Yesterday while sitting watching TV I oddly felt a chill run down my spine. As it turned out this was the result of the collective mourning cries of millions of gaming nerds worldwide as they learnt of the passing away of Gary Gygax, one of the co creators of the grand daddy of all role playing games, Dungeons & Dragons! Alas, it would seem that the health potions have run out and no Clerics of high enough level were to be found to cast a powerful enough resurrection spell to help Mr Gygax :(
While I wouldn't classify myself as a nerd in the traditional sense (though others may disagree with me on that point) I do admit to playing (and enjoying) a little bit of D&D back in my younger, "wilder" days. Yes, I even admit to owning a few sets of 20, 10, 8 and 4 sided dice at one stage as well.
As such I felt that Gary Gygax deserves an honourable mention on this blog. Putting aside the spotty misunderstood nerd stigmatism associated with role playing games (or any other type of games of this nature), the man did help to come up with a fairly complex but yet easy to follow rule system, concept and set of universes. The game itself was simultaneously easy to get into and inevitably quite fun if you gave it half a chance. This not only gave many a... erhem, "socially challenged" child (or adult) another outlet to express themselves it also spawned a multi millon dollar industry in fantasy literature, computer games, movies and other such merchandise. For that you've got to give him some kudos.
Here's a little tribute from the blog of celebrity Star Trek TNG character and nerd, Will Wheaton, about Mr Gygax.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Hobbling Hat
Last Friday I was down at the hospital for a routine checkup when the nice doctor lady noticed a blood clot looking thing on my leg. Told her that I'd had it for a while and wasn't too concerned about it. In either case she got a few of her colleagues in to have a quick look at it just to be on the safe side. One of them (who happened to be one of the top dermatologists in the country) had a look at it and confirmed that it was an arterial bunching and wasn't too overly concerned about it. However he then pointed down to a smaller similar looking mark further down my leg and said that he'd be more inclined to remove that one as it looked more abnormal. As luck would have it he had a spot free later that afternoon and said that he'd remove it for me if I popped in to see him at 2 to save me having to make an appointment and waiting 2 months or so.
I figured why not. No harm having the bunching removed just in case there might be complications down the line. I figured it was small enough, I'd just pop in and he'd do his magic and that was that. Little did I know that it involve minor surgery which took up to about 40 to 50 minutes. The waiting room was full when I went in and when I hobbled out again (with my head spinning from all the local anesthetic I had gotten the doctor lady who was hacking me up to inject into me) it was completely empty. I ended up having a thumb size chunk of meat cut out of my lower leg and then given 16 stitches to help cover up the nice big gash that was left over from the hacking and slashing.
So as a result of that, I'm now hobbling around very slowly in a bit of pain desperately trying not to tear my stitches. It now takes me about 45 minutes to walk to work in the mornings (usually only takes me 20 minutes max) with grannies speeding pass me on the path with the look of frustration that I usually give when I'm stuck behind a really slow walking person for ages. On top of this humiliation, I've even been beeped by a few cars as I've hobbled across the road at the pedestrian lights, as if to tell me to "hurry the fuck up, I'm really important and want a clear way so that I'll be able to drive away before the lights actually hit green". Like beeping me will magically make my leg feel better so that I can run across the road quicker for them. Fecking stupid Dublin drivers!
I'd take the week off to properly recover but I'm off to California in about a week and a bit so would just feel guilty in taking time off so soon before my trip. On the plus side, at least my leg isn't bleeding as much as it did on the first day I decided to try to walk to work so it must be getting better.
I had grand plans of skiing and attending a big swing weekend event in Sacramento while I was in California but now it looks like I'll just have to confine myself to tour buses and other things that don't involve a lot of walking or any sort of physical activity :(
And to top all of this off, the bathroom of the people living upstairs from me has begun to leak, leaving lovely water marks on parts of my ceiling and wall. (Mental note; must call landlord soon to sort this out). I told yous the last time that Sod the bastard was just warming up. Lets just hope this is the worse of it. Bring on the good times.
I figured why not. No harm having the bunching removed just in case there might be complications down the line. I figured it was small enough, I'd just pop in and he'd do his magic and that was that. Little did I know that it involve minor surgery which took up to about 40 to 50 minutes. The waiting room was full when I went in and when I hobbled out again (with my head spinning from all the local anesthetic I had gotten the doctor lady who was hacking me up to inject into me) it was completely empty. I ended up having a thumb size chunk of meat cut out of my lower leg and then given 16 stitches to help cover up the nice big gash that was left over from the hacking and slashing.
So as a result of that, I'm now hobbling around very slowly in a bit of pain desperately trying not to tear my stitches. It now takes me about 45 minutes to walk to work in the mornings (usually only takes me 20 minutes max) with grannies speeding pass me on the path with the look of frustration that I usually give when I'm stuck behind a really slow walking person for ages. On top of this humiliation, I've even been beeped by a few cars as I've hobbled across the road at the pedestrian lights, as if to tell me to "hurry the fuck up, I'm really important and want a clear way so that I'll be able to drive away before the lights actually hit green". Like beeping me will magically make my leg feel better so that I can run across the road quicker for them. Fecking stupid Dublin drivers!
I'd take the week off to properly recover but I'm off to California in about a week and a bit so would just feel guilty in taking time off so soon before my trip. On the plus side, at least my leg isn't bleeding as much as it did on the first day I decided to try to walk to work so it must be getting better.
I had grand plans of skiing and attending a big swing weekend event in Sacramento while I was in California but now it looks like I'll just have to confine myself to tour buses and other things that don't involve a lot of walking or any sort of physical activity :(
And to top all of this off, the bathroom of the people living upstairs from me has begun to leak, leaving lovely water marks on parts of my ceiling and wall. (Mental note; must call landlord soon to sort this out). I told yous the last time that Sod the bastard was just warming up. Lets just hope this is the worse of it. Bring on the good times.
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