more random things

• There's a new program on my public radio, recently, called "On the Media." And during yesterday's show, they had a piece about Mark Warner (recent, former Governor of Virginia, and possible Democratic presidential candidate), including cyberspaace on his campaign trail, and how he held a press conference in the virtual world "Second Life," and how he is now planning a town hall meeting there. Good to know the geek-nerd vote is finally being taken seriously.



• Also, I've heard about "Second Life" before, on NPR, and I'm tempted to try it out -- the way my life is going now, this may be the best oportunity for me to do some real socializing, and meet real people behind the avatars. It would centainly be more real than something organized just for people with disabilities, put on by a local church group, with its attendant proselytizing (:::Ack! Ptooie!:::). Anybody here have any experience with it? Will my dial-up service be able to handle it, or should I get broadband, first?


• Occasionally (and last night was one of those times), I look up "Cerebral Palsy" in encyclopedias and the Web, just to see if the "Official" definition jibes with my own experience of it, and if it's changed at all over time. And I found this gem on a site out of the UK:
  

  The symptoms differ from one person to the next, and may even change over time. Unfortunately people with cerebral palsy are often affected by other medical disorders, including epilepsy or mental impairment.

  
  Grah! and Argh! and *headdesk*! They're still linking CP with "mental impairment"?! Now, over my lifetime, I've met dozens of people with cerebral palsy, and I've only heard of two people with CP being mentally impaired. What I have encountered, with much greater frequency, is exceptionally bright people with CP who, because of diffeculty controling their muscles, have trouble speaking, so people around them assume they're "mentally impaired." I knew one such young man who briefly attended Mount Saint Mary College while I was there; he had such diffeculty speaking that teachers rarely had the patience for him to get his answers out in class. And the jocks in his dorm teased him so badly that he eventually quit.
  
  So "expert" sites like that one, that are written to advise parents with kids with CP, are hardly helpful.



• (I forgot what I was going to put with this last bullet, until a few minutes after I hit "Post to journal" -- here it is): As part of our changing public radio schedule, my local station has moved Weekend Edition: Sunday back two hours, so now it starts at 8 am, instead of 10; now, I keep sleeping through my favorite segment, the weekly puzzle. Maybe this will be enough incentive for me to regain my sanity regarding sleep... maybe