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There exists a 1^st-generation grunge rock band Alice in Chains, who have a song entitled God Smack;

And there exists a 3^rd-generation grunge rock band Godsmack, who have a song entitled Shine Down;

And there exists a 5^th-generation grunge rock band Shinedown, who have a song entitled X;

Therefore, X, where REMOVE_SPACES(X) is the name of a yet-theoretical 7^th-generation grunge rock band, …

So, I’ve kicked pain meds for the second time in my life.  This time was much, much harder than last time.

I did it by myself, with pretty much everyone I know on vacation or otherwise out of town.  I was dosing with Klonopin to keep from seizing, and I made it through.  This time, I went from 60 - 100 mg Oxycodone a day to zero.  I thought going down to 5 mg would be the hard part.  Turns out the hard part is 5 mg to zero.

Scary stuff.  And no fun at all.  Weird.  You would think that writhing in agony on your couch in cold sweats in an air conditioned studio apartment would be enjoyable.  But no, it’s not.

I have a feeling that in, oh, say, fifty years, we will look back at opiates (especially long-term) for pain control as we do leeches and bloodletting.  But it’s not fifty years hence, and we don’t, and doctors still prescribe them.

I had tickets to three successive nights of Eddie Izzard at the Kodak Theatre.  On the first day I had tickets, I stopped the pain meds.  I couldn’t drag myself to the bus to go see him on the subsequent nights, and he’s my fave.

So I’m in an interesting position, should I be in another major accident.  If I am taken by ambulance to the hospital, what then?  Do I tell them, “Hold the Dilaudid, I’m a former addict”?  What will they give me?  Naprosyn?

Anyway.  Yeah, I hurt less now that I’m off the pain meds.  I guess that my body would signal pain as a trigger to take more pills.  I’m not peachy-keen yet.  I’m not ready to go back to work yet.  But I’m better.  Thinking more clearly, more energy, alert enough to notice that my apartment is really horribly messy.

Sleep is still hard.  Regular readers know all the troubles I’ve had with sleep anyway, but sleep once one is off of Oxycodone is well-nigh impossible.  So I’m keeping weird hours, napping when I can, trying my best — trying my best — trying my best.  I have some friends in Australia.  That helps.

So, kids?  Don’t fuck around with Oxycodone, OK?  I’m not some stoner loser here.  I’m a college grad, computer wizard, 148 IQ, 99+ percentile mega man.  I’ve never even smoked a joint.  And these prescribed meds got me.  OK?  Think you’re too smart to get addicted?  Think again.  A brain is a brain, and a reward center is a reward center, and addiction has nothing to do with intelligence.

Seriously.  Avoid.

That is all.

Be well.

Hey Readers,

As you probably know, I’m an Amazon Affiliate.  I’m not really allowed to say this out loud, but (obviously) when you buy Amazon stuff through my links, I get a kickback.  It doesn’t add up to much.

I’m also a heavy-duty Amazon buyer, spending maybe $500-$1000 (sometimes more) per year.  I’m the problem child for their Amazon Prime problem: they lose money on me constantly.

Problem is, if I buy through my Affiliate ID, all my sales stats are snuffed out because I cannot get a kickback on my own sales.

So what I’m looking for is another Affiliate who is also a heavy Amazon buyer (let’s put that at $500+/year.)  We’ll each generate a text link with our Associate ID embedded, bookmark each other’s, and promise to go to Amazon always through that link.

If more than one of you is interested, we could daisy-chain it (A→B, B→C, C→A, or whatever).

This post may not last forever, since it is subverting Amazon, but if you (Richard?  Jordon?  Marco?  Polo?) want to trade, LMK.

I just got a Spam message with the title “dixon mole expectorate interrogatory cheerleader”.  I marked it spam, then had second thoughts, and thought, “I’ve got to see this one” (yes, I occasionally think in italics) and clicked “Undo”.  Here are the contents:

——————————
dukedom tombstone sisal? bygone, tombstone dixon.
lawmen upperclassmen bygone materiel cheerleader tombstone, barr
dukedom interrogatory cinematic quill built.

footpad man mole

barr academia univariate? circumstance, speck materiel.
montpelier barr built cromwellian litton espousal, barr
footpad allow retiree montpelier sisal.

crater toady man

campsite quill dukedom? sisal, bygone vertebrate.

lawmen cinematic.
——————————

That’s it.  No link, no misspelled drug name, no implication that I should be worried about the size of any of my body parts, no comma-plus-an-exclamation-point to render it in the imperative.  Just that aphasic string.  For what?  Channel testing?  List pruning?  Anarchy?  Better ideas?

I received a very cute attempt at a cease-and-desist letter by the head of StampWants, Mark Rosenberg, whom I had called racist due to his preference for having large numbers of categories for some countries and no categories for others.  I’ve rephrased and my revision is here.