20 August 2007 Monday

19 August 2007 Sunday

Cobbling

16 August 2007 Thursday

Playlist 08/14/2007

12 August 2007 Sunday

Previous articles lists implemented

08 August 2007 Wednesday

Facebook is scary

Dangerous place, Facebook. I’ve been bitten by zombies and vampires, recruited by werewolves to fight the vampires, and invited by ninjas to battle pirates. Meanwhile I’ve taken hiatus from training my cute little green bunny to wear phantom armor, stingers, skullhelms and masks of the undead to fight bunny-sized spiders and scorpions…

To punctuate the scariness: I have a pet tofu that smiles (a lot) and talks. And apparently eats chocolate frogs.

06 August 2007 Monday

Ear unhappiness, part 3

[part 1]
[part 2]

So, I did finally see a doctor on Thursday, who told me what we all knew already: water in the ear —> infection.
He prescribed me ear drops: Cipro HC otic (ciprofloxacin 0.2% HCI and hydrocortisone 1% otic suspension) 10mL..
Also, he prescribed me a few pills of Vicodin for the pain.

The Advil had been the only useful thing in the past week, for dulling the pain.. though it takes a while to kick in..
By the way, someone had given me the genius advice that I should be drinking alcohol, rather than taking Advil, to quelch the pain. …. yeah… so that was one of the most painful things EVER. Where the pain had been steady and usually bearable, the alcohol (before I could drink enough to feel any positive effects of it) was pumping through my blood and pulsing in my ear.. I could feel the blood pumping in my ear.. and the pain was so heightened and throbbing and not manageable. With really no other option (can’t mix Vicodin with alcohol.. and no telling how long it would take to kick in anyway (Advil seemed to take 20-30 minutes), I went ahead and ordered more vodka and downed a glass and a half, pushing across the pain threshold and entering happy no-sense-of-balance land.
That was Thursday.

I’ve been taking the eardrops medication since then, and while the discomfort/feeling that my ear is not 100% and occasional (generally duller) pain have not gone away, I have not had any new episodes of extreme pain, and I’ve been able to eat without much trouble and sleep without unusual interruptions of ouching.

I’ll update again when 100% better.

04 August 2007 Saturday

Playlist 08/04/2007

Scott Matthews – Elusive [lyrics], [via]
Josh Ritter – Beautiful Night
Lo – Evening News
Amit Varia – Bewildered
Lily Frost – Enchantment
Charlotte Martin – Many Rivers, Redeemed
The National – Ada, Slow Show, Fake Empire, Green Gloves

01 August 2007 Wednesday

Ear unhappiness cont'd

[continued from previous entry]

As a record for myself:

I probably picked it up during [attempted] water skiing in lake on Saturday. Probably during my last wipe-out. I’ve never experienced anything like swimmer’s ear. Water in my ear tends to go away on its own.
I have always felt pain associated with congestion during landings on airplanes. I’ve found TylenolCold&Sinus to be consistently helpful for dealing with that. Aside from that, I tend not to take medicines in general.
I have never quite been able to blow the air out of my ears by pinching my nose shut. Yawning can work (and hurt when it breaks through my ears).. but deliberate force-blowing doesn’t quite work for me (and feels like I’ll rupture something important if I continue).
So, okay, I believe this is my first experience with an ear problem.
(I did try TylenolCold&Sinus on this, btw. The sensation was similar, so I was hopeful that the Tylenol might have its usual positive effect. Didn’t work.)

(It’s not been itchy, btw, which is apparently a big symptom of swimmer’s ear.)

Felt consistent pain and discomfort during drive on Sunday.
Monday was painful and bothersome at times as well.
Yesterday (Tuesday) morning when I woke up, it really hurt, more than the rest of the time.

Yesterday (Tuesday) at dinner it was agonizingly painful.. I could barely chew anything.. the ear itself was so painful I couldn’t help but wince and look miserable though trying to be stoic and manage the discomfort.. it was really, really bad though.. Through the day I’d been able to function through the pain, but the pain at dinnertime was not really function-throughable.
My dinner company was prompted to run a few blocks to CVS and picked up Advil, two brands of “ear drying aid” specifically geared to dealing with “Swim-ear”, and “Earache Relief”.. (Aside from the Advil, they’re all eardrops… These past couple days, btw, are possibly the first time I’ve ever poured anything into my ears.)

Eventually, blowing (with my nose pinched shut) to the point that I could feel whatever-it-is bubble in my ear without rupturing it (it’s a funny bubble feeling..cuz when I do the hard(slow) blowing, it feels like my ear’s collapsing inward a bit so that it blocks even more sound out), might have helped alleviate the pain a bit.
I woke up at 3am this (Wednesday) morning. The pain was worse than anything previous.. I was miserable. took an Advil. Tried the earache relief ear drops. let it sink into my ear… no improvement. miserable pain. tried shifting different positions. couldn’t fall back asleep though I was so tired.. the pain was too much. ended up taking another advil. put the the Auro-Dri ear drying aid in my ear.. no improvement. shifted around. miserable pain. must have eventually fallen asleep through the pain, cause I don’t recall it subsiding.
When I woke to my alarm for work, I was back to normal pain/discomfort.. Which is not at all fabulous, but at least I’m functional again and not simply writhing in agony.

Pretty sucky, yes.
And I still have to chew pretty gingerly (especially on right side of my mouth, though either side is felt by my right ear).

I don’t have a doctor, which is why I haven’t rushed off to see one.
Today I’m starting a regiment of “triple tickle cocktail”, which is three BioC’s, three garlics, three echiniceas.. every 3-4 hours. If things aren’t better by tomorrow, I will find a doctor/antibiotics.

[continued in part 3]

31 July 2007 Tuesday

Ear unhappiness

The pain was clear on Sunday (probably something to do with water skiing on Saturday).. it’s Tuesday now… My right ear has been hurting… it’s internal, but around the ear hurts too.. sleeping on it hurts, not doing anything to it really hurts sometimes.. There’s some sort of blockage inside, but I’ve never for the life of me been able to clear my ears by blowing with my nose held closed.. and even if I could, it feels like I would rupture something (that I don’t want to rupture) if I did succeed… Tried dropping a bit of alcohol in it per coworker’s suggestion just now.. That doesn’t seem to have helped…
Looked up online and the symptoms suggest that I have “swimmer’s ear”.. Which, very very annoyingly, appears to be treatable only by a doctor. What the hell. Seriously? I can’t do anything from home for a stupid and annoying earache? ::very displeased:: The pain is cutting into my sleep now. And generally weird and uncomfortable feeling. No itchiness at all, but definitely pain and discomfort.

Further research.. possible remedies I’ll try at home:
myhomeremedies.com
webmd.com
mothernature.com

29 July 2007 Sunday

The Lost Prophecy

Finished Order of the Phoenix (again) last night..
Second to last chapter is pretty neat..
Harry’s such a child/teenager.. And I guess that’s apparently excusable.. as was his father’s behavior on account of his age at the time as well.. I don’t know. I still expect more from Harry/people. Yes there’s time for them to grow up and make up for what they were, but the future never negates the past. What it can do, though, is allow for one to correct and build on the past.
Anyway, in second to last chapter, Harry is in much pain.. and is being patiently addressed by wisdom and age.. That pain, wisdom recognizes, is reflective of great strength and power that is not understandable nor matchable by darkness.
And here, context comes into play again, because fewer people than the number of fingers on one of my hands will understand why the question of that pain means something to me.
The conflict between age is interesting too… the young do not trust the old.. the young believe they know better, or that they should know everything.. The old believe that they are protecting the young from knowledge that could hurt them. (All the while people are concerned about test scores and attendance records when there’s a real world, life and death to face.)
By the way, Harry’s slowness on the uptake of the prophecy and what it meant to whom….. is that even reasonable? Are people allowed to be so slow?
Have to go…..