Friday, July 28, 2006

Myoclonus July 28, 2006

It is official; I have been diagnosed with Myoclonus.

Myoclonus is defined as a sudden involuntary jerking or twitching of the muscle caused by sudden muscle contractions. No one knows exactly what brings its on if it is not a growth inside your head. There are drugs that you can take to stop it but again, an exact cure is hard to come by as a few million things in our lives can cause it.

I have had this muscle spasm for some 4 months now and it got to a point that I was twitching all over just about every minute. Not so bad at home watching TV but embarrassing during a business meeting. I have been to a neurologist and had my head scanned and x-rayed and my doctor has not called me in for an earlier appointment – which theoretically is a good thing.

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Why do they stick a sticker that says ONLY OPEN BY THE REFERRING DOCTOR over your x-ray envelope? I never understood this and ever since I can remember I would always open the x-rays when I got home, never mind I had no clue what I was looking at, but the fact that I paid for it and that it is pictures of my body immediately assigns birth right for me to open it at will.

In my envelope if goodies there was a CD rom of the MRI of my head. I promptly loaded up onto my computer and boy, am I glad I did.

Do you recall many years ago a very healthy and fit male prisoner was sentenced to death? And before the execution he donated his body to science. And what Science did was to freeze his body and sliced it up from heads to toe, all the while taking photos of each section. When computerised you simply wheel scrolled with your mouse and imagines of the body would appear from the bottom of the foot to the tip of the head. The quick you scroll the fast the images ‘grow’ all the while you see the internal sections of the body. Similar to motion picture in its infancy, akin to cartoon drawing on the corner of a book.

Anyway, the CD Rom containing the MRI of my head did the same thing. I could wheel scroll looking from the top of my head to the base of my neck, and from the tip of my left ear to the tip of my right year.

This was great fun, though I had no idea what I was looking at but I still burnt a copy.

* * *

It has been 4 months since I have been twitching and in that time I have been able to isolate the cause. It stress.

* * *

People tell me to take it easy, don’t get stressed out, Rome was not build in a day. But I am always in a hurry. I was in a hurry to leave primary school so that I could get into high school then university then start work. I am always in a hurry to finish projects and I eat like I am in a competition and people are fighting for my food. I am in a hurry to enjoy myself and in a hurry to relax when on holidays.

When I am dead I’ll rest.

In the meantime, working with people who do not share the same sense of urgency stresses me *twitch*.

* * *

It is interesting to note that a hippcup is categorised as Myoclonus, as is that jerking feeling you get just before you sleep.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Dump Shop July 14, 2006

It really irks me when lifestyle TV shows and magazine articles show off multimillion dollar houses and they go on to describe how fabulous, beautiful and opulent the houses are. I mean, of course, after all it did it cost a few million to build and furnish? The question really becomes, ‘How can a multimillion dollar house look so ugly?’ Featuring that would be worth watching.

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If I were to produce a reality show I would have teams of two building a house and furnishing it from scavenging in dump (recycle) shops, kerb side pickups and the ‘giveaway’ section of our local the Saturday’s paper.

Where I live our local councils have kerb side pick ups that basically asks all residents to dump all their years of junk that they have accumulated in their garage and shed onto the footpath, and a council truck would along and take it away. The beauty of this system for me is that I would go along with my trailer just before the council trucks and go through this stuff and pick off the stuff that I like. The only problem is that a few thousand other people have the same idea and it gets to be quite an afternoon entertainment sitting on your front veranda watching people fight over your junk. Is even more exciting when you are the scavenger fighting off other leeches.

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Needless to say my favourite places to shop are recycle shops, and in particular, a dump shop about 10 km away from my home. This dump shop is located right next to the dump. The theory of ‘one man’s rubbish is another’s treasure’ is practically applied as no sooner people throw away their rubbish it appears for sale at the dump shop. The list of bargains I been able to pick up is endless. The thrill for me is finding a bargain. Like the multimillion dollar house anyone can buy anything new at a shop, but to find it at a bargain is the thrill and the challenge.

Take, for example, my golf clubs. I managed to get a full set of clubs, the golf bag and the buggy for less than $25. Admittedly, it took some 3 months and over 4 different recycle shops to find all the clubs and accessories and a few weeks more to clean and buff them up, but in the end my golfing would not be better if I were using a thousand dollar set. And I reckon it is cool that no two clubs are made by the same manufacturer!

My daughter loves the dump shop and would share in the same excitement as me whenever we visit. But I think it is the ice cream that I bribe her with when we get that that she is excited about.

My wife, on the other hand, thinks that all the things I pick up are junk.

It is hard to live with a non-collector.

Living With A Collector