Forgetting my office keys is not a good way to start Friday. That’s much more of a Monday move.

Luckily for me, there is a key to my office here, I just had to borrow a key so I could get into the locked room where the spare key to my office is.

Let’s hope that’s the only thing that goes wrong today, or my class this afternoon might be ugly.

Why yes, something has changed at Escapism, and that is because erin is pregnant! She’s started blogging again, and I’m hoping for lots of strange food and mood swing stories.

While we’re waiting for those, please go over and congratulate her!

Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get pictures after her next ultrasound. (HINT! HINT!)

I came home from work today, and found UNEXPECTED LOOT! Early birthday loot from my brother! YIPPEE!

Dingo by Charles de Lint
Territory by Emma Bull
Double Feature by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly

Harnessing the power of breast movement:

(B)reasts move on three different axes: from side to side, front to back, and up and down. The most motion is generated on the vertical axis. Naturally, the bigger the breast, the more momentum it generates. “Let’s face it—if you’re a double-A marathoner, you’re probably not going to get that iPod up and running,”

The ball girl video was fake. Boo hiss!

However, here’s something that isn’t fake, and why I was willing to believe the ball girl video was real.

Parkour and free running.

Attacked by Animals!
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As it’s political season, we’re seeing all kinds of BS about who believes what and why those beliefs are important to the country.

Just as an exercise in clarifying my own beliefs, I went to a website that listed the candidates positions and platforms, copied their list of important issues, and then filled in what I believe.

It was an interesting exercise, and I highly recommend it. Reading it you’ll learn something about me. Doing it on your own, you might learn something about yourself. (I, for instances, learned I have absolutely no opinion about “Infrastructure.”)

And if you want more of a why than I provided, feel free to ask.
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I tend to ignore Technorati (I realize this is blasphemy for some) because it doesn’t usually give me any useful data. Instead, I occasionally look through my referrer logs.

It’s interesting to see who is coming from where and how often (Nathan, you’re my biggest referrer right now, but I have lots of links in from the UCF. YAY!).

But it’s also interesting to find new blogs who are linked here.

Book Fetish
Hillbilly Savant
Mythusmage Opines
Useless Drivel

I really don’t see myself visiting Useless Drivel, as the first thing I read was a pro-Bush post, but there you are!

I would like you to note that this article does not mention tapeworms.

However, that’s about all it doesn’t mention.

The email subject was: “WVU coach to compete in Summer Olympics”

I didn’t even have to open the e-mail to know what the sport was.

Just checked, and the State Arts and Crafts fair at Ripley is July 3rd through the 6th this year.

Here’s to hoping temperatures aren’t as hot this year.

Yes, it has in fact been a year since I severed the artery in my finger. My how time flies when you’re having fun!

For anyone interested, I’ve got a nice pale crescent moon scar along the side of the finger, but other than that, no ill affects. And really, with my hands, one more scar was hardly noticeable. I had trouble bending the fingertip initially, but the scar tissue loosened up within a month, so it’s been fine since then.

However, every time I go to cut onions, Michael asks, “Do you want me to do that for you?”

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There was an articles in my CNN Health News that I initially thought was going to be a rant, but was actually thoughtful and interesting.

Vaccinations are a subject that have been a hot button issue for me for awhile.

More and more parents are refusing to vaccinate their children, seeing it as a personal choice.

Unfortunately, it isn’t.

Vaccines are central to public health. Yes, they provide immunity to the individuals who are vaccinated, but they also provide herd immunity, which protects the community at large, including individuals who are incapable of being vaccinated, or for whom vaccines don’t work: individuals with immune disorders or with suppressed immune systems.

Herd immunity is actually an interesting thing. If you have 100 people, and none of them are vaccinated, when an illness hits, the illness will spread through the populations affecting everyone except with individuals with some sort of natural immunity.

However, if those 98 of those individuals are immunized, the remaining two individuals are also protected, because those around them will not get sick.

But if fewer individuals are immunized, say, 75%, then the disease may be able to get a foothold in the community, and those two individuals who cannot be immunized are now at serious risk for getting ill. And it is those individuals who can’t be immunized or for whom immunization isn’t effect, those are the individuals who are most likely to be severely affected by the disease.

So when 23 of those 100 individuals refuse to be vaccinated, they may actually cause the death of the two individuals who were unable to be immunized. Of course they may cause their own serious illness or death as well.

But that’s the point of public health.

And interestingly, parents refusing to vaccinated their children was not what the article was primarily about.

What the article was promoting was for parents who had concerns to talk to their pediatricians about alternate vaccination schedules.

Right now infants and children tend to multiple vaccinations in a short period of time, including single vaccines for multiple illnesses (like DTaP and MMR) I received the DTaP vaccine last year, and I have to say it was pretty miserable. I had no problems the last time I received a Tetanus vaccine, but the combination vaccine was harsh and made me pretty miserable.

I think physicians are in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position here. When the vaccines are spread out, children are more likely to miss vaccines. But giving children multiple vaccines at once makes the children miserable, and may cause problems in limited individuals.

It seems like pediatricians should be able to offer parents a choice. Because vaccination is something that is mandatory for a reason. And doctors should be willing to work with parents to allay fears for their children, and if that is using an alternate vaccine schedule, then lets make it as easy as possible for those parents.

Of course