My Night in the ER

So I awoke last night at about 2:00am with the incredible urge to
pee(nothing new for me), however when I was trying to do my business
nothing was happening.

This went on for 45 minutes, and I knew what that meant: kidney stone!

Sure enough, at about 3:00am the pain hit. I jumped out of bed,
hastily got dressed and race to the ER before the pain was too intense
to see straight. Normally I would have had someone drive me, but Tasha
was in Pittsburgh and my parents were camping.

After I got to the hospital I was quickly attended to and the pain
medication was administered. The pain in waves over the next 10 hours
until finally I passed the stone.

It was 3mm, which doesn't sound big, but it was the largest of the now
4 stones I have passed.

Let's hope it's another 8 years before I have to deal with another one
of these things.

Sent from my iPhone

Fall Has Arrived

Of seems to have taken forever this year, but autumn is finally upon
us. I wait all year for this season. I absolutely hate summer. Heat is
my mortal enemy. I spend all summer cooped up inside.

Now with the chill on the air I can finally return to the outdoors.
Our yard, so rife with neglect, will finally receive some much-needed
attention now that the threat of sweat is gone.

My drive home from work, usually so dreadful and monotonous, has been
made a beautiful thing thanks to the colorful leaves.

So perhaps I will see you outside. Look for the guy with his jacket,
hat and scarf, and the big smile on his face.

Awesome Game Store

So a friend of mine clued me in on an amazing game store in New
Holland, PA, Six Feet Under Games.

First of all, the place is huge. Enormous. They have so many games I
have never seen.

What's really awesome about this place though is their game library.
They have a room in the back with a couple hundred games that you can
just grab off the shelf, take to a table and play. For free. So you
can sample games before you buy.

I went last night with some friends for open gaming night. We played
Railroad Tycoon. It was a gray game and it's now on my to-buy list.

Reading Science Fiction

I do a lot of reading.  A lot.  I go through many books a year and countless comic books.  There is always a stack of reading material at my bedside that is at least a foot high.  

My reading is split pretty evenly between fiction and non-fiction.  I read history books like they are going out of style.  When it comes to fiction I enjoy mostly fantasy and spy novels, with a few slice-of-life stories thrown in here and there (John Irving being my favorite).  

Most of my science fiction reading comes in the form of Star Wars novels.  Most will not be winning any Pulitzers, but as a big fan of Star Wars, the books feed my need for more stories in the universe.  

But every now and then I break out of the mold and go for something else.  Back in 1994 when I was just breaking into the computer programming scene I read William Gibson's Neuromancer.  It's required reading for all computer geeks, especially web developers as Gibson coined the term cyberspace.  

I went on to read a bunch of novels by Gibson and I'm currently half way through Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.  This is another classic book among the programming crowd.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit, but there is one problem.

When I read sci-fi books I always feel like I never quite know what exactly is going on.  I can follow the story, but I can't follow the world.  Because these novels are set in some psuedo-future world where things are all just a little different, I can't quite imagine how they are supposed to look.  I have no point of reference.  Star Wars books don't suffer from this because I have the movies to go to for look and feel.  Fantasy doesn't have this problem because we all know what castles and dragons look like.  But whenever I read sci-fi I feel like I'm in a dream where everything is a little hazy.  

I'm sure it's just me and my inability to paint a mental picture.  Which is probably the reason I'm not an artist.  I can't picture it in my mind.  

So does anyone else out there have the same problem when they read science fiction?

Picking Pumpkins

Today we headed over of Weaver's Orchards with Adam and Layne to pick
pumpkins with the girls. It was aperfext cool fall day, although there
was an over abundance of gnats. We managed to have a good time despite
the bugs in our ears.