random bits

[cellio]

Guess-the-anonymous-poster update: One outstanding guess (paging aliza250), one where I had to be told (eclectic_1), all others identified. That was fun.

The stereotype is that smart people (including anyone whose job title implies serious analytical skills) don't get picked for juries, but I'm beginning to wonder. I've been called three times and picked twice, and our engineering director is currently away from work because he's on a jury. Do they just sometimes miss in the screening, or are the lawyers not really screening for this sort of thing after all?

A Texas judge has ordered that a person convicted of animal cruetly must post pictures of the animals she starved in her jail cell. Good for the judge! This is similar to the local story some months back of the hit-and-run driver who is required to carry a photo of the person he killed in his wallet during his probation. Such orders do no harm (it's hardly "cruel and unusual") and serve to put a human (or animal, in the one case) face on the damage done by these people. More, please. (And remember, we're talking about people convicted of criminal charges; I am not advocating haunting those who accidentally cause harm and don't try to hide it with such sentences.)

Do spammers really think that people still open messages with the subject line "URGENT"? Or that most of us think we even might know a sender named Brittany? Ah well; it doesn't fool the filters.

At my most recent physical my doctor called for a routine test that kicks in for women at age 40. (Am I being sufficiently delicate?) No surprises there; the surprise came when I called to schedule and the person said "oh, and no caffeine for two days before". After I moved from incoherent blubbering to actual words, I explained that this posed a difficulty and she relented. It turned out to be advice, not medical necessity. Don't scare me like that!

Comments

Re: caffeine

[cellio]

On the no-caffeine front: I'm currently dealing with anecdotal observations that caffeine may be the single thing that's wrecking my stomach.

Really? I've heard people say that *coffee* and *cola* specifically can do that, but I always thought it was something about those specific drinks, rather than the caffeine itself. (For example, tea-drinkers don't seem to have problems as much -- anecdotally only.)

My current delivery system is (diet) cola, which I suppose I should be concerned about. I'd actually prefer something without aspertaine, but I dislike the flavor of coffee and while tea is pleasant, it's caffeine-weak. If I could just take a one-a-day time-release caffeine capsule or something I'd be golden. :-)

There's an old FoxTrot strip that really speaks to me in broad strokes. The father is sitting in his doctor's office and the doctor says "your blood pressure, cholesterol, [others I've forgotten] are all off the scale; what exactly do you eat?" The father says something like "well, in the morning I have a couple of things of coffee...". The doctor says "2 cups of coffee is fine; what else?" The father continues "not cups, pots... then I'll crack open a slab of bacon...". (At this point the doctor tells his nurse to reschedule his next appointment.)

(By the way, if anyone reading this has an electronic copy of that strip, I'd love to have it.)

Re: caffeine

[jducoeur]

My impression from my doctor when I first saw her about esophegal pains was that caffeine in general was a problem. And I've been observing that even my choice green teas can cause flareups if I'm drinking them in any sort of serious quantity. (Daily or better.) And decaf coffee does *not* seem to cause problems. So I'm suspecting that caffeine is a major culprit...