Amateur Vampires

I gave blood today. I was worried since last time I gave blood I nearly passed out, so this time I made sure to eat a big breakfast (which works out well with my trying-to-eat-a-big-breakfast experiment). Apparently it worked, I felt fine.

I was the guinea pig for the girl who took my blood, seemed like it was her first time, she had a woman guiding her through the procedure. The heavyset girl was nervous, flushed and sweating, and continuously getting flustered and either freezing up or doing things in the wrong order. Luckily the older woman was there to correct her, or probably something horrible would have happened to me, the girl seemed especially confused about what order to undo clamps.

Excerpt from the scene:

[Girl is standing there, frozen]

Woman: What is it?

Girl: …

Woman: What’s the problem?

Girl: um… [gestures downward, to what I assume is a puddle of my blood on the carpeted floor]

Woman: You must have clamped that tube in the wrong spot. [rubs blood into the carpet with her shoe] It’s ok, doesn’t look like you spilled too much.

Since she was a novice, setup took a lot longer, as did breakdown. Which is annoying when you’re waiting for them to take the needle out of your arm. The whole process took about an hour and 15 minutes. The last two times I gave blood, it was more like 40 minutes. I know people have to learn sometime, but there is a great deal to be said for efficiency.

It got me thinking about giving blood.

One issue I have is, they don’t give you much for it. Yes, they sometimes have swag, like a mug or whatever (this time they gave out a coupon for a free personal pizza at Unos, which is about the unhealthiest food you can buy – no wonder americans are so obese, when a *HEALTH* organization like the Red Cross is giving out coupons for 2400-calorie meals), but they *could* give you something much more valuable.

Like if they did a free cholesterol screening. I’ve seen the machines, they are about the size of the hemoglobin machines, I bet they could do a combined one that does both. THAT would be valuable.

I always ask for my vitals, but they are ill-prepared for that. This time, I got my vitals messily scrawled on a bandage wrapper. Not only that, but she only wrote blood pressure and heartrate, I had to ask again to get the hemoglobin number. She seemed annoyed that I was asking for information. And I saw her punch in about 6 or 7 values, and she only gave me 3 (4 if you count BP as two fields) so who knows what other data she had that she didn’t share?

Data, BTW: Pulse: 60, BP: 106/68, HGB: 14.5

Rendered with my chart-drawing script:

Now that I think about it, she took my temp, but didn’t give me that value…

Sigh, selfish medical people, never want to share data. Like gollum with the ring, they are… “Yessss, my precioussss data, preciousssss…”

But anyway, my point is that, how about they give you a free cholesterol test if you give blood?

And maybe also have a trained nutritionist on hand to give free advice while you are in the recovery area? Instead of walking out with a coupon for a free bucket of lard, maybe people could walk out with some useful data and advice…

Also, this time I gave blood, it was the Red Cross, the last two times it was a local hospital that came to Staples. The hospital had better giveaways (the steel-lined plastic mug I got last time is quite nice, I use it every day) and were friendlier. Maybe it was because the girl was so flustered, and the woman was busy helping the girl, but they barely spoke to me at all.

Another thing they could do while giving blood, and for medicine in general — one thing that works as a great pain/discomfort suppressor is distraction. I read an article recently about a doctor who decided, rather than sedate kids to calm them down, he gave them his iPhone with a video playing on it to look at. Seems simple, but apparently most places just drug kids to quiet them down.

It would have been nice if they’d had a TV with the news or something on it while people donated blood. They did have a really crappy boombox in the corner, crackling out some tunes, so that was better than nothing, but probably the more senses are distracted, the better.

More Breakfasty

One piece of health advice I keep hearing is that one should eat a large breakfast, moderate lunch, and small dinner. Also, stop eating around 9pm.

So I’m going to try it. I started off this morning with what I thought was a large breakfast, but in fact it was only around 300 calories.


About 300-350 calories of food.

One possible distribution of calories would be:

Breakfast: 500
Lunch: 400
Dinner: 300
Snacks: 200
————
Total: 1400

Currently, I aim for 1200 calories a day, but I’m not very good at hitting it, so realistically I eat around 1500 a day.

I don’t know how well it will work, but worth trying for a while.

Eddie Izzard

Went to see Eddie Izzard at the Orpheum in Boston last night.

We wanted to grab some food before hand, I didn’t expect it would be so hard to find in Boston. Most of the places were either boarded up or completely packed with people. We finally picked (and by “picked”, I mean “settled on out of desperation”) a generic place called the Hub Pub, which had decent but unremarkable food, but at least was relatively empty and quiet upstairs.

After food, we walked over to the Orpheum. It’s old, and not really in a good way. The paint is peeling, the sound system is not great, and the seats have zero legroom. Our seats were not very good, either – I spent the whole show on the edge of my seat, leaning forward and to one side to peer at Izzard between the heads of the people in front of me.

The show, however, was fantastic. The combination of not-stellar audio and Eddie Izzard’s delivery occasionally made me miss a line or two, but it was a great show nonetheless. He has a rambling, stream of consciousness style to his show, branching off into asides and then eventually jumping back to the main thread. Kinda like a funnier, British version of Robin Williams. But where Robin Williams sometimes seems out of control, Eddie Izzard’s mannerisms and delivery give him the feel of a very funny guy who is slightly drunk or slightly high, trying to tell you something at a party. My face hurt a little from all the laughing.

This morning, I made this quick sketch based on one of his jokes during the show. He has a complicated lead-up to a bad pun, and when the audience groans, he’s like “fuck off – you people are saying to yourselves, ‘oh: God, Creme-Brullee, Badgers – I’ve heard *that* one a thousand times!'” Brilliant stuff.

Perhaps tonight when I get home, I’ll make a proper version of the design, and put it on VistaPrint or CafePress as actual merchandise.

Earth Day Checklist

Someone made a list of “50 Ways to Help the Planet“…

Here it is, checklist style, with the ones I do checked off, and the inapplicable ones crossed out.

CHANGE YOUR LIGHT (I switched several lights to compact florescent, however I use dimmers, so couldn’t switch them all)

TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT NIGHT (I use sleep mode – I measured, normal operation is around 220W, sleep is 4W)

DON’T RINSE DISHES (I usually don’t)

DO NOT PRE-HEAT THE OVEN (hmm, have to try that I guess)

RECYCLE GLASS

DIAPER WITH A CONSCIENCE (no babies)

HANG DRY (I’d try this, but I dunno… seems like outdoors it would expose my clothes to animals or theft, and indoors it would take a lot of space)

GO VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK

WASH CLOTHES IN COLD OR WARM

USE ONE LESS PAPER NAPKIN (I find realistically, I only need two napkins at lunch. If I have leftover, I take it to my desk to use later)

USE BOTH SIDES OF PAPER (though I try not to use paper at all)

RECYCLE NEWSPAPER (I don’t buy them in the first place)

WRAP PRESENTS CREATIVELY (I sometimes recycle wrapping paper, though not always)

RETHINK BOTTLED WATER (I have a metal cup I use at work, when I do use plastic, I reuse them often)

BAN BATHTIME! (I always take showers)

BRUSH WITHOUT WATER RUNNING

SHOWER WITH YOUR PARTNER (sadly, I don’t get to do this often – even if I could, I don’t think it would be time-efficient on a daily basis…)

TAKE A SHORTER SHOWER (I generally take 10-15 minute showers)

PLANT A TREE

USE YOUR CRUISE CONTROL (I do, when I’m taking long trips)

SECOND-HAND DOESN’T MEAN SECOND-BEST (yeah, I do tend to buy a lot of stuff…)

BUY LOCAL (maybe this summer I’ll see if there’s a farmer’s market nearby)

ADJUST YOUR THERMOSTAT

INVEST IN YOUR OWN COFFEE CUP

BATCH ERRANDS

TURN OFF LIGHTS (mostly – I do leave the kitchen light on at night, but with the dimmer way down. And there’s one light in the basement that stays on, for navigation purposes)

GREENER LAWN CARE

PICNIC WITH A MARKER (the idea here is to carry a sharpie to mark disposable cups for reuse at picnics…)

RECYCLE OLD CELL PHONES (yeah, I need to do this, I have 2 or 3 kicking around)

MAINTAIN YOUR VEHICLE (plus I inflate my tires to 42/40 for better gas milage)

RECYCLE UNWANTED WIRE HANGERS (didn’t know I could – I just chucked ’em)

CHOOSE GLASS BOTTLES OVER ALUMINUM CANS

TELECOMMUTE (though not often, it’s discouraged at Staples, but I do about once a month)

KEEP YOUR FIREPLACE DAMPER CLOSED (there’s a breeze around my fireplace that should really be fixed for heat loss)

CUT DOWN ON JUNK MAIL (I did several no-junk-mail requests – seems to have helped)

CHOOSE MATCHES OVER LIGHTERS (not that I use fire much)

LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING—ONLINE (I still like having a paper phonebook sometimes)

GIVE IT AWAY

GO TO A CAR WASH

PLASTIC BAGS SUCK (yeah, I should start using reusable bags)

FLY WITH AN E-TICKET

DOWNLOAD YOUR SOFTWARE (eh, 50/50 on this one, sometimes I like a physical CD and manual)

STOP YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE (I don’t get a lot of messages… I really should transfer everyone over to my cell number, except I get crappy reception at home)

SKIP THE COFFEE STIRRER (though I do occasionally use a stirrer for making a white russian, but that’s like once a week)

FIND A BETTER WAY TO BREAK THE ICE (well, started to do this, this winter I used a lot of sand)

USE COTTON SWABS WITH A PAPERBOARD SPINDLE

PAY BILLS ONLINE (whenever I can… a couple places don’t do that)

STOP PAPER BANK STATEMENTS

USE RECHARGABLE BATTERIES

SHARE!

Rabbit Ears Redux

I’ve decided to try getting HDTV over-the-air with an antenna.

I should be able to hook a decent antenna to my Tivo to record HDTV shows… between that and content websites like Hulu.com, in theory I could ditch the $100/month cable bill. Granted, I’d miss some premium channels like HBO and Cartoon Network, but might be able to get some of that through alternate means.

So step one was ordering an antenna… it’s kind of confusing, but I went with one that’s mentioned a lot in a positive light on forums, the Channel Master 4228 rooftop antenna.

It looks really huge in that photo, but is in fact about 3′ x 3.5′.

The real adventure will be installing it on the roof.

I’m still a bit confused if this antenna will suffice, or if I will need a second one for VHF reception, but I figure the only way to find out is just to jump in and try it.

Grr…

Another HPV story, these just make me mad – basically HPV has been identified as a major cancer-causing agent for a number of different types of cancer, but efforts have only focused on protecting women, not men. Women have screening tests and a vaccine. Men have… nothing.

According to the article, when asked about making a vaccine and test for men, makers of the vaccine said “cervical cancer is really the focus.” In other words, “we don’t really care about male health.”

What does the CDC have to say to men concerned about HPV? Here’s what they say on their website:
“There is currently no vaccine licensed to prevent HPV-related diseases in men.” and “There is also no approved screening test…” and “HPV is very common.” Ah, yes. Very helpful.

So basically what they are saying is there is a virus that causes cancer, and lots of people probably have it, but men have no way of telling if they have it, and only women should be protected from it anyway. Very nice. Very proactive. Fuckers!

They don’t even have important information about throat cancer (like HPV is a 10x greater risk than SMOKING!) on their site – apparently the CDC doesn’t have time to be current on, you know, Disease. Certainly not Control (the only advice they offer men is “not having sex is the only sure way to avoid HPV” — so clever of them, guess they can cancel skin cancer research and just tell people to live underground out of the sun). Maybe they should just be called “Center“.

Overall the CDC, drug companies, and medical industry’s response to HPV show that they learned NOTHING from the outbreak of AIDS. Imagine if they found a vaccine for AIDS, but decided to only test it and release it for women. Well, that’s what they’ve done with HPV.

Thing is, the current vaccine for women would *probably* work fine on men, too. But no one has bothered to do a study to find out. Because apparently no one cares.

Back in 2006, Bradley Monk, a professor at University of California-Irvine published an article in a medical journal where he recommended using the vaccine on men as well as women, saying: “To have a vaccine that prevents cancer and not use it would be one of the greatest tragedies.”

Guess no one listened to him. Two years later, still no work on testing it on men.

Sigh.