Brain Transplants

I was talking to my wife and her family the other day about organ transplants, and we got on the subject of brain transplants. I know they are only fictitious right now, but would you want your brain to be on the list of organs you're willing to donate?

And if we could transplant brains, would your consciousness go with it, or would it be the original person who possessed the body who retains control of the body? Would they suddenly be good at math (assuming you were), or have your memories? What if only part of the brain were transplanted…could you meld a healthy hippocampus into someone who has had theirs damaged and can't form any new short-term memories? And what would this do to voluntary organ donor selection on drivers licenses, if people though there was a chance their brain would go into another person's cranium?

Yeah, that kind of stuff keeps me up at night, too :-)

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That’s Just Sick…

Actually, it's me that's just sick. As in, feeling ill, under the weather, not up to snuff, etc. I've got some sort of cold passed on my lovely little bouncy girl, who is just now getting better from whatever dire cold she gave me. Makes for a fun workday when you're sniffling and swallowing phlegm. Okay, sorry for the imagery.

There's a woman here at work who has claimed she hasn't been sick in the last 40 years. Yes, she gets "sinus infections" and "allergies", but NO, she hasn't been SICK in the last 40 years.

Well, she went home early yesterday with a tickle in her throat. And today, she didn't come in. People were cracking jokes that her "80 year streak of not being sick" is at an end. It's all good natured, but I can understand their point – what kind of pride do you have to have to try to claim that you've not been sick in the last 40 years? Does it make you a super(wo)man to avoid displaying an immunoresponse to some virus?

I wonder if Guinness has a World Record for longest time without being sick. Although that would be hard to document, I think. Who judges what the limits are on sick vs. not sick? I would think daily physicals would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming, but that's the only way I could see to get documented evidence of your body's health, day-in and day-out.

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Bad Credit? No Credit? No SSN? Okay!

I just heard from someone here at work (unconfirmed) that Bank of America is now issuing credit cards to people who do not have social security numbers. No, not that you don't have to give your SSN to be approved, but that you don't have to HAVE one to be approved.

Somehow I don't think the constitution lists among our inalienable rights the right to be up to your ears in debt. But hey, now even our illegal immigrants can join us in our indebted state. Let's hear it for the land of opportunity!  Woohoo!

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Sweet Dreams

So I'm taking a preventative medicine for malaria (Larium) since I'm going to go to India next week and want to make sure that if I get bit by any little skeeters that I don't get the POTENTIALLY DEADLY DISEASE (emphasis from the information on malaria given by my doctor). The doctor said that the possible side effects were minor and most people only complained of "strange dreams".

Well, I've definitely had some strange dreams. I dreamt one night that I had decided to switch careers and become the head of the Chinese mafia. In my dream, my wife was fully supportive of this profession change, even when it meant I had to start whacking people.

And then there was the dream where I was a shark, living in a large man-made freshwater pond with other sharks. I could communicate with one of the humans (a female who shared a mutual love with me, don't ask, it didn't get into details) and we were the go-betweens for a full set of trade provisions between the humans and the sharks. I think the humans wanted to fish the pond and the sharks were willing to let them for some manufactured goods, but I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. Anyway, there was this sudden disaster and all the food supply for the sharks suddenly went missing, and the sharks started attacking humans. I, with the help of my human ambassador/lover counterpart, negotiated a new peace treaty whereby the sharks promised not to attack any humans provided they fed us each 3 rabbits a day. (Again, don't ask, I don't know any more than that).

The funny thing is, I hardly ever remember my dreams. And these are so vivid that I remember them long after I wake up. Which is pretty cool. If not for the dizzyness, headaches, and achy/fever I'm also getting from the Larium, I'd be all about staying on the medication, just to get some pretty darn cool dreams out of it!

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Yep, I Did It…


Oh To Be (A) Regular

I've never really been considered a "regular" anywhere (you know, a "regular" at a restaurant, pool hall, bar, etc). Partially because I've never had the time to commit to going to the same place all the time, and partially because I've never had the desire to. But all that changed today, at, of all places, Bojangles fast food restaurant.

Since I moved down to North Carolina, I've been going to this specific Bojangles restaurant fairly often on my way to work. They don't have Bojangles in the north and I really like their spicy chicken sandwiches and biscuits (and their coffee isn't half bad, either).

So anyway, for $3.71 a day, I can grab a cajun filet biscuit and a large coffee on my way to work, without driving out of my way or waiting in a long line. I'm usually back in my car and on the road within minutes, but that doesn't mean I haven't left a "lasting" impression on some of the people who work there.

One of the guys there (Jamel) started to recognize me in the mornings, and said hi to me every day, and pretty soon all the employees working the register recognized me by face (or when I'm wearing my packer hat, recognize me by hat). I started to get a little preferential treatment in some cases (pushing my small order ahead of large orders, even if they had also ordered the same sandwich). But it wasn't until today that Jamel knew exactly what I was going to order and entered it into the register without me having to say a word. So now, there are no two doubts about it, I'm officially a regular at the Bojangles of Harrisburg…at least for a few short minutes in the morning. Not my ideal place to be a regular, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Now I just need to move my way up to being a regular at the main dining establishment in Trump tower….

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