Older entries
I just realized that I've been forgetting to put my posts from my personal blog up so I thought I'd paste them here.
October 24
So Chris and I have been watching some of our older movies lately, introducing them to Briar (and newer ones, such as The Invention of Lying, which prompted the question, mid-movie, from Briar: “What’s masturbating?” to which I gave a short answer then and a better one after the movie). We recently introduced her to the Grumpy Old Men movies, which she loved. We haven’t watched them in quite a while and I had forgotten just how fun they are.
At one point one of the “grumpy old men” is on a snowmobile that is being driven by his slightly wild girlfriend. This conversation ensued at our house:
Chris, to me: “Can you imagine your grandfather on one of those?”
Shannon: *busts out laughing* “Oh man!”
Briar: “He’d be saying the “S” word a lot.”
So true. :-D
October 24 Under the Skin
So I finally got my newest tattoo finished and I’m quite pleased with it. It was a two-visit work of art, the first part done in September and the second October 23rd. My dd Briar was born in the year of the Tiger, which she’s quite proud of, and my ds Connor was born in the year of the Monkey (I’d be willing to put money on the fact that anyone who knows him wouldn’t be surprised to learn that. Even if they knew nothing about the Chinese zodiac signs, that just fits him.
)
I’ve been contemplating a tattoo relating to them for quite some time, flirting with different ideas and placements, but I finally decided on a tiger with a monkey on it’s back (and doesn’t THAT just fit my kids to a T?!? hehe). After finding an artist who would be able to do it the way I wanted it done (I don’t like the stylized animals that most tattoos have, the fierce, non-realistic look to them just wasn’t at all what I was after) I set out to find some awesome pictures for her to work from in order to draw me up a picture I’d be happy to wear for the rest of my life. I discovered that it is *nearly impossible* to find a GOOD picture of a tiger laying down. Most of them had the tiger facing the camera which, while an impressive shot for telling the story of how you were *so close* to the fearsome tiger (behind bars at the zoo), is *not* helpful for getting a feel for how a tiger’s body looks when laying down. I finally found two really sweet photos of the elusive tiger body in full repose and one of a monkey that I really liked, then Julie performed magic to bring them together.
I’ll post some pics in a couple of days. Edit: My camera is broken and my new one won't arrive until Wednesday night so I will take a picture this week and post it.
October 31 Run from the cure
I have been railing a lot lately to people about cancer. How much I hate it (a given, after all, who but the people who make money off of it *like* it?), how angry I am about it, how I'd like it to stop affecting my life. I've also been ranting about all of the groups raising money "to help find a cure for cancer". Bullshit. That is *not* what those funds are used for. They are used to create new drugs to "treat" cancer. They are used to screen and test for cancer and to upgrade the machinery used for those purposes. They are used to kill most of the patients with radiation. Isn't that a lovely thought?
They are *NOT* used to find cures. They are *not* used to fix the problems that are enabling the incidence estimates on cancer to hit obscene levels. Just about half of the population is anticipated to have cancer at some time in their life. Really? REALLY? Why isn't everyone talking about this? They've been "searching for a cure" for how long? The longer they've been at it, the worse the numbers are. We have far more cancer now that we've been researching it heavily for decades than we did when we barely tried to figure it out!
I can't help thinking that those hundreds of thousands of dollars would be better spent cleaning up our environment, researching new ways of keeping bugs off our food, and otherwise fixing the things we've done to our world that are causing these cancers.
I found some numbers on the five year survival rates for various types of treatment.
* Surgery - 22 percent
* Radiotherapy -12 percent
* Surgery/radiotherapy combined - 6 percent
* Chemotherapy plus others - 2.5 percent
* Chemotherapy alone - 1.6 percent
So what do they offer as the first tier response to finding that a patient has cancer? RADIATION.
There's a very interesting video here. If you click on Phoenix Tears after the movie there is a lot of information there.
Update: I just heard a shocking number. I was listening to an interview of David Wolfe and he said that there had only been a 5% increase in survival rate over the past fifty-five years. That is insane! If you look at most technologies and things we study I doubt you can find *any* area, other than medicine, where so little progress has been made, let alone with the amount of funding available to medical products/research.
November 20
Chris and I took the kids to see an Orpheus production of Annie the other night. It was a lot of fun and we all came out of there smiling. Well… almost all of us. Connor came out slung over Chris’ shoulder, gently snoring. But up until the point at which he lost the battle with his eyelids he was really enjoying the play.
When we first sat in our seats Briar and I perused the … playbill(?), reading up on the actors, while Connor and Chris acted silly. As Chris pointed out, if he’d allowed Connor to sit beside Briar like he was asking to the mayhem would have been much worse. In an effort to contain the impatient beast (who was tired since the play started at his bed-time) I showed him that there was going to be an actual dog in the play. That amused him for about 8.6 seconds and then he was back to playing poke-the-Daddy.
Finally they closed the doors and seated the late-comers as the lights went down. The orchestra started to play and those of us who knew them enjoyed listening to familiar refrains. Connor peered intently at the (still closed) curtains. The orchestra went on to another song. Connor continued to stare. After a while of this Connor turned to Chris and said: “Daddy, are there no people in this?!?”
Chris laughed and then relayed it to me. I laughed and relayed it to Briar. Briar laughed, and the curtains opened. Both children seemed quite caught up in the play. Connor actually didn’t speak again until the dog playing Sandy came on stage, and then it was simply to say, in a mildly exasperated tone: “Finally!”
Connor managed to hold on through the first act and part of the second, but he was already sitting on my lap getting cozy before Intermission had even finished so I knew he wouldn’t be much longer for this play.
Things my kids say:
The other day we were all in the car and the conversation went to Christmas presents and how Connor had said he only wanted one thing for his birthday and one for Christmas. I pointed out that other people would likely get him things too and, as an example, I told him that Grandma had already bought him his presents for both occasions.
Connor: Well ok, they can … Wait! What did she get me?
Me, laughing: I’m not going to tell you, you’ll have to wait and see.
Connor: How about you tell me and I’ll *act* surprised?
Everyone else in the car: Bwahahahahaha! …..No.
Briar and Connor and I were playing some game. I think it might have been Incan Gold (one of Connor’s all-time favourite games. What’s funny is it is rated for ages 8+, but he understands how much all of the pieces are worth, how to play properly, and it’s been a great way to work on things like even/odd number recognition, figuring out how much each of us gets when we have to divvy up the loot, etc) At any rate, these games often (usually?) devolve into silliness and giggle-fests when the three of us play together. This time it went something like this:
Briar, quoting Finding Nemo: “Find a happy place, find a happy place!”
Me: You don’t have a happy place.
Briar: Of course I have a happy place! I just have to dig really deep..
When my kids are playing there are just some things that, upon hearing them, make me grin. This is one of them: *giggle, giggle* Pretend that didn’t happen!
They play so well together, I really appreciate that. Sure, sometimes they get on each others’ nerves and sometimes Briar just wants her own space to do her own thing, but over-all they are fantastically loving siblings.
October 24
So Chris and I have been watching some of our older movies lately, introducing them to Briar (and newer ones, such as The Invention of Lying, which prompted the question, mid-movie, from Briar: “What’s masturbating?” to which I gave a short answer then and a better one after the movie). We recently introduced her to the Grumpy Old Men movies, which she loved. We haven’t watched them in quite a while and I had forgotten just how fun they are.
At one point one of the “grumpy old men” is on a snowmobile that is being driven by his slightly wild girlfriend. This conversation ensued at our house:
Chris, to me: “Can you imagine your grandfather on one of those?”
Shannon: *busts out laughing* “Oh man!”
Briar: “He’d be saying the “S” word a lot.”
So true. :-D
October 24 Under the Skin
So I finally got my newest tattoo finished and I’m quite pleased with it. It was a two-visit work of art, the first part done in September and the second October 23rd. My dd Briar was born in the year of the Tiger, which she’s quite proud of, and my ds Connor was born in the year of the Monkey (I’d be willing to put money on the fact that anyone who knows him wouldn’t be surprised to learn that. Even if they knew nothing about the Chinese zodiac signs, that just fits him.
)
I’ve been contemplating a tattoo relating to them for quite some time, flirting with different ideas and placements, but I finally decided on a tiger with a monkey on it’s back (and doesn’t THAT just fit my kids to a T?!? hehe). After finding an artist who would be able to do it the way I wanted it done (I don’t like the stylized animals that most tattoos have, the fierce, non-realistic look to them just wasn’t at all what I was after) I set out to find some awesome pictures for her to work from in order to draw me up a picture I’d be happy to wear for the rest of my life. I discovered that it is *nearly impossible* to find a GOOD picture of a tiger laying down. Most of them had the tiger facing the camera which, while an impressive shot for telling the story of how you were *so close* to the fearsome tiger (behind bars at the zoo), is *not* helpful for getting a feel for how a tiger’s body looks when laying down. I finally found two really sweet photos of the elusive tiger body in full repose and one of a monkey that I really liked, then Julie performed magic to bring them together.
I’ll post some pics in a couple of days. Edit: My camera is broken and my new one won't arrive until Wednesday night so I will take a picture this week and post it.
October 31 Run from the cure
I have been railing a lot lately to people about cancer. How much I hate it (a given, after all, who but the people who make money off of it *like* it?), how angry I am about it, how I'd like it to stop affecting my life. I've also been ranting about all of the groups raising money "to help find a cure for cancer". Bullshit. That is *not* what those funds are used for. They are used to create new drugs to "treat" cancer. They are used to screen and test for cancer and to upgrade the machinery used for those purposes. They are used to kill most of the patients with radiation. Isn't that a lovely thought?
They are *NOT* used to find cures. They are *not* used to fix the problems that are enabling the incidence estimates on cancer to hit obscene levels. Just about half of the population is anticipated to have cancer at some time in their life. Really? REALLY? Why isn't everyone talking about this? They've been "searching for a cure" for how long? The longer they've been at it, the worse the numbers are. We have far more cancer now that we've been researching it heavily for decades than we did when we barely tried to figure it out!
I can't help thinking that those hundreds of thousands of dollars would be better spent cleaning up our environment, researching new ways of keeping bugs off our food, and otherwise fixing the things we've done to our world that are causing these cancers.
I found some numbers on the five year survival rates for various types of treatment.
* Surgery - 22 percent
* Radiotherapy -12 percent
* Surgery/radiotherapy combined - 6 percent
* Chemotherapy plus others - 2.5 percent
* Chemotherapy alone - 1.6 percent
So what do they offer as the first tier response to finding that a patient has cancer? RADIATION.
There's a very interesting video here. If you click on Phoenix Tears after the movie there is a lot of information there.
Update: I just heard a shocking number. I was listening to an interview of David Wolfe and he said that there had only been a 5% increase in survival rate over the past fifty-five years. That is insane! If you look at most technologies and things we study I doubt you can find *any* area, other than medicine, where so little progress has been made, let alone with the amount of funding available to medical products/research.
November 20
Chris and I took the kids to see an Orpheus production of Annie the other night. It was a lot of fun and we all came out of there smiling. Well… almost all of us. Connor came out slung over Chris’ shoulder, gently snoring. But up until the point at which he lost the battle with his eyelids he was really enjoying the play.
When we first sat in our seats Briar and I perused the … playbill(?), reading up on the actors, while Connor and Chris acted silly. As Chris pointed out, if he’d allowed Connor to sit beside Briar like he was asking to the mayhem would have been much worse. In an effort to contain the impatient beast (who was tired since the play started at his bed-time) I showed him that there was going to be an actual dog in the play. That amused him for about 8.6 seconds and then he was back to playing poke-the-Daddy.
Finally they closed the doors and seated the late-comers as the lights went down. The orchestra started to play and those of us who knew them enjoyed listening to familiar refrains. Connor peered intently at the (still closed) curtains. The orchestra went on to another song. Connor continued to stare. After a while of this Connor turned to Chris and said: “Daddy, are there no people in this?!?”
Chris laughed and then relayed it to me. I laughed and relayed it to Briar. Briar laughed, and the curtains opened. Both children seemed quite caught up in the play. Connor actually didn’t speak again until the dog playing Sandy came on stage, and then it was simply to say, in a mildly exasperated tone: “Finally!”
Connor managed to hold on through the first act and part of the second, but he was already sitting on my lap getting cozy before Intermission had even finished so I knew he wouldn’t be much longer for this play.
Things my kids say:
The other day we were all in the car and the conversation went to Christmas presents and how Connor had said he only wanted one thing for his birthday and one for Christmas. I pointed out that other people would likely get him things too and, as an example, I told him that Grandma had already bought him his presents for both occasions.
Connor: Well ok, they can … Wait! What did she get me?
Me, laughing: I’m not going to tell you, you’ll have to wait and see.
Connor: How about you tell me and I’ll *act* surprised?
Everyone else in the car: Bwahahahahaha! …..No.
Briar and Connor and I were playing some game. I think it might have been Incan Gold (one of Connor’s all-time favourite games. What’s funny is it is rated for ages 8+, but he understands how much all of the pieces are worth, how to play properly, and it’s been a great way to work on things like even/odd number recognition, figuring out how much each of us gets when we have to divvy up the loot, etc) At any rate, these games often (usually?) devolve into silliness and giggle-fests when the three of us play together. This time it went something like this:
Briar, quoting Finding Nemo: “Find a happy place, find a happy place!”
Me: You don’t have a happy place.
Briar: Of course I have a happy place! I just have to dig really deep..
When my kids are playing there are just some things that, upon hearing them, make me grin. This is one of them: *giggle, giggle* Pretend that didn’t happen!
They play so well together, I really appreciate that. Sure, sometimes they get on each others’ nerves and sometimes Briar just wants her own space to do her own thing, but over-all they are fantastically loving siblings.