Life as an Extreme Sport

Author: Kelly

…it might just run in the family after all

Duct Tape and Prayers

In the further chronicles of my delightfully insane family, my parents have a bet going. They’re “racing” to see which of them grows in hair faster, my mom or my dad. Now, since Dad’s been thinning out on top for a while now, he’s trying to grow in his beard. And Mom? Well, given the chemo and all, she’s just trying to achieve hair, period.

Apparently they’re neck and neck right now, but I’ve suggested Mom cheat and add folic acid and/or prenatal vitamins to her diet, to accelerate her hair growth.

…I’m not entirely sure what the prize for this race is, but I really can’t wait to see a picture of my father with a beard. The last time he had any facial hair at all, I was knee high to a grasshopper and it was the 70s; the memories are all vaguely pea soup green and amber tinted, so you know it was bad.

does the moon cry when the sun sets?

...and everything else, life and living

I’m having the sort of night where I’d like to climb out on the fire escape, or maybe even up it to the roof, wrapped in a blanket, barefoot and vulnerable to the world. Where I would like to lean against MoMo, or curl up and watch endless hours of CSI with Bennett.

I think I’m lonely.

No, I know I’m lonely.

Laurie and I were talking today, about how academics don’t often put down roots in new communities. She was being acidic about it, playing up the elitism that often plagues academics, but she was right, in some ways. Mostly because it’s just difficult to put down effective roots. Especially since I know this place isn’t permanent for me, I know I’ll be leaving after I graduate.

When I was in Seattle, I wasn’t certain I was ever going to leave. I settled, for the first time since my mid-teens. I allowed myself to make connections, and for the first time since I can’t even remember how long, friends. People I could trust, let my hair down with, relax. I hadn’t really believed, that after so many years in one place, I was going to leave again.

And yet, I did.

I guess it’s just been on my mind. I knew I was making a lonely choice when I made it, and that it would be a long path. But sometimes it’s hard to be reminded of what you had, and what you walked away from, and won’t have again.

Of course, you could also just call this “still suffering writers block, feeling sorry for self, and visited the liquor store.” Probably more accurate, anyway.

place the the “peace” sign pointing horizontally at your throat

...and everything else, Academics

I’ve got several large projects on my plate – larger than usual, anyhow, and on top of the normal chaos that has been my life these last couple of months. Since they all revolve around the written word, this is quite naturally the point at which I get slammed with severe writer’s block, so bad I actually feel like I’m spiraling into a black depression. While intellectually I realize it’s not that bad, the timing really does suck, and I rather dislike feeling so impotent, when words are normally one of my strongest assets.

So I’m working on the one project that doesn’t require me to be eloquent, or verbose, and in the project came across a post that still makes me grin, just because it’s the most delicious example of movie-style foreshadowing that never exists in real life, except it does. (I realize I have a lot of new readers since the last time I mentioned this, so I’ll just note that last year, I taught a symposium-style class on applied ethics and Stargate, and that would indeed be my comment edited in. Although it now makes no sense, since the image being used to illustrate the post is gone, but hey, that’s life on the internet.)

IoM tells VA: Your PTSD Benefits System Sucks

Bioethics, Politics

In the 2007 continuing series “dogpile on the VA”, the Institute of Medicine has released a report criticizing the VA for how it handles PTSD. You mean the military doesn’t treat traumatic stress disorders the same as other injuries? Shocking.

In addition to few standards on how PTSD is diagnosed, ranging from shorter than half hour interviews to hours, if not days, of scrutiny, veterans with PTSD are currently required to be completely unable to work in order to claim any disability. This is a far cry from the disability rating/point system, where you are assigned a score based on what ails you. A quadraplegic who works is still entitled to 100% disability (around $1000 a month right now), and as was recently revealed, even contracting or aggravating an STD is enough to get you listed as anywhere from 10-30% disabled ($100-$300 a month). And the last time I checked, an STD like genital warts did not prevent you from working.

So let’s review: post-traumatic stress from serving your country in a war zone – maybe considered a disability if it completely incapacitates you to the point of never working again. Maybe. Picking up an STD while on personal leave during basic training? Good for at least $100 a month.

Massachusetts Proposes hESC Funding

AJOB Editors Blog, Bioethics

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick unveiled plans, today, for a $1 billion investment in biotechnology and stem cell research, directly attempting to challenge California as the place to be for stem cell research. Like California, Patrick’s plan is a 10-year plan that will fund, among other things, a stem cell bank and the nation’s first centralized repository of new public and private stem cell lines, which will be overseen by the University of Massachusetts. It will be the world’s largest of its kind (according to Patrick’s office, anyhow), with Harvard, MIT, Massachusetts General and other hospitals contributing their lines.

Massachusetts might actually be able to give California a run for its money (or talent) here; in addition to being able to learn from CIRM’s mistakes, Massachusetts has over 500 life science companies, several major universities, two dozen teaching hospitals, and four medical schools. This is just one of a list of things Patrick has done to undo Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s time in office; Patrick’s proposal requires legislative approval that he is very likely to get. In 2005, both the Senate and House supported a bill to encourage stem cell research that Romney promptly killed.

And continuing to deviate from party line, California Governor Schwarzenegger says he welcomes the competition; the more research being done, the better.
-Kelly Hills

Originally posted at the American Journal of Bioethics Editors Blog.