Upon correction of a [GOD], I have corrected the URL to StarMUD.

Speaking of that website, I've been considering drawing the races for StarMUD... there's like 60 some-odd races. Considering I'm an admin, and logged in currently, I suppose I could switch screens and count. If you're curious, I'd just suggest using telnet and going there yourself. So yeah, drawing. I haven't really drawn in quite some time. In fact, there's a lot of things I've been neglecting recently.

I should really do my taxes. ...and mail this belated birthday card that I've been sitting on for over a month. Sorry, Sophie, not that you'd ever read this.

So, where the hell does the time go?

It's been months since I updated this. I kinda figured this would happen. I'm horrible with anything I percieve as a journal. Somehow, I just lose interest in the continuous updating of it, which is sad, really, because I love finding my many started-but-never-got-past-the-third-page journal/diary things and reading them. My most recent attempt, prior to this blog, was a project I started in college where each paragraph in the journal was a spinoff of some thought that the previous paragraph inspired... So, I might write about money, and that makes me think of the time I dyed my hair green. You know, that kind of connection.

At work now, they call those things Moeisms. I guess you had to have been there.

Anyway, the primary reason I've been wanting to post is to vent about my ear. I was going to post last Sunday and say some shit about it being my 2 week anniversary of this crap. Well, guess what? It's Sunday morning, a week later... so I guess this makes today the 3-week anniversary of my ear getting all wonky.

Three weeks ago, I got a cold on the previous Friday. Probably someone at work sneezing on my croisandwich. That Saturday it set in, but Sunday it was mostly gone, replaced instead by a congestion in my ear which made it hard to hear. Over the next few days this congestion was accompanied by pain, and by the end of the first week, I was losing sleep because of it.

I saw my doctor, and he explained that it's middle ear conjestion that affects the escuchian (sp) tube. Basically, this lovely conjestion causes swelling such that the fluids of the ear can't drain, and it just hangs out in there. For children they can poke holes in their ears and insert tubes for drainage, but apparently for adults, this is a dangerous practice. He didn't explain the consequences, but "hearing loss" is jumping to mind. He also explained that there's nothing that can really be prescribed or done for it. Just to be patient, take it easy, and that I could take Sudafed or another pseudoephedrine for the congestion, and chewing gum. He also let me know that it would last from one to four weeks.

Uh huh... So, I bought some Sudafed, which, by the way, is regulated by the Federal Department of Health. Someone told me that it's regulated so that people don't buy 100 boxes and make crystal meth or something... and I also bought a big pack of Big Red.

The gum made the pain more intense. Since I'm not a masochist, I sure as shit didn't keep that up for very long.

The Sudafed did fuckall. In fact, a couple days after I started it, my ear, and the whole left side of my head (yes, it was my left ear) got all nice and swollen. Just wearing sunglasses hurt like hell. Luckily, shortly after the major swelling kicked in, the pain went away...

This is turning into an obscenely long post, so I'll try to make the remaining week's catchup quick. The pain returned Sunday, when we were supposed to have dinner with my parents. I canceled. The swelling went down a lot on Tuesday, and by Thursday evening the pain was basically gone (unless I poked in and around my ear). It's been like that since then.

To wrap this all up. I'm not chewing gum. I'm not taking the medication anymore. And I'm just waiting this thing out. Fun.

I tried to post something early Sunday morning, but Blogger was having some sort of severe lookup problems. I'm not sure if it has to do with the recent overwhelming popularity of blogs in general, or the fact that many people have been using and reading blogs as an alternative to mass media for war coverage, or even if it just has to do with the fact that Google recently acquired Pyra Labs (the makers of Blogger).

I made a copy in case it didn't get recorded as it apparently did not, but I can't seem to remember where I made that copy... so I'll just have to post it whenever I find it.