Author: Dan

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Michael Gorman – Revenge of the Blog People!

It seems that American Library Association president-elect Michael Gorman doesn’t like blogs or bloggers. Any guess what? Bloggers don’t like him either. And it’s bad when people who blog about library and information science have such a major disagreement withe the head of ALA. Makes you wonder how relevant ALA is. (Disclaimer: I’m a member of ALA)

Gorman now says the article was satire, but the damage has been done. I think Gorman just has a basic misunderstanding about what blogging is and is now at a loss to defend this view. With people like Gorman leading ALA, no wonder people think librarians are obsolete.

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Driving and other things

Maybe I’ll get to drive one day. To recap what as happened so far. I had on the road driving training scheduled for February 3rd. But I had to wait to talk to Voc. Rehab, so they would pay for it. So I’ve been waiting ever since then to get driving training rescheduled. Paperwork keeps getting lost or thrown away. I’ve jumped through every hoop people have asked me to jump through since November.

I’m way past annoyed now and and am rapidly approaching mad. I’ve been splitting my time between living on campus and at the house. It’s really starting to get old. I never feel like I get anything done because I’m always moving back and forth. I hardly ever get to see Stephanie anymore, I’m either at the church or she’s working. Driving would make life a whole lot simpler and less stressful for both of us.

But good things are happening too. If you’ve read Stephanie’s blog you know that she has Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Well, Stephanie now has health insurance through her job and went to the doctor this week. He gave her a prescription for Metformin, which reduces or reverses the effects of PCOS.

And in other news we now have a wedding website up. Not a lot there yet, but we do have information on our honeymoon, as well as where we are registered.

Well I guess I’ll stop now and attempt to work on a paper that’s due Wednesday night. Actually it’s just a proposal but it still needs to get done.

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Well it’s Valentine's Day. I sent Stephanie 18 long stem roses at work. That was to make up a year and a half of not getting her any flowers.

In other news today was my last day of therapy. I’d done about all I could do there. I finally have the right combination of crutches and braces to move pretty well I think.

Progress on driving again seems to have stalled. The state is paying for it but I have yet to get the evaluation rescheduled. The woman that does the evaluations has been out of town. So the wait continues…

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The backlash over “Million Dollar Baby”

CNN.com – The backlash over “Million Dollar Baby”

Million Dollar Baby is a boxing movie with a twist. Instead of the main character, Maggie, winning it all, she breaks her neck and is paralyzed from the neck down. Check out The Movie Spoiler for the whole plot.

Things don’t go to well for her after that. Maggie has to have her leg amputated due to muscle atrophy and bed sores. She tries to get her trainer, Frankie, to kill her, but he refuses. So she bites her tongue and hopes to bleed to death, but the doctors save her.

Seeing how much she wants to die, Frankie changes his mind and decides to help Maggie. He goes into her room, removes her breathing tube and injects her with adrenaline. She dies instantly. Some people with spinal cord injuries have a problem with this movie. The say that it reinforces the stereotype that paralyzed people can’t have fulfilling lives. And then there is the whole euthanasia issue.

There were times in the hospital after the wreck when I really wanted to die. But I never thought about killing myself. Maybe if I had been as bad off as Maggie I would have, especially if I had been someone whose entire life was about boxing. I also don’t have a problem with euthanasia, but it depends on the circumstances.

I made the decision to remove my dad’s feeding tube and other life support. Later I found his living will and saw that that was what he wanted, but it wasn’t a hard choice. Of course he was brain dead with no chance of recovery. Maggie still could have lived a decent life once she was over the depression, but I understand her chioce.

It will be a hard movie to watch, and I may wait for video, but I want to see Million Dollar Baby.

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Mardi Gras 2005

Well, I went to a Mardi Gras party at John 23rd Friday night. I walked in, with crutches. I danced with Stephanie too. Quite a change from last year when I arrived in a wheelchair and could barely get out of it to sit in another chair.

In other news I finally met with Vocational Rehabilitation in Knox County. They’re going to pay for my driving training at Patricia Neal, but I have to pay for the hand controls and any other modifications to my car. At least I got something paid for. But since I’ve been waiting on Voc Rehab my on the road driving evaluation has been moved back to at least February 14th.

Unfortunately I have to pay for that eye exam that I thought TennCare was paying for. Oh well, can’t have it all I guess.

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Change is in the air

Well change is in the air, actually it has been for quite some time, I just couldn’t talk about it until now. Now that the announcement has been made at both UT and UM that Dr. Doug Raber is going to Missouri, I can chime in with my own news.

Back in October of last year Doug told me he was applying for a position at the University of Missouri – Columbia’s School of Information Sciences and Learning Technologies. He also asked if I was interested in going to Missouri. It took a while to get my ducks in a row, but I’ve applied to the Ph.D program there.

It will be a few weeks before I hear anything but if all goes well I’m headed to Columbia for the fall semester. I’ll be posting more about this as events unfold but I just wanted to let the cat out of the bag.

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Enterprise is canceled

Enterprise is canceled. I can’t say I’m surprised. I didn’t like last season at all . But this season is pretty interesting. Rick Berman, the show’s executive producer, isn’t surprised by Enterprise’s cancellation either. For 18 years there has always been a new Star Trek show on television, sometimes two at the same time. I think it’s earned a break.

If you’re holding out hope that Enterprise will end up on another network… Enterprise Won’t Be Shopped.

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