Where did the time go

Whoops, and so, it's almost mid-month January, oopsie! Where did the time go?

I've recovered from the COVID flu I got 2 weeks ago. This time around I had a slightly worse time, and the "positive" test took longer to turn negative. However, it seems that my actual recovery is going smoother than before. I haven't got much coughing, still do maybe early in the morning or once or twice over the day, but other than those once-off coughs there's no hacking of lungs.

HOWEVER.

I am suffering from an olfactory hallucination: Phantom smells! Phantosmia! I'm lucky I haven't actually lost my sense of smell, as if I have some incense going on, or tea, or cooking food, I can smell all that normally. But then once in a while, and I noticed especially when I'm idle, I'll suddenly smell a waft of smoke, cigarette and ashes. So much so I thought there was something left burning at home, but then no, after a process of elimination, it's just me. Apparently it's a pretty common disorder after covid. No known recovery time but Google states to expect that to go on for 6 months. Ugh. And I hate the smell of cigarettes. It's not just smell, I get this weird ashey bitter taste in the back of my throat too. But it's all hallucinations. So I'm constantly chewing on gum or have cough lozenges just in hopes to cover that smell/taste. And maybe that is why I'm not coughing as much as before.

Another thing I had, but which thankfully seems to have stopped since yesterday, was a sudden burning sensation in my left leg, lower calf near the ankle. For a week I would sporadically feel a heat in that area. It's like if you suddenly stepped too close to a heater or motorcycle exhaust. Or. If you're standing out in the wilderness and a dog comes over and pees on your leg. If I were more spiritually inclined I'd say maybe there's a ghost dragon running behind me puffing heat at my left leg. But like I said, thankfully, this sensation has stopped since yesterday.

One week to Shanghai. Just my luck. My Boss is also going to Shanghai that week, but he's staying longer than I am. Fingers crossed he's not going to ask me to do anything while over there.

Mandarin classes have restarted and I'm seriously reconsidering my plan to not drive this semester. I am being a very Macau person. That university is too damn big. Going there was fine, take the bus, get off at the stop near the university library. But then walking from the university library to the faculty buildings? Geez. And then, although the new classroom is still in the same faculty building, but this time it's on the second floor, and we have to walk to the end of the other side of the building. Oh boy.

In the last course, it was an introductory course so there were a lot of exchange students, and so they had like 2 classes. This course is a follow up, and since most exchange students are only here for a semester, so like half the people are gone, so they've combined the remaining people from both classes into 1 class now. So, there's quite a few new faces. I'm again seated with that Russian PHD student, and I saw a few of the previous class classmates too. It's interesting we didn't really chat much before but the classmates were all so friendly and smiley greeting us this time around. I guess it's always nice to see a familiar face?

Dad is coming back soon, on Sunday to be exact, so I'll soon have a bit more flexibility in my schedule again. Right now it's a tight schedule of home and work and class and dog walk. With Dad back we'll have a little more wiggle room. But with Dad back I'll have no car, that means I'll still need to take the bus to the university, ugh, I forgot about that.

Anyway.

That's that for now I guess.

Charlatanism and skepticism

While I was still Covid positive, I guess I was more susceptible to some marketing games, so I "registered" (after gaining clarity I'd like to use the word "buy") in a course, Animal Naturopathy. It says it's a certification course but even so I was skeptical on the get-go. Now that I've got a clear head and I've been reading through the materials, I can only call bullshit on the stuff being taught.

I mean, I guess it's good to read up and see what's going on in the world, and a lot of the materials I've read so far seem to make sense, but then again, on second thought, not really much sense. Besides, the writing usually cancels each other out.

And then, the "tests" and "exams" are shams. It's just a pdf document with the questions, and in the same document, if you scroll further down, are the answers. There's no answer submission, answer checking. The whole course (so far) looks to be just some pyramid-scheme disguised as a course.

There are a few parts where they give standard "answers" for "when a patient asks you this-and-this." I don't have the vocabulary to explain it, but it feels like it's some sort of franchise manual and the materials are like standard answers. It's all a sham.

 And they don't cross reference or quote their sources. There was one particular line that said something like "...numerous clinical studies have proven its effectiveness." I'm sitting here reading that and like... "so... where are the clinical studies? What's the statistics on that? Where's the reference????"

But I will still read through it, in hopes that there will actually be some nuggets of useful information. So far there's a part on the essential oils that seems informative enough. At least, I can now cross check those oil names with the list I learnt from the soap making class, but where everything was in Chinese, so now I get to cross check and reference back to see what is what.

In conclusion: it's a sham, and try to use common sense to filter through the information. If nothing else, I get to learn what the whole sham is and if someone tries to persuade me on that kind of treatment then I already know what a sham that is.