Fear the Crab

My allergies have been kicking into overdrive these past two weeks. The common theory is that because I quit smoking, my body is trying to detox itself. Oh yeah, I quit smoking.

It constantly feels like someone is pulling the little tiny hairs in my nose, and the drippy drips are annoying.

In other news, I’ve just recently learned how to make those little confirmation dialog boxes that pop up asking if you want to continue. I learned it for my project. They’ve been around forever, but it makes me realize just how much I don’t know when I come across things like these.

I almost forced myself into an infinite loop when I was reading the assigned materials for my Info Tech/Culture class. We’re covering capitalism and the shift from the rigid Fordism business models to the new flexible production systems. In formulating my response to the readings, I envisioned the division of labor to the nth simplest degree, the rise of labor unions to combat this seemingly oppressive regime. I envisioned the rise of flexible production and then the outsourcing of labor to foreign regions for lower costs, and the increasing rise of the division of SKILL to the nth complicated degree, a direct opposite of the Fordism model. I envisioned the division of labor to the nth foreignest region and the rise of foreign labor unions to combat this seemingly invasive regime, and I just kept going and going until I became as confused and loopy as the preceeding paragraph.

I have a headache.

I have a sty in my eyelid. It’s very irritating. I’m supposed to apply warm moist compresses to the area for about 5 minutes, then repeat every 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately, I’m in school practically all day, so where will I be able to apply compresses? The most I can do is wait until I get home to start relieving the irritation.

This sty is also making my eye hurt, probably due to the slight swelling. What that does is make me feel like I’m really tired, like when I stay up too late or watch too much tv. Not a good feeling when there’s 10 more hours in school to take care of.

I joined Maile in her exercise routine, and afterward I immediately felt my head lighten. Maile said it was because I was doing it too fast, but the exercise routine that I was trying to follow was already going fast. I’m not saying Maile is wrong, however, because really I was pushing it. The problem I have is that when I’m learning something for the first time I tend to go at the pace of the instructor, then adjust the standard to my own level. Regardless of whether it’s a physical activity or mental, I can’t just go my own pace from the very beginning.

I think it started from sports, playing little league and attending the dojo. These were activities that I couldn’t go my own pace from the get-go, because there wasn’t any room for it. In a team sport, you have to keep up, otherwise you’re a detriment to the team and to the game. In the dojo, you had to keep up because you’d get yelled at if you didn’t. Of course, normally one goes through days of practice before game time, so there is the opportunity to bring yourself up to speed. Still, I remember from the first day, I’d try to keep up, run fast, throw hard, swing for the fences… maybe it was to prove myself, or perhaps prove to the coaches that I’m capable.

Granted, when you’re a little kid, you’ve got a lot of energy for such things. I’m older and far less coordinated, now.

Last week my friend’s father passed away. I’ve only met him once, at my friend’s wedding. While I didn’t know him very well, it’s still sad to see someone with so much experience move on to the next phase in life. He was 58.

On a lighter note, my cousin also phased life, celebrating his graduation from high school. He plans on staying here, and attending a community college. I believe he intends to attend the U of Hawai`i later, so this is a smart move. Many of the credits can be transfered and apply towards those core requirements. And it’s cheaper by about $600, I think, maybe more.

Maile phased her life into a new direction, with a healthier diet and the abstinence of smoking. It’s a good change, and I’m trying to keep up. Unfortunately, I’m not actually following her footsteps, as I only eat healthy when I’m eating with her, and I’m only “cutting down” on the smoking, rather than quitting. She’s using one of those nicotine patches, bought at a tremendous discount because she went through this stop-smoking program at the hospital. Ordinarily a 1-month supply of patches would cost around $100, but after attending that program, the cost went down to $5. As for my cutbacks, I’ve taken steps to limit the number of cigs I take in a day. I never went more than a pack a day to begin with, but I’ve established rules to go by, such as not bringing cigs to work and not smoking indoors. The denial of cigs at work goes a long way towards cutting back.

I told Maile that I believe the battle to quit smoking involves not only the withdrawal of nicotine, but also the willpower to actively change habits. Nicotine is a powerful addictive stimulant, and I don’t doubt its potency. I’ve noticed, too, that we sometimes want to smoke after we eat, or when we drink, or when we want to take a break at work. That part is mental, where we’ve developed a habit (or more appropriately, an excuse) to smoke. My self-imposed rules of not bringing cigarettes to work and not smoking indoors goes a bit of ways towards that goal of breaking the mental addiction.

Great. I have a cold. That makes me feel SO much better about this week.

The day started pretty badly. I woke up with this stabbing pain in my side. I first thought it was gas, but it didn’t go away. It felt like there was a rock or something inside my abs.

Then I picked up Maile before I went to work, so that I could drop her off at her mom’s workplace. Along the way, there were a lot of stupid drivers, the kind of people who just don’t understand the concept of “right of way.”

Work itself was okay, except that stabbing pain was still there.

Called Maile during my break, and as we talked, something evil happened on her Animal Crossing game. Goes down like this: Maile was visiting my town while I was at work. She finished some errands and some fishing, then she talked to the Porter to get back on the train to her own town. The Porter saved data in my town, and as it saved, she handed the controller to her brother. As soon as he touched the controller, the screen went black, and the System menu appeared (the one where you can set the time, fiddle with the memory card, “Press Start” to play a game, etc). The Gamecube itself was not touched, and by the brother’s account he had only pressed the R button when it happened. And as the manual would explain, my girlfriend’s character lost all her items and her money when the game restarted. Both towns seem fine (items she dropped in my town are still there), but the real puzzler is why the game reset like that in the first place. I don’t think AC has a soft-reset function (aside from when playing the NES games), and even if it did, I doubt pressing only the R button would cause it. I have no idea how or why it happened, and as a result I have no clue how to prevent it from happening again.

Then I came home, and I have to do homework. At least that stabbing pain went away.

I seem to have a relapse of my sinus cold. At least, it is much more apparent to others now than it was before. I bought some NyQuil so it can knock me out when I sleep, and I took it early so that it wouldn’t impact my awakening to do chores.

There was a brief power outage at work, which scared the bejeezus out of everyone. A complete and total blackout that even shut down the registers. However, it only lasted as long as it took me to find the flashlight.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. I will wash my car and wash my dad’s car, and do other car-related things, but the real fun will take place in the evening, when I attend Maile’s Xmas party. It’s going to be at a restaurant in Waikiki, I think the Oceanarium at the Pacific Beach Hotel. I’m not entirely sure, since Maile has all the details and that’s good enough for me. I just need to be aware of what time it starts, which is 1830 hours. Although, I wonder if we need to bring a grab bag gift…

It occurred to me that I hadn’t posted in a while, so I will play catch-up now.

Monday was a typical work day. I was assigned to Sunglasses, as per the norm on those days I work the swing shift. While that in itself automatically means it’s boring, at least George was around to talk story, and later Min started work so it was, overall, a good day. I stopped by Maile’s house for a little bit to hang out.

Tuesday there was a dam leak in my nose, as it just kept dripping snot like a leaky diaper. That made it a bit difficult to focus during school, but I still managed to attend. I fucked up on my 211 quiz because I mistakenly believed the correct procedure for an inorder traversal of a binary tree meant I print the internal vertex on the second pass. But the right subtree only had right children, so instead of listing them correctly from top to bottom, I went bottom to top. Later that night I slept over at Maile’s house.

Wednesday (yesterday) I felt very lazy, and the fact that my nose was all clogged up didn’t help. I wanted to wash and wax my car, but I just couldn’t find the energy. I stayed in bed all day while Maile was at work, though Titan kept me company. I discovered that I actually didn’t do too badly on my 211 quiz as they only removed 5 points, though I will check again to make sure. I also received a new homework assignment, but I didn’t start on it because, as stated before, I was feeling lazy. Maile gave me some “body toddy” for my head cold, which I am mainly supposed to gargle with, and it’s supposed to lessen the duration of said cold. It tastes like fermented lemon juice, for lack of a better description, but it does make me feel a bit better after gargling with it. I am left with the decision of whether or not to attend the 241 class on Thursday, as they have an exam and, while I want to take it, since I have a slight cold I am debating whether or not that will be a good idea.

It is now Thursday morning, and I am at school, well in time to attend the 241 class, but I have decided not to. I reasoned that since I have a bit of a cold (still present, obviously), it wouldn’t do to have my sniffling and sneezing distracting those still enrolled in the class, whose grades are dependent on their performance. Instead I will hang out in the computer lab and work on my 211 assignment until it is time for that class.

I plan to wash and wax my car on Saturday, because I have vacation and will have the time. Since I will be at home, I will see if my dad wants the van washed as well. Hopefully such tasks won’t tire me out before Maile’s Christmas party later that evening, but perhaps if I have time for a nap it won’t be so bad.

Today was an ordinary day at work. Finally was able to give George his Kikaida DVD, and now we both can’t wait for the 2nd disc to be released.

My cough has gotten better, though I am still prone to fits now and then. I don’t cough very well and it always feels terrible in my chest and my throat. Sometimes I even bring myself to tears when I cough like this.

UH athletics had a big day today. The volleyball Wahine swept Fresno State in 3 games, and the football Warriors went into the 4th quarter against Fresno State down 21 to 9, and came back to win it 31 to 21. A very big game for the football team, since they played in Fresno, probably one of the most hostile environments to play in. The Warriors showed great poise and concentration, stringing together some fantastic plays and never giving up. This game was televised nationally on ESPN2, so it’s great exposure for the program, especially with a win on the road. Not to take away from the volleyball game, who haven’t lost a single set since September (I forget the number of consecutive sets), but everyone already knows how good the volleyball team is. They’re number 2 in the country! So the football team proved themselves to many critics tonight.

I talked with Maile a bit tonight, casual conversation like we are wont to do on those days when we don’t get to see each other. It’s been over a week since I last saw her, and Maile mentioned that it almost feels like we’re in a long-distance relationship. I don’t like long-distance relationships. Still, our daily schedules hardly match nowadays, and since I was sick this past week, it’s easy to see why we’re hardly around. I hope to change that soon.

I don’t feel as sick as I used to, though I am still prone to coughing fits. I should be well enough to go to work tomorrow.

School was its normal self today. I learned things, I did homework, I ate breakfast consisting of two bowls of cereal (Corn Flakes and Special K). Then I went home and did more homework, specifically the new programming assignment that’ll be due next week. Already it seems I’ve completed most of it, and just in time by the look of things. The professor said that next week we’ll be going over different material and no longer concentrating on what the assignment entails, so it’s good that I got the majority of the work out of the way early. It’ll give me more focus towards concentrating on this new stuff (stacks and queues on Tuesday, double linked lists on Thursday).

Still, there are a few weird things going on with my program. It’s a bit complicated to explain, especially since I don’t completely understand it myself. Suffice to say, it “seems” to do the job, but it does it in a rather quirky manner. I suppose so long as it fulfills the requirements I shouldn’t complain, and anything more I want to have would just be cosmetic.