Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Sick sucks, I know

Hello. I’ve returned to these pages after a month of involuntary off. The sickness got me good - for the third time this year! A lingering cold and cough that I truly did not fully recover from until just this past week. Mix in with two cold sore outbreaks, and a prolonged battle with invading mosquitos, August was a month to forget.

Never take normal for granted, folks. I try hard not to.

Today I was wondering why on the barbell bench I was failing at rep six, when two days I ago I was maxing out at nine reps with the same weight. Turns out my big galaxy brain used the incorrect plates. The barbell was 10 pound heavier than last time. That’s a jump I tend to avoid due to wanting to preserve my elbow tendons. I’m surprised I even got five reps out of it, and no lingering elbow discomfort afterwards.

I guess sometimes you just have to load up the bar and try to move it.

The aforementioned mosquitos: it took some trail and error - with the bites to prove it, but I’ve found the entry point for the invasion. It turns out the bug screen of my bathroom window isn't fine enough to stop mosquitos. Like Thanos’ army fighting through the Wakandan shield, these winged menaces have no qualms about squeezing though the blockade at the risk of their appendages.

One night I was woken up by four of those invaders. Naturally I did not go back to sleep until they were all dead. Moving forwards, my bathroom window will be shut at all times during mosquitos season. Thankfully there are other fresh air entry ways into this studio space. Chinese Feng Shui is all about fresh air!

Paper or plastic

One month into year 2025 and I hope I’ve gotten all the sickness out of the way. Earlier in January I had a bout with the common cold. Just now I am recovering from a stomach virus. That certainly should be it for this year in terms of illnesses. Please, I cannot handle any more away time from lifting weights. I can imaginarily see the gains melting away in front of my very eyes.

Due to the stomach virus, I was on a semi-liquid diet for about a day. Fruit smoothies to the rescue. The location on campus gave me a paper straw for it (thanks a lot, San Francisco). Predictably, the straw utterly disintegrated before I was even halfway done with the smoothie. Happy to save the environment by not being able to finish my drink! If we are serious about this paper straw business, someone has to invent a stronger solution for thicker dinks. (Shark Tank opportunity, I reckon.)

Coincidently, President Trump plans to sign an executive order overturning President Biden’s pledge to ban plastic straw usage in federal agencies. Those lucky bastards! The masses shouldn’t have to suffer with an inferior product in order to make some virtual-signaling environmentalist happy.

I agree plastic waste is a problem. But how do you propose a fruit smoothie be served without a sturdy straw? Sippy lids works for thin liquids, not milk-shake levels of consistency. Give customers a (compostable) spoon? Who wants to “drink” a smoothie with a spoon? You know what, perfect solution: ban smoothies altogether. No need to solve a problem if the problem doesn’t exist anymore.

Sorry, I’m cranky from being sick. Nothing will make you value health more than suffering through illness.

First and last of the year

After going the entire 2024 without once being sick, it took but six days into 2025 for me to catch a cold. I guess it was my turn. At least it’s not COVID! (Are they even counting COVID deaths these days?) My record of never testing positive for the coronavirus remains intact.

Honestly, I rather be not sick and at work, than being sick at home. Staying home is not so glamorous when you are completely lethargic. It’s not like I can do chores or go for a drive on the mountains. I don’t have the energy to workout (this is especially rough). The only thing to do is slump over the couch and watch TV, which is torture for a type-A productivity chaser such as myself.

Perhaps this is nature forcing me to take a break.

With the common cold, you’re just kind of wasting away the day as quickly as possible, so you can get to sleep. Slumber is where the real virus fighting happens, at least that’s how I think of it. I always feel better (than the day before) after a night’s sleep.

As it is anytime I get sick, I am reminded how great it is to be normal and healthy. I shall savor the first meal I eat once I am fully recovered. To be able to actually taste the food is something I won’t take for granted for at least a whole week. A great dish for those with a cold: oatmeal and two eggs. (Bring oatmeal to a boil, then add in two eggs. Stir until egg is cooked, then add milk to the desired consistency.) Takes five minutes to make, and it goes down as easy as porridge. Obviously tastes like nothing, but your buds aren’t working properly anyways.

I can’t wait to be done with this.

So close yet so far

Hey, remember the COVID pandemic is over? We don’t think about it anymore, right? No news of frightening new variants, no daily death counts. There’s people working in hospitals that no longer wear masks! That last one is kind of stunning when I went in a few months ago for my annual checkup. Things are truly back to what it was at the end of 2019. If we don’t counting the millions dead…

Just when I thought we would end the year at work with no one getting truly sick from COVID, a coworker caught the disease last week. (So close.) Unfortunately for him, COVID absolutely knocked him out. Every single flu-like and cold-like symptom you can come up with, he got it. The coworker was out for the entire week. Compounding the misery is that he can’t pinpoint where and how he contracted COVID! He would’ve felt slightly better if he were able to offload the blame somewhere.

I am fine, by the way. Very unlikely the coworker contracted COVID at work as the rest of us were business as usual. I still have not knowingly contracted the thing, though I maintain it’s because I don’t show any symptoms (thank god if that is indeed the truth). No symptoms, no tests, less chance of positives. Didn’t the smart people say that it is statistically likely that all of us will get COVID at some point?

Nothing will make you appreciate good health like coming out of a serious bout of sickness. The recovered coworker is filled with gratitude today in his return to work. He definitely do not want to experience that again. I bet if his COVID vaccine schedule isn’t up to date, it will be shortly!

Might not make it

Last week, a good friend of mine had a running high fever along with stomach pains. It necessitated a trip to the ER. she ended up staying at the hospital for about two days. Her entire reproductive system was inflamed to the point of a needing a full round of antibiotics. More bad news: the doctor looked at her blood results and said quite pointedly that if my friend doesn’t change her lifestyle, she won’t make it pass age 40.

You know how for the longest time we looked at age 40 as some life event that’s far out into the distant future? Well that’s no longer the case for me and my group of friends! When I heard the doctor’s grim warning for my friend, I internally calculated, “Wait a minute, 40 is only six years away!” It goes to show just how drastic of a condition my friend is in. The situation is dire.

The solution is simple - on paper. For a healthy lifestyle, all you need is a combination of good diet, exercise, and proper amounts of sleep. Everybody knows this. But much like the smoker who understands he merely has to stop smoking, the execution is exponentially more difficult that the prescription. I mean, if it were so easy, we would all be fit and healthy.

I sincerely hope this health scare is the appropriate wake up call for my friend. From talking with her, she seems to understand the precariousness. She knows what she must do, so fingers crossed the process gets followed through. Slowly!

The cold is back

Tuesday morning I woke up with a strong head cold. Obviously, the first thing that came to mind is: oh my god, it’s COVID! However, I didn’t immediately do a rapid test because I felt bad enough that I emailed in sick to work. No point in wasting a test just yet if I weren’t feeling well to even leave the house. Besides, it was a only a head cold, nothing more.

On Wednesday I woke up feeling immensely better. I would put it as about 80 percent of normal. Much of the head congestion is gone, no doubt thanks to the heavy hydration routine the day before. I certainly felt good enough to go to work. But first things first: a rapid COVID test. No way I would go to campus with a positive result.

It was actually my first time doing a antigen test of the nasal swabbing type. The procedure is simple enough: swab each nose canal five full turns, then dip the swab onto a solution. The solution gets poured onto a result pad - not unlike a pregnancy test. 15 minutes after that you’ll know the result, provided you’ve done the steps correctly.

I luckily tested negative. It was indeed just a severe head cold. I guess as we head into the waning days of the pandemic that’s turning endemic, we are once again experiencing common respiratory ailments. Say what you want about mask wearing and hygiene theater, but they’ve really saved our butts from the cold and flu. As we relax those preventative measures, it’s only natural those ailments make a triumphant return.

It was kind of nice to stay home for the day, honestly.

Forced relaxation

Part of being an ever aging adult is that some days you wake up and feel like shit. For absolutely no reason. This past Sunday was just that kind of day for me. I woke up in a massive fog of unwell, plus the pain of a right-side neck muscle from having slept on it incorrectly. I did nothing strenuous nor taxing on Saturday, yet there I was feeling like crap the day following. It never fails: you don’t realize how much you take feeling well for granted until you get sick.

It probably isn’t COVID, because I am typing this on the next day Monday, and I feel absolutely peach. Also, I’m fully vaccinated with the best vaccine available: Pfizer. According to new guidelines from the CDC, I have nothing to worry about whatsoever. No masks anywhere!

Anyways, feeling like crud on Sunday allowed me to do the one thing I can’t force myself to do: nothing. Yes, even on weekends when I am suppose to relax and chill, I usually still stack it full with stuff to do. Like working out, practicing the piano, or read. I didn’t have the mental power to do any of those things yesterday, so I sat in front of the laptop watching stuff, while keeping hydrated with plenty of fluids.

It took a bout of sickness for me to take a “day off”, which is kind of sad if you think about it. What is it about me that can’t seem to let everything go for a day and simply laze around? All the stuff to do will still be there the next day (and the next day). Even machines need to cool down and take a break every once in a while. I chuckle when I hear friends say they’re just going to chill for the rest of the day. It’s more envy than anything: I wish I can bring myself to do the same sometimes.

But soon as I woke up this morning feeling normal, it was back at it again. Break time is over.