Spontaneous Musings

But, my health is bouncing back. I have energy again. I'm not insanely tired all the time. Also the brain fog is for the most part gone. Yes, there is life after COVID. Although still have lingering cough - no doubt due to allergies.

Just hope my niece comes through okay. She experienced "shortness of breath today" and it scared her. So she went to the health clinic - but they couldn't help. Instead, her parents, who are in NYC, convinced niece to go to the emergency room. So niece spent four hours in a London Emergency Room. They told her that her chest was clear and she was fine. (I actually had a little of it too - but I'm in my fifties, and have had it before, and did the breathing tests that my Aunt taught me. ) Poor niece is all alone in London, self-isolating, her roommate is elsewhere. And she has a final exam on Friday in International Law, which is eight hours long, and several essays, and she still has to study for it, so can't just relax and veg.

I worry about her. Her parents wish they could come and take care of her. I've been texting her back and forth as well - and let her know I had the shortness of breath too - it feels like the wind has been kicked out of you.

In other news, regarding COVID - NYC is now under high alert - the case level has risen to almost 10%, and is on the rise. The hospitals however are still okay - so they've not imposed the restrictions as of yet, but they are asking everyone to wear masks indoors and in public areas, also on public transportation. Not everyone is - because, sigh, people.

***

Commute

I need to set this up right. I take the G subway train every morning at around 6:40 - 6:45 am. I leave my house at 6:30-6:31, and it takes me about five to ten minutes to get to the train, which stops halfway down the platform.

The first and last stop on the G is Church Avenue, my stop. The Southbound train stops at Church, they take it out of service, clean it, and empty it, and circle it around to take the next group of passengers north to Court Square. (I get off about 10-15 stops at Fulton St or twenty minute ride. )
Sometimes you have to wait for it , and the conductor who gets on it at the same time we do.

This morning, I ran to catch it - it clearly was running a bit later than usual and was full. I wondered why? Apparently there was a homeless guy at the very back of the car, or away from the conductor's cab. I was in the last car. It's a six car train - since the G is always smaller than other trains which are usually twelve cars. G's tend to be six to eight cars.
The homeless man had a very full grocery cart with all his earthly possessions, not a lot of clothes on, was filthy, and rambling. People understandably gave him a wide berth. He'd camped out at the end of the train, wasn't wearing a mask, and it was best to move as far away as possible.
( adventures in NYC commuting during pandemics )

*********

Dyslexia and Learning

Good and Bad News. NYC to Mandate Dyslexic Screening for all Students and Phonics in Elementary Schools

Good? Dyslexia Screening.
Bad? Mandating Phonics - Phonics was first dictated in the 1970s, Michael Landon got behind it. And it was introduced in all the schools at the time. The next best thing. It is also the reason I couldn't learn how to read until the second grade. And I wasn't alone, a lot of kids couldn't learn to read because of Phonics. My second grade teacher figured it out, Mrs. Viola. I'll never forget her. I desperately wanted to learn how to read - and she taught me and several other students - by pulling out an old sight and sound reader, it was the Dick and Jane books from he 1950s. See Dick. See Jane. Suddenly reading made sense to me. It wasn't a bunch of weird ass sounds that connected to nothing and sounded like machinery grinding together. It made sense. I thought visually. And the pictures didn't flip around on me. If it weren't for the Sight and Sound readers - I don't know if I would have learned to read. Phonics had been the bane of my existence, and I've met many others in my life who said the same thing.

It would help if people understood dyslexia better than they do. It's not just flipping letters around, or words around. It's far more complex than that. I remember a friend trying to explain it to two mutual friends doing a paper on dyslexia. They didn't have it. She said it was close to impossible to explain it to them - it's how she thought and viewed the world, she didn't know the other way - or how they saw things. It was normal for her.

Same. ( how I found out I was dyslexic or my journey with dyslexia )
I could go on and on...but my point is merely this, no one form of education should be mandated. You are actively discriminating against the poor students who cannot learn that way, and that's cruel. No student should be made to feel stupid or less than because they can't learn the way that is currently mandated or dictated by some well-meaning adult who has never met them.

We do not live in a one size fits all world, no matter how much we wish we did.

*******

Off to bed. Sorry for the long entry. It happens.

Well, I continue to watch American Idol slaughter my favorite 1980's tunes. Didn't realize how much I liked the 1980's pop songs until now. And Paula Abdul babble incoherently. I can't tell, but I think she might be on something.

Anyhow...am brain dead, hence the American Idol watching. Work is frying my brain and sapping my energy. Good thing it's only eight hours, not including the hour commute, which makes it ten. I get home and just want to veg in front of the telly - although I did do thirty minutes of piliates and made dinner. So...not too bad. Last night read more of The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - this chapter was on Opportunity, the one before on the Constitution. Got all riled up by the last two chapters - I agree with Obama, but am frustrated with our current administration's policies. And he was talking about education - which I have a chip on my shoulder regarding. ( me grousing on education, about the good teachers I had and why they were good )

In case you haven't noticed, I've become a tad obsessed with the American Presidential Race - maybe because for the first time in ten years, possibly more, I actually am rooting for someone. I'm actually pleased with two of the people running. I may not be a huge fan of Hillary Clinton, but I wouldn't mind if she became president. And I genuinely like Barack Obama and what he stands for. The American public appears to be as indecisive as my own family, in regards to Hillary and Barack - we can't make up our damn minds. One day it's Barack, the next it is Hillary. Now if John McClain would just jump out of the way...;-)
I'm currently rooting for Barack. But I honestly don't know which one would make a better president. I know they'd both be better than McCain, who only seems to care about fighting a hopeless war in Iraq. Which, I guess, if that's your main concern - I'd see why you'd vote for him. Me? I think Iraq was a stupid mistake from the get-go, and it's doing to us what the Soviet Union's little wars and invasions did to them - bankrupting us. I'm not sure how we should resolve, I'm not sure it can be neatly resolved. I do know that it has not made us more secure, or safer. If anything it's given Al-Quaida more power than before. Since McCain disagrees with me - I honestly don't want him as President. Plus, he seems to be a bit hypocritical on the whole torture thing and that worries me. And there's that little problem with wanting to give the affluent tax cuts and the middle-incom/low income no breaks at all.
Plus no universial health care. In short - McCain will only create a bigger divide between the rich and the poor in the US, continue to escalate the war and deficit, and break the economy in the process. He hasn't said anything to alevate those fears. Heck, if he had, George W. Bush wouldn't be endorsing him. I don't understand why people want that. I'm smart enough not to ask the people at work - politics and religion are not topics one discusses at work. I might ask my friend, CW, who is a McCain fan and a Republican on Friday. Assuming I see her on Friday, she's in Boston at the moment.

Been reading my correspondence list last two nights. ( correspondence list, snarking on memes which leads to a bizarre little rant on multiple choice tests and how we are educated, okay maybe not quite a rant, but close )


Not a bad day. Quite productive over all. Cleaned my apartment. Mopped the kitchen floor, so that the tiles are now clean and sparkling, vaccumed, arranged books on the shelves, put my PC back together, and threw out more junk. When I told Wales about this and explained how my cruddy apartment was getting on my nerves. She informed me that of all her friends, I was the only one who seemed to care about keeping my apartment tidy. (Had to bite my tongue a bit, considering Wales, love her as I do, is suffice it to say, a slob. Please note, I am not a neat freak. I have clutter. I stack things. And yes there are dishes sitting in my sink with water in them. Which I will put away shortly. And I do dump clothes on a chair or a trunk. Wales on the other hand, dumps her clothes on the floor, tapes on the floor, leaves cigarettes in glasses, has been known to keep dirty dishes in the sink for two days, and has cats who she does not always clean up afterwards. I have allergies to mold and dust and I cannot breath in her apartment.) Actually, part of the reason people don't clean is they don't spend much time in their apartments - they use them to dump stuff, sleep, and that's it. Me? I need a space for myself. A retreat. And if it's cruddy, I get depressed. I need a place I can control, you know?

Anywho, after cleaning everything, made myself a nice healthy, gluten free, sugar free lunch. You'd have been proud. (Maybe not, not sure who reads this journal and who doesn't on flist? And to be honest, flist probably doesn't know which ones I read, since I rarely comment, mostly because by the time I get around to reading the entry, it's four days old. And well, everyone's already commented and said what I wanted to say. Saying something would be, you know, sort of redundant. There are other reasons, but you already know them, so won't bore with them. Been enjoying the personal entries the most lately, the personal tidbits about what people are doing in their lives, their struggles, their accomplisments, their pain. Finding myself nodding, thinking, yeah me too. Silent agreement, you know? ) The lunch was blue corn super nachos - basically blue corn chips with shredded cheddar ( I shredded it since the prepacked stuff has gluten as a separator, yes the stupid things they put additives in. Did you know they put peanut oil in Healthy Choice Minute Maid OJ? Ugh.), Amy's refried beans (no hot spices or peppers, the traditional brand) heated. A little fresh shredded parmesene. And Amy's mild salsa (very mild) and guacamola that I made myself with chopped onion, chopped tomato, chopped avocado and a little lime. Very tasty and filling. For dessert? A few slices of mango. The cravings for sugar on Thurs and Friday - put down to period coming, it arrived Friday. (Weren't you just dying to hear that? Won't bore you with any more details on that topic.)

Then I ran to meet Wales, was running late since needed to head back indoors to get a belt for my shorts which are hanging on me now. Interesting factor - I show up almost fifteen minutes late, and Wales starts hunting for a phone to call me( possibly because I'm rarely late and she's used to finding me waiting for her), when Wales was running almost 30 minutes late last week, I patiently waited, did not hunt a phone at all. Either I am more patient than Wales or she's used to coming and seeing me waiting for her and worries if I'm late. I'm anal about things that Wales isn't. Which is one of the reasons I like Wales.

We wandered up to Montague to go to the promenade. We'd planned on seeing Asylum today, but as luck would have it, the movie scampered off. Damn. Of course the 40 year old Virgin, Wedding Crashers and The Aristocrats were still there. Wales stated that she's decided people are deeply stupid. And she is going to be an elitist snob and doesn't care what people think. When I queried her about this (not that I disagree, mind you ), she told me about the stupid creationist/evolutionist debate. I rolled my eyes, and thought, what again? We both hail from Kansas City so are familar with some of it. We, however, lucked out and did get taught evolution in school. We also got the biblical history lesson. (For me it was the history of the Hebrews in Fifth Grade - literally studies the Old Testament as a history lesson in the fifth grade, as the history of the Ancient Hebrews. And yes, I went to a public school. ) Personally I can't think of anything more stupid than this whole debate. People - I want to say - has it ever occurred to you that maybe "God's" concept of time and yours is not the same? Tad arrogant to think it is, don't you think? Honestly, I don't see why it has to be an either/or gambit. But hey, I also don't understand why people are so hyper about "canon". I think as I grow older I fall more and more into the perceiving category and less and less in the judging one. I don't like being boxed in. I like possibilities. Which may be some of my frustration with my current occupation, it's heavily procedural oriented and into rules.

( Canon, fanfic and Peter David's Spike Old Times, includes another bizarre tangent on how marketing has created our current culture or something along those lines. )

( Review of Spike One Shot comic, does contain spoilers )

( review of The Punisher, minor and vague spoilers )