Wednesday, February 13, 2008

an Absolutely Enormous Tumor and a Lack of Cigarettes

Well, I just returned from the hospital after visiting a friend who has a TWENTY-FIVE POUND tumor (!)


I really had no idea they made them that large, the doctor was flabbergasted, and we've considered giving it a cheerful name like "Steven" or "Roderick" since it's practically a person anyway. Luckily, my friend is being given all sorts of lovely drugs to cheer her up while concerned-looking people in scrubs earnestly discuss how enormous scars aren't all that bad, really, and she wasn't using some of her internal organs anyway.

some observations:
1. Apparently, hospital regulations require all patients to watch ten hours of "American Idol" and "Entertainment Tonight" in order to be properly anesthetized for surgery, so her girlfriend and I couldn't stay very late.

2. These regulations also state that each patient's buttocks should protrude no less than three inches from hospital gowns in order to give the staff a giggle.

3. All cafeteria meals must be constructed from only the very best and latest imported space-age plastics

Although she spent much of her time demanding fried chicken and glaring at tubes, she did manage to amuse herself by pretending to be a straight married woman who desparately desires seven children and is hopelessly traumatized by the loss of her uterus. Unfortunately, as a ploy to win sympathy cigarettes, it was a miserable failure. She cheered up a bit, however, when we told her it could be a record-winning tumor; so she hopes the surgeon will give her a photo for a memento.

I missed frisbee (again), so it looks like I am back to sanding paint off the bathroom walls.......

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

people are fuzzy objects, but they are also very cold

I am having a lovely time at an international geek conference in Boston this week. There are many people with facial hair and their flies down, many many absentminded misplacements of cell phones and glasses, and earnestly nerdy discussions of 3NF, 4NF, 5NF, SOA, BI, DM, ISO, DMBOK, ER, XML, BPMN, MDM, SQL, DMI, ERP, DW, ETL, DDL, EA, ITIL, and a heck of lot of other acronyms that sound really quite clever.

Favorite quote so far: (shouted excitedly by an older gentleman during a technical discussion) "People are fuzzy objects!"

heh

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