Keeping A Stranglehold on Consciousness
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
trekki's LiveJournal:
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| Saturday, August 15th, 2009 | | 1:41 am |
| | Saturday, August 8th, 2009 | | 1:41 am |
| | Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 | | 11:20 pm |
| | Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | | 12:27 am |
cross-posting this...
So I have started to refering to this time as the Great Corection as opposed to the Great Depression. Has anyone else started calling it that? Let me know. | | Saturday, June 13th, 2009 | | 12:01 am |
| | Friday, May 8th, 2009 | | 10:32 pm |
| | Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | | 1:31 am |
on the subject of swine flu...
friend matt said: If you anticipate having no choice but to go to Mexico sometime in the next six months, I would go NOW.
The security situation sucks, and might have gotten better or worse, slightly, in that time frame, without this flu. With it, there are going to be serious problems, because some of the assets dealing with the drug war (and it is now a very real and literal war down there) are going to have to get reassigned to escort medical supplies, keep the peace at local hospitals, and, in a couple of months, deal with riots. This is going to give the drug cartels some freedom of action that they are going to very rapidly try and use (and some of what they're going to use it for is trying to scramble some of their operations north of the border, IMHO).
The health situation sucks and will almost certainly get worse because:
1. There is not enough Tamiflu for the anticipated need (this is already known).
2. This will result in the drug being improperly rationed, probably within families (this has been observed in the past, with antibiotics-- Tamiflu is not an antibiotic, but rationing it improperly can have similar effects).
3. This will increase the rate of resistant strains being created (though these will initially be weak, because of the mechanism of action of Tamiflu, and the loss of fitness any mutation that counters it initially infers). A semi-dominant resistant strain will arise in 2-4 months.
4. The Mexican medical community, being already overloaded, will take too long to scrutinize weak, but resistant strains of the virus. This will be downplayed and under-reported due to resurgence of drug violence.
5. As public infrastructure deteriorates in the resurging drug war (since, again, the military will be partially distracted with the social consequences of the health problems), the infection rates of all strains will increase.
6. Mutations within the increased population of resistant virus will eventually yield a resistant strain that is at least as virulent and dangerous as the current strain of concern, and this will become widespread. This will happen in about 4-6 months.
7. Mexican drug cartel members, sneaking both personnel and supplies into the U.S., are very likely to be the initial vectors for this more dangerous strain. Additionally, their customers, with immune systems compromised by drug use, are likely to be very receptive to the virus, and may provide the initial U.S. reservoir population for the more dangerous strain of the virus.
So, if you have to go to Mexico, do it now, before the security situation gets bad again, and before the resistant and really nasty strains of the flu are running around.
Of course, all of this is just a software engineer blathering on about a public health problem.
But I do read a lot about this stuff.to which i replied: This is very similar to a hypothesis I developed when i was dealing with a case of Montezuma's revenge the last time i was in Mexico. I reasoned that there had to be a give and take to having these digestive parasites and living with them long term.Then I thought of other resistances and weaknesses, since I myself have always had bad alergies which has led to broncitis my whole life. So therefore the swine flu taking advantage of weakened immune systems didn't seem a far leap of logic. Young healthy individuals are the ones succumbing to this infection. And so far no Americans who, for the most part, do not have the antibodies to fight, or been forced to live with the digestive parasites the way most Mexicans have, seem to have overcome the swine flu with little medical intervention. So I would not worry so much, with the exception of being a carrier. Lets see if either of us turns out to be right... | | Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | | 1:02 am |
| | Sunday, January 11th, 2009 | | 10:56 pm |
time to post.... weekend recap...
First I must say... thank the gods for Google Chrome Dev Version. Real password management and autoscroll! gasp! I started the weekend off on friday with a good day until a co-worker of 18-months walks up to me and says, "I'm out of here. I have been laid off". After much exclaimations of "bullshit" and "You better not be fucking with me!", it is confirmed and he starts rattling off who else is being fired. Looks like a 1/4 of my larger group got canned. The principal calls us into the confrence room, drops the bomb at who is going, and asks for questions. The normal ones float around... "how safe is my job?" "more being cut soon?" "why?" then the poignant ones come in ... What does it actually look like out there? Answer = BAD. Even our back up plans and go to guys for work are starting to pack it in, demand more work for less money, rework our bills, and ask to re-bid. > ouch <. So basically we need to suck it up and work harder, faster, and "uncut". (I added that last part, but you get the point) My question which always gets the immediate stunned silence, and then the canned but poignant answer... "Um why don't we cut our fees to remain competitive." :) You would think I just ran over a cat.... Sorry coming from a Business Backroung TM and knowing that our costs have been cut massively for the last 3 years, that we now have less overhead (read paid employees) and now when the shit hits the fan we have less people doing the same or greater work, maybe it's time for the owners to buck up a bit and reduce... cause I can say safely that my billing rate (E1 and E2) goes up 2-3 bucks per year, PMs go up 8-10 bucks per year, and the PICs go up 20-40 bucks per year. And wage parity doesn't quite makeup for for those billing increases. Read the owners make more. The canned answer was, um, well, we will assess each job as it comes in and we will um, make deals as necessary to keep our clients. ie, shut up joe, we would rather fire your co-workers than have us take a pay cut! What was the theme of 2008 again? oh year GREED!. :P So to celebrate my non-dismissal we went to our favorite sushi shop. Shitty service, but it was packed. Here I should start giving the 411 on kiddo. So he has stopped sleeping during the day, which means he is a needy, attention grabbing, whirlwind of destruction. Unforntunetely he is also smart distruction allot of the time. He will formulate thought quickly now, and then level you with some deep philosophical question, meanwhile he is reaching over and setting something on fire, dismantling something, or knocking over some beautiful and somewhat rare piece of art, just to see if it will break. I have started to use the term of endearment of BRAT! on more than one occasion to this behavior. Needless to say his Brat behavoir was in full swing at the restaurant. :P Following dinner we did the only logical thing a couple should do when facing a recession, possible future downsizing, and belt tightening... GO SHOPPING! :) Yes that night, afterwards at home online, and the rest of the weekend primarly consisted of 1) shopping, and 2) watching football, with a little bit of 3) playing with and entertaining the Brat, with a tad of 4) Dentistry! YUM!. 1) shopping consisted of mostly necessities with a few baubles here and there. 2) football consisted of mostly upsets again, with much drama and rooting for underdogs, and consternation about my sad sad picks sheets afterward. 3) playing with the Brat has been games of sword, clean up, dishes, choo-choos, costumes, make-believe, and story telling. Mostly a great deal of fun was had by all. All in all, a slow - low event weekend marked with lounging, cleaning, playing and recharging in preparation of another "interesting" week waiting for the other economic shoe to drop. I wish us all luck. Current Mood:  calmCurrent Music: my combo washer-dryer | | Friday, January 9th, 2009 | | 1:17 am |
| | Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | | 10:42 pm |
RIP Oscar Grant... hopefully your death won't be worthless
Oscar Grant was gunned down on new year's morning by a BART police officer at the Fruitvale station. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was unarmed and was begging not to be hurt because he was taking care of his 4 year old girl. I cannot help but feel empathy towards him and his family. I liked being mischievous, but could not stand the idea of being ripped away from my son and family by some fuck head with a badge and a superiority complex. Personally I hope this guy frys. And I hope he is made an example for other officers to think before acting. Current Mood:  cold | | Monday, December 1st, 2008 | | 12:30 am |
| | Monday, June 16th, 2008 | | 11:28 pm |
let them eat oranges...
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14094-bacteria-make-major-evolutionary-shift-in-the-lab.html and god said... let them eat oranges and drink oranges... and it was good... and much orange juice was had by all bacterium... and god said... let no orange touch the ground when you prepare it, and let no orange juice touch the ground before you drink it. and let all bacterium say and give thanks for the oranges. let this be written now and sung forever into the highest. amen. | | Sunday, March 9th, 2008 | | 11:48 pm |
| | Saturday, March 1st, 2008 | | 12:22 am |
beautiful
Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer is beautiful in it's photography. I should have been nominated for best photography. I highly recommend watching this movie if you get the chance. | | Friday, February 29th, 2008 | | 11:30 pm |
irony...
Just once I would like the market to crash *before* my 401k makes a purchase, instead of the day after. This has happened 3 times in a row, for the last three paychecks. I get paid, then for one day I have a higher balence. The next day the market nose dives, and I loose the contribution or more. Estenially my 401k broker is continously buying at the highest price each purchasing round. Lame! Maybe I should just go all cash until this shit dies down. | | Saturday, February 9th, 2008 | | 12:25 am |
| | Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 | | 11:07 pm |
| | Saturday, January 26th, 2008 | | 10:53 pm |
For those of you that may wish to...
You can now call me Joe N. Lyons, P.E. Thanks to all my family and friends for all your well wishing and support. I look forward to celebrating with all of you. Current Mood:  enthralled | | Friday, January 25th, 2008 | | 10:28 pm |
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