This time of year both bothers and yet delights me. I am happy to see my friends and family whom I have missed so much, and presents are always nice. However I hate people during this time. Everyone is rushing and pushing and yelling and screaming. I can understand how the grinch got to be such a meiser. People are miserable over the holidays. They have to take care of their kids who are off from school, and buy millions of dollars worth of presents for people they mostly dont really like. the Grinch had the plan, hide out in a cave away from the clutter and the chaos of Whoville, at least not untill after new years.
I took my little sister to the Camden Aquarium on Wednesday, thinking it would be a nice place, not too crowded (because its a weekday and it's the middle of winter) and it'd be educational. No such luck for me, while it was educational (mainly because I watch too much animal planet and was practically a human textbook) it was terribly overcrowded with pqarents dragging their children out to get them out of the house. I mean people were everywhere! Squished closer together then the penguins were in their tiny enclosure. Not to mention the fact that I was not impressed with the seeming lack of quality of life for many of the animals (especially the seals and penguins). I feel I can't risk taking my sister out again untill after everybody actually goes back to work. Unfortuneately she'll be in school by then.
I feel like I can't bring myself to go to aquariums or zoos anymore because it depresses me. I miss seeing wild animals roaming around in my back yard. They at least were happy. Animals behind bars is just... well, depressing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some crazy commie-hippy-environmentalist. I'm not vegen and I don't protest leather or meat. But I don't like seeing animals in cages. Big open pastures and fields are good things. And so are giant tanks with diversity and interesting things for the animals, not just some fish in a tank, or a sloth in a fake tree.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Last Day
We have finally arrived at the last day of class. No longer shall we have the driving force to continually update our blogs. The question is, how many of us will? How many of us will continue using these blogs to express our opinions? Will any of us continue to comment on those of others? This may be the true test of the influence of this class on individuals, if we are all still writing entries 3 months from now. This is also an opportunity to continue to communicate, not only with each other but with our professor.
Then again, maybe no one will continue to write here. Perhaps the lessons learned here can be continued on other blogging sites. On our livejournals or on our myspace blogs. The important thing is that something was learned or inspired. As Dr. Barlow said at the beginning of class, it’s just about being able to communicate your point. No matter what it be about. You can talk about music, politics, school, hell even chewing gum, as long as you can say what you want and have people understand it. That’s the power behind writing, and the new found power of the internet. You can express yourself, un-edited, and un-censored.
After exposing yourself to this new world of communication, the options are endless. You can publish anything you want. Publish your own music, publish your biography (because that’s all a diary/journal really is), publish your own fictional novel, publish your political column, or publish your own art. The world is lain at our feet, and our generation has an opportunity to make a difference. We are looked down on and unappreciated by so many of our aging population, and who runs our country? Our media? We should use our assets to prove that we wont just sit, hands-crossed and be told to be quiet. Express your Freedom of Speech!
Then again, maybe no one will continue to write here. Perhaps the lessons learned here can be continued on other blogging sites. On our livejournals or on our myspace blogs. The important thing is that something was learned or inspired. As Dr. Barlow said at the beginning of class, it’s just about being able to communicate your point. No matter what it be about. You can talk about music, politics, school, hell even chewing gum, as long as you can say what you want and have people understand it. That’s the power behind writing, and the new found power of the internet. You can express yourself, un-edited, and un-censored.
After exposing yourself to this new world of communication, the options are endless. You can publish anything you want. Publish your own music, publish your biography (because that’s all a diary/journal really is), publish your own fictional novel, publish your political column, or publish your own art. The world is lain at our feet, and our generation has an opportunity to make a difference. We are looked down on and unappreciated by so many of our aging population, and who runs our country? Our media? We should use our assets to prove that we wont just sit, hands-crossed and be told to be quiet. Express your Freedom of Speech!
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Wisdom Teeth Blues
There comes a time in every individuals life (usually around the age of 18) when they have to make a choice. To remove their wisdom teeth or not to remove them. Usually a parent will initiate the conversation with a dentist. Sometimes we are lucky enough not to need the surgery. You may have enough room in your jaw for them to grow in. You may only have one or two of them. Or you may be among the majority of the population and have all four which need to be removed.
I had been having some troubles with my jaw, some pains and such, and someone mentioned to me that it was probably my wisdom teeth. I agreed and brought the topic up with my mother. She told me to wait until our next dentist appointment to ask the doctor. So I did. When the appointment came around the dentist took some x-rays agreed that it was time for them to come out and referred me to a dental surgeon. I talked with the surgeon, who took more x-rays and explained the complications that could happen (through a video tape) and told me to make an appointment.
My mother scheduled the appointment for the day after thanksgiving. I had been told not to eat anything for 10 hrs before the procedure, because the sedative they used tended to make patients nauseas. I knew all the things that could go wrong, I knew that the surgeon could accidentally sever the main nerve to my lower jaw. I knew that she could also damage my sinus cavity. But I was told my teeth were positioned so that I wasn’t at a risk or either of those. I knew that I was being put under through an IV (the most frightening part of the whole ordeal). However never once did they actually tell me what they were going to do. I have had oral surgery before, and I was always told exactly what was being done to my mouth. I was told about the location of incisions, the tools, everything that the doctor would be doing.
When I stepped into that room and they lay me down on that chair I began to panic from all the people doing all the things that I couldn’t identify. The nurses kindly told me about the nitrous oxide and what it was supposed to do to me, and about the strange cuff placed on my finger to monitor my heart rate. However there was no warning of the IV other than the sudden cold, wet, scrape of a sterilized piece of gauze against my arm. Even after the procedure I was not told what they had done to me, something I have come to accept as simply common courtesy. I was simply told that I would have some bruising on my lower right cheek because that tooth had been exceptionally difficult. They did not explain and my mother didn’t ask. I was to drugged up to even make the sentence before the doctor was gone. The nurse told me how to take care of the wounds and gave my mother the two bottles of pain relievers they had prescribed.
Perhaps it is just my own natural curiosity, or perhaps it is my want to know everything, but I feel I have been cheated of my own right to know what is going on with my body. I know that my wisdom teeth were removed, but the how is my question. I am going to be a librarian, why people become librarians is because they want to know as much as they can. Unfortunately I cannot turn back time to ask the doctor the questions I wanted answers to, so I bring this story to a close with this, don’t let doctors, or anyone push you around. Ask your questions, get your answers. It is your body, understand what’s happening to it.
I had been having some troubles with my jaw, some pains and such, and someone mentioned to me that it was probably my wisdom teeth. I agreed and brought the topic up with my mother. She told me to wait until our next dentist appointment to ask the doctor. So I did. When the appointment came around the dentist took some x-rays agreed that it was time for them to come out and referred me to a dental surgeon. I talked with the surgeon, who took more x-rays and explained the complications that could happen (through a video tape) and told me to make an appointment.
My mother scheduled the appointment for the day after thanksgiving. I had been told not to eat anything for 10 hrs before the procedure, because the sedative they used tended to make patients nauseas. I knew all the things that could go wrong, I knew that the surgeon could accidentally sever the main nerve to my lower jaw. I knew that she could also damage my sinus cavity. But I was told my teeth were positioned so that I wasn’t at a risk or either of those. I knew that I was being put under through an IV (the most frightening part of the whole ordeal). However never once did they actually tell me what they were going to do. I have had oral surgery before, and I was always told exactly what was being done to my mouth. I was told about the location of incisions, the tools, everything that the doctor would be doing.
When I stepped into that room and they lay me down on that chair I began to panic from all the people doing all the things that I couldn’t identify. The nurses kindly told me about the nitrous oxide and what it was supposed to do to me, and about the strange cuff placed on my finger to monitor my heart rate. However there was no warning of the IV other than the sudden cold, wet, scrape of a sterilized piece of gauze against my arm. Even after the procedure I was not told what they had done to me, something I have come to accept as simply common courtesy. I was simply told that I would have some bruising on my lower right cheek because that tooth had been exceptionally difficult. They did not explain and my mother didn’t ask. I was to drugged up to even make the sentence before the doctor was gone. The nurse told me how to take care of the wounds and gave my mother the two bottles of pain relievers they had prescribed.
Perhaps it is just my own natural curiosity, or perhaps it is my want to know everything, but I feel I have been cheated of my own right to know what is going on with my body. I know that my wisdom teeth were removed, but the how is my question. I am going to be a librarian, why people become librarians is because they want to know as much as they can. Unfortunately I cannot turn back time to ask the doctor the questions I wanted answers to, so I bring this story to a close with this, don’t let doctors, or anyone push you around. Ask your questions, get your answers. It is your body, understand what’s happening to it.
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