Sunday, May 18, 2003

Say what?

Fox News just reported on the murder bomber in Morocco. The newscaster said that Morocco may now be paying a price for friendship with the West.

What a crock. Morocco is paying a price for tolerating the existence of some murderous thugs. Arab countries might fear domination by the West, but surely that's no worse than being dominated by any creep who can get his hands on a bomb.

Fun with bladders

Whatever would we do about bladders? You just asked yourself that very question a few minutes ago, right?

There are various bladders in the human body, but the one that most of us think of is probably the urinary bladder. Especially if you're a woman - that short pathway between it and the outside doesn't provide much protection, so you're more prone to have infections or irritations.

Even so, it can be tricky to catheterize you women - germs can find their way in but your nurse might not. I'm told that the secret is to ask the patient to cough.

How big is the average bladder? My buddy Zorba from college had one that was exactly 12 ounces - one can of beer, one trip to the john. Apparently he's not as odd as we all thought at the time - estimates vary, but allegedly the average bladder holds about 17-18 ounces. The "urge" shows up a lot sooner than that though.

Need to make sure you wake up on time? Drink about a pint of something before you go to bed. That seems to limit me to about 4 hours of sleep tops. I know - thank you for sharing.

Some people have "bashful bladders". Of course there's a five dollar word for this - "avoidant paruresis". It even has its own website.

I'm not sure where, but I thought I read this in the late Alex Haley's now-discredited book "Roots". It seems that for entertainment, the slaves would take bladders from slaughtered animals and heat them over a fire until they popped. May you never get so bored.

On the road again...

We keep hearing about how mobile Americans are, but even then I'm guessing I'm a couple of sigmas off center. I've had mailing addresses in 8 states that I recall, and often more than one in those. And now it starts again in Indy - the second week is about to start, and I'm not even in the same motel I was in for the first week.

Relocating is a PITA for sure, but it has its pluses. One of the best is that you're "reborn" - you meet a bunch of people with no preconceptions about you besides maybe an interview, background check and a resume. It's a great opportunity to break out of ruts, start new hobbies, and generally get your act together. It's not exactly like Groundhog Day, but you do get a chance to remake yourself to a certain extent. IMO it might be funny if people who had worked with me at different places got to compare notes - it would be like the blind men and the elephant (and almost none of them know that I have a blog...)

Driving gets old too. Yesterday I drove from Indianapolis to St. Louis. Tomorrow I'll drive to upstate IL, then from there back to Indy, totaling about 400 miles. And I'll be doing something similar for the next several weeks as I finish organizing and moving. But...I have some tapes and CDs I've been intending to listen to, including Pimsleur tapes for Spanish (that I keep wanting to answer in German). I can practice what I call singing far from innocent ears. If I think of something noteworthy I can whip out the voice recorder and deal with it later. If I have time I'll get off the interstate and check out the back roads just to see what's going on. Throw in a cellphone with headphones and life is just one big beer commercial.

But I'd better get moving so I'll have time to hunt for that laptop tomorrow. Then maybe I'll blog about something interesting.

Where are the Indy bloggers?

I've been to Indy twice before, but I didn't blog back then. So I don't know too much about what's going on there yet. But I have a few clues.

I'm not sure exactly where Gregory Harris of Planet Swank is in Indy, but I'm guessing the left side... Likewise for Jeff Cooper. Hmm - we never seemed to get any lefties like ArchPundit to show up at St. Louis Blogbashes - this ought to be interesting if we manage to get together...

Further out, I know Dodd and Brent about 100 miles away down I-65. Josh Claybourne and the Hoosier Review conspiracy are in somewhere in that nest of Commies/porn production playground called Bloomington. The Axis of Greeblie is downstate somewhere, and I thought Paul Musgrave was in Evansville.

So where is everybody, and when do we get together?

Greetings from Indianapolis

Yep, that's the new day gig. I've been incommunibloggo because I can't find that cheapo old laptop of mine and I don't blog from work. And what with moving and all, there's been plenty to do anyway. Best estimate is that I'll be here 3 months. It could be a lot longer just because I'm just such a helluva guy, but you never know what can happen when a company has a bad quarter.