It doesn’t matter that she is no longer here. December 12th will be her birthday as long as I draw breath. Ancient Egyptians believed that as long as your name was remembered, you would live on eternally. Every day, but most especially today, I remember the name of Barbara Allen Underwood Shaw. Continue reading
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WikiLeaks
9 DecWikiLeaks. If you are at all informed, you’ve probably heard of the site. Maybe you have no idea what they do, or you do, and you just aren’t interested. Well, if you believe like me that the First Amendment was first for a reason, you should be interested. Credo Action is circulating a petition to save the site from what is tantamount to official oppression. See below the text of the email they are asking me to send to you, my dear reader. Continue reading
Six months ago, or “A Reason, A Season, A Lifetime?”
8 DecJune 8. Six months ago. And I am still here, and slowly getting better. I wonder still if I will ever be better. Or is grief, like life, a journey with only one way out? Will I grieve the rest of my life? While talking about that with a friend online, she reminded me of this old quote, the source of which is elusive.
Visit to psychiatrist today
7 DecSaw the psychiatrist today, at the urging of my primary care doctor. She didn’t feel at all qualified to handle the issues brought about by my “Fun with Cymbalta“. So off to see a psychiatrist I went. This was the first time I ever saw one as a patient. I’ve been an involved party before, but never a patient. So it was very much a new experience for me. Continue reading
Have we found the cause of ME/CFS and FMS?
3 DecWhittemore Peterson Institute – XMRV.
The spectrum of neuro-immune diseases including: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), Atypical MS, Fibromyalgia and Gulf War Syndrome, share common abnormalities in the innate immune response, which result in chronic immune activation and immune deficiency.
We have detected the retroviral infection XMRV in greater than 95% of the more than 200 ME/CFS, Fibromylagia, Atypical MS patients tested. The current working hypothesis is that XMRV infection of B, T, NK and other cells of the innate immune response causes chronic inflammation and immune deficiency resulting in an inability to mount an effective immune response to opportunistic infections.
Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikipedia fails to mention the FMS link, and is clearly not as positive about any of the links as WPI. Still, it’s something worth knowing about.
More to read: Could a Virus Cause Chronic-Fatigue Syndrome? – Newsweek
Homework
1 DecWent to see the therapist today, for the first time since Barbara died. (We have history, as he was treating her for complex PTSD before her hospitalization, and I was going with her.) The session helped me a lot. No details here, for obvious reasons. The diagnosis is complicated grief . I go back in two weeks (I can’t afford weekly), and I have homework to do. Painful, difficult, soul wrenching homework.
But he’s right. I need to do it.
My WoW Characters
27 NovPrior to the upgrade, I was playing the basic edition. As a result, there were certain races I could not play. The one that bothered me most was the lack of the Draenei. That looked like a really fun race.
Today, I created my first Draenei character, and made her a Paladin. Yes, I said “her”. All my characters in WoW are female. Hey, it’s fantasy, right? Might as well take it all the way. Without further ado, here she is: Continue reading
Switching Off Comcast
27 NovI did some research, and this past week I shut off Comcast Cable / Internet. I’ve had ongoing issues with the quality of service, as well as consistency of service and pricing. Over the last several months, my bill hadn’t been the same amount two months in a row, and I wasn’t buying pay-per-view. Oh, it only varied a few dollars from month to month, but I could never explain why it varied at all. There were frequent service interruptions, both on TV and internet, but almost never both at the same time. Continue reading
Upgrading World of Warcraft
24 NovI decided to spend $15 getting up to the level where the World of Warcraft Cataclysm upgrade is even available. I mean, so what if I don’t eat over the weekend? I’ll overeat on Thanksgiving anyway. I am such a nerd. Or is that geek? I can never keep them straight, because I am both. Yes, it does hurt. Thanks for asking.
Mike Huckabee lauds ousting of Iowa justices over gay marriage, courts evangelicals
22 NovMike Huckabee lauds ousting of Iowa justices over gay marriage, courts evangelicals.
Mike Huckabee is one scary guy. And this isn’t a recent revelation for me. Allow me to direct you to my past commentary on his 2008 Presidential run. Pay particular attention to An Alternative Future History. Change a few minor details, and this is still a very real scenario. The people in question (Palin, Huckabee) really do seem to believe that a Christian theocracy is the only thing that would “save this nation” from itself.
An Aging Trans Woman 