I am now 100% off the old man meds and followup, though if anyone is looking to have a crazy blood-thinner party – I’m you’re hookup.
It feels good not to have to think about this thing anymore and wonder if my brain is still okay, or if the blood flow is still being squeezed through a smaller section of vessel. Though I’ve felt perfectly fine since before I left the hospital, it’s good to have confirmation from a legitimate source saying I’m okay.
According to various articles and medical professionals, my increased odds of having another stroke in the next 5 years ranges from 1% to 43%. As most of the current stroke research comes from folks averaging twice my age, I’m giving myself the lower percentage. The odds of having another dissection in the same place on the same blood vessel is about 0% as it is now encased in sturdy scar tissue.
If anyone can find a way to sell Coumadin on the street as a new party drug, I’ll supply. In the meantime, I’ll be looking forward to some crazy Cuban or parm hot dogs this weekend.
]]>There are hundreds of other reasons I have been putting this off, though these five are the only I can think of right now.
]]>It’s okay if you don’t. Sort of. This is difficult information to track down. There are teams of people whose job it is to keep you from knowing the answer.
Then again, there are teams of people striving to let you know. Farmers markets, co-ops, roadside stands: these people are interested in giving you a quality product that is better for you than most alternatives.
As best you can, know where your food comes from. How many times have you heard a mother say “Put that down, you don’t know where it’s been.”
Good advice.
This is not the cheapest way to eat. For pure caloric intake, carrots and kale are always more expensive than a double cheeseburger. When the budget is tight, highly processed food is easier to fill up with.
There has to be a better way. Factor in health care costs, and the numbers sway the other way drastically. Add in lost work time from illness and the knowledge that better nutrition leads to better mental health and productivity, and The Dollar Menu ceases to be a good deal.
I don’t really do this concept justice. There are better people out there for it. People who have the training and experience to educate folks more fully. Please take some time and check out the videos and links below. Explore other ways to eat. Teach others who don’t know.
Let grandma know.
Tell your neice.
I promise it will make a difference.
Forward and share this information to everyone you know.
My cardboard box was most often a car, occasionally a spaceship, and once an oil tanker. It was a fort, a mouse house, a cave where my nemesis lingered over a steamy cauldron (I watched a lot of He-Man) or even a skyscraper.
The size of the box didn’t matter. What was packaged in it didn’t matter. It was the game that mattered. Making something out of nothing.
I don’t remember any talk about overhead.
I don’t remember ever taking a test to become licensed to do this.
I just did it.
As kids, we used our creativity in every waking moment. We sang songs about breakfast. We made up games on the spot, changing and developing the rules as we went along.
Then we went to school and learned about that cardboard box and what it meant to everyone else. We learned that it was actually corrugated and made of pressed paper pulp.
And then that’s all the cardboard box was after that. Just a cardboard box.
Somewhere along the way we forgot how to make something out of nothing using only our creativity.
What did your cardboard box used to be?
]]>I want to first say that I understand the good you do, bringing moisture to plants and being an important part of our ecosystem.
That being said, I think it’s time we stop seeing one another. I’m no good with you.
When you’re around you make me agitated and I become dependent on processed air, which is not especially healthy. On top of that, you make me feel gross as if something is wrong.
The way you make hair curl and frizz like Gene Wilder is also not appreciated.
I don’t love you.
I never have.
I hope you understand,
Nick
“Here,” she said. “I have an extra.”
I thanked her, made my purchase and left.
Three seconds out of my day, but the exchange made a difference in the rest of my day. Not the savings, just the action.
Far too often I’ve noticed the day goes by without these acts of minute kindness, either as a witness or a participant.
Pick up a piece of trash, hold the door for someone, smile at a stranger (don’t be creepy), anything that is good.
Take three seconds out of every day to do something for the benefit of someone you don’t know.
Practice random acts of kindness
]]>Glad I’m not covered in hair like the cat
Cold water is nice
Wish power would come back on instead of not
Automated phone message systems are the work of the devil
Candles aren’t just decorative
Hour five: starting to get heat anger
Maybe this is why southern rednecks are mad
Cold showers are awesome
Hot again
Breeze not doing it for me
I’m a slave to the AC
]]>Countless organizations have been blamed for this ongoing tragedy. Transocean, BP, the US Government and Barack Obama and the MMS (now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement).
Numerous news organizations are covering the damage, of course, as everyone has seen. Stories from who’s to blame, to what’s a stake to how many people are ultimately going to be touched by the spill have filled newspapers, podcasts and magazines.
I am not an objective journalist (neither are most journalists these days) so I am free to speak my mind without threat of being edited. On this site at least.
Instead of playing the blame game and looking into future charts to see how far the oil will make it up the East Coast (pretty far, by most accounts) how about we stop the oil spill?
Just fucking stop it. Stop the flow. Halt it. Pinch it off.
Get as many engineers and experts as it takes, but stop the oil spill. Figure it out. I understand that the pipe is a mile down. I understand that nothing like this has ever been attempted before. I don’t care. Every organization and company that has any liability or may have liability needs to get on it.
Whatever it takes. Whatever the hours. Whatever the cost.
Analysts are working on cost estimates regarding what BP will be held accountable for. How? We don’t even know how many barrels of oil are actually pouring out. 5,000 barrels? 25,000 barrels? 60,000 barrels?
The situation in the Gulf does not allow for educated guesses at this time, and any attempt to do so is futile.
Review of what we know:
Independent fishermen out of Louisiana are reporting that there is a large volume of oil relatively close to shore that is hovering between the ocean floor and the surface. What this means is that the oil is not simply floating to the surface where it can be more easily dealt with via burning, absorbent boom or siphoning. What this means is that the oil is not reacting to ocean currents and salinity levels the way we expected it would.
The cleanup will be huge.
Certain species will not survive.
Individual and corporate business will undoubtedly be scarred for years and many will go out of business.
All of this will need to be dealt with, and soon. Those who can’t help stop the spill should work to help in any way they can. One city in Florida has already told the government that they can stay out off their beaches when it comes to cleanup. They’ll take care of their own.
Whatever your political views, personal preferences or grand thoughts on Mother Earth, voice your thoughts to BP, the US Government, and any news organization that doesn’t rely on Bill O’Reilly as a talking head.
We can’t all help in a direct way but at the least we can voice our outrage and hope someone’s voice is heard.
Oh yeah, and men and women are fighting in two countries, Haiti is still screwed from the earthquake, medicinal marijuana isn’t legal yet, ‘Too Big to Fail’ is still a joke, the US advances in the World Cup, stem cell research is frowned upon, Van der Sloot is receiving marriage proposals, Brazil recently suffered massive flooding and Mexican drug runners are still running the Southern US border.
Looking for some backup facts about the above? Email me.
]]>A foothold in the online publishing world from the good folks at McSweeney’s.
Favorites include:
I was recently turned on to this noir fiction site by my friend Marty. Great stuff, great authors, no bullshit.
There are great music reviews, interviews, social justice and movie links, but the fiction is tops. Constantly engaging without a main category of words.
The physical offering is the main selling point, but the web exclusives are better than a few stories I’ve read in the magazine.