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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2013-06-05 07:01 pm

Recovery, Rodent, Rooftops, Dialectics and Exams

Almost completely recovered from the cellulitis skin infection referred to in the last post. A hefty and regular dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic (cephalexin, to be exact) has done its job, although a repeat script and a script for skin dryness (betamethasone) did also require the visit to a second doctor near RMIT; an excellent individual who always manages to quickly provide alternative or additional diagnoses with accuracy (same chap who pointed out that my throat infection last year was viral, not bacterial). Whilst relatively uninfected (except for the inevitable mycoplasma), Riff-Rat the rat is looking and feeling quite old, barely able to hobble along with his dodgy back legs. Nevertheless, he's still enjoying a spot of sunlight with his old friend Mac the cat.

Last Saturday evening attended two high-rise social gatherings. The first was a modernist monstrosity, being the rooftop opening of Eden On The River, which nevertheless did include some good conversation with local Willsmere friends and some pretty spectacular views of how the old landed money of neighbouring Kew can still have vineyards a mere 4km from the CBD. The second elevated gathering was great surprise party hosted by [livejournal.com profile] txxxpxx for [livejournal.com profile] usekh. Spent much of the evening chatting with [livejournal.com profile] kits_the_dm, [livejournal.com profile] a_carnal_mink, and [livejournal.com profile] strang_er, along with aforementioned host and honoured person. Joked with host about how their apartment has a balcony longer and wider than a certain house when I lived in North Carlton. The view (pinched from TPs FB) is quite a delight.

On Sunday attended convened the Philosophy Forum and presented with a talk on dialectics. Of the opinion that dialectics has good utility in argmentation analysis, but shouldn't be used in the physical sciences except as a heuristic or post-hoc explanation. Verification and falsification are far superior methods of rational analysis; plus they don't come with the totalitarian political expediency of historicism. As part of the research discovered the detailed site of British Trotskyist who is anti-dialectics, and much more so than myself. In other intellectual adventures, sat the exam for Facilitating Lifelong Learning today, which allowed some notes to be taken in. It was a rather weird assessment method, and I felt somewhat at odds with the course content. Nevertheless, feeling reasonably confident that I've done well.

[identity profile] txxxpxx.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 09:16 am (UTC)(link)
Glad you had a good night Lev. Thanks for coming. Would you please take the link down to my address? I'm a bit private about who has my address & more so about the house itself.

Thanks

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 09:27 am (UTC)(link)
Whoops, silly real-estate video. My bad.

[identity profile] txxxpxx.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 09:32 am (UTC)(link)
:) Yeah, why would a real estate gent put an address on a property they wer trying to sell. Don't they know it's all about me? :) (Although I do wonder why they leave those links up for so long. The one for the northcote church we were robbed of four years ago is still up too)

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
Takes time and effort to take them down, which means it costs money. Sure, it costs money to keep them up too, but disk is cheap. Plus, it provides a portfolio for the salespeople.

I wonder how many inquiries they get for places that have been sold?

... oh, and here's the place that our friend is selling, speaking of rooftop estates..

http://17wiltshiredrive.com/

[identity profile] janewilliams20.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 10:27 am (UTC)(link)
Good to hear the cellulitis is sorted. Please take that seriously - it may look minor (at least, I hope it did), but that's hospitalised me twice now, both times involving more than a month off work, and the second time heading well on the way to "if it doesn't stop spreading, we amputate". You do not want this.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
No, I don't want that. Doctor did say that if it didn't start to clear up in a couple of days I was to go straight to emergency. Fortunately it started to clear up within hours of the antibiotic treatment. Hooray for science!

[identity profile] janewilliams20.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 10:39 am (UTC)(link)
Good! My lymphodaema means I generally respond very slowly to antibiotics, if at all. It took six days of IV and a cocktail of antibiotics to make any impression, last time. I gather a day or so on a single antibiotic is more normal, and you must be a very healthy person to respond that fast. As you say, hooray for science!

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Healthy? Don't know about that. I used to be, but after a decade or so of a sedentary lifestyle I'm quite in the overweight range these days and being middle-aged doesn't help either. I probably just encountered a bacteria that wasn't particularly resistant to antibiotics, unlike the critters you encountered.

Although I do worry that antibiotics are handed out a little too readily. If it doesn't kill 'em, it makes 'em stronger.

Yes, science is great, especially in a world where magic just doesn't work.

[identity profile] janewilliams20.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
Oztralian fauna less lethal than British ones??? That's a first!


[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2013-06-05 11:58 am (UTC)(link)
LOL, OK, I'll pay that. Does remind me about DEATH going on a holiday to the lost continent XXXX.

We have awesome bitey spidleys, bitey snakes, and even super poisonous jellyfish. Not to mention our crocs.

I mean look at this bastard. Harassing school kids, no less.

After Bluey smacked him around it a bit however he didn't seem so tough.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-19/palumpa-problem-croc-schot/4581876

But the bacteria matter may have a degree of truth; skippy bacteria haven't had as much exposure to antibiotics as the limey ones, so their resistance isn't a good. Or at least that's my completely non-empirical stab in the dark on the situation.

[identity profile] pache.livejournal.com 2013-06-06 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
If I remembe

[identity profile] pache.livejournal.com 2013-06-06 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
As I was meaning to say >< ...

If I remember correctly, that particular vineyard is actually on an area of land that's classified as flood prone. Hence it can't be built on, and so being used for something agricultural land is about the only bureaucratically acceptable purpose for it.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2013-06-06 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
That might be the case for that particular property but for their various neighbours they've simply chosen to have long gardens, swimming pools, and tennis courts.

I can't see them advocating a change to their rating system any time soon!

[identity profile] pache.livejournal.com 2013-06-06 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
Heh can't disagree there.

That particular property always stood out to me just because, of all the various options, actually growing something was the least offensive use of the area.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2013-06-06 08:34 am (UTC)(link)
And I certainly can't disagree with that, if the particular location is prone to flooding.