rebron System Error -45

"In my 14 years of doing this, I've never had anyone faint on me while they're laying down."* – the nice LabCorp technician

System Error -45: rebron system crash, fainting spell when blood is drawn

I mentioned I had a physical exam a couple weeks ago, sailed through it with flying colors. You'd think I would, right. Doc said to go get a blood test which is just part of the whole getting a physical thing. I didn't get a blood test a couple years ago because I knew what was going to happen.

So anyway, went and got my blood test today around 9am. Hadn't eaten yet and ate around 8pm the night before — sushi/sashimi, some chocolate cake.

I get into the office and I'm trying to psyche myself out of fainting. I'm a big boy, this time I'm going to watch so I know what's happening, so my mind doesn't wander. It's not a big deal, I've done this before. I do the pee sample and then back into reception area still trying to psyche myself out of fainting.

I tell the lady I've had a history of fainting when getting blood drawn and that I should lay down, so over to the scaredy cat room. We start talking, tell her my problem, asked her if the needle felt like a mosquito bite, and she said I wouldn't even feel it.

The technician puts that rubber thing around my arm. She tells me to make a fist. She puts the needle attached to a tube in my arm and I don't feel a thing except I can feel my arm stressed a little bit just like when you get your blood pressure taken.

For some reason, I can feel the blood getting drawn from my arm, not really, but mentally I feel like someone started a slow leak that's not going to stop. I'm still trying to talk to the technician. I start to feel light headed. I'm sweating, and then *poof* done, I'm out. I don't even realize it. It's a lot like a Mac OS X system crash or a blue screen of death. One second it's working, another second done.

Lights out, completely. I'm in this dream world. There's people around, I'm in this very happy place, and the technician starts calling my name and waking me up and I groggily get up. I really don't know how long I've been out for, could've been 2 minutes could've been 30 minutes (but I think it was just a minute). I have no idea where I am, and then I finally remember, oh yeah, I'm getting my blood drawn.

Crazy.

#####

* The real translation for the technician's quote. "In my 14 years of doing this, you're the biggest pu$$y I've ever met…" I need to go do another Ironman. F#ck!!

Bakesale Betty

I'm surprised I haven't written anything about Bakesale Betty yet so here's the scoop/review (and here's hoping she web searches for "Bakesale Betty" and my post comes up and I get like a free sandwich or something…). Here's the Yelp review too since I stole their fried chicken photo…

Bakesale Betty is just a couple blocks away from me, so it's very dangerous. It's over in Temescal and it took over a location that used to be Merritt Bakery and before that a cell phone/pager store. Temescal is a "transitional" neighborhood and it's transitioning to be quite the new/hot/Bay Area bohemian spot due to Bakesale Betty, Pizziaolo, Tagine, Dona Tomas, Genova, Lane Splitters, Dollar Cleaners!, and several happening Korea places, etc.

Bakesale Betty has this now super famous chicken sandwich. It's a fried chicken sandwich, with jalapeno coleslaw on Acme bread and it costs $7.25 or $7.50 I can't remember. Everyone in Oakland knows about it and people are coming in from San Francisco checking it out.

Bakesale Betty also has great oatmeal cookies, scones, and everything is good.

You may get lagniappe (an extra cookie or a lemon bar or something) if you're served by the right person (or maybe Bakesale Betty and her girls think I'm cute…that could be it).

When we first saw Bakesale Betty, we totally thought she was going to go out of business really quickly because all she sold were lemon bars and these sticky date puddings. They were good but who banks their business on lemon bars and sticky date puddings. Now Bakesale Betty really helped make Temescal cool– you should see how their business is set up and the lines outside their door.

Bakesale Betty has a jingle. All companies should have a jingle. I want a jingle.

Bakesale Betty incubated her company through the farmer's market circuit. Quite smart! And Farmer's Markets really are becoming a place where new businesses do incubate.

Bakesale Betty has befriended the Fire Department 4 or 5 houses down the street. The Firemen come into Bakesale Betty's often so everyone knows not to f*ck with Bakesale Betty. One of their best moves.

annual feed reading list

I'm curious as to what people use for their feed reader and which one has the highest market share if that's even tracked.

The feeds I follow are:

  • Michael Bauer
  • TechCU mortgage rates
  • JWZ
  • Paul Graham
  • Another Dot Com
  • Emmy Huang
  • IE Blog
  • Planet Mozilla
  • SpreadFirefox
  • pmarca
  • John Lilly
  • Gen Kanai
  • Webware
  • Om Malik
  • Search Engine Marketing
  • TechCrunch
  • ValleyWag (not sure why)
  • VentureBeat
  • Newest Add-ons

If I should be reading someone not on this list or if I should bump people off this list let me know.

If I should be using something else for my feed reading other than Firefox/live bookmarks, let me know that too.  I've played around with Bloglines, Google Reader, Thunderbird, etc. and Vlad's live bookmark implementation in Firefox works for me fine.

I'm thinking maybe a Planet version of the feeds similar to what bsmedberg has done but that requires work.  It would be cool if there was a Planet like plug-in for WordPress (maybe there is one).

Tomorrow The Sunset

Today a little more than a few hours
a few more than last time
a morning feast near the white house
nestled in the woods and today
we go up until we reach the top.

But first, here is where my body
starts to ache, and here is where
I rest, and here is where my heart
explodes, and to the left we will
find the top of the world, where I will
find you, today and everyday.

All the land between here and there
those three islands, those two bridges,
that ship, my embrace, my kiss, my smile,
my laugh, may I humbly give to you
these are yours today and everyday.

A little more coffee and a few more roses
in a garden locked by a magic gate
unlocked with a secret knock and when
we return may all the roses bloom
to greet you. These roses are yours too.

When at last we must part I only wish
to extend your kiss one more stop to feel
the soft touch of your lips, the promise of
tomorrow the sunset and everyday thereafter.

Wildcat Canyon,etc.

Here's a view from top of Wildcat Canyon in the Oakland Hills. Didn't notice the writing on the log until after coming home because it was dark when I took the photo and the flash unlocked the hidden message.

So anyway, Wildcat Canyon is a nice place to go to watch fireworks. I ride my bike up here too a bunch (like today) via Claremont ave.

I mentioned I don't like to put photos up of people (friends/family/etc) but Joe (left) and Ferdinand (right) are cool. Plus I'm usually on the other end of the camera taking the pictures and I don't photograph well. This is in Danville a couple weeks ago; we put in some good mileage — Morgan Territory plus Mt Diablo. About another six weeks of some hard training and then Ironman Canada in August, and then I'm done. Last Saturday, we did a 100 mile bike ride. That was fun too.

Dell XPS m1330

I like this computer. c|Net gave it a good review, a 7.9. Here it is on Dell's web site. I'm currently running a white MacBook. I also have an IBM X31 ThinkPad. I may get one of these XPS m1330 laptops but I'd like to get another MacBook (to replace my current one) probably in October this year or January next year. I want to wait until Leopard is pre-installed and then get Parallels for it too. I have a feeling the MacBook will get a good upgrade pretty soon.

Anway, one of the nice things about being in software is that it's easy to justify computer purchases. :-) Oh, and it's too bad these Dell laptops have to have Windows Vista installed. They really need to start putting in the option of a Linux OS installation as well. I'd pay for Ubuntu and Windows Vista installed.