Glenn Beck

In the crowded arena of radio shouters, Glenn Beck unearths a new low at 3:00 minutes into the clip. The aftershock at 3:31 is just dessert.

I'm Not Dead Yet 1.1

(slight revision)

Short story: I have Strep, maybe MRSA, and an ear infection.

Some reports of my condition, while hopefully well-intended, are exaggerated. This has made life complicated, perhaps unnecessarily. Like, if you told someone you had Swine Flu, you'd have to go through that whole explanation about how pedestrian it usually is. Apples and oranges, but you get the idea.

I'm not an expert, but the doctor gave me no reason for alarm. Neither did my mom, who's a nurse. The doctor even said I could go out in public if I felt up to it. I don't, but it's good to know. I don't want to understate the situation, because MRSA can be bad news. But I'm taking the word of my doctor and my mom, who said "People get worked up about it, but you'll be fine in a few days."
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This thing came on pretty quick. I went to Urgent Care this morning because something didn't feel right. Every minute or so when swallowing, it felt like was someone closing their hand around my neck.

"Strep, for sure," said the doctor. "Looks like a truck ran over your throat."

Since I don't know anyone sick right now, it was odd. Halfway through the visit, I rolled up my sleeve and showed him this scab I had from a rugburn last week. "This isn't related, right?"

"Oh my," he said. This mostly-healed abrasion was infected.

So now I'm getting treated for MRSA.

No, it's not confirmed because he couldn't swab the abscess (since it was mostly healed up), but that was his theory. Yes, MRSA is actually treatable.

The doctor said unless you and I press open wounds together, I won't get you sick. Lots of people carry on their skin. It's common, I guess.

But yeah, he seemed unconcerned. My mom was more concerned about the Strep, which kills 400,000 people a year worldwide.

I'm buffing my house to a high gloss with biocide wipes, which may or not be necessary. I'm doing it anyway. Who doesn't like to wipe?

But wait! There's more!

The doctor was checking out my ears for some reason and said I have an outer ear infection. "You like Q-tips, huh?" So now I'm on two separate antibiotics. I'm going to miss Q-tips so much. I'd touch brain if that stupid eardrum wouldn't stop me.

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Sara, as always, is taking great care of me. She's making smoothie runs, buying antiseptic chemicals that we normally wouldn't have in the house, etc. She's healthy today, as is Sasha. Fingers crossed. I take care when sick, and feel strongly about containment. I feel better now than this morning, but I'm still running a fever.

In conclusion, this is a good time to rest, eat healthy, drink lots of water, and watch old Colbert Reports.

"Some People Say Rappers Don't Have Feelings"

"We have feelings.
Some people say we're not rappers.
It hurts our feelings when you say we're not rappers."

-Flight of the Conchords


So, we ("Z" and myself) wrote and recorded a rap until 3:30 am on Friday. That was a new experience.

I knew rap was difficult, but this was a surprise.

I'd post it here, but due to the nature of my job, it's over on my semi-anonymous co-MC's blog.
He's a better rapper than I, and it's got three samples from Clifford.

Go Iran

If you're going to only click one link, click here.

A guy at work used to do news and did a story on Iran. He said that it was one of the most wired countries in the world.

The election demonstrations are incredible, seeing them live-blogged is equally amazing. Despite turning off text messaging, Gmail, Yahoo, etc, we're still seeing this stuff more vividly than ever.

The stuff that's coming out of Iran (and beyond) is incredible in so many ways: censorship workarounds, Twitter, student bravery, picasa blogs, cops shooting into crowds, even sports coverage. If you scroll down some of those #iranelection feeds to when events were just heating up, it's shocking. A friend in Australia called it a tapestry of dissent.

The other day, someone said something that I'd never thought I'd feel: Go Iran.

Beach Living Has Perks

It's been fantastic weather, and we had a lil' picnic with the Smiths over at Bay Street.

The surf was really fun, and the kids ran themselves silly.



Also, the surf was really fun.

Palm Springs

Sara's mom turned 60 this weekend. She lives in LA, so we met her there and drove out to Palm Springs. Not bad livin' out there. Windy as all get-out, but we had a good time. We hit the Discovery Museum, did some shopping, and Sara and I got to go see "I Love You, Man," which was hi-larious.

We fly back tomorrow. Good times.

Postponed No More

The board fits on the bag.
The gear fits in the bag.
Marine forecast is great.
We canceled last year.
The flowers are out.
No chance of rain.
It's on!

That's Got To Hurt

"It was Mrs. Crafty, in the sewing room, with the rotary cutter."

Sara recounts the incident over at her craft blog. (She seems oddly proud, like a surfer who's been attacked by a shark. )

What was most creepy, from my view, was when she passed out. Both times, her eyes stayed open as her glasses were knocked askew.

You're right: that's less weird than the fact I retrieved and froze the meaty flesh-filet. Still there in the freezer. Wanna see?

More flickr gore.
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Naturally, we've been comparing injury stories:

Mr. D reports that once, he put a chisel right into the meat of his palm.

Am told Mr. R apparently went into deep his own finger with a power saw. Almost lost it.

I've had my hand opened (and stitched closed) thanks to hobo dogs and river rocks.

You?

Great Shape (for dead)

We first heard that there was a white shark scare at Camel Rock. I was told Whitey was probably checking out the dead juvenile whale that bobbed around Trinidad before washing up on the right side of Houda point. What? A dead whale?
We're there!

Being whale-carcass afficionados, we went out on Saturday's low tide. Andy, Ava, Zeke and Owen came out, too. The whale was easy to find.

Suprisingly, it didn't have the throat-choking odor that often accompanies dead whales. It didn't smell good, but at least you could walk right up to it without your eyes watering.

Sasha and I talked about how the whale was slowly going back to nature. A surfer said a biology class came out the day before to remove some whale parts; does that count?

While there were some guts scattered about, it wasn't too decayed, probably because it was below the high-tide line. With that, though, is the constant trickle of shark-attracting odor washing into Humboldt's most popular surfing waters.

On that note, a surfer asked me if I knew anything about the recent white shark tagging operation. I knew nothing. He'd heard that someone was tagging (and presumably tracking) white sharks nearby. 10 had been tagged between the mouth of the Mad and Trinidad, he added.

Afterward, we wandered the beach, climbed rocks, drew sand pictures, and enjoyed the weather.

7'4 Fish

You're nerdy, flat, uncool, funny-shaped, and Deanna thought you were from Ikea.

I love you. Let's go away.

Haircut: FAIL

Sometime between plugging the clippers into the socket and applying them to my head, the little plastic blade guard fell off.

Of course, I fly out to a work conference tomorrow.

Sicko II

While Sasha was getting better, Sara was coming down with something. We thought it might pass, but no.

Sara's had this going on for nine days now, which was surely extended by the stress of a sick toddler. Today, she went in to see a doctor.

Confirmed: Bronchitis AND a fever.
Antibiotics: order up.

On the good side, Sasha is recovering well from her infections.

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Down at my work, we've been really lucky for the last several days. We've had a wide range of talent stop by to do their thing. I think we've been scoring big (although I might re-EQ 2/9).

If you can grab podcasts from my work, check the four from February 6-10.

Sicko

Pinkeye is going around the daycare.
She also has a new ear infection and a fever.

We've been swabbing out eye-boogers since Saturday. For such sick kid, she's being a total champ. Most of the time, she's pretty chipper.

Today, she called handed me a toy ducky and said "Here, Mike."

Sara picked up something funky, too.