A Sight to See

On the way to the train this morning, I saw a large group of dogs huddled near an apartment building. There must have been about 10 of them tied up up together. I assume they all had the same walker, who was nowhere to be seen but had likely ran back up to his or her apartment in that building because of a forgotten cell phone or something of the like. Anyway, seeing these dogs of all different shapes, sizes, and colors, waiting quietly, patiently together for their walker to return... Even after I passed them, I couldn't help but to look back at them and smile.

The Snow is Always Whiter...

I don't understand you Americans. Here you are, complaining about your costly healthcare system, wishing you had "free" healthcare like they do in Canada. But yet whenever nationalized healthcare is proposed by a (democratic) politician, nobody wants to accept it, because you don't want to have to pay more to the government upfront. What did you expect? Did you think Canadian healthcare funds were a gift from the Queen? Canadians pay taxes through the nose, as well as via other orifices! This is so Canadians of all economic levels can have equal access to care. So yes, you have to pay for nationalized healthcare, and it just might mean you are also paying for the care of someone a little less privileged than you. If you have no desire for this type of system, I don't want to hear any more complaints about your crappy insurance bills. I, being from Canada, do maintain the right to curse Aetna/Chickering for the $1,500 bill I continue to receive for my MRI of two years ago, for which I sent in a minimum of 2 referrals. Seeing any doctor back home was as easy as the swipe of a card....

I Did It!

I finally bought myself an iPod. A 4G mini, in pink, of course. Why the 4G? It's light, I don't have that much music, and I think it will serve my purposes, i.e., for subway rides and working out. Most importantly though, the price was right-there was a great deal on Amazon. I am a conformist, and I am proud.

Pick-Me-Up

Never underestimate the power of a compliment. After a trying week and even rougher start to the weekend (even the cap of my new-fangled amino protein shampoo broke off!), I dragged myself to a birthday party. The hostess came up to me specifically to tell me that her friend, who had already left, was disappointed that he had to go "just as a pretty girl was walking in" (yes, I know it's surprising, but he was in fact referring to me.) Thank you, whoever you are, for putting a smile on my face. Also, I had a bag of mishloach manot waiting for me in the lobby when I got home, which was a nice surprise indeed. Thank you, Josh!

Confusion

Have you ever had someone get upset with you, so upset you cried, and you spend the next twenty-four hours racking your brain, trying to figure out exactly what it was you did wrong? If you have to try that hard, to go through your emails and IMs, your (attempts at) conversations, with that person, as well as to gain support from your close friends regarding the situation because you are too insecure to have enough faith that you acted as any normal person would, maybe by then it is time to realize that perhaps you have done everything right- everything except making yourself appear guilty to the other person.

One Year

Amir,
It is hard to believe that you left us one year ago today. This date, March 25, however, does not hold much significance with me. This is not only because we hold the Jewish date of your yahrzeit, or because I didn't find out what happened to you until the next day, March 26, 2004. It is because I think about you every day, and you continue to have an impact on my daily life. You continue to help me through tough situations, because I can imagine what you would say to make them seem better. I think a lot of your friends and family do the same! I will post this to your website as well, where those who loved you and admired you continue to share thoughts and stories about you, all of them describing your unique views on life and your sincere interest in other people. I can only hope that you are in a place of ultimate fields free of soccer players, endless tree-lined bike paths, and peace.

iPod Invasion

They are everywhere. The tell-tale white headphones, donned by both men and women, with wires that trail into the abyss of a pocket or attache. I must have seen at least 50 iPods on the way to work today. On the crowded 3-train, which I was forced to take because the B decided to temporarily stop running, iPods were all around me. On my walk to work from Penn Station-more iPods. In the elevator on the way up to my office- 3 out of 7 of us had iPods! That's 43%! With a larger sample size, that number could easily have been 50%, or even more! What's really eerie is the pervading silence, even in this noisy city, when all the people around you are wearing their iPods. I am dreading the day when the last person besides me without an iPod finally gets one. Then I will be in a truly silent world. Until I get an iPod of my own.

Guest Appearance

In our ongoing debate about the dangers of second-hand smoke, my friend Aaron recalled to me in an email an episode of the X-Files, one which I don't think I have seen. Here's what he wrote:

A tobacco company creates a new kind of cigarette, a supposedly "safer" cigarette. However somehow it results in a new breed of tobacco beetle. The new beetle's eggs are tiny and resilient and survive the process of being smoked, only to end up in the lungs of smokers and secondhand smokers. Only one of the test group smokers survives, as he is immune to the eggs or something. But anyone he smokes around gets the eggs in their lungs, and the smoke makes eggs hatch and turn into beetles which burrow through their lungs, crawl from their mouths and eat their faces. Pretty gross!

Pretty gross indeed! Maybe I should write my Preventive Medicine term paper on the effects of watching this X-Files on smoking rates in the viewers.

What to Wear?

I was thinking of going to a costume party for Purim on Saturday night. Being so last minute, I have't really thought of a costume. Two things that are important at such a party, in order to be approached by a member of the opposite sex (if you wish for such a thing to occur):

1.You want to be recognizable
2.You want to look good.

That means no masks or excessive clown makeup, no stupid costumes like dressing yourself up in a huge box of Fiber One and calling yourself "The Regulator," and no woman, unless she's married, should be dressing up as a pro-football player. That said, I think most females know to take this oppourtunity to dress as skankily as possible and then claim to be dressed up as a supermodel rather than a slut. As for me, I'm leaning towards either flamenco dancer or flower child (so original, I know).

New and Sham-proved

A little over a week ago, I realized I was running out of Pantene, so I bought a new bottle at the drugstore. It happened to be that the shelves were now stocked with bottles featuring a yellow label with the statement "NEW -WITH AMINO PROTEINS." I didn't think much of it, as I am usually skeptical of such marketing gimmicks. I must admit though, I did kind of rush through my old bottle of shampoo to start the new one! But why, with seven years of post-high school education in health sciences and medicine, did it take me until today, as I was taking a shower, to realize just how bogus the term "amino protein" is? Proteins are made up of amino acids-that is the definition of a protein! Maybe these "amino proteins" are derived from a new species of roadkill they've recently been adding to hair care products. Anyway, my hair looks the same as always.

Lize's Tip of the Day

If you fall asleep with a piece of gum in your mouth, and you are lucky enough not to choke to death in your sleep, here is what you can do to get the aforementioned gum off your pillowcase:

1. Take a frozen Jello Pudding Snack (you don't freeze your Jello Pudding snacks? What planet are you from?)
2. Rub the Jello Pudding Snack on the gum for about 30 seconds.
3. Wipe the gum off immediately with a damp cloth.
4. Et voila! Gum stain is gone (laundering the pillowcase post-gum removal is highly recommended).

Don't ask too many questions. Just trust me on this one.

To Recycle or Not to Recycle

I was having a debate with my friend last night about the benefits of the recycling program in NYC. His argument was that recycling is inefficient and is more costly than regular waste disposal, therefore it is not necessary or even helpful to recycle. This made me feel the need to dredge up my lecture material from my Environmental Health Sciences course of last semester. What we learned is that while it is true that recycling is burdensome and expensive, there is simply no room left in landfills for more waste. Therefore, it is actually imperative to decrease the amount of waste being produced, recycling being a feasible method involving both the municipality and the consumer. For more information, use the following links:

http://www.ejnet.org/landfills/

www.recycle.net

And don't forget to recycle your toilet paper!

iPod Infatuation

I have recently been thinking of buying an iPod. When I ask people who have iPods if they are happy with their purchases, the answer is usually this : "It has changed my life." Therefore, I would like to pose these questions to all iPod owners out there:
1. When was the last time you said something like this about a person?
2. When was the last time you said something like this to a person?
3. Should I get the 4G Mini, 6G Mini, or 20G?

T.G.I.S.

I made an interesting discovery last night, after scrounging desperately for junk food in my apartment- the red icing from the tube tastes much better than the green! But seriously, folks. I would like to share the lyrics of a song with you. This song comes from "A Taste of Music," a tape of songs from some Jewish American school girls' choir. I used to listen to the tape with my mother, and we would then sing the songs in harmony. The song I will share is one about the coming day-Shabbos. I thought it was hokey back then, but if I heard it today, it just might bring a tear to my eye.

The sun is going down,
It's shining through the trees,
Another week gone by,
Becomes a memory.

So throw away your hammer,
There's nothing left to do,
Go on home and find the gift,
That's waiting tere for you.

Oh, it's time to say "Good Shabbos"
When all your work is done,
Gonna spend the day together
With The Holy One.

Say a special blessing,
On a cup that's filled with wine,
Man and his Creator,
Is a very special time.

Shabbat Shalom

Lightbulb

I recently heard that Russel Crowe announced he had been the victim of a terrorist plot back in 2001. The idea sounded absurd. Then this morning, as I was looking in the mirror and and applying my MAC ProLash (great stuff), I recalled a strange occurrence from last year. The library of a Jewish school in my hometown of Montreal was firebombed. It happened at night, so thankfully no one was hurt. There was a lot of damage, however, and and a note expressing anti-Israel sentiment was left at the scene (The perpetrators were caught soon after). A few months later, it was written up in the newspaper that an actor filming in Montreal at the time of the firebombing was donating money to rebuild the library. That actor was none other than Russel Crowe. I mean, this same obnoxious actor who refused to go the the Oscars one year if Jeffrey Wigand, the guy he portrayed in The Insider, were to attend? That seemed so weird to me at the time. But this morning, it all started to make sense....

Dartism

Why is it that when I am at a bar playing a game of darts, I can hit the bull's eye on one throw and completely miss the target the next? Because I am accurate but not precise. Who is both accurate and precise? The pro dart player. Who is precise but not accurate? The retired pro dart player who suffered from a stroke affecting his right parietal lobe, resulting in a spatial defect. Who is neither accurate nor precise? The drunk.
(The target analogy is commonly used in scientific disciplines. I just added in the characters for fun. Also, I used a green font today because I am wearing a green shirt, and I like to match.)

mmmm....Chocolate

This morning, I ate some Swiss chocolate that a colleague brought from Europe.

Reasons I felt guilty about eating it:
1. No kosher symbol
2. Calories
3.The nuclear fallout from Chernobyl has contaminated all soil, therefore all vegetation, therefore all cattle, therefore all dairy products, therefore all milk chocolate manufactured in Europe.

How I got over my guilt:
1. I've been to Europe, and even the most religious Jews there would eat it (it's only chocolate, after all)
2. I will go to the gym
3. I am exposed to more radiation sitting at my computer all day
4. It tasted damn good!

How Are You?

I'm OK. That's it? Just OK? I guess so. I am 29 and single, and all of my four siblings are starting families of their own. I have an MD, yet I am back in school and live with three roommates. I live in a community where us women are bitter hags and the men are regressed assholes that are too self-involved to listen to the women bitch about their bitter haggedness (haggardness?) But I am not standing on the corner of 96th Street, asking for spare change. I have not been crushed by my own SUV. I am not one in five Africans living with HIV. I have not been the victim of a suicide bombing or a natural disaster. Yes, I am OK. I mean it. Thanks for asking.

Evidence-Based Medicine

Because I have friends who doubt that second-hand smoke is anything more than a nuisance, i decided to post this article abstract:

Genotoxicity of environmental tobacco smoke: a review.Husgafvel-Pursiainen K - Mutat Res - 01-NOV-2004; 567(2-3): 427-45From NIH/NLM MEDLINE
NLM Citation ID:15572289 (PubMed)
Full Source Title:Mutation Research
Publication Type:Journal Article; Review
Language:English
Author Affiliation:Department of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland. kirsti.husgafvel-pursiainen@ttl.fi
Authors:Husgafvel-Pursiainen K
Number of References:169
Abstract:Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), or second-hand smoke, is a widespread contaminant of indoor air in environments where smoking is not prohibited. It is a significant source of exposure to a large number of substances known to be hazardous to human health. Numerous expert panels have concluded that there is sufficient evidence to classify involuntary smoking (or passive smoking) as carcinogenic to humans. According to the recent evaluation by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, involuntary smoking causes lung cancer in never-smokers with an excess risk in the order of 20% for women and 30% for men. The present paper reviews studies on genotoxicity and related endpoints carried out on ETS since the mid-1980s. The evidence from in vitro studies demonstrates induction of DNA strand breaks, formation of DNA adducts, mutagenicity in bacterial assays and cytogenetic effects. In vivo experiments in rodents have shown that exposure to tobacco smoke, whole-body exposure to mainstream smoke (MS), sidestream smoke (SS), or their mixture, causes DNA single strand breaks, aromatic adducts and oxidative damage to DNA, chromosome aberrations and micronuclei. Genotoxicity of transplacental exposure to ETS has also been reported. Review of human biomarker studies conducted among non-smokers with involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke indicates presence of DNA adducts, urinary metabolites of carcinogens, urinary mutagenicity, SCEs and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) gene mutations (in newborns exposed through involuntary smoking of the mother). Studies on human lung cancer from smokers and never-smokers involuntarily exposed to tobacco smoke suggest occurrence of similar kinds of genetic alterations in both groups. In conclusion, these overwhelming data are compatible with the current knowledge on the mechanisms of carcinogenesis of tobacco-related cancers, occurring not only in smokers but with a high biological plausibility also in involuntary smokers.
Major Subjects:
Mutagens / * toxicity
Tobacco Smoke Pollution / * adverse effects
Additional Subjects:
Air Pollution, Indoor / adverse effects
Carcinogens / toxicity
Chromosome Aberrations
DNA Damage
Female
Humans
Lung Neoplasms / chemically induced / genetics
Maternal-Fetal Exchange
Mutation
Polymorphism, Genetic
Pregnancy
Chemical Compound Name:(Carcinogens); (Mutagens)
Bookmark URL: /das/journal/view/45292219-2/N/15246486?source=MI

There's more where this came from.

Note to Guys on Jdate

Or any other online dating service, I would imagine. This is one girl's opinion on what should and should not be in your photo(s):

1. Hat and sunglasses: what are you hiding? Are you an undercover celebrity?
2. Pets are OK, kids are not (unless you are willing to admit they're your own).
3. Tux: you must have a decent photo of yourself other thatn the one from your cousin's wedding.
4. Professional headshot: not cool, unless you are in the entertainment business.
5.Even worse than other girls in your photo, are girls with their heads blacked out-reeeeaaallly creepy!
6. Cigarettes are OK (if you don't actually smoke), beer bottle is not (even if you drink).
7. One more thing: please, please, PLEASE keep your shirt on! You can show me your 6-pack at a later time.

If anyone has suggestions for female photos or profiles, please share.

Night in AC (I'm on the right)

Memoir-Worthy

Just when I thought my life was crazy enough to write a book, along comes "Running with Scissors." Augusten Burroughs had one messed-up childhood. I just finished the book today, a book that would have been a lot funnier and a lot less disturbing if it weren't true. The other thing that sets the author and me apart- he can write!

Some good things that happened today: I went out to dinner with friends, I improved my dart game (somewhat), and I won a game of Trivial Pursuit 1990's edition (it was a team effort-thanks, Aaron!)

I have something girly to say: NARS blush kicks ass. They were all out of Orgasm, but Amour works just fine for me. I hope no one reads into that too much.

Welcome!

There is no better day to start a blog than on one wheen you feel like crap. The best thing that has happened to me so far today is that I got a cool new flavor of gum. And I didn't get hit by a cab on the way to work. I am always thankful for that!

I have a question for anyone reading this: if you saw Leno last week, do you remember the name of the hip-hop violinist duo?

One more thing: happy birthday, Dave!