Wasteland Wrap-up #48

Getting over a cold, Parisian graffiti, a graphic novel about the history of RPGs...

I have been sick all week with some kind of cold. I have read that getting more colds is common when people move to another country, at first, because of, you know, different germs and whatnot. I’m not sure that’s more than anecdata, but here we are.

I appreciate the attention to detail on French graffiti.

The worst part about colds are that they are seriously unpleasant to have, but not so serious that you generate more than mild sympathy or attention from anyone else. You don’t feel terrible, you just feel lousy, and if it interferes with your sleep (as mine has), then you feel really lousy.

Lyndon doesn’t mind when we are sick, because it means a lot of loafing on the coach with him, which he enjoys.

The attitude of the French pharmacists — who you have to negotiate with to buy basically any over-the-counter medicine, unlike in the USA — is that you should basically be as minimally interventionist as possible, which means they try to push a bunch of herbal stuff on you. I was able to insist on some “real” pharmaceuticals, but even then, they just don’t seem to have as many of those as the USA does. Is that a good thing? In the abstract, I would say, sure — Americans probably do overmedicate for things like colds. In practice, when I’m sick I really just want to load up on decongestants and cough suppressant.

That’s my excuse for not getting another Doomsday Machines post up, if I need one! But I’m recovering. Next week I am going to be traveling for some work, which I would probably be looking more forward to if I wasn’t recovering from a cold, but here we are. C’est la vie…

I did watch House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow’s new nuclear movie, on Netflix last night, and will probably be writing something up on it on here next week. It will have spoilers so if you want my thoughts on it, you should watch it first!