Out of The Saddle

I've always considered accidents to be the exception. If there's something I want to do, that carries a slight chance of going really wrong, I'm gonna go for it. So today when Gugod said he was going for a two hour bicycle ride to the ocean, I told him to wait up a sec while I got ready to join him.

I knew if I fell it could be really bad. But I also knew that part of the (well my anyway) healing process is to get back in the saddle as soon as feasible. So today was my day.

And then it wasn't. I ended up riding about a half mile. I realized that I couldn't grip the handlebar with my left hand and that I couldn't squeeze the left brake lever enough to even slow down. So I aborted the mission.

This experience made me realize that when I get back to Seattle I might not be able to ride my motorcycle either. If I can't do the clutch, it's right out. I think I need to start doing some squeezing exercises.

In other news, I slept 10 hours last night, with just a couple painful interludes. The Ambien probably helped but it definitely wasn't trippy for me. I think the real reason I was able to sleep so long is that I can now sleep on my left side, my right side and my back. Before I couldn't really do any side. So I'm getting little better. Yay!

My Morning Drug Run

I slept last night. Fantastic. But I wasn't taking any chances. I was already exhausted and purposefully decaffed when I popped 3 Xanax pills and the two Nyquil pills for good measure. I also found a new slightly upright position to sleep in.

So I got to bed around midnight and up around 9. In pain, but happy. I asked Gugod if he could take me to the 新竹General Hospital. It was Monday and the docs were supposed to be in. I needed to talk to a doc about getting a new drug regimen.

When we got there the place was jam packed full of people, but I must say the Taiwanese are efficient people. I got to see a doc in < 30 minutes. This guy was really cool. He spoke good English (rare in that place) and worked with me to get a good set of pills into my possesion.

I got more Xanax plus Ambien, Voltaren and Alprazolam. Pain killers, muscle relaxants and sleepers. I didn't specifically ask for these but I'm very happy with the outcome. I'm especially looking forward to taking the Ambien which my ex, Eileen Chaos, used to go on and on about. She said they made her trip visuals and have very strange thoughts before knocking her out. Can't wait...

Staying off the coffee until I get this thing under control.

In the computer world, I'm starting to think about ramping up the Wikiwyg project. Wysiwyg editing for Wikis. I'm writing this post in the Blogger wysiwyg editor, and it's rather nice. But I can do better!

No Rest For The Caffeinated orz

I took 1.5mg of Xanax last night but nada. Well I guess I felt kind of out of it. But I must have been pretty much into too, cuz I never fell asleep. Know what I mean?

Today I actually fell asleep on the couch of the XD Studio Cafe. For some reason couches are more easy on my ribs than my bed.

Anyway the basic plan is no coffee today and try the Xanax again tonight. This happens in about two hours. Wish me luck...

Sleepless. Not in Seattle.

Each day out of the hospital is supposed to be better than the last. In general, I am healing, but every night my sleep has been worse. Last night I didn't even get there.

In the hospital I got a morphine shot twice a night 6 hours apart. That usually knocked me out for at least 2 hours a shot. I temperd it with some xanax and ibu from my own toiletry bag. Sleep wasn't great but it happened.

Now I'm outta there and usually I go to sleep around 1am. No position is comfortable, and usually there's pain in my arm or ribs. So I lay restless until 7am... the exhaustion outweighs the pain and I get some. Except last night...

Today I got gugod to take me back to the hospital to beg for some xanax. It worked. I got 4 days worth anyways. Hopefully a 1mg dose will send me to the lala lounge tonight. Dang it, I hope so...

Sleep or not, I still love being alive!

Thank You Friends

Thinking back on my hospital stay, I'm glad I'm out. Ingys and hospitals don't mix. Still I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks for being there around the clock and keeping my spirits up.

Thanks first off to Gugod. You have been a wonderful loving host for my entire stay in Taiwan. I hope I can return the favor some day...

Also these wonderful people gave their time, somtimes in the wee hours of morning: jjjenq, drbean, Crucify, coban, glasia , knight, momizi, yinjieh, plasmaball, b6s, hcchien, clkao, hlb and lukhnos! All these people helped me do things like talk to the Chinese speaking nurses, and pass me the pee jar.

Drbean actually spent a huge amount of his time and even hitchhiked from his far away home to the hospital.

Special thanks to knight and yinjieh for setting up a personal 3G wifi router in my room. That was totally hot to be on the intarweb while on morphine in an adjustable bed.

Also Ilya and June made a guest appearance for a couple hours. Most people rarely if never get to see Ilya since his wedding a year and half ago. I was blessed. They were great to talk to. June, you are a really cool lady when you aren't in a wedding proceeding! ;-) I someday hope to get to work directly with you both. We could change the world.

I also want to thank Gugod's parents. They are quiet folk but I know they care. You are special people with a great son.

Thanks to the Perl community and Socialtext people for showing your support. It's so great to be a part of both groups.

Seattle people, I miss you so much. My return date is now May 8th. We have unfinished business y'all...

To my close friends, you know who you are, thanks for your support and the phone calls. I have a lot of love in my heart for each of you.

Life Is Where It's At

Being alive is so cool. Don't take it for granted. We all do. Takes a near death experience to wake us up.

April 17th, I was driving my old Yamaha 125 scooter through downtown 新竹 in Taiwan. It was a nice day. I was on my way to meet Gugod at OPCafé to work on some work stuff. All the sudden this car was sideways in front of me about 20' away. I hit the brakes hard... darkness... nothing...

I woke up in the hospital feeling pretty good. Some people were asking me if I minded them drilling a hole through my rib cage to insert a drainage hose for excess blood and whatnot. "Sure. Go for it!" I guess massive morphine has this affect on your rationale.

I spent the next 8 days in that hospital. Gugod was usually there even at night while I slept. He made a wiki to recruit other Taiwanese Perl Hackers to watch over me in shifts. I requested morphine as much as they would allow.

After 5 days the internal bleeding stopped and they pulled out the hose from my broken rib cage. Then they did surgery on my shattered left wrist. This involved a weird exoskeleton to put my hand in the correct relation to my arm where there is no bone left to hold it.

I love my Ducati Monster back in Seattle but I had no wish to become one. Regardless, I have unwittingly taken the fist step. Those familiar with the Monster will recognize the similarity to my current left arm, seen here.

I'm out now for the 3rd day. Life is kinda starting over for me. I renewed my lease. I love it. I was so lucky. It could have been so much worse. I'm in so much pain now, I can't sleep until exhaustion outweighs pain. But I know each day will be better.

When I left the hospital, my roommate was a kid with a triple fractured leg and face. He'll be there at least a month. Poor guy. But he's lucky too. We're alive. Everyday we are is a gift. That's the way I see it now.

How a Hacker Can Afford To Blog

Hi. I'm Ingy döt Net. Yeah, for real, that's my name.

I've been avoiding blogging for some time now. Not that I don't have stuff to say. More about what software to use.

I like to write software, so using someone else's stuff seems gross. Easy but sleazy. Can't do it.

Until now. Yesterday I was looking at my friend's blog: http://gugod.org/blog/. I asked him what software he uses. He told me that he edits it all on blogger.com, but after each post it gets ftp'd to his server.

I like this idea. It's a good starting point but I can write wrappers over it at any point. Neat. I could write stuff to merge in my twitter.com posts.

Maybe tomorrow...