orichalcum

Me - now that winter is coming but not yet here.


There's a Tornado Watch! Wheeee...

So, amidst lots of encouraging election news yesterday, I'd like to note that the Kansas Board of Education has legally changed the definition of science in the state of Kansas, as of yesterday.

Previously, science was defined as "The human activity of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us. These explanations are based on observations, experiments, and logical arguments that adhere to strict empirical standards and a healthy skeptical perspective."

The new standards describe it as "continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena."


More here

Commentary?

when a "please take me off" response sent to an entire enormous mailing list is not followed up by 15 more "please take me off too" responses, also sent to the entire list.

Get with it, people! It's the Century of the Fruitbat!

Well, I just told my Chair that I'm officially applying for the tenure-track job in the department. Now we hope.

And desperately try to publish...

I had planned to write a cool happy post today about seeing a lecture called "Muppets 101," by the actress who plays Cate Monster in Avenue Q.

But then Eowyn, our 3 month old golden retriever puppy, collapsed on her walk this morning, and the rest of the day has been a round of vet appointments and worry.

As of now, here's the situation:
She has substantial fluid in her lungs, and a lot of trouble breathing.
Her heart rate is really high (170-200), probably because she's trying desperately to get enough oxygen to her lungs.
Her blood oxygen level's pretty low.
So, she's at the emergency overnight animal hospital, on oxygen and an IV set of antibiotics.
The vets don't really know what's wrong with her, because the onset was so sudden - she was totally fine last night. She doesn't have a fever or elevated white blood cells or the other things you'd expect with pneumonia. Another possibility is congestive heart failure, but that would be really strange for a 3-month old puppy.

So yeah - please send your good health mojo and prayers Eowyn's way tonight. We hope she'll be better in the morning, and that we can bring her home safely. But she's pretty sick.

someday I'll write about the Muppets.

Well, the good news is that she's feeling distinctly better today, even chewing on her IV cord, and her pulse and oxygen levels are back to normal, and there's less fluid in her lungs. We hope that she'll be able to come home tonight and meet, very quietly and restfully, karakara98 tomorrow.

The bad news is that they're still not at all sure why this happened, but that the Sherlock Holmes answer (least improbable) is that it's congenital heart disease, striking bizarrely early and despite all of her pedigreed generations of good-heartedness. Our vet is sending us to a special veterinary cardiologist on Monday to get a heart ultrasound and figure out whether that's the issue.

If it is, then, well, Eowyn's likely never going to grow up to be a big dog. There's not much they can do for heart failure except have her live peacefully and happily while she can, and that's more likely measured in months rather than years.

Obviously, we're really upset, and hoping as much as possible that the cardiologist will say, "Her heart is wonderful and strong! This is obviously a rare case of 48-hour Dog Lung Disease!" And there's no actual sign of heart problems - nothing on the chest x-ray, and her EKGs were fine, and her heart murmur seems to be gone.

But it's just not normal for little puppies' lungs to suddenly fill up with liquid.

And hey, it's not like I don't have experience taking care of loved ones with terminal illnesses.

So, I was all prepared for today to be really stressful. Eowyn is at the doctor's right now, and while she seems to be feeling much better, we won't know till later this afternoon if something's really wrong.

And then on Saturday, I got a message from my ob/gyn's office, saying, "Please call Monday to discuss your blood test results with Dr X." Now, Dr. X had told me that they'd only call me if something was wrong or problematic with my results, and it seemed kinda odd for them to be calling on Saturday to begin with. So I've been kinda stressed for the last two days, wondering what awful heretofore unknown disease I might have, as well as my sick puppy. I called at 8 AM this morning, to be told the doctor wasn't in yet and they'd call me back.

I just got the call. The all-important message? "Please tell Orichalcum that her blood test results are totally normal."

On the plus side, had a great weekend hanging out with Kara, got to go see the awesome Pompeii exhibit at the Field Museum to which I am shepherding 50 college students next weekend, and play-tested Round I of All's Fair, our new Aalterdam game for Anonycon.

Back to job application work.