Wow, it has been a long day and I have a confession to make. But first, let me give you some background.
I have been blessed this year with the generosity of so many people. This generosity has allowed me to be able to work only three days a week (Sunday, Thursday, and Friday for those of you who don't know) and really focus on school. This semester, I'm enrolled in school with a total of 16 units, and I have to admit I'm not sure that this semester is going to be that difficult.
Since I am one of the older people in my classes,I have almost turned into a professional student, I get the feeling that I'm in enrolled in easy classes since everyone around me dreams of fake id's and enjoys the newly found comfort of living away from Mom and Dad. I'll keep you updated on how "easy" these classes as the semester progresses. Going off on a tangent, let me reel myself back in.
Now, most of the week I am very relaxed and able to really hone in on some activities, that i never had time to do before. Only after studying, of course. I have taken up cooking, exercising, cleaning, and writing to name a few, which have all become a therapeutic outlet for me. Except for days like today.
It all started last night, When I made the mistake of going to happy hour at Rock Bottom last night with Wei, my roommate and his friend, Kassage. Happy hour was fun besides some anxious distractions from seeing an ex-boyfriend, at least I thought it was him. I was too chicken shit to actually make any eye contact to verify that the back side of him actually matched the front that I wouldn't look at. That's really beside the point. I was delirious and really exhausted from the night before when I stayed up late doing nothing productive, I should have been studying. So back to happy hour, we had a couple drinks and it was time to go home. Came home, was in bed before midnight, and then the sound of the dreaded alarm this morning.
I hit snooze a couple times, thinking, in sleepy/dream-mode, that I had so much time before school. The next thing I know it's 8:15 and I have about ten minutes to get out the door so that I could make it to PH 290, Health Professions and Organization, on time. An hour later, after a short stint on the freeway, a pop in to Starbucks (yeah, I did make time for a venti coffee w/ cold soy), a search for a parking spot, and a short walk later I was in class listening to a lecture about "Health People 2010."
I made it through PH 290 and was off to Microbiology lab, uhh. Still tired, the coffee only mildly perked me up, but I was running on no food. It's eleven, now and I'm putting on this dreadfully tacky white lab coat and getting ready to "play" with some E. Coli. Great, I have only had coffee, not one bite of food, my cognitive skills, not to mention motor skills, are declining at a rapid rate, and I have to "play" with E. Coli. I was just hoping that none of it got into my body, so that I wouldn't have to toy with the idea of having to "pray to the porcelain god" for any period of time. We used samples of it and placed them in some cool jelly looking stuff, so that it would grow and we could examine it next week. Lab is 2 hours and 40 minutes long. By the end of lab, my coffee has completely worn off, I can't really think straight and I am starving. Not to mention, I'm starting to get cranky and very grumpy.
I get out of lab at 1:40pm and now I have a race to work. It's the first day of the week that I have school and work, and I had been dreading it since I got out of work Sunday night. I have to be at work by 2:15pm. Now, this means that from the moment I get out of lab, walk half a mile to my truck, wait in traffic to get to the freeway, drive from the college area, all the way to Poway in 35 minutes. Almost impossible! Did I mention I was starving? I know I'm that hungry when I start yelling at people in the car for almost no reason. It just seemed like everyone was driving super slow and trying to their best ability, to make me late to work. I was a grumpy girl today!
Ok, so It's 2:01pm and I'm getting off on my exit to work and still have about 5 miles to drive to get to GEICO. Great, 14 minutes to get to work, change into "work appropriate" business casual clothes, clock in and start checking, what I found to be 75 emails waiting for me. Of course, I hit about 80% red lights on Scripps Poway Parkway, or what Charles likes to call, SPP. Just my luck I start getting more upset. I finally make it work, I get a front row parking spot, which always brings a smile to my face, and I run in, looking like a bag lady. I'm carrying my school bag and work clothes, and trying to find my badge to get me into the building. I run through the turnstiles, up the steps, and finally to my desk where I end up clocking in at 2:18pm, pretty darn miraculous. I drop my stuff and go change, and all i can think about is eating. Charles tries to talk to me, and I have to hold off on that, so that I can get some food in my body and prevent a snappy, short remark from exiting my mouth.
Since, I only had ten minutes in the morning to get ready I didn't have time to make my lunch. As most of you know, I haven't eaten "fast food" in about 6 months, maybe more. Besides,the occasional Bean and Cheese burrito from a local taco shop, hmmmm. This is when the confession you have all been waiting for comes in. There is one small detail that I left out on my way to work. I stopped at Taco Bell. I used to eat Taco Bell maybe 5 times a week, at the height of my fast food diet. Ironically which at that point in my life, I was surprisingly too skinny. Now how does that work? I went through the drive through, on the way to work and ordered too much food, my eyes for food were enormous. Like a good girl, I ate it all. Finally, a sense of energy rushed through my body. This was later followed by a sick feeling, a combination of nausea and a fever, at least it felt like it. Was it the Taco Bell or E. Coli I started to wonder. But I have to confess, that my crunchwrap, crunchy taco, bean burrito and diet pepsi were quite tasty in my moments of exhaustion and starvation.
All though the food was good, I would have to admit that, I will not be making a habit of the Thursday trip to "the bell". I feel much better when I eat fresh unprocessed foods that really give my body the vitamins and minerals that it needs.
The rest of the day turned out be much better than the first half. I had another coffee, a triple venti soy latte, to combat the continued feeling of exhaustion and take my mind off the dead battery in my phone. I spoke with some nice policyholders at work, and got to help some fellow co-workers with their calls.
As I write this last sentence, I think about getting to sleep so that I don't have another late morning, have ten minutes to get out of the house, and end up with a meal of Taco Bell later in the day.
Much love,
Micah
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
To clone or not to clone? That is the question.
Many of you that are around me on a daily or even a weekly basis have realized that I talk about food a lot. Food has become a great topic of interest for me. It is quite amazing the things that not only go into our food, but the way the politics of food works.
We all have to eat to stay alive, we don't have that choice. We do have the choice about what we put into our mouth. I think that most people have no idea, nor do they care about what they eat and the industry that supplies this food to you plate.
One thing that I find intriguing is that we we may soon be eating the meat of cloned animals, if not already are. (There is some debate in regards to if these animals have made it into our food supply yet, if it has it is most likely in dairy products.) The FDA declared Tuesday, January 22, 2008 that cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat. The first animal that was cloned occurred in 1996, Dolly the sheep. Funny how the acceptable cloned meat to eat currently excludes sheep, even though they have been cloning sheep longer than any other animal. Do we really have enough information about cloning animals to make the judgment that they are safe to eat? I'm not sure we do, as it is a relatively new technology.
I'm not sure I would eat cloned animals, at least not knowingly. I watched this movie in my History of Sexuality class, Evolution: Why Sex?, which discussed the aspect of genetic variation and how it is necessary for survival of a species. It addressed the subject with the description of these cute little fish that live in pools in the rural mountains of Mexico. There are 2 types of these fish, one type the produces offspring via the "normal sexual" route, and the other that produces little ones asexually, yup. . . asexually. What was interesting about this movie was not only that there is a species that produces offspring asexually, but the fact that these cute little fish that produced offspring with the absence of sex were infected with a parasite at a higher rate than those that produced little gametes via the traditional male/female interaction.
The reasoning behind this is because the little fish that have sex donate half their genetic code to their offspring, allowing for natural selection to take place. This allows for genetic variation, allowing genes that inhibit their well-being to disappear over time, and genes that are beneficial to their survival are able to flourish. The ones that produce offspring without sex, do not donate half their genetic code to their offspring, in fact their offspring are exact copies of their mother. This does not allow for natural selection to occur in this type of fish. The little fish, i wish i could remember the name of the breed, that do not have sex used to become infected with this parasite at higher rates than the sexual ones. Over the course of a year, the rate of parasitic infections became equal among the two types of fish. The researchers concluded that this was because the sexual fish started to inbreed and lose their genetic variation. To test their hypothesis, the researchers took fish from some of the other pools in the area and deposited the fish into the area where the parasitic infections where equal among asexual and sexual fish. Not to their surprise, the parasitic infection, again, began to infect the asexual fish at higher rates.
What does this have to do with cloned meat, you ask? Everything! If meat were to be cloned at high rates, than they, just like the fish, would become susceptible to infections and diseases that they may have originally developed immunities to. I also am not sure why we would decide to clone animals for the purpose of slaughtering and eating them, seems like a waste of money to me. Have cows stopped procreating? I'm pretty sure the have not.
The studies that have been completed, the ones the FDA used to base their statement about safety, were one that were administered by cloning companies. I would have to say that this is a definite conflict of interest. This is the tip of the iceberg, when we think about how food companies influence politics, but that is a whole other blog. The FDA also stated that meat products that were from cloned animals would not have to be labeled, but ones that are clone-free would need approval to label their product as such.
Admirers of the FDA's declaration, believe that cloning will help to uniform meat in all areas and provide consistent and better meat, than traditional meat. I don't notice the difference between a filet in Vons versus one purchased at Henry's, unless we are comparing free range grazing meat to grain fed cattle from meat packing plants.
I'll let you make the decision on this one. If you want a change, your voice has to be heard.
Until next time,
Micah
We all have to eat to stay alive, we don't have that choice. We do have the choice about what we put into our mouth. I think that most people have no idea, nor do they care about what they eat and the industry that supplies this food to you plate.
One thing that I find intriguing is that we we may soon be eating the meat of cloned animals, if not already are. (There is some debate in regards to if these animals have made it into our food supply yet, if it has it is most likely in dairy products.) The FDA declared Tuesday, January 22, 2008 that cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat. The first animal that was cloned occurred in 1996, Dolly the sheep. Funny how the acceptable cloned meat to eat currently excludes sheep, even though they have been cloning sheep longer than any other animal. Do we really have enough information about cloning animals to make the judgment that they are safe to eat? I'm not sure we do, as it is a relatively new technology.
I'm not sure I would eat cloned animals, at least not knowingly. I watched this movie in my History of Sexuality class, Evolution: Why Sex?, which discussed the aspect of genetic variation and how it is necessary for survival of a species. It addressed the subject with the description of these cute little fish that live in pools in the rural mountains of Mexico. There are 2 types of these fish, one type the produces offspring via the "normal sexual" route, and the other that produces little ones asexually, yup. . . asexually. What was interesting about this movie was not only that there is a species that produces offspring asexually, but the fact that these cute little fish that produced offspring with the absence of sex were infected with a parasite at a higher rate than those that produced little gametes via the traditional male/female interaction.
The reasoning behind this is because the little fish that have sex donate half their genetic code to their offspring, allowing for natural selection to take place. This allows for genetic variation, allowing genes that inhibit their well-being to disappear over time, and genes that are beneficial to their survival are able to flourish. The ones that produce offspring without sex, do not donate half their genetic code to their offspring, in fact their offspring are exact copies of their mother. This does not allow for natural selection to occur in this type of fish. The little fish, i wish i could remember the name of the breed, that do not have sex used to become infected with this parasite at higher rates than the sexual ones. Over the course of a year, the rate of parasitic infections became equal among the two types of fish. The researchers concluded that this was because the sexual fish started to inbreed and lose their genetic variation. To test their hypothesis, the researchers took fish from some of the other pools in the area and deposited the fish into the area where the parasitic infections where equal among asexual and sexual fish. Not to their surprise, the parasitic infection, again, began to infect the asexual fish at higher rates.
What does this have to do with cloned meat, you ask? Everything! If meat were to be cloned at high rates, than they, just like the fish, would become susceptible to infections and diseases that they may have originally developed immunities to. I also am not sure why we would decide to clone animals for the purpose of slaughtering and eating them, seems like a waste of money to me. Have cows stopped procreating? I'm pretty sure the have not.
The studies that have been completed, the ones the FDA used to base their statement about safety, were one that were administered by cloning companies. I would have to say that this is a definite conflict of interest. This is the tip of the iceberg, when we think about how food companies influence politics, but that is a whole other blog. The FDA also stated that meat products that were from cloned animals would not have to be labeled, but ones that are clone-free would need approval to label their product as such.
Admirers of the FDA's declaration, believe that cloning will help to uniform meat in all areas and provide consistent and better meat, than traditional meat. I don't notice the difference between a filet in Vons versus one purchased at Henry's, unless we are comparing free range grazing meat to grain fed cattle from meat packing plants.
I'll let you make the decision on this one. If you want a change, your voice has to be heard.
Until next time,
Micah
Looking for change
I appreciate everyone response and comments. One thing I want to clarify: I didn't mean to convey the message that we should not give health care to inmates that are incarcerated. I think that if they have medical problems, of course they need to be treated. But, do they need a brand new complex? I don't agree on spending hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payers money to rebuild a brand new health service center in the prison, when many Californians don't have medical insurance and when California can't figure out how to budget their money. The bottom line is that California has some major problems that it is facing economically. We should concentrate more of our efforts on spending our money more wisely.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Looking for Change, Installment One
I figured that since there are some topics that really peak my interest and that I fell quite strongly about that I might as well shares these ideas with others. Hence the start of my own personal blog, yes. . . Micah started a blog.
As most of you know, I am finishing up my Education at SDSU studying Public Health. I can't explain how happy I am that I have found my passion in this world, since I have spent much of my college career bouncing around different majors, different careers, and working hard. After this long stint as an undergrad, I will hopefully be attending a Graduate program to get my master's in Nursing specializing in Public Health. Then I can go on to do fantastic things and contribute so much to society and helping people. Maybe my sister and I can be a little team of health professionals.
For those of you not familiar with the Health industry, let me tell you about Public Health. The easiest way I explain it to people, is by telling them that its health issues that each and everyone of us confront everyday of our lives. Public Health issues encompass both political and social arenas, preventative and treatment methods, and also social and individualistic struggles. It is social marketing of healthy behaviors to the population so that we can contribute to society in great ways. Topics range from the food we put in our mouths, infectious diseases we contract, drugs we become addicted to, and accidents we get into, to name a few. Basically public health is a necessity to the prolonged health of the human population so that we can be healthy contributing people in society.
As we all know, health care is an issue that we are seeing more and more of in the news, especially in a year of a presidential election. But the real issue is that there are millions of people with out health insurance, and we need to figure out a way to correct this. I don't know the best way to do this, do we raise everyone's taxes to support a government based health care program, do we make it mandatory that all employers offer health insurance for their employees, or do we make regulations that medical organizations have to abide to? What I do know is that the current system is in need of definite reform.
I read an article yesterday in the Union Tribune that disturbed me. The article targeted a major prison, San Quentin, in California and discussed its current state. The article was titled, "San Quentin Original Dungeon to be Preserved Amid Renovation," this was not what was so disturbing to me. What was disturbing was what I went on to read in the article. The article talks about the, "Federal court-ordered overhaul of California's prison medical system," yes you heard it right. The California tax payers are not only paying for criminals to live in our prison systems, not only their medical treatment, but a new $146 million primary health service complex at the prison. Does any of that make sense? While there are millions of people in the state without medical insurance, the inmates that are housed at this maximum security prison are not only getting free medical insurance, but the ones footing the bill are law-abiding citizens. Many of these citizens are not able to receive their own health insurance, yet they get to fund a health care system for rapists, murderers, and other criminals. Some how our government justifies building a brand new health facility partly paid by those who can't even get insurance themselves. There is just something so completely wrong about this ass-backward situation, for lack of better words.
To keep this as un-biased as I can, I do need to mention the fact that the hospital currently on the premise of the prison was built in 1885. So it's old! It obviously worked up until this point, or they made other accommodations to satisfy the medical needs of the prisoners. There may even be a different facility that they used and the 1885 facility could merely be just for show. The article, coincidentally, didn't mention that. (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080127/news_1n27quentin.html)
I feel as though the law-abiding citizens that work hard and pay their taxes are getting screwed. We wonder why the state of California is suffering from a financial and economic crisis? We wonder why the Governor has to cut education budgets for Californian children and students or why the cost of living is so high?
Ponder these thoughts, what is that you think or what is it that believe? Maybe we shouldn't depend on politics to make the right choices for us, they don't exactly have a proven track record for doing so.
Until next time,
Micah
As most of you know, I am finishing up my Education at SDSU studying Public Health. I can't explain how happy I am that I have found my passion in this world, since I have spent much of my college career bouncing around different majors, different careers, and working hard. After this long stint as an undergrad, I will hopefully be attending a Graduate program to get my master's in Nursing specializing in Public Health. Then I can go on to do fantastic things and contribute so much to society and helping people. Maybe my sister and I can be a little team of health professionals.
For those of you not familiar with the Health industry, let me tell you about Public Health. The easiest way I explain it to people, is by telling them that its health issues that each and everyone of us confront everyday of our lives. Public Health issues encompass both political and social arenas, preventative and treatment methods, and also social and individualistic struggles. It is social marketing of healthy behaviors to the population so that we can contribute to society in great ways. Topics range from the food we put in our mouths, infectious diseases we contract, drugs we become addicted to, and accidents we get into, to name a few. Basically public health is a necessity to the prolonged health of the human population so that we can be healthy contributing people in society.
As we all know, health care is an issue that we are seeing more and more of in the news, especially in a year of a presidential election. But the real issue is that there are millions of people with out health insurance, and we need to figure out a way to correct this. I don't know the best way to do this, do we raise everyone's taxes to support a government based health care program, do we make it mandatory that all employers offer health insurance for their employees, or do we make regulations that medical organizations have to abide to? What I do know is that the current system is in need of definite reform.
I read an article yesterday in the Union Tribune that disturbed me. The article targeted a major prison, San Quentin, in California and discussed its current state. The article was titled, "San Quentin Original Dungeon to be Preserved Amid Renovation," this was not what was so disturbing to me. What was disturbing was what I went on to read in the article. The article talks about the, "Federal court-ordered overhaul of California's prison medical system," yes you heard it right. The California tax payers are not only paying for criminals to live in our prison systems, not only their medical treatment, but a new $146 million primary health service complex at the prison. Does any of that make sense? While there are millions of people in the state without medical insurance, the inmates that are housed at this maximum security prison are not only getting free medical insurance, but the ones footing the bill are law-abiding citizens. Many of these citizens are not able to receive their own health insurance, yet they get to fund a health care system for rapists, murderers, and other criminals. Some how our government justifies building a brand new health facility partly paid by those who can't even get insurance themselves. There is just something so completely wrong about this ass-backward situation, for lack of better words.
To keep this as un-biased as I can, I do need to mention the fact that the hospital currently on the premise of the prison was built in 1885. So it's old! It obviously worked up until this point, or they made other accommodations to satisfy the medical needs of the prisoners. There may even be a different facility that they used and the 1885 facility could merely be just for show. The article, coincidentally, didn't mention that. (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080127/news_1n27quentin.html)
I feel as though the law-abiding citizens that work hard and pay their taxes are getting screwed. We wonder why the state of California is suffering from a financial and economic crisis? We wonder why the Governor has to cut education budgets for Californian children and students or why the cost of living is so high?
Ponder these thoughts, what is that you think or what is it that believe? Maybe we shouldn't depend on politics to make the right choices for us, they don't exactly have a proven track record for doing so.
Until next time,
Micah
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
