guinea pig books
Last Monday I went to see the geneticist. He looks like a mad scientist. He's very friendly and talks animatedly with much hand waving; there's an inescapably affable and geeky quality to him, think Jeff Goldblum in The Fly before the fly parts took over. He took a bunch of blood samples to see if I'd qualify for his study, accompanying me to the blood sucking lab. As quick as the blood tech got the first 3 vials, he plunged them into a bucket of ice and went racing back to his lab saying I'll meet you there. I guess the rest of the vials he could work on later, or maybe they'd go for testing elsewheres. The building his office (and the blood lab) is in is part of the Children's Hospital...it's old old old and feels like a faculty. Joe was with me. He and I went back to the waiting room once the rest of the vials got fueled up and Dr Dude found us there all smiles. My blood is fucked up enough for his study. He gave me a consent form and a paper on the type of lypodystrophy I gots, (aquired generalized), then asked me a bunch of medical history questions before he measured me all over, my head, my finger lengths, pupil distance, height, weight, wing span etc. (My arm span is 1cm less than my height.) I felt like such a lab rat. He noticed my heart murmur and wants to get another cadiogram done. Can't be too careful when you've got a muscle disorder! Maybe he wants to preserve me as a medical specimen. He's got funding for 30 subjects for 30 years. He's working with someone in Paris for this study. I've reached a kinda rarified medical world with my illness eh. Anyhow, my only question was regarding the trial drug I was told about by the resident who referred me to him. Some kinda fat protein replacement. He said yeah, I could ask about that for you but I have to do all kinds of tests before I do, to support the fact that you would respond well to the drug. It's expensive for the drug company to supply clinical trials. So I'll be getting a body density scan that measures my proportions of fat muscle and bone, plus a metabolism test. I'll have to eat a meal then wear a helmet that somehow calculates how many calories I burn...my C/PH. I'm liking these tests a little bit. Like it's interesting having your body be part of research...it's odd though. I flashed on exploitation flicks I've seen of Nazis and Japanese experimenting with humans in WWII when he was doing alla his measurements. Doc seemed to read my mind at that point and said I don't want you to feel like an object. smile. yeah, thanks for your concern. I totally didn't like it when he asked to take my picture in my man panties, but wtf... I did it for science.
Actually, my doctor reminds me of Augusten Burroughs.
I read his last book this week. After the mad scientist appointment, Joe and I went downtown to the art gallery. We were gonna see a movie after, but everything playing we'd already seen or sucked, so we went to the library. I only browsed biographies.
Girl Boy Girl - Savannah Knoop
Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and all the Rest of My Hollywood Friends - John Leguizamo
The Wolf at the Table - Augusten Burroughs
The Adderall Diaries - Stephen Elliott
Persepolis 2 - Marjane summat
I kinda read them all at once, but that's the order I finished them in.
Girl Boy Girl is such a wasted opportunity of a book. As I began I was wondering if it'd been ghostwritten by Laura Albert (the author of the JT Leroy persona) but then I realized that if it had been, it'd have been much more interesting and better written.
Pimps etc is a breezy kind of autobio, full of celebrity name dropping but not all that captivating. Very similar to Girl Boy Girl in flavour and tone, but more forced funny.
The Wolf at the Table is more memoir by Augusten Burroughs, except the wry sense of humour is mostly gone. Dude's dad was a sociopath possible murderer, and it's pretty hearbreaking reading about how consistenly little dude was rebuffed and fucked over when he tried to poke love and acknowledgement from his dad. I recognized some of the same dynamic in my life. Reading this one made me realize again, how woefully inadequate my parents were on basic levels of parenting.
The Adderall Diaries, I really liked. I finished it this morning while waiting for the phone techs to repair the f'n phone (We've been having a weird party line effect.) It's similar to the Burroughs book, but less narcissistic. Like it's about a guy writing about his damaged relationship with a maybe murderous crazy dad, but it's also about 2 other maybe murderous guys dude is following, ostensibly to write about....but it's not a real life crime forensic so much as it's a meta memoir. He's also a BDSM guy and he writes about that tangentally in this one. Anyhow, It's the best written of the bunch. I penned a fannish response to the author on Facebook and he added me. I'm totally looking forward to reading his other books.
Persepolis 2, I actually haven't finished. I took it with me to read on the bus the other day, and I've been too lazy to dig it out of my bag. I'll finish it today prolly since I don't have anything else to read.
Tomorrow I'm sposed to see movies with Dude. He's MOVING!!! He asked if I would go with him to Ontario while chatting last night. I felt kinda flattered that he'd ask me, but also like wtf? I dunno. I'd go for like a weekend, but really I feel like I need more income than I've currently got to afford travel. And I f'n love this city!!! I told him I'd save up my airmiles.
Also, chatted with my friend what I used to be close with then ended up f'n hating....she's coming here for the queer film fest. She said she'll get me tix to her screening so I can go with her. I said cool. Last year she was here and tried to meet up with me, but I was busy volunteering and watching flicks at the VIFF. Too bad. Fist grind to my eye, pouty lip, was sorta how I felt. She was being interviewed for a tv show and I didn't make much of an effort to see her, because I still had that grudge heart. I think this year, I'll really bury the hatchet and actually face to face with her. You get enough history with a person, and you'll overlook alotta shit eh? Prolly it's just healthier to let bygones be bygones.
Wednesday I think I'm gonna go check out volunteering at a close by place that recycles computers. I'm feeling stir crazy - maybe a stint chopping up crts and learning ubuntu will tangle my loose ends all up and away from freeflow dangle mode.
Actually, my doctor reminds me of Augusten Burroughs.
I read his last book this week. After the mad scientist appointment, Joe and I went downtown to the art gallery. We were gonna see a movie after, but everything playing we'd already seen or sucked, so we went to the library. I only browsed biographies.
Girl Boy Girl - Savannah Knoop
Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and all the Rest of My Hollywood Friends - John Leguizamo
The Wolf at the Table - Augusten Burroughs
The Adderall Diaries - Stephen Elliott
Persepolis 2 - Marjane summat
I kinda read them all at once, but that's the order I finished them in.
Girl Boy Girl is such a wasted opportunity of a book. As I began I was wondering if it'd been ghostwritten by Laura Albert (the author of the JT Leroy persona) but then I realized that if it had been, it'd have been much more interesting and better written.
Pimps etc is a breezy kind of autobio, full of celebrity name dropping but not all that captivating. Very similar to Girl Boy Girl in flavour and tone, but more forced funny.
The Wolf at the Table is more memoir by Augusten Burroughs, except the wry sense of humour is mostly gone. Dude's dad was a sociopath possible murderer, and it's pretty hearbreaking reading about how consistenly little dude was rebuffed and fucked over when he tried to poke love and acknowledgement from his dad. I recognized some of the same dynamic in my life. Reading this one made me realize again, how woefully inadequate my parents were on basic levels of parenting.
The Adderall Diaries, I really liked. I finished it this morning while waiting for the phone techs to repair the f'n phone (We've been having a weird party line effect.) It's similar to the Burroughs book, but less narcissistic. Like it's about a guy writing about his damaged relationship with a maybe murderous crazy dad, but it's also about 2 other maybe murderous guys dude is following, ostensibly to write about....but it's not a real life crime forensic so much as it's a meta memoir. He's also a BDSM guy and he writes about that tangentally in this one. Anyhow, It's the best written of the bunch. I penned a fannish response to the author on Facebook and he added me. I'm totally looking forward to reading his other books.
Persepolis 2, I actually haven't finished. I took it with me to read on the bus the other day, and I've been too lazy to dig it out of my bag. I'll finish it today prolly since I don't have anything else to read.
Tomorrow I'm sposed to see movies with Dude. He's MOVING!!! He asked if I would go with him to Ontario while chatting last night. I felt kinda flattered that he'd ask me, but also like wtf? I dunno. I'd go for like a weekend, but really I feel like I need more income than I've currently got to afford travel. And I f'n love this city!!! I told him I'd save up my airmiles.
Also, chatted with my friend what I used to be close with then ended up f'n hating....she's coming here for the queer film fest. She said she'll get me tix to her screening so I can go with her. I said cool. Last year she was here and tried to meet up with me, but I was busy volunteering and watching flicks at the VIFF. Too bad. Fist grind to my eye, pouty lip, was sorta how I felt. She was being interviewed for a tv show and I didn't make much of an effort to see her, because I still had that grudge heart. I think this year, I'll really bury the hatchet and actually face to face with her. You get enough history with a person, and you'll overlook alotta shit eh? Prolly it's just healthier to let bygones be bygones.
Wednesday I think I'm gonna go check out volunteering at a close by place that recycles computers. I'm feeling stir crazy - maybe a stint chopping up crts and learning ubuntu will tangle my loose ends all up and away from freeflow dangle mode.