Normally I would be at work right now, doing tech support and database administration. Instead, I’m at home in bed, and will likely be stuck in bed for a few days on doctor’s orders. How did this happen, you might ask? Well…

A week and a half to two weeks ago, I started noticing pain in my lower back. It wasn’t TOO bad, but it was annoying to say the least. I decided on Saturday that I would call my doctor on Monday morning and see if I could get worked in to see him about the pain. Things were fine on Saturday evening, so I wasn’t too concerned. Then, Sunday, I managed to aggravate it badly after sitting in my desk chair for a couple of hours. I tried switching chairs, but that only made it worse to the point where I could do nothing more than lay in bed after 7 PM on my back, waiting for the pain to go away.

At 2:30 AM, I woke up, and could move around. So, I decided to sit up…

… and fell back down with a scream of pain loud enough to wake my parents.

From that point, my back started twitching and spasming, with each spasm being bad enough where I got to the point where I was gasping for breath and begging for an ambulance. An ambulance was finally sent for, and I got sent down to Houston Northwest Medical Center’s emergency room.

The prognosis from the ER doctor is that I badly sprained my lumbar muscles. He’s prescribed me a painkiller and a muscle relaxant, and has ordered me to stay in bed for the next few days to let it heal. I’m okay with that for now; I can access the company network remotely from my work laptop and also have access to my main PC via RDP. My main gripe is that I’m hoping I don’t miss Meredith’s and Jonathan’s New Year’s Eve party for the second year in a row. Ah, well… we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m just going to relax, take my meds, and hope I actually do get better, as this pain is really for the birds. Here’s hoping… :-)

Well, I’m not one to obsessively say “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Hanukkah”, “Blessed Winter Solstice”, and the like… but I’m hoping everyone has a very good holiday season of his or her own choosing. That said, I figured I’d post this holiday video card I saw on Kotaku. I’m sure about the only ones who’d be amused by it are Becky, Brian, and Jesse, but it’s cute nonetheless. :-)

I admit to playing a prank on coworkers today.

On my way to Festivus Friday night, I stopped by Spec’s and picked up a bottle of strawberry margarita and a canister of a particular snack food. I had plenty of the snack food left when I left the party, so I brought it home with me. When I left for work this morning, I brought the canister with me. During the day, I walked around the office munching out of the canister, with my hand strategically placed over the name of the snack. If someone were to ask me what I was eating, I’d hold the canister out and offer them some. They’d then try it…

… and in over half the people, they’d chew on it for a second, and then their faces would turn into a look of pure horror. One or two of them even spit it out. I just love watching the look on people’s faces when they have wasabi peas for the first time. :-)

I think the funniest encounter I had was with the CEO’s secretary. She tried a few peas, munched on them; her eyes grew wide and she quickly swallowed them. At that moment, the CEO walked in, saw the canister in my hand, and before I could even THINK of saying anything (not that I’d be so stupid as to try that trick on him), he smiled and said, “Ahh… wasabi peas. I love them; I always keep a canister in my pantry.”

Ah, well. It made for a fun and amusing day. :-)

Yes, Festivus was a lot of fun. I’ll probably make a post about it a bit later, but first I wanted to make an observation…

As is well known, back in March or so I made it my goal to change my eating and exercise habits, and lose weight as a result. I had noticed some changes (especially in terms of pants sizes), but more often than not I would hear from friends and colleagues about how much weight I had been losing. When I look at myself in the mirror, it’s kind of hard to tell. Well, late last night or early this morning, Ray posted some pictures from last night’s Festivus, and I was floored by how I looked. I’ll give you a bit of a comparison.

I had no idea I had lost so much weight. In all modesty, I think I look good… heh.

I’m kind of falling off the wagon this month thanks to Christmas et al, but I plan on getting back on the wagon once the New Year rolls around. I’m not eating like I was, mind, but I’ve been in more splurge situations than before. I hope to get closer to my target weight by February, but for now I’m just happy that my efforts are obviously paying off. :-)

In about two hours, I’ll be over at McCormick Manor (aka, Sean’s father’s house) for Sean’s annual Festivus party. Seeing as there are people who want to attend but won’t be able to, Sean and I have worked together to make a live feed of the event. In addition, Sean Loyless is making a live feed of his Festivus party as well, and we’ll have it set up where we’ll be seeing each other live. If you want to take part as well, just fire up Skype and add “VirtualFestivus” as a contact. You’ll be conferenced in as well!

McCormick Manor live feed:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/red-cedar-place—-festivus-2008
San Antonio live feed:
http://www.dailyhaggis.com/festivus

We’ll start broadcasting from McCormick Manor sometime between 7 and 8 PM CST. Consider this your chance to see me live and not in a set video like an interview. :-) If I don’t hear from you, have a happy Festivus, everyone!

In my last post, I reposted a meme requesting information from my readers (more from the LiveJournal side). Well, on the post’s LiveJournal mirror, Jesse decided to ask me to post the entire history of Mortal Kombat in less than thirty sentences (400 words). I asked her to clarify; did she want the in-game history or the actual history of the game series? Her response:

“Actual history, and I WANT IT IN HAIKU FORMAT. WITH NAMES AND DATES.”

I decided to take her up on the challenge, and less than thirty minutes later had it done. Seeing as at least one friend really liked it, I’ve decided to make it available here for others to read. :-)
Read more “The Haiku History of Mortal Kombat.”