Category: Uncategorized

The day started with an alarm clock at 6am, but no really vivid and disturbing dreams, so that’s good.

Opened the laptop, read the first message, and went to put on “10,000 Days” by Tool. That’s not so good.

Came to Boston.

On the T, a random dude sitting across from me told me to go “use some karate” on the driver to get things moving. I glanced down and realized that I’m wearing one of the Self Defense Training Center shirts. Crap. Target city. I told him that I practice for fitness and defense. For offense, I prefer ranged weapons. Ha ha ha. Shut the hell up.

Got to the data center, and the email that had come in during my commute made me put Tool back on. Loud.

Going to be an interesting day.

redmed pointed out this morning that there are some truly lovely side effects to this anti-malarial medication we’re on. The big pink pill is implicated in, variously:

• Blood disease (severe)—Chloroquine may cause blood disorders
• Eye or vision problems—Chloroquine, especially in high doses, may cause serious side effects affecting the eyes
• Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency—Chloroquine may cause serious side effects affecting the blood in patients with this deficiency
• Liver disease—May decrease the removal of chloroquine from the blood, increasing the chance of side effects
• Nerve or brain disease (severe), including convulsions (seizures)—Chloroquine may cause muscle weakness and, at high doses, seizures
• Porphyria—Chloroquine may cause episodes of porphyria to occur more frequently
• Psoriasis—Chloroquine may bring on severe attacks of psoriasis
• Stomach or intestinal disease (severe)—Chloroquine may cause stomach or intestinal irritation

The above side effects may also occur or get worse after you stop taking this medicine.

Refresh my memory: How bad is Malaria, again? Is it as bad as the incredible hypochondria I’m undergoing right now?

On the Pesto recipe described yesterday: It rocked. Very close to my old recipe, but substitute in some baby spinach for some of the basil, and add a few tablespoons of mayo to the mix.

Mmm, mmm.

Composting is a good use of a weekend day. I mowed the lawn when we got back from Haiti, which generated two heaping piles of clippings. Lacking any leaves or a handy-dandy bale of hay, I shredded up a bunch of newspapers and layered them in. This worked amazingly well, and I’m now the proud owner of a compost heap that steams when I turn it. It’s hot to the touch. Aw, hell yeah.

So I mowed again today, despite the drizzle, and also cleaned a bunch of stuff out of the storage space behind the garage. I’ve decided it’s time to just throw that crap away, one stealth-run to the dumpster at a time. Old siding, pieces of plumbing, rusted pipe, two non-functional wheelbarrows. How did I come to own all this crap? I’m only 30, and I work with computers for heavens sake!

Also bought supplies for having peeps over tomorrow. technolope, capital_l, and Len are planning to drive down. Supplies include Sangria-makings and pesto makings. There was a sweet looking recipe in Cooks Illustrated for pesto-pasta salad which sounded pretty kick-butt.

Planning to go climbing with Dustin tomorrow morning at 10am. That’ll get me home in time to prepare for the onslaught.

Just typed in, back dated, all my journal writings from Haiti. I had to revert to the old “ink on smashed tree” technology for a week.

So, there it is. As is true with everything else in this LJ thing: It’s mostly for me, but if you want to read, you’re welcome to it. I have no idea how to search by a particular tag, but they’re all tagged “Haiti,” if that helps.

Update: http://fdmts.livejournal.com/tag/haiti

Thanks simianpower

Just watched “Ong Bak”, which is an unmitigated piece of genius filmmaking.

Seriously. Genius. Go watch it.

It’s a kung-fu flick. Follows the classic arc “young man trained in martial arts, promises never to use them, but has to fight to protect his villiage.” The protagonist (named “Ting”) has mad gymnastic and martial skills, and really gets into the elbows and knees. Good stuff.

In vaguely related news, it was sparring night at my gym, and I got to go three rounds with a 19 year old, per the usual plan. He was quick, but I managed to throw him at one point. Somehow, I suffered a cut on my arm, along with the usual bruises up and down my arms and legs. I take it as a good sign that I no longer come out with bruises on my head and body quite as frequently.