Stealth Porn and Carcinoma

So, my blog hits have really been flagging.  Not sure why--maybe I'm just not as interesting anymore?  However, just because I'd like more folks reading doesn't mean I'm happy with any ol' hits that come my way.

Last night, in a matter of minutes, I took 49 hits.  I knew, I absolutely knew.  I pulled up my stats to check, and, sure enough, all of those hits came from a porn site.  Not an obvious porn site, but rather one with a very innocent name, so I screwed up and clicked the link and BAM, full spreadshot, took up pretty much my whole 24 inch screen.  Being wicked quick, I had that page closed before my 15 year old could even look up.  And then I loaded up Malwarebytes and did a full scan.

People suck.

How does that happen, though?  I understand how one or two porn hits happen, but 49 in the space of a few minutes?  How does that happen?  Is someone who dislikes my stuff feeding my web address into a porn site?  If someone "gets" that, please leave a comment, let me know!

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Had Charlie at training last night.  The two new bags of Zuke's training treats (Wild Rabbit and Salmon)?  He hated them.  Seriously, he wouldn't work for them, he wouldn't even eat them--he accidentally got some in his mouth and rolled them around a bit before spitting them back out.  We wound up giving them to the trainers as spares for folks who run out.  He likes the Zukes Chicken, and will work for those until he's no longer famished, and then he's all done with those, too. What he DOES love and will work for without fail?  Even if he's full?

This, which the trainers shared a bit with us:  

Yes, it's Dick Van Patten's company.  Yes, he's had products from them before.  Yes, I think it's weird that the guy from Eight is Enough is pushing dog food.  

And yes, it contains wheat, which we avoid in dog foods (along with corn) because Cairns are prone to grain-inspired skin problems.  But we're not looking to use this as a regular source of nutrition, but rather as a highly desired treat to inspire his total attention during training.  And for that?  The stuff's magical.  We don't even have to GIVE him any--just having it in the hand and letting him lick at the hand is enough to keep him working.  So we'll be grabbing a "tube" before the next training session.

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So, a friend posted a link to a "natural" diaper company the other day, one offering a "free" sample pack (for $5.95 shipping, lol).  I took a look at the company's site, and the greenwashing was astounding.  The big claim?  The these diapers and wipes are "made with organic and natural materials."  Oh, my.

Anything that tells you it's made with "organic AND . . . " anything isn't organic.  By that standard, I could throw organically grown raisins in a box of GMO Corn Flakes and put the words "made with organic and . . ." and be in the right, legally.  And the claim "natural?"  Means NOTHING.  Seriously, you could package uranium, arsenic, and dog turds as "natural."  Because they are.  It doesn't mean they're "good," it doesn't mean they're "healthy," and it sure doesn't mean they're ORGANIC.

Maybe this diaper company is the best of the best, but their site reads like the worst kind of greenwash.  I try to be sensitive to that, because I DO want to do better, I DO want to be "greener," but corporations have people a lot smarter than me dreaming up the language for describing their products in ways meant to pull in folks like me and fool us into buying things perhaps not so green.

So be careful out there!

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Back to the subject of folks who read my blog and what brings them here?  I noticed that one of the search terms used more than once was "Actinic Keratosis vs Basal Cell Carcinoma."  While I've blogged about both things, I don't think I've ever blogged about the qualities of them, compared and/or contrasted.

So I'm going to do that.  Maybe it'll help someone.

First off, I never mistook my basal cell for anything but basal.  I felt pretty confident that's what it was when I first noticed it.  Yes, I waited a few months to see if it would go away, but pretty much knew in the back of my mind that's what it was.  Just like that stupid, tiny spot on my forehead over my left eye that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  Yeah, I'll see someone about it soon.  

Anyway, the basal cell on my arm?  Nothing like an actinic keratosis.  In fact, Actinic Keratoses (correct pluralization there?) don't ever  progress to become basal cell carcinomas.  They do, however, sometimes progress to become squamous cell carcinomas, as the one on my nose did.  

The differences I experienced?  Well, actinic keratosis (and the eventual squamous cell carcinoma) had a crustiness to it.  It would crust up, feel raw if I scraped the crust off, and had a special sort of tingle/sting to it.  It would eventually heal over for a short time, only to come back again, but that odd, tingly feeling, the weird sting when touched, never went away, even when it was healed over.  

The basal cell, on the other hand, wasn't crusty.  It was flaky, looked much like the spot where a scab has come off to reveal healed skin beneath.  You know, slightly off-color, a little bit of flaky dead skin around the edges?  No sting, no tingle, no pain or ooze.  Just flaky.

Here, let me see if I can find some pictures:

Actinic Keratosis

A precancerous condition which can develop into:

Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Compared to:

Superficial Basal Cell Carcinoma

Understand, now, that some basals don't look like that.  Some look more like the typical round mole:  

Nodular Basal Cell Carcinoma

Some are pigmented:  

Pigmented Basal Cell Carcinoma

And some, very rare (fewer than one percent) become giant.  Terrifyingly, lethally so if not caught early.  And I'm not going to show any of those.

In a nutshell, if you had to pick the skin cancer you want?  Pick basal cell carcinoma--it's normally so uninvasive and easily dealt with that some dermatologists and researchers hesitate to call it a cancer.  It's almost never aggressive, it almost never spreads, and, once removed, it rarely comes back.  Squamous, on the other hand, while more easily treated and less often metastatic than, say, melanoma or Merkel Cell, can be more aggressive, is more likely to come back, and is more likely to metastasize than Basal.  So, if you find yourself faced with the choice, choose Basal.

Or, instead, choose to use sunscreen, limit sun exposure, wear a hat, and take care of your skin by staying out of the sun during the most damaging hours (between around 10 a.m. and 4 p/m.).  Seriously.  I've been sawed at twice now, had Actinic Keratoses "frozen" off my face three times (so far), and I'm pretty sure I have another one brewing, as I mentioned earlier.  Don't do that to yourself, and don't do it to your kids.  Slather them in sunblock and teach them about skin cancer.

Oh, and because I feel like I should?  I'm not a doctor.  I probably COULD be a doctor, but I'm not.  So if you see a mole changing, if you have a spot appear that doesn't heal, doesn't go away, or heals, then comes back, then heals again, then comes back (you get the point), go see a dermatologist.  Sooner rather than later.  This goes for lumps, bumps, and other inexplicable things popping up on your skin that are new and unexplained.  Do it.  Because skin cancers?  Are pretty curable when they're caught early and treated.  So catch them early.

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And that's that.  I think on Monday I'll arrange all the pictures of my latest cancer and post them.  I'm not happy with how the scar is looking, and I'm not happy with the hard, ouchie white thing that I pulled out of it last night--I'd say the remnant of a suture, but those were blackish-blue.  Hmmm.  

An update here:  the landlord is booting us, has given us 60 days notice to vacate.  This isn't an eviction--he says we're the best tenants he's ever had, has offered a glowing reference.  But he's selling, and he needs us out so he can do that.  Which leaves us utterly screwed and possibly facing homelessness.  Truly.  So please.

I was right to worry

So, my concerns about letting our boy wander about the neighborhood? 

Dead on.

Hubby and I were out cleaning out the old car when we witnessed a near massacre--ten or so kids trying to lure the rat-children across the street off to a place where they could beat their asses.  Listening to the rat-kids, it became clear that they (and the punk behind us) had ambushed one of these kids and, at close range, knocked him around and shot him with their Airsoft guns.  This was the attempted payback.  It got ugly, and the rat-kids' mother came out and shouted these kids (some of whom were mid-to-late teens) away.  Then we were treated to an hour of listening to the rat-kids plan their revenge.  Serious stuff, talking about baseball bats and sneaking around to flank one boy while he walked to the bus stop.

I was chilled, listening, because it's exactly the sort of thing I feared when I told our boy that, no, he may not just wander around the neighborhood hoping to find someone to hang out with.  These kids will start in on him--we already know that, they've already done it.  But away from home, where there's no safe haven?  I have no idea what might happen. 

The lice kids, after months of completely blowing our boy off, have started showing up again.  Always, when turned away, they head directly over to the rat-kids' house.  No art, no attempting to be smooth.  They come over from there and return there when turned away.  One of them actually came over after dark and asked if our boy could come out to "hang" when the rat-kids were standing right on the sidewalk, waiting. 

Goodness.

Sadly, with the car situation, it's looking like moving away from here next fall isn't likely to happen.  Hopefully, the landlord will rent to us for another year.  If he doesn't?  Wow, I don't dare even think about it.

Considering a Costco or BJ's warehouse membership.  Have a free 60 day membership to BJ's, went once to take a look.  Some things markedly cheaper than Wegmans and Walmart, some not.  Costco may have better prices, we don't know--they aren't offering free trial memberships.  BJ's accepts manufacturer's coupons, whereas Costco does not.  However, Costco sells gas, and they do it for around 30 cents less a gallon than the local gas stations.  BJ's doesn't sell gas.  So we're trying to decide what to do here.  If anyone has any money-saving warehouse tips that might help us make a decision, please share!

Speaking of cheap gas, if we want to drive 44 miles to Front Royal, gas there is 40 cents cheaper a gallon.  But it would take over two gallons to get there and back.  But we have an 18 gallon tank.  Which means it would cost $6.78 in gas to get there and back.  We would save $7.20 over local prices to fill the tank.  Add the wear on the car that comes with smacking an extra 88 miles on it a week?  Not worth it.  But it sure is a pretty drive, huh?


Our boy downloaded a new game on the computer last night, which riddled our machine with malware.  Game was called "Slender," and wow.  Browser hijacked, "adware" everywhere, homepage hijacked, even ads showing up on my blog, which is a concern because I'm not supposed to have competing ads on my blog.  I don't know if those ads were showing for anyone else (I should have three ads--one top, one body, and one bottom) or if it was just for me, but I'm hoping it didn't screw up my ad deal.  There was no "uninstall program" under "add or remove," so I ran Malwarebytes (it found 8 registry key entries and four malware/adware programs), isolated and deleted, rebooted, and manually deleted the game files.  Hopefully, that'll cover it.  The ads and browser issues seem to be cleared up. 

A sad day, thus far.  Hope it gets better.