Stepped on some sort of nasty insect last night, and it bit/stung me. My toe has swelled up and turned red, and last night when I was half-asleep I was concerned that it was spreading so I marked the edges of the red area with a Sharpie, just like the ER doctor did for my wife when she had a nasty spreading infection.

I called the Alberta Health consultation line, and they agreed that as long as it's not spreading I should be fine. If it spreads more than 1 cm/hour they said I should go in for IV antibiotics. They also said that they've been seeing a lot of infected insect bites recently.

From the characteristics of the wound, I'm guessing that it was a red ant sting. I put some hydrocortisone on it which seems to have reduced the itching.

It's so nice that because of antibiotics, something like this (which used to be a potentially life-threating situation) is now only an annoyance. All hail penicillin.

I don't know what to think about this video. Apparently it was produced for BET as a sort of a public service announcement. On the one hand, it's rather catchy and effective. On the other hand, the way it addresses the behavior it's trying to promote seems to reinforce negative stereotypes.

Here's a link to the video (video starts playing immediately and is not safe for work):
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1767003

And here are the lyrics: http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/d_mite/rm_bside/readbook.dmt.txt

Read a book! Read a book! Read a muh'fuckin book!
R-E-A-D, A, B-O-OAHH-KAYYYYYYYY~!
Not a sports page (what) not a magazine (who)
But a book nigga, a fuckin book nigga (YEAHHH~!)
Raise yo' kids, raise yo' kids, raise yo' God damn kids
Your body needs water - so DRINK THAT SHIT
Buy some land, buy some land (what) FUCK SPINNIN RIMS
Brush yo' teeth, brush yo' teeth, brush yo' God damn teeth
Wear deodorant nigga, wear deodorant nigga
It's called Speed Stick (bitch) it's not expensive (bitch)
Read a book! Read a book! Read a muh'fuckin book!