La Taglibro de Dokĉjo

...and its coming out in the stupidest ways.

From CNN:

"I'm mad. I'm really mad. And what's going to surprise you, it's not the economy. It's the socialists taking over our country," one said.

Hey! Yea, Socialists! Face it, they can't do any worse than the Republicans over the last eight years. Hell my 10 year old nephew on his own couldn't have done worse that the Republicans over the last eight years.

But this is the one that really, really got me:

Later in Minnesota, a woman told McCain: "I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab."

That one line tells you all you need to know about the Republican mindset and intelligence level in this country.

Having said that, McCain's response - "No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man...[a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about." - significantly raised my respect for him. No, I won't be voting for him. No way in hell. But I just don't remember a politician having to defend his rival on the campaign trail before.

That freaked me out.

...but not at the same time.

After being dead sick yesterday, I've improved by about 75%, and that's a good thing. I didn't feel bad while in congestive heart failure. I didn't even feel tired, per se. I was just out of breath whenever I walked to fast.

Now, however, upon recovering from this cold, I seem to have gotten a "second wind," which will be useful this weekend.

Next weekend - actually from Wednesday afternoon til Sunday morning - I'll be on Nantucket at the Maria Mitchell Observatory for the Annual AAVSO Fall Meeting. I am giving two presentations, both of which have something to do with the US National Virtual Observatory and the data mining you can do with it. One talk is about done, but needs polishing. The other has to be done this weekend.

This weekend, also, I need to get caught up on the Southern Eclipsing Binary Survey Project. Really. Honestly! These are the most important things over the weekend, and I think I can do them with this second wind that I seem to have gotten. Hopefully it will stay with me.

===

Monday I have a late appointment with the Congenital Cardiac specialists at the Boston Children's Hospital. They just want to check out the heart. Todd, the cardiologist from last weekend, said that after 30 years something new might have been found out, and it would be good to just check in. Hey, if I'd said to Ronald Chaldu that we'd know of over 100 extra solar planets by the end of the 20th century he probably would have laughed so hard he wouldn't have allowed me to graduate back in '87, so I have to give medical science the same benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile, I got home to a message from Naomi, my PCP, saying the tests she did on Friday came back with my "liver a little high" and my kidney "having not changed from the weekend." She wants to do an ultrasound. OK, fine, but it ain't gonna be this week!

And in the "OK, Doc that's way too much information. You can stop now. Really!" my peeing has gone up significantly since I saw Naomi on Wednesday afternoon, so I think the kidney is fine.

"Was that over the top? I can never tell."

===

Finally, the American Life on Mars started last night. All I can say is that these American pilots have to be easy as hell to film since they literally copy the British program...line by line...camera shot by camera shot. There were times when I was reciting the lines from the British version at the American premiere last night.

Of course, some things were different - mainly the music - which was fine because I can remember the music from 1973.

One thing they did very differently, and I thought it was easily the best scene/shot in the episode - the shot where the American Sam Tyler graphically realizes that "he's not in Kansas, anymore..."

"No way!"
-American Sam Tyler
"Out Here in the Fields"
Life on Mars (USA)

One of the differences I'll be interested in is what the American Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt's sports obsessions will be. In the British version Sam was (like me) a Manchester United fan, while Gene rooted for Manchester City. The obvious parallel would be the Yankees and the Mets. I sorta hope they don't go that obvious, but they don't have too many choices.

• 18:59 it was a hard morning. One of my silicon charges was viciously attacked by spammer scum. However: Wt: 38.4; BP: 133/90; HR: 72 #

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Feeling about 70% better. And that's good because it looks like its going to be a working weekend in order to get papers, talks, and presentations ready for Nantucket on Friday/Saturday.

And the other issue that I'll be on Nantucket by Wednesday afternoon in order to support what I need to support for our Annual Meeting.

I may need Cat Support... I had thought to get out of it because I originally thought that I'd be on Nantucket Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning. Now it looks like I'll be away from home Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday morning.

I'm not going to wait for my letter to Ted Kennedy.

If I ever meet a spammer, I'm going to kill them myself.

With my own bare hands.

And rip out their heart.

And like it.

• 08:25 Wt: 39.2; BP:153/105; HR:75 #

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Yesterday, as I was coming back from Mass Ave, I caught a cold. Now, of course, I feel worse than I ever did with congestive heart failure.

And yea, its a cold. Three hours after it hit I was in the doctor's office for a followup to the congestive heart failure over the weekend. Naomi confirmed it.

Tried to get as much done as I could at work, came home, and have been semi-sleeping on the couch.

Illinois sheriff scolds banks for evictions of innocent renters.

Chicago Sheriff Tom Dart has stopped evicting renters from buildings and apartments whose owners have stopped paying the mortgage, realizing he was wrecking innocent people's lives in doing the bidding of the corrupt, greedy IL banking industry who Sheriff Dart has personal proof are not, as usual, doing their jobs.

The IL banking industry is pissed, and Dart may face contempt of court charges for his brave and moral stance.

Meanwhile, I know who I'll be nominating for next year's Nobel Peace Prize.

This man is a true hero! Thank you, Tom Dart!

The Electoral Vote distribution on FiveThirtyEight.com looks like Obama has it tied up at least to one standard deviation. They are projecting a 90.5% Obama win.

Save for the fact that Gore's numbers looked good one month from Election Day, too, I am starting to believe this could be possible.

And it better be as McCain gives us more and more reasons to have every thinking person believe he's an idiot. I've actually not seen the last debate yet - that will be tonight - because Arc was here over the last two days. At one point last night I tried to turn it on and he begged me not to do it. "Do you have any idea what its like in NH?" he said. "Nothing but politics and the debate!"

"Well, if you folks hadn't been flip-flopping and were going for Obama like any smart state you wouldn't have those problems, would you?"

So, while I've not seen the debate, I do know that McCain came out against science education by dissing the Alder Planetarium's new projector on national TV.

So, between this and his creationist-leaning ditzy running mate, can someone give me any solid reason why any thinking person would vote for McCain? I mean, come on! His party is responsible for the largest financial melt-down in almost 80 years. His party is responsible for running the US into the ground deficit-wise. His party presided over the loss of two of our largest buildings and an entire city. They responded to the first by overseeing the most damage to Civil Rights in this nation since the Sedition Acts.

About the only advantage that McCain might be able to claim is a familarity with the military...but that's almost 40 years out of date and completely irrevelent to the current situation.

Now, lest anyone get the wrong idea, do I think Obama is the next Buddha? No, absolutely not. It can be successfully argued that he's the lesser of two evils.

But he is the lesser!! So, he must win! Hopefully, after 8 years, even the overwhelming stupid in America finally see that.

• 11:34 Wt: 38.8; BP: 116/74; HR: 74 #

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• 08:45 Wt: 39.2; BP: 143/96; HR: 62 #

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You know, I've had people I deeply respect say to me, "It's going to take awhile for the bailout to take effect. You just can spend $7x10¹¹ quickly." And I can agree with these folks as far as it goes.

However, while the main purpose of the bailout was to restart the flow of credit between banks, and that, in and of itelf, has little to do with the market, I still think the effect on the market would have been to calm it and the rest of the world markets down.

So, we pass the bailout and no market anywhere in the world has risen since then.

Yea. Great use of $7x10¹¹.

We would have been better doing nothing...how?

And in case anyone needs a scorecard, I'm still furious. The only good thing I can see coming out of this - maybe - is the election of Obama. And I'm far from convinced he's worth $7x10¹¹.

"He died...John. He died for you.

We all die for you."

-Derek Reese to John Conner
"Goodbye to All That"
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

• 06:45 Wt: 39.2; BP: 154/104; HR:72 #
• 08:39 @dansr Ah! You're traveling. You didn't quite know what was going on. :-) I'm fine. I'm in the office right now writing up an LJ report. #
• 11:26 @mhaithaca YES! Errr. Damn. Right. 7 hours away now. :-\ But chicken sounds good. #
• 13:04 @dansr CHF turned out to be correct. #

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Windblows and Micro$oft suck enormous donkey balls.

That is all.

Its not new that I have the best friends in the theoretical multi-universe. This, though, from JC, struck a cord...

Okay. Good. You're home, that means I can say this now.

Obviously, a sign that you need to go to the doctor is you vacillating about seeing a doctor - so next time you're vacillating, go.

And if you don't, I'm going to shake you so hard you have to.

I shake because I love.

:-)

Thanks, JC. And thanks to everyone!

I'm back, and out of the hospital, and in a place where I can type at greater than 7wpm. The ability to reach LJ through an SSH tunnel was a miracle of modern technology, but...not so much.

So, around 1430hrs Sunday they started discharging me. Connie, one of the medical interns, came around and wanted to see how I'd do out of bed, breath-wise. We got up and walked with her down the corridor twice.

"How are you?"

"Fine. I would have been fine with this Wednesday. We need to go up and down two flights of stairs to get a good data point. (Half the medical folks were thrilled that I "talked their language." The other half thought I was putting on airs.)

Connie looked at my nurse, Ellen, to see if we could do the stairs since I was insisting. "As long as you're with him," she said.

So we did the stairs. We got back to the ICU and Ellen took a look at the two of us. "He looks better than you do," she said to Connie.

"Well, I think you're back to your old baseline," Connie said to me.

I got back into bed and the cell rang. It was Bill McColl in DC. Bill has been traveling 40 out of the last 60 days. He'd gotten home and randomly decided to get caught up on my journal. He read the last four entries, said, "Holy shit!" and called.

Just as I was being discharged, Arc called. "Hon, can I call you back in a few hours when I get back to Norfolk Flat? I'm being discharged right now, and Aaron is on this way."

"OK, that answered all my questions," he said. "Talk to you in a few hours."

Aaron wonderfully picked me up at the hospital on very short notice. I'd sent him an email request three hours before that which - we don't know why - he never got. To a large extent, having Aaron pick me up meant that we could go shopping. Todd, the cardiologist, wanted me to get a scale and a BP monitor. And, of course, I had to fill my perscriptions. Aaron wonderfully just canceled some small stuff on short notice to help out.

I got home and the Twins were fine. I unpacked and calibrated the scale, figured out how to use the BP cuff. I called Mom and talked to her for about an hour. I called Arc and did about the same thing.

This morning we took my weight, BP, and heart rate data and logged them. Last night Pamela suggested Twittering them so that folks could keep up on it, and they could bug me. She remember that two years ago I was doing that in LJ. I liked the idea and will try it.

So, there we go. Looking back its completely freaky that I was walking all over this Metropolis in congestive heart failure for the last fortnight, but hopefully this incident is done with minimal changes to life.

But changes that I have to stick with, i.e. taking the damn pills!

So, there we have it. Now to get good stuff done today. And that's even more important now, as far as I'm concerned. All the nurses, interns, and doctors over the weekend would come in and ask the same questions over and over. One of those questions would be, "What do you do?" And I would answer, "I'm a computational astronomer." To a person, that answer would pause the questions. It was honestly like saying I was a rock star. So, now I have to make sure I'm the best astronomer I can be. :-)

Let's get to it!

The automatic cuff just took a reading as I was slowly reading LJ. Thought you guys would like to see it:

128/75.

I miss my kittens...

I'm getting around the hospital network restrictions by tunneling though HQ. I knew I installed that VPN for a lot of reasons. I just didn;t think this was one of them. Wow! This is 7wpm slow.

OK. Congestive heart failure caused by high blood pressure of 170/131.
Fluid caused by CHF.
Both, upon correction, will enable me to resume normal activity.
Follow up meds will be 2 pills/day.
Cardiologist wants me to see the Boston Adult Congenital Heart Disease Service at Brigham & Woman's Hospital simply because its been 30 years since I've seen anyone about the old heart condition.
Will be here until tomorrow to deal with fluid (thre goes the wekend).
Bloodwork stinks.
Cambridge EMTs are cute enough that the ambulance ride may have been worth it.
Still very tired.

That's all for now. Connection is painful. :-)