JP reports that research has discovered that claustrophobia is a physical, not a psychological condition. Something to do with a part of the brain that is shaped differently. Remind me to look that up. He says some auto union took a cut in pay from an average of $23 to $11 per hour. I don’t feel sorry for them, mind you, because I have copious experience with the union mentality. If you are making over $15 per hour at a job like that, you should be spending the surplus on retraining yourself, because sister, it ain’t gonna last. I used to spend $4,885 per year at evening school while I was unionized. I didn’t see any coworkers in the classroom and they didn’t hear me complaining about a lost job. Seems about even to me.Unless it materializes soon, I report the Argus [digital camera] is gone. In the end, the camera took 7,133 pictures, of which over 5,000 survive. This is nearly 6 pictures per day over the 41 month life of the camera. That’s some kind of record for an $18 contraption, and it was still going strong, November 2004 to April 2008. The camera changed the way my records are kept. It took nine years after the first color cameras arrived for me to finally take the plunge. This was because the manufacturers had not met my criteria until then: a simple camera that held 25 “Internet grade” color pictures for less than $20.
The earlier brands were difficult to master and not very rugged. They offered few advantages other than not needing film. I am also hesitant about new formats, I wonder why? (It was my own decision in 2004 to standardize on jpeg.) The actual conversion was many months long, as I learned to store, manipulate and transmit the pictures, never meeting anyone who could assist. In fact, many bragged they had more memory and megapixels but often did not know how to get the pictures off their own camera. They used the camera as primary display and storage! I won’t mention names.
Return later today, as I’m going to see a cardiologist. When I phoned around, I emphasized that, within reason, I was not interested in paying for a consultation, only for therapeutic treatment beginning on the first visit. That is, I already know something is wrong and I wish to see someone who is not going to charge me for two visits to tell me that. We shall see how they deal with it, but it seems to be a favorite billing trick.
I like that. When asked if lightning ever strikes the same place twice, little Johnny says, “After lightning hits it once, the same place ain’t there no more.” Anyway, there is a point I want to clear up once and for all. At university, I studied general sciences. The reason for this is because the only valid career advice I had ever received was from my grade eleven social studies teacher, Mr. Ian James. He said if I was not sure what I wanted to be, that a Bachelor of Science degree was an excellent springboard to many advanced studies. He meant law or medicine—but I did not know that at the time. Nor did I know that a BSc. was by itself not that useful a degree. I only took a few minor courses in computer science, again, no adequate advice or role model available. Of course, if I had known, I would have focused on computers.
What I did know was that the people who were supposed to be paying for this were the ones that put about they “weren’t paying me to be no goddamed scientist”. They said I should become a doctor. So did I, but we had also agreed they and not I would supply the money. Tragically for me, they were also the type of people who later said that a deal struck with a twelve-year old was not legally binding. So I continued with sciences, but I was never the party who confused this with becoming a scientist. Nope, that was not me.
Later. The cardiologist refused to treat me. Actually, his staff refused but that is vicarious. Even though it had been pre-arranged that I would pay cash, their “policy” was that I had to sign all the forms associated with insurance. Among these forms were agreements which allowed them to place my private medical history on junk mail, telemarket and spam lists. Plus a clause allowing them to contact me for “fund-raising” for the rest of my life whether I wished to be contacted or not. But the one that got me was the organ list.
They demanded the right to place a complete inventory of the type and conditions of my internal organs along with my identity on an Internet catalog, while all the while assuring me these organs were “not for sale”. The contract they said I had to sign if I wanted treatment stated that no matter what they agreed to in the contract, they reserved the right to change that without notice. When I said I preferred to have some kind of notice, they refused to treat me, continually insisting it was my decision.
I have a question. Under such circumstances, would you go see a doctor who might have been offered two million bucks for your lungs because he just advertised them as “not for sale”? You, son, are gonna die. According to Memorial Health System, they can and will put you in that position and tell you it was your decision to “refuse treatment”.
