Weekend Plans, Dreams, and Other Things

I'll be heading up to MA this weekend. The core purpose of the trip will be to ferry Justin up there so he can go see Les Miserables with patrixa. The secondary purpose - and my involvement, instead of some other arrangement was for me to get to spend some time with my dad.

That, of course, won't exactly be happening. Besides, he stopped by Tuesday night for a visit:

In a somewhat similar - although far less ominous - situation as Dickens employees as his opening for The Christmas Carol, the dream had a handful or three of co-workers taking a course of some sort at some location in Technology Square, and I was discussing with them how strange it was to be near MIT and to not drop by and visit my dad who, as in reality, had passed away. At lunch, I was going to head over to a (quite fictional) place in Central Square with a co-worker. We hopped on the bus, allegedly on Mass Ave although it looked more like Mt. Auburn or somewhere even more thickly tree lined. I dropped some stuff and, while picking it up, I stopped to check on my dad, who was sitting several seats in front of us. He was fairly still and quiet and looked much as he did in the last week, except without the jaundice. He started coughing, and I tried to make him comfortable in the bus seat, and then I finished gathering what I had dropped and stood back by my original seat, commenting that I was worried because his cough sounded similar to the way it did before he died.

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Well, I'd much rather hope he's not spending an afterlife endlessly riding the MBTA - I think he'd be much happier even if he was biking those same routes everyday...

Sounds simple there, but that took me a few days before I could write about it. Anywho.

Back to this weekend: rowancat (and others in the area), I'll have some free time on Sunday, around 2:30-3:00ish pm - maybe get together for a late lunch/early dinner in Harvard Square or some other nearby location? I'll be dropping my mom and son off downtown and picking them up when the show's over - and then heading back down to PA.

On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men : Part Five

On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part five of sixteen

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Part One
Previous

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( Part Five )

"The way of life can be free and beautiful."

Another optimistic sentiment? Perhaps, but a Truth nonetheless.

"But we have lost the way."

Ah, the pessimist will smile. The difference between all the "should"s and "could"s, into the hard, fast, cold realm of "is"s. The usage of "the way" could be taken, by those of Taoist leanings, to imply the Tao itself – The Way – and they wouldn't be too far off the mark of the intent I read in the statements.

We also seem to have strayed somewhat afield of discussions on robotics, binary systems, and AI. In truth, we are just beginning to get to the heart of the matter, the core of our discussion.

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Next

~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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Doctor, doctor, gimme the news...

Ahem.

Change #1: Upping Norvasc from 5mg to 10mg. Blood pressure averages 150/105, and needs to be controlled (below 140/90, to be more specific.) We'll try this, or see if we need to add something else to my medication cocktail.

Change #2: I made sure the focus was on the asthma, as I said I would, and the docs (a resident was working with the regular doctor) agreed. Pulmicort is out of favor (at least temporarily) while we try Advair, which mixes the steroid component of the former along with some bronchial dialaters, or somesuch.

Change #3: Not really a change, but now instead of going from Flonase to Astelin and then tapering off on both (because I ran out, mostly,) we're going to go with two hits of each twice a day.

Change #4: While fiddling around with how we were best going to handle the switching of the Norvasc to see if that helps and the continuation of the Lipitor, we decided to go with Caduet, which covers the 10mg of Norvasc and the 10mg of Lipitor. One pill, two medications. If that works, it will at least help keep down some of the long term med costs (which were about 33 1/3 dollars a month for pills, considering inhalers and nose sprays and lions and tigers and bears oh my were allowed to lapse.)

The Accuretic was continued at its present levels - it's already maxed out dosage-wise.

The NAFLD is a side note - next appointment is in a month, and there's another liver enzyme test to be done prior to that. Information on a low cholesterol diet was given - same as when I first started on the Lipitor, actually - but wasn't mentioned in any other way. The concern is getting the asthma under control and getting more physical activity - that will help all the stuff I'm dealing with, whereas medicinal treatments for asthma and blood pressure are basically at odds with each other.