𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍

Go get yourself tested at an allergists. It’s relatively cheap.

Dust mite allergies are extremely common, and dust mites are hard to see. They look like dust.

Whatever it is, it could be an environmental allergy.

So, Geodad… Geodad, right? So Geodad, today’s your first day with us and what you’re going to be doing is changing a lightbulb. Nope, that’s it, just the lightbulb, then you get to go home. Cushy? I guess.

Ok, I’m going to drive you over to the tower- what? Yeah, the KRDK-TV tower. Light’s at the top. Just climb to top there and swap out the bulb.

Just a couple of things: There’s no caging once you get up a ways so you’re just climbing on the outside. This being your first time, you should clip in. It gets gusty up there. Second if you hear a helicopter locate its direction. If it’s above you, climb down. If it’s below, hang on tight and say your hail Marys - you signed the waiver, right? Good, good.

Just a lightbulb, today. I’ll be back to pick you up later this afternoon when you get back down. Have fun!

So - you have a non-immediately-lethal aneurysm. They can strike anyone, at any age, and are almost impossible to predict in advance.

Seconds count. Your doctors now have to… what, locate your magnets and remove them before they can put you in an MRI to locate the issue and perform surgery?

I have a spinal implant; I got this specific model because of one key feature: unlike all other SCS devices in the market, the battery does not have to be drained before it goes into an MRI.

Shrapnel isn’t an optional decision, and they do try really hard to remove all foreign objects in surgery.

Magnets are a neat body mod, but IMO a stupid completely optional modification. At least tongue studs are visible and easily removed, and those are the most hidden optional… oh. Ok, I just thought of another awkward optional body mod they’d have to check for. Still external and easily removed, though, not like something implanted under the skin, and highly reactive in an MRI.

“Can’t”? Lots of people do. Although she was white, I lived with a German girl, in Germany, for two years. I barely spoke German, and she barely spoke English, when we met. And, despite what you might think, there are significant cultural differences between Americans and Germans.

“Can’t” probably isn’t the word you’re looking for. “Don’t want to” is more accurate.

Aliexpress has an increasing number of items that apparently can’t be shipped to my state, for some undisclosed reason. I use it only infrequently, but recently I had occasion to look for two items, and it wouldn’t let me add them to my cart unless I changed my exit node to a different country or state.

I have no idea what that’s about, but it made me sad. Sometimes you just want a cheap nicknack that you’ll receive some months in the future after forgetting you ordered it.

I’m not OP, BTW. I’m just injecting commentary.

Damn, you know your vampire law!

I’m neither a Rick nor a Morty, but I think you can look at the biographies of historical figures who’ve been considered “geniuses” and deduce that R&M isn’t too far off base. It may be a sort of survivor bias: it may be that only genius and successful people have had difficulties; or, maybe idiots have just as much depression only they don’t get famous. All we have are examples like DJT for the dumb-but-successful-and-not-struggling-with-depression category.

I really should have a statistic to back this up, but it seems common for “high IQ” people to have issues. My personnel theory is that we’re all on the spectrum: that humans have a band in which we can function normally, socially, but the higher you climb on the “intelligence” scale, the more you edge into what we’d diagnose as autism and start to struggle with issues resulting from either being unable to integrate with society, or being persecuted by it.

I have absolutely no evidence for this theory, of course. It’s just a theory formed after reading biographies of so many notable geniuses who’ve struggled with drug abuse and depression. Depression is the big one; it must get awfully tiresome being surrounded by (relative) idiots.

I don’t take the theory very seriously; however, among my high school close friend group, the unquestioned smartest one, who went on to get a doctorate in math, checked himself out with a shotgun in his early 30’s. He’s the only suicide we’ve had, and I’ve often wondered how much his intelligence factored into it.

Finally, I’ll end with this quote I one read, for which I can no longer find a source and which I have no reason for believing is based at all on any evidence; but which I’ve always found funny:

Philosophers look outside themselves for truth.
Mathematicians look inside themselves for truth.
Psychologists say philosophers tend to be more happy than mathematicians.

Me: Do you have the time?

Her: Do you have the stamina?

I’ve come to believe that she didn’t just come up with that herself, but at the time it was great.

Yes, this was before smart phones.

Laptops no longer have extension slots. You used to be able to buy cards for specific purposes and slot them in. Modern laptops have lost this, and most laptops are not self-serviceable, so any cellular modern you get today is going to be an external peripheral.

Where are you finding laptops with integrated cellular chips?