Category: Uncategorized

So Deadspin, a sports web site of all things, solicited its readers for their worst poop stories. I love these tales because I think everyone can relate to them. Who hasn’t had to go really, really bad at the most inopportune time at least once in their lives? To me, they’re better than any scary campfire yarn.

In the above remote segment, funnyman Conan O’Brien visits Taco Bell headquarters with his staff IT manager. I love the food at Taco Bell, so I watched this visit with great interest. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s a good thing I don’t live close to a Taco Bell or my health would honestly be in jeopardy.

When I was sick and my throat was sore, I wanted to drink lots of tea with honey. It seemed like something that would be soothing. I went into my kitchen and realized I no longer had any honey from the last time I was sick. I went downstairs to Safeway to get some more. As many of you know, honey is expensive. Safeway had many different brands on sale, most of them local but all quite pricey. Then I noticed one particular brand was noticeably cheaper than the rest. I didn’t look at it too closely, other than seeing the words “Canada” and “pasteurized” on the front. I was in a hurry to make some tea, so this brand of honey it was.

After making my first cup of lovely honey-infused tea, I looked at the back of the bottle of honey. It was there I realized why this brand was cheaper than the rest. The contents were a blend of Canadian and Chinese honey. That made me worried because I’m always wary of any imported foodstuffs from China. Growing up, my parents told my sister and I that food in China is much more prone to making people sick because of a shocking lack of regulations and ethics. I always assume that any foodstuffs from China will contain either lead and/or some dangerous chemical.

Curious, I went and Googled “Chinese honey”. Many results came back and I was not surprised by the contents in the following article. For those short one time, a relevant quote tells us that “much of China’s honey production is tainted with pesticides, antibiotics, and heavy metal contamination”. Great. While there’s no evidence that the honey that’s in my bottle is tainted, I don’t think I’ll be buying this brand again.

I’d recommend that you stay away from most foodstuff imported from China, it’s just safer that way.

Because I’m still on antibiotics (you have to finish your whole course of treatment!), I have to take a pill every eight hours. I initially tried to time it so that I’d take a pill before going to bed and then a pill when I woke up (or slightly after). Well last evening, my scheduled slipped a bit so I was up a few hours after my last pill for that the day. So I had to set my alarm so I could wake up, take the pill, and then go back to bed.

For whatever reason, I was dreaming right before the alarm went off. Normally, I forget my dreams several hours after the fact, even if they are quite vivid. This morning was different however. I was dreaming about Captain America, the Chris Evans version, and it seemed like I was seeing Cap from a movie point of view. There was a narrator explaining the origins of the Star-Spangled Avenger and I was seeing the start of some training footage. Then my alarm went off and as I woke up, I felt a distinct sense of disappointment that my dream got interrupted and I could see more of Captain America.

I can’t remember the last time I felt so disappointed about a dream being cut short because I woke up.

As I mentioned in my last post, I finally got on some antibiotics for that stupid sinusitis that I had. Though I was certainly feeling better on Thursday evening, I was feeling orders of magnitude better by late Friday. Three weeks of being congested and making so much mucous was finally solved by less than three days of antibiotics. I know we sometimes take modern medicine for granted but I was certainly reminded how thankful I am for what we already can do. I began to wonder what humans did before antibiotics. If I lived in the 1800s and I had this exact case of sinusitis, what would have happened to me? Would my body eventually just fight off the infection, perhaps six months down the road? Or would this have actually felled me in a fatal way?

Well, 1800s me aside, it was fortuitous that I was feeling great by Saturday because I had a party to go. I somewhat marveled that after being shut-in and hermit for nearly three weeks, I’d jump from that to a huge party, with no baby steps in between. The occasion was the Electronic Arts Canada “holiday” party at the Vancouver Convention Centre. My friend had an extra ticket because his wife wasn’t interested in going, so he graciously allowed me to be his +1 for the evening. Along with spending some time with my friend, I also was looking forward to seeing any familiar faces that still work at the mothership in Burnaby.

The theme of the evening was patterned after the world in the novel The Night Circus. It was suggested that men wear suits and women wear evening gowns. There were some fantastically dressed women there who really got into the circus theme. As for the venue, it was nicely decorated, mostly dark with purple accented lighting. They were wandering entertainers, a dude on stilts, a clown, and I’m pretty sure there was someone on a penny-farthing too. There were also some living statues and an acrobatic act on stage and from the ceiling (like using silks and hoops). As for food, it was kinda hit and miss. I wasn’t a big fan of the sliders and the hot dogs. There was also some weird “poutine”, which amounted to crudely cut chunks of potatoes barely covered in any cheese. The desserts were much better, which featured funnel cakes, candied apples, cake pops, and popcorn. They even had some lady who had cup cakes on her skirt. She was walking around and people would just take a cup cake from her. You can see a picture of that above. Later in the evening, they brought out gyozas.

Near the back of the venue was a fun-house, complete with a hall of mirrors and a giant slide that went from the second story to the ground floor. Next to all of that was a whole row of booths that you might see at a carnival. There was skee-ball, fortune tellers, a temporary tattoo booth, and a place for you to win stuffed animals by popping balloons with a dart. I won a small stuffed penguin that I got tired of carrying around, so I left it on a table for someone to steal.

The highlight for me at least was seeing so many of friends and acquaintances that I hadn’t seen for a while. It was very satisfying to talk to them all and find out how they were all doing. One dude told me he just had a baby with his partner. I didn’t even know they were expecting.

I was prepared to leave early just in case my body wasn’t up to it but I felt fine all evening and left just before last call. I gotta keeping taking these antibiotics for another week or so but hopefully I’m good to go from here on it!

I’ve now been on antibiotics for over 24 hours. This morning, I wasn’t sure at all if they were having any positive effect on my sinusitis. I was still slightly congested and I was still blowing some gnarly amounts of yellowish mucous out of my nose. I had some breakfast but wasn’t feeling all that great so I headed back to bed to get some rest.

To my surprise, I woke up and it was almost 4pm. I guess I was really tired. I got up but I was feeling even worse than this morning. I was quite dismayed to discover that as I was hoping the antibiotics would be working. Feeling hungry, I ate some food and drank lots of warm water to stay hydrated. About an hour later, I felt much better. I also noticed the congestion in my sinuses had abated considerably. While it’s still not 100% back to normal, I haven’t felt the need to blow my nose since this morning. This is quite the development since I’ve been rocketing mucous out of nose frequently for nearly three weeks now.

The only bit of bad news to report is that I think I have a very mild case of tonsillitis in my left tonsil. This is only the second time I’ve had it, the first being last summer where I had a very painful case of it. This instance of it is definitely annoying but nowhere as bad as last time. It sorta feels like a canker sore in the back of my mouth. There’s normally no pain as I go about my daily business. Drinking any kind of liquid, hot or cold, always eases any kind of sensitivity in the area. Eating is the only thing that flares up the pain. Eating any kind of soft food doesn’t cause any problems. I had a whole whack of tuna sashimi tonight for dinner, dipped in soy sauce and I was fine. Stuff that’s hard and has sharp edges though do cause a lot of pain. I had a potato chip yesterday and that was a bad, bad idea. Being on antibiotics will definitely help the tonsillitis go away much quicker.

In general, I think I’m finally seeing some improvement in my condition though I’m super frustrated I lost three weeks of my life to sinusitis. What a waste!

I saw a doctor today about my never ending sinus congestion. I went into great detail about my symptoms, including how I’ve had this for weeks and the great quantity of the yellow-green mucous my sinuses have been producing. The doctor looked into my ears and up my nostrils. He also tapped on my sinuses under my eyes and on my forehead. He prescribed me some antibiotics. I asked him how he knew it was a bacterial infection instead of viral. He told me based on the colour of my mucous it was most likely bacterial so antibiotics would work.

So now I’m on 500mg of amoxicillin, three times a day. In hindsight, I wish I went to the doctor earlier because this stupid illness has made the beginning of the year an awful time for me. Though, in my defense, this thing seemed like a normal cold to me at first and usually I don’t need to see a doctor to get better from colds. Of course, it would be useless to get antibiotics for colds anyways since they are caused by viruses, not bacteria. A lesson learned for next time perhaps but I hope I never get a bacterial infection of sinuses ever again.

I am aiming to feel better by the weekend but who knows how long it’ll take the antibiotics to work its magic. Come on drugs do your thing!

Though the severity has varied over the last few weeks, I have been under the weather since about Boxing Day. For first week or so, I had what seemed like a mild sinus infection on my right side. All it was was some congestion and a bit of mucus build up. It wasn’t really so bad, just a minor annoyance as I didn’t have any other symptoms. After a week though, I felt terrible all of a sudden and the mild sinus infection turned into what seemed like a full-blown cold. Both of my sinuses were now clogged up and congested. I started making copious amounts of green-yellow mucus from my nose. I also got a bit of a sore throat and a cough.

For the next three days of so, I felt awful and basically stayed in bed most of the time. Then I started feeling better as the general malaise went away as did the sore throat. The cough got better too but the nasal congestion remained. I could have seen a doctor at this point but it looked like I was getting better.

I waited for the sinus congestion to go away and on some days it felt like it might but it would never fully get better. It’s been like this for the last week and a half. Some nights it’s difficult to get decent rest since my sinuses are congested. I try to blow my nose to clear it but sometimes there’s nothing there but it’s still really hard to breathe.

I finally decided to seek medical advice today but when I phoned my family doctor’s office, I was told my doctor was booked up until he gets back in two weeks. I then visited two different walk-in clinics but both had reached their patient limits for the day already. I’ll try to wake up early tomorrow and get to a clinic before they close up for the day.

In recent memory, I can only think of one time where I’ve been ill this long. Back in grad school, one winter I had a nasty cough for an entire month. I just could not shake it. I wound having to take codeine which I’m pretty sure made me high for a while.

Anyways, I’m ready for this cold to go away.

It was way more hassle than I ever envisioned it to be but I finally have real Internet access at home again. This whole process of changing ISPs was a comedy of errors and if something could have gone wrong, it basically did in the last few weeks.

My new ISP, Lightspeed Communications, originally said someone would be coming to my home to set me up on 6th of January. I was supposed to be up and running that day. Then that date got pushed to the 8th but no one told me that though. I had to chase down Lightspeed for the basic details of the installation. I have to say they weren’t very good at all about making sure I was informed of what was going to happen. The onus was always on me to keep phoning them to figure out how my installation was going to proceed. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re a small company or if they just suck at communicating with their customers, either way, it’s not a good way to treat people.

Anyways, on the 8th, some dude from Telus finally comes to do some simple wiring at my apartment. He leaves, I try to connect to the Internet and nothing happens. I call Lightspeed again and they say that I might have to wait up to 24 hours for Telus to finish their work. Of course, 24 hours later it still doesn’t work and so a trouble ticket is opened up with Telus. It’s the weekend by this time, so no one is available at Telus. So two days pass without any resolution.

This morning, someone from Telus phones me and says he’s ready to come up and take a look at the wiring. I let him in and show him what the other guy did. He takes one look and tells me the other guy completely screwed up the wiring job. According to him, it wasn’t even close to being right. The new guy was way better than the idiot from last week. He fixed the wiring job, told me exactly what he was doing, and stuck around to do some tests to confirm the line was working properly. The final test, of course, was to plug in the DSL modem to see if I could get Internet access. As is typical with my luck in life, it did not work. Since he’s not responsible for the modem and anything else from the wiring on, it’s now back to a Lightspeed problem. I thank the guy and he leaves.

I get back on the phone with Lightspeed and they figure out that I was given a super fast 25 Mbps line instead of the 6 Mbps line. The modem I got doesn’t work with a 25 Mbps line. As I mentioned previously, if there was a potential to go wrong, it basically did in this whole mess. So they tell me I can drop by their office to pick up a temp modem so I can get Internet access while they change my line over to a slower one. Luckily, the office is very close by and convenient to get to. It takes me about half an hour to get it and come back home.

I plug the new modem in and it works, to my pessimistic surprise. It takes me about an hour to configure everything so it was working like before but it’s all good now. The one silver lining in all of this is it will take a few days for them to downgrade my line. Until then, my connection is four times faster than what I’m paying for. I’ve already downloaded a few games and lots of torrents to take advantage.

Well, what was supposed to be a simple process turned into a bit of nightmare. It feels so good to be back online again. Alright, now let’s go find some porn.

Well, for what it’s worth, I still don’t have Internet access at my home. My change in ISPs has turned into a bit of a nightmare. There’s no point in talking about it again until it gets fixed. Anyways, I’m typing this from a soup kitchen somewhere in east Van where I managed to get a nice bowl of hot minestrone and some free wi-fi. Thank the maker for the charitable nature of our society.

Recently, I went to a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine. His wife had arranged the whole thing. She invited all the guests to their family home while my friend was out for a few hours. My friend and I had been talking about visiting his home for a couple of years now but we never got around to it. With the surprise party, I was able to see his nice house and meet his wonderful sons for the first time. He gave me a tour of his lovely home and one of the rooms he showed me was his oldest boy’s room. That young man is about six years old now I believe. When I saw his room, I noticed his parents bought him a “double” or “full” bed. For a dude who was just in a crib a short while ago, that’s a hell of a step up. I didn’t start sleeping in a “double” until I bought my apartment. For the majority of my life, I slept in a “twin” or a “single”. That’s what I slept on when I was living at home and when I was at university for both of my degrees. When I made the switch to a “double”, it felt like I almost had too much room. I can’t imagine what his son felt like when he crawled into his big boy bed for the first time. He must have thought his parents bought him the largest bed in the world for him.

Will he be prepared to sleep in a “twin” if he needs to in some sorta institutional environment like a university dorm? Will he required a “queen” or even a “king” in his high school days? I think I’ll discuss this with my friend the next time I see him.