I doubt you really want a diagnosis from people who possess minimal medical knowledge, haven’t seen your head, but who are tempted to mess with that head (“Uh,oh, my friend Chucko had those last Friday… I can say more later, but his funeral starts in an hour and I’m going to just make it.”)
Sorry, I was just venting.
Hope it gets better on its own!
Or you see someone…
My one trip to a dermatologist was because my mom has skin cancer. It consisted of five minutes of:
“I’ve got a funny little spot here…”
“That’s what we call A Funny Little Spot. No worries.”
“And here’s a spot that’s always been crusty.”
“Ah, that’s what we call A Funny Little Crusty Spot. No worries.”
Don’t remind me. I still have the occasional nightmare about driving in Scotland, on supposed two-way tracks in the hills just wide enough for one car (the driver of the other vehicle needing to have the foresight to see another car coming and get into a pull-out in time).
My first (and likely last) dermatology visit was when I was shocked to find pigment disappearing from various locations on my body. My doctor looked and wrote me a dermatology referral. I had to wait close to a year, then when I went the doctor took a cursory glance and then muttered to her PA to get me the vitiligo handouts.
Management posted a notice that they and a power company representative will be coming to replace light bulbs and power strips. I work from home 8:30-5pm. I work on the phone, with people giving me confidential information. I cannot work with noisy maintenance people in my place. I called and asked if it was mandatory. I was told it was indeed mandatory. I protested. I was ignored.
I doubt in the extreme I can get an approved absence with so little notice. 10 points for unexcused absences and the company terminates you. I THINK I have 4 points already.
I am very pissed.
Ah, apartment management? I was confused as to why your work was going to dock you for something they required (and also why they were updating your home office, although some places do supply some equipment for WFH folks).
Can you flex your lunch to whenever in that wide window they show up?
Sorry, I should have been clearer. Yes, the incompetent management I referred to is my landlady. The window I was given is 10 am - 2 pm. The calls I handle cannot be wrapped up quickly, or generally transferred.
My gf suggested that since I am visiting this weekend, I stay at her unoccupied apartment and work from there on Monday and Tuesday. I still have anxiety about having maintenance and a stranger in my apartment. I trust them not to steal. I do not trust them to not handle my collectibles. I should also remind everybody of the time the garbage disposal broke. I had maintenance in to fix it. They smiled and told me everything was fine and left. Then, I got a call that my place was so cluttered and filthy that I was going to be evicted. My place is much better now. But, I always panic whenver maintenance needs to come in.
The GF also suggested I call the landlady again and ask exactly what areas in my place they need to get to.
This just in: Trump has actually been Federally Indicted… and must appear in miami in Federal Court on Tuesday.
Oh, Hell yes!
Read The Freaking Sign!
I did laundry today. Every 6 apartments share a hallway. Each hallway has a laundry room with one washer and one dryer. The laundry rooms each have a sign (I assume. I’ve only been in the laundry room in my hallway). The sign helpfully gives the laundry room rules.Clean lint screen after each use. Empty machine when done. Laundry room hours are 9 AM to 9 PM.
Somebody in the building keeps leaving a fulll load in the dryer. This bugs me. I took their stuff out of the dryer and put it on top of the machine when I needed the dryer. I put my clothes into the washing machine at 6:30. I put them into the dryer as soon as I could. The dryer took longer than expected. I felt guilty that I might be using the dryer after 9. At 9:05, I was walking in to check them again when I saw a neighbor PUTTING CLOTHES INTO THE WASHING MACHINE! I wanted to rant and rave. I was so stunned I said nothing.
I will not drink any diet soda even close to expiring (definitely if less than a month away) and I always check carefully before purchasing. Even then you can get burned if someone left a bunch of cases out in the sun on a pallet on a warm day. Although sucralose and Ace-K are a bit more stable and heat resistant, I believe the most widely used sweetener (and they’re usually blends these days) in diet drinks is still aspartame. Which isn’t terribly shelf-stable or heat resistant and tastes very approximately like dirt once it’s expired. I’ve had expired sucralose packets that still tasted sweet - aspartame, not so much.
This has happened to me so many times at my workplace that I am used to it.
I am working on a technical project with my sponsor/customer. She has done next to nothing on it; I designed it, and am building it. She likes to watch me work in the lab and engage in small talk. But she is taking credit for it, getting lots of visibility on it from her upper management, and will probably get an award for it. On her side, everything is politics, and everything is about perception. Stay tuned.
Youtube comments
Obviously it’s easy to complain about the caliber of discussion. But I think the design of youtube hardly helps. The only threads that get seen, and therefore get responses, are the ones that are posted within the first 15 mins of the video being uploaded. So mostly comments by people who didn’t watch the video.
(Yes, I know you can sort by “newest first”, but I can’t see why anyone other than the video author would want to do that. And indeed, no-one seems to IME)
Coke Zero (both the new and original formulations) contains a blend of aspartame and acesulfame-potassium. AIUI one of these sweeteners produces an immediate sweetness hit but then has a bitter aftertaste, while the other one takes longer to kick in, and the right balance of the two provides a very close simulation of sugar. It appears that the problem with my expired Coke was the deterioration of one or both of those sweeteners, and from what you say it’s likely that aspartame was the bigger culprit. As I said earlier, that particular case had been expired more than six months.
Shoot! I drink tons of diet cola, varying brands. And my MD is always after me about my potassium levels (kidney disease) … and it never occurred to me that artificial sweeteners were a potential source of it. I guess I’ve got to start reading the labels, huh? Do any of the other ‘standard’ artificial sweeteners also have potassium?
I also have a soda rant, but more like wanting to kick my own ass rant. Some time ago I requested Coke to survive an intense period of stimulant withdrawal. My husband bought me a 12 pack. The problem is I love soda, like to the point I find it hard to resist the impulse because of that immediate high being so effective for the temporary relief of depression, but soda, particularly caffeinated soda, does not love me. It makes me anxious and fucks up my stomach, my sleep, and my teeth. So this morning I work out both strength training and cardio so I’m feeling great, and then over the course of the day for some reason I felt the need to slam back two Cokes. Now I’m all coked up. I still have about six of them left and I love them too much to get rid of them but I also don’t really want them here. Sigh.
Aspartame does not, but in addition to Ace-K, Coke Zero also contains potassium benzoate as a preservative and potassium citrate as a buffering agent to control acidity – I believe both.are common in many soft drinks There are 39 mg of Ace-K in a small 300 ml bottle of Coke Zero and unspecified amounts of potassium benzoate and potassium citrate, but judging from the order of the ingredients list, the amounts would be larger. I have no idea if these are large enough amounts to be harmful in your situation – your doctor is the best guide.
Not exactly a rant, but I lost my wallet yesterday. I almost posted about it, asking you guys to keep an eye out because I thought I had it when I last posted here. But I didn’t, and after tearing up my house and car, trying to create my last steps, I did the smart thing and today went to the place I know for certain I had it, at Walmart. I lucked out, it was there at customer service, with everything in it, drivers license, credit card, debit card, etc. I wasn’t sure exactly how much cash I had in it, it wasn’t much, and perhaps someone had helped themselves to a twenty dollar bill. If they did, I think that’s fair. Glad to have the cards back.
Best laugh of the day.
I lost my sunglasses today, and after searching for an hour, I finally decided to recreate my every move since I’d known I had them. I went back outside, re-got off my bike, put them up on my head, walked in and flopped down. Grabbed my laptop to check Da Dope, and it was dead, so I fiddled with the USB wall plug and… there were my shades half under the couch, where they’d slipped off when I leaned over earlier.