Nick Hexum, Doug “SA” Martinez, Tim Mahoney, Chad Sexton, P-Nut. 311 was the first band I ever cared about enough that I knew all the members’ names. The alt-rockers from Omaha blasted into the ‘90s with an uncanny ability to cross and fuse musical styles that came to shape the next 10 years of alt-rock – but no one was ever as good at mixing reggae, rap, rock, funk, punk, jazz, and latin influences to create such a unique sound. The first time I heard their third major label album, the self-titled 311, was on my sister Summer’s stereo, and I was hooked.
The song "Six", from Grassroots.
I quickly acquired my own copy of the album, and over the next few years I purchased the rest of their then-released discography. By the end of 10th grade, I could sing along to every single track on their first four major label albums, Music, Grassroots, 311, and Transistor. I managed to get my hands on a pirated copy of one of their early independently released albums, Unity, and their collection of early material, Omaha Sessions. Then came Soundsystem and something had changed. Something about the music was unsettling and in some way didn’t feel like the 311 I’d come to love.
Over the course of the next 10 years more albums followed – From Chaos, Evolver, Don’t Tread on Me, and Uplifter, and I like each one less than the last. The music had become softer, less edgy. The band that had, for me at least, defined the high-energy alternative rock of the ‘90s was starting to sound tired.
311 had always used their lyrics to promote a message of peace, love, and unity; like modern hippies with electric guitars and distortion pedals. Their sounds was usually pressing and heavy, occasionally lighter, slower, or more jovial, but always unique in its pan-generic hodge-podge of greatness. One of the things that made those early albums so great was that they were aggressive – heavy guitars and sharp drums accompanied the fast rapping and oft-distorted, angsty vocals that defined 311’s early high-energy sound.
The lyrics covered various topics such as anger, peace, standing up to authority, living in harmony, drug use, sex, the importance of respecting others, and farting in your bandmate’s face. Part of what made the music so damned interesting was the dichotomy of the aggressive sound with the peace-promoting lyrics. But with each new album after Transistor, the guitars became lighter, the rapped vocals began to disappear, and the diversity of influences shrank. Their most recent outings, Don’t Tread on Me and Uplifter can accurately be described as reggae-rock. 311 became the kind of music that frat bros listen to at the beach; no more room for mosh pits or headbanging. Even their lyrics became uninteresting, focusing more on sappy love songs and harmless platitudes about the peaceful feeling of being drunk. Snooze.
"Golden Sunlight" from Uplifter. What is this crap?
What happened? I don’t know if they saw all the money Jack Johnson et al were making and sold out, they just got older, or all the years of pot use made them incapable of being aggressive. Whatever it was, I wish 311 would find something to get mad about.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Wild Strawberries
This old black-and-white from Sweden’s best known (and perhaps one of film's most pessimistic) director tells the surprisingly optimistic story of Dr. Isak Borg, a physician and professor near the end of his life who is returning to his hometown to be honored in a ceremony there. Along the way, Dr. Borg meets a handful of other travelers who come to represent facets of Dr. Borg’s personality and past. Through his interactions with these various selves, and with the help of flashbacks, visions, and dreams, Dr. Borg comes to recognize that pain is no one’s fault, that he is not a victim. Furthermore, he learns to appreciate the value of forgiving others and himself.
How often are we at fault for the pain that we experience? More importantly, how often do we ascribe those painful experiences to the failings of others? How willing are we to forgive ourselves and others, accepting that pain is simply a part of life and that blame is not an adequate salve? As Dr. Borg learns, we all have pain, disappointment, and regrets – it’s how we respond to them that makes us who we are.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Interactive sound generators
Lately, I've been really fascinated by these interactive sound generators you can find on the internet. Below are two of my favorites. I find the idea of making music from a visual source extremely cool.
Otomata
With this link, you can click on random squares within the grid, then assign them a behavior - meaning a direction they can move. They move as far as they can within the field, then when they hit a wall, they create a tone and bounce back in the opposite direction. The result is pretty cool.
Matrix
Here, you can click on cells within the matrix to produce a design, which then gets turned into musical tones - it's sort of like a graph where the x-axis represents time, and the y-axis represents a tone.
Alright, you probably think these are kind of lame, but I literally played with both of these for at least 30 minutes when I found them.
Otomata
With this link, you can click on random squares within the grid, then assign them a behavior - meaning a direction they can move. They move as far as they can within the field, then when they hit a wall, they create a tone and bounce back in the opposite direction. The result is pretty cool.
Matrix
Here, you can click on cells within the matrix to produce a design, which then gets turned into musical tones - it's sort of like a graph where the x-axis represents time, and the y-axis represents a tone.
Alright, you probably think these are kind of lame, but I literally played with both of these for at least 30 minutes when I found them.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Resurrected!
I've decided to revive the old blog. Life lately has been one change after another, so in keeping with that theme, I've decided to change this blog to become a journal of the things - movies, music, websites, etc - that I like. No more incessant ramblings (I know, I know, I'm rambling incessantly right now...I swear, I'm getting to the point), just reviews of things that really blow my skirt up.
Without further ado...
In a scene near the end of 2010’s Catfish, a man explains:
"They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They'd keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn't have somebody nipping at our fin."
To say anything about the identity of the speaker would reveal too much about this mysterious documentary. As much an evaluation of the role (and the danger?) of social networking in modern society as it is a character study, the film is the story of a man, Nev, who meets a prodigious young painter and becomes involved with her family and their friends via Facebook. Nev falls for the young artist’s older sister (the "catfish"), but as they get closer, things begin to fall apart in cyberspace. What follows is a bizarre look at the duality of real life and virtual life in the age of social media.
A great deal of speculation, doubt, and debate surround just how much of the film is “real” and how much is made up. Doubters claim that it’s too bizarre, too storybook, to have not been staged. Whether the film is 100% real or somewhat staged is really irrelevant (though I happen to want to believe it is all true). As the filmmakers point out on a panel they do in the DVD’s Special Features, in the age of social media, real versus made-up is less important than the story we present. The persona we show the world via Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (and our blogs) becomes reality to those who view it, and reality is rarely what it seems.
Without further ado...
"They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They'd keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn't have somebody nipping at our fin."
To say anything about the identity of the speaker would reveal too much about this mysterious documentary. As much an evaluation of the role (and the danger?) of social networking in modern society as it is a character study, the film is the story of a man, Nev, who meets a prodigious young painter and becomes involved with her family and their friends via Facebook. Nev falls for the young artist’s older sister (the "catfish"), but as they get closer, things begin to fall apart in cyberspace. What follows is a bizarre look at the duality of real life and virtual life in the age of social media.
A great deal of speculation, doubt, and debate surround just how much of the film is “real” and how much is made up. Doubters claim that it’s too bizarre, too storybook, to have not been staged. Whether the film is 100% real or somewhat staged is really irrelevant (though I happen to want to believe it is all true). As the filmmakers point out on a panel they do in the DVD’s Special Features, in the age of social media, real versus made-up is less important than the story we present. The persona we show the world via Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (and our blogs) becomes reality to those who view it, and reality is rarely what it seems.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thinking about going off the grid...
Lately I've been thinking a lot about trying to go off the grid. I don't really mean installing solar panels and fermenting my own waste to produce energy (though I'd like to do the solar panel bit some day), but rather, going off the social technology grid. I'm thinking about shutting down my facebook account, getting rid of this blog (like anyone reads my semi-annual posts anyway), and in general keeping as low of a public profile as possible. I know there's been a lot in the news about identity theft and whatnot, but my real reason for wanting to become a social-media-born-again is that I feel like people use social media to broadcast their lives too much. At first I found it interesting to know what people were up to, but then it got to be too much. Honestly, I don't care that some person I haven't talked to since high school is having a bad day because some friend of theirs who I don't even know was in a bike accident.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't care about you, it's just that I don't want to hear every sad little detail of your life, especially if I barely know you. I feel like social media has brought us to this strange place where everyone feels the need to broadcast all the deepest darkest feelings they might be experiencing, and honestly, I feel like it sort of cheapens real relationships. Part of the fun of being a human being is trying to figure out what makes people tick - but you don't have to do that anymore, because everyone is publicly broadcasting every little secret about themselves.
So I think it's decided...if anyone actually reads this and is interested in staying in contact with me, send me your email address or phone number, because this will most likely be my final blog. Oh, and Merry Christmakwanzukkah.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't care about you, it's just that I don't want to hear every sad little detail of your life, especially if I barely know you. I feel like social media has brought us to this strange place where everyone feels the need to broadcast all the deepest darkest feelings they might be experiencing, and honestly, I feel like it sort of cheapens real relationships. Part of the fun of being a human being is trying to figure out what makes people tick - but you don't have to do that anymore, because everyone is publicly broadcasting every little secret about themselves.
So I think it's decided...if anyone actually reads this and is interested in staying in contact with me, send me your email address or phone number, because this will most likely be my final blog. Oh, and Merry Christmakwanzukkah.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Best. Songs. Ever.
I decided to try something tonight, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. In fact, I've made weak attempts at the same in the past, but each has failed miserably. My goal was to create a playlist in iTunes of the best songs ever written. What a feat that would be! I think the mere power and glory of such a marvelous playlist would result in the skies opening and my laptop being carried up into Heaven amidst the singing of angels and shouts of "Hosanna!"
Obviously, there are limitations on such a project. Limitation #1 - the playlist has to come from my iTunes library, thus, must come from music I own. Limitation #2 - I chose not to include any music from the rap, heavy metal, classical, or country (see limitation #1) genres. Obviously, there are numerous songs from each of these genres that deserve consideration, I felt that moderation was the key, so I chose to pick from a library of music that I think most people could enjoy. My goal, after all, was to create a list with staying power.
The list was begun easily with the addition of The Band's "The Weight" and The Eagles' "Hotel California". As I moved on to more contemporary musicians, I added Mason Williams' "Distance Between the Fireflies", Jeff Buckley's "Mojo Pin" and "Grace", and a whopping 5 songs by Sufjan Stevens (the most heavily represented artist in my final selection, followed by Radiohead with 4 songs). At this point, I was feeling good, but I could already see the major problem with my endeavour - selectivity.
In my mind, the first two songs, "The Weight" and "Hotel California" are EASILY two of the best songs ever written. Could I possibly fill up a playlist with songs of this caliber? Not really. There are thousands of great songs out there - where do I draw the line between a great song and a song worthy of the "best songs ever written" moniker? To use a bit of rhetoric that I normally loathe, it's a long slippery slope if I've ever seen one. Once you relax the criteria a bit to allow yourself some wiggle room, you suddenly find yourself wanting to include the likes of The Raconteurs' "Rich Kid Blues", Modest Mouse's "Float On", and the Meat Puppets' "Plateau" - songs that are undoubtably great, but don't really belong with the best songs ever written.
So here I am, listening to a playlist of great songs calling themselves the "best songs ever written", wondering where it all went wrong. No skies opening up, no choirs of angels - but now I've got a 45 song playlist that's extremely easy on the ears and will make a great study companion. Maybe that's enough.
I think for my next post I'll try to discuss in my not so eloquent way what makes a song great. Feel free to give me suggestions for your "best songs ever written" playlist.
Obviously, there are limitations on such a project. Limitation #1 - the playlist has to come from my iTunes library, thus, must come from music I own. Limitation #2 - I chose not to include any music from the rap, heavy metal, classical, or country (see limitation #1) genres. Obviously, there are numerous songs from each of these genres that deserve consideration, I felt that moderation was the key, so I chose to pick from a library of music that I think most people could enjoy. My goal, after all, was to create a list with staying power.
The list was begun easily with the addition of The Band's "The Weight" and The Eagles' "Hotel California". As I moved on to more contemporary musicians, I added Mason Williams' "Distance Between the Fireflies", Jeff Buckley's "Mojo Pin" and "Grace", and a whopping 5 songs by Sufjan Stevens (the most heavily represented artist in my final selection, followed by Radiohead with 4 songs). At this point, I was feeling good, but I could already see the major problem with my endeavour - selectivity.
In my mind, the first two songs, "The Weight" and "Hotel California" are EASILY two of the best songs ever written. Could I possibly fill up a playlist with songs of this caliber? Not really. There are thousands of great songs out there - where do I draw the line between a great song and a song worthy of the "best songs ever written" moniker? To use a bit of rhetoric that I normally loathe, it's a long slippery slope if I've ever seen one. Once you relax the criteria a bit to allow yourself some wiggle room, you suddenly find yourself wanting to include the likes of The Raconteurs' "Rich Kid Blues", Modest Mouse's "Float On", and the Meat Puppets' "Plateau" - songs that are undoubtably great, but don't really belong with the best songs ever written.
So here I am, listening to a playlist of great songs calling themselves the "best songs ever written", wondering where it all went wrong. No skies opening up, no choirs of angels - but now I've got a 45 song playlist that's extremely easy on the ears and will make a great study companion. Maybe that's enough.
I think for my next post I'll try to discuss in my not so eloquent way what makes a song great. Feel free to give me suggestions for your "best songs ever written" playlist.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Contractions -- Don't Worry'bout't
So, in my last post I put to use one of the oldest conventions in the English language - the contraction. This is that beautiful little rule that allows us - and by "us" I mean mostly "me", because you can do what you want - to turn longer phrases and words into smaller language bits that are easier to say and type (you don't even have to use the 'Shift' key to hit the apostrophe!).
So "wen't" isn't a real contraction you say? I dare say it is. "Wen't", as almost all of us know, is a contraction of the phrase "were on our way to".
Yes, it is the second "e" in "were" that's included in the contraction. That's just the way it is.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about contractions. "But Gable, don't you have more important things to be thinking about, like gastric lymphomas, arterial shunting, and how to differentiate appenditis from acute colitis?"
As we all know, marriage is a compromise...maybe naming conventions after a marriage should follow the law of the contraction. Rather than the wife taking the husbands last name, or sticking with her maiden name, or doing the ridiculous two-names-connected-by-a-hyphen thing (hyphens are just obnoxious - to say and to type), perhaps when two people get married they should form a new last name as a contraction of their own last names.
For example, my last name is Moffitt, and my wife's given last name is Bullock, so we've got two options. Since I don't want to have the negative, violent associations that go along with "Bullitt", I think we'll go with the much more innocuous "Moffock". Definitely much better.
So "wen't" isn't a real contraction you say? I dare say it is. "Wen't", as almost all of us know, is a contraction of the phrase "were on our way to".
Yes, it is the second "e" in "were" that's included in the contraction. That's just the way it is.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about contractions. "But Gable, don't you have more important things to be thinking about, like gastric lymphomas, arterial shunting, and how to differentiate appenditis from acute colitis?"
As we all know, marriage is a compromise...maybe naming conventions after a marriage should follow the law of the contraction. Rather than the wife taking the husbands last name, or sticking with her maiden name, or doing the ridiculous two-names-connected-by-a-hyphen thing (hyphens are just obnoxious - to say and to type), perhaps when two people get married they should form a new last name as a contraction of their own last names.
For example, my last name is Moffitt, and my wife's given last name is Bullock, so we've got two options. Since I don't want to have the negative, violent associations that go along with "Bullitt", I think we'll go with the much more innocuous "Moffock". Definitely much better.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Semi-Annual Update
Hey everybody (and by everybody I mean the two or three of you that haven't totally given up hope on my blog)!! Well, it's Sunday night, I've got no school tomorrow (but plenty of studying, nary a worry), I'm listening to U2's "The Joshua Tree", and I figured it might be time to re-enter the blogosphere and update the world (read: all three of you) on my life. As I'm sitting here planning out what I'm about to write, I'm realizing that this post may drive off the rest of you because it's probably going to a) illustrate my total nerdiness, and b) bore you to death. I mean literally, your brain will shrivel with boredom. But here goes.
First with the nerdy bits. I just finished reading a book called "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson that totally blew my mind. "What's so nerdy about reading?" you might be asking yourself. Perhaps to others the act of reading for pleasure in and of itself makes me a wholesale nerd. Well, the reason this book makes me especially nerdy is that it's a sci-fi book. Now I know I've already offended the sci-fi aficionados by implicating sci-fi as nerdy. But me, I don't usually get into sci-fi stuff very much. I tend to lean more in the snobbish "only classics and Pulitzer prize winners" direction, so this was a new thing for me. But on the recommendation of several critiques I read online, I picked up "Anathem" and decided to give it a go over Christmas break.
I was totally blown away. "Anathem" had everything I think a good book should have - good characters/development, good storytelling, and good writing. And on top of that, it had some awesome science/philosophy/scientific philosophy/philosophical science I've ever read. Woven into the dialogue and plot are very smart discussions about quantum mechanics, time travel, parallel universes, etc. It was refreshing to see science fiction sticking to the science, and not piddling away its credibility in fantastic gizmoes. I've always felt that science fiction was the hardest genre in entertainment (film, TV, books, etc.) to get right - said otherwise, it's really easy to make bad science fiction. I was wholly impressed by "Anathem".
Second nerdy bit - I've been working out a lot lately - I've been making it to the gym to lift weights, run, and ride an exercise bike 4-5 times a week. "But Gable, working out a lot makes you a meathead, not a nerd!" Au contraire. You see, because I've been working out, I've been reduced to that guy that can't get in the shower without flexing for himself in the mirror for five minutes, convincing himself that it's really making a difference when really, it's not. Not yet anyway. Maybe in a year or so I'll actually start to notice a difference...but until then, my imagination suits me just fine, thank you very much. Me and my imaginary pecs are very happy.
I guess the rest of what I've got to say is just boring school stuff. We've got another round of exams coming up in a couple weeks, so I desperately need to start getting ready for those. It's biochemistry, gastrointestinal physiology, and abdominal anatomy/pathology this time around...I figure I've got this week to study up on GI stuff, the week after that to cram biochemistry, and then the exams are the following week.
Oh yeah, we wen't home for Christmas and my little brother got married. We're extremely excited to have Julia as part of the family. I'd post some pictures on here, but they're all on my wife's computer. Maybe I'll post them some other time.
Congratulations to those (3) of you who found it back to my blog, and double congratulations to any of you if you happened to make it to the end of this post. See you again in 6 months!
First with the nerdy bits. I just finished reading a book called "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson that totally blew my mind. "What's so nerdy about reading?" you might be asking yourself. Perhaps to others the act of reading for pleasure in and of itself makes me a wholesale nerd. Well, the reason this book makes me especially nerdy is that it's a sci-fi book. Now I know I've already offended the sci-fi aficionados by implicating sci-fi as nerdy. But me, I don't usually get into sci-fi stuff very much. I tend to lean more in the snobbish "only classics and Pulitzer prize winners" direction, so this was a new thing for me. But on the recommendation of several critiques I read online, I picked up "Anathem" and decided to give it a go over Christmas break.
I was totally blown away. "Anathem" had everything I think a good book should have - good characters/development, good storytelling, and good writing. And on top of that, it had some awesome science/philosophy/scientific philosophy/philosophical science I've ever read. Woven into the dialogue and plot are very smart discussions about quantum mechanics, time travel, parallel universes, etc. It was refreshing to see science fiction sticking to the science, and not piddling away its credibility in fantastic gizmoes. I've always felt that science fiction was the hardest genre in entertainment (film, TV, books, etc.) to get right - said otherwise, it's really easy to make bad science fiction. I was wholly impressed by "Anathem".
Second nerdy bit - I've been working out a lot lately - I've been making it to the gym to lift weights, run, and ride an exercise bike 4-5 times a week. "But Gable, working out a lot makes you a meathead, not a nerd!" Au contraire. You see, because I've been working out, I've been reduced to that guy that can't get in the shower without flexing for himself in the mirror for five minutes, convincing himself that it's really making a difference when really, it's not. Not yet anyway. Maybe in a year or so I'll actually start to notice a difference...but until then, my imagination suits me just fine, thank you very much. Me and my imaginary pecs are very happy.
I guess the rest of what I've got to say is just boring school stuff. We've got another round of exams coming up in a couple weeks, so I desperately need to start getting ready for those. It's biochemistry, gastrointestinal physiology, and abdominal anatomy/pathology this time around...I figure I've got this week to study up on GI stuff, the week after that to cram biochemistry, and then the exams are the following week.
Oh yeah, we wen't home for Christmas and my little brother got married. We're extremely excited to have Julia as part of the family. I'd post some pictures on here, but they're all on my wife's computer. Maybe I'll post them some other time.
Congratulations to those (3) of you who found it back to my blog, and double congratulations to any of you if you happened to make it to the end of this post. See you again in 6 months!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Watch Out...School Update!!!
I realized the last time I posted anything on here was over a month ago and I realized the blogging gods would not be happy at me for my poor showing at appeasing them. That and my wife makes fun of me because she posts about 300 blogs for each 1 that I do. I honestly don't feel too bad about it though...especially since all I really have to write about is school.
While I'm on the subject, med school is going pretty well so far. I always heard people use the analogy that med school is like putting you mouth over the end of a fire hose and throwing that switch (lever? wrench?). Now I haven't decided if that would blow out your cheeks, rip open your insides, or make your head explode, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting close to really understanding what the analogy means (sorry for the graphic images by the way, I spend lots of time around cadavers and looking at pictures of terrible diseases - what do you expect). Med school is great in that you don't have to go into too much detail most of the time - it's just that you cover about a year and a half worth of undergrad material every 10 weeks or so. Exhibit A - we're in the middle of our second block; in this block we are expected to learn genetics, embryology, reproductive biology, developmental biology, endocrinology, pelvic anatomy, reproductive histology, and all the correlating pathology. Oh, and don't forget our basic clinical and interviewing skills. All in 11 weeks.
But I don't want to be a med school whiner (there are plenty of those, trust me), so I'll just sum it up thus: med school is busy.
As a side note, I was fascinated with following hurricane Ike and my heart went out to everyone who was displaced from their home and lost so much. I was particularly keyed in because the other med school I was accepted at was in Galveston. Seeing the pictures, I recognized some of the places in town from when I went to interview. While I felt terrible for the destruction in Galveston and throughout Texas, it made me extremely grateful that the Lord directed us not to go there.
While I'm on the subject, med school is going pretty well so far. I always heard people use the analogy that med school is like putting you mouth over the end of a fire hose and throwing that switch (lever? wrench?). Now I haven't decided if that would blow out your cheeks, rip open your insides, or make your head explode, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting close to really understanding what the analogy means (sorry for the graphic images by the way, I spend lots of time around cadavers and looking at pictures of terrible diseases - what do you expect). Med school is great in that you don't have to go into too much detail most of the time - it's just that you cover about a year and a half worth of undergrad material every 10 weeks or so. Exhibit A - we're in the middle of our second block; in this block we are expected to learn genetics, embryology, reproductive biology, developmental biology, endocrinology, pelvic anatomy, reproductive histology, and all the correlating pathology. Oh, and don't forget our basic clinical and interviewing skills. All in 11 weeks.
But I don't want to be a med school whiner (there are plenty of those, trust me), so I'll just sum it up thus: med school is busy.
As a side note, I was fascinated with following hurricane Ike and my heart went out to everyone who was displaced from their home and lost so much. I was particularly keyed in because the other med school I was accepted at was in Galveston. Seeing the pictures, I recognized some of the places in town from when I went to interview. While I felt terrible for the destruction in Galveston and throughout Texas, it made me extremely grateful that the Lord directed us not to go there.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Four weeks down...
So, four weeks of medical school down and I'm thinking, "Hey, I can do this, no sweat!" So I've decided maybe I'll tack on a Masters degree in Anatomy for good measure. We'll see. Classes haven't really started in earnest just yet, so we'll see in a few weeks once they do.
Right now we're doing a lot of the "softer" sciences- we've been studying public health, health disparities, epidemiology, biostatistics, ethics...that kind of stuff. I'll admit it, I can't friggin wait to start the real sciences. I can't do this soft science stuff...it's just not in my genetic make-up to give a hoot about epidemiology. I've got a mutation in my "cares about medical ethics" allele. Once, we did something pretty cool, when we talked about epigenetics as the mediator of environmental influences on health outcomes. The rest has all been hogwash.
I have found a special place deep in the frothy, bile-encrusted, black core of my gut for biostatistics. It's a very short list of things that rank lower on my "how I oughta spend my free time" list. Violent vomiting comes to mind. I'll get back to you with the rest.
On a positive note, we absolutely love Cleveland. Yeah, yeah, the humidity sucks, and no, no, we're not gonna stay here forever, but the city is gorgeous and the people are (sorta) friendly. We couldn't ask for a nicer apartment or street to live on, we've got some great friends (DJ and Jen, that's you, if you ever read this), and Laura seems to like her new job. So while we left our hearts in Denver (be sure to wear a flower in your hair), Cleveland will do as a surrogate of sorts. I'll post some pictures on here shortly.
Right now we're doing a lot of the "softer" sciences- we've been studying public health, health disparities, epidemiology, biostatistics, ethics...that kind of stuff. I'll admit it, I can't friggin wait to start the real sciences. I can't do this soft science stuff...it's just not in my genetic make-up to give a hoot about epidemiology. I've got a mutation in my "cares about medical ethics" allele. Once, we did something pretty cool, when we talked about epigenetics as the mediator of environmental influences on health outcomes. The rest has all been hogwash.
I have found a special place deep in the frothy, bile-encrusted, black core of my gut for biostatistics. It's a very short list of things that rank lower on my "how I oughta spend my free time" list. Violent vomiting comes to mind. I'll get back to you with the rest.
On a positive note, we absolutely love Cleveland. Yeah, yeah, the humidity sucks, and no, no, we're not gonna stay here forever, but the city is gorgeous and the people are (sorta) friendly. We couldn't ask for a nicer apartment or street to live on, we've got some great friends (DJ and Jen, that's you, if you ever read this), and Laura seems to like her new job. So while we left our hearts in Denver (be sure to wear a flower in your hair), Cleveland will do as a surrogate of sorts. I'll post some pictures on here shortly.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Best laid plans...
Well, for those of you who don't know us that well, or haven't talked to me in the last several months, the biggest news recently is that I did get accepted to Medical School at Case Western Reserve University. They say repetition is the key to learning...I wonder how many times I'll have to learn the lesson about submitting to God's plan before I finally get it.
Prior to actually being accepted, I was starting to feel pretty bitter about the whole process. All along, I'd seen myself as a shoe-in; eventually the confidence went to my head, I guess, and I got pretty arrogant about myself. I felt like all of these schools had made a huge mistake by not accepting me, and I started to search for ways in which the system of application and admissions was unalterably flawed because, hey, this was ME we were talking about. What I failed to remember was that God always has a plan for us, and while things may not happen on the timeline we want them to, we've been promised that they will always happen in the way that's best for us.
About this time that I was stewing in my own bitterness about not getting in, I finally resigned myself to my fate as a victim of a flawed system and was about ready to give up on the whole thing. Then, after I got out of the shower one morning, I had a voicemail from the Director of Admissions at CWRU. I called back and got the good news...I'd been accepted off of the waiting list, and was I interested in taking a spot in their matriculating class. You bet!
Just what the Lord had done for me started then to come into focus, and that focus is still being sharpened even as I begin classes. You see, CWRU had been at the bottom of my list as far as schools I wanted to go to. I was on three waiting lists: Colorado is my home school, Brown is in a gorgeous city, so why would I want to move to Cleveland, OH for some school almost no one has heard of?
Now that I'm here, I realize just what a blessing it was to be accepted here and not at one of the other schools. First of all, despite the fact that not many have heard of it, CWRU is actually a phenomenal medical school: #23 in the country according to U.S. News and World Report, and #12 according to the NIH. Second, the quality of the medical facilities associated with the school means that students here get a first-rate clinical education. Third, the curriculum is the best I've ever heard of and is exactly tailored to my particular learning style. Finally, despite what I thought previously, Cleveland is a phenomenal city and we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We've got some great friends here, and we couldn't be happier.
Hindsight is 20/20. As I come to understand why I'm here and not in Colorado or Rhode Island, it's becoming clear to me why I had to go the round-about way to getting in to medical school. My bitterness at not getting accepted right away led me to arrogance about myself as a candidate. At the point that I was ready to give up on medical school, I was starting to see through my bloated, over-wrought self to recognize my own weaknesses. I'll spare you the boring details, but the Lord needed me to be humble so that I could understand His plan in bringing me to CWRU.
I'm grateful for repetition.
Prior to actually being accepted, I was starting to feel pretty bitter about the whole process. All along, I'd seen myself as a shoe-in; eventually the confidence went to my head, I guess, and I got pretty arrogant about myself. I felt like all of these schools had made a huge mistake by not accepting me, and I started to search for ways in which the system of application and admissions was unalterably flawed because, hey, this was ME we were talking about. What I failed to remember was that God always has a plan for us, and while things may not happen on the timeline we want them to, we've been promised that they will always happen in the way that's best for us.
About this time that I was stewing in my own bitterness about not getting in, I finally resigned myself to my fate as a victim of a flawed system and was about ready to give up on the whole thing. Then, after I got out of the shower one morning, I had a voicemail from the Director of Admissions at CWRU. I called back and got the good news...I'd been accepted off of the waiting list, and was I interested in taking a spot in their matriculating class. You bet!
Just what the Lord had done for me started then to come into focus, and that focus is still being sharpened even as I begin classes. You see, CWRU had been at the bottom of my list as far as schools I wanted to go to. I was on three waiting lists: Colorado is my home school, Brown is in a gorgeous city, so why would I want to move to Cleveland, OH for some school almost no one has heard of?
Now that I'm here, I realize just what a blessing it was to be accepted here and not at one of the other schools. First of all, despite the fact that not many have heard of it, CWRU is actually a phenomenal medical school: #23 in the country according to U.S. News and World Report, and #12 according to the NIH. Second, the quality of the medical facilities associated with the school means that students here get a first-rate clinical education. Third, the curriculum is the best I've ever heard of and is exactly tailored to my particular learning style. Finally, despite what I thought previously, Cleveland is a phenomenal city and we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We've got some great friends here, and we couldn't be happier.
Hindsight is 20/20. As I come to understand why I'm here and not in Colorado or Rhode Island, it's becoming clear to me why I had to go the round-about way to getting in to medical school. My bitterness at not getting accepted right away led me to arrogance about myself as a candidate. At the point that I was ready to give up on medical school, I was starting to see through my bloated, over-wrought self to recognize my own weaknesses. I'll spare you the boring details, but the Lord needed me to be humble so that I could understand His plan in bringing me to CWRU.
I'm grateful for repetition.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Dreams...Weird, huh?
Last Saturday I woke up panicked about an assignment I had missed turning in to my Comparative Lit. teacher because I had skipped the class on Friday. I've missed a few smaller assignments in the class because I'm close enough to graduation that I really don't care what grade I get as long as I pass, but I began to hyperventilate and a cold sweat trickled down my spine because this was a fairly weighty assignment. My mind started to race through ways to beg forgiveness from the professor so that I could turn in the assignment late - and then I remembered I actually had gone to class and had turned in the assignment. I had dreamed up the whole scenario.
This class is one I've skipped fairly often recently. Was my brain just expressing some latent guilt at having skipped so often?
I remember discussing dreams in my high school psychology class, and the theory was posited that as we go through life, our brain creates different memory records of our life: one based on reality, that is, what we actually experience through our senses, and numerous other records based on the subconscious imaginings created without our cognizance and which may be, to some extent, founded in or based loosely on reality. Further, it was said that dreams may be our brain's means of dismissing the alternate records as fictitious; as we play back through those scenarios in our sleep, our brain recognizes them as fake and forgets them - which may also explain why it is so difficult to remember dreams once you've been awake for a while.
So if our dreams are replays of alternate realities created subconsciously throughout our lives, how much can you tell about a person by his/her dreams?
"A man is what he thinks about all day long" - Ralph Waldo Emerson. Really?
This class is one I've skipped fairly often recently. Was my brain just expressing some latent guilt at having skipped so often?
I remember discussing dreams in my high school psychology class, and the theory was posited that as we go through life, our brain creates different memory records of our life: one based on reality, that is, what we actually experience through our senses, and numerous other records based on the subconscious imaginings created without our cognizance and which may be, to some extent, founded in or based loosely on reality. Further, it was said that dreams may be our brain's means of dismissing the alternate records as fictitious; as we play back through those scenarios in our sleep, our brain recognizes them as fake and forgets them - which may also explain why it is so difficult to remember dreams once you've been awake for a while.
So if our dreams are replays of alternate realities created subconsciously throughout our lives, how much can you tell about a person by his/her dreams?
"A man is what he thinks about all day long" - Ralph Waldo Emerson. Really?
Friday, March 28, 2008
Been a While...
It's been a while since I've posted anything on here. Have to be better about that, though I guess since mostly only family reads this, there's not much sense in posting that often anyhow, right?
My little brother Colton just got home from living in New Zealand for two years as a missionary for our church. It was really great to see him over Easter weekend. At first I was worried his experience as a missionary would kill his sense of humor. I talked to him on the phone while he was still in NZ and he seemed real stiff and dry. By the time he got home though, he was golden. It's really great to have him back.
My little brother Colton just got home from living in New Zealand for two years as a missionary for our church. It was really great to see him over Easter weekend. At first I was worried his experience as a missionary would kill his sense of humor. I talked to him on the phone while he was still in NZ and he seemed real stiff and dry. By the time he got home though, he was golden. It's really great to have him back.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Christmas Shopping
Bamboo shoved under my fingernails. Pungee sticks. Being caned. Having that dream where you get to school and then realize you're naked actually happen. Chinese water torture.
Above is a list of things I prefer to Christmas Shopping. First of all, I abhor crowds. Nature abhors a vacuum- as far as people are concerned, I LOVE a vacuum. The only thing worse than being in a huge crowd of people is being in a huge crowd of shopping people. So let's discuss shoppers.
They are inconsiderate. If you've ever seen the movie The Deer Hunter, where Christopher Walken's character becomes something less than human by being forced to participate in a game of Russian roulette, you might know what I'm talking about. You take a normal human being and put them in a mall where they may or may not find what they want, and they instantly devolve to something primal and horrifying.
If the troglodytic nature of Christmas shoppers were the only problem, however, it wouldn't be a big deal to go Christmas shopping. A little bit of faith and a whole lot of self-affirmation goes a long way toward helping one survive a Friday afternoon at the mall in December. The real problem is that not only are these people crazed, beastly shoppers during the Holidays- most of them are "mall-people" year round anyhow. Mall-people are the bane of my existence, the fly in my ointment, the Serpent in my Eden. It's become vogue to talk about how commercial Christmas has become, but does anyone really feel that strongly about it? I don't think so. Most of those people you hear chatting about the evils of commercialism around the water cooler in December spend hours every week the rest of the year at the mall happily plugging quarters into the machine.
Don't misunderstand me here. I do buy Christmas presents, because that's what's expected. Maybe I'm a hypocrite. I spend lots of time every Fall/Winter cruising the stores looking for just the right present for every one on my list. I do it with chills running down my spine and sweat forming on my brow. The sweat comes from nervousness about impressing people because I got just the right thing. The chills come from being forced to sweat about it. Is this the prize of our brutally fought for free-market economy? The ability to spend money has replaced the instinct to show real human sentiment?
Above is a list of things I prefer to Christmas Shopping. First of all, I abhor crowds. Nature abhors a vacuum- as far as people are concerned, I LOVE a vacuum. The only thing worse than being in a huge crowd of people is being in a huge crowd of shopping people. So let's discuss shoppers.
They are inconsiderate. If you've ever seen the movie The Deer Hunter, where Christopher Walken's character becomes something less than human by being forced to participate in a game of Russian roulette, you might know what I'm talking about. You take a normal human being and put them in a mall where they may or may not find what they want, and they instantly devolve to something primal and horrifying.
If the troglodytic nature of Christmas shoppers were the only problem, however, it wouldn't be a big deal to go Christmas shopping. A little bit of faith and a whole lot of self-affirmation goes a long way toward helping one survive a Friday afternoon at the mall in December. The real problem is that not only are these people crazed, beastly shoppers during the Holidays- most of them are "mall-people" year round anyhow. Mall-people are the bane of my existence, the fly in my ointment, the Serpent in my Eden. It's become vogue to talk about how commercial Christmas has become, but does anyone really feel that strongly about it? I don't think so. Most of those people you hear chatting about the evils of commercialism around the water cooler in December spend hours every week the rest of the year at the mall happily plugging quarters into the machine.
Don't misunderstand me here. I do buy Christmas presents, because that's what's expected. Maybe I'm a hypocrite. I spend lots of time every Fall/Winter cruising the stores looking for just the right present for every one on my list. I do it with chills running down my spine and sweat forming on my brow. The sweat comes from nervousness about impressing people because I got just the right thing. The chills come from being forced to sweat about it. Is this the prize of our brutally fought for free-market economy? The ability to spend money has replaced the instinct to show real human sentiment?
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Med School: The Ultimate Roundhouse Kick to the Head
So it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I've been stressing, fretting, sweating, and having nightmares about medical school admissions for the last several weeks. I interviewed at three different medical schools in October: Brown University, Case Western University, and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. I've been put on the waiting list at Brown and Case; I got accepted at the MD-PhD program at UTMB but turned it down because I'm not sure the MD-PhD is really the direction I want to go.
Do you have any idea how stressful it is to turn down a GREAT career opportunity because you feel like something that's a better fit might come down the line? I feel sometimes like I might have made the biggest mistake of my life. Of course I'll only feel that way until I get accepted somewhere else...oh yeah of little faith, right? Well, I don't exactly feel super confident after being wait-listed at two places (it's really just a nice way of saying no, right? Like saying "no thanks" instead of "aw hell no"). Plus, no other schools have even pretended to be interested. I'd really like to go to Colorado, but talking to them, they make you feel like they couldn't care less. I scored a 37Q on the MCAT! I've got a 3.84 GPA! I've done a lot of research! I'm a good person!!! What's wrong with me that I can't get in while morons all around me are getting accepted elsewhere?
I promise this will be my only rant about medical schools. Unless someone else interviews me and wait-lists me, then the floodgates may really open; nay, the dams will burst and I won't be able to hold my tongue. There's got to be a better way to do this.
On a lighter note, I'm trying to learn to fly fish. Fly fishing seems like a truly masculine art to me, one in which bearded Herculean giants can participate and not feel at all ashamed like they might as ballerinos. I've always enjoyed the arts, and I've always enjoyed the outdoors- fly fishing is the perfect marriage of those two passions. While I'm no Picasso out there on the water yet, in fact I've only been once, I hope to reach the point where I can feel the artistry in the way the rod sways and the line dances. Or at least, I hope to someday be good enough that others on the river will say, "You know, fly fishing seems like a truly masculine art to me." I wonder if Da Vinci's goal with a painting was every simply to inspire others to want to paint. How altruistic of me.
Do you have any idea how stressful it is to turn down a GREAT career opportunity because you feel like something that's a better fit might come down the line? I feel sometimes like I might have made the biggest mistake of my life. Of course I'll only feel that way until I get accepted somewhere else...oh yeah of little faith, right? Well, I don't exactly feel super confident after being wait-listed at two places (it's really just a nice way of saying no, right? Like saying "no thanks" instead of "aw hell no"). Plus, no other schools have even pretended to be interested. I'd really like to go to Colorado, but talking to them, they make you feel like they couldn't care less. I scored a 37Q on the MCAT! I've got a 3.84 GPA! I've done a lot of research! I'm a good person!!! What's wrong with me that I can't get in while morons all around me are getting accepted elsewhere?
I promise this will be my only rant about medical schools. Unless someone else interviews me and wait-lists me, then the floodgates may really open; nay, the dams will burst and I won't be able to hold my tongue. There's got to be a better way to do this.
On a lighter note, I'm trying to learn to fly fish. Fly fishing seems like a truly masculine art to me, one in which bearded Herculean giants can participate and not feel at all ashamed like they might as ballerinos. I've always enjoyed the arts, and I've always enjoyed the outdoors- fly fishing is the perfect marriage of those two passions. While I'm no Picasso out there on the water yet, in fact I've only been once, I hope to reach the point where I can feel the artistry in the way the rod sways and the line dances. Or at least, I hope to someday be good enough that others on the river will say, "You know, fly fishing seems like a truly masculine art to me." I wonder if Da Vinci's goal with a painting was every simply to inspire others to want to paint. How altruistic of me.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Health Care- The Festering Cancer Sucking the Life out of America
Who likes having tons of money taken out of their paychecks each month so that some insurance executives can buy a 60-foot yacht for each coastal state? Sometimes it feels like we ought to just line up on payday to give a quarter of our paycheck to some bloated greasy executive in a $2000 suit, who can then quickly dispatch us with a swift kick to our collective hind-sides. Now that's medical care, right?
Please don't misunderstand me. By no means am I positing that social medicine is the way to go. I lived in Germany for two years and I saw what happens under social medicine. No where else have I ever seen as many people with preventable developmental limb defects, chronic diseases that could have been treatable had they been caught early enough, and general bad attitudes (okay, this isn't a medical condition and is probably a product of the fact that I was there as a missionary, preaching religion and faith to the heathen). Mind you all these problems were in Germany, which, as far as quality of care in social medicine goes, is probably near the top of the list.
So what can we do with the throbbing pus-ball that is American health care without resorting to an even worse system? Do we have to sacrifice quality of care for the sake of cost?
Here's an idea: change health care (insurance) from a business to a service - like it should be. Capitalism is great, but it has figured out a lot of ways of screwing the American populace; health care is a prime example of this. Taking the business out of health care would mean our health care executives would have to find some other way to swindle the American public- is the oil industry hiring?
So here's how we can do it. As it is right now, we pay tens of thousands of dollars so that we're "covered" in case of an accident. When that accident happens (or disease, or child-birth, or whatever the medical necessity happens to be), how hard do we have to fight to get just a little bit of that money back? Why not set up personal savings-type accounts that we pay into each month, and when we need that money...VOILA! You've got it saved away. Think about it, if you saved $200 a month (pretty cheap compared to modern health insurance), you could save $24000 in ten years to be put toward medical expenses, and that's without the interest you would accrue in the meantime. With all that money going into the economy instead of the insurance executives' pockets, this kind of plan might actually help the economy, instead of putting a drain on it.
I should make the disclaimer that this is not an original idea on my part; I've heard similar ideas many times, most recently from my friend Marissa. However, I think this would be a great way to "fix" health care. Now obviously it wouldn't solve all of our problems- nothing will. However, by taking the greedy corporations out of the picture, we can cut out a lot of the fat and end up with a trim, healthy way of providing good quality health care to a greater number of people at a lower cost. That's me just saving the future of America one problem at a time.
Please don't misunderstand me. By no means am I positing that social medicine is the way to go. I lived in Germany for two years and I saw what happens under social medicine. No where else have I ever seen as many people with preventable developmental limb defects, chronic diseases that could have been treatable had they been caught early enough, and general bad attitudes (okay, this isn't a medical condition and is probably a product of the fact that I was there as a missionary, preaching religion and faith to the heathen). Mind you all these problems were in Germany, which, as far as quality of care in social medicine goes, is probably near the top of the list.
So what can we do with the throbbing pus-ball that is American health care without resorting to an even worse system? Do we have to sacrifice quality of care for the sake of cost?
Here's an idea: change health care (insurance) from a business to a service - like it should be. Capitalism is great, but it has figured out a lot of ways of screwing the American populace; health care is a prime example of this. Taking the business out of health care would mean our health care executives would have to find some other way to swindle the American public- is the oil industry hiring?
So here's how we can do it. As it is right now, we pay tens of thousands of dollars so that we're "covered" in case of an accident. When that accident happens (or disease, or child-birth, or whatever the medical necessity happens to be), how hard do we have to fight to get just a little bit of that money back? Why not set up personal savings-type accounts that we pay into each month, and when we need that money...VOILA! You've got it saved away. Think about it, if you saved $200 a month (pretty cheap compared to modern health insurance), you could save $24000 in ten years to be put toward medical expenses, and that's without the interest you would accrue in the meantime. With all that money going into the economy instead of the insurance executives' pockets, this kind of plan might actually help the economy, instead of putting a drain on it.
I should make the disclaimer that this is not an original idea on my part; I've heard similar ideas many times, most recently from my friend Marissa. However, I think this would be a great way to "fix" health care. Now obviously it wouldn't solve all of our problems- nothing will. However, by taking the greedy corporations out of the picture, we can cut out a lot of the fat and end up with a trim, healthy way of providing good quality health care to a greater number of people at a lower cost. That's me just saving the future of America one problem at a time.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Taxes, Taxes, we all love Taxes
I was discussing politics with a good friend the other day and he made a suggestion that sounded reasonable at the time, and has since grown on me quite a bit. He suggested that we, as a country, abolish income taxes and raise sales taxes appropriately to cover for the loss. My friend suggested this because it would prevent illegal immigrants and devious employees from avoiding taxes by being paid under the table. I believe that illegal immigration is wrong, and that the rights of citizenship are reserved for those who have gone through the legal processes to deserve them by becoming a nationalized citizen. Even more fundamentally, I believe in the law, and I beleive that those who willfully break the law exclude themselves from the protections it can provide. But I digress...
I like the idea of raising sales taxes (while getting rid of income taxes) because it would probably incite a lot of people to spend their money less frivolously and would promote a degree of self-dependence. Some people would become more industrious, e.g. planting gardens instead of buying all their vegetables at Albertson's.
I realize, however, that there are all kinds of economic issues that would have to be worked out, as well as regulation issues regarding the ability of the government to change taxes on a whim. I am not an economist, nor do I claim that this possibility would solve all of our country's economic woes. However, I think its an idea worth kicking around. I also realize that we're living in an era where sweeping changes such as this simply don't happen, especially in the "corporatocracy" that controls the government. But it can't hurt to think and to suggest, right?
I like the idea of raising sales taxes (while getting rid of income taxes) because it would probably incite a lot of people to spend their money less frivolously and would promote a degree of self-dependence. Some people would become more industrious, e.g. planting gardens instead of buying all their vegetables at Albertson's.
I realize, however, that there are all kinds of economic issues that would have to be worked out, as well as regulation issues regarding the ability of the government to change taxes on a whim. I am not an economist, nor do I claim that this possibility would solve all of our country's economic woes. However, I think its an idea worth kicking around. I also realize that we're living in an era where sweeping changes such as this simply don't happen, especially in the "corporatocracy" that controls the government. But it can't hurt to think and to suggest, right?
Thursday, September 20, 2007
AIDS Benefit
So this is an idea I've been kicking around for months, and never really had the guts to do anything about until recently. I told my idea to a friend, Stephanie, who, like me is a Microbiology student and, unlike me, is a natural-born organizer- she's got incredible organizational/planning skills. She was excited about the idea, and we want to try to make it happen.
We want to organize an AIDS-benefit art auction, where we'll auction off original pieces of art from BYU art students. Each piece of art should be a reaction to, or product of, the AIDS pandemic that has been sweeping the world for the last half century. We want to host the auction at a black-tie dinner event for BYU alumni. The proceeds from the art auction will go entirely to an AIDS charity foundation conducting research into finding effective treatments/cures for HIV/AIDS. The event is going to take a lot of work and a lot of time, but we both feel passionately about the topic. AIDS is a terrible disease afflicting millions of people worldwide, and as scientists/students of Microbiology, we've seen that charitable donations like the one this event could produce are essential for funding the research that is ultimately going to find an effective way of stopping the AIDS pandemic. The disease has killed an estimated 25 million people since being recognized as a disease in 1981; it's time to stop it.
We want to organize an AIDS-benefit art auction, where we'll auction off original pieces of art from BYU art students. Each piece of art should be a reaction to, or product of, the AIDS pandemic that has been sweeping the world for the last half century. We want to host the auction at a black-tie dinner event for BYU alumni. The proceeds from the art auction will go entirely to an AIDS charity foundation conducting research into finding effective treatments/cures for HIV/AIDS. The event is going to take a lot of work and a lot of time, but we both feel passionately about the topic. AIDS is a terrible disease afflicting millions of people worldwide, and as scientists/students of Microbiology, we've seen that charitable donations like the one this event could produce are essential for funding the research that is ultimately going to find an effective way of stopping the AIDS pandemic. The disease has killed an estimated 25 million people since being recognized as a disease in 1981; it's time to stop it.
"Confessions of an Economic Hitman"
I'm reading a book right now titled "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" which revolves around the strategy employed by the US government, whereby developing countries are swindled into racking up millions and billions of dollars of debt to American corporations. Because they are so indebted to what the author calls the "corporatocracy", they are unable to provide aide to their own people and are forced to bend to the "American" will. The author of this book spent many years convincing foreign governments to invest "in their country" by contracting development projects (energy production, etc.) to American corporations; the money for these projects was loaned to them by the World Bank and other international lending agencies. Using this strategy, the US has formed a world empire of smaller countries that are so irreconcilably in our debt they have no choice but to bend to "our" will.
The book has opened my eyes and is beginning to make me painfully aware of the blindness of the American public to the actions of our elected leaders, our business heroes, and our industry moguls. After a lot of political discussion with friends recently, my faith in the two-party system of government is seriously wavering. In the coming months I'll use this blog to publish some of my ideas, for the sake of getting them out there. Most of them are not original ideas- they're stolen from people of every walk of life. And I realize that no one reads my blog, so I'll be doing it entirely for my own sake, but so be it. I would love some discussion from those who happen to stumble onto this blog and the friends who happen to read it.
The book has opened my eyes and is beginning to make me painfully aware of the blindness of the American public to the actions of our elected leaders, our business heroes, and our industry moguls. After a lot of political discussion with friends recently, my faith in the two-party system of government is seriously wavering. In the coming months I'll use this blog to publish some of my ideas, for the sake of getting them out there. Most of them are not original ideas- they're stolen from people of every walk of life. And I realize that no one reads my blog, so I'll be doing it entirely for my own sake, but so be it. I would love some discussion from those who happen to stumble onto this blog and the friends who happen to read it.
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