Another Dark Little Corner
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Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.
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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought. Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death) [me, on a bad day] WRITER'S LINKS Absolute Write Paypal donation button: Absolute Write is one of the leading sites for information on writing and publishing, especially the scam versions thereof. It has a broad, deep online community with an enormous message base going back years. Now it needs help. See the details and discussion here Preditors and Editors Everything you wanted to know about literary agents On the getting of agents Writer Beware Miss Snark Writer's Net (and my Wish List) |
2009-10-23
One Month on Dustday + 30 Previous Dustday entry (Dust Day (23rd September, 2009) in Sydney) It used to be a nine-days' wonder. Everything's faster now. Labels: climate, dust, events, photos, statistics, Sydney More ... 2009-10-16
Chemotherapy + Gripe NOTE: Skip this to avoid whinging, complaining & yukkiness. Think I've washed most of the cytotoxins and their accompanying protective drugs out, as far as possible, so started on the new drug from specialist. Eating as healthily as I can manage, with fresh fruit & juices, vegies, fish, organic meats & milk, nice bread, etc. Have the best emergency low-prep foods I can manage — low-processed frozen food, parboiled rice, dried pasta from different grains. There's a few made-up "boil in the bag" meals that don't need freezing & some canned stuff in case of times when I just can't manage anything more. Near low-immune part of cycle, so I'm doing things like throwing out any slightly-suss food, rinsing plates & utensils in boiling water, cleaning surfaces, using different sets of rubber gloves for handling different stuff, washing gloves in disinfectant, washing my hands with sanitizing stuff before eating, or after toilet. Being extra careful not to get nicked or bruised, staying away from crowds. So WHY am I exploding hydrogen sulphide gas from both ends like a locomotive blowing steam!?!?!? Diarrhoea for about 24 hours. Now this morning, without more food today than some ginger to try and settle stomach, brought up half a litre or so of bright yellow bile. Bleurgh. Is it new drug? Did I pick bug up in Rehabilitation Unit, where they had gastro going round erlier? Was food more suspicious than I suspected? Or what? How? Just what I need when I'm already weak & tired & really low & washed out. Bleah. And I definitely don't want to take this in to sick friend, or his partner. Will try some peppermint tea soon. Maybe barley sugar to keep up energy. Labels: chemotherapy, medical, medicine, personal More ... 2009-10-14
Friend's Stroke: some wonderful news I haven't been too well, so haven't written much, and, worse, haven't been to see my friend as much. So it was great first to see him with a new tracheotomy that meant he could put a finger over the tube and speak, and in a separate room. Then they removed the trachie and the nasogastric tube altogether! Talking! Started him on fluids; soup, yoghurt, etc; then puree/mashed meals. Now he's out of the hospital building, over in Rehabilitation Unit — same building where I was in hospice care on floor above. So back to shared ward. If you've seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, the mashed meals remind me of the coloured goo in squares on a white rectangular divided plate that Poole and Bowman ate on the Jupiter. Except they are served out by what may be an icecream scoop and the plates are round. Labels: friends, medical, personal, stroke, treatment More ... 2009-10-13
Health in the USA - Words Fail (Repeated from Earlier) Health Care Horror post, from 2006, though original story is 1998. I'm worried this lady isn't around any more CONSUMER WATCH Home » Protecting Patients » Patient Told To Reuse Colostomy Bag For 5 Days PERMALINK: www.consumerwatchdog.org/ patients/ articles/ ?storyId=16193 Repeating the whole story here, because the link's changed at least once already, and might get lost. As a fellow colostomate, this is a particular horror for me. CONSUMER STORY — May 06, 1998 Patient Told To Reuse Colostomy Bag For 5 Days Consumer Watchdog Michelle Leasure - Baltimore, MD As told by Michelle Leasure: I am a disability advocate and work for an agency that not only serves the disability community, but is staffed by people with disabilities. I have several disabilities, one of which is an incontinent ostomy. I do not have control over my bowels, and must wear a colostomy bag to contain my waste. Under Maryland law, ostomy supplies are 100% covered by insurance agencies. Labels: colostomy, health, health insurance, insurance, medical, medical insurance, USA More ... 2009-10-07
Chemotherapy: 3rd cycle (2009) So this is the start of the third cycle of this set of chemotherapy. This time haven't had much of an upswing at the end of the last cycle. Feeling tired. Apart from that, everything went without problems. Also saw specialist for results of tests and scans. They couldn't find any problems, which is sort of good, though it means we can't pinpoint any cause for my symptoms. Normally they'd do an endoscopic examination to try and see anything that might be there and not shown up, but will wait 'til after chemotherapy. In meantime there's some tablets I can try to see if they make a difference. I used opportunity of being out to grab bus downtown with assorted medical receipts, including that appointment, to Medicare. Good refund, covered most of the water rates I'd just got. Feeling a little cheered, I caught bus to Daily Planet* Foodcourt and got two bowls of different pho to take home. I can usually get two meals from each. Very nourishing and easy while I expect to feel poorly. Then bus home. TravelPass is a great blessing for the frail and ill. It lets us get out and do things we wouldn't have the strength to do if we couldn't catch transport for short jumps. I worry the new card system won't be as good — there were nasty hints during previous contretemps about an 'integrated smart card system'. [Toilet: before setting out; reaching hospital; during chemo; before leaving hospital; reaching Glasshouse (Medicare); GPO/Westin before catching bus; Daily Planet before catching bus. I do hope those blasted tablets help.]* formerly Ernst & Young; might be Pavilion now. It looks like Clark Kent works there, though I don't think it's been used in any of the Superman movies they've filmed here. Labels: cancer, chemotherapy, medical, medicine, quotidian, transport, treatment More ... 2009-10-02
Yes, the world does revolve around me — Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus aka Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, only son of Agrippina the Younger, sister of emperor Caligula and daughter of Germanicus, who was grandson to Augustus's wife, Livia, on one side and to Mark Antony and Octavia on the other. Right in the most prominent aristocratic circles of Imperial Rome. When Caligula and his family were murdered, Claudius became emperor. After executing his third wife, Messalina, he married Agrippina and adopted the 13-year-old Lucius, renaming him Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus. Claudius only survived a few years, and Nero became emperor at 16, the youngest emperor up to that time. Nero ruled over "interesting times" from AD 54–68 AD. Although generally popular with the lower Roman classes for a number of measures, including laws favouring them, putting down the Britannic Revolt of 60–61 AD, public aid after the fire of 64AD, and cracking down on terrorist-type groups like 'Chresters', he consolidated much power (and wealth) to the emperor through show trials and arbitrary executions of the upper classes and wealthy 'new men', and slowly usurped most of the authority of the Senate, losing him support in the upper classes. After Nero's suicide in 68, there was a widespread belief (the Nero Redivivus Legend) especially in the eastern provinces, that he was not dead and somehow would return, like Arthur, the Once and Future King, and others over the centuries. Over the next twenty years at least three Nero imposters emerged leading rebellions. The legend lasted as a popular belief for centuries. He was reviled by Christian writers, however, because of his persecution of the 'Chrestians'. Nero's rotating dining room uncovered (SMH: Pictures? Not a sausage.) Nero's rotating banquet hall unveiled in Rome (Yahoo, slideshow + video) news.yahoo.com/ s/ ap/ 20090929/ ap_on_re_eu/ eu_italy_nero_s_dining_room MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 29 Yahoo! links tend to disappear relatively soon, so here are others with pictures, video & background information. Nero's rotating banquet hall unveiled in Rome (NPR. pix with captions + map) www.npr.org/ templates/ story/ story.php?storyId=113302798 VIDEO: Emperor Nero's Rotating Dining Room Unearthed (Post Chronicle. a video report and images of the ancient dining area) www.postchronicle.com/ news/ strange/ article_212259312.shtml NERO`S ROTATING DINING ROOM FOUND (Italy Online in English, only 1 picture, but more history and background) www.lifeinitaly.com/ node/ 7955 And a typical Daily Mail treatment (their headline for the new hominid fossil discovery, 'Ardi', is "First ape woman suggests human ancestors may have started walking in pursuit of sex"), slavering at length over Nero's reportrd sex-and-sadism excesses before concluding with "We can only hope that this time it is not the setting for such unbridled horrors". Wine, women and slaughter: The truth behind Emperor Nero's pleasure palace (www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/ article-1217587/ Wine-women-slaughter-The-truth-Emperor-Neros-pleasure-palace.html) Another Roman excavation - an old port near Rome with some surprising features Face in the sand: British team unearths Roman amphitheatre at ancient port www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1217353/Face-sand-Roman-amphitheatre-unearthed-ancient-port.html OR tinyurl.com/y92v37b Y'know despite their relentless "UK! UK! UK!, Oi! Oi! Oi!" and tabloid sex, violence & sentiment slant, the Daily Mail at least seems to cover a fair bit of science with reasonable length & depth. By comparison with what I see in Australia & the glimpses of popular press in the USA I get, anyway. Labels: heritage, history, links, Roman, Rome More ... |