Dryope

Quick Meeting

On the agenda:

1. I saw the doctor and am waiting for my test results back.  I got genetic testing, and the nurse kindly focused so hard on trying to reassure me about the needle that she bruised my arm with it, so we had to switch to the second so I had to walk around with bulky bandages on my arms all day.  Oh, and the doctor's initial response during consultation was that my previous test results were no big deal, but that we could do a liver biopsy and an MRI if I wanted to. And that I probably only have one of the mutations for hemochromosis (after he explained genetic theory for me...actually he explained everything--a lot--and I already knew it all from all the research I'd done.  I think he was annoyed.  Maybe there's such a thing as too much research...?) Anyway, my response is: hrmph.  I'll reserve (spoken) judgement 'til he calls with the results. I still think 1000 serum ferritin and a 96% iron content in my blood is a more than a /little/ out of the ordinary, but what do I know?

2. My wishlist for Christmas is at the bottom of this page (on the left) and at Amazon.  Just type in my name.  But I love everything.  Really.  Actually, any weird nonfiction book you have lying around would probably get me all excited.

Your mission is to PROVIDE ME WITH A WISHLIST FOR YOU.  Seriously, people, I can't be expected to do all your work for you and mine as well.

3. I tested as an INFJ on a test and I think it really fits.  But what do you think?  Read all about me and let me know if this rings true or if I'm delusional (possible: I am "The Mystic" and all. Ooooh.): http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/infj.htm

Taking it all in

So I have this Odwalla Superfood Amazing Purple Fruit Juice Drink (Made with Acai Berries!) thing on my desk. 

It has 4% of the RDA for iron, about 0.56mg.  I don't want another 0.56 mg, but I love acai berries.

Ah, but the label says it also has 2g of dietary fiber, which will fight off the iron, and apple juice, which also resists iron absorbtion.

BUT it also has 60% vitamin C, which will work to ensure that all of that iron and any iron in other food I take within an hour or so of this will get fully absorbed.

So how much iron will I get? No idea.  Somewhere between 0.56mg and -10g.

None of which matters, because this is all non-heme iron, and I'm drinking it with coffee, so most of the iron'll get blocked by the chemicals in the coffee anyway. 

...though some of the studies I've seen disagree about what exactly in the coffee it is that's doing that (tannins sure, but maybe also flavenoids (and which kind of flavenoid (only some are effective)), and even caffeine...).  And could I drink hot cocoa, green tea, black tea, or coke to do the same thing?  What about red wine, which has (good) tannins and (bad) alcohol?

Not that any of this matters.  Although a person only really needs to take in 1 or 1.5 mg of iron per day  (the rda is artificially high at 14 mg), and I really don't need any more at all (my blood is carrying 97% of its iron capacity and I'm storing about 10g of iron when the average woman stores 3.5g), drinking some juice is really not going to affect things much.  Even eating meat (heme iron, which can't be blocked by anything) is just a drop in the bucket for me.  The only thing I really need to watch out for is artificially-added iron in cereals and pastas and whatever--it's in a form that is super-easy to absorb, even compared to meat.

So there's no point doing iron absorbtion math in my head from my juice label.   There's no point knowing that spinach has a ton of non-heme iron, but you barely get any of it because it also has a ton of fiber and calcium.  And that chickpeas, unlike a lot of beans, carry as much iron as a steak (although it's non-heme) and barely any fiber to block it.

It's just excess (and probably misleading) knowledge I'm carrying around in my head as a result of over-studying this thing. 

Or I'm a neurotic Iron Bridget Jones, reading medical studies on iron absorbtion instead of Mars and Venus books, trying to lose weight in minerals instead of fat.

Where's my Iron Colin Firth?

ps.  Eewwww.  I did a search on "iron" and here's one in the top 50: www.ironhymen.com/

What is wrong with religious groups? Sometimes metaphors are just icky.

pps. I'm ignoring my "drop in the bucket" statement above, of course.

Monitor, Monitor on my desk...

The Fairy Princess You are youthful, cheery, and exuberant with a
sunny disposition and a mischievous sense of
humor. You are very lively and are always up
for a good bit of fun. You have a deep love of
nature and animals. Role Model: Titania You are most likely to: Convert a pumpkin into a
useful mode of transportation.

What Kind of Princess are You? - Beautiful Artwork (Original Music is BACK!!!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Were all the good names taken?

This morning the BBC I heard that, in Liberia, there's a warlord called General Peanut Butter, and another called Captain Marvel. Whose real name is Cucoo Dennis. 

No word on if these military ranks are honorary.

Oh no, not another one

Is there a 12 step program for this?  Is there maybe an online quiz I can take to see if I should join one?

This thing is bizarrely accurate...though my highly-trained brain alerts me to a discrepency between the little sun and the title.  Which is it, internet quiz? Am I "book smart" or "'intellectually' intelligent"? 

"Intellectually" Intelligent You're 'Intellectually Intelligent.' That pretty much means that you're good with theoretical ideas and concepts - but this comes to you naturally. More or less, you're a natural brainiac. Good for you. 60% theoretical intelligence 40% natural intelligence

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Another Stupid Online Test.

Go me!

The Sonnet Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDf)Romantic, hopeful, and composed. You are the Sonnet. Get it? Composed? Sonnets want Love and have high ideals about it. They're conscientious people, caring & careful. You yourself have deep convictions, and you devote a lot of thought to romance and what it should be. This will frighten away most potential mates, but that's okay, because you're very choosy with your affections anyway. You'd absolutely refuse to date someone dumber than you, for instance. Your exact opposite: Genghis Khunt Random Brutal Sex Master Lovers who share your idealized perspective, or who are at least willing to totally throw themselves into a relationship, will be very, very happy with you. And you with them. You're already selfless and compassionate, and with the right partner, there's no doubt you can be sensual, even adventurously so. You probably have lots of female friends, and they have a special soft spot for you. Babies do, too, at the tippy-top of their baby skulls. ALWAYS AVOID: The Stiletto, The Battleaxe, Genghis Khunt, Half-Cocked CONSIDER: The Peach Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.

Why does typepad mess up html? And why does my opposite look so hot?

Geek Halloween

Halloween pictures!  Here we are, in all our glory:

I'm dressed as Philébine, the exiled elfish princess now discovering her inner barbarian.  Well, that's her story, anyway. 

She's about to hit a doctor coming back from surgery. 

For those of you who don't know me, no I didn't spend two hours tracking down prosthetic ears.  I naturally have elf ears.  It's part of my ineffable charm.

Bill's looking stunning in the clone trooper uniform he happened to have laying around. 

You didn't know he was the spitting image of Temeura Morrison, did you?

No, he can't do the haka dance.

Oh, and I finally entered my favorite songs on this page. Scroll down for opportunities to mock me! I like Bohemian Raphsody and everything!

Where's your Aunt Bee now?

So I spent all day on a tight schedule, doing Chinese translations for hours (I'm trying out for a job) and then raking the lawn, and then dashing off after dinner for a two hour trek to borrow a lawn mower (from the gracious Pete).  My front lawn has become a neighborhood embarrassment and I'm finally trying to redeem myself tomorrow.  I've never mowed a lawn before and my first shot'll be half a foot high.

Somehow the day went off without a hitch.  'Til I decided to get some ice cream on the way home from fetching the lawn mower.

It was ten, and the only decent store still open was Giant.  I was a little worried about going there at night, but I figured that it was well lit and nothing would happen if I parked close to the entrance.  It's not like it's in a bad part of town (well--you have to be very bad to be considered bad in DC) and I'd been there late by myself before.  I think.

Well, it was fine until I went to leave.  As soon as I walked out the door, a guy standing outside said "Do you like Elvis?" 

Okay, girls.  When a strange guy talks to you at night without so much as an "excuse me" or even eye contact, you know better than help him out.  Don't guys know this?  This is Evil Psycho Killer Behavior #1 (EPKB1).

From peripheral vision he didn't look like a psycho, so I figured I was probably imagining things and that he was talking on a cell phone.  So hard to tell these days.  So I kept walking and he asked the question again, slightly reworded, a little muffled because he was behind me.  Definitely cell phone.

Then I jumped and nearly dropped my grocery bags.  He screamed out (EPKB2) the beginning to "Lonely Avenue" (EPKB3).  I'm ridiculously sensitive to sound and it sounded like he was right in my ear (luckily he wasn't--that's deep EPKB).

I turned around and looked at him. "You asked for it," he said matter-of-factly (EPKB4).  By this time I was nearly at my car.  In a last ditch effort to be polite without inviting further EPKB, I yelled out so he could hear: "I'm sorry--I thought you were on a cell phone," and turned to leave.  Some more yelling from him about how I should have been listening (EPKB5). 

Did I mention the parking lot was deserted at this point?

I was still shaken up by the sudden screaming and had all the tense muscles from that adrenal reponse thingy.  At this point, however, the groceries were in the passenger's seat and I was walking to my side of the car, so I was feeling pre-t-t-ty secure, so I took this opportunity to indulge in the swearing the kids are talking so much about these days, and compared him to a peice of the human body he was particularly resembling at the moment.  Hey--I'm petty, and I hated to think the EP was going to get off scott-free. 

He replied by screaming out "Forget Elvis," (inaudible screaming) "are you with God?" (EPKB6)

Yeah.  God's all about the Elvis.  And the screaming.  Deeefinitely the screaming.

"Oh, for crying out loud," I yelled out and slammed the door. 

Then I listened to some Stephen Fry Harry Potter and drove home.  Where I ate my ice cream.

Best Letter to the Editor Ever

A letter to the editor at the Washington Post that I clipped a month ago, and which deserves eternal fame:

Greek Hypocrisy

The Sept. 14 obituary for promethium discoverer Jacob Marinsky concluded with: "The team named the element for Prometheus of Greek mythology, who stole fire from heaven for mankind.  He signed a petition against dropping the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945 and favored disarmament during the arms race."

This is just the sort of hypocrisy that we have, sadly, come to expect from public figures: if Prometheus didn't want us to have nuclear weapons, he shouldn't have given us fire in the first place.

--Michael Fransella

Arlington