| Medical curiosity |
[Feb. 7th, 2010|10:16 pm] |
This is really bizarre, but... has anyone known someone to be allergic to cold/snow? Like, 'break out in a rash' allergic? I went tubing last night, and may face has been blotchy and itchy ever since, like I ran into poison ivy or something. It's better tonight (not itchy), but I still look like some 15-yo who bathes in pizza grease. Internets sez "cold allergy" exists, but I've never had it before.
I love cats and winter sports, and I'm already wicked allergic to one - leave me my skiing and skating! :( |
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| Childhood memories crushed... like rock candy |
[Feb. 1st, 2010|11:43 pm] |
I can't believe the real words to Big Rock Candy Mountain - which I remember as full of peppermint trees - are really about pedophiliac hobos and child trafficking! :-O
- The punk rolled up his big blue eyes
- And said to the jocker, "Sandy,
- I've hiked and hiked and wandered too,
- But I ain't seen any candy.
- I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
- And I'll be damned if I hike any more
- To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore
- In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rock_Candy_Mountain
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 23rd, 2010|05:05 pm] |
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Saturday agoraphobia |
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| Je veux faire un tour du Quebec! |
[Jan. 3rd, 2010|06:55 pm] |
I am feeling wanderlust, and it is focused on Canada... specifically, Quebec! I went to Montreal when I was in college*, and I'm going to Mt Orford for a ski weekend with the AMC, but I've never really seen the place as an adult and I want to plan a real vacation to other areas in Quebec for a few days.
I know a few of you are familiar with the area, any tips for the solo female culture tour (vs a romantic getaway)? My car is old and crappy, so I'm not sure if I should take a bus there and then rent a car between cities or just risk driving in. I'm also trying to relearn my French in anticipation, and wouldn't mind hosteling. I'm also not afraid of the cold and gross weather of February/March/April, but not sure if the city basically hibernates then. Any fun stuff? Love movies (er, provided I can beef up the French) and artsy/academic things, I'm not a big clubber, but I'm still not ready to do the boring things 30-somethings do on vacation. Opportunities for meeting a cute grad student, getting married, and moving to Canada a plus!
*Actually, the only thing I remember is Hurley's pub and (drinking in) a park. (hangs head in shame)
**Phatmike, I will bring you back cheese curds! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|06:31 pm] |
Wow, ten years since 2000? It seems like nothing really happened at all...
In other news, I have a cold, and while I will not be going skiing in VT, I will be dragging myself out to NYE parties. Where I will not be getting kissed. Presumably because I have a cold. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|07:00 pm] |
HA! I knew it, the secret behind Applebees!
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=5019
Not that they're the only restaurant to nuke food, just that they're the only ones whose food uniformly tastes like it.
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| Hee-hee-hee! |
[Oct. 2nd, 2009|07:59 am] |
What part of me is an 10-year-old boy that I still love comic books and chuckle over the Land-O-Lakes girl showing her "boobs"?
Seriously, the butter-peep-show never ceases to crack me up... I want to show it to my niece, but that would be totally inappropriate (right?).
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| Sayonara, jerk! |
[Aug. 25th, 2009|05:54 pm] |
Stanley Kaplan, founder of Kaplan Test Prep, died recently. NPR's obituary (or maybe it was a relative's eulogy) described him as someone dedicated to providing "advantages for those who were disadvantaged." To his credit, I'm sure he was a real mensch back before selling his company for $45 million, but there's no denying the test-prep industry has done a great harm to education in this country. How can some surgeon paying $10,000 for Kaplan's private tutors to get his retard kid into grad school* possibly be considered helping the economically "disadvantaged"? o_O
*True story. Four times over. They all ended up getting in, of course. |
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| WBCN Send-off |
[Aug. 11th, 2009|07:21 pm] |
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I've been listening to WBCN's retrospective the past four days, and I've gotta admit - if they still played such quirky rock with low-key, local DJs instead of the fratastic radio jocks like T&R, I probably would have listened to them a lot more in the past decade. Too bad WFNX adopted the same bro-centric format with the Sandbox... Social D and Bad Religion aren't sexist, why are your immature carpetbagging DJs? |
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| HHA Agencies |
[Jul. 27th, 2009|01:15 am] |
Can anyone recommend a good certified home health agency in the greater Boston area (as opposed to an employment agency of HHAs)? Visiting Angels are horrible - their HHAs are erratic, and my mom was left alone on the floor today after she fell* and broke her hip because no one showed up again (and yet surprisingly, those people never seem to get fired - go figure!). Her social worker doesn't have other suggestions, so I turn to you, good people of the internet...
Yeah, it's a total longshot, but I'm desperate - my sister usually handles the HHA situation, but she's fed up so I said I'd find some leads... If you have personal experience with a non-shitty agency, please let me know the name and I'll hunt down the details. Thanks!
* Please, no "I've fallen and I can't get up!" jokes
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| Why I hate professional science |
[Jul. 20th, 2009|10:53 am] |
Study acronyms like 'AWESOME', article titles like 'Recovery from neutropenia and a bamboo pole', case reports of 'This one time, in band camp, a patient I saw...', nineteen MDs getting authorship on a study, random summer students literally only plating assays and getting first author in JCI, being lied to by "colleagues" and then scooped...
And 5 years on, I get sneered at with "All those years in the lab and not one publication? Tsk... that's a shame." |
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| Zapruder Film |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|07:59 pm] |
I figured I was the last person in the world not to have seen this, so thanks to the glory of Youtube I now have. Jesus... Effing... Christ. His head gets blown off while Jackie is holding him. :-O I sure don't blame her for running off with a Greek billionaire, she deserves it after living through such a horrific experience.
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| Merry-Go-Rounds for -- Er, WaterForLife |
[Jun. 20th, 2009|07:30 pm] |
A friend of mine started an LJ comm called ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) waterforlife to address water sanitation issues in developing countries. It sounds dry (or all wet - har har), but it's a huge issue worldwide that affects health and progress and feminism. Please join the comm - entries will consist of periodic updates about the issues, and ways to help and stuff, and I think there's $15 gift certificates involved (from her own pocket). Uh, I'm doing a really bad job of selling this....
BUT! And this is the coolest part - she's trying to get all of LJ to raise enough money to buy a PlayPump. A merry-go-round for children that extracts 1,400 liters of water per hour, and can bring clean drinking water to 2,500 people for 10 years! A merry-go-round! I want one...
Wheeeee! 
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| Too much lamb! |
[Jun. 14th, 2009|05:18 pm] |
I accidentally bought 2.5 lb of lamb shoulder, which is too much for the little lamb tagine I planned to cook. What should I do with the other 1.5 lb of lamb? I tend to have bad luck freezing meats...
UPDATE: I cut up the rest of it and made giant lamb tagine. It is definitely more cost effective for a single person to eat out every night... :P |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|01:24 pm] |
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In addition to forgetting their family members and what decade it is, people with dementia get night terrors too?! Jesus, is this not the most horrible neurological disease ever? I'm so glad they're trying new programs, although I find the "kindergartener" simile to be a bit offensive: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/nyregion/14cover.html?_r=1&hp |
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| Don't ask, don't tell |
[Jun. 8th, 2009|12:13 pm] |
Court Rejects Challenge to 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
I really can't get my head around the vehement opposition against gays serving openly in the military (or for that matter, gay marriage). I've heard the overt arguments - it undermines morale, adds sexual tension, etc. - but to me, these are all justifications from ignorant, cowardly homophobes. Whose morale is undermined? The 19-yo hick who hasn't even met a gay person before, or the captain who spends 20 years serving his country and then either gets his ass kicked or is discharged? I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of the hairy armpit brigade or bitchy queens either, but what kind of retard expects fellow soldiers to be sexually accosting everything in sight? Or at least, more so than the average hetero soldier? And in a time when those currently enlisted are getting screwed over and disillusioned with practices like stop-loss, doesn't it undermine the notion of having a military that is strong in both numbers and dedication to kick people out for behavior that doesn't directly affect others?
Full disclosure: I'll admit I'm a moderate liberal, and I have lots of gay friends. However, I also get a little queasy watching gay folks make out (although any kind of PDA grosses me out), and I have a terrible habit of using such Boston slang as "gay" and "faggy" to describe annoyances like beaurocracy. But I also feel my opinions on someone's sexual identity don't mean a damn, and certainly shouldn't have any impact on however they pursue their particular kicks.
But I'm curious to know if my "liberalism" is blinding me - is there any solid argument against having gays serve openly in the military that isn't based in the ignorance or uber-Christianity of the current military society? For the record, although I'm pro-choice, I can see much more moral and legal legitimacy in the anti-abortion arguments compared to the anti-gay military or anti-gay marriage arguments.
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