Starry Wisdom

After waiting two weeks, my test for today was postponed due to some emergency involving a “poor old lady” that was wreaking havoc on their schedule for the day. So now i wait until next Tuesday. SIGH SIGH SIGH SIGH SIGH.

I have delicious brownies, and you don’t!

So, on Tuesday, my friend lb told me that our friend Jarett was coming up from LA to SF for a few days.

Yesterday, aka gweeds came on IRC and suggested lb and I head up to SF to hang out with them. I was at work, but feeling less than effective, so i decided I would cut out a bit early. Meanwhile, lb headed up from the Southbay. When I was out of work at 4pm, I called them up, and met them at Ocean Beach (I took a crappy pic with my new camera phone, but not worth posting, i think). We hung out a bit (they had already been there a long time). So we soon headed off to Green Apple Books a phenomenal bookstore. I got a copy of the Seamus Haney translation of Beowulf. Afterwards, lb called headache, and decided to head home. I recommended he get a CT scan, just in case. The rest of us then headed over to Weird Fish in the Mission for dinner. The whole drive, gweeds affirmed my driving prowess despite my recent brain issues. How lovely! Dinner was yummy. Fried oysters, Tilapia fish and chips, some fried pickles. and ginger lemonade. Then, it was off to Mitchell’s for ice cream. I tasted the avocado (weird but ok) and Lucuma before deciding on the Holy Mango. Then it was back to Unicorn Precinct (gweeds’ house) where we watched an episode of Man 2 Man with Dean Learner discussed esoteric H.P. Lovecraft and William s. Burrough lore, and finally ended the evening with gweed pulling out a stash of old photos. Included was a random shot of an old ex of mine, who was best friends with one of his ex’s. Other blasts from the past were included as well. We also saw some videos of his cat as a kitten (adorable) and his trip tom japan. Then it was time to go home.

Today, I woke up, played a bit of WoW, then went for a walk. The important part of the walk was a stop at THE PEZ Museum. for $3 I got a guided tour of Pez history, and learned more than I could ever wish to know about the candy and dispensers. I noticed the Museum the day I moved in, but I felt like it was time to finally check it out. The best description I can come up for the visit is weird. TOo bad my camera is in the shop (but it’s been shipped back to me, hope to have it back tomorrow!), because I’m sure my phone pics will just suck (But i’ll check them out later).

That is all.

The middle of last week my wonderful friend asked me if I was free this Saturday to see a movie, I said I was free, and we made some time plans…

Saturday comes a long and I am surprised by her plus several other people (WoW guildies, actually. some of them current/former coworkers, others just locals I know from the game), who had come to help me clean, and unpack and neaten my apartment, which had been long overdue – I moved in 1.5 months ago after all. It’s as neat as it’s been since the minute I moved in. i still have some unpacking to do. but not too much. And some papers to go through, But the heavy part were done in one afternoon, as opposed to days for just me to do it. And then we had a great dinner at a local sushi place.

It’s too bad she forgot to do before and after pics!

It has been confirmed, i will be getting an Cerebral Angiogram on 1/31. It’s a pretty involved test, an all day affair. After that I’ll learn more about corrective measures.

Additionally, I’m on a course of prednisone now. Which seems to have helped with pressure in my head, and i think also reduced my fatigue, it has had one annoying side effect – hiccups.

That is all for now.

First, the back story. I had been suffering from Sinusitis since the middle of December. I had taken 2 courses of antibiotics for it, and prednisone, but it wouldn’t go away. SO, Tuesday I had a CT scan of my sinuses. THursday night (1/11/07) I talked to my GP, and he told me that my sinuses looked pretty good, butt that the scan showed an abnormality on my right frontal lobe, he also otld me a sinus ct scan didn’t really cover that area proprely, so it was likely an artifact, but a full head ct scan was called for. SO, th next day (1/12/07!) i went back in and had the head ct scan. After the scan i get called back up to his office, and he shows me it.. there is something obviously wrong in my brain. At the time he called it a tumor. Ugh, i felt really scared. He referred me immediately to the neurosurgery department (This is at an all-in-one non profit medical center, THe PAlo ALto Medical Foundation. SO I mope up to the neurology.neurosurgery dept, and sit and wait to be seen…. amidst a bunch of old people. FInally I get called back, and we look ove the scan again. And he calls it a clot. and tells me I neeed to get more tests (MRI and MRA) done ASAP. ASAP ends up being yesterday 1/15/2007)at 6:45 am. The GP gave me a scrip for valium to keep me from going nutso over the weeekend. So I went and got the tests done a the crack of dawn on monday… I also had a followup with the neurosugeon today at 4:15pm. Today was hard to deal with, since i couldn’t use any of my benzos, as I had to drive.

Well, I went in, and was told the following;

There is a definite hemorrhage in your brain, that has bled multiple times (Based on some email I’m pretty sure 12/13/2006 was one such time, as I had a terrible headache that kept me awake that night which required vicodin for me to sleep. He also said there was no indication of a tumor on the MRI with contrast. So, the MRA test is a study of hte brain’s blood vessels. He said that what he saw looked ok, but he believes there is a malformation at the heart of hte hemmorage, which is too small to seen by that test, since the big (4cm?) hemmorage just blots it out. I Am waiting to see if i need to take a cerebral angiogram to get more detail on my blood vessels. BUt, he believes I Have a Cavernous Malformation He’ll get back to me in the next few days letting me know if I need the test 80% likely. If such an anomaly is found, it is likely that it will require surgery to fix it.

in the meanwhile I am taking the next fe days off of work as sick days, as I’m just wiped out lately (likely a symptom of the cerebral hemmorhage).

that is all for now.

Ok, now for a discussion of hte best books I read in 2006:

Best Series:
Old Man’s War and its sequel by John Scalzi

Weirdest book:

Aramis or the Love of Technology by Bruno Latour

Best Nonfiction:

H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houllebecq

Best Fiction:
TIE:
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Note both above books are a bit gimmicky in weird ways, but also very very good!

I am also soliciting for more recommendations – my queue is prettty small right now.

http://www.meijer.com/pharmacy/antibiotics.asp

It’ true. I brought my car down to Santa Cruz Subaru for 30k mile servicing. And I brought my Nintendo DS with Castlevania:Portrait of ruin along.

While I was walking looking for a place to get something to eat, a funny thing happened. A young mother, pushing a stroller, was walking behind me, chatting on her cell phone. SHe was telling whoeve she was speaking to about her kid’s milestones:

“He got his first tooth in”
“Yesterday he ate his first solid food’
“Oh! And he had his first little boner. At least the first one I saw. I was changing his diaper and I was like “Hey what’s that?” and he like smiled at me.”

Bad story!

Well, only 49 books in 2006. THere will be another post discussing the best and such, but here is the list:

H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O’Brian
Eight Little Piggies by Stephen Jay Gould
H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houllebecq
Assasination Vacation by Sarah Vowel
Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins
The Secret Life of Dust by Hannah Holmes
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Aramis or the Love of Technology by Bruno Latour
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
The Lying Stones of Marrakech by Stephen Jay Gould
The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
An Oblique Approach by David Drake and Eric Flint
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Year’s Best SF 10 by Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman
In the Heart of Darkness by Eric Flint and David Drake
The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
Heat by Bill Buford
The Dispossesed by Ursula K. Leguin
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
Touch the Top of the World by Erik Wiehenmayer
The Ghost Brigade by John Scalzi
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism by Robert Baer
Destiny’s Shield by Eric Flint & David Drake
The Patron Saint of Plagues by Barth Anderson
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Understand Exposure (Revised Edition) by Bryan Peterson
The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold
Year’s Best SF 11 by Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Turing’s Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldan
Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
Fortune’s Stroke by Eric Flint and David Drake
I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Lizard Music by D. Manus Pinkwater
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket
Fish on a First-Name Basis: How Fish is Caught, Bought, Cleaned, Cooked and Eaten by Rob Deborde
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie actor by Bruce Campbell

Also, remember that you can watch this during the year at books.chazin.net