July 3, 2007: Can’t Talk Today

A nurse serving aboard an air-ambulance was partially sucked out of a window when the window blew out at 20,000 feet!

Hetty Green was born on this date, 1834. Hetty was known as the “Witch of Wall Street” and is famous for being one of the cheapest people to ever walk this earth while being one of the richest. So enamored of her money she refused to pay for her son’s broken leg and chose that it be amputated rather than to have it be seen by a doctor unless it was free.

I got up at seven and fed Oreo and got him ready to get off to school so that he can play with the other dogs. We are pretty sure that with Dominica’s contract wrapping up in a month (to the day) that Oreo will not be able to continue going to Doggie Paradise that he loves so much and we will have to find him another daycare provider as it is extremely unlikely for Min to find work in the area near where she works now.

My bronchitis doesn’t feel too bad today but my voice is totally gone. I had to do a conference call this morning at nine thirty and it was the first time that I had attempted talking all morning. It was quite funny. I was just barely audible on the phone.

I was pretty much under the weather today. I think that that sums it up pretty well. I can’t tell if they cut off the air conditioning in the office today or if I am just running a fever now or something.

I was reading about Bahrain today on Wikipedia and found it to be pretty funny that they compare its size as being slightly larger than the Isle of Man but slightly smaller than the nearby King Fahd International Airport.

I ended up getting stuck at work quite late tonight. Not the best day for that. Although I seem to be getting healthier as the day goes on I am very tired and would like to get started on my holiday. Tonight is supposed to be a night to relax.

I got home and we discovered that we have pretty much no water tonight.  Something is wrong but we are able to flush and brush our teeth so the world isn’t coming to an end.  Just one more issue at 1180 Raymond.  Thing go wrong so often here that you really don’t stop and think about it so much anymore.  Never before have I lived in an apartment where there are “day to day” disasters, changes and problems.  Normally you can go for months without having any need to interact with the management other than paying rent.  Sure things break but normally it is a long time in between things.  Here, building issues are a daily occurrence and everything requires the residents to manage the process very thoroughly.   Things are never “dealt with” automatically like they should be in a luxury apartment.

Dominica spent the evening watching <em>Veronica Mars</em> and I played some Dragon Quest VIII and went to bed early.  Tomorrow we both have the day off and are really looking forward to having a chance to really relax a little bit.

Weight Lost So Far: 26.5 lbs

Proposed Change to the English Language: Godly

It has recently occurred to me that the “correct” spelling of the word godly is not capitalized – ever.  There are a few different meanings of this word.  The first is “to be like a deity, of or pertaining to a god” and the second is “like unto God.”  The only real differentiation between these two meanings is in the capitalization of the definition and yet we have only one capitalization for the word godly itself and the implication of that spelling is towards the lesser used meaning of the word.

I propose that this is a flaw in the usage of the English language.  Thankfully our language is one that is flexible and malleable enough to be able to take on new meanings, allow for greater expression over time and to adapt as the need arises.  Throughout time English has arisen as a primary means for global communication because of these benefits where many “older” more rigid languages have fallen into disuse or have stagnated as overarching control of the language has kept them from adequately adapting to greater range of expression necessary in today’s highly advanced societal structure.

My proposition is that two words be formed: godly and Godly.  The uncapitalized form of the word will continue on to mean “of or like a deity, etc.” while the capitalized form can be used in any reference to the monotheistic form of the word.  This keeps literature from being unnecessarily ambiguous.  Take the following sentence as the dictionary would have us write today:

Lauren, being a godly woman, ran to work quickly.

Currently this sentence could mean that she was a good, Christian woman who fears God and follows in his commandments and loves her fellow man, etc.  It could be that the author simply wants to inform us that she is a “believer” who is faithful.  It is a statement about her character and her faith.  Her travel to the office could be incidental.

However, the same sentence could mean that she is actually a minor deity or, perhaps, a superhero (an actual example used in a dictionary entry that I checked.)  So maybe the implication is that she ran several miles in under a minute to work or that she tossed cars out of her way as she went.  Or maybe her job is dressing in spandex and using her super-stretchy arms to stop would-be jewel thieves.

Instead we can solve this issue by simply have these two different versions available to us when needed:

 Lauren, being a Godly woman, ran to work quickly.  (Religious meaning.)

Lauren, being a godly woman, ran to work quickly.  (Referring to superhuman x-ray vision.)

The point is, the word is pointlessly ambiguous.  But now I have pointed out the flaw, stated the need and shown how to use the word correctly.  Now we can move on.  Encourage your friends to use the new word.  Use it yourself.  With a simple, grassroots movement we can quickly correct this oversight in the language.

July 2, 2007: Bronchitis

I just had to set Oreo Yawning as my new desktop wallpaper at work. I wish that the focus has been better on this one but you still can’t deny that he is just so cute!!

I slept in until almost eight this morning but I feel much better and I think that my cold has mostly subsided at this point. It is still lingering some to be sure but I am on top of it now and I doubt that I will have any more virus in me by tomorrow. I tend to get over things like this pretty quickly in general. And I drink lots of fluids naturally so that makes it that much easier to stay healthy.

I was still hacking, coughing, wheezing and sneezing all day but I do think that I am improving slightly. I definitely feel better today even if I sound worse. I am worried that this might be acute bronchitis. Dominica thinks that she has bronchitis (again – second time since moving to smogland) so there is a definite likelihood that I do since my chest congestion is a bit worse than hers.

Scott Adams in The Dilbert Blog had a really great post today about Empathizing with Horror Movies that is exactly how I have always seen horror movie fans. I don’t know which is scarier – people who are watching horror movies thinking how cool it would be to (a. die horribly or b. kill people in such a manner) or how much I think like Scott Adams. Creepy.

Of notable interest today, the alien theories at Roswell got some backing as Army Lt. Haut’s deathbed affidavit has been opened to reveal that he asserts to having seen not only the alien “spacecraft” but the aliens themselves in New Mexico. Haut was the military relations officer responsible for first telling the public about the incident and then, shortly thereafter, changing the official story and claiming that it was a weather balloon experiment. The official story has changed very little until now, for the first time, there is official certification that the weather balloon release was a lie right from the mouth of the person who spun the tale.

For all of you sub-rock dwellers, the Apple iPhone (not to be confused with the true iPhone) released this weekend. I got to see one that my neighbour got first thing this morning. It is nice looking I guess. But the reports of more than one third of the iPhones being nothing but worthless chunks of plastic is not encouraging.

I got home and spent the evening playing Dragon Quest VIII. I finally got past Empyrea and am back into actually playing the game again. Dominica was supposed to be doing more homework tonight but pretty much just spent her time watching more <em>Veronica Mars</em>.

We tried to go to bed on the early side but Abdul came by to see me pretty late and we didn’t actually get to bed until almost eleven. Because of the holiday in the middle of the week tomorrow is going to be a lot like a Friday. Both Min and I have Wednesday off although she will be spending the day doing homework. And I work from home on Thursday – which I expect to be an extremely slow day with almost nothing going on at all since everyone will be taking the end of the week off as vacation. And although I go to work on Friday – how busy can it really end up being? And then it is the weekend again! Almost like work doesn’t exist this week at all.

I managed to win two Playstation 2 games on eBay today: Dark Cloud 2 (aka Dark Chronicle) and Rogue Galaxy. These games were at the top of my list of titles to get for the PS2. Rogue Galaxy and Dark Cloud 2 are made by the same team, Level 5, that made DQ8 which is what made me choose them.

Weight Lost So Far: 26lbs

July 1, 2007: Recovery Day

Well we are into the second half of the year. That is hard to believe but we can say that every year and it starts to get old so I will let it go 😉

Today was Dominica and my recovery day mostly. We both still have really bad colds and we need another day to rest and fight off the virus. Dominica still had a ton of homework to do and spent most of the day working on that. I took the day as a chance to really relax and spent quite a bit of time playing Dragon Quest VIII. Throughout the day I got about three or four hours in on the game. But I didn’t make much progress in the game.

I am stuck in the “World of Darkness” in DQ8 and have to fight the bird Empyrea but I have tried at least three times and the bird can kick the crap out of me so I am stuck attempting to make my characters stronger in an extremely boring part of the game so that I am able to advance from this section. So far each of my characters has leveled twice and I am barely any closer to being able to defeat this stupid bird. I have read about how other people have managed to do this same thing in online walkthroughs but the techniques that they mention don’t seem to work when I tried them. This bit of the game is proving to be quite challenging.

Dominica starting watching the show <em>Veronica Mars</em> today. We have had it on DVD for a while but have not gotten around to watching it yet. She really likes the show and I can see why but I don’t really like it all that much because it is a really depressing show and I don’t appreciate “entertainment” that doesn’t make me feel good. There is more than enough real stuff in this life to be upset about there is little reason to intentionally subject yourself to something fictional and depressing just for the fun of it.

We ordered in from Papa John’s again and went to bed early.

Weight Lost So Far: 25.5 lbs

June 30, 2007: Fruit Basket Day

The end of June has come already. This morning I woke up at six thirty and decided to get out of bed. My cold is still really bad and I can barely breath. I feel pretty crappy. Dominica slept in for another half an hour but was up by seven. Nothing like getting up nice and early on a Saturday. Oreo had no idea what was going on. But the sun was bright today and Oreo was happy to get up and move into the living room to curl up in a sun spot on the futon.

I spent the morning studying for the SUN Certified Solaris Administrator exam (CX-310-200) and Dominica got started right away on her System Analysis and Design homework. When she went to get started on that she discovered that her class ends this coming Friday and that she pretty much has to have all of her homework done this weekend! That was a bit of a surprise. It is a really good thing that she decided not to travel this weekend or she would be in a panic now. It is going to be a really busy weekend for her. It doesn’t help matters that she has her cold still as well.

I finally got around to fixing the email functionality at ScottAlanMiller.com so that it is possible to email now from there. Not that that site gets much traffic but I have gotten a few complaints and it didn’t look very polished not having it there. I need to get my XHTML CV completed as well so that it is more “searchable” and more user friendly.

One of the guys who works and lives in our building got us a fruit basket/arrangement from Edible Arrangements today! There is an Edible Arrangements in the building next door to us. We have had their stuff before and it is very good. It was really awesome of him to get this for us. We were quite surprised. One more reason that we are really glad that we didn’t leave town this weekend. That would have sucked. So for lunch today we had fruit. Lots of fruit. It was delicious.

Dominica ended up dedicating the entire day to her homework. She was incredibly productive. I got a chance to finally play DQ8 for a significant chunk of time. It has been a month or more since I have been able to even get a solid hour in. I actually managed to play for about three hours today!

I did the dishes today and cleaned the kitchen which is a much bigger job than it sounds and Dominica did the laundry. Today was extra productive which is amazing as we are both under the weather so much.

Weight Lost So Far: 25lbs