Big Fonts, Small Minds: Andrea Jones-Rooy and the APSA 2010 Experience

Prepare to be Dazzled!

Andrea Looks for Data

Andrea looked for data on the Internet. She found some that might work, and then discovered it didn't. She found some more that might work, and she's still not sure if it will. Also, she downloaded some songs.

A Diversion, Dear Readers!

Dear Friends!

I come to you, poring over the Internet, and a spoonful of Raw Almond Butter, with the following invitation to EXPRESS YOUR OPINIONS to Strangers! You, too, can answer questions about Raw and Vegan THINGS.

Rule 1: I like surveys

Rule 2: I am forever against the abbreviation of the word "vegetable" to "veggies"

**Bonus Rule 3**: Go ahead, take this survey, and vote for Pure Food and Wine for Best Restaurant, Mighty-O for best vegan bakery, Sarma Melngailis for best vegan chef, and Vancouver for best vegan International city! Now you are an informed voter.

Or, please COMMENT HERE and correct Yours Truly! For I am but a humble servant.

The end! Except, the beginning:

Take the "Veggie Awards" Survey Here.

P.S. Bonus Bonus Bonus that is not actually a Bonus: I will not reveal for whom I voted for best national vegan city. One reason is that I don't remember. The other is that, no matter what upon which I settled, said settling caused Much torment.

Important, and I Mean It

Here are two things that are related, but I know nothing about.

First, there is a reasonably new program in some medical schools to specifically admit students whose undergraduate training was in the humanities, not the physical sciences.

Second, we (society and medical professionals, more specifically) have no idea how to treat and care for end-of-life patients. (Warning: this article is horribly sad.)

I am in no position to offer further thoughts on this matter at present besides the following: I still don't know whether offering medical classes to non-medical doctors would ultimately be good for everybody. Nor do I know if I care, when I go to the doctor, how broadly read in the humanities he is. But I do know that there is a reason medicine is still fundamentally practiced by humans, not robots.

I am going to say something controversial

Listen up!

This is it:

I find babies of people I know to be far grosser than babies of people I don't know.

Incontrovertible

Today I did not receive a mini bible from a man on the corner because I was carrying two cups of coffee and he looked at me and realized I wouldn't be able to hold it. It is now official that coffee was invented by Satan.

There, Way Over There, and Even Further Away than That

There is an obvious comment to be made about how there are now a million different articles about how things like hyperlinks, the Internet, and eternal information updates on all our gizmos (my 90 year old male friend made me call them that) causes us to lose focus, and how the fact that there are all these articles now makes following the story difficult, because I don't know what to read first. Also there is a thingy (that's Earl again) on the New York Times right now where you can test your focus. I opened that, then saw another article (called "Driven to Distraction" or "Dressed to Distract" -- it doesn't matter, I didn't read it), and then closed everything, checked my email, and am now here.

But I, dear readers, am not going to be the one to make that comment.

There is an additional comment to be made about the artfully ironic usage of hyperlinks in here, but I, subtle friends, am also not going to do that.