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Recently, my Firefox 2/Mac automatically updated a couple of extensions and themes. In the process, it knocked out Sage’s ability to access new feeds to subscribed web sites.

I noticed this earlier today, when I wrote the previous post. I have a habit of checking up on my subscribed feeds later in the day, and I noticed it. I also noticed that for a few of those who write several articles each day weren’t getting updated, either.

I checked my feed in Safari and found that everything worked just ducky, so it wasn’t my site — or anybody else’s, for that matter. It was Sage, and the only thing that could have changed would be extension/theme upgrades within Firefox itself.

Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing which extension or theme knocked it out save for disabling each one, one at a time, restarting Firefox each time I make a change.

With 48 extensions and 14 themes installed, this is going to take a while.

Oh, joy.

Back in August, I wrote two posts about my MacBook having problems with narcolepsy.

The actual problem was the Random Shutdown Bug, which affected about 15% of white 1.83Ghz MacBooks, 12% of black 2Ghz MacBooks, and 8-10% of white 2Ghz MacBooks.

So this morning I received a comment from someone in Milton, Queensland, Australia about narcolepsy, linking back to AskTheSleepExperts.com, an apparent site dedicated to sleep disorders.

To explain, my use of the terms “narcolepsy” and “narcoleptic” were a literary device, a simile, similar to the old Winston cigarette ads on television, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.” More correctly, grammatically, in Winston’s case, “like” should have been “as”; in my use of “narcolepsy,” I was actually referring to my MacBook acting as if it had narcolepsy, or as if it were narcoleptic.

Suddenly, I feel like I’m in a GEICO “Caveman” commercial, in a way: no matter what you write, there’s always someone there to remind you…

And I’m not complaining. Many among us have serious sleep disorders, narcolepsy being one of them, and they are not trivial: according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, sleep disorders cost close to $16 billion in terms of lost productivity annually, as well as an additional “$50-$100 billion in indirect costs (accidents, litigation, property destruction, hospitalization, and death),” for a combined total of $116 - $166 billion annually. Add unemployment, therapy, other medical treatments, and more, to take the costs well over $200 billion annually.

Compare this with the cost of drug use in the US, which hovers around $134 billion annually, give or take a few bucks. Granted, drug use takes a huge chunk out of our GNP on a daily basis — but sleep problems actually take more. At the Maryland site listed above, search on “drug addiction” and take a look at any of the pages in the result; then check out what they cite as the root causes: depression and sleep loss.

I would submit to you that employers should test for sleep disorders as well as drug use, for it actually costs us more in the long run — and is far more prevalent in our society.

Myself, I had sleep apnea.

I say “had,” because it’s exactly that — past tense: I had sleep apnea. It’s now gone, thanks to my losing close to 80 pounds: I no longer sleep with distorted portions of my body shoving themselves into my stomach and forcing stomach acid to climb up my esophagus, making me choke on my own fluids; I no longer sleep with distorted portions of my body forcing other portions of my body to relax into unnatural positions, shutting off my airflow, making me snore — and threatening my life.

Today, I have no issue with falling asleep or getting drowsy mid-day, and my head is clearer now than it has been for 17 years (to be precise), because I no longer wake up for split second every 10-20 minutes or so because I (physically) can’t breathe.

That same sleep apnea probably led to my separation from Optiem, truth be told, for I spent many a day there, sitting in my chair in front of my computer, fighting sleep: I simply wasn’t sleeping at night. I couldn’t dream, I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t function. Hell, I couldn’t even see.

Well, the past is the past: today, I work elsewhere — as well as for myself, I own a MacBook Pro in place of the “narcoleptic” MacBook, and I’m no longer referred to as “Goodyear” (as in the blimp).

And I have more energy and more stamina — every day, all day — unless you look at me late in the day that Mother Nature decided to dump 2 feet of snow on us…

OK, so here’s the plot: I received a check from a client in the mail today. Ya-hoo!

So, in partial celebration, I purchased a six of GLBC Edmund Fitzgerald Porter from a local store, which I plan to save for tomorrow night, when I will sit back and enjoy it, slow sip by slow, aggravating sip. Pure heaven in every tilt.

No other way there, sorry.

Anyway, I went over to the Time Out Grille at Shoregate after the bank, unfortunately, to have a beer. I went home after two, which got me into a whole peck of trouble. I don’t think I have to tell you why, OK?

So: what did I do?

I made soup. Not just any soup, mind you, but my current favorite: Cauliflower-Gorgonzola soup. Here’s the recipe:

Cauliflower-Gorgonzola Soup

1 cauliflower

1 Tsp unsalted butter

1 large onion, peeled and diced

4 or 5 thyme sprigs

2 bay leaves

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

4 cups chicken stock (vegetable stock is OK)

4oz Gorgonzola cheese — or so

1/3 cup milk

parsley for garnish

Clean the cauliflower properly into florets. Leave the stalk in the mix for flavor. Set aside. Gently melt the butter in a saucepan large enough to handle this whole mess over medium heat. Add the onions and sweat gently for about 5 minutes, until translucent.

Add the cauliflower, thyme and bay leaves. Give it a little salt and pepper — but just a touch: let this mixture find its feet, as it were. Pour in the stock, stir, and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or so — until the cauliflower is very soft.

Crumble in the gorgonzola and stir over low heat until the cheese is absorbed completely. Add the milk and stir to combine. Pick out the bay leaves and thyme stalks (if you used the entire stalk — don’t bother to pick it out if you didn’t, it’s no matter), then use an immersible blender (as Emeril calls it, a “boat motor”) to blend until reasonably smooth.

Ladle into warm bowls and serve with chopped parsley. Supposedly, this serves 4.

Sorry, but it serves 8.

Seriously: use a large cauliflower, and add a little minced garlic when you sweat the onions; use your discretion with the milk, as you might just need a touch more — that’s OK, it’ll pay off in the end — an ounce or two more won’t effect the end result for you WeightWatchers.

This soup kicks some serious ass — and for WeightWatchers, it’s only 2 points, as cooked above.

Hopefully, this will get me invited back to Eric’s bread and soup party next year… (just kidding!)