Through the larger vena cava

[austin_dern]

I'm surprised nobody asked how I expected to bleed this week, but maybe it was obvious -- another blood donation. The drive started yesterday, but I avoid donating before the week's lectures. Donating seems to mess up my mathematics skill, which turns lectures into deathspirals.

The donation was much like last time. The twist was a local anaesthetic -- the first time I'm aware of ever getting any anaesthetic (even counting my cavity filling). It felt ... well, not like much. My fingers fell asleep, but I can't say that wasn't because of the blood pressure cuff used to make my deep, narrow, elusive veins stand out. The donation was over much faster than average. The point of injecting an anaesthetic into the elbow to avoid the pain of a blood-donation needle into the elbow I leave for wiser minds to consider.

My elbow gauze is cyan, with big smiley faces all over it. They had ``Be Nice To Me'' stickers for first-time donors. The top row of stickers ran off each page's edge. Those stickers end in a secant with ``Be'' cut off. I hope they got a discount on the printing.

They gave me a pack with 14 ferrous fumarate tabs, but noted my iron was high enough I didn't need them and could just eat more greens. (I should.) The weak irony is the only time I was ever turned away from donating was because my iron was borderline low.

It's two years and seven hours since I moved out of Troy. I should update the address on my ham radio license.

Trivia: Auguste Comte's reform ``Calendrier Positiviste'' dedicated March to the abstract concept of paternity, and the concrete person of Aristotle. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, E.G. Richards.

Currently Reading: Titan, John Varley.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Of all things, now I'm wondering where Singapore gets its vegetables from - one would imagine Malaysia would be ideally positioned to help in such trade, particularly for cheaper ones. That said, of course, modern transportation makes long distance importation perfectly feasible - in British supermarkets, I've seen hot peppers from Thailand, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, and many avocados from Israel.

And now I'm thinking of brussels barbecued in bacon, just long enough for the smokiness of the meat to suffuse the diminutive brassican with that delicious meaty tang.

I notice a page intriguingly titled (but ultimately unrewarding) Turn Into A Cabbage (http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/2144/) has the disclaimer, "Please do not convert children without their parent's permission". But where's the fun in that?

I suppose I ought to update my amateur radio address too at some point - I think I've moved around a dozen times since their last notification.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I've never looked closely at where Singaporean vegetables come from -- generally, the stuff I buy myself is just toaster-oven meals to have as snacks when I don't feel like getting out to a hawker center -- but I have noticed ones labelled as coming from South America and, to my particular amusement, the United States. There's just something that feels inevitable about buying a food product that came from as far away as you did, you know?

[skylerbunny.livejournal.com]

Of course, the problem now is that being in Singapore, I'm under the impression you can't use your license at all, because they're in a different international zone.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's in a different ITU zone, and there's no (so far as I can find) reciprocity treaty between Singapore and the United States regarding ham radio licenses. I can't even find evidence of local ham radio activity, either, so I can't just get a local license on top of that.

Which is a shame; it would be fun to give someone around here the thrill of getting a KC2 contact on 220 MHz ...

[spaceroo.livejournal.com]

Just as an aside, I've *never* been able to give blood, not even a test-tube's worth, without almost fainting.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, ``almost'' isn't so bad ... if nothing else it lets you spin out the donation into a nap, too, after all ...

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Go get' em, tiger! *applauds the generous coati*

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. Now I just have to not get sick for the next two days.