ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: July 2013

Wednesday

17

July 2013

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COMMENTS

What I Learned on My Honeymoon

Written by , Posted in Adventures

DSCN2951

Austin and I just got back from spending two weeks traveling across Scotland and Ireland. It was fun, relaxing, interesting, stressful and tiring. Some observations.

1. When I’m in the UK and Ireland there are only two types of alcohol I want: Cider and Whisk(e)y, primarily of the Bulmers/Magners and speyside/Jameson varieties.

2. Scotland and Ireland start to melt around 82 degrees, and shift into a circle of hell around 88 degrees. When that happens, I average three showers per day and become a decidedly un-sunny person.

3. It doesn’t matter how lovely the scenery or wonderful the company; if it’s 90 degrees in my room at 12:30 A.M. I’m going to be miserable. I recognize that makes me a wimp, and possibly a bratty one. I’m not okay with that, but couldn’t figure out how to just ‘get over’ melting into a puddle.

4. The Isle of Skye is gorgeous and I could spend another week there exploring.

5. There’s really no need to visit Inverness.

6. Edinburgh is gorgeous in the summer, when it is light from 5 A.M. until 11 P.M. I can also imagine it being dark and gloomy in the winter and still awesome because of all the cool architecture.

7. By settling down and just picking one major thing to do each day, I was able to relax more and enjoy myself more. I’m not going to be able to see or do everything I want, and trying to takes me away from relaxation and over to stress.

8. I still love Ireland more than most places I’ve been, but I feel okay about not going back for a few years. There’s more to see.

9. There really is nothing like seeing old friends. Ben/Bonnie, Kate/Richard, Vanessa/Diarmuid: it was WONDERFUL to see you and catch up. You are welcome in our home any time.

10. My husband is awesome. After 16 days of near non-stop togetherness, five flights and about 24 hours of road tripping, we only came close to fighting once. Freakin’ sat nav taking us to the train station instead of the train station parking lot.

Next stop: NYC in October!

Wednesday

17

July 2013

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COMMENTS

Checklist Manifesto

Written by , Posted in Reviews

checklist manifesto

We were standing in a bookshop in Kilkenney, Ireland, which we were visiting on our honeymoon. I had loaded my kindle up with plenty to read, and even bought a paperback (book one of the A Song of Ice and Fire) to read during the no-electronics portion of the flights. But I was in a bookstore, and you all know what that means.

The synopsis of the book struck me as kind of interesting, and I thought it might help me at work. The basic premise is that checklists really can save lives. Not lengthy, twenty-page checklists (i.e., what I prepare before leaving town for two weeks), but five-to-seven item checklists that serve as triggers for the really important things you should do in a given incident. He pulls examples from flight emergencies, financial deals and even surgery.

He was asked to help reduce complication rates in surgeries by the WHO, and prepared a three-part, 19-question checklist to be used in high-tech and low-tech hospitals around the world. During the pilot, even the fanciest hospitals saw a highly significant decrease in infection rates, reducing deaths. He repeatedly points out how simple this seems – and how those with high levels of expertise might find checklists insulting, especially when steps seem so basic. But he backs up his assertions with evidence of their success that is pretty convincing.

It was a quick read. Even at 200 pages, I pretty much flew through it. And given my field, I think there are certainly some areas where checklists would be extremely helpful. If you could see potential for improvement in your field as well, I suggest checking it out.

Wednesday

17

July 2013

0

COMMENTS

American Savage

Written by , Posted in Politics, Reviews

This is the best memoir-style book I’ve read this year, and probably ever. It’s a mix of very personal and very political stories used to discussion issues like gay rights, same sex marriage, religion, death with dignity and feminism. It twice made me tear up, and had both me and my husband laughing, shouting and really thinking about the points being made.

Instead of reading the rest of my review you should really just open a new tab (or run to your local independent book store) and purchase it.

Okay, have you done that? Awesome.

American Savage

What, two sentences isn’t enough for you? Fine. If you still need some convincing, read on.

My husband and I listened to the audio version (read by the fantastic Mr. Savage himself) while driving across Scotland and Ireland on our honeymoon. Given how much time is spent on the Catholic Church and the conservative Christian fight against civil marriage rights, it seemed both appropriate and a little naughty. If you’re not familiar with Mr. Savage’s work, he’s been a sex columnist for the Stranger for years, and hosts a great weekly sex advice podcast (look up Savage Love – it’s wonderful). He is also one of the great minds behind Hump, the amateur porn film festival held in Seattle, Olympia and Portland each fall (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Hump2013/Page). He is an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights, and, probably most importantly to so many, he and his husband founded the It Gets Better Project, which brings words of hope and comfort to LGBT kids around the world. If you’re not familiar with the It Gets Better Project, get yourself to the internet (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/).

With chapter headings ranging from “At a Loss” to “Bigot Christmas”, Mr. Savage addresses the loss of his mother, the fight against anti-gay hate groups, and some simple rules for when cheating might actually be okay. It’s made even more interesting set against the backdrop of his Catholic upbringing. He makes extremely well-reasoned arguments, addressing issues that so many are passionate about with logic and determination. Yes, I agree with him on most everything, but wow, I can’t imagine how those who disagree with him could even begin to logically address his points. They are just that good.

In only one part did I find myself somewhat disagreeing with Mr. Savage, and that was one point in his Straight Pride Parade (e.g. Halloween) discussion. I won’t go into total detail here, but he and I differ on whether the teeny tiny costume for women thing is a problem. I think his argument (that it isn’t) was mostly fought against a straw man. I support women making the choice of what to wear, and I do agree that too many people judge that choice. However, I thought that he failed to address the expectation that is created around that, and how when the only choices out there are sexy nurse, not only does that create some messed up expectation for women, but for what men expect to see. That’s not the worst issue to disagree on, and I think reasonable people can. But since I fawned over pretty much everything else I thought I should sneak this point of disagreement in there.

Finally, a warning: the book is filled with honest language that can be extremely foul at time. I certainly didn’t mind it, and found that his way of writing sounds extremely natural, but I know some people cringe when they hear someone say “suck my dick.” So, there you go. Mr. Savage is also clearly very progressive so the conservatives among you are likely not going to like the book – although you might find it interesting to see how his ‘side’ views things.

Now. Go get the book. Please!

Wednesday

17

July 2013

0

COMMENTS

Gulp

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Gulp

I love Ms. Roach’s books. Stiff is a particular favorite of mine. Her writing style reads more like a fun conversation than an informative book, even though her books are inevitably also filled with interesting tidbits.

This book was no exception. Following the life of food as it passes through, well, us, Gulp spends each chapter focused on a different bodily function, some spreading across multiple chapters. Each chapter has some interesting history and interviews with folks doing research you probably didn’t know was going on. It is fun, entertaining, and an easy read.

Really the only wish I had is one that’s more for my benefit than others. I wish the book had started out with a basic reminder of the all the functions along the way. What does the small intestine do again? Is the large intestine different from the colon? Yes, I learned this in biology (I think), but that was a couple of decades ago, and I kind of assumed a book about digestion would provide me with that reminder. Additionally, while each chapter is definitely interesting on its own, there isn’t the connection one might expect in this type of book. It seems to lend itself well to a piece by piece narrative, but she only follows that in the most general terms.

Like Stiff, there are some who will be turned off by the realistic and blunt nature of the book. There’s a lot of talk of body fluids, smells and other things that people usually don’t discuss in ‘polite company.’ But if that doesn’t bother you, and like fun facts and interesting bits of trivia, then I suggest adding it to your list.

Wednesday

17

July 2013

0

COMMENTS

Virgin Suicides

Written by , Posted in Reviews

This novel is one of my sister’s favorites so I needed to check it out. While it isn’t one of mine, it isn’t bad. It was a pretty quick read, and definitely held my interest. I just had some issues with it.

The Virgin Suicides book

The title tells you what’s going to happen in the book. There’s no surprise, really, except in how the five sisters will all take their lives by the end of the book, but the first couple of pages make it clear that they do. As a plot device, that works in this instance.

The first issue is the narrative structure – the book is told from a collective first person. The guys in town who attended school with the sisters provide all of the detail. The guys have names (well, some of them do), but the perspective is of them as a group. It’s an okay idea, but it definitely prevents anyone from taking personal responsibility for their perspective. They appear to be discussing the events years and years after they occurred, trying to figure it all out in their minds by piecing together evidence and interviews, but it’s sort of awkward.

The second issue stems from the first, and that is that because the narrative comes from a group of men, all we learn about these women is how guys see them. How they may be idealized, or put on a pedestal, or judged by their male peers seems especially cruel given the subject matter. These women are apparently only coming alive to the reader because of how some men noticed them. That’s sad to me.

Because of the above two issues I almost feel like I’m missing something. I’d love to talk about this book in a literature class to see if maybe the devices that bothered me just completely went over my head. But the further I get from the book the less I like it.

Wednesday

17

July 2013

0

COMMENTS

Where’d You Go Bernadette?

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Bernadette

This book is popular among Cannonballers, and I get why. It’s got a different structure, a bit of whimsy and focuses much of its hatred on my grungy / crunchy little hometown of Seattle. In fact, the only thing that made me interested in reading the book was the tie to Seattle. However, I think people who have either never visited the Pacific Northwest or have no animosity towards it will still enjoy the book.

The book is told through some absurd narrative devices – the perspective of a middle school child, emails between neighbors and desperate private school marketers, investigators, magazine articles – but remains fairly coherent throughout. The main narrator is Bernadette’s daughter, although we do get to view things from Bernadette’s perspective as she communicates with her personal assistant (who is based in India – perhaps she got the idea from A.J. Jacobs’s book?). Bernadette going missing, while ostensible the focus of the book, only happens about 2/3 of the way through, which allows us to build up the characters and learn a bit more about them.

Without giving too much away, there is a whole lot of absurdity / unavailability throughout the book. From a super-last-minute trip to Antarctica to a bit of a deus ex machina ending, I definitely had to suspend disbelief numerous times. However, the details about Seattle were pretty spot on, so at least that wasn’t distracting to me.

I read this book over the course of two red-eye flights to Europe for my honeymoon. I was tired and not really interested in anything that taxed my brain too intensely. This book definitely fit the bill. Call it a beach read, or a plane read, or whatever. But I think it’s worth adding to you ‘when I need to turn off my brain but still feel like I’m using it’ list.

Monday

1

July 2013

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COMMENTS

One Second After

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Are we a pampered country? Are we full of wimps who wouldn’t know what to do if our iPhones and MacBooks stopped working? Is that premise dismissive of those who have to face really terrible circumstances on a daily basis?

“One Second After” is a book about life in a small North Carolina town in the days and months after a suspected electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. It’s an interesting premise – possibly similar to “Revolution,” which I believe was a TV show about a world without electricity – told from the perspective of the protagonist John, a widowed former military colonel with two daughters (12 and 16), an ever-present mother-in-law and two dogs. He is a professor at the local Christian college, and a respected man around town.

one-second-after

The first chapter sets up the town, daily life, and provides some glimpses into John’s background. What is initially thought to be a temporary power outage proves far worse as the vast majority of cars immediately stop working, radios fail and back-up generators will not turn on. If you’re unfamiliar with an EMP, read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

Once I got past the silly forward by Newt Gingrich (who, as an aside, makes mention of how grateful we all should be that the U.S. prevented a Big Brother-type state. Ahem.), the book itself was a quick read. My copy was about 350 pages long but I read it in two days. That was a function both of the quality of writing and the fact that it is too hot to function right now. When it is 87 degrees in my bedroom at 9:30 at night, all I want to do is read a book in front of a fan.

Speaking of fans, we rely on technology for a lot – not just the creature comforts of a warm shower or an iPod, but for the preservation of life for many people. One of the best components of this book is the description of all the things that would not be available once an EMP hit. Cars would stop working unless they were built before computer components were incorporated into the design. Jets would drop from the sky. Our means of distribution would stop (trucks, railway), so some areas of the country would have rotting crops with no way to transport them to the starving people in deserts. Tradesmen and hobbyists would be hot commodities as they might be able to get a steam engine working to provide some power to the nursing home full of Alzheimer’s patients.

This is all fascinating and the author does a great job with his descriptions. I do, however, have some issues with the narrative choices he made. First, while there are some strong women in the book, they are all strong in traditionally female ways. John’s mother-in-law is clearly a steel magnolia, but she’s primarily relegated to child care. John makes a new friend with a female ‘outsider’ (someone stuck in the town but not from there) who is in a medical profession, but is a nurse, not a doctor. There’s nothing wrong with being a nurse, but there is such a stereotype of women in the nursing profession that this could have been an easy chance to break away from that trope. The town mayor is a woman, but the public safety and former military men make all the decisions. Would it have been so difficult for the author to have made the mayor a man and one of the major public safety figures a woman? Just to mix it up to try to avoid making the story hyper-masculine?

Additionally, there is a lot of writing focused on these military people patting themselves on the back, and a whole lot of denigration of pacifists. As you can imagine for a book that has a forward by Newt Gingrich, there is a heavy military overtone that is not just limited to wanting to fight whoever is responsible for setting off the EMP. There are the ‘outsiders,’ along with bands of criminal elements desperate for food and happy to make life miserable for others. One conversation is focused on the ‘hippies’ who are useless and wouldn’t survive without the military folks, apparently attempting to prove that it’s definitely not worth being true to your values and ethics when the times get difficult. I cannot agree with that sentiment as presented in this book.

There is also a disturbingly ableist tone to much of the book, especially when the town doctor is discussing the challenges the town will face when mental health medications – antidepressants, antipsychotics – are no longer available. The dismissive tone – that so many people are just ‘coddled’ being on these medicines, and the ones who really need it are ‘wackos’ – was deeply disappointing. Especially when such a tone was not struck when discussing John’s daughter’s need for insulin. I appreciated that there were frank discussions about triage and the ethics of using medication on someone who was going to die soon anyway when it could be used on others who have a chance to live, but there was clearly a bias prevalent suggesting that physical ailments were real, and mental health ones either were not, or were only important in how they impacted to town, not the individuals suffering.

With those caveats, I can still recommend this book primarily for much of the human story and some of the details and reminders of what technology does for so many of us on a daily basis. The militaristic feel is a bit much for me, but it is not a deal breaker.