Half Man, Half Machine, All Freaked Out

today is my first full day using a minimed "paradigm" pump insulin delivery system. so far, so good.

history: the pump is an ingenious little device that allows you to use a tiny little i.v. delivery system to convey insulin doses that are estimated by a pager-sized electonic... thing. you enter in your blood sugar level, how many grams of carbs you plan on eating, and it uses a your preset insulin-to-carb ratio to determine how much juice it gives you. you can then edit the dose if you like, and press a button, and you get the insulin. no extra injection required.

history: i was always too healthy to get a pump before. i'm still technically ridiculously on top of my diabetes. but as time has gone on and the pump has proven to be such an improvement on manual injections, insurance companies have become more willing to pay for it. (its an expensive little bugger, let me tell you...)

recent history: the pump scares the bejeezus out of me. not as much, now that i'm hooked up to it and the mind-meld chip has been installed at the base of my skull... kidding. but seriously, the idea of having something permanently attached to me is really freaky. did i write a post about this already? anywhoo, its just strange, and i have all sorts of reservations about "THE PUMP", but i also really like it at the moment, so i think i can get over my fears.

in other news, i'm tired, and my real birthday is coming up. and i need to apply to u.t.'s graduate school for architecture. so much to do, and all i really want to do at the moment is sleep for a week. such is life.

i can't think of much more to say at the moment, beyond the fact that the federal government really fucked up in the aftermath of katrina, and the right is trying to shift all the blame to local, democratic authorities. bullshit. FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency. their job: to make sure that the nation is not unprepared for situations just like katrina. of note: in 2000 or so, FEMA (grossly underfunded and filled with experience-lacking cronies by republicans for years and years) put out a study naming the three worst-case scenarios it could see in the near future: a terrorist attack in new york, a major hurricane in new orleans, and a major earthquake in the san francisco area. funny, but it still seems like, somehow, the agency was still underfunded and unprepared for the two of those that have so far happened. way to go guys... way. to. go.

and yes, it is racial. and political. because when southern florida, governed by jeb bush, and its upwardly mobile white jews get hit with a storm, they certainly seem to get help pretty quickly. poor black new orleans, not so much... you have sean penn (sean penn! who attacked paparazzi before it was "cool"!) out there on a boat rescuing people and animals, and beautiful matthew mccoughnahy (sp?) is an on the scene animal rescue machine reporting to oprah (also in the new orleans area currently). but no national guards-people for days and days. no rescue operations. and thousands are stuck without food and water. yeah... that's cool...

and by the way, ann coulter is the scariest piece of shit, stark raving mad bitch i have ever had the displeasure of learning about the existence of. i saw her on (of course!) fox news last night. she is terrifying. she is evil. she lies and bullies, and doesn't have the skill of listening. i hate her. i hate her and she frightens me.

also bill frist was being interviewed by larry king on cnn. bill frist, who i believe spread the news that aids could be carried in tears and that all sorts of low to no risk activity was dangerous. except abstinance. he was a big fan of that, if i recall. because NOT having sex is so much fun, and clearly the proper way of dealing with the aids crisis... anyway, anderson cooper (who is a mo on the sly, i think, and who i like very much) lobbed him a good question, and it was fun to see frist avoid answering it all together. fun and irritating/depressing.

i wish the clowns would at least wear makeup. then we'd know what we're dealing with.