I’m still nursing this stupid damned sinus infection THAT WILL NEVER GO AWAY, so I’m probably just going to be playing Warcrack. I really like the hunter changes, and am actually playing my hunter, the first toon I ever made and my main during vanilla, and who then sat for two expansions. For some reason, I really like the new changes to the hunter play style, and have been enjoying levelling him.
What are you up to?
robertdsc-PowerBook & 27 titles
Still rolling in Modern Warfare 2 for PS3. I’m angling to finish off 2500 M4A1 kills, 500 Desert Eagle kills, and 250 WA2000 headshots.
General Stuck
Thinkin’ about rounding up a few prairie dogs for a party. The little fuckers are always digging with no time for fun.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Cole, I figured you’d be watching football. You’re missing a damn good Arkansas-LSU game.
Johnny Coelacanth
I’m trying to level my Orc Hunter to 80 before the 7th. He’s at 77 now, so I might make it. Call to Arms weekend XP ftw. I haven’t noticed too much difference in the Hunter playstyle; maybe Beastmaster spec didn’t change much.
cathyx
Since I’m not into computer games, which I’m guessing is what you’re talking about, what you said made zero sense to me.
Just Some Fuckhead
Yer prolly allergic to the pets.
Violet
I’m going to a play. Supposed to be funny and I could use a laugh. Hurt my hip and despite chiropractic help and stretching, it really hurts when I do any kind of walking for longer than about five minutes or at any speed faster than a stroll. I’m getting rather tired of it. Last night the muscle was spasming and it hurt so much I was in tears. Ugh.
Bostondreams
I just jumped back into WoW after taking a break to write a book chapter and work on my dissertation (ha! that was futile). I log in and find that I have to relearn my lvl 73 Warlock a bit, what with the soul shard and talent changes. Plus, it seems like they really are holding your hand now. ‘You should have this spell up at all times.’ ‘You should use this spell when a friend is tanking at least 4.’
I think I might try a hunter.
Bostondreams
Also, Urban Meyer should retire and John Brantley should transfer. What a horrible Gator season.
Redshift
Got a friend coming over to spend the night later; trying to get enough cleared out of the spare room to be able to unfold the sofabed. Generally not getting as much done as I should be.
Fun Saturday night, eh? We had other plans, but Ms. Redshift got a bad cold yesterday, and doesn’t really feel up to doing anything much.
I spent a fair amount of time the past couple of days with the relatives who had gathered from hither and yon, though, which was pretty fun.
stuckinred
@Bostondreams: You’re trying to write a book AND a dissertation? Damn, dawg!
stuckinred
Gotta watch the Dawgs and then prepare for one last day of fishing. We decided not to travel tomorrow and it’s looking like a good decision.
Steeplejack
Cole, I’ll say it again re the sinus infection: you should do the nasal irrigation thing with a saline solution. You don’t have to use a special neti pot. I put a quarter-teaspoon of the double-secret salt in a coffeecup of warm water and just sort of snurfle it up. I do it once a day as a prophylactic measure, and it has really helped a lot. No sinus infections, and I rarely ever get even a cold. And this is with heavy contact with the public at the Big Box Bookstore.
I used to teach and coach swimming, was in the water 4-6 hours a day, used to get a horrendous sinus infection about every three months. The drugs were tremendously expensive, and even when they worked it still sucked to have a sinus infection and have to wait while it got cured. My (very traditional) ENT doc was the one who put me onto the nasal irrigation thing, and it has worked very well for me. ‘Nuff said.
sherifffruitfly
I don’t think there’s enough magic in the entire universe for Les Miles to pull this one out.
And all you WOW people should be playing EVE. A thinking person’s game.
Villago Delenda Est
The best thing about the hunter changes is the new, 20 slot stable.
I like this, a lot. It reminds me a great deal of Star Wars Galaxies’ creature handler profession, that allowed you to engage in pet collection, just for the fun of hunting down and taming pets. The WoW taming system will never match the adrenaline rush of putting on mask scent and kidnapping a rancor baby under the noses of his relatives, but I like being able to have a lot of pets to choose from, just for the different skins that are out there.
stuckinred
@Steeplejack: I swim every day and I have to wear a nose clip.
ErinSiobhan
I’ve been messing around with lowbies to see how quests have changed. I was annoyed when I couldn’t kill Hogger but laughed when he was hauled off to the
Stockades.
R-Jud
I never had sinus infections during my heyday as a swimmer, but I did get horrible, horrible skin rashes a few times a year. I should probably start swimming again, but I smelled like chlorine for the entirety of those 12 years, and I’m really okay with not ever smelling like that again.
I am writing and drinking and enjoying the cold weather. I had house guests all of last week, and although I miss them, I am enjoying having an evening alone.
ETA: I can’t get into computer games any more. I just get too hooked.
Chuck Butcher
I was trying to shingle a roof, one that has dragged on badly thanks to snow, wind, and highs of 6F, not to mention being steep, 8/12 pitch. Got enough snow swept off to get going and packed about 700 lbs of shingles up and shot them on. Temps promptly plummeted and ice started forming, not good for physical well-being so shit canned it for the day.
I’ll bet some of you think you know how to have fun, you’re jealous, I can see it in your eyes…
At 57 you’d think I’d know better…
Ken Lovell
Sinus infection bullshit. Infections clear up with antibiotics. Go get tested for allergies and they can prescribe a preventive steroid. It’s saved me countless days of nose-running misery over the last 20 years.
stuckinred
@R-Jud: Did you get the rashes in the same place every time? I get them on my sides like clockwork. I have this stuff you are supposed to put on before you swim but I always forget.
Jeffro
@Just Some Fuckhead: Was going to say the same thing – after my cat went to the Great Catnip Pile in the Sky, I went from 12 sinus infections a year to one (if that). I still don’t know if it was the dander or the cat litter, but kinda moot at this point.
Worth getting tested for, anyway…
Anya
@Steeplejack: I second that suggestion. I used to have sinus infection alot, until I discovered neti pot. Nasal irrigation realy works. Here’ s a home made nasal irrigation recipe
Moesha
Manhattan holiday shopping in Union Square market….
I second the nasal irrigation cure…works wonders. I don’t use neti pot, just got the squeezy bottle kit at the pharmacy and use it in the shower.
BethanyAnne
I’ve been working on a newbie Forsaken hunter. Love the new quest flow and how everything works. Just so much better. And just did a Deadmines run. Totally fun. Like they took the fun boss fights of raiding, and scaled them down for 5 level 15 toons. Awesome. And I *totally* dig the new Orgrimmar.
ruemara
I’m sorting jewelry and organizing for a bazaar in a few days. Can’t wait to go eat dinner and log into for some Warcrak. I need to kill stuff.
Clockwork Buddha
Leveling a new tauren priest, pushing my mid-70s Belf paladin to 80 (leveling is now faster from 71-80) and working out the changes to my Tauren Resto Druid main.
Having a wonderful time…
BethanyAnne
Oh, but I’ve been splitting my time between that, and getting a relative’s furniture out of my room, and building my own IKEA crap substitutes. So tonight, I’m headed back to big blue hell for the last bit, and get to assemble it.
Just Some Fuckhead
After downloading, installing and testing about 20 different jukebox apps for my gameroom Touchscreen Jukebox project, I finally found The One.
R-Jud
@stuckinred: Yes, they were always under my arms (OWWWWW) and under my eyes. We thought the under-eye rashes were due to the latex in the goggle seals, but changing to other materials didn’t help. Plastering Vaseline all over my face didn’t do much either, which meant it probably wasn’t chafing that was the problem.
Anyway, you can bet that was fun, being a consistently rash-faced teenage girl.
Yutsano
Woke up, feel about a thousand times better, might just have the energy to journey to the store and do lingering housework things. Though knowing me the kitchen gets pushed to tomorrow, so I have a convenient excuse to ignore the Seachickens.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jeffro: Yeah, I’m allergic to the cats but depending on the cat, it manifests itself differently. Usually if I stay away from them, I’m fine. But this new one makes me cough whether or not I’m near him. So the doc has me on some drugs.
If I don’t develop some resistance, he’s a goner.
Get yer bids in early folks.
stuckinred
@R-Jud: When I ran kids sports programs I had a film about the excesses of competition in youth sports. They interviewed all these world class women swimmers and they HATED it, almost as bad as the tennis players.
Geeno
Trying to push my Shammy healer to 80 before xpac release date (12-7). I would Lurve to be achievement whoring on my 80 hunter, but 5 more levels in 10 more days is a hard hustle.
Steeplejack
@stuckinred:
I’m sayin’ it again–nasal irrigation. I don’t want to get all oogly-googly, but it is almost a panacea.
dr. bloor
@Bostondreams:
Meyer has basically achieved undead status among college coaches and sports media at this point. You may as well be wishing for your dissertation to write itself.
Yutsano
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Nah. I got my tail kicked in a Cheney snuffing it pool.
stuckinred
@Steeplejack: With the snot-locker I have I need a pressure washer!
Steeplejack
@R-Jud:
You might be able to find a pool that uses a non-chlorine-based cleaning system. They have become more common over the years. The place where I taught (Dynamo in Atlanta) had three pools, only one of which was chlorine-cleaned (I think). That was the teaching pool, though. Bummer.
Lolis
I’m heading to downtown Austin to meet up with an old friend in town for the holidays. He sounds kind of down, so hopefully it won’t be a downer. At least I will get some Cuban food.
folkbum
I recognize all those words. But I do not understand any of that.
@Steeplejack: As for nasal irrigation, better than both a neti pot and snuffling water up your nose, I use and swear by the NeilMed Sinus Rinse thingy. You can buy the generic salts packets and use them instead of the expensive NeilMed brand stuff, but the squirt bottle makes doing the irrigation fast and easy.
Redshift
@stuckinred: Yeah, I wonder if I’d want kids to be involved in sports these days. The person in the next cubicle at work blathers on endlessly on the phone about her daughter’s volleyball, and it seems a lot more hyper-competitive than the sports I did.
I was decent but not great at swimming, and did long jump (which I really sucked at, but I was in junior high) and rowing for a while. Some of the teams I was on were good, but a lot of them were not great, but it was still mostly fun and not a lot of pressure. I wonder how much of that exists any more.
Jay in Oregon
With respect (and apologies) to Emo Philips:
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “I have nothing to live for.” I said, “That’s not true. Do you play MMORPGs?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Warhammer Online or World of Warcraft?” He said, “World of Warcraft.”
I said, “Me, too! When did you start playing?” He said, “Before Burning Crusade.”
I said, “Me, too! Are you a raider?” He said, “Yeah, I love to raid.”
I said, “Me, too! Horde or Alliance?” He said, “Horde.”
I said, “Me, too! What class?” He said, “Troll Mage.”
I said, “Me, too! What’s your favorite spec?” He said, “Fire.”
I said, “Me, too! Wasn’t Sunwell awesome before they nerfed M’Uru?” He said, “Actually, we didn’t down M’Uru before Blizzard nerfed him.”
I said, “STFU, noob!” And I pushed him over.
Steeplejack
@Anya:
That recipe looks interesting. But, really, I have had great success with just the salt and water. I do buy the special double-secret “neti pot salt” or “saline solution salt” from Whole Foods or a health food store–wherever I happen to be when I need to get some–because it doesn’t contain iodine and it is finer-grained for better dissolving in the water.
stuckinred
@Redshift: I think it hinges on the face-to-face leadership. You can have a well run program with a jackass for a coach and the experience will be negative. You can have a program that allows too much emphasis on winning but have a sane coach and it will be good. The most difficult situation is often the parent who coaches their own kid. They either favor them or are too negative. There are certainly pitfalls but it can be good.
Bostondreams
@stuckinred:
Just a book chapter, a biographical piece for a compilation, along with the Dis. I am not THAT nuts. The book chapter is done at least.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Sitting here with the fucking cat draped across my shoulders. If he farts I am a goner. When I try to grab him he howls in my ear and deploys the claws.
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Cool. I will check this out. I don’t want the whole jukebox experience, but I would like some way to organize and play music from my computer that is better and more intuitive than Media Player. I am a long-time techno-weenie, and that program confuses the hell out of me. Embarrassing.
R-Jud
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, they put ALL kinds of crap in my high school pool, which is where I had the worst skin issues. It didn’t help that I was soaking in it five mornings and afternoons a week most months. It was better in college. I will look around and see what’s available where I live. Birmingham City Council is going to be closing a lot of pools due to Austerity!!!, so even if I could handle the chlorine, I may just have to stick to running and rowing.
@stuckinred:
That’s interesting. Was there one overarching reason why they hated it? I enjoyed swimming primarily because it was the only thing at which I was really physically competent.
ETA: By which I mean I liked the sensation of swimming, but hated racing. I hated losing, I hated feeling like I let my team down, and if I won I always worried about the losers hating me. Can you tell I was also raised Catholic?
Dennis SGMM
They closed one of our (San Gabriel Valley, CA) area DMVs. Like all of the other area DMV offices, it was insanely busy every minute of every day that it was open. Now the load will shift to the other offices which in turn will be even more insanely busy. I hope all of the morons (And there are a lot of them around here) who voted Republican have to enjoy a six hour wait the next time they need DMV services.
California had everything going for it until the populace at fell for Howard Jarvis’ line of bullshit. Now there’s a substantial segment of the voting public who believes that the state has too much revenue. These will be the same morons who will bitch to the high heavens when their kids find that there’s no room for them in a state university or that they’ll be paying about 40% more tuition if they do get in.
stuckinred
@Bostondreams: I got the shingles in during the final stage of my writing. . .in my eye! It was great. Be good to yourself.
stuckinred
Allright, as I call for sanity in kids sports, LET”S KILL THOSE FUCKIN YELLOW JACKETS! WOOF WOOF WOOF.
Bostondreams
@dr. bloor:
A zombie might actually stick to no more than two dang QBs at a time, and actually try and go vertical now and then.
How the mighty have fallen, in one season.
electricgrendel
I have my third exam on Monday, covering lower GI; trach care/suctioning; hypertension; and pain. Then I have a comprehensive final on Thursday. Nursing school will pay off in the end, but right now it’s sort of killing me. :(
Cat Lady
@efgoldman:
Is she in the Handel & Hayden Society? I’ve got tix for next Sunday at Symphony Hall. First time live, long time listener. I’m excited!
Steeplejack
@stuckinred:
The daily irrigation will reduce that and eventually make it go away. I have a deviated septum and have a tendency to be a bit of a mouth-breather when I get any congestion in my nose at all, but with the nasal irrigation my nasal passages have never felt so wide open. I can breathe! I can be somebody!
stuckinred
@Steeplejack: Ya figure 20 years of blow helped me? (many years ago I might add)
eric
just chilling and alternating between watching football and playing over blues backing tracks…..
Crashman
Left 4 Dead 2 was $5 on STEAM today. Anyone want to play?
Yutsano
@stuckinred: I feel obligated to say on behalf of good friends who are Yellow Jackets:
(ahem)
TO HELL! TO HELL TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!!
(This should not be interpreted as my opinion on the game. Please carry on.)
stuckinred
@Yutsano: Fuckin NON onside kick recovered by the bees!
Steeplejack
@stuckinred:
Jeez, you’re lucky if you have any nasal tissue left intact.
Redshift
@Dennis SGMM: Well, you might get lucky. Back when Mark Warner was governor of VA and in a budget showdown with Republicans (because the previous Republican governor had deliberately hidden how bad the budget was until after the election), one of the things he did was cut hours at the DMV. It got people outraged and calling their legislators enough to get the point across that no, it couldn’t all be solved just by cutting “government waste.”
stuckinred
@Steeplejack: I’m lucky in more ways than you can even begin to think about.
Redshift
@stuckinred: That’s good to know. Thinking about it, the thing that bugs me (other than the nonstop blather from next door) is not so much competitiveness as obsessiveness (as in, able to spend more than an hour a day talking about it on the phone, several days a week) , and that may just be a feature of this particular parent, not so much part of the kids’ experience.
stuckinred
Hell yes! Held them on 4th 2 on our own 20!
stuckinred
@Redshift: People probably feel that way about me and my dogs (not dawgs)!
Yutsano
@stuckinred:
Scream zero faith in your own kicker a little louder whydon’tcha.
stuckinred
@Yutsano: They lead the nation in going on 4th.
Anya
@Steeplejack: I used that recipe last week when I ran out of the neti pot salt and it worked wonders. But I feel safer with the special salt.
stuckinred
Rambo forces the fumble, 2 trips to the 20, zip!
stuckinred
A white boy out runs the Jackets secondary for 66 yd td! The slide rules must have slowed down their stingers!
Sentient Puddle
I’m back from vacation, so I’m queueing up the patch now and might play a bit tonight. There any sort of talk about people playing together? I feel like I’d rather start something new than take my 80 rogue around to do a bunch of nothing.
Steeplejack
Belated answer to the question “What are you up to?”:
After two full days of (giving) retail therapy, I am back in the man-cave for some much-needed R&R. I’m off work tomorrow, then I have to go back into the trenches Monday afternoon/evening to cover for a coworker who took a long Thanksgiving weekend. Then I’m off on Tuesday and back on Wednesday-Saturday. So my schedule is completely screwed up, and so are my circadian rhythms. But the important thing is that I’m off now.
I am cooking a baked potato in the oven. When it comes out–in eight minutes, according to the timer on the stove–I will broil a filet mignon for six-seven minutes on each side and have a very nice dinner. Currently Georgia Tech-Georgia is on the TV in the background. And I have Iain M. Banks’s Surface Detail, his new Culture novel, for backup reading.
No plans at all for tomorrow, which is very nice.
Dennis SGMM
@Redshift:
Good point. When the budget cuts were only affecting services to the poor these people just ignored the consequences. Maybe when they’re inconvenienced things will change. OTOH, it’s hard to overestimate the strength of the combo of greed, stupidity, and sense of victimization of Republican voters in general and California Republicans in particular. They’ll likely demand further cuts in public health and education in order to restore their privileges before they demand that we raise revenues.
Roger Moore
@Redshift:
Not a fucking chance. The Republicans in California are certifiably insane. Taking a no new taxes pledge is effectively mandatory for getting anywhere in California Republican politics. The big argument in their Gubernatorial primary was whether the state’s budget deficit would be better solved with a massive across the board tax cut or a massive targeted tax cut. And, unfortunately, they still have more than 1/3 of the legislature, so they can block any attempt to increase taxes.
wazmo
Get a small bottle of Chartreuse-it’ll cure what ails ya.
suzanne
I once had a sinus infection that took four rounds of antibiotics to kill, so if you’re still feeling like ass, go back to the doc.
And ironically enough, I am also trying to cope with sinus issues. During this pregnancy, the inside of my nose has bled so much that it’s completely ulcerated, so I can’t take my normal med (Flonase). So I’m trying to combat the congestion and get the inside of my nose all healed up.
Unfortunately, I can breathe unabated at the moment. Just in time for the dog to fart. Oi.
LT
Count me in the category that says: What?
But enjoy your game, and feel better quick. I’m going out for bbq and blues. And: Uh, I don’t even need to say it anymore, do I? Go Fucking Ducks. (And2: Good christ, I used to busk in Pioneer Square. Thank more gods than I know…)
Yutsano
Now eating a surprisingly good baked good from Starbucks that has cranberries in it. Heading out to the store later for milk and dinner stuff, but having fun enjoying BJ while actually able to enjoy it.
suzanne
@Steeplejack: Have you had the septum correction surgery? My ENT wants to do that on me, along with some procedure on the turbinates so they’ll never swell shut again. I haven’t made up my mind whether to do it or not.
Comrade Mary
I’ve having a very glamorous Saturday night installing Windows XP from scratch. I am currently in the delightful “you must install THIS service pack before installing crucial drivers” phase.
I can see how jealous y’all are. My life is just that fabulous.
stuckinred
Arf
Ruckus
@Chuck Butcher:
At 57 you’d think I’d know better…
It’s funny how we seem to learn things the hard way. I think it’s because we never see them as things to learn until we already have.
Gravenstone
Decided to start leveling my Hunter again, so he can be level appropriate (was 65, now 72, targeting 75 I think) to move his Inscription skill above the current 450 cap once Cata launches. Decided to grab a tank pet and was looking for gorilla, when I ran across this little white faced Howler money in North Strangelthorn. Tamed him and got an amusing surprise, his stun ability is called “Bad Manners” – he flings shit at the mob, blinding and stunning them for 10 seconds. Too funny.
Steeplejack
@suzanne:
Have not had any corrective surgery, and it’s not on the table right now, since my current health-insurance plan at the Big Box Bookstore is of the “you can’t afford to actually use it but you hope it helps if something catastrophic happens” variety. The deductibles and copays are horrendous.
I don’t know if my septum deviation is severe enough to warrant surgery. It has been many years since I have discussed it with any doctor.
The Republic of Stupidity
If anyone’s already posted this, please feel free to ignore…
On the other hand… if you HAVEN’T seen this yet…
Yutsano
@The Republic of Stupidity: Check out the fourth comment down. I was just kinda meh until then. Then I LOLed.
tkogrumpy
Still re-arranging the house after the recent holiday infusion of Massholes sharing my surname.
SiubhanDuinne
@Suzanne: Aren’t you due more or less any minute now? Don’t forget to chronicle every moment for us!
/never a mother but always admiring of other people’s offspring
Roger Moore
@Comrade Mary:
I completely sympathize. I’m also doing some boring computer stuff. Fedora 14 seems to have caused problems with software raid, so I’m having to build a new RAID1 for my /home. I currently have /home mounted on an external drive, which makes me very nervous. I don’t have a recent backup- the external drive would be my normal backup drive- so if the drive fails I’m in trouble. It’s currently estimating a bit more than 4 hours to resync, so I’m going to go and watch a movie while I wait.
Ruckus
@stuckinred:
Ah shingles. A wonderful thing. Keeps the rain and snow, Oh wait, you meant the other kind of shingles. The kind with that piercing pain that makes you want to tear off you face. The kind you wouldn’t wish on your enemies, because if you hated them that bad you’d want them dead.
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: LIVEBLOGGING FROM THE HOSPITAL!!
(Okay so we didn’t even do that to RedKitten. But still, up to the minute updates are greatly appreciated.)
stuckinred
@Ruckus: Ice cream headaches for hours at a time.
debit
@Yutsano:
That is my coping strategy for the Vikings.
As for what I’m doing: I just ate another (!) plate of leftovers, and about to crack open a bottle of wine and finally get around to playing Valkyria Chronicles 2. I loved the first one, hope I like the PSP sequel.
stuckinred
@Yutsano: With a web cam?
Kenneth
Ready for the WikiLeaks scandal?
It will be the Pentagon Papers of our time, and the Empire will not look good!
Ruckus
@Dennis SGMM:
They
’ll likelyWILL demand further cuts in public health and education in order to restore their privileges before they demand that we raise revenues.fixed to correct error on the side of sanity and back to reality.
Yutsano
@stuckinred: Even for me, there is only so much information I require about my fake spouses. Watching a new life come out of her hoo-hah, while a blessed event, qualifies under that standard.
@debit: The convenience of the excuse tends to override the puzzled looks or grousing of the housemates. Though mine dines in a separate room and just had her kitteh toilet refreshed today.
Dennis SGMM
@Ruckus:
You’re right. In a moment of traumatic amnesia I’d forgotten that, in the last budget session, the Republicans went so far as to refuse to close the tax loophole for yachts.
I stand corrected: they are batshit insane.
martha
@stuckinred: I can’t imagine it. I just got them, but on my arm, so I consider myself incredibly lucky. Weird numbness and itching but no “electrical shocks”. Let’s just say my stress level is not what it should be (MUCH LOWER).
stuckinred
@Yutsano: I was thinking of some David Lee Roth video.
Ruckus
@stuckinred:
I have a 40 year commitment to migraines so a little shingles headache barely registers. But then mine were on the side of my face and neck not in my eye. That sounds nasty.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano, @stuckinred: Liveblogging for sure, dunno about the webcam. I vividly remember RedKitten’s description of the :: trumpets and drumroll :: birth of SamKitten.
Speaking of whom, it seems like forever since there have been any Samuel sightings or photos. RK, if you’re around, please take pity on SK’s besotted admirers. TIA.
kdaug
@Lolis: Manuel’s?
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Dear Allah it’s tough to imagine it’s gonna be SamKitten’s second Christmas isn’t it? Before we know it he’s gonna be tearing it up all over the ice like the next Sidney Crosby!
SiubhanDuinne
@Ruckus, @stuckinred:
I had a horrible attack of shingles two years ago. Started in the middle of my lower lip with what I thought was just a nasty cold sore. In a period of just a few hours it had spread (like lava flowing — I could literally watch it moving up my face) along my right cheek, into my right eye, down into my right ear, and up to the scalp. Immediately went on massive antivirals AND antibiotics. Spent the next three weeks basically curled up in bed, whimpering.
Shingles are no fun at all. Great sympathy to anyone who had or has or will have them. (Such a silly name, you don’t appreciate until too late how agonizing they are.)
AnnaN
Doing all the low level quests for achievement points. Dodging gankers.
Try the Neilmed sinus flush – we get ours at Walgreen’s. Only thing that worked for my husband and myself here in Colorado, aka Sinus Hell.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano:
They grow up so fast.
/simper
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Yesh. Yesh they do.
Feeling a touch of second wind, so I think I’ll head out and get groceries now. Plus I’m craving a shaken passion iced tea lemonade like mad.
Ross Hershberger
Bromine. That’s what they use instead of chlorine to disinfect pools. 6 months ago I became a Certified Pool and Spa Operator for work. Aced the test. Don’t remember a bit of it. Except bromine.
I’m waiting for my ebay auctions to end at 9:30. BID, YOU BASTARDS!!!
Today I had to effect an emergency hack repair on a commercial coffee maker, using a 2 X 4, 6 decking screws and a stack of water fittings my wife spent 4 hours running around town to round up. Tomorrow morning when the coffee crew comes in to fire the machine up my cell phone will be OFF.
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: My experience was similar but I was in the final push on my dissertation and couldn’t stop.
MoanaLisa
Northrend for an hour or so. Then I have a date to run Underbog and Utgarde Keep.
Steeplejack
Why am I seeing Notre Dame-USC on ABC?! I should be seeing Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, which is what my channel guide tells me I should be seeing. When there are “I don’t really care” games on TV, I like to have a couple going so I can hop back and forth between them with the “last channel” button. I’ve got Georgia Tech-Georgia on one channel, since I lived in Atlanta for 25 years, but I don’t care enough about either Notre Dame or USC to put that game on. I did go to a Big 8 school way back in the dark ages, so OK-OK State would be acceptable. And yet I am not seeing it. Curses.
God, I may have to put the F.A. Cup match between Brighton and F.C. United of Manchester on the other channel.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Yutsano:
I hadn’t even noticed that comment…
What got to me about that video was the obvious disdain the makers have for Palin… AND… Americans in general… their, huh, utter bewilderment… correct word I’m looking for? … that Palin is taken seriously AT ALL… by ANYONE…
If I’m not mistaken, the US came back from the recent G20 meetings proclaiming them a real disappointment for the YewEssofAaaa… which I took to mean “The rest of the world won’t just roll over and do what we want anymore…”… perhaps it’s a stretch, but if you couple that comment w/ the general level of utter disdain expressed throughout the video, one could come to perhaps think, the rest of the world is so over us…
arguingwithsignposts
Just got back from T-giving holiday with The Someone, got to see some good music, visit her family. All is well with the world, well, except I’m home now. Hope everyone had a good holiday in the U.S.
Oh, and SiubhanDuinne – got to see Cosi Fan Tutte at the Met. Very nice. (I believe you were saying you saw the Ring on HD, if not, please disregard)
Montysano
We’re just back from day tripping in north Alabama. First, a visit to the sublime Rosenbaum House (the only Frank Lloyd Wright structure in the state), then on to a hike at Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve. Sunny, highs in the 50s, and had our chirrens with us (including what appears to be a potential daughter-in-law). It was perfect. I can honestly say that I never once thought of Balloon Juice or Facebook or Sarah Palin or John Boehner.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yea I got the medication right away and that helps from what I hear.
@martha:
The ‘random’ nerve firings were fun but then I get those on a semi regular basis from different parts of the body. Not at the same level though. Supposedly leftovers from a strange childhood illness. Or something else. Or I’m haunted. Or I’ve been dying for the last 10 years. Or I’m just getting old. Or for those anglophiles out there it’s possible that I have Lucas Electrics.
Ross Hershberger
Plumbing hates me today. First a stopped shower drain (wife’s hair, again) then a busted water line on a mission critical coffee machine at work.
I’m staying away from anything with moving fluids as much as possible for a while.
Rick Taylor
My Everquest 2 swashie ratonga is in a group trying to finish the raid, Throne of New Tunaria. It’s a pain, poorly designed older content. When we’re done, we’ll start leveling and go on to Rise of Kunark. Also I made a warden kerra and I’m enjoying that.
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yup, that was me. Good memory you have. Since “Rheingold” in early October, I’ve also seen “Boris Godunov” and “Don Pasquale.” Alas, they have not seen fit to include “Cosi” in the season’s HD offerings.
Glad you had fun. Um, any chance of seeing Lady Smudge welcoming you home?
Cliff
@Crashman:
Thanks for the heads up!!
also picked up wings of prey, get it if you have a joystick.
(I’m impatiently waiting for my TrackIr5 and joystick)
Redshirt
I know I would enjoy WoW and the like, but frankly, I’m afraid to even try it out. I’m on the old computer machine WAY too much as it is, and I know myself moderately well: I’d be up all night, every night, doing whatever banal task is necessary to progress to the next level, and the next, and the next….
So I won’t even try. I’ll just stick with an occasional game of Asteroids, by gum!
Andy K
@Steeplejack:
If that’s actually the replay of today’s Man Utd-Blackburn game, stick with it even after it seems like it’s boring. Something special happened in that one.
Steeplejack
@Andy K:
No, it’s actually a second-round F.A. Cup game between two tiny teams from Nowheresville (or Nowhereston, since it’s England). Which I usually like about the F.A. Cup, but for some reason I am not in the mood for it tonight. It’s like a grainy video of a AA high school football game. It pains the eyes.
arguingwithsignposts
@SiubhanDuinne:
Sadly, she’s still at the kitteh motel until at least tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a photo of a kitteh art installation at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia (which is a really neat museum space, btw – highly recommended).
Jim K.
Ooohh, thats gettin pretty close to Greg Sargents,”What else is happening?”
Andy K
@Steeplejack:
I thought that your channel guide might have gotten that wrong, too.
In case you didn’t catch it- SPOILER ALERT- Berbatov got 5 goals for Man Utd. today.
I’m sure he didn’t break a sweat, either.
Cliff
@Roger Moore:
What you are describing is the reason I had my parents buy a Drobo rather than me give them a backup server that would require maintenance (Me) and tech support in case of problems (again, Me.)
ps: the sweet new drobo is on sale at amazon at the moment, get em while you can for the really amazing price of:
$655.42 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
that’s like 300 bucks off, GET ONE!
Jim, Once
@SiubhanDuinne:
This. Thought you might be holding a little sweeting in your arms by now. Please let us know.
suzanne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Due date is technically Dec. 29, but the high-risk OB wants my regular OB to schedule delivery for around Dec. 22. I’ve been basically living in my doctor’s offices (2-3 appointments a week), and all looks like it’s going well so far. No seizures, THANK GOD. They’re planning an induction, but things could change at any moment. So I’m starting to get anxious…
I will of course keep y’all updated. Thanks so much for your interest and concern, seriously. I’m getting scared and it’s hard to think about much else at this point.
BethanyAnne
@Ruckus:
ha! :)
suzanne
@Yutsano:
LMAO. I don’t even want to know that about MYSELF. I refused the mirror while in labor with my first because I didn’t want to see my twat tearing. That is once again the plan. LOL.
Steeplejack
@Andy K:
Yikes. Is that like an atomic hat trick? I’ll have to catch that on the recap show tomorrow morning. Looks like Tottenham-Liverpool at 11:00 a.m. EST.
arguingwithsignposts
@suzanne:
In my experience (strictly as an onlooker wrt this part) the epidural is the way to go. Just saying.
Viva BrisVegas
Geek and noob, two peoples forever divided by a common language.
lawnorder
Tame a mastiff :p
There are some good looking ones right under naxx, a bit to the northeast. Onslaught bloodhound, I think
Foxes can be tamed now, there some good looking ones on loch mordan
oh, and how do you like the new hunter stealth ?
suzanne
@arguingwithsignposts: Epidurals are a bit of a sore subject. I had one with my first, and it turns out I’m one of the rare lucky duckies for whom they are ineffective. Repeated screaming during my labor that I was in pain went ignored, and none of the medical staff believed me until five minutes after she was born and I climbed off the table and walked down the hall. All I got was a, “Uh… sorry ’bout that…”
martha
@Ruckus: I get migraines too, so I’m probably haunted as well..and getting old…/deep sigh
West of the Cascades
Rode my bike up to what I thought was a Somali restaurant in northeast Portland — trying to do some sort of minor outreach to the Somali community here in Portland in the wake of the [incident? strange plot?] in Pioneer Square. Turns out the internet DOES lie, sometimes – it turned out to have become a Kenyan restaurant. Nevertheless it was tasty food and some Tusker beer and some interesting conversations with some folks from East Africa (just not the part of East Africa I was aiming for).
There have been reports of threats against mosques here in Oregon — I hope we end up being better than that (and that goes for the rest of the country, too). Now sitting down to surf the college football highlights and crack a bottle of wine.
ResumeMan
@Gravenstone: You know if I recall correctly, the high-level trainers for professions are *only* going to be available once you’ve unlocked the highest-level areas. Not sure how this is going to work exactly, but the idea is that you can’t cap out a profession below the level cap any more. No more crafting alts!
Sorry, can’t find the link. Just FYI tho.
arguingwithsignposts
@suzanne: sorry to hear that. the ex went through three with epi’s and didn’t have a prob.
still, best wishes for the best birth possible. we were on pins and needles for two of ours wrt delivery dates, and one was an induction.
Cliff
@Cliff:
Doh’ forgot the link, here it is: remember to click through the Balloon juice amazon ad before ordering if you use this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Drobo-5-bay-Gbe-Storage-Array/dp/B003GZ828I/
catclub
@stuckinred:
if I were a swim coach, my first talk would be:
I love this now at age 50 and I want you to be here swimming regularly when you are my age.
The second would be telling them all goodbye cause I got fired from coaching.
stuckinred
@catclub: sounds good, now GEORGIA is killing me!
suzanne
@arguingwithsignposts: Thanks. :) I’m anxious to get this over with. Not only ’cause I’d love to have a night of sleep without having to get up to pee four or five times, but because being epileptic makes this a dicier scenario.
Yutsano
@suzanne:
You may have mentioned this detail and I somehow glanced over it, but you’re correct that does monkey things up a touch. I’d make sure the hospital has a neurologist on call for a consult just in case. Hopefully they’re smart enough to have this planned already, but I assume nothing. Plus neurologists tends to be assmunches.
suzanne
@Yutsano: I’m delivering at the hospital in which my neurologist works, and both my obstetricians are all coordinated with him.
You’re right about neuros being assmunches. I refer to mine as Dr. Douchebag. I have to remind myself when I go see him not to call him that to his face.
Yutsano
@suzanne: I was this close to saying it to four different ones, who refused to make the right call (hint: I don’t have MS, although two wanted to call it that) and finally said my numbness was idiopathic. Got to my first doctor’s appointment here (not a neuro) told him that word, next phrase out of his mouth: “Which means us doctors are idiots.” I decided to keep him.
General Stuck
I had an epidural once for a urinary tract biopsy. For some strange reason, I started giggling loudly at everything, and the last thing I remember was the urologist looking at me like WTF? then giving the anesthesiologist the sign to knock my silly ass completely out.
Svensker
@suzanne:
Don’t be scared. You’ll be fine, the baby will be fine. Seriously. You can get through it. Really, you can.
suzanne
@Yutsano: Good for him. That’s ridiculous. One of my ongoing frustrations with the medical profession is that they always seem to be inherently suspicious of me when I go in with a complaint, like I’m a hypochondriac or just trying to get OxyContins or something. So when I’ve found medical professionals who take me seriously and respect my intelligence and my experience in my own goddamned body, I am devoted.
My neuro is good; from a medical perspective, I have no real complaints. I’ve been seizure-free for almost two years on only one medication, and a low dose at that. (Monotherapy is much safer for feti than polytherapy.) But epilepsy is frustrating because no one can tell me why, all of a sudden, one day at age 27, in perfect health, and with absolutely no family history of the disorder, I started with full tonic-clonic seizures. Hell, medical science doesn’t even know why anti-seizure medications work at all.
Svensker
@Svensker:
Didn’t know about the seizures, which sure does add an anxiety level. Good grief. Still, it sounds like you have all the doctors and attention you need and you seem to feel healthy. Stay strong! Big hugs!
Dennis SGMM
@Ruckus:
Now there’s your problem: you forgot that the Positive terminal is grounded with Lucas.
suzanne
@Svensker: Thanks. :) I’m just impatient, and a worrier by nature. Just another reason I really want a damn martini. ;)
Yutsano
@Svensker: This ad infinitum. My real only saving grace for suzanne is this isn’t her first rodeo.
stuckinred
Tech just let us score!
Roger Moore
@Cliff:
I’m not really worried about the whole backup process. In any case, a Drobo doesn’t solve my main worry, which is having an off-site backup in case of a disaster big enough to destroy my condo. I have a system that works well for me (/home on RAID1, periodic backups onto USB hard drives which rotate to my desk at for for off-site storage), but Fedora 14 did some kind of stupid trick that keeps most RAID from working properly. I think I found out how to fix that part (removing unnecessary restrictions from grub.conf) but it’s my first time creating a software RAID from the command line rather than from Anaconda.
What I would really like is cheap, fast cloud storage. It would be great to be able to rsync to the cloud and let somebody else work on the whole redundancy issue. It would have the side benefit that I could access all my data remotely from wherever without having to worry about secure network access to my home box.
Jane2
Your chronic sinus infection is likely due to pet dander. As a three-cat owner who ended up on allergy medication before I identified the problem, I can tell you that you need a steamer. The high heat destroys bacteria and allergens, and only uses hot water. You’ll not only end up throwing away all your chemical cleaners, you’ll breathe well. You can clean everything from carpets to floors to counters to shower stalls to mattresses to grout to ovens…the list is endless. And only with steam…it’s a miracle product.
The best part is that steamers are easy to use and take little time….I can clean 3 carpets in 15 minutes. Look up Euroflex or Shark…a great steamer costs about 150 bucks in Canada. Costco has them.
Redshirt
Openiest thread ever? Or are they all this Open?
Yutsano
@Redshirt: Pfft. This is nothin’. At least we aren’t discussing lancing boils on Tunch’s ass.
Cliff
@Roger Moore:
dfine cheap:
http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
Tim F.
Buy a freestanding HEPA filter. Use a vacuum that doesn’t leak dust and dander back into the air. The dust that collects in bedsheets can seriously irritate a respiratory system, so change them a LOT. The air filter and changing sheets more often finally cured a chronic cough that my wife had for two months.
J.W. Hamner
I got my WoW account hacked at like 1 am Thanksgiving night… while I was sleeping off a food coma… that was a joyous series of emails to read in the morning let me tell you. Like a complete idiot I had the same password for my email as for WoW, but they didn’t appear to do too much damage… besides sending out gold farmer spam… before I could change all my passwords to things I’m guaranteed to forget. I’m honestly shocked they didn’t change my Google Account password… which would have screwed me royally. I guess that’s something to be thankful for at least? A lesson learned.
Regardless… not only did I leave town before the patch, my account is in lockdown until they can verify I don’t live in China. Good times… hope “account recovery” means not having my characters stripped bare and deleted.
Sentient Puddle
@J.W. Hamner: First, that sucks. I feel for you.
Second, my account got hacked several months ago, and it sounds like what I went through was much smoother sailing. I got a three hour suspension for /trade chat spam, and Blizzard automatically reset my password. Strange that they’re stepping it up that much more…or did they get into your Gmail too?
As for your characters, I’d unfortunately bet for the worst. I had only one character that was high level (79, and the next was something like 40), and that one was gone. No others were touched, but I also had to delete a shitton of new characters with alphabet soup names that the hacker created to spam. That’s another thing to look forward to.
Gravenstone
@J.W. Hamner: Our guild had a couple of accounts hacked a handful of months back. In both cases, Blizzard CS fully restored everything lost (including items pilfered from the guild bank) within 4-5 days. We’ve since instituted a guild policy where you can’t access the guild bank unless you prove you have an authenticator associated with your account. Hardly foolproof, but it is one more level a hacker has to slog through.
J.W. Hamner
@Sentient Puddle:
@Gravenstone:
Upon arriving at my home computer I found out they did get into my e-mail. I’ve got messages about two separate 3 hour bans with password resets (but no passwords – forwarded I guess?)… one message about them changing my password… and then a message telling me my account was locked.
The weird thing is that I only play at home, scan my computer for viruses daily… and it’s coming up clean as a whistle right now… so I wonder how I got made. Probably not changing your password in 5 years will do that.
I’ve got the authenticator app on my cell phone now though, and will try to juggle half a dozen passwords to keep breaches contained like smart people instead of being lazy and stupid.
I have to admire their timing on the hijack… Thanksgiving… fairly crafty.
Johnny Coelacanth
@J.W. Hamner:
My account got hacked last summer, after I registered on my guild’s page @ wowstead.com. Like an idiot, I used my WoW password on wowstead and got hacked. They did, indeed, strip everything they could off of my characters. Everything was restored, though it took 10 days or so before it was straightened out. Sounds like a good time to start leveling an alt.
Jay in Oregon
@J.W. Hamner:
My wife’s account got stolen as well. They even put their own Authenticator(!) on the account. When she got it back, they had stripped almost all of her characters, transferred one to another account, and even looted the alt levelling guild’s bank that she and I had set up. (There was nothing major in it; I didn’t even bother restocking it when I got the gear back.)
If you have an iPod/iPhone/iPad, I can’t think of any reason NOT to get the free Blizzard Authenticator app for it. If you don’t, then it’s worth spending the $8 or so to get a physical one.
I haven’t played in over a year, and I still have my account linked to my Authenticator app just in case I do something silly like accidentally reuse my password somewhere else.
Roger Moore
@Cliff:
Those Amazon prices don’t look particularly cheap to me; they’re charging over $1/GB/year, even for their reduced reliability category. I’d be more likely to go with Google, which charges $0.25/GB/year.
The bigger problem is bandwidth. I’m paying extra for a higher level of service, but like most ISPs mine provides much faster downloads than uploads. I can get something like 2.5 MB/s down, but only about 280 KB/s up. That would be fine if I were only worried about protecting a few critical documents like tax and home related records, or even my whole email history. And maybe I should look into getting some online storage just for that.
But I’m also a fairly serious photographer, so I have almost 50,000 JPG and over 20,000 RAW photo files. That’s more than 300 GB worth. Simple math will tell you that even if I saturate my uplink, it’s going to take in the neighborhood of a couple of weeks to upload all my pictures. And that’s assuming that my ISP doesn’t decide part way through that I’m a problem user and cut me off for exceeding their unstated bandwidth cap. Cloud storage just isn’t practical for that amount of data and a home internet connection.
Cliff
you just said you wanted cheap cloud storage, make up your mind.
just buy the storage robot and let it do its thing, I know my time is worth more than it cost, that’s why I bought one instead of trusting some person to ‘Secure’ my data at a remote location. (aka cloud storage – regardless of cost)
Roger Moore
@Cliff:
I said that I wanted cheap, fast cloud storage. I think the cheap part is coming along OK- assuming I can figure out how to use Google’s $0.25/GByear- but the fast part still leaves a lot to be desired. Even with an expensive internet connection, downloads are an order of magnitude slower than a USB hard drive, and uploads are two orders of magnitude slower. That does not meet my definition of fast.
Bluepost
@Bostondreams: Plus, it seems like they really are holding your hand now. ‘You should have this spell up at all times.’ ‘You should use this spell when a friend is tanking at least 4.’
Beginner tooltips are a setting you can turn off in Options -> Help.
Bluepost
Boo! Everyone has gone to sleep. Oh well. Just in case, check this out Wow people that have left or just came back (if you’re curious about what beginner tooltips are all about) http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/17/cataclysm-beginner-tooltips-option-simplifies-abilities-for-rook/#continued
Also, if you’re looking for stuff to do until the 7th: play through the Azshara quests! If you don’t play Horde, create a new troll character on some realm to see the new Echo Isles and then play through the Azshara quests! When you reach the Secret Lab (on fire), you’ll know you’ve hit pay-dirt. (Redesigned for levels 10-20, and non stop laughs.)
matoko_chan
im gettin the rest of my wrathful now that i dont need arena rank (could never break 1800), and dropped inscript for eng.
goblin engineers will rule the bgs in Cata.
im planning for an all worgen 10man bg team. we will either be called The Tines, Lazerdogs, or Le Pacte des Loupes (after the movie).
my new arena threes will be Tokyo Gore Police.
see u in the rankings.