Millennium hand and shrimp! Buggerit.Posts RSS Comments RSS

Experimenting with drugs, reflux redux

Okay, so the inhaler is a bust. No relief from asthma symptoms (although it did take down the inflammation in my throat, which was nice), and a lovely side effect of persistent muscle cramps. So, I’m off that now, and the doc has prescribed Prilosec on the off-chance it could actually be related to silent GERD. Apparently, it’s a pretty common thing to have reflux disease and not know it, and have asthma-like symptoms that don’t respond to asthma meds as a result. Weird.

Unfortunately, the Google research that led me to that link led me to this one.

A new study overturns the long-held practice of treating chronic asthma patients with medication for acid reflux. The study published this week’s New England Journal of Medicine finds that the drugs, such as Prilosec and Nexium, may not do anything to alleviate symptoms of asthma.

*sigh*

Anyway, I started on the GERD meds this morning, and we’ll see how it works out. I’m also lined up for a TB test tomorrow (just to make sure) and I’m supposed to get an appt for a pulmonary function test sooner or later, for both of which I will have to pay for out of pocket unknown but probably painful amounts. But there’s no help for it. They’re both baseline diagnostic tests that I have to have so the doc can stop shooting in the dark, treatment-wise.

Under-insurance is a bitch.


No responses yet

Dear God, it’s worse than “Atlanta Nights”

Moon People, page 1. And page 35, just so you can see that the quality writing is bone deep.

You see, kids, this is why we wait months and even years for old-fashioned publishing to push books down their production calendar, and suffer with manly tears the sting of multiple rejection letters. It’s called gatekeeping, and it’s what keeps you from accidentally picking up a book at, say Barnes and Nobles (which, rightly enough, doesn’t take self-published books, along with almost every other reputable bookstore) and searing your unprepared eyeballs right out of your face like one of Indiana Jones’ Nazi treasure hunters.

And no, this is not a joke. It’s a real book written by a real guy who, apparently, thinks it’s epic material1 .  See for yourself: Here’s the Amazon page (the reviews are at least as funny and well-written as the book, if not more so) and the guy’s blog on the Organizing for America site. Check it out - apparently he has ideas about government policy and colonizing the planets, too. Imagine that.

FYI, this is just one book in a series. Just in case you can’t get enough relentlessly horrible grammar, random Capitalization, horrific spelling and a plot conceived by someone with all the narrative construction skills of a pesticide-poisoned ground squirrel on a Ritalin bender.

And then he voted, as Scott Adams would say.

(The story behind Atlanta Nights)





  1. I have to agree with him there. It’s pretty epic, er, material indeed. []




One response so far

Proof that the internet is an infinitely varied and wonderful place

And then there’s this incredible confluence of WTF/win - a trailer for a Japanese action movie featuring killer transformer robo-Geishas that is not even remotely safe for work, or for anyone drinking hot beverages. Fried shrimp!


No responses yet

New favorite gaming quote:

“Jesus saves!!! The rest of you take full damage.”


No responses yet

In 5-10 years, the police will be able to read your mind

The Present & Future of Mind-Reading Technology
Uploaded by BadKitty. - News videos from around the world.
This is kind of scary. As to whether or not the predictions of the scientist in the video are realistic, it depends on who you believe.
However, I have no difficulty whatsoever in imagining military and law enforcement adopting and deploying such technologies well before they’re actually proven predictable and reliable, if ever. (Polygraph, anyone? Still used in both settings, as well as the corporate world, even though polygraph results are so notoriously unrealible they’re not admissible as evidence in court.)
Now, add this to the related discovery of memory wiping chemicals, and we have some seriously interesting days ahead of us.

No responses yet

60 Symbols - Like smart pills without the chalky aftertaste

60 Symbols is a site that features incredibly cool, fun, short videos explaining the science behind 60 of the most famous scientific symbols (and a few that are, well, rather more iconic than scientific - but hey, at least now I finally know how those dippy birds work.)

Another favorite: Explaining χ via the magic of weightless beer.


No responses yet

How to know when you’ve been gardening too long

Look at all that lovely manure...

Saw this photo the other day on some site, totally out of context (most likely being used to illustrate something funny or snarky, I don’t remember), and my very first thought was feeling of intense envy for the lady with the bag, coupled with “OMG elephant manure! How do I get that gig?”


2 responses so far

Now you can look at porn anywhere!

Awesomely cool new technology - privacy program keeps people from reading your screen, even if they’re right behind you.

Using eye-tracking software and your webcam, this company helps protect your privacy and data security two ways: Their commercial high-powered version completely scrambles the text on your screen from every angle except the one you’re viewing from.  And their lower-tech consumer version blurs the screen when you look away (like when someone enters your cubicle) and pops up an image of anyone that comes up behind you so you know they’re there.

Damn, that’s some sweet stuff right there. The only flaw I can find is that I have no justifiable reason to buy it.


No responses yet

Battle Of The Bugs

It’s the south. And it’s summer, even if only just. And that means bugs. And so far, 2009 appears to be a combination ant/flea plague year. Oh, joy.

For some reason, for the last week or so my bathroom has been overrun with ants. Not fire ants or anything bad, just those little black ants that are endemic to the area. Which kinda sucks. I mean, if they were fire ants or some other dangerous critter, I would have no compunction slaughtering them by the nestful and thusly rid my bathroom of their parading masses.

But alas, they are concurrently harmless, disease-free and pretty much not bothering anyone except for being vaguely exhausting to watch in their endless looping travels out of the bathtub faucet caps, around the tub rim, up the wall, across the tile wainscoting, down the door frame and thence onward to parts unknown.

Also, being a hive mind, they’re notoriously hard to kill off in any permanent and meaningful way without risking getting yourself on the evening news a la this guy. I can pretty much assure you that between asthma and a bad sensitivity to chemicals, any quantity of poison likely to have any effect  on them would likely do me in well before I got anywhere near the critical mass necessary to put a dent in their nest.

Fleas, on the other hand, get no mercy from me. And they are, thankfully, easier to kill. Unfortunately, they have infested the entire building I live in, so just treating my cats does little more than annoy the cats and evolve resistant fleas. Ergo, yesterday we did a massive spring clean that got everything up off the floors and sprayed the entire house down with some sort of long-lasting anti-flea chemical warfare (I think it’s got that hormone stuff in it that keeps them from breeding). After which, naturally, we were obliged to leave the house for several hours while it did it’s thing.

Luckily, the local burger-and-movie joint was showing Wolverine, which I missed out on when it was in the first-run theaters due to insufficient funds. So we chowed down on tasty grub and I got to watch a very naked, very wet and very growly Hugh Jackman do his thing. Rawr!

Dunno about you, but I certainly feel better.

In any case, the fleas seem to be gone. However, the ants - after a brief kill-back hiatus that led me to embarrassingly amateur levels of optimism over their demise - are back once more making their merry way around the powder room architecture. *sigh*

I guess 12 hours’ respite is better than nothing. At least they don’t bite.

And don’t even get me started on the fun-house-thrill-seeking wasps that seem to have spread the word among their kind that if you can manage to slip in through the screen door, there are limitless free rides around the ceiling-fan loop-de-loop air current to be had. I’ve had just about all of their barnstorming, dive-bombing shenanigans that I can take.


No responses yet

IQ test

Okay, folks, who can tell me what’s wrong with this comment I got on another blog of mine?

…for those of you who spend a few dimes to win millions and not be scammed: here is a nice no download casino place that accepts usa players and gives away cash bonuses every day.

I mean, it looks good, right? Spend just a few dime for the chance to win millions, well, who doesn’t love that? And it says right there it’s not a scam - you know they couldn’t say that if it wasn’t true. There are *vague handwaving* laws about that. And look, they accept credit cards! How cool is that? Once I give them both my cc account number and my security code so they can charge $.10 bets, fun stuff is sure to start happening to me. Thank God they’re not scammers, right!?!

Hey Martha! crack out that MasterCard - it’s the only one that hasn’t been compromised by stupid ID theives yet. I’m going to Vegas, baby!

(Oh, and what’s wrong is that they didn’t capitalize USA. They must be making so many of those cash payouts they can’t even afford to hire a copyeditor. Sweet!)


No responses yet

Next »