spontaneous combustion

Every once in a while, I have a few days where my skin feels like it's on fire. Last night I couldn't bear to have the covers over me b/c I felt like I was going to burn up. I couldn't sleep. I kept alternating between uncovering myself to cool down, and covering again b/c I thought maybe I finally got cold enough, and then trying a combination of one foot in/one out. It's just my legs too. When I place my hand on my thigh I can feel how much hotter my legs are. It didn't help that Alex was snoring next to me b/c I blamed my inability to sleep on him. In retrospect, it was the ridiculous temperature differential in my body. Sorry Alex!

I also finally pumiced my heels last night. They had gotten so dry that the skin was cracking and getting caught on my socks. It was painful. But now they're much more tame. Yay for that.

For the last few weeks my company has been running our clinical trial at the hospital, which involves me getting up at 5:30 to get to a 6:30am meeting. That's no fun! Hurray for naps though. And I get to come home ~3pm.

I hope I don't combust tonight.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to me and the US. 16 years ago, February 23, 1990, PanAm flight something-or-other landed in JFK carrying the 10 members of my clan who made the arduous 4 month journey from the Ukraine to New York. Back then, when my classmates said they'd been in the US 3, 5, 7 years, it seemed like such a long time! Wow! 7 years?? You must be a real American.

I've been a citizen for 2.5 years now. I've voted in 1 presidential election. I've become skeptical and judgmental of my government, and I'm starting to forget the words to the anthem. I'm a true American. (Is it "...what so proudly we held" or "hailed"? Is it perilous fight or flight?)

16 years. Many ups and downs (currently on a very big, deep, "down"). But I'm hopeful this country can be the great beacon of freedom and acceptance it once was.

minor ethical dilemma

Back in early December I bought a gift for someone. The item was greatly enjoyed, but took forever to ship and was therefore late. I bought it through Amazon.com's "marketplace" (3rd parties selling through Amazon.com). Amazon asks people who bought items from the Marketplace to rate the 3rd party merchants so that others know how reliable the company is. I left what I felt was an honest, overall neutral review basically saying "the product is really great, but the delivery took too long."

Yesterday I received an email from said merchant appologizing for my poor experience, and offering to compensate me with a free item of my choice (from a short list) *if* I remove my "negative feedback." So... should I accept the bribe, or let other consumers know the full picture? The email provided a very reasonable explanation for the delay - it was the holiday season, they had received a lot of publicity and were not expecting the huge amount of orders they received.

The company has 1300 3100+ reviews, only 6% of those are "negative." Are they so concerned with their image that they want it to be 0%? How many other companies have artificial ratings because they bribe unhappy customers to retract honest (but negative) reviews? I think if I had had a trully bad experience (like the item never showed up and they didn't give me a refund), no amount of bribery would make me remove that information. But in this case, what happened wasn't that bad, and has a good explanation.

Update: technically, my review is considered "neutral" by Amazon. I was just reading through some of the real "negative" reviews and they tend to be very bitter and angry. I don't think these people would sell out for a $15 gesture. I think the company is probably only trying to appease the 3% of the neutral reviewers.

What to do?

sick... again??

How can I be getting sick again, after just getting over a cold a week ago? ARG!

I just had a wave of very powerful nausea, hopefully some tea will calm the inner storm. Of course I should be back at the OR tomorrow for the trial, and I don't think they'd appreciate a sick observer.

message boards are fun! (although some are extremely frustrating)

sunshine update

Ok, according to the NCDC (national climactic data center) information:

• Pittsburgh has an avg of 45% sunshine annually (~164 days)
• Ithaca wasn't on the list, but Binghamton (which is supposedly worse than Ithaca) has an average of 49% sunshine (~178 days)! That's better than Pittsburgh! Arg.
  
• The only cities worse than Pittsburgh are in Alaska, i.e. Juneau with 30% (109 days), some random place in West Virginia (Elkins, 40%), and Seattle with 43%
• The sunniest cities on this list seem to be Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson tied at 85%, and Yuma (alson in Arizona) at 90% (~328 days!!)

I don't think I'd like 90% sunshine any more than I like 45%. I think maybe ~70% would be ideal. Oh well, one can dream.

Toasty!

The building where my company is located provides heat and utilities for all the offices (we don't have to pay for it). As a result of increasing energy costs, the building has decided to cut down it's heating costs by turning the thermostat down during the day, and off after 5pm. So now it's freaking cold in here!

The space heaters arrived today! Yay! I'm nice and toasty. I actually think I need to turn the heater down a bit.

Yesterday was the Steelers' parade downtown, and I was unfortunate enough to be running an errand downtown right before the parade. As a result, I got stuck behind the barricades, and what should have been a 5 minute trip to the office took 1 hour as I weaved my way all the way around the parade and took a back way to the north shore. One of the more annoying hours in recent history.

Native Pittsburghers (yes, that's what they're called) take their sports *very* seriously. So seriously, that I was afraid to leave the apartment on Superbowl Sunday. But other than a lot of honking, screaming, a few cop cars, and a helicopter with search lights, not much happened after the big victory. The non-native 'burghers (that's my name for them) are happy for the win b/c it means the town won't be as depressing for at least the next few weeks. I recently heard that Pittsburgh has an average of 65 sunny days/year. Is that better than Ithaca? If so, then it's only slightly.

In other news, my application to Pitt has been verified to be complete, and was forwarded to the Human Genetics department for review yesterday! Yay! I was a little worried they'd tell me my GREs were outdated.

Link: S T E E L E R B A B Y

S T E E L E R B A B Y

'nuff said

I still love my blue coat

Today, my building manager complimented me on my blue coat. That made me feel good. I love my coat, and it's great when someone else notices how beautiful it is. A few months ago a waitress at a restaurant complimented me on the coat as well.

:D