Month: September 2013

The short story collection September 2013 update

It’s time to update the progress on putting together my short story collection–which I still plan on self-publishing before year’s end, less than four months from now. Ho ho.

Although I haven’t winnowed down the final group of stories I expect to have at least twenty ready to go. As of today I have five in a state I consider complete so I’m about 25% there. The remaining stories require everything from light edits to Maybe In the Next Collection.

The five completed are:

The trio of Chicago 8 superhero stories. The tone in all of these is very silly:

  • The Cobalt Sensation
  • The Chicago 8 vs. Armageddon
  • The Chicago 8 vs. Time

Plus:

  • Cervidae (Lovecraft homage)
  • Slice of Life (light modern day SF fare)

I’m now mulling over the next two or three to edit and then I’ll dive back into one of the unfinished stories to really get the ol’ creative juices flowing in the lead-up to National Novel Writing Month in November (also I’ve always found the idea of ‘creative juices’ kind of gross. What are they even meant to represent? It sounds like something you’d buy in a can).

I’m still thinking about a good title for the collection. I remain partial to 10 Pairs of Shorts or something similar. When I look over my body of work there is not a lot of Grimdark material so the light tone of the title shouldn’t be in conflict with the tone of the majority of stories. Even the horror stories are often more whimsical than not, even when people are getting killed. Especially when people are getting killed.

I will post another update soon™.

My uvula and why I hate it right now

I recently re-discovered the name of the dangly thing at the back of your throat–the uvula. The reason for this re-discovery started back on Wednesday morning when I awoke with mildly irritated sinuses and throat. It felt like I might get one last summer cold this year.

By Friday the sinus part had mostly gone away but the throat part compensated. It was incredibly sore and it felt like I had phlegm caught in the back of it, closing off parts I’d prefer to keep open. Swallowing, even without yummy food or drink involved, hurt a lot.

Saturday evening came and I could take no more, so off I went to the emergency room of Royal Columbian. The nice part about this is it’s two blocks away. I got there at 8 p.m. and left shortly after nine with a prescription and tentative diagnosis.

Basically my throat was infected and the uvula had become so swollen that it was now touching the back of my throat, producing a sensation that was more maddening than anything. The doctor was not sure what the exact cause was as he didn’t think it was strep throat (a bacterial infection usually caught by some goober coughing or sneezing on you on the SkyTrain, Vancouver’s preferred high-speed transmission vector for illnesses). It could possibly be allergies, bad luck, voodoo, who knows?

He cautioned that the medication (Apo-Prednisone) could take a few days to reduce the swelling and also recommended taking an antihistamine, so I picked up some Benadryl for good measure. Drugs drugs drugs!

It’s been a few hours since I took everything (well, the required dose, not actually everything) and it seems to have made a small difference. Maybe it’s a placebo effect and if so, that’s still good enough for me. I’m all for my brain being tricked into being happier.

They did swab my throat for a sample to send to The Lab for strep and I may get a call in 24-48 hours confirming that. If so I will have to take even more drugs, probably for a good ten days or so. Given my history with antibiotics (hint: the wrong ones give me a rash over my entire body) I’m hoping the test comes up negative.

Anyway, I definitely recommend not getting your uvula infected if you can avoid it. It’s effective as a weight loss measure as the thought of eating or drinking anything becomes repellant but I’d rather get my sexy figure back another way.

The kind of tired of the humidity run

Average pace: 5:20/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 11.05 km
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 22-26ºC (felt like 23-28)
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 799
Total distance to date: 2449 km

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than to labor through a run? I started out later than usual, not leaving until around 11:30 and despite showers earlier in the morning it had cleared enough to convince hordes of people to head on down to the lake for a holiday stroll/jog.

I did indeed wear my new New Balance MT110s after using a second holder to move the Nike+sensor over to it. The results were mixed. On the one hand, I don’t feel the switch back to a minimalist shoe had any major effect on the run and yet my left foot was quite sore at the end, enough that I didn’t even entertain the idea of walking back, instead heading straight to the Production Way SkyTrain station.

However, my left foot was feeling a bit sore even before heading out, so I suspect the result may have been the same. I’m undecided on whether to switch back to the Nikes for my next run, which will probably be only 5K.

My time on the run was bad. After a lousy 5:16/km pace on Saturday, I was that much worse today, coming in at a pokey 5:20/km. The first km tells the story:

Saturday: 4:41
Monday: 4:57

Sixteen seconds is a dramatic difference. I started out like a tortoise and although I actually started to close the gap I still fell short. Why? Possibly the left foot, though it only really hurt after the run was over. Possibly the new shoes, though they actually felt fine to me. Possibly the stupidly high humidity.

Yes, that was the likely culprit. The humidity started out near 80% and though it dropped, it remained near 60% at the end of the run. That, combined with the sharp rise in temperature, generally being warmer and a breeze that was either minimal or non-existent made for rather unpleasant running conditions. I almost long for the days when it took several minutes just for my hands to warm up. Almost.

My only feeble hope at this point is that I can actually break the 5:00 minute mark on a 5K, though at this point even that may be beyond my reach.

This summer has kind of sucked for running.

UPDATE: The morning after the run and for the first time in quite awhile my calves are actually a bit sore. This is likely due to only running once for each of two weeks then doing two in three days. In other words I am falling out of shape. This may also have contributed to my lousy pace, though I’m still laying most of the blame for that on the Amazon-like humidity.