"Hang on little tomato" is a strangely satisfying song; I initially liked the sound (a sort of gentle swing? not sure what to call this) but the lyrics are cute in the same way something like is about a puppy). They're like... theme songs for the impossibirds.

Ahem.

Anyway. Things I've learned so far during a week of being really tired (mostly, I think, because I have been sick):

  1. I am good for one intense sprint per day. Yesterday was a series of meetings; today was proxying a giant firehose of Alegheny students (they're learning to turn their firehoses on, and it's pretty neat to watch), and tomorrow... I don't know what tomorrow's going to be yet. It'll be one of three things.
  2. Cleanup of the prior day's sprint is a good way to start the morning (it lets you start off more or less on autopilot).
  3. Prioritization ("what should I focus on today? *PONDER* okay, let me do that!") feels pretty useless the first two days in a row you do it, but if you prioritize for multiple days in a row, compound interest starts kicking in. I haven't yet broken even, but... I think I'll get there early next week if I can keep this up.

The past several weeks with Matt Jadud have kicked me out of my plateau of "understanding academia," which I've been coasting on since... graduation, really. I'm still trying to scramble out of the - it's not so much a I know kung fu! feeling as it is... recovery from shellshock, but good shellshock, paradigm-shift shellshock, "that was data I don't know how to process but there was so much of it I almost kinda sorta do" shellshock. It lets me read things like this in a different light. I'm still processing it, and I haven't really become coherent on this new and growing perspective yet, but... it will come. It will come.

It's only 2am, but I am completely exhausted. Tomorrow I have today's sprint (Allegheny) to clean up, some POSSE stuff to do, and then life - I want to finish my taxes tomorrow if I can (yay Middlesex County May 11 extension and finally getting the info I need today - I think) and there are also some conversations that need to be had. It's physical exhaustion, not so much intellectual exhaustion - my brain's going a million miles per hour, my body's just sick and can't move quite so fast as usual.

In the meantime, I continue to periodically lose my voice in between bouts of attempting to cough the back of my throat out through the front of my mouth, and a headache has started to make occasional appearances. On the up side, I either don't have a fever any more, or it's low-grade enough that I can ignore it. And really, I have been resting. And I actually do feel better, and not all that bad - it feels like a bug that's passing through, and I'm just waiting it out. Waiting it out with lots and lots and lots of water, garlic, ginger, vitamin C, and Pei Pa Koa (Chinese cough medicine - still the most effective stuff I've ever tried).

Oh - and I've started Rolfing sessions for my RSI, on the long-ago recommendation of Tomeu. It hurts. Not so much that I'm anything other than amused, but I have a high pain threshold (I walked around with appendicitis for 2 days when I was 15 going "hm, that's interesting" before going "hm, that's interesting, and it's been around a while, so perhaps I ought to worry"). And even after more than a year of working on it, I still manage to surprise people with how tight and messed-up my muscles are. And I'm learning (relearning?) that surgical scars are super-ticklish.

On the other hand - did you know your lower ribcage is supposed to expand when you breathe? (My torso actually moves when I breathe! Dude!) It's pretty neat. I can keep on breathing in now, so much more than I'm used to - and it isn't even all the way unlocked yet. Oxygen! Joy! Of course, I can't test out my new lung capacity for real while I'm sick and wheezing, but... I look forward to going for a run after I get better, to try this out.