daniel-power:

Infection Nature April 2013. 

I’ve really missed my lines.

nevver:

Calling it quits

The scale is digital. The plate rests on the floor of the men’s locker room at the UA rec center, while a little digital readout is way above my eye-line. 

200.2. 

Fuck. 

I’ve struggled with my weight, alternating between healthy and overweight for long enough that we can’t call it baby fat. I’m just unhealthy. 

There’s no secret to this, I don’t exercise enough.

My career choice of writer is problematic, but by no means endemic. Better writers have managed to deal with this:  for instance, Haruki Murakami wrote a book about long-distance running called “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.” 

I also eat like someone on a Food Network reality show. I’ve horked down two cheeseburgers in a day and knocked out a breakfast burrito for a midnight snack. 

Let’s review: I don’t exercise and I eat like shit. Which, could be fine although I’m shortening my life and also increasing my risk for diabetes, stroke and a half-dozen other diseases. And, that’s not a great trade-off when I think about it. 

But, I have a bigger, more recent problem. I have a son. 

And, that creates two significant challenges: I exist as a model of behavior for him—whatever imprints of his life are beginning now and I don’t want my faults handed down. Second, I am 36 and he will be three; I want to see him graduate high school, I want to see him get married, I want to see his children. And, I cannot do that if my heart explodes after too many Sonoran hot dogs. 

There are, of course, no guarantees. When I was 17, a kid in our high school dropped dead on a soccer field. Various friends and acquaintances have died from cancer, car crashes, bad luck, suicide.

I may buy myself a few years, but die early anyway. But, at least I’m buying the time where I can.

So, I’m working at it.

200.2

Fascinating video to see how changes to the light source: its position and color can dramatically change the structure of a subject’s face. 

Switching boulders at UA for a drilling competition.

Liturgy: Rev. Ricardo Machuca Hernàndez speaks to those protesting the death of José Antonio Elena Rodriguez in Nogales, Sonora.

Bullet ridden wall on Calle Internacional in Nogales, Son. where 16-year old José Antonio Elena Rodriguez died after being shot by US border agents. #Nogales #Border #shooting

Advice to writers from Wofford College’s Shared Worlds conference. From the above, advice from Scott Eagle, Joe Haldeman (one of my favorites), and Neil Gaiman. 

Link

Pin board of moths. #scicats

John Pedicone, superintendent at #TUSD announces his resignation #tucson