Health Insurance

Posted on May 5th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Meta-Fors, Money.

You know, I pay an extraordinary amount of money for health insurance of which I never really take advantage. I understand I’m a smoker with asthma (yes, I am humbled by my own idiocy), but $400 a month?? I think I am going to really focus on my health after finals, and get a number of my ticks and tocks taken care of so that I can cut back on my coverage for a year at least, and not have to worry that my gears are going to get ground. Major medical should be enough after that, so I can rest comfortably knowing I’m not paying for more than I need, but also that if should suddenly bust a cog in an accident I’ll be covered.

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Book Art

Posted on May 5th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Literary, Omnia Vanitas, Meta-Fors.

I love books.  They are the way, the truth, and the light — No Joke.  This obsession is a little strange as I get almost all my information online and rarely look at my books except for fond memories or when I can’t find the equivalent information or text in a digital format.  But my personal library is quite substantial, although I once sold a bunch under the prompting of a boyfriend who was tired of stepping over them, a decision I still very much resent to this day.  I don’t believe that books should be locked up or put away, but rather should be open and accessible to anyone who visits my home, nor do I believe that books need to be handled with archivist precision, although I do have a thing about deliberately damaging texts.  I recently discovered this site of Book Art which is just amazing.  I guess if you are going to cut up works of literature, its a little more okay if its to make it a work of art . . . Check out the personal catalogue of Georgia Russell to see her amazing work, including the one below, which is entitled Memoire.  She’s Scottish, which is a bonus.  :)

Memoire by Georgia Russell, Scottish Artist

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Band-Aids & Broken Glass

Posted on April 27th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Meta-Fors.

I have always been one of those girls who can’t just rip a band-aid off. Sure, I’ve done it, usually in a gruff, show I’m tough kind of display. But when I’m alone, sitting in my bathroom, I nurse the process, lifting slowly as each molecule of adhesive pulls away, leaving sticky traces of itself or taking part of my skin with it. As in the bathroom, so in life, I think. I’ve never just been able to throw my hands up and walk away from something — be it jobs, relationships, even TV shows. I let things abrade away at me, piece by piece, until something or someone else intervenes. But sometimes, quick equals clean. I love the thought of a sharp edge, an ending, the final page, coming at my own demand. I can’t continue to live this half-life, feeling so leaky all the time, letting everything spin slowly away from my grasp. I have to decide that if I can’t continue to juggle a ball, I should throw it away from me with great force. Maybe it’s time to break some windows…

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As In War, So In Love: Sucks To Be Swine

Posted on March 17th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Meta-Fors.

Sow with Piglet, from Wikipedia

Drainage V. Excision on the Modern Battlefield

Authors: M. L. Fackler; J. P. Breteau; L. J. Courbil; R. Taxit; J. Glas; LETTERMAN ARMY INST OF RESEARCH PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO

Abstract: Military dogma preaches that excision of all injured tissue around the path of a penetrating projectile is essential in wound treatment. To find out whether excising injured muscle surrounding a bullet path benefits healing over and above the benefit provided by a simple release of tension by incision, two groups of 90 kg swine were shot in the hind leg by a replica of the AK-74 Assault Rifle projectile. One group was treated by excision of injured tissue around the projectile path; in the other group no tissue was excised. Both groups were given parenteral penicillin for five days, and simple gauze dressings were used to cover the wounds. No difference in healing time occurred; the wounds in both groups had closed and no epithelial defect remained by 20 to 22 days. These results indicate that the simple extremity wound caused by the modern generation assault rifle, provided with adequate open drainage and systematic penicillin, heals as rapidly when the body defense mechanisms handle the disrupted tissue as when an attempt is made to excise it surgically.

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