January 2007 – Page 4 – The Designer Monologues

January 19, 2007April 19, 2010

Friday Music

A bit late today. Sorry about that! Anyway….here we go:

First up — a bit of a mood enhancer, proclaiming the power of positive thinking. Sort of an “accentuate the positive, elminate the negative” thing, which, for obvious reasons, I find compelling. Plus, it’s Nikka Costa, so it kicks nine distinct varieties of ass: Nikka Costa – “Can’t Never Did Nothin’.”

Saw The Covenant on DVD this week — suck-fest, and could have been so much cooler. The music was pretty good, though….like this: A new remix of “More Human Than Human” which served as the opening credits music. Rob Zombie – “More Human Than Human (Meet Bambi In The King’s Harem Mix).”

Here’s a very cool tune from the Yoshida Brothers, who are the group responsible for the great music in Nintendo’s new Wii commercials. This is very similar — a mix of modern breakbeat and traditional Japanese instrumentation: Yoshida Brothers – “Storm.”

Some classic second-wave ska for you, from my favorite group of that era: The (English) Beat – “Mirror In The Bathroom.”

Very nifty electronic/worldbeat stuff, which, as you all well know, I devour. This one is from the Asian Dub Foundation, a UK alternative electronica band that play a mix of breakbeat, dub, dancehall and ragga, influenced by everything from Bengali folksongs to punk. Asian Dub Foundation – “Rebel Warrior.”

Lastly, here’s a track by A3, the electronica group best known for “Woke Up This Morning”, the theme to the HBO series The Sopranos. A3 – “Terra Firma Cowboy Blues.”

Hope you like ’em.

January 18, 2007

Eeep.

Back from the day’s joy at the hospital. I had my pre-admissions interview (no problems there), and then a PET scan and a CT scan.

Sweet jumping jesus on a steam-driven pogo stick.

Next time they offer to give me a perscription for Adavan as a “calming agent”, I’m fucking TAKING IT.

Let me ‘splain: Here’s the process for the PET. I get an IV, and then an injection of irradiated glucose. (Y’see, cancer cells are highly metabolic — more so than normal cells, so this stuff will go right to them) Then, they scan you, and can see if you have any cancerous cells anywhere else in your body.

All well and good.

However. Because I have melanoma, this needed to be a top-of-the-head to the bottom-of-the-feet scan.

No problem.

However…

The aperture for the PET scan machine is roughly the same diameter as the width of my shoulders. And you lie down, and get stuck into that hole, and then sloooooooooowwwwwwwwwly inched out.

A hole where my shoulders were rubbing against the sides, my arms above my head, and when I breathed out, I could feel it bounce off the wall inches from my nose and back into my face. And, because I’m gigantofuckinghuge, they put me through this twice — once feet first, and once head-first, to make sure they had overlap.

The first scan was about 30 minutes. In the hole.

The second scan was almost 45. Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit.

Did I mention that I’m claustrophobic, and have been since childhood?

Yeah, not so much with the fun. Full-on panic attack, in fact….and one that I couldn’t do anything about, because I had to lay completely still, in that dark little hole, for over an hour.

This was followed up by a lovely barium milkshake, and a CT scan, which is like the PET, but merely a donut instead of a hole, and much, much faster.

As one attendant said to me: “Think of it this way — this is, in all likelihood, the hardest thing you’ll have to do during your treatment. When you come in for surgery, you’ll just be sleeping.”

A good way to think about it. But DAMN.

January 17, 2007

Proof of Global Warming….

One needs no further proof at how inured we’ve become to the idea of global warming than the fact that CNN and several other news sources have decided that the top story that they should lead with is:

….the fact that it’s cold and snowy in JANUARY.