Alex Keyes, PhD

making blueberry-lime simple syrup & going to use it on top of a key lime cheesecake that i will make tomorrow

i was a very gender non conforming kid of the 2000s and anyone who assumes that was easy/typical has no idea the degree to which i was bullied for being gnc

i once got detention for glaring too hard/long at a boy who'd been harassing me and my friends this way for *months*. i had glared at him during one single lunch period, but i was given detention over it.

when i was telling my parents why i liked this film, i specifically talked about the squirrel scene and how it exemplifies superman's character and the overall tone of this movie

i've had cats all my life, mom was a cat vet, and i knew that if our cats scratched me it was because i was annoying them and hadn't listened to their no. some cats, the no is after three pats on the head or any touch to the back or tail. others, it's a lot later than that. but there's always a no.

my kitties are extremely well socialized & trained - sit, etc on command and all i have to do to pill is to shake the bottle and they run TO me and happily take meds - and my cats will scratch if they are displeased.

for all of this shitshow, though, i have an unending respect for my mentor, who has been so so so patiently accommodating of everything i needed. i can only hope to live up to his expectations and his example.

really wish i'd been listened to 5 years ago when this started!
it's almost like i got a phd in biomedical sciences or something and almost like i research chronic pain!

it took me literally sending the relevant society's consensus statement on standard of care and bluntly asking 'why am i not getting the actual standard of care' AND having someone advocate for me, next to me in all appts, to actually get treated.

and yet. and yet i had fight tooth and nail to get what is literally laid out as the standard of care for my condition, having multiple migraines per week, every week, for years on end

my circumstances in this situation are not unique. headaches, and migraines in particular, are the 2nd most common neurological complaint for what i had.
surgery has been the recommended treatment for at least 8 years for my circumstances, because the full, 100% cure rate is ~98%.

huh brain surgery hurt less than basically any migraine i've ever had and also it's seeming likely that i was right* and the migraines are now cured

* - able to look thru medical literature and provide, essentially, a review on the 20+ years of research on my specific circumstances to my doctors.

i am now FIRMLY of the belief that all catered sandwiches should have condiments on the side, including veg, for 1. people to choose what they want and 2. so the bread doesn't get soggy.

i've cooked enough for other people that i always ask if they want me to not use anything when i cook for them, and mayo is a top "please do not use this ever in my food" i get. honorable mentions are cucumber & peppers.

in the midwest, when we get tornado warnings, you can hear the sirens and it's a mighty freaky sound. it can also be heard by everyone at great distances, no cell phone or internet needed. i usually hear the sirens before the text alerts come in to my phone.

there is no acceptable use of jello to me, everything added to jello is simply ruined by the jello

the other receptionist had come back and gotten her what she wanted, and as she was being checked out, the receptionist casually dropped that my mother was the vet who owned the clinic.

the receptionist and i liked to do this to people who thought they could be mean to minimum wage workers

from when i used to work at a vet clinic:
woman came in, i was stocking cans, i ask her if i can help her find anything. she looks at me and sneers "you can't help me" so i shrug and finish stocking. i take the boxes for recycling, i get back, and suddenly she's the nicest person in the world.

especially not because of AI

eeeee i'm a pharmacologist and boy howdy i don't want new medications to be rushed thru research

i have had to repeatedly fix a ball that is my cat's absolute favorite toy (she will play fetch, but only with this ball)

a puzzler (The Witness), a few visual novels (on like 85-90% sale), and The Excavation of Hob's Barrow!

image of a little grey cat in a box part of a cat tree, sound asleep

💤😻💤

one of mine was The Twelve Tasks of Asterix and Obelisk and it means that whenever i interact with bureaucracy i think of the task where they have to get a form from an endless maze of offices that all redirect them

Iowa City considers continuing fare-free bus program, starting new transit projects The fare-free program has allowed 1.5 million rides in the last fiscal year. The program accommodates all 13 lines in the Iowa City area, which includes a network that runs to Coralville. Within a mon...

both the iowa city buses and the cambus buses (run by the university) are free, and when iowa city made their buses free, it increased ridership 50% in month. they're also going for all electric buses here.

if those of us in iowa can organize enough to get this, absolutely NYC can.

"why would you have 544 tabs" don't you get into research rabbitholes and forget to resolve it? it's this or a file cabinet full of papers

me and my 544 tabs (in firefox of course) feel very seen by this

i've been treated as drug seeking for asking that doctors actually treat my severe migraines. it was a FOUR YEAR ordeal to get sumatriptan. it's been six years to actually treat the root cause. when i brought my roommate to appts? suddenly i got treatment options offered to me.

to start: i hold a lot of privilege in interacting with medical systems, i am fully aware of this. even then, i have been treated so badly by it that it was a noticeable improvement when i brought my long-time roommate to all appts.

I'm gutted and furious that the Iranian people will be injured, harmed and killed as a result of this absolutely depraved act of violence. What a complete travesty on every single level.