Saturday it snowed overnight, just as it had earlier in the week. I call this sneaky snow, coming in quietly after you’ve gone to bed, waiting to surprise and possibly delight you the next morning. Except the sun and warming temperatures usually make short work of this ninja-like snow. the next day (it’s just above freezing now, so the sun is slowly doing its thing)
I’m okay with this.
Also, in the interest of not being all complaint-like I’m going to rename the damn snow tag to that darned snow, which makes it sound kind of cute. I’m not opining on whether I think this is accurate because that could possibly violate the no-complaint thing.
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to–no, no, that’s not it.
(That’s a whole other chapter of “Makes you feel old,” realizing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released 51 years ago. I remember when its release on CD [remember those?] was a big deal and even that was 31 years ago now.)
No, 20 years ago I got broadband. It was 1998 and Rogers was my ISP because back then there wasn’t really a choice. I got Rogers@home, their broadband service, allowing me to experience the world of high speed internet.
And disconnects. And outages (sometimes for more than a day at a time). And speeds that would go from very fast to slower than dial-up.
It was both amazing (“I don’t need to tie up a phone line to get on the internet!” “The internet is always on!”) and amazingly frustrating (see the aforementioned issues above).
It opened me to a world of online gaming, from which I think I’ve just finally cured myself, having let my WoW sub finally lapse after more than ten years with little interruption. But back in the early days, Tribes, a multiplayer-only first person shooter, simply wouldn’t have been the fantastic experience it was without broadband.
Broadband let me start exploring news online instead of having to sit down in front of the TV for the news hour and watch what the broadcaster wanted me to watch. I still get my news online. It’s so much better.
It was also an age before YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. In some ways this was better. Most ways. Nearly all ways, if you really think about it. There were forums for different games and hobbies, but with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of users rather than millions. You got to know people. There were a lot fewer funny cat pictures and even with broadband most of them were still small and horribly compressed.
The internet itself was still young and awkward. Websites had animated gifs and midi music. Sites were spartan or ugly or both. Spugly. But it was fresh and new and exciting.
Today, Blue’s News has literally the same design as it did back then. If you want a retro taste of what once was, that’s your active go-to right there. It used to be my home page back around then, too. It predates my high speed internet by two years. Zounds.
A few years after I got broadband I jumped ship to Telus and their ADSL. It was a bit slower but much more stable (well, not so much in that first year but it’s been solid since). The speeds today are a lot faster than they were in 1998, but web pages now serve so much fancypants content even before you include the singing/dancing/popping-up/sliding-in/good-chance-of-carrying-malware ads that it doesn’t necessarily feel a lot faster. And then you download a 50 mb file and wonder why it won’t start downloading only to realize it finished in a fraction of a second.
Fiber (or fibre, if you prefer, this post is being written in Canada, after all) is becoming more widespread, though not yet in my neighborhood. I wonder what that would feel like, speed-wise? Would I even notice? I actually don’t download a lot of stuff anymore. Mostly I just need the connection to be there and be reliable. Still, if it becomes an option I’ll probably go for it. Maybe ridiculous speed will open up new possibilities, the same way broadband did for me back in 1998. Or maybe it’ll just make it easier to exceed my bandwidth cap.
Yes, terrible pun. I’m pretty sure I’ve used it before. Sorry.
As the weather prognosticators foretold (yesterday) it has indeed started snowing tonight and is sticking, with 10-15 cm expected in time for the morning commute.
But I am not complaining, as weather happens and until I can magically control it, I will accept it. Plus I don’t have a walk to shovel.
My only concern is whether this will impact my running, as snow has only had minimal impact this winter on my runs, and has even at times been a bit delightful. The forecast suggests it won’t stick around, so one last blast of winter is fine by me.
I shaved this morning the same way I always do–I used the electric razor on my face and neck, then used a trimmer for my Van Dyke. It’s properly known as a circle beard but no one seems to know what a circle beard is.
Anyway, the beard itself is more a vestige at this point, as I don’t use a guard on the trimmer, insuring the facial hair is there but in a minimalist sort of way.
Tonight I noticed the fuzz on my chin and upper lip was more pronounced than one would expect after a little over 14 hours of growth. I clearly remember trimming it this morning and I’m pretty sure I haven’t been struck by lightning since then and acquired the power of super fast hair growth as a result (though a little more on the top would be nice).
Instead I’m left to ponder how my facial hair has become the folical version of Michael Meyers, coming back stronger and more resilient no matter how often I whack it down.
I’m going to take pictures of this to prove it’s not just me being weird. Well, weirder.
One sample below. I think my favorite part is the Pacman ghosts on the arrow keys.
The Simon Stalenhag Art Gallery. Stalenhag has created a delightfully weird alternate universe where the 80s turn out…a little different. One example below. The art is an amazing blend of realism (the composition and light/liquid effects are terrific) and the fantastic, with giant robots, and curiously controlling electronic devices everywhere. The imagery ranges from intriguing to funny to horrifying, sometimes simultaneously. Buy his stuff.
Which is to say I think I’ve gone 21 consecutive days without making a complaint to someone else, either in person or online.
I say I think because it’s possible I could have slipped one in and not realized, but it doesn’t feel like I have.
I have complained in my head, of course, but even there the volume of complaining has dropped off. I indulged a bit today when my phone and watch stopped talking to each other again (how 21st century!) but instead of grumbling, I just updated both, signed back in and all is well. Because results are much more satisfying than complaints heard by no one that accomplish nothing except setting me slightly on edge.
I’m going to doff the blue rubber band, though. It looks chintzy. I am going to try to find a “proper” purple bracelet to wear instead, possibly when I am out and aboot tomorrow.
And if I don’t find one? I won’t complain to a single soul.
I did have an oat fudge bar, though. But I didn’t complain about it! Because it was yummy. And many calories.
I’ll burn the calories off tomorrow when I run. It will probably be raining, but I won’t complain. I’ll just get wet. I don’t mind, it just makes me appreciate being dry later on even more.
On to Day 21. If something trips me up tomorrow and I do complain by accident I’ll be very slightly distraught. Maybe I’ll just take a vow of silence for the day.
I did not complain today because I had no one to complain to.
Technically, that’s not true–I could complain to myself, and I kind of did, because I stayed at home to battle the worsening congestion I have been experiencing in my sinuses over the past few months.
In spring 2016 I experienced allergy-like symptoms and my doctor said it was quite possible that I had developed an allergy or two as allergies are neat that way. You can get them later in life because allergies are jerks.
Spring of 2017 saw similar symptoms but in the summer they went away, as one would expect of seasonal allergies.
Then something curious happened. When the weather started to cool and turn damp in the fall, the symptoms came back. Was I suddenly allergic to bare trees and the absence of pollen? I grumbled a bit to myself but kept on keeping on.
In the last month or so it’s gotten worse to the point that:
I sometimes get so clogged up I can’t breathe. This is never good and it sometimes happens in places where I really wouldn’t want it to happen, like on public transit or when sitting in a movie theater.
certain sleep positions will cause the same thing, to the point that I’ve started using Breathe Right strips every night just to force my nose to stay open (they actually help, too).
even when I’m not completely clogged up, I’m usually no less than 50% clogged up. As I type this my left nostril is open but the right is about 95% blocked. This will arbitrarily switch later on*.
the symptoms persist everywhere–at home and at work, in the rain and in the dark, on a train and in a car**.
The ever-persistent state concerns me because if it is an allergy, it suggests I’m allergic to something that’s ever-present, like dust or air or atoms or something. Anyway, I’m going to get tested for allergies soon. In the meantime I’ll just keep moving about rapidly, as it’s one of the few ways I can keep my sinuses reliably open. Gotta go!
Oh, all of which is to say that while I may have complained extensively to myself today about my congestion, I didn’t complain to anyone else–and I’m not complaining now! I’ve assessed the situation, made a plan of action and will be following up, because that’s how winners battle being allergic to atoms.
On to Day 20!
* in the time it took to get to the end of the post, the nostril situation has reversed. It’s all very weird.
** apologies to Dr. Suess
