So I’ve decided to jump into a toxic spill
Please insert the notion that the toxic spill is what English students call a “metaphor”, and it refers to a situation, person or serious of events that are having a profound effect on you...it may be half baked but it’s a metaphor nonetheless. In some types of writing half baked metaphor is considered a delegacy, crime novels for example. I may not be making much sense and have any sort of continuity, that’s why I opened up with the line above... the toxic spill is effect my ability to make cognitive such and such...
Right, on I go walking down this rocky road of the metaphor, to put a veil of mystery on the situation at hand, if more for myself than anything.
So right, I saw this green glowing liquid and threw caution to the wind and jumped right in
And now I’m curious, the rays emitted, are changing me on a cellular level. I can feel it kinking my DNA, it unwinding, reforming in new helices.
There are two options;
1) I become a mutant, and fill with water and burst like the guy in x men, or get horrible growths and end like some melted plastic (either way I’ll get a documentary made about me on Channel Four after “My Dad was a Tree” and “Born Without a Face”
2) I get super powers. Laser eyes, flight, invisibility, waterproof mascara, the works.
So right the question is, do I get out now and risk being a half formed mutant, the likes of which even Sky Real Lives won’t want to do a documentary about?
So I cut my loses, put my fallen out hair into a plastic bag and chalk it up to experience, or stay in there and let it cook me some more, just for the LOL’s?
So people have seen me differently since the Spill. Maybe it’s my new neon green glow, maybe it’s the fact that my I can now stretch my rubber arms into a jump rope and skip with them, who knows? But it’s definitely different
Suddenly I’m this and I’m that and I’m like...am I?
It’s very strange.
And things from the past, people from the past (I say the past like it’s a place....ok one must only refer to the past like it is a different region if one has been alive long enough, when the past is like 5 months ago you can’t do that)
But that’s what the spill did, it made time stretch and now everything’s different
Things from the pa.... things from before don’t bother me as much.
And in college, in the lab I hear words coming out of my mouth “oscillate that defibrillator at the proverbial antidisestablishmentarianism” (well, like that impressive but it actually making sense) and I’m like...who said that? And it was me!
Have I been possessed by the spirit of the well adjusted? Is this the finding of self in college? It came on fast! And if that’s all it is why don’t I feel comfortable in this new self? She wears size 12 jeans! And understands her lecturers! She’s everything I’ve ever hated.
Ah conformity, they were right, it does get you in the end, staying at home listening to The Smiths and The Cure perfecting your sulk just don’t cut it anymore
Maybe I’m reading into everything do much, I should just do a few more laps of this toxic river, come on in, the goo is fine!
On a more normal note; I can drive on the road! (it's one my new super powers, driving, understanding things, and being a size 12) luckily I still have my deep cynicism and inherent mistrust of “good times” to keep me anchored, otherwise I’m so full of helium I might just fly out of the atmosphere.
*said like Hammer time; and Stop! Its quote time!
When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
- Sydney J. Harris
I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
- Diane Ackerman
I guess it’s just been a few months of a lot of activity that’s gotten me all ponderful.
I’m suddenly regretting the fact that I have to sleep to function. As it is 2am (hardcore! ROFLWSMTT... rolling on the floor laughing while still managing to type) I had best do that most monotonous of activities.
It’ll all work out.
(Does anyone know how to get toxic waste out of silk?)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Sex and Lisbon city.
I haven’t stumbled upon a theme to talk about like I usually do. I think it’s the unstructured quality to being on summer holidays
I’ve been off for over a month now. Got to kill all those brain cells from exams by watching day time TV, looking after the house, doing chores, that type of thing. Long walks. Very self indulgent.
I went to Lisbon with my mom for a week. What a city, very different to here. But as I arrived, in the surreal haze of waking up in your own bed and getting to a European city by lunch time, I noticed something; you probably get the most accurate view of the country in the taxi ride from the airport to your hotel. There you see the tall high rise apartments and giant ware houses and tile suppliers and the like. Then you get to the bubble. The tourist bubble. Which is great too I’m not complaining at all. I like the bubble!
Lisbon is a beautiful place. They have monuments everywhere, huge statues or modern art. We went on one of those open top tour buses, where you listen to head phones and learn some history of your surroundings. They have so many monuments it’s hard to remember why they erected each one... “We erected this monument because...well, it was a Tuesday. Monument erecting day. You know how it is”
The people were very friendly (and no I’m not being paid to write this by the Lisbon tourist board)
We came across several people who thought Ireland was part of the UK! So once we set them straight we got many a congratulations on being a republic. Which was odd. But nice.
The best thing about holidays is coming back. You get to see your own house with a sparkly newness.
That’s what I’ve been doing lately. So now I’m going to rant.
Sex and the city is the most shameful thing ever. Don’t get me wrong, I watch it, of course. But I watch it as the unrealistic dribble that it is. The notion that four well educated women have nothing to talk about but men is actually unravelling the tread of equality!
Three of them define themselves by their relationships with men and the only one who doesn’t is because she has the emotional intelligence of a hair brush. Samantha would be the “strongest” female, merely because she’s the manliest. She has casual sex and has literally no interest in developing a relationship. There are, believe it or not, well rounded women who aren’t jumping in and out peoples beds who talk about other things than sex.
Carrie- the main character- is the most self involved wench. (Who looks like a foot-but that’s beside the point But, having said all this she is a well written character. She’s self centre, difficult, victimises herself- I know lots of people like that (hell I probably am a person like that). She cheats on her lovers then makes herself out to be the victim, treats them terribly, she short with her friends most of the time. But people are flawed, so I guess it’s realistic. The thing I don’t get is she’s meant to be our heroine. Sarah Jessica parker was on Jonathon Ross and was shocked when he said Carrie is annoying character. She said that she thought Carrie was a very kind, independent person.
Hello?!? (Sorry that was very 90s) Independent?! The woman buys $40.000 worth of shoes and has to get her friend to buy her apartment for her (which by the way you never hear of her paying charlotte back again...she goes back to buying shoes)
That brings me on to my next point- what a bloody horrible time to male! I’m so sorry guys. I’m all for equality and “girl power” (trying to avoid the F word...feminism) but jeez it seems to be the age of the spoilt bitch. Carrie- our “independent” heroine in the movie moves into Bigs giant apartment and gets a closet the size of my living/dining room and we’re all meant to be happy for her?
Men have to let women be completely independent while at the same time still being men, but not belittling, but they seem to – according to sex and the city anyway- still need to pick up the cheques, be men’s men- have a high powered job but do the dishes, not be a sissy yet forgive cheating, respect a woman who sleeps with you the minute you meet them- and also you should be able to fly.
I know ideal relationships rarely- if ever- exist but they never even ventured the idea of a partnership- that two people could share their lives without this big power play. They reference “wearing the pants in the relationship”- who has the power- who wears the pants- who has the penis-i.e.; the man is power, and even if you are the woman in charge it’s because you act like a man.
It’s not fair to want everything provided for you but also be considered independent.
HBO claims that 93,000 girls from ages 12-17 watch the show with the permission of their parents. Girls are currently being brought up with the idea that you can live and not work, be demanding and yet void of personality as long as you’re pretty, and men in the end, will be the definition to the success of your life. (In the end of the series Carrie gets with big, Miranda and Steve are together, charlotte’s with her husband and even SaMANtha has a love)
These young girls look to Carrie has their idol! That is frightening! God help us, everyone.
I haven’t stumbled upon a theme to talk about like I usually do. I think it’s the unstructured quality to being on summer holidays
I’ve been off for over a month now. Got to kill all those brain cells from exams by watching day time TV, looking after the house, doing chores, that type of thing. Long walks. Very self indulgent.
I went to Lisbon with my mom for a week. What a city, very different to here. But as I arrived, in the surreal haze of waking up in your own bed and getting to a European city by lunch time, I noticed something; you probably get the most accurate view of the country in the taxi ride from the airport to your hotel. There you see the tall high rise apartments and giant ware houses and tile suppliers and the like. Then you get to the bubble. The tourist bubble. Which is great too I’m not complaining at all. I like the bubble!
Lisbon is a beautiful place. They have monuments everywhere, huge statues or modern art. We went on one of those open top tour buses, where you listen to head phones and learn some history of your surroundings. They have so many monuments it’s hard to remember why they erected each one... “We erected this monument because...well, it was a Tuesday. Monument erecting day. You know how it is”
The people were very friendly (and no I’m not being paid to write this by the Lisbon tourist board)
We came across several people who thought Ireland was part of the UK! So once we set them straight we got many a congratulations on being a republic. Which was odd. But nice.
The best thing about holidays is coming back. You get to see your own house with a sparkly newness.
That’s what I’ve been doing lately. So now I’m going to rant.
Sex and the city is the most shameful thing ever. Don’t get me wrong, I watch it, of course. But I watch it as the unrealistic dribble that it is. The notion that four well educated women have nothing to talk about but men is actually unravelling the tread of equality!
Three of them define themselves by their relationships with men and the only one who doesn’t is because she has the emotional intelligence of a hair brush. Samantha would be the “strongest” female, merely because she’s the manliest. She has casual sex and has literally no interest in developing a relationship. There are, believe it or not, well rounded women who aren’t jumping in and out peoples beds who talk about other things than sex.
Carrie- the main character- is the most self involved wench. (Who looks like a foot-but that’s beside the point But, having said all this she is a well written character. She’s self centre, difficult, victimises herself- I know lots of people like that (hell I probably am a person like that). She cheats on her lovers then makes herself out to be the victim, treats them terribly, she short with her friends most of the time. But people are flawed, so I guess it’s realistic. The thing I don’t get is she’s meant to be our heroine. Sarah Jessica parker was on Jonathon Ross and was shocked when he said Carrie is annoying character. She said that she thought Carrie was a very kind, independent person.
Hello?!? (Sorry that was very 90s) Independent?! The woman buys $40.000 worth of shoes and has to get her friend to buy her apartment for her (which by the way you never hear of her paying charlotte back again...she goes back to buying shoes)
That brings me on to my next point- what a bloody horrible time to male! I’m so sorry guys. I’m all for equality and “girl power” (trying to avoid the F word...feminism) but jeez it seems to be the age of the spoilt bitch. Carrie- our “independent” heroine in the movie moves into Bigs giant apartment and gets a closet the size of my living/dining room and we’re all meant to be happy for her?
Men have to let women be completely independent while at the same time still being men, but not belittling, but they seem to – according to sex and the city anyway- still need to pick up the cheques, be men’s men- have a high powered job but do the dishes, not be a sissy yet forgive cheating, respect a woman who sleeps with you the minute you meet them- and also you should be able to fly.
I know ideal relationships rarely- if ever- exist but they never even ventured the idea of a partnership- that two people could share their lives without this big power play. They reference “wearing the pants in the relationship”- who has the power- who wears the pants- who has the penis-i.e.; the man is power, and even if you are the woman in charge it’s because you act like a man.
It’s not fair to want everything provided for you but also be considered independent.
HBO claims that 93,000 girls from ages 12-17 watch the show with the permission of their parents. Girls are currently being brought up with the idea that you can live and not work, be demanding and yet void of personality as long as you’re pretty, and men in the end, will be the definition to the success of your life. (In the end of the series Carrie gets with big, Miranda and Steve are together, charlotte’s with her husband and even SaMANtha has a love)
These young girls look to Carrie has their idol! That is frightening! God help us, everyone.
Monday, January 11, 2010
meaning of life and peanut butter
I was sitting in a Vertebrate form and function lecture there a couple days ago. It’s a very interesting module, and besides the fact that the labs include a rat dissection (RIP Minnie...yes I named my rat Minnie), I’m very glad I decided to do it.
So the professor (a total PILF by the way) was talking about the nervous system and then said in passing, like it was no big deal, “There are wave lengths of light we can’t see, dimensions we can’t perceive and sound waves we can’t here, so how we perceive the world isn’t at all how it is” and then went on to describe the structure of the spine.
But I have to say that totally metaphorically knocked me off my chair. The chair being my concept of reality.
Even though, passively I knew all those things I had just never put them together before.
Then, in a metabolism lecture, the professor (not a PILF by the way) described, in the sense of a chemical reaction, that when we die and release gases that we are IN EQUILIBRIUM WITH THE UNIVERSE. Isn’t that just the most fantastic thing you’ve ever heard? Doesn’t make death sound so bad, just the completion of a reaction that must end. Atoms can’t be destroyed or made, so you just lose you’re structure, not the basis of yourself, I mean that physically, obviously you being alive is pretty important to being yourself....”Lucy just hasn’t been herself since her death”
These were all sort of mind blowing concepts to just be said in passing like that. It hurts my head, it’s the type of mental aerobatics best left to the philosophers and makes me want to run to a television to give my brain a snooze.
So I was thinking, you often hear people say that life is so incredible, so complex and so beautiful, and how could it all just be a merical of cosmic parking? But perhaps it’s only so incredible, so complex, and so beautiful because we find it hard to comprehend.
Every biochemical reaction, every mechanism, every property, could be as simple are the alphabet in a higher state of consciousness.
Ok I better not think that hard or I may hurt myself.
But consider this, (The slip that brought me to my knees failed What if all these fantasies come flailing around now I've said too much)
Consider the fact that we as humans, are probably (I say probably because I have no researched, just wondered it) the only living thing that enjoys doing itself harm. We get pleasure out of doing bad things to ourselves, surely there would be some sort of evolutionary trait to makes just not want to do these things that harm us? Why would a self destruct button be so fun to press? Where’s the divine design in that?
So many bad things feel so good, to quote Trainspotting “we wouldn’t do heroin if we didn’t enjoy it”
Surely something that is so damaging should feel bad?! That’s why we have pain receptors, so we don’t walk around bleeding and forget to do anything about it. Our bodies our designed to never get used to pain, no matter how much we endure pain is always painful so we always know we are being damaged, that is the purpose of it.
Besides the occasional elephant getting drunk on fermented fruit, I don’t think I’ve seen this type of behaviour except in the ever paradoxical human.
Why does pain go up to such levels? If the purpose of pain is to give us the idea that we are in danger then it needn’t go up beyond the level where we realise something is wrong. If someone gets the message at level 8, why does the pain go up to level 17? What’s the point in that? Why would we be designed in that way?
As someone who writes a bit, I feel I hold on too much to the Zimmer frame of analogy. I tried to confront some ponderings of mine in here; as usual I don’t feel I conveyed my queries properly. Oh well.
There is one philosophy I’m sure of; peanut butter makes everything better.
So the professor (a total PILF by the way) was talking about the nervous system and then said in passing, like it was no big deal, “There are wave lengths of light we can’t see, dimensions we can’t perceive and sound waves we can’t here, so how we perceive the world isn’t at all how it is” and then went on to describe the structure of the spine.
But I have to say that totally metaphorically knocked me off my chair. The chair being my concept of reality.
Even though, passively I knew all those things I had just never put them together before.
Then, in a metabolism lecture, the professor (not a PILF by the way) described, in the sense of a chemical reaction, that when we die and release gases that we are IN EQUILIBRIUM WITH THE UNIVERSE. Isn’t that just the most fantastic thing you’ve ever heard? Doesn’t make death sound so bad, just the completion of a reaction that must end. Atoms can’t be destroyed or made, so you just lose you’re structure, not the basis of yourself, I mean that physically, obviously you being alive is pretty important to being yourself....”Lucy just hasn’t been herself since her death”
These were all sort of mind blowing concepts to just be said in passing like that. It hurts my head, it’s the type of mental aerobatics best left to the philosophers and makes me want to run to a television to give my brain a snooze.
So I was thinking, you often hear people say that life is so incredible, so complex and so beautiful, and how could it all just be a merical of cosmic parking? But perhaps it’s only so incredible, so complex, and so beautiful because we find it hard to comprehend.
Every biochemical reaction, every mechanism, every property, could be as simple are the alphabet in a higher state of consciousness.
Ok I better not think that hard or I may hurt myself.
But consider this, (The slip that brought me to my knees failed What if all these fantasies come flailing around now I've said too much)
Consider the fact that we as humans, are probably (I say probably because I have no researched, just wondered it) the only living thing that enjoys doing itself harm. We get pleasure out of doing bad things to ourselves, surely there would be some sort of evolutionary trait to makes just not want to do these things that harm us? Why would a self destruct button be so fun to press? Where’s the divine design in that?
So many bad things feel so good, to quote Trainspotting “we wouldn’t do heroin if we didn’t enjoy it”
Surely something that is so damaging should feel bad?! That’s why we have pain receptors, so we don’t walk around bleeding and forget to do anything about it. Our bodies our designed to never get used to pain, no matter how much we endure pain is always painful so we always know we are being damaged, that is the purpose of it.
Besides the occasional elephant getting drunk on fermented fruit, I don’t think I’ve seen this type of behaviour except in the ever paradoxical human.
Why does pain go up to such levels? If the purpose of pain is to give us the idea that we are in danger then it needn’t go up beyond the level where we realise something is wrong. If someone gets the message at level 8, why does the pain go up to level 17? What’s the point in that? Why would we be designed in that way?
As someone who writes a bit, I feel I hold on too much to the Zimmer frame of analogy. I tried to confront some ponderings of mine in here; as usual I don’t feel I conveyed my queries properly. Oh well.
There is one philosophy I’m sure of; peanut butter makes everything better.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
euthanasia
I had asked to speak at a debate in the society Im involved in in college. The debate was "this house would legialise euthanasia". I was for euthanasia but I decided to oppose the motion. Heres the speach I came up with...though I'd put it up here;
I’m not a religious person, I’m not a conservative person, I very much believe in live and let live... no pun intended. But I am a practical person.
Tonight, I’m going to try my best not to use the word “wrong”. I feel that my opinion of whether euthanasia is philosophically wrong or not is neither here nor there.
I will not go on about “playing god”- I’m a scientist, I love playing god, do it all the time.
Instead I’m going to try to convince you that while you may have you own philosophical views on euthanasia that is ethically irresponsible and completely impractical.
So I’m going to talk a little about the reasonable doubt involved, what euthanasia undermines in society and really try to challenge why anyone would agree with it
In law you convict someone of a crime when you think that it is beyond reasonable doubt that they are guilty. This is how it works. So I’m going to point out the reasonable doubt of certain aspects of euthanasia.
For instance, the very fact that the option to be euthanized is available, by the fact that you could get euthanized, would be a subconscious pressure to someone who feels they must do the “honourable thing” and stop being a burden. Can the prop prove that no one will feel guilted into opting for euthanasia? Can I prove that definitely someone will? No- but my way no one is killed.
Palliative care specialists report that requests to be euthanized are often used by patients to assess their worth and value to others, any positive response merely confirms their worst fears that they are not valued but given time and support they very often change their mind
If you have a will saying in the event that you are in a vegetative state you want to be euthanized, shouldn’t that be ok? No because it’s a will, as in “I suppose I will...” you cannot assume to know how you will feel after you have a stroke or are involved in a serious accident when your mind is fine but you just can’t move, and then you can’t tell anyone that you’ve changed your mind you don’t want to die! Is it just me or is that not the scariest concept?
The bottom line is there is too much risk. You can’t undo death. It is the ultimate finality
We don’t allow people with brain tumours to drive, because their mental abilities have been affected- but we can allow them to decide to end their life? We can physically restrain manically depressed being if they are trying to harm themselves. So we would have to have some sort of mental assessment of people requesting to be euthanized. Then who makes the final decision about whether the person is approved to be euthanized or not? One doctor? Two? Three? How can the opinion of three people-yes doctors are just people- hold enough weight to decide whether someone should die before they would naturally?
Our health service can’t support a system as complicated as this, it isn’t functioning as it is!
The legalisation of euthanasia would undermine so many things in our health service.
It undermines the fight, that unspoken rule that in a hospital they will do everything they can to make sure you get better. When you are dealing with a serious life-long illness the last thing anyone around you should be saying is that it’s ok to die. On the really tough times when you want to throw in the towel, no system or legislation should encourage you do so.
It would also undermine the financing and prevision of proper palliative care, as it stands we only have the hospice which receives minimal governmental help.
It would undermine research into medicines and therapies to improve the quality of life of people suffering from degenerative and life- long illnesses.
Think of the advances medicine has had in the past decade. It’s highly possible that many of illnesses will be much more bearable in just a matter of years – but the people who get euthanized won’t know because they are dead. You can undo death people!
So who’s at risk?
Ideally, euthanasia would be there for someone of sound mind who has decide they’ve had enough, But the same legislation would be used to abuse the society’s most vulnerable individuals! We don’t yet live in some sort of utopia where justice prevails, no unfortunaly we live in a society where there were 1840 cases of confirmed elder abuse cases last year. And that only that ones we know about. We live in a world where people do bad things like physically and emotionally abuse their elderly relatives. Organisers of the elder abuse hotline say the recession is the cause of a huge increase with elderly people subjected to more and more abuse from family members over issues such as money land and wills. The world is full of greedy, underhanded people. We can’t have something as powerful as a system of assisted suicides, not in this world, not yet.
Don’t you realise that a lot of us in this room will grow old. If bird flu or swine flu or mouse flu don’t kill us off while we’re young we will grow old, our immune systems will get weak of a lot of us will get diseases due to old age. So is it going to become some accepted thing that you hit 85 and get euthanized if you aren’t healthy? It could do; enough people do it and people will think its expected of them. I don’t want to live in a real life version of Logans run
If you don’t understand that reference you need to get out less
I think it’s funny in Europe; we have this really weird warped view on things. We tend to be in favour of euthanasia as a very modern progressive thing. We look at the death penalty and think no- that’s American and wrong we don’t like that. Now I’m not drawing a direct comparison, but can’t you see that they have the same risks?! While in an ideal world, and in some case, you can justify both but all it takes is one innocent person to be killed for the whole thing to not be worth it!
So I can justify someone of sound mind, completely sane who is suffering from a terrible illness not being allowed to choose to be euthanized , because the very fact that they could means someone vulnerable could also be euthanized, someone depressed or feeling guilty or someone pressured into it.
No system or safe guards could ever be foolproof. When humans are involved you can’t eliminate human error. Because of this euthanasia should not be legalised, and for the same reason equally neither should the death penalty. At the end of the day death is too final.
There is nothing simple about this, to look at it in the black and white terms of “you choose, you die” shows an appalling amount of irresponsibility and a narrow mindedness.
The only reason we aren’t have “this house would bring in better palliative care” is because that wouldn’t interest people. It’s easy to say you agree with euthanasia and avoid think about the old people being abused, avoid thinking about the hard issues like what happens when a child wants to be euthanized? You think euthanasia that’s edgy, I’m going to be radical and say I’m for it, because it’s easier then justifying why you are against it. But I’m asking now; to think about all the things that could go wrong, think about the value of life rather than the cost. Be radical and say no, I demand better palliative care, more counselling for people with illness and recognise that it isn’t as simple as we would like to think. Be radical and oppose
I’m not a religious person, I’m not a conservative person, I very much believe in live and let live... no pun intended. But I am a practical person.
Tonight, I’m going to try my best not to use the word “wrong”. I feel that my opinion of whether euthanasia is philosophically wrong or not is neither here nor there.
I will not go on about “playing god”- I’m a scientist, I love playing god, do it all the time.
Instead I’m going to try to convince you that while you may have you own philosophical views on euthanasia that is ethically irresponsible and completely impractical.
So I’m going to talk a little about the reasonable doubt involved, what euthanasia undermines in society and really try to challenge why anyone would agree with it
In law you convict someone of a crime when you think that it is beyond reasonable doubt that they are guilty. This is how it works. So I’m going to point out the reasonable doubt of certain aspects of euthanasia.
For instance, the very fact that the option to be euthanized is available, by the fact that you could get euthanized, would be a subconscious pressure to someone who feels they must do the “honourable thing” and stop being a burden. Can the prop prove that no one will feel guilted into opting for euthanasia? Can I prove that definitely someone will? No- but my way no one is killed.
Palliative care specialists report that requests to be euthanized are often used by patients to assess their worth and value to others, any positive response merely confirms their worst fears that they are not valued but given time and support they very often change their mind
If you have a will saying in the event that you are in a vegetative state you want to be euthanized, shouldn’t that be ok? No because it’s a will, as in “I suppose I will...” you cannot assume to know how you will feel after you have a stroke or are involved in a serious accident when your mind is fine but you just can’t move, and then you can’t tell anyone that you’ve changed your mind you don’t want to die! Is it just me or is that not the scariest concept?
The bottom line is there is too much risk. You can’t undo death. It is the ultimate finality
We don’t allow people with brain tumours to drive, because their mental abilities have been affected- but we can allow them to decide to end their life? We can physically restrain manically depressed being if they are trying to harm themselves. So we would have to have some sort of mental assessment of people requesting to be euthanized. Then who makes the final decision about whether the person is approved to be euthanized or not? One doctor? Two? Three? How can the opinion of three people-yes doctors are just people- hold enough weight to decide whether someone should die before they would naturally?
Our health service can’t support a system as complicated as this, it isn’t functioning as it is!
The legalisation of euthanasia would undermine so many things in our health service.
It undermines the fight, that unspoken rule that in a hospital they will do everything they can to make sure you get better. When you are dealing with a serious life-long illness the last thing anyone around you should be saying is that it’s ok to die. On the really tough times when you want to throw in the towel, no system or legislation should encourage you do so.
It would also undermine the financing and prevision of proper palliative care, as it stands we only have the hospice which receives minimal governmental help.
It would undermine research into medicines and therapies to improve the quality of life of people suffering from degenerative and life- long illnesses.
Think of the advances medicine has had in the past decade. It’s highly possible that many of illnesses will be much more bearable in just a matter of years – but the people who get euthanized won’t know because they are dead. You can undo death people!
So who’s at risk?
Ideally, euthanasia would be there for someone of sound mind who has decide they’ve had enough, But the same legislation would be used to abuse the society’s most vulnerable individuals! We don’t yet live in some sort of utopia where justice prevails, no unfortunaly we live in a society where there were 1840 cases of confirmed elder abuse cases last year. And that only that ones we know about. We live in a world where people do bad things like physically and emotionally abuse their elderly relatives. Organisers of the elder abuse hotline say the recession is the cause of a huge increase with elderly people subjected to more and more abuse from family members over issues such as money land and wills. The world is full of greedy, underhanded people. We can’t have something as powerful as a system of assisted suicides, not in this world, not yet.
Don’t you realise that a lot of us in this room will grow old. If bird flu or swine flu or mouse flu don’t kill us off while we’re young we will grow old, our immune systems will get weak of a lot of us will get diseases due to old age. So is it going to become some accepted thing that you hit 85 and get euthanized if you aren’t healthy? It could do; enough people do it and people will think its expected of them. I don’t want to live in a real life version of Logans run
If you don’t understand that reference you need to get out less
I think it’s funny in Europe; we have this really weird warped view on things. We tend to be in favour of euthanasia as a very modern progressive thing. We look at the death penalty and think no- that’s American and wrong we don’t like that. Now I’m not drawing a direct comparison, but can’t you see that they have the same risks?! While in an ideal world, and in some case, you can justify both but all it takes is one innocent person to be killed for the whole thing to not be worth it!
So I can justify someone of sound mind, completely sane who is suffering from a terrible illness not being allowed to choose to be euthanized , because the very fact that they could means someone vulnerable could also be euthanized, someone depressed or feeling guilty or someone pressured into it.
No system or safe guards could ever be foolproof. When humans are involved you can’t eliminate human error. Because of this euthanasia should not be legalised, and for the same reason equally neither should the death penalty. At the end of the day death is too final.
There is nothing simple about this, to look at it in the black and white terms of “you choose, you die” shows an appalling amount of irresponsibility and a narrow mindedness.
The only reason we aren’t have “this house would bring in better palliative care” is because that wouldn’t interest people. It’s easy to say you agree with euthanasia and avoid think about the old people being abused, avoid thinking about the hard issues like what happens when a child wants to be euthanized? You think euthanasia that’s edgy, I’m going to be radical and say I’m for it, because it’s easier then justifying why you are against it. But I’m asking now; to think about all the things that could go wrong, think about the value of life rather than the cost. Be radical and say no, I demand better palliative care, more counselling for people with illness and recognise that it isn’t as simple as we would like to think. Be radical and oppose
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
food and writing
Food and writing
I have a love/hate relationship with writing. And food. I love writing but it’s always really frustrating, because I can never quite convey what’s in my noggin. Some people think in words, they are writers. Others think in pictures, they are artists. I think in like concepts, if that makes any sense. I think in a really general sense, random colours and feelings and smells. It’s so hard to get it into English. The majority is lost in translation.
Its like when I have an idea, my head fills with this purple goo. It’s just like the stuff in a lava lamp, just like that! (Where did all the lava lamps go?) So its there in my noggin, and I try to let it out. When I pick up a pen, or go to type or draw its like a little grid opens behind my eyes in my brain, so the purple goo can drip down behind my eyes, down my neck, across my shoulder and down my arm through the veins. This is a slow process because of the viscous nature of the metaphoric goo. So it’s slowly making its way down my arm, creeping along like lava down a slight slope, or custard down the side of a bowl.
The thing is though, the tunnels it’s travelling down get thinner and thinner. They branch off and go nowhere, curl back around, stop in random bulges. By the time it gets to my fingertips only a smallest tiny drips come out.
I guess the only bodily function I can compare it to, without threading on some very dodgy ground, would be needing to sneeze and being interrupted. You still have the tingle in your nose with none of the satisfaction of the sneeze. (I do enjoy a good sneeze)
So every time I go to write I seem to get more and more back clog of purple goo. The pressure builds, my arms swells and one day it will explode purple stuff everywhere.
Yeah, anyway I couldn’t even convey that idea with the same vividness that is in my head. Very frustrating.
In a lot of ways food and writing are similar. They are both sources of extreme pleasure in our lives. They are both ways we have attempted to reach out to other individuals in our lives and try to connect with them. We break bread, we write love letters, we buy boxes of chocolates for our sweet hearts, and we write away our broken hearts.
If writing and food are comparable then blogging, or prose is definitely a big plate of beans, chips and sausages from a cafeteria; satisfying, fulfilling, and never needs a lot of preparation.
On the other end of the spectrum I guess would be the type of writing with loads of rules. Haikus are definitely sushi. Not just as a general Asian theme but the whole thing, the presentation, preparation, pretention?
I think sushi is just a very expensive way to have very little food. But maybe my tastes aren’t refined enough.
"The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then..."
- Roger Mc Gough
Unruly poetry were you throw rhyming schemes to the wind and just write, that is definitely chocolate covered strawberries.
They say less is more, but less isn’t more that’s why they are different words with opposite meanings. You can have too much of one good thing, but you can’t have too much of good things, and with the variety writing and food leaves you; you could never really get bored!
(Food critics must be the happiest people on earth..eating and then writing about it!)
When it comes to food and writing I’d rather be a big woman than a little girl any day, so I shant be stopping with either!
I have a love/hate relationship with writing. And food. I love writing but it’s always really frustrating, because I can never quite convey what’s in my noggin. Some people think in words, they are writers. Others think in pictures, they are artists. I think in like concepts, if that makes any sense. I think in a really general sense, random colours and feelings and smells. It’s so hard to get it into English. The majority is lost in translation.
Its like when I have an idea, my head fills with this purple goo. It’s just like the stuff in a lava lamp, just like that! (Where did all the lava lamps go?) So its there in my noggin, and I try to let it out. When I pick up a pen, or go to type or draw its like a little grid opens behind my eyes in my brain, so the purple goo can drip down behind my eyes, down my neck, across my shoulder and down my arm through the veins. This is a slow process because of the viscous nature of the metaphoric goo. So it’s slowly making its way down my arm, creeping along like lava down a slight slope, or custard down the side of a bowl.
The thing is though, the tunnels it’s travelling down get thinner and thinner. They branch off and go nowhere, curl back around, stop in random bulges. By the time it gets to my fingertips only a smallest tiny drips come out.
I guess the only bodily function I can compare it to, without threading on some very dodgy ground, would be needing to sneeze and being interrupted. You still have the tingle in your nose with none of the satisfaction of the sneeze. (I do enjoy a good sneeze)
So every time I go to write I seem to get more and more back clog of purple goo. The pressure builds, my arms swells and one day it will explode purple stuff everywhere.
Yeah, anyway I couldn’t even convey that idea with the same vividness that is in my head. Very frustrating.
In a lot of ways food and writing are similar. They are both sources of extreme pleasure in our lives. They are both ways we have attempted to reach out to other individuals in our lives and try to connect with them. We break bread, we write love letters, we buy boxes of chocolates for our sweet hearts, and we write away our broken hearts.
If writing and food are comparable then blogging, or prose is definitely a big plate of beans, chips and sausages from a cafeteria; satisfying, fulfilling, and never needs a lot of preparation.
On the other end of the spectrum I guess would be the type of writing with loads of rules. Haikus are definitely sushi. Not just as a general Asian theme but the whole thing, the presentation, preparation, pretention?
I think sushi is just a very expensive way to have very little food. But maybe my tastes aren’t refined enough.
"The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then..."
- Roger Mc Gough
Unruly poetry were you throw rhyming schemes to the wind and just write, that is definitely chocolate covered strawberries.
They say less is more, but less isn’t more that’s why they are different words with opposite meanings. You can have too much of one good thing, but you can’t have too much of good things, and with the variety writing and food leaves you; you could never really get bored!
(Food critics must be the happiest people on earth..eating and then writing about it!)
When it comes to food and writing I’d rather be a big woman than a little girl any day, so I shant be stopping with either!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Television
I’ve been sick recently so I’ve been able to catch up on many a missed hour of TV watching. I just have a very bad cold, and no, it’s not swine flu. I’m not hip enough for swine flu, it’s far too current. It’s probably bird flu, so 2006.
Television is definitely at a height, there’s always something on...usually it’s a repeat of show aired an hour previous on the non +1 version of the channel but still! You have to admire the standard of writing these days. Lost, House, The wire, six feet under, desperate housewives...all compelling shows.
You can’t commit to all of them though, no unless you have a sky plus box, but for us stone-age watch-it-when-its-on types we have to pick and choose what we are going to be in for. There’s only so much I can leave my intellectual college friends because Coronation Street is on. I’m losing face over here. Speaking of losing face, they are bringing back that show “The Swan”. It’s this American reality thing were women who have been insecure all their lives (so all women could qualify) they go for three months to get plastic surgery, work out and get some stick on emotional band aids from a psychologist. They don’t have access to mirrors so there’s a big emotional reveal at the end. I highly recommend it.
Shows these days tend to be move self-improvement than home-improvement. There’s those Biggest Losers shows were people who can’t climb up stairs get thrown into doing more training than an athlete. There’s the one were that demented skeleton woman raids your home and steals the poo right from your toilet and then lectures you about how dysfunction YOU are. (Hey, she may be horrifying but that woman has one fantastic colon).
One of my favourites had to be Gok wan and his wondrous world of fashion puns. (Don’t look old in gold, try babe in suede...etc). At least he’s better than that Trinny and Susana people who had stylists behind the scenes, so they weren’t the talent they were just the hosts! How dare they write a book on the matter?
Probably the best of the reality stuff is the property porn. You know, the shows were people who have a house think they need another one to use once year in Spain. Or the one where people get in an expert to help them sell their home and then ignore their advice.
I love also these new cop/lawyer shows. I wouldn’t say there’s too many, no. There’s only Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Criminal Minds, Without a trace, CIS, CIS Miami, CIS New York, CIS Las Vegas, Canterbury’s law, Monk, NCIS, Cold Case, Close to home...so many of them begin with C.
I really think the appeal here is a grown up version of The Scooby Doo mysteries. I’m very serious, you know you are going to be baffled, a little scared and surprised and relieved and it turns out to be the Janitor. Everything ends with closure, it’s great. Except a haunted hotel and missing jewels isn’t going to ring our bells at this age, so it had to be multiple rapes and stabbings, child abuse and kidnappings. Real edge of your seat, but its still ends up being the grounds keeper with a face full of scratches now doesn’t it?
Still you can never ignore the classics, friends, old episodes the Simpsons, Frasier, Malcolm in the middle and the like. That really is your TV watchers bread and butter. With the new exciting layers of House and the like, TV watching is better than ever.
I’ve been sick recently so I’ve been able to catch up on many a missed hour of TV watching. I just have a very bad cold, and no, it’s not swine flu. I’m not hip enough for swine flu, it’s far too current. It’s probably bird flu, so 2006.
Television is definitely at a height, there’s always something on...usually it’s a repeat of show aired an hour previous on the non +1 version of the channel but still! You have to admire the standard of writing these days. Lost, House, The wire, six feet under, desperate housewives...all compelling shows.
You can’t commit to all of them though, no unless you have a sky plus box, but for us stone-age watch-it-when-its-on types we have to pick and choose what we are going to be in for. There’s only so much I can leave my intellectual college friends because Coronation Street is on. I’m losing face over here. Speaking of losing face, they are bringing back that show “The Swan”. It’s this American reality thing were women who have been insecure all their lives (so all women could qualify) they go for three months to get plastic surgery, work out and get some stick on emotional band aids from a psychologist. They don’t have access to mirrors so there’s a big emotional reveal at the end. I highly recommend it.
Shows these days tend to be move self-improvement than home-improvement. There’s those Biggest Losers shows were people who can’t climb up stairs get thrown into doing more training than an athlete. There’s the one were that demented skeleton woman raids your home and steals the poo right from your toilet and then lectures you about how dysfunction YOU are. (Hey, she may be horrifying but that woman has one fantastic colon).
One of my favourites had to be Gok wan and his wondrous world of fashion puns. (Don’t look old in gold, try babe in suede...etc). At least he’s better than that Trinny and Susana people who had stylists behind the scenes, so they weren’t the talent they were just the hosts! How dare they write a book on the matter?
Probably the best of the reality stuff is the property porn. You know, the shows were people who have a house think they need another one to use once year in Spain. Or the one where people get in an expert to help them sell their home and then ignore their advice.
I love also these new cop/lawyer shows. I wouldn’t say there’s too many, no. There’s only Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Criminal Minds, Without a trace, CIS, CIS Miami, CIS New York, CIS Las Vegas, Canterbury’s law, Monk, NCIS, Cold Case, Close to home...so many of them begin with C.
I really think the appeal here is a grown up version of The Scooby Doo mysteries. I’m very serious, you know you are going to be baffled, a little scared and surprised and relieved and it turns out to be the Janitor. Everything ends with closure, it’s great. Except a haunted hotel and missing jewels isn’t going to ring our bells at this age, so it had to be multiple rapes and stabbings, child abuse and kidnappings. Real edge of your seat, but its still ends up being the grounds keeper with a face full of scratches now doesn’t it?
Still you can never ignore the classics, friends, old episodes the Simpsons, Frasier, Malcolm in the middle and the like. That really is your TV watchers bread and butter. With the new exciting layers of House and the like, TV watching is better than ever.
Karmic Recycling
I definitely don’t believe in fate. I don’t watch my footing as I walk down the street and hope I don’t fall off my own destiny tracks. No, I think that’s poppycock, its cock of the poppiest variety (ah thank you Dave Gorman) People sit around pondering the complexities of their horoscope I think must get selective deafness whenever Bono or Bob Geldoff talks...(not a bad survivor adaption I must say) But to suggest that we’re here and every road we walk down and person we meet and traffic light we stop at is somehow predestined and written in the stars does not translate over in Africa were people are just dying all over the gaff. Where’s their destiny? So are they just some dark background to make the niceness of our life truly sparkle?
Relax; I’m not on a “suffering of others” rant. No, no, leave that to the experts who go there and know actual statistics and can click their fingers in that menacing way. I was merely trying to convey my feelings on the bogusness of the whole concept of fate. (Sorry if this offends, but if you believe in fate then you believe you were MEANT to read this right?...ha-ha, got you there!)
So yes, not a fate believer. But lately I’ve been thinking about karmic recycling. (I don’t believe in karma either, too many good things happen to bad people for that) Karmic recycling is a term for when you take something bad and turn it into something good (usually by being selfless somehow along the way)
Example; (sex in city style) you get totally stud up for a date so you let your best friend wear the shoes you bought. Something bad, into something good!
I do think trying to spin the good out of the bad affects your whole attitude and probably means you are more willing to accept the good when it comes, which is probably what most people actually think when they say karma or fate. We have so much more control than we give ourselves credit for.
That’s why it’s easier to believe in fate and god and all that jazz. But I don’t want to get into bashing peoples beliefs. That’s Richard Dawkins job.
I gave a map of Berlin I had to my friends’ daughter as she’s doing a project on the Berlin wall. That was karmic recycling on fast spin! I went to Berlin in June and had the worst time ever! Just awful.
Long story short I went there to meet my dad for the second time ever and he wasn’t very nice, he was very critical of me and all over not very loving at all. We didn’t leave it on good terms and I plan not to see Berlin or him again...but that’s another blog.
(I will say though that I found the general crowd, and that doesn’t mean Germans because a lot of them weren’t, by the crowd I mean the type of “groovy” folk who tend to move to Berlin so they can walk their dogs at two o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon and buy beer at every corner shop and still manage to survive...that is one forgiving city. I found them to be extremely judgemental. One should be able to drink a can of diet coke without four people lecturing you on the corporate and dietary evil that lurks beneath. Especially when those four people are smoking.)
So I got to take a token from my horrible experience- the map- and give it to someone who might be able to use it for a project. That’s just fantastic. It’s like I took some negative energy and put it into a nifty little transformer and turned it into positive energy. Good times.
That’s what poetry and music and all that jazz is too, isn’t it? The nifty transformer. I picture it like one of those old fashioned washing equipments were you pull something between two rollers to de-crease it. We all need one.
Clear out your karma closet today! Give away old clothes, teddy bears you don’t cuddle anymore, and items that hold too many bad memories. Shed karmic pounds fast and easy, and you don’t even have to join a gym.
I definitely don’t believe in fate. I don’t watch my footing as I walk down the street and hope I don’t fall off my own destiny tracks. No, I think that’s poppycock, its cock of the poppiest variety (ah thank you Dave Gorman) People sit around pondering the complexities of their horoscope I think must get selective deafness whenever Bono or Bob Geldoff talks...(not a bad survivor adaption I must say) But to suggest that we’re here and every road we walk down and person we meet and traffic light we stop at is somehow predestined and written in the stars does not translate over in Africa were people are just dying all over the gaff. Where’s their destiny? So are they just some dark background to make the niceness of our life truly sparkle?
Relax; I’m not on a “suffering of others” rant. No, no, leave that to the experts who go there and know actual statistics and can click their fingers in that menacing way. I was merely trying to convey my feelings on the bogusness of the whole concept of fate. (Sorry if this offends, but if you believe in fate then you believe you were MEANT to read this right?...ha-ha, got you there!)
So yes, not a fate believer. But lately I’ve been thinking about karmic recycling. (I don’t believe in karma either, too many good things happen to bad people for that) Karmic recycling is a term for when you take something bad and turn it into something good (usually by being selfless somehow along the way)
Example; (sex in city style) you get totally stud up for a date so you let your best friend wear the shoes you bought. Something bad, into something good!
I do think trying to spin the good out of the bad affects your whole attitude and probably means you are more willing to accept the good when it comes, which is probably what most people actually think when they say karma or fate. We have so much more control than we give ourselves credit for.
That’s why it’s easier to believe in fate and god and all that jazz. But I don’t want to get into bashing peoples beliefs. That’s Richard Dawkins job.
I gave a map of Berlin I had to my friends’ daughter as she’s doing a project on the Berlin wall. That was karmic recycling on fast spin! I went to Berlin in June and had the worst time ever! Just awful.
Long story short I went there to meet my dad for the second time ever and he wasn’t very nice, he was very critical of me and all over not very loving at all. We didn’t leave it on good terms and I plan not to see Berlin or him again...but that’s another blog.
(I will say though that I found the general crowd, and that doesn’t mean Germans because a lot of them weren’t, by the crowd I mean the type of “groovy” folk who tend to move to Berlin so they can walk their dogs at two o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon and buy beer at every corner shop and still manage to survive...that is one forgiving city. I found them to be extremely judgemental. One should be able to drink a can of diet coke without four people lecturing you on the corporate and dietary evil that lurks beneath. Especially when those four people are smoking.)
So I got to take a token from my horrible experience- the map- and give it to someone who might be able to use it for a project. That’s just fantastic. It’s like I took some negative energy and put it into a nifty little transformer and turned it into positive energy. Good times.
That’s what poetry and music and all that jazz is too, isn’t it? The nifty transformer. I picture it like one of those old fashioned washing equipments were you pull something between two rollers to de-crease it. We all need one.
Clear out your karma closet today! Give away old clothes, teddy bears you don’t cuddle anymore, and items that hold too many bad memories. Shed karmic pounds fast and easy, and you don’t even have to join a gym.
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