The Riddle of SphynxCatVP

It's the Count! On Google!

2009-11-09T05:31:41Z

And this icon just seems so MASSIVELY appropriate, considering I think the Elmo logo was yesterday...

go here for today's google logo (or click here if you're not seeing this on Monday the 9th, USA time.)

*giggles all the way to bed*

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T19:30:30Z

moar funny pictures

Teh Funneh (and stupid) - Video

2009-10-31T03:28:39Z

Ya'll can blame hank_riker for this bit of absoLUTE insanity in a video....

Vampire Reunion - and yea, there's definitely some GROANERS in there!

Bluh! Bluh!

2009-10-25T22:14:26Z

(bet you thought I was gonna say blood didn't ya? *snerkles*)

(Hover over picture to see alt text)

SL Humor

2009-10-23T15:35:09Z

Background for those who aren't used to SL's in-world games:
There are - now - a few various "roleplay" *coughcough* systems in SL using vampire themes. (the most famous in SL right now is called Bloodlines) Usually these have programmed radar systems that tell you little bits of information about who's in range, such as whether they're also members of the same "roleplay" system or not.

Anyway, here's the snippet:

[08:23] Janet Xenno: strange...you are not a vampire!!!
[08:24] Sphynx Soleil laughs
[08:25] Sphynx Soleil: how do you know that?
[08:25] Sphynx Soleil: Or rather, how can you be sure?
[08:25] Janet Xenno: because i'm one...and i have the scanner

There was much cackling at my end.... :)

lolcats - fill it or be in it :)

2009-09-21T19:09:30Z

Heh heh heh.

Had to share. :-)

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It's been a long week

2009-09-20T12:29:38Z

It's been a busy week, all of it due to RL for a change, heh. :) But, I have to share something in all this, as it turned out to be an "Eeek! I gotta do WHAT?" experiment this week.

Essentially, I spent at least, oh, three to four hours OUTDOORS, standing at least partially in the direct sun, in one day. The weather promised cloudy day, but surprise! the clouds vanished. :( Last time this happened I got sun poisoning because I was being an idiot.

(My famous last words: "Why did you do x?" "Because I was an idiot.." LOL! and hopefully this will be the LAST time for a whiiiiiile.)

This time I was determined to be PREPARED! So I slathered on my current experimental sunscreen (20 spf, all natural, no PABA, no oxybenzone chemical family, HAS titanium dioxide - made by Nature's Gate and sold on Amazon, you can even find it in 4, 8 and 12 packs with the right search!) into my "glazed donut" impression, AND did quadruple level doses of the 2-to-1 ratio of vitamin C to vitamin E (Essentially, 4,000IU's of vitamin E, and at least 8,000mg of vitamin C) - half before I left the house, and half when I was done for the day as a booster.

Outside of a couple spots I wasn't as thorough in covering with the sunscreen being a bit pink (I gauged my application by how hot my skin was feeling), I'm actually feeling pretty good today, all things considered. No overheating misery, no sun poisoning effects, etc.

So the information I have here - at least in combination with a damn good sunscreen - REALLY. WORKS.

Thought of the day

2009-09-09T01:32:34Z

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood."
-- Marie Curie

Not surprisingly, I found it in a medical manual forward. :)

The Evil Codex

2009-09-04T21:07:23Z

(No, I don't mean the vampire codex either...)

You'll understand when you visit these links here and here

What does it mean for you, the consumer? You'll get screwed on vitamin supplements. Those things that keep us sane will no longer be legal in the doses that actually WORK.

Spread the links, spread the word. Sign the petition ASAP!

Had. To share. (lolcat)

2009-08-28T03:10:08Z

*cackles and gigglesnerks*

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Laughter, disappointment and WTF????

2009-08-18T06:45:40Z

First the laughter:

A woman went to a dinner one evening wearing a modestly low-cut dress. Suffering from the sniffles, she hastily shoved some tissues into the bodice of her gown. At the dinner, her nose began to run and she began digging around in her dress for the tissues. As a male dinner companion looked on in fascination, the woman turned distractedly to him and said, "I know there were two of them in there when I came in."

The disappointment is that it looks like Reader's Digest is filing for bankruptcy - which REALLY sucks. As cheesy as it is, it's one of the things I always looked forward to seeing at the houses of my relatives, because I always read it for the jokes. Was never impressed a whole lot with the articles, but loved the jokes. Like the one above. :)

And the wtf moment...Woman apparently pregnant with TWELVE babies????

I'm sorry, but...

PEOPLE WERE NOT MEANT TO HAVE LITTERS!!!!!!!

Are these people just INSANE???

Semi-Back

2009-08-17T11:30:09Z

RL is still intruding on my life in major major ways, so the next few months will still be scattered bits of online time.

However, I get just enough free time here and there to do some site updates, which are posted over on sphynxcat_news when I get them done. :)

Those of you who watch this LJ but not the news one

2009-08-11T04:46:08Z

I've made a couple posts on sphynxcat_news for site updates. Just in case some of ya'll watch this one but not the other one. :)

Just what the vampire ordered!

2009-07-19T19:40:02Z

*cackle, snerk*

Ya'll can thank sanguinarius for this NIFTY piece of craziness.

Bloody candy, anyone? OMG I couldn't stop laughing at this page. Thanks Sangi, I needed that laugh today!

sphynxcatvp @ 2009-07-11T06:21:00

2009-07-11T10:22:31Z

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Now only semi-hiatus

2009-07-09T12:11:00Z

Now only semi-hiatus.

I have some spare time again, but it's sporadic, not regular. Likely to be sporadic for a while yet.

[Hiatus alert] Vampires Today by Joseph Laycock

2009-07-03T02:48:31Z

As mentioned in Sanguinarius' newsletter. Yea, that one that I'm sure some of ya'll are sick of hearing about.

Well, I banged through it tonight. Skimmed really, but a thorough skimming, relatively speaking, compared to my usual devouring of books. (I'll read it again in the future when my RL settles down.)

And it is good.

I really do believe the author has taken the time and effort to be ~~neutral~~ unbiased towards everyone.

Go buy it. Read it. (And support Sangi with the link in her newsletter! :) )

Otherwise, I'm still ON HIATUS

One reason why I beat on people to learn medicine :)

2009-06-12T23:57:01Z

One reason why I beat on people to learn medicine - or at least how to diagnose a problem with your available resources. :)

Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class

Always always ALWAYS get a second/third/fourth opinion if everything is NOT ok and you're getting the runaround from the doctors. Fresh eyes on a problem never hurt. :)

For eight years, Jessica Terry suffered from stomach pain so horrible, it brought her to her knees. The pain, along with diarrhea, vomiting and fever, made her so sick, she lost weight and often had to miss school. During a science class, Jessica Terry, 18, discovered a tell-tale granuloma in her own pathology slide.

Her doctors, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't figure out the cause of Jessica's abdominal distress.

Then one day in January, Terry, 18, figured it out on her own.

In her Advanced Placement high school science class, she was looking under the microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue -- slides her pathologist had said were completely normal -- and spotted an area of inflamed tissue called a granuloma, a clear indication that she had Crohn's disease.

[Chron's Disease information]

"It's weird I had to solve my own medical problem," Terry told CNN affiliate KOMO in Seattle, Washington. "There were just no answers anywhere. ... I was always sick."

Terry, who graduated from Eastside Catholic School in Sammamish, Washington, this month, is now being treated for Crohn's, says her science teacher, MaryMargaret Welch.

"She was pretty excited about finding the granuloma," Welch said. "She said, 'Ms. Welch! Ms. Welch! Come over here. I think I've got something!' "

Welch, who has taught the Biomedical Problems class at Eastside for 17 years, immediately went on the Internet to see whether Terry had indeed spotted a granuloma.

"I said, 'Jeez, it certainly looks like one to me,' " Welch remembered. "I snapped a picture of it on the microscope and e-mailed it to the pathologist. Within 24 hours, he sent back an e-mail saying yes, this is a granuloma."

Although Terry was relieved to finally get a diagnosis, it was also tough for her to hear that she has such a serious disease.

There are treatments, but there is no cure for Crohn's, a condition in which the digestive tract becomes inflamed. It can lead to ulcers, malnutrition and other health problems.

"As I get older, the disease can get worse," Terry told KOMO.

Crohn's disease is often misdiagnosed or diagnosed very late, says Dr. Corey Siegel, director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

"Granulomas are oftentimes very hard to find and not always even present at all," Siegel said. "I commend Jessica for her meticulous work."

Pathologists also sometimes miss important findings for other diseases, says Dr. Mark Graber, chief of the medical service at the Northport VA Medical Center in New York.

"This story carries a valuable lesson about how errors are found. It's very often by 'fresh eyes,' just like in Jessica's case," he said. "Some specialty centers, recognizing the reality of perceptual error and the power of a second independent reading, are now requiring second reviews on certain types of smears and pathology specimens."

Welch credits Terry's "fresh eyes" but also local pathologists who volunteered to train her and her classmates on how to view specimens under the microscope.

"We've been lucky to have that partnership. It allowed Jessica to think of herself as a scientist," she said. "The class empowered Jessica to think of herself as being a partner in her own health care."
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As for Terry's future, she'll start nursing school in the fall. She's written a book for children about Crohn's disease, which she hopes to have published. In the meantime, she's grateful for her science class and for the pathologist for giving her her slides.

"This has been the highlight of my high school career, for sure," Terry told the Sammamish Reporter newspaper. "It's been amazing."

Hat tip to Blues News. Yes, the geek gaming site. :)

I am still on HIATUS btw, I just had to post this after seeing it today.

sphynxcatvp @ 2009-06-09T22:13:00

2009-06-10T02:14:12Z

ON HIATUS

Words to remember

2009-06-09T00:27:55Z

(Received in one of the list digests. Very applicable regardless of who actually said it.)

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the
most-requested column I've ever written."

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will.
Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all
about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you
and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it
for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

grog sleep now

2009-05-28T01:47:15Z

grog exhausted

grog running amok every day

grog still alive

grog say no worry

:-)

Ok, officially? Hypothyroid is a REAL MEDICAL CONDITION

2009-05-21T03:29:34Z

Hypothyroid is a REAL VALID MEDICAL CONDITION!

...and that I even have to SAY that should tell you the level of stupidity I saw tonight.

Grrrr!

Bwahahahahaha!

2009-05-19T21:32:02Z

*gigglesnerks and falls over laughing*

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For those of you who don't get it? Look at the book. :-)

What. The. Fuck?!?!?! are these people ON?

2009-05-16T10:59:49Z

No really. What. The Fuck?!?!?!

Apparently, having children's games means an adult is *automatically* a pedophile

Be afraid.

2009-05-12T16:08:31Z

Be *VERY* Afraid.

Or, you can click here and groan unceasingly...

:-)