Diary

As expected, Friday night was pretty grim. Unexpectedly, kestrell got to share in the grrimness. For reasons which remain obscure, her air conditioner now blows out the circuit breaker which it is on. After the traditional half-dozen trips up the length and breadth of the house, unplugging things, moving things, and trying Yet Again -- no solution was actually found :( So she gets to just swelter for the remaining hot days of the season.

Next spring, I'm going to see if my available credit can be used to leverage the rewiring of Melville Keep to 21st century standards. Even if we *did* find some better solution to the current crisis, it's only a matter of time before the next one. The house is already a rickety maze of extension cords, because almost every circuit we have is just barely under its limit. Scotty, we need more power!

Having accidentally taken some of the Oxycodone on Friday, I stayed up quite late, to let it flush from my system as much as possible before taking some Ibuprofen and trying to sleep. I did get some sleep, though I was pretty zomboid on Saturday.

It took me sufficiently long to get moving on Saturday that I missed the (unexpectedly narrow) operating hours of the local urgent care clinic :( So I spent much of Saturday experimenting with various doses of Ibuprofen. Conclusion: for pain this severe, in order to be able to sleep, I need a full gram. Yes, this is over the recommended maximum dose :(

So Sunday, I got to the urgent care clinic. They prescribed me some Tramadol. This has now been added to the list of Painkillers That Aren't (at least for me). Sigh. More Ibuprofen to get through the night.

Monday morning, back to the local clinic for another try. Let's have some Tylenon-3 with Codeine, that sounds promising! Unfortunately, a few hours later I find that the promise proves false -- another drug that does nothing at all for me.

I'm at work, but unable to log into my computer, for obscure technical reasons. A colleague is trying out a demo for a new FPS, and I watch for a while, but that quickly brings on nausea to add to my general tooth pain.

Well, clearly nothing useful is going to happen here today. I decide to head back to the dentist in Stoneham, on the theory that they can give me more powerful prescriptions than the local clinic can. Of course, they can only do that if I come in in person, which is a minimum two-hour trip each way for me. But I don't have a more attractive option right now.

The good news: a surgeon looks at the hole where my tooth was, and says it's looking good, and expected to heal cleanly. And he gives me some new scrips, for Demerol and something else to moderate it. In a few hours, I'll know whether or not they work, or are yet another entry on The List...

If they don't work, I'll probably have to head back to Stoneham in the morning. Thank ghod that work is in a low-stress period right now, and I'm not on any critical paths.

---

Le sigh. The Walgreens on Washington Street doesn't *have* Demerol. At first, they try to say they'll order it and have it in Wednesday. I don't *think* so! Some further begging (and phone calls on their part) turns up the fact that another nearby Walgreens, on Bowdoin Street, does have the drugs I need.

In a remarkable act of kindness, the lady behind me in line offers to give me a lift there! It's not too far to walk home from, either, assuming I don't get lost or something. Not that I'm really making that assumption at this point.

Writing this while waiting at the Bowdoin Walgreens, for an estimated 30-45 minutes.

---

OK, that sorta worked. The heavy painkillers didn't remove the pain, but they dialed it way down. At that point, a sane amount of ibuprofen can take it the rest of the way. Actually got some decent sleep last night. Calling in sick today anyways, so as to rest up and maybe nap some more.

Diary

As expected, Friday night was pretty grim. Unexpectedly, kestrell got to share in the grrimness. For reasons which remain obscure, her air conditioner now blows out the circuit breaker which it is on. After the traditional half-dozen trips up the length and breadth of the house, unplugging things, moving things, and trying Yet Again -- no solution was actually found :( So she gets to just swelter for the remaining hot days of the season.

Next spring, I'm going to see if my available credit can be used to leverage the rewiring of Melville Keep to 21st century standards. Even if we *did* find some better solution to the current crisis, it's only a matter of time before the next one. The house is already a rickety maze of extension cords, because almost every circuit we have is just barely under its limit. Scotty, we need more power!

Having accidentally taken some of the Oxycodone on Friday, I stayed up quite late, to let it flush from my system as much as possible before taking some Ibuprofen and trying to sleep. I did get some sleep, though I was pretty zomboid on Saturday.

It took me sufficiently long to get moving on Saturday that I missed the (unexpectedly narrow) operating hours of the local urgent care clinic :( So I spent much of Saturday experimenting with various doses of Ibuprofen. Conclusion: for pain this severe, in order to be able to sleep, I need a full gram. Yes, this is over the recommended maximum dose :(

So Sunday, I got to the urgent care clinic. They prescribed me some Tramadol. This has now been added to the list of Painkillers That Aren't (at least for me). Sigh. More Ibuprofen to get through the night.

Monday morning, back to the local clinic for another try. Let's have some Tylenon-3 with Codeine, that sounds promising! Unfortunately, a few hours later I find that the promise proves false -- another drug that does nothing at all for me.

I'm at work, but unable to log into my computer, for obscure technical reasons. A colleague is trying out a demo for a new FPS, and I watch for a while, but that quickly brings on nausea to add to my general tooth pain.

Well, clearly nothing useful is going to happen here today. I decide to head back to the dentist in Stoneham, on the theory that they can give me more powerful prescriptions than the local clinic can. Of course, they can only do that if I come in in person, which is a minimum two-hour trip each way for me. But I don't have a more attractive option right now.

The good news: a surgeon looks at the hole where my tooth was, and says it's looking good, and expected to heal cleanly. And he gives me some new scrips, for Demerol and something else to moderate it. In a few hours, I'll know whether or not they work, or are yet another entry on The List...

If they don't work, I'll probably have to head back to Stoneham in the morning. Thank ghod that work is in a low-stress period right now, and I'm not on any critical paths.

---

Le sigh. The Walgreens on Washington Street doesn't *have* Demerol. At first, they try to say they'll order it and have it in Wednesday. I don't *think* so! Some further begging (and phone calls on their part) turns up the fact that another nearby Walgreens, on Bowdoin Street, does have the drugs I need.

In a remarkable act of kindness, the lady behind me in line offers to give me a lift there! It's not too far to walk home from, either, assuming I don't get lost or something. Not that I'm really making that assumption at this point.

Writing this while waiting at the Bowdoin Walgreens, for an estimated 30-45 minutes.

---

OK, that sorta worked. The heavy painkillers didn't remove the pain, but they dialed it way down. At that point, a sane amount of ibuprofen can take it the rest of the way. Actually got some decent sleep last night. Calling in sick today anyways, so as to rest up and maybe nap some more.

Warcraft Diary

It's been ages since I've posted one of these. Time to clear it out and start a new one :-)

( cut for those not interested in WoW )

Warcraft Diary

It's been ages since I've posted one of these. Time to clear it out and start a new one :-)

( cut for those not interested in WoW )

Nintendo DS mini-reviews

About a week ago, I finally broke down and ordered myself a Nintendo DS Lite. It arrived in good time, but the game I had also ordered for it did not. So after several days of impatience, I went down to the local GameStop to get some games.

While there, I noticed BioShock prominently displayed behind the counter, with lots of boxes and a poster. I asked the clerk how it was doing, and he waxed effusive, and was apparently enjoying the game himself.

I picked up two games that I had heard interesting things about, and have been playing them on and off during my drugged and/or painful hazes of the weekend. I'm not remotely finished with either of them, but can offer some mini-reviews.

First up, "Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney". It's a wacky Japanese lawyer game. It's sort of like an interactive version of Law&Order, alternating between courtroom segments, and investigative segments. During the investigative sections, you interview witnesses and suspects, and search for clues. During the courtroom scenes, you cross-examine witnesses, looking for weaknesses and contradictions in their testimony.

As a *game* PWAA is rather lacking. Long periods go by between moments of interactivity, and it's rare that one of those moments doesn't have an immediately obvious right answer. And being so highly scripted, the game doesn't have any particular replay value. (GameStop had *tons* of used copies; I guess most folks don't hang onto it after they're done.)

Despite its failure as a *game*, it manages to be extremely entertaining. The characters are very over-the-top anime-style and the dialogue is funny. Watching a calm, collected witness gradually break down and have a fit, confessing Perry Mason style, just doesn't get old. And the interactivity, primitive as it is, does add a lot to the experience: it's just plain fun to see Phoenix yell "OBJECTION!" when you push the button.

The other game I picked up was "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team". It's a curious mix between classic Pokemon gameplay and a Roguelike dungeon crawler. Rather than the very scripted, puzzly dungeons that the mainline Pokemon games have, these dungeons are randomly generated and focus entirely on tactical movement and combat.

The fictional setting is interestingly different. The player does not play a human Pokemon trainer, but an actual Pokemon. (Allegedly, you used to be a human, but woke up one day as an amnesiac Pokemon.) You adventure with other Pokemon whom you 'befriend' rather than capture, and take on missions to help distressed Pokemon in the wild. This has a much more egalitarian political feel than the standard Pokemon fiction, which is a lot more "White Man's Burden".

There are plot-specific missions which open up new areas of the game, but the bulk of game time is spent on randomly-generated rescue missions. Plus, of course, the classic implicit RPG missions of Level Up and Get Better Loot.

The pacing is notably good so far. Though it has an addictive "just one more level" quality, there are also reasonably frequent break-points which make it more feasible to turn the game off and go to sleep :)

Nintendo DS mini-reviews

About a week ago, I finally broke down and ordered myself a Nintendo DS Lite. It arrived in good time, but the game I had also ordered for it did not. So after several days of impatience, I went down to the local GameStop to get some games.

While there, I noticed BioShock prominently displayed behind the counter, with lots of boxes and a poster. I asked the clerk how it was doing, and he waxed effusive, and was apparently enjoying the game himself.

I picked up two games that I had heard interesting things about, and have been playing them on and off during my drugged and/or painful hazes of the weekend. I'm not remotely finished with either of them, but can offer some mini-reviews.

First up, "Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney". It's a wacky Japanese lawyer game. It's sort of like an interactive version of Law&Order, alternating between courtroom segments, and investigative segments. During the investigative sections, you interview witnesses and suspects, and search for clues. During the courtroom scenes, you cross-examine witnesses, looking for weaknesses and contradictions in their testimony.

As a *game* PWAA is rather lacking. Long periods go by between moments of interactivity, and it's rare that one of those moments doesn't have an immediately obvious right answer. And being so highly scripted, the game doesn't have any particular replay value. (GameStop had *tons* of used copies; I guess most folks don't hang onto it after they're done.)

Despite its failure as a *game*, it manages to be extremely entertaining. The characters are very over-the-top anime-style and the dialogue is funny. Watching a calm, collected witness gradually break down and have a fit, confessing Perry Mason style, just doesn't get old. And the interactivity, primitive as it is, does add a lot to the experience: it's just plain fun to see Phoenix yell "OBJECTION!" when you push the button.

The other game I picked up was "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team". It's a curious mix between classic Pokemon gameplay and a Roguelike dungeon crawler. Rather than the very scripted, puzzly dungeons that the mainline Pokemon games have, these dungeons are randomly generated and focus entirely on tactical movement and combat.

The fictional setting is interestingly different. The player does not play a human Pokemon trainer, but an actual Pokemon. (Allegedly, you used to be a human, but woke up one day as an amnesiac Pokemon.) You adventure with other Pokemon whom you 'befriend' rather than capture, and take on missions to help distressed Pokemon in the wild. This has a much more egalitarian political feel than the standard Pokemon fiction, which is a lot more "White Man's Burden".

There are plot-specific missions which open up new areas of the game, but the bulk of game time is spent on randomly-generated rescue missions. Plus, of course, the classic implicit RPG missions of Level Up and Get Better Loot.

The pacing is notably good so far. Though it has an addictive "just one more level" quality, there are also reasonably frequent break-points which make it more feasible to turn the game off and go to sleep :)