie preview, quirky indie preview, and Will Smith as homeless and feckless superhero preview. Almost threw me off my stride, it did.

You weren't using that bandwidth for anything, were you?

And now, a video from Kid A:

In Memoriam

I started playing D&D in 1978. Yikes.


Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

Even more want

Another neural interface device:

The commands are easily assigned with the NIA’s user-friendly software and are calibrated based on the individual’s physiology and personal preferences. Each of the Actuator’s signals can be assigned to a specific keystroke on the keyboard or a mouse button; consequentially, gamers can run, jump, and fire faster all without “lifting a finger.” Because the NIA converts EEG (electroencephalograph) signals into specified keystrokes, the device can be used with any software. Upon proper configuration, the NIA will allow users to control PC games without the use of a keyboard and minimal use of a mouse.

Help me think of more

I was helping Mr E in the kitchen last night and put something in the refrigerator, which he almost immediately had to move because I'd put it in the wrong spot. I apologized for throwing off his fridge shui. We then decided that you need fridge fu (or fridge shu) when the leftovers go wrong. There's got to be more along those lines... :D

You know you're a nerd when...

... management announces that they're relaxing the dress code to allow jeans every day, and your first thought is, "Darn it, the work clothes I bought in November aren't worn out yet! I don't want to buy *more*." Meanwhile, everybody else is clapping and cheering...

And that's why I used hypothesis

OK, we're back to plain ol' osteoarthritis, with a side-order of tennis elbow.

The occupational medicine doc asked a third-party physical therapist to review my condition, and he concluded that I am pretty much over the deQuervain's, but my thumb joints are definitely arthritic. The tennis elbow is just an unwelcome bonus (and he bruised me up pretty bad doing the initial treatment).

It sucks to hear that I've probably got a permanent condition -- newest doc wants to look at the bone scan and blood work before saying anything for certain. I'll probably check back into counseling once I've got word, just to help adjust the ol' brain. :D

Oh, and I'll have to repeat until I believe, "Opening an L&I claim does not make me a failure." Darn early programming about only losers getting help from the state...

The Latest Hypothesis...

(a side note: I love it when I show up for a doctor's appointment and he says, "What are you doing here?")

Saw the physiatrist for the last time today for the result of last week's bone scan. Survey says: rheumatoid arthritis. Since my previous clinic didn't forward any of my info, he ordered new blood work for sed rate and rhematoid factor. At least it was just across the hall...

I do hate that I'm becoming a connoisseur of phlebotomy technique. This last one felt like she went in overhand. :D

So, it's off to the occupational medicine doc tomorrow, and maybe I'll make some progress.

More want

Brain control headset for gamers

A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year.

"It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer," said Tan Le, president of US/Australian firm Emotiv.

"It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively," she added.

Sign me up. :D

*squee*

A MMO based on Champions. I'm torn between delight and fear. Okay, and I don't have broadband...

Anemia update

Hemoccult tests were normal; "start taking One A Day + Iron and retest in three months".

I know I should be happy it's a simple fix, but it took six weeks to get here, which seems a little long...

Well, that didn't take long...

The physiatrist already fired me. :D That's okay, it's because he's a spine guy and we quickly determined that it isn't a spine thing. I've a referral for an occupational therapist and we'll see what she's got to say...

Movie Review: Shoot 'Em Up

This one counts as a guilty pleasure. Big, loud, bloody, and stupid. Mr. E spotted the secret toy surprise early on, which made it even more enjoyable. (I shan't spoil it unless asked to. :D )

Yep, it was a Monday

Day started with an hour-long mandatory rah-rah-lets-sell-stuff meeting, and ended with the State of the Union address... dear $DEITY, let the hurting stop. ;)

Snow day!

I have the only teenager in the western world who is upset when they cancel school because of snow... (she was hoping to work on some things for Destination Imagination).

Movie Review: "War"

An enjoyable shoot-em-up/punch-em-up starring Jet Li and Jason Statham, with a surprisingly satisfying ending and a Hong Kong cinema feel. Well worth renting.

More upside

I've got the slows at work from hypo-oxygenation, so my hands are feeling better...

on the bright side...

... i can now explain to any interested writers of vampire stories what chronic partial exsanguination feels like. :D

Move Review: National Treasure 2

We paid $5, which was about what it was worth.

Can't explain why my disbelief fell so hard as to dent the concrete flooring without spoilers. Just consider that a working knowledge of history is a major detriment to the aforementioned disbelief. :D

Okay, this isn't funny...

... blood test showed no arthritis or autoimmune problems! yay!

that means my hand pain is still unexplained! boo!

oh, and i'm anemic! boo!

which means i get to see my regular doctor again! yay?

who ordered more blood tests to nail down the anemia! yay!

and then said, "I dunno" to the whole hand pain issue! boo!

but then he referred me to a physiatrist for "upper extremity pain of unknown etiology"! yay!

who can't see me until next month! boo!

... i'm running out of patience with this, can you tell? ;D

Health crap addendum

... just how long am I supposed to be sore after the mammogram? ;)

What a way to end the year

Last two weeks of 2007 sure were interesting. Kid A found out that hot tea + leg = second degree burns (which have healed quite nicely). Then my sister-in-law very kindly brought us a lovely upper respiratory infection for Christmas, which got everybody in the house except for the under-20 set. Mr E found the cough syrup recommended by four out of five evil step-mothers (best described as mentholated snot), while I spent a few days on the wild side, taking NyQuil during the day. (I live dangerously.)

And now the hand surgeon has essentially thrown his hands up and told me to go back to my regular doctor after we get the results of the blood tests for arthritis or other auto-immune goodies. I feel like I'm in my very own episode of House, for hank's sake...

On the plus side, kidney and liver function is good, as well as cholesterol and all those other things.