Monthly Archive for August, 2007

When All Else Fails

Published on Wednesday, 22nd August, 2007 in Cranium Calamity 2007, General and Life. 4 Comments

Three weeks ago, I had what we’re all pretty sure was a migraine. I had severe ringing in my ears, and eventually went completely deaf for a few minutes. After my hearing returned, I had a headache unlike anything I could ever remember.

I told my mom about it, who told me it was probably a migraine, and we’d see if it happened again. Well, it did this past Friday, and I told her about some other problems that I’ve been having for a while. For the past couple of years, I have had constant ringing in my ears, frequent dizziness, and occasional spacial disorientation, where it feels like the whole world has leaned over in one direction or another.

Well, I went to the neurologist today to talk about it, do a couple of tests, etc, so I could get the referral I needed to get an MRI done. I’m going to be doing the MRI later today, and should be hearing back from them in a couple days, so I’ll only be freaked out for a couple days longer. (Whee!)

My brother called me at about 2:30 this morning, returning the call I made to him at about 6:30 yesterday evening. He wanted to let me know he was worried about me, and that he’d drop everything and come to be there if I needed anything. I was really glad he called, even if it was 2:30 in the morning. We talked for about an hour and a half, just sort of shooting the shit, and had a good time.

My brother and I aren’t terribly expressive about how we feel for each other. I mean, we’re all always available for each other, and it’s understood that we love each other and will do just about anything to help one another; we just don’t often talk about it. It was good to hear that my brother had my back, even though I knew he did anyways. No matter what the result, I can always count on my brother to be there for me.

I’ll update here as soon as I hear more, so stay tuned. In the parlance of CNN and that ilk, I have dubbed this as “Cranium Calamity 2007.” So be sure to keep an eye on this category.

But I Don’t WANNA

Published on Tuesday, 21st August, 2007 in General and Life. 0 Comments

I’m leaving in about 15 minutes to go see a neurologist, because I’ve got something wrong with my head. We’re going to try to figure out what.

SOOO, whatever you’re into, prayer, karma, good vibrations, whatever, I’d appreciate it if you sent some my way.

I’ll update when I get more from the doctor. You can also check my Twitter, located –> over there and down a bit.

Strange Laws

Published on Friday, 17th August, 2007 in Point of Interest. 2 Comments

Sometimes legalism meets humor, and these are their bastard children.

Rube Goldberg

Published on Tuesday, 14th August, 2007 in Point of Interest. 0 Comments

This video may be a little long, but it’s one of the coolest Rube Goldberg machines I’ve ever seen.

Revolving Door Lifestyle

Published on Monday, 13th August, 2007 in General, Life and personal philosophy. 1 Comment

For those of you who don’t know, I’m not just the epitome of emotional stability. Surprise!

And as I was driving home from dinner with some friends, I began to compose this little ditty, and what follows is the metaphor I’ve been trying to conjure for some time to try to describe this particular lifestyle I lead.

For the past two weeks, I have been stuck in a revolving door lifestyle. On one side of the edifice, I am light, bright, sociable; hell, I would even say I was happy. As the door revolved endlessly on its vertical axis, I began to change. I was dark, dim, withdrawn; hell, I would even say I was miserable.

There’s really no reason for the change, per se. I would just revolve freely, gliding between the antithetical moods wondering just why I was, all of a sudden, so incredibly unhappy, when just the day before (or even the hour before) I was so incredibly happy.

This revolving door lifestyle, then, causes me (and, probably more acutely, my friends) some distress. You see, as relationships go, you’ve got to go through the door sometime, and while people may politely continue walking in circles with you for a while, they’ll eventually go ahead and step out of the monotony, and the better of them will go ahead and wait for you just inside the door, but eventually, they’ve got to make their appointments, and if you’re still stuck in the door, then you’ve just got to watch out for when their meetings are done, because they might come back and wait, or they might walk on through the door, or they might just hop back in and walk in circles. (If, however, they were meeting someone for lunch, then you might want to ask them to wait a while because no one wants their revolving door ride to be fouled by the stench of fresh sick all over the floor).

Anyway, the point is, being caught in revolving door after revolving door (either having moved forward to the next one or, sometimes, back to a previous one) causes my progress into the grand Hotel called life, where strange and bizarre things take place, but you’ve got to go ahead and step through the door. Sometimes I ask myself what’s so scary about the inside of that building.

Maybe it’s because I’m afraid that if I step through the door, I’ll find myself in a hall of mirrors and will have to see myself for who I really am. On the one side, I’ll see the bright, happy side; on the other, I’ll see the dark, insidious and cynical beast.

When will I stop going in circles and just take a step forward?

What’s In A Name?

Published on Sunday, 5th August, 2007 in General, Life, humor and personal philosophy. 1 Comment

Today, I was in the back yard, swimming with a friend of mine, and the nephew of the people I’ve been living with this summer. I was wearing my sunglasses, a pretty standard, black pair of Oakley, polarized sunglasses.

I bought them just after I got Lasik because my brother had bought several pairs of Oakley sunglasses, and I wanted to be like Big Brother, but I had to wear glasses, so all I got were silly clip-ons.

Anyway, I set my sunglasses on the table by the pool, since we were getting a little rough playing around in the pool, and I didn’t want to break them.

Nick, the younger kid, asked why I took them off. I explained that they were expensive, and if we were going you roughhouse, I didn’t want them to get broken.

“Why, they’re just sunglasses,” he said.

“Well, these were one hundred-sixty dollar sunglasses!”

“Oh, well, why were they so much? Did you pay that much to get that “O” engraved on the side?”

After laughing for a few minutes with John, my friend who was also swimming with us, I thought about it a second, and I realized that yes, yes I really had paid $160 for the “O” emblazoned across the temple of each ear piece. I’d never quite thought of it that way, and now, it just seems so silly to have been that fixated on a single letter.

After this and the pen wisdom from one of my campers, I think wisdom truly does oft flow from the mouths of babes.