Whether or not, out damn spot out, and other news
I moved to Hollywood, where it rains buckets a little bit of the time, then the sun comes out, and it is hot and sunny 340-ish days a year, from Seattle, where it rains a little bit most of the time and for 20 days out of the year it's warm and sunny but never more than three days in a row. I do not live in Los Angeles, so I can discuss the weather. Still, I need to say more; with the eyewitness weather man calling it late-season rain and cold weather, I fear he will start calling the weather pattern early winter rain if this keeps up much longer.
My New Favorite thing
I'm printing from the iPhone 8. Our work provided us with a cell phone to do building business. We are Samsung kids, so the iPhone is a bit of a learning curve. It's easier to use something familiar, so I loaded Android versions of the work apps onto my phone because I know how that works. Somehow, the iPhone started printing directly. I don't know how I did it or why it works, but it's magical.
Out damn spot out!
One more complaint. Besides my Crohn's disease, I have a bit of a "disease side hustle" going on with skin cancer. I visit Keck Dermatology a few times a year, and they have a look over my skin. Ahead of my appointments, I review my skin blemishes in the mirror and circle any worrisome spots with a pen. In seven years of calling out possible spots that could be cancer, I have never picked a real cancer spot. It always ends up being a tiny dot that I would overlook. Congratulations to my husband for spotting my most recent cancer spot. Is it beginner's luck?
When a spot looks worrisome, the doctor cuts out a round spot around the blemish and sends it in for testing. Most of the time, it's nothing. I am left with a dime-sized circular scare. My current spot is melanoma. Last Friday, I went in for a more involved extraction, leaving me with a 4—to 6-inch pirate scare. It feels like a bad sunburn. My nurse said that's because it's superficial, as it is close to the surface, not superficial in the pain. It smarts pretty good. This week, I go back and get the stitches out. I hope it looks like the Young Frankenstein monster's zipper neck.
Skin cancer is easy to treat if you catch it early. As time goes on, the tumor works its way from the skin down into lymph nodes and from there into your organs. I want to frighten everyone into getting their skin checked. Look for odd-shaped blemishes, spots with multiple colors, or anything that looks back at you funny in the mirror.
What am I reading this week?
I am reading The Three-Body Problem | Cixin Liu.
I thought it was going to be a science-heavy story. Understatement. Here is my quick takeaway. Devious aliens use advanced science to wage war and an invasion of Earth. Some people on Earth are collaborators who fight among themselves over subtle motivations. People in the governments of Earth know something is happening. However, they are not exactly sure what is going on. It could be a cult or maybe terrorists killing people and destroying seemingly unrelated industrial and scientific projects.
My main takeaway is what I call the Long game rules. Parents play a long game to get the kids to eat dinner, clean up, and go to bed, and the bank plays a long game to profit from an investment. The kids will go along playing the game if the next thing they get to do is fun, and the bank customer plays along because the monthly payment is low. The Three-Body Problem is a long-game situation. Someone is playing a game with the reader for so long that it's over the horizon and into the following books. I am ready to cross oceans of time and continue playing this game.