lalalala

Not much going on. Don't go see the IMAX film "The Alps". Boring. And it doesn't tie the story lines well at all.

Posted by jennj at 06:10 PM | Comments (0)

i've figured out a big reason why i like obama

I don't want to go back to 90's politics and thinking. As much as I loved Bill, I don't need to harken back to that time anymore. I thought I did, but you know what? No, I don't. And that's what Hillary and McCain represent. Old Skool. Give me someone who is intelligent, "talks" to me intelligently, doesn't have any old skool political emotional baggage, can relate to both young and old, religious and non-religious and wants to get something done. Obama represents what a politician and what politics _should be_ post-9/11 . Yo, Hillary and McCain? I'm ready to try something new. You aren't it. Buh-bye.

Posted by jennj at 01:21 PM | Comments (28)

"it's a small crime"

Saw a link on my friend Terry's blog, went and read it, decided it needed to be posted here for all my readers. Like, all 2 of you.

"Let me ask those questions, those questions we ask of every beneficiary of the smallest drop of government assistance. Let me ask why this is the ONLY scenario in which our parsimonious bullshit about personal responsibility, about choices and consequences, about "survival of the fittest" and other forms of sicko math, need not fucking apply."

Read the whole thing.

Posted by jennj at 09:14 PM | Comments (2)

well no wonder why i'm anemic

I found out that I have alpha Thalassemia. It's a genetic disorder where i'm not producing enough alpha protein in my hemoglobin. Which then gives me mild anemia. Apparently it's commonly misdiagnosed as iron deficiency anemia. No wonder why the iron supplements weren't working. They aren't an effective treatment. The weird thing is that it's usually found in asian, african, mediterranean ethnicities...... oops (7% of people who have this are white).

Posted by jennj at 12:05 PM | Comments (2)

finishing my degree......

I'm so close to getting my degree at this point that I came up with a brilliant idea: Take a year sabbatical from work and just finish the f*ker. 3 semesters, going to school full time.

But that's a long time away from work, yanno? I've got some great projects coming up that I want to work on, I've got some great relationships built, etc. I've also been working with my boss on transitioning to another area in his department, but the plan is a slow transition due to efforts I'm already working on, so how would this time off affect that new opportunity, right? Nbh is totally on board with whatever I decide, so that's not an issue.

I decided to just sit with my boss and ask his opinion. My boss is also my mentor. I've known him for over 12 years, I trust him and he's always got great ideas and is open-minded. This is why I could work for him forever. Well, I went into his office yesterday with 2 options in mind to do this and when I left his office, I had an additional 4 options to think about thanks to his guidance and questions.

And he's got some action items. :-)

Posted by jennj at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)

"the ashley treatment"

I was reading this article on cnn.com about the parents consented to sterilizing their daughter to keep her growth at a certain height and weight due to caregiver responsibilities. I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. There are a number of statements in the article that raised questions for me.

""Growth retardation is not a substitute for adequate home aides and home assistance.""

So what would be an adequate reason for growth retardation? Isn't this just the opposite of those parents who put their children through medical procedures to make them taller? I mean, seriously, nobody has a problem with that, right? It's for the good of the child to make them taller, right? Well, why isn't it for the good of the child to not grow anymore?

""The parents are not seeing the potential of the child; they are seeing a baby," says Rader. "People with disabilities have to look at the potential of our lives: of available new technology, new equipment, medical advances. Things can change so quickly now."" (this is a statement made by another disabled individual)

Okay, so, like.....her parents aren't able to ask her, maybe you can? On the other hand, medical science is changing quickly and it's amazing to find that where hope was lost it can now be found.

""Adults can consent. But for a child, we're making decisions for them and hoping in our heart of hearts we are making the right decisions,""

Don't we do this in society (and those of you who are parents at home) for pretty much, well, everything (when you can vote, drive, drink, etc.)? How does this statement contribute to the argument? Duh.

Finally, their main reason for doing this is the caregiving aspect. She's 6 months mentally, she has to wear a diaper, they have to feed her, she can't bathe herself, etc. The bigger she gets, the more she weighs and the more they cannot help her as they age.

Which begs the real questions: Why don't we have an adequate infrastructure to support people who are faced with long term care issues and why do we have to get to a point where we're even considering this as an option?

Update: "We hope that by now it is clear that the “Ashley Treatment” is about improving Ashley’s quality of life and not about convenience to her caregivers. Ashley’s biggest challenge is discomfort and boredom and the “Ashley Treatment” goes straight to the heart of this challenge. It is common for Ashley to be uncomfortable or to be bored."

My questions still stand.

Posted by jennj at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)

tag searching on flickr

Check this out: compfight.com

They're using Flickr's API. Put in your search tag and it aggregates photos to show you thumbnails on _one_ screen. Whee!

Posted by jennj at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)

if hillary became president, what would bill be called?

Heard on the radio awhile ago, but remembered to share now:

Radio personality #1: "So...if the wife of the President is known as The First Lady, what would Bill be? The First Man?"
Radio personality #2: "The First Ladies Man."

*snort*

Posted by jennj at 02:44 PM | Comments (1)

stuff white people like

*snort* I see my white-self in many of these....Oscar parties.....Mos Def......

Posted by jennj at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

come back! i need stuff!

*blink* A Ride The Pig, Gir corset. Hehehe. Further browsing you can find a care bears glow-in-the-dark dress, pacman dress...oh wait! a Hello Kitty corset! There's actually a few Hello Kitty corsets. HAHAHA.

Posted by jennj at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

dude. you smell like a yeti.

The yeti in popular culture. Looks like the yeti went underground during the 90's.....

Posted by jennj at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)

aging

I should not be getting mid-life joke e-mails forwarded to me by my MOTHER when I'm still in my 30's (granted, I'm in my late, late 30's). Yeesh.

Posted by jennj at 08:54 AM | Comments (3)

back home....but greeted with some unpleasantness

That felt like the longest flight ever. But we're home now. It was a great trip and a report will be posted probably sometime at the end of the week.....

Well, getting home at 11:30 at night and finding a wet spot of pee* isn't fun. We figured out it was Otto when he went to the kitty litter box twice before we went to sleep. We figured the pee was just a one time thing, showing us he was pissed (hehe) we left him alone. We decided that we'd monitor him in the morning, in case of blockage and slept.

When we woke up, that's when we found the other puddles here and there....and discovered there was blood in the urine. Off to the emergency room this morning. 2.5 hours later we know he doesn't have any blockage. Whew. Turns out he could have been so stressed that he gave himself this....they aren't ruling out any sort of urinary tract infection but there was no pee for them to analyze. We've got some anti-inflammatories and pain relievers to help ease the tension on his urethra. Hopefully this will all pass in the next 2-5 days.

The other unpleasantness (yes, there's more) is that apparently our furnace is on it's last legs. We have been told to not count on using it for next winter. We got an email from our cat sitters on Wednesday who noticed the furnace wasn't turning on. They called the furnace guys who got it working and gave the diagnosis. No idea how much it will cost to replace. Don't want to know at the moment. Want to still be in post vacation bliss-state.

*So you're probably wondering why the cat sitters didn't notice the pee? Well, it appears he started this in the past 2 or so days. And he did the peeing in places our cat sitters would never have found (upstairs). On top of that, our kitty litter is the kind where the urine passes through, so unless you actually clean it all up and refresh you aren't going to exactly notice. Besides, we don't know the last time they scooped out the kitty litter and since we think it only started the past few days, they may have scooped right before it started. For future trips we're going to have to ask them to spot check this kind of thing on their daily visit. *sigh*

Posted by jennj at 02:15 PM | Comments (5)