Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Category: General Updates

Commentary on people, places, things, the news, current events, etc.

  • Damn Flying Pigs…

    Damn Flying Pigs…

    This past Friday I was excited about going to the mall to get something nice to eat and then shop around a bit.  My wife and I also had plans to go out and enjoy ourselves over the weekend.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

    It was strange, really.  All day I felt fine.  Once I got to the mall though and walked inside I started to feel tired.  Then I realized my muscles all felt like they were aching.  So, I sat down and when I sat down I realized not only how tired I was, but that even my butt cheeks were aching.

    We wound up not staying at the mall for very long.  I didn’t eat much either.  My appetite was disappearing.  By the time I got home, I really felt like crap.  In a short two hours I went from feeling fine to feeling like I’d been hit by a bus.

    The next morning my wife took my temperature and I was running a fever at 38.4 C.  I wound up sleeping most of the day away.  In fact, I did a lot of sleeping from Friday evening through Monday afternoon.  On Saturday night my fever peaked at 39.4 and then started dropping.  By the end of Sunday it had fallen to 38.4 and then by Monday morning it was at 36.6.  It went up briefly to 38 again on Monday but it returned to normal in about an hour.

    It doesn’t sound like much when I put it that way, as just a chronological list of temperatures, but those were some rough days.  Those are the types of fever temperatures that make it hard to sleep and make you think those weird thoughts while you’re laying there. If you’ve ever had a fever and your mind started to wander I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

    I never did go to the hospital.  I’ve always been a stubborn idiot like that when it comes to being sick.  I hate hospitals.  I remember one year I was sick and dizzy and was still doing physical training in the morning and going to work because I just had too much to do.  Weird right?  Well, I also didn’t want to be bothered with going to the hospital just to be told that I had a cold or flu or something and I should just rest in bed, drink fluids, and take something for the fever and then get a huge bill for being told something I already knew.  I didn’t really have any clue as to what I had.  I just thought I had a regular cold or flu.

    Anyhow, by Monday afternoon the fever was completely gone and I was fuzzy headed and exhausted but fine.  I wound up sleeping most of Monday away and didn’t get out of bed until 4pm.  After all that sleeping my brain was running on overdrive and I was catching up on internet stuff so I wasn’t able to sleep until 6 am or so and then I had to get up again at 9 am to make it to an appointment.  So, I wound up sleeping most of Teusday afternoon and evening away too.  It feels like the last 4 days just sort of slipped away from me.  I don’t even remember most of the days I was sick, since I had a fever or was sleeping the whole time.

    So, how did I actually find out it was H1N1?  Well, I passed it off to someone I live with.  They went to the doctor right away and the doctor confirmed what it was.  They complained of the exact same symptoms: sudden muscle ache and fatigue, followed by fever.

    Well, at least I don’t have to worry as much about H1N1 anymore.  I already have some antibodies ready for it for a while.  I’m still tired though.  I guess it’ll take a while for me to regain my strength.

    (Image source)

  • A Twitter Anniversary Card

    A Twitter Anniversary Card

    My wife and I recently had an anniversary and we got a card in the mail from my dad.  When I pulled it out of the envelope, the first thing I thought of was Twitter.  Maybe I’m using Twitter too much, but this card looks oddly similar to the Twitter bird, and to one of the default background designs you can choose for your Twitter home page.

    If you’re curious, the card is made by Hallmark, but I wasn’t able to find the design on the Hallmark website.

  • Kipling Bags

    Kipling Bags

    While my wife and I were out today, we had to pass through Vivocity Mall. The monorail going to Sentosa Island departs from there. Since we were there anyway, we decided to stop by the Kipling store to have a look at the bags. My wife has been talking about wanting a new Kipling bag for almost a year. The last one she had was ruined when battery acid got on it.

    So, we took a look inside, and, thankfully, almost everything was on sale. It’s the Great Singapore Sale right now! So, she found a bag she liked and while she was posing in the mirror I went ahead and browsed around a bit myself. I saw the one on the right and liked it and decided I should get one as well.

    In the end, my wife wound up paying for both of the bags, as a gift, since I was covering the costs of our outing to Sentosa.

    If you’re not familiar with Kipling, they’re a really good brand. Also, each bag comes with a monkey attached to it, like you can see in the photo. Each monkey has a tag on it with a name. My wife’s bag, on the left, has a monkey named Lorena (scary right?). My bag has a monkey named Clotilde on it. Sounds like some sort of heavily muscled Norse woman to me.

    Regardless, the bags are nice. They’re made of a good quality and should last us for quite a few years. I want more!

  • Remembering the Times, When I First Heard of Michael Jackson

    Remembering the Times, When I First Heard of Michael Jackson

    I’m not sure what happened to Michael Jackson as he aged, but what he became is nothing like what he was.  For the past few years the only thing people had to talk about when it came to Michael were comments about his child-abuse problem and the fact that he has undergone such an enormous amount of cosmetic surgery. In fact, I remember a few years ago there was a joke that his nose fell off.

    It’s true that he really sank low before he died, but the first time I saw Michael Jackson I thought it was the best thing ever.  I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time and living on Hahn Air Force Base in Germany.  In Germany we only had one television channel (in English) and every day at I think it was 2:50 PM, there would be a few short Warner Brothers cartoons and then from 3:00 to 3:30 there would be one long cartoon.  My brother and I would rush home from school to make sure we caught those cartoons because there weren’t any others to be had.  On trips to the US to visit family we would record Saturday morning cartoons to bring back with us, or our grandmother would record them and send them to us.

    Well, one day, instead of the usual short cartoons there were two music videos.  I don’t remember what the first one was, Thriller maybe, but the second one was Remember the Time.  It’s the first music video I clearly remember seeing.  I was fascinated.  The music was great.  The dancing was great.  The costumes were great!  My brother and I sat there, fascinated, half fearful that for some reason our parents would tell us to stop watching it, but they didn’t.  We went to church every Sunday and lived a pretty sheltered life on an Air Force Base in a foreign country, so something about the video seemed a little dangerous.  I loved the whole thing and when it was over I was disappointed.  Somehow the cartoons that day weren’t all that entertaining.

    Michael Jackson was my first exposure to mainstream American music and I loved it.  I also wonder if that video has anything to do with my interest in history?  If you’re not familiar with it, the video had an Egyptian theme.  It’s a shame that a man that was able to influence so many people around the world through his music is dead, but I get the feeling that he brought it on himself, so I can’t really feel too badly about it.  Regardless, R.I.P. Michael.  I hope you’re in a better place… and if you are… don’t chase the cherubs!

  • Moleskine Notebooks

    Moleskine Notebooks

    The first time I’d ever heard of a moleskine notebook was when I was reading a blog about a woman’s trip to Vietnam. She had taken a lot of notes in a moleskine and had scanned and embedded them as a slideshow into a blog post. I thought it was a really interesting idea, and a great way to record thoughts about a trip you take when you might not have a laptop handy. For example, if you’re on a hike through the hills you might not have time to whip out your laptop and jot down a few things. Despite the proliferation of digital media, there are still a lot of times when old fashioned notebooks are just the most practical and sensible thing to use.

    Moleskines are appealing because they have an interesting name and an interesting history. I know it’s silly to feel more prestigious just based on an item you might have, but moleskines are just that sort of thing. They even advertise it and market it that way. The cover wrapper (seen in green and orange on the ones in the photo) say: “The legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, Chatwin.” I suppose it’s something like how Apple promotes their products.

    When you break open the plastic and flip it open, the first thing you’ll probably notice is a leaflet inside that details the history of moleskine notebooks. Apparently they fell out of production for a while, but some authors ordered a bulk of them because they were sad to see them go. Later, another manufacturer, in Milan I believe, picked up the production and they’re marketed world-wide again.

    Typically I wouldn’t fall for something like that, but I really enjoy writing, and writing is all about frame of mind. If you’re in the right frame of mind, you’ll write well. If not, what you produce is at best bland. So, having something that’s touted as a notebook used by famous figures is just the thing to set the mood, and it also pushes you to only write things in it that are meaningful.

    So, yesterday, my wife and I bought each other one each, as gifts. The one I got for my wife is an “Info Book” style Moleskine, with tabbed, labeled sections. She’s a fanatic for organizers and loved it. I got the plain, ruled paper moleskine. That’s appropriate for what I want to do with it, which is record thoughts that I have that I can later use for blog articles. I’m sure everyone has had a great thought or idea, only to realize later when they sit down they can’t quite grasp it again. This is my solution.

    We picked the pocket sized versions because that makes for easy portability. It’ll slip easily into a bag or pocket. The quality is really nice. Each one is hand made, and comes with a defect-free guarantee that’s easy to cash in on. If you find a defect, all you have to do is take a digital image and e-mail it to a provided address. They’ll ship you a new notebook right away. Quality and service are important to this company.

    So, if you’re looking for a quality notebook that you can shelf and cherish later on, this might be something you’ll want to look into. Just keep in mind that they’re a bit pricey since they’re premium items.

  • Using Swine Flu to Sell Your Product

    Using Swine Flu to Sell Your Product

    Swine Flu has to be the most covered and most talked about event in the last two years, and it’s not even that serious. From what I’ve read, the fatality rate is only 0.1%, which is less than the fatality rate of actual flu.

    It’s a new disease though, and it’s in the media limelight, so everyone’s heard of it, and the more people hear about it and ask about it, the more the media covers it. I think it’s past the point of informing people and bordering on propaganda. Sure, people should be informed, but hasn’t it gone on long enough? I even question the extra scanners that have been set up at airports and such, if the swine flu isn’t even as bad as a regular flu.

    Now, H1N1 is even being used to sell products! Dettol is a common cleaning agent company here, selling everything from hand soap to floor cleaner. The following pictures are from a can of disinfectant spray, similar to Lysol.

  • Twitter Social Games Are Annoying

    Twitter Social Games Are Annoying

    Recently I heard of a new social game called Spymaster.  Well, not so much heard of, as much as suffered from.  The game is currently in beta right now, and is something that has been cooked up for Twitter.  I can understand social games on Facebook.  They make sense, because they’re separate and they don’t interfere (too much) with other people’s home pages.  If someone’s updates are annoying you, you can hide the updates from that particular application, to keep your stream from being cluttered.

    Spymaster, on the other hand, seems to manage its notifications by posting everything a player does to their Twitter stream.  Yes, everything.  The problem with that is that on Twitter, you either follow someone or you don’t.  There’s no way to hide particular Tweets.  So, if you start putting out a lot of spam you give people two choices, put up with it or un-follow you.  I’m leaning towards the latter.  It’s hard enough to sort through all of the Tweets I get already, without having to scan through crap like “I just did damage to @XXXXX in an attempted assassination attempt!”

    Twitter is all about providing useful information to your friends, either in the form of status updates, witty sayings, links, images, video… well you get the picture.  In other words, no one is following you on Twitter to read your spam messages from a social game.  I mean, who really cares?  Other than yourself of course?

    I don’t see Twitter games that spam people’s streams becoming overly popular, but if they do, I hope to God that people are smart enough to create a separate account for it.  One last thing I’d like to say is, isn’t Twitter already suffering under the current load?  Is it really smart to try to build a social game that sends a lot of Tweets when the platform is already regularly overloaded?