Bryan’s Web (.net)

This Saturday, I’m leaving for my first vacation of the summer. Maybe the pictures I take will finally provoke me to write the script for the pictures thingy. The crappy thing is that our flight leaves at 6:00am, so that means I have to get there by 5:00, leave the house by 4:30, and wake up at 3:30. grr.

So, rather than get stuck back in the habit (which I assure you is NOT a Whoopi Goldberg reference) of never updating my website, I thought I’d give a few quick updates here before leaving.

I got my hair cut today. It was way too long.

Also today, I saw that the bloodmobile was at the union. While class was in session I had wanted to give blood, but always had to go to class. Part of the reason I wanted to give blood was to satisfy my curiosity- I wanted to know what it was like, and I didn’t even know my blood type (and still don’t), but the other reason was that I wanted to help people. So, I went in and filled out all of the forms. Then they asked me if I wanted to try this Apheresis machine that takes only blood cells, but takes twice as many as normal blood donation. You get the plasma back. I asked if that’s what they needed most. They said yes, because red blood cells can be used in a lot of treatment for children. So I said sure. The way the machine works is it takes out some blood, runs it through a centrifuge, pumps the plasma back, and repeats until full. It drained my blood fine, but then when it tried to pump the plasma back my arm started to hurt near the needle. They said it wasn’t a big deal, but they needed to stop. So they didn’t even get enough blood to use any. I think next time I go (which at the earliest will be in October since I guess you have to wait longer after using the machine) I’ll just donate normally. They said I’d probably have a scar because plasma was accumulating outside of my vein, but if I got one it hasn’t shown up yet. Of course it could be subdermal.

Okay, Here are two pictures that I took last night and that I like that I’m posting to remind me to finish coding the picture stuff:

Picture 1:

That big, overexposed circle near the smokestack is the moon.

In this picture, you can see the moon under the little arch on the right side of the bridge.