Who Wants To Be My Speedy?

When I was in kindergarten about 1975 or thereabouts, I remember the teacher spending a day with us talking about surgery.  I don't know if this happened to anyone else, but the gist was that Science has discovered  that we have some useless organs that do nothing but cause trouble, so I'm going to discuss what it's like when your tonsils are removed. I thought it was pretty cool because I would get the whole week off from school and eat ice cream every day.  I wasn't as keen on the appendectomy lecture, but what bugged me the most was when she brought up the what ifs of dialysis and diabetes.  I've never liked needles, so the idea of giving myself injections seemed just as horrible as losing a leg.

So guess what?  Doctor has determined that I need to move to the next level of treatment and start injecting medication.  Didn't like the idea, but the knowledge that they would be in pen form made me think that it was something I could handle.  Then they arrived.  I was thinking about the size of a fat fountain pen, right?  Wrong!  You know when you stop at Stuckey's and you get that giant pencil with a map of New Mexico on it?  Yeah, about that size.  Then the nurse calls and says "The starter dose is four."    Then I warm up four of them and because my courage has faltered I go out to the local clinic to ask them to help and they reply "We don't do that medication, it's alien to us."  And I say "It's subcutaneous, it's not like I'm asking you to jab my pineal gland."  And they say "Take it to the doctor who prescribed it to you."  And I say "They are all out of the office today.  I wanted to do it now because I have tomorrow off so I can recuperate if I have a bad reaction.  I exposed myself to ridicule by putting my white chicken legs in shorts to come out here! Fine, I'll do it myself."  So with a little help from the instruction booklet and YouTube, I did.

Two thoughts popped into my head afterwards.  First, being angry really cuts fear and pain.  Second, in a post apocalyptic world, I'm the one pushing a propane fridge around in a wheelbarrow.  

The only silver lining is that my company has really good health insurance.  The market price of my medication is $6500, but I'm paying $95 a box.  Given my schedule, that's about a dollar a day.  Not too bad.  The reality though, is that my company can offer really good insurance and retirement because they are retail, and don't expect anyone to actually buy it.

Because Everything's Better With Pirates!

I never really watched much anime, or Japanimation as it was called back in the day.  I watched G-Force after school but wasn't impressed, and much later watched some Dragonball Z after inquiring what a young co-worker kept blathering on about.  I tried to follow it for a while, but determined that each episode consisted of about five minutes' worth of actual plot progression while the rest was take up by static views of the heroes powering up with much gritting of teeth, sweating and turning blonde.  I was able to mostly make it through Gundam Wing but swore never to do so again, because it took so much concentration; lose focus for a few minutes and the whole story was lost.

I've given anime a second look though, because I've needed something in 22 minute segments with standalone episodes yet an overreaching plot line that comes to a properly planned end.  Luckily, I stumbled into two excellent series, one of them being Samurai Champloo.

I've read that Japanese reserve makes acting difficult, therefore they put all their emotions into animation.  It seems true in this case; young Mugen here shows some complex but common human emotions.  If he's the offender, he has a "Suck it up, that's life" attitude, but if he's the one who has been wronged, only revenge will do.

Um, he's the only one who knew where the pirate treasure is.  I'd want to die too.

School Shootings Are So Last Week

White, Muslim, and immigrants.  Looks like everyone was right and wrong in rushing to conclusions in respect to the race-religion-ethnicity of the Boston bombers. Better luck next time, and there will be a next time, because every kook loner malcontent out there is eagerly studying this latest way to go out in a blaze of notoriety.  Why lock down a school or shopping mall when you can lock down a city?

P.S. Did everyone hear the uncle?  That guy is a true survivor who learned early on to get in front of the mob with the pointiest pitchfork and brightest torch.  Well done, sir!  

Chris' News In Reviews

Lot been happening in the world.  Been having a slight illness problem, but I still follow current events.

On gun control:  If there is nothing wrong with a background check to purchase a firearm, I don't see any problem with showing an I.D. to vote.  Come on Republicans, make a link and hold the other side to it.  Grow a spine already.

On the death of Baroness Thatcher and the subsequent jubilation:  I remember a time when the term "English disease" meant an economic state where everyone was constantly on strike and made shoddy products on the three days they bothered to show up.  (Much feared in the newly industrial parts of the world and studied intensively.)  Now, as much as I admire Sir Clive and his wonderful products, it tells how low you've sunk when Margaret Thatcher gives away Spectrums as the best example of what British industry is capable of four years after becoming PM.

She also won her war.  It's a lesson for those of us on the other side of the pond, especially modern Republicans who get possessed by the spectre of Woodrow Wilson and decide that they need to remake the enemy in thy own image rather than stomp the crap out of them and go home.

Her death brought out the worst of progressive misbehavior.  I can't help but feel they have a real problem with women.  Here you have a child of the middle class who was trained as a chemist, and they can't stand her. Weird.  Anyway, she showed them that they were wrong, and they will never forgive her for it.

On King Kim of Korea:  No one seems to know what he's doing.  He may not either.  Near as I can tell he's just trying to show everyone who's boss.  The trouble is that none of these junior dictators have the sense of timing their fathers had.

If I were advising Kim, I'd tell him to get into offshore banking. Imagine the Cayman Islands with an A-bomb.  I'd bet no one would bully them into giving up their account information.  May be tricky explaining that banking isn't the same thing as counterfeiting though. Still, one they got it I'd bet your money would be far safer than in any free world bank.

It's Hard To Be Robin Hood...

...when you look like Friar Tuck and dress like Will Scarlet.

So Hugo Chavez has passed away.  I confess to knowing very little about Latin American government, but you couldn't help but hear about the Bolivarian Revolution on a pretty constant basis the last few years if you followed politics at all.

My opinion:  slight dislike.  I don't like the hypocrisy of those who lead coups but then complain when they get set aside (however briefly) by one.  I don't like the "Blame the U.S." approach to domestic and foreign policy and the shoe thumping theatrics that goes along with it, and I especially dislike the charity approach to helping the poor.

"What's that?" you say.  "How can you oppose a president using his country's fabulous oil wealth to help the poor and needy?"

A:  Because it's run like a charity.  You know, the ones that spend .016% of their budget actually helping the subject of the charity and the rest paying themselves handsomely and raising more funds.  Chavez knew how the scam worked, and played it to the max.  Of course, like most scams, the people you want to fool have done most of the work for you already.  Here it is: Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution liked to make a big deal out of helping the poor around the world (but especially in places where there was a lot of press coverage) by helping them out with things like free heating oil.  So far so good, right?  The catch is that Venezuela was a founding member of OPEC; they are the ones making sure the heating oil is too expensive for the poor to buy in the first place!  Chavez could have helped billions of poor people around the world by breaking the OPEC cartel and allowing oil prices to drop, but didn't.  No matter though, he's a swell guy anyway.  Joe Kennedy says so.

The People's Hero Is Dead.  Sing along-If you know what's good for ya.

Sci-Fi Comes To Life

I think we all got lucky that something like this didn't happen during the Cold War.

Hello...?

That was one heck of a holiday season.  Sales were actually flat or slightly less than last year, but they showed an increase because of the rising price of basic foodstuffs and the continued high cost of petroleum.  The company did turn a profit however, by using the standard practice of cutting hours. (If anyone talks about how the American worker is getting more productive, I think they are missing some basic points.)

To me it's getting to the point of being counterproductive.  For example, we had a small increase in hours the days before Black Friday, but they were slashed the next day for Cyber Saturday.  There is really no innovation anymore; the response to on-line shopping is not to meet it head on, but to give up and cut hours to save money.  It's getting to the point of being ridiculous. I've written about the troubles we've had with out sewer system, and they came back this winter.  The basic problem stems from the fact that the sewer line runs next to the loading area.  Decades of rumbling trucks have caused a slump in the sewer line.  Normally there's not too much trouble, but cold weather combined with...  it's better explained with song:

That's about the right size.  

...can cause material to settle and solidify in the slump.  We will defend our old style toilets to our last breath, because they use enough water to push everything out of the slump and on down the line.

Anyway, the toilets began to flush slowly, then not at all.  the plumbers came out and did what they could, but all left without truly fixing anything, because the toilets would back up again the next day.  The last time I was in the restroom with a plumber, he flushed the toilet to see what would happen.  Of course the water level in the bowl started to rise...  and then stopped inches from the rim.  hmm, so I pulls off the tank lid and see that the float has been adjusted so that the tank fills at most halfway, if that.

Here's what happened, although I have no proof.  Some idiot says "If we use half the water we normally use every day in our stores, we can save x amount of dollars on the water bill every month.  If we multiply that by y number stores and multiply that by 12 months a year, we save a number that makes me look innovative."  Even bigger boss says "Make it one-third. Send out the word to the DMs."

I'm also starting to run in to Obamacare.  You know that stuff about companies cutting back full time staff in order to escape health insurance costs?  Yeah.  It's starting to hit hard. Try telling a new employee that they can only get fifteen hours a week, they can work another job but have to be available when we need them and the schedule comes out the evening before the new work week begins.  And you have to have a car.  They look at you like "I can't afford to fuel a car on fifteen hours a week, much less buy one."  That's when I push the employment packet across the desk and point out the insurance plan:  How to Apply for Government Cheese.  Because Your Company Cares.  No lie. Got a hotline and everything.