No.

Two exams and four different excuses for missing them and the makeups. I'll give you credit though: only one of your excuses invoked a dead relative.

I think you will save us both a lot of trouble if you just drop my class now. KThxBye!

Putting things into perspective

The news is a little old, but I'm listening to the University of Iowa NPR station this morning and just found out that the sole survivor of the 1991 University of Iowa shooting died of breast cancer in December. She was 40 years old.

Miya Rodolfo-Sioson became was shot in the neck during the attack, severing her spinal cord at C4-C5 and rendering her quadriplegic.

This reminds me a lot of Caroline Knapp, the author of "Drinking: A Love Story." The book describes her struggle with alcoholism and anorexia and needless to say is a pretty tough read. She died of complications from lung cancer at the age of 42.

My first thought when reading about the lives, and untimely deaths, of these women is that some people just can't seem to cut a break. It puts my own trials of recent years, which pale in comparison to the events in the lives I just described, in much-needed perspective.

So today the sun is out and my sweet kitty Jade is purring on the chair back behind me. Today I get to go into the lab and be a scientist. This weekend I get to see my Boy in Pittsburgh and then on Sunday my Mom is coming to visit for two weeks. I've got a lot going on that's good, despite the underlying daily stresses of job, health and finances. Life's pretty good, on the balance, and I need to remind myself of that more often.

Wanda Jackson

I don't like very much country music, but once in awhile I do hear something in that genre that fits my general appreciation of music with a rough edge. This weekend I read an article about Wanda Jackson being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and followed a link to some YouTube vids of her older songs. Very early rockabilly style with a great dirty kitten-ish voice. Apparently she found Jesus later in her career but I was still able to get a couple of her early albums from iTunes. It's good to start the week with new tunes, especially when the week is beginning with YET ANOTHER gloomy, rainy Monday. Poop.

This is a live video of Wanda Jackson with an unfortunately crappy piano solo in the middle:


This is just a photo montage, but the song is one of my favorites:

Happy birthday Jasper

Jasper turns 12 this week. I loves you my little Murderface!

Parody

I think that parody is my favorite form of humor, the more absurd, the better. That said, I can't stop watching the above video. It's almost too brilliant for words.