Refracted Neurons

There are certain children's books that I can't read without adding commentary.  One is the book Stop, Train, Stop!   It looked innocent enough when I picked it up from the thrift shop, but once I started reading, I realized this was one of those books that shoves sugar-coated conformity down the throats of unsuspecting parents.  I would say children too, but I honestly think that goes over their heads.  They're more interested in the objects flying around the train and the detailed illustrations.  So let's get cracking. Thomas wakes up one day and realizes that his whole life is going down the same track over and over again, stopping at the same stations, at the same speed, over and over.  Realizing this, he begins to ask himself, "What is the purpose of life?  Do I matter?  Can I change my destiny?" If this isn't the face of ennui, I don't know what is. It doesn't occur to him to go off track or even go backwards.  No, all Thoma...

One of the books I finished recently was Exploding the Phone by Phil Lapsley . It’s a book about phone phreaks, a topic I got interested in when I was toodling around a website on defunct computers. I learned some things I didn’t know; like how a large number of phreaks were blind, and how the first switchboard operators were teenage boys. But the thing that surprised me the most was that it’s very likely I’ve never used an analogue phone. By the time I was old enough to remember talking on the phone, all the systems had been converted to digital. I know I’ve complained before, maybe even ranted, possibly even on this blog about how digital sound differs from voice. Sometimes I worry that society as a whole has forgotten what people actually sound like when they sing. It’s different, right? I’m not the only one who’s noticed this, yes? Listen to someone singing in a cathedral or what the heck, pull out your record player. My point is that the sound, the undigitized sound...

Your mother has probably told you at some point that as an adult, if you make a mess no one is going to pick up after you.  Well guess what? She lied. This is one of those Santa Claus type lies.  It's harmless really.  But don't be shocked if you come home some day and find I've cleaned your kitchen and bathroom and taken out the trash.  Stuff happens. But however messy your home, you've probably never had "the cholera." I don't remember what book this came from, but caption courtesy of my best friend. I say "the cholera" because that's what I accidentally called it in conversation the other day.  It went something like this: "Reading Stephen King book, huh?" says my husband. "No, I'm reading about the cholera," I retort. I was reading this: A book about the cholera! I'm only part way through, but it really made me start thinking about miasmas.  I'm sure you do too.  You know, drift o...

I'm not gonna lie.  Things have been pretty normal around here lately.  I feel like it wasn't even a month ago that one of my co-workers was running around the office with a machete while people climbed in and out of the window in the building next door.  Now the building is completely sealed up and the machete has been returned to the office supply cabinet. So for lack of a better topic, I'm about to answer all your questions about that giant bun behind my head.  If I somehow miss a burning question, feel free to drop it in the comments. The hair cometh Q. Does everyone in your family have long hair? A. No, just me. Q: Are you part of a cult? A. You may not have noticed it, but most of the women in cults keep their hair a little bit shorter than mine.  And no, sorry, not in a cult.  But if I was, imagine the stories I could tell! Q: Does it ever go in the toilet? A: No, but I have vacuumed it up in the vacuum cleaner before. Q: You m...

My two-year-old's favorite book at the moment is a Dr. Seuss story titled  I Wish that I Had Duck Feet.  Maybe I've been writing waaaaaaay too much dystopian fiction.  Or, maybe this is the 1984 of children's literature. The story starts off well enough, like all dystopias do, with a boy experimenting with extreme body modifications.    He weighs the pros and cons of ear lobe stretching, facial tattoos, scarification, and branding   duck feet, an elephant trunk, a whale spout, and a tiger tail, among other things, and finally decides that everything at once is reasonable decision. And that's when things go bad. Really bad. Because, you know, being different is a crime. That's just dark for a children's book. Possibly the worst part of this book is that our protagonist doesn't continue the fight.  Just like 1984, he emerges, his will broken to Big Brother's. The yellow on this page creeps me out. But I might just be readi...

Also, to be frank, I like dense cities best and care about them most.-Jane Jacobs The thrum of traffic sways you down, lays you gentle on concrete.  Look, the stars are scattered, in street lamps, the glow of signs, our moon a puddle; and that openness inside you rests, sated with the longings of thousands. ________________________ I am reading The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs right now.  I haven't even made it past the introduction and I'm already wowed. Like, check this shit out: So even though I'm in suburban Arizona right now, here's a poem about the city.

We'll be going on vacation next week to Arizona.  It's been awhile since we've been on vacation, because who wants to travel with babies?  I'm still questioning my own judgement in taking a two-year-old and three-year-old on a plane. Also, I'm the only adult that vomits on airplanes.  There's nothing quite like being crammed in a small space with a bunch of strangers and losing your lunch in a paper bag.  Let's just hope it's a smooth landing. What do you mean, this won't help? The last time I felt really excited about getting on a plane had everything to do with what was at the other end.  Any guesses here?  Wait, before you guess, remember whose blog you're reading and try again. Nope. Nope. A leprosy colony!!!!  I would say The National Hansen's Disease Museum  or the Kalaupapa Mule Tour , but then no one would know what I'm talking about. Loot from my visits. And by the way, if you know what Hansen...

A few weeks ago, I realized that I needed to brush up on what actually happens in trauma care, since one of my characters is a pediatric trauma doc.  I started browsing the library catalogue online, and this happened: Waaay too many books So now I'm trying to read all of them as fast as I possibly can.  I just finished Catherine Musemeche, MD's Hurt: The Inspiring, Untold Story of Trauma Care.   I learned some things that will be important to my story, but much more interesting are the things that have absolutely no bearing on what I'm working on. The first part of the book spends some time on car accidents and the early prevention efforts.  Really, everything started with Susan Baker , an epidemiologist, and my new hero.  Susan Baker studied car accidents to figure out the causes.  She tended to focus on external causes, believing that people would still continue to be people.  Instead of trying to change them, she thought that we should ...

A few weeks ago, my husband offered to watch the kids while I went to the workout room at the community center.  Everything was fine, until I drove up to the building.  Do you know what's next to the community center?  A library .  Now don't get me wrong, I regularly go to the library, I just spend all my time in the children's section.  I stopped even trying to go in the adult section after one of my kids flung himself at a librarian while yelling about wanting to touch her computer.  So as you can imagine, being able to stare at books in silence is a huge temptation. After working out, I rewarded myself by taking a slow, leisurely walk through the non-fiction section.  Ten minutes later, I emerged with this: With that exact look on my face . . . Thomas Rid's  Rise of the Machines !  As you can imagine, I was hoping for lots of creepy robots taking over the world. Well, that didn't happen; I guess probably because the book's non...