Day 231: Pre-holiday-break week work shirt number one: trees, hats, and presents.
Year 50 Day 230
Day 230: Thankfully, feeling much better today. Still a little more tired than usual, and I was glad it was a work from home day, but not feeling the body ache or complete lack of energy I did yesterday. Vaccinated is far better than not, but I’m glad it’ll be a few months before I have to do this again, and that the shingles series is a one-time thing, not annual!
📚 Debtors’ Planet by W.R. Thompson
70/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one surprised me in good ways. I wasn’t optimistic at first, with its focus on Ferengi, who can be annoying (especially in the pre-Quark days), and with it bringing back an (intentionally) annoying character from the show. But it handled both of these elements surprisingly well; the primary Ferengi antagonist is a little more thoughtful than most of the era, and the returning character is actually given some depth and is able to use his traits and quirks in ways that advance the story. Add in some amusing Worf/Riker bits and Wesley actually being treated like a worthwhile character as he forms a friendship with an alien ensign, and this (notwithstanding some confusion over how the Federation handles money and an “offscreen” sexual assault that wasn’t really necessary) is definitely an above average entry in the series.
Year 50 Day 229
Day 229: Shingles vaccine effects update: Oh, damn. Ow.
So, normally I’m what my wife has termed an “insensitive mutant”. When it’s time to get my annual flu or (now) Covid shot, I show up, get poked, and go along with life. I rarely even have much arm soreness to deal with.
This time, though? Uff. I got the vaccines yesterday at about 3 p.m. (both Covid and shingles), and though I definitely felt the shingles shot going in and got the arm soreness, other than that, I felt fine through the rest of the day until bedtime.
This morning we woke up about 6 a.m., and I still felt fine. I commented to my wife that I didn’t trust that, though, given what I’d heard from other people…and I’m glad I went that route instead of crowing about my insensitive mutant status.
We went through our morning and headed off for our grocery shopping rounds, and by 9 a.m. I was definitely feeling some generalized all-over body ache. Nothing too severe, just a general sense of discomfort — I compared it to the Monday after convention weekend and feeling the effects of barely stopping moving for four days. Uncomfortable, but bearable.
But by the time we got home, put the groceries away, noon rolled around and we had lunch, the aches had just kept going, and suddenly all energy just disappeared. Since my wife was also feeling the effects of her vaccinations (flu and Covid), we decided it was nap time, crawled into bed, and promptly passed out for a couple hours.
Post-nap, we’re both still achy and exhausted, so initial dinner plans, which actually involved cooking, have been put on hold in favor of ordering good Indian delivery.
And I can no longer claim to be an insensitive mutant. (At least, not all the time.) Harrumph.
📚 The Rising by James Doohan and S.M. Stirling
69/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to read military SF about a Scotch/Irish former fighter pilot who turned spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a hand, written by a former soldier and pilot turned actor who played a Scotch spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a finger, then this is definitely the book for you! Aside from the rather amusing list of similarities between Doohan and his protagonist, and the curiosity of reading SF co-authored by Doohan, it’s fairly standard military SF, combining interstellar war with a “who’s the saboteur” mystery.
Year 50 Day 228
Day 228: It’s vaccination day! One updated COVID shot and my first shingles shot (I got the flu shot at my annual checkup in October). I generally don’t have much reaction to the COVID vaccine, but I’ve heard that nobody escapes some reaction to the shingles shot. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow….
Year 50 Day 227
Day 227: Well, this is a first. In the midst of troubleshooting some ongoing network issues at home, I realized that this lil’ five-port Ethernet switch was failing. I don’t know how long I’ve had it, but while I didn’t know these things could fail (I mean, sure, entropy happens, and there is the eventual heat death of the universe to consider, but they’re just so plug-and-play, set-it-and-forget-it that they seem eternal), it seems this one’s time has come. Its new seven-port replacement is in place and doing just fine.
Year 50 Day 226
Day 226: It’s not huge, just a postcard size, but I got a Norwescon 46 flyer up on my office door at work today. Spreading the word!
Year 50 Day 225
Day 225: I got to spend part of the afternoon wandering around with my wife and handing out holiday candy to whomever we passed. It was a fun way to spread some holiday cheer!
(I’m not terribly happy with this photo, but it’s the one I got. Apparently I’m just having a blurry week.)
Year 50 Day 224
Day 224: I can’t quite pinpoint why, but I’ve been feeling a little spacey today…. ;)