On back pain: I used to get back spasm-y-ish things every so often, and sometimes they were just about to the point that I couldn't move without incredible pain. Hadn't for quite a long time until early this year when I had a lot of pain but not really the same thing. I could actually move with this, it wasn't positioned in quite the saem way, and I even went to work with it. I took some kind of strong over the counter ibuprofin stuff for it and it kinda sorta worked. I don't really know why I got them other than maybe stress or overexercising.

I can't, of course, say that my pain is similar to yours, although the worst times are pretty close to what you're describing.

On the ogre idiot savant: That's kind of an interesting concept, actually.

I've been half-tempted to attempt some kind of text adventure GM'ing thing to do pseudo-gaming, but I suspect that it would probably not work well for the "players." Oh well....