<p>I went to the doctor today (first time in over a decade) because I've had this chest cold that I just could not kick. Sure enough, I've got <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_bronchitis">bronchitis</a>. Fucking bronchitis. (<em>Asshole</em>). I've already missed a couple days of work.</p>

<p>And now I'll have to miss a couple more now. And I really don't want to. This wave at work is kind of time intensive for me. I have 3 things to do that are 1) easy and short, 2) a little harder but in an area I feel good about exploring, but still relatively short and 3) long and in a domain where I flounder.</p>

<p>After the end of this wave is when I start my big trip to New Zealand / Australia / Hawaii. So, I really want to tie up all lose ends before I go and not have to worry about anything back home from the road.</p>

<p>I guess I just have to keep my head down and power through.</p>

<p>Oh, yeah. I stocked up on soup &amp; crackers, Mega-Antioxidant juice, raisin bran and I happened to get some comics in the mail. Swirl all those together with a dash of some spicy food with a side order of a couple hot baths and you should get one healthy me at the end of the weekend or so.</p>

<p>I really hate being sick.</p>

<blockquote cite="http://twitter.com/AmyJane/statuses/651468052"><p>Doctor asked me what I use for birth control. I should have told her that my husband takes photos of bad quotation marks. That's all I need.</p></blockquote>

<p>-<a href="http://twitter.com/AmyJane">Amy Jane Gruber</a></p>

<p>PS. Her husband in question her is <a href="http://daringfireball.net/">John Gruber</a>.</p>

<p><img src="http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/6164/funnysign2li6.jpg" alt="NO PERSON SHALL, ON A FRIDAY, SATURDAY OR SUNDAY THE DAY PRECEDING A PUBLIC HOLIDAY, DRIVE OR CAUSE TO BE DRIVEN BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 6 P.M. AND MIDNIGHT. A MOTOR VEHICLE WHICH EXCEEDS 10.5 M IN LENGTH IN ALL MAIN ROADS"></p>

<blockquote><p>NO PERSON SHALL, ON A FRIDAY, SATURDAY OR SUNDAY THE DAY PRECEDING A PUBLIC HOLIDAY, DRIVE OR CAUSE TO BE DRIVEN BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 6 P.M. AND MIDNIGHT. A MOTOR VEHICLE WHICH EXCEEDS 10.5 M IN LENGTH IN ALL MAIN ROADS</p></blockquote>

<p><a href="http://theuglyquip.livejournal.com/">Leah</a> found this while doing home work research. No, seriously. Home work research.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/">Tufte</a> would have a serious field day with this one. <a href="http://daringfireball.net/">Gruber</a> prolly would, too.</p>

<p><a href="http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/01/24/funny-pictures-stay-on-target/"><img src="http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/funny-pictures-cat-pidgeons-star-wars.jpg" alt="funny pictures"></a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/825954725/" title="f2e53aae550e.jpeg by veganstraightedge, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1248/825954725_0840a8efc1_m.jpg" alt="f2e53aae550e.jpeg"></a></p>

<p>
  A couple Novembers ago, I stumbled into The Dreaming Comics &amp; Games for the first time. It's a little comic book and role playing game store on 'The Ave' in the University District of Seattle. It's owned and operated by the nicest dude in the world, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/sets/72157603808166119/" title="Aron Tarbuck at the Dreaming Comics &amp; Games - a photoset on Flickr">Aron</a>.
</p>

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/2224721952/" title="Aron Tarbuck at the Dreaming Comics &amp; Games in the University District of Seattle, WA by veganstraightedge, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2327/2224721952_d5c2e56ab0_m.jpg" alt="Aron Tarbuck at the Dreaming Comics &amp; Games in the University District of Seattle, WA"></a></p>

<p>
  That first time I came into the shop I offered to make him a website in exchange for in store trade credit. Although, that didn't happen right away, I did start working for him a couple weeks later organizing his back issues. I had no idea how daunting a task it would turn out to be. There 90 long boxes worth of books on the floor. At the time when I started there were prolly another dozen long boxes stacked up around the store. And, even though I didn't know it yet, there another 30 or so long boxes in the back that there wasn't room for. What had I signed up to do?
</p>

<p>
  I've worked off and on for 14 months or so on it (and other store organizational things) with peaks and valleys of time put in at the shop. I wish I would've recorded actual hours on this project. After a ton of alphabetizing, reordering, moving stacks and boxes around (so many times Emily was able to see some actual muscle on my arms), a massive sale, more alphabetizing, reordering and moving stacks around, I reached a serious milestone yesterday: I have 1 box left to assimilate in the cases. I ran out of time before he closed last night, but I really wanted to get it all done. Oh well, I will next weekend, I guess.
</p>

<p>Either way, this is how I feel.</p>

<p><a href="http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/01/24/funny-pictures-theyz-alphabetized-u-happy-now/"><img src="http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/funny-pictures-exhausted-cat-alphabetized-cds.jpg" alt="funny pictures"></a></p>

<p>The New Yorker Magazine recently <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/covers/slideshow_tilleycovers" title="The New Yorker">had a contest</a> asking people to submit their redesigns of the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustace_Tilley#Eustace_Tilley" title="The New Yorker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Eustace Tilley</a> character. One of the coolest things about it all was that people had to submit their rendition using Flickr at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/tilleycontest/" title="THE NEW YORKER'S EUSTACE TILLEY CONTEST, 2008">the contest group page on Flickr</a>. You can <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/tilleycontest/pool/" title="The THE NEW YORKER'S EUSTACE TILLEY CONTEST, 2008 Pool">see all the entries</a> there. These are my favorites.</p>

<p>
  <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/samanthahahn/2213907930/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="Please wait..."><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2263/2213907930_bed61ea84a_s.jpg" alt="Eustace Tilly Contest Cover 2"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/littleanimals/2213551315/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="Eustace_Tilley_final on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2016/2213551315_71ca43bbe7_s.jpg" alt="Eustace Tilley Final"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/85914665@N00/2201518807/in/pool-tilleycontest/" title="tilley on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2148/2201518807_71ee1b94e3_s.jpg" alt="Tilley"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/17573819@N00/2214169346/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="scarecrow tilley on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/2214169346_582f40707b_s.jpg" alt="Scarecrow Tilley"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/polylerus/2200324078/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="Comrade Tilley on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2197/2200324078_a7f254bfcc_s.jpg" alt="Comrade Tilley"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/xadrian/2195964350/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="Eustace Einstein on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2281/2195964350_f3e2439b4a_s.jpg" alt="Eustace Einstein"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25993999@N00/2185552500/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="Eustace Tilley Hoody on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2289/2185552500_babe07f143_s.jpg" alt="Eustace Tilley Hoody"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22648291@N03/2214254098/in/pool-tilleycontest/" title="A Quarter on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2220/2214254098_af23e1cb50_s.jpg" alt="A Quarter"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22626518@N03/2216087906/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="apetilley on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2349/2216087906_fa3af91f7a_s.jpg" alt="Ape Tilley"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/googen/2209033260/in/pool-tilleycontest" title="eustace - (chromosome X) on Flickr - Photo Sharing!"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2355/2209033260_b70e89bf4f_s.jpg" alt="Eustace - (chromosome X)"></a>
</p>

I recently ran across these minimum system requirements somewhere in the process of investigating the Amazon Visa to save $30 (which in the end wasn't worth the hassle).

<blockquote>
  <p>
    An e-mail account with an Internet service provider and e-mail software in order to participate in our electronic Communications programs; A personal computer (for PC's: Pentium 120 Mhz or higher; for Macintosh, Power Mac 9500, Power PC 604 processor 120-Mhz Base or higher), operating system and telecommunications connections to the Internet capable of receiving, accessing, displaying, and either printing or storing the agreement received from us in electronic form via a plain text-formatted e-mail or by access to our web site using one of the browsers specified above
  </p>
</blockquote>

<p>And these, too:</p>

<p>
  <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/2224332172/" title="Amazon's minimum system requirements for getting their Amazon Visa by veganstraightedge, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2245/2224332172_4a39340a69_o.png" alt="Amazon's minimum system requirements for getting their Amazon Visa"></a>
</p>

<p>Good stuff there.</p>