(no subject)

Finally ran across some sort of way to quantify pain. I like quantifying things. It puts them in boxes that I can deal with.

The Mankoski Scale. Going by this, my migraines are usually 6-7, with the worst going up to 8, and some hovering around 5 (you have to ignore the painkiller column, since OTC painkillers are infeective* in my migraines, and I seem to be an opioid non-responder, so codeine et. al produce no effect whatsoever on me). My back, OTOH, is currently at 2-3, goes up to 4-5 if I've done something stupid. But was at about 6 a year ago.


* I like that typo for 'ineffective' too much to change it.

(no subject)

I've been listening to the audiobook of Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald, an Australian who moved there when her boyfriend was transferred. rachelmanija didn't like it very much, and has a much better review of it than I could give, and if I weren't lazy I'd poke trhough her archives until I found it and link it here, but you'll just have to do that yourself (ETA: or check the comments, where rachelmanija posted it). Anyway, I just thought I'd mention the one thing about the prose which is driving me up the wall, and which I might not have noticed if I were reading the book normally. It's the assonance. Macdonald is enamoured of words that start with the same sound, especially when they're adjectives and nouns, so the actress reading the book has a hard time trying not to fall into a ricky-ticky rhythm. I don't know what possessed her to think that was a good technique - she's a radio broadcaster so you'd think she'd be more aware of how words sound and how annoying this is when it's overused.

(on a plane) I'm too sleepy, shocked, and for some reason, too embarrassed to scream, so I buzz for sisterly assistance.

Dazed, disoriented, and dusty, I sense a strange sight and sound emerging from the fog.

Now imagine the entire book like that.

She's also got a major fast-food approach to sampling various faiths, and the theme of the book is her searching for and presumably finding some sort of faith, but rachelmanija covers that. I think.