Omniverse One

For the past few weeks, I've been suffering from severe bouts of chest pains, shortness of breath, and whatnot. The stressful conditions at work didn't help. I've had similar instances for years, but it never really got as a severe as it did now. After an ECG and a 2d echo test, it turns out I have a mitral valve prolapse, with a floppy anterior mitral valve.

So the doctor recommends that I stop drinking coffee and tea, and only drink soda occasionally. As well as avoid stress--easier said than done--and exerrtion. And she's recommending that I take 20mg of propanolol a day for 3 months to see if it helps.

Goddamn, man. That totally sucks.

Oh man, good luck with that...

I don't think anybody would enjoy having floppy valves, man. Is it a blood pressure-related thing?

More of a structural defect in one of the leaflets of the heart's bicuspid itself. It won't close properly, so there's some backflow.

Turns out that it might be hereditary since my dad has one, but his is diagnosed as low risk. Mine's likely low risk at well, but the doctor's going to have to observe me for a bit to make sure.

Here's to hoping for the best mang.

Day 3 in Shanxi:

My standard for an adequate dining establishment is now one which has no flies and no cigarette burns in the tabelcloth.

Took photos of a truly spectacular waterfall.

Had badger for lunch.

Cigarette burns and badgers? Sounds like an interesting place to expand one's culinary horizons...

Badgers badger badger badger badger




GUYZ< IM DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL OMG OMG OMG!!! Oh wait...college, I forgot. But at least I can have more time to comment and write more on one of my favorite sites.

high school? God you're young herry-tick

Moving out my folks place to a room i'm renting in a couple's place near to the 48 weeks of work i'm starting on monday.

really really nervous. god i'm such an unsociable nerd.

What job are you doing? I would be nervous too and stick with some underpaid online job, which I should seriously consider right now

Days 5-6 in Shanxi:

A row of cages filled with live rabbits and pheasants for the slaughter, outside a restaurant next to a dirt road.

An elderly monk picking half-eaten corn cobs from a trash can.

The sight of a brown, deer-like creature in the hills, a man who peddled fruit from the flatbed of a tuk-tuk commenting that he'd tasted one last year.

A husky sleeping in a bus station, covered in dust and sunflower seed shells.

Also, BEEEEEEEEEEEES.

Day 6 in Shanxi:

Hill after hill shaved into terraces, endless convoys of rumbling coal trucks winding across mountain roads.

A thousand year-old wooden pagoda stands in a windstorm, amid a field of fallen flowerpots.

Whole towns built on faux-ancient architecture, billboards for liquor stores and photography shops plastered over carved window frames.

An ecumencial temple built into the side of an overhanging cliff.

Had donkey for lunch and deer for dinner.

Day 7 in Shanxi:

Beyond a cluster of temples and walkways built over a lake, Sistine Chapels carved into caves.

A car chase on electric tourist shuttles.

On the porch of a flag-draped guesthouse between a wattle and daub hovel and an empty plot, in a half-built Potemkin village to tourist dollars, a man on a stool sells tea eggs and ice cream.

The Great Wall refurbished, a national hiking trail.


Misc. notes:

Stuck behind a spray truck turning the choking dust in the streets to mud, the tour bus gets an inadverent wash.

A land where coal mine bosses dress like hick tourists and carry enough cash in their fanny packs to buy a dozen Hummers.

Guize! Type Zerg Rush on Google! It's today's easter egg!

that game thing was like weeks ago

anyway

where was this? Looking suave with that stubble there, Shroom.

we went cave exploring after climbing a few mountains and crossing some (dried out) rivers

I just found out that the "Who Do You Think You Are?" TV series of BBC fame, in which famous Britons like Martin Freeman or Stephen Fry or David Mitchell chart their family histories is, in fact, narrated by Mark Strong.

For some reason this is a massive mindfuck.

i wrote something for the newspaper



in response to this piece

That is a very articulate letter, Shroom. And I couldn't agree more with the sentiment expressed in it.

more practice

So I tried applying at Xlibris. Was that where you're working, Malachuschus?

Fuck, I'm in New York.

Awesome.

I got the job. I am your colleague now Malachuschus! THERE'S NO ESCAPE!