past 5 to 6 days

Friday was another happy fun gmhc training. I think that was the gonnorhea, chlamydia, and NSU training. I was there for the class, but I feel like my information retention went to crap. Especially regarding the dispensation of treatment. Fortunately, I won’t be doing that on my own any time soon.

Saturday was morning biking up, up & away. Especially up. Way up. I was dying, and yet, I’m glad I did it. I hope to build up my endurance and cardio vascular fitness. Down was COLD. We were flying down, and my hands got stiff and nearly numb. It was a long, physically strenuous thing, and yet, as I remarked at the end, it didn’t feel like we’d been at it that long, and I did feel like I could have continued. (though I declined the ‘opportunity’ to bike all the way back up & then down agan.) I was also poorly hydrated. was my guide. I doubt I could find my way back through the trail again. Maybe when I’m not working at it quite so hard. Oh for a lower gear on my bike. =)

We went out to lunch, ethiopian, with simon afterwards, and then off to Go. I got spanked by , even though he claims to be pretty new to the game. Then I got spanked by Jeremy (friend of Simon’s, probably the second best Go player in our little group). I think I went home & vegged after that. In fact, that may well be when I earned my ghoul icon on battle net. And now that I have it, I have no intention of ever selecting undead as my race again. They are problematic, to say the least. =)

Humans are now my race of exploration, with Night Elves being my preferred race. The auto dispel of the dryads is just too handy. Especially with spell immunity. Polymorph this, bitch 😉

Of course, skeletal armies are a little harder to deal with…. Unless you have chimerae, starfall, or the like. But if you have either of those, well, you’re well ahead of the skeleton army level in general, bully for you.

Sunday was anal health and pleasure, then physical exams. I did the physical exams (one by me, one to me, both on fellow medics/trainees), but it left me feeling pretty uncomfortable afterwards. They said that we absolutely didn’t have to do this. And I was all about doing it, and doing it thoroughly, but…. I dunno. It’s strange to be doing a totally impersonal, navel to mid-thigh + superficial anal exam on someone you have a small crush on. And to have them do it on you. I needed to process.

We’re also supposed to practice tying tourniquets and finding veins (with gloved index finger of non-dominant hand) in preparation for the phlebotomy class in a couple of weeks. Sadly, all my roommates and the couple of non-roommate people I’ve practiced on have very easy to find veins, with the exception of the first fellow trainee I tried on (first person ever), whose veins I couldn’t find at all. Bleh.

Went to Gay Fraternity recruitment thing. It’s a community based frat, not a university based one. Either way, it’s focused on acceptance. Finding a community that accepts you for who you are. Which is nice & all, but I don’t need that. I rather already have it. What I need is somewhere to go, something to do. And being the picky bitch that I am, I have to find these places and things ideologically compatible, and serving a real need. Like gmhc. Look, I don’t know anyone who has major problems being accepted in the bay area because they suck cock. I do know people who have had embarrassing problems from sucking the wrong cock. So that’s serving a “real” need.

At some point in time, probably saturday evening, I went out looking for local ljers. Sunday evening was when I started to catch up to my lj subscriptions, but it fell by the wayside. I didn’t really start until tuesday evening. 240 entries behind, but I’m all caught up now. Sheesh. I think subscription trimming time will soon arrive.

On monday, Rohan and I talked for about an hour before his class on general computer vision stuff, and some specifics about me working for him. Tuesday, two hours, (we were interrupted by a talk by RMS, more on that later). Today, 4. This is good, I’m understanding more about computer vision, I like. I’m still a little fuzzy on how what we’re doing is going to work out, but it should be interesting.

My laptop is lapsing in and out of coma. I’m currently borrowing Rohan’s (my empoyer’s) 2nd laptop. The one with matlab on it. In which we’ll probably be doing most of the comp vis foo. I need a new computer. I think I’ll get an actual new one this time. Looking in the build-a-desktop-myself-for-about-$500 range. Major chunk of cash. Entire work week of salary out the window (ignoring taxes). Probably worth it. Will be able to play wc3 without resorting to simon’s hardware.

Finally got into the Berkeley main library. Read around a bit on sociology, and it seems so right, but I don’t want to jump in without talking to anyone. Must contact professor in field. On agenda for tomorrow. Along with calling this home office guy about helping him with Word (pro bono) (contacted rohan at lunch today. I was supposed to call him this evening, but instead I went walking around west berkeley. Bought myself 3 pairs of pants (from out of the closet, like goodwill, but proceeds benefit aids orgs), found steamworks, had indian for dinner.

Will be doing the training for the steamworks treatment stuff on friday evening. Uh, blah.

Oh! RMS! I agree with the man on the broad sweeps. Intellectual property law is there for a purpose, and that purpose is not enriching corporations, but encouraging contribution to the greater good of society. At least, that’s how it ought to be. We don’t need such restrictive usage, such extended length of patent or copyright, etc, etc. He is however obnoxiously dogmatic in many ways (as said he would be when declining to join simon and I (as well as Ro, and a number of others I recognized in the audience overpacking the auditorium in question). The man is not a businessman, or a diplomat, and he doesn’t really make claims to being such. Hmmm…. This is going to get long, so I’ll table it for another post.