Continuance

I'm working from home today as I'm still having serious energy issues if I sat upright. It's going well - I can concentrate so much better here at home than in the noisy environment at work.

While prepping for lunch, my thoughts turned to one of the key factors of my childhood, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K, my first true computer.

I spent so much time playing games on that machine that I can reliably say that I wasted practically years on it. On the other hand, I also did a lot of coding on it and if I hadn't had my good old Speccy, I'd not be the technophile I am today.

I downloaded an emulator and had an amusing time looking over some old favourites. In particular, I remember working at a computer store when I was younger and having to go to a tradeshow. Tradeshows are very noisy, as anyone who's ever been to one will attest to and I remember loading the demo Speccy with Equinox, which had a particularly catchy title tune...and guarding the Speccy from visitors to the booth while it's loading. You see, the Spectrum loaded its programs from tape. Yep, good old cassette tape. And it took forever to load. Sinclair Research decided to make interrupting the load sequence easy, by killing it if you pressed - you guessed it - the space bar (well, key) which also happens to be the largest key on the rubber keyboard. Ah...the joys of tape-based loaders.

As I laid there on my bed listening to the all-too-familiar strains of Equinox, it hit me - I can show my kids the emulator. Heck, I can build the emu on their netbook and set them loose on it. Hundreds of games. Built in BASIC. Colours (it was named the Spectrum for a reason). Okay, just 8 colours but hey, in those days, that was a lot.

Ah...the passing down of tradition from one generation to another.

I wonder if evolution allows for a technophilia selection path?

Micro-post: Finally!

I finished watching the miniseries adaptations of Frank Herbert's Dune, Dune: Messiah and Children of Dune by the SciFi channel (no, I'm not going to call it by its new name).

In one scene towards the end, the actor playing Stilgar really hams it up when he declares, "Summon the worms!!!"

Yes, it really takes three exclamation points to do his overacting justice.

I forgive him for hamming it up though. The poor guy spent practically the entire miniseries looking stern and asking whoever is in charge, "Shall I take his water?" (i.e. kill) whenever someone new comes on scene. Ironically, his big scene comes practically immediately after he's killed someone, the only person he "takes the water" of for the entire show. And he didn't even ask anyone if he could do it (as there was no one else in charge).

There's some witty comment that can be made about this, but not by me at 1am in the morning, unable to sleep and in pain.

Poor Stilgar. I feel like that actor sometimes. But at least he gets paid and has a cool Crysknife prop.

*sigh*

Recovering

I've returned from surgery in the US a few days ago. I'm still on painkillers, which prohibits me from driving or doing anything that might entail responsibility. I'm also desperately tired.

My sis accompanied me on this trip, as she did a year and a half ago. We argued, like two strong-willed women would, but in general we didn't try to kill each other (much) this time. I chalk it up as a success. Thanks, Sis.

I didn't realize just how badly damaged I was until today. I don't mean the surgery - it's the other scars I've accumulated from a lifetime's worth of surviving. Truth is, I don't know how to relax anymore.

I rested for most of yesterday. I'm on doctor's orders to be on strict bedrest. I think my body decided that she has me exactly where she wanted me...and launched a coup d'etat. Under new management, I've been in bed all day long, napping unpredictably and doing absolutely nothing.

It's nice.

There is a deep sense of peace and serenity. I haven't felt like this in a long time, except perhaps for my recent trip to Victoria. I don't think I know how to just shut down and recharge.

I'm trying to learn. Recovering from surgery doesn't exactly give me much of a choice. As I'm still in pretty bad shape and in quite a lot of pain, I think my plans to return to work on Monday may perhaps be unrealistic. We'll see, I guess.

Is this peace and serenity something I've lost all these years? If so, then a lot of my own personal brand of insanity makes more sense. Maybe the best Sanity Defence is to let go, literally, of the real world and sleep, perchance to dream.