Random randomness

[Daehawk]

Id like to treat my high blood pressure and thyroid but not catch Covid. It seems simple but its not.

EDIT: Hey top of the page wtf is he on about mystery.

[Kraken]

With doctors' offices chronically understaffed due to COVID, plus huge numbers of sick and worried, even appointment-only doctors have lines now. Get an appointment at 11, get there at 10:45, get seen at noon.

It is the way of things.

We are going to have to start getting used to less convenience.

The earlier your appointment, the more likely they won't have fallen behind yet. Unfortunately I'm not an early riser so I can't take my own advice. Fortunately I make my own schedule so having to wait is merely annoying.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Id like to treat my high blood pressure and thyroid but not catch Covid. It seems simple but its not.

So what if it's not simple? Pull yer finger out, and try expending the minimal effort required to find a doctor that can provide care for you without an in-person office visit, AKA telehealth. This should certainly be available to you via Medi-Care/Medicaid. Call the customer support number printed on your health insurance membership card. Then ask the CSR to help you find a primary care physician who provides telehealth, and explain why. They ought to be able to provide you with at least a few options to choose from.

Realistically, if your only current options are to either wait around for an extended period in the overcrowded waiting room of an emergency walk-in clinic or quit taking necessary treatment for your underlying medical conditions, what do you have to lose?

[dbt1949]

Get somebody to give you some Amlodipine and Lisinipril. Cut down on your salt and red meat and exercise more.
That'll be $20 please.
And stay off the internet for awhile.

[Daehawk]

I take Lisinopril.

[dbt1949]

You can try doubling it for a few days and see what happens. It worked for me.
Remember I am a paid professional.

[Sudy]

You've got to suck the bad blood out. Chewing chalk tablets isn't going to do anything unless you have a chalk deficiency.

I use one of these hooked up to an old wine jug (sterilized):



Once you purify the blood you'll be able to focus your mind for the first time and accomplish great physical feats. I was able to jump almost to the top of the garage.

[Blackhawk]

Try calling your doctor's office, explain your concerns, and see if they're willing to let you wait in the car and call/text you when you're up. Likely a no, but worth a shot.

[AWS260]

I wonder if slot cars are still a thing. They were a phenomenon when I was a kid; there were commercial slot car parlors with races and tournaments. They were considered shady establishments, on a par with pool halls. If they still exist at all, I imagine the technology has grown up considerably from what I remember.

I never got into that larger scale, but I did eventually get a nice HO slotcar set one Christmas, and had an elaborate track permanently set up on a large sheet of plywood.

Over the weekend, I went to Brooklyn's last slot car racing parlor. It's amazing: five sizeable tracks, run by elderly Italian Americans, smack dab in what is now a Bangladeshi immigrant neighborhood. We spent about 90 minutes there putting our trigger fingers to the test. It was joyful.

I just learned that this slot car racetrack has closed. The elderly couple running the place both passed away last year.

I guess it was inevitable, but it really feels like a piece of history vanishing. I'm glad I got to go a few times.

[Jaymann]

I remember going to a slot car place as a kid. We had no money but it had a drag strip you could use for free. Across the street was a pizza place where we would get one slice and load it up with red peppers.

[Daehawk]

Ours has been gone since the 70s. As a kid I had my brother's slot car but nowhere to use it. It was the size of a shoebox.

[Daehawk]

Im getting a kick out of watching react videos on The Bee Gees. its funny how theres always a trend among the react channels and they all end up doing the same song after a bit. this time its Too Much Heaven. Supposedly none of them ever heard of the Bee Gees somehow. Its great seeing a resurgence of love for the bee gees. Always loved them. They just cant believe its their voices and no auto tune..hell autotune wasn't even around lol.

Hearing the gee gees so much i realize that even though I knew they were great back in the day Im surprised how much more amazing they sound to me now looking back. Guess its all the shitty music today.

[Daehawk]

Recall a ways back when I lost my access to Twitter because I publicly berated a GOP Senator and refused to apologise? Well I created a new account a bit later and I got my first follower recently. Its Manu who played Icheb on Star Trek Voyager. Im on my way. When I figure out where Im going Ill be set.

[Max Peck]

Get somebody to give you some Amlodipine and Lisinipril. Cut down on your salt and red meat and exercise more.
That'll be $20 please.
And stay off the internet for awhile.

Amlodipine did nothing for me other than give me swollen ankles that would do a pregnant lady proud. Valsartan/HCT is super effective for me, though. A half tablet a day of the lowest dose keeps my average resting BP at a comfortable 110/70.

However, it turns out that the brand actually matters, even for generics. Sandoz Valsartan/HCT works great for me, but the pharmacy tried to switch me to their chain's in-house brand (Sanis) and within a day and a half of starting that my BP jumped up to 140/90, as high as it was before I started taking the medication. I had to argue with them to get switched back to Sandoz and it took an extra week and a half to get my most recent refill with the correct brand. If they keep it up, I'll have to look into transferring the prescription to a different pharmacy.

[Daehawk]

My Lisinopril works but its not steady. Like sometimes its perfect. Other times its high. Then normal. I was taking double dose before my surgery on my kidney just to keep it down enough to get the surgery. My wife took valsartin I think.

My hctz is a separate pill. At first I didn't like it that way but now if Im going to town and dont want to piss 5 times while out I just leave it off and take the lisinopril alone.

[Daehawk]

Anyone else keep getting those junkmail cards in the mail where its "Hey soNso Im soNso and Id like to pay you cash for your house!"

No? Just me?

[gilraen]

Yeah, we get those quite a bit.

[Rumpy]

However, it turns out that the brand actually matters, even for generics.

Have a friend that learned that the hard way. He has epilepsy and the drugs to help him control it are very expensive. Once, the pharmacy in order to try to save money for itself, switched him to generics, and without telling him. Next thing you know, his episodes not only doubled in number, but in severity as well. Once they figured out the drugs had been changed, they gave the pharmacy hell and they had no choice but to revert to the ones he originally took.

[Max Peck]

However, it turns out that the brand actually matters, even for generics.

Have a friend that learned that the hard way. He has epilepsy and the drugs to help him control it are very expensive. Once, the pharmacy in order to try to save money for itself, switched him to generics, and without telling him. Next thing you know, his episodes not only doubled in number, but in severity as well. Once they figured out the drugs had been changed, they gave the pharmacy hell and they had no choice but to revert to the ones he originally took.

The whole thing is shady as hell. The only reason I was able to find out that Sanis is owned by Shoppers Drugs is that the previous provincial government banned pharmacies from selling their own in-house brands, because it was deemed anticompetitive and would allow the pharmacy chains to effectively dictate their own prices by locking out competitors (Ontario pays for a lot of prescription drugs), and Shoppers went to court (and lost) to challenge the regulation back in 2013 or so. The news reporting from that case is the only information I found anywhere that directly identified Sanis as being owned by Shoppers -- nothing on their website discloses that relationship. I guess the Ford government quietly killed that regulation for them sometime after taking office.

From what little else I was able to find out, it appears that Sanis doesn't actually produce any drugs themselves, they just act as a middleman for Shoppers by buying generics at the cheapest price they can find. Shoppers then uses Sanis to fill prescriptions and charges exactly the same price as for competing brands, pocketing the difference in additional profit. That'd be fine as long as they were selling drugs that were actually equivalent, but my experience is that they are anything but. The first drug that my doctor prescribed back in 2019 for my hypertension was amlodipine. The pharmacy filled the prescription with Sanis brand, and it was completely ineffective, so Sanis is batting a solid .000 in terms of efficacy for me.

[Jaymann]

Recall a ways back when I lost my access to Twitter because I publicly berated a GOP Senator and refused to apologise? Well I created a new account a bit later and I got my first follower recently. Its Manu who played Icheb on Star Trek Voyager. Im on my way. When I figure out where Im going Ill be set.

You could do reactions to Marky Mark videos.

[Daehawk]

Recall a ways back when I lost my access to Twitter because I publicly berated a GOP Senator and refused to apologise? Well I created a new account a bit later and I got my first follower recently. Its Manu who played Icheb on Star Trek Voyager. Im on my way. When I figure out where Im going Ill be set.

You could do reactions to Marky Mark videos.

Ya but Vanilla Ice was just as rad.

[Rumpy]

The whole thing is shady as hell.

Oh, it definitely is. It was bad enough that he almost died. He's one of the most severe cases of epilepsy in the Province. It's the minute difference that can really cause a problem for those who are sensitive to issues such as these, due to the chemical balance. Epilepsy is not something to play around with. Dunno if the pharmacy in question in this case was Shoppers though. But Shoppers is also owned by Loblaws.

[Daehawk]

My BP today is high. 165 / 107 . I imagine myself like that dude in Big Trouble In Little China exploding hehehe.

[dbt1949]

I wasn't trying to lower my cholesterol any but it went down substantially when I cut down on my red meat. I was just trying to save money and the hassle of cooking it.

[Daehawk]

As of yesterday Jan 16th Star Trek Voyager is 27 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager

[Smoove_B]

This is one of the greatest things I've seen in a long time (and that includes the Sea Shanty about vaccination)



(can't make a quote for people that can't see embedded Tweets; it's a song)

It's been one year and I still think about this weekly. Happy anniversary.

[Pyperkub]

I wasn't trying to lower my cholesterol any but it went down substantially when I cut down on my red meat. I was just trying to save money and the hassle of cooking it.

Hassle? Red meat is probably the easiest to cook!

[dbt1949]

Cooking for two people is a hassle. Especially when I have to cut hers into little bits.

[telcta]

Throw everything into an Instant Pot. Chicken is nice and tender, easy to cut. Ground meat crumbles nicely for anything, chili, add to Mac and cheese. Haven’t tried the sauté setting for the meat.

Easy to clean and you don’t have to sit and watch it. My wife has converted to using the IP mainly for rice, comes out perfect every time.

[hepcat]

Throw everything into an Instant Pot. Chicken is nice and tender, easy to cut. Ground meat crumbles nicely for anything, chili, add to Mac and cheese. Haven’t tried the sauté setting for the meat.

Easy to clean and you don’t have to sit and watch it. My wife has converted to using the IP mainly for rice, comes out perfect every time.

I also am a Crock Pot fanatic. I have both an Instant Pot and a Crock Pot, and I use the latter far more. It's just easier to toss the stuff in the pot, set it to low and then come back 8 or 9 hours later. With an IP, I have to check that it has liquid, check to make sure venting is set correctly, then vent it after it's done. Plus, it's a bit easier to clean as the lid rarely has nooks and crannies like an IP lid.

[gilraen]

I just do chili meat in a pan on the stove. But mac & cheese, on the other hand - that's great in a Crock Pot (mmm...I should make some mac & cheese).

[dbt1949]

And now to screw up my childhood geography even more Jakarta is no longer the capital of Indonesia. They moved to the middle of the jungle somewhere full of snakes and Komodo Dragons.

[stessier]

And now to screw up my childhood geography even more Jakarta is no longer the capital of Indonesia. They moved to the middle of the jungle somewhere full of snakes and Komodo Dragons.

Given that Jakarta is on track to be home to sharks and squid, I think the middle of the jungle is likely still preferable for those who enjoy breathing air.

[Max Peck]

And now to screw up my childhood geography even more Jakarta is no longer the capital of Indonesia. They moved to the middle of the jungle somewhere full of snakes and Komodo Dragons.

Given that Jakarta is on track to be home to sharks and squid, I think the middle of the jungle is likely still preferable for those who enjoy breathing air.

I thought you were joking about climate change and rising sea levels, but it seems that Jakarta is sinking.

Indonesia’s capital is also sinking. Areas of north Jakarta, including the seawall designed to protect them, are falling at an estimated 25cm a year, due to subsidence. The city does not pipe in enough drinkable water, so Jakartans rely largely on wells which extract water from shallow aquifers, leading to the the land above it collapsing.

[coopasonic]

Wow. 25cm a year is way faster than I would have thought. Impressive work!

[stessier]

And now to screw up my childhood geography even more Jakarta is no longer the capital of Indonesia. They moved to the middle of the jungle somewhere full of snakes and Komodo Dragons.

Given that Jakarta is on track to be home to sharks and squid, I think the middle of the jungle is likely still preferable for those who enjoy breathing air.

I thought you were joking about climate change and rising sea levels, but it seems that Jakarta is sinking.

Indonesia’s capital is also sinking. Areas of north Jakarta, including the seawall designed to protect them, are falling at an estimated 25cm a year, due to subsidence. The city does not pipe in enough drinkable water, so Jakartans rely largely on wells which extract water from shallow aquifers, leading to the the land above it collapsing.

I can go high brow when the data cooperates.

[LordMortis]

I am intrigued by the idea of making mac and cheese in crock pot and to what makes it different than boiling noodles on a stove top, draining and adding cheese. I'm especially intrigued because I sometimes buy alfredo or pesto and use that instead of cheddar/american mixes or "Kraft Dinner".

I may have to see what the hubbub is, as I love my crock pot. I mostly make chili or let meatballs marinade in a maranara but I 'll also on occasion cook a roast or pork chops in there. But mainly its chili. I make a lot of crock pot chili.


And if Jakarta is sinking
I'm going under
'Cause beauty's religion
And it's Christened me with wonder

[Max Peck]

When my Crock Pot died, I replaced it with an Instant Pot. I mostly use it to make soup.

[LordMortis]

Google led me here. This sounds awesome. I bit expensive for Mac and Cheese but awesome

Ingredients

▢ 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
▢ 10 ½ ounces condensed cream of chicken soup
▢ 3 cups cheddar cheese shredded
▢ 1 cup gruyere cheese shredded
▢ ½ cup mayonnaise
▢ ½ cup sour cream regular or light
▢ 1 teaspoon onion powder
▢ ½ teaspoon dry mustard powder
▢ ½ teaspoon pepper


Instructions

Boil macaroni noodles according to directions to make them very al dente. (I cook them for at least 1-2 minutes less than directed on the bag. Mine boiled for 5 minutes). Drain and rinse under cold water.
Combine all ingredients in a 4qt slow cooker and cook on high for 2 hours or low for 3 hours, stirring once or twice.
Serve hot.

Recipe Notes

Pasta - Do not overcook the pasta, it should be very firm after boiling. Rinsing the pasta stops it from cooking.
Cheese - Shred the cheese from a block, pre-shredded cheeses do not work as well. If you do not have gruyere cheese, you can use 4 cups cheddar instead.
Cooking time - Check the pasta early, slow cookers can vary.
Double the recipe - To double this recipe, use a 6QT crockpot. Cook on high for 2 1/2 hours, stirring after 1 hour and 2 hours. (When stirring, try to do it as quickly as possible to keep the heat inside).
Make ahead - To prepare this ahead of time, mix all of the ingredients except the pasta. The pasta can be cooked ahead, rinsed, and cooled. Combine the pasta and sauce ingredients in the crockpot just before cooking.
Baking in the oven - If you prefer or if you are short on time, you can bake this in the oven (and I have many many times!) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered.

[gilraen]

I use this recipe:

Ingredients
3 cups UNCOOKED elbow macaroni pasta
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese shredded
1 cup colby cheese shredded
3 tbsp butter
2 & 3/4 cup half & half
1 15 oz can Campbell’s Cheddar Cheese condensed soup
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika smoked or plain

Instructions
Combine the half & half with the cheddar cheese soup, and mix until it's nice and smooth.
Next, sprinkle in the paprika and black pepper, and mix.
Pour the elbow macaroni and cheese into the crock pot, half of the shredded cheddar & colby, the cut butter, and half & half/ cheddar soup mixture.
Mix until well incorporated.
Top off with the remaining shredded cheese.
Put the lid on top of the slow cooker, then set the slow cooker on low.
Let cook for 3 hours.
Serve and enjoy!

I don't go out of my way to stock any particular cheese, so I use whatever is on hand (always shredded from a block, never pre-shredded). If there's no half & half in the house, I just use milk and add a bit more cheese to keep it from being too thin. I do add dry mustard to the cheese sauce, along with paprika and black pepper. Also, I've never in my life seen Campbell's cream of cheddar sold in 15oz cans, so I use two 10oz cans.