no one of consequence.

Still on the sick end. The annoying part of the sick end.

I have weak lungs. Most of the medical people I’ve talked to about this seem to think it’s either:

• A) leftover damage from a case of pneumonia in infancy, and/or
• B) damage caused by the absolutely insane bronchial cough I suffered for most of my kidhood, which nobody ever really figured out.

In reality, what this means is that every little damn sniffle ends up in my lungs. This is why as soon as I realise im coming down with something I start popping pills like a fiend. Echinacea, vitamin C, cold and sinus meds… anything that will fight it off before it gets down into my chest.

This time I failed, and while the nasty headcold that has put me out of action since christmas day has about run it’s course, it’s left it’s legacy of chest yuck. Which has me making those TB test inducing noises* and trying not to move too much. Because dammit coughing like that HURTS, and anything other than the shallowest of breaths starts me coughing uncontrollably.

I make lots of jokes about having Plague with people, because I do try to avoid colds as much as possible, and try to warn people off when im the infected one. Most folks arent bothered by them as much as I am. Every little damn cold has almost double the recovery time with me because of this crap. I look like im lazing about, but it’s just that I *know* it’s going to hurt like hell if I do anything that causes me to take a normal breath. It tears up my throat and chest muscles… hell, I once managed to strain my diaphragm with a bad bout of this. That hurt like a bitch I tell you.

Pretty much all I can do is stay still and wait for it to pass so I dont damage myself even further.

* Yes, im a smoker. Yes, Im dumb. No, this is not caused by being a smoker, it started when I was about four. The formal diagnosis at the time was simply “Chronic reoccuring bronchitis”.

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Happy holiday everyone.

Love from a non-contagious distance,

the plague-ridden lady.

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Wonderfull.

I have a cold.

ETA: okay, maybe more than just a cold. I can go pass out now?

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An electric hybrid that gets 60 miles to the gallon and does does zero to 60 in five seconds? Nice! One catch.. it’s a HUMMER. Me, I’d still prefer a Tesla Roadster. Cars not your gig? how about a solar powered boat ?

In other news, the Lakota Nation have Declared Independance, and demand the property rightfully theirs by treaty.

That would mean this much:

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Meh, Livejournal is blocked at work, as is facebook. Sadpanda face at the folks who abused they system enough that they had to install a netnanny clone. Damn college kids, messing up my lawn.

Not that I probably couldnt get around it if I tried, but *shrug*.

Off tomorrow, back thursday morning. They keep letting me leave early pretty often while Im in training, at first when my trainer ran through her lesson plan for the day (her doing that amused me to no end actually) and today because I was quite ready to roll solo, but there wasnt terminal free for me. So the pay’ll be a bit light, but it does help, being able to ease my way back in to the workforce with short days.

In other news, Lee managed to get a Wii (with a little help from friends) for his mentally disabled brother. Hopefully it will entertain him, get him some exercise and keep him out of everyone’s hair a bit now that he’s away from all the stuff he used to do. As an added bonus, it’ll be something we can all do with him too.

An immense giftmas basket arrived yesterday from the SIL’s boss, (buyer of graphics) and after I filled it with his bubble wrap collection and put it inside a huge plastic bag, the cat seems to have taken to the basket for a bed. He’s nuts, he loves plastic. Wants nothing to do with blankets or cushions. I want to see if I can pick up some heavy gage wire or whippy plastic rods and see if i can attach a tentlike structure to it, since he isnt interested in sleeping in anything that isnt covered (thus the giant plastic bag).

Nummy goodies in the basket for hoomans though. Those the cat CANNOT have.

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It’s snowing again this morning, and I have to get up a steep hill to get to work.

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Deeep snow. It got level with the kitchen window. Granted we’re a basement, but still. Vlad here yrowwled at the window, so I let him go for it. That didnt last very long… the snow is deeper than his legs are long. Definitely his “We are NOT amused” look.

Work again tomorrow AM. Suckage. Did some stuff with my notes that should make things a little easier for me to remember things.

Shredded Beef burritos for dinner, as opposed to me being lazy and making em with taco mix and ground beef.

Now Im just trying to decide if I want to go read, game a little or watch a movie. Or if I should be good and straighten out my notes some more.

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So, my training sessions are over for this week, and Im off till monday morning, because my trainer isnt back in till then. Tired. I hate morning shifts. Getting up at 8am is just unnatural to me. My body-clock has been set on “sleep till noon” for almost twenty years dammit, I dont do AMs. But I suppose It’ll feel worth it when I get my first paycheck in two years come next friday.

Otherwise it’s going fine I think. The job is the same ol job, with a few changes in perspective. I wont have a massive fleet competing for work anymore, with this it’s rather the other way round. There’s a *lot* more pre-dispatch work, a whole new set of terminology (learning the common medical abbreviations is going to be interesting) and half of everything has to be manually checked with the shift dispatcher. Very little is actually automated here. Their input system is kinda clunky, isnt in line with the information questions and doesnt do half of what I know is possible in these systems.

The big change is that this isnt a speed test. 90% of the work is reserved in advance, so speed typing from dictation isnt a factor. In fact, they dont even want people to input direct from dictation. You *have* to write it all down first in your logbook, that is actually stored and referenced by both dispatch staff and accounting if stuff goes Wrong. Which is a tad irritating to me, since I dont type nearly as smoothly from hardcopy as I do from audio input. So that’ll take some getting used to.

Otherwise all is well. Im just home from the library (I’m real now, I get to have a library card) with a pile of books, ready to snuggle down and read quietly for as long as im allowed to avoid the ice outside. Im actually halfway through Fatal Revanant, Stephen Donaldson’s latest but I’ve been putting it aside in favor of lighter prose. The wrench in my sleep schedule is messing with my comprehension there, and I dont want to miss any of it from being too sleepy to wrap my brain around it. So some lighter stuff for the moment, till I can get the cotton out of my brain.

Ug, and Ive gotten no holiday shopping done yet.

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Misery is leaving my nice warm bed with my nice warm mate at 8 am on a cold december morning.

Gods, how you 9-5ers manage this on a regular basis I’ll never understand.

But he set up the coffee machine to brew at the touch of a switch, and packed me a lunch.

And the cat is seriously confused.

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Larry Lessig’s talk at TED2007 on digital media, copyright, and common sense.

As we stare down the barrel of Canada adopting the US’s draconian stance on copyright and fair use, I cant see reposting this as anything but timely.

Lots more vids on interesting subjects over at TED.com

Edited to add BronxElf, you in particular might be interested in David Rockwell’s talk

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