Can someone help me with this?

I'm looking for advice from any Physician Assistants/PA students that might be on the board. I've ETS'ed from the military and am trying to decide whether to dive right into another job/career, continue doing what I did in the military but on the contractor side, or switching it up, going back to school for core classes in Biology while getting my EMT-B and then applying to a PA school.

I'd appreciate any advice from those who have gone down a similar path and/or have experience working in that field.

 

Anyone around here know jewelry? Durbanite, I seem to recall your parents have a jewelry business?

Anyway, my wedding/engagement rings have started irritating my finger. Red, itchy, and peely. My current plan is to not wear them until the problem goes away and then wear each of them one by one for a few days to nail down the culprit. But once I do that - how do I fix it?

If it matters, there are 3 rings, all white gold with diamonds and sapphires. I have indeed cleaned them recently, in that solution you can get from the drugstore, and this kept the irritation at bay for a day or two at best.

 

I know there are a lot of different metal allergies, but the most common is nickel. On other pieces clear nail polish works really well as a protectant.

 

White gold is just yellow gold dipped in Rhodium. The yellow you're seeing through the plating is the actual gold underneath, and your ring just needs to be re-dipped.

As for the allergy, you might be allergic to Rhodium, in which case you can either have the plating stripped (somehow, I'm not sure how they do that), or get a different setting, like platinum.

 

Or it could just be a psychosomatic manifestation of your real feelings about your marriage.

 

This is false. You *can* dip yellow gold in rhodium plating solution, but that's not white gold and anyone who sells it to you as such is lying. White gold is made from gold and palladium, for example my dad's mix for 18 carat WG is 75% pure Au (there's your 18 carat), 13% Pd and 12% Cu and other assorted metals to create stiffness in the gold, since gold itself is very soft. It is then rhodium-plated after being cleaned (usually cleaned using an ultrasonic cleaner if it's being manufactured at that point and stone-less, to get rid of the flux and other dirty build-up from the manufacturing process). As far as I know, rhodium itself doesn't cause the allergic reaction, unless you eat it or something. That 12% of other alloys being used to stiffen the gold is usually the culprit, especially if this metal has a high nickel content, as wexton mentioned. Nickel is a common cause for an allergic reaction.

This is why a lot of people are having stuff made in platinum now - platinum is very strong and hard and doesn't need stiffening/hardening metals. Generally, this also contains a small amount of palladium to give it that shine.

 

I stand corrected. The more you know...

 

I dunno if this is better suited to the World Travel thread or something, but fuck it.

This year I'll be in the US on September 11 for the first time. On top of that I'll be in New York, staying in Brooklyn.

Since your great country has come to mean a lot to me over five trips in the last four years, and a lot of my closest friends are Americans, it'd mean a lot to me to be able to pay my respects on that day.

Can anyone give me an idea of anything that might be scheduled that day, be it a remembrance service or whatever? I figure there'll be something at or around Freedom Tower, but I also imagine there'll be thousands and thousands of people there.

Thanks; I hope this doesn't come off as obnoxious-touristy.

 

So Demonoid got killed off as of late, and I'm trying to find an invite to another decent torrent site (such as iptorrents). Can anyone help me out?

 

I think they're coming back. The admins are had to rebuild a bunch of stuff apparently - but they're working on it.


Edit: Deleted stuff. Moving it to the tech help thread.

 

Don't know if this belongs here or in the tech help thread, but I am asking this on behalf of my wife who has been trying to figure this out for the past two days.

Quoted from her email, and this is supposedly in vba:

Here’s what I need to know how to do, because I can find most of the code online but I don’t know how to actually make it do it. I am using an Access Database and I have a query I created called “Flu Tracking” with a field name “LeadershipLast”.
I want to export the query results in an excel workbook but I want to create separate worksheets by the field “LeadershipLast”.

So....uhhh...I don't know what any of that means, but maybe someone here does. Green dots galore to any helpful souls.

 

G'DAMN SPIDERS !!!!!!!!

My new house has lots and lots of these fucking things. I'm near the water and in a treed area, so yeah, I understand there's going to be spiders, but they are everywhere!

It's super fun walking out my front door at 6:30 am straight into a spider whose decided to make a web across my door at perfect face height. Then there's the big ass spider that's made my truck it's new home - I keep sweeping the web away (I'll post a picture for you all later) and the next morning it's back and it's not exactly small. I am completely terrified of spiders and these ones are big.

I've been doing some internet research and see that supposedly spiders don't like lemon? I know I can call in a company to spray, but I have dogs and there is also other wildlife around my house (birds, deer etc.,) that I'd rather not poison if I can avoid it. Has anyone on here tried any of these non toxic methods? Did any of them work?

 

The reason we developed insecticides is because "non-toxic" methods don't work. You need Demon WP, although I don't know if this company ships to Canada. I have used this for over 10 years; I only have dead bugs at my house. It's safe for mammals after it dries.

 

Dummy level technical question: I'm on a hotel wifi, and will be over the course of the next month. When I pull up Finder on my little Macbook, under Shared, I see many people's computers listed. Should I be concerned? Is someone out there downloading all my files and passwords and financial info as I type?

 

You're safe in regards to sharing folders. Read this link to explain more. Long story short, this is the least of your concerns unless you're explicitly granting file sharing on your computer. If you are then you might want to look over your settings.

The bigger concern is the wifi network itself.

If whatever wifi network you're connecting to does not require a password. (or doesn't show up as WEP, WPA, or WPA-2 network) Then you'd be wise to not go to any sites with sensitive information. I advise people to not connect at all. These unencrypted networks transmit all of your information over the open-air, and anyone connected to this network posessing the proper tools can 'sniff' your traffic and pull things like usernames and passwords. What's worse is that a person could actually be performing a man-in-the-middle attack by creating a decoy network for folks to connect.

On a positive note, I'd find it unlikely that whatever hotel you're staying at doesn't have some base level of wireless encryption enabled for it's users. Most hotels use contract IT services, and any place worth their billable hour rate would have something like this enabled.

You should keep in mind that whenever you're traveling, the chances of connecting to 'rogue networks' are a risk you take everytime you connect to an unlocked network. I know you're not super technical so just remember that if you don't have to enter a password to connect to a network, you're not accessing the internet in a secure manner.

 

Thanks again to bongsolo for the above reply...now I know not to try logging into our bank accounts here, etc. I still don't understand the technical issues, but I've got a little more piece of mind and more things to be aware of.

Not to be needy and all, but maybe someone out there's worked at a hotel: we moved suites, now into an even bigger one (although I suspect things have been done here by wedding parties which we never, ever, never want to hear of) and there's a very strong chemically sweet smell...it's making my sinuses and throat tickle. I'm fairly easygoing and all, but I don't trust what the hotel will tell us and I want to know before this stay is the turning point in us getting family melanomaleukomalignohodgkins syndrome: anyone familiar with the ozone bombs things hotels use after smelly customers?

 

This question is for members from the US. I feel like an asshole and I never meant any disrespect and nobody has ever said anything to me about this.

I was at a neighborhood party yesterday and my wife said that somebody made a comment when she introduced herself, "Oh, you live in the house with the flag that's always out." Or something along this line. I was told that whatever the comment was, it was supposedly said with a little condescension and also had a couple others around her nodding like they knew as well. She said it was said in a way that made her feel uncomfortable and like she wasn't in on some sort of joke and others have talked about this at some point.

We have a US flag hung outside off a post on our front porch. It's a high quality flag in beautiful condition and flying freely and securely in what we thought was a nice location and setting. Thing is we keep it out all the time. I guess I'm some terrible American and I'm reading that I am very much in the wrong and a piece of shit. I've read that you are supposed to only fly it from dawn until dusk unless you have it very well lit, then you can fly it all the time. I also don't take it in when it rains. I've read that is terrible as well.

Is all this true? Am I a terrible person? This seems silly to me. If this was really a big enough deal to make a comment like that to my wife, why wouldn't anybody ever just stop and tell us. There are some snooty fucks around here but seriously, we're approachable and don't want to offend people, especially for something so seemingly trivial as this. We keep an outside light on most nights but it doesn't directly shine on the flag so the flag is shadowed at night. I feel like an idiot as I obviously don't know proper flag etiquette and both my wife and I have never thought anything of it and nobody has ever said anything.....ever and we've had this up for about 3 years now. This includes her father who is retired Coast Guard, our immediate neighbors who include a 20 year Marine veteran and our next door neighbors father who lives nearby and we see at least once a week. He spent 30+ years in the Air Force. Nobody has ever said anything to us. Nobody has ever stopped to comment so I'm still thinking this isn't that big of a deal but, again, my wife was taken aback.

I know there are lots of military here and probably some folks who just know this. What are your thoughts? I took it down for now as I'm going to ask around. Should I put it back up and say screw anybody who gets offended. I just always liked having the flag out and seeing it everyday whenever I come home but I sure as hell am not putting it up and taking it down everyday as I've read is protocol. I'm going to ask the neighbors and get their thoughts but I figured I'd ask here as well. I can't believe I never knew this type of etiquette existed. I know how to fold one, have taken old ratty ones to the local American Legion branch to have them dispose of it, etc. but this is a new one.

 

Well, in short you're disgracing the flag by flying it unlit at night and technically, you're not supposed to fly it in the rain, however it's not the end of the world. If I were in your shoes, I'd ask one of the Veterans in the neighborhood to point you in the right direction, then follow his instructions. I'd ask the Marine. People talk and folks will get the message that you were making an honest mistake and you're willing to learn to do the right thing. Plus, the Marine is most likely to be the most creative when he tells folks to go fuck themselves if they speak poorly of your patriotism.

 

I think flying a good condition flag but in technical violation of the rules of flag etiquette beats not flying one at all, but yes, you are violating the various rules and need to decide if you want to a) follow those rules, b) ignore them and deal with people who are super touchy about them, or c) not fly it at all. I tend to think a is optimal, but b is ok and c is kind of sad.