To treat or not to treat, that is... mm... This candy is good!

Happy Halloween you bunch of schmucks who're reading my posts.

If you didn't want to read my rants & raves, you wouldn't be reading this one now would you?

 I decided I'd look up various YouTube Halloween pranks.

After watching several , it makes me want to setup some here.

I have a huge tree in my yard, and a garage door with an automatic opener.

Surely, you're thinking... Many people have a garage door.  Most of those same people have an automatic opener on it.

My grandpa would always setup a large metal plate where a sledge hammer would slam into it when the garage door lifted all the way open.  In addition to the large noise, often a hanging figure would descend from the door as well.

This freaked out lots of trick-or-treaters, who never suspected anything when the door would open.  Most would stop and watch it open, then flip out when the figure would drop down and the hammer would slam into the plate.

So, with reference to the garage door, I thought about doing something with it, but cannot do much this year, as I really don't give a darn.

Perhaps, next year I'll start planning stuff out early so that way I can make sure that it's working a week or so before Halloween.

It was so cold... kids were fighting for turns on the rotisserie

It was in the low 30's this morning when I got up.

BTW, last night, I decided I need something to help me sleep.  Which led me to taking an Ambien last night.

I took it around 9:30 and during the time between when I took it and when it finally kicked in around 11:00, I was starting to feel very, very manic.  I was seeing myself moving through source code very fast, and felt like I could connect various electrical points & ideas from place to place in just milliseconds.

Going back to the cold, I left my office window almost completely wide open last night.  I'm sure the computers were happy with the cold, but at 56 degrees I'm not so certain.

Even now, with the temperature just over 60 degrees I'm actually thinking about putting on a pair of PANTS.  Who knew that I'd ever think about pants at a time like this?

After all, I am "Mr. Heater" or is that "Mr. Heater, Deluxe Edition"?

I lit a candle, which will help warm the air a bit, turned on my second computer system, and started burning some incense in here.  All in hopes of warming this little room.

Right now, the sun is coming through the clouds & fog, so it should warm up my little office in another hour or so.  Which makes me wonder if it'll get back up into the high 70's in my office again this afternoon.

I'm pretty tired, right now, but not as tired as I was this time yesterday.  So I'm actually thinking about taking Ambien again tonight to help me stay asleep tonight.

I actually thought, last night, that I was going to stay fully awake through the Ambien.  I haven't done that in over a year... but the Lamictal has been helping me to not go into full hypo manic episodes.

Just opened the curtains of my office, hoping that the sun will do it's job and warm things up in here... although, through the glass of the windows.

Can't seem to stop yawning right now... Perhaps I need more O2 in my system?

I also keep thinking about these dreams/flashbacks and perhaps it's time that I start putting them together into a story and write it down.  Could be interesting and again it can just be a lot of words on a page.

Well, I wish that it was raining, as it's generally much warming when its raining than when it's clear.

I bet you can squeal like a pig.

The scene from Deliverance where the guy gets raped by another guy was horrifying to me.

Of course, any scenes/depictions of rap of ANY kind is horrifying for me see/hear about.

I hate the movie GI Jane because of the scene where the guy was going to rape her.

With my original reference to Deliverance, is that I have the track for Dueling Banjos, played by Earl Scruggs.

While I'm not a great blue grass banjo player... I do consider myself a banjo player of sorts.  Which reminds me that I need to pull it out and play/practice with it.  I miss the finger picking & what not.  Cool sounds.

So far, I've listened to Dueling Banjos close to 10 times in a row just now.

It's an interesting piece played by a guitar and a banjo, of course.  Why it was labeled as "Dueling Banjos" instead of "Dueling between a Banjo and Guitar" is sort of interesting for me to ponder.

The banjo playing is actually blue grass style, so when you watch that scene from Deliverance you'll notice that the freaky looking banjo player isn't really playing blue grass style. (i.e. his hand isn't anchored down and only the thumb, fore & middle fingers are moving on the right hand.)

Watching the video clip again, the left hand is really working the finger placements on the frets, as it's not just putting them any old where.

Linking from video to video on YouTube, I found this one, which is pretty cool.

What really got me starting to learn the Banjo was that I built a prototype of a banjo, using a cookie tin for the head.

Then a few years later, Steve Martin released The Crow.

One of the tracks I really enjoyed from that CD is "Daddy Played the Banjo".

Then a few years later, he teamed up with the Steep Canyon Rangers and produced "Rare Bird Alert". It has several tracks which show the comedic genius of Steve Martin.

My daughters both love blue grass music now, and the youngest one wants to learn how to play banjo... just not blue grass style, but frailing/claw hammer.

Well, I'm starting to wake up enough that I'm willing to get moving for work now...

I was having the most wonderful dream. I think you were in it.

A good solid nights sleep has eluded me again.

I finished reading Carrie last night, around 11-11:30 last night.

While I should've put it down around 10:00, I wanted to finish it, as it got REALLY intense at the end.

When I fell to sleep, I thought.. "Hey, this is it!"

Then I woke up a little bit past 12:00, wide awake.

Next, I slept until around 1:00.

No good, I was up again around 1:30, and I thought, "Hey, if I'm still awake around 2:00, I'll get up and start work early."

Well, I stayed awake till close to 2:00 and came to consciousness again after 3:00.

Finally, I slept good until after 7:00 AM, which is the typical time that Ellie gets out of the shower, and turns the fan off and the lights on.

I laid in bed till after 7:30 when I got up, got dressed and finally sat down to work.

Now I've been sitting here for almost two hours, and I'm still tired as everyone got watching the Energizer Bunny on TV.

I want to sleep, but I also know that I'm supposed to work today.  Usually on days like this, I don't get much done at all.

Feels like a manic episode is poking its head out from behind the curtain of "normal"...

The extra 50 mg of Lamictal in the morning doesn't seem to affect me much.

Prior to going to bed and finishing Carrie last night, the kids carved pumpkins and I wound up helping my youngest with hers, because she chose an intricate pattern and needed to shower before it got any later.

Ellie has a cold and didn't feel well last night.

She kept tossing and turning.

Right now, I feel like the guys who like to watch NASCAR... They don't want a wreck to happen, but secretly like to thrill of a crash.

I want a really bad headache so that I can stop working, but I really don't want to deal with the pain and all associated problems.

It's chilly in my office this morning, which is helping me stay awake a bit, and it's also keeping me from sweating like a ice cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer day.

Well, I realized that I've been doing lots of metaphors and similes in this post today and figure that I should stop.

Besides, I'm just bitching and ranting today...

... if she cooks squirrel and dumplins, that's the woman you go after...

Today feels a little bit like a "squirrel" day...

Yet, I don't feel distracted, like I normally would on a squirrel day.

I just can't seem to engage myself into work or anything else.

It's like all I want to do is sit around a loaf and/or just do mindless things.

Ok.. I'd sit and read books or do word puzzles from those Variety Puzzle books.

If I hadn't previously posted this, my uncle left me 1 and a half boxes of those puzzle books.

I've gotten into doing those puzzles, and can do a full book in about 2 weeks or so.

For work, I am looking at what I need to do... mostly... I just can't seem to click things together.

Feels like I have one of my "background" headaches, and I feel sleepy as can be.

I don't know why I'm so sleepy these days.

From what I can figure is that either I'm not sleeping fully or I'm just at a FUBAR stage right now.

It seems as though I lay down to sleep, I fall to sleep, yet I toss and turn... when I do.. I sometimes become fully awake, instead of the "temporary" motion of moving from position to position.

Yesterday, Ellie was on the freakin' rag... Ok it's not a rag because of the hysterectomy, but she still has the ovaries, and her moods & attitudes during this time of the month are REALLY harsh.  I can say that, because when I hear her going off, it's like what I used to say when I was in one of my bipolar tirade moods.  (Medication has pretty much diminished them.)

I was pretty tired yesterday, and I wanted a nap, but she just kept snapping that I needed to be doing something to help her get stuff done...  The stuff she wanted me to do, I couldn't do, because the space in our kitchen is a bit limited, and I didn't have any space to work on things.

Whenever they were done, I kicked into gear and whipped up what she wanted in about 10 minutes.

Well, I went to bed around 9:00-10:00 last night and woke up around 6:00 AM... Right now, I still feel super, super tired.

Looking at my watch, I've been sitting here at my laptop/station since 7:00 AM and it's almost 1:00 PM, and I haven't done anything, but read several emails, play multiple games of Spider Solitaire (At the hardest level, four suits.) and online Cryptograms.

Now that I think about it, I have samples of several sleeping aid pills, like Ambien, Lunesta, etc.  I'm afraid of using them right now... Last time I was like this and I started using them, I was sleeping 10+ hours every night/time.  Not necessarily good, since I didn't want my days to be "roll out of bed, go to work, roll back into bed".

Today, not even the caffeine pills are working.

Feels like I might get one of those REALLY bad pressure headaches, where it feels like someone's using an air compressor to fill up a canister with air, but the canister is full, but the pressure is still building up.. the canister cannot get any bigger, but the pressure is constant and doesn't seem as though there's any sort of relief valve to even temporarily drop the pressure.

These headaches often last for hours & hours.  I think I touched on these in previous posts... since they're such dramatic things in my life, I cannot forget them.

Each time that I get one of these headaches, it reminds me of one I had almost a year ago.. when I wanted to take my revolved to put a "hole" in my head to relieve the pressure for good.

Obviously I didn't do that, and I don't imagine myself thinking like that again.

I have figured out somethings that I can do to help relieve this pain.

1. Take Tylenol. (I get bad diarrhea from NSAIDs anymore.)
2. Take my pain pill(s).
3. Start swearing. (Scientific proof that swearing or shouting/saying various words can help endure pain.)
4. Take caffeine.
5. Take an Antihistamine. (Sometimes, Claritin alone.  Often an hour or so later, followed up Benadryl.)
6. Rub Vicks / menthol rub on my forehead, around the side & bottom of my nose. (Never in, it hurts badly)  This often causes my nose to run and helps the sinuses drain.
7. Put ice on my head. Same as the Vicks, causes the nose to run sometimes and helps things to drain.
8. Occasionally, I'll use a strong saline sinus rinse..
9. Use Oxygen for 15 minutes.
10. Use CPAP machine.
11. Soak in a HOT shower/tub.
12. Take out my hearing aids.
13. Get into a dark room with low noise.
14. Pet the cat(s).

Those aren't necessarily in exact order of what I do every time, but  it's very close to the order I often do things, depending on where I am.

If I'm away from home I usually carry items 1-5 with me.  With my work laptop bag with me, then I can do 6 & 8.

Obviously, # 12 is easy to do.  Just take them out, put them on my desk/dresser/pocket/etc.

For #3, it's often very hard to always do for the following reasons:

• Children are near. (My kids and other kids)
• I'm not alone. (My wife hates to hear me swearing.)
• Not in a good/appropriate place to shout/swear. (Church, grocery store, etc.  Got into trouble for swearing at the corporate office once.)
• Talking hurts worse.

I'm starting to think, that right now, there's something that on my cat(s) and dog(s) that often want my attention that are triggering the pain.

For what it's worth...

I don't know...

We got tongue, straight from the horse's mouth.

I don't know why... but I wasted a LOT of time looking for a quote only to find that one...

This week has been hard for me to actually work.

Yesterday, I did more work than I did most of the week.. Except for Monday.

I am trying to work today, and it's still hard.

Not to mention, I'm back to feeling HOT when I'm in my little upstairs office and the temperature is at/over 72 degrees.

I normally turn on my dual direction fan to blow away from me just to stir up the air.  It helps.

Usually, after a while, I cannot stand the sound or air from the fan blowing on me, so I turn it off.

Then my body heats up, I start to sweat and it begins all over again.

VERY irritating, but nothing that the Doctors have tested for can explain what's going on.

My weight this morning is 298 pounds, which is VERY good for me.

I'm losing weight!

If things for work don't look up for me, then tonight it's going to be worse, as the girls have a friend coming over to spend the night.

For some reason, several Friday's a month we have different friends from their elementary school spending the night.

I suppose I don't mind.  Yet, I do mind.

I love to do things with just my family/girls... but the girls are growing up so much now that it's harder to just do things with them.

Well, I'm feeling tired, and want to have some sugar to get a short term energy rush, which will not be good for my diet.

Ellie is buying pizza tonight for dinner, so I need to be careful there with how much of that I eat.

Wednesday, I finished reading "The Turn of the Screw".  It's a pretty good and slow Gothic/horror story.

Now I'm started on Stephen King's Carrie.  Just thought, I'd read it before I finally saw one of the many versions created.  I'll probably watch the newest.

I'm finding that the more recently released versions of movies are better than the originals... Sort of.

The Great Gatsby with DiCaprio was the best version I've ever seen.

Some of the other remakes really just suck.

Ok, so I guess I'm just full of shit about new releases vs. the originals.

Well, I'm still sweating like a stuck pig, so I'm going to turn on the fan and get some more cold water... and maybe a cookie.

Blood of a hen! A little more blood, yes!

I doubt that blood will help me, but I do love "Men in Tights" from Mel Brooks.

Well, the "magic" combination didn't fully work for me yesterday, and already today, less than an hour that I've been up, my head is starting to hurt already.

I took some Claritin...  If the pain gets worse in another hour, I'll try my combination again.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I really have no full idea what's causing my freaking sinus pain/headaches.

Last night, I had a hell of a time sleeping.  I mean, I was awake 30 minutes after first falling asleep.

Then again, at 1:00 AM, then again around 3:00 AM... Then I think I finally fell to sleep really well.

EXCEPT

I was dreaming about going down the street with my brother when we were teenagers, and a dog was trying to bite me so I kept kicking at it to keep it away from me.

Turns out that I was literally kicking out with my left leg.

Ellie woke me up to tell me that I was shaking the whole bed, and that if I kept doing it, it was probably "restless leg" syndrome and there was "help" for it.

When she finally shut up, I told her about the dream, and promptly fell back to sleep without additional dreams.

I'm not certain why my sleep sucks so badly, except for additional caffeine with the benadryl.

Tonight, we are watching a friend's kids, one of whom is autistic.

I like watching autistic children/people.  Not babysitting, but rather, observing them.

It's interesting to see what they're "thinking" as they roam over the house, what they get into and do.

For example, this girl has a habit of eating the gel window clings we have up for Halloween.

Our ghost is missing its head, and the jack-o-lanterns are missing their black eyes.

If everyone has a cup with a straw, she proceeds to go through sipping from everyone's cup, unless you guard it.  My cup is always guarded. :)

The kids are usually here for several hours, so we feed them.

Only food that they're guaranteed to eat comes from McDonald's, so we'll be eating out again tonight.

I suppose I don't mind eating fast food, but it's harder to find a healthy meal, when you want to scarf down a bacon cheese burger.

mmm... bacon...

The salt level was 10% less than a lethal dose.

Since joining Weight Watchers, I started out writing down everything I ate, and keeping track of the "points" that each item was worth.

After a week or two, I stopped writing thing down.

I realized what I needed to do.

Read the labels, and only eat a "serving" instead of "eat till I'm tired of eating it".

Also, eating lots of fiber!

Love that fiber.

You'd think that eating lots of fiber would keep me "loose", but it's not helping due to the type of pain pills that I take.

It does help, but it's not quite enough.

Thank goodness for Laxitives!

I think...

What's hard on my system is not "going" enough, especially in the weight loss realm.  If I can just get it done once or twice a day again, I'd probably register less weight instead of "staying the same".... Full of crap!

I got to stop writing here and get to work.

Then you get fever, followed by muscle spasms, insanity, coma, and finally, death.

Finally, death...

Wait!

I'm not dead yet!

What I found, finally, again was how to combat my current migraine/sinus pain.

Many moons ago, I would get these same sort of painful symptoms on my way home from work.  Around the same time of the year actually.

What I found, was that if I took Benadryl and caffeine to combat Benadryl's drowsy effects, I could get the problem to go away.

Yesterday, during my pain fight, I took the Benadryl and Caffeine combo, and shortly after the pain was gone and lasted for many hours.

Ok, it lasted for the rest of the night.

Good enough that Ellie and I enjoyed each other last night.

This morning, I feel that it's there... Just at the edge of the bone edge of my left sinus passage.

Well, I already took the Benadryl/Caffeine combo already.

By the way, the Caffeine source is Wal-Mart's "Stay Awake - Caffeine Alertness Aid". Better known to many as No-Doze!

So, that's one of my secrets to curbing and dealing with this type of pain trigger.

Doctor, it hurts when I do this!!!

Then don't do that !

WTF?

Ok, so I thought I had a handle on how to prevent a full blow nasty headache/sinus problem today.

I used the Afrin... but I'll be damned if it's working.

Maybe it's getting unemployment?

I don't know how I can even try to be funny right now when I want to just close my eyes, turn off all sounds, and scream!

Mother fletcher, this really hurts!

Anyone who says that these pains aren't real, really needs to have a dude with really large hands, ball up a fist, and then ram it right up their.... exhaust port, without any lubricant.

Perhaps that's a similar pain and the pain from that might lessen in the same amount of time that my pain does.

Sometimes, I'm lucky and the pain fades in an hour or so... Otherwise, I'm just FUBAR and it can last most of a day or days!

Well, I'm going to get an ice pack, one of many that I own, and put it on my head.

Sometimes the cold will calm it down pretty fast, but not always.

If that doesn't do it soon, then I'm going to stop working for the day and go downstairs, sit in my chair and use my oxygen.

Providing that works, then I might come back upstairs to work.  If not, then I'm totally pooched!

Ice cream worked, REALLY well, but again, it was adding up my pounds pretty damn badly/fast.

That's life's biggest balancing act... Do what you need to feel better or do what's "healthy". WTF?

Put the crack pipe down and step away...

I've no idea who actually made that quote or what it exactly references to... but that doesn't matter.

Supposing that I am using it for a purpose, I don't think that I have a true purpose for that quote...

I just returned from seeing "The Ogre" (My Shrink).

He's a good doctor, for the most part, but he's a bit "slow" when it comes to listening... maybe it's not that... I don't think that he's able to process information or communicate as fast as I do.  Remember, I'm a software developer and being able to process information and see how to fix/build/work around things is my specialty.

Well, the results of the blood test from my previous appointment came back.

My lamictal levels are a bit low, so he has me upping the levels to 300 mg... Starting with 50 mg in the morning, while taking my 200 mg at night.  Then a week or two later, take a full 100 mg pill in the morning with the 200 mg at night.

Recently, my migraines/headaches have been getting really acute/severe/"Holy shit can it hurt any worse than a kidney stone or giving birth!?"

The pain usually starts with the left sinus passage, just as it starts in the nose, where the cartilage ends and the bone starts.

It's really, REALLY painful.

As I mentioned, comparing it to a Kidney stone, it is like a pressure that keeps building up and doesn't stop quickly, and often lasts for HOURS and HOURS.

Using Oxygen (O2 for you science/chemistry geeks), often helps out... BUT...  (There's always a but for me in these cases... sometimes really big and round... "I like big butts and I cannot..." Sorry, I got overtaken by the moment.)

It really started on Thursday, during my all day training.  Which was good training and information, while it was bad for my diet.  "Breakfast" consisted of "Pop Tarts", muffins, sodas, water, "juice" and other unhealthy things.  Not to mention that all day long there was candy on the table, which I had a hard time not just snacking the hell out of.

Towards the last hour, I could feel the pressure/start of the pain/headache.  I took my break through pain pill, and my long lasting, scheduled, pain pill... No effect.

I finally left about 15-30 minutes before it ended, and drove home with the A/C turned up all the way.

Obviously, I made it home, safely, and it went away completely using my O2 for 15 minutes. (Standard usage/dosage for O2 therapy for migraines.)

Friday, I was doing pretty good as I worked from home... then I went with my family and a friend of the kids to watch a movie. I think it was Turbo.  Good movie BTW, a bit corny in places, but very entertaining.

About half way through the show, I started to get the sinus pain, and started, in the dark to find my pain pills.  I managed to find all of my pills in the dark, by feel and what reflection I had from the screen.

Pain Pills didn't do what I was hoping they would do...  So when the show was over, I went out to the car, swearing about the lines of kids all over the place getting in the way.

I waited for my family with the window down, letting the cold air in.  During the drive home, I kept the window open for a while, then finally closed it, turned the heat up full and turned the vents to myself.  That helped, but it didn't go away very well.

Using the hair dryer when I got home did help... Some...

Finally, the O2 did help again.

Saturday night, same type of thing happened, but this time while watching a movie at home, I was able to use my portable O2 tank, and it helped it to go away for an hour or so... then it came back.

Keeping up with this nightly pain sequence, it happened again last night.

Today, I can feel that it's building up again too.

I might try using Afrin, like I used to many years ago, to prevent/stop the pain.  It does help!

What really sucks about this pain, is that it isn't just isolated in the head.  The pain gets worse or flares up when breathing in through my nose.  If I don't breath through my nose, the pain is even worse when I breath through my mouth.

No good solution.

Drinking hot liquids, tea, hot juice, water, broth, etc, does help... As does delicious and almost nutritious Ice Cream!!

However!

Since joining Weight Watchers, I haven't had any "regular" ice cream here that I can just pile into a bowl and eat.  All of the ice cream is in pre-portioned bars and what not.  Stuff tastes amazing, but still, one bar for a headache just isn't enough...

Well, I'll "Keep Moving Forward" and let life lead me where I need to go.

Or as Walt Disney put it:

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

My phone is now "smart".

Basically, my phone is now a touch screen phone running Android 4.x OS.

Which is a pretty major upgrade for Ellie and I.  She got one too.

I'm the techie "nerd" type, so I have already gone through and learned much more about it than she will ever use.

Only thing that I'm missing is a belt case for this phone, as I don't want it in my pockets... And a micro SD card so that I can double up this phone as an MP3 player.

That's one of the reasons why we upgraded our phones, was so that we could have an MP3 player too.

This will work out well for me, so that I can plug it into the car and listen to music without worrying about someone else in the family making off with my CDs or changing the CD in the player.

Well, I'm done working for the day, and I'm pretty darn hungry right now.

(EOL)

Hallelujah, brother! I am here to comfort the sinner and return the stray lamb to the fold.

The post title is from the movie "Cat Ballou".

I just got a kick out of the "preacher" going through that routine.

I don't know exactly what I'm doing today.

Just coasting along today and thought to myself... "Self, why not write a blog entry today?"

So, here I am.

I feel like I'm just rambling, as I don't feel like there is much to really write about, which is why there haven't been any posts for a while.

The diet is going pretty well, I'm just under 300 lbs! Finally!  I haven't been this light since last year.

Arthritis pain is still there, but pretty much only around whenever I'm actually walking/standing for too long. 5-20 minutes used to be too long; at least for walking.

Walking is my primary pain generator for my arthritis.

Similar to my actual peddling machine.

 
What I do after work, for 1/2 an hour or more, I exercise my legs on my peddler.











Last night, I had a hard time sleeping, like "usual", but woke up around 4:45 AM and got out of bed around 5:00 AM.  I'm planning on cutting my hair after work and taking a good hot shower after.

Currently, I'm not depressed or manic...

My bipolar symptoms are currently "dormant", I figure.

What is still going through my mind are the "dreams" that I keep seeing, even though I'm still awake.

I don't know why those happen.

There are several of them that keep cycling through, and I'm not going to post the details of them.

It's not that I'm ashamed of them.

They might make good ideas for short stories or books.

Recently, I've been on a goth reading rampage.  I read Dracula and Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker.

Last week, I watched the video of a coffee shop "prank" in the style of Stephen King's "Carrie".

Since I hadn't read that King book yet, I was going to look through my ebook files to see if I had it, but Ellie reminded me that we had it in print already.

Ellie and the girls are doing fine!  Including my oldest daughter in college.

There isn't anything bad to complain, write home or post about.

I'll try to go back to posting everyday.

On Thursday, I know I'm going to have some trouble posting things, as I have an all day training.

It's such an important training, that breakfast, lunch and dinner are being provided.

Yesterday, during work, we were able to slap the teams who don't want to run our tool with the dead fish of "we do everything that your original tool(s) do and MORE!"

That and corporate higher ups are starting to exert pressure down onto the other teams, so that they'll quit being choad smokers.

Well, that's all I got for today...

Why can't I let go now?

I know that I have bipolar, and that YouTube has been a huge help to me.

What I'm having a hard time with, is stopping my "habit" of watching Video Logs (vlogs) of other Bipolar people.

I'm not having any sort of a episode, but it's hard to want to stop.

My mood is pretty good and upbeat.

I'm still having trouble working right now, but it does get easier.

What's hard for me at work right now is that I cannot seem to completely get things going back up to speed again.

I'm watching a "documentary" that another bipolar guy put together.

It's basically a series of clips from various YouTube vloggers.

Some of them are reminding me of what I have been like prior to getting help.

I hope that I can keep my medications going so that I can not revert back into that state.

Shoot.

It's late, I should go home, as I'm working from my corporate office, not my office at home.

w00t! Let the good time roll?

I had a good chat with my manager today.

He told me that the yearly salary increases were in.

I got an almost 14% salary increase.

Being the private person that I am, I will not detail out how much $ I'm making now.

Where I live in the NW, it's a great salary boost!

It actually brings me closer and closer to what software developers in other areas are making.

Hopefully, this year's pay raise will go towards the credit cards really heavily.

Last year's raise didn't go towards the debt as much as I'd like it to have gone.

However, what's worrying, is what's the cost of ObamaCare going to do with my raise?  Is it going to nullify it or drop lower so that I can keep more of my money?

Well, I've got more work to do...

Killing me softly...

That phrase has a whole new meaning to me now., thanks to Joerg Sprave's Slingshot Channel!

He built a slingshot for throwing panties, when you want to throw them at your favorite rock star / idol!

Of course, since this is Joerg, nothing is quite good enough at the first pass.

Since a pair of lacy undies will always open up when thrown, he wrapped them up using a rubber band and they can really go.

Is this good enough!?

NO!

He then weaponized them by getting them wet and rolling them into a ball before freezing them!

Now, they're almost lethal.

Is it still good enough?

NO!

He then wraps them into a pencil/dart like shape, freezes then again, and shoots them into his "ballistic gelatin".  This single pair of soft, tantalizing undies have now become LETHAL.  Gives a new meaning to "Femme Fatale" and "Killing me softly".

Starting to "normalize" again... I think.

Last week, I had a nasty cold and I've still got stuff I'm coughing up or blowing into tissues.

This was all I had to write yesterday, before I quit work...