medical updates

So, it seems the NS medical benefits is no big deal. There's an annual cap of $240, and they don't subsidise if you see a specialist without a referral from a polyclinic. That $240 cap also makes it very unappealing for me to bother with all the claim stuff and the seemingly impossible task of changing from "private" to "subsidised" status...

Anyway, it seems I'm no longer in the immuno-tolerant phase regarding Hepatitis B. I'm now probably in the immuno-clearance phase. Blood test-wise, this means that I used to be

Hep B e-antigen: +ve
Hep B e-antibody: -ve

while now, it's become

Hep B e-antigen: +ve
Hep B e-antibody: +ve

which means that my body is fighting the virus, so dunno what the outcome will be. Will the viruses win? Those wily helical, geometrically symmetric and beautiful creatures that they are? Or will my antibodies prevail, those glob-like things swallowing stuff into their amorphous flesh in acts of mutual destruction?

Just did an "apt-get install xpdf" and I can now view PDFs beautifully on my linux box. Maybe it is an old version, but gv wasn't displaying PDFs quite so properly.

I guess I haven't been updating this much. Well, Bush won, as everyone knows. Nader lost. Oh well. From the news it seems one of Bush's first acts as re-elected president is to work on that constitutional amendment.

There's so much crap on TV, ever since people discovered reality TV and really made it fly. The sitcoms are still good, you know, the stuff like Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond. Reality TV gets all the viewers though, disgusting stuff like 'The Swan', 'Fear Factor' (which isn't all disgusting, only the stuff to do with gross stuff), but there's good stuff of course, like The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, the saner stuff...

Won't be at work much this week. Took leave today, and Thursday is holiday, and next Monday is holiday again! Still haven't built my kernel, maybe on Thursday? Anyway, quite pissed now regarding the NS medical benefits. $240 amounts only to $20 a month on average, and already the "allowance" they give hardly covers living expenses. It's not hard to see why those in poor families would risk going AWOL in order to make money to support their families.

The world is in shambles as usual. Japan has suffered its 3rd quake in succession, I think. Lots of homes destroyed, people dead and injured. Unrest in the middle east. Another major offensive in Iraq. Nuclear threats here and there. Terrorists threatening to kill hostages.