if it's not one thing ....

beware of fleas. and dead animals. and wild animals. and stuff. bubonic plague is very serious and 'returning to nature' can give you grief.

doesn't anybody have any integrity anymore?

it's time for bed, but i have to say first that i am really unhappy with my doctor's office. as i've observed the doctors in this area for the last 8 or 10 years, it has seemed that lately 'service' has gone down the drain.

my doctor's office has finally gotten to where they do the e-mail thing, but apparently it's the nurses who look at the e-mails and they're not just real whippy. i asked them to check on a small pill because the one i'm taking is huge. i researched it myself after not getting much help the last time i was in the office. there is a smaller pill, so i e-mailed them and gave them the details, asking them to fax in a new prescription.

they answered back that they can't tell the pharmacy which pill to prescribe. what? i know that the doctor can say not to use a generic pill. isn't this the same thing? pissed me off. now the pharmaceutical industry is god. fucking lawyers are driving this i'm sure.

and the next time i'm in the doctor office, if he's as indifferent and unhelpful as he's been the last two times, i may have to look around. which will be difficult since we are at least 30 miles from doctors on one side and have a foreign country on the other. time to move.

oh good grief

after years and years and years of them saying 'yo-yo dieters are going to die', it seems they now say 'meh'.

i'd say 'make up your minds', but ... yawn ...

today, class, we're going to make aspirin....

make your own drugs with a 3-d printer. it's becoming a reality, but i don't think drug companies are going to give up their power. that's another reality.

to wear or not to wear

who knew seattle officials could be so stuffy? but finally this double-mastectomy woman has won the right to go swimming without wearing a top. i'm glad she won that fight, because body image is a major thing for women without breasts who don't have reconstruction. i mean, i don't think i could go swimming in a public pool without being covered up. it's hard enough for me to find something decent to wear to work that doesn't make me self-conscious. but it would be really nice to be able to live without having to worry about what people were going to think about your shape.

nicely done!

this is absolutely the coolest video. did i already share this? it's neat enough to share again, if i did. this cute guy and gal showed her pregnancy the whole way through -- in 90 seconds. i wish they'd do another one of the little girl's first year. kudos to them for being excellent!

the benefits outweigh the risks. spoken like a true scientist who lives with his head in the clouds totally discounting the number of dumb asses there are out there who want to do evil in the world. why don't you just teach the bad guys how to put the bad virus together (so they don't stumble on it accidently and let it loose), then you can tell them to play nice and not hurt anyone, counting on them to do the right thing. what idiots.

just (cough cough) a minute (cough cough) ... ouch

i've been sick -- a really yucky cold. usually i don't get sick, but this is the second cold this year. interesting that they can use the phrase 'a cold' for vastly differing symptoms. this last cold made me feel like i was 10 years old -- very snotty. and not from the nose but much deeper. yuck! and the cough from hell, or from the lungs anyway. irritating and very unpleasant. i'd like to go back to being well, please.

what do you mean it's not funny?

this video of a laughing man makes me wonder what they're saying. his wife seems awfully glum. i suppose it could get pretty hard to be around him ....

colds and stuff

i'm one of those old-fashioned people who have always believed in aspirin. bayer aspirin.

other things have come along ... tylenol, advil, etc ... but i don't take those others. they just don't do it for me, and even though 'the experts' have just about ruined aspirin with their proclamations of dangers to children, it works for me even if it were to turn out to just be a placebo effect.

granted, i only take about four aspirin a year, but that's still better than taking four tylenol or advil as far as i'm concerned.

and now i read about this. you want to really be careful about using tylenol. watch your dosage.

and once again the familiar litany -- stupidity. good grief facebook, get real. you are so fucked up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054737/Breast-cancer-survivors-outraged-photos-painted-breasts-called-pornography-Facebook-taken-down.html

pulling back the shades

there are people who have scars, and people who don't. this website shows a series of pictures of young women who have had breast cancer. some of the pictures are interesting, some are strange. i think at least one of them showed reconstructed breasts with formed nipples and tattooed areolas. one of the pictures looked a lot like my own scars.

it was good for me to see the pictures because i've always felt like i was the only one who did not have reconstruction or implants. i feel like my decision not to was medically sound, but i've always missed my former look. not that i was bountious, but at least i was comfortably female. i'm still female, but i'm not sure i'll ever be comfortable with the changed me. and yes, it's been 19 years.

hand me that washcloth

ahem. excuse me but have you washed your belly button today? it seems that tiny little area of our bodies, which we mostly ignore, can harbor a wide variety of bacteria. i thought the article was pretty funny when one guy had some bacteria which had only been found in the ocean. curious!

not so peaceful after all

wow! we always thought that having a fish tank was a relaxing, mind-less thing, but they can be very dangerous. this young girl's scratch may cause her to lose her hand. honestly, it's a wonder human beings survive.

she could be a great, great, great, great, great, great, great .....

did you read about the 23 yr old woman who is a grandmother? she gave birth when she was 13 and her daughter gave birth when she was 11. they are gypsies and getting married young is normal for them.

preggers?

are you trying to get someone pregnant, but just can't seem to get the job done? maybe you should make some adjustments in the way you deal with the environment. prevention magazine has some tips, e.g. never touch a cash register receipt, avoid canned food like the plague, turn off your heated car seat, and always go organic. there are a couple more, but really, it seems like good advice for all of us. well, except for the heated car seat ... those of us without testicles should be okay.

i love you but i hate YOU

and then there is the hormone which promotes feelings of love and trust. recently it was discovered it also seems to reinforce bigotry. i don't know whether to be surprised or laugh.

getting old is partly adventure and partly horror movie. i went to the eye doctor the other day because i had noticed, a number of months ago, that one particular ‘floater’ was always there in the same place. i didn’t go immediately because i wasn’t in any discomfort, it’s so hard to get away from work that i wanted to roll it up with a regular visit, and because the insurance company wasn’t going to pay anything unless it was more than a year since i’d gone previously.

after the eye doctor VERY thoroughly checked things out, he said it looked like my retina may have torn a little, but that it looked like my body was fixing it. he wanted me to come back in 3-4 months so he could see the progress.

he mentioned that if a bunch of floaters showed up, or one showed up persistently, or if a dark curtain covered half my vision, or anything strange happened, that i was to see him immediately. he also mentioned that several years ago, cataracts had started, but they hadn’t progressed.

do you know what this means? i’ve been moved out of the people-who-will-live-forever category into the people-who-might-die-someday category. i mean, these eye problems are things which happen to old people who do eventually die. honestly, it’s just amazing to think that includes me! who would have thought?!

turn here, no ... wait!

did you see how becoming a slave to gps might lower your brain function as you get older? i've just never gotten around to doing the gps thing. maybe my spiritual guide was keeping me away from something which wouldn't be good for me. i've worried along the way that maybe i was slipping behind in the 'knowledge of technology' area, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing. besides, i like doing the 'map' and 'getting lost' thing.

go a little ways then turn left at the tree and go awhile longer ....

how are your gps skills? we've never gotten around to getting one and now i may be glad. it seems that using a gps (using it a lot, i would guess) may turn your brain to mush.

three studies have been done which conclude that how we navigate around today may impact the way our brain functions as we age. the article talks about the spatial navigation strategy versus the stimulus-response strategy.

it also talks about grey matter and alzheimer's and the hippocampus, blah blah, but i found it interesting. it would be particularly telling if they did another study made up entirely of air traffic controllers. controllers use spatial reasoning a lot! and if that group had a smaller percentage of alzheimer's victims, you'd think the theory really had truth to it.

regardless, i enjoy using maps and envisioning routes, and finding my way around, and i don't care if i get lost. it's a quick way to learn about the vicinity. of course, the way that guys give directions and the way that gals give directions are completely different and worthy of a study by itself!

anyway, read the article -- it's food for thought.