the walk to the hospital was truly brutal - i was legitimately in some brutal pain, and rather concerned about it.

but, a funny thing happened when i got to the hospital: the headache slowly lifted. note that my experiences over the last several days has been that i get an hour or two when i wake up, and then a headache i can't deal with until i fall back asleep, when the pattern reverses.

it became clear while i was waiting in the waiting room that what's causing the headache is the gas leak, or the air quality down here, in general. and, that itself was remarkably relieving.

i'm not yet ruling out the possibility of head trauma - you'll recall that i lost my sense of smell for days - but i've got a strong cause and effect on the immediate cause of the headaches being environmental.

i waited to see the doctor, anyways. she actually offered me a catscan as a precautionary measure. i would have taken an mri, it's what i was there for after all, but i didn't see the need to put myself through the radiation risk of a catscan....

let's say i take the cat scan. what next?

you'll come back in a week for another cat scan.

so, how about i just wait a week, then?

it's up to you...

indeed, it is. pro-tip: never trust a doctor.

but i at least got a better grasp on what they can do, based on what it could be.

1) if it's a concussion, there's nothing i can do except wait.
2) if there's bruising or bleeding, they'll have to do scans and go from there.

i've only been back inside for a few moments and i'm already feeling queasy. we'll see how things change when i drop my cart back off and come back in.

it's clear enough, though: the air quality in this basement is toxic and the windows basically need to be open at all times until it's dealt with.

the tylenol stopped working a few days ago.

i tried aspirin this morning with no effect.

i am unable to do anything except stare at the wall. so, i am taking myself to the hospital.

yes: the hospital. a clinic could not do anything except give me drugs (which i don't want, and won't take, unless i get a clear diagnosis first) and send me to the hospital. i want some tests done regarding potential bruising or burst vessels, along with being checked for stroke symptoms....

i'm not walking out of there with a codeine prescription, either. that's how they get you. i'd take a gram of the green, but you have to fucking mail order it....

well, the good news is that my throat doesn't hurt anymore. but, that inflection point didn't go through: my head didn't fully clear yesterday, and took me out several times, including at the end of the night.

i woke up with a mild background headache: it's workable, but a reminder that i'm not over it, yet.

i just finished up the last few shows from 2011 this morning, so i'm making progress. slowly, through a difficult wrench, but surely. i'm going to eat now, and hopefully i'm able to be productive after lunch. but, i could end up waiting for the headache to pass, too.

is this all the result of whatever happened the other night at the festival? i've been noticing a symptom of very bloodshot eyes. but, you'll recall that i was complaining about that weeks ago, and that i thought it was connected to the hep b (which i don't actually have). and, you'll recall that i've been complaining about headaches connected to the gas leak in here...

my nose has not been working recently, but i'll point out that i woke up to that same nasty smell, this morning, that i've been associating with the leaks, which i've been associating with the headaches. how much of this is due to concussion, how much of it is due to gas leaks, how much of it is due to allergies and how much of it is due to the virus are things i'll probably never be able to disentangle.

what i really want is for the temperature to stay above ten degrees so that i can keep the windows open and get some fresh air in here without cranking the heat up.

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/index.html

this is another way to order the data, and is in some ways more complete, although it is also omits shows where i could only find a clip or two.

obviously, the set has to be from the same tour to be included.

this band was always obscure even amongst obscurantists, so this reunion set might be the best i'll ever find. i was able to confirm, at the show, that they are all cardiacs fans, though.

i'll again put out a request for a full set from 2010 or 2011....if you've got it, get it up and find a way to let me know....

i got nailed by my head this morning and was forced to take a nap. the tylenol just decided to stop working, and left me entirely debilitated. i woke up to a much more normal high pressure, sunny february day - and suspect that the dramatic shift in atmospheric pressure and 25 degree celsius drop over night at least didn't help.

but, it may actually be an inflection point, as it's come down to a mild annoyance. hopefully, i can get a good dent into this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0ixf6eME28

i'm up to mid-2011, now. about to crash....

i will be very productive tomorrow.

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/index.html

it's two weeks, and my head is still throbbing.

it also turns out that a loss of smell is a common concussion side-effect.

it's pretty clear that i had a concussion, at this point. but, how?

i wish i could remember exactly what happened before i lost consciousness. but, that's a part of having a concussion: you don't remember how it happened.

i remember putting my sweater on to go outside after the ritual howls set, and i remember that adult was playing when i went back in, after i came to. i caught the bulk of their set, even. so, i'm really only missing ten-twenty minutes of the night. so, like....i could have even been hit by the door. you know?

i didn't have any bumps on my head or visible marks. but, i'm clearly dealing with a post-concussion syndrome. and, i don't have any real reason to think it's going to clear by tonight.

it goes away fairly quickly with some tylenol; i'm not writhing in agony, or anything. but, it would be nice if it would go away, now.

i guess i slept all day.

the truth is that the headache never really went away. but, the sinuses haven't cleared, either. so, i still can't say whether i'm dealing solely with a virus, or with a virus + a concussion or even with a virus + allergies + a concussion.

if the virus doesn't go away soon, it might last so long that the concussion symptoms disappear, too - in which case, i'll never know if i had one. shrug.

as with last month, the editing process (i have to write up the blurbs...) is being slowed down by externalities, but i should be able to get it all down after i eat and back to finishing the concert listings. it's easy to blame the slow down on the detour, but we can all see that it isn't the problem....

as of right now, it does not seem likely that i will go out anywhere on the weekend. the weather is also set to turn. but these sicknesses tend to rapidly reverse themselves, and the timing of the fronts is hard to say, as well.

i did get some major cleaning over the last ten hours or so, but it hasn't really resolved the smell.

the truth is that my nose remains unable to discern between different smells, or even the existence of one. the coffee, the toast and the hallway all smell the same to me. but, i'm worried that the background smell of dank smoke has taken over the entire unit.

?

the reason is that the smell is closest to the ceiling, and in every direction. it's even in the farthest rooms, where smoke from two floors up and on the other side can't possibly be seeping in to. i'm almost willing to conclude that the direct upstairs neighbour (the obese one...) started smoking.

but, then again, i always thought he was a secret bathroom smoker.

the reality is that i can't react until my sense of smell returns. i can't even tell toast, coffee and smoke apart. i could be imagining the whole thing.

but, the other possibility is that the ceiling upstairs is still out, or is out in a different place. that would allow the smoke two floors up to invade the upstairs, and then seep down here.

for right now, all i can really say is that i'm not experiencing the turnover in the air that i was hoping i'd experience. the air feels like it's stuck in here, and the open windows aren't really helping much. i'm going to make it a point to turn the heat right off this afternoon.

i need to do some shopping today. it's going to be gorgeous out. i'm only at midday, but i'm a little sleepy, so i'm going to get a nap in, and go from there.

how am i doing?

i'm feeling a whole hell of a lot better. really.

i'm skipping this show tonight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMueDWG86JU

it's an experiential thing, solely. apparently, they follow the same algorithm every set, so once you've heard it once you've heard it all. and, while i'm sure i'd enjoy it, i'd rather stay in and nurse my remaining sickness.

the headache is gone. but, i've also had the windows open all day and will probably leave them open for the next several days. when my nose cleared enough this morning to regain a sense of smell, the first thing i noticed was that my apartment smells like stale smoke and that it may have been a part of the cause of my coughing fits.

i'm focusing right now on cycling the air out, which is going to mean an early spring cleaning. i want to focus on finding hidden sources of dust. i forgot to clean at all this month....

i've spent the last several days editing and watching vlogs, which are now being uploaded. i'm happy with this algorithm: a few hours to edit for the month, a few days to render, about six hours to watch them and then a few days to upload. then i'm not thinking about it for another month...

i've made some progress with the show reviews, but it's been slow due to distractions. i'm not particularly upset about this. but, i'd like to get over the hump tonight, too.

so, that's the last few days: necessary editing shit while nursing a cold, and being less productive than i could be due to distraction. hey, i read a few things. i'm not wasting time, i'm stretching it out.

i've had a busy few weeks, but the actual reason i've been unproductive is the headache, which is finally lifting - although the congestion is migrating from my chest to my head. every time i've sat down to do something, i've passed out...

i dunno.

when i was a kid, i was diagnosed with "chronic bronchitis" as a consequence of living in a house with a lot of second-hand smoke (my mom was a heavy smoker and largely denied the premise of second-hand smoke as a problem). that's not exactly asthma, but it's in the same neighborhood. basically, i'm not in danger of the scarier complications of asthma - i just cough a lot, sometimes. this is about the right time of the yea for it, and i know there's not anything i can do about it. this is actually one of the reasons it took me so long to quit smoking: i knew it wouldn't clear the bronchitis. it doesn't usually come with headaches or congestion, though. i mean, i might be going through a bronchial fit at the same time as something else, or several things, or something else may have even triggered it (that's something that has happened before...), but it's not the cause of this congestion that happens every time i go outside, or the headaches, or the sore throats.

i'm going to experiment with the claritin by popping a pill every time i go out. i'm putting myself at risk of a false positive for a while, but if it works then i'll stick with it. if it doesn't......i just don't know...

i think i may inquire about some antibiotics for oral thrush at the beginning of the month, or otherwise get him to look at my throat.

on top of that, it was absurdly warm here today for the time of the year, nearly 20 degrees, so my neighbour ruined it by turning the a/c on :(. if he's going to have the a/c on all week, i'm going to have to turn the heat up to 30 to compensate. that's going to make it that much drier in here. but, hopefully i can get the windows open during the day.

for right now, i've finished the editing for vlogs from jan 22-feb 15. they will render overnight, and i'll watch & upload them tomorrow. resources are going to be a little slow on the machine for the night, but the process of building the show review archive can actually even be done offline. i can work in a new window...

i ended up at a concert on saturday night, slept all of sunday and then lost monday and tuesday fighting with facebook. i was then actually more productive yesterday and this morning than it seems.

it's the rightmost column, here, that is what i spend the time on:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/index.html

the following playlist was updated, concurrently:

it was mostly an augmentation process. so, it was a lot of searching and arranging and downloading. but, it is now much more complete.

i'm going to stop to eat. i do intend to hit the show tonight, but we'll see if i can get out in time or not.

that was a disappointing day: too much ranting.

i should have finished this today. i at least got the framework down.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/index.html

back at it tomorrow...

so, this process was a little slower yesterday than i'd have liked it to be, and i'm slow getting back to it today, but i'm about to get back to it and expect to get at least most of it done by the end of the day.

the air quality is poor this morning, but it's middling: the fan is enough. but it's annoying. i'll be glad when it warms up enough that i can just keep the windows open all of the time.

i'm firming up saturday as a night out. it's going to depend on how i feel tomorrow. but, i'm actually really not at all interested in anything on the bill; it's all very generic and largely boring. it's the kind of thing that's all image and no substance. it's billing itself as an "industrial" festival, but i'd describe it more as a bunch of millenial hipsters imagining what they think industrial was through the filter of bad films and shitty books. see, i'm willing to shrug all that off, though, for the opportunity to just dance all night. but, i'm a little iffy on the weather. if i don't go, that's a shame; but, i don't feel like i'm missing anything, either. the actual upside is that i'm definitely going to miss the bus, so i'd end up at the works for the rest of the night. that really extends the night. but, the walk is...i dunno...i'm still thinking about it...

if i go, it's going to be against my better instincts. but, i kind of want to support the festival, too, even if i think it's a little weak to start off with, because it's at least a good idea.

for right now, i want to get back to it and hopefully get close to finishing...

i was worried that i was going to have to find a way around my router. but, the update was both a little deeper and a lot less complicated than i thought.

so, the appspot site is now serving from python 2.7:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/

...which means that google won't shut me down in the summer.

now, to get the show reviews up...

the show schedule for the rest of the month is going to depend on the weather, but is made up of an array of classical & jazz performances and techno nights.

it's not that there aren't rock shows happening, it's that the genre is no longer consistently creative. i understand that rock shows, moving forward, are going to be sporadic. i will need electronic, jazz and classical forms to fill the vacuum...

i'm staying in tonight...

...and then i could be out every other night or stay in for weeks. saturday depends on the timing of the cold front; it's going to have to be warm, though, and seems unlikely.

now, i need to figure out how to upgrade from python 2.5 to python 2.7.

yesterday ended up split between days. that happens when my schedule clashes with my circadian cycle: i end up napping out of sequence, then stumbling through the end of the day until i get back in the cycle. so, i was eventually up yesterday evening around 20:00 and able to lock back into the pattern. i was a little slow getting started, but i'm back into it.

that said, i'm planning on shifting gears for the night, and getting back at the rebuild tomorrow.

first off, i skipped a band called lemuria tonight...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ4n2b2_RxY

i stated that february could have a lot of shows; it seems like it's going to rather have a lot of skipped shows.

again: i'm not actually a fan of this band. in truth, i had not even heard of them until about a week ago. so, this was another whim show just to go out and have a beer and enjoy the walk. but, the weather turned nasty (again...) and i decided against it.

i think i probably should have heard of them previously as they exist in a genre i like and seem to be good at it, but this is right in the middle of my kind of deadzone period, about 2005-2009. i was more introverted than usual over these years...

as it is, i don't have those memories, and didn't want to go out in the cold.

delicate steve is tonight and it's also pretty unlikely, although i haven't ruled it out entirely, yet. it's just too cold out. i know delicate steve a little bit better: this is a kind of a twisted, post-modern joke that i suspect a large percentage of people aren't really in on. if i were to go at all, it would be solely on a lark, kind of thing. i know i'm going to cringe. the point is enjoying the cringe...

but, i want to do a little research on what the live show is actually like before i rule it out altogether. i dunno - you tell me: is this worth it, or is it just a frustrating tease that ultimately spins out and would be worth a beer on a nice night but is just not worth braving the cold for on this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4BvqSE2G7U

it's very low probability. but, i could surprise myself at the last minute. i've done it before...

but, now that i'm past the cloud nothings show last night, what i need to do tonight is my formal run through for the month. that will take a few hours and make the rest of the month make more sense. major question to answer: am i going to have extra cash at the end of february if i don't go to the al di meola show, which is considerably more expensive than the shows i'm used to going to?

when i'm done, i'm going to pivot into rebuilding the show review archive:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/index.html

this is clearly very out of date, with links to dead facebook posts and a cut off date in january, 2014. but, it will not be very time consuming because all of the reviews are written....

...except the one for the show last night. so, i'll need to do that....

...and we'll have to see where we are when i get there.

update: refractions is posted to may 16, 2015.

update: thru is posted to may 14, 2015.

update: lalalala posted to may 11, 2015.

update: reflections was posted to may 3, 2015.

that is also the end of 2002 in the rebuild, which was a heavy year that was never finished properly, but is now. i finished up until may, 2003 before i circled back to do the reconstructions from tape, so there's not a lot more left to do before i get lost in the interference (that i've still yet to fully resolve).

update: flying was posted to may 2, 2015.

update: my sixth lp was posted to may 2, 2015.

update: untitled is posted to april 27, 2015.

i've had short days for weeks...

i finally get a long day, and the stomach wrench hits along with the warm front.

so, i'm wide awake but have to stop and curl.

i was much more productive, today, getting two and a half months in. or, perhaps, the volume went down. either way, let's hope i can stay this productive when i get back to it on wednesday.

update: the psilocybin symphony was appended to on jan 10, 2015.

i just finally finished the entire rebuild for 2014.

i need to do the entirety of 2015, too, but the posting was far more sporadic. i lost almost all of january to show reviews. februrary, march and april were all spent on the guitar concerto. may put together a lot of loose ends. and, then the interference hit in june and july and i got sucked into the canadian election cycle over the fall and then the american one over the winter and the spring (which was spent archiving...)

the vlogs also start in october, 2015.

i'm going to stop to clean tomorrow. i don't know how much more i'll get tonight. and there's still a lot to do. but, i feel like i just got over a huge hump, too.

update: atom's / taught to twist posted to dec 12, 2014.

update: trepanation nation is posted to dec 7, 2014.