Starbucks

Everyone who knows me knows I avoid Starbucks as much as I can, because I hate their coffee.

So I find this to be a great read.

My identity stolen at Best Buy

OK, I know the title is a little sensationalist, but hear me out.

About three months ago I went into Best Buy - a mistake I will never make again - close to where I live. I wanted to pick up a copy of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the XBOX 360. I got a copy, went to the register, swiped me card and was ready to authorize the transaction when the clerk asked me if I wanted to pay an extra $4 for a "defective product guarantee".

Incredulously I asked what that meant, exactly, and he replied "if your product is defective, you can return it for a refund". I asked him to repeat himself, and he said the same thing. I asked - still nicely - if he really meant that Best Buy's policy now prohibits taking back a defective product unless one pays an exorbitant insurance fee upfront ($4 for a $30 game is a LOT), and he repeated it a third time.

So I gave him back the game, said that I am not authorizing the transaction, asked him to close it, and walked across the street to Game Shack where I bought the same game for $27 and no nonsense.

A month later I was looking at my credit card bill, and lo-and-behold, there's a $59 charge from Best Buy. I don't normally shop there - this case being another reason why - so obviously it caught my attention. I looked at the date and time. It was for that transaction, the one I never authorized.

I opened a dispute with my bank. Unfortunately, it takes much longer to deal with these when transactions do not occur online. It's been a couple of months, but I finally received a letter from my bank with the sales receipt draft from Best Buy.

It has a signature.

Not MY signature, mind you, but A signature. In fact, it is so far removed from my signature or even my name that I am amazed someone would go to the trouble of considering it a forgery. In fact, this reinforced my theory on what happened: the clerk decided NOT to close the transaction when I left, and instead grabbed a couple things that were lying near the register, rang them up and authorized the transaction on my card.

I won't be out money at the end, but I was impressed with the nerve of this young guy and the brazen nature of his crime. He was smart about it, too, keeping the transaction to something reasonably low. He probably thought I'd never catch it.

Anyway, I'll let my bank sort out the refund, but I am also going to walk to that store, look for a manager, and present the case and evidence. I will also see if the police will take a report from me. After all, because I have the transaction record, Best Buy can track down the guy who did it. I just think the amount is so small as to not be enough to merit something that will go on his record. A shame, really.

The one challenge...

... with upper arm placement is a somewhat unexpected one: twice already I almost ripped the thing off by mistake. The transmitter holder tends to get caught on my shirt sometimes, and when (say) taking it off, this can lead to a painful reminder of its existence.

Reality check

I'm curious: are you amongst those who believe that our economic outlook is really bad?

If so, you're apparently in company with lots of others.

But not with me. Call me naive, but while the economy looks a bit soft, it certainly doesn't look that bad to me. That Warren Buffet is on the same page (buying) is maybe comforting, but there are many reasons to my optimism.

Recession? what are they talking about? 1.5% GDP growth in the last quarter is not great, but it hardly qualifies as "recession". Heck, the US saw just under 3% of real GDP growth in 2007. Even better, it saw over 3% of real GDP growth in the second half of the year. You know, during the ominous credit crunch. That's because the first half was when real weakness showed. Remember when GDP growth was 0.5% for a quarter? Yup, Q1 2006. Housing is down, sure, but exports are up (much because of the weak dollar), softening the housing blow. That's what a complex and stable economy like ours does, after all. It self-corrects.

Our unemployment numbers are laughable. 5%? how can anyone genuinely compare this to the great depression, when they reached over 20%? seriously, the vast majority of the world would love to have this level of unemployment. Let's say the subprime crisis is as worse as the worst predicted. That's like what, several hundred billion dollars lost. Sounds a lot? you do also know that US assets exceed 100 trillion, right? kind of puts things in perspective, does it not? in simpler terms, it's as if you had one million in assets and lost - take a deep breath - four thousand dollars. That certainly qualifies - for an "oh, well".

The fed has released the money supply - and did so quickly. Well done, Bernanke, although anyone who has read anything from the guy would have expected it. The great depression was a direct result of the government tightening money supply, creating a panic. Practically every model shows an expected 3%+ GDP growth in 2008. Like, wow. You know, 3% isn't bad for such a rich country. Methinks we'd gotten spoiled. Heck, even personal incomes rose faster than GDP last year.

What can I say? it sometimes feels like I live in a world run by sensationalist journalists. They are so starved for stories they can't contain themselves. Alright then. Let's see what happens over the next six months. Remember, it takes six months - two full quarters - of decline in GDP to have a recession. Considering the 1.5% real growth in the last ("most horrible, terrible, melt-down") quarter, allow me to remain skeptical on the chances of one actually occurring.

Working so much better

Experiment with the outer upper arm placement is thus far a resounding success.

The major advantages over abdominal placement are (as also reported by others):

1. Faster response time to changes in blood sugars (that is, less of a delay trending up or down)
2. Much more reliable performance, a lot less missed readings (especially during the night, where I am getting consistent all-night graphs now)
3. Better "stickiness" or "staying with it" when blood sugars go into extreme
   

I will also note that it is a lot less irritating to have it there.

I don't think I'm going back to my abdomen.

This is worth a mention (medical science)

I haven't seen much in the news about this, but if you have any interest in medical science, this has got to be one of the more interesting stories in... well, ever.

Immediate observation

Whether this is because of the sensor itself or because of the placement I don't know.

But my new sensor located in my upper arm is already showing the strongest performance "out of the gate" of any sensor I've used thus far. What do I mean by that? three main things:

• It was the most accurate "on first reading" than any sensor I ever had
• It started with the most stable trend graph than any other sensor
• It has no erratic readings (what I like to call "jumpers", those mysterious slightly up and down readings that look like a scattergraph and seem to be common during the first 10-12 hours of a new sensor)

I am mostly impressed with the stable line. I am used to sensors taking a couple of days before they reach some sort of equilibrium in interpretation of raw readings. During that "stabilization period", the graph would never be a continuing line, but rather, exhibit slowly converging erratic behavior, with the occasional reading jumping up or down then coming back to continue the previous line.

This is not happening with the new sensor. And this also tracks closely to what others have said about upper arm placement. I am really liking this at this point, we'll see what will happen over time before I pass judgment though.

We'll see if this works

My last posting came shortly after I put in my last sensor... which lasted for almost two full weeks again.

Since then, I've been reading a lot about other people's experiences with the Dex, and have become intrigued with the notion of sticking the sensor on the back of the upper arm (that somewhat fleshy area that all of us seem to develop starting in our mid-20's or so). All those who have tried it are claiming great success, including better and more reliable readings and longer sensor life.

Well then. I am not one to shy away from new things.

So I just stuck the new one up there. It took help from my wife, who thankfully was not freaked out by the process. In fact, I must admit I was far more stressed simply because, well, my relationship with my Dex has been sort of an intimate private thing on the physical level to this point.

Shoot me, OK?

Anyhow, it went in easily, the prick was about the same as on an abdominal insertion, it's sticking well, and I have to say, it is FAR more comfortable to have it there then it is on my abdomen. I really truly hope it works out well because the difference in feeling is rather striking. Liberating, in a way. I also think it will make communications with the receiver while sleeping a lot easier, as my arms are normally not covered by a blanket (I love California), and definitely not by my body (as is the case ever so often when it's on my abdomen).

Another hypo saved

This one was notable in several senses.

I woke up with 151 (the Dex thought I was a little higher than that). OK, fine. Took my morning Lantus shot for the day. Then I sat down to do a bit of work.

An hour later my Dex buzzes. I look at it expecting it to say "high" (I sometimes get a slow rise in the morning). Instead I see "low" (the Dex thought it was 79).

Low?!

I double check with my meter, and it says 66. Yowza.

I never even felt it.

Assuming I caught it early enough, this is another example of how the Dex saves me a whole day of aggravation off of a single little unnoticed hypo in the morning.

Sensor died

This one lasted under 9 days, then.

It seems that those put on my left side last less time than those on my right. I wonder if this will be a long-term trend.

Oh, and also...

... got through a reset of my latest sensor yesterday, which is still working fine. So it seems that barring bad sensors, these really do tend to last beyond the 7 days. My last one went almost to 14; I'm curious how far this one will stretch.

Tardiness and Bioshock

Apologies for being so spotty in my contributions lately... I've been somewhat distracted following last week's events, where I essentially sever ties with my mom.

As much as I expected it to come one of these days, it's never something you can be prepared for. Still, she seems to have forgotten the first rule of ultimatums: when you give one, make doubly sure the other side has more to lose than you do. And if I am given the choice to pick my wife or my mom... it wasn't even close.

Still processing.

One thing that this did was get me looking for things to distract me a bit, and as a result I got myself a game for our XBOX 360 system called Bioshock. I've been playing it since a couple nights ago, and oh... my... god.

Seriously, I don't know how much it cost to produce something like this, but it rivals top hollywood films. Yeah, it looks great, but that's not the real point. The point is the story, and the way it's delivered, and the voice-acting, and the sound-track, and the sound effects, and the atmosphere...

Play this in the dark and I don't care how jaded of a human being you are, it will hit you somewhere. Probably a lot of somewheres.

Folks who have known me for many years know that I spent several years in my younger days as a game reviewer, then an editor for the second largest online review site in the world. I had a reputation as harsh. Heck, one of my reviews was so harsh it triggered a letter from the publisher's lawyers (not that it went anywhere).

With that in mind, consider this: at least to this point, I have nothing bad to say about Bioshock. Heck, I have nothing non-committal or average to say about it. I am in fact amazed at just how good of an experience it provides. Yes, it's a haunting and disturbing experience, one that I am adamant should never be given to youth, unstable or not (not that this warning will be heeded), but it really does count as extremely worthy adult entertainment. Wow.

When stereotypes are proven...

The Daily Telegraph reports on research that shows that women and gay men are the worst drivers in unrecognized environments.

Well, at least now we know why straight men never ask for directions. Of course, the end result is that women and gay men will get there faster.

Another dead sensor

I must have received a set of sensors from a bad lot with my first box of 4, because the one I inserted this morning never could get itself working properly.

The scatter diagram would have been amusing if it wasn't also my CGMS. It would report 400, then 300, then 400, all in the space of 10 minutes, while my actual blood sugars were hovering around 200.

After 9 calibrations in 9 hours, the folks at Dexcom agreed this was bad and are sending me a replacement. That's the second sensor in that lot that's gone bad, and a third one was borderline; only one worked really well.

However, my new one (separate box) seems to be flying out the gate.

Just got myself registered at their website, we'll see if I can actually order a new box of 4 online tomorrow, too.

New sensor

And so finally, after 13 days and 14 hours or so, my last sensor died.

Strong indication of death, if you are wondering - receiver stops displaying readings and goes into a perpetual blood drop mode. Yes, it is possible that I could have restarted it, but after this long, I wasn't going to mess with it any longer.

Thus sensor number four is in.

Interestingly, this was the easiest insertion yet; I barely felt anything when the needle went in. It was also the smoothest, in the sense that the plunger plunged and the collar then pulled in what could almost be described as a single smooth ("one-two") motion. Not sure if this is the result of my increasing experience with the application tool or just a lucky occurrence. I'm used to much more resistance from the collar when pulling back, too.

Gotta order another box of sensors.