And no, I am not about to apologize for not being around, or not writing enough.

pic by kevin before the company party last week

Life has been happening in full force, yet I’m not really compelled to write about it much anymore. My attempt to perhaps return to my older habits of blogging (of posting links of interest, random thoughts, etc.) along with my longer life-chronicle entries hasn’t really been successful… erratic at most. I think a lot of that has to do with the multitude of sites that I maintain a presence on currently. I guess, then, it boils down to the fact that I blame the internets for everything.

Just wanted to let you all know, yes, I’m still here… the entries will continue to be sporadic, but they will definitely continue.

It’s not like I’m hard to find or follow, anyway.

A few days ago, I started feeling like my lingering cough that began in early October was worsening, and the nasal/sinus symptoms were returning. I chalked it up to perhaps allergies, with the weird heat wave that seemed to be hitting the bay area. But my cough was really starting to freak me out, sounding worse and becoming more productive.

I took Tuesday off of work, for I was feeling pretty crappy, and spent a lot of the day horizontally. The rest was most certainly needed. I tried pretty much all day to get in contact with a doctor to try and get this thing checked out that day, but response was incredibly flaky. I left multiple messages for my PCP, only to find out hours later that she was out of town, and I “could schedule an appointment next week”. Um, no. I am subsequently advised to call the Advice Nurse to try and make a same day appointment at the clinic. All I get is a voice mail, multiple times, and no callback. Grr. By the time she *does* call me back, it’s already the afternoon and they don’t have an appointment available until early the next afternoon. Double grr.

Took Wednesday off too, figuring it wasn’t worth it to go in to work only to leave 3 hours later. The doctor’s visit was pretty unproductive, she thought that I probably had another virus and sent me home with a prescription for some cough syrup with codeine. Whooo.

I was seriously getting fed up with this crap. I get an illness like this at least once a year, and no doctor has been able to tell me what the heck is going on. Allergists tell me their tests are “inconclusive”, doctors have given me rounds of different heartburn medications thinking that digestive issues may be causing my cough, others have given me antibiotics. At this point, I am frustrated and will try anything that might possibly help.

So I went and visited a friendly neighborhood herbalist.

No, not the ones that hang out in the park, duh… a Chinese Herbalist. My boss had been talking about taking me to one, for she totally swears by the treatments that she has received from them. So I figured, heck, it’s worth a shot… I don’t really have a lot to lose.

I was sent home with a big bag full of seemingly random twigs and branches, to consume the liquid made from boiling them in water over the course of the next few days. MAN is this stuff potent. Boiling this stuff in a big pot on the stove just fills the house with the strong scent of these herbs. The dark brown liquid that results after boiling it for an hour is nice(?) and stinky, and is really tough going down. It just tastes like dirt to me… reminiscent of taking a spill on a soccer field.

So I am only on day two of quaffing this stuff, and I’m already sick of it. Maybe it’s the thought of drinking it again that scares our bodies into getting better, heh.

We’ll see how it goes… I have to be swilling this brown stinky liquid till Sunday. Wish me luck.

I have a ton of crap to take care of that suffered while I’ve been fighting this illness. The most important thing being my photos for Lap-POP next week… I’m the sole visual artist for this event, so no pressure, really. I’m sure everything will come together within these next coupla days… I’ve been toiling over it this week, so I hope it turns out okay.

That said, come to the event! I’d be happy to see ya there, it’ll be a fun time.

T: So how’s your day treating you?
C: not bad. I’m still sick
C: doctor won’t take me till Thursday
T: that sucks. Getting worse?
C: eh, it’s stable
T: Yuck. Well, only 2 days, I suppose. You’ll just have to curtail those early AM drug, alcohol and sex romps you’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks… it wears the body down.
C: ahahaha, sure, T
C: you know me too well
T: I’m just looking out for you… not judging at all.
C: heh. well, I’m a good girl, really
C: I’ve just been way too socially active lately.
T: I know you are. And good girls are always much better than bad girls. The idea of a bad girl is… interesting, but in reality, good girls are so much sweeter.
C: O:-)
T: Well… that may be taking it a little too far.
C: hahaha
C: thanks for the vote of confidence
T: Well. c’mon, you need a little bit of badness in you… just a smidgen.
C: yeah, I have a glimmer
T: A twinkle of badness. That’s okay. As long as most of you is sweet… and geeky.
T: That’s the funniest thing. After I tell you about recording HD on the Myth PVR, you look at me and say, “that’s so hot.” Cool.
C: haha
C: cos it IS
T: Well, much better than sitting and talking about different wines and blather like that.
C: blah
C: I like wine, but that shit is boring for convos
T: True. And I don’t like wine.
C: haha

Yeah, uh, give me good High Definition video over a good wine anyday. Or better yet, give me both at the same time.

Scene: past midnight earlier this week. I am in my room tinkering on my laptop when he arrives home.

Jason: Wait a minute, are you awake?
Jason: Am I being semi-quiet for no reason?
Courtney: yeah i’m in bed with the lappy

IRL (like, spoken, with voices and stuff):
Jason: Hello!
Courtney (raspy voice): Hi… *cough*

Jason: Oh, gosh.
Jason: You don’t sound so good.
Jason: Can I get you some tea?
Jason: Zinc?
Jason: Vitamin C?
Courtney: hee, i’m ok, thx
Jason: okiedoke.

*cough, cough…*

Jason: Ach, pobrecita.
Courtney: yah, I’m in quarantine :/
Jason:

We communicate well.

incapacitated:
adj 1: lacking in or deprived of strength or power; “lying ill and helpless” [syn: helpless] 2: incapacitated by injury or illness [syn: disabled, handicapped]

I really don’t like being sick. I’ve been pretty much incapacitated for the past 36 hours, fighting this nasty bug, complete with body aches, sore throat and sinus congestion.

Luckily, I had meetings here in The City yesterday morning, which enabled me to go home right after and collapse in bed (or rather, lie in bed with the laptop). Today, I was either in bed or on the futon in the living room for most of the day. Stayed pretty low-key… e-mails, IMs, phone calls. Not really a lot of fun, I felt like I could be doing something more, but I resisted the urge to get up and attempt to be more productive. Gotta rest up.

I should be past my contagious stage tomorrow, so I hope to go to work to catch up on some things, attend our big company meeting and then partake in the cheesy geeky goodness that is Web 1.0.

The concept behind these “Ditties” is that, kinda like a fortune cookie, each individual unit has a supposedly inspirational saying printed on the wrapper. Unlike a fortune cookie, you cannot eat them after adding on the “in bed” ending onto the little quip. They printed stuff on ‘em like “If you’re going to wait around for Mr. Right, might as well have fun with Mr. Wrong.” and “You go girl!”. I find it disturbing that my feminine products are urging me to, um, “Go”.

I just about lost it the other day when I pulled one of these Ditties out of the box. It read:
“Every girl has a little Dittie in them.”

I wanted to cry. I mean, for chrissakes, bleeding monthly is difficult enough to endure as it is.

As I exited the car, I was greeted with a familiar, yet odd sound.
cluck cluck cluck… CLUCK

I was taken aback for a moment. It is an unusual sound to hear this at my parents’ house, of all places. Sure, their house is somewhat near a few farms, but not close enough for chickens to wander randomly into! I was accustomed to this when we lived in Hawaii, but not here in Bay Area Suburbia!

I cautiously approaced the other side of my mom’s car, to find myself face to face with a very large rooster!

He was very healthy and robust. His feathers were very clean, and the colors bright. I wondered who was missing their Rooster at this very moment.

I looked down at the street, where the driver of the aforementioned car was talking to a few boys on the sidewalk. “Don’t chase it, boys!” She yelled. “I mean it!” I gathered that these kids were her sons.

I yelled down to them, “Is this your, um, chicken?” They all shook their heads “no”.

The rooster started heading down the driveway. I feared that it would get hit by a car coming around the turn.

My sister had come out of the house since I had yelled, “Why is there A CHICKEN in the driveway?!” She started walking towards it, digital camera in hand. The rooster became startled and cut across our driveway to the next yard, the sun starting to set. At least he was heading uphill rather than towards the street. I wonder if we’ll ever see him again.

When I arrived inside the house, I was told a story of how my parents were awakened this morning by the sound of a rooster crowing. My dad thought that it was the alarm clock, and kept hitting the snooze button. My mom got suspicious that my four year old niece had been messing with their alarm clock and switched it to a rooster crow (“I didn’t know we had that sound on our alarm clock!”). I had unknowingly solved The Mystery of the Persistent Alarm Clock.

I then soon remembered that today is the beginning of the Chinese New Year, specfically, the Year of the Rooster. I wonder if this whole funny episode will bring us good luck.

XFN (XHTML Friends Network) is a simple way to represent human relationships using hyperlinks. In recent years, blogs and blogrolls have become the fastest growing area of the Web. XFN enables web authors to indicate their relationship(s) to the people in their blogrolls simply by adding a ‘rel’ attribute to their tags…

The integration is easy, and the potential is great. I am not necessarily writing off other social networking methods, but XFN seems to be the simplest method. As Tantek put it the other night, why spend time entering all your information into several third party social networking sites when you can do it all on your own site?

I hope you will give XFN a chance so we can see it grow. The best way to test this out is to get everyone to use it… so do it now!

¡¿qué la cogida?!

Sorry, Chris. I love ya, but I hate the networks and cable companies. Grr.

NEWS FLASH! 15:32: OMG! He blew the taco stand!