Pain in the Head

Been busy the past few weeks and really haven’t had much to blog about.  I’ve found that Twitter fills in my need to broadcast to the world more often than writing up a formal post.  Half the time I get through writing a post I realize I’ve been babbling and end up deleting it.

The migraines have been pretty consistent lately.  I get 1-2 attacks a week with most of them responding fairly quickly to over the counter medication.  I talked briefly with my neurologist this week and he said if OTC is doing the job, then we don’t have to look at going back on to anti-seizure medications any time soon.  I don’t take enough of the NSAIDs for them to be an issue with my liver at this point.  I’d like to be on a prophylactic medication but the side effects from the ones I have been on aren’t really ideal for me.  Topamax had such a positive effect on the migraines but making me turn into a stupid idiot was difficult to handle.

School has been going well over the summer.  I’ve been making headway on my iPhone migraine diary and may even have something out there by the end of summer.  I have to remember I’m not doing this to make money on the iTunes store, but rather get a good grade for my graduate Capstone project.  Rushing to get it out to the market isn’t what I would consider a good idea.  However, if I got real world users to help with the process along the way, that could make for a very good final presentation.  On a good note, my neurologist is totally on board with helping me with the application!

Summer is FINALLY here in Wisconsin and we’re having our first 90+ degree day.  Can’t say I’m thrilled for the heat and high humidity, but it’s nice to have the body clock reset after a really long winter.

I’m usually not overly sensitive to scents/sprays.  However, I have found automated air fresheners in bathrooms contains some of the most potent, eye-burning scents known to man.  A particular bathroom at the school I go to has four of these babies in the room all firing every 15 minutes or so.  Walking in that bathroom is like walking into a French whore house.  Horrible.

Today I was in the restroom at work washing my hands and I looked up.  What did I see?  One of those evil machines staring at me with its single eye of death spray.  I thought to myself, you need to leave now before it sprays.  As I was drying my hands with my back to machine, it lets out the puff of air.

Awe shit.

Not more than two seconds later I felt the mist hit my neck and then into my sinuses.  You’d think the floral scent would be relaxing, but it’s not.  I’m very lucky I didn’t get a migraine out of this experience.  But now I know, the machines can read your thoughts and are as devious as those squirrels that run out in front of cars to make you swerve to miss them.

Bee’s Nest

Originally uploaded by Astralbodies

Looks what we found in the basement ceiling!

Eek, four weeks since I’ve posted something.  Unfortunately, the blog has been taking the back seat to life lately…

The client I’m at didn’t renew our contract through the end of the month, so I’m heading back in the office after April 24th.  I may already have another client booked but that hasn’t been finalized yet.  To be a consultant on the bench isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I’m not bringing in money and it isn’t cheap to sit around doing nothing.  I’m not too worried as I’m continually adding to my skills to be more of a selling point to potential clients.  Enough about work.

School has been crazy, as usual.  I’m looking forward to finishing at the end of this month because Tazz and I are heading to New Mexico for five days and then to San Antonio for four days.  We’re going to see Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico along with the VLA (Very Large Array) near Socorro which was featured in the film Contact.  San Antonio will be four days of unplanned activities, mostly sitting around relaxing with my Aunt and Grandfather.  Tazz has never been to SA so he’s looking forward to it!

The household work has been a blast this spring, already.  Finally got the garage door replaced and entry door removed.  The chimney was falling apart and just dropped $2200 on a new liner and repair.  Next up, our driveway is getting ripped out and replaced because of water issues we were having in the basement.  It’s the year of repairs and I’m doing my part to stimulate the local economy.  (read: sarcasm)

Starting this fall, maybe even this summer, I will be starting initial work on my iPhone application for a migraine diary.  If you have interest in being part of my focus group and potentially a beta tester, let me know via a comment or send me an e-mail through my blog.

At work and at home, I frequently get distracted by noises.  At work, it’s the cackling hens I’ve talked about and at home it would be the TV from another room for example.  I dropped $100 on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones from audio-technica and I’m in love with them.  They reduce probably half of the ambient noise around you and add a little music on top of that and you can hardly hear those distractions.  When I need to really concentrate, these guys have been my saving grace.  I’ve considered using them when I get a bad migraine too since you don’t have to be connected to a music source – you can just wear them.

If you don’t already know, I’m a software engineer consultant.  I typically am placed at a clients’ office for three or more months at a time and typically feel like a regular employee.  Being a consultant, I must accept the environment and working conditions as they are given unless of course, they are hazardous to my well-being.  I’m beginning to wonder about the hazard level at my current client.

My client built out some pretty nice offices in a foundry that went out of business many years back.  The building has some strange space configurations given this history and not every desk has the best view or alignment with bathroom facilities, break rooms, etc.  My desk happens to be located right on a main walkway between two of the buildings this office covers.  A fairly wide hallway/breezeway is about 20 feet from my desk and has a number of break room tables located in that walkway.  During lunch, there is a group of ladies who get together and have a jolly old time.

They cackle like hens and it’s maddening.

I’m all for a stress-relieving lunch, but do they realize they’re smack in the middle of a business?  The tall ceilings lend themselves to horrendous echoes and when all five of them get wound up in their air-raid siren guffaw, I nearly lose it.  Being a consultant, I have to maintain a level of acceptance of the client, even if I don’t work with them.  However, I think I will print a small sign up saying “Please be mindful – voices carry!” or something neutral of the sort.  They have plastic sign holders for announcements and it would look professional enough.  But a part of me wants to throw my desk chair at them.  It doesn’t help when I have a migraine and music hurts my ears.  I should record them sometime so you can get the full effect.