Septoplasty and Polyp removal

to be exact. Ok. I am your poster child for this and what could possibly go wrong does case. I am interested to know the doctor that will perform your surgery. I will also consult Dr. Lee-tall and try her out. Is she the one that will do your surgery?

So my scenario is this. I had a Septoplasty done a few years ago. From the sounds of it, I believe that's what you are getting as well, unless it's not just your septum and your bone is malformed. Then they call that a rhinoplasty (which is reshaping your entire nose /bone). Regardless, ask for A CT SCAN! I can't emphasize that enough. A CT scan is basically an X-ray but of your entire facial structure. Doctors treat this optionally as it can be fairly expensive, (a few hundred?) but wouldn't you prefer to spend that before getting a few thousand dollars on surgery? In my case, if something went wrong it would also show the problem or liability. But since my doctor never took one for me, for whatever reason, I have nothing to compare to prior and post surgery.

Nothing wrong with the surgery part though. I was in there for an hour and had it been done correctly, I don't think i would have any complaints. Does that make sense? But nothings perfect, so in my case, I just got unlucky with a botched job I guess.

Anyway that's all i can think of. Ryan I would love to hear how it goes and if your doctor is a good one. I would definitly try her/him out if it comes out good for you.

Next week is my CLASS for the sleep clinic because apparently now (or at least through Kaiser) they send you home with the stuff for the sleep test. So I'll go to a 2-hour class and learn how to hook that shit up, then go back a few weeks later to get the gear for a night. Yeah, I was not into trying to sleep in some room with stuff hooked up to me and someone watching me.

My dad rocks the vader mask and loves it hah, but yeah, I'll see what they say about me and take it from there. Goodluck with the surgery - I had a friend who had something similar done years ago and he was happy. Didn't Johnny get some kind of surgery like that as well?

Apnea

I have this as well. Apparently I had an injury to my nose at some point, probably in water polo, and I have like 80% closure on one side of my nose because of a deviated septum. I went to an ENT in Torrance named Dr. Lee-Tall (she's Asian, Johnny!) who suggested I go to the sleep clinic. I don't know what your experience was like, Rude, but I hated it. I was so uncomfortable and really didn't sleep much.

They tried to make me wear that Vader mask, but it made me feel like I was suffocating. Not only that, I was trying to imagine what it would be like to have a chick over, and have to wear the mask in order to not snore and breathe correctly. For me, being a single dude is tough enough. So, as a result of the clinic, she suggested that I get my septum fixed. I have talked to a few people who had this done and they said it was the best money they ever spent. The recovery is not that bad. They used to pack your nose with gauze, but now they have way less gross and less invasive ways to recover. I am getting this done in June. I'll let you know how it goes.

Ayrek: Les called me a week ago, and I have neglected to call her back. Does she still go to be super early? I was going to call tonight, but it was like 8:30 your time. Please let her know that I will call her back this week.

Insomnianism

No worries man. I think I've had insomnia 80% of my adult life. Lately it's because of the frigid refridgerator I dwell in. My room is at least 5 degrees lower than the rest of the house. When I went to the library today, I kept dozing while reading. The study areas were the perfect catalyst for want of sleep, nice, quiet and warm, so nice... But once I left the library and back in my dreary abode, I was again wide awake and aloof! So i live my days heavy with weariness and my nights devoid of slumber. Ah what to do...

Edit: rude - what's this sleep apnea clinic you are going to? what kind of things do they do to you? Does it work? Maybe i need to go too. I also need to find a good ENT doctor that isn't just interested in money and perfoming all sorts of expensive and uneeded surgeries (uneeded from my perspective) I'm sure the doctors need more money.

Sweet!

Jury duty tomorrow! Don't have to go to my fuckface workplace!

That shit is sketchy. My mom takes it sometimes and she totally sleep walks and does crazy things when on it. Like in the morning there will be a half eaten meal on the kitchen table that she came out and made and ate. FUCK THAT! Man, I sleep like a maniac, minus the fact I have some sort of sleep apnea. I have the sleep clinic in a few weeks but I bought some hurky jerky cheap plastic nose ring from CVS that's supposed to stop snoring (and help with sleep apnea) and it apparently worked last night. But, I'm all for getting the hardcore darth vader sleep mask from the doctors, so this is a temp fix.

You guys remember Battlestations? Dug out my copy and going through it. I remember it being kinda fun/kinda frustrating. I'm gonna look through it and see if I can streamline it into something quick and easy for a game at the con.

What with this and that, I've been having RAGING insomnia, to the point where I finally turned to a pharmacological solution. Yes good old Ambien. Lord, there are some worrisome things in the fine print.

"Rarely, after taking this drug, people have gotten out of bed and driven vehicles while not fully awake ("sleep-driving"). People have also sleepwalked, prepared/eaten food, made phone calls, or had sex while not fully awake. Often, these people do not remember these events."

So basically I guess if I call any of you late one night and mention I'm driving over with a ham sandwich and a bottle of lube, don't even worry about it... situation normal.

KK: Specific

I am very much game for Kombat Kommander Pacific. jr0n expressed strong interest too. I guess homeboy generally likes the Pacific theatre much more than Europa/Afrika.

Sounds like I should check out this House of Leaves business. Ahhh... GRRM stuff is great. I reread the series last year and enjoyed it a lot. I picked up a lot that I had missed or forgotten the last time around. I wish he would get no 5 out. I hope he doesn't slow down even further because of any involvement the HBO series that was recently green lighted for 9 episodes plus the pilot.

D>M>

Oh Yeah

Don't forget I have Combat Commander: Pacific just itchin' to be played, Rudy. So I'll corner you at Kubla and we'll make it happen, whether you want it or not. Because sometimes 'no' really does mean 'yes'. Right guys? Right?

House of Leaves, gettin' tougher

As the book sort of, changes, in the 100's it has become obviously more difficult to read. Not that the subject matter is tougher, but the physical act of reading the book has become borderline, annoying.

Not real big annoying, but enough that I am discouraged to read it in bed at night which is when I usually read. Lots of page flipping and axis shifting, etc. I still like it, and I 'get' what's happening and how the story and book are sort of running parallel (I think), but still. I still likey, of course.

I actually picked up Storm of Swords again (in House of Leaves protest)last night and I never finished it the first time and really there is no point in trying to continue on - I need to at the very least start the book over to refresh wtf is going on.

So I did. And now I feel like I need to restart Clash of Kings too, so I can get the back story to SoS. Cool! I just need to read roughly 1500+ pages to catch up with where I left off last time! Wheeee!

We're like some unofficial bookclub! I barely got through the introduction before falling asleep. I'm just so not used to reading these days. It was interesting though! I will try to read some more this weekend, but I also picked up 2 World War II books about the Pacific I need to read too.

All those two's looked so weird. :)

That sucks about the outcome of the game you guys were doing :( I dunno, don't give up, do something new, I'll learn C# or something and do the music for free.

well the real worst part

Is I'm a raging asshole to work with!

Just got into the mid-100s section of House of Leaves, where the form of the book really starts getting weird (and the reading gets much faster). I was glad when I realized the reflected parts were just showing the page behind and that I didn't really have to hold the book up to a mirror... or should I still???

Worst Part?

All the people who did the work for 'free' or back-end payments did the work on-time and to a satisfactory level, meanwhile the people getting paid did not, and worse decided to fuck around with the netcode, and essentially break the game, before we submitted it to Microsoft for part of the review process.

Good times, good times.

Hell is other people.

Awww, I'm gonna fly off my roof tonight!

I think it's like most artistic mediums in that there's a lot of lazy motherfuckers out there that you're forced to deal with because the days of the 1-man band are pretty much done. But I still think anything is possible, and it just takes a tremendous amount of hustle to get shit done. I know my own music has been stagnant for a long time and that's 100% my own fault. I think it's some kind of fear-of-failure complex I have.

I don't know! I wanna see The Crazies! Yeah!

Ah, what could have been

Yes.

In fact this is exactly what I was working towards a few years back but was told 'it was too hard, impossible, etc.' by our 'programmers' and some outside consultants, as well as by Microsoft, but let's not go there.

Let this be lesson to us all: if you have a 'crazy' idea that seems impossible, do it anyway. Especially if you are drunk and it makes perfect sense that you should be able to fly off the roof and land safely, do it. Especially if you're Enron.