The Daily Procrastinator

Welcome, procrastinators. Here’s hoping you came through the swine flu “crisis” unscathed. We here at The Daily Procrastinator are absolutely shocked at the events of the past couple weeks. Who would have thought that the media would blow something out of proportion? Who would have believed that Americans would swallow such an exaggeration hook, line, and sinker, and react with irrational panic? Who could have forseen that it was all really no big deal? It was truly a week of unexpected events. Lucky for you, it was also another week of fantastic content on TDP. Unless you’re quarantined with the imaginary flu, you should make SURE you don’t miss a thing.

Monday: For reasons that will soon be obvious, the 4th of May is an unofficial but widely recognized holiday–a holiday celebrated by movie fans and word-nerds alike.

Tuesday: According to wikipedia, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Each year, Americans honor the brave Mexican soldiers by blissfully munching nachos and sipping margaritas. The holiday has passed, but TallGirl’s Cinco de Mayo party guide included recipes for margaritas and dip that will be favorites all summer long.

Cats amuse me. Zombies amuse me. This picture is extremely amusing.

Wednesday: TallGirl revealed that she truly deserves to be a zillionaire. After all, she thought up dance-based fitness programs before Zumba before was a nation-wide fitness craze!

Thursday: BigRedPoet gave a review of the Dave Matthews Band show on May 1 at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Woodlands, TX. Check out the setlist, thoughts on the performance, and notes on recording the show.

Friday: Continuing the string of wildly unlikely happenings I mentioned in the intro to this weekly wrap-up, TallGirl noted that baseball players use steriods. Can you believe it? Baseball players use steriods! Neither she nor I is amused by this revelation.

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The Daily Procrastinator: Contributing to the Dramatic Reduction of Your Personal Productivity

Greetings, procrastinators! As you may have noticed, there was no Weekly Wrap-Up last week. Frankly, I procrastinated. I consider it my duty to let procrastination interfere with my work every now and again. Practicing what I preach, you know… Anyway, the past two weeks on The Daily Procrastinator have been as fruitful as ever, and this is your chance to make sure you didn’t miss a word of TDP’s enlightening content. Let’s consider one subject at a time.

Food: The first tasty post of the week came from BigRedPoet, who considered it his duty to make the world (or at least the world of procrastinators) aware of the glory of Squeez Bacon. Even though Magnus rained on the parade in comments, Squeez Bacon is still a great idea. TallGirl, no doubt inspired by the tantalizing possibility of a meat condiment, continued the bacon orgy with a celebration of the myocardial-infarction-inducing dish known as the Bacon Explosion. Imagine it topped with Squeez Bacon, if you dare.

Entertainment: On April 27, BigRedPoet posted a review/celebration of Led Zeppelin’s historic 1969 show in San Francisco, complete with a FANTASTIC photograph of the young Zeps doing their thing on stage. A few days later, FlashCap (he lives!) bemoaned the disparity between the comic book characters readers have come to know and love and the characters who appear on-screen in recent Marvel movies.

Technology: Magnus, assisted by a mysterious figure known only as Z, posted a list of quick-fixes and tweaks that will whip your PC into tip-top Springtime condition. I’ve used several of them already, with fantastic results. In a completely different branch of technology, BigRedPoet examined the difference between “awesome” and “lame,” as applied to three-wheeled transportation.

This picture requires no explanation. Not THIS week...

Current Events: TallGirl piped up as the voice of reason in the face of the swine-flu inspired hysteria that’s literally dominating the television and radio waves this week. I prefer TallGirl’s point of view over the popular panic. Note the irony of two bacon-inspired posts in the days preceding the swine flu outbreak.

This Crazy Life: TDP’s resident social commentator, TallGirl, weighed in on several topics in the past two weeks. She started with cosmetic surgery in suburbia. Later, she pondered the proper ratio of cream to coffee…or is that the ratio of coffee to cream? Finally, she revealed how people’s perceptions of a friend or neighbor can change simply through the revelation of a pair of enticing underpants.

Visit The Daily Procrastinator at any of the links above and sign up to receive daily email updates so you never miss an article!

The Daily Procrastinator: Contributing to the Dramatic Reduction of Your Personal Productivity

With everyone up in arms about the swine flu, I thought it was a good time to put things in perspective and remind people to use common sense.

Swine flu can kill you!

I really hate to be all anti-hysteric and burst your bubble, but all flu – true influenza and not the inaccurately named “stomach flu” – has the potential to kill you.  In the U.S. alone, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from influenza each year, and more than 40,000 die.  That’s just in the United States.  Worldwide, the population is culled by up to half a million annually, just from flu.  The same flu that you don’t really give any thought to each year.

This is why there’s a flu vaccine.  This wasn’t developed just because epidemiologists want to prevent you from feeling like crap.  It’s because the flu can kill you.  Not just swine flu, but regular old flu.

But I heard it on the news!

Yes, this has lots of publicity, just like SARS and bird flu before it.  That does not, in and of itself, make it more dangerous.  

Don’t leave the house!

Have you ever worked in an office where the flu took out coworkers one by one?  This one operates in the same way.  Wash your hands, use antibacterial hand gels and encourage the sick people to stay home, the same way you would if any other cold or flu was traveling through the office.

It’s the same as the 1918 flu!

Yes, it is an H1N1 strain, just like the 1918 flu.  But H1N1 strains are not uncommon, and that doesn’t mean that some hideously deadly form of flu has resurfaced after 90 years.  In fact, an H1N1 variant is present in this year’s flu shot.

Rush to the doctor at the first signs of illness!

If you’re sick today, odds are good that it’s something other than swine flu that’s sickening you.  Avoid the doctor’s office and all of the nasty germies that are floating around there.  You’re more likely to catch something from the doctor’s office than you are from maintaining reasonable health practices out in the real world.

For more information

Some wonderfully informed bloggers and resources are out there.  Check out the Global Health Report from Christine Gorman, Aetiology from Tara C. Smith and an excellent article on swine flu genomics from Wired.