I don’t even engage on that point. It doesn’t matter to my family that I’m a biomedical person, that algorithms that I work on and software I’ve written are widely cited in medical and epidemiological papers. It doesn’t matter that I’ve had funding for both basic and applied work in biomedical sciences. It’s beyond frustrating to sit here as a faculty member, to teach my students about how vaccines get made and how my work applies to that, and then get treated like their Google search is equivalent to my PhD. I can’t even.
I mean, sort of. The spacing of shots is important, but there’s some flexibility to group or ungroup within the receptive period for each shot. We had to do our daughter’s second MMR a little early due to travel (right at 4 weeks), and we paid for it. I would guess that MY BABY AUTISM!!! and Midwestern cheapness would clash mightily here.
I know that’s not kind. I really do have empathy for the struggles families with non-neurotypical children have. But it’s not an excuse for the parents turning off their brains.
Thanks! I’m finally starting to get recognizably big, so the Elder One is starting to realize that when I say there’s going to be a baby, I mean that I’m growing a new baby brother for her.
The origin of the “too many at once” antivax argument, AFAIAA, was in British Wakefield-scam opposition to the MMR vaccine (Measles/Mumps/Rubella). It was a fallback sealion argument, really: “well, okay, maybe the aren’t harmful individually, but maybe they do what we say they do when given in combination”.
The problem with indulging this is that the MMR combination vaccine was developed for a reason.
Three vaccines in one vs three separate vaccines means 1/3 the number of injections, 1/3 the trauma to the child, 1/3 the risk of infection, 1/3 of the time commitment for parents (a serious issue with working class patients who may not be able to afford the time off), 1/3 of the clinical resources expended, etc.
There may be some insurance bastardry going on in the US as well, but in general: vaccination schedules are not arbitrary. The vaccines are recommended to be given at a particular time because that is when research has shown the best health outcomes to be achieved.
Last night, our basement flooded with sewage. STL Metro Sewer District took 6 hours to get a truck to our neighborhood, at which point they determined the public line is fine – but they didn’t notify me with a phone call, knock on the door or a door tag like the dispatcher said they would. So I only found out just now. Taking off work early this afternoon to let a drain clearing service into the basement.
Thankfully it’s not a finished basement, and anything of value that’s vulnerable is in plastic bins. Cleaning isn’t going to be fun, but we didn’t lose anything of value.
I was working on Monday, when it was over 40°C (104°F). I came home from work at lunchtime due to a combination of heat, depression and med-induced exhaustion.
Today, I had a nice cool and cloudy day; temps in the mid twenties. But we were working on steep slopes and my semi-paralysed ankle was playing up, making it hard to move around. But I can usually deal with that by focussing on delicate hand-weeding work that you can do while sitting down.
My allergy to them is getting worse with every bite, and it’s increasingly affecting my breathing. The pain of a sting is trivial to me, and the allergy-driven numbness, itchyness and nausea, although disabling and unpleasant, are tolerable. But a swollen-shut throat is not something you can just willpower your way through.
They didn’t get me today, but there were half a dozen close calls before morning tea when I gave up and came home. Which means I’m wasting what is likely to be the only workday this month that isn’t stinking hot.
My job was dangerous to begin with, and that danger is rapidly increasing for me. It’s also increasingly a job that I am simply unable to do. If the boss wasn’t an old friend, I probably would’ve been sacked a long time ago.
But my Tourette’s, Asperger’s, stutter and anxiety mean that I have essentially zero chance of passing a job interview for anything else, so shifting indoors isn’t really an option. I’d also be unlikely to last long in any job without an exceptionally tolerant employer, due to my constant sick days.
Went to the drive through. Ordered a tea. They confirmed that I ordered tea. I have a cold so couldn’t smell…
It was a fucking coffee, and I didn’t realise until I had a mouthful. This wouldn’t be fuck today level, except that one mouthful is enough to make me extremely sick, tomorrow.
So, thanks, random drive through worker. I know you don’t have an easy job and it doesn’t pay enough. But not paying attention can do real harm. That’s the one thing I always gave a shit about in my food service days.
First Rule of Fast Food: they absolutely do not gaf about your order at the drive through.
I agree that it’s a hard, poorly-paid job, though. I, too, spent my fair share of time working shitty food service jobs for minimum wage (although I never worked the drive-through, per se, now that I think about it), and the main thing that kept it from being completely soul-crushing was the knowledge that it was temporary, that I could look forward to better work once I graduated.
But if that were just my job, day-to-day, every day? Fuck that.
Which is why I try to cut those folks some slack, and cultivate a more sanguine – aye, even fatalistic – state of consciousness when I venture through the drive through. There was a period of time, for example, at my neighborhood Taco Bell, when I was happy just to get the same number of items in my bag as what I’d ordered, much less the correct ones.
But there is hope. A year or so ago, on a road-trip to visit my ailing grandfather, I stopped for food in a mid-sized college town not too far down the highway from the metro area in which I live, and went through the drive through. To my surprise and delight, it was a perfectly pleasant experience. Not only did they get my order correct, the person at the window smiled, and even made eye contact! And that was how I knew, then and there, that they didn’t entirely loath their very existence. I could see it in their eyes!
That sucks about your tea, though. Seriously. Hope you’re feeling better tomorrow.
My neighbour Bruce’s cancer is breaking his bones inside his body. Fuck cancer. Already lost one Bruce to cancer. It hurts. There’s nothing to do but be there for them.
Today would have been my best friend’s 44th birthday. Next month will be 6 years since he died, and I still miss him like crazy. Hugging Sylvia helps, because he used to be her person, so we miss him together, but fuck man, I’m sad.
Also, drunk drivers can fuck the hell off, completely.
Long years apart
can make no breach
a second cannot fill
The absence of the witch
does not invalidate the spell
The embers of a thousand years
uncovered by the hand
that knew them when they were fire
will stir and understand
– Emily Dickinson
He loved that poem, and while we were cleaning out his house, I found where he had written it down. Of course, I kept it. It makes me sad, and it makes me feel a little better, because he actually knew me the way few people do. Rest in peace, dude. And fuck drunk drivers.
