"Off" sick, poor old me !

Well in this world of "always-on", how can one actually be "off" ? The emails keep flying and the mobile phone keeps ringing.

I've got one of those head hurting, can't think straight, low energy, drippy and coughy cold / flu things. Although Mom, in her traditional ways, would say I can't have the flew if I'm not in the hospital !

I've been taking a lethal combination of cold/flu/cough day/night drugs and the occasional ibuprofin, Fisherman's Friend and cough syrup, mixed with unavoidable warm drink caffeine. The drug store visit was quite an ordeal, faced with the myriad of choices, in my state, how can I really distinguish between post-nasal drip, sinus pain or simple cold symptoms - just make it go away - I feel like crap ! Oh, but make sure it doesn't make me fall asleep in front of the computer, or worse, driving the car !

What makes it worse, is that annoying call you have with a person that almost sympathizes with you, but says "I've got the flu too - only got an hour sleep last night" - B***SH**, they sound so frigging cheery you'd swear they'd just won the lottery, no way could they be feeling this bad !

Oh, and of course this week just happened to be the date for my annual checkup with my doctor. Lucky me. Of course, she thinks I've got something a lot worse than the flu, which she is trying to prove with a saliva sample from deep in my throat - definite gag reflex - I thought I was going to throw up right in her face ! Not to mention the...

Prevention ? You ask - well, no I didn't get a flu shot back last fall. But I'm not sure that would have helped against the emotional and environmental stress of building a back yard ice rink in -15c weather last weekend ! Maybe my work buddy (and TTC newbie DK) has the right approach - wearing gloves on the subway ! Prevention - how about not going near your germ carrying kids when they come home from school (bless their little hearts) !

I've actually had a fair share of customer meetings this week. And each one has that awkward moment - should I pass on my germs via a business appropriate hearty handshake or be a wimpy, polite guy and mention my sorry state ! Then you have a little time with a colleague when you finally have the time to ask all the important questions you've been saving up for months and he's rambling on with all this great insight into the industry and technology - but your head is just about ready to explode. Then you decide, hey, before I go home, get a few winks perhaps, and prepare for the onslaught of the weekend - I might as well post my to my blog...and here I am.

Wish me luck shaking this one soon so I can enjoy the weekend. I've just got to get past a kids concert at school and maybe an adventurous outing to see my ultimate buddies open their movie Metal: A Headbanger's Journey tonight, sounds like that'll cure it !

OPB

No, not that "company" that SEH and I started many years ago.
No, not that old rap song.

Other Peoples Blogs

Mark Evans is a friend of mine who just happens to be a highly credible news and commentary source for the telecommunication industry. Mark writes for the National Post and his blog usually contains very serious content regarding the industry. However, Monday Jan 16th's entry provided a link to Rick Mercer's latest take on RIM with this spoof-ad, funny stuff, thanks for the link Mark.

Stvhrst is another friend that started a blog way before mine. However he definitely needs a little friendly push to increase the editorial comment a bit !

A VC is a new one that Mark just recommended, a nice blend of new tech, NYC, US politics and most importantly, music recommendations.

There are of course lots of corporate blogs, some which end up being a PR nightmare, while others can perhaps show a corporation's more personal side, like my fellow colleagues at Entrust - Sue and Chris.

The list of blogs is endless and constantly growing (well over 60M), so while I've been writing this entry I've wasted away quite a few precious minutes looking for some other cool blogs, but it's time a made dinner for the kids. I'll leave you with a sports one for the motor car racing [said with a Jackie Stewart accent] fan, especially with the new season close by - FastMachines.

What's a Googlewhack ?

I just tripped across this one again (I don't remember exactly what the trigger neuron was!) - this story always brings a smile to my face.

First, a googlewhack is what happens when two words are entered into Google (with no quotes) and it comes back with one and only one hit. Simple right, no !

I think I've told some of you about this before, but we went to see Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure last summer. What a fabulously funny, TRUE story.

If you ever get a chance to see this show, get your hands on the DVD or read the book - go for it, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

If you're in the mood to burn away a few minutes (hours), give it a try. You can get a one hit result pretty quickly, however the real trick is finding a real web site, not just an obscure link (like what you get when you enter something daft like "wonderously bizarros"). Note that many/all of the googlewhacks at googlewhack are probably no longer googlewhacks !

One Passion - Two Monkeys

[It does sound like a porn movie title doesn't it !]

I was thinking recently about what my real passion is in life...it didn't take too long, although I had to determine why some of my other interests weren't passions.

Music.

Adding two new music related recommendations for January:

Artic Monkeys - latest cocky young lads from England. Their first hit didn't get me too excited, but they just released their first album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and the tracks are really growing on me...download recommendation: Dancing Shoes. Latest single peaked at number two on the whacky UK charts last week.

Love Monkey - new show on CBS with Tom Cavanagh (from Ed fame). For me, the setting of the indy record business is very cool, with funky group of characters, a hot babe, great song samples, and some new artist "finds".

Can you have more than one passion ?

I'm hoping I can post a regular music recommendation per month.

Hanging out with J.Lo

Well, not quite. But it got your attention.

Big shout out to my big party work friends (especially, SM, TB, DK, KH, ML, GM and PB) who made the late night events of this week a lot of fun.

Summary: Downtown Miami, not so nice; South Beach, a great way to spend a hell of a lot of money; weather: not fab, but a lot better than here; music - could do with a good dose of fab Brit tuneology.

Note that the party events of the week were paid in full by massive amounts of Powerpoint exposure starting at 8am, mind numbing rah-rahs from a Tony Robbins motivation speaker protege, Armageddon talk from guest speaker Wesley Clark (although I actually did like his talk), constant Blackberry interruptions and customer "emergencies" and being away from my family for 6 days.

Other pluses for the trip were the real animals of Florida (gators in the Everglades National Park and dolphins in the harbour), and of course the golf (see previous post).

For those heading to South Beach with unlimited wads of cash, these hotel style hot spots are a must: The Shore Club and Hotel Victor, and Nikki Beach would have been pretty cool if our company hadn't rented it out for the (earlier part of the) evening.

Golf in January

I was lucky enough to be on business this week in Miami, and even more lucky that my wife was ok with me going down early to play a little golf. Turns out the planets were aligned and I shot my best round ever last Sunday. I'm proud of the score because I've finally broken 100, but don't get me wrong, I'm still a little embarrassed it's taken about 30 years. We had a late tee off (for this time of year) so the last couple of holes was an interesting exercise is ball hunting, with a hero par on the island green 18th in the dark. I managed to score a 96 (51 out, 45 in, 7 pars, a-blow-up-9 and a bunch 'o doubles or worse). Course: Hillcrest.

Faith once again in the great game.