Friday, July 20, 2001

I've meant to post the last couple of nights, but sleepiness has robbed me of the ability to form a single coherent sentence.

This state of affairs is not without irony. I'm a pretty prodigious snorer, to which anyone who's slept within three rooms of me in the last fifteen years or so will attest. I recently had a sleep study done and the diagnosis was obstructive sleep apnea.

To treat this, I'm supposed to wear something called a CPAP mask when I sleep. It is slightly less comfortable to wear than it looks. In fact, it's so uncomfortable that I wake up several times a night needing to adjust it.

Here's where the irony comes in: the apnea, among other things, causes me to wake up at night. The CPAP is supposed to eliminate that. So, the cure for my condition has side effects that make me feel worse than when I wasn't treating it.

There you have it. Hopefully, I can either adjust to this thing soon or come up with another solution. Either way, if I seem to be rambling more than usual, now you know why.

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Lack of sleep and wits did not stop me from thoroughly enjoying the Eddie from Ohio appearance at Borders in Fairfax on Wednesday. They've just released their sixth studio recording, Quick, and it has immediately taken its place with their earlier discs as part of the soundtrack of my life.

EFO has been my favorite band since the mid-Nineties, and as great as their CDs are, they are five times better in person. If you get the chance to see them perform, do it. They'll be traveling all over the country this autumn, so keep your eyes peeled.

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Also Wednesday, I got my letter from the government letting me know the size of my share of the ill-conceived tax rebate. This reminded me of a site I've wanted to pass on for a while, TaxRebatePledge.org. If you want to put this money to decent use, go to the site and take the pledge. You'll be glad you did.
5:17 PM  < To return to this entry, save this link

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

Driving around the Beltway tonight, I saw this on the back of an otherwise non-descript four-door sedan:

This is a most welcome random discovery. While I've always liked the Darwin fish, I could never bring myself to get one. It seemed not quiet the right response to the Icthus symbols which started popping up a few years ago, not quite on the mark and maybe just a tad too mean-spirited.

Y'see, my main beef with the Icthus plaque is not what it represents, but how the message is being transmitted. To my way of thinking, strong religious beliefs aren't well represented or expressed on the back of one's car; in doing so, the belief is trivialized. Frankly, I hate to see that.

I also have a problem with the violent anti-intellectualism that some people who display the fish have exhibited in my presence, hence my instant fondness for the science rocket. There will be one on the back of my own non-descript four-door sedan by the beginning of next week.
12:16 AM  < To return to this entry, save this link

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

A lot of my friends are addicted to games, be they board, computer, video or role-playing. They tend to be pretty cutting edge about these diversions. I've lost count of how many PS2s have been purchased by my buddies in recent months, and I'm always hearing about the greatness of the latest world-building, "I'm the god" computer program.

So, with all these good folks feeding me info on what's hot in the gaming world, what's been sucking up my free time in the last few months (and consequently slowing the debut of this site)? Computer Scrabble©.

While I think this game's hold on me is waning, I just spent nearly an hour trying to empty my rack and get the fifty point bonus. These were my letters: E, N ,O ,P ,I ,T and a blank. "Pimento," "topline" and "protein" wouldn't fit anywhere on the board, no matter how hard I looked. Finally, I stumbled on "pointes," the plural for the excruciating-looking ballet position.

If you can think of anything more obvious that I missed, feel free to pass it along. I can always use a healthy dose of humility. Just keep in mind: only words ending in "S" or "I" would have worked.
2:03 AM  < To return to this entry, save this link