things to do while you're sick

i'll avoid detailing the obvious activities which accompany being physically impaired by some kind of evil retrovirus, like hacking, groaning, and trying your best to sleep it off while you're 3-year-old bounces on your chest demanding Spiderman gummy vitamins and your 3-month-old incessantly (albeit happily) squawks having only recently discovered her voluntary control over her vocal cords.


...not to mention my poor wife who had to deal with these two mostly on her own while i attempted to recuperate in some semblance of peace.  it's something of a miracle i wasn't gutted while i slept, but again this probably had a bit to do with the chest-bouncing 3-year-old (he's old enough now to be a viable witness). 

now that i'm beginning to feel a little better, i'm looking back at the past few days in amazement that i actually accomplished as much as i have.  besides sleeping as much as is humanly possible given the above conditions, i've actually gotten some things done.  and i'm not talking about your run-of-the-mill stuff you normally do while you're feeling a bit under the weather.

i'm talking about things most people despise doing even when they're feeling at their best, much less when they're choking back death as i felt i've been doing for the past 72 hours.

#1) taxes - that's right, the joy that is income tax preparation is one that no human being really looks upon with wanton anticipation, even if they are expecting a healthy refund from good ol' Uncle Sam.  i prepared our federal and state forms in one setting, requiring only 2 cups of coffee, 2 extra-strength Tylenol, and 2 Benadryl to do so.

#2) website renewal - for those of you who have never attempted to set up your own website, or have only renewed one by clicking the "sure, bill me again for more money than it's really worth" button and hitting "Submit," this surely sounds like no major feat.  i am not of that category, mind you.  my original domain host is great for customer service and server reliability, but they recently upped my monthly fee from $5 (which i thought was a bit high to begin with) to $8 (which is half the cost of an MMO subscription, read = outrageous).  so, after deciding last month that i didn't really need a website anyway, i realized i missed it.  not "$8/month missed it," but i missed it nonetheless.  so, while i was purging my system in ways i would only do my readers a horrible disservice by describing in detail, i decided i would try to find a more affordable solution to my website hosting needs.  upon finally discovering a site (a free site without ads, by the way) which seemed to manage both reliability and functionality, i had to figure out how to get my original service transferred to the new site.  my original service, however, still owns my domain name for the next year... which is quite affordable.  it's their web hosting that's gotten overpriced... ::sigh:: i digress.  needless to say, this was a process with which i'm unfamiliar, as a simple domain transfer would have been much easier.  but, as mentioned before, i'm cheap when it comes to these things, and since i've already paid for another year of my domain name, i'm not going to purchase it again until absolutely necessary (exactly 346 days from today).  after having cleared this hurdle, it was time to upload my webpages to the new site, which for some reason didn't like my .css file.  that was probably another hour of troubleshooting.  lo and behold!  the task has since been accomplished, and my original website will be up again as soon as the stupid host domain servers reset my nameserver preference to the new web host company.

#3) enjoy a few moments of creativity between shouts from your son from his upstairs bedroom, "can i get up NOW?!" - yep, i not only get to bask in my accomplishments, but i get to record them here for all to see (read = pretty much just me).  and now it's time to unleash the beautiful disaster that is my son from the somewhat stable confines of his bedroom so that he may continue to bounce on my chest and otherwise prove that he is, in every detail, his father's boy.

edit: previously, i had stated that Klingons and Vulcans wouldn't "do it," in reference to Star Trek Online.  this was a considerably poor conclusion jump on my part, i must admit.  i had read quite a bit about the upcoming release of this Cryptic MMO, and thought i knew what i was talking about.  i was fortunate enough to get into the open beta test for this game, however, and was pleasantly set straight by the kind folks at Cryptic Development.  this game was a blast, much more fun than i thought it would be.  will it be the MMO that turns my opinion of all MMOs around for good?  of course not; my previous admissions regarding my opinions of MMOs were based upon my realizations of my own personality and my evolution as a human being, a family man, and a gamer.  many MMOs still rely (and, thanks to the ridiculously successful model those guys at Blizzard have created, will continue to rely) upon a very similar structure, one which will never be repeated as well as the original, nor should it be.  just because a 4-door sedan is the most popular style of automobile in the US, it doesn't mean i don't enjoy riding my bike.  STO does a few things very differently, and while it's not the perfect game, it has all the characteristics of a wonderful distraction, although admittedly it will likely be a temporary one.  thanks again, Cryptic, and sorry i almost blew your game off before trying it.  i won't make that mistake again.