November 7th, 2008 Denham Coote
Amongst a number of other uncharacteristic decisions I’ve recently made, I went off and got myself a tattoo yesterday.
Circle of Friends
Some (geeks) may recognise it right away. For those of you that don’t, other than it being a cool design (I think so, anyway), there’s a bunch of meaning to it.
The symbol is that of Ubuntu Linux. From their website:
Ubuntu is an African word meaning ‘Humanity to others’, or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.
It’s about community, caring, sharing, acceptance, diversity, and the ideologies that the culture embraces.
In addition to that, I’ve gone up 10 points in a) geekiness b) coolness or c) both! Hehe.
The photo doesn’t quite show it off properly yet, since the light grey areas are still a little dark (and look black). Look here to understand it better.
A big thanks to Kay from Skin Deep Tattoos who left his mark on my virgin skin.
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October 27th, 2008 Denham Coote
As some may recall, Stormhoek were kind enough to let us spend the day on the farm when we were down in Cape Town for WordCamp 2008. Good food, good company and good wine! A perfect Sunday. As if this wasn’t enough to convince me just how awesome these guys are, they are now running a promotion where they will send wine and photos to just about anywhere in the World, to users who engage with them online.
I’m sure not gonna miss out on the opportunity to get myself some of their awesome wine! (I opened my last bottle of Stormhoek last week)
Hope you’re all well!
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July 9th, 2008 Denham Coote
So, who wants in?
For my truly dyslexic friends, that Ana’s Lex. Get your minds out of the gutter.
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July 7th, 2008 Denham Coote
I have been trying for the last 4 hours to speak to a human being at Dell. I have tried the sales dept. I have tried placing a new order. I have tried customer service - all 4 sub-options. I have tried accounts. Damn, I even tried the section for government officials. Dell’s telephone system is an inescapable abyss of incorrectly routed calls to dead lines, incorrect mailboxes and in one case, the sounds of dogs barking in the background. I shit you not.
A sign of things to come? If so, I will likely cancel my order and purchase my laptop elsewhere. (If I’m lucky enough to get through to them, that is)
Dell, please get your act together, sort out your telephone system and for the love of small animals, SOMEONE PHONE ME ABOUT MY ORDER.
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May 24th, 2007 Denham Coote
On Saturday morning I came around to the sound of puking. The person puking, it appeared, was me.
“Why am I hunched over the toilet, puking?”
“Why is there, what appears to be, blood mixed with my puke?”
“and WHO is this person standing next to me in the bath?” I think to myself.
Incoherent noises.
“You’ve had a seizure” I hear the voice telling me.
Then it dawns on me. This would be the reason I have been speaking with a lisp this past week.
OK, so for those of you that have NO idea what I’m rambling on about, I’m a diabetic. My diabetes is fairly well controlled. My doctors are generally happy with me. Just over 2 years ago I had the following series of unfortunate events take place:
I woke up on Friday morning and went to work, as per normal.
I did not eat anything during the day, for reasons I can’t recall.
I went home, skipped dinner, changed, and went out to Sutra (A club).
I proceeded to drink (and dance) the night away.
I went home, checked my sugar, established it was high, and injected the appropriate (or so I thought) amount of insulin.
Having not slept for the past 26 hours, fell into a very deep sleep.
Now usually, when I go low, I will wake up. I will stumble through to the kitchen and find something to eat. The problem here is that I was so tired (and/or trashed) that I didn’t wake up. My glucose levels continued to drop. Having not eaten anything and having exercised (the dancing), they were dropping faster than normal. They dropped so low (1.2) that I had a seizure and bit my tongue. My folks had to get the paramedics out to get me stabilised. This landed me a week long stint in hospital. Needless to say I learnt a lesson the harsh way, and have since endeavoured to avoid a similar situation.
I’m still trying to figure out all the details, but it seems that something very similar happened on Saturday. Yes, I had been out that night, but I had not had nearly as much to drink as before. Yes, I did get to bed late (about 4am), but I didn’t inject nearly as much insulin as I did before. This is something that I’ve become very weary of, and I would rather go high than have another fit! Additionally, I had made sure I ate something before going to bed.
Perplexing. The only thing I can think of that makes any amount of reasonable sense is that my insulin wasn’t mixed well enough, and I got a stronger-than-usual dose. This isn’t really supposed to happen, but I cannot think of any other logical explanation.
Regardless, we were at least a lot more prepared. Since the last incident I keep a glucogen injection in the fridge, which is easy to use. My folks immediately recognised what was happening and injected me. This, I later found out, was also what induced the vomiting, and not my alcohol intake.
I should probably apologise to the paramedics - apparently I was quite aggressive and very rude. All I wanted to do was hang on to the toilet bowl and puke away my sad existence. I made that very clear to them, and I sort of remember them saying something along the lines of “we can’t take him without his consent” to my Dad. I think I told them exactly where to get off when they tried to take me away from my porcelain telephone!
Anyway, the point of the story is: Always make sure you mix your insulin (or drink, for that matter) properly!
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September 19th, 2006 Denham Coote
I am the apotheosis of malleable uncertainty
I no longer want to be a malcontent
Ineffable feelings of love, lust & longing
The juxtaposition of compunction and alacrity
Carrying a burning burden, I wait in silent agony;
Rapture, simulated and artificial
Waiting; Implacable
Delusions of grandeur, concealing my tainted soul
Soon I will be free
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January 20th, 2005 Denham Coote
Hello
I’ve been absent for roughly the past week. On Saturday the 15th Jan at roughly 9:30 in the morning I was dragged out of my bed by paramedics. I had had a fit/seizure of sorts, and had bitten my tongue open rather badly. When the paramedics tested my blood sugar levels it was 1.2. A non-diabetic usually has a blood sugar level of about 5.
So I was rushed off to hospital, where they decided to keep me until yesterday. I was tested for epilepsy, and various other brain abnormalities. Luckily that all checked out alright. They kept me longer to observe my fluctuating sugar levels, though I must admit I’m not entirely sure they knew what they were doing. My muscles are pretty sore, and still feel quite tense. I’m on a bunch of antibiotics and painkillers now, so life feels quite different (read: woozy!).
Anyway.
Oh yeah, my PC specs are as follows:
—————————————- —-
Pentium 4 3.4 (775LGA)
4 x 200GB Seagate SATA 150 HDD’s
1GB DDR2 RAM
nVidia 6600GT PCI Express (128MB)
16x DVD/RW
WLan card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Winfast TV2000XP Expert
—————————————- —-
I’ll try get some more artwork up soon-ish.
D.
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December 16th, 2004 Denham Coote
I got a tablet for my birthday yesterday. It’s gonna be cool for photo touch ups, etc. Here’s a quick scetch: -> [link] . I guess I just need to learn how to draw now!
I am so stuffed. We went out last night to celebrate my birthday. Needless to say a steady supply of alcohol was forced upon me! Good thing today was a public holiday, and I’m not working tomorrow either.
I need coffee.
kthxbaai!
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December 12th, 2004 Denham Coote
My camera has been stolen.
I will no longer be taking photographs.
I cannot afford a new camera. I had to save for months to purchase my last one.
I no longer wish to live here.
Pity.
I was enjoying myself.
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