New TV and Mental Freak-Outs
Ok, a couple of little odds-and-ends to blog about from my life in the past week.
Firstly, my new TV. I've been saving up for a flat-panel TV now for the better part of the year, and I've been waiting specifically for the new Pioneer PDP-507XDA 127cm plasma. Anyway, it was due out last week so I went to the local Myer store to see about preordering one.
My mate at Myer (who knew I'd been waiting for this TV for some time) had some very good news for me. The local store had received a single unit to act as a demo unit, and he had permission to sell it, since they didn't have space on the floor for it anyway. So I was all set to be the first kid on my block with this tele.
Only problem is, I didn't have the cash handy - I didn't expect to be getting the unit for another month.
So I transferred a couple of grand from my home-loan into my savings account, which should be in there by Tuesday. Not wanting to wait, though, I figured I'd write 'em a cheque, and by the time that cleared the money would be in there. No such luck - they rang up to get the cheque authorised, and the credit union knocked it back. So my cunning plan failed. Now I'll have to wait 'til one day next week before I can pick it up.
So that's the TV news. Now, health news.
On the drive home yesterday, I started getting weird flashing effects in my right eye. I knew straight away what it was - an ocular migraine. I'd had one about a year ago. I didn't concern myself with it too much, because the last time it happened it went away by itself.
A few minutes into the drive, however, things started getting really weird. It's like my brain disconnected from reality. Everything turned very dream-like, and I had a lot of trouble even talking to my buddy in the car - finding the word I needed to end a sentence etc. It was like I'd lost the power of speech or something.
Freaking out, I told Sal when I got home that I thought I might be going insane. She immediately (cyberchondriac that she is) looked it up on the net, and what do you know? It's a symptom of migraines too! It's known as dysphasia and is usually followed (half and hour or so later) by the headache that we normally associate with migraines. Needless to say that the headache did follow, and it was not pretty.
I'm all good again today, but that was certainly a surreal experience, and not one I'm ready to repeat any time soon.

Comments
# Andrew Tobin
7/10/2006 7:41 PM
I thought the TV was supposed to be for Christmas anyway? Just remember, if you get it next week it'll have to sit in the box for two months :P
And you know, thats a long thing to type to vindicate yourself of piking on me today.
It also reminds me of something Rory said about his migranes... although I don't know if that was similar or not, or if I'm just equating freaky migranes with each other.
But yeah have a look through his history cos that does sound similar.
# mabster
7/10/2006 8:12 PM
Yeah, I'm not sure if it was migraines that rory suffer(s|ed) from, but tells a story about how at one point he went blind in the middle of a presentation.
# Andrew Tobin
7/10/2006 9:42 PM
Pretty sure it was migranes, G.
Sorry to needle you a bit about not coming along, I didn't know it was that serious and I thought you were just looking for an excuse.
Hope you're doing better after some rest.
#
8/10/2006 3:07 AM
You foreigners and your metric system.
So, 127cm .... carry the 2. add a 3. divide by the square root of 7452....
screw it...
Nice size tv.
the fun part will be getting the remote to work with it, of course...
# sqlartist
8/10/2006 5:56 AM
Hi,
I usded to be a sql server mvp until I started to get headaches - turns out to be cluster headaches - basically extreme migraine. 4 years later and I now have an implant in my head which is activated by a remote control. Its totally fixed the pain though !
# mabster
8/10/2006 10:13 AM
50" for you non-metric folks.
This particular model has been out in the rest of the world for a few months now, so I'm guessing that the Logitech 880 remote will already have codes available for it. If not I'm back to using the remote that comes with the tele.
# Andrew Tobin
8/10/2006 4:36 PM
well you know that the remote can actually learn from your tv remote... so, yeah, not too hard to train it..
apart from that there's sure to be someone else who has and an upgrade through the web interface.
# Dave Burke
8/10/2006 9:17 PM
So sorry to hear about the TV! Oh, yeah, and the migraines. Thanks for the inches conversion.
btw, I tried to leave a comment here yesterday but couldn't connect to Mabster Central. Must have been a cable temporarily down between here and Australia. Or not.
Glad everything is good again.
# Andrew Tobin
8/10/2006 9:21 PM
I had a bit of trouble connecting too yesterday, it seems to be up and going fine again now. The host really is brilliant with the support.
And things always sound better (and bigger!) in metric!
Baby, it's 120! (God bless millimetres).
# mabster
8/10/2006 10:28 PM
1270 millimeters! 1,270,000 microns!!!
# Andrew Tobin
8/10/2006 10:37 PM
Mate, if you're measuring in microns you're defiantely compensating for something.
# Andrew Tobin
8/10/2006 10:38 PM
... and I am never going to spell that word right! Argh!
# Euan
9/10/2006 8:27 AM
"cyberchondriac" brilliant!
Its cos your crazy and you drink too much coffee.
# mabster
9/10/2006 9:14 AM
It's because I'm crazy *and* I drink too much coffee? So if I was just crazy and didn't drink coffee, or if I wasn't crazy but kept drinking coffee, I'd be ok?
# Darklord
10/10/2006 5:33 PM
Nice choice of plasma mab. Now all you need is a shiny new up-scaling DVD player to go with it.. and a twin tuner HD PVR, and a new HD DVD player, and a new AV receiver that decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD 7.1 sound formats, and...
Time to dip back into that home loan account? ;)
Oh and as a fellow migraine sufferer I've had “dysphasia” before too, but had no idea that's what it was called. I just thought I was having a stroke, but glad to know it was something more mundane :D
# mabster
10/10/2006 5:39 PM
Thanks mate - you're right about dipping back into the loan ... it's a vicious upgrade cycle.
The DVD player will definitely be the next purchase (as we've discussed on htcentral.net), and after that (lo-o-o-ong after that) a new receiver.
A twin tuner HD PVR would be nice, but Windows Media Center and the Xbox 360 is doing that job quite well for now.