Civilization After The End

I am posting my final paper for my Violence and Metaphor class because I think it is some really good shit. Enjoy.
It’s below the fold to not annoy people too much and to not take up my whole front page. (Edit: 10-8-09: It’s now split up into multiple parts -hopefully- to make it easier to [...]

A U.S. Death and the Morals of Epidemic

As I’m sure most of you have heard by now, the U.S. has had its first Swine Flu related death. A 23 month old toddler. It’s terrifying and sad, and now we have to wait and see if it gets much worse than this.
In other news, I’m giving a very brief presentation today in Art [...]

My proposal and teacher comments

Okay, so my proposal for my final paper needs a lot of work. My teacher e-mailed it back to me with some comments and asking me to re-frame the concept to be more about the aesthetic response. She’s right; I’m trying to hard to craft this paper around things I already know. But I am [...]

“What goes on in a body?”

Okay, friends. As blog authors go I am wretchedly inconsistent. And while this might not be my longest entry or even the most relevant…I thought I should write something. And I wanted that something to incorporate anything I have picked up in one of my classes…
Am I learning anything? I have no idea….
My class on [...]

“Diseases desperate”

“———–diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.”
Hamlet, Act IV, Scene III
Thanks to Pamela for sending this along and keeping me in line. I have good intentions with this silly thing, but of course we all know where that road leads. I’m going to take a bit of advice from my Violence and [...]

“In the end, it’s never what you worry about that gets you.”

Thank you to Jettboy for the friendly prodding. Sometimes I need a little harrassment to get off my butt and do this damn thing.
So here goes…probably nothing. (I’m still shaking the dust off my writing skills…so bear with me).
A few quotes from my most recent read (Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk):
“‘In a city with a limited [...]

That time of year…

Yes, that’s right. As I write this in the part of September that is edgeing into “late” we can already see the Halloween costumes lining the walls of shops, bags of candy corn piled high, stacks of pumpkins outside of the market.
I enjoy Halloween, I do. I see no reason in beginning festivities a month [...]

Teen Suicide: The Epidemic of Stupidity

I just saw a news story with some horrifying stats.
Teen suicide is through the roof! Yikes.
Some scary thoughts:
–60% increase in suicide in 45 years
–Suicide is in the top three leading causes of death for people ages 15-44
–In 2005, more than 32,000 people committed suicide in the U.S. (there are 1 million suicides a year globally)
Now [...]

Volkswagen, Part II

Despite the title, this doesn’t have anything to do with the commercial again, other than that and a post over at SystemsThinker.com has me thinking about what actually qualifies as epidemic. His really excellent discussion of Borderline Personality Disorder was at one point deemed an epidemic. I found this really interesting mostly because it reminded [...]

Cabin Fever, Gustav, Vaccines, and other long overdue thoughts

Sorry, sorry, sorry! Long time, no write. Here are some random thoughts:
I thought about the movie Cabin Fever the other night for some reason. I was about to fall asleep and I thought about that movie…and then couldn’t sleep. Go figure. The virus was in the water, but there was also blood, and disintegrating skin, [...]