Monthly Archives: October 2006

Oct202006

Progress in the Fight Against ALS

Wired.com is reporting that scientists at Johns Hopkins have had encouraging results in an experiment involving stem cells and rats stricken with ALS, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which is a degenerative neurological condition. The scientists injected stem cells into the spinal cords of the rats; not only did the stem cells develop into functional nerves that linked to the rats’ existing nervous system, but the new cells also resisted the disease until the rats died.

You may recall that I’ve had some first-hand experience with this disease. I’m realistic enough to know that we’re still a long way from any kind of stem-cell therapy for ALS, let alone a cure, but this is nonetheless a very, very welcome development. I’d like nothing better than to see this shit eradicated in my lifetime…

spacer
spacer
Oct192006

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back…

I took the day off work yesterday so I could hold The Girlfriend’s hand while she underwent a minor surgical procedure. Okay, I wasn’t allowed to actually hold her hand during the procedure, but I was out in the waiting room the whole time. Well, except for when her mom and I ran over to Village Inn for a quick plate of eggs and bacon with a side of pancakes. But we were there when the doctor came looking for us to tell us we could go see her in the recovery room, and that’s what counts, right? In any event, she’s doing fine, thanks for wondering.

Later, finding myself with a free afternoon and nothing better to do, I decided to drop into Beans and Brews for a Starbucks-style coffee-and-milk beverage and an hour or so of recreational reading. The particular Beans and Brews I visited is just down the street from a high school, and, as school had just let out for the day, the place was crowded with gangly, gawky young men dressed in their unofficial uniforms of baggy jeans and dark-colored hoodies, all eager to get their daily caffiene buzz on. I slipped through their gauntlet, bought a mochaccino, and found a sofa to settle into with my book.
I’d been reading for a few minutes when I suddenly heard Steve Perry belting out “Don’t Stop Believin’.” This was a bit puzzling because the coffee-house’s PA system had been — still was, in fact — playing some anonymously mopey rock song that I couldn’t name if you held a gun to my head. I looked around to see who’d brought in a competing music-player… and was surprised to see one of the hooded teenage boys pulling a cellphone from his pocket. The kid was using a song that had charted before he was even conceived as his ringtone. I grinned, thinking to myself that there might be some hope for the future after all.

Then the in-store music switched to an artist I recognized — Warren Zevon — and I overheard the young barista telling his friends to listen to the amazingly cool song that was just starting. “I just love this one,” he said, “It’s called ‘Werewolves of Thunder‘.”
Doh.
I turned my attention back to my book and tried not to feel smugly old…

spacer
spacer
Oct172006

Population Milestone

Just in the last couple of hours, the population of the United States topped 300 million residents. About 2.5 million of those 300 mil are right here in Utah, and about 2 million of those are clustered along the Wasatch Front, i.e., the part of the state where I happen to live.

No wonder my commute sucks so bad…

Continue Reading…

spacer
Oct172006

Mail Outage

FYI for anyone who may have been trying to reach me by e-mail yesterday: my ISP had some kind of outage and was out of commission for a good part of the day. Because my personal e-mail account is web-based and hosted by said ISP, I was unable to access my mail during the outage. The ISP is back up now, but I don’t know if any messages got lost or not. If you tried to contact me and have had no reply, you might want to resend your message today…

spacer
Oct162006

Two Paths…

Here’s Scalzi talking about the choices one makes in the writing life:

…a Bennington grad won the Booker Prize this year, for a novel that is praised for “illuminating the pain of exile, the ambiguities of post-colonialism and the blinding desire for a ‘better life,’ when one person’s wealth means another’s poverty.” Meanwhile, my [new] book starts with a chapter primarily about farting an alien to death. Would I have written a book with farting, had I gone to Bennington? And would it have won the Booker Prize? These are the personal alternate personal histories of my life. Be that as it may, two roads diverged in the woods, and I, well, I took the one in which intestinal emanations were used for humorous effect. And that has made all the difference.

And the Monday-morning laughter continues…

spacer
Oct162006

Joke to Start the Week

My good friend Cranky Robert, having read of the general suckiness of my life last week, has resorted to heroic measures to try and lift my spirits (in other words, he e-mailed me a joke):

Darth Vader: Luke, I know what you’re getting for Christmas.
Luke: Oh yeah? How?
Darth Vader: I felt your presents.

Yeah, I know, it’s a groaner, but it had exaxctly the effect Robert was going for: I laughed and smiled for what seems like the first time in days. Hope everyone else enjoys it, too.

spacer
spacer
Oct132006

Roll Me Away

I’ve been in a pretty foul mood the past couple of days, owing to several long nights at work, too much caffeine, too little sleep, and a whole lot of minor stuff that usually wouldn’t bother me too much, but, coming as it has during this most crappy of weeks, has been really irritating me. I won’t bore you with any further details; suffice it to say that I feel like I’ve been dragged through a knothole sideways (one of my mother’s quaint expressions) and I really need a break from the grim-faced, clench-toothed treadmill slog that my life has unaccountably turned into. (Some time to turn out a couple of decent-sized blog entries would be nice, too!)

Coincidentally (or maybe not), I’ve been listening to a lot of the music I loved back in high school but have somehow forgotten about in the years since. One of the old recordings that I’ve blown the dust from is Bob Seger’s The Distance, which, as I recall, was one of my favorite albums back around my senior year (class of ’87, for the record). I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I still like this one. It’s a solid set of straight-ahead rockers and wistful ballads by an artist who was in his prime at the time of its recording. (Sadly, Seger’s best years were over by his next album, the over-produced, over-slick, and badly dated Like A Rock; there are maybe four songs on that one that are still listenable these days, including the title track, which is actually a good song if you can get past Chevy using it as a jingle for the last decade or so.)

Continue Reading…

spacer