Well what else? This event truly deserves a post!
I did get up at 5.00 am and it was totally worth it. What a special day for Britain. A real fairytale, a beautiful princess, a handsome (ish) prince, the two ugly sisters (Eugenie and Beatrice) and happily ever after.
Catherine (I have since learned that now that she is royal, we are not longer allowed to address her as Kate), however, is not really a princess rather a Duchess and more specifically the Duchess of Cambridge. A few royal titles were bestowed upon her by Her Majesty the Queen but not that of "princess". Shame! She is certainly as beautiful, modest, reserved and dignified as a princess!
The two ugly sister really contributed a laugh or two, with their grotesque figures, uncomfortably enhanced by hideous outfits and accessories, absolutely priceless and the whole mark of British fashion flops.
On a contrasting note, the wedding gown of our princess (not really a princess) was spectacularly exquisite, what a triumph, but then we wouldn't really expect anything less by the great Sara Burton!
This modern day fairytale was most definitively needed, refreshing....
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Three boys....Do The Deed Once More?
The snow is melting, spring is in the air, hormones are raving and I am almost 40.
As I walk the streets near my work or outside my sons school I can't help noticing I am not alone. I am surrounded by ageless women in their 40s, who would do anything to fulfill the hormonal urge to copulate once more.
Some are thinking about it, some are doing it, some have already done it!
As my mind entertains the idea of a little princess finally joining our family, I find it increasingly difficult to fight this uncontrollable and primordial urge which is taking over my body. Reason is temporarily restored when I am brutally awaken by my husband's cynical and reluctant attitude, mainly a consequence of increasing daycare costs.
Still there is no question that the number of children per family is on the raise. Are we being sucked in by a new trend? Perhaps, it may well be the Hollywood baby boom or a Brangelina effect or maybe simply a phase we all have to endure.
With the increase in births, a new breed of women is on the raise as well, those who can indeed do it all, balancing the immense demands of work and family life.
As I try to see myself, I live in fear of how others see me.
In an astonishing way, I have recently realized how people perception of you changes depending on the number of children you have: two children make you average, three make you cool, respected and admired, and four just make you an outcast! Something to think about since I am pretty cool right now!
And then there is work, women in high-level positions and the unwritten rules! Women with children are generally underrepresented and most certainly women with four children! No matter how capable and efficient you are (trust me)! People generally assume that is men that discriminate but I have got news for you it is both men and women.
My 10 years of management experience can certainly tell you that the female of the species is always more deadly than the male. In particular we must distance ourselves from those overachieving single white females that occupy high level management positions and that make the air we breathe instantly frigid by their mere presence.
There is is a distinct possibility that I already unknowingly forfeited advancing my career when I had my third child!
While longing to rock the cradle we must use caution not to rock an entire boat!
As I walk the streets near my work or outside my sons school I can't help noticing I am not alone. I am surrounded by ageless women in their 40s, who would do anything to fulfill the hormonal urge to copulate once more.
Some are thinking about it, some are doing it, some have already done it!
As my mind entertains the idea of a little princess finally joining our family, I find it increasingly difficult to fight this uncontrollable and primordial urge which is taking over my body. Reason is temporarily restored when I am brutally awaken by my husband's cynical and reluctant attitude, mainly a consequence of increasing daycare costs.
Still there is no question that the number of children per family is on the raise. Are we being sucked in by a new trend? Perhaps, it may well be the Hollywood baby boom or a Brangelina effect or maybe simply a phase we all have to endure.
With the increase in births, a new breed of women is on the raise as well, those who can indeed do it all, balancing the immense demands of work and family life.
As I try to see myself, I live in fear of how others see me.
In an astonishing way, I have recently realized how people perception of you changes depending on the number of children you have: two children make you average, three make you cool, respected and admired, and four just make you an outcast! Something to think about since I am pretty cool right now!
And then there is work, women in high-level positions and the unwritten rules! Women with children are generally underrepresented and most certainly women with four children! No matter how capable and efficient you are (trust me)! People generally assume that is men that discriminate but I have got news for you it is both men and women.
My 10 years of management experience can certainly tell you that the female of the species is always more deadly than the male. In particular we must distance ourselves from those overachieving single white females that occupy high level management positions and that make the air we breathe instantly frigid by their mere presence.
There is is a distinct possibility that I already unknowingly forfeited advancing my career when I had my third child!
While longing to rock the cradle we must use caution not to rock an entire boat!
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Placebo Effect or simply the art of caring
I am fascinated with this recent article on Boston.com:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/03/07/can_chronic_medical_conditions_including_depression_be_treated_with_placebos/
I read with great interest all the theories put forward in this article to explain the healing effect of placebos. Irritable bowel syndrome cured by a sugar pill, depression cured by antidepressant with little effect, sham treatments doing wonders....what is the secret?
The article raises interesting questions with regard to placebo effectiveness: How important is seeing a doctor that believes in the treatment? and I will have to add: how important is to see one that cares for the patient!
Yes indeed medicine is an art and modern practitioners have not mastered it.
Francis Peabody said in 1925
" ....For the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient"
What happened to caring for the patient?....As we lose our trust in our doctors who are too preoccupied with the scientific mechanisms of a disease, we also lose trust in ourselves and in our ability to cope.
Medicine has been and it will always be an art, since ancient times a mixture of science and magic. We like spells, potions, herbs and placebos too. Sadly this art is no longer taught.
Diagnosis and treatment of a disease it is only one part of it, but the complicity of a patient-doctor relationship is the missing piece that completes the puzzle and allows for success of treatment and well being of the patient.
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/03/07/can_chronic_medical_conditions_including_depression_be_treated_with_placebos/
I read with great interest all the theories put forward in this article to explain the healing effect of placebos. Irritable bowel syndrome cured by a sugar pill, depression cured by antidepressant with little effect, sham treatments doing wonders....what is the secret?
The article raises interesting questions with regard to placebo effectiveness: How important is seeing a doctor that believes in the treatment? and I will have to add: how important is to see one that cares for the patient!
Yes indeed medicine is an art and modern practitioners have not mastered it.
Francis Peabody said in 1925
" ....For the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient"
What happened to caring for the patient?....As we lose our trust in our doctors who are too preoccupied with the scientific mechanisms of a disease, we also lose trust in ourselves and in our ability to cope.
Medicine has been and it will always be an art, since ancient times a mixture of science and magic. We like spells, potions, herbs and placebos too. Sadly this art is no longer taught.
Diagnosis and treatment of a disease it is only one part of it, but the complicity of a patient-doctor relationship is the missing piece that completes the puzzle and allows for success of treatment and well being of the patient.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Facebook and Family Feuds
I wonder how many disputes has Facebook created among families and friends!
Given that I have now fallen out with two family members and two friends and I don't even use Facebook that much, I can't help wondering what is happening to everyone else's friendship status.
It is easy to gain friends but it is just as easy to loose them!
So should we come up with a code of ethic? Something like:
1) do not accept friendship from an old boyfriend/girlfriend of your sister/daughter/brother/son/mother/father etc. just because it was a good guy or girl
2) do not leave a confrontational or snide comment as a response to one of your friends of friends post (oh boy this is a tongue twister! In my case it managed to cause a Facebook Flaming)
3) do not accept friendship from relatives and friends of your husband/wives and friends in general without their permission
4) do not accept friendship from nannies or employees of your friends or relatives without their permission
5) do not upload pictures of your family, your friends, and your friends' children without their permission
6) do not post sensitive or private issues/content on your friends wall, write them a private e-mail instead
7) Exercise the freedom of speech politely and respectfully
8) Don't lie on you status updates, you will get caught
9) If you are married or in a relationship, don't flirt with an old high school friend
10) Don't call friends and family, or friends of friends and family with inappropriate names, it will most certainly cause offense
Well these are the first 10 but I think there is more!
What a fascinating phenomenon...
Given that I have now fallen out with two family members and two friends and I don't even use Facebook that much, I can't help wondering what is happening to everyone else's friendship status.
It is easy to gain friends but it is just as easy to loose them!
So should we come up with a code of ethic? Something like:
1) do not accept friendship from an old boyfriend/girlfriend of your sister/daughter/brother/son/mother/father etc. just because it was a good guy or girl
2) do not leave a confrontational or snide comment as a response to one of your friends of friends post (oh boy this is a tongue twister! In my case it managed to cause a Facebook Flaming)
3) do not accept friendship from relatives and friends of your husband/wives and friends in general without their permission
4) do not accept friendship from nannies or employees of your friends or relatives without their permission
5) do not upload pictures of your family, your friends, and your friends' children without their permission
6) do not post sensitive or private issues/content on your friends wall, write them a private e-mail instead
7) Exercise the freedom of speech politely and respectfully
8) Don't lie on you status updates, you will get caught
9) If you are married or in a relationship, don't flirt with an old high school friend
10) Don't call friends and family, or friends of friends and family with inappropriate names, it will most certainly cause offense
Well these are the first 10 but I think there is more!
What a fascinating phenomenon...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
A dose of information, a dose of reason and a dose of moderation too in this world of vaccine SUPER SIZE ME!
At the pediatrician's office today, I read with interest the article published on Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/01/23/vaccine_phobia_is_letting_preventable_infectious_diseases_needlessly_threaten_our_children/
They had made many copies available for pick up.
I am not a pediatrician nor a medical doctor but I am a PhD and have a deep understanding of how our body works and responds to diseases.
I have enjoyed reading the article, it is pretty accurate, however, it is still not quite the full story.
Of course these type of diseases do not kill every child who contracts them, we always have the child with underlying conditions (e.g immunosuppression) or simply an unfortunate genetic make up (e.g. allergies, asthma). Truth be said, side effects and death from vaccination is much much less that the terrible side effects and death by each of these diseases.
So where does the real problem lie? The problem is not in the PANIC Virus, rather in the VACCINE MANIA this country has been experiencing for some time now. What has happened to fast food, it is now happening to vaccines: SUPER SIZE ME.
We now have 5 (penta-) in one and even 6 (hexa-) in one vaccines? Why does everything have to be an extreme? First and foremost these vaccines are not tested (no matter what anyone says, if you care to search deep in the medical and scientific literature, you will find that the performance of some of our currently used vaccines will be known to us in years to come! ). In addition, some multiple vaccine combinations have begun to contain even non obligatory vaccines as well. Is the public aware of this? Lets be honest these are definitively sneaked in!
The public is not informed properly, the leaflets we get from our pediatricians have zero useful information. To name one, fever is not a true "adverse effect"... we do not mention the real ones because of course we do not want to panic the masses, at the same time if we do not educate them, we can't complain when Jenny McCarthy assumes MMR caused her son's autism.
It should also be noted that we have different kind of vaccines (made from purified proteins, attenuated, live)...which one of those causes less overload and shock to the immune-system when multiple vaccine combinations are administered? Well let me tell you my children are not going near a multiple attenuated vaccine (MMR?!).
And so how can the public be educated if the scientific and medical staff has not appropriately conducted tests and evaluated risks on vaccines currently and commonly used ?
Lets say that a vaccine is used and it is successful for many years, disease incidence goes down and percentage of recorded side effects per patient stays the same ...eventually the vaccine side effects will be higher than the ones caused by the disease...and so people will start refusing vaccination!
Are we there?
I keep discussing this with my husband, who works in the field of infectious diseases and I keep getting the usual "no matter what, vaccination is ultimately better", better for who? I think he means better for the society as a whole...but I am a mother, so what about my child? Is this vaccination better for my child? Not necessarily and this is the true answer!
We (scientist and medics) do not know what are the benefit vs risks of these multiple vaccinations on small children.
So I simply ask why should a child be submitted to all of those vaccines at once?
I have always respectfully refused.
Is it necessary for a few hours old child, to be vaccinated with hepatitis B? And a few weeks later bombarded with multiple vaccines?
MODERATION, A LARGE DOSE OF MODERATION.
In my country the multiple vaccine are still hard to find and nobody got crazy about the thimerosal and the consequences of mercury levels in vaccination. The panic in America ensued only when they started administering multiple vaccines at once in babies so young! Then it occurred to them that perhaps they would be getting too close to the levels of acceptable mercury a child could get in one go! No shit dick tracy!
I am going to end it here by saying that education, reason and moderation are all needed not just a dose of reason!
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/01/23/vaccine_phobia_is_letting_preventable_infectious_diseases_needlessly_threaten_our_children/
They had made many copies available for pick up.
I am not a pediatrician nor a medical doctor but I am a PhD and have a deep understanding of how our body works and responds to diseases.
I have enjoyed reading the article, it is pretty accurate, however, it is still not quite the full story.
Of course these type of diseases do not kill every child who contracts them, we always have the child with underlying conditions (e.g immunosuppression) or simply an unfortunate genetic make up (e.g. allergies, asthma). Truth be said, side effects and death from vaccination is much much less that the terrible side effects and death by each of these diseases.
So where does the real problem lie? The problem is not in the PANIC Virus, rather in the VACCINE MANIA this country has been experiencing for some time now. What has happened to fast food, it is now happening to vaccines: SUPER SIZE ME.
We now have 5 (penta-) in one and even 6 (hexa-) in one vaccines? Why does everything have to be an extreme? First and foremost these vaccines are not tested (no matter what anyone says, if you care to search deep in the medical and scientific literature, you will find that the performance of some of our currently used vaccines will be known to us in years to come! ). In addition, some multiple vaccine combinations have begun to contain even non obligatory vaccines as well. Is the public aware of this? Lets be honest these are definitively sneaked in!
The public is not informed properly, the leaflets we get from our pediatricians have zero useful information. To name one, fever is not a true "adverse effect"... we do not mention the real ones because of course we do not want to panic the masses, at the same time if we do not educate them, we can't complain when Jenny McCarthy assumes MMR caused her son's autism.
It should also be noted that we have different kind of vaccines (made from purified proteins, attenuated, live)...which one of those causes less overload and shock to the immune-system when multiple vaccine combinations are administered? Well let me tell you my children are not going near a multiple attenuated vaccine (MMR?!).
And so how can the public be educated if the scientific and medical staff has not appropriately conducted tests and evaluated risks on vaccines currently and commonly used ?
Lets say that a vaccine is used and it is successful for many years, disease incidence goes down and percentage of recorded side effects per patient stays the same ...eventually the vaccine side effects will be higher than the ones caused by the disease...and so people will start refusing vaccination!
Are we there?
I keep discussing this with my husband, who works in the field of infectious diseases and I keep getting the usual "no matter what, vaccination is ultimately better", better for who? I think he means better for the society as a whole...but I am a mother, so what about my child? Is this vaccination better for my child? Not necessarily and this is the true answer!
We (scientist and medics) do not know what are the benefit vs risks of these multiple vaccinations on small children.
So I simply ask why should a child be submitted to all of those vaccines at once?
I have always respectfully refused.
Is it necessary for a few hours old child, to be vaccinated with hepatitis B? And a few weeks later bombarded with multiple vaccines?
MODERATION, A LARGE DOSE OF MODERATION.
In my country the multiple vaccine are still hard to find and nobody got crazy about the thimerosal and the consequences of mercury levels in vaccination. The panic in America ensued only when they started administering multiple vaccines at once in babies so young! Then it occurred to them that perhaps they would be getting too close to the levels of acceptable mercury a child could get in one go! No shit dick tracy!
I am going to end it here by saying that education, reason and moderation are all needed not just a dose of reason!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sunny California...the glamor ...the glitz...
Hello fellow bloggers...
sorry for the absence but indeed I was soaking up the sun in California....and now I am back in Boston where everyone is cold and grey just like the weather.
I visited my local whole foods this morning and suddenly it did not feel as glamorous as the whole foods in Santa Monica or Studio city...I took my time and even smiled at the cashier while he was ringing up my groceries... he studied my facial expressions attentively...asking himself why was I smiling? and why on earth was i so happy ...when I realized my smile, still warm from the bright Californian sun, was not well received, a sense of doom came upon me!I Clearly in order to be accepted here i have to quickly return to being grumpy, often rude, unfriendly and always on hedge!
Still meeting my fellow actor friends for lunch in West Hollywood was fantastic, everyone so happy, everyone so joyous and full of life... and fashion fashion fashion.....
....I would even put up with leaving in the little boxes on the hillsides!
Oh well back into darkness...
sorry for the absence but indeed I was soaking up the sun in California....and now I am back in Boston where everyone is cold and grey just like the weather.
I visited my local whole foods this morning and suddenly it did not feel as glamorous as the whole foods in Santa Monica or Studio city...I took my time and even smiled at the cashier while he was ringing up my groceries... he studied my facial expressions attentively...asking himself why was I smiling? and why on earth was i so happy ...when I realized my smile, still warm from the bright Californian sun, was not well received, a sense of doom came upon me!I Clearly in order to be accepted here i have to quickly return to being grumpy, often rude, unfriendly and always on hedge!
Still meeting my fellow actor friends for lunch in West Hollywood was fantastic, everyone so happy, everyone so joyous and full of life... and fashion fashion fashion.....
....I would even put up with leaving in the little boxes on the hillsides!
Oh well back into darkness...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Owen Wilson is back from the dead and Hollywood is having a baby!!
Something in the California waters?? Or is Hollywood sympathizing with the recent credit crunches and natural catastrophes?? Maybe it's still the Obama Baby Boom.
Victoria and Beckam, Kate Hudson, Jane Krakowski (30 Rock blondie), Natalie Portman, Neil Patrick....
and so many more...
Surrogates, egg donors, or simply old-fashioned shagging...a baby boom is on the horizon.
Even Owen Wilson went from dead to dad...
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20456549,00.html
recently the Italian tabloid "Il Sole 24 ore" claimed Owen Wilson died due to a snowboarding accident...not quite! But check out this facebook page in his honor :)!
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=184953514864974&comments&ref=mf
Well thumbs up for the bumps but watch out for the baby blues after the baby boom!!!
Victoria and Beckam, Kate Hudson, Jane Krakowski (30 Rock blondie), Natalie Portman, Neil Patrick....
and so many more...
Surrogates, egg donors, or simply old-fashioned shagging...a baby boom is on the horizon.
Even Owen Wilson went from dead to dad...
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20456549,00.html
recently the Italian tabloid "Il Sole 24 ore" claimed Owen Wilson died due to a snowboarding accident...not quite! But check out this facebook page in his honor :)!
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=184953514864974&comments&ref=mf
Well thumbs up for the bumps but watch out for the baby blues after the baby boom!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)