August 30, 2005 11:07

Oh for fuck's sake. I've had a relapse into last week's cold. I feel like complete shite. I've popped a couple of Tylenol Cold caplets (non drowsy, severe congestion), but they really have not done very much to help out. When I woke up yesterday, my left eye was extrememly crusty and bloodyshot. I could not put my contact lenses in. My nose was congested and I was having some good old coughs. I did make it to my presentation (people present included the CFO and CIO of my client company) and did a reasonable job. I also ended up putting in a decent number of billable hours and then went back to the hotel. I did not feel like going out for dinner and so I ordered room service.

This morning I felt like utter crap. Today, my right eye was also bloodshot and it felt like there was something trying to climb out of the space between my eyeball and it's socket. Compounding this was significant congestion in my nose (mainly right nostril) and some bronchial congestion. I am unsure whether I had a temperature, but it wouldn't have surprised me. I got up to blow my nose and my right nostril might as well have been a mucous factory. After a couple of quite productive blows, I was actually in a bit of pain; I was almost expecting to see blood, but still there was more snotty stuff. I decided to have a shower to see how that would make me feel, to see if the steam would open up the congested airways.

It seemed to have some positive effect. Until I started coughing. Well, I have at times been described as having a phlegmatic temperament; today I was actually phlegmatic in the literal sense. Great big lumps of dark yellowy-green phlegm. Yum yum yum.

I decided to go to the hotel store to see what flu medicine they had and then get some breakfast. I picked up the aforementioned Tylenol Cold caplets and downed them with orange juice at the hotel restaurant. I also had a fairly tasty omelet (yeah, oddly enough, my taste and flavour receptors aren't being too suppressed by the cold). Then I returned to my room. Another phlegmy cough and I decided that I would look to avoid infecting my colleagues.

A little while ago, I received a phone call from a business colleague, and by the end of the call I realised that my body temperature was increased and that I was sweaty and clammy. Ew. I am definitely not going in to work in this state. The caplets were supposed to be non-drowsy, but that doesn't seem to be working too well. My congestion has mildly abated, but I still feel rather bad. I had several coughing attacks while on the phone. Yep, I am infected with something, and it simply does not want to go away. The pain behind my eyes (mostly my right one) comes and goes. My hands are clammy. My body feels too hot. My chest seems to be slighly less congested. My nose hurts. I guess that all means that I am sick. Bah.

August 25, 2005 21:52

Well done, Stevie G, on being named MVP in Europe for the 2004-5 season.

I'm still not 100%, but I'm a lot better than yesterday. I actually ate today: lunch and dinner. And I went to work. It was a good full day, much accomplished.

And now I'm wasting time watching that TV show. Yes, I'm an addict. I think I was going to talk about something else, but I've been quite effectively distracted.

August 24, 2005 14:11

Gah. I'm ill. I did not sleep well last night. And I think I must be overdosing on Law and Order because when I did fall asleep I seemed to fall into episodes of that show. And what made it worse is that they weren't episodes with Elisabeth Röhm.

So awaking and finding myself still quite ill, I elected to not go into work. I called and left a message and then set about trying to get more sleep. I may not have gotten quite as much sleep as I wanted, but I did get some good rest. And I did actually get some sleep. I decided to throw myself at the shower to see if that would improve how I felt: the results were slight.

Deciding that it would be a good idea if I could get some work done today, I went in to the office and picked up some documents and checked my email. I then went over to Harris Teeter to pick up some orange juice and cold medicine. I thought briefly about getting some food, but there was nothing that caught my interest. If there had been some chicken or vegetable soup I would have probably been all over that. They did have chicken and dumpling soup, but the thought of dumplings just made me gag. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with dumplings, but they just didn't sit well with my current malaise.

So back at the hotel and trying to focus on getting some work done, but my brain is simply not in the right frame of mind. I've consumed a good amount of the OJ and popped a couple of the pills. I'm not coughing, and my throat isn't hurting as much, and my headache seems to be fading. Oops, just coughed. But my brain is definitely not firing on all cylinders. One of the big problems with being ill and not getting work done is that I don't get paid. Quite a significant issue, really. So maybe I just need to suck up today so I am back on top form tomorrow, and try to put in some extra hours. I'll probably be leaving later on Friday, too, so I can make up some more hours. Ugh.

In other news, I purchased Microsoft Visual Studio recently, and I picked it up last weekend. But I cannot get it to install. It simply stops part way through the install process. This is very frustrating. But probably not something to try and tackle right now.

August 23, 2005 21:38

Damn it. I'm sick. My tonsils feel like, well, something swollen and painful. Swallowing is not pleasant for me. I have sucked my way through half a dozen oral-aneasthetic cough drops, with no relief. My left ear is feeling kind of blocked. Bah.

In other health news, it appears I had a little too much fun this weekend. I really must maintain a period of no alcohol that lasts longer than a week.

But, yes, I did have a pretty full-on weekend. After getting back from Charlotte, I did some chores, installed some stuff on my laptop, and then had dinner with Matt and Lauren, and then went to the Local. Lauren, Matt, Ben and I popped down to The Lab, where Eric was having a small party. After a while we headed back to the Local for more festivities. Later into the evening (well, morning), a poker game happenned. It started well, but ended messily. There was an altercation. On a positive note, I did end well ahead.

Saturday morning I made it to the Brewhouse part-way through the Liverpool vs Sunderland game. It ended a victory for the 'pool. But I also ended up staying longer and watching the next game. When I did leave, I killed some time at home and then went up to the Local (surprise), where I played some awful darts and then was picked up by Jen W who took me back to my place to watch a DVD. Which I quickly feel asleep during. Oh well, it was a long day.

I got up some time on Sunday, struggled to pull my shit together and late in the afternoon, hit the road to Charlotte.

And now I have some sort of throat-affecting illness. Ugh.

August 18, 2005 21:17

Well I just learned today that probably the most important Prime Minister of New Zealand in my lifetime died last week. David Lange was the leader of New Zealand who instituted the changes that have allowed New Zealand to become a vibrant, growing, economy. At the time I was still in my politically formative years, learning my parents political swayings and trying to see how this man fitted the allegedly Labour position. He was a very clever man, and had a command of the English language that could be used without making the average bloke feel like an idiot. His ability to speak to the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, and the moneyed, made him very acceptable as a leader. But his uncertainty in the face of conscience over his economic reforms in the end got in the way of those reforms and this caused some delay in New Zealand's evolution. No matter, the changes he started were not stoppable without an adjustment that would have destroyed New Zealand. And he did have the balls to stand up to the US and say (even though the policy was on the table before he became PM), "don't bring your fucking nukes here," and damn the consequences. I recommend the page of his quotes on Wikipedia and the transcript of his debate at Oxford on the position that Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible. David Lange, 1942-2005. RIP

In other news, my project manager is still causing me grief in his inability to project manage. You know it's a problem when you have to say to the project manager: "You're the project manager; it's your call." Or, "you're the project manager: reschedule the meeting." Or, "you're the project manager: advise the management that the milestone is going to slip." And it's even more disconcerting that you know he is not going to do any of the above. I think I need to talk to the project sponsor.

But I've had a very pleasant evening. After work I came back to the hotel, relaxed for a bit and then went for a walk. There's these specialty (read expensive) shops right by my hotel, so I went for a wander around them. I stopped in the menswear store because I need some new trousers and a jacket and maybe some shirts. When the price tag on the first jacket I looked at said $640, I knew that this was not really my store. But I did decide to try one of the restaurants. I decided to sit at the bar for dinner, and struck up a conversation with the young lady on my left. Twenty minutes later she had left with friends and I had her phone number. I dined and then some more cute young ladies took her spot. I had a good conversation with them, too. I don't know if was the generally good interaction I'd had, or the Lagavulin (again), but I left the restaurant with a very nice feeling. Oh, yeah, and I saw the group of real estate chickies with the Aussie bloke coming in and getting a table. All very good.

Now I have packed my bag, with the exception of my toiletries and clothes for tomorrow and I am pretty much ready to hit the road after work. Given the hours I've done this week, I'm looking to head out around one o'clock. But that will all be dependent on getting with the people I need to get with to get the tasks that I want to get done, done.

August 17, 2005 22:19

Let me preface the rest of this post by saying that there's a good chance that I'm a little bit drunk.

Okay, caveats aside, it has been a very interesting day. We spent the day with one of the possible suppliers for the project that I was brought on to be the technical lead for. And I learned a lot aout their product. And I was very impressed by a lot of what I learned. It was a good day. And then we did a debrief. So it was a good ten hour day for me. But it was a GOOD ten hour day.

Afterwards, I needed to wind down. Because although it was good, there are certain team members that do try my patience. It's not something that I will talk about in a public forum, but it does frustrate me somewhat.

So I went to the hotel bar. I saw on the shelf that they had my favourite of all single malt Scotch whiskys, so I ordered it. And it was good. And as I drank it, I worked on the crossword and then the Sudoku. And then I ordered another. And that was good to. About the time of the second, a group of people turned up around me and started chatting away. That was okay; I was working on my puzzles, and they were chatting.

But one of them had an Antipodean accent. If you don't know what "Antipodean" means, look it up in the dictionary, Ben. So I drank, ordered food, occasionally listened, trying to pick the exact origin of the accent. But one thing that I have learned, is that after enough years of living in the US, a couple of things happen: (a) your accent warps, and (b) you have difficulty sometimes picking the origin of another who is originally from your part of the world.

No matter, it turns out he was an Ocker who was working with a bunch of women of varying degrees of attractiveness. They seemed like a good bunch and were very friendly. [More text was considered right here, but in the interests of self-respect and the fact that I've had a bit to drink, I'm leaving this kind of open].

Anyway, after they all left, I finished my drink and asked for my tab. At which point Gerry, the very cute Bulgarian chick who was bartending (and all four points were true) said: "your tab has been paid for. I said that your tab was on their tab but the girl who signed the check said that was okay." Women in real estate. Yep. And apparently they were cool with buying my drinks and my dinner before they went to dinner.

Oh yeah, the drinks thing. I had two glasses of Lagavulin. Tim would appreciate that; he knows that is my favourite single malt. But apparently my second finished the bottle. (I had a glass of Pinot Noir with my dinner of lamb medallions and asparagus). I had an after dinner drink of Talisker with my (as yet unknown) benfactor and friends. So she obviously paid quite a hefty tab, even before we consider the 8 people she paid drinks for. But then again, when you're out for a conference or meeting or whatever the fuck they were doing, it's all tax deductable anyway...

So after they had all gone, and I had finished the Talisker, I asked for my tab (as I mentioned above). On learning that I was free of a tab, I thought that I might as well have a drink anyway, since it would be the first of my night financially. So I asked for another Talisker. But then I changed my mind and asked Gerry how much the Macallan 18 year old was. Her response: "the same as the Lagavulin - eighteen dollars."

I had to stop for just one second.

Damn. I had ordered it thinking it would be $10, maybe $12. And a complete stranger picked up my tab for two $18 whiskys, my $29 dinner, my $9 wine with dinner, and my $11 after-dinner whisky. My first thought sounded somthing like: Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

So I ordered the Macallan 18 year old. And it tasted really fucking good.

And then I knew it was time for me to head back to my room, because, after that much whisky (as John can attest to), it's probably time to hit the sack. I ordered a Newcastle (because I knew that I would have to document this evening) and asked for my tab. And, rather than ringing up that 18 year old Macallan as such, she rang it up as a Talisker - $11 instead - and a $5 bottler of Newcastle. Jsut your regular 12oz (300ml) bottle of Newcastle (I guess that was NZ$7, GBP2.40, or thereabouts).

What a country.

August 14, 2005 21:27

Now that was a really good weekend. I got home on Friday night and arranged to meet up with Brandy for a belated birthday drink at the Local. When I got to the Local, I was early and had a chat with Jamie. Lauren and Matt came up and the night was fun. After the Local closed, a bunch of the boys came back to my place and we played poker. It was good. I ended up taking most of the money. I was quite pleased with that result. What was also interesting was Bert's reaction to my sizeable collection of Michael Moorcock books.

It was obviously rather late when everyone left, but I did wake up in time to get to the Brewhouse for Liverpool's first Premiership game, against Middlesborough. It was a pretty good game, and Liverpool essentially dominated the entire second half, but unfortunately they were unable to finish. Still, a draw away is better than a loss. After the footie, I went over to Anne and Kris' place for Kris' graduation celebration. That was fun.

I left Kris' place and headed over to Jen M's place. We went to R. Thomas for dinner (tasty food), to the Highlander for a couple of drinks (tasty drinks), and then went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Absolutely frickin' brilliant. I was alternating between wonder and roll-on-the-floor laughter. I thoroughly recommend it.

After the movie, we went up to Brandon and Gilli's place for the Leo Bash. That was also a lot of fun. Not only did I catch up with a number of the usual suspects, there was a pair of partygoers that I would never have expected to see there: Ben's friends Oz and Cathy. So I ended spending a lot of time talking with them, as well as spending time with Becky, with Shawn, with Lauren & Matt, with Ashe, and the list goes on.

It was obviously another very late night. Which made the fact that I was awake at 8:30am very disturbing. So it was a slow day today, but that was okay. The drive up to Charlotte was uneventful, but it was also quick.

And that was my weekend, more or less.

Oh yeah - I checked out the trailer for V for Vendetta. The trailer looks really good. I am a little concerned about the fact that the screenplay was done by the brothers who wrote The Matrix, but the bits shown in the trailer look like a good indication that the comic is being followed fairly closely. Check it out.

August 10, 2005 18:15

A comfortable nine billable hours today. Much accomplished, much more that now needs to be accomplished. But it's all good.

When I got back to the hotel, there was a drinks-and-snacks thing going on in the lobby. I would be a liar to say that stopping for a bottle of crap beer wasn't totally unappealling, but I figured if I can make it past all of that I can hit the fitness center. But when I got to the fitness center, it was full. Apparently if you aren't drinking and nibbling, you're working out. Which leaves me in a quandary, because I am now available to do what I shouldn't because I can't do what I should. What a dilemma.

Plans for this weekend: birthday drink with Brandy (her birthday was on Tuesday), Premiership opener Middlesborough vs Liverpool at the Brewhouse on Saturday, catch up and hang out with Jen M, do my laundry, do my expenses and billing, sort out arrangements for moving to my new apartment. It's going to be busy and too short on time.

As for tonight, I will find myself somewhere tasty to dine and then return to my suite to read. I did finish the first chapter of Will in the World last night, and I'm interested to kill another one.

I sent off a quote request for liability insurance today. This was good timing, because I also signed an NDA with a major supplier of technology in the industry I am working in, and they have expressed interest in potentially using my skills in the future, and I will soon be having negotiations with the company I am currently doing work for about work after this project, and there is the company that I expect to be my main source of work next year with whom I have to negotiate a rate. Once I get this insurance quote, I can more clearly determine what my standard rate is going to be and start getting some contracts in place. It's all very exciting.

All that is well and good, of course, but right now I need to think about whether I am going to go downstairs for hors d'ourvres and cocktails (cheap beer), or head out in search of dinner. Maybe it would be good to interact with my fellow guests here. Hrm.

August 09, 2005 19:46

For some reason I am really tired. I was tired this morning, and had difficulty getting up, even though I had a really good night's sleep. I had lots of very vivid dreams as well, which did give me pause to wonder how the brain creates such amazing complete and realistic environments that aren't actually real. It's quite amazing.

In any case, work was slow this afternoon, and rather than sit around twiddling my thumbs, I decided to take off early. I came back to the hotel and did a few housekeeping chores (basically around responding to emails and sending receipts for last weeks expenses). I apparently then fell into a dream while doing some web browsing, because I suddenly found myself waking up. It's amazing how quickly I can fall into a dream from wakefulness. But when I did wake up, I was still extremely tired; I had not actually succumbed to much actual sleep.

So I pulled myself together, ironed shirts for the rest of the week, and then went in search of dinner. I decided that tonight was going to be barbecue, so I stopped at Carolina Country Kitchen on Tyvola Rd, and had myself a beef and pork combo platter. It came with coleslaw, fries, and hush puppies. I didn't particularly care for the hush puppies, and the coleslaw was very sweet, but the pork and the beef were great. The barbecue sauce was a little strong, but once the ratio was right, all was good. The lemonade was a little too sweet, too.

I ordered more software last night: Visio and Visual Developer. With these I think I should be all set as far as software goes. The next thing I have to sort out is liability insurance. I will have to start making some phone calls.

I've just thrown on the television; Law and Order is on. I'm only partially paying attention, as it is already half-way through, and it's not an Elisabeth Röhm episode. That's not to say the next one won't be: I think Tuesday is Law and Order marathon night. I should turn it off and get on with reading Will in the Word, a book about Shakespeare that Tim has loaned me.

August 08, 2005 20:54

It's Monday. The first week of Jafa Consulting went pretty well. This week has gotten off to a good start. The weekend was good, also. Not much to talk about right now.