wink     ; )

Wow! That was fast

I requested a book via inter-library loan last night around midnight (no, the library was not open that late; I used the internet). This morning at 8:30, I got an email notifying me that my book is ready for pickup. That's Amazing!

(And here I was all worried that I wouldn't get my book in time to do me any good. Siilly Me.)

Sidenote: The last line of the email reads: "If you need to reply to this message, reply to: xxx@yyy.zzz" That's right, the email literally reads "xxx@yyy.zzz"; I didn't change the email to protect the innocent. I guess someone didn't change the defaults when they installed the notification program.

Birthday Loot

Mostly, my birthday gifts this year came in the form of cash. Which is fine by me. But that doesn't make for very good storytelling. The one non-cash gift of note was from Tree. She got me an electric matress pad. Previously, getting into bed when the weather got chilly was a shiver inducing exercise. This is made worse by the fact that our bedroom is the second-coldest room in the house (after the converted garage). Now we can get into a toasty warm and welcoming bed at night. This is one of the better gifts I've gotten in my lifetime.

Obviously, this gift is for Tree as much as it is for me. But that's fine, 'cause half of it was paid for with her birthday money, and the other half with mine.

Recovery

I have been trying not to let my surgery disrupt my schedule very much. I've gone to all of my classes and attempted to finish all of my assignments on time. I've also been going to work (and work elated meetings). I have largely been successful (though I may need an extension on one homework).

That means that I have been walking to and from school and home and work. It is a slow process, but it has been speeding up every day. Unfortunately, I think I may have overdone it on some days. Monday may have been too early to have taken a full day of classes because I felt really bad on Tuesday. And I was in quite a bit of pain walking to and from Professor N's retirement ceremony. I will probably be paying for it tomorrow.

I hope that I have not prolonged my recovery by trying to keep a somewhat normal schedule.

Normally, I am more than ready to be very lazy and to use any excuse to sit around and do nothing. Why haven't I done that with this recpvery period? I'm not really sure. I think that it is becuase I'm aware that the worst part of the semester is coming up in a week and if I tried to get extensions now, that would just make next week unimaginable bad. Better to suck it up now than to suffer later.

I hope that I didn't make a mistake.

Goodbye Professor N

Our oldest and most beloved professor just retired today. He's been teaching here for 40 years. His starting salary: $400.

He is without a doubt one of the best professors I've ever had. Our school was lucky to have him. (We're still lucky, for he'll continue to teach some classes as an adjunct prof.)

Goodbye Professor N. It was an honor to be taught by you. You've done a terrific job. Thank you. You will be missed.

Happy Birthday to Me

As glad as I am to have had my surgery already, I am kinda bummed that my surgery fell on my birthday weekend. No going out and having a fun time this year!

I have a project due on Monday. I made sure to go to the library on Thursday so that I wouldn't have to go there post-op. Last night, when I was working on the project, I realized that I had forgotten to look something up. Crap! What would normally be a mere 10 minute chore is now an ordeal. The library is only two blocks away. But at the rate that I can move right now, walking there would take an hour round trip and would completely exhaust all of my mental and physical resources.

So I waited until Tree could drive me there. I discovered that car rides suck. While better than walking, they still involve a considerable amount of bumps and vibrations due to our less than perfect shock absorbers. We were driving for all of 45 seconds. And it felt like an hour.

I got what I needed and made it home only slightly worse for wear. Now I'm wondering just how I'm going to turn in my project tomorrow morning.

Post-Op

I am finally in good enough shape that I can sit in front of a computer and type. Yay! I can hobble around slowly too. I am no longer counting down the minutes to my next dose of pain-killer, so I must be getting better.

Thanks to those who wished me well.

The Versed was much less disturbing to me this time around. I imagine that it was becuase I knew what to expect this time around. Plus, I had Tree by my side the whole time, so I felt much more secure. And I can ask her about whatever I don't remember.

Tree made it a bit of a game to see when exactly I stopped remembering things. She read articles to me and sang songs with me as the Versed was kicking in. Afterwards, she asked me if I remembered this article or that song. Apparently, the Versed kicked in a little before we sang the Alphabet song. (That was a little before I got injected with two big scary needles. Tree says that they clearly hurt me quite a bit and she kept saying to herself "I sure hope he doesn't remember this...". Luckily, I don't.)

Matrix thoughts

Was I right about Matrix:Revolutions? Read on to find out. [SPOILERS AHEAD. DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW]

Let's hope it works this time...

I am in a significant amount of pain. Several months ago, I had surgery to relieve this pain. It worked for a while. That of course implies that it did not last. Which it didn't. I have been getting progressively worse and am actually worse off now than I was before my surgery.

I went to the doctor to get the surgery done again. For various reasons, the surgery was scheduled for Jan 30th. The prospect of having to endure several more months of pain that was increasing by the day left me rather depressed.

Then I managed to get the surgery moved to Dec 1st. I also figured out just how much I could do without bringing additional pain on myself (turns out...not very much). The reduced levels of pain and the much closer surgery date left me in much higher spirits.

Now I have found out that some other patient has had a cancellation. I can have my surgery tomorrow (Friday)! Awesome!

(I don't really look forward to having another Versed experience, but I do look forward to saying goodbye to my pain.)

So...off to the hospital tomorrow. When I return, expect my posts to be a bit wonky until I'm off the pain meds.

Media Consumption

Besides the Matrix, what other media am I consuming? 24 and Quicksilver.

I'm excited about this season of 24. The last half of last season was a bit of a letdown (what do you do for suspense after you've already detonated a nuclear bomb?). Hopefully, this season, with its addiction plotline, will be able to maintain suspense all the way to the finish line.

I love how the season starts so late so that it runs without reruns. Unfortunately, that means I have to be very diligent about setting the VCR. Spontanious dinners out can mean missing the first half-hour of an episode with no reruns as a safety net (can you tell that this very thing happened tonight?).

In the print world, I'm busy reading Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson. I'm only 200 pages in (total length: almost 1000 pages!). It is good, but so far not as engrossing as Cryptonomicon was (another 1000 page Neal Stephenson novel to which Quicksilver serves as a kind of prequel). Unfortunately, I've borrowed Quicksilver from the library and it is due on Friday. There is no way I can finish before then unless I abandon all of my responsibilities. And I can't renew because there are a bazillion people on the waiting list. Ah well.

I used to be able to consume all the media I wanted and have time left over. And I never had trouble finishing a book before I had to return it to the library. Now I have to work to make time for movies and TV. Magazines go unread. Books gather dust. Time just seems to be getting scarcer (and the forecast for the foreseeable future is that the trend will continue).

I wonder what life will be like with less media in it?

Revolutions

I am so set to watch Matrix:Revolutions later today. I rewatched portions of Reloaded last night (didn't watch the whole thing 'cause I was being good and doing my homework) and I remain convinced by my previous analysis. The trailers for Revolutions also seem to bear out my predictions (notice how Neo and Smith are mirror images of each other). We'll find out soon. I can't wait. (If there had been a midnight showing, then I'd be in it right now.)

Five is not a very large number

Only 5 trick-or-treaters stopped by last night. And of those 5, only three had costumes (sorry, but the teenager dressed up as a "teenager" and the 4th grader dressed as a "4th grader" do not count). The best was the pirate, and the scariest was the scarecrow (who was scary mostly because he seemed to be some sort of mutant zombie scarecrow), but they really didn't have much competition. Sigh. Hallowen won't remain my favorite holiday for long if no one does any trick-or-treating.

Post-Script: About an hour after the last trick-or treater came by, there was a loud *WHUMP* on our doorstep. It was the kind of sound that you would imagine a rotton pumpkin would make if you hurled it at a door. I opened my door expecting such a scene, but there was nothing. Nobody in sight and nothing that could possibly have made such a noise. I still have no idea what happened.

Also: what am I supposed to do with all of this candy???