jayKayEss » health

Go stick a pin in your ear.

jayKayEss — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 05:09:15 +0000

I have a confession to make: even though it says “for external use only” on the Q-Tips box, and even though doctors are always telling you *never* to stick anything in your ears, if I don’t clean my ear canals out once a month or so, it gets kind of, uhm, gross. Well, here I thought us greasy Hi-talians were the only ones with earwax problems. It turns out that Asians and Blacks are similarly afflicted:

“It’s not just an Eastern thing. I’m Black and my parents are from the South (Mom St. Louis; Dad, Alabama); they taught all of us kids how to clean our ears from the time we were toddlers.” Boing Boing: How to clean your ear with a bobby pin

I have to say, though… I’m kinda scared of the bobby pin thing. Think I’ll stick to Q-Tips.

How to read fruit

jayKayEss — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:19:25 +0000

Here’s an amazing bit of information: you can tell whether a fruit is organic or GMO by looking at the number on the little sticker:

Conventionally grown fruit has four digits
Genetically modified fruit has five digits, beginning with 8
Organically grown fruit has five digits, beginning with 9

Unfortunately, Bush changed the USDA guidelines for organic growers to allow certain pesticides, so “organic” doesn’t always mean organic (unless it’s certified by California or another state.) But, it’s great to be able to avoid genetically-modified foods if you so wish.

UPDATE: Apparently there’s only one genetically-modified fruit currently being sold.

att hälsa på vårdcentralen…

jayKayEss — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:11:00 +0000

My flu-slash-cold, or whatever it is, is slowly getting better. Each morning I feel theees much better (holding up fingers to indicate about the width of a human hair.) I guess I’m kinda lucky in that I can’t remember the last time I had a real full-blown flu like this.

Yesterday I went to the Vårdcentral (a/k/a neighborhood health cinic) for a rapid strep test (result: negative.) I kind of expected an adventure there, but in truth it wasn’t significantly different from an American health clinic. Except, of course, that the whole thing, including doctor’s visit and lab work, was only about $60. And that’s the price without insurance.

The receptionist who checked me in was very sweet, and pretended to speak English for my benefit. I didn’t realize to what extent she was pretending until I saw what she made of my address, though: “512 Est fiftstret apartmend 16.” That would also explain why she stonily refused to answer a couple of my questions.

I’ve noticed this same dynamic with my stepdad: the first couple years as I got to know him, I would sometimes think that he was offended by something I said, or that he thought a comment I made was dumb, because he’d occasionally sit in complete silence after something I said. But, it turns out that this is just how he reacts when he doesn’t understand something: he’ll never, ever turn to you and say, “what?” Funny.