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Author Topic: American Health Care  (Read 1555 times)

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midlifeaspie

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #30 on: September 28, 2012, 10:28:28 AM »
MLA, just get off your high horse and stop being such a moralizing gobbet of smegma.

I have been working full time since I was 15 years old.  My horse is not that high Lestat.  I am just capable of doing that which you are incapable of doing.  Nobody is saying that makes me better than you per se, only that it makes my advice on the subject more credible.

Offline luciaelizabeth

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #31 on: September 28, 2012, 10:50:13 AM »
And yes, job center are shite.

I've tried agencies too, and they flat out refused to even LOOK for an employer that would take me on, or show me any of their vacancies, because I have no experience.

You could go to college and learn a trade or something, you can study part-time for free if you are on the dole. No exp = volunteer & work experience. It does count.

Offline Lestat

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #32 on: September 28, 2012, 11:09:51 AM »
I am learning a trade, making guitar parts.

What I would love to do more than anything, is either some work in the molecular biology/cognitive neuroscience field (as long as it does not involve me experimenting on animals. I absolutely refuse to do anything whatsoever involving animal research. It is sick, barbaric and inhumane what many people do in the name of science. I'm willing to take tissue/blood samples from animals, for producing cell cultures, cloning etc, but otherwise, I absolutely flat out refuse to participate in any form of animal experimentation whatsoever)


Or working with animals, that I'd love, being a vet, zoo worker, animal shelter employee etc.

I do try to get volunteer work actually. I get rejected every single time. Almost all of the time I don't even get granted an interview.

Getting interviews, even if they reject me afterwards, surely wouldn't be too much to ask for?
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midlifeaspie

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #33 on: September 28, 2012, 11:13:32 AM »
Not gonna happen without a degree

Offline luciaelizabeth

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #34 on: September 28, 2012, 11:52:53 AM »
I am learning a trade, making guitar parts.

What I would love to do more than anything, is either some work in the molecular biology/cognitive neuroscience field (as long as it does not involve me experimenting on animals. I absolutely refuse to do anything whatsoever involving animal research. It is sick, barbaric and inhumane what many people do in the name of science. I'm willing to take tissue/blood samples from animals, for producing cell cultures, cloning etc, but otherwise, I absolutely flat out refuse to participate in any form of animal experimentation whatsoever)


Or working with animals, that I'd love, being a vet, zoo worker, animal shelter employee etc.

I do try to get volunteer work actually. I get rejected every single time. Almost all of the time I don't even get granted an interview.

Getting interviews, even if they reject me afterwards, surely wouldn't be too much to ask for?

Getting an interview is the hardest part I think, it's all in the covering letter. It takes time (like HOURS and doing drafts) but a really good covering letter will get you to interview even without experience.

Not gonna happen without a degree

Regarding this, there is loads of support for mature students who want to get into uni. And there's financial support available which everyone is entitled to. If you're living with your parents you can save most of your loan you get for living allowances and put that towards getting your masters once you've done the bachelors degree.

Offline Lestat

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #35 on: September 28, 2012, 11:56:24 AM »
I want to go to uni. Been looking into access courses, for those with only moderate school-leaving qualifications to get into uni (my spesh school told me they wouldn't let me do the higher tier GCSE science papers, for some stupid reason they never told me. Although I do feel some measure of smug satisfaction at being able to rub that in their faces by getting the highest marks in all three scientific disciplines, chem, bio and physics, that any pupil had ever got in its history :D)

Fucked off though about that still, as with the paper I was limited to, the very maximum grade I COULD attain was a C. Even had I scored 100% in the exam, I would still have been awarded only a C grade, which to me, feels very unfair. I almost did too. Got 99% in all three. Missed a SINGLE damn question in chem though, which I was not happy about. I wanted 100. IIRC I made an accidental, stupid error by writing the formula for calcium carbonate down wrong :(.

But I NEED to fix my memory issues first, else I just won't be able to retain the info. I've been referred to someone though, not got the appt. yet, but the referral was only done a week ago.

And I need constant babysitting with my math more or less, thanks to being very, very severely dyscalculic.

I'm a fairly competent scientist, but that counts for nothing whatsoever, it seems, when its entirely self-educated, beyond school level.
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Offline luciaelizabeth

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #36 on: September 28, 2012, 12:02:47 PM »
How come you rock at physics when you're dyscalculic? All i remember about physics in school was that it was like maths, but worse! :(

I think the higher/lower papers are such a dumb idea! Hopefully they've got shut of that shit now.

Hopefully you'll get to go see a neurologist (i presume) before the year is out  :)

If you're well self taught then an access course will be a piece of piss. :2thumbsup:

Offline Adam

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #37 on: September 28, 2012, 12:28:39 PM »
I love the NHS too. It's not perfect, and a lot of it needs changing, but I'd much rather have the NHS than the american system

And I don't get why Americans are so against universal healthcare

midlifeaspie

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #38 on: September 28, 2012, 12:58:45 PM »
I love the NHS too. It's not perfect, and a lot of it needs changing, but I'd much rather have the NHS than the american system

And I don't get why Americans are so against universal healthcare

Because most of them are too dumb to vote for their own self interests.  They have all been taught since an early age that they could all be millionaires someday, so they vote as though that is actually going to happen.  It's fucking bizarre.

Offline luciaelizabeth

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #39 on: September 28, 2012, 01:00:04 PM »
american dream yo. we learned about that in literature. willy loman. etc.

Offline Lestat

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #40 on: September 28, 2012, 01:03:42 PM »
I don't!

The closest I come to rocking at physics, is the kind of rocking that is usually accompanied by hand-flapping, spinning around in situ, jumping  up and down, and vocal stimming!

The math side of things lets me down where physics is concerned. To be totally honest, I have no crowbegotten idea how I managed to pull that off.

I don't really enjoy physics, although I do like reading up on quantum mechanics, particle physics in particular. I don't pretend to myself that I have a paki in hell's chance of ever becoming competent physicist :P

My interests are, as far as the scientific disciplines go, both inorganic and organic chemistry, mycology (self taught since I was 4 years old, used to take my dad out, when I was still too little to go out to the woods on my own, to go mushroom hunting. Identifying, reagent-testing (a great many fungi have specific color changes on exposure to certain chemicals, for instance, The destroying angel, Amanita virosa, gives a yellow coloration on treatment with potassium
hydroxide solution, whereas the very similar looking Amanita verna, it looks very like the destroying angel, pure, eerie white, big sack-like baggy volva, white spore print, large ring on the stem, or the white color morph form of the death cap, A.phalloides looks to the do not, and likewise, all fungi containing the lethal, slow acting, agonizing poisons,the amatoxins, react when subjected to the Meixner test, which involves taking a piece of paper with a high lignin content, such as newspaper, marking; with pencil, two circles, one for the sample and one with no mushroom to serve as a control, then mashing some cap tissue thoroughly into one circle, really working the juice into the test spot. Then adding a couple of drops of concentrated hydrochloric acid  to both the sample spot and the blank control.

Leave for 20 minutes or so, preferably out of direct sunlight. If the fungus sample contains amatoxins or phallotoxins  it will react and form a blueish-violety halo around the sample. Due to a rxn with the indole ring, which forms the core of the cyclic peptide hepatotoxins found in many Amanitas, along with some others, like members of the genera Lepiota, Conocybe, Galerina and a couple of others. Although it will also cross react 100% with fungi containing the psychedelics psilocybin, psilocin, bufotenine, etc. All indolic compounds (tryptamines to be exact)                                                                                                                                       

And of course, there are, for the lucky hunt, psychedelic mushrooms to be had, as well as medicinal ones (and in the case of the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, as long as it is prepared properly, both psychotropic, sedative, calming, antianxiety, pain-relieving and  endurance boosting/tonic effects, and a delicious spice, when powdered and added to meat dishes, it brings out the 'umami' flavour, as the orientals term it, the 5th basic taste, that of savoury, meatyness, like monosodium glutamate as a food additive, and if first boiled, the water thrown away, then boiled once more, again throwing the water away, then it can be cooked and used as food)

Its a great hobby, always enjoyed it, going out into the woods, to relax, hike, maybe takes some AMT, or another psychedelic, bring either some weed, or a synthetic cannabinoid with me, and one of my pipes to smoke with, a bottle of coke, few beers etc. set off at first light in the morning, and probably not come home until about 3am. Hopefully with several bags full of the most delicious mushrooms you've ever eaten.

Free food, and truly delicious in many cases, shop-bought generic white Agaricus spp. I actually don't like, other than when put into my special home-cooked steak chilli, to soak up flavour, add more textures etc., perhaps my tastebuds are jaded, but they just couldn't even compare, not in the slightest, to the delights of my favourites, such as giant puffball cutlet, fried in batter, morels (I can't have a proper chilli without morels in it!:D!), wild chanterelles, parasols, wild cep (porcini, as the fancy resteraunts call them, Boletus edulis, aka the penny bun), fried larch boletes/slippery jacks (two fairly similar tasting and to a degree, appearing bolete-like mushrooms in the genus Suillus)
Or hedgehog fungi, which have spines on the bottom rather than gills, or the pores found on Boletes and their allies.

Oh my...I am almost drooling just thinking of some of the wild mushroom meals I have had. I so have to go out hunting again soon :)

Fried wild oyster mushrooms in butter, with grilled bacon....truly a treat. Best of all, none costs a single penny.


Other scientific disciplines that are favourites of mine, are molecular biology, cognitive neuroscience, medicine, pharmacology, biochemistry.

I want to get more into genetics. I read a lot, but don't have the equipment to actually start creating my own transgenic organisms at home. I'd like to a lot, buying the kit is too expensive though, but I could build it myself. I just have to get round to it. Stuff like a thermal cycler for PCR (polymerase chain reaction, used for amongst other things, gene sequencing, and amplifying DNA), an electrophoresis chamber (for separating DNA/RNA by differential speeds of migration along a gel matrix induced by an electric current), gene gun (basically uses inert metal dust coated in DNA, to literally blast genes into cell cultures, sort of like a gene shotgun :D), and an electroporator (uses electric pulses to open transient holes into cells, whence DNA, RNA etc can be made to enter and make itself at home)

And a centrifuge, amongst other things. All those should be doable as home built engineering projects.


I will get to see a neurologist, already have seen one time ago, but they didn't find anything, as the shit usually has to hit the fan at just the right time, I.e when they are running tests to look for it. Not like its likely to happen on command.

Also had a sleep study run, MRIs (can't have another MRI though, I've got metalwork in my face, piercings I can't take out :P)

Got a referral just recently to see the neurologist. The last time, I stayed several days/nights in the hospital, on a ward, while tests were run, I only got to speak to the neurologist/see him in the flesh though for all of 10 minutes, if that. Upon which he dismissed it as a tic.

Sorry....no. Tics do not cause myoclonus, sometimes going all the way to full blown myoclonic seizures, nor memory loss (and I wonder if the wrist drop that suddenly appeared, although getting better now, and has appeared once before, with no prior injury, in the other arm. This time it was near complete paralysis of the hand and wrist, muscle weakness in the forearm and loss of sensation in the affected areas, might have something to do with it)

                                                                                                                                         

Beyond the pale. Way, way beyond the pale.

Requiescat in pacem, Wolfish, beloved of Pyraxis.

Offline luciaelizabeth

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #41 on: September 28, 2012, 02:01:49 PM »
So, what's up with your memory exactly? Is it short term memory loss? Because of the seizures or?

Offline Lestat

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #42 on: September 28, 2012, 02:42:31 PM »
Not because of the seizures, no. Although they can't be helping. Basically massive impairment of short term, and working memory, difficulty learning and retaining new information, severe enough often, that I can be reading something in one browser tab online, and flick to another tab, only to find I have absolutely zero memory of what I was just reading. Comes along with impairment of executive function too. Very difficult to live with ATM :(

The seizures started waaay later than the memory impairment. Although I still had the problem with myoclonus when it started, not full blown myoclonic seizures though.
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Offline "couldbecousin"

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #43 on: September 28, 2012, 06:33:34 PM »
What is working black, lit?

Working without paying tax  :thumbup:

  In the States we call it "working under the table," or "getting paid under the table."   :yarly:
"I'm finding a lot of things funny lately, but I don't think they are."
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People forget.
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Offline Parts

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Re: American Health Care
« Reply #44 on: September 28, 2012, 06:37:04 PM »
What is working black, lit?

Working without paying tax  :thumbup:

  In the States we call it "working under the table," or "getting paid under the table."   :yarly:

And it's practically a national sport  :green:
"Eat it up.  Wear it out.  Make it do or do without." 

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