Category: general

I was having trouble finding a good article about this; Yahoo! seems to have the best one so far, but the story isn’t highlighted on any of the major portals yet. This seems extremely odd to me, especially since Kerry made stem cell research a major focus of his campaign.

Clinical trials with embryonic stem cells are believed to be years away because of the risks and ethical problems involved in the production of embryos — regarded as living humans by some people — for scientific use.

Heh.

This particular successful therapy used umbilical cord stem cells, which means we could go to a donor system instead of creating children for the purpose of harvesting their stem cells. This is a Good Thing. And look at this:

Additionally, umbilical cord blood stem cells trigger little immune response in the recipient [while] embryonic stem cells have a tendency to form tumors when injected into animals or human beings.

This is really a win-win situation. I hope the process can be successfully repeated!

“The stem cell transplantation was performed on Oct. 12 this year and in just three weeks she started to walk with the help of a walker,” Song told reporters at a news conference in Seoul.

I wish Christopher Reeve could have seen this.

“I feel sad,” club president Bernard Kensky said.

And this is, indeed, very sad! Except, I suppose, for pessimists.

In all seriousness, I believe that this is more evidence to support my people as islands theory. In modern society, we have so much to worry about in our own lives (whether or not we actually have to worry about it, or we are just creating things for ourselves to worry about, is unknown) that we have no time to worry about others. Case in point: my own life. I don’t do a whole lot, when you think about it. I work, try to make dinner, and try to exercise. The rest of my time (in general) is spent on the computer, reading stuff and blogging about it. But when I start to think about adding things to my schedule, like dedicated exercise time, more work, and volunteering, I start to freak out, thinking that I don’t have time for anything. There are plenty of things I want to add to my life that are just for me, like studying Japanese or working on starting my own business. When I think about those things, it feels like adding volunteer work on top of all that is ludicrous.

Obviously, this all goes back to my lack of organizational and time management skills. I believe that many people lack these skills, and that this is a huge contributing factor in why subdivisions are collections of unrelated people instead of communities. Nobody gets their shit together. Life is like thought-work; there’s no plan anymore, no easy template for everyone to follow in order to achieve happiness. We all essentially have to make our own way in everything, and none of us have been prepared for that.

Unfortunately, instead of asking for help and working with our families and communities to deal with this problem, we instead focus inward, growing further and further away from other people.

Sorry, AJ. All the cool kids are doing it!

You scored as Monica. The neat freak who would do anything for her friends. You’re Monica, not always that popular but everyone loves you now. Monica 75% Rachel 70% Ross 55% Phoebe 50% Chandler 20% Joey 15% Which Friend are you? created with QuizFarm.com

In all, I’m happy with this result. I’ve always identified the most with Monica; Rachel’s more like someone I’d consider for a girlfriend ;> I’m glad Ross is up there, too, because I do consider myself an intellectual, and (unlike the Friends) I was always interested in whatever he was working on in the show.

The placement of Phoebe and Chandler is notable. I find Phoebe quirky and interesting, but I never quite identified with her. Chandler, on the other hand, is a very sympathetic character to me, one I really love. Still, I suppose it’s good that I’m more quirky and interesting than sarcastic and dissatisfied with life, eh?

I’m definitely glad that Joey is last ;D

I haven’t taken a single picture the whole time I’ve been here.

On Wednesday, after running around to the doctor and the lab, we finally got on the road at around 8 pm. It took us until 4:30 am to get to Nicholasville. When we were in Lexington, on one of those skinny little tree-lined roads, we saw snow flurries–a lot of snow flurries. They were beautiful.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. I got up, miraculously, at a reasonable hour, and made pumpkin dip and corn casserole. We ate at around 4 pm or so. Grandma, Steve, and Jeff didn’t come, unfortunately, so it was just Mom, Dad, AJ, Faye, Connor, Logan, Ben, Manda, Dan, and me and Sean. The food was good, though.

It was a little weird; we all just sort of ate, and then went our separate ways. It didn’t feel quite like Thanksgiving, somehow.

We spent Friday just hanging around the house. Faye took Connor and Logan to Jackie’s house for her family’s Thanksgiving, so I spent time with Mom and Dad. Sean and I went out to Chili’s for dinner, and then went over to Ben’s house and watched Drowning Mona. It was pretty good–I love the Yugos :>

Yesterday, we were supposed to go to Grandma’s, but Sean didn’t get up until around 3, and he wasn’t ready to go until 4. By that time, Grandma wasn’t ready to have visitors, so she asked us to please come tomorrow (today) instead. So instead of going out, we stayed in–I messed around on the computer, played pool with Dad, and hung out with Mom, and Sean played his video games (he’s been playing Half Life 2 and Lineage II).

Something happened to his computer, I think on Friday…but the days are all blurring together, so I’m not sure. He was able to fix it, fortunately.

We had everyone over, AJ, Faye, Connor, Logan, Ben, Manda, Dan, and Daniel Weinstock, for Chinese food last night. It was good :) Sean and Connor sort of fought over a seat cushion, but Connor was good and didn’t fuss about losing the cushion.

Later, I was playing hide and seek with Connor, so I hid in the closet in my old room where Sean has his computer set up. Connor came in and asked Sean if he’d seen me. Sean replied, “It’s hide and seek; you have to find her yourself.” :D

I read Connor’s three books to him while they were still here, and then they went home. I then watched a bunch of TLC/HGTV home decorating shows with Mom. Sadly, none of them were particularly impressive. I tended to like some of the little touches, but not the finished product. It was kind of disappointing.

So today Connor is going to come over to make gingerbread houses, and then we’re going to pack up and leave, and stop by Grandma’s on our way out of town.

I am going to definitely get some pictures today. I wish I’d gotten some on Thanksgiving. I don’t know why I didn’t; I even had my camera in the room. Oh well.

It’s been a good visit. I’ve been thinking about what it would be like to move back to the area. I would love to be closer to my family, but I feel like I have a place in Augusta now. I would miss my friends–and I’d miss my job too :> I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find a job like that again. The people are fun, and the work is interesting, and I do a lot of different things. I like that.

Sean really ought to stay at the same place for at least 5 years, anyway. Especially since he’s going back to school (hopefully) in the spring.

So I guess it’s Augusta for now, for us.

There is no scientific basis for the idea that blood types can give a person insight into her personality, but nonetheless this has been a common cultural idea in Japan for many years. Newer anime fans are always bewildered, for example, by the fact that “data” sheets for their favorite anime girls include blood type alongside such traits as bust, waist, and hips. Due to the commonality of blood typing, the Anime-Manga Roleplaying Network has a blood type section on its character sheet.

However, in Japan, blood typing is, like, totally 1984:

Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization, a third-party organization formed by NHK and other broadcasters, has received more than 50 complaints from viewers about programs featuring characterizations based on blood types.

The last paragraph of the article was interesting to me, because while I knew that blood typing had no scientific basis, I didn’t realize how dated the process was:

Tatsuya Sato, assistant professor on social psychology at Ritsumeikan University said that characterization by blood types in Japan was extremely popular in the 1980s, but the boom subsided after researchers failed to uncover scientific evidence to characterize people based on their blood types.

The practice hasn’t disappeared from anime, though; we know, for example, that Echizen Ryoma is type O and Uzumaki Naruto is type B. (It may be that blood types are used with fictional characters to assist viewers in understanding their personalities. Similar to saying something like “he was on the football team” here in the U.S., it’s a gross generalization that is immediately understood.)

I’ve been seeing a lot of news lately about teachers in Japan abusing their students. Today we have a story about a teacher of calligraphy (writing Chinese characters with a brush and ink, usually on a large scroll) who molested a female student.

The teacher of Daito Bunkadai Daiichi High School in Tokyo’s Itabashi-ku is suspected of touching the breasts and legs of a female student in the calligraphy club room on Nov. 3.

This is pretty much all the information we get about the incident…except for the title of the article:

So…he was using his brush? Or was the person writing the article just being particularly inventive? The world may never know.

More than 46,000 Americans have taken part in this online geography competition started by a man with a mission: Roger Andresen, who quit his job as a fibre optic engineer two years ago when he realized most Americans have never heard of Nauru and don’t know Cameroon is in Africa.

Working from his home in Georgia — the U.S. state, not the country — he created a jigsaw puzzle with pieces shaped like the countries of the world and launched what he calls the “world’s biggest ongoing geography puzzle” on the Web.

This is a pretty cool idea.

“Geography is just a building block for understanding what’s going on in the world,” said Andresen, whose family includes Christian missionaries and who has travelled to 44 countries.

“Being the world’s superpower we should be informed voters,” he said. “Sitting back and not worrying about these things is terrible, and it might be why the rest of the world doesn’t care for us.”

Check out the Yahoo! News article here, and play Geography Olympics here.

Now all that’s left is to wait for the Olympics committee to sue Andresen for using the word “Olympics”…;P (I swear that happened to somebody, like the Paralympics or the Special Olympics or something, but I can’t find a link about it…)

“You never updated your blog,” AJ said tonight as we sat in his basement watching Spider-Man on Fox, “to tell all your friends you made it here safe.”

So, here’s a post, telling you I made it here safe. :)

I’m still annoyed, especially because I had to wait over an hour for my doctor to show up for our appointment–and the office didn’t even realize I was coming. But I seem to be fine, just a heavy period, and Sean’s up and has already taken his shower and eaten, so that’s a couple of hurdles right there.

We’ll be heading to Kentucky soon :)

I’ve lost 14 pounds, I realized yesterday. I’ve had to buy new pants.

Here’s the timeline of events. All times except the first one are exact, because they coincide with logged calls on my cell phone.

~8:40: I arrive at the laboratory.

9:00: The laboratory says they don’t have the paperwork. I call my doctor’s office several times. No one answers. As I don’t have my doctor’s cell phone number in my phone, I go home.

9:15: I call my doctor directly. She doesn’t answer.

9:31: My doctor calls me back. She suggests I call the office back continually, and says she will call them too.

9:35: I call the office. I get voice mail. I decide not to bother trying to call again.

9:41: The office calls me. Here’s where things get ridiculous. The girl, “Tiffany” or something, is apparently put out because my doctor called her. She says, “We have this problem with them all the time when we send faxes the night before. We sent it.” She then adds, “You could have called us from there.” I interject, “I did, several times. Is there a number I have to press to get a person?” She is befuddled by this and doesn’t give me a straight answer, instead going back to, “We have this problem with them all the time. Tell them this is the second time we’ve faxed it.” I manage to say, “Can I confirm the fax number you have for them?” It turns out they have the correct number. I could say, “Why don’t you confirm faxes when you send them? It’s not my responsibility to facilitate communication between you and the laboratory.” However, I do not. We hang up and I go back to the lab.

10:04: I finally have blood drawn. (This time is exact because my mother in law called me while I was in the chair.)

Now I just have to hope that the bloodwork is done by 1 pm, when I’m supposed to go to the doctor.

I’ve packed all my stuff except for the laptop, which I’m currently getting prepared. Packing goes pretty quickly for me now; I’ve done it so much that it’s easy to determine what I need. So really the only issues are:

• What is going on with my period
• How the weather is for the drive
• Whether or not my husband will ever get out of bed

With those things settled, I will finally be able to go to Kentucky for my RELAXING HOLIDAY WEEKEND :P

So I’m all worried about what’s going on, and wondering if I can go on my trip, and wondering if doing bloodwork this morning will give the lab enough time to have it done by 1 pm when I’m supposed to go to the doctor, and the doctor’s office doesn’t even bother to fax the stupid bloodwork form in to the lab.

I am so pissed off. I may actually tell off whoever eventually calls me to tell me what the fuck happened, and I’ve never told off anyone in my life. There could be a serious problem here and they didn’t send in the freaking paperwork!

Maybe I should just go down there and get it myself…damn it all to hell!

This is really fascinating news, especially to me, because I’m interested in how Japanese culture is exported to the US. Will the government’s branding of certain items as official Japan products help or hinder trade?

I’m actually thinking it will help, at least initially, because people will know that the government’s brand is authentic, and that has value, especially here in the US. The time for me to personally act, on a project which I will not detail here, could be drawing nigh…

Because, of course, if anyone else does anything wrong, it’s obviously the fault of one of the above three anyway.

This is the message I’m receiving from sites like BoingBoing lately. Since the election, BoingBoing has been highlighting radical Christians. Sour grapes, I’m sure, over the president’s “moral victory”. I suppose it doesn’t matter that I didn’t vote for him because of morals, and I really doubt anyone else did either.

The posts have a condescending feel to them, as though the writers are looking at specimens in a jar and commenting on their base habits. With every post, the writers are lining up reason after reason to reject Christianity and to be intolerant of Christians…as though these fringe radicals are in any way representative of the average Christian.

It’s really annoying.

Here’s the latest, entitled “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition“.

Yes, that is seriously the title.

Thanks, BoingBoing, for your level-headed and fair portrayal of Christianity. I’m sure all your readers appreciate it.