And the Sickness is.....

Well, it's been confirmed by the Tropical Disease Unit in Lima, Peru.  I've got Dengue Fever.  The good news is it is does not appear to be the most sever form... they actually called it "Classic".  I will have some more tests tommorow (most probably) to rule out a hospital stay, so for now I just take lots of fluids and treat the symptoms.

I should be sick for another week or less, then weak for about a month... not to bad huh?

I'm in pain and my throat hurts a lot, but my wife is taking good care of me.

PS: Thought I'd do a self shot here to get some extra pity.

Updated June 14, 2007 @ 5:45pm

You may have noticed I haven't posted in a few days, or maybe you haven't based on the number of comments I have been receiving, but anyway. The reason is because since Monday morning I have been confined to my bed. It's only with the help of some pretty strong muscle relaxants that I have found my way downstairs to my office in order to update this.

The short story is that Monday morning at around 11 I started to ache... a lot. By noon I was in bed and by 12:30 I was shaking uncontrollably under a comforter, a goose down duvet, and 2 llama blankets. I had a killer headache and was nauseous. Curious, I checked online for these symptoms and guess what came up? As I had recently been on the Amazon, all my symptoms matched up to Malaria. That night a Doctor who is in our Youth Group (again, youth here is about 13 till you are married) came to check on me and comforted me by telling me, "It may not be Malaria, it might be Yellow Fever."... Thanks Doc.

I received my tests back yesterday and I am clear, no Malaria or Yellow Fever, though I still feel like something that's been scraped off someone's sneaker, run over by a Mac Truck, repeatedly dunked into a vat of acid and trampled by the entire Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

That said, sorry nothing to awesomely insightful today.

I think I need to go back to bed.

Update:
Well, we just found out that one of our team members from the Amazon trip is in the hospital with Dengue Fever. To find out more about this viral disease, click here. The thing that really stinks is my symptoms are more in line with this than anything.

Prayers are appreciated. Today has been really rough and I have had a lot of pain.

Websites I Love:

• Facebook and Gmail
• I'm including these together simply because they don't need much description. They are both great sites. Fun to use, easy and in my opinion, essential. Facebook connects you with friends and gives you a place to brag about how cute your kids are or what you ate for breakfast, Gmail is the easiest and best functioning email client available.
• Get Fuzzy
• You haven't lived until you have spend some time with Bucky, Satchel, and Rob.
• Pearls Before Swine
• No, it's not Whitey's blog (though that's a good read too), this is another great comic strip about a bunch of animals with personalities that you can't tear yourself away from.
• Relevant Magazine
• A pomo/emerging targeted media group aimed at tackling the issues that face believers today. Goes way beyond "5 steps to a Happy Sunday School Class" and deals with topics that actually affect us day by day. Be sure to check out the slices for quick and fun reads or get involved in one of the many discussion board threads. But above all, subscribe to the podcast... it is simply AMAZING!
• Macworld
• Next to Get Fuzzy, Facebook and Gmail, the only other site I check on a daily basis almost without fail. If you have been caught up in this whimsical cult of mac ownership, you understand why reading about the latest Mac news would be such an exciting thing.
• BibleGateway
• Because of this website, I've not prepared a sermon with a physical Bible in front of me since college. It includes searchable copies of hundreds of versions at your fingertips (not to mention in dozens of languages), as well as public domain commentaries and other resources.
• Matt Rose's Blog
• Often interesting, if not entertaining blog complete with a list of blogs from college classmates who I forgot existed.
• EMQ Online
• The holy grail of missiology journals. Subscription based ($15 a year) but worth every penny.
• Digg
• A site I am just getting into. Has interesting stories that may not make it onto the typical news outlets, as well as a healthy heap of tech and Mac related news.
• Wikipedia
• Because sometimes it's fun to learn.

Websites I Hate:

• MySpace
• In the words of Matt Rose (see above), "MySpace is great for stalking people." but not much else.
• MSN and Hotmail, and any other Microsoft based website
  
• Microsoft can make a decent operating system, but is lousy at the whole internet thing. It just feels awkward to use these sites. Maybe it's because I love Macs so much and I just feel like I am in bed with the enemy, but something just doesn;t gel right with them.
  
• Church Websites
• I don't have a link here, simply because to list them individually would be tiresome. I have seen only a small handful (seriously... I think I can count 5) of church websites that I actually think were well thought out and informative. The rest seem to fall into one of two categories: 1. The Board asked a 13 year old with MS Frontpage on his home PC to design it over the course of a weekend. or 2. The church spent between $2,000-$4,000 developing a website that would be "seeker friendly" and hasn't been updated since March of 2005
• Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
• My home town, which I love, has a website that looks like something the poorly drawn seagull in the title dragged out to sea to die.
• World's Worst Website
• I debated putting this one in here because I understand it's a spoof. It looks like this guy designed Yarmouth's website. But to spend more than 1.21 seconds on this site leaves you with a feeling of dread and despair.
• mp3.com
• A website that has been around as long as I have used the net. You seem to get directed to it anytime your try to search for mp3's online but in reality it is cumbersome to use and impossible to find any bands that are the least bit mainstream (I like some indy, but need something to pull me back to reality once in a while).
• There are others.

Feel free to list your favorite and most hated websites.