If you’re at the gym, and there’s a row of eight elliptical machines available and just one of those machines has braille labels, how about not using that one and picking one of the other available machines so as not to inconvenience the blind lady to comes in every day at noon?
Archive for January, 2008
I’ve been having some problems with allergies over the past 6-8 months, mainly in the form of random swelling. Mostly, it occurs in my hands and feet, but a few times, my lip and places on my arms reacted as well.
The first time this happened was around 3-4 years ago, when I woke up in the middle of the night with a swollen right hand. I drove myself to the emergency room and was told that it was an allergic reaction to “something”. After taking some Benadryl, I was better in about 12 hours. I didn’t have any problems with swelling again until about 2 years later, and then it happened every 1-2 months. In the summer of last year, it started getting more frequent, and when the swelling hit my mouth, I decided it was time to see a doctor.
The doctor prescribed Zyrtec, which cleared everything up, but, not wanting me to rely on Zyrtec forever, he referred me to an allergist. Today was the first of 2 appointments for scratch testing. I had to be off the Zyrtec for 7 days prior to the test. A few days after stopping the Zyrtec, the swelling came back. The nurse told me that I would not be able to take the test if that were the case, so last night, the Dr. prescribed Prednisone to get rid of the swelling. By morning, the swelling had pretty much disappeared, so I was good to go.
If you haven’t gone through the scratch test before, here’s what happens (there are different versions of the test, so this isn’t always the way it goes, but most tests are similar):
The nurse carried in a compartmentalized tray filled with little cylinders. Each cylinder was dipped in a different possible allergen. The tip of the cylinder contained a hollow needle/pin with a sharp edge.
First, the nurse cleaned my left arm with an alcohol swab then pushed one of the cylinders into my arm above the elbow and turned it, scratching the skin and administering a generic histamine. She explained that if this area didn’t react, it would be a sign that there were anti-histamines in my body and they couldn’t continue with the test (in other words, this was to make sure I hadn’t cheated and taken allergy medication). She then set a kitchen timer for 15 minutes, then left me alone to occupy my time. Within about 5 minutes, I had a wheal (a raised spot on the skin) on my arm about the size of a pencil eraser right where I was scratched. After the 15 minutes were up, another nurse (for clarity’s sake, I’ll call her the Judge) took a look at the wheal on my arm and rated it a ’4′. It itched like crazy, but it was a good sign that the tests should produce results.
The nurse then drew a grid on my left forearm with a ballpoint pen, marking off the spaces where the allergens would be applied. She then scratched my left forearm with 34 separate allergens — this particular test was for environmental allergins (dust, mold, pollen, etc.). After another 15 minutes passed, the Judge returned. This time, she put on some latex gloves, and proceeded to rub a finger over each of the scratch spots, calling out numbers — “3, 2, 2, 3, negative, negative 3, 2 . . .” — rating the height of each wheal.
Here’s what the left arm looked like after I got home:
One of the scratches was just a saline solution. They used this scratch as a control, or baseline. If the saline solution produced a wheal, that wheal’s rating would be subtracted from the other ratings. The saline wheal was negative, so the ratings of the other wheals weren’t altered.
Next, the nurse repeated the same procedure on my right arm. This series of tests was for food allergies. It was a smaller test, and only required 20 scratches, including the saline. After 15 minutes, the Judge returned and began rating the scratches. Turns out my right arm is was a little more sensitive to being scratched than my left arm, so the saline scratch rated a 2 instead of negative. That was a relief considering the Judge was rating all of the wheals as 2s or 3s.
Here’s the right arm after about an hour:
The first test showed that I was allergic to household dust, mold and feathers (possibly some others, but I didn’t see the final results of this test, since there’s more to do next week).
The food test showed that I was mildly allergic (the wheals were rated a ’1′ after the control scratch was figured in) to Egg Yolk, Peanuts, Flounder, Oysters, Pork and Tomato. Fun fun.
So it looks like I might have to watch what I eat a little more than I already do. And now I have another excuse for not eating oysters, for those situations where “because they’re gross” isn’t good enough.
This post is a collection of some cool stuff I’ve found/read over the last couple of weeks.
First, ABC’s LOST finally returns on January 31st. Unfortunately, there are only 8 episodes in the can, and with the writers strike still on, that may be all the LOST we get for a while.
But in the mean time, here are 49 photos from the upcoming season.
The photos are hosted by the website io9, which brings me to the second topic. One of my favorite tech blogs is Lifehacker. Every day, Lifehacker features some pretty interesting articles, from new technology, to everyday tips and tricks (like how to make a 2-bottle wine carrier out of a single piece of square cloth), to helpful (and usually free) software. Lifehacker is a member of the Gawker media sites. io9 is a new member of the Gawker family, and it caters to science and science fiction. The io9 bloggers hit the ground running on the site’s January 2 launch date, and since then it has been a font of information worth checking at least once a day.
And finally, there’s TED. TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, though the scope of TED has become much more broad) is a conference that has been bringing together industry notables since 1984, and the TED website features some very cool mini-lectures. The videos can be watched on the site in flash format, or downloaded and watched via Quicktime.
All kinds of notable people, from lexicographers to presidents to people who were voted president (cough cough) to mathematicians and video game developers. I have yet to find an uninteresting video on the site.
Of particular note is a recent talk by J.J. Abrams, creator of LOST (and now this blog post is back to LOST again…the circle is complete) talks about his grandfather and a childhood magic shop purchase that has become the driving force behind his career in the film and television industry. It’s a touching an inspiring look into the “mystery” of entertainment.
As another year has come and gone, I’ve been thinking about how much I’ve accomplished in 2007:
- Got married
- Traveled to Italy
- Got 2 promotions
- Completed 3 sculptures
- Built a new computer
- Moved to a new apartment
Ok, so that list isn’t exactly huge, but a few of those accomplishments were very time consuming. Here’s hoping 2008 is just as rewarding, but not quite as stressful. 
No, not THAT war. Don’t be silly.
I’m talking about the war between high-definition DVD formats.
I for one have flatly refused to get involved in the HD Format war by choosing a side. The battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray has waged for months and months, and it’s looking like there might just be a winner on the horizon.
Recently, Toshiba — one of the co-developers of HD-DVD — has been bragging that HD-DVD has surged ahead of Blu-Ray in terms of sales. Yet unfortunately, studios have been shifting their support towards Blu-Ray.
In what may be one of the final blows to HD-DVD, Warner Bros. Entertainment has thrown in with Blu-Ray, announcing that it would release titles on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray until May 2008, at which time HD-DVD production of its titles would cease.
That’s a huge kick in the gut for HD-DVD. Toshiba has already issued a rather stingy press release on the matter:
TOKYO, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ — Toshiba is quite surprised by WarnerBros.’ decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.
We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007.
We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer.
Ouch.
The North American HD-DVD Promotions Group has also cancelled it’s Sunday press conference in light of this breaking story.
It seems as though the armies of HD-DVD have retreated after a metaphorical nuke attack, and they’re licking some pretty gaping wounds.
Paramount still clings to HD-DVD.
I never had a favorite in the format war, but for some reason I thought HD-DVD would win out. I have no idea why, and my reasoning isn’t logical.
But Sony has a few million Playstation 3s out there, all with Blu-Ray drives in them, and those aren’t counted in the total sales of Players.
Warner Bros. claims that this ongoing struggle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray has been hurting sales of both High Definition formats as well as standard DVDs as consumers wait out the chaos. Maybe the format war will finally be over soon.