Tuesday, April 02, 2013

3711 Baked beans?

Tuesday, March 2, 2013

The art to April Fools’ Day is to come up with pranks that aren’t in the least
cruel, but are funny and interesting. It CAN be done, but
being mean is easier,
and dumber.
-- Ian Osmond --

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The past few days I've been having a problem with excessive underarm odor.  Washing doesn't seem to make a difference; neither does antiperspirant.  My clothing quickly picks up the odor and retains it.

My activity level hasn't changed.  There's no sweat, I'm dry.  The only thing that has changed is that I am eating a lot more fruits and vegetables and a lot less meat.  (Except beans.  I don't like beans and rarely eat them.)

I don't understand.

What's really weird is that it doesn't smell like normal perspiration --- it smells like beans.  Barbeque baked beans.

-----------------------------

I'm eating more veggies because I've discovered a farmer's market.

It's not really what I, a country girl, would normally think of as a farmer's market - a weekend affair, outdoors, with booths manned by local farmers selling their own produce.  It's actually like a large grocery store, indoors, open every day, heaps of produce in huge bins, and they are selling a lot of stuff that couldn't possibly have been grown locally at this time of year.

At the A&P, blueberries are ridiculously expensive, like almost $5 a pint.  At the farmer's market, although prices fluctuate, I have been able to  get a quart of blueberries for less than $2.  Everything is so much cheaper, and so much fresher, and there's a huge variety, some stuff I'd never heard of before.

I've found that what I buy there is ripe, and lasts longer in the refrigerator, possibly because it's handled/bruised less.

Last trip I bought two pints of blueberries, three apples, two oranges, two baby eggplants, a huge bunch of asparagus (about 40 stalks, took me five meals to eat it all), baby bok choy, kale, carrots, two large sweet onions, big brown mushrooms, ruffled tree mushrooms, snow peas, two small zucchini, a cucumber, five little things that look like sweet potatoes or yams, but they're dark red on the outside and creamy white inside, baby spinach, five tomatoes "on the vine", a loaf of poppy seed filled bread, a loaf of chocolate-filled bread, and I've probably left something off that list.  My bill came to less than $25. 

That was about 10 days ago, and I haven't finished it all yet.  I'll have a stir-fry for lunch.

Oh, and in the back they have a polish deli, with pickle barrels!  I bought some half-sours.  I LOVE half-sours, and they're difficult to find anywhere these days.

Daughter is worried that I'm not getting enough protein, but you really don't need high quality protein (like meat or beans or soy) more than once or twice a week, and I get enough lower quality in the yogurt and cheeses I eat every day.

Seems like with all that chlorophyll I shouldn't smell at all, let alone like barbeque baked beans.

------------------------------

Becs:  http://www.yelp.com/biz/route-9-farmers-market-inc-south-amboy.  They get crowded after work and on weekends, but reviewers say it's still worth it.  There's an excellent Thai restaurant next door.
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Sunday, March 31, 2013

3710 If I should suddenly disappear...

Sunday, March 31, 2013

"'Wrong' is one of those concepts that depends on witnesses."
-- Scott Adams --

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I may have started a war.

I bought a pin (brooch) on eBay, item number 380599269925.  There was a photo.  The pin looked nice.  The enlargement looked like the pin probably needed a good cleaning. 
Item picture

Other than the title, "Grandmas estate beautiful flower brooch", there was no further description of the particular pin.  The seller claims that the items he/she sells come from Grandma's estate,
All items are in 100% great
shape - crack & chip free! All of her lovely things are
100% guaranteed to be loved.
I list 500 - 1000 new pieces of her jewelry from her
stores and estate every week. She loved to collect
jewelry.

and so on.  500-1000 items per week?  From Grandma's estate?  Well, it does say "stores".  Maybe she sold jewelry.

There were only two bids.  I got it for $1.25, plus shipping.  I also bought another pin from the same seller.

He/she combines shipping.  From the description,
1 ITEM @ REGULAR COST

2 - 5 ITEMS $4.50
6 or MORE, PRIORITY MAIL
However, later in the description,
1 item shipped @ regular cost.

2 - 5 items for $3.95
6 or more will be shipped Priority Mail.
Hmmmm.  So how much postage will I be paying for the two items?

Most sellers have eBay automatically calculate combined shipping.  When I looked at this seller's invoice, shipping had not been combined.  So I sent an email asking for a new invoice with combined shipping, pointing out the discrepancy in the two versions in the description, and saying that I expected to pay $3.95.   (The description, by the way, is a contract, and under contract law errors are to the detriment of the party who drew up the contract.)

He/she changed the invoice, with $4.50 for shipping.

I was pissed, but decided it wasn't worth fighting over $.55, since eBay complaint forms don't address this problem, so it would be a pain to report it.  However, I didn't pay immediately (I usually pay within minutes).  The seller obviously uses the exact same template for every item, changing only the photo and the title.  So I waited to see if new listings had been corrected, or if they still had two different shipping offers.

Hmmmm.  The seller did not bother to fix the problem.

After several days checking to see if the seller had decided what to charge, and seeing no correction on new items, I paid, and waited for the pins to arrive.

One pin was beautiful.  The other, also described as "beautiful", was pure crap.  There was no silver plating remaining on the base metal (yeah, silver, even though the photo looks like gold-tone), except for a tiny spot on the very tip of the leaf closest to the flower.  From the photo, it looked like the enamel on the blossom was ok, with silver edges on the petals, and spots of dirt here and there.  In actuality, the enamel is mostly gone, large areas of pitting on the petals.  The thing is pure crap.  Junk.  I'd be embarrassed to put it up for sale.

So now it's time to leave feedback.  I am certainly not leaving a positive.  That leaves neutral or negative. 

I did a little research on this seller.  He/she purchases those large volume lots of scrap jewelry on eBay, lots usually listed as "for parts and repair".    I suspect he/she is reselling what other sellers consider crap.  And it appears that "Grandma" is eBay.

The seller already has a slew of Negs, many complaints of buyers having to pay two-way shipping for crap.

He/she does accept returns.  Most eBay sellers will refund the item price if you aren't satisfied, but do not refund the shipping, and require that the buyer pay the return shipping - UNLESS they sent the wrong item, or it was grossly misrepresented, then they will accept those costs.  This seller says the buyer has to pay to return the item, and only the bid will be refunded.  No apparent shipping refund just because you don't like it.  So if I return it, I will end up paying the two shipping costs for a piece of crap.

After a lot of thought, I left what is only my second negative feedback in 16 years and over 3800 purchases on eBay:  "Photo is deceptive, no description, pin is crap, I refuse to pay return postage."

The seller freaked.

He/she has formally requested through eBay that I change my feedback, and sent this note:
hi there
if you not happy with an item just email me and i will be more the happy to refund you there is never a reason for bad feedback .. i will be more then happy to refund you and you no need to send back .. if your worry about shipping price back.. that is fine. all i care about is everyone loveing her things
not in it for the money. the kids get that
so pleaseee fix my ratings and email me i will be more then happy to refund you
god bless
scott and the twins
  

"Her" things?  Oh, well.

So I went to eBay's feedback change page, and checked the box that said no change, feedback is accurate.  It's interesting that the seller claimed to eBay that I had contacted him/her and said I'd left the Neg in error and I wanted to change it.  All the more reason not to.

So why am I worried about disappearing?  The seller has my address.  He/she lives about 20 minutes up the road.

I have already moved the van out of the driveway, so it won't be associated with this address.  Unfortunately, I can't disassociate MYSELF from this address.
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3709 Stolen quotes

Sunday, March 31, 2013

When it comes to thought, some people stop at nothing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found these on DanSix4Smith's Facebook whatsis.  I don't know whether he wrote them, original to him, or whether he finds them, like I do with my green quotes.  Whatever.  I like them.

The most important decisions are not to be made with the mind; they are to be made with the heart. So when you have an important decision to make, check in with how you feel, not how you think. The heart speaks truth, while the mind can get confused from the many thoughts and programs the world expects you to assimilate.

Everything changes when you start to emit your own frequency rather than absorb the frequencies around you, when you start imprinting your intent on the universe rather than receiving the imprint from existence. In other words pay attention to your attitude & ways before you point the finger or blame someone. You control your thoughts & emotions not others.

When you strike out, you always strike in. Any weapon you use to strike, - clenched hand, angry voice, closed heart withholding love, - is double-sided with one edge always cutting deep into yourself. Sometimes a weapon is necessary, but use it wisely, and remember that the cost of using one are your own wounds.

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. Worrying, you get stuck going over the same things over and over again without making any progress. Instead, spend some time with nature to calm your mind and feed your soul.

Your body speaks the truth. When in doubt, ignore the thoughts in your mind, and pay attention to your body, - it doesn't lie.

Everyone has their own rhythm of living, - for some it's faster, for other it's slower. When you are forced to live outside your own rhythm, it is exhausting. Remember to keep coming back to your own rhythm.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

3708 Phish hook?

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own
despised and unwanted feelings.
-- Alice Miller, psychologist and author (1923-2010) --

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Actual Subject line and content of an email received today -

Aol.com your accont is loked

(followed by a bogus link to AOL security.)


Gee, do you think it might be fake?
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Sunday, March 24, 2013

3707 Geography

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Friends should always tell you the truth.  But please don’t.
--  Loius C. K. --

---------------------------------------------

This had been forwarded by my sister. 
 

The Geography of a Woman


Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa . Half discovered, half wild, fertile and naturally Beautiful!


Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe. Well developed and open to trade, especially for someone of real value.


Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain, very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.



Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece, gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit.



Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain, with a glorious and all conquering past.



Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel, has been through war, doesn't make the same mistakes twice, takes care of business.



Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada, self-preserving, but open to meeting new people.


After 70, she becomes Tibet .
Wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages.
An adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF A MAN
Between 1 and 80, a man is like Iran ,
ruled by a pair of nuts.




-----------------------------------------------

BTW, if anyone forwards me stuff in an email, if it didn't originate with them, I click NO links, even if I recognize the website linked, because it's too easy to disguise the link.  If there's a video imbedded in the email, I won't play it unless I'm certain it's from youtube.com or vimeo.com, because nasty code can be downloaded  in videos. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

3706 Dangling

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A common mistake that people make when trying to
design something completely foolproof is to underestimate
the ingenuity of complete fools.
-- Douglas Adams --

---------------------------------------------------

From Gullible.info:  On average, 4.3 storms per year are referred to as "the storm of the century".

Gullible.info's statistics appear out of nowhere and are unverifiable, but this one I believe, and I don't think I'm the gullible party.

 ---------------------------

I found this today, in an article written for the Wall Street Journal law blog:
Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Keys last week of helping and encouraging Anonymous hackers to deface the website of the Los Angeles Times. After leaking log-in credentials for a server operated by the paper’s parent company, a hacker vandalized the headline and a paragraph in a story about a tax-cut package, said prosecutors.
In that second sentence, who leaked the credentials?  Mr. Keys or the hacker? [Correct answer:  Keyes, but the sentence says the hacker leaked the info.]

Again, this is from a professional reporter for a highly respected newspaper.  Apparently schools are also no longer teaching about dangling participles, the worst mistake in grammar a reporter of facts can make.

I rest my case.  Clear communication is officially dead.
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

3705 Influence

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

"To influence the masses, aim first at the least intelligent. ...
Undermine the faith of the masses in their leaders."
-- Foxy Loxy, in Disney's 1943 "Chicken Little" --

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The green quote above is from the 1943 Disney short (8:48) "Chicken Little", at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnp4kj5lLOU.  It's definitely not the Chicken Little we all knew.  It's very political, and very much relevant to today's politics, although when it came out, I suspect it wasn't supposed to be about us.

It's scary.

---------------------------

A lot of people think this next video is cute. I find it sad. There's no proof that the little guy did it, but there does seem to be evidence that he's not at the cool kids' table, and he knows it.  That may be what's actually going on.  Maybe he's sad and resigned and maybe a bit afraid, not guilty.

 [http://youtu.be/_kLdO3EsECs]
Notice the ingratiating grin at the very beginning? Dogs who have been abused will react like that when anybody raises their voice.

Opinions?
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Saturday, March 16, 2013

3704 Worthless gleanings from around the web

Saturday, March 14, 2013

Chinese Proverb: "We are fools whether or not we dance, so we might as well dance."

------------------------------------------------------------------

This post is bits and pieces of things I've found.

---------------------------------

Have you heard about the Iowa female dental assistant who was fired because the dentist's wife thought she was too attractive?  The dentist had said some inappropriate things to her, mild sexual harassment, and the two had engaged in some innocent texting outside office hours, but I don't think the (married) assistant had any idea what was going on in the dentist's head.  The wife did.  I suspect the dentist mentioned her too often at home, and that worried the wife, so she insisted that he get rid of the assistant.  The dentist went to his pastor, who advised him to get rid of her, so he did.

The dentist's attitude is, "I sexually harassed you, therefore I have to terminate your job to stop sexually harassing you. You will be missed."

The assistant sued for sexual discrimination in her firing, and the Iowa supreme court found for the dentist!  Story at  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/iowa-court-oks-firing-female-worker-irresistibly-attractive-article-1.1226068.

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Effects of digital connectivity:

Anomie -  social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values; personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals.

Nihilism - a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless; a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths; a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility.

--------------------------------------

Regarding that rape story out of Steubenville, Ohio, I am shocked and saddened that so many people believe that "digitally raped" means the guy penetrated her with his cell phone.

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You know how when you make an online purchase you can opt in or out of getting email updates or the store newsletter?  I always look for that, and I always check NO.

I always still get the damn things.  That's gotta be illegal.  Who would I report it to?

---------------------------------------

People who brag that they've never had any psychological counseling annoy me.   It's like people with a mouthful of rotting stumps bragging that they've never been to a dentist.

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This is pretty cool.

Hasidic rap:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ULIw0Zgaw]

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Funny cringe-worthy item on Amazon.com.  Read the customer reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WCW4FK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000WCW4FK&linkCode=as2&tag=natdee-20

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This is the Weeping Prophet's dating video.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9latbDpu5s&feature=youtu.be]

---------------------------------------

I am ashamed to pass this little item along.  Because then you know I watched it.  Several times.  On the other hand, how can I not share it?  There's no way to describe it.  On YouTube it says, "No description available." Sums it up nicely.

The following is a selection of comments on the thing, from YouTube and Cracked.com.  Read these comments before you watch the video.    Um, absolutely not safe for work (even muted- the sound is necessary), or for children or square fogies in the vicinity.  Everybody but the Queen should watch it in privacy.  (The Queen probably won't care if her reputation is destroyed.)  The song is catchy, and there's a danger that it will become an earworm if you are prone to that, and you must must must resist.

Comments:
This is a few guns short of being the most American thing on the internet.

The bassist seems to be thinking, "Oh god, this is going on the internet, isn't it? Yep, this is going on the internet."

I say we let Texas secede

Ahhhh.... What a love song! What lyrical prose! The official love song of the crystal meth generation!

My IQ hurts after watching this. I may be screwed up, but the first thing I thought was "Why ain't there a guitar player?"

A Tomahawk missile would have been a perfect finish. Just blow them all up.

Where the f**k was this when I was looking for wedding procession songs?

I've listened to this song about 10 times now. I can feel myself just falling down the the ladder of success. I also can't get this thong off that magically grew on me.
It's at http://youtu.be/mSnRq6iyHKg.  If you've already seen Captain America in a thong singing "Quack Like a Duck" and it scarred you forever, you might not want to go there.

IF YOU ACTUALLY WATCHED THAT LAST VIDEO, yeah, that one just above, the one that asks your age before allowing you through, CONFESS IN A COMMENT!


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3703 The demise of communication

Saturday, March 16, 2013

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong
and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when
a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong 
it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair. 
-- Douglas Adams --

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's a guy running around loose out there who has been advocating for decades (predating texting and tweeting) that we do away with "correct" spelling, that instead, all spelling should be phonetic, and furthermore that there be no "correct" phonetic spelling, but that everyone should spell a word exactly as they pronounce it.

Gah!  Despite his years of advocacy I don't think he has thought it through.  What about regional accents?   How would you look up the meaning of an unfamiliar word?   Assuming that you could figure out the word anyway?  Could a Bostonian understand a note from Arkansas?

I found the article by him a few weeks ago, and of course now I can't find it again.  When I searched for it today I found several articles about schools that no longer teach spelling.  The theory is that kids will naturally absorb spelling in their reading materials.

Yeah, sure.  Bull poopy.

Phonics is essential to learning to read and to pronunciation.  Often it helps with "correct" spelling.  But given the way people routinely mispronounce even simple words (library/liberry, athletics/altheletics/atletics, etc.) if you allow people to spell words the way they (themselves, individually) pronounce them (libry? liebree? lybree? libery?  lybreree?), we won't be able to fully understand anything anyone writes.  If the spelling of a word isn't standardized, it would be so much work to read the written word that eventually people would give up reading.

And yes, the guy really does mean individually invented spelling - no standard phonetic combination of letters for a particular phoneme, which would result in "correct" spelling of a word again, which he doesn't want..

-------------------------------

From Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll:
'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they're the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'

'Would you tell me please,' said Alice, 'what that means?'

'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'

'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.' 
I am distressed by the large number of professional writers, educators, and presenters who seem to think Humpty had something there - that a word can mean whatever you mean it to mean.  Unfortunately, that leaves the folks who do know what the word is supposed to mean wondering what the user means.  If you know what I mean.

At this rate, no one will be able to understand what anyone else really means, ever.
.

3702 How short am I?

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

In a democracy, people get the government they deserve.
-- Adlai Stevenson --

-------------------------------------------------

The Sunday of the Oscars, "Sunday Morning" did a segment on Linda Hunt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Hunt).  They had a lot of clips from her movies and TV shows, and wow, she's short!  She's really short!

Then they gave her stats.  She and I are five months apart in age, and we are exactly the same height!

Boing.

I don't understand.

I know I'm short, but I guess I never realized how short I am.  I'm taller than my mother and grandmother were, so I never felt short, if you know what I mean.  I've always come up to mid-chest on the guys I've dated and worked with, and that felt right (except Roman.  I came to just under his chin). I've seen myself in photos in groups, and I've always been the shortest in the photos.  I suspect that if I had seen stills of Ms. Hunt with her costars, she wouldn't have seemed so very short.  But seeing her move, walk with, look up at and gesture to others, she looked ... SHORT!  (If you don't know her, watch "NCIS: Los Angeles".)

I've never seen me in a video with other people.  Always alone, or with other people but not moving.

Even more, she has almost no neck.  I have a relatively long neck.  That means my shoulders are lower than hers.  So technically, I would give a shorter impression because her body mass is higher.

Wow!

I must be tiny.  (Well, height-wise, anyway.  Anyone in a 38DD bra with matching rear counterweight can't be considered tiny.)

-------------------------------

Everybody has a cold.  The same cold.  All over the northeast coast and in some spots on the west coast and between.  Everyone describes it pretty much the same, as starting with sniffles, then sinuses and throat, then to chest.  Some of us have had it since before Christmas - it goes away then comes back.

One explanation is that during Hurricane Sandy, sea birds got relocated.  Gull and tern poop is full of viruses and germs, and they poop on the wing.  We have antibodies against our own local birds' offerings, but the hurricane redistributed the shore's avian populations, and we have no resistance to the new ones.  The outbreaks in the rest of the country may have been carried by visitors from the east coast.

There's a more ominous theory.  Maybe someone's running a biological experiment/attack on us, tracking distribution patterns.
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Sunday, March 10, 2013

3701 The Nugget at 23 months

Sunday, March 10, 2013

I often think it's a pity that Noah and his party didn't miss the boat.
-- Mark Twain --

---------------------------------------------------

Suck it up!  I don't brag about my Nugget very often!

At school


The Nugget is growing up and becoming even more interesting.  She notices everything, and one of her favorite sentences, many times a day, is, "What's that?"  Well, actually, it comes out, "Whada?"

She's very strong, and her Daddy plays with her very roughly, which is a bit of a problem.  She bowls over other children greeting them, and she considers hitting to be a great game.  On the other hand, she's very much a girl.  She's a good mommy to her dolls, and that seems to have come naturally.  She and her mommy went clothes shopping, and Daughter allowed her to choose one outfit herself.  She chose a dress with a foofy pink ballerina tutu skirt, and insisted in sleeping in it that night.  She loves Elmo, and when she comes over to my house, she walks up to the laptop, points, and says, "Eh mo!"  And we have to watch Elmo videos.

She had been afraid of her mommy's huge upright vacuum cleaner. (Frankly, so am I.)  I bought her a plastic vacuum cleaner with lights and a vroom noise that wasn't too scary, and a few weeks ago she graduated to my little battery-powered Eureka!electric broom, that looks and sounds like a midget vacuum cleaner.  When Daughter saw her happily vacuuming my kitchen, she got her monster out and parked it in their living room.

I guess last week the Nugget worked up enough courage to touch it. She's so proud of her new friend that when anyone comes in the house they are introduced to the "Bah boom", and shown how brave she is.   A few times a day she takes a dolly or a stuffed animal, holds their hand or paw out to touch the monster - see?  It's ok.  "Bah boom. Bah boom."   Nothing to be afraid of.

She talks a lot, and she mostly has the right number of syllables, and consonants in the right places, but they are rarely the  correct consonants, so only Mommy, Daddy, and Gramma (she calls me Mamma, Daughter is Mommy) can understand her.  "Juice" is "douche", which can be a bit awkward when she requests it in a diner.  It sounds like she's giving the waitress an impolite order.  "Bottle" is "bobby".  "Jasper" is "Bapper".  "Cheese" is "sheesh".  On the other hand, "up", "apple", "pee-pee", "potty", "baby", "eat", "NO!" and a lot of other words are quite clear.

Almost Heaven

I am anxious for sentences, and for her to start expressing thoughts.  I'd love to know what she thinks.
.

3700 Stupid programs

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.
-- Einstein --

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Some people are worried at the evidence that "someone" out there is watching over our shoulders, whatever we do on the internet, and then targeting our "interests".

"They" know where I am.  The info is used in side-column car insurance and mortgage ads which claim to be specific to my state or my town. They are annoying and look painfully obsequious.

I bought a toddler pedal car for Nugget's 2nd birthday (next month) on Amazon.  Now every time I turn around, I'm getting ads from toy stores for toddler pedal cars.  How many of them do they think I'm likely to buy?  They are pissing me off more than attracting me.

Youtube keeps track of what I watch, and then when they make recommendations of what I might like, the list consists mostly of videos I've already watched.  That is obviously stupid.  They've managed to put together a list I'm pretty much guaranteed NOT to be interested in seeing.  (Watch out for the Eastern Europe trap.  Once I watched a Russian video, and for the next week all the recommendations were Russian!  I didn't even know what they were about!)

EBay likes to take something you bought, then make recommendations of other similar things you might like.  That might be useful to your shopping, but the execution is very annoying.  You just bought a unique handmade item, and eBay informs you that "Others who bought this [photo of your unique item] also bought this, this, and this [photos of other unique items that are still for sale]." It's obviously a lie!  No "others" bought any of those items!

Ok, maybe computers are getting smarter, but programmers are getting stupider.  I don't think we need be worried.
.

3699 My foundations are shaken

Sunday, March 10, 2013

He who controls the present controls the past.
He who controls the past controls the future.
-- Orwell --

------------------------------------------------------------------

When I was in Morocco, at almost all the the spice, vegetable, and fruit stalls in the bazaars and medinas there would be a vat of yellowish black shiny gloppy goop that looked like new motor grease.  I finally asked the guide, and he said it was the famous Moroccan Black Soap*.  It's made from olives, argan oil, maybe a little eucalyptus globulus oil, and sometimes other minerals, and you get it in a jar.  It's traditionally used in the Moroccan steam baths, there's a particular way to use it, and it's supposedly wonderful for the skin.

I decided to look it up online and buy some.  The least expensive of the same brand names were found on eBay.

The experience has left me shaken.  I asked a seller a question, and now I am no longer sure of my mental abilities.  (Not a difficult task these days.  Lately I can't remember anything, and I'm not sure of anything.)

She had listed the soap as:  "Moroccan Black Soap ( 250kg Jar)"

I don't know metric all that well, but 250 kg seems wrong????

So I sent her a note:
The title says 250 kg.

Being American, I am confused. According to my conversion chart, that's 8,818.49 ounces, or 551 pounds - over a quarter of a ton (a quarter of a tonne**). That doesn't seem right.

Can I assume it's actually about 8 ounces, or .25 kg?

This is her response:
The jar weighs 11.4 oz. 250kg = 8.8 oz. The comma is really a decimal point. So you are getting a bit more than 250 kg. Hope this helps

Ok, who's nuts.  Me or her?  (She or I?  And where did she get that 11.4?))  Isn't 1 kg equal to 2.2 lb?  Did I do something wrong?  It's certainly possible.  When I was buying beads, sizes of beads are listed as mm or cm, and I have diligently translated it to inches using conversion factors, and have often been surprised by the size of the beads I get. 

I did not buy her soap - it was one of the most expensive listings.  It would be fun to buy her soap, save the emails and then complain to eBay when she sends me less than a quarter ton. Or even less than 11.4 ounces.

Please reassure me I'm right.  I'm serious.  She really knocked me for a loop for several minutes.  I mean she should KNOW!   And I've been so "off" lately....  She actually scared me.


----------------------------------

*....which is not at all the same as African Black Soap, which is made from palm oil, comes as a bar rather than goop, and has different good qualities.

** A tonne is 1000 kg, or 2200 lb.

If you would like to educate her, the listing is here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271164045365&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

I bought this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200821975080?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649   Note that it's 250 gm, which is 8.8 oz.

Saturday, March 09, 2013

3698 White guys can't shake.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

The end move in politics is to pick up a gun.
-- Bucky Fuller --

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Latest video virus, Harlem Shake.  It's disgusting.  Buncha guys bouncing and kicking and throwing their arms around.  That's NOT the Harlem Shake!  It's like people who think belly dancing is just wiggling around.  I want to slap them.  If that's what you want to do, do it, but don't call it something it's not!

THIS is the real Harlem Shake:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrTqyGp2beU]
Note the shoulders.  That's an integral part of the dance, and that takes practice.

--------------------------------

In an email from the township:  "Alternate side parking: If snow falls on an even day, parking is permitted on the odd-numbered side of the street. If snow falls on an odd day, parking is permitted on the even-numbered side of the street."

This has left me confused.  Badly worded, difficult to remember.  Wouldn't "even=even odd=odd" make more sense if you want people to remember?  Also, what happens if it starts snowing at 5 PM and snows continuously until 5 AM?  Which side should you park on to avoid being towed?  No matter where you're parked when you go to bed, it's going to be the wrong side for half the time.

---------------------------------

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I have been sick continuously since the hurricane, since late October.  Head cold, chest cold, pneumonia, bronchitis.  I finished the bronchitis antibiotic about five days ago, and three days ago I seem to have started a sinus infection.  I've been sick for more than four months.  I feel stronger than I did after I got out of the hospital, but I still don't want to do much.  (And yes, I'm quitting smoking, since late December.  That adds stress and makes me nasty mean.) 

NJ hates me.  NJ is trying to kill me.  NYC pollution blowing across the bay is destroying my immune system.
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Saturday, February 09, 2013

3697 Eh.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds."
-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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Well, the "blizzard" left me underwhelmed.  At the country house a normal "biggish" snowstorm would leave a foot of snow or so with a layer or two of ice to make the shoveling or throwing interesting.  (More than once I'd had to go down the 300+ foot driveway with a coal shovel chopping the layer of ice on top of the snow into squares and removing the squares before I could use the snow thrower.)

Here, there was about 9 inches on the roof of the van, but by the time I got outside it was heavy and wet.  I got about 1/3 cleared from the 2-car-length driveway when my little electric thrower couldn't handle it any more (sticky heavy snow kept clogging up the chute).  Daughter cleared the town plow plug across the end of the driveway, neighbor George used his big thrower on the lower half, and I still have to clear around the van with a shovel.

Daughter and Nugget did return from DC yesterday morning.  I had called her to say that if she wanted to stay at a hotel, I'd reimburse her, but as it turned out it was mostly rain and the roads weren't bad.

I was amused by the following comments on a Yahoo e-news storm report:

Big Momma  •  16 hrs ago
I 'm watching, as the snow reaches 3 feet in depth, my husband staring at the window. If this keeps up I may have to let him inside.

critters_r_me  •  6 hrs ago
There are hundreds of cars stranded on the Long Island Expressway. Gee, I bet they wish someone had told them a storm was coming.

WilliamH  •  19 hrs ago
First you were finding NEMO, now you're tracking NEMO.
You're going to make that poor little fish paranoid.


I know that some areas really did get slammed, and the constant break-ins on the TV with officials warning of doom were justified there (but those areas are used to winter extremes!), but around here fear-mongering crap like that is just going to cause people to wave warnings off, even when it really is serious.

P.S. What's with the current trend for naming storms?  Like, we don't know what to call it without a name?
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Thursday, February 07, 2013

3696 Crap.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Absence makes the heart grow fungus.

------------------------------------------------------

I have a very sore throat.  I called the doctor (strep?), and they called in an antibiotic prescription (which involved three screw-ups and six phone calls, and took six hours).  I have an appointment with the doctor on Monday.

I wanted to get ahead of my throat because we're expecting a major storm starting tomorrow morning.  Rain, snow, torrential rain, ice, sleet, plunging temperature and more snow, possible loss of power, possibly up to a foot or more of snow tomorrow overnight after it gets colder.  (I love that "up to xxx or more".  Like, "up to" no longer has any meaning, I guess.)

What's upsetting me the most is that yesterday Daughter and the Nugget drove to the DC area to visit a friend, and plan to drive back tomorrow.  I suggested to Daughter that she might want to delay her return a day or two, and she refused to even consider it.  "If it's bad I'll just drive slower."

Yeah.  A normally five hour drive under the best of conditions, on a Friday, with a 21-month-old in the back seat.

I can't seem to get through to her that you can have loads of confidence in yourself, but can you have confidence in EVERYONE else on the road with you? All of them?

She will be furious with me if I call her tomorrow morning and offer to pay (reimburse her) for a hotel room, but I think I'll risk it.

---------------------------------

When the sky is cloudy at night here, it's not black or gray, like at the country house.  It's pink.  Light pink.  Faded flamingo pink.  On all sides.  I find that disturbing.  Ominous. 

I don't like it at all.
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3695 Begone, ye winter blahs!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

You're worth only the bail amount people will pay for you.

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I am going to do this to my stairs:














Or maybe a little less colorful, like this:













See royaldesignstudio.com for inspiration.

I haven't yet settled on the color scheme, but I am leaning toward jewel tone gloss colors on black.  Or maybe on cream, since the walls are tan. 

I've bought some stencils, five different Moroccan tile patterns, more geometric than the ones shown here. (Search for "(moroccan,geometric) stencil" on eBay; yes include the parentheses, not the quotation marks.  You can find the stencils in online retail stores, too, with a better selection depending on what you're looking for, but you also pay more.  Like two to three times more.  My cheap is showing here.)

(I've got my eye out for a beat-up chest of drawers that needs painting.  Can you see the drawers decorated like this?)

They recommend that you cut 1/4 inch  plywood to size, paint, then apply the strips to the risers with finishing nails or small screws or glue.   I plan to use theatrical canvas, sized, painted, and applied like wallpaper, because it will be easier to cut, and leave more room on the tread.
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Tuesday, February 05, 2013

3694 Comment verification

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

If you owe me money, every unnecessary thing you buy
from the time I lent you money to the time you pay me back, is mine.
If you don't have money to pay me, you don't have money for that.
--  Hellhathnofury  --

------------------------------

The "verification words" provided by Blogger are getting more and more difficult.  Too often the numbers portion is a blur, and/or the letters run together and overlap, so you can't figure them out - "rn" often looks like "m", for example,or "ob" looks like "do".

There are several ways to avoid robot spam comments.
  1. Don't allow comments at all.
  2. Let all comments be immediately posted, and then delete the spam. 
  3. Monitor comments.  The blog owner gets the comment by email and has to approve it before it is appended to the post.
  4. Require that the commenter pass a word verification test, and then the comment is immediately posted.
  5. Require both word verification and moderation.

#1, block all comments, is ok if you don't care what anyone else thinks.

I tried #2, allow everyone, for a while, back when Blogger started the current generation of ugly word verification.  It was ok for a few days, then the spammers found me, and I was getting a dozen spam comments a day.  (You know when you get spam because Blogger sends the comment in an email, but having to go to the blog a dozen times a day to delete them is a pain.)  I had to go back to word verification.

#3, moderate all comments, is no fun because people reading the blog don't get to see their comment until the blog owner gets around to accepting the comment.  Worse, they don't get to see the comments of others until later.  Robot spammers can get comments through to the moderation approval stage, so the need to refuse those comments, sometimes dozens a day, can be annoying to the blog owner.

#4, word verification, is the method I've been using because the comment gets posted immediately once the commenter passes the verification test, and commenters also see the comments of others.  Since the comments are "real time", they can even have conversations.   However, a lot of people have great difficulty with that.  HINT:  Anyone having a problem with the word verification, don't attempt to guess if you aren't sure.  That way lies frustration and wasted time doing it over and over.  Instead, next to the rectangle where you type in the numbers and letters, to the right of that rectangle, you'll see a circular arrow.  Click on that circular arrow, and the verification will change.  You can keep clicking and asking for another until you find one that's easy to read.

I flat out hate #5, requiring both word verification and moderation.  It has the same problems as both #3 and #4, especially if the blog owner takes a while to get around to moderation.  Requiring both is needless and painful overkill.  I mostly avoid commenting on those blogs.

Sooooo, that's why I use word verification.  It's the best of bad choices.
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3693 Stolen jobs and transsexual horses

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Tall people with tons of nose hair should not make fun of short people.

----------------------------------------------------

I'm here.  I'm fine.  I've been pretty busy, and blogging is not high on the priority list at the moment.   I think of or notice something, and I think, "Oh, I could write about that when I have time", and I make a note of it, and then later I look at the note and think, "Ho hum.  Boring."

Scary things are happening in Africa and in the Middle East.  The US and world economy is all over the place.  The country is becoming more and more uncivilized.  So I've been reading a lot.  One link leads to the next.

You know, when people look for someone or something to blame for unemployment, they all seem to miss the obvious.  Many if not most of those jobs will never come back.  They've been taken over by technology and robots.  People worried about that a few decades ago, when the first robots appeared on factory assembly floors, but they were soothed by the platitude, "Well, the jobs just change.  Somebody still has to make the robots."  Uh uh.  Now robots are making the robots.

Technology is nearing the point where it can not only replicate itself, it can improve on the previous generation all by itself.  Even in the service sector, where growth was predicted to replace lost manufacturing jobs, jobs are disappearing instead.  Does your local grocery store have those self-checkout scanners?  Uh huh.  Those jobs are gone forever.  An effect we are seeing now is that employers can dictate the terms of employment as never before, so the salaries for remaining jobs will be lower, leading to the demise of the middle class.

I've never been a big fan of unions, and there seems to be a huge groundswell to kill unions off - but we may need them in the future even more than in the past.  (One of my biggest complaints is that people seem to forget WHY things like feminism, social security, financial regulation, medicare, unions, etc. exist.  Those movements fixed severe problems and inequalities, and people look around and don't see the problems any more, so they want to want to blow up the dam.  Idiots.  Funny how the people who wanted to privatize Social Security shut up when the market crashed in 2008.  Oh, yeah, that's why....  Oops.)

Look up "technological singularity" some time.

---------------------------------

I had the Super Bowl on in the background Sunday.  I wasn't interested in the game or the halftime show, but I wanted to watch the commercials.  Unfortunately, my mind is trained to ignore commercials, so I didn't see much.  Oh well, they're on YouTube.

I did catch the Budweiser Clydesdale one on Sunday. That's always been my favorite.  Again, it was pretty good, but it annoyed me.  Budweiser cheated.  Apparently the starring horse had a sex change between birth and joining the hitch team. 

The horses that pull the wagons are always male, because they are larger and flashier than the mares.  They are gelded, so they tend to be calmer in crowds than mares.  When foals are born, they are raised and trained, and if they pass the appearance and temperament tests, they "join the team".  Some are not gelded, and stay at the breeding farms.  Young males who flunk out are sold.  Amazingly, their price is unbelievably low.

The best of the young fillies stay at the breeding farm(s).  Excess are sold.

My complaint is that the baby in the commercial was female, but ends up on a hitch.

Uncool Budweiser.  You could have pretended it was male.  Like, no one was going to look under its tail.
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Thursday, January 24, 2013

3692 How to quickly reduce a group's membership

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. 
Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future.
Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. 
-- Jeph Jacques, "Questionable Content, #976" --

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of idiots, I guess it's common knowledge that in my opinion, many Mensans have no common sense.

The latest action contemplated by the national governing board has me rolling my eyes.  (Note, I'm getting this second hand, so I may have some details wrong, but it's probably close enough for example and discussion.)

The American national organization has to send 4% of all US dues collected to the international committee, leaving 96% for American Mensa.  The international committee has decided to increase their cut from national groups from 4% to 6%.

American Mensa has freaked about that additional 2%, that income shortfall (reducing expenditures is, of course, out of the question), so they are discussing increasing individual US dues from $60 to $70 dollars.

Let's see now.  International increased their take by 2%, therefore we have to increase individual dues by 16.7%.  Did I get that right?

I don't understand. 

I don't know what they're thinking. 

I strongly suspect that annual dues of $70 is going to lose a lot of members.  I know that if I were not a paid-up life member, I'd drop out if dues went to $70.  That's ridiculous.  Many people already find membership not worth the current $60.  You don't get anything worth that much money.

I know some people are going to say, "Oh, the regional and national gatherings!  They're so much fun!"  Um, they aren't free.  There's nothing free, no unique or valuable benefits of membership, except the opportunity to meet other people who also score well on standardized tests.  And to many, that's not worth $70 a year.  Especially not these days.  If you have a job, you can find interesting conversation among coworkers.  If you don't have a job (a large proportion of Mensans do not have jobs for one reason or another, and I'm not counting entrepreneurs) then you can't afford the $70.

(Some local groups do have fundraising efforts and then host a free dinner, picnic, or party.  Note that the funds are raised from members.)  

I think soon the only people who will pay the dues are those sad people who find Mensa membership the only thing they have to validate their worth.

Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot, eh?

--------------------------------

I am surprised that people are not sharing memberships.  If you are a member because you enjoy the diversity of conversational topics as opposed to wanting to wave your membership card around, then you don't really need that membership card, because members are almost always allowed to bring guests to events. 

So, uh, why don't two people share the annual dues, one of them get the membership, and then both can go to events, one as a member, the other as a guest?  Even more fun, get 40 people together, pool the money to get 15 memberships, and then you can "guest up" for events as desired, with whatever card-carrying members are attending the event. 

Most of the publications are online, so the group can just share userids and passwords.

That's what Jay and I did.  I had the life membership, so we could see no reason for Jay to actually join.  He could attend everything as my guest.  There were other couples where both were members and both paid dues.  Duh?  We  couldn't understand why.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

3691 Jasper is a good boy.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

There is a direct correlation between the size of the hoop earring
and the sluttiness of the wearer.

--------------------------------------------------------

Jasper hadn't seen a vet since we moved him here, partly because he freaks out so badly in the car that he has seizures, so he's way behind on checkups and shots.  Two of Daughter's three cats are similarly afflicted with car anxiety, and lucky for us, there's a vet who has outfitted a large RV as an office complete with x-ray and out-patient surgery.  He parks in the driveway and you bring your beasty out.

One of Daughter's cats had injured a paw last Thursday night, so Daughter made a Friday appointment for her cat, and for Jasper.

HOW DO CATS KNOW!?  The minute I got off the phone with Daughter, Jasper's ears went up, his eyes got big, and he ran and hid.  It ended up two hours later, appointment time, with me chasing him in circles around the house.  He started to run into the laundry room, realized that was a dead end, and just as I got to the doorway he changed direction and dodged out between my legs.  I reached for him, tripped over him, and jabbed the door frame with an over-long fingernail, bending it back mid-bed.  It HURT!  And it bled.  And the most amazing thing happened.

Jasper stopped, came back, sniffed my finger and my face as I sat there on the floor whimpering, and pretty clearly asked if I was ok.  He was apologetic.  He let me pick him up and bundle him into the carrier with a minimum of fuss.

He's such a good little boy.  (Also 12 lb. and very healthy.  And fascinated by the rabies tag on his collar.)

---------------------------------

Last January the eye doctor mentioned that I had a spot of dry macular degeneration in each eye.  The first time a doctor had mentioned them was in the late '90s.  Oddly, not every exam has produced mention.  The spots must small enough to miss on older equipment.  I'm older now, so I guess I should pay closer attention.  I made an appointment for today to check if there had been any progression.

There's been no change.  The doctor recommended a special vitamin/mineral plus lutein supplement. 

---------------------------------

I mentioned a problem at the hospital.  Someone else's intake form was in my folder in the ER.

In my post of 1/02, I find in retrospect I had made excuses for some of the doctor's and the hospital's actions.  It was not true that I had any kidney failure going on.  That whole thing was because I had mentioned that my last hospital stay was because of the kidney thing, and my kidney doctor was on staff, and he sort of moved in on me and took over and tried to force me into some tests I had previously refused .  Note - he pissed me off so much in the hospital that I have fired him.  It was not tachycardia that got me the heart monitor.  I had no chemical imbalances.  My sodium was fine.  I think it was the other woman's intake form that made things look worse than they were.

It IS true that the lung guy said that it was the worst case of pneumonia he'd ever seen.  It's also true that the nurses used a phrase in front of me (they thought I was asleep) that's code for "may not last the night, check often".  However, again, that prognosis may have been in error.

For the first three days, they had me listed as diabetic.  They were poking me several times a day to check my blood sugar, and the kitchen had me on a diabetic diet - wouldn't give me Jello or ice cream when I asked for it.  I'm not diabetic!  My blood sugar stayed rock solid, until once when I had two glasses of fruit juice just to see what would happen, and it went up one point.  Then right back down again.  I DO NOT HAVE DIABETES!  Yes, I do mostly follow a diabetic diet, because my father's family is riddled with it so I'm at risk, but hey, you don't wait until you have a heart attack to follow a heart-healthy diet!  I finally convinced them it was not necessary to keep testing, and to take me off the diet restrictions.

Also for the first three days, they had me on the cardiac floor, wearing a 24-hour heart monitor, and I had many visits from a cardiologist, and several ECGs, some kind of heart sonogram, and a heart CT scan.  Duh?  When I first arrived, my pulse rate was 100, but a) I tend to historically have a rapid heart beat anyway, usually in the low 80s, b) I had just arrived at the hospital and was upset, and c) it went down to normal (for me) rapidly and stayed low.

Finally, about the third day, I asked the cardiologist (who kept urging me to make an appointment with him as soon as I got out of the hospital) why people seemed so concerned about my heart, and he said, "We have to address your chest pain."  I said, "What chest pain?  I have no chest pain.  I haven't had any chest pain."   He said, "The chest pain you reported when you arrived at the ER."  I reiterated that I'd had no chest pain, and had NOT reported chest pain.

Within hours, the monitors were removed, and I was moved from the cardiac floor to a medical floor.  The cardiologist stopped visiting, too.

So, I'm wondering if some poor woman had arrived about the same time I did, with diabetes and reporting chest pain, and because the intake forms were screwed up I was treated for her problems (you know the intake info went directly from the form into the computer), and God only knows what treatment she was getting, possibly based on my intake info.

Also, I wonder what UNNECESSARY tests, monitoring, and doctor visits MY insurance is going to be billed for (and I will be co-paying on).  I can get copies of the reports and stuff, and an itemized bill, but I wonder if there's any way to determine what was necessary, and what was the hospital's error.  You KNOW they're not going to simply admit an error.
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Thursday, January 17, 2013

3690 The Collapse

Thursday, January 17, 2013

“Elitist” is redneck code for “educated”.

-------------------------------------------------------------

So, I was let out of the hospital two weeks ago yesterday, and I think I've been 100% for at least the past ten days.  Full of energy, but I'm being good and not trying to do too much, as they'd warned me not to try.  It's only now that I realize how weak I had been for quite literally months.  My strength had been ebbing since the hurricane in early November, and the subsequent 11 days with no heat.

The Nugget had started nursery school in like September(?), and as expected she's had one cold with and without ear infections after another.  She and I traded back and forth.  She got better between bouts - I didn't.  I went a little more downhill with every cycle.

By late November I was having difficulty getting up if I had been sitting on the floor.  By mid December I had difficulty getting out of the tub after a bath.  By late December I was having difficulty going up stairs, even if it was just one step.  I had no strength in my legs.

Whatever was going on seemed to affect my thinking, too.  The weakness having come on so gradually couldn't have been all of it.  I noticed, but I just chalked it up to ... age?  I don't know.  Mostly it was that I had lost the capacity to care.  Is that depression?

By the time of my Thursday, 12/27, post, when I said I'd been sick for so long, I hadn't slept in like three nights, because of the coughing.   That night I coughed so hard I did something to a rib in my back.  It hurt so very badly when I coughed.  Friday morning I went over to Daughter's house hoping for massage or something, and she insisted on taking me to the ER.

Some weird stuff happened there.  I kind of tuned out and let go, so I don't know a lot of what went on that day.  The ER was very busy.  I was on a stretcher in the hall from late morning until sometime in the evening because they didn't have a room or something, but I didn't lack for attention from nurses, doctors, x-ray technicians, vampires. 

At one point someone left a file folder on my stretcher.  MY name was on the outside.  Daughter opened it, and was reading a form in it, when she said, "This isn't your name."  She flashed a page at me.  All I saw was "DIABETIC" in large letters across the middle of the page.  Daughter ran off and gave the folder to a nurse, and there was some fuss, and then I lost interest.  But somebody had screwed up badly.

For the next three days, that mistake haunted me.

Next post....

---------------------------------

One of the reasons I haven't updated before this is because after several weeks of good behavior, my laptop is choking again.  I started this post at 7:25.  It is now 8:45.  I've been getting hanging scripts which kill Firefox.  I've had to restart twice.  I just plain haven't had the patience to fuss with it.  I assume it's the "updates out of phase" thing again.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Mostly back again.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Was discharged from the hospital this evening.  Tired and weak.  They told me to take it easy for a few weeks, get back slowly.  Otherwise, I feel great, and I have big gold stars all over all my test results.

I've left a few dozen doctors reeling.  When they looked at my intake x-rays they seriously didn't expect me to live.  Repeat that.  Seriously. The pulmonary specialist said he'd never seen a worse case of pneumonia.

I had injured a rib coughing, and THAT pain is what had taken me to Daughter for help.  She took one look at me and dragged me to the ER.  The pneumonia had screwed with other chemical balances, and I was in tachycardia, so they put me on a heart monitor.  Some other organs weren't functioning correctly.  My kidneys were on the verge of shutting down.  A team of specialists in major systems was rapidly assembled.

I guess they don't often find little old ladies my age who take no prescription meds on a daily basis.  Within 12 hours on the antibiotics I was doing better, and within two days everything was within specs.  My BP was 128ish/68ish, pulse had settled at 70, blood sugar held rock steady at 98-101.  Temperature wandered a bit, and my blood oxygen level was too low, at about 88 off oxygen and 93 on, but hey, I still had a chest full of infection.

So, they kept me until my blood tests said no more white blood cells marauding  (infection done), and my off-oxygen saturation, what I could manage all by myself, was holding in the low 90s.

The doctors think I'm amazing.

That damn rib STILL hurts a LOT though!
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