Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

It had been a couple of days since we had checked the PO box, and there were a couple of nice surprises in there this afternoon.

First was a package from EnergiToGo, who emailed the other day and offered to send me and any of my compatriots going to SXSW a cell phone charger gratis for our use during the convention. Very kind of them, and I thank them for it! Unfortunately, they don’t have one compatible with my iPhone, but they sent some for my associates who don’t have that particular handicap.

Second was far more mysterious. A tape recorder, wrapped in the classified section of the San Diego Union Tribune, with a sticky note on it saying “Play Me.”

Who am I to turn down the siren song of the modern-day Alice in Wonderland? Eat me, drink me, play me. Pressing the button reveals a conversation between a man and a woman – the man sounding therapist-like, the woman sounding patient-like – and she’s talking about not writing fiction anymore because her stories were becoming too real. Her last story was about a child named Charlotte, who fell ill and ran away from home to find a cure for herself. The man seemed taken aback by this and anxious to hear how the story ends. The woman said she doesn’t know how it ended because she stopped writing fiction. Because that’s when the nightmare started.

Hear it for yourself here.

The tape has a notation on it in blue marker – perhaps “VIZ”?

More discussion to be had over on this Unfiction thread. Very intriguing!

Yes, I have seen both websites. No, I don’t want to comment on either at this time. Yes, I am honestly concerned about being banned for life from SXSWi. The panel’s been taken off the master listing of all talks, but the individual entry is still there if you search by panelist name.

ETA: Apparently Brian Cain has given an interview to the SXSW people about the panel.

I went to school with Ross Richie, who went on to found BOOM! Studios, which is currently running an ARG based on one of their graphic novel properties.

I will not post Ross’s 6th grade yearbook photo in the hopes that he’ll extend me the same courtesy.

BTW: I’ve misplaced my 2nd grade yearbook. Boo.

What’s the state of caring in the world today? Is it limited to “There’s a weird smell on my floor… could my neighbor be decomposing?”? Or are there people out there going the extra mile – or willing to go the extra mile, if they only knew how? How do you care? These are all questions that Ruby’s Bequest wants you to answer.

If you sat on the sidelines for World Without Oil and wished you’d gotten in on the game, now’s your chance to jump in on a similar serious game, designed to make a change in how people approach a subject – in this case, caregiving. And although the Baby Boomers get all the press as their population gets older, there are more people out there needing caring than just the elderly. Who are they? That’s something we want to find out.

Dreamed up by Ken Eklund, who was also responsible for World Without Oil. this is sure to be just as thoughtful and compelling. There are also a lot of interesting entities behind it: production by Institute for the Future and sponsorship by United Cerebral Palsy and AARP.

Plus some names you might have seen before working behind the curtain. 😉

Let’s cut the fake coyness, hmm? It’s really great to be working with Ken again, and getting the team back together is so comfortable (and as Gupfee mentioned, there are others who haven’t outed themselves yet). There’s some fresh blood in there too.

If you’re interested, there’s an interview I did with Ken Eklund up at the Culture Hacker site.

So go tell it to someone who cares!

This is something like week four of my being sick.  Did you know that “sick” and “suck” are separated by one small letter?  True.  

Anyway, I went to the doctor last week because my cough never went away, but my regular doctor was on vacation and this other lady told me I was having bronchial spasms (something I’ve never had in my life), gave me some Advair and this awful cough medicine that doesn’t stop coughing but makes me sleep, so I cough in my sleep, which is annoying, and she sent me on my way. Coincidentally, that was the last day of my sinus infection antibiotics.

Two days later, I had a 101 fever and was coughing so much that I couldn’t even talk to anyone because it would set off this chain reaction cough that would last for what seemed like half an hour, during which I could see my husband’s eyes dart to the clock, the car keys, and mentally calculate how far away the ER was.

My regular doctor was back today and he X-rayed my chest and sinuses. Verdict: still have a sinus infection. I get to take these high-octane meds now: Levaquin (ruptured tendons!) and Prednisone (steroids!). At least he prescribed the good, worky cough medicine that allows me to have some sort of rudimentary function.

So anyway, I guess that’s good news – at least I know what’s wrong with me now. I can assure you that husbandly sympathy pretty much trickles away after about week 2. Also, he stepped on a nail this weekend, so I had to sympathy back at him, swimmy head and all, when all I wanted to do was wooze.

On another note, the radishes are going great guns, and the carrots and peas made an appearance this morning. They’re forecasting temps down to 40 this weekend, which could mean 25 and could mean 50, knowing this area. I still have to wait to plant the other stuff.

The voice of Whataburger’s commercials (“Just like you like it!”) is the same guy who played Elder Lyons in Fallout 3.

From the same guy who did the World Builder video –

Thank goodness they got that door open at the end. It was driving me crazy.