Thursday, May 15, 2008
Living in the Stone Age
(1)
I'm back a bit early again with the usual weather excuse; also Kootch returned from Japan yesterday (wednesday), freeing me from the need to padlock the door while I'm gone. The importance of this precaution was underlined recently when I returned home from a 45 minute (approximately) visit to the supermarket. After opening the digital door lock and the key lock, I discovered that one of the digital padlocks had been opened. Apparently 'they' were able to break the combination to that particular lock using the 'brute force method' (trying the sequential possibilities). I think the combination for that particular lock was set to 0977, therefore it seems likely that they started at 0000. They were lucky, of course, to have selected the lock which was most vulnerable to that initial try. This was the third time in history that one of my digital padlocks has been 'broken.' Maybe I should limit the possible combinations to numbers above 5000? Hmm... I find it interesting that they did not attempt to hide their successes in any of the above cases, and thay they obviously wanted me to know.
Kootch brought back her usual stash, mostly exotic Japanese foods, and LOTS of 'osenbei' (rice crackers), and some strange little socks with toes in them.
I didn't expect to be doing this tonight - in spite of the weather forecast - because of sleep deprivation last night: I hit the sack at 2245, was gassed heavily from 2300 to 0100, then gas and radiation from 0430 to 0800. Four hours or so of sleep. I expected to be wilting about now. I ate lunch around 1330 or so (with Kootch), and we watched a TiVo of Millionaire. Then later a visit to KP (I was late, having been mezmerized by C-III). Interestingly, the purpose of the visit was to test the sensory feeling in my feet: the examiner touched certain spots on my feet with a small plastic strand. It was a little game: I was supposed to tell her which foot she had touched. I passed the test with flying colors, and she seemed satisfied. The bottoms of both feet forward of the arches are numb and could not have detected the plastic strand, but she was able to elicit an involuntary response by scraping something against them (and I felt it). Interestingly, the 'hit your knee with a little rubber hammer' didn't seem to work. Blood pressure was about 115/70. Weight: 220 (I am on a plateau, dietwise).
By the way: The Democrats are intent on reforming America's pathetic health care system. Good idea. I would suggest that those folks watch the pbs.org documentary, Sick Around the World for clues as to how advanced and sophisticated societies have already solved this eternal dilemma. 'Modern' America is still living in the medical stone age.
I'm back a bit early again with the usual weather excuse; also Kootch returned from Japan yesterday (wednesday), freeing me from the need to padlock the door while I'm gone. The importance of this precaution was underlined recently when I returned home from a 45 minute (approximately) visit to the supermarket. After opening the digital door lock and the key lock, I discovered that one of the digital padlocks had been opened. Apparently 'they' were able to break the combination to that particular lock using the 'brute force method' (trying the sequential possibilities). I think the combination for that particular lock was set to 0977, therefore it seems likely that they started at 0000. They were lucky, of course, to have selected the lock which was most vulnerable to that initial try. This was the third time in history that one of my digital padlocks has been 'broken.' Maybe I should limit the possible combinations to numbers above 5000? Hmm... I find it interesting that they did not attempt to hide their successes in any of the above cases, and thay they obviously wanted me to know.
Kootch brought back her usual stash, mostly exotic Japanese foods, and LOTS of 'osenbei' (rice crackers), and some strange little socks with toes in them.
I didn't expect to be doing this tonight - in spite of the weather forecast - because of sleep deprivation last night: I hit the sack at 2245, was gassed heavily from 2300 to 0100, then gas and radiation from 0430 to 0800. Four hours or so of sleep. I expected to be wilting about now. I ate lunch around 1330 or so (with Kootch), and we watched a TiVo of Millionaire. Then later a visit to KP (I was late, having been mezmerized by C-III). Interestingly, the purpose of the visit was to test the sensory feeling in my feet: the examiner touched certain spots on my feet with a small plastic strand. It was a little game: I was supposed to tell her which foot she had touched. I passed the test with flying colors, and she seemed satisfied. The bottoms of both feet forward of the arches are numb and could not have detected the plastic strand, but she was able to elicit an involuntary response by scraping something against them (and I felt it). Interestingly, the 'hit your knee with a little rubber hammer' didn't seem to work. Blood pressure was about 115/70. Weight: 220 (I am on a plateau, dietwise).
By the way: The Democrats are intent on reforming America's pathetic health care system. Good idea. I would suggest that those folks watch the pbs.org documentary, Sick Around the World for clues as to how advanced and sophisticated societies have already solved this eternal dilemma. 'Modern' America is still living in the medical stone age.
