I read this [link] wrong the first time and thought the guy said he was offering to drive drunk. But no--drive drunk people. And he helped a DUI driver confess and see justice, and tangentially led me to this site [link] where you can get "because I said I would" promise cards you can fill in, which I think is very interesting. I need more and more to keep me committed to anything, really. There's a lot of pointlessness going around.

It is my anniversary today, which means it is also JZ's birthday, I think! Happy birthday JZ!

Ten years, right? (TEN YEARS??????????)

Happy anniversary, Sparky! Happy birthday, JZ!

I once again want to strangle ita's doctors.

I'm getting a transfusion. In response to a standard checklist of symptoms (Any nausea or vomiting? Any flu-like symptoms? Have your medications changed? etc.), the woman behind me did a five-minute disquisition on how scrambled eggs made her nauseated, but not egg salad or any of a long list of egg-containing foods, so she thought that it couldn't be an allergy to eggs but maybe to the butter. Then she tried to get the nurse to diagnose a skin problem.

Good luck with the transfusion, Ginger.

The woman behind you reminds me of the recent xkcd about saying "people are stupid" which ignores the fact that people of average intelligence (or very smart people for that matter) can still be stupid. And are. Often.

Ugh, Ginger. She sounds like quite the special snowflake.

There's a lot of pointlessness going around.

I'm in that club lately. It sucks.

Good luck, Ginger.

My parents, their wishes, their deaths, their things, dealing, not dealing...

Ugh. Amen. After being home this weekend and seeing my parents and their house...gawd, I almost wish it weren't a one level ranch, so they would've been forced to move sooner. Mom had the surgery and seems to be recovering fairly well, but is still a bit shaky and can't do much for at least six weeks...and at that point will start having radiation. And Dad is almost deaf and almost blind (he has one eye, and one ear, and neither are great). And mom said he is sleeping like, 16 hours a day. Which doesn't seem good.

(On the plus side, we scanned about 1000 family photos, and my sister totally agrees with me that come the time, we are hiring a dumpster and just putting 95% of the stuff in it--both my parents are...not hoarders, but keep waaaaaaay too much junk)

Happy birthdays to JZ and Hec and JZ's dad.

Thanks! I'm tomorrow, so today I am on a cake hunt for the missus.

Happy annum, Sparky!

The woman behind you reminds me of the recent xkcd about saying "people are stupid" which ignores the fact that people of average intelligence (or very smart people for that matter) can still be stupid. And are. Often.

Yesterday I edited a really interesting article long these lines. Background: it's been clinically proven that in heart patients who have angina and have some artery blockage *but NOT complete blockage*, a balloon angioplasty procedure to open the partial blockage does NOT prevent a theoretical future heart attack, but drug therapy does.

The article was about the percentage of patients who choose to undergo the balloon angioplasty if (1) they are told nothing about the lack of heart attack prevention; (2) they are told just the fact that angioplasty doesn't prevent a heart attack; or (3) they are told that angioplasty doesn't prevent a heart attack AND an explanation of why that is.

As you might expect, group 1 chose angioplasty in a pretty high percentage (like >80%). Group 2 still chose angioplasty at a rate of about 36%, and group 3, despite getting an explanation of why the procedure doesn't do what they think it will, chose angioplasty 30% of the time.

When asked why they chose angioplasty, the #1 reason in all 3 groups was because it would prevent a heart attack. Even in the 2 groups that were explicitly told it wouldn't. And, interestingly, a high proportion of the people who chose angioplasty -- among all 3 groups -- say they remember the doctor telling them it WOULD prevent a heart attack.

Dang, man.