Entries Tagged 'Random thoughts' ↓

Every now and then, something new that you learn really sticks and plays on your mind. I recently learnt what stomach stapling really is and I can’t get it out of my head. Essentially a large portion of the stomach is closed off by stapling it closed, leaving a small useable part that is about 30ml in volume. Compare this to the normal stomach which is about 500ml when empty and expands up to 1500ml when full. This means that the new 30ml stomach can only handle the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of food or drink at one time. Imagine that. Oh, and this is for life. Whilst the 30ml stomach will stretch a little over time, it means a lifetime of nibbling. And nibbling only food that such a small stomach can handle – no starch, no carbs, no fatty foods or anything that is difficult to digest normally. There’s also the chance that the small stomach just won’t be able to cope with certain foods that are not of these types which means you’d be facing months of throwing up until you learned all over again what you could eat. I just can’t imagine it. Even one cup of coffee won’t fit even if it was accepted. I guess you’d have to super-chew your food to really compact it down. I’m not even thinking about the reasons why you’d have this procedure done, my brain is too distracted by the change in your life. And I’m not even that much of a foodie – I mean I like to cook and I like to eat what I like to eat albeit not that much of it.

I don’t know why this particular new thing I’ve learnt won’t leave me.

Spurred on by Rod’s impressive blogging milestone of 1000 posts in almost 3 years I had a count up as well. I’m at 324 posts in almost 2 years (I started July 04).

In my observation people nowadays do not answer their phones if they don’t recognise the number. Most obvious with cell phones. However, also observed (and annoyed by) people don’t cancel the call, they let the phone ring, or squeeze it in their hand in an effort to cover the speaker or shove it in a drawer until it stops ringing. Why is this? If you cancel the call does it not go to the answer phone? If you don’t know the number why do you want to give the person the opportunity to leave a message? If you are going to extend them this courtesy why not just answer the phone instead of being discourteous to everyone around you who has to listen to the ignored phone ring? Maybe the phone is left to ring so that if it was a call that you really should have answered you can  get away with saying “I didn’t hear the phone” or “I was in the bathroom” … </rant>

LD as an acronym is a much-used term in my current job and was also used a lot in my previous job so I’m having to get used to the switch in meaning.

Previously LD = lethal dose
Currently LD = last day of the month

Just got an email with this interesting / useless tidbit:

Early this morning, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 a.m. the time and date was 01:02:03 04/05/06.

This won’t ever happen again.

Except in New Zealand on 4th May.

What is it about just about all the male Oscar winners and their emotional thank you speeches to their Mom’s? I mean they *all* mentioned them.

During these windy times I am addicted to the wunderground.com weather site as I am fascinated by the hearty lungs of our city. Wind gust examples over the last 24 hours:

Monday
6pm – 83.3km
7pm – 85.2km
8pm – 85.2km
9pm – 77.8km

Tuesday
11am – 79.6km
12pm – 77.8km
1pm – 88.9km
2pm – 75.9km
3pm – 77.8km
4pm – 77.8km

Another facet of the personal shopper – http://www.hateshopping.co.nz/

I have always found the sign on the side of the display unit holding cakes and other sweet treats at Thorndon New World to be puzzling.

It says ‘nutritional information available on request’ – this implies cakes are good for you i.e. they have nutrients which in itself usually means good things. I suppose such a sign is there so that people know whether peanuts or flour or other things that you could be allergic to are in the cakes. In which case wouldn’t ‘ingredients information’ be a better sign? Or maybe the sign is there so that if you’re watching your weight you can find out how many calories are in a lamington vs. a cupcake?

I try to avoid use of the phrase ‘bear in mind’ or is it ‘bare in mind’ because I can never remember which bear/bare is right. I’m quite good at using ‘be mindful’, or ‘taking into account’ or similar.

I’ve tried to think of the origins of the phrase, to work out exactly what it means to see if I can figure out which spelling to use. What does it mean anyway? If it means ‘keep in mind’, or ‘be alert’, or ‘be prepared’ then I would argue that either bear or bare is relevant – I’m sure there are many situations where bare (in terms of naked) can be just as alarming as a bear when encountered unexpectedly.

Whoa – that affogato they gave me at Fuel this afternoon really has sent my brain off into a spin!

By the way, it’s ‘bear in mind’.

Bear [in mind] (v):
To hold in one’s mind; remember

Bear (n):
Big omnivorous mammal of the family Ursidae