8.29.2008
8.28.2008
8.14.2008
Confessional
More sharing! Chime in!
Sometimes when I'm in the bathtub I say to myself, "Laura, don't pee in the bathtub. You can wait until you get out." The water is so warm, I feel so relaxed, I'm always drinking water or green tea, so I always gots ta go. I know my pee won't hurt me, urine is pretty benign, but what bothers me is it just seems kinda lazy. "You can hold it."
Got that itch - no, not down there, in my brain
P sent me this wonderful article on the neurological basis of itching and other sensations like phantoms limbs:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
Please read it, then let's discuss! Continue to read my thoughts (ha ha, that sounds funny)...
Thoughts on itching article:
-I can feel pain sometimes by thinking about it, but only certain thoughts. Not stubbing my toe or bumping into something, but thinking about paper cuts or sharp things under my nails and slicing of the skin makes me feel it - I will often have a tingle reaction in the tip of my tongue and in my teeth!
-"Richard Gregory, a prominent British neuropsychologist, estimates that visual perception is more than ninety per cent memory and less than ten per cent sensory nerve signals." Amazing! Love it.
-"Children have used phantom fingers to count and solve arithmetic problems." Amazing!
-I was under the impression the phantom limb experiences only happened to people who had lost a limb, not to people who had never experienced the limb in the first place. Mirroring?
-I love proprioception! This is your sense that tells you where you are in space as you move or remain still. This is what gets all screwy when you get drunk and you have a hard time touching your finger to your nose. It is second only to balance as one of my favorite senses. I mostly like balance because when it gets f'ed up, your world is turned upside down and you are rendered almost helpless, it is so essential and so taken for granted. And also because we have rocks in our ears. Close your eyes or cover your ears. Now stand up and walk around. Sure, you might bump into something, but you can still walk around. Now spin around twenty times, get plenty dizzy, and try walking around - very difficult. Spin around and try to look at something, try to focus on a noise, even talking can be difficult - you are probably shouting! The vertiginous attacks of a disease like Meniere's is debilitating whereas blindness and deafness are not (not that I would want either).
-I love the plasticity of the brain. It is so beautiful, provides so much hope. The study involving phantom limbs and mirrors and retraining the phantom limb over a few months is inspiring, much like the stories of rehabilitating seemingly-paralyzed stroke victims. Love it!
BTW, I guess I should mention that for a few months now I've been thinking about a multi-part blog posting on Sound and Balance. I love sound and balance; I love that the ear houses both; I love that they are so intricately tied. There were two things I wanted to study in physical anthro grad school: evolution of intelligence and creativity (so the biological basis for both and possible fossil/ancient-dna evidence and primate neurological and hormone and behavior study/testing) and the evolution of the inner and middle ear in primates and euprimates. People: we wouldn't be able to walk upright if we didn't have the types of semi-circular canals we do! (and pelvis shape and knee joints, et cet-air-ah)....So, maybe in a few months you'll get to read my musings on Sound and Balance, including a post on secret government attempts to control us with sound waves!
Thoughts?
My dad says the water polo team have the best bodies for male athletes at the Olympics. My mom thinks they look swollen. I don't know, my TV doesn't work. Thoughts?
Technology Vortex Dissipating...
Crap! My A/C broke, I lost my iPod, my TV broke just before the opening ceremonies were starting, my computer has been running slow and having a few issues, and the internet connection I piggy-back on disappeared a few days ago!
~~~~~~I have been in a technology vortex~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BUt I think it is dissipating. My A/C was of course fixed week before last, still haven't found the iPod, 'puter still heading to a crash, BUt my TV is working intermittently and that generous/lazy/uninformed person with the open internet connection has returned! Maybe they're stealing my info? Well, if so, they haven't done much damage since March, so we're good for now.
Maybe I'll find my iPod??????????????????????????????????????????????????/
8.08.2008
Thank Jah for Ex-Boyfriends
Ludacris - Obama is Here
Great song and great video, in my opin
We Are the World in Japan
Celebrity impersonators! This may be the best video on YouTube period.
Which one is your favorite? I think my favorite is the Bruce Springsteen, but I love the roar from the crowd when the Cyndi Lauper comes on. When did they do this?
8.07.2008
To Do List before I can start dating
1. Buy new underwear
2. Have alien baby removed from uterus
3. Replace shower curtain liner
I guess I could also use a new bra, too. Dammit! Why does dating have to be so expensive? At least insurance will pay for task #2.
8.06.2008
Holy Crap!
Big Boi loves Kate Bush. Me too!
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/142781-big-boi-welcomes-us-to-the-world-of-luscious-left-foot
I also like his detailing the creative process.
Cry me a river - I lost my iPod! (And a question for you, my friends)
True, it is only a shuffle (the old version - the shape of a lighter); true, it is most likely somewhere in my apartment; true, my radio and cassette player work in my car and I have iTunes at work.
But I need me my Kool Keith on my morning commute! In the last several
weeks, I have been listening almost exclusively to his soothing voice and eloquent raps about robots, secretaries, the feds, spacemen, hot wings, and gynecological matters. I have no way of getting him onto a cassette. After I type this, I am going to put Black Elvis-Lost in Space and Octagonecologist on CDs. And Matthew.
So here's my question:
What is the most recent album/artist/composer/song/genre of music that you have discovered? That you love and can/couldn't stop listening too? How did you find it? What do you love about it?
I will post my answer later in the comments section.
Thanks!
PS At work I listen to Fine Girls twenty times in a row and daydream he's singing to me.
8.04.2008
Tour of my apartment
Hello Voyeurs: you want to see what it looks like inside my apartment? THis is when it was really messy a few weeks ago - it's cleaner now, but I don't want to take more pictures.
THis is my kitchen. I have an apron from Gourmet magazine.
My bathrrom:
You can see part of my TV. And all of my laptop!
Ikea bookshelf with lots of stuff - including *Donnie* - and look! another computer. I must be rich.
that's my bed. ah-cha-cha! and my old A/C unit. so many memories!
There's the front door. That's where you would walk in if you came over. All the quilts on the wall: it's like the American Folk Art Museum in here!
7.27.2008
My new friend
Yesterday I went to visit my friend Billy at her nursing home. I volunteer with the local group Family Eldercare. They do outreach with the elderly and mentally and physically disabled adults, specifically the individuals in these groups who have no family or friends to look out for them. In the worst cases, these people have been victims of neglect or abuse by family members or caretakers at facilities.
Billy is the most adorable person I know.
She has long white hair streaked with individual black strands that she keeps parted in the middle and held back by a green-jeweled bobby pin on each side. Although she was born in Round Rock and lived her adult life – she will be 80 in November – in Austin, her native language is Spanish and that is what she is most comfortable speaking. She thinks her English isn’t any good. It’s great as far as I can tell. Sometimes she doesn’t know what I said, but I usually find that if I speak slowly, use simple words, don’t run my thoughts together, and face her direction, she can understand me just fine. These are usually signs of hearing problems, but her charts say nothing about this.
She does have a touch of dementia or Alzheimer’s. This time she remembered very well who I was, I had seen her last Saturday, and she asked about her social worker with Family Eldercare. I have only visited Billy a handful of times, about thirty minutes a pop. So far we’ve just chatted about her health, her childhood, the nursing home, my job, etc.
Billy likes beer. She brings it up every visit. “Do you drink beer?” Each time she asks, she leans in and looks me in the eyes, very earnest. I usually say something like, Yeah, it’s good. I have some every once in while. Then she tells me how she likes it, but they don’t let her have it there. Billy would drink several beers a day. She drank at home and in the park. She was basically an alcoholic – she would buy beer and wander around the parks all day while the niece she shared a one bedroom with was working or out with friends. Then one day, drunk, she tripped over a tree limb in a park and busted herself up pretty bad. This can happen when someone is 78 and not drunk, so it’s amazing it didn’t happen to her sooner. This is how she became a ward of the state and now a ward of Family Eldercare.
Yesterday Billy asked me about beer. So, I told her that that morning I had made beer ice cream. She chuckled and turned her head. She couldn’t believe it, beer flavored ice cream! We were sitting in the TV room and there was a man in there on a lounge-style wheel chair and he laughed. He said his name is Tony. He seemed like a real sweetheart. The whole time Billy and I had been talking, I could see that he would sometimes look in our direction and other times make noises that seemed like he was responding to what he heard. It was difficult to tell as he did not have very good control of his body, his speech was very thick and slurred, and he had trouble focusing his eyes on anything. But like I said, he did seem very sweet. And I loved that he thought the beer flavored ice cream was pretty ridiculous. Shortly after that, two of the staff came by and asked if he was ready for his nap. He shook his head no and the man replied, “You know Mama wants you to take your nap, are you sure?” Still, Tony said no. It is not a very nice facility, there have been some minor neglect issues with some of the residents, and of course the staff is overworked and underpaid.
PS Her name isn’t really Billy, there are privacy issues and since this blog is open to the public, I didn’t want to use her real name.
7.23.2008
Confessional
I mentioned this idea to Jr and P the a few weeks ago and they liked it. This is a new recurring post item called "Confessional." The idea is you have a place to anonymously unburden yourself of whatever you wish. Or you can own your shit like I am about to do. So, if you did something you're not to proud of, list it here. You may find you are not alone. My confession is below.
Sometimes I don't blow my nose. I don't mean when I have a baby sneeze and nothing but air comes out. I mean, sometimes when I'm at home and I sneeze, I don't wipe my nose - snot dries on my skin. Around my nose, around my lips, wherever it went. Yes, it is gross! It's such a, I don't know, eight year old boy thing to do. Or such a catatonic thing to do. I'm just busy, distracted, whatever, I can't be bothered with such frivolities! P, does this mean I'm schizophrenic? Probably not, I still shower, paint my toenails, put my contacts in.
Anyway, that's my confession! What's yours?
7.14.2008
Your brain won't believe what your tongue is telling it!
I have truly been blessed by the gods. Just a little over an hour ago, they smiled down on me. They looked at my whole life, saw how hard I tried, saw how many times I failed, and they decided to bestow upon me a gift. A boon to my brain. A seed of inspiration. Light bulb.
Fuck yeah, I made the best ice cream ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chocolate/Peanut Butter Vegan Ice Cream
(makes 2-4 servings depending on how Ziggy Piggy you get with it)
1/2 cup Dark Chocolate Dreams or your favorite choco-pb
between 1/3 - 1/2 cup agave nectar
1 cup soymilk
1/3 cup chopped semisweet chocolate or chips
Combine DCD, soymilk, and agave nectar in blender.
Blend.
Pour mixture in ice cream maker. Press "On" and wait. When it is cold and thick, but not too hard, add pieces/chips. When it is the consistency you want, eat it.
7.08.2008
Yes.
I really wish I could see him/them live. I had tickets to a Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds show in September or October of 2001. You can guess why they had to reschedule most of the tour...anyway, I didn't make it to the rescheduled show. :(
I love this. Such a great song, and the performance is right on, and they sound so tight. LOVE. I listened to this song so much last year. Refuckindickulous.
7.07.2008
Kuh-ute!
I got another "Cute!" today at the library. It seems that among the bookish transient, this is the fave descriptive for a little lady like myself.
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