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Zeusthecat

I Had A Random Thought...

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I went to a meeting today with the stated topic of "Cost Models for Mitral Valve Replacement" -- super boring topic, I had no idea why I was going, didn't want to do it, but whatever, I went.

 

It turned out to be way more interesting than any finance presentation has any business being. Medical institutions are facing the problem of not knowing what their costs are. The hospital I work for straight up can't say how much it cost them to treat a patient. They can track money in and money out, but the actual, real, comprehensive costs of things are a complete mystery. So when you go in to have a heart valve replaced, there is generally no tracking of the cost to the institution -- what the room costs, the time of the nurses, the time of the PharmD's, the time of the doctor, the time of the surgeon, etc. A lot of institutions track these things using measures like the relative value unit, which is just this kind of meaningless, garbage number used to track time, and they know it's garbage but still use it.

 

It was a 90 minute meeting of a dude standing in front of a room full of people, telling us all he had no idea what he was doing and explaining the many ways in which the work he does is bad. Super interesting, even though a lot of the nitty gritty of the accounting stuff went over my head.

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Listened to the three part and afterthought of Stranger made me want to become a living organ donor. Been doing research on it and it's making more sense for me to be one.

Also, been talking to someone recently, on and off. :) She's seven years older than me and has a kid and all that isn't bothering me like I thought it would.

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I put on 8Kg of fat in the last 5 months. Thanks to stress, late nights at work (meaning I ordered junk food rather than cooking) and a back injury. 

Fuck me, it's noticeable too.

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What's a good online newspaper? Bbc and NY Times can be biased.

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I put on 8Kg of fat in the last 5 months. Thanks to stress, late nights at work (meaning I ordered junk food rather than cooking) and a back injury. 

Fuck me, it's noticeable too.

 

I put on about 3/4 of that for the same reasons.

 

We can lose it all too!

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What's a good online newspaper? Bbc and NY Times can be biased.

 

You want a 100% objective online news source?

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I put on about 3/4 of that for the same reasons.

 

We can lose it all too!

 

I need to find a gym, I've not been to one in like 3 months thanks to the hassle of moving and not finding a stable place to live. Last thing I want is to commit myself to a 12 month contract at somewhere shit, only to find that after 3 months I've moved and found somewhere closer, better and cheaper.

 

I'm trying to run (and count calories) but man, I fucking hate running. It's so damn tedious, and I'm really not built for it. 

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What's a good online newspaper? Bbc and NY Times can be biased.

I like Reuters.

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Guys I found a great new way to wind up your friends. Send them a message on facebook messenger that says '(your name) has sent you a photo' and then insist that you did actually send them a photo. hilarious

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Homestuck actually finished yesterday, exactly 7 years after it started, with a relatively quiet release instead of the kind of massive server-crashing update that would have happened near 2011. I actually feel a little sad that I (as well as everyone else except the hardhardcore fandom) care less about this now, after 3+ years of nothing but extended hiatuses. I think I was also generally worn out from how hard it became to enjoy the source material itself. I initially liked HS because it was really funny, inventive and rewarding if you paid close attention to every detail. Then the meta-jokes became meta-meta jokes, and I felt dumb for even trying to follow the 6 different versions of a character running around.

 

The ending itself was still pretty good, but I say that with only a general idea of what was going on. I am interested to see how the series lives on, or whether it will still have a new audience in 5 years, given that the entire thing can be binged in full.

 

Rereading it is actually something I would like to do if I wasn't afraid of shattering my perceived nostalgia for the first 4 acts. Will probably just keep those memories where they are, intact. 

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I need to find a gym, I've not been to one in like 3 months thanks to the hassle of moving and not finding a stable place to live. Last thing I want is to commit myself to a 12 month contract at somewhere shit, only to find that after 3 months I've moved and found somewhere closer, better and cheaper.

 

I'm trying to run (and count calories) but man, I fucking hate running. It's so damn tedious, and I'm really not built for it.

The amount of calories that you burn running isn't super high. It helps of course, but you gotta run for a while just of offset a high calorie snack. If you hate running then it's probably a bad weight loss plan because you'll have more trouble sticking with it. It's much easier to use less olive oil than to run for 30 minutes. You could do something else, like swimming maybe. It can be a killer workout without being as harsh on your body.

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The amount of calories that you burn running isn't super high.

 

Oh yeah, I know. In an awesome turn of events, I found a kind of children's play area deep in some woods I was running through. I have no idea why it's there, it's isolated and no one is every around. It's enough for me to do pull ups and dips, two exercises I really enjoy. So I've been running out there, doing a bunch of pull ups and running back. Very enjoyable.

 

I tend to like exercise that is harsh on my body! The only thing is I still have the back injury which becomes aggravated at times. I've been doing as the physio told me, but he said it could take up to 2 months to fully heal. There's a gym at the university, however it's tiny and I can't get in early enough for it to be empty. 

 

I've also been considering buying a bike. I used to cycle everywhere in the UK, but having a bike here in Germany seems like another thing I have to lug around with me when I move flats.

 

I'm also counting calories, I've been tracking 2,200 every day and it's been going really well, I've already lost a few kgs and already look different after 2 weeks of continual tracking.  2,200 is enough that I don't feel hungry, but I feel that if I go below that I start to get really snack-y.

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I've started reading Warhammer 40K (well, 30K) books. To my complete surprise, I'm loving them. 

 

Which ones have you started with? Some of them are Kinda Great and others just feel like a solid guilty pleasure.

 

Ciaphas Cain and some of the Horus Heresy books are super. Gaunt's Ghosts books are pretty good once they hit their stride. I haven't looked at much of the fantasy stuff but there are gems there too.

I just finished Storm of Iron the other day which is all about the Iron Warriors besieging a massive citadel. It was quite a bit of fun.

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I've been reading The Horus Heresy books. There's a clear discrepancy in skill between the different writers, but overall I think they're good.

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There should be a "Wrong Movie Festival". It should probably show some of these movies:

 

The Dark Knight (2011)

Drive (1997)

The Fast and the Furious (1955)

Heat (1986)

The Master (2004)

Independence Day (1983)

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Does anyone have digital access to the New Yorker they can allow me? I need to read one short story from 1951 and I can't afford to subscribe at the moment (even though the current rate is only 12 dollars for 12 weeks). 

 

Even if you could just, like, screenshot the short story in question it'd be a big help.

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I was thinking recently about my international travel/living and how odd it was that many countries lacked screens on their windows. I noticed this in Korea, South Africa, Hungary and Ukraine. Anyone know why this is? Screen windows are great!

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Even if you could just, like, screenshot the short story in question it'd be a big help.

This is going to be really tough without knowing anything about the story except that it's from 1951.

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I need another pop culture news site that doesn't spoil stuff since AVClub went to shit. Any recommendations?

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There's definitely some truth in that. But why not pay a cleaner instead of paying the bar premium?

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