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Fare the well to my thirties, I didn't like you much.
May the next decade be much better.
No, obviously not. Eight is not ten, especially when one skips seven. Seven may possibly be the new thirteen.
Speaking of numbers, this Thursday is the birthday I am not having. Last year was my last birthday ever. Hmph.
On to better numbers, very late on this upcoming Thursday and/or very early on Friday morning will be this blog's 5th birthday.
Oh, and, Happy Earth Day to you.
Tue 04.15.08 - Taxes.
On Friday and today (Sunday), I have been so chained to my computer and finishing up tasks, that I have not posted any photos worth seeing the light of pixels and leds other than the memory of my camera. Why, you ask? Well, I am deep in the deadline doldrums.
Yep, too much to do, too many tasks to complete: client work, proposals (2 of them), and taxes. Yes, taxes. Bah.
Bah.
Bah.
bah...
Today was spent in two ways: the Dog ways and the Interaction Design ways.
Belle was a hair ball beyond Polar Bear status and desperately needed to visit a groomer to get shaved. Given that all the pet salons that I knew of were booked up due to predicted weekend hot weather, it involved me driving up PCH in this morning a bit looking for dog salons and walking into Purr-cision Grooming in Sunset Beach and begging for Belle to get a slot at the grooming table.
I have in the past noted that Sunset Beach has a high percentage of Psychics (2 or 3 in 2 miles), 3 Happy Ending Style Message Parlors (of the Rub & Tug variety), and 3 Tattoo parlours, and one just one dog groomers. Many thanks for Mark Anthony and the crew at Purr-cision for making Belle a dog again rather than a mini-polar bear.
The second part of my day was doing my least favorite activity: wireframing. Wireframing in my book is right up there with doing one's taxes and cleaning the toilet. Just say no.
Now I know that some folks consider wireframes to be the be all and end all of web design.
In my 12 years of designing and developing for the web, I prefer to first think about the task extensively, sketch & makes notes, and then just do it. This is much the same process I use when making art, esp. painting. I think, mull, turn things over in my mind - sometimes for weeks, make sketches, and then start the task.
In today's case, I already had fully envisioned the finished web interaction in my head and worked out the steps, but I needed to explain it to a programmer who would help me with the perl code. First I tried to explain it in an email, but that was not full enough. So I made two diagrams in photoshop with arrows to show how the behavior/actions would happen. But that was not enough either, so I started to make a html/javascript plain version of the interaction, when I realized... gasp! shock! horror! I was wireframing. blech.
Silly me.
While very tummy sick with the Mumbai bug meets the Austin bug and conducts WWIII in my tummy when I was in Austin for SXSW, I decided that the two weeks after I returned would be a "blackout" period. I warned clients, friends & family that I would be going into a two week blackout (March 17-30) and would not be available.
Today is the last day of my self-imposed blackout period. During this time I have have kept my phone on silent or just plain turned off. I have slept a minimum of nine hours a night and made a point to eat good allergen-free home cooked meals. I have only worked on stuff that needed to be finished or wrapped up and only visited with folks who I wanted to see.
Basically, I pushed the reboot button on my life after 3 months of madness and go-go-go-go-go-go-go. I am *finally* free of the last 2+ months of flu or tummy bug. I am caught up on my sleep & client work. Now I just need to catch up on some blogging.
I had an interesting Friday night and have a whole blog post in my head about it, but it will have to wait while I finish the documentation for a client. Maybe tomorrow.
Sorry folks, due to general busy-ness and completing tasks on my To Do list today, I did not take any photos to moblog here. I did see lovely things whilst out walking Scruffy this morning but didn't photograph them. An unintentional day off from photography.
I did check a bunch of things off my weekly to do list. Best of all, I am *finally* back in the proper time zone and caught up on my sleep.
Note to self: Correct about page, add contact info, and sort out portfolio site before week's end.
While I am *supposed* to take my anti-malaria pills, Mefloquine, for another 2 weeks, I am over it and done. I will not be taking my pill tomorrow due to 3 weeks of mild building up to medium bad reactions on a daily basis.
The first week or so, the only reaction I had to the medication was feeling like I was on 5 shots of expresso at any given time and not sleeping more than 5 hours a night. By the end of the second week on the drug, I was having occasional nightmares and feeling agitated. The last two weeks I have continued sleeping badly, having nightmares, feeling agitated and upset over small things, etc.
When I was in India, all of the non-US travellers I met were NOT taking any anti-malarial preventive medication and were very surprised that my doctor put me on it. Since I have returned, several British friends told me to throw the mefloquine away and only to take it when I actually get sick, as they had more reactions from the medicine than any other sickness they may have experienced in India.
When I was so tummy sick earlier this week, I had more folks email me or tell me in person here at SXSW that I should go off the mefloquine, as it may be contributing to my tummy illness.
So, this morning I called the Kaiser Permanente Advice Nurse to see what they thought about my reaction to the medication and if I could speak to a pharmacist, but as usual the Kaiser Advice Nurse was THOROUGHLY unhelpful. And wanted me to come into an LA doctor appointment, I told her that I was in Austin, and then she got exasperated with me and said that Kaiser could not help if I was not at home and why did I not call when I was in India (Uh... $1.50+ per minute phone charges to be put on hold for 20 mins. I think not).
She told me to go to the emergency center in Austin. I pointed out that they might not know much more than she did and would it not be better to leave a message for the doctor who prescribed the medication to me or the pharmacist at Kaiser? No, she said, I should go to urgent care here and not take any more of the medication until I can get into Kaiser next week. WTF?!?!? End of call.
When I get back I am changing health insurance. I hate Kaiser. In the meantime, as to not have more insomnia, nightmares, tummy and emotional agitation, I am not taking my pill in the morning. Larium, I am over you.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen when laying like a lump in bed last evening while everyone else was out at SXSW Interactive parties having fun.
The short and sweet summary of this story is that in the last 3 weeks, I have only had two days (last Thursday & Friday) where I was not tummy sick in some fashion. Friday night I ate something funky at Iron Cactus which started another round of tummy troubles, which morphed by yesterday into a full case of fever/chills & trotting to the toilet. Basically the Bombay Bug was upset that the Austin Bug decided to show up and they have been throwing WWIII in my gut ever since.
Gatorade & Imodium are allievating the problems, but I am weak and worse for the wear. A fine way to spend SXSW. Bah.
Thurs 03.06.08 - Arriving at LAX, next stop Austin.