October 31, 2022

How the hell does anyone get addicted to Oxycodone?

I just had full knee replacement surgery on Thursday, and even at "low dose pain" level, all it does is make me constipated, nauseous and dizzy. My main issue is stiffness and muscle numbness.
Hell with it, I'm going back to Tylenol and stretches.

It may be hurt, but damn, the nausea and dizziness is worse.

Haele

September 30, 2022

(Spoilers) Timely discussion about fighting back at internet trolls..She Hulk show

Is anyone watching She-Hulk, Attorney at Law on Disney +?

This is Disney going against Internet Trolls and Incel 'culture'.

I'm seeing how major plot point development is how the villain is using 'Intelligenca - the site for crying Man-babies' to attack the hero.

The Mouse strikes back against toxic fandom. By incorporating and ridiculing their real antics into the storyline.

This is classic Marvel from the comics- a story about characters dealing with being superheros in a normal world, as well as tossing in the wierd to show how celebrity 'influencers' and superheros affect people in general try to go about their own lives.

Don't get me wrong -the Mouse is still casually evil in it's search for profits and market share, but there is quite a bit of holding a (funhouse) mirror to some of the problems in social media society going on here, and that's a good thing, in my opinion.

Throughout history, popular fiction has been used as a platform to make society more receptive to ideas that lead to change.

Haele

August 22, 2022

Test program in San Diego to help poor families.

Fancy that, the money is going to necessities...

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/guaranteed-income-helps-ease-inflation-pressures-for-san-diego-families/3028141/

The program really needs to be expanded, along with affordable housing stuff.

Haele

August 20, 2022

Honey with Pizza. Discuss.

This is based on seeing someone at a pizza joint whip out a squeeze bear bottle of honey and drizzle over on his standard pepperoni pizza as we were doing take-out.

Personally, I can see it on, say an artisan pizza with, say, gorganzola, pear, cippolini onions, and arugula, - or maybe BBQ chicken pizza; but plain pepperoni and mozzarella/provolone?

Haele

July 6, 2022

Sigh - Intersex people can become pregnant as well as solid XX women...

https://www.babymed.com/pregnancy/hermaphrodite-can-they-get-pregnant#

I know this because a cousin on my dad's side was born a hermaphrodite, or intersex, in 1963.
I am using the term "they, as that is what my cousin goes by now. They used to be a she, but that never seemed right to them.

Their parents were presented with "a solution" by the family Pediatrician at the time; cut off the penis and perform a vasectomy to have a girl, or do a hysterectomy to have a boy - on a baby.

So they had a "girl". It was cheaper and easier on the baby.

They went through school, got made fun of in gym, even though the testes never dropped, it still looked strange.
Went to college, got married to a safe nerd (their description), and eventually got pregnant. Which meant they saw an OB/GYN for the first time.
Their OB/GYN freaked. And all sorts of questions were asked of the parents, and the story finally came out.
Well, they had a baby boy after a very difficult pregnancy. With some health issues. As for the husband, well -he freaked out too, and there was a divorce. He got full custody, after he re- married, by the way.

So they went through life in a good career, tried to be a lesbian, tried to o be a "woman". But it never worked for them.

At one of the various family reunions, they got to talking to my widowed mom about loneliness and acceptance. Because my dad was well known as the raging liberal educator that could accept everything and everyone as they were.
My mom mentioned that I had talked about a trans male in the military I knew about 15 years ago, and they could talk to me because I was more like my dad than mom was.

So we talked. And we continue to talk occasionally. It helps them. And they have finally found a couple communities that accept non-binary/intersex people, which makes them more happy. They're working on getting the courage up to try and get back in touch with their son, but it's still a very scary prospect.

So yes, pregnancy is not just about women. It's also about trans men who have not yet gotten a hysterectomy or regular regeme of hormones and intersex persons with viable ovaries.
It doesn't "erase" women when HHS and DoD health policy talks to "women and people who get pregnant", because that term is inclusive of the .1% or so of people who become pregnant, whether or not the pregnancy is viable.

Trans men and intersex/non-binary are not as known in the general public. And they tend to be less accepted than Trans women, even within the LGBTQ+ community.
However, there is a small percentage of them in the US military, and that is something the DoD has had to come to terms with.

The more y'all know. Peace out.

Haele

May 20, 2022

Latest earworm in our family after watching Eurovision

The grandkids adore it, dance moves and all.
Don't say I didn't warn you...

(It's really a song about getting the COVID vaccine.)

Haele

May 18, 2022

A Sea Lion wanders into a Barrio...

No one knows why he does this, it's the fourth time he's been found wandering significantly inland. There's no weird parasites or obvious trauma or diseases they have found that might have affected his directional sense.

However, I will note (as I live in the area) some of the best, fresh fish tacos, Tostada Lokas (9 types of fish and local shellfish with an aguachili base, cabbage, and avocados), and Caldo de 7 Mares are found in the location he has been most recently found wandering in.

BTW, he's currently the size of a Gold Wing motorcycle. Definitely a freeway hazard.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2022-05-16/wayward-sea-lion-is-back-this-time-found-in-a-san-diego-storm-drain

Haele

April 28, 2022

Sooo, daughter was in a car accident 45 days ago. Minor damage.

Some guy busy watching a pedestrian pulled out of angled street parking and hit her 2004 Saturn.
No biggie, but a nasty dent, paint scratches, and the check engine light came on after he hit her. Insurance gives her a rental car, sends her to a collision place she had been at two years before when an idiot on his phone decided to merge into her lane at 65mph. That damage then was fixed no problem.

They take the car in. We don't hear anything for 40 days. The Insurance agent is trying to get ahold of them, because the adjustment department kept telling him there was some sort of computer issue.

Seems that instead of using the door frame VIN, this time they used the dashboard VIN, and the two didn't match. DMV registration and insurance both have the same number as the door frame - along with the engine firewall stamp. Also, apparently, the repair shop couldn't verify the VIN for that model, when they ran the dashboard VIN, it came up with a totally different year and model, a coupe instead of a sedan. But they still went with the dashboard number, screwing up the whole claim, which is computerized, of course. It's still messed up and no work has been done, even though the insurance agent approved it 40 days ago.

Duh, a previous owner replaced the dashboard and didn't change the VIN plates.

We all finally found this out today. 43 days after it went into the shop. And 2 days before insurance stops paying for a rental car.

Oh, sure, we can bring it back in once all the computer issue is cleared up, yes, then they will fix the car...but that's not going to fix the more than 30 days of rental car cost to the insurance companies for this totally avoidable delay. And I doubt our insurance is going to pay for another week of rental car if we bring it back in.

Mind you, insurance has sent both daughter and me to this very same shop twice previously due to accidents, and even though they were slow, they did good work. But this cluster f*** of stupidity is totally unacceptable. If two VINs are the same, and one that's just riveted to a very removable part is different, then you go with the VINs that match, right?

And they have a new shop manager since the last time we were there. Not for long, I hope.

Rant off.

Haele

April 6, 2022

Soooo- Dr. Strange 2 just went on sale at 0745 pdt...

At 0757, Laz went online at the AMC site ( we go see movies in Dolby Digital) to get tickets....
At 1205 pdt, he finally got his 4 tickets. Wait times were 15/20 minutes before the server would hang up and kick him out. He got as far as the payment screen five times, but would receive errors when he tried to finish paying until the final time - on the debit card.
Buying the tickets took twice as long as the movie would!
But on a serious note, because of weird glitches during the payment process, it appears that AMC charged us 4 times for the tickets on the credit card, so time to call the bank and cancel those charges.
($240, three days to recover! grr...)

Haele

March 18, 2022

Bugzooka! Fun for the ten year old, takes care of the house files.

We had the annual spring indoor infestation (kids leaving the door open like they grew up in a barn). We have to keep anything we do to get rid of the safe for household pets, kids, immunocompromised, etc.
Drain fly goo only works on the drain flys, Bug traps don't work well indoors. What does work (slowly) are fly tapes, which are unsanitary, gross, and risk getting caught in hair when putting them up or taking them down. Electronic swatters waste batteries.

But the bugzooka - the ten year old is strutting around the house with it on her hip, pumping the vacuum bellows every time after snagging flies in mid-air like she was using a shotgun in a spaghetti western. She's spent the last two hours searching out bugs.

Never fear - one can take the bug trapper unit on the end of the wand, go halfway down the street, then release any bugs that weren't smooshed during the catching.

Fun for the kids, and safe to use indoors.

Haele