I have the bird flu…

Ok, not really but I’m still a little sick.  I’ve going to through my antibiotics and I still am having problems with my nose and throat.  I really hope this passes soon or I’m going to have to go back to the doctor.

On a related note my oldest daughter was sick on Saturday.  It never fails; children will get sick when there is no possibility of getting to the doctor.  She cried for most of the day on Saturday and seemed to have some odd issue with her eye, where it puffed up.  That pretty much covered the whole day.  The next day she woke up and was fine.  It’s like that with her: one day of hell and then the next is fine.  

She also managed to put another hole in a wall yesterday.  She already made a decent sized one with a pretend shopping cart.  Now she made one in a wall by opening a door too hard and putting the door knob through it.  I swear by the time I get out of this rental house I’m going to be a master of dry wall repair.  

This morning I almost saw a couple of people get wiped out by the train.  This is possibly one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.  It was very wet and if they waited a few seconds they could have walked behind it and still made the train in plenty of time.  The conductor got on the loudspeaker after the incident and told people that’s a good way to get dead.

It’s Halloween.  I guess my little ones will be cats tonight.  It looks like it’s going to be pouring all day though.  This may be a short trick or treating experience.

Blueprint for the crappiest week ever

This is a rundown of the last week.  
So I get on the ground in Dallas, no worries.  I get to the hotel and they gave my room away.  I had to go up the road to some place without internet, that smells and I think the guys up the way are filming a porno.  I'm not even kidding.

I walk up the road to get some dinner because there was nothing on the plane. On the way back to hotel some scary guy I think was following me.  I backed tracked because I didn't really want to walk through the dark alley with him following me. I get back to my room and the food is cold and pretty terrible. The room is awful.  The tub won't drain and there are huge spider webs in the corners. This is hell.
The following day was a little better.  Worked with some nice clients and I finally got my real hotel room back.  The Marine band was there and some of them were practicing in their rooms.  A few bangs on the wall silenced them though.

I never did get some decent Tex-Mex.  I was traveling with another guy and I ended up going other places because we had to share a car.

On Thursday I started getting a dry cough that I could seem to kick.

I wake up on Friday and my throat is on fire and my voice is an octave lower.

By Friday night on the plane I’m toast.  I took a sleeping pill when I got on the plane and attempted to rest, but it was pretty useless.  I was completely out of it.  I got home and was overcome by chills and an inability to do anything.  

I was full out sick on Saturday and Sunday.  I stayed home from work on Monday and went to see the doctor.  He said it looked like bronchitis.  He gave me a bunch of drug samples and sent me on my way.

I went to work on Tuesday and took the drugs the doctor gave me.  I don’t know if it was the drugs of my illness, but my head was spinning.  I got nauseous and had to leave work.  I came home, threw up, and got a few minutes of sleep.

Today I’m still feeling bad but I’ve not taken any meds yet.  I’ll take my antibiotics with food, but there’s no why I’m taking the other meds the doctor gave me.

Crappiest week ever.

Pat down

I don’t care what people say, nothing beats a good airport security pat down.  For some reason I was randomly selected (I hope) to have a complete search of my bags.  They rifled through my bags, and ran a metal detector around my body.  I had to unlatch my belt and hold it away from my body.  The whole time the screener was saying things like “I hope we don’t pick up anything because then it really gets ugly.”  Gee thanks, jackass.

Flight to Dallas should be uneventful.  

Catcher In The Rye

I think they must give out copies of “Catcher In The Rye” to young males in this city.  Whenever I’m on a train with a young white well and he’s reading a book, this is always the book.  

I had a very nice weekend.  I took the kids to a pumpkin patch on Sunday and we rode on a tracker, went to the farmer’s marker, climbed up bails of hay, and looked at animal.  Driving a car through a cabbage field to park on the other hand wasn’t fun.

So I’m off to Dallas tomorrow night until Friday night.  Not really looking forward to it but this will be the first test of my ability on this new job.  It should be interesting if nothing else.

Just saw this: a hysterical parody of George W. Bush's speech advisers.

A sign you may have marital issues.

Video iPod

Video iPod

Apple rocked the computing world again by releasing a new video iPod. The current proposed uses are TV shows and music videos that can be purchased from the iTunes store. Obviously movies will be next. I think the future implications of the format have really been overlooked. Anyone can create their own content via a Quicktime H.264 codec. With that ability it is just a matter of time before we see videocasts. Some Podcasters already do video feeds too, but they are not served the same way and they lack the portability of their audio counterparts. This levels the playing field. What were What were looking at here is worldwide public access shows.

At the same time Congress is considering a plan by broadcasters to control all content via a digital flag. This means that broadcasters could decide what you can record to time shift. With this technology they could disallow recording of programs or restrict use of programing. I suggest everyone tell their
representative that they oppose this measure.

There is a clown that drives around Downtown Portland at lunch time. He has an oddly painted van, a couple of sock puppets and he sings to the radio. This city is strange.

"I want to eat too"

Yesterday in the square I gave some girl who wanted something to eat a dollar because she asked really nicely.  So some dude walks up to me "I want to eat too."  I replied, "I can only help one person a day."  Said man then shook my hand and acknowledged what a cool guy I am.  

Seriously, people are weird around here sometimes.

In unrelated news, the movie Thumbsucker, which is getting a limited release now, was filmed up the road in Beaverton.  So I looked in IMDB to see if any good movies had been filmed here.  Nothing stood out but apparently a Hong Kong movie I saw a few years ago had been filmed here.  I’m not sure why.  They movie gave no indication that it wasn’t filmed in Hong Kong.

Dallas is right out

My trip to Dallas got canceled at the last minute, so I’m still in Portland this week.  I will be in Dallas for a few days next week for another client.

My weekend was pretty slow.  I watched a bit of Lost on DVD and I went to the dentist on Saturday.  That was pretty simple.  The only bad part was the injection to numb my gums.  Nothing gets your eyes watering like a needle in the front of your gums.

In my file of weird crap seen on the streets of Portland I submit this large fish seen downtown on Friday.

Krispy Kreme

I had my first Krispy Kreme this morning.  All I can say is I don’t understand all of the hype.

Dallas

Looks like I'll be flying out to Dallas on Sunday night and getting on the ground about 5am.  I'm going to try to sleep on the plane.  If that doesn't work out I'll just take a nap during the day.

Everyone at my house is sick right now so that's a little stressful.  I'm feeling a little better but it took a few days.

The Oregon Supreme Court recently struck down two laws: one prohibiting the viewing of live sex shows, the other requiring performers to stay 4 feet away from patrons.  I guess the saying "come for the fishing, stay for the strip bars" rings true.  There are a bunch of places by the airport that are obviously cat houses.  Things are pretty lax here when it comes to sex vice laws.

Bang that bongo

I went to Pioneer Courthouse Square to get lunch at the Honkin' Huge Burritos place. There was a bandstand playing very loud music in support of breast cancer (yeah, it didn't make sense to me either. A guy walked up and started playing the bongos to "We Are Family".

Fortunately, this guy showed up and started to smoke next to bongo playing dude. Bongo playing dude got pissed off and told the dude it was impolite to smoke near people and he ran off in a huff. In my book, smoking dude is pretty cool. Thanks smoking dude.

I'm feeling a little better today. I hope this cold doesn't go into my chest though.

Meth Watch

So I’m high on DayQuil today because I can’t stand having terrible cold symptoms.  I’m not sure why people bother converting this stuff into crystal meth, because I’m flying just on this.  

It appears meth is quite an issue up here.  It’s difficult to get certain medications because of the laws surrounding the purchase of items with the ingredients needed for meth.  I think it’s probably a lot of media hysteria like the “crack epidemic” of the 1980s that resulted in stiffer punishments for crack, even though it’s an off-shoot of cocaine.

I’m a bit freaked out because I’ve been reading about hobo spiders.  These nasty things are very fast and big.  Their bite is similar to that of a brown recluse spider.  Oh, and I’ve found two of them in the house I’ve rented.  I might consider getting a cat, because I don’t want these spiders to be an issue.

Illness

Illness

I woke up in the middle of the nice completely feeling sick. The sinus pressure is so bad it's making my teeth hurt. My throat is raw and I just feel like total heck.

I always wonder who gave me any sort of cold. I bet I got this one from this two year old sitting next to me on the flight from Portland to Cincinnati. She was pretty awful and would cough my direction.

Ugh. Kill me.