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message 251:
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Patricia
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Jun 06, 2012 10:36PM
Kessler is a cool guy.
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Found on ForbesTwo boxers are now cited as top-paid sports people in the world. Ickkk....
http://onforb.es/Mi9nEx
I feel so used. I slug people for free. Had no idea it could be so lucrative.
Kench, Patricia! Can't imagine why folks would pay so much to watch ppl pummel each other until their brains are rattled and they fall to the ground. Such a barbaric thing to do! And they deign to call it 'sport'. Our sports bars are filled to the brim with waiting lines every time they show a bout on PPV. Makes me shudder...
Mod
My ex-agent (a female) quit the literary business and moved to Israel where she became a champion boxer. Here's her picture and an interview:http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazi...
I have no idea what she's talking about in most of that interview. Just can't connect to the idea that boxing is a spiritual experience.
Your ex-agent was also agent for the Dalai Lama? Impressive! Boxing as a spiritual experience is a stretch for me too. I cannot even imagine how she was before she became so enlightened.
She was an attorney before she was an agent. Worked with William Kunstler.Joyce Carol Oates is a big boxing buff, and Sharon was her agent, too. I sorta thought she influenced Sharon's interest in boxing, but I don't know that for a fact.
Sharon isn't totally out of the agent business. I don't have the details but it goes something like this: she started teaching a creative writing class at a university in Israel and was so impressed with some students' work, she represented it to get it published.
I loved her as an agent and as a person. It was obvious her religion was important to her, but I didn't know how important till I read that article.
Heady company you were keeping, Patricia!Nice to hear she is someone you could love. She sounds as if she has always carried a lot of anger...
That doesn't fit the impression I have of her. She was always kind, easy going, intelligent, and devoted to her family.
See, that is why it is never good to judge a person when you don't know them! My bad. {{blush}}Still, I will never be convinced boxing is a 'sport' that has any redeeming qualities...
Of course, pummelling on hardcover books by ebooks is another matter entirely...http://on.mash.to/KUPLlT
That shouldn't be a surprise - I've bought more e-books in 2 years than I did DTB's in 10 years.
Same here, Kat -- but don't ask me if I've read them.
Kench! I confess it's the same with me...
Speaking of books, where's our resident librarian (Margie)?
Do you think we drove them all away?I'm really worried about Claudine. She used to be here every day. Margie has disappeared before but came back, briefly. Unlike me, I think she has a real life off-line. Amos surfaced, sounding chipper, then disappeared again. And Andre is being far too scarce.
Mod
I think we all misjudge the amount of time required to operate in indie-land,either as an author or a micro publisher, especially the amount of time one has to give to the constant, tiresome round of promotion.
Urggh on the cardiac schedule, Andre, hope you are soon pronouced good as new...You said: ...I'd like to get something new written, though God alone knows when that will happen.
I think we all misjudge the amount of time required to operate in indie-land,either as an author or a micro publisher, especially the amount of time one has to give to the constant, tiresome round of promotion...
Well I relate to all this, though I thankfully have no health issues to blame save some possibly age-related slowing down.
But summer is officially here and a bit of good weather with it (two days, whoopdedoo! while the rest of the country is dying of heat!). I've been taking long walks to get my body moving and plan to do so again today. Hopefully being outdoors will also excersie my mind.
How's the electric bike working?
I saw that, your mechanical skills are impressive! Just wondering if it's all you hoped it would be.
Andre, you're shaming me. I do so little self-promotion it could be called almost zero, and I haven't written for a few weeks. Maybe I should get busy.Good luck with your health issues.
Mod
The main thing is that the bicycle I fitted the electrics to is an exceptionally fine custom bike from the German baukasten Utopia; my Kranich started out ultra-refined, so the electric motor just adds to the pleasure of riding it.
I don't actually have health issues, Sierra; I'm a lifelong athlete. Good living and rolling decades have caught up with me, as they catch up on everyone, though in my case, judging by the folk in my exercise classes, a bit later than on most other people, but the pharmaceutical and medical industries are working hard to keep me alive. I was just in to have a stent fitted, a pretty routine business where they make a keyhole in your hip or your wrist and through it put a stainless steel or titanium coil in an artery in your heart. The problem was peripheral, that everyone got a fright when I had a rare violent reaction to the iodine they replace your blood with to be able to see inside the heart. They've calmed down now, and I'm on a six month review cycle, next best thing to "bugger off and stop wasting our time". But I go religiously to all the programmes my medical team have me down for in the hope of learning something I don't know, and in truth the warm-up and cool-down exercises have been good because I'd forgotten them over the years, but I have the same gym machines they have. My latest fave is a Nordic cross trainer, a sort of strider, though you have to be careful because it can raise your respiration rate too suddenly if you use your arms with your legs from cold. After six weeks of their exercises I showed only marginally fitter on the stress tests today because all that has happened is that their exercises have been substituted for exercise I would have taken anyway; by comparison some of their more sedentary subjects have shown improvements in fitness, though the physio said I was the fittest of the group, and the most aware of my limits. I'm glad to have the advice, even if it just "steady as she goes, carry on what you've been doing", which is regulating my exercise for donkey's years now by the heart rate monitor, which is permanently strapped to my bike and any machine I use.
Thanks for asking.
"I think we all misjudge the amount of time required to operate in indie-land,either as an author or a micro publisher, especially the amount of time one has to give to the constant, tiresome round of promotion.' This is true. I'm hoping it's taking all this time because we're building a business.
Andre - I'm also glad you are merely busy and not ill. I've been concerned.
Speaking of concerned - I miss Claudine and am concerned about her too. I hope she's okay.
I love how you make getting a stent sound like a day in the park -- except for that pesky reaction to the iodine. Had you ever had iodine for contrast before without a reaction?
Mod
I get cold shivers when it occurs to me that I should have told them I'm somewhat allergic to titanium -- stents are made from either titanium or stainless steel. My favourite everyday watch is my old flying watch ( http://coolmainpress.com/andrejutewat... ), which is made of titanium because the stainless Blue Angels version, which I also have, is pretty hefty, and where the side catches my hand there's a rough spot on the skin, like a melanoma, except it is half an inch long and has been red for years. Imagine if that happened inside my heart...
Urggh, Andre. It's not too late to tell them about the titanium. I thought the thing about the use of titanium (besides its light weight) is that it is uber-non-corrosive. It could be your watch is alloyed with something else. Still, I would mention it so they are aware of it and can monitor it.
I agree with Sharon.I have titanium in my spine. No ill-effects, despite my allergies to just about everything I look at cross-eyed.
Patricia wrote: "I agree with Sharon.I have titanium in my spine. No ill-effects, despite my allergies to just about everything I look at cross-eyed."
I guess you're safe as long as you don't look at it cross-eyed. :P
It's a good job I'm not allergic to the dyes they use for brain scans. I was supposed to have a check with dye a few years ago after I started getting dizzy spells for no apparent reason. The radiologist couldn't find a vein in my hand. He tried 4 times in both hands and then started on the wrists, by which time I was in so much pain I was in tears - and it takes a lot to make me cry. Eventually I told him to stop because I had illustrations due that week and my hands were black and blue. I was afraid they would be too sore to do them. He was most put out that I could be so opposite as to be hiding my veins!
Something similar happened to my mom when a tech was trying to start an IV. After many tries and failures, she fled in tears (the tech, not my mom) and someone else came in and got it on the first try.
Katie, my dd has the same problem with blood tests - and she needs them every month. For the longest time they had to take it out of her hand (still difficult), but then in hospital a tech showed her a procedure using a 'butterfly'. At that time she was having tests taken daily, sometimes more than once, and she cringed (and often cried, though like you takes a lot for that) every time they came near. She would look at the tech with fear in her eyes, tell them she had small veins and plead with them to use the butterfly. They often said things like, oh, I'm good, that won't happen with me. Then they would feel stupid when they couldn't find the vein and she was in incredible pain. More than once I had to get my stern mother hen face on (and the best stern voice you've ever heard - or so I'm told) and tell them in no uncertain terms to STOP and go get someone who knew how to use the procedure. A couple of times they tried to resist, but I gave them the look and told them to get out of there el prompto! She seems to have the techs trained at the clinic here but still always has ugly bruises for a week or so. The last one was particularly big and purple. I hate seeing them! Urggg...
I wasn't exactly sure, so I found this on Wikipedia:http://bit.ly/7YXL2M
It is sooo painful when they dig around trying to find a proper vein. The butterfly type works for her and made a BIG difference, but I see from that article there are contraindications for using it, so now I know why some were not trained or were afraid to use it.
I can see how that would make the process more stable.
It looks like they can be used for drawing blood, but I can't see that they could be used for injecting. :(
Pretty sure they also injected using the butterfly. She did have a few 'permanent' catheters which were used for both drawing and injection, but they must be replaced after time and the site healed before a new one inserted, and in those times (and since her treatment) it was done locally each time - and that was when she had the problems. Still, it can all be painful for some and requires extra skill which not all techs have...
Summertime is no time for politics, but I'm wondering who will make the most hay from the new ruling on Obamacare from the Supreme Court of the USA.
I'd rather see a single payer system, but Obamacare has some good features. People in the US tend to fear the mixing of government and health care, but if you ask people on Medicare if they're satisfied, most are. I certainly am. Obamacare will make Medicare better by eventually closing the doughnut hole.
However it comes about, no one should have to sell or lose their houses or life savings because they have contracted an illness or had an accident. To me that sort of taking care of its citizens' needs is what government is all about. What other purpose is there for government?
What I long for is the day when office workers at an insurance company no longer make medical decisions, and when insurance is no longer a "for profit" business.
Sharon wrote: "However it comes about, no one should have to sell or lose their houses or life savings because they have contracted an illness or had an accident. To me that sort of taking care of its citizens' n..."Yes, there has to be some kind of safety net. Obama Cares is a good start.
Patricia wrote: "What I long for is the day when office workers at an insurance company no longer make medical decisions, and when insurance is no longer a "for profit" business."Imagine that, an insurance company that truly is about ensuring safety in the event of unexpected misfortune. Now that would be progress!
I agree, Kat, what is proposed is just a start. But once enacted, just try to take it away! I'd even go out on a limb and say even if Obama did not get re-elected, he would forever be in the history books as the President who brought Universal Medicare to the US.
Mod
All over Europe we have forms of socialised medicine that works more or less well. But somebody still has to take the decisions. In the socialised system it is bureaucrats and politicians rather than insurance assessors and accountants.
Healthcare is rationed everywhere, in the States by cost, in the socialised systems by waiting lists. All the same, thought the British whine about it (it's what the British do, whine), the British mixed system, with the private sector filling in some of the holes, often from the same kitty, for instance where people can go private after a certain time on the waiting list and the state pays, is a superb system and in practice works well.
It's the one issue Romney can't debate him on - Romney passed the bill himself. LOL
The British system does indeed sound superb (and an improvement on our own, which has not embraced the private sector). The US would be well-advised to follow it, methinks...
K.A. wrote: "It's the one issue Romney can't debate him on - Romney passed the bill himself. LOL"Yeah, but he will likely try to spin it as all his own idea...
Mod
Unlikely. Politicians in democracies have to start from where their predecessors have arrived. And a damn good thing too. The alternative is Pol Pot's Year Zero. In the States there are too many entrenched positions on health.
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