Last month I destroyed my dating site profiles. I'm giving up. Whether for the time-being or for good remains to be seen. I'm tired of the routine. It's a lot of wasted time and effort for practically no results. I'll admit I'm already feeling a little better since I'm able to devote what little energy I can self-generate to other tasks, even some old-school stuff like listening (and sometimes singing along) to music. In that sense it's been fun. Maybe I can finally tackle some projects I've let wither on the vine like my language. Hell, I'm already writing more entries to the stupid blog than I have for quite a while. Let's see where it goes...
I'll take from the experience what I got out of it. I got a taste of normalcy from Winwood. I got to have the title of boyfriend from Costello. And even afterward I managed to get a date (albeit only one) from a girl I asked out in real life. In a sense I've accomplished several major lifetime goals (albeit very late in life). The only thing I've never managed to do was get to date one of my crushes. There hasn't been another one since Number Twelve, which evaporated quickly and there hasn't been a strong, lingering one since Digby and I first started crushing on her over seven years ago. It makes me think my heart is out of it. It's had enough...I've had enough.
Strangely I'm not sad about it. If something happens, I'll let it happen but I'm not seeking it. I should focus what's left of my life on things I enjoy and might enjoy doing. I certainly need something. The sad truth is I can't say for certain that I have anything to look forward to after the New Horizons spacecraft passes Pluto next year in July (and to a lesser extent, the Dawn spacecraft will also be put into orbit around the largest main belt asteroid Ceres that year too). I still look forward to The Simpsons but I don't know how much longer that show has. I don't think this season is the last because the media would be all over that. It might be next season. We'll see.
I need something to grab on to but nothing's been coming my way. This all sounds way sadder than I mean it. It's just nice to have things to look forward to...
Monday, November 24, 2014
Sunday, November 23, 2014
SEVEN DEADLY SINS (play-at-home version)
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ENVY, option A: I'm not entirely sure what is meant by "aspect of your life" and while it certainly could be used for good, trading a good quality of one's own for a bad quality in another to give that person a shot at a better life, the evil implication is that you're basically fucking over one of your friends with something about yourself you don't like, trading it for something desirable in the other friend. Is this limited to mental aspects or conceptual things like "luck", or are you able to trade for, say, a full head of hair if you were balding or increased height if you felt yourself too short? It doesn't say and it would certainly suck to find out it had to be nonphysical when you wanted something physical, wouldn't it?
Definitely wouldn't take this option.
ENVY, option B: Trading lives. Does this mean I continue having my own body but people react to me like I were the other person or does it mean body-swapping? Either way, what is to stop the forcibly traded person from coming after me for having stolen his/her life? Sounds dangerous to accept, no?
I'm gonna have to say no to this one as well.
SLOTH, option A: This is most certainly the safest option I would think. By far the best default in the event you find you cannot forfeit choosing one of these options. Median household income for the year 2012, according to the OECD, was $30,932. Another chart shows the median 2011 income from the U.S. Census Bureau at $50,054, a considerable difference. The former isn't much more than I make now while the latter would make me feel solidly Middle Class.
Of course, the country whose median income your sloth check would be based on is never stated nor whether the amount would be indexed for inflation or fixed at the present year's value making this option potentially risky, especially given that you would never work a day (which could also mean you're in a coma). I want to take this one, but what if I end up receiving Mexico's median annual income ($4,493 in U.S. dollars)? That would certainly suck and you know there are worse countries than that...
Now I'm thinking this wouldn't be such a safe bet after all.
SLOTH, option B: Same shitty life I have now except that I always feel rested after I sleep. Again, I'm assuming this reduced sleep is still enough to keep healthy and not like a drug. Assuming this genie isn't totally a jerkass, this option could prove a bit ironic to the sin as you could now being WAY more productive than would otherwise be possible for a human being. If a five minute nap counts as a full day's rest, what's to stop you from always pulling all-nighters, tinkering with all sorts of hobbies, partying 'til dawn on worknights, having your cake and eating it too when it comes to business and pleasure, etc.?
Even though I'd still have to work, this one could be a good "if I have to" option even if the health risks do exist. It would mean simply be careful not to abuse your power, like one must be careful not to abuse pain medications lest their effectiveness dwindle. I mean I hope it would be that simple and not some other horrible side-effect...
WRATH, option A: Certainly a very tempting option. Both options come with the same potential drawback: are you able to get away with these crimes? I would like to believe proving it in court would be impossible but then being tied up in court having to defend oneself could prove costly and as the O.J. Simpson civil trial showed, being acquitted of murder doesn't mean one cannot still be found liable financially.
Also, must you inflict this annual fate or can you be merciful and skip a year? Can you bank fates (I'll assume not). Must the fates be terrible or can they be used to slowly grant lottery victories or spontaneous remissions of cancer?
Of course the wording states that the target must be "of my wrath" making me presumably less likely to wish to be civil about it...
WRATH, option B: You get a monthly option provided the fate be non-lethal - though it can be delayed - but like the above, it must be visited upon an object of rage making this power decidedly useless to pervert in order to help family and friends out.
Still...I can be pretty creative in my non-lethal horrors but again I wonder, do I have to do this once-a-month or just once-a-month maximum? It makes a difference because I'm just not that angry of a man. I'd run out of justifiable (to myself anyway) targets pretty quickly and my remaining lifetime could still be quite long...
LUST, option A: This really sounds like a roundabout description of rape, doesn't it? Speaking as someone unlucky in both love and hooking up, this is a very tempting option as it would allow me to fulfill a number of fantasies...from my perspective at least. As the nightmare of my prowess is visited upon my targets, what becomes of them afterward? Do they remember hooking up with me but unsure why they weren't able to resist? Are they happy for having done so? Do they regret it? How much time afterward do I have before their free will kicks back in? Like it has been said allegedly of the Devil, would I have no power over true love, meaning I could only hook up with single girls (which would more than suck as I've lusted after a few boyfriended/married girls in my life)? Will it be reported as a rape, tying up my time in courtrooms like with the wrath options?
Lots of questions with no help offered from the option's description. Still...a tempting option regardless of the potential problems. Yeah, I'm a terrible human being...
LUST, option B: While this sounds like a safer option, I need reality for my fantasies to work. It's like asking for a hug. It's not the same as a hug given freely. Having a shapeshifter who could turn into a crush I could then fuck is not the same as being able to fuck the crush herself.
PRIDE, option A: Fame and popularity. Again, for what is not made clear nor is it in any way certain that I would have a choice over as to why I'm famous and popular. Serial killers tend to be both (except with their victims' families I would imagine). Not exactly something I would like to be prideful of, especially since it would likely mean a lifetime of imprisonment...or pending execution depending on the state. One might also be famous and popular for having exposed national secrets à la Snowden but then stuck in a life of exile for it, always looking over one's shoulder. Many good results and many bad results can come from this...
PRIDE, option B: I like this option, a powerful and commanding aura. I get to be automatically respected and feared by those around me. However, is this a power I have control over or am I always that way? While it could be useful, even when always on, it would make it hard to have friends and those friends you already do have would treat you differently, denying you their honesty.
If I could turn this power on and off at will or if I could grant exceptions to certain people (even if such exceptions were irreversible), that might be better but still...without clarification, I think this option too risky to assume...
GREED, option A: Actually this seems like the safest option now, unless this hundredfold increase in salary is the result of a bank robbery (I think that's how a genie got wished-for money in a Woody Woodpecker cartoon once: I watched too many cartoons as a kid). Also, is this an annual - but now fixed - 100x salary or just a one-time thing and future years are my present salary with no possibility of a raise and/or promotion ever after? Something perhaps that should've been cleared up in the text. I'm assuming it's a one-time thing since there are no restrictions on how I may spend my new found wealth. 100x my present salary would be plenty for the rest of my life barring a serious illness.
Maybe I shouldn't give this genie ideas...
GREED, option B: This is actually an interesting option but what would I so covet that I would wish simply to have it with no ability to do anything with it except possess or sell it at a loss/give away freely since I cannot make money off it?
A double-edged sword indeed...
GLUTTONY, option A: Sounds nice though I would suspect hedonic adaptation would ultimately apply, ruining the joy of this choice...
GLUTTONY, option B: None of the negative side-effects of eating? Does this mean I could eat poisons and be unaffected by them? Are all my poops now perfect, no-wipe-needed wonders? This power could be an interesting way to make money from bets...
Overall, I'm not sure which one I would take. If I could forfeit the game, I would to play it safe. As mentioned, I've seen too many cartoons and TV shows with jerk genies, literal genies, etc. I don't think any of them ever got the job by choice which might explain why they delight in creating misfortune with their power.
But if I had to choose, despite the unclear wording, the life of leisure that would (presumably) be afforded me with an annual median income and not having to work for a living. Option A Lust would certainly have its uses but I can't see how I wouldn't feel guilty, at least eventually, for having exercised it. Same with either Wrath option...
"Seven Deadly Sins" by The Traveling Wilburys
Perhaps a differently worded version might be composed by someone more lawyerly? Internet, I'm waiting...
Saturday, November 22, 2014
THAT'S THE END OF THAT CHAPTER...
Back around Christmastime in 2004, I bought a Whitman coin collecting board for Lincoln Cents. It is the second book in what is probably now a four book series covering the years 1941-1974.
I started filling it with cents found from circulation wondering just how long it would take me to do. I was primarily interested in the 51 varieties of Wheat Cents of this book (1941-1958) over the later-date Memorial Cents (1959-2008), the latter of which I held to a higher collecting standard (they still had to have some mint luster).
For the Wheat Cents, any find would do though I was not above replacing those found with better examples when they came along. For most of these coins, I did find at least two over the course of this experiment.
My first coin was, found on December 26, 2004, was dated 1942 and on November 20, 2014, I was able to fill the last hole in that book with a 1955-S.
Its condition was surprisingly new but then, perhaps I ought not have been so surprised. Reading over the years has told me that many people hoarded this particular cent as a memento of the closing San Francisco mint (a cost-cutting move back in 1955). The only other coin minted in San Francisco that year was the dime but cents are cheaper so they were the coin of choice for hoarding. Also there was a speculative craze going on at the time that manifested in collectors/dealers/speculators holding rolls of newly released coins in the hopes that their value would appreciate. I believe it got kicked off with the low-mintage 1950-D nickel of which about half the total production was believed to be hoarded in uncirculated condition.
Authors of articles who lived during the time of this coin's release anecdotally relayed that they had never received one of these coins in their change, being forced to buy one at a substantial mark-up from a local dealer to fill the hole in their childhood collections.
Now I am the holder of this recently "liberated" coin. I can only hope this find was more the result of an ungrateful heir/grandchild than that of a robbery because that happens too.
I'm not used to seeing Wheat Cents with any, let alone all, of their original luster intact. I guess because they were never new for me. I always saw them toned. Indian Head Cents look weird to me too when uncirculated. I'm surprised I haven't seen more over the years since luster bearing Memorial Cents from even 1959 can still be found infrequently and commonly from the 1970s and '80s. Wheat Cents have just always been brown, even the mid-1980s when I first started collecting.
But with that find, I can say now that it took just short of 9 years and 11 months to complete that set from circulation. From the outset I thought I would never see any of the 1943 steel cents; I was actually planning to overlook them and consider the set complete without them but then I found one in another person's till (1943-D) and so added them to the list. I thought they'd be the last ones I'd ever find but the steel cent set was finished in 2011 when I received a 1943-S in payment, and not from somebody who knew I was looking.
I also discovered that if you check the magnet trap in a bank's coin counting machine, you can sometimes score a steel cent or two there as well but I didn't need to depend on this trick to get all three of the steel cents. Each one actually came from different customers over the years.
Naturally the first full year, 2005, had the most finds. It broke down for the 51 date and mintmark combinations as follows and as you can see, it's the San Francisco dates overall which are the hardest to come by.
San Francisco made coins have a certain allure with collectors as they were often the lowest mintage of any particular year:
2004: 4 [4, 47] - started off with 1942 on 12/26/04; 1944; 1953; and 1957-D
2005: 32 [36, 15] - highlight of this mess: got the 1943-D on 8/20/05
2006: 4 [40, 11] - 1941-D; 1942-D; 1944-D; 1944-S
2007: 3 [43, 8] - 1945-D; 1945-S; 1951-S
2008: 2 [45, 6] - got the 1943 on 2/28/08; the other find was 1952-S
2009: 0
2010: 3 [48, 3] - 1942-S; 1947-S; 1949-S
2011: 1 [49, 2] - got the 1943-S on 3/26/11
2012: 1 [50, 1] - this year's lone find was 1941-S
2013: 0
2014: 1 [51] - set completed with 1955-S on 11/20/14
As of now, I have found every date and mintmark of the Lincoln Cent series from 1940 to present in circulation. I need only an example from 1915, 1931, and 1922-D to have completed a date set from circulation (i.e. one example from every year from any mint). That attempt has been ongoing since 2002.
A twenty coin subset, 1934-1940 PDS, is what I am hoping to complete from circulation next. I need only seven more date and mintmark combinations to do so.
The 1909-1933 subset I would say is impossible to complete from circulation anymore though I feel year representation is still achievable with enough time and coins to sort through. This is why it helps that I am a cashier...
For other series, I need only two more coins to complete a set of Jefferson Nickels from circulation (1938-present), the 1939-D and 1944-S, and I have more than half the total set of silver Roosevelt Dimes (1946-1964) and Franklin Half-Dollars (1948-1963) as well.
I wish me luck :-)
For the Wheat Cents, any find would do though I was not above replacing those found with better examples when they came along. For most of these coins, I did find at least two over the course of this experiment.
My first coin was, found on December 26, 2004, was dated 1942 and on November 20, 2014, I was able to fill the last hole in that book with a 1955-S.
Authors of articles who lived during the time of this coin's release anecdotally relayed that they had never received one of these coins in their change, being forced to buy one at a substantial mark-up from a local dealer to fill the hole in their childhood collections.
Now I am the holder of this recently "liberated" coin. I can only hope this find was more the result of an ungrateful heir/grandchild than that of a robbery because that happens too.
I'm not used to seeing Wheat Cents with any, let alone all, of their original luster intact. I guess because they were never new for me. I always saw them toned. Indian Head Cents look weird to me too when uncirculated. I'm surprised I haven't seen more over the years since luster bearing Memorial Cents from even 1959 can still be found infrequently and commonly from the 1970s and '80s. Wheat Cents have just always been brown, even the mid-1980s when I first started collecting.
But with that find, I can say now that it took just short of 9 years and 11 months to complete that set from circulation. From the outset I thought I would never see any of the 1943 steel cents; I was actually planning to overlook them and consider the set complete without them but then I found one in another person's till (1943-D) and so added them to the list. I thought they'd be the last ones I'd ever find but the steel cent set was finished in 2011 when I received a 1943-S in payment, and not from somebody who knew I was looking.
I also discovered that if you check the magnet trap in a bank's coin counting machine, you can sometimes score a steel cent or two there as well but I didn't need to depend on this trick to get all three of the steel cents. Each one actually came from different customers over the years.
Naturally the first full year, 2005, had the most finds. It broke down for the 51 date and mintmark combinations as follows and as you can see, it's the San Francisco dates overall which are the hardest to come by.
San Francisco made coins have a certain allure with collectors as they were often the lowest mintage of any particular year:
2004: 4 [4, 47] - started off with 1942 on 12/26/04; 1944; 1953; and 1957-D
2005: 32 [36, 15] - highlight of this mess: got the 1943-D on 8/20/05
2006: 4 [40, 11] - 1941-D; 1942-D; 1944-D; 1944-S
2007: 3 [43, 8] - 1945-D; 1945-S; 1951-S
2008: 2 [45, 6] - got the 1943 on 2/28/08; the other find was 1952-S
2009: 0
2010: 3 [48, 3] - 1942-S; 1947-S; 1949-S
2011: 1 [49, 2] - got the 1943-S on 3/26/11
2012: 1 [50, 1] - this year's lone find was 1941-S
2013: 0
2014: 1 [51] - set completed with 1955-S on 11/20/14
As of now, I have found every date and mintmark of the Lincoln Cent series from 1940 to present in circulation. I need only an example from 1915, 1931, and 1922-D to have completed a date set from circulation (i.e. one example from every year from any mint). That attempt has been ongoing since 2002.
A twenty coin subset, 1934-1940 PDS, is what I am hoping to complete from circulation next. I need only seven more date and mintmark combinations to do so.
The 1909-1933 subset I would say is impossible to complete from circulation anymore though I feel year representation is still achievable with enough time and coins to sort through. This is why it helps that I am a cashier...
For other series, I need only two more coins to complete a set of Jefferson Nickels from circulation (1938-present), the 1939-D and 1944-S, and I have more than half the total set of silver Roosevelt Dimes (1946-1964) and Franklin Half-Dollars (1948-1963) as well.
I wish me luck :-)
Monday, November 17, 2014
AM I DOING BOOK REVIEWS NOW?
There are spoilers in this kinda-sorta review so if you don't want to know, you only have yourself to blame for continuing...
I finally finished reading a novel by Samuel Delaney called Dhalgren and when I say finally, I mean from start to finish, this read took over fifteen years.
When I was still in college I had gotten into the habit of speaking with my adjunct after class. He would talk about literature, storytelling, and whatnot. One day he recommended to me, based on things I was saying, a novel called Dhalgren. He convinced me of its interesting nature by recalling events like their being an enormous sun and two moons in the sky and some other details which could be gleaned from reading the book's jacket. However, I never asked him how to spell it (or even if it were one word or two) and I quickly forgot who the author was.
It took me about a year to track the novel down because I had never thought to spell it with a D-H. But I found it and serendipitously at that, and by using a card catalog too...way to date myself! I put in an order at the local bookstore and it soon came into my possession.
I noticed the first page started in the middle of a sentence and my impatience got the better of me so I checked out the novel's last page to see if it ended on the start of that sentence. I found that it did and that I soon regretted having spoiled myself of what I thought the novel's twist was. I decided that I would not like to read this novel until I had forgotten this detail but as it is with memory, telling yourself to forget something is how you burn it permanently into the fabric of the Gilligan's Island Theme region of the brain.
Every time afterward I would look at and consider beginning that novel, the memory of my impulsiveness would return.
Six moves later, I unceremoniously plucked it from my shelf and made it my newest laundry read. A confession: I'm not much of a reader (by my definition anyway**) so I only read when doing my laundry. I'm stuck in that room for about an hour so it gives me something to do as well as an excuse to finally read these books that've been decorating my various residences all these years.
And so began my long journey to complete this novel, thirty or forty pages at a time once or twice monthly depending on my laundry needs. I avoided looking up anything about it online, even fan artwork, because I wanted to get as much out of it as I could without being influenced from the outside. I'll admit I had grown impatient by the end. When I hit that final chapter (and these are long chapters...it's an 800 page novel with seven chapters), I wanted this over so I actually read on my own time over a couple of days to finish it up and so here I am.
I finally finished reading a novel by Samuel Delaney called Dhalgren and when I say finally, I mean from start to finish, this read took over fifteen years.
When I was still in college I had gotten into the habit of speaking with my adjunct after class. He would talk about literature, storytelling, and whatnot. One day he recommended to me, based on things I was saying, a novel called Dhalgren. He convinced me of its interesting nature by recalling events like their being an enormous sun and two moons in the sky and some other details which could be gleaned from reading the book's jacket. However, I never asked him how to spell it (or even if it were one word or two) and I quickly forgot who the author was.
It took me about a year to track the novel down because I had never thought to spell it with a D-H. But I found it and serendipitously at that, and by using a card catalog too...way to date myself! I put in an order at the local bookstore and it soon came into my possession.
I noticed the first page started in the middle of a sentence and my impatience got the better of me so I checked out the novel's last page to see if it ended on the start of that sentence. I found that it did and that I soon regretted having spoiled myself of what I thought the novel's twist was. I decided that I would not like to read this novel until I had forgotten this detail but as it is with memory, telling yourself to forget something is how you burn it permanently into the fabric of the Gilligan's Island Theme region of the brain.
Every time afterward I would look at and consider beginning that novel, the memory of my impulsiveness would return.
Six moves later, I unceremoniously plucked it from my shelf and made it my newest laundry read. A confession: I'm not much of a reader (by my definition anyway**) so I only read when doing my laundry. I'm stuck in that room for about an hour so it gives me something to do as well as an excuse to finally read these books that've been decorating my various residences all these years.
And so began my long journey to complete this novel, thirty or forty pages at a time once or twice monthly depending on my laundry needs. I avoided looking up anything about it online, even fan artwork, because I wanted to get as much out of it as I could without being influenced from the outside. I'll admit I had grown impatient by the end. When I hit that final chapter (and these are long chapters...it's an 800 page novel with seven chapters), I wanted this over so I actually read on my own time over a couple of days to finish it up and so here I am.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
URINSOMNIA...
Does the body know it's asleep? I had another pee dream last night and I find it weird that my dreams have to resort to symbolism like a sense of urgency, displays of flowing water, loss of control (like becoming suddenly clumsy or in a recent dream, cars riding the sidewalk keeping me from walking safely and confidently), etc. to get the point across that I need to wake up and empty my bladder.
I found myself wondering, why doesn't some character in the dream just say flat out, "Vachon, you need to wake up so I can pee."? Or even more simply, why don't I just wake up? Why is it like I'm in a wussified Nightmare on Elm Street movie rather than something more simple?
Thankfully I've never had an accident though I know it's come close, even in adulthood. I've actually urinated in my dreams and woke up ever-so-thankful that it was "just a dream".
Seriously though, why can't we just wake up when we have to pee? I don't think the language center of the brain is shut down because I have dreams with speech in them. Does the sense of self shut down during sleep? I don't think so because I know it's me when I'm dreaming. I never feel outside of myself.
The only thing I've noticed about dreams, aside from their inherent weirdness and internal inconsistencies, is that dreams only seem to work so long as I'm not concentrating on details. It's like dreams are great whooshes of generalities but I have memories of waking up from several dreams because I got suspicious and simply wouldn't just "go with it".
I remember many years ago having a dream with the First One. Already curious that she would be visiting me at my father's house, I couldn't help but try and focus on her face because something about it wasn't quite right. It doesn't help that I can't remember faces that well at all so in my dream she may have had, for all I know, a mannequin face...featureless. I kept focusing on that detail; I wanted to see. My insistence on detail I think activated some part of my brain that was necessary for consciousness as I would wake up soon after.
I don't know. I mean, c'mon! Just wake up. I gotta pee!!!
I found myself wondering, why doesn't some character in the dream just say flat out, "Vachon, you need to wake up so I can pee."? Or even more simply, why don't I just wake up? Why is it like I'm in a wussified Nightmare on Elm Street movie rather than something more simple?
Thankfully I've never had an accident though I know it's come close, even in adulthood. I've actually urinated in my dreams and woke up ever-so-thankful that it was "just a dream".
Seriously though, why can't we just wake up when we have to pee? I don't think the language center of the brain is shut down because I have dreams with speech in them. Does the sense of self shut down during sleep? I don't think so because I know it's me when I'm dreaming. I never feel outside of myself.
The only thing I've noticed about dreams, aside from their inherent weirdness and internal inconsistencies, is that dreams only seem to work so long as I'm not concentrating on details. It's like dreams are great whooshes of generalities but I have memories of waking up from several dreams because I got suspicious and simply wouldn't just "go with it".
I remember many years ago having a dream with the First One. Already curious that she would be visiting me at my father's house, I couldn't help but try and focus on her face because something about it wasn't quite right. It doesn't help that I can't remember faces that well at all so in my dream she may have had, for all I know, a mannequin face...featureless. I kept focusing on that detail; I wanted to see. My insistence on detail I think activated some part of my brain that was necessary for consciousness as I would wake up soon after.
I don't know. I mean, c'mon! Just wake up. I gotta pee!!!
AHOY ME MATEYS...
The last time I was at the dentist, I was thinking about all the blood from the cleaning. It was much more than usual. My gums had been bleeding frequently too when brushing my teeth. I joked about it with my hygienist but the more I thought about it, I couldn't think of any substantial sources of vitamin C in my diet.
For years I would take a juice box with me for my lunch but starting maybe a year or so ago, I started buying styrofoam cups and filling them with water instead. The Hi-C fruit punches advertised a 100% daily supply of vitamin C, something I would thus get five times a week. Now I wasn't getting any. The vegetables I would eat with dinner would have some, but my diet could not give me 100% of that vitamin ever.
I bought vitamin C supplements and just like that, the bleeding went away. I'm sure my next cleaning will be bloody again because that seems to be the norm now but in my daily life my gums are no longer swelling easily nor are they bleeding.
I had scurvy, or at least its early stages. Imagine that. That's so 18th century :-)
For years I would take a juice box with me for my lunch but starting maybe a year or so ago, I started buying styrofoam cups and filling them with water instead. The Hi-C fruit punches advertised a 100% daily supply of vitamin C, something I would thus get five times a week. Now I wasn't getting any. The vegetables I would eat with dinner would have some, but my diet could not give me 100% of that vitamin ever.
I bought vitamin C supplements and just like that, the bleeding went away. I'm sure my next cleaning will be bloody again because that seems to be the norm now but in my daily life my gums are no longer swelling easily nor are they bleeding.
I had scurvy, or at least its early stages. Imagine that. That's so 18th century :-)
Monday, November 10, 2014
VOTING SHMOTING...
If you don't vote, you lose the right to complain. See, I don't understand that line of reasoning. How is that even possible? Does not voting somehow negate my rights as a US citizen under the Constitution? No, of course not. You can't even vote until you're both 18 and registered and there are numerous ways to lose that right but regardless of whether you vote or not (or can't), your rights under the First Amendment...
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
...are in no way affected, not to mention any of the other rights afforded to you as a citizen. Whether I vote or not, I am still allowed to petition the government and peaceably assemble. Those are not voter's rights, those are US citizen rights.
Voting may have gotten those men and women into office but it doesn't preclude the citizenry from complaining about them (or praising them as the case may be...or have I "lost" that right too by not voting?).
Another reason that argument is bullshit is because only white, land-owning males were allowed to vote originally. That's a whole lotta people with no say in who may or may not represent them. Were the multitudes of disenfranchised from the late 18th to mid-20th century admonished for complaining about a government they did not vote for?
Their voices may not have been appreciated (especially I would gather from blacks and women), but they were still entitled to their free speech, free presses, to peaceably assemble, and to write the government about wrongs they feel have been committed.
I'm pretty sure the only thing you lose by not voting is the ability to say you voted for that particular person or proposition.
By extension, I wonder if anyone has done any research on those who didn't vote. Like, during the day of an election or just before, has a suitably done poll of people who were definitely not voting ever been conducted to see whom they would've voted for if they could've been bothered to go to a polling station?
If so, did the acquired results, if tabulated as actual votes, ever affect the outcome of an election? I have this feeling their missing votes would not change anything. Without any evidence (mind you) to support my opinion, I feel the collective opinion of those who don't vote will closely match the collective opinion of those who did vote.
I say this because there are no longer any deliberately disenfranchised voters in this country anymore. Women have the vote. Blacks have the vote. Anyone who's 18 and older and a US citizen may vote.
Arguably the only disenfranchised population are felons. Whether convicted or not, and especially those who have been released, I don't see why committing a crime ought to cause one's right to vote to be revoked. Criminals may not be desirable but they are still citizens, right?
But that's a different argument. My concern here would be are there enough legally disenfranchised people that, if their votes could be cast, would they be able to affect the outcome of an election? I'm guessing had the United States had full suffrage for all citizens back at the Constitution's signing, our line-up of Presidents would likely be very different today.
I don't know. That's not much of argument and it's certainly not well-supported, but it's something to perhaps start a conversation...
Sunday, November 9, 2014
ABOUT AS MUCH A PROTEST AS BISMUTH-209 IS RADIOACTIVE...
I decided since neither my store nor my union supported me with my latest run-in with management that I would no longer shop at my store. I figure, I will take their money but I will not give any of it back.
I was placed on cash control at the end of September. This is one of the drawbacks of lane accountability. While the upside is that I get to go through a hell of a lot more change (my take of 1978-dated coins, especially quarters, has been WAY higher since my store switched over to this new system), the downside is that the screw-ups of those who worked the lane before (and after) me affect us all.
Anywho, when placed on cash control, I was given a sheet to sign with several rules regarding how I am supposed to conduct myself and control my cash while under this observation period.
This was also my first time on cash control ever. Nearly fourteen years I've been there and it's never happened. Yes, I've gotten the occasional write-up for being over/short (almost always over...I seem to be good at convincing customers to walk out without their money) warning me that if it happened again within a certain period I would be placed on cash control. I never was. I'd get a write-up once, sometimes twice, a year.
Three months into lane accountability and I've been written up three times for shortages. Like the other warnings there is a rollover period where if nothing else happens (I think it's ten days), your reputation is restored...until the next time. The trouble is, this third write-up mentioned that the shortage was excessive so I was placed on CC immediately...
Right away I got into conflict with my manager. He would refuse to prove my till either having me do it myself or not at all despite the CC guidelines specifically stating the manager has to do it. I had also been directed to not leave my register unattended (the till would have to be placed in a cash control bag, sealed, and locked away before I could leave).
The second night he insisted I leave my register without securing it first. And when I protested and finally refused, he sent me home for insubordination. Was it insubordination? Yes. Technically.
It bugged me that he refused to take the thirty or so seconds it would take to lock away my till as directed or that he refused to use another employee who wasn't on cash control...no, it had to be me for some reason. It bothered me that he reprimanded me publicly and in front of other employees (both union no-no's). I was also annoyed that I got sent home for refusing to violate cash control policy and another cashier that same night also refused to do what he told her for the exact same reason and did NOT get sent home. And it irked me that when I returned, he took me aside immediately and insisted I pledge to do whatever he tells me.
I told him I would do what he said provided it does not violate CC policy. For him, this was a yes or no question. He would not accept my modification and sent me home again, pending a union meeting...also my first in all my years there.
I made my detailed statement, gave it to the shop steward, and when I finally got my callback, I was told basically "do the crime, snitch later." My union did not side with me at all. My union would not fight to get my lost pay restored for refusing to follow what I felt was an illegal order. And my store felt the same. Insubordination, period. Completely risking my job now if it happens again.
Now understand, yes...I would've like to have won that battle but that's not really the point as far as I'm concerned. All I needed to hear was the gist of President Luchenko's speech to Sheridan (from Babylon 5) and I would've been fine.
In Rising Star she told Sheridan that his insurrection against President Clark's dictatorship was probably the right thing to do but that he did it the wrong way, the inconvenient way and thus, even though we viewers saw Sheridan as a hero, he still legitimately faced execution for taking up arms against his own government.
Now obviously I didn't go THAT far, but it would've been nice to hear from either side that at least someone believed that I was trying to do the right thing but that I was doing it the wrong way...the inconvenient way and thus I still had to be punished. But I would never get such satisfaction.
Thoroughly demoralized, I knew I couldn't quit my job (I was really, really tempted to). I meant to take a "mental health" day too after that phone call but I ultimately decided not to. The bitch of that decision was when I got into work, I was the only one on my shift who DIDN'T call out. What luck!
I went into a severe depression that got interrupted, but not aborted. When I get very sad I lose my appetite. This was the first time since 2008 that I had gone the no-eating route. I forgot I had agreed to go to a charity dinner that Friday so I had to eat before I was ready to again. By that point, I had gone thirty hours without a calorie. I gorged at the dinner thus refueling my sadness. After that dinner I went another forty hours without food...a new record. My previous record was thirty-six hours (which is also the longest I've ever gone without sleep) so, uh...yay?
I've been fine since but I decided I would no longer shop at my store. I imagine this will become difficult after Christmas when I'm staring at all those discounted M&Ms. I'll have to hope my alternate store will have had the same difficulty off-loading their supply as mine always does.
My alternate store is smaller than my own so its product diversity is not as high. One thing it definitely does not have is my high-fiber Fiber One bread so I've been eating a different brand of ordinary whole-wheat bread.
Here's the thing. I've had hemorrhoids for a good five years now. My asshole still bleeds occasionally (story's taken a turn now, hasn't it?) but since I've stopped eating the Fiber One bread, my asshole's been getting, well...better. So far, it's the only thing I'm doing differently in my diet. Everything else is the same. My poops are smaller too...easier to pass. Is it possible there is such a thing as "too much fiber"? Perhaps.
I've had some hints of blood on my wipes, but not as much and many times now, none at all. It's weird those unintended consequences, right? I inconvenience myself to make purchases at another supermarket, a protest which the accountants will never even notice in their weekly sales reports and it results in me discovering that maybe I've been overdoing it with my fiber intake.
Weird...
I was placed on cash control at the end of September. This is one of the drawbacks of lane accountability. While the upside is that I get to go through a hell of a lot more change (my take of 1978-dated coins, especially quarters, has been WAY higher since my store switched over to this new system), the downside is that the screw-ups of those who worked the lane before (and after) me affect us all.
Anywho, when placed on cash control, I was given a sheet to sign with several rules regarding how I am supposed to conduct myself and control my cash while under this observation period.
This was also my first time on cash control ever. Nearly fourteen years I've been there and it's never happened. Yes, I've gotten the occasional write-up for being over/short (almost always over...I seem to be good at convincing customers to walk out without their money) warning me that if it happened again within a certain period I would be placed on cash control. I never was. I'd get a write-up once, sometimes twice, a year.
Three months into lane accountability and I've been written up three times for shortages. Like the other warnings there is a rollover period where if nothing else happens (I think it's ten days), your reputation is restored...until the next time. The trouble is, this third write-up mentioned that the shortage was excessive so I was placed on CC immediately...
Right away I got into conflict with my manager. He would refuse to prove my till either having me do it myself or not at all despite the CC guidelines specifically stating the manager has to do it. I had also been directed to not leave my register unattended (the till would have to be placed in a cash control bag, sealed, and locked away before I could leave).
The second night he insisted I leave my register without securing it first. And when I protested and finally refused, he sent me home for insubordination. Was it insubordination? Yes. Technically.
It bugged me that he refused to take the thirty or so seconds it would take to lock away my till as directed or that he refused to use another employee who wasn't on cash control...no, it had to be me for some reason. It bothered me that he reprimanded me publicly and in front of other employees (both union no-no's). I was also annoyed that I got sent home for refusing to violate cash control policy and another cashier that same night also refused to do what he told her for the exact same reason and did NOT get sent home. And it irked me that when I returned, he took me aside immediately and insisted I pledge to do whatever he tells me.
I told him I would do what he said provided it does not violate CC policy. For him, this was a yes or no question. He would not accept my modification and sent me home again, pending a union meeting...also my first in all my years there.
I made my detailed statement, gave it to the shop steward, and when I finally got my callback, I was told basically "do the crime, snitch later." My union did not side with me at all. My union would not fight to get my lost pay restored for refusing to follow what I felt was an illegal order. And my store felt the same. Insubordination, period. Completely risking my job now if it happens again.
Now understand, yes...I would've like to have won that battle but that's not really the point as far as I'm concerned. All I needed to hear was the gist of President Luchenko's speech to Sheridan (from Babylon 5) and I would've been fine.
In Rising Star she told Sheridan that his insurrection against President Clark's dictatorship was probably the right thing to do but that he did it the wrong way, the inconvenient way and thus, even though we viewers saw Sheridan as a hero, he still legitimately faced execution for taking up arms against his own government.
Now obviously I didn't go THAT far, but it would've been nice to hear from either side that at least someone believed that I was trying to do the right thing but that I was doing it the wrong way...the inconvenient way and thus I still had to be punished. But I would never get such satisfaction.
Thoroughly demoralized, I knew I couldn't quit my job (I was really, really tempted to). I meant to take a "mental health" day too after that phone call but I ultimately decided not to. The bitch of that decision was when I got into work, I was the only one on my shift who DIDN'T call out. What luck!
I went into a severe depression that got interrupted, but not aborted. When I get very sad I lose my appetite. This was the first time since 2008 that I had gone the no-eating route. I forgot I had agreed to go to a charity dinner that Friday so I had to eat before I was ready to again. By that point, I had gone thirty hours without a calorie. I gorged at the dinner thus refueling my sadness. After that dinner I went another forty hours without food...a new record. My previous record was thirty-six hours (which is also the longest I've ever gone without sleep) so, uh...yay?
I've been fine since but I decided I would no longer shop at my store. I imagine this will become difficult after Christmas when I'm staring at all those discounted M&Ms. I'll have to hope my alternate store will have had the same difficulty off-loading their supply as mine always does.
My alternate store is smaller than my own so its product diversity is not as high. One thing it definitely does not have is my high-fiber Fiber One bread so I've been eating a different brand of ordinary whole-wheat bread.
Here's the thing. I've had hemorrhoids for a good five years now. My asshole still bleeds occasionally (story's taken a turn now, hasn't it?) but since I've stopped eating the Fiber One bread, my asshole's been getting, well...better. So far, it's the only thing I'm doing differently in my diet. Everything else is the same. My poops are smaller too...easier to pass. Is it possible there is such a thing as "too much fiber"? Perhaps.
I've had some hints of blood on my wipes, but not as much and many times now, none at all. It's weird those unintended consequences, right? I inconvenience myself to make purchases at another supermarket, a protest which the accountants will never even notice in their weekly sales reports and it results in me discovering that maybe I've been overdoing it with my fiber intake.
Weird...