Protection and Advocacy
Today I had to postpone my IHSS hearing, because PAI didn't want to take my case without Aleyda. She's on vacation till November 6. It took me a few attempts, but I finally got through the stat's tin-can-on-a-string phone system and arranged for a postponement. I sincerely hope I can solve this problem without a hearing, anyway.
Thursday night is my fourth Presentation Skills class. It should be enjoyable, for the most part. I did procrastinate and will have to do the talk outline tomorrow before heading to UCSD.
Harold has had my van all week, and I've been stuck around the house. I really need to get out more, as Donna keeps telling me. Driving is still a possibility; just got to practice and get the van modified a little.
The episode of LOST Wednesday evening was enjoyable. I liked the notion of "conning the con." It was interesting that the Others' island is actually a small island off the coast of the survivors. It reminds me of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Floating islands, anyone?
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Lost Time
Lost Time
I was watching The Lake House the other night with my parents. It's a time-travel romance starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. There are two important facets to the story: yearning for lost time, and the essential need to rewrite history. Bullock first finds Reeves in the past, then loses him to the inescapable weavings of Fate's web, then regains him again by warning him across four years' time.
Then I just finished watching the old Twilight Zone about the guy who goes back in time and tries to prevent Lincoln's assassination (unsuccessfully). In this story, unlike the Bullock epic, we want to rewrite time but we fail. We cannot change history, Rod Serling tells us.
It's not just time we all want to rewrite, however. We have this tendency deep within our psyches to spend unimaginable amounts of emotional energy in trying to rewrite others. We hope, pray, and cajole those we care for to act in a way pleasing to us. We want to rewrite their history, as though in doing so we could rewrite our own. Really, I believe the futile attempt to change others' deep-seated behaviors, even when well intentioned, is a personal battle within ourselves to fulfill some unrequited longing.
Change yourself for the better, and you can affect others' behavior for the better. Attempt to change another person without first examining yourself, and you'll doom your effort to failure.
This I know from experience....
I was watching The Lake House the other night with my parents. It's a time-travel romance starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. There are two important facets to the story: yearning for lost time, and the essential need to rewrite history. Bullock first finds Reeves in the past, then loses him to the inescapable weavings of Fate's web, then regains him again by warning him across four years' time.
Then I just finished watching the old Twilight Zone about the guy who goes back in time and tries to prevent Lincoln's assassination (unsuccessfully). In this story, unlike the Bullock epic, we want to rewrite time but we fail. We cannot change history, Rod Serling tells us.
It's not just time we all want to rewrite, however. We have this tendency deep within our psyches to spend unimaginable amounts of emotional energy in trying to rewrite others. We hope, pray, and cajole those we care for to act in a way pleasing to us. We want to rewrite their history, as though in doing so we could rewrite our own. Really, I believe the futile attempt to change others' deep-seated behaviors, even when well intentioned, is a personal battle within ourselves to fulfill some unrequited longing.
Change yourself for the better, and you can affect others' behavior for the better. Attempt to change another person without first examining yourself, and you'll doom your effort to failure.
This I know from experience....
Monday, October 16, 2006
A Really Cool Week
A Really Cool Week
The weather has definitely turned to autumn and I love it! It's been cloudy, and we've had our first rain.
This past Sunday the Chargers routed San Francisco, and to anyone who remembers the '95 Super Bowl, this was a sweet victory. Philip Rivers was an excellent choice for a young quarterback. I only hope in two years San Diego still has a football team to root for!
My work has slowed down a bit, but this isn't bad. I am catching up on some projects that had lain fallow while I did some other things. Unbelievably, I got a letter from the county confirming a hearing on my IHSS appeal for November 2. This whole situation is so brain-dead, my mind reels from the Kafkaesque absurdity.
I also got a note from my attorneys in the other case, which (equally incredibly) looks to be going to trial in February of next year. I cannot understand why people insist on lawsuits, which are a cost to everybody. Rather sickening, the whole situation.
On the other hand, I took my van in to City Chevrolet last week and found out that I needed a new power window motor. Another $500 down the drain! But, with bad weather coming, I can't afford to get the window stuck wide open in a rainstorm. There are other things needing repairs on the van, such as serpentine belt that's starting to crack, but I can worry about that later. It's not an emergency yet.
Meanwhile, I've gotten through two of the six weeks of the presentations class at UCSD. The class is fun--as all Bonni's classes are. You can't go wrong taking a course offered by Bonni Graham. You will work--and you will learn--you'll be glad you availed yourself of the opportunity.
All the above being said, I personally believe the course could be compacted into a two-day seminar. The practice is nice, but not essential. And the textbook is full of banalities like "make sure you know your audience's goals." DUH!!
Well, that's all for tonight. I'm going to log onto WOW for a while....
The weather has definitely turned to autumn and I love it! It's been cloudy, and we've had our first rain.
This past Sunday the Chargers routed San Francisco, and to anyone who remembers the '95 Super Bowl, this was a sweet victory. Philip Rivers was an excellent choice for a young quarterback. I only hope in two years San Diego still has a football team to root for!
My work has slowed down a bit, but this isn't bad. I am catching up on some projects that had lain fallow while I did some other things. Unbelievably, I got a letter from the county confirming a hearing on my IHSS appeal for November 2. This whole situation is so brain-dead, my mind reels from the Kafkaesque absurdity.
I also got a note from my attorneys in the other case, which (equally incredibly) looks to be going to trial in February of next year. I cannot understand why people insist on lawsuits, which are a cost to everybody. Rather sickening, the whole situation.
On the other hand, I took my van in to City Chevrolet last week and found out that I needed a new power window motor. Another $500 down the drain! But, with bad weather coming, I can't afford to get the window stuck wide open in a rainstorm. There are other things needing repairs on the van, such as serpentine belt that's starting to crack, but I can worry about that later. It's not an emergency yet.
Meanwhile, I've gotten through two of the six weeks of the presentations class at UCSD. The class is fun--as all Bonni's classes are. You can't go wrong taking a course offered by Bonni Graham. You will work--and you will learn--you'll be glad you availed yourself of the opportunity.
All the above being said, I personally believe the course could be compacted into a two-day seminar. The practice is nice, but not essential. And the textbook is full of banalities like "make sure you know your audience's goals." DUH!!
Well, that's all for tonight. I'm going to log onto WOW for a while....
Saturday, October 07, 2006
LOST: The Prisoner Meets Dr. Moreau
LOST: The Prisoner Meets Dr. Moreau
I really enjoyed last week's season premiere of LOST. It had all the familiar elements, plus some new material to ponder, with the introduction of the Others' camp.
It seems that, with Sawyer and Kate in the animal cages, and Jack in the dolphin tank, the island is something of a continuing psych experiment gone bad. Remember the end of last season, where they found the pile of pneumatic tubes that had built up for years? The people watching the other hatch dwellers were really part of their own experiment. Juliette's actions with Jack were just the kind of Skinnerian behavior modification one might expect from rogue psychologists.
Then the Sawyer/bear thing. It's like they're turning him into a trained animal. And the "choice" Kate will have to make? Whether to save Jack or Sawyer--a Sophie's Choice dilemma.
Remember the circus animals and apes in The Prisoner? Remember the bizarre psych experiments Number 2 always subjected Number 6 to? I believe there are parallels here. It would be great if LOST's producers could talk Patrick McGoohan out of retirement to play Alvar Hanso!
I really enjoyed last week's season premiere of LOST. It had all the familiar elements, plus some new material to ponder, with the introduction of the Others' camp.
It seems that, with Sawyer and Kate in the animal cages, and Jack in the dolphin tank, the island is something of a continuing psych experiment gone bad. Remember the end of last season, where they found the pile of pneumatic tubes that had built up for years? The people watching the other hatch dwellers were really part of their own experiment. Juliette's actions with Jack were just the kind of Skinnerian behavior modification one might expect from rogue psychologists.
Then the Sawyer/bear thing. It's like they're turning him into a trained animal. And the "choice" Kate will have to make? Whether to save Jack or Sawyer--a Sophie's Choice dilemma.
Remember the circus animals and apes in The Prisoner? Remember the bizarre psych experiments Number 2 always subjected Number 6 to? I believe there are parallels here. It would be great if LOST's producers could talk Patrick McGoohan out of retirement to play Alvar Hanso!
Monday, October 02, 2006
Giving the Devil
Giving the Devil...
I watched "Mystic River" with my parents last Friday evening. I had seen it while in the hospital, but couldn't make much sense of it in my morphine-besotted brain. This time, I enjoyed the film, although it was very dark. Clint Eastwood is an excellent director, but his movies are almost Biblical in their outlook. For example, at the start of "Mystic River," a character mentions that the Sean Penn character's "sins have come home to roost." As in the Old Testament, "the sins of the father are visited upon the children."
Meanwhile, I had a quiet Fall weekend and am enjoying the cooler weather. Good riddance to summer! The Chargers lost a close game, which was a serious bummer.
Other than that, have you ever wondered about why some people can act so fake and phony? I have this one friend who seems to have the most tenuous relationship with the truth. And she makes her lies sound so sweet and innocent, you're almost bound to believe her (at first). After a long and hard summer of listening to lies, I've decided that no one can be a friend who is not true to both themselves and others. This woman is a veritable library of dissembling. It's sad, really, because this person has a lot of promise that she'll never fulfill. So many people are hell-bent for self destruction. Aha--that's almost Biblical, too!
I watched "Mystic River" with my parents last Friday evening. I had seen it while in the hospital, but couldn't make much sense of it in my morphine-besotted brain. This time, I enjoyed the film, although it was very dark. Clint Eastwood is an excellent director, but his movies are almost Biblical in their outlook. For example, at the start of "Mystic River," a character mentions that the Sean Penn character's "sins have come home to roost." As in the Old Testament, "the sins of the father are visited upon the children."
Meanwhile, I had a quiet Fall weekend and am enjoying the cooler weather. Good riddance to summer! The Chargers lost a close game, which was a serious bummer.
Other than that, have you ever wondered about why some people can act so fake and phony? I have this one friend who seems to have the most tenuous relationship with the truth. And she makes her lies sound so sweet and innocent, you're almost bound to believe her (at first). After a long and hard summer of listening to lies, I've decided that no one can be a friend who is not true to both themselves and others. This woman is a veritable library of dissembling. It's sad, really, because this person has a lot of promise that she'll never fulfill. So many people are hell-bent for self destruction. Aha--that's almost Biblical, too!
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