6 November 2002: Adventures in Drugs

Gazing into the Abyss: Michael Rawdon's Journal

Adventures in Drugs

I don't want to dwell on the results of yesterday's election, which as you might guess I think were terribly depressing. All I'll say is that I hope you're not too attached to your freedom or your livelihood, since the rights and privileges of the rank and file are the furthest things from the Republican leadership in the United States. The next two years will be grim.

It turns out I misremembered John's suggestion to help my side. He's been recommending that I take ibuprofen (a.k.a., Advil or Motrin), not acetaminophen (a.k.a. Tylenol). His reasons for this are basically:

Ibuprofen is also an anti-inflammatory, whereas acetaminophen is just a painkiller.
Ibuprofen tells you when you've had too much by upsetting your stomach, whereas acetaminophen can damage your liver without giving you any sensory warnings.

So I bought some ibuprofen yesterday to compare & contrast (though I waited about six hours after my last dose of acet. before trying to ibuprofen, to be safe). I can't really tell if it's acting as an anti-inflammatory, so I have to take that on faith. It doesn't seem as effective a painkiller as acetaminophen, but it's good enough. It seems to last longer, too; either that, or I'm getting better. I'm not 100% yet; I'll probably keep taking it easy through Sunday, at least.

Anyway, Michael's adventures in medicine. Yaybo.

Speaking of which I ripped a contact lens tonight, which means I definitely need to call for my annual eye doctor's appointment tomorrow. Fortunately, I always keep my previous set of contacts as emergency spares, so I shouldn't be hampered. Cross fingers!

I last ripped a contact lens in college, circa 1988, when I was cleaning it without washing my hands first. I'm not sure what happened tonight; bad luck, I guess. Anyway, I damage them so rarely, that's a big reason I never bothered to get disposable contacts like some of my friends use.

(I did actually wear out a lens, once! That was weird; it stopped adhering to the front of my eye and just slid around freely. Really annoying, of course.)

Life is going pretty well right now, forays into the land of over-the-counter drugs aside. Work is pretty rewarding, and we're pushing towards some major deadlines at the moment. I'm not getting the brunt of the stress, admittedly, so I can't speak for anyone else. But I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished for this release.

The dynamics of my team have changed recently, as a few folks changed roles, so that's taken a smidgen of adjustment on everyone's part. This upside of this for me is that I think it will give me the chance to work more closely with some other folks on the team, and move into a more central role. Maybe I'm reading too much into too little, but I get the feeling that that's the hope elsewhere on the team as well (on both counts). We'll see what happens when we swing into the planning stages for the next release.

Switching gears, it's been getting a little colder lately, but supposedly we'll be getting some rain in the next few days, which as you may know I always enjoy. It makes the weather around here more interesting. The downside is that it's going to be chillier inside my house for a few months, but the upside is that soon I'll be able to start having fires in the living room (or, rather, in the fireplace in the living room). Which I love, even if they do freak out the cats. (It's very weird; my Mom's cat loves fires, but my cats shy away from them.)

The main downer this week is that Debbi's got a cold and stayed home sick today. I think I have a low-level cold myself so we might have the same thing, but to different degrees. Hopefully she'll feel better soon!

Now I just need to find out when my mortgage refinance goes final...