from the 'too much time on my hands' dept.

Being on crutches sucks. I had surgery on my ankle yesterday to repair some ligament and tendon damage from a sprain I had while hiking Monte Sol in Santa Fe when I went back to St. John's College to finish my degree in 2004. I thought being on crutches wouldn't be a big deal, but it's really a pain in the ass, especially because I can't put any weight on my right foot for a week or two, until the doctor puts a walking cast on. Don't even ask when I'll be able to drive again. (Though in my post-anesthesia stupor I did mention to manage to one of the nurses that I could ride my motorcycle without being able to use my right foot, ala House and his lovely Honda Repsol CBR1000RR. She didn't approve.)

I had two broken arms when I was a kid--fell off a rope swing at Scout camp and broke the tibia and fibula in both arms right above the wrist--so I thought one gimpy foot would be a walk in the park. Ha! (At least I can wipe my own ass this time; well, I could if the painkillers weren't also making me constipated (TMI?), something the nurse warned me about--apparently sometimes people freak out and go to the ER for that, only to be laughed at by the staff behind closed doors.) And I had one leg that didn't really work for a while back when I was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000, and again in a 2001 remission, but it was still easier to deal with than this. At least I could put weight on it, even if I had to move the leg with my hands. :) I really can't complain, though--my MS is in almost total remission, has been for a long time (thanks in large part to Betaseron, and I have a wonderful wife to help me out and bring me breakfast in bed. (For our anniversary, she got me a talking Simpsons card: Marge: "I'm a lucky woman." Homer: "And I'm a wonderful man.") I'm trying to teach the dogs and cats to bring me stuff to eat and drink, but unless I learn to eat tennis balls (or hairballs) I think I'm out of luck.

So I haven't posted for a while, but I've been meaning to, and now I have 'too much time on my hands!', in the words of the inimitable Homer Simpson. Though instead of fighting with every major utility, I'm mostly bedridden with my leg elevated and reading or on the computer, with an occasional break to go outside and smoke a cigar and play fetch with Daisy (our younger dog, aka The Fetchinator, who like The Terminator just won't quit) when I get up the gumption to go downstairs and outside. Crutches and stairs don't mix, nor does carrying things. So much learned in a day!

Luckily, I'm not working at the moment so I have the luxury of being at home to recuperate. I've actually been on vacation since the end of March, when my last contract at Microsoft ended. Because of a class action lawsuit Mr. Softy lost some years back, contractors are required to take a 100 day break between one year contracts, so they don't get confused into thinking they're actually a real employee of the company. Some people think it's terrible; I love it! The upshot is I get paid even more because my group wants me back and know I need to make enough to support myself over my break instead of going to work for somebody else. So higher pay and and 100 day vacation? Talk about win win! This break is actually going to be a little longer because of the surgery--originally I'd planned to do it at the beginning of my break, but then decided I didn't want to give up my whole summer to recovery. (No running, no bicycling, no motorcycling, no MS150, which I've done six years in a row!) So I decided to put it off till this fall, thinking I could work from home during part of my recovery (one downside to being a contractor is no paid time off during your one calendar year contract, you just lose the money for any time you don't work and can't make it up at the end of the contract). But a few weeks ago we found out our insurance company wasn't renewing their contract with the surgical group I went to (because they're expensive, and excellent) so I had to step things up. Oh well, I don't mind extending my vacation a bit. ;)

So among my 'too much time' tasks are: catching up on the journal, organizing my photos and putting them up online, doing some practice C++ coding for my interviews next week (more on that later), cleaning out my inbox, reading, and working on Project Unblowuppable (also more to come).

Currently I'm reading:

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neal Peart, drummer of Rush. I've never been into Rush (never really gave them a chance, I suppose) but this was recommended by an old high school friend of mine who got into motorcycles almost exactly the same time I did, a little over two years ago, and it's good so far (though begins tragically with the death of Peart's daughter and wife within a year). I met up with my old friend at another friend's wedding in Pocatello, ID, and he was in the middle of a month long motorcycle trip around the Western United States. (He co-founded a computer game company and is two years retired at age 34.) Turns out we'd seen/read a lot of the same things since then:

Long Way Round DVDs and book, by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. (Go to Amazon.ca or the British site because you can't get the extended version in the US, and that's the one to get, but Netflix has the shorter version if you don't want to spend the $$.) The DVD is really good stuff, even if you're not into motorcycles. Only read the book if you really want to know more details.

Jupiter's Travels: Four Years around the World on a Triumph by Ted Simon. This guy was bad-ass, going around the world by himself for four years in the 70s. Makes Ewan and Charley's trips look pretty weak, since they had a whole support crew and were only out a few months. This book was the inspiration for Long Way Round, actually, and they met up with Ted along the way. In addition to an amazing trip, the guy can really write, he has some wonderful prose and observations.

Race to Dakar, a documentary about Charley Boorman's attempt to ride the (now defunct?) Dakar Rally, an insane race from France through the deserts of Africa with trucks, cars, and motorcycles of all sorts. Movie also only available from Amazon.ca or the British site, I think.

Long Way Down, Ewan and Charley's trip through Africa. Not as good as Long Way Round, but worth a see if you liked the previous shows. Looks like the only way to get it right now might be the British site, which is how I got it. Amazon has it, but is currently out of stock.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Not a book I'd ever choose for myself, but my mom left it here when she was housesitting for us. She started reading it and found it offensive, but the back cover piqued my curiosity (as well as whatever it was that bothered my mom so much). So I'm reading it and it's interesting so far; not great, but a pretty good timekiller now that I've finished the entire series of Harry Potter books. (That was a project for the first month of my break--again, not something I'd normally read, but they had been recommended to me by friends and family whose taste I respect, so I gave them a shot. They were pretty good actually! The writing was nothing special, but the story was good enough to get me to blast through the seven books in a month, and watch the released movies afterwards to compare them.) I guess I can see why my mom found Wicked offensive, but my bar for offense is pretty high. (2 Girls 1 Cup was definitely above the bar.)

Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era. I heard about this one when they were interviewing Mary Jo Foley on the Windows Weekly podcast. The book actually has been kind of boring (and not super well written), but I thought it might be a good thing to have read, since Microsoft currently supplies my living, and likely will for some years to come. So I'm forcing my way through it. I really dig he Windows Weekly podcast, by the way. I guess Leo (Laporte) and Paul (Thurrott) get criticized a lot for straying off into stuff about Apple, Firefox, and the like, but as I'm an almost two year Mac/Firefox convert at home who uses (and makes) Microsoft products, it's perfect for me.

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil. Many moons ago I read all the futurist/technology books I could get my hands on, not so much these days. But Kurzweil was always an interesting guy, and I loved The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence when I read it back in 1999 or so. Making slow progress on this one, I keep putting other books on top of the stack and pushing this one back.

Speaking of books, what is the best book site these days? I used to keep track of them manually in my journal (major PITA, and here I am doing it again!) and then tried a plugin on Facebook, and some friends have added me to Goodreads and Shelfari, but I haven't had the heart to explore and use them. I'm just tired of doing it over and over and want to find The One True Site and be done with it.

I'm having a similar dilemma with where to put online photos--flickr seems to be the way to go for a lot of reasons, but requires me buying a Pro account and a tool to upload from iPhoto. Pretty cheap, but I'd like to know that's really the way to go before dropping the cash. Another option would be Picasa Web Albums, which would also require a subscription for the amount of space I need, but IIRC the iPhoto tool is free. Unfortunately, neither is totally a win:

• Flickr: I like the editing features, and the set/tag functionality seems like it would mesh better with my organization in iPhoto. Unfortunately, not compatible with TiVo, which would be the easiest way to show them on the big 84" projection screen in our living room.
  
• Picasa Web Albums: Site doesn't seem as slick as flickr, nor quite as compatible with iPhoto. But TiVo does support it.
  

Wow, this already went way longer than I intended! I have more topics queued up, but I think I'll save them for another post. I've missed blogging, maybe I can make it a habit again. Hell, and maybe somebody will actually even see it! BTW, Blogger rocks, I'm really digging it. And autosave! Brilliant.