Tuesday various

  • Last night, several local television stations ran a five-minute test of their digital signal, in anticipation of the February 17th switch from analog. My own television, which is the only one in the house not hooked up to cable, and which I use primarily as a platform for watching DVDs, failed the test. All I got was a test pattern, color bars. I’m not too concerned about it, frankly, since I don’t really use the set, but now the Obama team wants to give me more time now to worry about it. Maybe he just wants the time to put the finishing touches on his own restaurant review show. (I’m assuming any restaurant that serves Yes Pecan ice cream gets four stars.)
  • Speaking of bad food, however: Paula Deen wants to kill you. Whereas her colleague at the Food Network just tried to kill the holidays. [via]
  • I don’t know about joining the book club, but I’m up for the challenge of reading all of Gene Wolfe’s “Solar Cycle” novels this year. Especially since I’ve already read The Shadow of the Tortuer, really liked it, and own a copy of The Claw of the Conciliator, the second book in the series. The only “downside” is that Wolfe’s writing can be a little dense and does require some very close reading because of that. It might distract me from reading anything else for awhile. But still, I’m sorely tempted.
  • Speaking of Gene Wolfe, an interesting quote via Chris McLaren from a recent interview:

    The purely commercial writer writes for the editor. The purely artistic writer writes for himself or herself. I write for the reader. As long as the editor buys it, I don’t much care what he thinks of it. If it’s a good solid story, that’s enough for me. But if the reader doesn’t like it, it’s a failure.

    Smart man, that.

  • No optician needed. Self-adjusting eyeglasses:

    The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.

    This obviously won’t work for all vision problems (like my own, astigmatism), but in developing countries, where getting any type of affordable corrective lenses can prove difficult, this sounds like a really good idea. [via]

Sunday various

  • Once again, the predictive powers of science fiction prove to be faulty. Well color me unsurprised. That’s not what science fiction is for. [via]
  • Scott Westerfeld shares this interesting (if not necessarily recent) article on toxoplasma, a terrifying yet often fascinating parasite. While tens of millions of Americans carry the parasite — own a cat? Your chances of being one of them just went up — most will never know it. It’s only pregnant women or people with compromised immune systems who are at any genuine serious risk from disease. But it’s the parasite’s ability to actually alter behavior in its hosts — rats and possibly humans — that makes it interesting. The parasite needs to end up in a cat’s stomach to reproduce, so it encourages behavior that will lead to the host being eaten by cats. The real question, as Westerfeld wonders, is what happens when the cats stop playing along?
  • And as if toxoplasmosis wasn’t enough to worry about, there’s also the threat of radioactive jewlery on eBay. [via]
  • Infomerical: The Series? Well that’s one way of ensuring viewers watch the advertisements. Still, I don’t know about you, but I could do with a little less Billy Mays on television. [via]
  • And speaking of television, I’m very dubious about AMC’s remake of The Prisoner, but at least it gives me an excuse to finally watch the original series.

More year in review

In 2008, I…

  • Began, in earnest, my job as Developmental Editor. When I’m knee-deep in a manuscript with a red pen or blue pencil, when I’m looking at what the competition does and how we can do it better or do something else, that’s when I really feel like an editor.
  • Published two issues of Kaleidotrope, to generally favorable reviews, including a brief mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. I’d love to see a story or poem from the zine reprinted there in the next edition, or at least included among the honorable mentions. I’d love to see the zine reviewed in more places, like at The Fix or the Internet Review of Science Fiction. Heaven knows I send them copies. I think I need to step up the zine a little in 2009, looking at better ways to market it, and looking at ways I can maybe start paying my contributors more money. I’m very excited about the next issue, coming out in April, and already have a lot of material for future issues.
  • Suffered a herniated disc. Of course, it’s not the disc so much as the nerves it presses in on that cause the pain and discomfort. In my case, that’s L5-S1, and despite three spinal steroid injections and many weeks of physical therapy, I’m not free from pain half a year later. It’s usually very manageable, however, and nothing that’s actually incapacitated me. I do miss being able to sit comfortably in chairs. I think I need to keep at the stretching every day, and maybe look at some additional strengthening exercises I can do. I liked my orthopedist, but I’d like to avoid ever seeing him again all the same. I’d like to avoid surgery altogether if I can help it. (Right this minute it’s pretty painful, I must say.)
  • Traveled a little. I went to Los Angeles at Labor Day to sightsee and watch bad movies with friends — some of whom I met for the very first time in person — and then to England in November for work. We spent a gorgeous weekend in Miami in January, visiting my sister, who was down there at the time, and I spent my birthday down in New Orleans at a conference. I had to cancel going to Readercon in July, however, and would have liked to have seen the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary. But who knows what 2009 holds? It’s already been suggested I’ll be going to Chicago for business in March.
  • Voted for a black man for President. Who won. Felt really damn good about that.
  • Moved this blog to WordPress. I want to change the template, though.
  • Continued to write, but not enough. I hope to improve on that in 2009.
  • Learned that my sister is getting married. My congratulations again to her and Brian!

Ouch, receding

I haven’t talked much about my herniated disc here in recent weeks. Then again, there hasn’t been all that much to say.

My left leg still hurts, most often when I’ve been sitting for a little while or right after I stand up. I’m considerably better than I was back in late May and early June when the problem first started, and the discomfort is usually pretty easy to manage nowadays. Only rarely do I feel the need to take anything for it. But there is still discomfort. I spend an awful lot of my time standing or lying down to avoid it. The herniated disc has gotten better, but it hasn’t gone away.

I’m in a sort of “let’s wait and see” phase right now. This comes after three steroid injections and several months of physical therapy*. Most people tend to get better, my orthopedist told me last Friday, and most of what he does — from the injections to therapy to surgery — is simply meant to help the process along. Just because I’m sometimes in pain now doesn’t mean that’s how I’ll be for the rest of my life. Which I guess is some comfort.

I’ll continue my stretches, but I’m done with PT and the regular doctor visits. If the pain gets worse, I’ll go back. But for now, I’ll just try to avoid sitting for too long and hope the disc just needs time to fully heal.

* Originally intended, and prescribed, as several weeks. I liked the guy, and I think the PT helped, but I wouldn’t have minded a little more structure to the whole thing.

Ouch receding?

This afternoon, I had the first of what will likely be two epidural steroid injections for my herniated lumbar disc. Aside from some aches in my lower back and feeling a little tired, I feel just about the same as always — for better and for worse. The real test will be tomorrow, and then more so again in two weeks after the next injection. This procedure works for most, but not all, patients in relieving the swelling around the pinched nerves. So ideally it will prevent the sciatica that’s been the real issue while I continue going to PT to strengthen my spine. But it’s not guaranteed, and neither is the length of time I’d be pain-free if it does work. Again, ideally I’ll get the second shot, the pain in my left leg will vanish, and by the time I need a new injection — there’s a limit to how many they can safely do in a year — the PT and my own home exercising will have gotten my body past the need for them.

Anyway, that’s the hope.