Garth Bigelow

As silly as online IQ tests are, much of my sense of self is wrapped up in my intelligence and, more than the loss of my life, I fear the loss of my mind.

I've decided to test myself at the end of each month. I am pleased that the results were the same as last time, even though it was a different test entirely.

Garth, you're smartest when it comes to logical/mathematical intelligence

IQ: 130-134

While others may have dreaded their math and science classes at school, these subjects were probably no sweat for you. In fact you may have even thought they were fun. Your logical/mathematical intelligence makes you the type who can enjoy working with numbers or thinking through difficult questions to arrive at a solution.

Whether you realize it or not, this strength has likely been a help to you throughout your life — not just in the classroom. This is true because for work or recreation, people like you can tend to rely on your logical/mathematical intelligence to look at the world. From noticing patterns of behavior in people to being able to appreciate the visual beauty in a repeated design, your special brand of intelligence can make life both interesting and rewarding.

I'm a conservative. I'd probably be a Libertarian if they didn't take things way too far. So maybe I'm a Moderate Libertarian Conservative. Most of my family are Democrats, if not out and out Liberals. I usually get lumped in with Republicans, as I end up having to vote that way the bulk of the time. But there are many shades within each Party. I am probably as far from President Bush as Senator Lieberman is from Senator Ted Kennedy.

The Flag Burning Amendment is one of those issues that drives me nuts (like the seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws.) It is a clear case of mistaking the symbol for what it symbolizes and then undermining the original concept to protect the symbol. In my college days, I use to play Dungeons and Dragons. Being the subtle control freak that I was I tended to be the Dungeon Master (the one in charge of creating the game world and to some degree the action within it.) The land I created contained many cities but most of the action in some way usually related back to Freehold, which was the seat of Democracy in this otherwise Medieval land. It was closer to England than the US in that it was a Monarchy but it also had a strong bill of rights. One of its proudest catchphrases was "Piss on the Queen." This wasn't meant literally but as an expression of their right to say anything they damn well pleased.

So in a country (back to our own now) founded on the principle that we have to protect the right of everyone to have the ability to say anything no matter how much we disagree with it, we are actually attempting to modify the Constitution (necessary as the first Amendment is clearly in the way of this idea) to prevent an expression of disgust at the Government. To me this is insane: undermining the ideal to protect the symbol of the ideal.

Now, this other case is less cut and dried in my mind, but has many of the same elements. Here the New York Times*** printed classified information about an anti-terrorist operation in an article that admitted that the entire operation was legal. No point to exposing this program other than an attempt to raise the paranoia level - of those that read only the headlines - toward Bush and privacy violations. Now the congress is looking into sanctions against the paper. I doubt it will get very far* and much like the Flag issue it really hinges on the 1st Amendment. In my mind they are attacking the wrong party. While the NYT should have used better judgment in printing it (but as they are less a newspaper than an agenda this last decade or so you can't really expect that from them) the real felony is by the party that leaked the information. That person or persons should be tracked down and charged very publicly with treason. But you have to leave the discretion whether to print to the media.

Bottom line on both issues is that you can't allow the beginning of the slippery slope on the First Amendment. It's bad enough how badly it has been attacked by the Liberals (do not read as Democrats) who are largely attacking it through social attitude molding followed by legislation, until many are afraid to speak their mind (in other words we have the absolute freedom to speak our minds as long as we completely agree with their mindset.), but as the Right joins in on this attack, Freedom of Speech could go the way of the Second and Fourth Amendments****. But that's a rant for another time.

*much like the Senate Committee looking into the Presidents use of Signing Points, not liking something isn't a crime and neither investigation will hopefully go anywhere.

**the paper was a few days old as I read USA Today as the delivery person for this area is either mentally challenged, alcoholic or both and so that paper can only be found around here 2 to 3 days out of the week.

***two other papers did this as well, but only after confirmation that the New York Times was going to publish.

****The Tenth Amendment was completely dead by the 1930s, and went remarkably swiftly with only the cries of the Libertarians to mark it's passage. It amazes me it isn't invoked more in arguments before the Supreme Court.

I started reading the "comic book" Cerebus by Dave Sim back in 1978. If I was aware of his planned 25 year 300 issue story arc, I don't remember being so. Over the years, Cerebus and I got separated. At various points in the last 25 years, I would have occasion to bump in one or another of the Graphic Novel books that bound up sections of the arc. I would savor these. Cerebus is written on so many levels, and as with "The Wall" it is always fascinating to me to read something from someone that has clearly gone mad - even more so in the case of Sim as he remained so as he wrote. Oddly I agree with many of his conclusions, sanity or no.

Anyway, when I started working conventions, many of them comic conventions, and almost all of them having one or more comic merchants, I was able track down most of the novels. It wasn't something I was actively working on, just an idea that would enter my head from time. Then shortly before my mother visited, I got to wondering about Dave and ol' Cerebus and searched the Web to learn that we had completed his arc slightly ahead of schedule on Christmas, 2003.

I ordered the two remaining novels, which arrived swiftly. "Latter Days" was a very slow, almost arduous read. In equal terms fascinating and tedious, which Dave mentions as a concern of his in the commentaries of his at the end which took almost as long to read, but were both more illuminating and entertaining. Today I finished the commentaries on "The Last Day." The journey is done, and I feel like an old friend has left me.

This quote does a far better job of summing things up than I could: "It's hard to get anywhere in trying to summarize the book or point out certain parts of it. It is an engrossing read with highs and lows. Unfortunately one of the biggest lows is the first volume, which consists of the "barbarian" part of Cerebus' story. The art is not matured and the stories leave much to be desired, falling rather flat in their sword and sorcery parodies. This is most unfortunate for those new to the work, who will most likely be put off by the lesser first volume. The other main low point for me is the second to last volume which features extensive text blocks of Cerebus'/Sim's commentaries on the Pentateuch (even I, a hearty Cerebus fan found myself unable to read all that) and an unamusing parody of Woody Allen. Minor problems come from Sim's time-stamped parodies of the comics industry that would be opaque to someone not up on the comics world but also less than interesting, some years on, for someone in the know (thankfully these elements are for the most part unnecessary to enjoyment of the story). Beyond those instances the majority of the story is well constructed, coherent (thought often mysterious for long periods of time until a revelation occurs), enjoyable, thought provoking, emotional (at times laugh out loud funny or heartbreaking), and a visual delight."

If you ever get a chance, grab a copy of High Society or Jaka's Story, but be prepared for the possibility of a new obsession.

I realized today that it has been almost six months since Lee Stringer said he could easily create an animated header for these pages, and that he never responded to my last email of several months ago. I'm guessing the logo is not going to happen, so I created a static one today (It's my name at the top of the page). It's nothing like the spinning blocks I had envisioned, but it gets the job done.

While putting together the page yesterday on Waverly, I finally came across a current and useful site for information on Waverly tours. The response to my email, made it clear that mine was not the only such interested reaction to the documentary. They are sold out until the end of August, which is fine for me as I was looking at the end of September. My interest right along has been much more to the historical aspects than the paranormal, but one sentence near the end of the email caught my eye:

"On all tours, you can bring: Cameras, Video cameras, Flashlights. There are NO OUIJA BOARDS ALLOWED...."

Depression has been the watch word of the last few days. I'm feeling rather isolated, and despite making plans, personal and financial, nothing seems to workout. I just can't get any forward momentum and lately it was been getting to me.

Today is a food day. The latest emphasis in getting me off the Diabetes medicine has switched, temporarily from what I eat, to getting the weight off. To this end I eat very reduced calories for three days and then build my metabolism back up on the fourth day by eating more. Eating more on the 4th day is actually difficult by that point because the stomach has shrunk, and the appetite has vanished. The following day, I am hungry again (strangely this works for me not against me. It is easier for me to diet when I am hungry, IE: rallying against something, then when I am comfortable. Anyway, since the weight-in on the 12th I've lost 6.4 lbs, more than half of what I need to lose over the next month and half.

So anyway, I wanted to walk to Gram's but my toe was disagreeing so I ended up driving - a shame as the pre-storm weather was perfect for a stroll. I added home fries to my normal regime, the new cook (learned her name today, but it didn't stick) again cooked everything perfectly and got the order right. What a difference a good cook makes. Turns out yesterday was injury day for a lot of people, Diane accidentally scratched Robin's eye with the swipe of a menu (Robin added to her eye patch today with a pirate shirt and little stuffed parrot. You have to admire the attitude. And Sheila dropped a 50 pound drum of produce (at home on the farm, not at work as I first assumed) on her back, but being 17 she is merely sore not damaged. These are all waitresses at Gram's by the way.

Being Sunday, I checked the call log when I got home and my mother had tried to call. My sister had not, able to talk to my mother again, I think accounts for the recent drop in frequency of her calls.

I called Mom and we talked for some time. One of the things that came up was that I didn't think I was going to be able to handle the trip to New Mexico to visit Joe Bob and MK but that was making plans to go to Waverly Hill Sanitarium. Now I don't think I mentioned this previously but this show on Sci-Fi Channel on this place a month back just totally captured my imagination and it hasn't faded since. I tried to think who would enjoy this trip with me, and thought Tracy was a long shot because she gets scared very easily, and doesn't seem to enjoy it. But she was game and so I am working on planning the trip. It's outside Louisville, KY so it's a lot less stressful to get to than Albuquerque - a trip will have to wait until (fingers crossed) St. Jude's come through with that reset drug.

I woke up this day knowing I had done too much recently. I was having trouble focusing and blocking out input. So I thought, well it's Saturday, I don't really have to do eBay, and I've got nothing else on my plate so i will just have a nothing day. I'll skip the walk to breakfast, and just watch TV and putter around the computer in a relaxed mode. So I meditated for a half hour until my mental focus returned a little and set about doing some some minor computer chores I had put off.

At 8:30 Fred called. It was Saturday, I'd completely forgotten that it was a Fred day. Since he doesn't come again until Tuesday, I didn't want to let it go that long, I thought it best that he come over. A quick workout, I thought, and then I'll get to relaxing. But I hurry to get ready for him to show up in a half hour. Since my balance was screwy today, we went with lunges, overhead press and curl combos. High reps at only 15 pounds. This combo gets me out of breath quickly but doesn't require much of the mind. In the third set my chair had moved too far back toward the table and I attempted to hop it forward without getting out of the chair. The leg landed squarely on my big toe, thankfully below the nail. At first I thought I'd just grazed it, then the pain intensified. Pain, being largely electrical impulses in the brain, is something that can set me off. The pain kept growing, which started bouncing around skull. Then I noticed blood on my sock. Most of the time I don't have to be too conscious of being a diabetic - Diabetes is a slow disease and it's not going to get me before the CDS unless I do some very stupid behaviors. But I do have to be very careful of wounds on my feet, because I could lose a foot very quickly and that would just add to my life sucking. Removing my sock, the wound looked ugly but just a flesh wound. I couldn't find the hydrogen peroxide at first and had to use some alcohol pads. The brain activity really reacted to this new pain. After the wound was cleaned and bandaged and Fred left, lay down to watch TV and fell asleep for 5 hours. Oddly that night I still got a full nights sleep.

Yesterday was a very busy day for me; all maintenance. The more subtle errant signals that my brain sends out causes muscle twitches too small to register on my consciousness. Over time these cause progressively bigger knots to grow. To combat this I have massage and physical therapy. Massage Therapy is on alternating Mondays and Thursdays with a week in between, which is to say every ten or eleven days. Physical Therapy is every third Thursday. As the Protocol wants me off my Diabetes meds, their plan of increased muscles and reduced and restricted intake has required a Personal Trainer (even with the gun to my head this was the only way it was going to happen) and he comes, in theory, on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday. And of course I have my weekly Protocol tests which is every Thursday, one week CEEEG and MRI the next. So as you can see every Thursday has at least 2 things on Thursday, and every other Thursday has three. They are timed not to run together and to give me a little breathing time in-between (and yes these are all at completely different places. But once a month all four fall on the same day. As all the Therapies are painful to varying degrees (although eventually I do feel better for it eventually) I find this day exhausting. Massage Therapy was much more painful than usual as we had had to skip a visit due to a vacation. Thankfully this week was CEEEG and not MRI, I'm not sure I could have laid still on the bar successfully. The lab is no longer telling me any results, not even the D-Delta. No doubt this is from instructions from the Protocol.

In the midst of all this my domain server goes down. First I know about it is, when potential eBay customers email to see if I am still in business because my auctions are all messed up. My first query to register4less.com gets me a quick reply which I translate to read: "Yes the problem is real; go away while we fix it; we don't know how long this will take." I've had various troubles with them in the past, and their customer service is not the greatest, answers average about 36 hours response time when I get an answer at all. My two follow up emails have been ignored thus far. So my website was down for 14 hours (or 12 years in computer time) and my auctions looked gibberish during that whole time (Thursday of course the second best eBay day of the week. Not much profit for me this week.) Given that I have already stopped using the pop server end of their service (although still paying for it of course because it is part of the package,) it seems to me that it is time to change servers. I did a bunch of anger fueled research last night and BoundGrid looks like the probable winner. I have about 20 domains (mostly for eBay) that will have to be transferred and I have never done this before. I suspect there will be another down period during transition, so if you can't get the site again that's probably the problem, but hopefully it will be the last time. Unlike register4less that never ever responded to any questions that asked for downtime statistics, BoundGrid was happy to supply them. I take that as a good sign. If I remember I'll report back next month on my experiences in this area.

Oh, and to end on a positive note: Yesterday, while I was having breakfast at Gram's, a tall well bodied blonde haired woman (think Alex from Wings, a little less pretty with a bigger chest.) walked in and applied for a job as cook. After she left with an application, all the staff's tongues were wagging one way or the other along gender lines. Today, she's working there. Amazing the power of a decent (above decent in this case) rack.

Turns out though, that was best meal I've had there in quite some time. The eggs were perfect and the toast was actually dry (usually I have to return it - 5 out of 6 times - because they have buttered it.)

I'm feeling very good today. The humidity has finally broken, which made my walk to Gram's not only bearable but downright enjoyable. The mini-ducks were back again; I saw a couple swimming so they can't actually walk on water where the algae isn't thick enough. Was also treated to competing bullfrogs this morning. After breakfast which was surprisingly filling for the little bit I eat (two eggs, dry rye toast - I'll go into a diatribe on the American diet, and my dietary plan tomorrow; today is a busy day.) I walked over to Rotary Park to see if my 2 seconds the other day was a fluke. I adjusted my hands for the strongest possible grip and imagine my surprise: 8 seconds! Fred has said that someday we would be doing chin-ups, but until today I never really believed him. That day is still far far off, but I've begun to visualize it.

I spent a lot of time yesterday organizing my thoughts on what I needed in an employee. It was easy to find employees back when I worked conventions. I had hours to sit and observe other dealer's employees looking for those with a good work ethic. When I'd find one, I'd lure them away. This wasn't hard, most convention merchants are cheap and a lot are ill-tempered. Once hired I'd try to figure out what style of work best suited them. Some people thrive given lots of responsibilities and just an outline of what has to happen, and enjoy creating their own path. Others require a firm structure, and knowing exactly what is expected of them and what to do. If I had indeed found one that cared about the job (the ethic of the day lately seems to be to find the most pay for the absolute least effort - but there are those that thrive on do a good job and improving their situation) I would be inspired to try to give them the opportunities to expand their responsibilities and income. But now, I don't know many people, I don't get to observe a preselected pool of potentials, and Floridians by and large have a most atrocious work ethic. The latter is based on a small sampling of personal experience and a great load of hearsay.

So much as I hate interviews, I seems it's going to have to go that way. But the problem remained how to get the word out to people. A classified ad is useless, my needs are far outside the box, and require a fairly small subset of humanity - a person with an extremely flexible schedule, close attention to detail, a certain amount of perfectionism, the ability to handle tedium and a certain amount of drive. Most people like this are already employed. My best shot at this is to work my close circle of friends and those that know the business to see if they know any people that are at a crossroads in life, or a motivated youngster. I created a page completely spelling out the job and completely honest in all respects. Those that can't get through it or don't have the computer skills to view it, well that's a weeding process. Those that make it to my door, well the first few days are another weeding process. Hopefully this will work, and I'll be back on the path to positive cash flow.

I've been think for a while now that I have pulled back too far from the overwhelming stimuli of the outside world and that that my be hastening my sensitivity to, well just about everything. So my thinking is to slowly get out more and build up my "immunity".

As a start to this for the last two days I have been walking down to Gram's Restaurant for breakfast. This fits nicely into my meal plan, gets me up and running in the morning and hopefully gently increases to randomity I am exposed to. This is made difficult mostly by the severe debilitating nature of the Sun down here, and this weeks 300% humidity. While it is a short walk my core temperature is up what feels like 20 degrees by the time I get to Gram's (as The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy taught me, I always carry a towel on these trips.). The walk back, being both later into the day and mostly uphill is worse, but my house is kept colder than the restaurant and I can sweat in private.

On the walk down I walk through Marshall park. Since the hurricanes pretty much destroyed the tiny park portion of the park, this is now largely a wooden walkway over the swamp. At the height of the high water period the walkway became a few inches underwater with the approach even more so. It stayed unusable for more than year, then the water receded to just below the walkway. Now in the midst of a very dry season the water has dropped a good five feet and much of the formally flooded area is now dry land. At the center through the water is clogged with algae and Lilly pads galore.

Today there were a couple dozen smallish birds, maybe 8 to 10 inches from stem to stern. They looked something like miniature ducks in that they had bright orange bills. The rest was a grey downy type feather. They were walking from Lilly pad to Lilly pad, or occasionally using algae where necessary (which made them appear to walk on water) pausing to scoff up insects as they went. I never once saw them use or even flutter there wings, which were either tucked tight to their sides or else they actually didn't have any. It was very comical looking and despite the blaring rays of the sun I stopped to watch them for several minutes.

There was also what I assume to be an enormous bullfrog, which sounded like defective outboard motor endlessly trying to be started, or perhaps a large aquatic cat with a very wet fur ball firmly lodged in it's throat.

Once on the main drag (17/92) I was assaulted by not one by two ambulance sirens. I think I blanked out slightly on the second one, as I remember the approach and the recede but not the actual passing. I really have to remember to buy some ear plugs (I don't like the iPod in the morning.) Immediately after I felt an odd numbness in my arm for a fleeting second which makes me wonder if I hadn't been starting to fall. It was a bit unnerving, but what these trips are about.

I hadn't heard from my Mother for a week or so, so I knew either she or her computer was broken. Luckily it was (and still is) her email server that is done.

During our phone call I mentioned that I wanted to look into meditation as a less time consuming replacement for TV watching as a method of calming my brain, but that I didn't really know how to approach that. And she had told me that Brad has been into meditation for years.

So I email Brad and he responds the same day with this wonderful email. It sounds much easier (I'm sure that's an illusion) than I had imagined and I am eager to get started. I had planned on this evening, put as is often the case with me lately and change patterns, the evening got away from me.

Beyond that Fred pushed me to 900 whacks at the punching bag today and my arms are screaming mad.

It's rare in any kind of endurance testing that 2 seconds is something to be excited about. But I have not until now been able to hold my own weight (hanging from overhead bar) for even a fraction of a second. The hands are definitely the weak link, but I expect that the arms fall not far behind. Well today, I held on for 2 seconds. It's a beginning, and one I've been waiting for.

My sister did not call today, and I was unaware of this until she emailed to tell me that she hadn't called. I then realized I have not heard from my mother all week.

eBay marks the passage of days. Refilling my medicine case makes me aware of the rushing by of weeks. Buying the meds makes me realize that the next month has whizzed by. But other than that the days see to drag on in one long indistinguishable blur. And if something, like an email or a phone call or a stray thought, doesn't grab my attention, my external life is largely "out of sight; out of mind." Seems odd even to me, but that seems to be how my mind is working now. One cylinder; concentrating on the task (or lack there of) at hand. To those that are being or feeling ignored, I apologize until I can figure out away to combat or more correctly habitualize this. But if you write, you are on my mind, and I almost always respond.

Imagine the overhead of filling out a tax return like that. So you tax business and think, well better them than me. And yet every penny of that tax, and every penny of the money needed keep money in place for that tax to paid, and every penny needed to account for that tax, and every penny needed to figure out those 24,000 pages - every penny of the cost they incur is passed right down the line to the people who consume their products in the market place. Every penny.

So why don't the people simply pay it upfront and save a bundle? Because if the American taxpayer ever figured out what they were really paying in taxes, they'd put a stop to all this spending. Pure and simple, so the Government makes sure that your attention is fixed on the idea that everyone else is not paying their fair share. All the while, it still comes back to you - just at a higher price.

Something about the nighttime/flashbulb look of this, combined with the almost visible "Ut, Oh!" in their minds, cracks me up every time I look at this.

Near me is Blue Springs State Park. My Mother got rooked out of seeing it on here journey down here, because I thought of dealing with the wheelchair in an area not designed for them was more chaos and unknown than I was able to muster up energy to confront. So I figured I'd at least post some links to info and pictures of the place:

My mother went home today. While she was here I was needing an almost constant flow of TV to stay centered, and I couldn't figure out why. I use TV like a drug, to quiet my mind back down. The more intense the mental focus required in a task the more TV it will take to get back to "normal". I even tend to think of generic tasks in terms of TV hours. 2 hours of eBay equals a half hour of TV. Designing a cover equals 2 hours of TV. Menuing a DVD equals 4 hours of TV. Errands, driving, restaurants, etc, they all have rough TV viewing equivalents. But while my mother was here it wasn't working properly. This made no sense to me, she stayed largely out of the way, we hardly did anything (mostly because I was always watching TV).

Once I got back home alone today, suddenly TV was working for me again (trip to the airport (departure) = 3 hours). And I have now become conscious that it is not the act of watching TV but the near (or possibly closer than near) trance like state that I obtain while watching TV. So when she would come in to ask me a question, or move past my field of vision, or perhaps even knowing that that might happen I was not able to attain the trance. That explains why I got so much done when she was visiting Charlene and Gus. This also explains why the doorbell and phone irritate me, more than they should.

I wish I had figured this out sooner. I'll have to come up with a system to let people know when I'm repairing, as opposed to just watching.

I also think I should look into meditation. I've never been good at blanking my mind, but if I can learn some of this, I might be able to do what I do using TV faster and more reliably.

It's hard for me to hate. Or I should say it's hard for me to sustain hatred. For one thing it requires too much memory. That was true even before my memory went to hell. And for another, it is difficult to sustain real anger when you tend to, eventually, see all (or most) sides of things. I've never been good at only viewing things from my vantage point.

There are some people, although not that many, that I take an instant dislike to for no good reason. It might be chemical, or hell maybe the past life people are right, or perhaps it's a little remaining latent telepathy. But I know that that feeling of dislike is not anything they've done to me, so while I never get to like those people, I don't hate them.

Even the cab driver that killed Crystal, I wanted (maybe even needed) to hate, but it wasn't really his fault, and the episode scarred him pretty badly as well.

Some people I have had fun "hating". On the convention circuit I hated Mario and Ted. But it wasn't a real hate, I had fun with it. Passed the time with it. True enough, they hated me, and there was probably a time when my emotion toward them was genuine, but I can't remember how that all started. I remember one incident for each of them that royally pissed me off, but they had already hated me (I suspect because John and I raised the bar on what an acceptable Video was and looked like - which raised their cost of manufacture substantially) by then.

But, and the reason I bring all this up, I truly hated, and continue to hate, Chet's wife. This was not a pretend and even today I would go out of my way to wish her ill fate given the chance. I found her to be truly reprehensible and I would hazard a guess that her attitude with people went a long way toward contributing to Chet's legal problems. But that's just my guess, and really she was pretty much no longer doing shows when all that went down, so that's probably just wishful thinking on my part.

The animosity between was very trick, and Chet mastered this trick later at the shows of not even seeing me. It wasn't that he would turn away, he would look straight through me as if I wasn't there. He did it so well, it had a really creepy effect on me. Anyway, so you can imagine my surprise when I received an email this morning from Chet. He had stumbled upon my website (ironically the same day MK sent me the link to an article on his bust that I plan to work into my page on convention selling) and wrote me. A pleasant enough email, one downed soul reaching out to another, trying to make sense of the chaos of life.

I never disliked Chet, in fact I liked him a lot right from the get go. If anything I felt sorry for him, for having to live 24/7 with such a vile woman. I will write him back, but I'm putting it off a few days as I have been feeling sick lately and I'd like to have what's left of my wits about me when I do. I've reached out to a lot of old friends since I "came of the closet" illnesswise, and most have understandably stayed away. Whether it's not wanting to invest the time and emotion in the short term prospect that I am, or just the nature avoidance of thinking about death, and thus procrastinating until it becomes awkward to write (I've certainly been guilty of that enough in my own life), or for some other reason - I'm not sure. So this reach out from a former enemy seems both right and pleasant.

I've been feeling sick the last few days. A weird cold/flu thing that has sore throat and pressured head, but almost no mucus, phlegm or other fluids. Very strange.

For fun, I googled myself today and this thing called Googlisms came up. I don't know why this result freaks me out a bit, but it does.