(no subject)

* In Cambodia, a shoe factory ceiling collapsed, killing two and wounding many others.

* The cyclone that hit Bangladesh was luckily not as bad as expected. As sad as it is that thirteen people died, it could have been so much worse, as it started to weaken before making landfall. By the time it reached the refugees in Burma/Myanmar it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. I am terribly relieved, though obviously not as relieved as the people camping in the open.

* TW for hate crimes. "EU LGBT survey sparks concern over homophobic abuse:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22563977

There is more specific Information about the poll in this article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22563843

* Wow, that was some racist China coverage from the BBC GMT anchor. (I just looked it up: Michael Gowen). It's like somebody at the BBC decided, we're doing some already dubious coverage of Chinese tourists, what it really needs is an old white guy ranting about how disgusting he finds Chinese people. Seriously, who says things like that?

* The only two American Companies willing to pay for safety upgrades like fire escapes in their factories in Bangladesh are Abercrombie and Fitch and PVH (Tom Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, et. al). Walmart, Target, the Gap, etc. absolutely refuse because the workers having even minimal rights to safety will help unions and therefore letting people die in Bangladesh is in the company interests. They insist that like the owners of the factory that collapsed, they can do an excellent job of self inspection. After all, who is going to keep the workers safer, an independent review that will close the factory if it's likely to kill people, or an internal inspector with a strong profit motive not to? The one protecting company profits over the lives of mere humans, obviously. Two dozen European companies have signed the agreements. It's shameful that US companies are not doing the same. They aren't even asking for a living wage. They are asking for a reasonable chance not to die at work. That's all.

* Thirteen tornado hit North Texas Wednesday/Thursday night. Six are dead and dozens wounded. People are lacking water and electricity in the hardest hit areas. People have lost everything. In one town 97 out of 110 were damaged or destroyed.

* They are still investigating the explosion in West, Texas. They have not yet ruled out the wiring, criminal activity, and a golf cart as causes. I am not commenting on the person in custody and media speculation about his involvement. I would rather wait for the officials investigating to make a statement. I'd rather not try someone in the media at this stage.

* They have arrested six suspects in the Mother's Day mass shooting in New Orleans.

* A third sexual harassment response officer this time at Fort Campbell has been arrested for stalking. Think about it a minute. He had an order of protection against him and the military decided he was totally a good person to stop people from sexually assaulting women. He's been releaved of duty.

* You know the imaginary debt crisis Republicans insist is their number one priority? Well, the Republicans celebrated the near record speed drop of our deficit thanks to Obamacare by doing a vote to repeal it. Add this to the mountain of existing evidence that they are out right lying when they say they believe in the pretend crisis they are using to try to dismantle the social safety net.

* I don't really like my dentist. Oh, he's good. I just like the old one better as a person. She went on maternity leave again and is mostly just doing children these days, handing off adults to other dentists, so I got stuck with the one I was assigned while she was gone. Again, he's competent, nay skilled. He's not offensive the way the guy who did my wisdom teeth was. The issue is, he's subtly condescending/paternalistic. Again, nothing specific I can point to and say, "this particular thing is not okay." It's more: I am poor, disabled, and queer, so he assumes I am not bright. I suspect that I am not the only one who dislikes dealing with him as the poverty clinic where I go is usually way over scheduled, and he has plenty of time to putter instead of seeing two or three patients at once and running back and forth. My clinic is very popular with immigrants as they have lots of bilingual staff in Spanish and Ukrainian, are actually good, and do sliding scale. I am wondering if the he treats the ELL clients as if they are not bright either. I loved my old dentist and the hygienists that worked her rooms. I loved lying back with my eyes closed with the mixed language chatter of the women washing over me. It was relaxing and pleasant. I know, I know, the kids learning English need her in a way that I don't, but they were always so pleasant and treated me like an adult rather than a vaguely incompetent lesser being. I need to come back for an already scheduled cleaning next month, but I hoping next year to convince them to let me switch to someone else in the practice.

Anyway, I did make it on time despite being exhausted. He did not take me seriously when I reminded him I am resistant to Novocaine, so they had to renumb me after the drilling started. (It's in my chart. They use a stronger drug at a higher dose as Novocain isn't much stronger than Tylenol on me and it wears off super fast. My theory is that even though my hair is predominantly brown, it had a large amount of red highlights in it before it started going dark when I turned 40 or so. There is gene that makes Novocain not work or not work well that tends to be associated with red hair. I'm wondering if what's happening is some sort of partial expression of the doesn't respond to Novocain gene thingie, similar to the way having one sf gene gives you cf carrier syndrome instead of fullblown cf. But I could be completely wrong. I respond to a lot of drugs in atypical ways, so it could be my freakish body chemistry at work.) I did do the loop to pay bills since they are a few blocks away. I did get a monitor, which was coincidentally on sale, so the monitor dying when it did could be considered good luck. I did hit the library and mail my package to England. I also got the cichlid tank light bulbs replaced, picked up a few replacement fish as part of a slow restock after the disasters of Winter (They had the right guppies, but only a few of the two types of platys I want. This is fine as they are cheap and if they die, I'll know I was wrong in thinking the issues in those tanks are solved. There are fish already living in both of those tanks, but new fish are stressed and so weaker), and made it home in time to try to get all the things assembled and put away. I failed, but the person arriving early helped me with the monitor and later put legs on my light. (The got broken by various people including the fish guy in the process of me taking the thing down there for bulb change. Bulb change is free in store. It means I know I have bought the right lights and someone without arthritis does the fine work). They were out of legs, but I had some at home. Squirrel was kind enough to take the players home so I could take the good meds for the horrible back pain. I have a working monitor on the big machine and hopes that plants will now grow properly on the cichlid tank.

The characters actually solved the refugee problem, plot seeds got planted, and they are on their way north.

My calendar says I have a mid day appointment with a mystery person. Under the assumption it was a doctor, I tried looking online, but no clue. Of course no one called to confirm appointments. I could call around to various practices I deal with in the hopes of one of them recognizing the name, but I'm tempted to blow it off and let them bill me so I can find out who they are. I have a sneaking suspicion it's the substitute doctor who's fucking me around on my hormones though, and I shouldn't blow them off on the grounds that they can continue fucking me over and if you miss at that clinic twice in a year they drop you. The thought of trying to find a different poverty clinic that treats trans folk is alarming. Sigh. Why the fuck can't they do a confirm call like everybody else?

(no subject)

* In Cambodia, a shoe factory ceiling collapsed, killing two and wounding many others.

* The cyclone that hit Bangladesh was luckily not as bad as expected. As sad as it is that thirteen people died, it could have been so much worse, as it started to weaken before making landfall. By the time it reached the refugees in Burma/Myanmar it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. I am terribly relieved, though obviously not as relieved as the people camping in the open.

* TW for hate crimes. "EU LGBT survey sparks concern over homophobic abuse:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22563977

There is more specific Information about the poll in this article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22563843

* Wow, that was some racist China coverage from the BBC GMT anchor. (I just looked it up: Michael Gowen). It's like somebody at the BBC decided, we're doing some already dubious coverage of Chinese tourists, what it really needs is an old white guy ranting about how disgusting he finds Chinese people. Seriously, who says things like that?

* The only two American Companies willing to pay for safety upgrades like fire escapes in their factories in Bangladesh are Abercrombie and Fitch and PVH (Tom Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, et. al). Walmart, Target, the Gap, etc. absolutely refuse because the workers having even minimal rights to safety will help unions and therefore letting people die in Bangladesh is in the company interests. They insist that like the owners of the factory that collapsed, they can do an excellent job of self inspection. After all, who is going to keep the workers safer, an independent review that will close the factory if it's likely to kill people, or an internal inspector with a strong profit motive not to? The one protecting company profits over the lives of mere humans, obviously. Two dozen European companies have signed the agreements. It's shameful that US companies are not doing the same. They aren't even asking for a living wage. They are asking for a reasonable chance not to die at work. That's all.

* Thirteen tornado hit North Texas Wednesday/Thursday night. Six are dead and dozens wounded. People are lacking water and electricity in the hardest hit areas. People have lost everything. In one town 97 out of 110 were damaged or destroyed.

* They are still investigating the explosion in West, Texas. They have not yet ruled out the wiring, criminal activity, and a golf cart as causes. I am not commenting on the person in custody and media speculation about his involvement. I would rather wait for the officials investigating to make a statement. I'd rather not try someone in the media at this stage.

* They have arrested six suspects in the Mother's Day mass shooting in New Orleans.

* A third sexual harassment response officer this time at Fort Campbell has been arrested for stalking. Think about it a minute. He had an order of protection against him and the military decided he was totally a good person to stop people from sexually assaulting women. He's been releaved of duty.

* You know the imaginary debt crisis Republicans insist is their number one priority? Well, the Republicans celebrated the near record speed drop of our deficit thanks to Obamacare by doing a vote to repeal it. Add this to the mountain of existing evidence that they are out right lying when they say they believe in the pretend crisis they are using to try to dismantle the social safety net.

* I don't really like my dentist. Oh, he's good. I just like the old one better as a person. She went on maternity leave again and is mostly just doing children these days, handing off adults to other dentists, so I got stuck with the one I was assigned while she was gone. Again, he's competent, nay skilled. He's not offensive the way the guy who did my wisdom teeth was. The issue is, he's subtly condescending/paternalistic. Again, nothing specific I can point to and say, "this particular thing is not okay." It's more: I am poor, disabled, and queer, so he assumes I am not bright. I suspect that I am not the only one who dislikes dealing with him as the poverty clinic where I go is usually way over scheduled, and he has plenty of time to putter instead of seeing two or three patients at once and running back and forth. My clinic is very popular with immigrants as they have lots of bilingual staff in Spanish and Ukrainian, are actually good, and do sliding scale. I am wondering if the he treats the ELL clients as if they are not bright either. I loved my old dentist and the hygienists that worked her rooms. I loved lying back with my eyes closed with the mixed language chatter of the women washing over me. It was relaxing and pleasant. I know, I know, the kids learning English need her in a way that I don't, but they were always so pleasant and treated me like an adult rather than a vaguely incompetent lesser being. I need to come back for an already scheduled cleaning next month, but I hoping next year to convince them to let me switch to someone else in the practice.

Anyway, I did make it on time despite being exhausted. He did not take me seriously when I reminded him I am resistant to Novocaine, so they had to renumb me after the drilling started. (It's in my chart. They use a stronger drug at a higher dose as Novocain isn't much stronger than Tylenol on me and it wears off super fast. My theory is that even though my hair is predominantly brown, it had a large amount of red highlights in it before it started going dark when I turned 40 or so. There is gene that makes Novocain not work or not work well that tends to be associated with red hair. I'm wondering if what's happening is some sort of partial expression of the doesn't respond to Novocain gene thingie, similar to the way having one sf gene gives you cf carrier syndrome instead of fullblown cf. But I could be completely wrong. I respond to a lot of drugs in atypical ways, so it could be my freakish body chemistry at work.) I did do the loop to pay bills since they are a few blocks away. I did get a monitor, which was coincidentally on sale, so the monitor dying when it did could be considered good luck. I did hit the library and mail my package to England. I also got the cichlid tank light bulbs replaced, picked up a few replacement fish as part of a slow restock after the disasters of Winter (They had the right guppies, but only a few of the two types of platys I want. This is fine as they are cheap and if they die, I'll know I was wrong in thinking the issues in those tanks are solved. There are fish already living in both of those tanks, but new fish are stressed and so weaker), and made it home in time to try to get all the things assembled and put away. I failed, but the person arriving early helped me with the monitor and later put legs on my light. (The got broken by various people including the fish guy in the process of me taking the thing down there for bulb change. Bulb change is free in store. It means I know I have bought the right lights and someone without arthritis does the fine work). They were out of legs, but I had some at home. Squirrel was kind enough to take the players home so I could take the good meds for the horrible back pain. I have a working monitor on the big machine and hopes that plants will now grow properly on the cichlid tank.

The characters actually solved the refugee problem, plot seeds got planted, and they are on their way north.

My calendar says I have a mid day appointment with a mystery person. Under the assumption it was a doctor, I tried looking online, but no clue. Of course no one called to confirm appointments. I could call around to various practices I deal with in the hopes of one of them recognizing the name, but I'm tempted to blow it off and let them bill me so I can find out who they are. I have a sneaking suspicion it's the substitute doctor who's fucking me around on my hormones though, and I shouldn't blow them off on the grounds that they can continue fucking me over and if you miss at that clinic twice in a year they drop you. The thought of trying to find a different poverty clinic that treats trans folk is alarming. Sigh. Why the fuck can't they do a confirm call like everybody else?

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