the flying squirrel

It’s hot and sweaty today, so when I came into work, I wanted to go in through the cafeteria doors which is the fastest way to get to the disused gym/shower room to change shirts. Unfortunately when I opened the tinted cafeteria doors, I discovered that Sandvine, with whom we share an office, was having some sort of all hands meeting.

Very embarassing.

I’m a bit sad that a bunch of my favourite podcasts have gone off the air recently:

• CBC’s Search Engine announced they wouldn’t be renewed for a second season. Jesse’s still going to be posting new stuff come September, but the sophisticated news magazine about the interaction of the Internet and society is gone.
• On Have Games Will Travel, Paul Tevis said that after his eleventy-first episode, he was going off to Rivendell to live with the elves stopping the show. He’ll still be posting an occasional audio diary thing, and he’s still on The Voice of the Revolution, but I’ll miss HGWT. Not that he’d been posting a whole lot, but his last few shows were actually really good.
• And LugRadio just announced they’re breaking up the band after their upcoming LugRadio Live UK show. I’d only started listening to them around Christmas, looking for a Linux lifestyle show kind of like MacBreak Weekly, but for free software (and without all the iPhone bullshit). They were fun, and I’m sad they’re gonna be gone.

Also, while they’re not ending, Fear the Boot lost Luke, who was my favourite host. They’re changing things up quite a bit too, but I don’t begrudge them that.

So I’ve been adding some new feeds to fill the void. Some I added a while ago, but I’m on the lookout for new shows to fill similar niches. There are a few that look promising:

• The Ubuntu UK Podcast doesn’t have the same sort of fun chemistry that LugRadio had, but I like the Ubuntu focus and they’ve got some fabulous interviews already. I’m trying other Linux podcasts, but a lot of them (I’m thinking specifically about the
• Linux Action Show here) are way too influenced by American talk radio and are incredibly obnoxious.
• Master Plan is kind of interesting. I picked it up because Ryan Macklin did Have Master Will Plan with Paul Tevis a few months ago. I don’t have any aspirations towards game design, but he does have some neat discussions and interviews about how to make role playing work, so that’s much appreciated.
• Writing Excuses is a great, 15 minute weekly podcast about writing. I picked it up after seeing Howard Taylor at Ad Astra. It’s fun, funny, thought-provoking and makes me want to write more. You can’t really ask for more than that from a writing podcast.
• I’m trying out a few of CBC’s short summer series, including Between You and Me and Diet for a Hungry Planet (I ♥ Michael Pollan). Spark, which is off for the summer, but will return next season, is much more of a technology lifestyle show, compared to Search Engine’s technology analysis, but it has occasional interviews with Merlin Mann, who is awesome.

I dropped my parent’s hot tub cover on my toe on Saturday. It hurt a lot at the time. My toenail turned purple.

When I was a kid, my dad’s toenail would do something to his toe (he used to jog a lot) and his toenail would turn black and fall off. This was kinda gross, but it would grow back and he seemed generally resigned to it. So I sort of resigned myself to the same fate. Ew. It takes a year or so to grow back.

It doesn’t really hurt anymore. It just feels weird. And it’s annoying wearing shoes.

But then I decided to go online and see what I could find out. Along with a thorough squicking, I found out that I could drain the pressure and maybe save the nail. I could even do it at home! But a little voice inside my head told me that an infected toenail was even would be even worse than what I had. But hey! I have a doctor! I phoned them up this morning to make an appointment.

First I get a busy signal. Then they hung up on me after I make it through the pre-recorded message (I’m pretty sure that was an accident…). Then I phone back, sit through the message again and wait on hold for a while and eventually get a friendly receptionist.

I make my appointment and give her my name. “Do you sometimes go by another name?” she asks. Uh oh. I give her my OHIP number. Nope, not there either. Yes, I’d seen him before. Oh.

Somehow, I no longer have a doctor. Fortunately, they’re still taking new patients! I just have to show up for an interview next week. For my toenail, though, I get to go to the ER (ugh, no) or a walk-in clinic.

I don’t know if I should go back to these jokers. I didn’t like the main doctor guy much the one and only time I’d gone to see them. I never get the impression they want to have much to do with me, besides collect money from OHIP. On the other hand, I doubt there are any other doctors accepting patients around here who are really any better.

Ugh.