{"id":5148,"date":"2014-09-07T19:19:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T02:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/?p=5148"},"modified":"2014-09-07T19:19:13","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T02:19:13","slug":"grumpy-mutterings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/2014\/09\/grumpy-mutterings\/","title":{"rendered":"Grumpy mutterings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I <em>hate<\/em> being sick. Hatehatehate it with the fiery passion of coughing exhaustion coupled with the urge to rasp out: &#8220;just kill me now!&#8221; I really despise having no energy to even get out of bed&#8230; and I <em>loathe<\/em> having that groggy-foggy-headed case of the stupids. Memory check says: yes, I <em>am<\/em> smarter than this, dammit!<\/p>\n<p>I had my tonsils removed when I was 5 or so \u2013 no biggie, as far as I remember. So why do the stupid things have to partially grow back, and then get infected <em>now<\/em>?! Swallowing should not feel like ground glass on the back of your throat!<\/p>\n<p>To be fair \u2013 a mental state I consider highly overrated when I&#8217;m in pain \u2013 I should mention this is partly my own fault. A few nights of way too little sleep, coupled with enthusiastically overdoing it physically, coupled with not taking my vitamins for almost a week&#8230; and I&#8217;m not really surprised I&#8217;m ill. I&#8217;m not wild about my Trader Joes&#8217;s Women&#8217;s multivitamins, though \u2013 especially having to take five of them a day. Admittedly, they noticeably perk me up when I take them religiously, but I don&#8217;t enjoy having to take them scattered throughout the day \u2013 I want to take them all at once and have it over with, you know? But if I do that, they make me nauseous. I&#8217;m totally open for suggestions on better vitamins to take, audience!<\/p>\n<p>What I&#8217;d really like is some useful little tool that I can use to tell me what I need more of in my diet. Think how convenient it would be, with its chirpily cheerful little voice:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Good morning, Collie! I see you&#8217;re up nice and early. Please place your finger upon the sensor pad<\/em>.&#8221; I do so. &#8220;<em>Thank you! One moment please&#8230; there we go. Are you ready for your nutritional review?<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me: &#8220;Yes, please.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Okay! I detect you are currently low on vitamins C and E, and on iron. You can augment your diet for those missing elements by eating some leafy greens. Examples are: asparagus, avocado, broccoli, cucumber, kiwi, and spinach. Would you like more examples&#8230;?<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>-and so on, blah blah blah. That would make planning out what to eat for the day significantly easier, I think. Of course, knowing how my life can occasionally get, I suspect it would go much more like this:<\/p>\n<p>I shuffle blearily into the bathroom in my shortie robe, squinting at the bright light \u2013 then wince at the piercingly chirpy machine&#8217;s greeting: &#8220;<em>Good morning, Collie! I see you slept in today. Remember, a regular sleep schedule is an integral part of a balanced diet and exercise regimen! Please place your finger upon the sensor pad<\/em>.&#8221; Muttering about intrusive mechanical nannies, I do so with a minimum of fumbling. &#8220;<em>I am not detecting your finger upon the sensor- that is not a finge- there we go!<\/em> <em>Thank you! One moment please&#8230; please hold your finger still upon the sensor pad&#8230;&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Having gotten tired of just standing there and waiting while my apparently excessive nutritional failings are being analyzed and silently clucked over by an overly chatty machine, I&#8217;ve started brushing my teeth. Finally I hear:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;There we go. Are you ready for your nutritional review?<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me: &#8220;&#8221;Eff, bh&#8217;weave.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>I&#8217;m so sorry, but I&#8217;m having trouble understanding you. Are you ready for your nutritional review?<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me: &#8220;Yeff! I faid &#8216;eff!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>I&#8217;m so sorry, Collie, but I still could not understand you.<\/em> <em>Are you ready for your nutritional review?<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me, getting irritated, &#8220;Fp&#8217;oopid mafine! I faid <em>yeff<\/em>!&#8221; Small splatters of toothpaste foam are now decorating the mirror from the emphasis of my trying to be more articulate with a mouthful of electric toothbrush and toothpaste.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Oh, dear! I&#8217;m detecting significant auditory distress, Collie, which when combined with your worrying nutritional analysis indicates a dangerously high possibility of potential health issues such as dizziness, fainting, or even possibly epileptic seizure. I have notified the closest hospital to send out an emergency vehicle&#8230;<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>-and so on!<\/p>\n<p>Weirdly, when I mentioned this to a friend, I found out there is indeed a machine being worked on that will be able to detect one&#8217;s current health status. I was rather intrigued until I heard what it was: the toilet! I shudder to think of the psychological turmoil which could ensue due to being critiqued for one&#8217;s, er, &#8220;technique&#8221; by one&#8217;s toilet&#8230; :)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hate being sick. Hatehatehate it with the fiery passion of coughing exhaustion coupled with the urge to rasp out: &#8220;just kill me now!&#8221; I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5148"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5152,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5148\/revisions\/5152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}