Tuesday, February 1, 2011

This morning I finally finished “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Good book. It is really a book of four things:

1. life of Henrietta herself (she was my age when she died which is really weird)
2. the origin and development of HeLa cells and its impact on science, medicine and ethical law
3. Henrietta’s children and family and their relationship with their mother’s cells
4. the author’s research into the story

This book brings up the fact that there are really no consent laws on tissue research and the patients who donate cells or have cells taken, even through blood test, have really no control over what happens to it all.

I spent the morning reading/commenting on second section of Close Reading Assignment. They weren’t terrible but not many can be very clear in their ideas.

Teaching: I wasn’t feeling that great in the second class, probably because I’m tired and I’m not sleeping that much lately and it will be a long week and I probably need iron too. I drank some water and was just glad it was Peer Review Day where they worked on reading each other’s papers. Also, in talking to some students it was funny to see how students like to blame the teacher for failing the writing class the first time. Not their lack of effort or ability to read and comprehend. They were sucking up a bit by telling me that I was a better teacher than their past ones because I put my expectations on the board and explain more. Right.

My parents bought me some new clothing. They ordered it online from the designer company Papa works for. I got a work black skirt, two blouses –white and pink, wool black pants, and a grey track suit. Mostly work clothes. I really, really hate shopping and I told them I really didn’t need anything but they got some anyway. They are awesome like that. And I like not having to go to a clothing store in any way. Now a bookstore is another matter.

After I got home I did some Wii Fit exercises and then had a nice dinner of eggs over easy with black bread with butter and vegetables. When I was little every time my grandmother made me an omelet, she would take a piece of bread, put butter on it and cut it into little squares. So to this day if I have bread with eggs, especially in the evening, (and I have black Russian bread with everything, it is how I grew up), I would cut up the bread in the same way. And it always makes me miss my grandmother.

In the evening until midnight I was working on my Ancient China lecture and powerpoint. And I decided to use Monty Python’s constitutional peasants scene from the Holy Grail to discuss legitimacy of government in lecture. So I had to watch it to note down the timing. And no matter how many times I see it ‘farcical aquatic ceremony’ and ‘just because some watery tart threw a sword at you is no basis for a system of government’ I laugh and laugh

Exercise: 31 minutes on the wii

Resolutions for February: (Having these resolutions worked more than I thought it would. I actually go and do some Wii Fit or make myself go walk even in cold weather. It is not a lot of exercising but it is getting up and doing something. No internet until 6 didn’t last long, but I want to try again.)

1. exercise 30 minutes a day on something
2. cross stitch a little every day
3. no internet until 6pm unless for work
4. write and post one fanfic (I am going to write a Torchwood one that has been sitting in my head)