Omnibus Post

Since I don’t have one all encompassing subject, I thought I’d throw down a few things to catch-up.  

Sickness Absolutely Sucks:  First and foremost, the last twenty days have sucked.  A dry, hacking cough that comes in spells, they last for upwards to two minutes straight.  At the end of it, I’m curled up into a ball, my stomach crying out like I just finished 500 sit-ups, face flushed and eyes bloodshot.  Sounds like fun, right?  I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.  It got so bad that I started scaring my girls; while I was on all fours trying not to die, my youngest got the courage to come and rub my back, consoling me that ‘everything will be alright.’  Cute, right?  

One particularly bad night found me bruising several ribs and straining my diaphragm, making it pretty hard to breathe and near impossible to sleep.  After watching one of my bouts, the doctor pretty much just confirmed I didn’t have pneumonia and prescribed a narcotic cough suppressant (goodness doesn’t methadone work like charm); sure made going to work an unusual experience.  Three doctors later and I am still coughing like an idiot.

Frustrating NaNoWriMo:  As a result of the previous issue, my NaNoWriMo has so far been a bust.  Its pretty hard to commit to writing when all you want to do every waking minute is go to sleep.  And stop coughing.  It’s not that I don’t have the material to work with, just neither the will or the physical capability to concentrate long enough to capture what I would.  Things have improved enough for me to work on this blog post, which means I will soon be addressing my significantly deficient contribution to NaNoWriMo.  Do I think 50k is doable?  Likely not, but I’m gonna’ give it my damndest, despite work.  I may have to cut back on the cough suppressant and just hope my body is near done fighting this bug off.

Work Life:  Normally fairly hectic and occupied throughout the day, there are bouts of time where I’m suddenly without anything critically occupying my time.  Under these circumstances I typically open up whatever I’m working on at the time and throw down whatever I can in the time I have.  Most recently a rash of documents and administration seems to have eaten away these pockets of time.  Next week I’ve been requested/tasked to run a Base-wide security training exercise.  It’s been a while since I’ve been in an operational context and I’m looking forward to getting back to tradecraft and pointy-end of stick activities.

Queensryche:  I’ll admit that the Empire album (released 1990) had some absolutely spectacular tunes.  The depth and impact of the lyrics, combined with the soaring (and sometimes haunting) voice of Geoff Tate made this one of my favourite bands during that era.  For almost two decades though, I completely lost touch with their music.  Not until a recent trip of reminiscence on YouTube did I come across Silent Lucidity, one of their greatest hits.  I then did a quick search to discover the factions that split the band.  That said, I spent some time searching for the songs on their recent albums and have to say that the addition of Todd La Torre has rekindled the older vibe, and quite frankly, rekindled my interest in the band and their music.