Task Avoidance Thread

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

As if this Forum isn't dedicated to task avoidance in the first place...anyway.

This thread is strictly for avoiding whatever tasks you've been assigned or have been needing to do. Post something, anything, that will get you out of doing it.

I'll start.

[mlooney 3,594]

I'm trying real hard to not avoid tasks, so I'm most likely not going to post here very often...  

[ChronosCat 158]

I could have used this thread earlier; instead I listened to music. That might have been for the best though, as the music actually helped me gather the energy to do what I needed to do.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,619]

 

i'll procrastinate later.

 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

I remember being fascinated by the kids' version of this book when I was in fourth grade. Enough so that I caused a minor uprising during the math portion of classes when I whipped out its rules and beat the snot out of everyone else who was using conventional "new math"  rules in speed challenges. The teacher finally had to basically beg me to learn math the "wrong way" so that the rest of the class didn't feel left behind.

The book is the Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics. It's been superseded by computers, but in its day it was dynamite for doing math in your head. I've forgotten most of it now, sad to say, and the more complex last half of the book was always over my head. However, the first part is killer for quick computations. Check it out.

https://archive.org/details/TheTrachtenbergSpeedSystemOfBasicMathematics_201803/mode/2up

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

Make this the Sleep Avoidance Thread, because every time I sit down, I almost (or do) fall asleep.

I'm having hell trying to stay awake. Don't know if it's my medications or what. I've been falling asleep at the wheel, so to speak, with my computer mouse in my hand off and on for hours now. I'll get up and walk around to try and wake myself up, but when I sit down and resume computing, I fall back asleep. The only way I can stay awake to type this is to sit straight up, with my back far away from the back of the recliner chair, and with my legs up beneath me at an odd angle so that I don't get comfortable, and I'm still fighting it then. Caffeine isn't helping, in cola or coffee forms. Food isn't helping - hell, I've fallen asleep in mid-mouthful and had to clean up the remnants afterwards. I don't know what to do.

It's 8:26 a.m., and I'm dreading the coming of 9:30 a.m. - I know that as soon as Mrs. Prof finishes getting my morning cefepime IV started, I'm going to be out like a light. I know that some of you would probably say, "you're sick, you need the rest," but I've had so much sleep over the past days it's not funny. It's time for me to wake up, damn it to hell and back. Crap, I almost fell asleep just pausing my typing here a bit.

Help.

[Darth Fluffy 338]

If I were in your shoes, I don't think I'd want to add 'medicate staying awake' to what you already deal with. Does walking help and is it an option?

 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Does walking help and is it an option?

See below:

1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I'll get up and walk around to try and wake myself up, but when I sit down and resume computing, I fall back asleep.

And now, the IV antibiotics have begun. I'm pretty much stuck to the recliner for the next couple of hours, with exceptions for getting up to go to the bathroom.

I've hauled out the medium-sized guns and called the home health care nurse hotline. They're all in a meeting, so I'm waiting on a call back from one of them now.

[mlooney 3,594]

That sounds like is sucks.  Hope they can fix it. 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

They didn't. They told me to sleep, which I eventually did, damn it all. I'll probably sleep again, thanks to the fact that I'm still sleeping in a recliner and still taking a whole pharmacy twice a day.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

Yep, it's happening again. I'm trying to read a Dorico help file, and I keep finding myself fading out on some of the most important sections. AAUUGGHH

That AAUUGGHH at the end is literal - it's a primal scream that is about the only thing that will wake me up and keep me awake for a few minutes more. Fortunately, Mrs. Prof isn't here at the moment, and the three cats don't seem to mind me doing it.

Add to it something that ought to be keeping me awake, and that's my Tunnelling PICC line to my heart. The damned thing itches where it comes out through my skin, right where they've got it covered up by a clear medical dressing. I can't scratch the thing enough to satisfy the itch.

AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH

Edited January 4 by ProfessorTomoe
AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH

[Darth Fluffy 338]

You might have an allergy to the adhesive. I get a rash from off-brand adhesive bandages that aren't Band-Aid. I think it's a sensitivity to latex. Might be something to mention to your healthcare providers, they can use hypoallergenic tape.

[Don Edwards 561]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

You might have an allergy to the adhesive. I get a rash from off-brand adhesive bandages that aren't Band-Aid. I think it's a sensitivity to latex. Might be something to mention to your healthcare providers, they can use hypoallergenic tape.

Yeah. My lady has to use the clear bandaids. The regular ones cause a rash after an hour or two.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

Well, whatever it was, it was somewhat alleviated by reseating the dressing. The nurse had put it on in a sideways orientation. I had her put it on in the more conventional top-to-bottom orientation, and I felt immediate relief. It still itches a little bit just by being there, but not nearly as much as before.

The sleep situation is still there, albeit not as bad. I guess. I've been asleep most of today. We shall see what the night brings.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting as well. We're doing a "down-and-back" to the Georgetown area to finally have family Christmas with the rest of Mrs. Prof's kinfolk. We'll be driving in excess of 3 hours down and 3 hours up, plus we'll have the party at one of her brothers' homes, so who knows how I'll respond. One thing is for certain - I'll be doing an IV infusion while we're in transit on the road, since the cefepime plus the vancomycin usually takes about 3 hours to infuse. My morning infusion is scheduled for sometime between 9:30 am and 10 am, so we'll probably have to pull over down just north of Waco to get it started. My nighttime infusion starts 12 hours later, so I'll most likely be home before we start it up.

No, it's not TMI, I'm just planning for myself. Gotta get this crap laid out in my head before we leave. Besides, if I get back and find the house ransacked, I'll know to whom I should point the cops at. 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Tomorrow is going to be interesting as well.

Actually...no. Saturday is going to be interesting. Tomorrow (Friday) is just going to be me getting some labs re-drawn by the home health nurse and getting a haircut later in the day. The trip takes place on Saturday.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

Mrs. Prof ordered a new game for her, our newly-38-year-old-son, and yours truly to enjoy, and enjoy we did last night, well beyond midnight. The game is "Ticket to Ride," European version, 15th Anniversary Special Edition. In it, you use trains to connect routes between cities of Europe, gaining points as you go. I won one round of three and came within two measly points of winning a second round. Mrs. Prof found out that she should have paid more attention in World Geography classes in high school...or was it that she should have taken the courses in the first place?

[Darth Fluffy 338]

Ticket to Ride is fun. Each (region) version has a different twist to how to score points, the base game remains the same. Did Europe add stations?

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

49 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Did Europe add stations?

I don't know about "adding" stations, since this is the first time I've seen the European version. We've been playing the American version for months, in both the base edition and with the 1910 add-on pack. That's all I knew up until last night's sessions.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

Night Two of playing the European version of Ticket to Ride has passed. I came in second in both games we played, once by a decent margin, once by a hair (to Mrs. Prof, who couldn't believe she won after all the grief my son and I had given her during that game). Mrs. Prof is slowly learning her geography. Give her a couple more games and she should be good to go.

[mlooney 3,594]

I should be writing for Project Z.  I even have a set of alarms set to tell me to start writing at noon and 12:30.  So far?  Zilch written in the last 2 weeks.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

Did a bit of board gaming with just my son tonight (Mrs. Prof had a headache and wanted a rest from the "Ticket to Ride" extravaganza). We pulled out an oldie moldy - Stratego. I haven't played that one in almost 50 years, and it showed. I lost all three games. The only one that was close was the second game, and maybe for a short time at the start, the third game. He found my flag every single time. Still, it was fun nonetheless. We'll probably go back to our Train sessions tomorrow, after the Dallas Stars preseason game is over.

[mlooney 3,594]

I don't think I've played Sratego since I was in Jr. high.

[Darth Fluffy 338]

2 hours ago, mlooney said:

I don't think I've played Sratego since I was in Jr. high.

Ditto something like that, but it was a good game. Actually took some planning and thought.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,336]

On 9/21/2024 at 11:22 AM, Darth Fluffy said:

Ditto something like that, but it was a good game. Actually took some planning and thought.

Yeah. Putting down the pieces is really the hardest part of the game. We've agreed that we need a screen of some kind between the red and blue sides of the board so that we can do that with some semblance of privacy.

[mlooney 3,594]

It's almost like a game called "Sratego" has strategy.  Of course to be picky about it, is has tactics.