Blood Sucking Bastards

So I just gave blood. My first time ever doing this. I survived.

I want to get this out of the way... If you want to give blood, and don't know where to go...Go here: RedCross

I gave to the "Bloodmobile" that Mass General Hospital drives around to local businesses. Was pretty interesting. I don't have any real problem with needles, but who really looks forward to them. But I didn't pass out or faint...pretty much it went over without a hitch. Smoov as silk.

Some things to note:

• The needle felt worse when being pulled OUT then when being put in
• There was no feeling of your life force being sucked out of you body
• I wasn't dizzy or anything when done, but if I go for 15 or 20 minutes without drinking any fluids, my muscles start to feel like they are going to cramp up.
• No sick feeling.
• Took a VERY short period of time.
• They were very cool. And every worker that I saw on the bus said "Thank you".
• I replied to every "thank you" with a "thank you" right back at them, cause they handle shit that I can not fathom.

The machine-like process that has been created for donating blood is incredible. They gave a brief interview, during which they took my blood pressure (125/78), pricked my finger to get an iron level, got my heart rate (97..yeah, I smoke. fuck off.), and took my temperature by sliding something across my forehead. This was all completed while they asked me details of every possible clandestine behavior I could have been involved with over the past couple years of my life including man on man sex, IV drug use, and "contact with someone else's blood". They did all of this in a span of about four minutes.

They then sat my ass down in a (rather comfortable) recliner, and start looking for a good vein. In goes the needle, and I'm filling up a sac with Bostongraf Juice. There is this fantastic machine that measures exactly how much blood has been pushed through it, and give off an alarm when its been enough. The sac of blood sits on a tray that automagically rocks back and forth every couple of seconds. And, if you lean over you can literally watch your blood draining into this sac. Kinda freaky...

Once alarm goes off, the vein hunter comes over, ties off the tube, and tells you to get a fuckin cookie and a juice. Says that when I finish my juice I can leave as long as I don't feel sick. And gives me another thank you.

Alacazam! I just saved someone's life. Took about 15 minutes total. I'll probably do it again sometime.

God Loses

I'm just going to bask in happiness that this article brings me...no real need to add any comments to it:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html

News for the Red Sox freaks

Some good reading for baseball fans:

Later, Senator George Allen, Republican of Virginia, made a not-so-veiled reference to Giants slugger Barry Bonds. ''As far as Hank Aaron is concerned, if a certain player breaks his home run record, it's not a question of an asterisk. . . . There probably ought to be an 'RX' next to it."

(Taken from this article : Senate Raises Heat on Fehr )

And we should have been interviewed for this article:

Harrowing Ride for Fans


And this one makes me feel better about trying to wrap our brains around the possibility of the Sox making the post-season:

Stats a Brain Strain

mmmm.....Calamari

This is one of those things that floats around in the background that I've always considered a super-neato creature:

Giant Squid PHOTOGRAPHED

That this creature hasn't been photographed or even seen while alive (until now) is evidence of some of the absolutely crazy shit that might be going on deep in the ocean. And we humans may have NO idea of what's actually down there!

That there is finally a photograph of a living Giant Squid (without killing it!!) is evidence of the great drive that humans possess to know as much as possible about the world we live on.

Red Sox Nation is TIRED

My second job as a Red Sox fan is killing me. It is consuming my energy and my brain. At no point in the season did I think it could come down to THIS!!

Five games left, and the Sox are in a dead tie with the Evil Empire and the Indians...And only two out of the three of us are going to the post season.

FIVE GAMES LEFT!!! Aaaarrgghhh!!!

And of course, there are no off days. No days of rest. Hell, yesterday was a double header!

Throw into the mix that Sunday's game will be on at the EXACT SAME TIME as the Patriot's game, and I start to spin.

Well, if we win the next four, it won't matter. If we win the next four, Sunday doesn't matter. We will have been even with the Evil Empire going into our series with them on Friday, then beaten them twice to go up two games, and that will be all.

I can't take it. Whatever the outcome, I just want it to be over....

(Damn, I love this game!)

Fuel Fuel Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink

I love laughing at the SUV chumps at the gas station...

My little Integra still gets pretty good mileage. Not motorcycle or hybrid kind of mileage, but pretty good. A guy I work with just picked up a 1972 Honda CT90...If you follow the link to the FAQ and the CT90 specifications page, you will notice that this bad boy gets 175 miles per gallon!!! That is just plain sick.

Let's all take just thirty seconds to think about a country where let's say HALF of the vehicles on the road got HALF of the mileage of this thing...

Carry on.

Bad Mojo on the Streets

The shouting from this got me outside last night:

Boston Stabbing

This occurred outside my back door. For those that know the layout of my condo building, the actual stabbing occurred outside the gated entrance to the backyard of our complex. The victims then moved towards Cleveland circle. The first pool of blood was in front of the first doorway next to the gate. The guy that is in the ICU was on the ground between that door and the gas station.

It happened at approx 1:25am, police were there at around 1:35-ish. I walked out as the first police car was showing up. First ambulance was around 1:45-ish (1.5 cigarettes worth of time). The kid had multiple compresses on his chest, and one on the right side of his face.

There was a LOT of blood on the sidewalk.

DISCLAIMER: The remaining account is info that I heard spreading around the people that heard people saying what they thought happened. I have NO idea as the validity of the following info.

The word was that a confrontation had started at the Store 24. This group then walked away up Chestnut Hill Ave. Upon reaching my back door, the assailants got out of a black BMW and attacked them. Jumped back in to the car, then ditched the car back in Cleveland Circle. There was a bus that stopped at the scene, and there appeared to be multiple witnesses on the bus (incl the driver). The group that was attacked appeared to have four or five people that were uninjured.

Beyond Thunderdome

And I just watched Mad Max last night!

We don't need no stinking oil

Of course, I watched the original with the far less leathery younger Mel, but I can still appreciate Mad Max III.

"The hog farms are all around us. We're used to that smell -- something we live with,"

But this push in BioFuel indicates that all we need to do is get used to the smell of our own shit, and we'll be just fine without oil!

Of course, we'll have to give up race cars, and airplanes, but really, who needs 'em?

Big step for Nanotech

"That's six orders of magnitude greater - equivalent to a piston moving a millimetre in the macroscopic world and being able to lift an object twice the height of the CN Tower."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4223660.stm

Excellent article that keeps the science talk understandable.

I envision nanotech as the cure for cancer. A bunch of micromachines (okay, nano-machines) running around my veins finding cancerous cells and shooting them with little tiny nano lasers.

The other vision I have is an inhalant that you use the morning after smoking fifteen packs of cigarettes. One shot into your lungs, and little nano machines fly around gobbling up the tar coating the inside chest...

Hell, we could use nanotech as a way to sober up near instantly. Drink a nano-drink, and the buggers circulate around your body gobbling up alcohol/THC/MDMA molecules. Bang! You're sober!

That's what we need. Nano-tech solutions that allow us to do drugs, yet still function in society. Count me in.

Green Ribbons

Thank you very much!!

http://www.justafad.com/

Glad to know that I'm not the only one that thinks the whole ribbon craze is Fd.

We've all heard the advice to not wear your heart on your sleeve...Well, ribbons are wearing your heart on your car. Get over it. Donate the money to the cancer/war/pet fund. Please. That's wonderful. But the Fn ribbons have got to go.

Back from the South

So, I just spent five days down in North Carolina...Tried water skiing for the first time. Watched movies on a 61" TV. Drove a motorboat for the first time. Ate A LOT. Relaxed even more...

But now I'm back up north and soon I will be ranting and raving about the idiocy of...well...everything.

Updates coming...

Peace.