We've all encountered the person who says climate change can't be happening, the planet isn't getting warmer, because it's cold right now. I'm pretty sure we all know that that's a result of an overly simplistic understanding of what climate is, how it works, and we know that they're thoroughly wrong.
Now, President Obama is handing over the strongest economy in ages - but Trump's voters are convinced the economy's wrecked, and Trump can fix it. Why is that?
Showing posts with label psa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psa. Show all posts
Friday, December 2, 2016
Friday, April 10, 2015
Appropriation
I try not to be an asshole. Unfortunately, many culturally problematic things never really sink in until you're on the receiving end. Today, I learned what it's like to be on the receiving end of appropriation.
Everyone assumes that using the language of other cultures is respectful, whether it's spoken language or nonverbal language. It can be - but sometimes it isn't.
Everyone assumes that using the language of other cultures is respectful, whether it's spoken language or nonverbal language. It can be - but sometimes it isn't.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
"It's only a joke!"
Today is April 1st, which is otherwise known as the worst day on the internet. Everyone thinks it's funny to tell plausible lies, and everyone thinks it's my fault I'm upset because I should have known better than to believe them.
Fuck that noise, I say. Do not wilfully damage people's trust in you. Put on a silly hat, or make your lies so utterly outrageous that they cannot possibly be mistaken for real. The onus is on you, as the perpetrator, to ensure that your pranks are not harmful. You do NOT blame the victim. Ever. In any situation.
Fuck that noise, I say. Do not wilfully damage people's trust in you. Put on a silly hat, or make your lies so utterly outrageous that they cannot possibly be mistaken for real. The onus is on you, as the perpetrator, to ensure that your pranks are not harmful. You do NOT blame the victim. Ever. In any situation.
Friday, August 16, 2013
A guide for the confused
Let's talk about intellectual property for a while. Now, before we go any further, I must note that I am NOT a lawyer (I merely sleep with one) and CANNOT and WILL NOT offer any kind of legal advice. Everything I say here is liable to be incorrect. Do not rely on it. If something I discuss is relevant to you, do your own research and talk to a lawyer.
I'm also going to skate over the discussion of whether intellectual property is a valid concept.
I'm also going to skate over the discussion of whether intellectual property is a valid concept.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
How to make it worse
One of the local cities is in a bit of a deadlock with its employees. The employees are underpaid, and the city claims it's broke. An independent arbitrator recommended the city shut up and give its employees a 12.5% raise. Twelve and a half percent annual increase. That's, frankly, unheard-of; but it might actually increase the wages' purchasing power to what it used to be.
See, the official measure of inflation leaves out a lot of things that have gone up a lot faster. Stuff like medical care (a lion I don't care to poke with a stick right now) and the price of housing. So while there may have been so-called "cost of living" increases (although that's by no means certain), they won't have kept pace with the actual cost of living, based as they are on a bogus measure. So the purchasing power of the city employees' wages has declined.
And what do people do when they have less purchasing power? Even in the days of doing everything on credit and hang the future, they buy less stuff. This means less sales tax for the city, which puts a hole in the budget, leading to no pay increases, and so reduced purchasing power and oh look, we have a vicious cycle because people are scared of shared deficits (personal deficits, they're fine with, but try sharing them and people will scream bloody murder) and so the public sector employees are acting as a drag on the economy.
Now, if you increase a typical working stiff's take-home, what's he going to do? Dollars to donuts he'll buy a huge television, and boy howdy does that carry some sales tax. Then he'll buy a blu-ray player, some games consoles, a whole bunch of movies in HD, and he'll re-up his cable which also feeds revenue to the city. And suddenly, by increasing your workers' wages, you've made a massive increase in your revenue, and you can afford the increased wages. It is impossible to cut your way to prosperity. It's been tried, over and over, and it has completely failed on every occasion.
So while 12.5% may be taking the piss, a pay freeze is one of the worst ideas around for recessions. It makes the recession last longer, because the economy is driven by consumer demand. And when there's no slack in the consumers' budgets, they don't provide that demand, and we have a stagnant economy. All of this is simple logic...
See, the official measure of inflation leaves out a lot of things that have gone up a lot faster. Stuff like medical care (a lion I don't care to poke with a stick right now) and the price of housing. So while there may have been so-called "cost of living" increases (although that's by no means certain), they won't have kept pace with the actual cost of living, based as they are on a bogus measure. So the purchasing power of the city employees' wages has declined.
And what do people do when they have less purchasing power? Even in the days of doing everything on credit and hang the future, they buy less stuff. This means less sales tax for the city, which puts a hole in the budget, leading to no pay increases, and so reduced purchasing power and oh look, we have a vicious cycle because people are scared of shared deficits (personal deficits, they're fine with, but try sharing them and people will scream bloody murder) and so the public sector employees are acting as a drag on the economy.
Now, if you increase a typical working stiff's take-home, what's he going to do? Dollars to donuts he'll buy a huge television, and boy howdy does that carry some sales tax. Then he'll buy a blu-ray player, some games consoles, a whole bunch of movies in HD, and he'll re-up his cable which also feeds revenue to the city. And suddenly, by increasing your workers' wages, you've made a massive increase in your revenue, and you can afford the increased wages. It is impossible to cut your way to prosperity. It's been tried, over and over, and it has completely failed on every occasion.
So while 12.5% may be taking the piss, a pay freeze is one of the worst ideas around for recessions. It makes the recession last longer, because the economy is driven by consumer demand. And when there's no slack in the consumers' budgets, they don't provide that demand, and we have a stagnant economy. All of this is simple logic...
Monday, September 24, 2012
You are a sheep to them: corporate cultures and you
In the modern world, we've no choice but to be customers of large corporations. Even indirectly, we're affected by their attitudes towards us. That makes it a great shame that their attitudes are generally so unpleasant.
This grew from a discussion on Twitter of "moon money", the various unreal currencies games companies like us to use. Call them Nintendo Points, Microsoft Points, what you will, they're a layer of obfuscation between your money and the things you buy with that money. Sometimes, they can be bypassed; but more often, your only choice is to pay in moon money or not at all.
Part of their purpose is to allow the companies to report income sooner. Once you've bought your moon money, you're now out the real world cost of however much moon money you bought; the company issuing the moon money has the real money now, instead of however much later it is when you finally finish buying "things" (generally intangible things, mere data) to the value of the moon money you bought. They got your money as a lump sum up front, not in the dribs and drabs it would have come in had they let you pay real money; because a common feature of moon money is that it may only be bought in inconveniently large chunks. Part of this is to avoid proportionately large charges for processing small credit card transactions, but a secondary benefit for the issuing company is the decoupling of moonbucks from real money. The real money is gone, and so spending moonbucks feels like getting something for free. A further aid to this is the common oddball exchange rate; Microsoft points exchange at a rate of $10 for 800 points, which is inconvenient to remember, while being close enough that people can be tricked into assuming that the exchange rate is one point per US cent.
On the face of it, these practices seem abusive to the customer; I believe they are, but they stem naturally from the corporate culture. Any publically traded company has a duty to its shareholders to maximise profit in the short term, which will result in abuse. Consider the customer as a mature sheep; you can look after this sheep, shearing it for wool each year, taking milk (but not too much!), and gain a long term advantage of woolen clothes, healthy family from good nutrition, and so on; the farmers' way. Or, you can sweep in, take the sheep, slaughter it, and you'll get a nice sheepskin rug, some very large mutton dinners, and overall a short-term windfall; the raiders' way. The difference is that the farmers' way results in you still having a sheep all along, but gives less reward at any given time.
So the requirement to maximise instantaneous reward is what has killed any consideration for customer loyalty. There will "always" be more sheep; so slaughter them, carpet the world in sheepskin rugs, and get fat on your mutton dinners. Privately owned companies can afford to take a longer view; after twenty years, the farmers will have a lot of sheep, because well-cared-for sheep increase in number, while the raiders will have slaughtered enough sheep (in this analogy, annoyed enough people to the point of boycott) that sheep will be getting thin on the ground. Short-term thinking is not generally sustainable.
One games company which appears to be a farmer is Valve. I've said many nice things about them, but the most telling example is their system of moon money. Yes, it's still moon money; but it's denominated in dollars and cents, as if it's real money; and it's available in flexible amounts, subject to a $5 minimum purchase. You want $13.74 in Valve moon money? Go right ahead and buy it. It'll cost you $13.74, and you won't have to round up and have the $1.26 from going to $15 hanging around. But if you do round up, any leftovers can be applied as a discount to anything you buy via Steam; the one time I used Valve's moon money, I ended up with $0.02 left over, and that was knocked off my next Steam purchase automatically. Valve go to pains to make sure their moon money behaves as much like real money as possible, because they'd rather sacrifice short-term gains in favour of keeping you coming back for a long time. They can do this because they're a private company; there aren't shareholders to placate with short-term growth. They can think long-term.
Any time you're asked to exchange real money for tokens, think carefully. The entity asking you to do that is aiming to make you stop thinking of your money as money, because they want to keep your money. Casinos; arcades; points for online purchases. The root desire is to get you to stop seeing it as money.
This grew from a discussion on Twitter of "moon money", the various unreal currencies games companies like us to use. Call them Nintendo Points, Microsoft Points, what you will, they're a layer of obfuscation between your money and the things you buy with that money. Sometimes, they can be bypassed; but more often, your only choice is to pay in moon money or not at all.
Part of their purpose is to allow the companies to report income sooner. Once you've bought your moon money, you're now out the real world cost of however much moon money you bought; the company issuing the moon money has the real money now, instead of however much later it is when you finally finish buying "things" (generally intangible things, mere data) to the value of the moon money you bought. They got your money as a lump sum up front, not in the dribs and drabs it would have come in had they let you pay real money; because a common feature of moon money is that it may only be bought in inconveniently large chunks. Part of this is to avoid proportionately large charges for processing small credit card transactions, but a secondary benefit for the issuing company is the decoupling of moonbucks from real money. The real money is gone, and so spending moonbucks feels like getting something for free. A further aid to this is the common oddball exchange rate; Microsoft points exchange at a rate of $10 for 800 points, which is inconvenient to remember, while being close enough that people can be tricked into assuming that the exchange rate is one point per US cent.
On the face of it, these practices seem abusive to the customer; I believe they are, but they stem naturally from the corporate culture. Any publically traded company has a duty to its shareholders to maximise profit in the short term, which will result in abuse. Consider the customer as a mature sheep; you can look after this sheep, shearing it for wool each year, taking milk (but not too much!), and gain a long term advantage of woolen clothes, healthy family from good nutrition, and so on; the farmers' way. Or, you can sweep in, take the sheep, slaughter it, and you'll get a nice sheepskin rug, some very large mutton dinners, and overall a short-term windfall; the raiders' way. The difference is that the farmers' way results in you still having a sheep all along, but gives less reward at any given time.
So the requirement to maximise instantaneous reward is what has killed any consideration for customer loyalty. There will "always" be more sheep; so slaughter them, carpet the world in sheepskin rugs, and get fat on your mutton dinners. Privately owned companies can afford to take a longer view; after twenty years, the farmers will have a lot of sheep, because well-cared-for sheep increase in number, while the raiders will have slaughtered enough sheep (in this analogy, annoyed enough people to the point of boycott) that sheep will be getting thin on the ground. Short-term thinking is not generally sustainable.
One games company which appears to be a farmer is Valve. I've said many nice things about them, but the most telling example is their system of moon money. Yes, it's still moon money; but it's denominated in dollars and cents, as if it's real money; and it's available in flexible amounts, subject to a $5 minimum purchase. You want $13.74 in Valve moon money? Go right ahead and buy it. It'll cost you $13.74, and you won't have to round up and have the $1.26 from going to $15 hanging around. But if you do round up, any leftovers can be applied as a discount to anything you buy via Steam; the one time I used Valve's moon money, I ended up with $0.02 left over, and that was knocked off my next Steam purchase automatically. Valve go to pains to make sure their moon money behaves as much like real money as possible, because they'd rather sacrifice short-term gains in favour of keeping you coming back for a long time. They can do this because they're a private company; there aren't shareholders to placate with short-term growth. They can think long-term.
Any time you're asked to exchange real money for tokens, think carefully. The entity asking you to do that is aiming to make you stop thinking of your money as money, because they want to keep your money. Casinos; arcades; points for online purchases. The root desire is to get you to stop seeing it as money.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
How to make everyone else's con experience suck
You know, it's great that you're having a good time at the con, but because of your behaviour, I'm not. And nor are many, many other people, because you're being a douchecanoe. Here's how.
Your badge is on your hip. Nice work, now everyone wanting to know who the fuck you are has to stare at your crotch. The badge should be pinned on your chest, or on a lanyard. Don't force people to scope out your junk, because it isn't all that. And your PJs don't flatter it.
Oh yes. You're wearing your frigging pajamas. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? You now don't have pockets, you don't have a proper fly to keep your junk inside your trousers, and you look like an idiot. Put some damn clothes on!
But before you do, step into the shower and turn it on. Use the soap. If you haven't showered or changed clothes in three days, YOU STINK. Seriously. My sense of smell is mostly GONE, thanks to a couple incidents with standing downwind of hydrochloric acid, and I CAN SMELL YOUR STINKY ASS FROM THREE ROOMS AWAY. Shower. It'll also help you sober up.
Because just because YOU haven't been to bed in three days doesn't mean it's OK to be drunk at 9am.
And you really should go to bed, because energy drinks are NOT a substitute for sleep. You wind up being in one of two states: hopped up like a chipmunk on meth, annoying the hell out of everyone around you, or a narcoleptic sloth. So get some damn sleep. Seriously, if you weren't going to sleep why did you change into your pajamas? Oh, right, to rub in the fact that you got a room. Gotcha.
Also, you need to eat properly. You can't make it three days on nothing but pocky. Shower, put some goddamn clothes on, and haul your ass to someplace that sells REAL food. If you're lucky enough to be at a con with a Whole Paycheck nearby, you have officially Scored, because their salad bars are the best thing on the planet. Grab some spinach, skip the dressings, add protein, more vegetation, and finish off with some seriously good hummus. For what you're buying, it's cheap, and it's good for you. It'll also help you stay awake.
Oh, great, you noticed the guest of honour, and now you're fanboying out. Save the squeeing for later, and treat the poor guy like a human, willya? He's come a long way to be here, and he doesn't need you being a jackass. This goes even more if he happens to be a she, because for some reason That Guy at the con is even more of a douchecanoe around women.
So: calm down, nourish your body, SHOWER!, get enough sleep, and you should be good to go at not making the con suck for other people. Except for your personality, but that's beyond the scope of this entry...
Your badge is on your hip. Nice work, now everyone wanting to know who the fuck you are has to stare at your crotch. The badge should be pinned on your chest, or on a lanyard. Don't force people to scope out your junk, because it isn't all that. And your PJs don't flatter it.
Oh yes. You're wearing your frigging pajamas. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? You now don't have pockets, you don't have a proper fly to keep your junk inside your trousers, and you look like an idiot. Put some damn clothes on!
But before you do, step into the shower and turn it on. Use the soap. If you haven't showered or changed clothes in three days, YOU STINK. Seriously. My sense of smell is mostly GONE, thanks to a couple incidents with standing downwind of hydrochloric acid, and I CAN SMELL YOUR STINKY ASS FROM THREE ROOMS AWAY. Shower. It'll also help you sober up.
Because just because YOU haven't been to bed in three days doesn't mean it's OK to be drunk at 9am.
And you really should go to bed, because energy drinks are NOT a substitute for sleep. You wind up being in one of two states: hopped up like a chipmunk on meth, annoying the hell out of everyone around you, or a narcoleptic sloth. So get some damn sleep. Seriously, if you weren't going to sleep why did you change into your pajamas? Oh, right, to rub in the fact that you got a room. Gotcha.
Also, you need to eat properly. You can't make it three days on nothing but pocky. Shower, put some goddamn clothes on, and haul your ass to someplace that sells REAL food. If you're lucky enough to be at a con with a Whole Paycheck nearby, you have officially Scored, because their salad bars are the best thing on the planet. Grab some spinach, skip the dressings, add protein, more vegetation, and finish off with some seriously good hummus. For what you're buying, it's cheap, and it's good for you. It'll also help you stay awake.
Oh, great, you noticed the guest of honour, and now you're fanboying out. Save the squeeing for later, and treat the poor guy like a human, willya? He's come a long way to be here, and he doesn't need you being a jackass. This goes even more if he happens to be a she, because for some reason That Guy at the con is even more of a douchecanoe around women.
So: calm down, nourish your body, SHOWER!, get enough sleep, and you should be good to go at not making the con suck for other people. Except for your personality, but that's beyond the scope of this entry...
Thursday, August 13, 2009
FUD
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. The three allies of the entrenched, the vested interests, when they know that they are in the wrong, and on the losing side. It frankly sickens me to see the amount of FUD being spread in the health care reform debate.
The thing that's really gotten to me is the "death panels" rubbish. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that the legislation contains no provision for anything even remotely resembling such a concept, and the fact that any politician sponsoring any legislation which DID contain such a concept would be exceedingly lucky to remain alive, never mind in office, this arrant nonsense ignores the fact that such panels already exist in the US healthcare "system", and nowhere else in the entire civilised world. They're there. They're the committees that deny you coverage because of pre-existing conditions. They're the committees that drop your coverage because you got sick and now it's too expensive to cover you. They're the committees that set your deductibles so high that you have to bankrupt yourself, leading them to be able to drop your coverage.
Every time your insurance company finds a way to deny coverage, that's the death panel at work. They're faceless bureaucrats, and we can't even vote out the people who appointed them to signify our displeasure.
President Obama's plans actually abolish these death panels.
Can you imagine the outcry if any other insurance type were allowed to refuse to pay out when needed? We buy insurance as a hedge against the bad times. We pay for car insurance because otherwise repairs would bankrupt us; what the health insurance industry does is analogous to a car insurance company saying "we'll cover you, as long as you don't actually get into any accidents or have anything happen that would force us to pay out".
So please, everybody, look at the facts of the matter. Look at the legislation which is being debated, look at what is happening right now, and ignore the pundits, commentators and talking heads. You have your own mind, and you deserve better than to have somebody on the radio make it up for you. You don't have to agree with me; you don't have to agree with anyone. Just please, do your own thinking. Don't fall prey to the FUD.
The thing that's really gotten to me is the "death panels" rubbish. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that the legislation contains no provision for anything even remotely resembling such a concept, and the fact that any politician sponsoring any legislation which DID contain such a concept would be exceedingly lucky to remain alive, never mind in office, this arrant nonsense ignores the fact that such panels already exist in the US healthcare "system", and nowhere else in the entire civilised world. They're there. They're the committees that deny you coverage because of pre-existing conditions. They're the committees that drop your coverage because you got sick and now it's too expensive to cover you. They're the committees that set your deductibles so high that you have to bankrupt yourself, leading them to be able to drop your coverage.
Every time your insurance company finds a way to deny coverage, that's the death panel at work. They're faceless bureaucrats, and we can't even vote out the people who appointed them to signify our displeasure.
President Obama's plans actually abolish these death panels.
Can you imagine the outcry if any other insurance type were allowed to refuse to pay out when needed? We buy insurance as a hedge against the bad times. We pay for car insurance because otherwise repairs would bankrupt us; what the health insurance industry does is analogous to a car insurance company saying "we'll cover you, as long as you don't actually get into any accidents or have anything happen that would force us to pay out".
So please, everybody, look at the facts of the matter. Look at the legislation which is being debated, look at what is happening right now, and ignore the pundits, commentators and talking heads. You have your own mind, and you deserve better than to have somebody on the radio make it up for you. You don't have to agree with me; you don't have to agree with anyone. Just please, do your own thinking. Don't fall prey to the FUD.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
"Who are you to tell me what I can drive?"
The above is often heard from drivers of SUVs, as a response to people asking them if they really need their SUV. This, then, is an answer.
I am the driver who has to deal with the consequences of your decision. I am the driver who is now forced to hold up traffic, because I cannot see if it's safe to pull out past your oversized vehicle. I am the driver who is blinded at night because your vehicle's lights are at my eye level, so your dipped beams are worse for glare than my highbeams, and so cannot drive safely any more. I am the driver who will be crushed like a bug if your unstable vehicle should get into an incident with me. I am the driver who is cut off because your sense of invulnerability causes you to drive less safely. I am the driver who can no longer find a parking space because you are now taking up two. I am the person whose freedom you are disregarding in your exercise of your freedom. I've heard "If you don't like them, don't buy them!" so many times that I am sick of it, and sick of attempting to explain that even if I don't buy one, I am still forced to deal with the inevitable consequences of your decision to buy one.
"I'm not putting my wife and kids in an itty-bitty car!"
Well, sir, I ask you: what about MY wife? What about MY (putative) children? What, exactly, makes them worth so much less than your family? And allow me to remind you that the only reason cars are "less safe" than SUVs is because there are SUVs on the roads. In a car-versus-SUV situation, a car will be significantly less safe, yes - but car-versus-car is FAR safer for all concerned than SUV-versus-SUV. If safety matters so much to you, then drive a car and encourage others to drive cars. Everyone winds up safer, and less impoverished as they no longer need to pay for the ridiculous gas consumption of SUVs. Safety, as an argument, doesn't hold water.
"I want to, I can afford it, and you don't have the right to tell me I can't!"
I strongly suggest you find a therapist and work through your penis size issues.
This has been a rant by me. Now, if it were light outside, I'd go put a bumper sticker on my midsize sedan that in Europe would be one of the larger vehicles on the road, but over here feels like a beer can next to the SUVs that regularly cut me up. I'll do it tomorrow, I guess.
I am the driver who has to deal with the consequences of your decision. I am the driver who is now forced to hold up traffic, because I cannot see if it's safe to pull out past your oversized vehicle. I am the driver who is blinded at night because your vehicle's lights are at my eye level, so your dipped beams are worse for glare than my highbeams, and so cannot drive safely any more. I am the driver who will be crushed like a bug if your unstable vehicle should get into an incident with me. I am the driver who is cut off because your sense of invulnerability causes you to drive less safely. I am the driver who can no longer find a parking space because you are now taking up two. I am the person whose freedom you are disregarding in your exercise of your freedom. I've heard "If you don't like them, don't buy them!" so many times that I am sick of it, and sick of attempting to explain that even if I don't buy one, I am still forced to deal with the inevitable consequences of your decision to buy one.
"I'm not putting my wife and kids in an itty-bitty car!"
Well, sir, I ask you: what about MY wife? What about MY (putative) children? What, exactly, makes them worth so much less than your family? And allow me to remind you that the only reason cars are "less safe" than SUVs is because there are SUVs on the roads. In a car-versus-SUV situation, a car will be significantly less safe, yes - but car-versus-car is FAR safer for all concerned than SUV-versus-SUV. If safety matters so much to you, then drive a car and encourage others to drive cars. Everyone winds up safer, and less impoverished as they no longer need to pay for the ridiculous gas consumption of SUVs. Safety, as an argument, doesn't hold water.
"I want to, I can afford it, and you don't have the right to tell me I can't!"
I strongly suggest you find a therapist and work through your penis size issues.
This has been a rant by me. Now, if it were light outside, I'd go put a bumper sticker on my midsize sedan that in Europe would be one of the larger vehicles on the road, but over here feels like a beer can next to the SUVs that regularly cut me up. I'll do it tomorrow, I guess.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A lucky escape
So the LA and I have been moving. Yesterday, we had the gas turned on (PG&E's online system is a little funky, and doesn't do so well with movers who are getting a gas place), and got the furnace, water heater, and range checked over.
However, it seems the range check wasn't thorough enough. When I arrived at the new place this morning, I opened the door, took one breath, and immediately de-assed the area. PG&E adds a lot of stinky to their gas supply.
Turns out, whoever installed the stove completely failed to use anything to seal the threads on the hookup. It was leaking at a rate similar to a slow simmer. We've aired out the house now, but when I entered this morning, it was basically a bomb ready to go off. Noises about this one are going all the way up the food chain, because not sealing the threads is not only incredibly dumb, it's severely against code.
So, a PSA: if you think you know enough to hook up your gas, YOU DO NOT. Unless you KNOW you know enough and you KNOW THE CODE, GET A PROFESSIONAL IN. And sue his trousers off if he mucks up.
However, it seems the range check wasn't thorough enough. When I arrived at the new place this morning, I opened the door, took one breath, and immediately de-assed the area. PG&E adds a lot of stinky to their gas supply.
Turns out, whoever installed the stove completely failed to use anything to seal the threads on the hookup. It was leaking at a rate similar to a slow simmer. We've aired out the house now, but when I entered this morning, it was basically a bomb ready to go off. Noises about this one are going all the way up the food chain, because not sealing the threads is not only incredibly dumb, it's severely against code.
So, a PSA: if you think you know enough to hook up your gas, YOU DO NOT. Unless you KNOW you know enough and you KNOW THE CODE, GET A PROFESSIONAL IN. And sue his trousers off if he mucks up.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
To the taxi driver on Mt Diablo this morning
Mount Diablo is, as you're aware, a one-way street, and in the block between Salvio and Willow Pass, is lined on both sides with angled parking spaces. It's also a 25mph limit. While I have no doubt that you are a very experienced driver, I find it astounding that you consider it safe to blast along that street at around 50mph, because the parking spots (on the left, anyway) are sloped away from the centre of the street, leading to a need for anyone backing out of them to feed the car with fuel, since very few cars have sufficient torque to reverse creep uphill at idle. This means the foot is less than available for the brakes. Add in the rather restricted visibility (since most cars are designed with little thought to backing up, and SUVs are a popular class of vehicle around here) and you will rapidly see why the folks backing out of the parking spaces have right of way; they are FAR less able to see or to respond to hazards than someone driving along the road. Moreover, a small sports car like the Scion tC I drive will be well-hidden by other cars (a fact I can actually verify through using Google's street view, since one of the vehicles parked along there when the street view car went past was a Scion tC) and thus would appear unexpectedly when backing up.
All of which is to say: you were driving FAR too fast, particularly given the fact that it had just started raining, and we are BOTH lucky that I slammed my brakes on as soon as I saw something unexpected. Me because had I not done that, you WOULD have hit me and almost certainly totalled my vehicle (for the UK readers: write-off). You because you would have been found 100% at fault for the collision. I doubt that your aging Crown Victoria has a black box, but my little Scion does, and the data from it would certainly have shown, by a simple calculation, just how fast you were going, and you would have lost your license.
Yours,
the new driver you didn't manage to scare into never driving again.
All of which is to say: you were driving FAR too fast, particularly given the fact that it had just started raining, and we are BOTH lucky that I slammed my brakes on as soon as I saw something unexpected. Me because had I not done that, you WOULD have hit me and almost certainly totalled my vehicle (for the UK readers: write-off). You because you would have been found 100% at fault for the collision. I doubt that your aging Crown Victoria has a black box, but my little Scion does, and the data from it would certainly have shown, by a simple calculation, just how fast you were going, and you would have lost your license.
Yours,
the new driver you didn't manage to scare into never driving again.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
On self-examination
I've realised that I've become rather too passive of late. I'm working on improving that, which should even out my mood at a nice happy level, and also make it easier for me to get things done.
Among my fun troubles are the fact that I've allowed myself to get out of shape. I've become injury-prone, my endurance is pathetic, and I'm starting to bulge at the waist. Heck, some of the trousers I arrived with are now too small. To fix this, I intend, starting on Monday the 19th, to begin an exercise regime. If you don't see a post on that date stating that I've exercised, you should bug me. Seriously. I need to get my endurance back, I need to cut down this flab, and I need to get honestly tired. As my fitness improves, I'll be increasing my workouts, but they start Monday.
I have also allowed myself to stop being musical. That also needs fixing; the LA owns a bass guitar, so I'm intending to teach myself to play it. That will let me feel creative and happy about myself, which will shine through in my jobseeking.
And I'm continuing with the driving lessons. Next one is this Friday, and I shall be continuing with one or two per week until I'm ready to take the test. As my confidence and skills improve, I will also be driving the LA around, assuming she gets the insurance for such sorted out.
Among my fun troubles are the fact that I've allowed myself to get out of shape. I've become injury-prone, my endurance is pathetic, and I'm starting to bulge at the waist. Heck, some of the trousers I arrived with are now too small. To fix this, I intend, starting on Monday the 19th, to begin an exercise regime. If you don't see a post on that date stating that I've exercised, you should bug me. Seriously. I need to get my endurance back, I need to cut down this flab, and I need to get honestly tired. As my fitness improves, I'll be increasing my workouts, but they start Monday.
I have also allowed myself to stop being musical. That also needs fixing; the LA owns a bass guitar, so I'm intending to teach myself to play it. That will let me feel creative and happy about myself, which will shine through in my jobseeking.
And I'm continuing with the driving lessons. Next one is this Friday, and I shall be continuing with one or two per week until I'm ready to take the test. As my confidence and skills improve, I will also be driving the LA around, assuming she gets the insurance for such sorted out.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
On surprises
The LA and I now have... an embarrassment of gifts. In all seriousness, I have wrapped eight separate items for her, even though she knows what is in six of the parcels. Mother dearest, your package arrived today; the LA does not know what was in it for her, since I took it in and extracted the relevant while she was at work. The LA is intending to spend some time this weekend wrapping items for me, probably while I perch upon a ladder in the garage to fiddle with the opener of the door, which has lately been not of the finest for reliability. Meanwhile, I know some of what I shall receive; even had my mum had the items she ordered from Amazon gift-wrapped, I would have known, because Amazon's systems are not as clever as they could be.
You see, I had multiple books in a trilogy upon my wishlist. My mum decided to get the trilogy, and so proceeded to buy one of the books from my Wishlist. Amazon took it upon itself to be helpful, and suggested she might wish to buy the other two. She did so... and Amazon entered the domain of Fail, because those very same two books were still upon my wishlist. She was forced to e-mail me and alert me, so that I didn't receive duplicates.
Still, as I said, the LA will have surprises, and I shall also. The local secondhand bookstore (to which, should she return, my mother will be paying a visit) had a rather inexpensive mystery bag of books for sale last time we were in there, and it has not yet been opened. The LA will be ensuring I don't catch a glimpse of its contents until the day.
I do hope that the gifts we're sending will be close to timely. I'm certain they'll be well-received, even if they're not.
You see, I had multiple books in a trilogy upon my wishlist. My mum decided to get the trilogy, and so proceeded to buy one of the books from my Wishlist. Amazon took it upon itself to be helpful, and suggested she might wish to buy the other two. She did so... and Amazon entered the domain of Fail, because those very same two books were still upon my wishlist. She was forced to e-mail me and alert me, so that I didn't receive duplicates.
Still, as I said, the LA will have surprises, and I shall also. The local secondhand bookstore (to which, should she return, my mother will be paying a visit) had a rather inexpensive mystery bag of books for sale last time we were in there, and it has not yet been opened. The LA will be ensuring I don't catch a glimpse of its contents until the day.
I do hope that the gifts we're sending will be close to timely. I'm certain they'll be well-received, even if they're not.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
On gifts
As the LA has said, we've done our gift-buying for each other, and we've managed to get ourselves a little unreliable as regards other gifts. If any of my readers wish to buy me gifts, then there is an Amazon wishlist containing things I covet located here, and those of you local enough to be able to get to Concord could do far worse than buttonholing me to ask about the wishlist I have for Black Diamond Games.
Or you could just send a card. Nothing I'm coveting is a need, they're all wants.
Or you could just send a card. Nothing I'm coveting is a need, they're all wants.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
On the orientability of certain Platonic solids
Following my post regarding the excellent dice bag the LA knitted for me, somebody asked me about one of the dice shown in the photos. After that question, I now present for your edification the art of reading the d4.
Below, we see two d4s; an old-style d4 in pearl, and a new-style d4 in white. Both of them are showing a result of 1.
Below, we see the same two dice. This time, however, they're showing a result of 2.
Below, once again, the same two dice, showing 3.
And finally, the same two dice, both showing a result of 4.
As you can tell, the reading method is consistent: you read the number which is upright. I personally prefer (and have more of) the old-style d4s, but I do have the new ones just in case I have a player who doesn't know how to read a d4 properly.
Of course, if they follow my blog, now they do, and so do you.
Below, we see two d4s; an old-style d4 in pearl, and a new-style d4 in white. Both of them are showing a result of 1.
Below, we see the same two dice. This time, however, they're showing a result of 2.
Below, once again, the same two dice, showing 3.
And finally, the same two dice, both showing a result of 4.
As you can tell, the reading method is consistent: you read the number which is upright. I personally prefer (and have more of) the old-style d4s, but I do have the new ones just in case I have a player who doesn't know how to read a d4 properly.
Of course, if they follow my blog, now they do, and so do you.
Monday, November 3, 2008
On truth
I thought I was going to stay out of US politics this election. Seems I was wrong.
Everyone in California, please go to your polling place tomorrow and make sure to vote "No" on Proposition 8. Even if it wasn't shoving discrimination into the state Constitution, it is being pushed deceptively. Schools will NOT be forced to "teach gay marriage", just as they currently don't teach marriage. Obama does NOT support Proposition 8.
Who you vote for as President is one thing, but please, whatever your politics, vote NO to discrimination, hatemongering and fearmongering.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled geeky whininess.
Everyone in California, please go to your polling place tomorrow and make sure to vote "No" on Proposition 8. Even if it wasn't shoving discrimination into the state Constitution, it is being pushed deceptively. Schools will NOT be forced to "teach gay marriage", just as they currently don't teach marriage. Obama does NOT support Proposition 8.
Who you vote for as President is one thing, but please, whatever your politics, vote NO to discrimination, hatemongering and fearmongering.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled geeky whininess.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
On flowers
So, today was Concord's Oktoberfest, ja? The LA and I went, thinking I could check out some local microbrews, but we found a distinct shortage of beers I wanted. This was because of one thing they all had in common.
Cascade hops.
The Cascade hop is the curse of the American microbrew. Yes, it grows better than any other hop variety in the USA's climate. This does not make it the right choice for American beers, however, as it is extraordinarily bitter, and lacks any subtlety in its flavour. Indeed, Cascade hops are almost guaranteed to render me nauseous. I suppose if one's suddenly discovering that beer can have flavour, then it's perfectly possible to become used to Cascade, but frankly, to me they are disgusting. Please, anyone who wants to brew, go the extra few bucks and import Fuggles, Challenger, Goldings or Saaz. European hop varieties are FAR more pleasant.
Moreover, please, America, please learn what IPA is actually about. IPAs do tend to be high alcohol and heavily hopped, yes, but they are NOT a competition to see who can make the concoction which most resembles a mixture of corn syrup, Everclear and Bitrex. If you want to know what a proper IPA SHOULD be, kindly take yourself to your nearest BevMo! and look for Meantime India Pale Ale. It's not what you think. What this stuff is, is flavourful and subtle. It's hoppy, yes, but you can still taste something other than hops.
Cascade hops.
The Cascade hop is the curse of the American microbrew. Yes, it grows better than any other hop variety in the USA's climate. This does not make it the right choice for American beers, however, as it is extraordinarily bitter, and lacks any subtlety in its flavour. Indeed, Cascade hops are almost guaranteed to render me nauseous. I suppose if one's suddenly discovering that beer can have flavour, then it's perfectly possible to become used to Cascade, but frankly, to me they are disgusting. Please, anyone who wants to brew, go the extra few bucks and import Fuggles, Challenger, Goldings or Saaz. European hop varieties are FAR more pleasant.
Moreover, please, America, please learn what IPA is actually about. IPAs do tend to be high alcohol and heavily hopped, yes, but they are NOT a competition to see who can make the concoction which most resembles a mixture of corn syrup, Everclear and Bitrex. If you want to know what a proper IPA SHOULD be, kindly take yourself to your nearest BevMo! and look for Meantime India Pale Ale. It's not what you think. What this stuff is, is flavourful and subtle. It's hoppy, yes, but you can still taste something other than hops.
Monday, September 29, 2008
On the casting of pods
No, this isn't some crazy California bean ceremony or divination. This is about technology, specifically about the use of it to make audio files available after the manner of a radio show. There are many such shows, and many of them suffer from one or other of these problems. Let me explain the Seven Ways Your Podcast Can Suck:
1: Sixty Cycle
This is pretty self-explanatory; you can have a 60Hz hum on your podcast. This is caused by something in your setup picking up the power lines, and is incredibly annoying to anyone who has trouble picking voices out from background. European podcasts suffer from the related Fifty Cycle, as their powerlines run at 50Hz; either way, it's a hum, and it sucks. Please, please, get rid of the hum. Upgrading microphones so you use the balanced (and thus hum-rejecting) XLR plug rather than the plain ordinary jack can be enough. Many audio recording programs can automatically kill the hum. There are filters. The hum is one of those things that there's really no excuse for.
2: Wait, that was it?
Please, please, do SOMETHING to indicate "OK, that's it for this episode". Whether it be music, or simply a canned copyright statement, it's jarring to be dropped straight into silence or some other audio file. In extreme cases, your listeners will start wondering if their reader downloaded you properly.
3: Oh yeah, spoiler alert.
Self-explanatory. Yes, we know, the Dark Knight was cool, but unfortunately not all of us were able to go out and see it. Please, wait until it's on DVD before you have your nerdgasm over it. If it's on DVD, we all have Netflix or a local Blockbuster; we've nobody but ourselves to blame if we haven't seen it, so spoil away as long as you warn us, but if it's not out on DVD yet, you can't assume we've seen it.
4: Intermission
We don't need to know that you stopped recording for a couple hours so somebody could go poop. We don't need to have a minute of music to mark the gap. Transitions between segments, if you must have segments, are OK, but otherwise, try to keep it flowing. Remember, in most cases, we don't have video, so we can't see that Joe is now sitting to Bill's left.
5: Adverts
Sure, the equipment costs money. However, plugging your sponsor in the middle of the cast is jarring, and doesn't incline people like me towards checking out their offerings. Keep it to the opening blurb, and the closing boilerplate. If your sponsor won't accept that, you need to find a sponsor that doesn't suck.
6: Late This Week
If you're going to give a schedule, then please stick to it. Some casts don't have a set schedule; that's fine. Each episode of those is like a little gift. Howver, if you're going to say "every Tuesday", then you need to step up and commit to making sure it really IS every Tuesday. Once you've set a schedule, you've set your listeners' expectations, and you really can't fall back on the "It's free, so whay are you complaining?" defense. Remember, without a schedule, each episode is a little gift; with a schedule, each miss of your drop date is a little bag of flaming dog poop.
7: iTunes is coming
Really, this should go under "feed issues". Podcasts live and die by their RSS feeds; please, make sure you've set yours up correctly. First, you need to make sure that you have a podcast-only feed. Then, you need to make sure that nothing ever drops off this feed. Most feeds have a maximum number of entries; you need to set that to a LOT higher than you think necessary. Do NOT allow it to only be twenty items. That will mean your early episodes will drop off, and that is a very effective way to avoid gaining new listeners. Remember, people love going through archives; this is why so many pay-to-read-archives services for webcomics have been flops. If you want new listeners, they need to be able to download all your episodes in their reader. Speaking of readers, like it or not, iTunes is overwhelmingly dominant. You need to make iTunes support priority one; you simply cannot get away with saying "It's complicated", "we'll get to it soon", or "we're working on it" past a month. If you're not properly supporting iTunes, then you're shooting your potential listeners figure in the foot.
So, those are ways you can suck. As for ways you can be brilliant, that's up to you. There is no one path to success, but there are plenty of ways to hack people off. Avoid hitting the above seven points, and the likely reason for me not listening will be a lack of interest in your subject matter. However, there are plenty of people like me but with different interests. Of course, you may not be wanting to podcast at all, but that's fine.
1: Sixty Cycle
This is pretty self-explanatory; you can have a 60Hz hum on your podcast. This is caused by something in your setup picking up the power lines, and is incredibly annoying to anyone who has trouble picking voices out from background. European podcasts suffer from the related Fifty Cycle, as their powerlines run at 50Hz; either way, it's a hum, and it sucks. Please, please, get rid of the hum. Upgrading microphones so you use the balanced (and thus hum-rejecting) XLR plug rather than the plain ordinary jack can be enough. Many audio recording programs can automatically kill the hum. There are filters. The hum is one of those things that there's really no excuse for.
2: Wait, that was it?
Please, please, do SOMETHING to indicate "OK, that's it for this episode". Whether it be music, or simply a canned copyright statement, it's jarring to be dropped straight into silence or some other audio file. In extreme cases, your listeners will start wondering if their reader downloaded you properly.
3: Oh yeah, spoiler alert.
Self-explanatory. Yes, we know, the Dark Knight was cool, but unfortunately not all of us were able to go out and see it. Please, wait until it's on DVD before you have your nerdgasm over it. If it's on DVD, we all have Netflix or a local Blockbuster; we've nobody but ourselves to blame if we haven't seen it, so spoil away as long as you warn us, but if it's not out on DVD yet, you can't assume we've seen it.
4: Intermission
We don't need to know that you stopped recording for a couple hours so somebody could go poop. We don't need to have a minute of music to mark the gap. Transitions between segments, if you must have segments, are OK, but otherwise, try to keep it flowing. Remember, in most cases, we don't have video, so we can't see that Joe is now sitting to Bill's left.
5: Adverts
Sure, the equipment costs money. However, plugging your sponsor in the middle of the cast is jarring, and doesn't incline people like me towards checking out their offerings. Keep it to the opening blurb, and the closing boilerplate. If your sponsor won't accept that, you need to find a sponsor that doesn't suck.
6: Late This Week
If you're going to give a schedule, then please stick to it. Some casts don't have a set schedule; that's fine. Each episode of those is like a little gift. Howver, if you're going to say "every Tuesday", then you need to step up and commit to making sure it really IS every Tuesday. Once you've set a schedule, you've set your listeners' expectations, and you really can't fall back on the "It's free, so whay are you complaining?" defense. Remember, without a schedule, each episode is a little gift; with a schedule, each miss of your drop date is a little bag of flaming dog poop.
7: iTunes is coming
Really, this should go under "feed issues". Podcasts live and die by their RSS feeds; please, make sure you've set yours up correctly. First, you need to make sure that you have a podcast-only feed. Then, you need to make sure that nothing ever drops off this feed. Most feeds have a maximum number of entries; you need to set that to a LOT higher than you think necessary. Do NOT allow it to only be twenty items. That will mean your early episodes will drop off, and that is a very effective way to avoid gaining new listeners. Remember, people love going through archives; this is why so many pay-to-read-archives services for webcomics have been flops. If you want new listeners, they need to be able to download all your episodes in their reader. Speaking of readers, like it or not, iTunes is overwhelmingly dominant. You need to make iTunes support priority one; you simply cannot get away with saying "It's complicated", "we'll get to it soon", or "we're working on it" past a month. If you're not properly supporting iTunes, then you're shooting your potential listeners figure in the foot.
So, those are ways you can suck. As for ways you can be brilliant, that's up to you. There is no one path to success, but there are plenty of ways to hack people off. Avoid hitting the above seven points, and the likely reason for me not listening will be a lack of interest in your subject matter. However, there are plenty of people like me but with different interests. Of course, you may not be wanting to podcast at all, but that's fine.
Friday, September 19, 2008
On balancing profit and profit
Television networks, as we all know, exist to sell advertising. The BBC can, in this context, be ignored, as can the CBC and most definitely PBS. A TV network is a means to sell advertising. This does mean that they have a duty to their shareholders to reject ads which are too irritating (so I cannot for the life of me comprehend why, on every ad break recently, an unreasonably perky woman foghorns out a "HI! CAN WE TAKE A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT YOUR COLON?", closely followed by the three bloops of a TiVo being told to floor it and get us past this horrific advert), and of course they must needs devise some method of inducing people to watch the adverts.
This is what TV shows are for. You might have thought that TV networks' primary purpose was to make shows, but you'd be wrong in that thought. The shows are a way to get you tuned in for the adverts. However, people being what they are, all the viewers miss the point entirely and get caught up in these expensive timesinks that the networks would really rather not have to deal with. However, if the networks didn't make shows available, they'd be unable to get people to watch their advertisers' productions, so shows there will be. Of course, in these days of the interwebs, viewers will feel safe in missing a show, because there's always a way to get it. For some time, said way was via people who would capture the show, edit it somewhat, and put it on the intertubes (YARRRRR!), but then the networks realised, after the advent of YouTube and the realisation that people really would watch a pixellated version of something in a tiny window and think it was wonderful, because they were getting it on demand, that they could do similar. Of course, this was unlikely to keep their advertisers happy, so they had to develop means to insert unskippable advertisements into their intertron versions of the shows, and did so.
All this is leading up to the fact that I was never a watcher of Lost, but the LA convinced me that I should give it a try. The TiVo concurred, and when one of the channels we get but don't know why we get started running it from the start, it recorded the first episode for us to try. Suffice to say, it's now under orders to continue recording episodes, but there is a slight problem. This is that the channel re-running Lost is doing so in four-hour blocks, and so there are three hours I can't watch. Not to worry, thought I, and hied me to ABC's website, where I found that full episodes were available. "Score!", thought I, bookmarked it, and then had a couple of Busy Days. Today, I returned to find that the Flash-based streaming has now given way to a "Download our player. No, we won't tell you what else it does. No, there is no alternative." setup. I promptly issued a California Freeway Salute, and went over to Netflix, to add the first disc of season 1 to the top of the queue over there.
My point is that there is a fine line to be walked between protecting your IP (the shows, which are valuable IP insofar as a) they allow ads to be sold and b) they can be sold as DVD sets (thus proving that people will buy anything; in the TV business, shows are actually the equivalent of pork scratchings to the advertisers' porkchops)) and keeping your consumers (not customers; the customers of a TV network are the advertisers) happy. ABC crossed that line when they required a download.
This is what TV shows are for. You might have thought that TV networks' primary purpose was to make shows, but you'd be wrong in that thought. The shows are a way to get you tuned in for the adverts. However, people being what they are, all the viewers miss the point entirely and get caught up in these expensive timesinks that the networks would really rather not have to deal with. However, if the networks didn't make shows available, they'd be unable to get people to watch their advertisers' productions, so shows there will be. Of course, in these days of the interwebs, viewers will feel safe in missing a show, because there's always a way to get it. For some time, said way was via people who would capture the show, edit it somewhat, and put it on the intertubes (YARRRRR!), but then the networks realised, after the advent of YouTube and the realisation that people really would watch a pixellated version of something in a tiny window and think it was wonderful, because they were getting it on demand, that they could do similar. Of course, this was unlikely to keep their advertisers happy, so they had to develop means to insert unskippable advertisements into their intertron versions of the shows, and did so.
All this is leading up to the fact that I was never a watcher of Lost, but the LA convinced me that I should give it a try. The TiVo concurred, and when one of the channels we get but don't know why we get started running it from the start, it recorded the first episode for us to try. Suffice to say, it's now under orders to continue recording episodes, but there is a slight problem. This is that the channel re-running Lost is doing so in four-hour blocks, and so there are three hours I can't watch. Not to worry, thought I, and hied me to ABC's website, where I found that full episodes were available. "Score!", thought I, bookmarked it, and then had a couple of Busy Days. Today, I returned to find that the Flash-based streaming has now given way to a "Download our player. No, we won't tell you what else it does. No, there is no alternative." setup. I promptly issued a California Freeway Salute, and went over to Netflix, to add the first disc of season 1 to the top of the queue over there.
My point is that there is a fine line to be walked between protecting your IP (the shows, which are valuable IP insofar as a) they allow ads to be sold and b) they can be sold as DVD sets (thus proving that people will buy anything; in the TV business, shows are actually the equivalent of pork scratchings to the advertisers' porkchops)) and keeping your consumers (not customers; the customers of a TV network are the advertisers) happy. ABC crossed that line when they required a download.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
On opiates and their role in society
I suffer from migraines. Those of you who are also sufferers will need no explanation of how bad things can be, while those of you who aren't... well, I'm afraid you simply can't get it. It really is beyond the comprehension of anyone who hasn't experienced it.
Today marked my first serious migraine since moving to the US. I hadn't realised until today just how effective a painkiller codeine is; in the UK, I was accustomed to treating serious migraines with a dose consisting of 1000mg of paracetamol (acetaminophen for the Statesiders reading), which was basically sugar for all it did pharmacologically, and 16mg of codeine, which was the minimum effective dose.
And I do mean minimum effective dose; what that did was reduce the intensity of the pain to merely excruciating, as opposed to the unmedicated level I experienced for the second time today (the first time being when I first suffered one of these; the fact that I NEVER experienced it again until today should be a clue as to how much it hurts), for which there can be no words. If you've been there, they aren't needed; if you haven't, you genuinely cannot understand, no matter how many words I use. Believe me when I say that even with the codeine, things still sucked.
In its way, that was a good thing. I thoroughly burned into my brain the association between taking codeine and things sucking. This made sure I wasn't even going to touch the stuff the rest of the time. Yes, opiates are addictive, but with the associations I have between codeine and pain, no junkie here!
But in the US, I can't get codeine without a prescription. And that means I have to explain to Graham just why Daddy spent about half an hour today blindfolded, in a dark room, lying on the bed whimpering, shivering, crying and twitching. If I'd been capable of tying a knot, I'd have gagged myself so I didn't even have to make the effort to keep from grinding my teeth into powder.
So if someone claims to have a migraine, but they're functional, they're either heavily medicated or they just have a headache and want sympathy. Someone who does have a migraine will be obvious; if they can walk at all, they'll be shakier than a politician's reasoning.
EDIT: and now the pain seems to have burned out, although the way I feel it may still be worse than the worst mundane headache ever gets, I can't tell. I just feel incredibly spaced out and my body seems to be operating by remote control.
Today marked my first serious migraine since moving to the US. I hadn't realised until today just how effective a painkiller codeine is; in the UK, I was accustomed to treating serious migraines with a dose consisting of 1000mg of paracetamol (acetaminophen for the Statesiders reading), which was basically sugar for all it did pharmacologically, and 16mg of codeine, which was the minimum effective dose.
And I do mean minimum effective dose; what that did was reduce the intensity of the pain to merely excruciating, as opposed to the unmedicated level I experienced for the second time today (the first time being when I first suffered one of these; the fact that I NEVER experienced it again until today should be a clue as to how much it hurts), for which there can be no words. If you've been there, they aren't needed; if you haven't, you genuinely cannot understand, no matter how many words I use. Believe me when I say that even with the codeine, things still sucked.
In its way, that was a good thing. I thoroughly burned into my brain the association between taking codeine and things sucking. This made sure I wasn't even going to touch the stuff the rest of the time. Yes, opiates are addictive, but with the associations I have between codeine and pain, no junkie here!
But in the US, I can't get codeine without a prescription. And that means I have to explain to Graham just why Daddy spent about half an hour today blindfolded, in a dark room, lying on the bed whimpering, shivering, crying and twitching. If I'd been capable of tying a knot, I'd have gagged myself so I didn't even have to make the effort to keep from grinding my teeth into powder.
So if someone claims to have a migraine, but they're functional, they're either heavily medicated or they just have a headache and want sympathy. Someone who does have a migraine will be obvious; if they can walk at all, they'll be shakier than a politician's reasoning.
EDIT: and now the pain seems to have burned out, although the way I feel it may still be worse than the worst mundane headache ever gets, I can't tell. I just feel incredibly spaced out and my body seems to be operating by remote control.
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