May 2006 Archives
Last week I had a weird migraine experience. I occasionally get migraines - probably about once every 12-18 months - and Friday afternoon I started getting a pre-migraine aura.
Normally I would get home as quickly as I could and hunker down until it passed, but I was supposed to meet a couple old high school friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. So I decided to see if I could get it down to a manageable level.
First, I went to the break room and got a cup of coffee and some PainAid from the first aid kit. The coffee was for caffeine and the PainAid was basically on spec. PainAid has acetaminophen, aspirin, caffeine, and salicylamide in it - a true cocktail of analgesics.
I went back to my office and lowered the blinds.
About 45 minutes later, when the aura started to clear and the headache started in I took 400mg of ibuprofen with a lot of water and a half-bar of chocolate. The headache, while annoying, never reached the "sledgehammer in my skull" levels I associate with migraines. I felt a little wrung out but totally capable of sitting down in a bar with a couple old friends.
I got to the bar and ordered an IPA. By the time I finished my first beer the headache was gone. Was it just dumb luck? Or did my course of medication help? Who knows. I'll try it again next time.
To summarize:
1. Coffee + PainAid
2. Water + Ibuprofen + Chocolate
3. Beer
I'm sure most companies do five-year plans.
Today we discussed setting up a meeting to make changes to our five year plan. Five year plan plans.
Before the meeting I will undoubtedly have some strategy conversations about the five year plan changes with my co-workers. Five year plan plan plans.
(I crack myself up.)
or
How The Sex Trade Got Me Running
I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago for the annual National Association of Broadcasters show. One afternoon we had a meeting with a vendor at the Hard Rock Hotel. After the meeting, as we were walking around to the front of the hotel to catch a cab, we were hailed by a young woman who appeared to be in some distress:
Woman: Can I borrow your cell phone to make a call? I need to call my girlfriend and my phone is dead.
Me: (thinking, okay, could be true) What's the number?
Woman: 702-xxx-xxxxx
Me: (dialing) Here you go.
Woman: (on phone) Hi. Mmm Hmm. (hangs up, hands me back phone) So, where are *you* from...
Which eventually led to her asking if I wanted her number for a little extracurricular fun. No thanks, I said as I turned and left, chuckling a bit to myself. I caught up with my group, who were all busy laughing at/with me. Oh well, it was funny. So much for chivalry.
Anyway, that evening I told Katy about it. She laughed and said what was quite possibly the meanest thing I've ever heard:
"Well, I guess you look like a middle-aged conventioneer."
OUCH! I mean, really!
Talk about your motivation. I'll be tying on the running shoes a bit more regularly after that, thankyouverymuch.
Tomorrow is my birthday! Two quotes from P. J. O'Rourke for you to contemplate as I savor the beginning of my last year in my thirties.
There's one more terrifying fact about old people: I'm going to be one soon.
There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.
Me and the kids, we love to play us some Lego Star Wars on the weekends. (the PC version, thanks for asking.)
But lately, it hasn't been working so well. Every fifteen minutes or so, some program runs that somehow forces the game to minimize. Sometimes you can re-enter the game, but more often than not it hangs and you have to restart. This is a cause for some frustration (mild understatement) as most levels take about 20 minutes and there is no way to save your progress mid-level.
After the third time trying to get through the last level of the game (aka "the lava level") with Cameron, we were both frustrated enough to get me started on some research.
Turns out my HP printer is responsible. hpcmpmgr.exe is an HP application that checks for driver and software updates - Every Fifteen Minutes. I'm not sure what's more ridiculous - that it requires such an enormous portion of the system resources to do this, or that it checks every 15 minutes.
I went into MSConfig and disabled it. Once again the dark side has been vanquished.
(Save your "get a game console" speeches. I know.)
