[AKN #106] Be Grateful For What Happens And Always Seek A Second Opinion
LAUGH: A Joke For 16 Year Old Me And 32 Year Old Me, LOVE: Against QR Code Menus
Sup homies?
Are you ready to be jealous?
OK. Well, I saw Green Day and Post Malone perform this weekend.
Yea. And both were epic in their own way.
Green Day made me feel 16 years old again. Crazy how music can bring you right back to older versions of yourself and you suddenly find yourself singing every word verbatim. And I wasn’t the only one. Seriously. Everyone in their 30s knows every Green Day song. This is a scientific fact.
And if Green Day brought me back to age 16, Post Malone brought me forward to age 16. Because literally the entire crowd was 16 year olds. Like the show ended at 9:45p, but a lot of people headed out at 9:30p because they had to get home before 10p curfew. But such a good show. Post is so endearing and a very talented singer. Plus the show had such great energy including crowd sing alongs, fireworks, and this dude in front of me who got punched in the jaw 45 seconds before Post came out and had to be escorted out of the crowd bleeding from the mouth. To be young again.
So much fun, but I'm certainly not fully recovered yet. Like my neurons aren’t firing correctly again yet. There’s that clear delay in my head when I think about doing something vs. when I actually do it.
So apologies for any typos or non-logical flows of information.
On to the newsletter!
LIVE: Be Grateful For What Happens And Always Seek A Second Opinion
A hand crafted, artisanal post by me
One year ago, I went to the dermatologist to get two moles looked at since they had a few of the ABCDEs of melanoma.
I remember being surprised by how casual his assessment of my moles was:
“Eh, these are probably fine. Just tell me if they grow in the next few months and we will remove them.”
“Well, I guess these aren’t bad then…” I thought.
I didn’t question it and moved on to asking how he could help me treat my plantar warts.
After a series of mishaps in treating my warts — which ultimately culminated in them returning — I decided to leave this dermatologist.
So yesterday, I stepped into the office of a new dermatologist.
As he walked me through the treatment plan for my warts, it became clear that this guy was sharp.
Like everything he did — even the subtle things — signaled “I am competent.”
He exhaustively and thoroughly answered every one of my questions and by the end I felt good with the plan moving forward.
That’s when I had a great idea: Why not get a second opinion about the moles?
Low and behold, this doctor strongly recommended I get one of them removed and biopsied.
A complete 180 from the nonchalance of the first guy.
As I await the results of that biopsy, I find myself going through an emotional roller coaster.
Up the tracks I go towards anger directed at the first dermatologist.
Down the tracks I go towards fear about the results of the test.
But honestly, while both of those feelings are still there, I ultimately find myself grateful.
Grateful for the way all of this went down.
Like I’m for sure bugging out a bit and would absolutely LOVE for this new doctor to get on the phone with me RIGHT NOW and tell me everything is OK…but you know what’s worse than anxiously waiting for the results of a test?
Living in blissful ignorance of a cancerous tumor on my arm.
So, for real, I’m grateful that the events happened as they did to force me to seek out a second opinion.
Just another reminder to always talk to multiple people before settling on what “the truth” is.
Because being misinformed can be even more dangerous than being uninformed.
LAUGH: A Joke For 16 Year Old Me And 32 Year Old Me
A curated joke I found wading through the cesspool of the Internet
First, the joke which would have had 16 year old me in stitches.
And now, the type of things I laugh at now.
I would love to go toe-to-toe against someone in the Excel championships.
LOVE: Against QR Code Menus
Something I have been loving
QR code menus suck.
This is an article which spelled out precisely what about them sucks.
Nothing is worse than making me use my smartphone literally everywhere I go.
And the audacity of some restaurants to literally just have it load a PDF of their menu in Google Chrome.
Burn these places to the ground.
Plus like the article says, we know this is really about saving cost more than anything else:
What is driving the proliferation of the QR service system? Restaurateurs cite public-health concerns (though Covid doesn’t spread meaningfully on surfaces) and sustainability (though restaurant menus barely contribute to global waste). The genuine reason is labor costs, which have risen sharply following stimulus spending and the lifting of pandemic restrictions. Amid crippling inflation, restaurants have identified labor as an area for savings.
CLOSING TIME
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Wake Me Up When September Ends,
K.Rapp