First Migraine

Friday night I had a new personal experience: an occulus migraine.

I had spent most of the evening playing World of Warcraft, but not intensely because I had Ghostbusters playing on my TV. Mostly in-game I was hanging around one of the main cities and chatting with guild members. Around 1am I was getting noticeably tired, so I got up to adjust my thermostat, put on PJs, and get ready for bed. When I sat down at my desk again and started to read the latest lines of the chat, I noticed I couldn't see the very next word after the one I was actually reading, until I looked at it. Kind of like if you look at the sun and see sunspots. Except I hadn't...
Anyway, over the course of the next 5 or so minutes, I lost about 60% of my vision, mostly in my right eye. I wasn't seeing black nor colored lines, just a kind of blind spot, a waverly distortion. Best I can describe is like a turbulent puddle of water or mercury even. A pressure headache was developing across my entire brain. I popped 2 Advil (only meds I have) and climbed into bed, lights out.

I txt'd my sister and we txt'd back and forth a couple of times, but after a short while I was unable to see the keys on my cell phone to txt! Fortunately my Droid's features saved me: the speech-to-text function works remarkably well. After about 30 minutes since I first noticed it starting, my vision quickly faded back to normal. Tension headache was still there, but I fell asleep knowing my vision was fine.

My Mom has been getting full-on migraines since she was a kid, and my sister for many years as well. I also dated a girl for a couple of years who got them intensely, so between all of them, I know what to expect and how to deal with it. I'm 29 and this was my first. It wasn't scary, in fact I was fascinated by this new experience, but it wasn't desirable.
We ran the gamut of questions as to what might have triggered it... But nothing has been out of the ordinary for me; my diet is normal, my stress level is normal, etc, etc.

However since I've been thinking about it, I have noticed an element of my synesthesia has been more pronounced the past few months. When I read black text on a white background, particularly serifs text (like Times New Roman, and not so much Arial), on either a computer monitor or even on paper, I see green and purple auras to most of the letters. Prior to a few months ago, these were very faint and only on about half of all letters (almost exclusively lowercase, and letters with tails up or down; examples: d, b, q, p, h, t, y; and also rounded hump letters: n, u, and m). Now it's almost all letters and more vibrant.
I previously blogged about my synesthesia, when I discovered it was an actual pathology and not just my overactive imagination, here:
http://coolestintentions.blogspot.com/2009/09/synesthesia.html
This is all for my own record keeping/journaling, but if you want to read some personal info about me, go read that blog entry... However, don't expect me to bring it up in casual conversation.

6 Bucks

I don't eat out all the time since I enjoy cooking, but I do eat out frequently. It seems that where ever I go I'll end up spending 6 bucks and change.

Subway: the subs I'd get are 6 bucks and change.
Chic-Fil-A: two 8 piece nuggets, 6 bucks.
Chipotle/Qdoba: burrito, 6 bucks and change.
Tacobell (rare): two chicken quesadillas, 6 bucks.
McDonald's: 10 piece nugget meal, almost 6 bucks.
Panera Bread: sandwich for almost 7 bucks.
Etc, etc.

Sushi will run me 9 bucks, as will Chinese food like orange chicken or sweet and sour chicken.

Economically it's of course cheaper to cook. I can get like 8 large chicken breasts for about $10, and one is big enough to fill me.
Or a tasty personal sized DiGorno 4-cheese pizza for just $3 and that will nearly fill me.

Droid!

After contemplating it for a couple of months, I finally upgraded my Rogue to a Droid X.

I played with one at a Verizon store in Manhattan and now that they run Android 2.2 and I was able to get it online from Verizon for a good price (I had a few upgrades and deals stacked), it was a good decision.

This phone is awesome. It's comparable to the iphone; a mini computer in your pocket. Not to sound like a Linux snob but I like it more than iphones: it's more customizable.

Naturally I've downloaded a bunch of great apps (all free of course) and rearranged the layout of things. I do like to customize my things.
Synching my email and contacts is great; I've never owned a smart phone or Blackberry before.

And I LOVE the Swype keyboard!!
Aside from the standard touch-screen keyboard to tap on like every other device that doesn't have a physical keyboard, the Swype keyboard let's you slide your finger across the on-screen keys without lifting your finger off the screen. It uses some A.I. with word predictability and I guess pattern recognition to determine what word you want.
I wrote this entire entry on my Droid using the Swype keyboard! It makes "typing" really fun, like a game. =)


TL,DR version: I got a Droid X and it's awesome.

Manhattan

Last Sunday Steve & I took a day trip to Manhattan.
We took the Bolt Bus from Baltimore and it was perfect. Features: plenty of leg space, power outlets, and free wifi, $20 each way. If you buy a ticket in advance, you're guaranteed a seat. Good deal.

So we did a lot of walking all around the city. Hit Chinatown, walked up Bowery, subway from Lafayette&Houston to Times Sq, walked north up 5th/6th Ave (there was a Polish Parade on 5th), went to the NY Public Library's upstairs (to the room that Ghostbusters was filmed in), misc stores along the way, Rockefeller Center (Lego store!), then walked thru about 2/3rds (!!) of Central Park and came on out the west side, walked down to Columbus Circle and took a subway back to Times Sq-area, got dinner and caught the 8:15 Bolt Bus back to Bmore. Somewhere in all that we hit Tannen's and also Fantasmo magic shops (David Roth was demo'ing at Fantasmo!).
Steve & I were also on fire, we met 3 separate chicks around our age; each I felt I would ask to hang with me/us later that night even after very brief conversations... except it was Sunday and we were going back to Bmore: a different world.
Got home around 12:30am, which was kind of late for a Sunday, but totally worth it.


While eating dinner & relaxing before heading for the bus home, I came upon a revelation: I need to live in NYC.
Need to.
Now, certainly I've felt that I don't belong in MD for a long time. That's pretty standard when you grow up somewhere with noticeably different culture traits than where you're forced to have moved to. I didn't chose to live in MD; and I'm only here now due to circumstance & convenience.
But this came as more than a thought -- it was a feeling. I'm feeling it with every fiber of my being. I want to make this happen.

After texting that night and then tonight talking with my cousin Joe, he's on board. We're each going to start looking for jobs in/around Manhattan; as well as apartments.
Joe said something that activated the rebellious nature in me. He said that it feels like our respective parents have kept us from moving/living/working/going to school in NYC. That's kind of true, and it's probably because they did grow up in the city (in Ozone Park, Queens).
I want to chose where I live. I choose NYC.


Also, the fortune in my fortune cookie this week read:
" Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation. :-) "