Dear Bison: September 2005

hahahaaha you called me 'Pants'

bison rules!!!

[jdl22]

When you fish at home do you use a pole or spear?

If spear do you prefer night or day?

[M2d]

[ QUOTE ]
When you fish at home do you use a pole or spear?

[/ QUOTE ]
both
[ QUOTE ]
If spear do you prefer night or day?

[/ QUOTE ]
night: the fish sleep, so they're easier to shoot.

[Dex]

Dear Bison,

How can I get some peace of mind about this?

How should I proceed? What other words of wisdom can you give me about this?

Thank you.

[offTopic]

Dear Bison,

I anticipate being laid off in the November time frame. I have 6 years' experience in VB6, about 2 years in VB.NET, and am currently teaching myself C#. What would be another good language/platform to bolster my resume?

[Matt Flynn]

Dear Bison,

I am a dermatologist. I see skin cancers on random people often, particularly at poker tournaments. It's a touchy subject. I have knowledge that will help them and in some cases will save their lives, yet saying something that personal to someone breaks social rules. Some people get very angry. Many derms never say anything. My policy on this has been:

If I know you I tell you.

If it looks like melanoma (5% of skin cancer, often fatal if left alone but easily cured if caught early), I say something privately.

If it looks like basal cell carcinoma (75-80% of skin cancer, almost no metastasis, low risk), I work my being a dermatologist into conversation if talking to them and typically say nothing unless asked.

If it looks like squamous cell carcinoma (15-20% of skin cancer, 1% risk of metastasis unless it is quite large), I do the same as for basal cell carcinoma.

Do you find my strategy moral?

Matt

[Matt Flynn]

Dex,

Our routine:

Genital warts can be difficult to treat and can regrow no matter how treated. If you have any around your anus, you need a gastroenterologist to scope you to make sure there are none inside. Otherwise you are wasting your time. Also, if you got warts, you could have gotten something else and should get routine STD screening.

Typically a combination of treatments would be used for you, like liquid nitrogen and podophylin every 1-3 weeks or liquid nitrogen every 1-3 weeks and Condylox at home 4 nights/week. Or just cutting, cauterizing or lasering them off, but that can leave scars. Aldara is heavily marketed but for men often does not work, even if applied daily.

Make sure you get proper counselling on how to avoid giving them to someone else.

Matt
(Dermatology)

[M2d]

Dear Matt,
tell them anyway. it may save their life and put them on tilt at the same time. consider the chips you win your consultation fee.

[Losing all]

Dear Matt,

I got a horrible drunken sunburn a couple weeks ago. I had what looked like big chunks of black leather peeling off my entire face. It's ok now, but I'm a little worried. Should I see a doctor (No insurance)? Serious question btw.

[shant]

Dear Bison,

I am just finishing up some freelance web work. I do Flash design and animation stuff. I was just about to start playing poker professionally instead of trying to find another fulltime job. My plan was going to go into effect this coming week.

I just received an email from a large search engine company that has recently opened an office here in Los Angeles. In the email I am being offered a position on their creative team. My main problems with going back to work is the loss of free time, and dealing with the LA commuter traffic everyday.

Since you went pro, and then stopped to work for a search engine company, I figured you'd have good insight into my choices here. What should I do?