Thomas freaks out.

As I continued reading Godplayer, new developments both in the relationship of Thomas and Cassi, and in the medical scandal occurred:

After an evening of drama and worry, Cassi decides to confirm her suspicions of Thomas’ drug abuse. So, the next morning, after Thomas leaves for work, Cassi enters his study and takes a look around. The medicine cabinet is clean, but she finds an orange pill on the floor, one Thomas had dropped that very morning. Cassi found the pill to be Dexedrine, potentially harmless but easily abused. Though she tries to convince herself that its nothing to worry about, Cassi then goes to Patricia, Thomas’ mother, to talk about an intervention.
At the hospital, Thomas and George give their grand rounds. Much to Thomas’ distaste, George presents a cardiac case in which the patient has AIDS. This is an outrage to Thomas because it is another OR bed being taken by a patient who will most likely die, while Thomas has a line of people who are perfectly healthy aside from their cardiac condition requiring surgery.

Thomas freaks out.

After grand rounds, Thomas confronts George about this, and almost beats him up he’s so angry. Leftover from the drinking an pills the night before, Thomas’ headache gets worse and has to leave…after he leaves, however, George and Ballantine have a secret conversation…something about George noticing Thomas’ strange behavior lately…they then wonder if Thomas suspects anything…

hmm…

Tragically…Like the Titanic.

While I continued reading Godplayer by Robin Cook, I got a glimpse into Cassi and Thomas’ home life. They live in an extravagant home 40 minutes away from the hospital. Thomas’ mother lives in the guest room above the garage, which is separate from the rather large house.
Thomas’ mother drives him nuts. She complains like an old rich lady (which is pretty much what she is) and treats the housekeeper poorly.
At dinner, (the same evening) Thomas is so enraged by his mother (who blatantly pointed out that he used to have a clubfoot) that he storms off to his study, grabs a scotch and takes two pills…a ritual that has become routine in the past few months. Cassi, left alone at the dinner table with her mother-in-law, is worried. She’d seen Thomas do this before. Once she does go upstairs to check on him, he is slightly off-kilter and has slurred speech--also episodes that she had been trying to ignore. She coaxes him to go to bed with her because he looked tired and stressed…but before he joins her, he takes yet another pill...oh dear.
The rest of the evening doesn’t need to be described in detail. I’ll just say their relationship isn’t what it used to be.
This drug addiction that is introduced in this portion of the book gives us a new view of the main relationship of the novel. Not only is Thomas arrogant and short-tempered, but he also relies on pills and alcohol to calm himself down. Once Cassi finds out, her fears of being left will most likely resurface…all in all, this relationship is headed downward…tragically…like the Titanic.

Research Topic

Question: Should euthanasia be a choice between a patient and his/her doctor based on the patient’s condition, or should it be controlled by the government uniformly?
Source 1:
Wolfe, Warren. “Choosing Death: Assisted Suicide_ _Three Lives, Three Journeys.” Star Tribune 27 Feb. 1994, pp. 1A+ . www.startribune.com.
This source provided specific examples of how doctors, in some cases let patients who are dying die, and provide no effort to ease their pain. This contributes to my topic because some would argue that it is the fault of some doctors that patients ask to be lethally injected, making the suffering argument invalid on the opposing side.
Source 2:
Worsnop, Richard L. “Assisted Suicide.” CQ Researcher Feb 1992: 147-163. SIRS Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. Edina High School. 8 Dec. 2008 http://www.sirs.com.
This article discusses the motives for providing assisted suicide. Sympathy for the patient and the debate between the legitimacy of the act are addressed. There have also been votes issued on whether or no the doctor could assist if the patient had six or less months to live. Overall, this article explore different factors of what an assisted suicide timeline would look like, and the decisions that are able to be made based on the patient’s condition.

A Depressed Fish Named Doris

This week on Godplayer (by Robin Cook…incase you’ve forgotten…), still nothing happened. Honestly, the other medical thrillers started with more action and sustained that action throughout the rest of the book. They were like a perpetual adrenaline rush. Anyhow, we got a special insight to Cassi’s diabetes and how her insulin injections had become a focus of her life. Now days, however, she doesn’t mind. Though she’s still a little self conscious, she still feels as though her disease is a part of her and should be monitored by her system of doing things. flashback…at the prom in high school, Cassi was asked out by the most popular guy in school but didn’t go because her parents thought she was getting sloppy with her treatment. Ever since then, she’s made it a point to keep up with it.
Then, after a trip down memory lane, Cassi goes to get Dr. Kingsley, her husband in his office. While there, we encounter Thomas’ crabby receptionist, Doris, which is funny because I personally have a depressed fish named Doris. Cassi couldn’t help but wonder why Thomas had kept Doris around all these years if she was always in such a bad mood…do I smell drama? Affair? Thomas then emerges from his office after convincing a patient to get surgery, a strong ability of Thomas’ that Cassi admires…his toned body helps a little too. The couple then walk to the ICU for Dr. Kingsley’s final check on his patients, but being in a room with so many machines and few patients reawakens Cassi’s reservations of her upcoming eye surgery. Thomas’ seriousness is still engraved into his face as the two leave the hospital…
YAY!

Let's wait until a full moon to bleed him

Surprise! I continued reading Godplayer by Robin Cook. There has been little development in the plot, but we do find a reason to believe that George (a medical guy) and Dr Ballantine (the chief cardiac surgeon) have something to do with the deaths occurring the hospital. This is discovered by Dr. Kingsley (aka Thomas) when there is a drastic cut in his OR time, removing four surgeries from his schedule every week. Of course, being the adrenaline-addict he is, Thomas freaks out, calms down, and realizes its just another attempt to get him to quit his private practice…or is it? Duh duh duh duh!! But honestly, this passage was not very entertaining. I mean, the fact that I thought was the most entertaining was the fact that there was a philosopher named Rodney at this meeting of cardiac surgeons. Hmm…what does a philosopher do for medicine? I know in the early European history philosophers were really the medical experts, but now days its more like palm reading… “Yes, I do agree that this man will die of a tragic broken heart…” or “Let’s wait until a full moon to bleed him…” But wouldn’t it be nice if philosophy could cure things? You wouldn’t have to go through all that training if you had a half-decent mind…you could just throw a thought into the air and see if anyone saw it. This passage then led me to thinking about how far man kind has progressed. I mean, we started out like monkeys. Then we got brains and turned into insanely advanced creatures. Just think about our existence and how much we actually think and create and love. It scares me sometimes… yeah…

Ooo...Juicy...

This week I continued to read Godplayer by Robin Cook. The plot did not advance much as far as the ‘murder’ mystery, but we did find out more about Dr. Kingsley and his wife, Cassandra (a psychiatrist in the same hospital). We learned through watching Dr. Kingsley in action (performing an open-heart surgery) that he is addicted to the adrenaline that accompanies performing surgery. Without two or three cardiac surgeries a day, Kingsley gets all bent out of shape and depressed. He thinks hat if he doesn’t perform surgeries, then he’s a bad doctor and is failing at his job…yeah…some ego. Later on we find out that Cassandra is diabetic and has to give herself insulin injections. But, along with the treatment, a condition in her eye formed over the years that needs medical attention. So, as a result, Kingsley and Cassie have to decide whether or not to get the surgery. I stopped reading at the point when Kingsley gets wind of Cassie talking to people about her condition. He is livid. Why, I’m not sure. But it shows a very dark side of him and he obviously had issues with rumors about his wife drifting throughout the hospital. The character of Kingsley (so far) is the most interesting development. He’s obviously very egocentric (I’m mean, he’s the best), but also very arrogant and easily disturbed. As he walks from the operating room after performing one of the fastest bypasses ever, the crowd of people that had been watching the spectacle are simply ignored by Kingsley. He walks past them because he knew he was the best, and this is all he needs: a few shots of glory everyday to keep him on top. In addition to his feeling of superiority, we see a certain self consciousness when the issue of his wife was brought up. I think his wife is a threat to his position and reputation in the hospital, and therefore is angry that she is open and accepting to her condition (hello, she’s a psychiatrist. They’re supposed to be open). This aspect of Kingsley also opens potential relationship drama. Ooo…juicy…Since they’re on two different ends of the personality spectrum (she’s accepting and open, and he’s arrogant and closed), I wonder how they even found each other. It was probably one of those “OMG he’s such a hero” moments…then they got married…? I don’t know. We’ll see.

...and then the guy performed a heart massage...

I started a book called Godplayer by Robin Cook. Yes, it is one of those cheesy medical thrillers with very little literary aspects, but it does have a fast-moving plot…which is what I look for in a book…generally. I’ve read other books by Robin Cook, and what has intrigued me about his writing is that he incorporates real (or plausible) medical scenes, proof, and situations. His criminal characters are also interesting, because they always come up with a new way to kill people. >: )
I just started this book, so I have no idea what the conflict truly is. So far, we’ve seen a man (Bruce Wilkinson) killed by somebody (who’s identity remains anonymous…at this point). This somebody let Bruce’s IV run rapidly when it was only supposed to be barely dripping. This then caused Bruce’s muscles to fail, suffocating him after completely paralyzing him. And all of this happened before he could reach the nurse’s call button… *GASP*
But of course, being in a hospital, the nurses just happened to notice him…in his blue-faced death. We then are introduced to new characters, Jerry Donovan (a doctor) and Dr. Thomas Kingsley (the best heart surgeon ever). After the nurse found Bruce, Jerry tried everything he could to save him. But despite his desperate attempts to resuscitate what was then a cadaver, the guy was dead. But: it was Dr. Kingsley who then reeled in the applause. Amazingly, Dr. Kingsley strolled into the room, asked a few questions, then cut Bruce open and commenced a heart massage. Right there, in a common hospital room. Everybody was amazed. Even though Kingsley’s actions didn’t help anything, everybody still knew that he was the best cardiac surgeon in the hospital…but really? He was just showing off…
Overall, this scene is:1. Just setting the stage and 2. Showing how egocentric this Kingsley guy is. Because he knew he was the best, and he knew this Bruce guy was a goner, Kingsley had to do something that people would remember instead of just another doctor’s failed attempt. He had to do something nobody else had the courage to do…Intense thought, right? But there you have a basic beginning to a medical thriller.

"All You Need Is Love"

I actually read this last weekend, but I found it more intriguing than the short stories I read this past week. This is another idea from the “What Is Your Dangerous Idea” portion of The Best American Nonrequired Reading. This one is called “A Political System Based on Empathy” by Simon Baron-Cohen. The article being, well, about a government system based on empathy, suggested that if we were to convert to a less systematic government system, we would be able to resolve our conflicts more easily. I actually sort of agree with this idea. Instead of attacking your opponents with laws, ads, and debates, why not sit down and talk with them to understand their side of the playing table, and to work out some sort of agreement. This ‘sitting down with opponents to resolve conflicts’ idea reminded me of Obama saying that he would sit down and talk to terrorists to negotiate with them. This means: Obama is more empathetic!!! J. This idea (if it were to preside in our country) would potentially provide peace and love and happiness for the people, and nobody would have to worry about being attacked or killed in battle: because there would be no battle. Empathy would be the ultimate defense mechanism. I can just picture in my head the world leaders sitting on the floor in a circle sharing their feelings : “I just feel so bad that my people are dying…” Yes, I would too. But realistically, it wouldn’t work out in our country: a political system based on the understanding of other’s feelings would make a lot of conservatives angry…so unless we can find a way to make a smooth shift to a new power system based on the loving and caring of others, we’re locked in the endless attacking and fighting that are parts of our modern democracy. Somehow I don’t think this systematic-ness is what our country’s creators had in mind…“All you need is love. Da da dadada…”

I don't even know what to title this its so depressing.

The next story in The Best American Nonrequired Reading I would like to comment on is called Where I Slept, by Stephen Elliott from the Tin House magazine. Its more or less a list of places the author (the narrator in this case) slept while he was homeless at the age of 13. What I found interesting about this, is he basically portrayed this timeline of his life (from 1985-86) by telling us the different places he went while he and his father (who was abusive) were not on good terms…well, they never really resolve their conflict…Anyhow, Elliott keeps writing throughout his short piece that the piece isn’t about love or hate or compassion or the people he met, that its simply about where he slept. He says this every time he wanders off into the emotions and characters of the story, to bring the reader back to the topic. But he obviously wants us to get a glimpse into those emotions and what it was like to be out in the world alone. Otherwise he wouldn’t have written it. Right? This is what is unique about this writer. He doesn’t just say who he met, what they did, and why he left for the next place, he relates every stage of his ‘journey’ to something those stages all have in common: finding a place to sleep. I think that’s rather brilliantly creative. It also makes sense to do this because the places he went make a structure for the storyline. It puts the facts in order from where he started off, to where he ended. Along with the writing style, I found the actual story very intriguing and amazing. Yet disgusting and somewhat unbelievable. Can you imagine a boy of 13 years old, living on the streets of Chicago alone? Okay, maybe. But encountering molesters, prostitutes and German drunks? Smoking weed, drinking, and doing pills-regularly? I mean, he was in eighth grade! I know it exists and is an unpleasant problem, but I’ve never seen/read true, first hand accounts of homeless children and what they’re up against…to this extent anyway. The others I’ve read, very much unlike this one, cut out the sex, self-mutilation, and the drugs, and ended with the reuniting of the family. (YAY!…not so much) It’s not like I didn’t know about these things (I’m not that naïve), I just can’t get it through my head how young he was.


*sigh*


It’s very depressing…


I think I’ll go write a song.

What did you say?

So, I continued reading The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and came across a section called "What Is Your Dangerous Idea". It's pretty much just a compilation of random, weird ideas about our society...one of these ideas caught my eye: written by David Lykken, it's the idea of creating laws requiring parental licensure, meaning a person wouldn't be able keep a new born child unless they were employed, married, and 21 years of age. what? that's right. You can't have a child unless you meet all of these requirements, which would supposedly give the child to "have a chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Ok. I agree with the planned parenthood politics of it all, but making it a law to let the child live a happy life reminds me of the Pro-Life argument, which, of course, I'm against. Like this abortion issue, people should be able to decide when, where, how, and who to raise a family with, according to their own beliefs. As for the crime rates, that's where planned parenthood comes in. If we could simply promote the idea of having children at an appropriate time, then maybe the rate of teenage pregnancies (for example) would go down. But to oppress a country by putting restrictions on families would create even more uproar, because there are so many families that aren't considered "normal" by this guy, Lykken. It wouldn't be good. So I guess it was right to put this idea in the "dangerous" section of the book, because its completely absurd, and if it ever happens, then I’m for sure moving to Canada.

The Love Songs of Burma

This week I continued my journey into The Best American Nonrequired Reading book. I read a commentary called Rock the Junta by Scott Carrier. It’s about the only band in Burma, Iron Cross.
Apparently, it’s the only, and the most popular (no way) band in Burma, and the people are obsessed with the lead guitar player, Chit San Maung. According to Carrier, some teens and young boys walk around town with guitars to be like Maung…even if they don’t play it.
This initially caught my attention because I have a friend (*cough*Mattie*cough*) who goes to Burma a lot to help out at an orphanage. So after reading about this band, I asked her if she knew anything about it. She said she didn’t.
But the band itself kept me reading the piece. It reminded me of American metal bands from the 80s and 90s. It was just their story that clicked in my head as deja-entendu: Rebellious, chaotic, and loud. Carrier even compared them to Hendrix who shredded the “Star Spangled Banner” on guitar at the Woodstock festival in 1969. Yup. He described them as that revolutionary. The band’s timeline even reminded me of the States: the lead singer, rebellious Lay Phyu, broke off and released some solo music himself. Of course, Phyu’s album freaked the government out and he was banned from performing…. But nevertheless, to this day he remains a model rebel for the fans. Sound familiar? Sort of… So back to the Americanism of it all, I went on to read that Carrier actually went to meet the famous guitar player (Maung) to interview him and ask some questions. What he found was that it was much like American celebrities : body guard, filtering questions, and vague (if any) answers. That crushed the band’s Hendrix-like image. In reality, they’re controlled by the government and really aren’t giving much if they’re soaking all the fame up. Yea, they act all revolutionary, but they let the government pretty much re-write the lyrics into love songs….what? Where’s the revolution? Where’s the real push back against the totalitarian government? Where’s the individuality? The secrecy? Carrier’s point: The Burmese, if they want more individual rights need to step up to the plate and hit the ball. (Bush, this does not mean go invade…not us, them.) Quite frankly I agree with Carrier. They have numbers and motivation (to some extent), and I think it would be beneficial if they got some national pride and stood up for themselves. YAY! But then again, its their country. We can’t impose our ideas on them like that. They can do what they want.
Overall, this piece was thought-provoking.

Equality. Peace. Love.

This week, I continued reading The Best American Nonrequired Reading edited by Dave Eggers. The story I read is called Ghost Children by D. Winston Brown.
This is basically a story about how racism and inequality plagues America, causing acts of violence, and forming gangs. Brown says that the reason there is gang violence and revenge (mostly by young men) is because the groups of people that have been persecuted over the years revert to this method to become 'men', or to prove themselves. Since inequality has clung to the base of the US since our country started, the African-Americans and other groups have been falling father and farther behind in the economy and the social system because of America's ridiculous laws and state of mind. So what can one do to help these people get up to speed with the job market and the housing market and the economy after years and years of denying them these basic rights? Not much. It's like starving a fish then throwing it into a bowl of sharks and saying "You'll be fine…Just try to be like a shark, and you'll be ok." It doesn't work that way. You can't expect a persecuted group of people to rebound like that, especially into a world that has treated them incredibly poorly.
As you can imagine, African-American men were (and are) trying to show how intelligent and innovative they are, taking higher level occupations in government and industries, spreading their ideas for the good of the country- and several succeeded. (just look at Barack Obama. Go Obama!!) But what about the future of our country: those angst-y teenagers from New York suburb (for example)? - of all races? Are they looking to be a senator and change Washington, or are they concentrating on getting revenge on that guy that stole their iPod? Probably the second, a normal teenage instinct. The racist US, years ago (and some today), gave the white racial group and unbelievably unfair advantage in society, and to make up for all the years of restricted rights, the African-Americans need a little more help than an iPod to get equal jobs amounts, and equal posts in government. Since they may not have the resources to become a senator, these young men (of all races) strive to become men in other ways: clothes, jewelry, and violence. Racial violence. It is ever-present and quite frankly, I'm sick of it. If only I could go back in time to delete slavery and persecution of people of different nationalities from the history of mankind. Then these groups would have a fighting chance, the chance everybody deserves in today's unkind world. That's the root of the problem, and its going to be hard to fix. Yes, we've come a long way, but there's still a lot of ignorant, stupid people out there, hating because of a difference. Just a difference. That’s all its takes, and that difference isn't going to change: It's up to us to change. Equality. Peace. Love. Come on people. They’re simple concepts.

The Power of Music

I recently started an interesting book from The Best American Series. This book is The Best American Nonrequired Reading (2007) Edited by Dave Eggers. Its basically a compilation of literary works that were found interesting by the 'experts'.
The most interesting story I've read so far was an article from Spin by Jonathan Ames who went to a goth music festival. Though he was unaccustomed to this unique type of music, he found some very intriguing thoughts on the culture and on life.
The first idea that I found note-worthy was a line from a song that was being performed : "Feeling empty because there's something to say,". Ames goes on to say that all one can really express is pain. This made me wonder about happy works of art, music, and writing in general. By showing happiness are they expressing pain? Maybe they're covering their inner grief by telling the world "Hey, I'm really OK. I promise" just to get people off their backs. They don't want the world nagging or bugging them about always being so angry and dismal, so with all their works that show their venting of anger, they throw in a joyful piece to cover it up. Therefore all their work is focusing on the pain they feel. Or maybe the author of this article was just overwhelmed by the contrast in culture and the focus on pain.
A second point I found interesting was an interview with Mark, one of the organizers of Gothicfest. During the interview, Mark gets into talking about how his father abuses him and that he never fights back. He comments, " 'As much as I don't like him, I love him because he's my father. So I just take it...'". I found this beautiful. Since Mark still loves his abusive father, it shows how he's connected to other humans. He knows when its right to do something just because it's right. This is really the whole idea of concerts and a culture of misfit people. Never ending love. If you ever go to a concert, even a scary goth one, you'll never be rejected or hated, because everyone in that room understands the pain of being different and alone. They understand that its not alright to hurt others physically or socially. So this music, this expression and venting of suffering brings them all together to share the security of being understood.

That is pretty powerful.

reading post numero uno. (free response)

For the first post I thought I’d start out simple with an intriguing science article from The New York Times. It is called “ Gut Instinct’s Surprising Role in Math” by Natalie Angier, written on Monday, September 15th. What first caught my eye was the article’s title. It was interesting to me because I always find myself on math test looking at a question that I have no idea how to answer. So I guess and fill in the bubble that I see best fits the question. But time and time again, the results come back showing that I am simply a terrible guesser, therefore saying my gut instinct does not have any correlation with my mathematical abilities.
Once more my initial thought was wrong- the article was actually about how visual approximations relate to one’s competence in math, and how at a young age, children can be trained to make quick ballpark estimations of numbers or situations to be able to make right decisions. Also, according to the article, this ability to make such computations has only been developed in humans in the past few thousands of years, showing one way of how the human brain has evolved. Though the scientists provide a disclaimer saying they don’t know quite how the two brain functions work (approximations and specific computations), I still find it interesting that they can tell there’s some sort of correlation between the two. You might assume that somebody would be good at math if they were good at guessing, but then again, just look at me. Maybe I just need to train my brain to get better at guessing. Its fun that scientists are making these fun discoveries to remind people to think about little things (like glancing at something then approximating and evaluating in order to make a decision) you might do on a daily basis anyway.
article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/science/16angi.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Welcome.

This is a blog to inform you about my literary endeavors, meaning I get to talk about the random things I read. That'd be about right...