Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner (TGIF)'s LiveJournal:

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Friday, November 27th, 2009
3:08 am	A flash of sudden understanding (I can't believe I was that mistaken for so many years)... Have you ever had one of those moments of sudden illumination, where - while the world may not have suddenly turned upside down - something you've taken for granted for years or decades suddenly turns out to not only have been wrong, but so foolishly wrong that you can't believe that you ever believed it? This evening I had the second such event in my life. Before I get to tonight's "how could I ever have been that dumb" moment, let me roll the calendar back a few years to my first sudden illumination of DUH experience. As I need to do more often than I manage, I was taking my car through the drive-thru car wash. As I had done every time since I learned to read as a young child, when the car neared the end of the track and passed the flashing "Polish Wax" sign, I yet again tried to figure out why they used wax from Poland (or nowadays, presumably wax like the wax that used to come from Poland) for car washes. This time, unlike countless previous trips through the mechanical tunnel of cleanliness, I finally realized that the sign didn't say Pō·lish , instead, it said po·lish . Fortunately, I was still seatbelted, else I might have come to harm pounding my head on the windshield in frustration at all the time I had wasted in my life trying to puzzle out a problem that didn't even exist. Alas, that was not the last time in my life that I was to be overwhelmed at the magnitude of my stupidity; that I was to suddenly discover that something that I thought was just "one of those odd things" that you run into every now and then, was in fact a total lack of my ability to understand something so fundamental, that I was quite possibly the only person in the entire world to be so deluded as to be confused in this matter. Earlier today, as I have often done at this time of year, I was thinking about the term "Black Friday". I had never quite figured out why they called it that. I mean, black normally has very negative connotations. Black Tuesday and Black Thursday (called Black Friday in Europe due to time differences) were the two critical days when the U.S. stock market crashed in 1929. And Black Monday is when the stock market crashed in 1987. And let us not forget about the Black Death. So you can understand why I've always been a bit puzzled why they called the Friday after Thanksgiving "Black Friday". After all, there aren't that many people injured in the crush to get into stores first, so as to grab the "limited supply" bargains. Although there have been deaths, like the stampede last year at Wal-Mart, they are (thank G-d) the rare exception. I don't know why this year's was different from previous years' musings on this subject. Maybe the fact that I have spent the last several weeks, desperately trying to get my family's budget to balance with the strains it is being placed under, that finally shed the proper light on the subject. I finally realized that it was Black Friday as in "balance book" black. Also known as "in the black" versus being "in the red" (which is where most of the country is at the moment, but that's another story). While not quite the same level of having the Earth fall out from under my feet shock as my previous experience with suddenly being filled with a flash of understanding, here too was the jaw dropping sense of "how could I have missed something so obvious". The only comfort I can take is that at least in this case, instead of having a totally wrong understanding of what was going on, I just had no understanding at all. Fortunately, I have run out of things that I keep puzzling over periodically, so I should be safe from ever having to go though this again. Then again, I may have things that I have so totally misunderstood that I don't even have a clue that I've misunderstood them. If so, if I ever manage to have a "flash of sudden understanding" regarding such, I'm going to feel so much worse than I did in either of these cases, that you will have to use power tools to extricate my head from whatever I manage to pound it into. By the way, have any of you ever had a "flash of sudden understanding"? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Current Mood: amused (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
12:11 am	Forget about fixing healthcare, let's fix the doctors first Even the top medical centers in the country get crazy doctors on staff from time to time. I am a patient at one of the top pain clinics in the US. Regretfully, the doctor who has been managing my case for the last several years had to move out of state due to family matters, so they hired a new doctor to replace him. I doubt this doctor ever read my chart. Mind you, my chart fills over two feet of file space, so it is a bit intimidating, but I don't think he even opened the cover. I am dying of a rare medical condition, and when reviewing this with him during our first meeting he was very dismissive. He kept asking if there had been any definitive tests proving the diagnosis and I kept explaining to him that no such test exists, but that two doctors at the Mass General, five doctors at the Mayo Clinic, as well as others at DMC, U of M, etc., were all certain of this diagnosis. I then reviewed a recent MRI with him, explaining that while the radiologist report had somehow missed it, my neurologist had found a blockage in a major artery to the brain (one that has a twin, else I wouldn't be typing this). Again, he was dismissive of what I "said" my neurologist "found", could not be bothered to call the neurologist's office, in essence saying that if it wasn't in the radiologist's report, it must not exist. Later on, I had my neurologist send him a letter confirming his finding. So at my second appointment with this new doctor (where I had to remind him that he had received this letter), he decided that he would have to order further tests to see who was right about the blockage, the radiologist or my neurologist. I have no problem with this except the blocked artery is in the back of my neck and the tests that he ordered were for a scan of the arteries in the front of my neck. Not only does this doctor not listen to me, he can't even be bothered to fully read a letter in front of him. (I didn't find out this error until I had my neurologist review the test orders prior to having them done.) At that point I filed a detailed complaint with the pain clinic. Apparently I wasn't the only one, since this new doctor has suddenly left "to pursue other interests" after being there only six months. What bothers me (other than this doctor being totally unqualified to be practicing medicine with living patients) is that when he was hired, the pain clinic listed a long list of his qualifications and past positions, making him sound like he was the greatest thing since penicillin. Assuming that he was actually let go, will they give a negative job reference when called, or will they white wash it for fear of being sued? I know in other fields, where lives are not on the line, we often are not allowed to give negative referrals for this very reason. Many companies give no referrals at all because of this, causing their excellent workers to lose out because of fear of litigious poor workers. You would think that in a case where someone's job performance affects the health and well-being - let alone the lives - of people, that a full and honest disclosure of past job performance would not only be expected, but should be made mandatory, what we need is a shield law so that companies can give honest appraisals of former employees past performance. Current Mood: aggravated (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
9:31 pm	After much difficulty, I finally managed to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu today. This was critical, since I am so weakened by MELAS that I could easily be killed by a bad case of the flu. I missed the first clinic since it was held on a Saturday, my Sabbath. The second had huge lines they ran out long before I got near the front. Today, I showed up three hours before they opened their doors. And while there were hundreds in front of me, I had no problems getting in (eventually). I guess my user pic above is quite out of date, as you can see below. For whatever reason, the local paper decided to use a picture of me as the front page photo of their online edition: I'm just glad the day is over and that I can sit down. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
6:30 pm	Latest stats in from the programming language popularity contests OK, so it's not really popularity contests, it's just an interesting job trends graph I built: Since March 2008, the following has occurred: Php jobs increased 150% Perl jobs increased 104% Java jobs increased 91% C jobs increased 48% Visual Basic jobs increased 42% Cobol jobs increased 38% Fortran jobs increased 33% C++ jobs increased 19% Html jobs increased 10% Assuming that this data is correct, some interesting observations: Despite being "obsolete" for years,procedural C still dominates over object oriented C++ Then again, this may be due to Java having stolen C++'s thunder Despite our best attempts, Visual Basic still refuses to die While not offering the most jobs, web oriented languages (scripting languages and java) as showing twice the growth rate of their nearest competitors. Of course, with so many programming jobs going overseas, and so few Americans training in computer science any more, most of the above really doesn't matter except to old coots like me who have been around since since the days of punch cards. Data provided by SimplyHired.com, a search engine for jobs. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
2:23 am	Now even terrorists want to have OSHA! It seems that the terrorists digging tunnels between Gaza and Egypt have been having too many fatal accidents, so now a Gazan human rights group is demanding that Hamas step in and impose safety standards and health care for those digging and working in the smuggling tunnels. And to add insult to injury, they complain, other than the gasoline, everything that is being smuggled in from Egypt is junk that the Egyptians don't want! ( Details in the news story behind the cut... ) Current Mood: amused (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
2:00 pm	Geeks revenge! Having given up on Windows in favor of Linux years ago (other than running Windows in a virtual machine when absolutely forced to), I found the follow three ad spoofs quite entertaining... The first video is really just an intro to the rest of the series... Current Mood: amused (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
7:12 pm	They can't even give away houses in Detroit Despite a minimum bid of only $500 dollars, over 80% of 9,000 Detroit homes up for auction had no takers... ( Sad details behind the cut ) Current Mood: sad (Comment on this)
5:54 pm	I knew I wasn't crazy! (More or less) I finally have vindication that I'm not crazy.  Yet another study shows that people who are "Night Owls" are such due to genetics, that it is very difficult for them to change, and this is due to the coinciding of increased motor cortex and spinal cord excitability in the evening. From a different article than the one behind the cut, it states: "Severe night-owl symptoms, also known as Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, are a condition characterized by extreme difficulty falling asleep before 2 a.m. and trouble waking early. When forced to rise in time for 9-to-5 jobs, they are rarely at their most productive." Now if only society would recognize us as a class and then be required to make accommodations for us... ( Details behind the cut ) Current Mood: vindicated (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
1:45 am	Do I have a business opportunity for you... I keep hearing about parents who are suffering terribly from empty nest syndrome. Assuming that such people actually exist (my wife and I must be rotten parents - not only did we not feel bad when the youngest moved out (for as long as it lasted, we have two back home now), but we were actually enjoying living alone!), I have discovered a business opportunity for you. This works best if you still have teenagers of your own at home, since all you need to do is to rent them out. But if you don't, with a bit of extra effort you can manage it on your own. Just offer those poor sufferers of empty nest syndrome a weekly house messing service. For a proper fee, you'll arrange for bathroom towels to be left on the floor, mud tracked though the carpet, a few random pieces of dishware broken, hairballs planted in showers and tubs, toothpaste tubes squeezed in the middle and left open oozing out over the counter, and so forth. For a slight extra fee, you can offer additional services such as coming by late in the evening and playing music they hate at high volume, moving their mail and files around so that they can't find important documents except by the most thorough of searches, and if they sign a health waiver and make an appropriate damage deposit, you can even arrange for a full blown shouting match. Yes, why should you leave people suffering the throes of despair from empty nest syndrome when you can not only help ease their pain but make a tidy profit too? Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Friday, October 16th, 2009
2:57 pm	Internet access is not only a human right, but now it's a legal right too! Finland is the first country to make it a legal right to have access to high speed internet, having previously declared internet access a human right ! France's highest court has also declared access to the internet a human right!! Estonia and Greece have previously taken similar measures, Additionally, the UN is attempting to pass a resolution making internet access a worldwide human right!! (I kid you not - this is too wild to make up.) ( Shocking details behind the cut... ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
11:05 pm	Today's mega dose of irony In order to understand what had me laughing out of control for the first time in a long time, let me give you the background that preceded the trigger... In the October 2nd issue of Science, a major revolution in paleontology was announced in 11 papers. You can read a summary newspaper article here, or see the full set of downloaded articles here, but in essence, a new pre-human, more than a million years older than "Lucy" has been found, and they now believe that apes are descended from humans (or human-like creatures) rather than the other way around. The irony that had me laughing out of control for several minutes? In the October 1st issue of The FASEB Journal, which I read after having read the articles in Science, doctors were discussing a nasal spray that seems to help in the formation of long term memories. One quote in the article from Gerald Weissmann, M.D., editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal, had me laughing out of control wondering how he felt after the revelations in Science. His quote: “If a nasal spray can improve memory, perhaps we’re on our way to giving some folks a whiff of common sense, such as accepting the realities of evolution.” Oh yes - timing is everything in humor. (And by the way doctor, it's not the reality of evolution but the theory of evolution.) Current Mood: laughing (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
3:53 am	Police run amok This item thanks to sleepyjohn00 It seems the police have been running amok in a small town, terrorizing residents and visitors alike. When the fire chief had had enough and was protesting in court, a cop shot him in court !! ( Weird details can be found after the break... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
5:06 pm	This should brighten your day I ran into this photo series at Time Magazine, and it's sure to brighten your day! Click here to see the series Current Mood: amused (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
2:41 am	Latest addition to the endangered species list: the busy signal It just struck me today how long it's been since the last time I've heard a busy signal. Between call waiting, voice mail, call hunting, etc., I can't recall the last time a phone basically told me "I'm busy now. Go away and try again later." What has happened to us that we have to be so constantly in touch that we can't allow for the possibility of missing someone's attempt to get in touch with us? I remember when cell phones first came out, and my employer wanting to get me one. I absolutely wanted to have nothing to do with it. It didn't take too many brains to anticipate how it would be used to intrude on what little free time I might have during the day, and certainly would be used to chase me down during my personal time for so-called "business reasons" that really didn't justify interrupting me outside of work hours. In the end I was tagged with a pager (do they even exist anymore?), which while intrusive, people somehow were less inclined to call than a cell phone. How times have changed! Nowadays, if I am parted from my cell phone for more than a few minutes I start to get anxious that I might be missing an important call or text message. So far I have drawn the line and not turned on constant internet access from the phone, but I suspect that given the right device that even this final barrier to needing to be constantly connected will finally fall. I think I could survive the withdrawal of going into deep woods where no signal could reach me. I'm not so sure about many of the younger generation if they were put into that same situation. Current Mood: amused (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
1:30 am	Apologies Sorry for dumping all of my frustration onto the net yesterday. The week had just had too many things pile up on me at once, between doctors with bad news and a lot of stress in getting reading for the arrival of my daughter, son-in-law and four grand children for a month. I'm afraid that I needed a good cry, and that rant was the closest I could allow myself. Thanks everyone for your understanding. Hopefully I'll have lots of good news and photos to share next week once everyone is here and things have, G-d willing, calmed down a bit. Current Mood: resigned (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
12:46 am	Things that bother me. Things have been very tough the last several years. And at this point I'm not sure what bothers me most. Is it doctors who seem to take more delight in telling me how little time I have left to live instead of helping me fight and stretch to make the best possible odds in my favor? Or better yet, when I beat their predictions of when I should have died, they manage to find yet another serious health issue that will kill me in a few years even if I manage to continue to miraculously survive the first condition? Or I find a webcomic or online story that manages to help distract me from my constant intense pain, or even better manages to lift my mood (which for some strange reason is often depressed, despite my best efforts to fight it off), and don't you know, but it's guaranteed that the better it is and the more enjoyment I'm getting from it, the more likely it is going to reach a high point in the story only to never update again. Or is it friends and family that tell me that I should be satisfied with what I have and with what I am able to do, that I should be thankful that things aren't worse. Or, strange as it seems after the last paragraph, is it friends and family who come along - generally when I am doing my poorest - and tell me I should be trying to do more. I wouldn't mind this too much, except the ideas they come up with are so fantastically beyond what I could ever possibly do that it shows a total lack of understanding of my limitations. I hate people expecting too little from me, as if I was totally incapable of doing anything, but at the same time I feel crushed if they expect way too much from me. (I don't mind people expecting a reasonable amount too much, just such an extravagant amount that it shows a lack of understanding of my limitations). And what bothers me most is having a body, memory and mind that no longer enable me to do all of the things that I would like to do. Current Mood: ready to give up (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
11:23 pm	MRI/MRA and other medical results For the first time, in addition to the mitochondrial related strokes from my MELAS, I now have vascular problems too. One of the major arteries in the neck supplying the brain is totally blocked. If it wasn't a twinned artery I wouldn't be here typing this. Not only am I now in essence having to live off of a spare, but I am at risk of severe vascular stroke if something breaks off of the blockage. My homocysteine level is through the roof, putting me at risk of both stroke and Alzheimer's. Normally levels this high aren't seen unless there is a specific genetic mutation. Since I do not have this mutation the doctors are at a loss to explain why my homocysteine levels are so high. I am starting medication to try and bring this down. Other things are out of whack too. For example, despite being on a high level of prescription vitamin D supplementation, my blood level of vitamin D has again become inexplicably very low. The summary from the doctors was pretty grim. I had to remind them yet again that their job is to act as a conduit to bring G-d's healing into the world and not to act as prophets trying to predict the future. But it is getting harder and harder to not give up. Current Mood: sad (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
12:38 pm	End of an era My wife has put her foot down and is making me face up to the reality that I am not going to be returning to software development in the foreseeable future. So it's time to clean out my office. I'm donating about 150 programming related books to the college that I used to teach at, and clearing out a huge amount of outdated computers and spare parts that I don't really need any more, since I no longer am actively involved in fixing PCs for people in the community. By the time I'm done (and this will take me a while), I will have emptied out about one and a half rooms. It feels like I'm throwing out an old friend. :-( But I guess it's time to face up to reality and move forward. And we need the room for the grandchildren when they visit this summer! :-) Current Mood: mixed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
11:19 am	Who am I? Normally I don't do these online quizzes, but the geek in me was really curious to find out who I'd be scored as. I had to disagree with the "romantic relationships" part though. I've only ever had one, and thank G-d it continues to be great! Your results: You are Geordi LaForge Geordi LaForge 75% Spock 62% Jean-Luc Picard 60% Beverly Crusher 60% Data 53% Worf 50% Chekov 40% Uhura 40% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 40% James T. Kirk (Captain) 35% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 35% Mr. Scott 35% Will Riker 30% Deanna Troi 30% Mr. Sulu 20% You work well with others and often fix problems quickly. Your romantic relationships are often bungled. Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test Current Mood: amused (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
1:34 am	Some (delayed) pictures from our trip to Australia For those who are interested, a few pictures from my trip to Australia ( Pictures behind the cut... ) Current Mood: nostalgic (Comment on this)