Remember what "cave cuniculum" means?

It's not a tumour...

...or it could be. Who knows.

For the past couple weeks, I've been getting migraines. This is odd because - while I'll get the occasional headache - I've never really suffered from migraines. Then again, I can't think of anyone who enjoys migraines, either.

I thought I could be dehydrated, so I upped my water intake. No luck. If anything, it made the headaches worse. I've seriously cut back on the drinking, so it's not a hangover. Possibly a sinus infection, but those usually have other symptoms that come along with the aching in the head. It could be exhaustion, but I've never really been big on the sleeping so this is hardly new.

The only other thing that I can attribute it to is stress. Granted, everyone has a bit of stress in their lives and it's usually the status quo for most work-a-day slobs like myself. However, in recent weeks, the stress at The Shitty Job™ has increased markedly. Several good people have been fired for no good reason, while people who instigated a serious incident a week ago are still here. It makes absolutely no sense. Throw in an untrustworthy boss, an uncertain workflow, and a company that seems to thrive on screwing over its employees and you have an environment rife with malcontents - the perfect breeding ground for just a little stress.

I need a vacation, and a couple more aspirin.

Infused with goodness...

Before he left for Alaska, one of our friends bequeathed unto us nearly a full half-gallon of Everclear. "Here," he said, tossing the bottle in our general direction. "You need this."

If you're not familiar with Everclear, it's a 160-proof grain alcohol. You know, the sort of thing that gives hangovers hangovers. Although it is highly recommended that you don't drink it straight (to prevent unpleasant things like blindness and DEATH), I did sample a quarter of a shot of it. As expected, the taste was somewhere between flaming death and Gary, Indiana.

Now, where am I going with this? Obviously it borders on sheer stupidity to drink this stuff straight, but what about creating a fruit-infused liquor with it? There's several recipes out there - most for the Italian Limoncello, but I'm thinking something a little different.

How about an orange-cinnamon-clove-honey liquor? Pomegranate, perhaps? Maybe even lime-ginger? What about apple? The possibilities are endless, but taste will be the deciding factor. Right now it's just an idea - whether or not it comes to fruition will depend on how adventurous I get, and if an actual, decent, taste-tempting recipe comes out of all this.

Little doggie is about to die...

If the upstairs neighbor's little yappy dog doesn't stop barking, I'm going to go up there and personally muzzle and/or tranquilize the little bastard.

Seriously, this little bastard barks continuously whenever its owners aren't home. This means that - with few exceptions - the little fucker is barking damned near continuously from morning through the night. The cats have gotten to the point where they just ignore it, but will still occasionally look up at the ceiling whenever the dog starts up with a "jesus, not this shit again" look on their faces.

Apparently the dog's owners have been trying "natural remedies" to calm the dog and keep it quiet. It isn't working. I've had to call the landlords twice now to get it taken care of. I really don't like causing problems and I don't want to get them evicted, but I want to have some peace and quiet when I come home from Shitty Job™. I don't want to hear "yapyapyapyapyapyapyapyapyapyapyapyapyapyap" for five straight fucking hours when I'm trying to enjoy the evening with my wife.

So, that being said: anybody know where I can score enough tranquilizers to take down a weiner-dog for a week or so?

LOLROT{[@++#::::........[CARRIER LOST]......

For those of you who have wondered why I'm not on Messenger, it's been banned here at work. I'll not go into specifics, but I will say that there's a coworker who should really stop snooping around other people's files. Basically, STFU and GBTW.

If you need to get in touch with me, send an email or call.

*cough*

It is official. I am sick.

On Sunday, I spent the better part of my day engaging in what George Carlin colourfully refers to as "involuntary personal protein spills" whilst trying to get my eyes to focus. All this and body aches, chills, and a throbbing headache.

On Monday, I spent most of the day in a fog, trying to navigate at work. I believe the slight fever made things a bit more interesting.

Last night I managed to get absolutely no sleep - possibly due to the TheraFlu that I had consumed earlier. Apparently it does weird things to my body chemistry.

Tonite, I will dose myself with melatonin and attempt to crash early in a vain attempt to get rid of this nastly little virus.

Minor obstacle...

Yesterday there was a small obstacle on the way to removing the stress in my life. I got home - after fighting through the traffic from the Gerald R. Ford funeral - and discovered that an errant nail had found a new home in one of my rear tires.

Not necessarily the best way to start on the road to self-improvement, but there's not much I can do about it. I pulled the tire off, and put a spare on. The nail has been removed, and apparently there's places that can patch the area for a nominal fee.

So, a minor setback, but nothing terribly expensive/time consuming.

The Great Simplification

Last year a friend of mine embarked on what he called "the great simplification" of his life. It appears to have worked - he seems more relaxed; definitely less stressed out. Since it worked so well for him, I'm going to give it a shot this year. Granted, I may not achieve the same results, but I'm hoping for some measurable improvement by May.

There's a couple areas I want to focus on; areas that I've let slip in the past. Now is as good a time as any to work on them. Some are personal; others professional, but they're places where I need some work. What better time to start than now?

Job
What better place to start than with the area that's given me the most trouble?

In the next week, I'll be overhauling my resume and creating a "packet" to send out to potential employers, which will include some samples. I'm not sure yet if I want to tailor the samples specifially to the job, but either way it'll be a step above the old "resume and cover letter" schtick.

Creative
As much as I tried, I couldn't get time or energy to put together any of the projects I had rattling around in my brain. Other things kept coming up and getting in the way. This year, I'm changing that.

In addition to attempting a sketch for every day of this year, I'm also going to put aside some time during the week and a couple hours on the weekend to work on creative endeavours. It could be as small as five minutes monkeying around with Illustrator or Photoshop, or it could be as creating and pulling prints from a woodcut. In any event, I'm hoping that by the end of the year I'll have improved my illustration/design skills noticeably.

I'm also going to make the grand attempt to get a webcomic up and running. It didn't happen last year (again, due to the aforementioned "other things") but by carefully blocking out time I should be able to accomplish it.

Health
This past year took a bit of a toll on me, both physically and emotionally. Lots of stress and finding little or no time to exercise have turned my brain into semi-mush and my body into...well, mush.

During the colder months, I'll find some exercise routine to do inside the house. If nothing else, it'll give the cats something to stare at. I'd also like to be able to block out some time to recharge my brain - some reading; perhaps some meditation. As it warms up, I'll be back on the bike. The goal here is to travel everywhere I can using the bike as the main transportation mode. No more driving to places when I can easily bike there. Gain back the strength in the legs; save money on gas - why not?

This leads me into the last area:
Financial
Last year was a bit of an up and down, and lots of fighting for a decent working wage. With the goal of a better job comes the goal of earning more, and being able to steadily put money away.

Also, if I don't need it, I'm not buyin' it.

Finally, I plan on taking stock of my earthly possessions. If I can't use it, it gets recycled/sold/thrown away. Maybe a garage sale this spring - build up some cash for a vacation...

Progress reports to come throughout the year.