The Physics of Vampire Sex

(dare I post this?) A new blog's first entry was sent to me by a friend via Twitter. Here is my comment/response:

http://physicsofvampiresex.blogspot.com/2009/08/to-start-this-blog-off-on-right-foot.html

love the vampires, hate the maenad

True Blood:
I can't wait for that maenad bitch to get devoured or whatever so I can have my normal vampires back.
I had to turn on all the lights in the living room tonight during the show cuz I was askared.
Eric and Bill are hot in different ways. Eric is &#%$in' hot to look at but I'd rather have Bill feed from my vasculature.
Queen Sophie looks the part but her voice is too anachronistic. She has that gravelly deep vocal thing that is just too late 20th century San Fernando Valley. Nobody thousands of years old would talk like that. Too bad. She could have passed for a Botticelli model, or a model for one of those Greek statues. It all stops working when she opens her mouth. Then I remember I'm watching a TV show.
Poor Lafayette. If it weren't fer bad luck he'd have no luck at all.
WTF is that egg?

I actually did give blood at a Red Cross event last week. It was the first time I wasn't disqualified. No recent travel. My life is boring. Almost got dinged on old Ghana stuff or that trip to Nigeria a few years ago, but they gave me a pass. Anyway, I did fine that day -- no fainting or diaphoresis or anything -- but I was flippin' WEAK AND TIRED for 3 or 4 days. By my calculations, I probably gave away about 13% of my blood volume. Dude, Sookie must be tired all the time! How can she run around and fight bad guys like that if she's chronically anemic?

Class of 2012

So far, so good, with the new class of 2nd year students. We've had orientation all week. The clinics, docs, and staff are much more welcoming to this class than the inaugural class last year. Last year everything was new and the clinics were under stress from several other major, simultaneous changes at the health center, so there were reasons for their apprehension. Now, after a year of this program, the culture of the health center is starting to include the medical students as part of the family. I think we still have a long way to go, but we're moving in the right direction.

Senator Edward Kennedy

I just found out, through Twitter, of course, that Senator Ted Kennedy has passed away. I had the opportunity to meet him in 2004 when he was stumping for John Kerry. It was early in the primary season, so it was a fairly small crowd and I was able to be just a couple of metres away from him. He was amazing. First of all, really handsome! More handsome than I expected given his age and more handsome than he looked on TV. His body looked just really worn and tired. I guess he had terrible back problems. But his spirit and mind were vibrant! He had quite a powerful voice to carry his eloquence. I got to shake his hand. It was a humbling experience to be in the presence of greatness.


Now our task is to carry on his legacy by passing a good health care reform bill, one with at least a few teeth! He lived his life doing great work, but also the often tedious work in Congress to get lines in bills and getting bills passed that serve the American people, ALL of the American people. At the VERY LEAST, we need to make illegal any discrimination by health insurance providers against people with pre-existing conditions. End of life counseling is a compassionate way to touch the lives of our patients and we should not shy away from it because stupid people have made ridiculous and outrageous misinterpretations of this. There should be the availability of a publicly funded segment of health insurance if not delivery. We already have this in the forms of Medicare, Medicaid, KidsCare, and the V.A. These kinds of options should be available to every American who chooses to utilize them. Health insurance should never have been linked to employment, certainly not as the primary method of coverage for the country. Most importantly, for-profit health insurance companies and health care institutions should absolutely not exist. Why? Because in a for-profit system, illness will always pay better than wellness.

Healthcare reform was the Senator's last crusade. Let us carry on that mission and help him achieve one of his last goals.

Minnie Ripperton

@yayayarndiva said she was listening to "Loving You" by Minnie Ripperton. I tweeted a short version of a story about that song and she wanted to learn more, so here's a longer version.

I was in Chile in a town in the mountains in what I thought was supposed to be their summer, or at least their spring. It was too fkncold for me and I got sick and I needed a break to a warmer climate, so I took a 25 hour bus ride from Santiago de Chile to Arica, the northernmost town in the country (and on the beach and, therefore, warmer). Somewhere in the middle of that amazing journey through, among other things, the most desolate landscape I've ever seen (the Atacama desert), we stopped at a little cafe/diner. There was nothing else around, at least in my memory, but this little restaurant. We had a half hour to eat and use the facilities. It was close to the time to get back on the bus, I was sitting on a bench outside the restaurant. A beautiful little girl was sitting next to me. Minnie Ripperton was singing "Loving You" on the radio. It was a peaceful and lovely few minutes.

So, Mimi, that song reminds me of that day.

Week 2 in Review

Busy week!

Baseball: Trent started off his major league career with a bang, to say the least. I heard it was the best debut since 1954, but I heard that from his mom, and I don't know the original source, but he still had an incredible debut. At one point his batting average was .500, but he's cooled off to a human, but respectable .314. That's where he usually lives, anyway.

His mother flew in from Sydney and it was a delight to meet her. We hugged as if we had known each other for years. Seriously, I've been in tears for a week. Mom & Sis are in Philadelphia, where the Dbacks are playing now. What a great way to spend a holiday!

Work: Crunch time. Stress. Too much to do. No time to do it. Gotta see patients tomorrow, when I have too many other things to do to prepare for the new medical students next week. And I need to get to work now to give a presentation, so I'd better get going. Just wanted to give a catch up for all five of my loyal followers. =]

There IS crying in baseball!

I'm so proud of Trent. I've been crying off & on since the home run tonight - his 3rd in 5 days! He's worked so hard. Spent so many years in the minor leagues. Stuck in AAA for 3 seasons watching other guys pass him by. He was not a power guy last season. He's naturally a good top of the order guy, a table setter. Overall, he did better there than when they had him hitting at the bottom of the order, which was most of the time. He's always been fast. Used to be a bit impatient at the plate. It was sometimes a struggle for him to lay off. I haven't had a chance to actually see him this season because he's been in another city, but watching him on the Dbacks I can really see how much he has matured as a hitter, even since one year ago. So many nights last season he'd come home after a game, tired, frustrated. We'd talk about hitting. When to swing, whether to swing, whether or not to think about it. He had some really unhappy, frustrated times. He also had a lot of great games, offensively and defensively. We all thought he was ready at the beginning of this season, but the extra time and experience seem to have paid off.

Minor leagues suck. It's just hard. Medical school and residency suck too, but at least you know for sure you'll be a doctor, and you keep going in one direction. In baseball, you never know what will happen, you go up, you go down, you ... just never know.

Here's the link to his first post-game interview. There's my boy - great smile, familiar voice and accent. Sounds normal to me, of course, because I've had Aussies in my house for 3 seasons.

His mom (his real mom) will be flying in from Sydney this week. I can't wait to meet her. (I'm crying again!)