It’s about this time I must thank Jen for goading me into scheduling an appointment with an Adult Congenital Heart Defect specialist. To get ready for my appointment, I’ve been reading through all of the old medical records I hard forwarded from the hospital which performed my corrective surgery. After looking up nearly every other word, acronym, and abbreviation, I sincerely wish I’d done this sooner. The Boston Globe published a story on childhood heart defects in adults in 2005, and I can’t say I enjoyed what I read.

A couple months ago, I noticed my site getting spam posted as replies to news posts. On a whim, I checked this out and discovered over 200 spams posted in past comments so they didn’t show up on the front page. Nice to know my little site that gets barely any hits, using custom software mostly incompatible with other blog projects, is worth targeting. So I took the Brain Age route: anyone wishing to post comments in my site must be able to multiply or add two digits from one to nine. It’s a captcha mostly unlike those in popular circulation, so it’ll hopefully be a while before spammers code bulk-posters to circumvent it.

As of yesterday, I am the proud owner of a Nintendo DS Lite. Forever the victim of relentless advertising, I also acquired New Super Mario Brothers and Brain Age. I started this new foray into portable gaming by attempting to ascertain the chronological state of my dusty old gray-matter.

Chicago’s annual book fair started yesterday. Jen and I had a great time trawling through stacks of books, and enjoying the wonderful weather that happened to grace the event. Jen especially was enamored with the presence of the infamous Ella Jenkins. Unfortunately Jen’s new camera was still a thing of wonder and unfamiliarity, so of course Murphy’s Law loomed ominously. Jen missed a rare opportunity to get her picture taken with Ella, simply because she forgot the Lithium battery for her new camera, at my apartment. It’s a shame, but somehow I think she’ll get another chance, especially with her involvement with the IMEA.

Please watch Sweet Misery - A Poisoned World. Yes, I know it’s old. Yes, I know it’s an hour and a half long. Watch it anyway. Oddly enough, Donald Rumsfeld was instrumental in pushing aspartame through the FDA. Makes me wonder what else is out there due to these kinds of shenanigans. The pivotal question on my mind: why not just research a new sweetener compound instead of covering-up research and forging ahead with a badly flawed compound?