Big numbers are hard to comprehend. I just read this short way to put big numbers in perspective:
It takes only 11 1/2 days for one million seconds to pass.
Nearly 32 years for one billion seconds…
And nearly 32,000 years for one trillion seconds to pass us by.
Phil over at Bad Astronomy Blog has a good post explaining just why space exploration is so important, in case anyone has forgotten exactly what we gain from it.
He also recently put NASA's budget into perspective: (emphasis mine)
A lot of people think NASA is a waste of time and money, and maybe this is why; they have a grossly overinflated idea of how much NASA spends. When NASA loses a $150 million probe, that’s a lot of real money, but hardly a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend as a nation (and remember, we spend $11 million per hour in Iraq).
Alright, I'm diabetic, I've covered that before. How often do I whine about how much it's changed my life or how much it hurts or how it alienates me? I don't. That's because all it is to me is an inconvenience. A chore. Some people brush their teeth after eating, I take a shot. Yes, I had to get over my fear of needles, but beyond that it's just a (slightly expensive) inconvenience.
I read some diabetes oriented websites and blogs to stay up on new treatments and such. It seems that the entire "community" of diabetics are a bunch of whiners who love to feel sorry for themselves. Specifically, Amy at diabetesmine.com and her readers. She's written a ton on the fancy wireless pump she uses that is so convenient. She knows how to ratio her insulin based on how many carbs she eats, and yet every chance she gets she complains about what a struggle it is and how thanksgiving is so troublesome because of all the danger foods.
GET OVER IT.
If I have a granola bar with 24g of carbs, I dose 1 unit of insulin.
If I have sweet & sour chicken with white rice, a total of 200g carbs, I dose 10 units. You see, my ratio is 1:20, so no matter what I eat I'm taking a shot, so what's the difference?
And I really don't think I'm "missing something." My A1c test scores have been 5.0 for a year. And just so you know, that's a better score than most normal people have.
Sorry, I just had to rant about all these people trying to tell me my life is ruined over such a trivial thing.
“Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.” - Rudy Giuliani
Want a good republican candidate? Ron Paul.
I stumbled upon this video this morning accidentally, and I admit it cut me pretty deep. Yeah, Diabetes can be a pain in the ass for me, but I've only had to put up with it for 1 year, as an adult. I cannot imagine how hard it is for the children out there who have to do finger pricks ~4 times a day, who have to take shots with every meal, and have an A1c done every 3 months. It's bad enough for a grown man, but for a child to have to bear that... it breaks my heart.
Watch the video, but only if you have some Kleenex nearby and you don't mind having puffy read eyes and nose for a while.
With turn from winter to spring and summer, my interest in photography has sprung back to normal. How can you not want to take pictures when the world is so bright and colorful? Snow just seems to kill it for me.
Health Insurance + Diabetes
Ever since I was diagnosed with Diabetes (almost a year ago), I have been fighting with Anthem to get them to pay for such things as blood-glucose test strips (Anywhere from $.50 to $.86 apiece, 4-6 strips a day), and my initial education from the hospital on how to dose insulin/etc.
After calling them every week for about 10 months, they finally conceeded that Diabetes was NOT pre-existing, and so they will "cover" all my expenses.
What they didn't mention is that by "cover" they really meant "apply to deductible." So in the end, the fight was for jack shit. They owe me $0, it seems.
Erin moved in
On July 1, Erin moved out of her old apartment and into mine. The transition was subtle; she had already been spending all but a couple nights a week at my place. We just moved her computer and her clothes over, and bought a new dresser.
It's been great so far :)
That seems like about it, for big events.
As it turns out, I suck at blogging. I figure, the people in my life like friends & family already know what is going on in my life, and does the world really need one more guy writing about his Exciting Thursday? I never could get the hang of Thursdays anyway.
But then from time to time something happens that really would make a good blog entry. I suppose I should write a few posts filling the world in on what's been goin on since March 22nd (my last post). ....
I have upgraded to Windows Vista. The following post is a collection of my thoughts so far:
Pros:
I saw this in the comments to an article on Digg and thought it was pretty darn funny:
Person 1: 1996 called, they want their material back.
Person 2: 2006 called... i think they wanted their "1996 called" joke back.
Person 1: oh ya? well the jerk store called, they're runnin' out of you!
Person 2: What's the difference, you're their biggest seller!
Person 1: oh yeah well i had sex with your wife.
