Before work this morning

[magid]

I decided to walk to work this morning; it was cool and not yet raining, perfect walking weather. Walking the whole way is why I found half of a robin's blue eggshell, too fragile to carry to work, but lovely to have seen. And noticed that the produce place on the corner of Charles St. (near the T stop) has wild ramps! I've never seen them before, and I've heard so much about them that I'm debating going back to buy some later, despite the wild-mushroom-level price ($20/lb). And discovered that there's an espaliered tree (the leaves make me think it might be peach) under a bay window of a townhouse on Comm Ave.

I went to give blood this morning, just 8 weeks after the last donation. I was rejected for low hematocrit (percent of blood that is oxygen-carrying red blood cells); the minimum is 38%; I had 37%. The nurse mentioned that some women take a bit longer than 8 weeks to recover from blood donation, so if there's a drive somewhere convenient in a couple of weeks, I might try for that. In the meantime, I should eat high iron foods (and here I thought I was eating a lot of meat and greens already). The list they gave me also included beans, apricots, raisins, and molasses, with the suggestion to eat vitamin C-rich foods at the same time, to increase absorption of iron (and avoid drinking tea with meals, since the tannins decrease the absorption of iron). Interesting.

And now to proof a document in some language I don't speak.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

On my walk to the T this morning, I saw a cardinal. I wish I had had a camera of some sort on me, as it was quite beautiful.

I sympathize on the low hematocrit.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen a cardinal in a few weeks, but I haven't been keeping an eye on the cardinal tree in the back yard, either.

Not a big deal with the hematocrit, really. I think my body is likely slowing down with age enough that recovery takes a bit longer. But in the meantime, what an excellent excuse for getting steak and spinach :-).

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

I'm a longtime donor — I'm over 3 gallons now; I never made a full six per year, but often four or five.

About two years ago, for the first time, I started having an occasional low crit. I was concerned enough to go to my doctor; she said that she's always thought "every 8 weeks" was too often for most people. Further bloodwork indicated a low level of, erm, something else which is a sign of available iron for further blood creation -- that is, not only was my crit low, I'd be struggling to build it back up.

She put me on iron supplements for 3 months, and told me to cut blood donations to twice a year. In retrospect I don't even know if the extra iron was needed; since cutting back to twice a year I'm back to the nowhere-near-a-problem levels I'm used to. (I asked them to spin my blood and tell me the number, instead of just yes/no, so I would know whether I was borderline.)

Now I give every summer and winter — when the local school population is less likely to be donating, so the need tends to be greater. (On the off chance that type A+ were at critical levels, I'd break the routine, but I've never seen serious supply issues for my cheap Jewish blood.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I was rejected once before, in my early 20s, for low iron, but so far, it hasn't been an ongoing problem. On the other hand, this is likely the first time I've tried to donate exactly 8 weeks later.

If they know that a number of people aren't ready to give every 8 weeks, wouldn't it make sense to have drives at the same places every 9 or 10 weeks instead, to maximize the units they get?

I just got multi-vitamins; now I have to remember to take them (ie figure out when to take them such that it becomes routine).

Makes sense to give when the school population isn't available; I hadn't thought of that. (I'm a B+, and I've never heard of serious supply issues for that, either.)

[cellio]

How do you proof a document in a language you don't speak? Are you just checking basic formatting (yup, there's text here and the margins are ok and the headings are bigger), or what?

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

I think my doctor and the Red Cross disagree on how many people are ready after 8 weeks.

Also, depending on what fraction of donors are regulars vs occasionals, it might be to their advantage to have 6/year chances of grabbing each radom occasional donor instead of 5/year, at the cost of the occasional rejection like yours.

I just got multi-vitamins; now I have to remember to take them...

I seem to recall that iron update is also inhibited by dairy, so you can't get it with your morning milk/yogurt. (But don't take my word for it.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Some of it is basic proofing, some of it is more technical proofing, checking that the art is correctly placed and fully there. I've found things that haven't been translated, art that's gone AWOL, things that I can figure out in X language should be italicized but haven't been. For the Romance languages I don't know, I can still figure some things out, and even for Chinese I can check to see the number of glyphs, and ask for verification that a reference is correct. (I'm getting very familiar with the types of problems I'm likely to run into.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

True enough about regulars v. occasionals. I'm just thinking of my own convenience :-).

I don't have milk/yogurt very much for breakfast, since I tend to eat last night's dinner leftovers as breakfast (and/or lunch, depending). The problem is I tend to eat it at work, rather than sitting down at home in the morning. It would make sense to bring the vitamins to work, but the last time I tried that, they languished, so now I'm thinking it would be better to try for taking them with dinner.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've also found text that breaks incorrectly, or a definition that should have two sentences only having one.

It's an interesting blend of things to check.