Reach without strength is no advantage at all.

Is accuracy a factor, in your experience? Like, say someone has reach and strength, but no kind of accuracy or skill, does that nullify the advantage of reach?

Like, say someone has reach and strength, but no kind of accuracy or skill, does that nullify the advantage of reach?

Lack of skill yes. Lack of accuracy can be compensated for by changing the attack. Just tackle the fucker and see what happens from there. Lack skill is best compensated for by luck or strength or the ability to take a million hits.

I hate people who can take a million hits.

I am *so* sleepy. Maybe 4 hours last night.

This is kind of a post and run, but I'm formulating a complaint email to the hospital. Comments?

My name is [ita], and I am a too-frequent patient of your Emergency Room. Suffering from persistent and intractable migraines, it is too often required that I seek treatment above and beyond what is at my disposal. My ER of choice has been Century City Doctor’s Hospital, since the service is fast and as stress-free as seeking medical help for chronic care can be.
I didn’t pay much attention to the satisfaction surveys sent out until I received some excellent care from one nurse in particular. Unfortunately that is not why I am writing this letter.
My displeasure with my June 14th visit to your hospital exceeds what I can indicate in multiple choice format. I suffered dismissive and ineffective treatment at the hands of one of your doctors, and I cannot let that pass without note.
I am currently under the care of more than one specialist. My neurologist and my migraine specialist have agreed on a course of action should I be unable to avoid seeking emergency room treatment for my pain. I have tried that once, at your hospital, and it was indeed effective—most notably I went home with reduced pain, and without taking as much narcotic analgesic as the trip before.
However there was nothing I could do last night to convince Dr. [asshole], the doctor on duty, to follow this protocol. He challenged the logic of the recommendation, but that is not for me to defend—especially in pain and on narcotic medication.
Approximately three hours after I entered the ER I was able to extract some grudging and partial acceptance of this plan, but I still ended up returning home in almost as much pain as I’d come in with.
I appreciate the stated goals of the doctor. I am myself very concerned with the possibility of developing a dependence on painkillers. However, it was with this concern in mind that the protocol was suggested to Dr. [asshole]. Instead, I was given the dreaded narcotic to little or no effect and sent home more frustrated and agitated than when I’d arrived.
Visiting the Emergency Room is stressful by definition. Receiving abrasive and dismissive treatment merely exacerbates that, and at the very least I will be calling ahead to find out who is on duty at your hospital before returning. If it is Dr [asshole], I will instead seek treatment from an alternate hospital despite my basic preference for yours.

Gotta run to a meeting in a sec.

I like it, ita. I also like:

My displeasure with my June 14th visit to your hospital exceeds what I can indicate in multiple choice format.

ita, I suggest you copy your neurologist and migraine specialist on that letter, and let them kick the ER doc's ass.

Got a dangling modifier here: "Suffering from persistent and intractable migraines, it is too often required that I seek treatment above and beyond what is at my disposal." The subject needs to be "I" rather than "it". Not that I think your recipient's going to care.

I like it. My only suggestion would be a kind of list or timeline -- did he call your specialist or refuse to call him? What did he want to prescribe you instead? Was he arguing with you while you were in ridiculous amounts of pain (I know that's a yes)? What did he do for those three hours (or does that include waiting-room time)? I like a punch-punch-punch in my complaint letters, but that maybe a personal choice.

God, I remember a particularly fun migraine ER visit. We waited, what, six hours before they even took her in? Ooh! That was the night I got to watch the Red Sox win the World Series! Migraine + ER = total misery

This is really random, just as stuff grabbed me.

Approximately three hours after I entered the ER I was able to extract some grudging and partial acceptance of this plan, but I still ended up returning home in almost as much pain as I’d come in with.

This part needs to go somewhere else. The end or something. It interrupts the sequence of events.

However, it was with this concern in mind that the protocol was suggested to Dr. [asshole].

I'd drop the However.

He challenged the logic of the recommendation, but that is not for me to defend—especially in pain and on narcotic medication.

I do think you need to mention this - the inappropriateness of placing you in that position... but also make the point more clear that he was not listening to the patient and ignoring the patient's medical history. I don't know, this sentence just seems a little apologetic or something. May just be phrasing.

Lurking today and thought I'd jump in:

ita, as someone completely unfamiliar with whatever your situation was, (although it sounded horrible and I'm sorry for what you had to go through), I found your paragraphs in the middle difficult to understand. What is clear is that you got treated poorly, were sent home in pain, Dr. asshole failed to take whatever you said seriously, and you'll be choosing another ER if doctor asshole is on call again.

But I think it would be helpful to throw a few more facts into the naarative like, the time you got there, your specific complaint(s), the pain medicine protocol your specialists have recommended and that has worked in the past, how you tried to convey the protocol to Dr. asshole, the specific ineffectual treatment you finally received and what time you received it, and maybe some examples of the abrasive and dismissive conduct you were shown.

ooh ... back right after I had my stroke, I needed to make a follow-up appointment with the neurologist. In addition to getting my condition checked, I needed to get more medication. I called in August to make an appointment ... the neurologist's secretary offered me an appointment in November. I said I'd be happy to see someone else, but she wouldn't even discuss it. I scheduled it; a week or so later she called back and said the neurologist wouldn't be available until January. I started begging for an appointment with anyone - I was afraid of what would happen if I went without the stroke prevention medication that long. After two weeks of hassling, I finally got to see another neurologist about two days before the meds ran out, and I complained about the problems I'd had getting the appointment. They gave me a nice long prescription for the meds and when I called to get an appointment with a stroke specialist, didn't have any problems getting an appointment.

Speaking of brains- I'm listening to Radio Lab and it's making me feel Sylaresque. Brains are funky and this show's making me want to pick one apart to see how it works.

This woman had a headache, did aerobics because they'd made her feel better last time, had an attack and went to the hospital. When she woke up she had weird memories, like of being a little old man in Vietnam.