Not So Exotic Bugs

The last few days in Egypt, I had a cough, which was particularly rough when we got back to the smog of Cairo. I thought the smog was what started things, but as I looked back, it started before we returned to Cairo. Still, when I got back, it did improve (so was likely worsened by the smog). And since then, I kept waiting… for it to… get better… And it hasn’t, so I set up an appointment with my doctor.

Went in today and she’s fairly confident it’s a virus. She said she that something is going around and she had the same symptoms. Being a virus, there’s not much to do for it. Over the weekend, I started having symptoms that usually go along with a sinus infection (which I’m unfortunately too acquainted with). For that reason, she gave me an antibiotic. And she gave me advair to help with the symptoms of the cough, which are taking their toll. It’s a strong cough, especially at night, so rather tiring after 2+ weeks.

So, here’s to recovery….

On the positive side, as I reported yesterday, I’ve used the down time for some monotonous tasks, namely the copying of all my CDs to MP3. I’d like to say I was working on my Egypt photos, but they’re languishing as I’m not feeling it right now.

Last night I tried out some more media library software. This one is looking like a winner. I’ve got another 29 days of the trial, but if things continue as they have, I may not need that long to try it out. For anyone interested, I’m testing J. River Media Center. I’m really liking the interface – very smooth. It’s obvious (and credited) that it’s based on windows media player, but it’s definitely beyond it.

First off, I was thinking I might need a faster router when I was using windows media player. Songs playing off of my network drive would occasionally stutter if I had several things going on the network at once. The router may need replacing anyway, not new, not top of the line, but not the total problem, apparently. As I’ve used this Media Center for two days now, and I didn’t even have issues when I was very actively using the home network today.

And so far, I’ve really only played with it’s music features. It can also handle videos and photos. Still open to other suggestions but looking favorably on this if it continues to function well.