Month: April 2006

…and Michael S. Cox is a spammer.

As tagged by Andrea….

1 year ago I wrote this note linking to a color scheme, which I don’t think I ever used for anything.? More to the point, I was in the throes of very severe episode of depression.? A week later I wrote my big post on depression, and I started on medication for the first time.? (I’m attempting tapering off now.)

Exactly 5 years ago, ironically enough, I began this weblog. At that time, I had been at Pierce for 3 months, C & I had just moved to Lakewood, and he was working at Half-Price Books.? Like Andrea, I was totally immersed in CSS while beginning to learn PHP at the same time.? I was still in “the” writer’s group, but I can’t remember if that was before or after the big Matt vs. Kat split (to simplify it entirely).? I was playing a lot of Sims.

10 years ago, in April 1996, I was a month away from my bachelor’s degree at UPS, living a few blocks away, and working at the Children’s Museum of Tacoma part time.? Raul and I had broken up just under a month prior, but were still living together, gradually separating our stuff from 3 years of cohabitation.? We continued to live together until August of that year, which was occasionally awkward, although we remain friends to this day.? I had half-crushes on my two best friends; I was writing stacks of poetry; I was desperate to graduate. I can’t remember now if this was the period where Kat had to invite me to lunch to get me out of bed before I went to class, or if that was before the breakup.
Most of the really big changes in my life happened in that stretch from ’96 to ’01…graduating, meeting C, finding a career, several sets of friends coming & going, getting married, moving out of Tacoma.? Since then, just two big changes: buying the house in Oly and dealing with this last big depression.? Everything else is incremental, and yet I find myself quite different in my head than even 5 years ago.

Who am I tagging?? I always want to tag Kat & Joe, but they never do it…I don’t think they read this. :(? So instead….

• Elizabeth
• Meri
• Ralph

if you’re calculating number grades in MSExcel/OOCalc, and you want to drop the lowest score, but only for one test/assignment, use this formula:

=(SUM(A1:A5)-MIN(A1:A5))/(COUNT(A1:A5)-1)

where “A1:A5” is the actual range.

this came up in the vanpool the other day, whether it could be done w/out a macro, and I just couldn’t let it go.? (sometimes my brain works that way)

let’s just say it was a severe nerd moment.

Today while I was on my way to a meeting, I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said:

Shirt of Invisibility +2

I couldn’t seen the 2 originally, so I stopped and asked what the plus was, and then where did he get it. Alas, it was borrowed from a friend, so he didn’t know. 🙁

And then I had to get on the elevator, so I didn’t learn any more.

Update: Chad sez: “invisibility doesn’t have a plus.” (such a cute geek!) also, Hot Topic (oy!) carries them.

First, a personal note.? I am doing much better, well enough to ride my bike to the vanpool today.? C is getting better also, albeit more slowly.? The sun (o the sun!) is helping both of us.

After bookmarking/blogging/whatever the 5th article in two days that I’d tagged as “to-read” because I just don’t have the brainspace or time for it now, it occurred to me that I have an input problem.

The same thought comes to me when I get an email from the library saying my hold is ready, and I’ve hardly even cracked the last book I picked up.

You know that saying about “eyes are bigger than the stomach”?? I think I’m that way with words, because when I get to the library, I almost always end up grabbing 2 or 3 more books in addition to the hold.? Hey, they look interesting.

Several things happen as a result:

1. I don’t read all of the things I really want to.
2. I forget stuff that I’ve read, because I read it too quickly.? (With the internets, this is less of a problem, as I can generally find it later if I need to reference something in particular.)
3. I work less on my own projects, be they web sites or stories, or sometimes, embarassingly enough, stuff around the house.

I don’t know what to do about it.? Or even what to think…it’s amazing that all this good stuff is out there.

I’ve learned more in the last couple of years than I did in most of the decade before that.? I’ve met people, thought big thoughts, connected incredibly disparate books, essays & whatnot in ways that engage my mind.? Plus there’s all that good practical education.
Which doesn’t make me feel any less as though I were drowning in words.

Funny thing for a hyperlexic to say, ain’t it?

bronchitis, again.? doc thinks he’ll fight it off this week; if not by the end of the week, then back to the doctor again.? we are both much relieved.

Saturday C said that I have the stronger immune system.? Thinking back on 9 years together, I have to concede that he’s correct, much as I tend to forget it.

Twice now I’ve had a cold, where when he caught it, the dang thing went to bronchitis.? And now he’s just miserable, barely able to blow his nose, a little faint, coughing violently and bringing up gnarly stuff.? I’m waiting to hear from the doctor after she gets all the stuff from our visit on Saturday.

Last night he didn’t sleep at all.? We both went to bed late, mostly because of the time change (Daylight Savings wreaks havoc on my brain!), and when I fell asleep he was in another room reading.? When I woke up at 6, he was still there, working on another book.? He dozed briefly earlier, snoring in cadence with Maddy, but woke up coughing.

Now the house is quiet, except for the sound of these keys.? I’m glad to be teleworking so I can be on deck if needed.? Easier to get work done without fretting.

(And me?? I’ve gone from about 60% on Friday to about 90% today.? The occasional cough/sniffle, but otherwise I feel fine.)

I went to work on Friday, albeit at about 60% of normal capacity.? I’m still a little sniffly/coughing, but not too much.? Managed to do some housework today, even.

C, on the other hand, is not doing anywhere near as well.? Very serious painful coughing, short of breath, etc.? We went to “urgent care” midday today, where he got x-rays and meds.? Tentative diagnosis is pneumonia, maybe; he’ll be going back to the doctor on Monday.
Soon this blog will no longer be the daily illness chronicle…soon.? Soon.