Change of plans!
Off to SF tomorrow! Woohoo!
- Sape Holiday Party!
- Irvie, Tatsu, Simone and other Amherst peeps!
- All my wonderful SF friends!
- Dave Bernstein, Bern and the two Pussy(cats)!

It's funny that it's the sites which have "No Spam" policies that are the ones that flood your mailbox with unsolicited mail. How hypocritical. Humph

Why does my cash flow forecast in Microsoft Money look like Sapient revenue projections? Or rather, to be more accurate, their profit projections? I just realized that I am severely overdrafted on my bank account. Chalk one up to not paying attention. It's high time that I become more financially disciplined and responsible, because I came to the stark realization today that I am neither.

Guess the SF trip is not going to happen this weekend...

I'm reading this article in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine called "This Year in Ideas". There's a section about Britney Spears where they dub her "the postmodern virgin-whore". I was amused.
It makes sense that this year should end with something crappy. This year has been my token bad year, so I think we're trying to sqeeze as much bad stuff in 12 months as possible - December no exception. I'm looking forward to all the really cool awesome stuff that's going to happen to me next year =).

Anyways, I went in to get a MRI on Saturday, and had a followup with my doctor today. This is my spine:

As you can see where the red arrow is, that is my herniated L5-S1 disk. Normally, it should look like all the disks above it. According to my doctor, as herniated disks go, this one's a whopper.

Here's a cross-section of a normal disk on the left, and my L5-S1 disk on the right:

The red part is the herniated part of the disk. The blue arrows point to where the nerve runs. The right side is squished, and the left side is a little compressed, causing my symptoms. My doctor says he's suprised that I'm not in great pain. In any case, it's bad enough that he's worried about nerve damage and therefore is recommending surgery to remove the herniated part of the disk in order to free up the nerve. Yikes. I'm going to a nerve specialist on Thursday to get a second opinion.

Anyways, this really throws my life into a little spin - I've been planning on doing a bit of traveling before and after the holidays, but esp. since I might need to go in for surgery, this is probably not possible any more. Also, I've been trying to work up to running a 10K race - no more running for a while. I'm getting really into rock climbing, and just got a month membership to a local rock climbing gym - no rock climbing. I was looking forward to skiing this season - no skiing. Poo.

In other news, my parents and I have been on a David Lear kick recently, having watched Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago in the past week. Bridge on the River Kuai is next. David Lear is the British director who directed all these movies. They just don't make epic movies quite like they used to - complete with beginning overtures and intermissions.