this lossy codec

Feel good today. The massively severe headache of yesterday (5.6.8) and minor one of a few days ago (5.4.8) have left me with such an appreciation of those moments when I am without pain that I can now refer to what were formerly regarded as ‘normal’ days as ‘ecstasy’ days. Such experiences certainly help appreciate life. (I might add that currently I am of the belief that the 10mg dosage of mellatonin before bed seems to be staving off the fits. Helps me sleep at night as well.)

In other news, last week I lost my telescoping space pen that I got for my birthday last summer. I carried it with me everywhere and it fit nicely in my pant pocket. Leave it to cargo pants to vent precious cargo into the atmosphere. While not totally certain where I lost it I had an inkling it was at the Satellite coffee on Louisiana (in Albuquerque). I called them to inquire if they had found one – they had not. I decided to make the trip down as I needed to use the internet anyway..(of course it crashed repeatedly when I got there, but that is another story).

When I arrived I ordered and sat down in one of the chairs I had used and began discretely digging through the seat cushion. Nada. A fairly well dressed businessman was sitting on the couch where I had also sat, so I waited for him to leave. When he did leave I noticed something silverish sticking out of the seat cushion. Could it be? Well, no, but kind of. Turns out it was his pen, which had apparently fallen out of his pocket. I sat there holding his pen, writing this entry and struggling with the internet for a couple hours. He never returned and so, I kept it.

I’m sure you will relate to my bewilderment of this strange coincidence. Looking back I have a couple hypothesizes;

1. The couch eats pens.

2. The focus of my attention on the couch and pen somehow drew the pen out of his pocket (a la magic or hypnotism).

3. The space pen, having disappeared created a vacuum which sucked his pen into it.

4. (And for the skeptics) It is a coincidence.

There are, perhaps more possibilities. Feel free to offer up suggestions.

The pen I found is perhaps the exact opposite of my precious telescoping space pen. While my pen was thinner than my pinky this pen is thicker than my thumb. While my pen was a discrete silver, this pen has a flamboyant amber / orange base with a cap covered in little airplanes. The name on the clip says “Breitling.” A little googling leads to more curiosities. I Found only one ebay entry and no other price listings anywhere. Odd. The ebay entry lists it as ‘Super rare’. Well, you know ebay but still, the fact that they are asking $244.69 must mean that someone would pay that much. A little further digging reveals that Breitling is in fact a watch manufacturer and only gave these pens out as a promotion to ‘Top Gun customers’ (whatever that means).

Anyway, here it is:

So. Now I have something I do not really want and do not have something I do really want. Such is the mystery of life…

While all of this is going on (and the web is crashing) I notice someone I know but haven’t seen since Daniél and I lived in Albuquerque a couple years ago. It’s Dr. Blue! He’s part of the Abq burning man contingency. We went over to his house one evening for a little soire and ended up blowing on some Peruvian whistling vessels. Cool guy with an incredible sound system. The whistling vessels, THAT is an interesting story…

I had been reading a book called “Animated Earth” about the guy who fist discovered that these little pots, which anthropologists just thought were for carrying water (they are the size of a fist) were actually psycho-acoustic whistles. Anyway, when I first met Dr. Blue I told him that I was into all sorts of interesting sound stuff. He said, “oh, then you’d be interested in these little Peruvian whistles.” Unreal. I was in the middle of the book about them. Too much. Anyway…

As I’m leaving the coffee shop I say hi to Dr. Blue and remind him I was their for the 2 hour whistle off. Turns out that with him is Aum Rak, the Mayan shaman who we also met at his house that day and who Daniél interviewed for her dissertation. They had all just returned from a trip to Guatemala. It was really a synchronistic reunion. They invited Daniél and I to some upcoming events at their space, The 3 Sided Whole. So, we’ll see what comes of that.

The rest of the day in Abq was fairly uneventful. I had some nice thrift scores, including this tiki:

Later on, when Dani got home I realized today was her last day at Whole Foods. Woo-hoo!. Unfortunately, any celebrating was subtle as she is not feeling very well right now and I am too afraid of headaches to indulge in much frivolity. Still, interesting day.

4.27.8

Today i woke up with a mild headache. Although I don’t generally get headaches, over the past week or so I’d been taking aspirin nearly every day to fend them off. I was traveling back home, and with the humidity and altitude shift (as well as increases in sugar and coffee ingestion), frankly I wasn’t surprised. Then, the night I returned (4.25.8) I had a headache the intensity of which was totally debilitating and required taking a narcotic painkiller. Finally I went to sleep.

So, the headache I woke up with quickly gained intensity. Within 20 minutes it had become so excruciating to bring me to tears. I took another painkiller. And another. And then one more. Still, it hung on as I tried to drift off into sleep in hopes of resetting my brain. This ‘sleep-reset’ was a technique I had used when, several years ago, I had had another bout of these headaches. It lasted a few weeks and then went away. The cessation of the headaches coincided with a spiritual and physical cleansing and healing ceremony in Peru (as well as me quitting my job as a fry cook in a sushi restaurant (oddly enough).

A few hours later Daniél arrived home (with dogs!) and I had been able to drift off enough to feel better. At this point she brought up something called ‘cluster headaches’ which had apparently popped into her head the other night when I was reeling in pain.

I did a little googling and as usual, wikipedia came through (Wikipedia entry on Cluster headaches). That was in fact extremely interesting and revealing. Apparently, by ‘cluster’ is meant that the headaches come in clusters of time and are often separated by weeks, months or even years. When they do recur they will come on quickly (often in 15 minutes or less). When in the midst of a ‘cycle’ the slightest bit of alcohol can trigger a fit (i had a margarita the night i returned home).

Because of their intensity they are also known colloquially as “suicide headaches” because so strong is the pain that people can be driven to kill themselves for hope of relief (yes, I think I can relate). In fact, women who are plagued with this syndrome say it is worse than the pain of childbirth (!!!). Another reference said it was worse than having a limb amputated without anaesthesia (!!!!!!!). As for my own experiences, I shall simply say that although I have neither experienced childbirth nor unanaesthesiatized amputation, the pain is in fact so excruciating that the contemplation of self-immolation seems to offer some solace. Let me add that it does offer some vindication to read this…

Also, they are occasionally referred to as “alarm clock headaches” because of the regularity of occurrence, often happening at the same time of day, day of week or time of year. Most interestingly, this has lead to speculation of the involvement of the brain’s biological clock, more specifically, an abnormality in the hypothalamus. How interesting it is indeed to becomes aware of the misfirings of ones brain. So often are we tempted to gaze through the glass window of our mental abstraction of the world that we are tempted to believe our perceptions are in fact “the world.”

The article on wikipedia is wrapped up by alluding to various possibilities of treatment, all fairly anecdotal. Of the treatments listed, I found most interesting the rapid inhalation of pure oxygen and vigorous exercise (both at the first onset of symptoms). Also, “some people report that sexual intercourse and specifically orgasm may terminate an attack possibly by acutely modulating hypothalamic function.” Furthermore, and most significant of all to this patient, is “substantial anecdotal evidence” that serotonergic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD can abort cluster periods and extend remission periods. Apparently, these substances work by “resetting the hypothalamus” back to normal functioning. I’ll leave it there for the interested reader to seek out further reading on that subject (here).

Needless to say, this came as very “hopeful” news to me, to say the least. My last “remission” had, in fact, coincided with a trip to Peru where I went on a 10 day dieta that involved imbibing in the sacred (and psychedelic) ayahuasca. Furthermore, I happened to have a slight amount of such-and-such-hypothalamic-resetting substance lying around so to I assumed this was a medical emergency and ingested it. It is now two days later and I’ve had no resurgence since.