Life on a Rollercoaster

John Brogden resigned! Yay! That man was an absolute idiot - I truly believe he doesn't understand the way our system of government works - and yet just smart enough to be genuinely dangerous if he was elected. I have just heard overnight that the Federal Libs are moving to scrap Double Jeopardy, so that if the government thinks you are guilty of something, they can keep prosecuting until they get the results they want. Its just frightening. But at least Brogden with his "we don't really have to presume they are innocent, they're crims after all" attitude to justice will never lead this state. Te Deum Laudamus!

I have had a bizarre morning, I woke up c. 6:30 feeling wretched, but not in the throwing up manner of two days ago. Instead, my who upper body ached, my joints and muscles just ached like a bastard, it was horrible. I crawled off to work, felt ill, did the morning shift, told the boss I wouldn't be in this afternoon, booked the doctor, and then headed home. On the way I stopped off to get the paper for dad. The woman at the servo followed me out to the car and said, "are you alright? You normally look so healthy". (Thats a vicious lie btw, pale and unhealthy is my natural demeanor). I told her i was quite ill and on my way to the doctor and we both laughed heartily for 8 minutes, then I left.

I went home and crawled into bed. I lay there feeling like crap for about 2 hours, then got up to answer a knock at the door. It was my Herbalife shipment (I've been off it for a month for one reason or another - easy to see, too, considering my health went straight into the toilet!). When I was wandering through the house, I noticed something.

The sickness was gone. Caput. Muscles, joints felt fine, I was fine.

Bizarre. Utterly bizarre. Some virus in the muscle, I suspect, had that once before many years ago (in my back), came and went just as suddenly.

O well, I still get this afternoon off. :-D

Now, todays little rant... when I was lying there trying to sleep last night, I was thinking for some reason or other about all the things that have been important to me, hobbies, business ideas or whatever that I have fixated on. I remember a couple years ago I was mad on golf, only got to the course a couple times but was crazy about it, read books by Tiger Woods, analyzed my swing, went to the driving range, putted up and down my rooms, took my clubs to work and played on the oval before and after shifts, or spent the shifts chipping balls at the kids with my 7 iron (I would put a bucket in their lap as they sat in their wheel chairs and chip balls into it. Some thought this was hilarious, some just looked puzzled). I had the bug.

Then, suddenly it was gone. I just forgot all about golf. Not sure why, it was just finished.

Many eyars ago I had saved up enough money for a new engine for my car. It was my first car, and I had modified the heck out of it - independant rear end with limited slip diff, heavy duty clutch, new 5 speed, huge disks all round. All it needed was the engine (and sundries ;). Had a 3.0 Turbo from a 300ZX all lined up. I saved up $8000 for it, 2 for the engine and the rest for the engineer to do the conversion. It struck me at that time, I had saved up enough money on this one dream to fulfill ALL the others I ever had: all the childhood things that had seemed important and that I had saved money for in the past (none of which I had actually got to the point of achieving ;-). Lets see, there was my desire to have a really nice train-set, tried as a little kiddy to save up for a Zero-1 train controller (the hottst thing in mmm '79 or so ;), there was my teenage desire for a Fender guitar (I actually ended up BUILDING my own electric guitar, it plays like a pig and doesn't keep tune too well but has very nice DiMarzio pick-ups and sounds phat, thats much more satisfying than buying one), there were numerous other electronic gizmos (inculding a wah-wah pedal) that I started and never finished (also had a glorious little one watt amp I made myself that was my hi-fi system for a long while, damn that thing could pump out music. One watt! Unbelieveable.) One time I was even mad about going on pilgramage to Medjugorje and tried to save for that. So many different priorities.

I never did get the car engine, I quit my job soon after (it was another place with kids, a state-run place that was very unhealthy and was making me ill working there) and ran through the money on little things like rent and food before I got my current job and my PhD scholarship in the same month.

The current bug is, of course, modding. Will I give up on it? Will it just disappear one day? I doubt it. It combines two things that I have loved consistently for decades: D&D and programming. I always come back to them.

I love digital stuff. U get the feeling it will never die: I mean a great painting will fade, and great record or tape will rot, but something that is digital can be kept in its original form forever. Its immortal.

But thats the subject for another day's rant. For now, I have to think of what I am going to tell the doctor when I get there. "Ummm, I'm better?"