Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Cultural Context

caduceus

I am in the throes of my annual sinus infection. I thought I’d managed to avoid this year’s thrilling science experiment. I’m not that freakin lucky!

This one is worse than previous years and I’m on an antibiotic. Thus far pretty standard stuff.

Except that as I’ve gotten older I appear to be developing a sensitivity to some antibiotics.

I took the drug as prescribed on Friday.  After not sleeping and being in really serious pain.  (achey joints, cramping, all the long muscles hurting and a blinding headache.) Saturday morning, I called the pharmacy.

These symptoms were not present on Thursday, and only began to show up as Friday evening wore on. 

Things went down hill from there.

The pharmacist spoke English mostly. His accent is so heavy I could barely understand him.

He wasn’t listening to what I was saying. Then without thinking I used an American colloquialism “I feel like I’ve been in an auto accident”

pharmacy

The pharmacist told me ”drink more water and eat something when you take the pill” which is exactly what he told me on Thursday, and exactly what is printed on the instructions for use.

It was only after I hung up that I realized he probably didn’t understand the americanism.

Depending on what shit hole 3rd world country he came from, it was likely that he didn’t have a car until he got here, and therefore wouldn’t have the common experience of being in an auto accident during the 60s, 70s, or 80s.

Come on… if you’re over a certain age, didn’t all your friends have at least one small accident? Didn’t their parents?

But if you were in a 3rd world country you probably didn’t have a car, and if you did you likely were never driving more than 40MPH because the roads were bad.

Given that, there was no common ground for him to compare to.

But there’s another issue that sometimes happens with 3rd world individuals in professional situations. They really don’t listen very well except to each other.

I suspect this is a vestige of the old caste systems and if someone came to America to break free of that system, they tend to be a little dismissive. It makes sense in a weird sort of way. You see similar effects with the “new rich” regardless of where someone comes from.

In technology development situations this can be a problem but it’s easily monitored and corrected. 

baddrugs

In a medical situation…

Theoretically it could be fatal.

For example, the symptoms I was complaining of are now reducing instead of increasing. The pain had become debilitating by last night. So this morning, I decided to forego the scheduled dose.

It’s been greater than 12 hours since I took the last antibiotic. I’m still weak, and achy, but I’m feeling much better than I did.

I still don’t trust my reaction times to be fast enough to handle driving, so I’m canceling my plans for the evening.  I’m waiting to have a chat with my doctor and from there we’ll decide how to proceed.

I’ve also started a journal that describes the issues I’ve had with various drugs. 

From here on out, I’m checking the list before I leave the Docs office.

Apparently, I can no longer rely on my local pharmacy for advice.

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I be Free! Free At LAST!

racistseverywhere

Got the last bill from Verizon today.

Which is funny because they claim they bill a month in advance. When I cancelled the service the lady I was speaking with said sh thought I’d be getting a refund.

The young man I spoke to this morning said “We bill a month in advance, but because you cancelled service mid month you owe us.”

The way I understand those terms, I take it to mean that since I was on a fixed rate plan, my payment in Late Feb, would pay for March, and my Payment made in late March would pay for April.

When I mentioned to the young, obviously black man on the phone that I don’t think the terms they’re using mean what they think they do. He got just a little annoyed and told me I don’t understand English.

Verizon

It took all the power I could summon to not respond to that line with;

At least I speak the language without an accent that obviously identifies me as a minority, thereby inciting racist behavior

or I’m sorry my translator is broken what did you say?

or No, I don’t know what you’re sayin

or any of the 1000 other things I could have said that would have been construed as racist. Some of which would truly have been racist and meant as such.

baltimore

Instead, rather than Verizon calling me a racist again, I cut this guy off with, “So what I owe you is $60 and we’re freakin done is that correct? ”

It suddenly occurred to me that I was probably talking to Verizon in Missouri. Which is the place I was talking to when I was accused of being a racist. Since then I’ve given up trying not to be labeled a racist.

My speech patterns identify me as a white male as surely as the predominant African American speech patterns identify a black person.

Regardless of my intentions, or what is in my heart,  I will always be judged on the phone through whatever lens the person on the other end of the phone chooses to see the world through. Since I sound white, the black person assumes that I’m a racist and thus I am. There is no way that can be undone.

talktothehand

Rather than continuing a losing conversation it was easier for me to write a check and be done with Verizon. After all it’s not my freakin job to educate people who aren’t remotely interested in what I have to say.

Time to cut my losses and get on with life.

“Booolahmuwanaboola”

Sorry man, I didn’t understand what you were saying, I’d already turned off the translation matrix.

You were talking to THE HAND!

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The problem with 3 ways, someone is almost ALWAYS selfish!

Interesting

By now you’ve all figured out that I’m a contradiction.

On the one hand I’m somewhat conservative, on the other hand, in some areas I’m uhh… adventurous. “Yeah that’s a good word I’ll stick to it.” There is rarely a clear cut predictor about where I’m going to come down on any particular subject.

Love it or hate it my reactions are almost always “Interesting”.

Recently, I met someone who is interesting and adventurous and we ended up in a 3 way with my partner of many years. This isn’t the first time and likely won’t be the last.  This time however, I was in a position where I was a little more disconnected than usual.

A good time was had by all (I hope) but one of the things I noticed was that in a 3 way there is no room for selfishness.

The absolute best 3 way I’ve ever been in was a situation where everyone was all about giving and enjoying the pleasure of giving. This was in my very early years and I naively thought, “sex would always be like this.”  In that situation, not only should the “Needy” not apply… They weren’t allowed to apply.

This more recent situation was a bit different, and once again I was the one forced into trying to keep all the balls in the air. Ahem so to speak.

The point is, a 3 way can be really awesome for one, two, or all three of the parties involved. But one should always be mindful that sharing is important. You shouldn’t allow a situation where only one of the parties is catering to the wants and needs of two of the parties exclusively.

dildobrunch

Ok so you want something inserted… Great! How about remembering to give a comforting touch, or a kiss to whatever part of another person you can reach?

How about remembering that the person driving the two massive latex instruments of insertion now, no longer has a hand free.

How about appreciating that the “driver” here might be using both hands, and a thigh and a knee to bring pleasure to two of you but that the “driver” might be completely off balance and while they’re enjoying watching you squirm, they might also like a little help with balance, particularly if you’re thrashing all over the place.

How about remembering that this act of gymnastic legerdemain might be very uncomfortable and should be rewarded with a comforting hand or mouth, and that it’s in your best interest to keep the practitioner of these gymnastics engaged and intensely pleasured so that they are able to more easily forget about the cramping and joint pain they’re experiencing.

3wayfeet

You’d think that all these things would be self evident.

Even if they’re not, you’d assume that when one of the people who happens to be tied up, comments on the gymnastics with surprise and lust shining brightly in their eyes. That the other participant might decide to discontinue being selfish.

Alas, your assumption would be wrong, such was not the case.

In retrospect it’s obvious I tied the wrong person up. Live and learn!

What I learned was that I need additional rope, a ball gag and a sturdy chair in the next room!

ballgagsturdychair

The next 3 way is going to involve tying up the selfish party in another room and then having wild monkey sex with the person who appreciates my tender mercies.

Just once in these situations… I’d really like to be the one who lays back and fucking enjoys being serviced!

Just once!!!

I should say however, I wouldn’t trade the experiences I’ve had for anything.

I love busting a nut as much as the next guy, but having complete control of two people in the throes of sexual anticipation, joy, depravity, ecstasy is a total rush!

And yes… I’ve probably crossed the TMI line with this post.

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Ahhhh That’s nice… You could’a told me about it sooner!

I’m very fortunate to have some really smart friends.

Unfortunately, those same friends sometimes forget to share really important stuff.

So rather than complain about my friends lack of sharing… I’m going to share with you.

As I’ve written recently, ads, popups, and all the tracking crap on the internet has gotten completely out of control.  We’ve all told our browsers to block ads, popups, and everything else we can.

Blocking popups can sometimes be a problem because some sites actually use pop-ups in the way they were intended to be used, instead of as a means to display an ad for the latest dancing dildo from ronco.

Ads in general aren’t a big issue & I generally don’t mind seeing them. Until they become so intrusive that I can’t read the web page I want to read.

Its become insane, ads for everything I’ve EVER looked up are flashing around the perimeter of the page leaving me a 1 inch wide strip of text that I actually want to see.

Apple addresses this in part on iPad, iPhone, & Mac with their “reader” view. This strips everything out of the page and presents clean easily readable content. The problem is, I’ve not found a way to turn “reader” view on all the time by default.  (I’ve often thought that would be bliss.)

Adblockplus

So after yesterday’s post about the jpg that was nothing more than a link to a malware infested site.

A friend contacted me this morning and after several exchanges asked if there was a program like ADBlock for the Mac.

“ADBlock? What the hell is ADBlock?” I think to myself.  

BING Search ADBLOCK

Surf the web without annoying ads

D’OH!!!!!

Surprise, surprise surprise! They make a version for Safari!

“Damn straight, I want to download it!”

One simple manageable extension to safari and Bliss! 

It also displays how many ads it’s blocked per page. 

REALLY Breitbart, 17 ads on a single page? Do you think you’re being a little excessive???

While the application counts the ads… I don’t see them! 

Blessings to the folks at Adblock Plus!

To my friends using this application…

Speak up sooner!

You all know I run a very vanilla system but I do take a look at applications and stuff that you suggest…

I might think you don’t love me or something, you sadistic bastards!

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Warning Warning Warning

Ran across this bullshit today.

BULLSHIT

This ENTIRE banner is redirect to a website. Clicking anything in this ad takes you to a website listed as virus laden.

We’ve all gotten so used to dismissing these ads, now we do it reflexively without really reading this crap. Media Player 11? Never heard of it, and it’s not loaded on my computer. 

But I am scanning my system for viruses and will scan for malware just to be safe.

There is no circle of hell that could punish people putting this kind of bullshit on the network, in the way they so richly deserve.

The most annoying part is that the web site I was visiting when this popped up was supposedly a legitimate news site.

Be careful…