Speaker For The Diodes - October 13th, 2008

Oct. 13th, 2008

05:25 am - QotD

"The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation." -- Joe Miller and Brooks Jackson, in a factcheck.org explanation of why most attempts to assign blame for the economic crisis are too simplistic.

[Happy Thanksgiving to my friends north of the border!]

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04:33 pm - My Weekend and Today

An observation I jotted down a few days ago and didn't get around to posting:

I keep seeing these 'twelve o'clock' kids roaring around Baltimore on just their rear tires (not just when they pass my street), and I got to thinkin' ... it's kind of a waste, isn't it? If they're not going to use that front wheel, why not just buy a motorized unicycle instead of a dirt bike? They'd probably have better forward vision that way, as well.

(No, I haven't bothered Googling motor-unicycles yet to see whether they actually exist. If they don't, then they ought to. :-þ)

How my weekend went:

I had a rough night Friday night -- five hours from when I tried to go to sleep to when I finally fell asleep -- which made for an even rougher Saturday morning. Dragged myself out to the fairground later than I'd planned (I'd intended to be there in time to help set up the sound system), but managed to time the pain meds better than I usually do, so I only had serious arm pain on a couple of tunes. Then I spent a while photographing other musicians, photographing critters (I didn't get a good shot of the baby Clydesdale, because she was being led off to her trailer just after I showed up, but I did shoot some wolfhounds, westies, collies, and camerahounds (come on, when a dog hears the shutter as I'm photographing a different dog, and runs over to pose, what else can it be?)), and catching up with a couple of people I hadn't seen in a while. I drove home, my meds wore off, I dragged myself upstairs to bed, exhausted.

(One dog-owner was describing what his dog got into at home, so I suggested he Google "I can has sweet potato". I figure most of my friendslist has read it already, but just in case ...)

Sunday was a terribly achy day, and I didn't even manage to stay awake for the end of the football game I tried to watch. Today I'm still sore, and my head feels all muddy. I'm really glad I get to play such fun music in front of a crowd, but I'm definitely feeling the physical cost of doing that.

Now:

Probably not going anywhere tonight. (I'll make an extra effort to get to 3LF rehearsal next week, but today standing, walking, and using my arms just hurt too much.) Let's see whether I have a clear enough head to teach myself another programming language -- something that got bumped up to near the top of my to-do list a few days ago due to my difficulty in ducking when an interesting project flies in my direction. I've got the relevant O'Reilly book, so I should be able to manage with less brain than if I were trying to do it just by Googling syntax references and code samples, if I stay awake long enough at a stretch.

I've been having dreams lately that are more vivid than usual, including one this weekend in which a doctor put a stethescope against my face, thumped me on the forehead head and cheek, and said, "You were right, it is womdigious sinus pressure causing that headache." And one this morning that involved organizing a political party in a vaguely medieval setting.

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