Month: January 2017

It rained this evening in Vancouver. It was a heavy rain, the kind of rainy evening that every Vancouverite is used to. I welcomed the precipitation with open arms, perhaps not literally but I embraced its arrival. After weeks of cold and dry weather, the rain was accompanied by temperatures near the double digits.

It’s supposed to rain all week and I hope it will wash away all that snow and ice that has been plaguing the city since mid-December. I know the people of this city are famous for complaining about rainy weather but it would not bother me one bit if it rained for the rest of this month. With rain comes warmer temperatures and after the deep freeze of this winter, I’d gladly trade that for my umbrella.

In a previous post, I wrote about how the cafeteria renovation at my workplace was taking too long and completely missed the initial estimates for re-opening. In that post, I dismissed their third attempt at guessing when they’d re-open and I offered my own estimate. I said the renovation would be done in January and the cafeteria would be back in business then. It turns out I was right.

Tomorrow the cafeteria re-opens again in full capacity for revenue service, breakfast all the way to dinner. After shutting down in May of 2016 and initially saying it would re-open at the end of the summer of 2016, it will finally be ready after months of lengthy delays.

The company says it tries to be transparent whenever possible but I’ve found the details of this particular project to be shrouded in mystery. Very little information was communicated to employees during the renovation. A blog which was supposed to track the details of the renovation went months without updates. The only info we got about the delays was that the project was thrown some “curveballs”. What that really meant in actual relevant details is unknown to me.

Keep in mind, I realize that not having a cafeteria at work for eight months isn’t the end of the world but not knowing why such a large scale project got so far behind is odd, especially since the project affects nearly every single person at the studio. The other thing is that every single studio under EA is responsible for spending their money responsibly. If the renovation went way over budget, which I can’t say if it did, then will our bonuses be less because our studio wasn’t fiscally responsible?

So while food will once again be served onto our plastic trays, I feel like a lot of details are still missing and someone wants to sweep them under the proverbial rug.

I didn’t make a post last night because my schedule got thrown out of whack. Last evening at around 10pm I felt quite tired, most likely because I’m still recovering from that last bit of the sinus infection. I crawled into bed with the intention of napping half an hour to an hour, just to get my energy back so I could finish some things before going to real bed. I feel asleep and when my eyes blinked awake again I saw it past 3am in the morning. I must have been exhausted because I was lights out asleep without any interruption for hours.

I must have laid in bed for about ten minutes trying to process what I needed to do. I still needed to brush my teeth and floss. I also needed to refill my hot water dispenser and set the timer for it so that I would have freshly boiled water in the morning. Of course the lights and my computer were still on so I’d have to shut those down once everything else was completed.

With my pre-sleep activities done, I slipped into bed once more, this time ready to sleep all the way through to the morning. Unfortunately, I was wide awake at this point. Rather than get up again, I decided to stay in bed and just browse the Internet. It’s a good thing my tablet was plugged into the wall because I was watching cat videos for nearly three hours before I felt tired enough to fall back asleep.

So that’s why you weren’t able to read something disappointing last night!

As I recover from this serious sinus infection I have, I am also preparing to go to EA’s annual holiday party, which takes place this Saturday. It is interesting to note that almost two years ago to this week, I was also recovering from a serious sinus infection and getting ready to go to EA’s annual holiday party. I don’t like it when bad things repeat themselves with such noticeable patterns. The timing of it all is almost too predictable to be coincidence. If I had a poorer grasp of logic, I might even infer that scheduling the party causes the sinus infection to more likely to occur. Of course, the party has nothing to do with it.

If I had to be more analytical, it’s the weather and the time of year that deserves more scrutiny. The cold temperatures might be a factor. Last December was milder compared to this year. Two years ago, it was much colder, like it was this year. Colder temperatures means the heat is on more often. In my place, the heat makes the air in my apartment dry. Dry air does negatively affect your sinuses and leaves them susceptible to infection. Hmmm… now I’m wondering if I’m going to turn on the heat in my place, I should also ensure the air remains moist at the same time.

In my grad school residence, I used to take a cheap $5 electrical kettle I had and continuously boiled water in it to raise the humidity level in my room. When you boil water that fast, it raises the moisture level quite quickly and it never really has a chance to level off. On nights where I stayed in my room for hours, it became like a steamy jungle in there. My skin and sinuses were so comfortable. There were consequences though. The humidity was so high, it condensed everywhere in my room, including the insides of my very first digital camera, ruining it. In fact, the inside of the camera had a few sensors (stickers really) that detected if you dropped it in water or any other liquid. When I sent in the camera for a warranty repair, they rejected it because they said I had dropped it in water. Technically that wasn’t true but I had no way of fighting it.

Anyways, I think the lesson to be learned here is that I should invest in a real humidifier that should be used in conjunction with the operation of my baseboard heater in my room during the winter months.

I don’t think I can properly convey the gratitude I have for President Barack Obama as he led the United States for the last eight years. His election in 2008 was met with relief and I was filled with hope that things were going to the improve for the US and for the world at large. I believe he did leave things in better shape than when he first stepped into the Oval Office.

In those eight years, he fulfilled the duties of the office with class, grace, empathy, strength, and the seriousness that you would expect a president should have. He was so presidential when president.

I will always admire his skills as an orator. Over the years, I’ve watched and listened to his numerous speeches over and over again. There is an eloquence to his words, marked by an underlying layer of passion. His ability to grab and hold the rapt attention of any listener with just his words is remarkable. Perhaps one day, I will get to hear him speak in person.

As time marches on and the history books are written, I hope they are kind to him.

While I was ill (technically I’m still ill I suppose), I watched a lot of Family Guy on Netflix. That made the days go by much smoother.

You know I knew I had a sinus infection last weekend. I’m not a medical professional but I do know my body pretty well and last weekend, the amount, texture, and colour of the mucous that my sinuses was producing was not normal. Like most of you, I’ve had countless colds where you get that typical stuffy nose. In that situation, you’re not congested 24/7 and you don’t wind up producing litres of mucous per day. Except that’s what was happening to me.

On Monday, I visited a doctor at a walk-in clinic to see if he believed I had a sinus infection. Look, I don’t want to be one of those Internet doctors that believe they know better than a medical professional. They’re the ones with the medical degree, not me. So the doctor listened to my lungs, took my temperature, and tapped his fingers on face where my sinuses where. He decided that I didn’t have a sinus infection and instead suggested I use a neti pot and steamy showers to loosen and clean the mucous from my sinuses. I must admit I was disappointed in his diagnosis but he did say if it got worse to come back. Well, it did get worse, a lot worse.

Over the course of the week, the congestion became much worse and the mucous production was relentless. By the weekend, I had to constantly be drinking water because my body was using so much of it to produce mucous. I also was afflicted with diarrhea the whole week. My guess is that the bacteria from the infection was obviously in the mucous and I was swallowing a lot of it as it dripped in the back of my throat. My digestive system reacted to it like it might if you ate some dodgy potato salad that had been in the sun too long. So safe to say, I was miserable by the time Friday came around, except the worst was still ahead of me.

By Saturday, the congestion was unrelenting. No matter how many steamy showers or whatever position I put my head in, my sinuses were nearly completely blocked and it became impossible to properly breathe through my nose. I literally had to draw every breathe into my lungs through my mouth. Now many of you might not realize this but relying on your mouth to breathe is not natural. As you read this, think about the last few seconds, where did you breathe from? Your nose. Now imagine you can no longer breathe from you nose. As a test, pinch or plug your nose and try to breathe only through your mouth. Doing so is not as automatic as breathing through your nose. You actually have to think about drawing air through you mouth and into your lungs. You also have to actively regulate how frequently you draw breathe as well. Normally, there’s a part of your brain that handles that for you with your nose.

Now you can probably imagine I was in severe discomfort at this point and I began to worry that if I breathed too fast I might hyperventilate and pass out. If I was unconscious, I had no idea if my body would know to switch to mouth breathing if it couldn’t get air through my nose. For the first time in my life, I realized I was probably in a situation where if I did that one thing wrong (breathing too fast through my mouth), there would be some serious medical consequences. As it was Saturday evening, my only recourse was to either go to the emergency department at the local hospital or call 911 and get an ambulance to come get me.

As I sat there manually and purposefully inhaling air so that my body could continue to stay alive, I cursed that first doctor that refused to give me any antibiotics. If I was going to go out this way, I was going to haunt that dude until the end of days.

Before going the ER route. I decided I should probably try to blow out any mucous that might be present. I did that and in the process nearly blew out both my eardrums and both my eyes from their sockets. Sometimes that does nothing to help congestion as the sinuses are so inflamed they just block the airways no matter how much snot you got up there. In my case, I did remove some mucous and but not a whole lot. Luckily, I also managed to find an angle where I could tilt my head that relieved enough pressure that I could partially breathe through my right nostril again. I felt safe enough again that I didn’t think I needed to go the ER at this moment. My condition went from “potentially life-threatening” to “just plain miserable”.

For the rest of the evening, I just concentrated on surviving and breathing. I actually stayed up as long as I could because I was afraid of falling asleep and asphyxiating. By 4am, my right nostril was clear enough that I thought it would be safe to sleep. I slept for about five hours which was the most sleep I’d had since Thursday night. I had to get up early because I was going to see a different doctor.

Before seeing the doctor though, I witnessed an incredible sight. I went at least five hours without clearing my sinuses and in that time my body was making mucous the entire time (actually it’s been making mucous every second of the day since last Friday). I went to blow my nose and a jaw-dropping amount of yellow-brown mucous came out of my right nostril. I’d never seen anything like that before. Most of it came out with the consistency of thick glue. I’d blow my nose and a stream of it would just eject out of my nostril. It just kept coming and coming. Some of it came out in more solid chunks that were mixed in with blood. I was using so many tissues that I decided I should just blow the mucous into the sink. As disgusting as the sight might have been, it was fascinating how much volume there is in your sinuses.

With most of my sinuses clear, I saw another doctor who instantly decided I needed to be antibiotics after I told her about my ordeal. She also prescribed a steroid nasal spray. I immediately filled out the prescriptions and wasted no time in taking the first dose of the antibiotic. The last time I had sinus infection this bad, antibiotics were the only thing that helped.

I’ve had two doses of the antibiotic now and I feel much better compared to just 24 hours ago. I’m still producing a bit of mucous but it’s clear now instead of glue-like. My sinus congestion has abated as well, not completely, but I am now breathing through my nose somewhat comfortably. In an overall scale though, I still feel terrible but that’s probably from not sleeping properly for a few days.

If there’s anything to learn from this is that I feel like all of this could have been avoided if I was given antibiotics on Monday. Unfortunately, it’s a tough situation because most doctors are hesitant to prescribe antibiotics immediately for sinus infections. There has to be some happy medium because as a patient, I shouldn’t have to wait until I’m a life-threatening condition before a doctor relents and decides, yeah ok, you can have your antibiotics.

One interesting little factoid before I go. I have been ill for the entirety of 2017. I have not been healthy on any day of this new year. Wonderful isn’t it?

I have no time for length post tonight as I’m dealing with a bout of diarrhea. It’s that kind of diarrhea where it’s accompanied by a massive amount of gas. I’m not sure what brought this on. I get the feeling it’s not something I ate as it. I have no proof of that, just a gut feeling, no pun intended. Anyways, I could have just lied about why I didn’t have a post written for tonight but you, my readers, and I have known each other for so long that you deserve to know the truth. Hopefully tomorrow I won’t be peeing out of my butt.

Despite it being now Wednesday, I’ve yet to return to work from the holiday break. For the second straight day, I stayed at home, doing as much work as I can remotely. I actually fixed a bug today. Admittedly, the bug itself was already fixed but I was the one that confirmed that everything was working fine. The needle of progress moving a millimeter forward is still progress.

Around 2pm I ate a salad for lunch, which I was quite proud of. At 3:30pm I started feeling really tired and I decided to nap. I thought I’d maybe wake up in time to make some dinner but once I put my head down on my pillow I was asleep until 5:30pm when an IM awoke me. It was all dark and I closed my eyes once more. The next time I opened them it was 8pm. Wow, I must have been exhausted.

I really don’t know if I’ll feel good enough to go back to work tomorrow. Now my back is all stiff from something. Ugh.

In the province of British Columbia, the property assessments for this year were just released to the public via web site. I was unaware of this but earlier in December BC Assessment sent out letters to hundreds of property owners warning them that they assessments would see massive jumps relative to previous years. I did not get one of these letters.

This week, people found out exactly how big these jumps were. My apartment was assessed at a record high, far exceeding any increases that I’d seen previously. As a comparison, I believe the largest increase I saw in years past was perhaps 3-4%. For this year, the assessed value of my apartment increased by 23%. According to the government, my apartment is now well over $300K which is ridiculous because it’s certainly not worth that much. This does, however, back up some of the things I’ve seen a post I wrote earlier.

It’s interesting to note, however, the assessed value was calculated in July of 2016. The market has changed since then. A new foreign buyer real estate tax was introduced after July, which did have an effect on prices. Though I would say the effect was not anywhere near a “crash” or a “bursting of a bubble”.

The new assessments have been the talk of the town all week. Some are wondering if their property taxes will also shoot sky high. I would say not necessarily. Property taxes don’t follow assessment values in a linear scale, if they did we’d all be in trouble. For the most part, municipalities take what they need to make the budget work for that year. I would expect my property taxes to increase but not anywhere near 23%.

If you know anyone who lives in this province, enter in their address and find out how much their property is worth!