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Zobar's Journal

zobar
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04/02/2010 16:34 #51313

priorities
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If you think a free t-shirt is appropriate compensation in exchange for a pint of blood, you might oughta reexamine your priorities. The crackers alone should be enough.

- Z
jenks - 04/06/10 17:42
yeah, it's stupid. I mean yes, I understand wanting to screen out people at high risk for HIV. But just because someone is gay doesn't mean s/he has AIDS. ugh.

and when you donate and do their screening questions, there's all the stuff about your travel. (which is really getting out of hand. you have to add up the total number of weeks you've been out of the country over the last like ten years- not just "have you ever lived in africa" like it used to be.) then all the "have you ever had sex for money or drugs?" "if you are a man, have you ever had sex with a man?" "if you are a woman, have you ever had sex with a man, who has had sex with another man?" To which I usually respond 'i hope not'. They are never amused.
jason - 04/06/10 16:04
At first I thought you all were joking about the whole them not wanting gay blood thing.
heidi - 04/06/10 13:52
Article on the political battle to allow gay blood donations. :::link:::

"Between 10,000 and 15,000 of the 25,000 Americans with severe hemophilia -- a hereditary disorder that disrupts blood clotting and often requires large-scale transfusions -- are believed to have been infected with HIV via tainted blood products in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said James Curran, who at the time headed the first AIDS task force at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

....

"Because blood drives are frequently held in schools and businesses, the donation policy can stigmatize gay men by preventing them from participating in an activity often used to build camaraderie and teamwork, said Sean Cahill, a managing director at the Gay Men's Health Crisis of New York.

The current ban "promotes the idea that gay men are a health threat," Cahill said."
libertad - 04/05/10 13:56
Of course they don't want our gay blood either. My mom (in Florida) just got free tickets to Disney for her blood. Kind of ironic since they don't want gay blood.
jenks - 04/04/10 12:54
They refused me because I didn't have much time, and couldn't wait in the whole line. I mean, I guess it's obnoxious to ask to cut to the front of the line- but if they're really as desperate for donors as they always act, you'd think they wouldn't turn away willing people. ah well.
tinypliny - 04/02/10 18:54
They give you Naked(TM) juice now when you donate at Roswell. (Or did, last year). I tried pretty hard to get in because my priorities are in the right place, of course and who in their right minds says no to Naked(TM) juice, right? But they point blank refused me because I didn't meet their weight criteria. :/

03/28/2010 21:43 #51285

from the rink
I need a button like this on my work computer:
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Ready to roll:
image

- Z
dragonlady7 - 03/30/10 20:32
I would like a button I could press to summon Leslie, but knowing her, I also think there needs to be a button to make her go away. She's awesome, but in controlled doses.
tinypliny - 03/30/10 20:06
What's Leslie got to do with anything?
james - 03/29/10 10:58
Never gonna give you up never gonna banjo attack
never gonna reverb main and leslie

03/26/2010 00:33 #51271

jerzmati
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This box of Rice-A-Roni was purchased [probably] in Jersey City some time after August 2001, and sat in a cupboard until January 2003. It was then moved to a different cupboard in Hastings-on-Hudson until almost exactly two years past its expiration date. At that point it was inexplicably moved to a third cupboard in Buffalo, where it sat until this evening.

I bought this box of Rice-A-Roni before I knew (e:dragonlady7). At the time, I slept on an air mattress, and most of my furniture was boxes I hadn't bothered to unpack. I drove a red 1992 GMC Jimmy with broken air conditioning and power windows. I ate more Chinese take-out than is advisable, from two restaurants: one had good food but crappy egg rolls; the other had good egg rolls but crappy everything else. I spent a lot of time wandering around lower Manhattan. I didn't know anyone in the area, so I was that weird guy who went to shows alone. My two favorite live bands were Cordero and Big Lazy, both of whom still seem to be active. I drank a lot of Skyy gimlets and the best ones were at Tonic, which is closed now, where they used fresh-squeezed lime juice.

When I bought this box of Rice-A-Roni, gas was $1.35 per gallon. Enron had yet to prove that the system works. The World Trade Center was still the easiest way to tell which way you were facing when you came out of the subway. The United States was not at war.

Goodbye, Chicken Teriyaki Rice-A-Roni. I knew the magic had gone from our relationship when I picked you up and a cloud of dust poofed out from the bottom. You may not be missed, but that is not because of any lingering animosity; it is because you are an eight-year-old box of Rice-A-Roni.

- Z
tinypliny - 03/27/10 13:11
Here's my non-romantic wegmati story. I opened a bottle of tomato sphaghetti sauce from weggies (that I bought last year, to tide over a tomato crisis). A HUGE blob of fungus was swimming in it along with a greenish kale like species growing on top.

metalpeter - 03/26/10 17:42
Interesting way to look back at how things where back then, good post by the way. n
paul - 03/26/10 00:58
I am so scared of old food. I found bugs in some old food mixes when we moved. They were sealed in the plastic inner packaging and were dead.

03/24/2010 22:34 #51262

ok i get it
The architecture of my office is nowhere near as awe-inspiring as the Roswell Park tuna can. But check out this sweet view from the corner office!

image

- Z

tinypliny - 03/25/10 09:09
WHO is that while ghost dancing - (e:Jim)? I always knew that was a weirdly cannot-put-a-finger-on-it side to (e:Jim).



(e:libertad) - your office is WAAAAY better than my office of 1.5 years at Roswell. We were in the laundry room with several colonies of mould. :) Your office may not have windows but I think it has ~20 feet ceilings!


libertad - 03/25/10 07:32
Unfortunately, I am not in the tuna can but in the North building. Your office beats my windowless one any day.

03/23/2010 22:36 #51256

drainage situation at work
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- Z
metalpeter - 03/24/10 17:57
Clash Of the Titans does look really good. hey if that grass is as crazy as it sounds maybe The Discory Channel could do a special on it.
tinypliny - 03/24/10 17:47
Bet it's an energy-conserving move-or-the-lights-go-out-automatically green building - yes?
jason - 03/24/10 14:26
Speaking of Kraken, I'm super geeked about the Clash of the Titans remake. So and so from Avatar is playing Perseus.
libertad - 03/24/10 13:28
I was also thinking all of the same things regarding this building, I just didn't want to say so.
jim - 03/24/10 13:24
It is always waterlogged and full of fowl (and kraken and sea serpents).
james - 03/24/10 10:42
Ugh. Not to mention that it is an ugly building surrounded by lawn that is constantly swampy. Plant some freakin' trees, would ya!
drew - 03/24/10 10:27
That is the most architecturally depressing structure ever built. It seems designed to kill your soul a little bit each time you look at it. The monster helps though.
james - 03/24/10 10:08
Thank god for touch typing.
jim - 03/24/10 10:00
That's where my face went :(

The blood constantly pooling in my uncovered eyes sockets prevented me from seeing you were the culprit.
zobar - 03/24/10 08:57
I also sit at his old desk and go to his meetings and pick up his paychecks and wear his face as a mask.

- Z
carolinian - 03/24/10 01:42
You and (e:jim) work in the same building.