Halloween, bah!

I am not fond of Halloween. I don't think our kids should be encouraged to eat more candy, nor should they be encouraged to go around asking for handouts, nor try to scare and "trick" others. The real world has enough of that, so why a "holiday" for it? Kids today are more obese and less active than ever before. Of course, a good side to the holiday is that this is the most exercise many kids get now! But, it is popular with kids and adults, particularly my daughter, so maybe it is just me. Boooooooooooo

On another note, I have been dealing with my Mom's illness the past several days. My brother called a few days back and said my Mom looked really bad and may not make it much longer. She has been ill for a while, but seemed to always pull through. She has been diagnosed with cancer and now her doctors are talking about surgery and other types of treatments and apparently they are not explaining to her exactly what and why? If they tell her, she either can't understand or remember enough to tell me or my brother. I called her and asked if I could talk to her doctor. Of course, she blew up and gave me an adamant NO! She apparently is afraid I will say something to him to "hurt his feelings" or something. My brother now is upset with me because I am asking questions about her treatment and trying to get answers and I don't know why. Again, it must be me. I just wanted to talk to her doctor and find out about her disease, it's diagnosis, a prognosis and treatment options. I feel that I am in a position to understand better what they say and to ask more appropriate questions than my Mom or brother. I guess I need to let it go and pray for God's blessings to give my Mom the strength and peace of mind to deal with this. If it is indeed her last days among us, I believe that she is going to a better place, with no pain, sorrow or unhappiness and that has to be enough for me. Answers here on earth would be nice, but I guess I am just asking for me, it most likely wouldn't help my Mom anyway.

Another boootiful day in Memphis! I will be giving out candy while my daughter goes "trick or treating" dressed as a surgeon! Cowboys won again! I started a new diet this morning, based on the idea that you eat smaller portions of the right foods more often. I am eating chicken, rice, tuna and lettuce today, parcelled out in ounces and cups. Oh yeah, I had 4 egg whites for breakfast! In total, I will eat 6 times today, w/ about 12 oz of baked chicken breast, 4 oz tuna, 1 cup of rice and 8 cups of green veggies! This will last for 6 days, then we focus on eating healthier meals, low on carbs like bread and pasta, low on fat and high on protein (chicken, turkey, tuna). I seems to have a sound nutritional basis and with proper exercise, I hope to drop about 20 lbs in the next month or so. The hard part is preparing and measuring all the portions and actually eating 6 times a day. Today I had my egg whites for breakfast at 6:30, a mid-morning snack at 9:30 (4 oz chicken, 2 cup lettuce) and lunch at 12:30 (chicken, rice, broccoli). At 2:30 I will have my mid-afternoon snack (4 0z tuna, 2 cups lettuce) and wrap it up with dinner at 5pm. The other hard part will be not eating anything from 5 pm until bed-time! But, I do need to lose the weight and really want to. At my age, it doesn't come off nearly as fast as it used to and if I can get 20lbs off, I want to try to keep it off!

That's all folks!

Good day

NBA dress code?

What, oh what, is this nation coming to? I mean, actually having the entity you work for (your employer), that pays you extremely well, ask that you dress in "business casual" attire for work related activities! How dare they? If I were getting paid millions of dollars to play a game, they could ask me to dress in "hip-hop" fashion, dress like a country bumpkin, wear a chicken costume or even go cross-dressed and I would not even blink (not bling!)... I would wear what was requested, collect my HUGE paychecks, play my games and keep quite. Maybe these overpaid athletes have forgotten that they are actually expendable, that our society will not wilt away and fall apart if they don't play another game of basketball! Actually, it is not uncommon for employers to request certain work attire... ask all the folks that work for KFC, BK or Micky-D's if you don't believe me, and they don't get paid NEARLY as much! For the folks that claim it is racist to ask NBA ballers (78% of whom are African-American), I would say that you are stretching the "racist card" too far in this case. Save it for more important issues, such as the appointment of judges to courts in SC, racial "profiling" or the Katrina FEMA fiasco, for example, not asking a millionaire to dress more appropiately for business related activities! Heck, just to make my two measly paychecks come in each month I am expected to dress 'appropriately'. Imagine how those "red-neck" country oafs that drive in NASCAR feel when they are asked to put on a shirt, tie and clean underwear to meet corporate executives at fancy functions! But, they do it to keep what? Thats right, their JOBS! They do it to please whom? Thats right, the VP's, CEO's etc that make their JOB possible!

Again, "how dare they"? Another way to look at it would be, how many folks do you think would readily AGREE to dress nicely if they could make a million dollars a year or more to play a game? A whole bunch of us (including me)! Oh well, I guess it takes all kinds of issues to make a great nation like ours eh?

Good Day!

life?

Rosa Parks died at 92. I expect that headline will elicit a variety of responses from both sides of the 'racial divide'. Of course, I never new Ms. Parks, but at 42 she accomplished more with her life than most of us could ever dream of! By refusing to give up her seat to a white man, and I hesitate to call any male that would expect a lady to give HIM a seat a man, Ms. Parks set in motion events that drastically, and for the better, changed the political landscape of this nation. Not too many of us can say we have done anything to change much of anything around us, much less an entire nation and two races of humans! It still completely and absolutely befuddles me that at one time in this country it was accepted that one human being could OWN another human being. To this day, ignorant, small-minded Southern red-necks still claim the south was right and still try to hold on to a past were Americans could buy and sell folks of African descent! Well, I am one of southern descent (born in KY, lived in SC, now TN) that has always known it is wrong to treat anyone differently just because of skin color. Having said that, I have never really liked people in generally, because I think people in general are ignorant and don't try to think, but that is not related to skin color. But, my feelings about people in general are mine and I don't treat folks differently based on those feelings. I try to be as nice as I can to those that are nice to me and even those that aren't as nice as they could be. There is something about the human race, the "herding factor" that is simply intolerable to me personally. Get a group of people together and the overall intellectual ability of each member of the group drops to a lowest common denominator and the group mentality can take over. Folks in groups will do things they would NEVER do alone. I have always thought that if any two people from any two walks of life, political, religious or demographic, spent time together one on one, they could get along. It is the "herding factor" that makes us behave inappropriately towards those that are different. Notice that children have no trouble playing with and getting along with others at an early age, that it is only when parents step in that kids start treating each other differently or badly. Racism is a learned behavior, handed down from ignorant, small-minded parents (of all races) to their children, who then become ignorant, small-minded parents that teach their..... you get the gist? Can't we all just learn to get along and accept our differences as God given gifts?

Good day!

!My Vest!

Yeah!! It was actually in the 30's when I got up at 5 am this morning! I was going to wear a sweater or sports coat to work this morning, but they were so wrinkled (hadn't been unpacked yet) that I decided to wear my beloved down vest. It is black, so it goes with anything, even a shirt and tie. I really like this time of year, mainly because the cool, dry fall weather is such a refreshing break from the humid hot 'dog days' of late summer in the south. The leaves are changing and falling in the breeze and as I walked around our lake yesterday for exercise, I thought about how lucky I was to have my health, a home (too expensive though) a truck that runs (knock on wood) and a healthy family (mostly). My son and daughter are healthy, as is my wife and me, but my mom has been diagnosed with cancer and she has been in bad health for several years before that. I really think her lifestyle caused many of her problems, like excessive smoking, no exercise to speak of, a poor diet and extreme stress in her life. Of course, her own mom died at a very young age, so that plays a roll also. I just learned this morning that my ex-wife was in the hospital and they found blood clots in her lungs, so that is not good. Way too often, those of us whom God has blessed with good health take if for granted. I know that from my Dad's side, I have a fairly healthy genome. Up until I hit 35 or so and got divorced, I was in great physical health, exerice, diet and all. I moved out, quit exercising some much, went to a fast-food, unhealthy type of diet and gained 25lbs. I was lucky to be able to lose that when I started a new job, but over the past 3-4 years, I have slowly but surely put most of that back on. I gained weight when I spent 5 months in the Caribbean (another story) and just haven't been able to get it back off. Now that I am settled into another full-time position and my life has become more of a model of what I had invisioned, I am excerising more, eating better, but it is hard to overcome the raveges of AGE. I am staring 50 down the barrel and have many more aches and pains than I thought possible. But, you learn to adapt, do what you can to ease the pains and ride them out. I hate to take medicine or go to a doctor (MD), so I pretty much diagnose myself and use holistic methods to heal. I know that diet, rest, fluids and exercise are the primary mechanisms that God gave up to stay healthy, so I focus on those. Most folks overlook the value of sufficient and proper fluid and food intake, which, when combined with sufficient rest, can make a lot of difference in our health.

Anway, hope my Mom finds some peace in her life as she deals w/ the cancer and that my son's mother gets healthy again and is around for him for a long time (he is 14 now)

Else, same ol' same ol' --> Cowboys find a way to lose; Yet another hurricane may unleash the mess we call FEMA and NBA ballplayers are claiming it is racism to ask them to dress appropriately for work related activities (go figure that one!) and sirens are blaring in Midtown Memphis. Just another day, eh? (more on the NBA later)

Good day!

Cold a comin'

Forecasters say this weekend may bring the cooler Fall weather I have been waiting for! It hasn't been really too hot lately, but I enjoy that first really cool weekend of each Fall. Leaves changing colors, clean brisk air and sun during the days, cool crisp clear nights.... Didn't win the lottery, but I didn't really expect to, but it is a nice fantasy to have, right? Some students EM'd my division chair and complained that they failed the first Patho exam because I made it too hard! That crap is what keeps being a college prof from being the perfect job for me. Students cannot accept the fact that no matter who your prof is, you have to study you butt off to do well in a difficult class like Patho. Of course, Dan, my supervisor, agreed that the class is traditionally hard and students have to adapt, but it still gets me! I try to explain everything as well as I can, I cover the material in the book and I make exams challenging, but not overly difficult. Bottom line: if you study as you should a B is fairly easy in Patho. An 'A' now, is very difficult and takes much more effort that many students today are prepared to give. But, it is always the prof's fault when a student does bad, right?

A few good football games this weekend to look forward to and NASCAR is at Richmond this weekend, though I am not following NASCAR as closely since my car (#8) is in the running for the cup. Doesn't the world series begin this weekend? Me thinks so!

Guess I will head out into the cruel, relentless traffic of Friday afternoon, downtown Memphis and try to thread my beat up ol' Ford Ranger to the house. Have a great weekend all!

Good day!

sirens and more sirens

Much of the time, the peace and quite of early morning midtown Memphis is something I enjoy as I sit at my computer and get ready for my 8am Patho lecture. I look over EM's, blogs, news etc as the sun slowly, but surely, makes its rise and begins to peek into my office window. Then, other mornings, such as this, it seems every police car, fire truck and ambulance in town is going up/down Madison Ave! Of course, our campus is in the heart of the "hospital" district of Memphis, with no less than 5 different hospitals or health care providers located in Midtown.

Well, I spent $3 on the Powerball, so I may not be here for a while when I collect my half of the 340 million! I will gladly give GW and his gang of crooks there half and I will stop off at the fisrt Ford dealership I see and buy me a F250 truck! Not sure what color, but it will be loaded! The best part of winning that much money would be to be able to finally take care of my family, my mom, dad, brothers, sisters etc so that they can be more comfortable. Then, I would really enjoy finally paying off ALL MY DEBTS, one by one, check by check and then telling them all to kiss my ---- (oops, got carried away).... I have been broke so long that even with all those millions, I would probably still look for ways to save money! Oh well, it is a nice dream to help time pass on my commute!

Good day!

tequila sunrise

The mornings are beautiful, with the sun rising on yet another cloudless, serene morning in Memphis. I expect that "ol' man winter" will make up for the good weather we have been having, especially since our house is GAS heat and it is the first time I have ever had to pay for GAS heat and guess what..... the price of GAS heat is expected to at least double this winter! The way it goes for Drdubg, eh? Cowboys won (yeah...), Cardinals are still hanging on and the Panthers managed to win another close game.... Oh, and the PATRIOTS LOST AGAIN (double yeah!)

Is it me, or is the global climate going crazy! Our hurricane problems, mudslides in Guatemala, earthquakes in Pakistan, excessive rain and mud slides in Spain, wildfires in California and another hurricane (wilma) may be developing near the Caymans and move toward the US! Oh yeah, and our extremely competent Federal government is warning of a potential Pandemic if the new chicken virus mutates so it affects humans! They say if it does mutate and gets to the US borders, all hell will break lose with our health care system and maybe even our entire economic base will collapse! Sounds like good times ahead eh?

Good day!

lab prac

Just finished my first midterm lab practical at BCHS. Went well. Apparently some of my students have complained that I don't spend enought time in lab while they are working, but the reason I don't is that students today want to be GIVEN all the answers! They tend to not want to seek out the answers on their own, so I go to my office and check in on them periodically to help out. But, some students look for any reason to complain and complain and whine they do!

Well, McKenzie and I are headed out to lunch at Fridays and I most likely will have a couple of tall, frosty brewskies! Then on to rent her some movies to watch and I will veg out in front of FOOTBALL, BASEBALL, GOLF AND NASCAR! All in glorious color right in the comfort of my home! Can't beat that eh?

All have a great rest of the weekend.

Good day!

Yet another TGIF

Since I work on Saturday this trimester, the overall impact of Friday afternoon is lessened, but hey, it is STILL FRIDAY! And PAY DAY TOO! Getting paid every 2 weeks is indeed nice, but it still feels like we are living from paycheck to paycheck... hey, we are! But the paychecks are a lot bigger than they used to be, but so is rent, utilities, food bills, gas etc..... not complaining, since God has indeed blessed us, simply stating facts..

My wife is gone back to check on our house in Columbia, SC, so my daughter and I have the weekend off... JUST KIDDING! We will have some fun together, since we don't really spend as much time alone doing stuff like we did when she was younger. She went to her first dance alone last night at school.. it was well chaperoned and was over by 9pm, but all other schools dances etc, her mom or both of us had gone along. I guess it was one of those life milestones and she is growing up. We spoke with her teachers yesterday at parent-teacher conference and she seems to be fitting in well. Her grades are all A's. I hope she becomes more interested in playing sports, but maybe she won't. I think she would be a great basketball player if she wanted to, but so far she hasn't shown much interest in athletics. Now my son (previous marriage) is the athlete! Great as baseball and golf, good at football and basketball and most every other sport. My dad had a chance to sign a pro baseball contract, but back out for stupid reasons, but I have always been good at sports (until age and life got in the way), so I guess Zachary gets it honestly. His mom's side of the family includes an uncle who pitched in the majors for many years, Jim Bunning, and is now a US congressman.

Anyway, both of my kids are healthy , smart, well mannered and good looking, so I know God has blessed me here too.

Got to go count my money now!

Good day!

Long day

Usually, I am on my way home by now, but I agreed t0 cover two classes for a colleague. I just finished his 1:45 API class and have a 6pm Patho class this evening, so I am hanging out in my office. Kendricks has just had a loss in his family and had a very long and exausting few days and needed a day off, so I was glad to help out. Also, it is good to know that we cover for one another when needed. I already had my two classes today (8am & 11:30am), then add 4 more hours of lecture and this ol' prof will be mighty tired tonite. But, I can take tomorrow off and that should make up for it, right? Well, I need to go finish my Chapter 8 Micro lecture for this Friday. I have my Chapter 6 API lecture done and lab is at the midterm practical, so I have things kind of under control right now. Since I have never taught Patho and did Micro over 10 years ago, these are like new preps and it is taking some time to do my powerpoints the way I want, but, next time around, they will be ready to go and I will have more time for other creative endeavors!!

Later y'all

columbus day?

Hey, why didn't anyone remind me to celebrate Columbus Day? By the way, what exactly did Columbus do? Is this he of the 3 borrowed ship fame, the Ninta, Pinta and Santa Maria or some such that he got from the Queen of England? Didn't he have something to do with helping locate a piece of real estate we now call America? Or at least some of the islands we now own? Wonder just how many school kids that got a day off thanks to ol' Chris (not Krengle) would even know what he did. Ah, life must have been so much easier back in his day. Borrow some ships and money to man them (didn't have to worry about hiring women back then) and sail off into the vast unknown! "Land Ho!" (where did they land, the streets of Compton?) the sailor shouted, and the rest is history! Well, it is all history right? Hey there went another second of my life into history! Slow down history, I am running out of time as it is!

Later (my Nevis story is still pending)

Good day!

Memphis morning

Another beautiful morning shaping up outside my office window. I am glad I am facing East, since I am rarely here late enough to see a sunset. YANKS GET BEAT OUT OF PLAYOFFS!. There, that made my day.

Just a comment or 12 about the PC environment we have created. It is so bad that a local school board member is being chastised for pointing out the obvious and something that parents should already know.... background first.... Apparently, a young man with great athletic potential (football) and a few of his friends where hanging out with a young lady (in more ways that one apparently) and of course sex was involved (17 year olds do think of sex). The reports are that the young lady was "forced" to perform fellatio on the young star. Even though this was not at school, in the privacy of someone's home, the kid was suspended from school when the girl "squealed". Since then, he has been reinstated, but criminal charges have been filed. Back to the board member... this female board member pointed out that the young lady put herself in a compromising position by being alone with this group of young men. THAT'S IT. THAT'S ALL SHE SAID..... it is the truth and every parent of a young female knows, or at least should know, to insist their daughters avoid these situations. But noooooooo, instead of our communities and our society standing up and stopping our young ladies from getting themselves into these spots, there is an outcry that a board member should speak the obvious.. the yond lady should not have been there to begin with.... I don't know if actual force was used to get "head" from the girl or if more than one young man got "blew", but it if a fact that 17 year old young men want sex... it has been a fact since the beginning of time and will remain a fact and any young lady of that age that doesn't know what young men are after needs serious parental guidance and sheltering... A board member should not be criticized for saying what she feels needs to be said, but in the good ol' USA, that's what we do best... avoid the real issues of why the young lady put herself in that position and blaming everyone else....

Good to see that Jesse Jackson is on his roll again. Now Jesse is taking 2-3 busloads of evacuees back to New Olreans to help "rebuild" the city. Apparently, 50 or so Memphians that were not from The Big Easy to begin with are going there looking for jobs, thanks to Jesse. There was grumbling when evacuees came to Memphis competing for jobs here, now it is OK to send Memphians to NO to compete for those jobs? Anyway, good luck in finding work, as we all need to work to support our families. My thing is this, how many of the evacuees had jobs and homes and cars BEFORE Katrina? Is it fair to expect our tax money to fund houses, jobs and cars for folks that didn't have them before? Or is a natural disaster a good enough excuse for folks to get a new, fresh start on my dollar? I don't know, but I do know that if I need or want anything better in my life, I have to EARN it.

Good day!

Good Monday Morning

Typical weekend. Work Saturday, watch football, baseball and golf the rest of the time. Sorry to see my Braves go down. Apparently, the NL East is weaker than the NL Central, because Houston as come in second two years in a row in the Central, but still put the division winning Braves out of the playoffs. I guess I will pull for the Cardinals to win it all.

Ok, you forced me to do it! Why the h--- do people get so upset over what someone else says on the radio or TV? William Bennett has a radio show and was talking to a caller, who must have been lower than pond scum on the intellect scale, that ask how aborting black children would impact the crime rate in the US. I am still not sure how Bennett responded, but my understanding is that he tried to show how utterly obscene the concept was, but said that the crime rate would indeed go down. Wellllllll, this has all my African-American fellow citizens up in arms, whatever the h---- that means. Folks want to react and be insulted and upset by something more than they want to analyze and reflect on something. Now, as a middle aged, white male (MAWM) in the USA, I can't complain about anything anyone says or does. You see, MAWM's are the CAUSE of all the nation's and world's problems, so when a MAWM says something out of the norm or PC realm, you can bet blood pressures will rise! If reflection and logic is applied, then it is obvious that aborting births for a given amount of time will indeed impact crime rates, ie, less people = less crime. But, aborting all births for a year for ANY race or subset of the population will do the same, decrease crime rate. But when? Well, the rate would not be impacted until the year or years when those aborted fetuses would have "come of age" and started contributing to crime, right? Now we must consider the knee-jerk reflex that connects a race to crime. What factors or relationships exist between race and crime? It turns out that this is one of those PC "hot spots" that cannot be addressed by MAWM's without someone claiming racism. OK, in just 6 minutes online, I found a publication supporting the concept that "blacks" are responsible for more crimes per-capita, but I think it was published by racists, so I looked for government reported data and found this: The crime index for 6 southeast states averaged 4700, with a "black" population that averaged 27%. How about that Utah, Washington (state), Oregon and Colorado averaged a crime index of 4600 with a "black" population of 2.5%! Now, how could the crime index of these states be so close if, as most racist purport, African-Americans are doing most of the crimes???? As it turns out, and I will find the data to support this, African-American crimes are often targeted toward other African-Americans AND more African-Americans are ARRESTED and CHARGED with crimes they often did not commit.

Let me stop. We have a problem in this country, well, actually many problems, but we need to stop being so "sensitive" to what other folks may say, stop being so concerned with PC and hurting the "feelings" of some race or another and start finding SOLUTIONS to the problems created by perceived differences in skin colors among us. We are all the same, all in this together and all have something positive to contribute to society!

Good day!

Family Day at BCHS

Our campus is having it's annual family day. I brought my wife and daughter so they could enjoy some outdoors activities. My daughter wanted to ride a pony, but it turns out she is too heavy! Cut of at 90 lbs. Oh well, I left her jumping in one of the large ballon type things that kids love to jumpn in while I came back to teach my lab. API sure has a lot of complainers, but I guess I might have "whined" a bit too back in my days. Now as a Prof, I am the one giving all the work, going too fast, testing too hard, etc.

Fall finally came I think. The temps are maxing out in the high 60's, low 70's and the sun is plentiful. Great time of year for me! Love the cool, but still able to enjoy being outdoors. Very little rain so far in Memphis. I am afraid that we will get way more than this later in the year. Worst part about the rain is my commute to work and back.... rain just causes so many more accidents and since I had my, rain related also, I am much more apprehensive on the roads.

Well, best go start my lab. Giving a quiz on tissues, then they have to learn the appendicular skeleton, with the midterm next week!

Later

Finally Fall?

I took yesterday off, since I work all day Sat, the powers that be say it is ok to take a weekday off, nice eh? Anyway, did some work on tomorrows API lecture and chilled. Got my new Tennessee drivers license... Why is it so difficult....had to have a birth certificate or Passport and two bills addressed to my home here. Why can't a valid license from another state be sufficient? I guess I understand that they want to assure you actually live in TN, but a lot of folks don't just happen to have a birth certificate or passport (I have both, but that is just because of my trip to Nevis).

Fall may finally be here. We live in the country, 30 minutes East of Memphis and there are a lot of deciduous trees, ie they will change leaf colors... fall is a beautiful time of year, but then spring is also and I look very much toward the changing of the seasons... I think I would have really missed that if I had stayed on Nevis.... I do admire the students and faculty that stay there, particularly the faculty that have made that commitment and live there full-time. I think I could do it, the money is good, the teaching is relaxed and the climate is bearable. I think after time passes, I would even stop missing the seasons and the US. Got to go to Patho lecture now... giving back the exams. Class average was 63, so I expect a lot of whining and begging for points. We shall see!

Sorry, but the RSox are going down (I am not really sorry)! Glad the Braves bounced back! GO BRAVES!

Exam done, round 1

Ok, so the API class did much better than I expected, with an 80 class average. I don't think the exam was too easy, but that is a high class average. Of course, that is still a C average here at BCHS, so it isn't too bad. On the other hand, the Micro average was 65 and the Patho average was a dismal 63! I have given both classes some assignments to help with their individual averages and the quizzes are fairly easy, so I think I will wait until after exam 2 to worry much. I most likely will add 5 pts to the Micro grades and 8 to patho to raise the class averages to 70 in both classes.

Got to find the freakin' court house in downtown Memphis today! Have to appear in court for the ticket I got when I rear-ended that Ford F150. If my lazy butt had acted sooner, I could have just paid the fine up to 15 days after the indicent, but I didn't check this out until yesterday and found out that now I had to go to court. I suspect they will add court costs to the fine, just my luck, eh?

Look for my "adventures on Nevis" blog soon.

morning sun

The sun just now began peeking through my office window and it always is good to see another sunrise. Never know when will be the last one eh? Feeling good this morning. Red Sox lost, Cardinals one and the Braves play this afternoon. I was very disappointed last night when I found out my favorite show, House, was not going to be shown so those Damned Yankees could play baseball! I gots to find a way to get the Yankees to lose this first round so I won't have to see them on TV anymore until next season! Couple other sitcoms caught my attention, so I looked at According to Jim, Rodney and a new show called "My name is Earle" . Predictable shows, but enough humor to justify watching. My wife likes watching that show about the fat people losing weight and she watches cooking/shopping stuff to much to suit me. Good thing we have enought TVs in the house for us all to have something to kill our brain cells!

Giving my first Pathophysiology exam this morning. It is mostly multiple choice and I think probably too easy, but we shall see. One of the other patho professors in my department seems to me to be too hard, so maybe I will need to get a little tougher to keep pace. I don't want to be the "easy" one that everyone wants to sign up for to get an easy grade. If you make an A or B in my class, it should be as hard to earn as an A or B in any patho class anywere, right?

Going for coffee now. Have a good day!

how? why? who?

Ok, I give up. No matter how hard I try, I cannot figure out how GW got re-elected as President of the US! There is no doubt that he will go down his history as the worst leader this country and the world has ever seen! He, along with his rich cronies in congress and business, have destroyed the environment, gotten us so deeply embedded in a war that we cannot leave, set racial relations back at least half a century in this country, ruined our nations relationships with most world leaders and gotten the US deeper in debt than ever before! Is this a great country or what? GW is not nearly intelligent enough to lead a baseball team, much less a country. The original version, ex-president GBush, at least had the advantage of being a good athlete, a veteran and a gentleman. GW is a rich, spoiled party boy that had a college degree bought for him and does not meet even minimal standards that this country should expect for our president! I knew it the first time I heard him speak and I knew we where in trouble when he got elected the first time, but I thought, surely, the folks of this great nation wouldn't fall for his act twice! But nooooooooo.... Oh, yeah, the idiot is reshaping the Supreme Court in his image, a legacy this nation will have to live with for years and years!

Oh, well, at least he can't be elected for a third time, right?

As I listened to parts of the Tom Joyner show this morning during my 50 minute commute to work, Tavis Smiley came on air and spoke for a few minutes. Tavis always has something to say, even if only he thinks it is important. Tavis has never thought or said anything he didn't deem to be of earth-shattering importance. Anyway, apparently William Bennet made a comment that could be considered offensive to African-Americans. Tavis made a decent point for a change.. he said that it might be time for African-Americans forget about trying to change "whites" and the "white attitudes" concerning "blacks" and spend that time and effort trying to correct their own problems. I have always been amazed at how quickly we as humans are to blame others for our problems, without really trying to identify the cause and find a solution to the problem. We as people don't have to like each other, just respect one another and try to get along. We are all God's children, put on earth to survive the best we can and make a better world for all! Genetically, there is only .012% difference in all humans, but the differences turn out to be ones we can see and we use these differences to "stereotype" and belittle one another. Unless we all wake up and realize we need each other, this country is going to continue it downward spiral. The recent hurricane on the Gulf Coast uncovered many problems that often go overlooked or get pushed aside, but there is a tremendous economic and educational rift in this country that has created a huge separation of "haves" from "have nots" and it is incumbent upon each of us, either have or have not, to work to bridge the gap. Race, religion or country club memberships are not reasons to treat one another poorly, belittle one another or act as if another's problems can just be ignored. I have always thought that this country might go the way of the great Roman empire of the past if we just passively, idly, sit by and watch an inept President and a rubber stamp Congress lead us astray. At some point, a critical mass of "have nots" might just begin the process of "overthrowing" government and we all know there are lots of well-armed militia groups and foreign entities in this country just waiting for such a chance to bring down the USA. Be careful.

On a lighter note, the Panthers hung on to be the Pack last night and of course all the excitement occurred after I fell asleep. I new my Panthers were ahead comfortably, but I didn't know Favre would stage such a comeback!

Better get to work now. I feel much better just getting some of that off my chest.

Good Day!

monday bluer

See, that sucks! The big corporation, with tons and tons of money, is holding out on paying me my moving expenses, now going on the fourth week! Now I hear there has been change in payroll software, so it may be still longer! We were counting on this cash to pay some bills we incurred when I wrecked my truck and got behind from the get-go here in Memphis. To bad that the people I owe money to won't be nice enough to wait because the people that owe me money didn't come through! The world doesn't work that way and never will. I have to pay the piper, even though the piper won't pay me! Well, a cold beer or twelve and maybe a rum and coke or four is certainly in order this afternoon, don't you think? Oh yeah, MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL! Even though I hardly make it through the third quarter any longer. Stayed up last week unitil 4th quarter, saw Cowboys ahead 13-0 over Redskins, who had not scored a TD all season yet, then woke up next morning to see the Boys had LOST! What a world, eh?
Oh well!
Later

monday blues

Back at it this morning. Got up at 5:10, coffee, shower, shave and s----, then on to the office. Beautiful view of morning sun rising out my office window. Pretty lucky to get paid for doing something I enjoy so much, like teaching college. Still have to worry about the money though. We get paid twice a month, but there never seems to be enough! I see that the Patriots got beat again, YEAH!.. but my Cowboys went down, however, it doesn't hurt as much as it used to! The Braves will probably dissapoint me again in the playoffs. Oh yeah, all you sorry Red Sox fans can enjoy another day, at least until the RSox gets swept in the first round of the playoffs!

Not much to complain about this morning, other that the normal aches and pains of daily life... too little money, car too old, christmas coming too fast... etc you know, the same ol'

Would love to go back to the Caribbean for a visit. The trauma of getting there and back and being stuck there for several months has kind of worn off too the point that I actually miss Nevis/St. Kitts. Notice that I put Nevis first, as it often gets overlooked and treated like an unloved step child.... Soon I will share my experiences will I was living on Nevis.. but for now, get a cup of coffee and get ready to teach some Pathophysiology....

later

saturday_again

1:41 CST. Everyone has left lab and I am tyring to hang around until 2pm when lab is due to be over. Makes it look better, even though no one is around, but I try to earn the big bucks they pay me here. Besides, not much exciting in the way of college football right now. I will probably look at the Florida vs Alabama game when I get home. Unlax, sip a cold one and scratch my .... hey, where did that come from? Tomorrow is the last day of the Mid-south fair and I plan on taking my daughter, even though I really don't care about going to the fair anymore, but she really loves it. All you can ride for $18! That is incentive enough for me to waste a perfectly good NFL, GOLF and NASCAR Sunday. Tomorrow is Talladega and that is one of my favorites races, but since the 8 car is not in the chase, I don't much care, tho I do hope Jr. wins!

Gots to go now. Need to stop by Ike's and pick up some bandages for a sore spot on my back. It appears to be infected to a certain degree and the inflammatoin response appears to have kicked in! I hope it is not a chronic repsonse, but I just HATE going to a doctor! If it hasn't cleared up in a few more days, I may have to breakdown and go anyway. Ah, wife just called and we have bandages at hope, so just need to stop for some adult beverages and be on my merry way!

later

saturday

The API class had a 76 average on the exam and it could have been higher had not one person made a 38! Only one of 13 failed, so that is a good sign. It kind of sucks have an 8 am Sat lecture, but I am getting used to getting up early, with 4 days of 8 am classes. The commute is easy and the day is kind of casual. Labs often do themselves, if no really whiny students are there, and the day passes fairly quickly. I do miss college football, but I get to catch up when I get back home. My wife is fairly decent about letting me relax and look at football after a long weeks work. She is on me lately about not giving her enough attention, but I guess that is part of marriage eh? We were talking the other day, and of course it quickly became an argument, but I was trying to make a point about laws and morals. A young athlete on the U of M bball team was arrested for soliciting prostitution, but the thing was, a cop was undercover as a ho and he agreed to pay her for a BJ! I just don't think cops should be out there "entrapping" young men into getting arrested. Another case was a young (17 year old) star football player was kicked out of school for trying to get a young lady to give him a BJ. Apparently, the girl was alone with several boys when this happened and they were not at school. Just imagine, a young man wanting some sexual attention from a young girl! Where do the kids these days get the wild ideas? Oh yeah, from us, from TV, from movies........ anyway, I was saying that our government should not try to legislate morality. We are founded on the separation of church and state, but yet, government trys to enforce moral (biblical) laws concerning consenting behavoir concerning sex. If man wants to pay to have sex with a woman, why isn't it just up to the man, the woman and their God? If young kids want to experiment w/ BJs and intercourse, why is the sheriff and government part of it? I don't get it, but I am sure that is just because I am slow and/or immoral!

later dudes, dudettes