tinypliny - 12/26/09 12:51
(e:Libertad), (e:dragonlady7), (e:joshua) and I had a long conversation about which CSA to choose and what you get and how much it cost etc. Take a look: :::link:::

I am really happy with what I received in my first share but as the winter progresses, I think it is bound to get more and more unattractive (except for the citrus, because they have farms in Florida).

(e:matthew), I know! I am roasting the rest of the root veggies tonight. Will surely post pics! :)

matthew - 12/26/09 12:31
Mmmm yummy! I think I LOVE winter vegetables more than summer vegetables!

libertad - 12/26/09 12:13
That's awesome. What is this Community Supported Agriculture plan all about? Have you mentioned this before? How could you give away the garlic and the potatoes. I would have for sure gotten rid of the radishes. I never thought of roasting those things.

heidi - 12/21/09 23:29
I received a Keurig single cup coffee maker with 16 hot cocoa packets from Jill & Kelly today... I hear it's *the* hot gift this year. I feel so trendy.

I'll make another post with some gifts I'm giving.

tinypliny - 12/20/09 14:07
Heheheh stuffed microbes. I should give them an HIV virion.

theecarey - 12/19/09 16:14
how about stuffed microbes? I'm sure they are available around town somewhere. I bought Mad Cow from Record Theater when it was still open. There are all sorts of diseases you can buy :)

Actually, anything from Thinkgeek www.thinkgeek.com
(love love love this site) would work, and they carry the microbes. There are a lot of fun, small and inexpensive items that might of interest.

for example, a recentish b-day gift I bought for a manfriend included a batch of putty ("smart mass thinking putty", caffeinated soap, a screaming flying monkey,and bacon bandaids.

tinypliny - 12/19/09 10:50
Heh, nice one but I am not sure that person walks so much as us. :)

libertad - 12/19/09 10:47
how about a pedegg?

tinypliny - 12/19/09 10:14
Damn, I thought 2 more suggestions when I saw I had 2 comments. I can't buy THREE scalp massagers! To make up, you have to post at least ONE crazy/odd thing (e:libertad)!

libertad - 12/19/09 09:57
Forget that last comment about scalp massager, I just saw (e:theecarey)'s post. I want one!
!

libertad - 12/19/09 09:48
Have you tried the scalp massager? I saw it in the store but was not willing to try it out knowing that it was a tester.

tinypliny - 12/21/09 18:32
I don't have a primary physician in Buffalo because I haven't really had a condition serious enough to warrant a visit to the clinic. I had a major fall from my bike in Rochester - but I just had to visit the Student Health Clinic there for a precautionary wrist X-Ray. I can't do that in Buffalo. So I don't ride my bike here. Haha

For non emergencies, there is always this tendency to self-diagnose and self-medicate (which is not very advisable, but I can't help it!) I guess I do need to find a primary here but I don't have the motivation to research and find one, if I can deal with a minor problem such as a cold, fever or infection quickly at home. :/

libertad - 12/21/09 13:48
I just noticed your last comment. Thank you for such a thorough response! I feel much better about having had done the CT scan done now. If I get cancer it will most likely be from other factors anyways.

I don't see that MD anymore actually. I don't even have one now. It comes back again to me being distrustful of them or feeling that they just don't care. I definitely need to find one soon to be my primary care physician. Where do you go or do you go anywhere at all?

Everything you said about your bodies natural ability to heal is all very encouraging. I use that (in much simpler terms) to encourage people about the benefits of quitting smoking.

tinypliny - 12/19/09 11:32
Having swollen/painful lymph nodes for a long time is very worrisome. I don't blame you. You shouldn't repent getting it checked out. You did the best thing you could to have them investigated. It might not have been required, but reducing doubt and uncertainty about what the condition could be is part and parcel of your medical consultation.

You could argue that other more conventional methods (more extensive history-taking/examination/conservative wait-and-watch methods) could have been followed by the doctor - however, sometimes the tendency to quickly reach the resolution of doubt takes over doctors too. It is only human. In resource-poor conditions where the cost of the CT might be prohibitive for the patients paying out of their own pockets, the approach to resolution of this diagnostic problem could have been more invasive - eg. the lymph nodes could have been biopsied. Here, where people are able to affort CTs/MRIs and a battery of other non-invasive tests, patient comfort takes precedence.

What I am trying to say is, though there are a million approaches to diagnosis, what path is eventually followed is a result of the patient-doctor interaction and the various cultural, financial and personal cues from each party within that interaction. I think the final question is asking yourself the reason for the residual annoyance at your interaction with your physician. Are the lymph nodes still swollen and you feel the approach didn't do anything to give you specific answers? Are you unsatisfied with the explanations given to you to justify the CT? Are you unsatisfied with the time the physician spent with you at the consultation session? The answer to each question determines just how effective the physician was in being effective at his/her consult interaction with you.


The risks associated with medical radiation (x-rays, CT, radioactive contrasts, dyes, etc.) are minimal compared to what uncontrolled radiation (eg. radiation accidents, warfare or nuclear plant leaks ) might do to your DNA. The risks from radiation comes mainly because of its ability to introduce flaws in your DNA. The human body is a wonderful thing because of its ability to repair flaws and regenerate. Each time new DNA is made from an old template (to put into new cells that come into existence), it is painstakingly checked and rechecked by the DNA repair mechanism - which is extensive in humans.

In the normal course of proliferation and growth, several new cells are created all the time. The DNA repair mechanism is able to sequence-check the new DNA very very efficiently so that mutations (base-sequence changes in the DNA) don't propagate to new cells. As in all cases, this repair mechanism has a BIG buffer BUT it you throw it more work (more flaws to correct), it is able to handle it.

If the radiation dose is massive (eg. accident), the DNA repair mechanism can't handle so much work and gives up and your new cells will have some flaws. Over time, these flaws add up because each cell with flaws gives rise to more cells with flaws . The DNA repair mechanism doesn't catch them after they are allowed in that one parent cell because it is mainly carrying out comparisons with the parent cell DNA templates for repairs - so anything the parent template has is considered the "correct sequence" for the new cell.

Medical radiation doses are designed so that they lie within the buffer that MOST people's DNA repair mechanisms can handle. It is possible that some have faulty DNA repair or a DNA repair with a thin buffer - these people are the ones who are more susceptible to radiation-induced DNA damage.


Maybe in the future, science will define who these people are exactly and find tests for determining exactly how much buffer their DNA repair mechanism can handle - so that you can reduce the radiation doses to them. Currently, we are just starting to find out about all these intricacies (exciting studies, huh?) so its a one-size-fits-all for now. But who knows, in the future, your physician might order another test before he orders a CT to make sure that your buffer is as "normal" as the buffers of most people out there. :)

tinypliny - 12/19/09 10:56
Sometimes studies are a bit illogical because the sad reality is that its really publish or perish in the field. I won't be surprised if my future publications are criticized in a similar way. It makes me sad that sometimes research is marginalized by livelihoods that depend on it.

Most scientists try to be fair and genuinely interested in what they do - otherwise they wouldn't be there and there would be no "science". However, there are times when your publications are the only thing that employers and advisors look at and those are the times when you feel desperate and your inspiration seeps down the drain because the numbers count more than they should.

libertad - 12/19/09 09:44
So I was probably a bit over dramatic in my previous comment about how stupid studies are. I know they have their place and many of them are important.

Really I should have asked more questions when my MD ordered the CT scan. In retrospect, it was kind of dumb on my part that I didn't know that they emitted radiation. The reason I had it done was I was worried that I had cancer because of swollen and painful lymph nodes (over long period of time). The MD said it was fine but he could tell I was still nervous and so ordered the CT scan to make me feel better. Turns out I am allergic to the contrast dye.

To answer your question (e:tinypliny), my fat accumulates around my midsection. It does in my Dad too who also likes beer! Mine isn't so noticeable right now because I am fairly active throughout the day. It's weird because I wouldn't mind gaining weight but I want to lose the fat in the midsection at the same time. I know what I need to do to achieve that but I just don't because it takes more work and discipline than I want to put in.

tinypliny - 12/18/09 18:25
Good question, (e:James): They did control for age, no. of smoked cigarettes, physical activity (h/week), education (university degree¼reference), total non-beer energy intake and alcohol g/d from other alcoholic beverages (non-alcoholic beer, wine, fruit wine, sparkling wine, spirits and aperitif)

@(e:libertad): LOL, you are one the most handsome people I know, why on earth would I think you had a beer belly! Do you have one? Really? I am so checking it out next time. Why did you have a CT scan? Now, I am so curious. ;-)

james - 12/18/09 12:40
So, they didn't control for calories consumed? So, the dude with a desk job takes no exercise and eats 4,000 calories a day and no beer is on the same footing as the tri-athlete who drinks beer?

booo

jbeatty - 12/17/09 22:51
That sentence makes no sense. Low levels of radiation are highly unlikely to have any contribution to cancer risk.

jbeatty - 12/17/09 22:46
Truth be told cancer risk from low levels of radiation are highly unlikely to have any contribution to cancer. The data the Health Physics Society uses is extrapolated from doses several orders of magnitude higher than that of a single CT. It is impossible with any certainty to say that a single CT or even five in a year contribute to an increase in cancer risk.

jenks - 12/17/09 21:56
'substantially' (oops)

jenks - 12/17/09 21:52
To say that a CT "subtantially" increases your risk of cancer isn't quite accurate, in my opinion. Yes, there is SOME risk. But it's still small.
For example- while going from one in a million to two in a million is technically a 100% increase in your risk- it's still VERY unlikely.

If that makes you feel any better.

(I will also beg to differ that "most" studies are stupid and unnecessary- but I understand what you're getting at.)

libertad - 12/17/09 21:29
What sparked this interest in beer bellies? It better not be mine! I know that much of what you do revolves around research but I'm glad that you realize the much of it is just plain b.s. I'm so sick of stupid studies. For example, I just found out that having a CT Scan increases substantially that you will get cancer. Great. I had a CT scan done that was completely unnecessary and was my MD's way of shutting me up. I didn't know that CT scans emit radiation when I got it done (call me stupid). I was never told but if they did tell me I wouldn't have needed this study to tell me that I was increasing my risk of cancer. I'm so mad at the MD that ordered the study even though he knew that it really wasn't needed. Most studies in my opinion are just so completely stupid.

metalpeter - 12/18/09 20:01
I think there are some ways NFTA could make more money.

I think the train should be expanded. There should be a line (yes a bus does this) that goes to the airport. You get off switch trains and it goes out there. Yes there is a mall shuttle. But you know what would be cool if you could hope on the train and go from mall to mall and get off at a stop and walk up steps and be at the mall, kinda like Toronto. I Include the the downtown mall in this. Yes I know there isn't much left other then the food court. Yes there is a bus that you can take to different schools UB, Canisius and Buffstate but why not have more connections.

I also wonder about if 24 hour service to all stops is possible. I get off work at 3am there is a bus. I know I would pay $3 to walk out of a bar stagering and I walk a block to the #3 or what ever and then it shoots to my part of the city.

uncutsaniflush - 12/18/09 10:12
thanks for the article (e:libertad) . Apparently, RGRT has no debt. That is a very major difference with the NFTA. The NFTA has debt because of the airport and the harbor (and probably mismanagement and corruption - this is Buffalo after all). One of the interesting things mentioned in the NYT article that it costs over $2 a passenger to provide bus service. And if the fare is $1 no matter how many people ride the bus, the farebox will never cover the costs of services provided. Other sources of funds are needed and apparently found.

tinypliny - 12/17/09 20:47
Hmmm... so do you really think that having the metro light rail raises the cost justifiably for Buffalo? Can you think of some means that might actually be better than the existing system for the metro rail?

How about charging all those high schools and colleges that subsidize NFTA's services for their students so heavily, a bit more - just like RGRT? How about cutting some trains? Instead of running every 8/12 minutes, could they run every 15 minutes? Over time, such small measures are bound to add up.

On the same note, I wonder how many fare checkers and police the NFTA employs... Can't they simply install swipe gates at stations like NYC/Delhi and get rid of the checkers altogether and make more money in the long run?

metalpeter - 12/17/09 20:01
What (e:uncut)... Says is correct but see it gets more complex then just that.

In Rochester they let the cops police anything that goes down on the buses. But see here we have and underground train system and NFTA has to pay the people who check for fares. They have to pay the nfta cops and their cars and all of that stuff. Yeah if they wanted to be dicks they could pass that onto the city. Who can't even pay everything now. The other issue is it being underground you think the cops really are going to go down to the underground station.

Back to the ticket checkers since it is on the honor and then they check them, I'm sure people only going a couple stops cheat all the time.

All those other things NFTA is dippid into raises costs so that raises fares.

tinypliny - 12/16/09 23:55
@(e:libertad) I have read that before too - I think you must have posted it before. :)

Someday, you need to explain over lunch about the cultural disdain for long sensible coats here! If you cross the pond, you will find that the sexiest and the most masculine men are often in the longest warmest coats. ;-)

tinypliny - 12/16/09 23:32
(e:uncutsaniflush) - RGRT is making a lot of revenue from charging $1 instead of the $0.25 for each and every transfer! I was talking to an RGRT employee on the bus when I went to Rochester a couple months back. He told me that bus usage is up nearly 40% since they lowered the fare.

Apparently, the $1 fare came at the right time - just before the depression hit the city and many people lost their jobs. He said that at peak hours, there was sometimes no place to stand in the buses and the bus drivers don't even stop at designated stops because they are under instructions not to go beyond a dangerous limit of passengers. Some routes have 2x frequency now because of so many people taking the bus. He said that in the morning, he often sees people dressed to the nines on the bus - headed for their offices at UofR or downtown.

I was in the city at an off-peak afternoon hour and a route that I knew wasn't crowded 2 years back was overflowing in the afternoon! I think I expressed surprise at this and that is why the employee (who was recording passenger statistics on his digital counter clipboard) told me how it was all working!

The NFTA needs to take economics and business lessons from the RGRT.

libertad - 12/16/09 23:21
Since you asked uncut, I searched for this article I had read some time ago. Did you post this before tiny? I think someone did, maybe it was even me but I just can't remember.

:::link:::

As far as winter apparel tiny, I don't think I could wear what you wear and not get beat down. There has to be a better way! BTW, I mean no offense to your coat, for you it works and I imagine you are never cold in it.

uncutsaniflush - 12/16/09 20:04
From what I've heard, one of the reasons NFTA fares are what they are is because it's not just a bus/rail service. They own and operate the airport and the harbor as well. I would love to know how the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority can manage a $1 fare.

tinypliny - 12/16/09 19:22
You totally dangled the celebrity carrot here yesterday, how could I have ignored that?! Imagine. I was probably within 5 metres of the Matrix man... and he didn't know. *Cue creepy music*

@(e:libertad): You need a heavy-duty down-filled snowcoat reaching your knees or even longer. It keeps you warm and toasty and has enough air trapped to prevent sweating when you are walking fast.

I was talking to one of my officemates today and he told me that there is a cultural barrier against wearing longer coats here. Apparently people think longer coats are only worn by older women. Is that true? That really sounds ridiculously vain.

theecarey - 12/16/09 19:08
good grief woman, I told you there would be nothing to see downtown!:)

The news had some shots and I guess some people made their way in to have a look. Bank robbers coming out of the bank was something that was shown.

libertad - 12/16/09 18:47
That is true! I really could use better clothing for the weather. Today I wore two jackets and was both cold and sweating at the same time!

tinypliny - 12/16/09 18:34
It took us 40 minutes to get from the Theatre stop to the Allen/Medical campus stop on the train today. I don't know why we even bothered taking the train back. I wouldn't have, had I gone alone. I always prefer walking as well. :-)

As the Scandinavians say, there is no such thing as bad weather, only insufficient clothing.

tinypliny - 12/16/09 18:30
They don't realize that more people would take the bus if it were $1. Its all about psychology of paying just a dollar. McD's has it down to a fault. Dollar-menu, 0.99c food etc. NFTA lacks business acumen. They probably might have more than made up their massive deficit if they had actually brains in their executive branch thinking about what goes on in their consumer's heads.

libertad - 12/16/09 18:24
NFTA ridership is way down since increasing fares. I rarely ride the bus and walk almost everywhere even when it is cold. I would probably ride it more if it were less and I didn't have to wait longer than it would take me to walk myself.

theecarey - 12/14/09 23:20
It was so good, I wish I had some right now.

I still have my limbs after your knife wielding antics, so I suppose there wasn't unconscious inducing poison in it after all.

LOL at step "666", "non metric weirdos" and "If you don't have a good knife, the acorn squash can turn into a hand-stuck-in-snowblower-like disaster"

metalpeter - 12/14/09 19:25
Well I knew of your addative and luckly it didn't knock me out and a few others because of our toast to Tony's Birthday, so I survived but not sure about those who left after me, is that (e:theecarey) posting or is it (e:tinypliny) signed in under her name? Or maybe it is really the giant spider using (e:tinypliny) as an marient, HA.

hodown - 12/14/09 10:45
That looks SO good!

james - 12/14/09 09:45
Thanks Tiny. It was so freakin' good I am dreaming of it today.

jim - 12/14/09 07:53
Everyone loved it but me :)

And I was just not in the mood to try new food, I'm just kind of a boring eater.

theecarey - 12/14/09 01:06
Not fair, I am trying to go to bed and I just HAD to read your post; and now I laughed so hard my gut hurt. Oh yes, I have more to say, but I have to get to sleep.