Because it is a LOT more complicated than that.

Not all rheumatological diseases are due to the immune system’s memory. As a case in point, Ankylosing Spondylitis is theorized as being caused by a mis-folded HLA-B27 protein response. The mis-folded protein response is caused by cellular stress, at least that is the theory. The lead singer of Imagine Dragon Dan Reynolds suffers from this disease. So there are people out there suffering from it, it’s not just some disease out in left field no one has heard of before.

Are there diseases that could be treated by clearing the immune system’s memory? Possibly, but there would also be consequences for that as well. Mainly, because the actual method by which the memory works is not completely understood.

Disclaimer: My wife is a Rheumatologist that does both basic research and clinical work. What I wrote above is based on what I have gleaned from her over the years. Any mistakes or misconceptions are strictly mine. I’m just an old IT guy and have never studied medicine.

Princess Bride

Strictly Ballroom

Paul

LOTR

I’ve been an IT Professional for almost 30 years and have had to keep up with the computer industry that entire time. These days, I’m more in management and processes, so no more sitting in front of a console with a pager on my hip.

During the technical portion of my career, I was a full +10, at least for computers and associated technologies used in very large enterprise environments.

In my personal life, I’m ore of a +2 or +3. I usually have the previous year’s flagship phone (my current phone is a Pixel 8 Pro) and keep it till it dies. My audio electronics are mostly from the 90’s, because they are high end components (McIntosh) that I have taken decades to procure. Some of which I actually had to fix in order for them to be usable.

All the computers in my house I bought used and refurbed myself. I think the newest one is my computer and it’s a Dell Precision 7550 and it’s at least 4 years old. The network in my house is more current. My router/firewall one of Ubiquiti’s latest and greatest, although both WAPs in my house are about 7 years old. My previous firewall was PFSense that I ran on a VM on Proxmox. It became too much of a pain if there was an issue with Proxmox, then there was an issue with the internet, although I did have a backup, so I decided to just separate the two.

1970 Chevrolet Impala: Liberty (I bought it from a guy in Liberty, KY).

1997 Nissan 200SX SE-R: Dot (It was Pacific Blue)

2003 Acura TL: Sally (Generic name for a generic car)

2014 Camry LE: Pearl (It was Cosmic Mica Gray which gave the car a pearlescent sheen).

I currently have a 2019 Camry Hybrid XLE, but have yet to name it. I’m leaning toward “Betty”, because the car has so many warnings, alarms, and notifications that I feel like I’m being bitched at when I drive it.

I have owned several cars over the years that I never named. My absolute favorite car I’ve ever owned was a 1985 Corolla GT-S that I raced in Pro Solo for a few years and it never received a name. The next car I owned was a 1992 Sentra SE-R and it never got a name either. Also had a 1969 Chevelle that I drag raced in my teen years, but no name there.

Yes.

Let me tell you when, why, and how I learned that you need to pay attention to taxes.

I was in third grade and my class had a field trip. This was 47 years ago, so the exact details of the trip are lost to time and rusty memory. The lesson remained.

There was something that the class could purchase at the end of the day on the trip and the place only took cash and the school was not doing anything to help, except tell the kids about it and the price. Which was something like $5. I told my Mom and she handed me a $5 bill, plus a quarter, which confused my 3rd grade brain. She said to due to some strange words "sales tax, which was 5% in my state at the time. Got to school that morning and all my classmates were proud that they had their $5 bill, but none seemed to have a quarter. So I kept the presence of my quarter a secret and was a little embarrassed about it. Yes, I was young and stupid. Now I am old and stupid.

When it came time to purchase the whatsit at the end of the day, me and one other of my classmates produced a quarter to buy it. The teachers and chaperones had to cover the sales tax for the other 20 kids and they were pissed.

I went to school and learned a lesson that has stuck with me for nearly 50 years.

House on the Rock

When I moved to Wisconsin back in 2006, House on the Rock was one of the first things I heard about from my neighbors to go see. My wife and I looked at the website and said “we’ll go see it someday.” Well, that day was about a month ago as back then we started having kids and getting used to living in a new place. However, over the past 19 years I’ve had people tell me that “you’ve got to go see it.”

Now… I understand.

Is that place a monument to a man’s ascent to brilliance?

Or his decent into madness.

There was stuff in that museum that I took DAYS to process and I still really am unable to understand what it was I was looking at. It took my family and I FOUR hours to walk through it. It could have been a LOT longer if we actually stopped to study more than what we did.

I’m 55 years old and I’ve seen and done a lot things in my life… None of it prepared me for the sheer onslaught that is House on the Rock. Walking out of it I told my wife that I rather chaffed at the entrance fee when I paid it… Now, I’m not sure if they charged enough.

If you’re ever anywhere close to South Central Wisconsin… Take a day and go see it.

It doesn’t just live up to the hype… It so far exceeds it that trying to explain the place will never do it justice.

Manfred Mann’s cover of Blinded by the Light has entered the chat. Probably the most misheard lyrics in the entire history of modern music.

It’s “Revved up like a deuce.”

Wait… Manfred Mann’s version is a cover? Yep, Blinded by the Light was originally performed Bruce Springsteen.

Yes and I will stand by that statement.

Yes, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are also brilliant movies. Both movies are also in Frost and Pegg’s exact wheelhouse, Britain.

Paul is another step above, because they so perfectly encapsulated the stupidity of a completely different country and culture. That’s why I like it a bit better. Name US writers/ actors that could do the same thing for Britain? I certainly cannot.

Paul (2011) IMHO Frost and Pegg’s best movie. Not sure why it’s not rated higher, it is simply brilliant.

The Last Starfighter (1984) Epic sci fi flick that was the first to use 3D rendered computer animation. The effects do NOT hold up, but the story sure does.

Chronicles of Riddick (2004) Sequel to Pitch Black and I personally like it much better. Admittedly, that’s due to I like that Riddick aims more to sci fi and Pitch Black toward horror. If you like horror more, then you’d probably like Pitch Black better.

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That photo is from when the gas main blew up right?

I was working at AmFam at the time.

Skydiving

Skydivers are not adrenaline (epinephrine) junkies. Adrenaline actually makes you feel terrible. You know that rush and shakes you get when you get hungry? Yeah, THAT’S an adrenaline rush.

No, we go for the same thing runners do. Endorphins. Nature’s own anti-depressant.

Donate money to your local food banks, homeless shelters, or any other non-profit that has a good reputation for assisting those in need.

If someone approaches you asking for money, absolutely under no circumstances should you give it to them. Be sure to say that you do not carry cash to give them. Then if you are feeling that you need to give to them, then offer a meal or buy groceries using a credit card. You’ll find that most of them will decline.

They are using YOUR GUILT to get their next drug fix most of the time. That guilt is artificial and the result of manipulation techniques they are employing against you. It is rather contemptible to be perfectly frank.

If I’m just casually thinking about something. In other words, it is a subject that does not require too much to come to a conclusion, then I actually think in words. That process can provide a solution almost immediately, to taking several minutes.

If I’m thinking about something that requires a lot of cognitive function, then my mind essentially goes blank. Either I no longer think in words, or the memory of what I was thinking about is not laid down in long term memory until I come to a conclusion. Or if my “sub-consciousness” took over the heavy lifting and my cognitive functions were left out of the loop. I honestly have no idea, but if it is something I am truly concentrating on, I will have no actual memory of the thought process that brought me to a conclusion.

Some of the most confounding things that I have had to think on, I literally slept on it and had a finished thought when I woke up. I have done that several times in my life. Again, not sure if it was just that I needed rest, or if my brain actually worked the problem while asleep and delivered it when I awoke.

Cheese Curds

Yeah, I live in Wisconsin, who’d guess.

I wanted to be a pilot.

By age 16 I had several hours towards my private license.

My junior year in High School I started looking universities with aviation degrees, or engineering. I had settled on Rose Hulman and one other (been 40 years so don’t remember the place, but it was one of the top aviation colleges in the US at the time.) I actually was accepted at “the other place”.

It all came crashing down in the last conversation I had with my enrollment counselor and he asked a question that hadn’t been asked of me in the prior many conversations I had with him.

“How is your eyesight?”

You see, I’m legally blind in my right eye and in the US, pilots are required to have 20/20 corrected eyesight. In order for my right eye to be 20/20 I would basically have to have a telescope hanging off my face.

I never did get my private pilots license, which I can get even with my eyesight, but I would never pass medical for a commercial ticket.

Yes, I did look at training in other countries and yes there are a few that only require perfect color vision, which I do have. The problem was my parents absolutely forbade me to travel to another country.

So that was that.

Spent 2 weeks hiking in around the Red River Gorge, Kentucky and Sheltowee Trace back in the late 80’s. Only time I got wet was when it rained, or found a creek to take a dip in.

When I got home, even my own Mother would not hug me. She sent me off to the bath where I stayed for over an hour.

Greetings programs!

I prefer to think of them fighting evil in another dimension.

This means something.

Your ass looks like 150 pounds of chewed bubble gum!

There’s no fighting in the war room!

Sire! The Great Leslie escaped with a friar!.. He escaped with a chicken!!!

Of course I denied installing CCTV in the nursery! What the hell would they watch?!!!

I think what we have here… Is a failure to communicate!

Mensa membership is directly correlated to taking online IQ tests.

Truly intelligent people don’t.