Schiavo has not been the only one

Does anyone remember Nancy Cruzan or Karen Ann Quinlan? Both women suffered from persistent vegetative states, and both families petitioned the courts to end their lives humanely. Apparently, we are doomed to repeat history, and doomed to learn nothing from the past.

Quinlan's family finally won the right to remove her ventilator, only she continued to live for another ten years. Cruzan's family eventually won the right to remove her feeding tube, and she lived a month. Read this for a concise summary of both cases. It has some interesting links to other sites as well.

"Following the Cruzan decision, the Patient Self Determination Act was passed by Congress to allow patients to make their own decisions about end of life care and/or routine care, should they be unable to make decisions for themselves. Advanced directives respect the individual's autonomy."

Congress has intervened once, on the side of patients. Now, is it going to reverse itself???

Bandwagoneering

Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon this weekend, purchasing an "Until They All Come Home" yellow bracelet.

Let's hope they all come home soon.

Pandora's Clock

Watching "Pandora's Clock" last night on the Lifetime Movie Network kind of freaked me out. Robert Loggia, as the CIA director, said that using any means necessary is justified when trying to eradicate terrorism. This tv movie was made in 1996, and we haven't really progressed all that far since then.

Right before Christmas, a very sick man gets on a plane. Later, he goes into cardiac arrest and the plane decides to make a landing at the closest available airport, which was London's Heathrow. However, it turns out that the man was possibly exposed to a super-virus in Germany, and the Germans warn the British. The British won't let the plane land.

The plane eventually sneaks into Iceland, landing on a U.S. air force base. The soldiers are under strict orders: shoot to kill. One woman decides to try to make a run for it, and they shoot her dead. The plane refuels and is instructed to land in an isolated area of Mauritania, a country in Africa.

However, the machinations of the CIA director are coming to light. Daphne Zuniga plays a doctor who has been analyzing the situation for the CIA, and she discovers the plot: the CIA director hired a merc to destroy the plane. It will be blamed on the fictional terrorist group, al-Akbar, and then the U.S. government will blow up al-Akbar's training bases in retaliation, effectively destroying the group. The director's rationale is that the people will die anyway from whatever virus was on board.

It was an interesting movie, although some parts were predictable. I was just a little surprised at how the movie has stood up to the test of time. Life imitates art, I guess.

Explaining Brain Damage to a 5-Year-Old

Last night, DD and I were watching the news, just as we always do every night. CBS's lead story was about Terri Schiavo, of course, and DD looked at me and asked me what was wrong with that woman.

How do you explain brain death to a five-year-old? Do you talk about the idea of a soul, and how hers is already gone? Do you talk about how there are different parts of the brain, and how only part of hers is still working properly? Do you talk about the difference between life and death? Do you talk about the brain's mysteries? How do you explain it when you don't even understand it thoroughly yourself?

I chose to talk about how that there are different parts of the brain that do different things. I explained that Schiavo can't talk or walk or read or learn or be the person she used to be because those parts of her brain are dead. I said that the only part of her brain that is working is the part that controls the breathing.

DD seemed satisfied with that reply. I don't think she understands the big fight over Schiavo's "life," and what it all means (I didn't even want to bring up that confusing part of the issue), but the fact that the story even registered on her radar surprised me. I guess the video of Schiavo has been all over the place, and it raised DD's curiosity. DD is a very empathetic child, always concerned when someone is hurt or crying. I was proud that she is getting to be so smart, but I was also shocked that the story registered with her.

I must be watching too much news. Every single story was depressing last night: Schiavo, the Red Lake school shooter, traumatic brain injuries in soldiers who served in Iraq, and the refinery fire in Texas.

Does life suck that much?

Car Fix

The car is fixed, to the tune of $753. Yeah, it wasn't just the crankshaft sensor. It was the water pump and the drive belt. Just shoot me now. Thank the gods for credit cards. I still have to get some hoses replaced as well, but hopefully those will hang on a bit longer.

Have I mentioned that I hate being a grownup????

Schiavo Timeline

Read this for the real scoop on Terri Schiavo's life since her brain was damaged. (via Metafilter) The home page lists updates on the case as they occur.

Breakdown

Although I have felt like having a nervous breakdown lately, it was my car that had the problem yesterday.

I was driving to work and it just quit accelerating. The battery light and the check engine light came on. I pulled over and called DH, who arrived about a half-hour later. I was almost to the exit I take to get to my job.

We had to have it towed to a mechanic's. They said they couldn't get to it until Thursday, but I did get a call late yesterday afternoon. It will cost $525 to fix the problem (which includes the towing fee). And that's the problem they were able to diagnose using their equipment. There may be other problems which will be detected once they get it started up.

*shrugs* It could have been worse, I guess. Hopefully, I'll have the car back tomorrow afternoon, and everything will be okay.

If not, then I guess I will have a breakdown of my very own.

Hogzilla, revisited

Well, it turns out that Hogzilla was a Hampshire-wild hog cross. Even snopes.com has an article about it.

Watching the episode of National Geographic Explorer made me want to gag. Thank the gods there is no such thing as Smellovision. I could imagine the smell of the deceased beast, and that was enough. They dragged out five minutes of science into an hour. By the time 7:55 rolled around, I was ready for the suppositions to end, and for them to get on with it. In fact, once the truth was revealed, it was rather anticlimactic.

Oh, and I wished they had mentioned ahead of time that the show might not be for all audiences. DD happened to be watching when a wild pig was set upon by a pack of dogs. I had to usher her out of the room. Good thing it was her bedtime anyway.

Hogzilla

People who don't believe in Hogzilla have obviously never been to the hog barns during the Illinois State Fair. Every year (or so it used to be when I was a kid, anyway), there was a contest for largest boar. Many of them were the size of this boar in the picture from the NYT article. From the pic, it looks like that boar was probably farm-raised to get that size, and is most likely a Duroc. I suppose that it could have escaped from its farm, and the man killed it when he saw it wandering around.

I can't believe the National Geographic channel sent scientists to investigate. I wonder what conclusions they will draw.

Where's Dan?

On Monday evening, my five-year-old DD and I were watching the CBS Evening News, and as soon as Bob Schieffer came on, she asked me, "What's Bob doing on the news?"

Hehe. I explained to her that Dan Rather retired last week. I don't think she believed me. DH overheard the conversation and he just looked at me like I was nuts.

Hot Flashes

I'm still sick. Last night was just about the worst night. I had a terrible fever and my whole body ached. My teeth ached so bad I didn't think I was going to be able to go to sleep. I expect to have a fever when I first get a cold, but not when the cold is clearing up. Right now, I am having hot flashes.

The weather is nice today, though. Spring is coming. I can't wait. :)

Oh, I also posted a journal entry last night.

Aha!

In regard to my recent post about spam blogs, Amanita had a link to an article that addresses this very issue. It seems that some spam tools set up accounts on BlogSpot automatically.

What a waste of server space.

BM is a not exactly a SCAM, but...

A more savvy blogger than I has discovered that blogging! magazine is most likely a scam.

I'll change my position if the promised "free trial issue" is ever accessible.

After accessing the old site via the wayback machine, it does look like every other month, it ran the same "free trial issue," "sign up now" crap to get money.

Caveat emptor.

(Read this, this, this, and this, too.)

UPDATE: Ok, well, I FINALLY got a welcome message at Mon, 14 Mar 2005 20:40:55 (which is sometime on Monday afternoon here where I live) to look at the free issue. The email also said that if I wanted to unsubscribe and get a refund, I could do so, provided through the links on the members area. I followed the link through the email and was able to get into the members area, so that was a plus. I clicked on several of the "download issue" links that were located on the page, and only one of them actually went to the issue. However, the issue did not load. Acrobat Reader gave me an error message.

I decided that I was going to unsubscribe as soon as I saw that was an option. So in the members area, I clicked on the unsub link, but it gave a "page not found" error. I finally was able to access the unsub link by taking out part of the address.

I don't know if they actually got things going on their site, or they saw my trackback on their blog, so that was why they sent me an email.

I won't denigrate the publication out of hand. Who knows? Future issues might be a whole lot better than this premiere issue. However, like I said above: CAVEAT EMPTOR.

Sick--AGAIN!

Another wave of plague struck last week. I thought I was going to be lucky and avoid it, but I came down with another horrendous cold. All three of us were sick. DD has had this same nasty cold since about Tuesday. I hope this is the last we see of illness this winter.

The OTC cold medicine I've been taking makes me feel light-headeded. I haven't slept well in a week, either. It really sucks to be sick on the weekend.

Freaking plague-infested schools.

WTF are these sites?

Sometimes I like to press "Next Blog" on the Blogger heading. I run across sites like this one, that seem to be nothing but spam. What are these, and what is their point? Clicking on the profile of the "blogger," if you can even call the person a blogger, takes you the listing of his or her other blogs, all in a similar vein. I knew there were spam comments and spam trackbacks, and even good old spam emails, but spam blogs???

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

Last night on Primetime Live, John Quinones interviewed Jeannette Walls, a tv reporter and writer who grew up in a very poor family in Appalachia. She recently wrote a memoir in which she talks about her upbringing. It was inspiring that she became so successful. She could have given up. She could have lived in the same small town the rest of her life. Instead, she got on a bus to NYC and got a job, and worked her way up to the top of the career ladder. Although her parents were "unconventional," they instilled in her the idea of working hard and dreams of a better life.

A lot of people give up on their dreams every single day, and they don't have nearly the impossible odds that Walls faced.

Also in the broadcast, Cynthia McFadden interviewed Ronan Tynan, an Irish tenor, doctor, and gold-medal athlete, who also happens to be a double amputee. Born with a birth defect of both feet, his parents never gave up on him, and they never let him quit, either. They said he would walk, and he walked. Later on, after he had both legs amputated below the knee, he decided to become an athlete and won gold medals in the Paralympics. Then he decided to become a doctor. And then, at the age of 33, he won a television competition, singing opera. He got to go to the Royal Academy in London to study, and became an accomplished Irish tenor. He often sings during the seventh inning stretch of Yankees baseball home games.

He credits his success to his own will, but also to his mother, who told him "Get up, get up, get up!"

Would that we all have such supportive and encouraging parents.

Reincarnation by Fire

When I was around twelve years old, I went to the tiny library in my hometown one day and checked out the book "Audrey Rose," by Frank De Felitta. I was into reading a lot of horror then, but most of it was by Stephen King. This book looked freaky. It had a girl on the cover, surrounded by flames, and her eyes seemed to stare at me beseechingly. (Look at it for yourself here on this Amazon page link.) The book was also turned into a movie.

I have to admit now that I probably did not entirely understand the themes in the book. The book is about a man who loses his wife and daughter in a fiery car crash. A psychic tells him that the soul of his daughter has been reincarnated into a girl named Ivy Templeton, and he seeks her out. Her family thinks he is crazy with grief, but the girl knows things that only Audrey knew, and she starts having flashbacks to the crash, &etc. So, in the end, he has to choose to let Ivy live or kill her in order to free Audrey's soul.

The story itself did not scare me as much as that artwork did. The book was a NYT best seller and sold over 2 million copies, according to the cover blurb. I cannot believe that my mom didn't try to keep me from reading it. I guess she thought I was old enough to handle the ideas in the story. I read the sequel as well: "For the Love of Audrey Rose," in which Ivy Templeton's mother Janice goes crazy with grief, seeking her daughter's reincarnated form. However, I didn't like that book as well as the original.

If you asked me to name specific books I read in my formative years, I would list about five: "Audrey Rose," "Gone with the Wind," "Winds of War," "Diary of Anne Frank," and "The Color Purple." No other books have stayed with me the way these have.

Not Quite the Same

Well, Bob Schieffer did a decent job on the CBS Evening News tonight, but...

I MISS DAN!!!!

What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

It would seem that the cable provider for this town is having "technical difficulties." DH said they were having "technical difficulties" all afternoon.

I'm missing Dan's last broadcast!!! Sigh.

End of an Era

The Evening News just won't be the same with out good ol' Dan Rather. A lot of people hate him, or think he's a caricature, but I have always enjoyed watching his newscasts. It's not what he says, but his demeanor and how he says it.

Bob Schieffer is replacing him temporarily. Then I read that CBS was planning to bring in a dual-anchor team.

CBS, please don't. They tried that with Connie Chung, and it didn't work. Just let John Roberts, Russ Mitchell, or Thalia Assuras have the spot. Any one of these fine candidates would be a good replacement.

Thunderdome-style Crafting

According to this article in the NYT, the Style Network is about to debut a new series called "Craft Corner Deathmatch," in which two crafty people go head to head to create items that will be judged on beauty, creativity, and usefulness. The winner then competes against Jocelyn Worrall, aka the Craft Lady of Steel. It premieres on Wednesday, March 9, at 10pm.

Super Size Me?

Last night I watched the documentary "Super Size Me." Was it ever an eye-opener! As a result, I have decided to really make an effort to change my eating habits.

What was most affecting to me was that the subject of the documentary, Morgan Spurlock, gained 24 lbs over one month as a result of eating at McDonald's for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By eating only from the menu, he ate an equivalent of 30 lbs of sugar, a pound a day. The only items on the menu that did not have sugar in them were: iced tea, diet Coke, the sausage patty, hash browns, and french fries. Yeah, only five items. Even the salads had added sugar--I guess from the dressing.

Blech--30 lbs of sugar! He was eating such a high-fat diet that if he had continued, his liver would eventually become like an alcoholic's liver. The doctors were surprised at his condition in just one month, but said that it wasn't unexpected.

The high-fat diet also made him feel depressed and tired. I realized that that is why I feel depressed and fatigued a lot of the time--I eat too much fat! Later this evening, I will do some research, and hopefully, both me and my DH will change our eating habits. I worry about the example we are setting for our daughter more than anything else.

Whether or not the documentary is just propaganda against McDonald's, I don't really care. I know average Americans are generally too lazy to exercise, and I know they don't eat every meal at McD's, but the movie still has a valid point: high-fat food is bad for you in large quantities, and you do have the option to make better choices. You have to make the decision.

I suggest that if you are struggling with your weight, watch this movie, then educate yourself on a low-fat diet. Don't worry: I will be pointing my mother-in-law to the AHA site as well. The AHA also has a site where you can keep track of your fitness goals. Check it out.

Down the Drain

Sunday was a complete washout. DH's dad was rushed to the hospital. He thought he was having a heart attack, but the tests came back negative. He is supposed to have a stress test today, and other tests to see if they can find a cause of his symptoms.

UPDATE: Well, it turned out that the tests found nothing. There was no evidence of a heart attack at all. I figure he had an intense panic attack. At least he's home, and hopefully, he'll learn to relax.

Double Hmmmph

Seems that the blogging! magazine site is now down. I sent an email to the site owner, but there has been no response regarding the trial issue.

Horrors of Hazing?

Just this week, on Court TV, Al Roker of Al Roker Investigates, showed us the "dark side" of the collegiate Greek system.

First, I would like to say that I was a sorority girl. My sorority is a member of the National Panhellenic Conference, a nationwide governing body of recognized sororities. I say "recognized" because that is one little tidbit of information that Roker didn't mention until after the first half-hour of his report.

Roker interviewed two women, both of whom claimed they were hazed by members of the unrecognized Tri Phi sorority at Loyola University. Apparently, there was a big scandal at Loyola because of it, with student suspensions and counter-suits. This paragraph of the story from the student newspaper is most telling:

But the women contend that they were not an officially recognized student organization at Loyola. Because of their unrecognized status, the suit contends that the university "was legally precluded from charging any of Tri Phi's members with violating the university's Hazing Policy."

Roker didn't mention that the sorority was unrecognized by the school, and therefore, probably not subject to any school policies, in his report. He painted ALL Greeks with the same brush--at least, he did not present the entire picture of Greek life on college campuses. He did not talk about the service work for charities they perform or any of the other more significant and important elements of Greek life.

As far as I know, hazing is not allowed in any recognized Greek chapter. National organizations have stiff penalties, and if your sorority is recognized by any national body such as the National Panhellenic Conference, it also has rules regarding hazing. Your chapter can be put on probation or even disbanded by these bodies, not to mention whatever penalties may be imposed by the university you attend.

Now, I am not about to say that some hazing does not go on in some Greek organizations. I personally never witnessed any in my own sorority chapter, and if I had, you can bet I'd be the first to go to our national organization about it. I did not close my eyes to something that may have been going on, either. There was nothing going on, period, end of story. I suppose my Greek experience may have been different than most women's. I was lucky to to get in on the ground floor of a recolonization of my sorority at my college, so there wasn't a lot of pressure. The most we had to do was make sure we had a number of study hours per week, and we were supposed to get to know our sisters.

I joined a sorority for many reasons. One was because it was being recolonized and I could help make something of a new organization. Two, a friend of mine was pledging. Three, I missed the leadership I had when I was on my high school student council, and I thought that a sorority would be a similar type of organization. Four, I wanted to meet new people. However, I knew from the beginning, in my own mind, that members of a sorority would NEVER take the place of my non-Greek friends. I had known several people who I ended up falling out of touch with because they joined sororities. I did not want that to happen to me. Everyone was equal.

I did happen to meet one of my best friends in the sorority. But she and I also met our other best friend through a sorority member who later de-activated. Our other best friend was not Greek, and it's a little funny because we don't even talk to the person who introduced us anymore. The non-Greek friend was even our roommate in the area of a dorm set aside for the sorority.

Nor did our sorority discriminate. We were of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. We even had foreign students in our sorority. One woman was French Canadian, and others were from Asia. We also had black members. If anything, we all encouraged each other, because we were all in the recolonization effort together.

I won't say that there weren't some difficult times. You put 50 women in a room and see what you get them to agree on without complaints. :) All in all, it was a great experience, and I am glad to be an alumna member of my sorority.

National Hazing Prevention Week is set for September 26-30, 2005.

Stories like this mislead the average person. Most people have no idea what Greek life is like. They only know what they've seen in movies like "Animal House," or "Revenge of the Nerds." Greeks have enough of an image problem without adding misleading news reports to the mix. TV shows like the MTV series "Sorority Life" try to show a real picture of the life, but yet it's edited to show only the drama, and not the mundane reality.

If you're a female who might be thinking of joining a Greek system when you're in college, don't be afraid to rush a sorority. Sororities aren't just "party all the time." They support philanthropies, offer scholarships, and promote reaching for your dreams. I often think of my sorority's motto: "Aspire, Seek, Attain."

Gravatar

Now, you too can have an avatar recognized on several different sites when you comment on people's blog posts. It doesn't work with ALL blog systems, but it works with most.

Sark comes to the UI

If you live near the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and are free tonight, Sark will be presenting a speech. Check it out here. I'd be going myself if I had more advance notice!

Hmmph

blogging! magazine update: It would seem the site is having problems with traffic, because demand has been higher than they anticipated. Well, that's very annoying, since I signed up for a trial issue.

10 Things

10 Things I've Done that You Probably Haven't

1. Been pen pals with an Australian for almost 20 years.
2. Visited Dachau, the former concentration camp outside Munich, Germany
3. Married my high school sweetheart
4. Had an emergency c-section without any labor beforehand whatsoever
5. Went to college, lived, and worked in Terre Haute, Indiana (!)
6. Took care of my cancer-stricken grandmother when I was only 17 years old
7. Champion speller in grades 5, 6, 7, & 8
8. Grew up on a farm
9. Achieved 50,000 words for Nanowrimo 2004
10. Broke my knee in first grade, broke my ankle in fourth grade, and broke my other ankle when I was a freshman in college

Rural does not equal Idyllic

When I was growing up, I lived on a farm in a very rural area of Illinois. I had no comprehension of drugs. This was in the late 1970s and 1980s, by the way. We started learning about drugs in junior high, in days before the D.A.R.E. program existed. We learned about marijuana, heroin, cocaine, PCP, amphetamines, the usual. We did not really study painkillers or over-the-counter drugs--these were not BAD in the way the "hard" drugs were.

Recently Vicki Mabrey reported on methamphetamine use on "60 Minutes II." I watched a little bit of the report, but you can read the report for yourself. I was slightly astonished at the question mark in the title of the story.

Like duh.

What else is there to do in rural America? I'm sure if a report was done on alcoholism, the same findings would be reported.

I used to buy Sudafed. Now I can't get it because it's not stocked on the shelf. There is a little note that says if you want to buy Sudafed, or one of the knockoff brands, you have to go to the pharmacist and have him or her give it to you. I just buy something else. I believe the storesin my area took it upon themselves to keep the pseudoephedrine off the shelves, rather than state legislation, but according to the CBS article, some states like Oklahoma have passed a law reclassifying pseudoephedrine drugs to Schedule 5, meaning they can only be purchased from a pharmacist.

Why does it take people dying, like this innocent little girl, for people to stand up and say no more?

Meth makers steal anhydrous ammonia straight from tanks kept at fertilizer companies. It's like they don't even realize how dangerous anhydrous is. I was accidentally on the receiving end of just the fumes one time when I was playing outside at home as kid. My dad was spraying fertilizer in the field opposite our house, and it was a windy day. The fumes took my breath away and all I could think of was that I was going to die in the yard. Thankfully, just as quickly, they dissipated and I was able to breathe normally, but it was a very scary moment nonetheless.

When will it stop?

A Quiz

Which Priestess of Avalon are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Congratulations, you are the beloved High Priestess, Lady Eilan! She is gentle and caring, attending to those who are abandoned. She brings herself down to earch by doing the same daily chores as the other priestesses. Unlike Lady Lhiannon she knows of the Druid's plans, and attends to things accordingly. Eilan is the last High Priestess of the Forest House.

So far, so good

I managed to avoid the plague. The inlaws were still feeling its effects over the weekend, but DH and DD have recovered. I am so glad I didn't come down with it (knock on wood).

Not much is going on this week--just working and trying to keep up with the blog when I can. :)