nice monopoly background is that because you hit the jackpot!! $$$$ and about this flogging... do you use a whip of batons? behind the shed or in the bedroom??
My dad had a bad stress test with the cardiologist today. They found evidence of a blockage, so they're going to cath him and put a stent in tonight. He's never had problems with his heart before, but he was telling me about angina-like symptoms he'd been having a couple of weeks ago when we were eating breakfast together. I'm glad he listened to me and got it checked out.
Hope it all goes well. My uncle is having a stent op soon - the doctors seemed quite relaxed about it, said it was quite straightforward. Seemed to relax him in a bit!
Are there any alternatives to stents? They seem to relieve short-term discomfort but don't seem to improve things long-term.
Drug eluting stents are meant to address that problem, but they have some issues of their own. CABG is the main alternative, but that's horribly invasive. They have to crack the person's chest open. Although the long term prognosis is probably better with CABG. I guess it's really a question of whether you want a quick fix that might fail later, or something invasive with a long recovery that will be better long term. Edit: Anyway they moved the procedure to 7:30 this morning, so I'll know soon what happened. He didn't tell me he had unstable angina, which was why they were trying to get him in so quickly. Unstable angina is chest pain at rest, and usually means a full blown heart attack is imminent. It also may mean that a smaller heart attack(s) has already happened. I'm actually pretty shocked that he has coronary artery disease. He's in good physical shape for a 65 year old man, exercises regularly, doesn't smoke, and eats healthy food. Bad genetics I guess?
Yeah it was pretty bad: LAD: 85% block, 1 stent RCA: 99% block, 1 stent 2 accessory arteries: 55% block They used drug eluting stents. I'm really glad he went in. I could have had a dead dad if he had waited any longer.
I went to the Smithsonian video game exhibit yesterday. They covered from the Atari 2600 up to the Playstation 3 and also had exhibits on PC gaming (one on the golden age of PC gaming the 90s, one about modern PC gaming, and World of Warcraft exhbit). I liked it, but it felt like a brief overview for people who aren't that familiar with games. Some minor systems were missing, and they had nothing about the arcades. I guess our hobby is finally being taken somewhat seriously. But it also took a long time for movies to be taken seriously as an art form, so it's not surprising to me that it took decades to see something like this.
I expect to see some censoring in gaming over the next few years. It may not be noticeable at first because it will be quietly directed at the producers rather than the consumers.