Savage People
I just saw a story on CNN about the famous conservative political pundit, Michael Savage. (He is the third most listened to radio commentator below Limbaugh and Hannity, for anyone that didn’t know)
Anyhow he made some completely unacceptable comments about individuals with autism. He said quote:
“You know what autism is? I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is.What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ Autism—everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, ‘Don’t behave like a fool.’ The worst thing he said—‘Don’t behave like a fool. Don’t be anybody’s dummy. Don’t sound like an idiot. Don’t act like a girl. Don’t cry.’ That’s what I was raised with. That’s what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You’re turning your son into a girl, and you’re turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That’s why we have the politicians we have.”
.....my god people. When are his listeners going to wake up and realize that this man, and the people that are like him, are thugs and bullies. I have had extensive work with kids and students that are diagnosed with autism and I can tell you right now it is not a made up disease. Even if it is an over diagnosed disease, which it isn’t, why would Mr. Savage choose this to attack? Seriously, what is his goal? A bunch of conservative jerks crying afoul on autistic programs throughout the US? How is this compassionate, good or moral in any way?
Personally I think someone should arrange for Mr. Savage to do some socialization work with a young autistic boy so he can learn a little bit more about his righteous crusade against the mentally ill. But he WOULDN’T do that because he is a “compassionate” conservative and spreading hate is more important than doing something good.
From the phone
I’ve been trying hard to figure out the right mix between posting here and on Twitter. Over the past few months I’ve clearly been giving preference to the latter. This morning I discovered the wordpress iPhone app that looks to be a pretty good tool to post to this blog from by phone. We’ll see if that helps my output here any.
The app even integrated nicely with photos from the phone.
I’m going to try and post more here for those that don’t care about every last detail I share on Twitter. Maybe I’ll even start with a little blogging from the bench tonight as Dunkamite takes on whoever is next.
Prolechariot in action mode
Here is a common state of existence for my new red truck. (New! It’s more than two months old now, but I still haven’t put 2,000 miles on it.)
When I took this photo, we had stopped by the pond down at Roundrock to do whatever it is we do out there (I think it was to set out the game camera at the usual baited station.) It would have been nice to capture the reflection of the truck in the surface of the pond, but too much scrubby growth prevented that. Now the pond is covered with bright green duck weed and is not reflecting anything. The field behind the truck has filled with corn that is taller than Travis, even.
I didn’t get down to the woods this weekend, but I’m looking hopefully toward next weekend.
stimulus
I feel guilty
taking money from the government considering that they
seem to need it more than me (did someone say $9.5
trillion in debt?), but Travis and I have already
managed to use some of our stimulus check to stimulate
the economy despite the guilt. (Isn’t it against the law
to save that money? Ya, that is what I am telling
myself…) I bought some new flip flops from J.Crew. They
are really comfortable. I had two pairs already, but
Crusher chewed through the thong part of the left sandal
from each pair rendering them useless. Bad baby dog!
Anyway, I got the flip flops on sale for $9.99 so I think
it is a reasonable purchase. Travis, on the other hand,
is currently out purchasing a second Airport Express (to
extend our home wireless network to pretty much cover the
whole neighborhood) and an
AppleTV, which he stressed that we MUST have.
Apparently the reason that we MUST have a AppleTV is
because it communicates with his new,
white, 16GB iPhone – yes, he stood in line for four
hours yesterday. You can use your new iPhone as a remote
for the AppleTV, and i guess that alone is reason enough
to need a $300 movie rental system. Travis is obviously
much more skilled at stimulating the economy than I am.
Question
Tell me. Is there anything more romantic than traveling to California with your girlfriend to attend a good friends wedding; spending the 4th of July in San Francisco, watching a Giants game then traveling around the city in cable cars seeing the sights, before settling down at the bay on a pier to share some clam chowder, salt water taffy, and watch fireworks, all while snuggling close together to protect yourselves from the crisp Pacific breeze; then eventually wandering back to your hotel room to share a bed? This is not a hypothetical question. I’m really asking because I don’t know the answer. I didn’t do any of this with my girlfriend. I did it all with my buddy, Alek… who is a dude.
Happy Fourth of July!
This is going out to all my peeps in the Universe,
especially two who are celebrating their anniversary.
butte to butte (and an anniversary)
Yesterday was Travis and my five-year anniversary, but we didn’t party hearty because we needed to rest up for the big 6-mile road race we completed today. The race is called Butte to Butte and it is the most popular road race in Eugene. About 6,000 people ran or walked in it this year. It is a good course that goes through almost all of Eugene, but it starts with a killer hill that I had to partially walk. It was a really fun time and I ran fairly well considering that I am still getting over being sick. In was fun to participate in a running event while the Olympic Trials are taking place here. Makes you feel like part of the action. After the race a group of friends came over for brunch. Now I might go take a nap!
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Back. Back to sweet, sweet America. There isn’t anything that will make you appreciate your home more than being away for six weeks—besides, I guess, being away for more than six weeks. I have a lot I’d like to talk and write about but it’s kind of overwhelming starting from scratch. I have a lot of pictures I’ll eventually upload to Flickr. I’ll try to put some captions on them and maybe I’ll get around to writing more posts on specific pictures in the near future. In the mean time I’ll use three pictures (and a movie) with explanations to sum up my trip.
The Good
The Taj Mahal, obviously, was magnificent. But there were plenty of other temples, monuments, and carvings that were almost as breath taking. I was also very surprised and impressed with how well their culture has been preserved. For example, traditional dress (like Saris and Punjabis) were the norm, not the exception.
The Bad
55% of Mumbai’s population lives in the slums. A majority of these communities have established themselves on undeveloped, and therefore undesirable, parts of the city. The picture above is a group of makeshift houses right next to the train tracks and what looks like a trash dump—with goats on it. Between the overcrowding and what many of the locals describe as a corrupt government, it’s not hard to imagine how things got this way. Also, for a Yankee like me, the extreme temperatures and monsoons wouldn’t help.
The Ugly
Yeah, this guy is peeing… in the middle of the street. This was not an uncommon site and we were told by a physician that one of the biggest problems/vectors for infectious disease is people doing “twosies” in the street. Accompany this with the widespread spitting (from a lot of tobacco chewing) and disregard for trash disposal, I just didn’t get the impression that the people took a lot of pride in maintaining the state of their city. Not to mention, eliminating any one of these would go a long way in preventing a number of diseases. These things can’t be completely blamed on the government (personal apathy, laziness or lack of education?) but it seems like a strong public health system would go a long way in this city.
On a more personal note, this trip took obviously removed me from my comfort zone and was relatively stressful, but I really did have a good time. The main reason for this is that my girlfriend—more importantly, my best friend—went with me. If you know me at all, then you know how crabby I can get when I’m tired and/or hot and as you can imagine there were plenty of these conditions in India. I didn’t have a problem with this and I think it’s because I had such a powerful ally with me. We were pretty much inseparable over our first year of medical school but I felt this trip would be a testament to the strength of our relationship. Not only did we have a great time but our relationship is stronger than ever. I can’t imagine what this trip would have been like without having her there with me. Coincidentally, today is her birthday so don’t forget to leave a Happy Birthday comment.
Happy Birthday Nina. I love you.
Reasons to vote Republican
If you’re still undecided about the upcoming election, have a look at the video below. It should clear things up for you.
summer time
Mom was here visiting and meeting Crusher about two weeks ago. We had a lot of fun and Crusher loved having someone to play with all day. We went to Sweet Life every morning for breakfast and to King Estate Winery for Sunday lunch. Other than that we mostly just hung out. It was nice.
I haven’t quite caught back up to normal life. Last weekend I got a cold which slowly evolved into a full-on sickness. I even had to stay home from work on Friday. It is not pretty. I think I am recovering a little, but Crusher is trying his best to keep life as difficult as possible. He has peed in our bed twice in the last 24 hours and now he is barfing everywhere because he ate some wood outside. Ugh. I am trying my best with him, but it is tough when you are sick.
Travis and I also decided to make a giant change to Swap-bot this weekend and switch the site to a new server. It is a big job and Travis has been editing code for about the last 24 hours straight. Swap-bot is looking a little better and the changes will hopefully make future improvements easier, but sometimes that website is too much to handle. It could easily take over our whole lives if we let it. Anyway, I made a new little airmail envelope guy for the site:
Too cute. You can read more about the changes to Swap-bot on the Swap-bot blog.
Other than just trying to keep my head above water with all of my everyday stuff, life is about the same. I am trying hard to be more honest and true to myself, and less nice and cute. It is a good subject for a whole other post, but basically I am just trying to be a more authentic adult. I’ll let you know if it works out.
Now off to check the Swap-bot forums and answer emails….
Namaste From India
So I’m here. Believe it or not, internet cafes are few and far between in my neck of the woods. To get everyone caught up to speed I’ll use one word to summarize my trip thus far: educational.
Surprisingly (and sadly), my clinics have been the least educational part of the trip. This wouldn’t be the case if the majority of patient complaints I’ve seen hadn’t been vastly similar to ones I’d see at a clinic in the states or if traveling to clinic didn’t take out every ounce of energy in my body.
Traveling consists of catching a rickshaw for a half hour to the train station, being sandwiched on a “passenger” train for an hour, then either taking another rickshaw or walking to any given clinic. We divide just over five hours a day between two of a vairety of clinics. For those keeping score at home, you are correct. Between traveling to, from, and between clinics, we spend significantly more time traveling than we’re actually in clinic.
Our program has provided us with residence in a relatively nice apartment but in a very inconvienent location, far from most of our clinics. They justify this by claiming they wanted us to experience the difficulty a middle class Indian experiences traveling to and from work everyday. Convieniently for the program, we’re also in a much cheaper part of town to live.
Though we’ve been met with a variety of different attitudes, the kind souls who ask us where we’re from and help us along our way are vastly outnumbered by the ones who try and take advantage of us. They cut in front of us in line, push us out of the way, over charge us for everything, and share a number of other disappointing welcomings with us. The one universal reaction is that of stares. Stares of intrigue anywhere we go. Due to laws against immigration and our travels keeping us out of any part of the city that could claim to be touristy, we are a novelty. Blending in is impossible since I stick out like… a white person in a country full of Indians.
I know this post has probably oozed and underlying negative connontation, but that’s kind of the way I intended it. Like I said earlier, the trip has been incredibly educational but I would not say it has been completely enjoyable. When I look at it from a vacation point of view it is rather disappointing. But when I step back and think of it from a school point of view it has been very rewarding. Between the intense poverty, booming overpopulation, separate health care system, and an overall distinctly different culture there has been much to learn. This was a perfect time in my life to experience something like this and I don’t regret my decision to do so.
After a very tough first week full of monsoons, drama, and diarrhea, we rewarded ourselves with a flight to Delhi to see the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was magnificent and since it is off season for tourists, we stayed in a very nice hotel at a very cheap price.
After a very tough second week full of more monsoons, more drama, and much more diarrhea, we are currently rewarding ourselves with what I’m calling our, “Western Weekend.” We have a nice indoor mall not terribly far from our apartment so on Friday we saw The Happening, Sex and the City, and had a group dinner at T.G.I. Fridays. Today we saw Get Smart and ate dinner at Pizza Hut. Tomorrow I plan on watching The Hulk and enjoying some fine American cuisine at any of a variety of other restaurants.
Unfortunately, of the few computers I’ve found none have been able to handle the awesomeness of my photos. My last week here is a light one and I plan to wind down so hopefully I’ll do a handful more of touristy things and finally finish updating pictures from my trip. I hope all is well at home and I can’t wait to get back and see all of you.
Turnover
On a recent trip to the woods, the new red truck achieved an important milestone.
I’ve been waiting for some last-minute entries in the truck-naming contest, but they don’t seem to be coming. Based on the many entries I have received—including several from a friend I hadn’t heard from in twenty years—I have a favorite in mind. I will probably award the powdered sugar donuts this weekend.
off to see the pup!
This is Crusher and me. He is wearing a Royals scarf that
Brad and June sent him! He would be at home in Kansas
City.
I went off to Eugene to see the pup, Crusher. I have worn him and me out by walking to meet Rachel after work. We even walked to a little cafe the other day for lunch. Everybody thinks he is adorable and he warms up to everybody quickly. Then we went over to Rachel’s work to meet all her friends. Travis brought us a bagel after his Yahoo work out. He said it was crowded downtown, because of Saturday Market and graduation. We are going to just veg out here today and then celebrate father’s day at the Winery. Wish us luck!! Do you think dogs can go to the winery?
Graduation weekend
I know everyone is just desperate to hear how our trip to Springfield went, so let me begin with lunch on Friday. This is the view out the window of the restaurant in Quincy, Illinois where we had lunch:
(The food wasn’t that great, but the view made up for it. That’s the Mighty Mississippi.)
We drove across northern Missouri (much nicer than I-70) and got to Hannibal then turned north briefly to Quincy. They have a castle there I wanted to see, but we didn’t have enough time to tour it.
Here is the bed and breakfast where we stayed. Don’t look too closely or you’ll see how much of that porch needs to be replaced (all of it, really). The room was nice and the price was good. It was a little far from everyone, but the traffic isn’t really bad in Springfield.
We visited at Tom and Barb’s house and met most of Barb’s family. Gina and the boys were there as well. They are growing fast.
On Saturday afternoon we went to the graduation, which was, mercifully, brief. No speechfying.
Here is Jeff with his dad and mom. He’s now completely grown up and ready to embark on his adult life. He’s going to Northern Illinois University in the fall, so get those care packages ready.
After graduation we had a picnic in the park with too much to eat. The rain had fallen heavily very early that morning, so there were puddles of mud here and there, but hardly anyone got dirty.
That evening we met up with Grandma and Grandpa at the Drury Inn where they were staying. I was about to fall over from being so tired, but I coped.
On Sunday morning there was a surprise baby shower for Esther. She got lots of nice gifts and the girls supposedly had a great time. (I wasn’t invited to the party.)
And don’t forget, Friday the 13th is someone’s birthday:
Only a couple of days after we got home, Mom took a plane—all by herself!—to Eugene to see our new grandpuppy, Crusher. I’m sure she’ll have a few things to say about that.
Birthdays and Adventures
Hello!
I find that writing on this blog is somewhat like trying to write to a friend you haven’t talked to in quite some time, one is just not sure of where to start. So, hopefully, you will forgive me for any clumsy and inarticulate thoughts.
I recently celebrated by 24th birthday. It was a nice quite birthday, as it was on a Monday. I recieved some rather wonderful gifts. One of which, a cool red iPod shuffle (along with some nice soaps and lotions) from Paul and Libby, I am using right now. This will come in handy with the gym membership Aaron and I got at the end of May.
I also recieved some very cool Pottery Barn plates with a leafy-fern design on them from Rachel. We have a friend coming up this weekend, so perhaps I will break them in on some company! Also from my sister-in-law, a very nice smelling fragrance diffuser from Pottery Barn.
Last, but not least, the things from my husband: The Sims 2, The Indiana Jones Collection, 2 sets of flowers, 2 new plant hangers, and a very comfy down-alternative mattress pad. He also took me out to dinner. We were going to go to Montana Mikes, but it was closed on Mondays. So we went to the newest Mexican restaurant in town.
Thank you all so much for your very generous and wonderful gifts.
In 2 weeks we will be on a new adventure: Washington D.C. I am pretty excited about it. We are flying out of KC for Baltimore-Washington International Airport on June 21st. We won’t fly back until June 27th. It seems like we will be there for a long time, but I know we won’t get to see everything on our list.
update: busy
This time I really was not trying to get so busy. Life just always manages to pack itself full. Crusher is taking up a good amount of time, but he is so sweet and cute that it seems totally natural. He has learned how to sit and stay, and he is working on laying down on command. Today he is very tired because we took him on a long walk and he helped work in the backyard. We cleared out a bunch of vines and trimmed some trees. Sunlight actually reaches the ground back there now!
Work is fine, but it is hard going everyday and keeping up with my websites. I am perpetually behind on Swap-bot. I don’t know if I will ever catch up on the support emails…
I am still walking to work a lot, and I am also running in the mornings with my friend, Missy. I want to do a 6 mile race on the 4th of July and maybe, just maybe, run the Portland half marathon in October. Softball season has also started, so we do that every Monday. I am still awful at it, but I try. I have NOT been going to the gym. That is bad because I MUST lose at least 10 pounds stat. I need to start going to the weight-lifting class again… hmmm. I feel that I am really active, but it takes a lot to counter-act sitting at a computer all day at work. Boring.
Life is good. Always something to do. Travis and I are still making our way through the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation series. He is hating it, but sticking with me. We are on season four. Slow but steady. Tonight we are going to a friend’s house for a barbecue and then I need to do two loads of laundry and answer more Swap-bot emails. Fun times!