(no subject)

Whenever I feel shitty, I will just think about what happened at city hall this weekend. Even though I've never had a serious same sex partner, even though I don't think the government should be involved in marriage at all, it makes me sublimely happy, thrilled, gleeful, even, to think about what the Mayor has done. I have to admit it, I'm glad he got elected.

And I'm excited that I too will get the chance to visit the folks in line outside city hall and maybe fetch them meals or something! I'm hoping to go Thursday morning. And I might go protest outside city hall on Friday before and/or after school if there is picketing going on. Or, be there to demonstrate my support. Whatever you want to call it. For the first time, I feel comfortable standing at a protest like event with a sign. There's just nothing about this that I have misgivings about. It is beautiful and wonderful and RIGHT and makes me feel all sappy and gooey inside.

Cellular geeking - carrier buy out

Cingular just bought AT&T, if some of you weren't aware.

What does this mean for the future of cellphone options?

In the past, I got the impression that for service, Verizon was absolutely the best, and AT&T and Sprint were often a close second, followed by Cingular and T-Mobile.

What does this mean for Cingular's customer service?
Its phone lineup?
Its coverage area?

It may be that by the time my contract with Verizon expires, Cingular will be the way to go. My options are: Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, and T-Mobile. Am I missing any?

Should be interesting...

On Anorexia

I read a GREAT article in Seed Magazine about a new theory about the cause of Anorexia. Based on more recent research, I'm pretty convinced that this is it.

Anorexia has always been treated as a psychological disorder in the past, and treatments are largely ineffective.

Now, a researcher named TK has proposed that the disorder is in fact biophysical in origin. Why? Well, one of the reasons that really caught my attention is that anorexia is always preceded by sudden loss of about 10% of someone's weight. This is NOT always due to dieting. Sometimes someone with a fine body image will be ill, lose that weight, and find that he or she can no longer eat.

Why would this be?

Apparently, back when we were hunter gatherers, we'd sometimes have to move on from one place that was running out of food to another. Some people have a metabolism that, when kicked into starvation mode, goes kinda hypomanic. Dopamine and other happy brain chemicals are jacked up and although the person is unable to bring hirself to eat and is in fact starving to death, zie feels energetic and "better than ever." Notably, anorexics tend to have a lot of nervous energy.

In a tribal environment, such people would have the energy to goad the rest of the tribe on to greener pastures. Once they had settled down, pressure from the rest of the tribe would lead to them eating again... apparently once someone in this state is kicked out of starvation mode (which may take a lot of work), they go back to normal.

Other research which can be read below recently found a genetic marker for anorexia and bulimia, which supports the above theory at least in the assertion that it is biological and not psychological.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar02/genetic.html

Anyway. I thought that was pretty nifty. And maybe if psychologists stop viewing it as a mental problem, there will be less of a cycle of guilt for the anorexics, which will make the road to recovery that much easier. *Croses fingers*

(no subject)

( To do list of DOOM! )

SO busy. But. Little is urgent, so that's something.

SF City Hall

Anyone know if there are still marriages going on over there?

Likewise, if there will be picketing at all on friday?

I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed, and I'd hate to try to drop by there when there's nothing to do/see. When I went past it this morning, there didn't seem to be anyone lined up outside either entrance.