h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What are you talking about?

Having duly reviewed the preceding page, I don't think there is a great deal of continuity, but after all, this thread is about petty hates, see also 'pet peeves'.

...a miscellany of complaints...

Yes, I should have put 'Topday's PH' to explain....

Today's PH: people who use scaremongering titles when they post on health-related forums. I spotted a thread on an MS Society forum where the title claimed that the government was planning to stop funding the Disease Modifying Treatments that many people with MS rely on, myself included. When I read the post, and read a document someone else posted a link to, I found that the title was rubbish. The government is doing a consultation on plans to stop the use of DMTs in cases where they prove ineffective. I can't imagine that anyone would want to continue taking a drug that wasn't working. The title was needlessly worrying.

...beware the government leopard...

Also health-related: searching for information on symptoms and only getting information on serious conditions, not on lesser ones. I've been experiencing a large floater (no jokes, please) and light flashes for the past few days. I went to an optician who said that I have a possible retinal tear. I'm seeing a specialist tomorrow. When I googled my symptoms I got information on retinal tear and detachment, both of which require surgery to fix them. I didn't get information on posterior vitreous detachment, which has the same symptoms but doesn't require corrective surgery. I only know about PVD because someone on another forum had had it and knows the symptoms.

I'm going to assume retinal tear because that's what the optician said it might be. It would have been nice to find all the conditions that have my symptoms, not just the more serious ones.

Speaking of Eye Doctors:

Did you know that Optometrists won't give you new lenses if your last exam was more than a year old? It doesn't matter to them if your prescription is entirely unchanged. Won't even discuss it.


It's not like we're talking about drugs here, they're just fancy monocles. Worst that can happen is they don't work and I take the financial hit. So why does ANYONE care?

Load of crap.

Ah yes, Dr Google. Easy to convince oneself you have anything & everything.

Mr X, there are strict rules about how long the prescription is valid after an eye examination. If you want some new specs, why don't you have another eye examination? You may think your prescription hasn't changed, but it is very important to have an eye health check regularly.

CD.

I had similar last year with both of the symptoms that you are describing. Being a bit sensitive to this issue - my Grandfather lost his sight as a young man - I hurtled round to an optician immediately AND to my GP.

Everything was fine and quite possibly related to blood pressure.

PP.

If you want to lose weight, why don't you just get some liposuction? If you want a meaningless status symbol, why don't you just get a Porsche? If you want X-Ray vision, why don't you just get bionic sci-fi eyes?!


Much as I would wish it otherwise, we do not live in a world where everybody and their Grandma can just shell out two to three hundred dollars on a whim. And more importantly, I do not appreciate other people (read: bloated bureaucratic lemmings) trying to control my life.


It's nobody's goddamn business WHY I want a tiny pair of plastic lenses bent a certain way. Neither is there any GOOD reason for Mr. Namby-Pants I-Know-What's-Best-For-You government to poke its overzealous nose into MY affairs on the matter, because absolutely NO ONE is being -- or could conceivably be -- placed at risk over it. So they can just SHOVE OFF as far as I'm concerned.

Ooh, touchy!

Are you in the US? I guess the system is different there.

I won't bother to explain why an eye health check is important & why you could be risking your eyesight and general health by not having one - it's obviously your choice. That's apart from ensuirng that you do have the optimum spectacle correction.
But if you don't want professional attention, go to an online site where you can order spectacles without regulation.

Mr. X, can you order glasses online?

I buy glasses from a website, Zenni. I can get a new set of glasses for under $100. When you enter your Rx, it does ask the date of the Rx, but I don't think it would restrict you if the Rx is over 1 year old. Even if it does, there's nothing stopping you from entering a later year.



I now have so many pairs of glasses that I bought a glasses "tree", a stand that will hold 6 pairs. I got my trifocals; several pairs of bifocals: far/near, far/midrange, midrange/near; and a pair of single vision near for doing fiddly work up close without having to point my nose up to the sky.

I saw a specialist today. My eye problem is PVD, not a retinal issue, so that's OK.

Today's PH is people who sell goods on eBay and can't, or won't, differentiate between dragon and dinosaur. I was looking for a plastic toy dragon. I got as many dinosaurs as dragons, if not more.

Odd. I just tried it out, with a couple of different search phrases, and I didn't see too many dinosaurs. What I did see was a preponderance of Dragon Ball Z related merchandise.

I was searching specifically for plastic toy dragons, which may have skewed the results.

Today's PH: they way gardening gloves always wear out just in one or two places, like a finger tip. Once they have a significant hole, I have to discard them even though the rest of them is still OK.

Me again. First hint of sun & all the bare flesh on display & close proximity on trains & in my consulting room. Too much hot sweaty skin, too close!

See!? Yet another aspect of global warming that is largely ignored by the mainstream media.

Royal Weddings.
It's taken 2 years but we've finally saved up enough supermarket points to get an annual family Legoland pass. We'd hoped to get it last month so we'd be able to attend the 'Star Wars Weekend' on May 4th but were £1 short. But we've got there now and thought, 'Hurray! We can go to Legoland this weekend' – but no, there's a royal wedding next door so the roads are all closed.

We did have an invitation to a family barbecue being held by one of the kids' schoolmate's parents, so we thought we could take the children along to that instead and they'd be able to play with some of their friends. But no – that's been cancelled too. The father works at the Swanwick Air Traffic Control which handles all aircraft flying in England and he's had his day off cancelled because of all the extra police and press helicopter activity expected because of the – you've guessed it – royal wedding.

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