My brain has a lot of random thoughts it wants to spit out before it’ll give me access to the creative areas. I keep trying to tell it that I’m the cat, but it insists on occupying my mind with further duties to control my SPACE MADNESS!!!
Prepare to surge to sublight speed:
I’ve been keeping a nasty sinus infection at bay since about the third week of December. Night before last, it found a weak spot in my defenses and sent an Orc carrying a bomb to blow it up while I slept. When I woke up yesterday, I … well, I’ll spare the details, but it was horrible. Luckily for me, I already had an appointment with my sinus doctor, and he gave me some small nuclear bombs to use against the infection, and I’m feeling 100% better today.
When I went to the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions, I learned that making jokes about carrying the plague elicits a similar reaction to making jokes about bombs at the airport. Now you know.
How weird is this: last night, after I’d declared a sick day and decided to stay offline and on the couch to let my body fight the Sinus Orcs, I walked through my office and took a quick glance at Twitter. It was then that I learned, through the Twitter and not e-mail, that my friends are having a baby.
Bad Gods Monster Manual comix are fucking hilarious.
I see via CliqueClack TV that all seventeen episodes of The Prisoner are now online, in their entirety, for your viewing excitement. There are also one-minute recaps of each episode. The Prisoner is my favorite television show of all time, and it’s the show that made it possible for me to truly grok fandom, because I was such a dork for it. I have both volumes of The Original Prisoner Scripts, I’ve had a map of Your Village since I was 15, I think I’m the only geek on the planet who really loved the graphic novel miniseries DC did in the 80s, and I’ve read through GURPS The Prisoner too many times to count. I’m cautiously optimistic that AMC’s remake will stay faithful to the show that I love, and I think it’s awesome that they’re putting the original series online this way in advance of their own show.
The best argument in favor of Panetta to head CIA: “Few things could reflect better on Panetta’s selection than the fact that Feinstein and Rockefeller — two of the most Bush-enabling Senators — are unhappy with it.”
Feinstein is one of the most worthless Democrats in history, and I can’t believe she represents one of the most liberal states in the nation. I hope she retires, but if she doesn’t, I’ll be working for her primary challengers with great vengeance and furious anger.
Edited to add: I was trying to articulate this thought earlier today, but couldn’t make it go. Andrew Sullivan: “The more I think about this, the more it seems to me that the snub of these two was a deliberate signal. Their oversight of Bush’s war crimes was pathetic. Ditto Harman. Obama is telling us he is serious about both improving intelligence and drawing a clear line – for the entire world to see – between the United States and the war criminals who will soon be leaving office, and those who enabled them.”
On the off-chance that one person in the universe doesn’t know this already: Apple’s taking everything in the iTunes Music Store DRM-free. Great jorb, Apple! Now, about iMovie 08 and how much it sucks …
Speaking of music, I’ve been listening to Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s Beethoven Symphonies No 3 Eroica and No 8 from Magnatune most of today, and now you can join me if you like, through the magic of embedding media:
Beethoven Symphonies No 3 Eroica and No 8 by Philharmonia Baroque
Nolan and I watched the World Junior Championship gold medal game a couple days ago. Goddamn do those kids play with passion and ferocity. Yesterday afternoon, I watched the history of the Philadelphia Flyers on NHL Network, and thought the exact same thing about those teams, especially in the mid-70s to mid-80s. Then, last night, Nolan and I watched the Kings skate against the Ducks. I say “skate against” instead of “played hockey with” because neither team looked like they gave a shit about the game. After watching intensely passionate players leave everything on the ice in the gold medal game (and congratulations on 5 in a row, Canada) it was especially underwhelming. The Kings seemed to forget how to forecheck, and they managed three – THREE – shots on goal in the third period. In the post-game interviews, the commentators and players from both teams talked about how the game was some kind of great defensive battle, but I grew up watching Adams Division defensive battles, and this wasn’t one of those games. I mean, hit someone for fuck’s sake! You’re supposed to be rivals, guys. This kills me. It’s like watching the Dodgers and Giants phone it in; we fans expect you guys to hate the other team as much as we do, goddamit.
Nolan kept complaining about how boring it was, and I had to agree with him. I hope the Kings feel humiliated by their pathetic performance so they actually show up to play tomorrow; I’m taking Nolan to the game.
I plan to leave the Sinus Orcs at home, but I’ll bring rain gear to give the people in front of me, just in case. Eewww. Gross.
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Wow. Makes me want to go put on the Prisoner jacket I had a girlfriend’s mother create for me while I was directing a production of Camelot many many moons ago. I’d decided to set this version inside the hollow earth, and riddled it with gratuitous Kennedy imagery and weird sets and I had all the knights do McGoohan’s little “Be seeing you” salute when they greeted each other. We ended with a video of King Arthur walking up the Grassy Knoll to his doom. Ah, those were the days…
I can’t believe [Feinstein] represents one of the most liberal states in the nation.
I’m right with you on Feinstein, but actually, we’re not one of the most liberal states. I think we’re purple at best, with large swaths of red punctuated by a couple of densely-populated splotches of blue. Keep in mind how many of our governors have been Republican in the last 50, or even 20, years. Oh, and Prop 8. >:-|
Fear not, Will….’09 is here.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/
Could iMovie ’09 suck as much as ’08? I dunno, but iPhoto has finally implemented tagging (a la Facebook). Fashhooo! I wonder if the bajillion comments I sent Apple helped bring that feature about?
~LV
“We’re not hitchhiking anymore, we’re RIDING”
I don’t know much about sinus surgery. It sounds like it was a nightmare to recover from it. I would’ve expected that you’d be free from the Sinus Orcs after going through such an involved procedure, but I guess that isn’t the case? Does it make it better? Do you regret having the surgery or was it totally worth it?
I’m curious because I’ve had allergies and sinus problems all of my life as well and surgery has been suggested to me in the past (with the mention of some wonder at the size or frequency of my nasal polyps ostensibly due to the frequent infections), but I’ve just continued to deal with the one or more sinus infections per year.
Just curious if you don’t mind sharing and detouring from the usual fare.
Unfortunately, I was reading earlier today (via Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/06/apple-dropping-drm-f.html) that iTunes will still be getting all of their audiobooks from Audible, so those still won’t be DRM free. (eMusic’s, though, are, and I was going to ask, Wil, if you’ve considered making yours available on eMusic?)
I was back to my normal routine in about 2 months (it would have been much faster, but I was stupid) and my doctor told me to expect some serious pain and other issues for the first year, as each new season would completely freak out my “new” sinuses. He was pretty much right-on about that.
This particular infection is going around Los Angeles, I guess, and it’s an extremely contagious virus. It’s miraculous that I held it off as long as I did, as far as I can tell, and it would have been much, much worse if my sinuses were still filled with horrible polyps and my septum looked like this > instead of like this |.
There are still some nights when I snore so badly Anne wakes me up and one of us sleeps in a different room, but that only happens about once every month or so, instead of several times a week, so I don’t regret the surgery at all. I’m coming up on the 1 year mark, and everyone I know who has had this procedure done tells me that it’s almost magical how the 365th night comes, and they never have sinus problems again. It’s like the “new” sinuses are finally all broken in.
Obviously, I’m not a doctor, so you should talk to a professional before you make any decisions.
We don’t have any plans to offer the audiobooks via a third party right now. It just doesn’t make financial sense for us to give a cut to someone else, when we’re able to successfully distribute it ourselves.
Orc bombs. Sinus doctor bombs… Whatever happened to mutually assured destruction?
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”
Hear hear re: Hockey.
Friends in Calgary have season tickets to the Hitmen (WHL) and they took me to a game, and I was amazed. Those kids want into the NHL so bad, and fighting isn’t allowed. Period (as in, fighting means kicked out, no NHL). So, it all goes into playing hockey. It was amazing.
I’m seeing the Canucks on Friday – I hope they still put a little energy into it, it being Mats’ first game.
Oh, and on behalf of Canada, thank you very much. We’re very proud.
Thanks for the input, Wil. I’d talk to at least two doctors and do more research if I were going to go through with it for sure.
I’m also wondering if it’s generally covered by insurance. Do you mind mentioning if you had to pay out-of-pocket and, if so, ballpark costs?
Not to hijack the thread, but others who’ve had the surgery can feel free to chime in. Or you can find me via my TypePad profile page.
Wil: Listen to the Allegretto movement of Beethoven’s 7th. It’s haunting.
Also, if you really wanna get in Beethoven, lose yourself in one of the later quartets.
WF
Whoa – do I see a Ren & Stimpy reference there?
Good luck with the sinus orcs. If you require assistance my warforged sorcerer has a dagger that is +2 vs. orcs. Unfortunately he’s not there, he’s at the inn…
Accidental Rob
twitter: @accidental_rob
On the sinus infection: have you ever tried using a neti pot? It’s like a small teapot you fill with saline, then you stick the spout up one nostril, tilt your head and let it all drain out the opposite side. It sounds kooky but it’s pretty damn good at clearing out the nasal passages.
On hockey: Yes, the World Juniors is always fun, unless you’re Kazakhstan getting blown out 15-0. 🙂 NHL hockey is just not what it used to be.
Yep, we Canadians don’t get excited about much; we’re pretty blase about politics, celebrities, the financial crisis… but turn on a hockey game (World Juniors in particular) and EVERYONE in the room is absolutely riveted to the tv. I am willing to bet that more people watched that hockey game than voted in our last election. And many of us share your opinion on the state of the NHL…
Hey Wil, I’m sorry you are not feeling well. Take it easy and get well soon.
I loved the Prisoner comic book. LOVED it! Number 6 is now Number 2? How could that not be awesome?
I am very curious about how you were able to grow up on the Adams division… did you live on this side of the world at some point?
Now, I grew up in Upstate NY, and being 1 month older than you, I grew up on ALL of the same things, including that era of hockey. I was lucky enough to have cable when it was really first available to the general public. My cable included WSBK for the Bruins, WPIX for the Rangers, WWOR for the Islanders, and a Chicago station for the Blackhawks (maybe WGN.. dont remember). I really had my pick those years. Lucky since there wasnt any pro of college hockey within an hour of me.
I see you anguish about your Kings a lot… I now live in Raleigh and get to anguish about my ‘Canes (though they are a bit better after the coaching change).
I would say something here that I am sure you are aware, but bears repeating for anyone who doesnt know: if someone can’t understand why people are passionate about the sport, then they need to go see a game or 2. It converted my wife in only 2 outings (a real sports fan, but didnt know squat about hockey).
Having said that, it really makes me want to SMACK those players whenever they play in a lackluster manner. I’d kill for that level of talent/ skill.
having sinus problems ever since moving to the east coast: oh the sinus orcs are bad ones:( thanks for the thoughts on panetta– still have my doubts due to his complete lack of intelligence credentials (there has to be some anti-babybush with experience out there)–but i feel slightley more at ease.
Too bad that at the same time Apple announces less DRM, the US government is pushing laws that will make it a moot point. Kinda convenient for Apple.
“We have tridents! They’re pointy!”
I don’t know why, but I laughed so hard, my 2-year-old turned his head to look at me curiously. “Mom must be going crazy!”
I remember when I discovered Lore Sjoberg through the “Brunching Shuttlecocks” website. That was a great one, and as far as I know, it know longer exists. God, I feel old.
Wait, check that. It still exists with archives and a link to “Bad Gods”. Yay for reminiscing! Find it at http://www.brunching.com.
I love the Twitter baby news!! Signs that the times are changing!
Nearly everytime I see a [great show or movie or documentary] for free at [some website] I get excited just to stumble over “The video you are trying to watch cannot be viewed from your current country or location”
🙁
Brunching Shuttlecocks! Oh my goodness, I’d sort of forgotten about the wonder that was Lore’s site.
One of my personal favorites was the “Björk” song. (“… were you brought by the stork, or were you created from butter and cork?” My husband still occasionally belts that song out at me, especially if I happen to insist on listening to Björk, whom he despises and I adore).
Wil, I hope you feel better soon, and that the game was much more exciting than it promised to be.
I’m sorry about your sinus pain – it sucks to be sick. I know what you mean about the Tuesday Ducks/Kings game – it had the intensity of a tea party. I hope tonights game is much more action-packed and full of enthusiasm. You are probably getting ready to leave for the game as I type this. See you there!!
The NHL really isn’t what it used to be. I’m a Wings fan (in Vancouver, so once in a while I cheer for the Canucks) and I have a hard time getting excited about games these days. Even the Stanley Cup was dull to watch until the final round.
Even as recently as the mid-90s the game was more exciting. Detroit and Colorado meeting in the playoffs? Come on! That was like war! Now? Not even close.
I’d say let’s turn the clock back to the 80s and 90s, but I don’t think I could handle all that orange and yellow in my city.
Ha! “Bush-enabling senators” and “furious” and “anger!”
The left is most comedic when it hacks itself to pieces.
For the record, I wrote myself in against Feinstein when she was uncontested a couple of elections ago. Perhaps I should have mounted a stronger write-in campaign. Because she sucks, and I am awesome.
Joking about carrying the plague gets you strip searched? That’s just strange.
B”H
It’s hard to believe, but people STILL have these philosophical discussions about what the heck the last episode of The Prisoner means.
Let’s see what AMC does with the series this time around.
Be seeing you….