Good Luck

I went out to dinner with a workmate and a visiting professor. Sitting there in an open-air pub, nice atmosphere, and then a bird shat on me. My initial reaction was "someone just threw orange juice on me". I don't know what that bird ate, but it was some nasty stuff. The guys I was with loved it.

So I went to the washroom to clean it off and no less than 4 strangers told me it was good luck. Not only was I the recipient of the nastiest bird poo I've seen, but everyone saw it. I just don't know what to say.

I got to try my first unisex washroom though. It was a good night out. :)

Minor Surgery

So I had a cyst on my back that recently became infected. After the infection passed, I had to go back to the doctor and have it cut out. A minor surgical operation. The following is approximately what the doctor said during the surgery:

Hello. Yes, so this is it here? In the middle of your back? Oh yes, I can see it leaking there. Ok, lie down on your stomach. I'm going to put some freezone in, and you shouldn't feel anything in that area anymore. Ok, there we go, freezone in. Yep, that was 3 jabs. We just have to wait a bit until that takes effect.
Ok, now let me know if you can feel any of this. Nope? Good. Can you feel this? Nope? Ok, good. [feel tugging on my back that lets me know he's cutting]
Hmm, you know how you sometimes look at something, and don't realise how big it is? This is one of those situations. The cyst is about the size of a grape. It's a bit bigger than I was expecting. [scraping noises]
You can feel that? Are you ok? Would you like some more freezone? No, no, this shouldn't take much longer. Ok, we'll keep going. [squishing noises that sound like a plumber with a plunger...]
Hmm, ok, there's half of it. I'll put it on the table here. You can see how big it is. Have to get the rest of it now. You doing ok there? You can feel the cutting? Yeah, we're probably not using enough anaesthetic for the size of the cyst. Not too long until we're done though.
Ok, that's done. Now, this has left a cavity about the size of a grape, of course. I'll start stitching it up now, but some of these have to be deep to try and close the cavity. Yeah, the anaesthetic isn't really deep enough. Let me know if you want to stop.
Ok, the rest of these stitches you shouldn't feel as they're on the surface. Oh, you can feel those? Yeah, they're just outside the area of the anaesthetic. Ok, those are done. Almost finished.
All done! Now, if you ever see those stitches - guess you won't with them on your back eh? - well, if you do, you might notice they're a bit erratic. I wasn't quite expecting the cyst to be so large. Anyway, come back in a week and we'll take them out.

I have to admit, he was a good doctor. I can't see his handiwork for myself, but he was friendly, and he did offer more anaesthetic. Was my choice to stick it out. But boy was that painful. :|

Now I've just got to take care of it, have sponge baths, etc for a week.

Early Sunday Morning

It's this odd time of day where noone I know, anywhere in the world, is awake and online. Early Sunday morning in Canada, and the smart Canadians are still in bed. At the same time, it's late Sunday night in Australia, and everyone is tucking themselves in and preparing for work on Monday morning.

There still are times of the day when my little part of the Internet shuts down. I'm not overrun with instant messaging just yet. :)

Kill A Watt

I just bought a Kill A Watt power monitor to measure the power usage of the appliances in my house. I have a very low electricity bill, and I was interested in seeing just why it was so low. I'm also planning to leave the device at work for other people (with higher bills) to borrow and use, and presumably get more value from.

Initial wattage results for personal devices that are left on but idle:

• 20" LCD monitor: 41 watts
• Large multimedia laptop: 40 watts
  • When busy: 6 watts more
  • With screen on: 4 watts more
• Small portable laptop: 15 watts
• External hard drive: 7 watts
• External speakers: 4 watts

So, leaving my computers and stuff on when I sleep and when I'm not at home is about 70 watts. When I'm home and using them, it's about 120 watts. The main lights in my place are flourescents and so I'll add about 30 watts for those. I'm not sure how much the fridge uses, and I'm not going to check. But that covers pretty much all the appliances in my apartment. Not bad really.

Seduction Style

I think this is a bit over the top, but...

Wii Fit

Not much new to report, but I just found out about Wii Fit, and am now looking forward to that coming out. Nice, gentle, body strengthening exercises. Between that and my gym ball, and cycling around Stanley Park, I should be in much better shape by the end of this year.

Stanley Park

Not long after I arrived, many of the trees in Stanley Park were blown down. This was really unfortunate, because the park itself is a beautiful woodlands/forest, and the downed trees made it impossible to access many areas. Now, almost a year later, they still haven't restored all paths around Stanley Park.

However, some of the new detours they created are more interesting than the original paths. They are well marked, and take you places that the average tourist would never have gone. It seems a more pleasant trip now that you are forced through the heart of Stanley Park.

I'm planning to start riding around and through Stanley Park every afternoon, if I rode my bike to work that day. In a couple of weeks, I'll probably be fit enough to ride the trails to Prospect Point again - something I haven't been able to do since last summer.

Feels nice to get outdoors again.