family communications, work, and new things to read. :)

[derien]

edited to add: Cuts - sorry about the length.


I went to phone Hawk to find out if he did contact the friend he was hoping would pick him up from the airport (because if he didn't I suppose I should pick him up, and he's not flying in to Portland - he got a better deal into Manchester, New Hampshire, so it would be a bit of a trip) aaand... his phone is disconnected.  Now, I knew he was in the process of moving and all, but, hm.  You'd think he'd have given me a number that I'd be able to reach him at.

Coincidently, when I said to eor that I was going to phone, he remembered that there had been a message on the answering machine from my other brother, Eightball, leaving his new number, so I phoned him, instead.  Not that it served any purpose, but I got to talk with him.  It's odd - he's become one of those people who feels guilty every time he stops working for a few minutes, which is just contrary to the way we were raised.  I happened to catch him at loose ends because nobody had shown up for a class he was supposed to be teaching.  And he expounded to me on some of his theories about what people think constitutes life and death. 


I want to ask you all:  What do you all think constitutes or signifies life and death?

In today's short fiction review:

daegaer has posted (among many other things which are wonderful and you should probably go read) more Biblical fic, including Tamar, the daughter of David - which is the other side view of Brotherly Love .

and bravecows posted Death is no parenthesis, which is an epilogue to her wildly popular The Sacred and the Profane.

edited to also add: I forgot to mention - Any Mike/Psmith fans should check out Dancing Lesson by smokingthings!


And.  I didn't sleep well.  Nightmares - I think mainly because it was too hot.  I'm hoping it's not because I was still stressed out from work.  Nobody asked me to list the top five most annoying things passengers say.  That would have been easy, because I think I heard most of them, yesterday.

Although, relatedly, I did go to sleep feeling that I've probably screwed myself over in the schedule department.  I'd been keeping my head down and not saying anything, but I blew it when we were learning to fill out the new time sheets, yesterday.  We're supposed to indicate whether we're scheduled to work at the checkpoint or baggage on a given day, and I had to admit that I usually work in baggage Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Apparently I've been getting a very good deal, only upstairs two days each week (although I very often get re-assigned to checkpoint), because everyone is supposed to be working in the checkpoint for three days a week, including the first day and second days of their week.  Which is just a really bad idea, in my opinion.  If I have to come in on a Monday and face passengers I might just drop dead of a brain aneurism.  I don't know how anyone stands it.  I'd rather that if they really need me to work two consecutive days it was at least Thursday/Friday.  In fact I'd even rather it be Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday - anything to avoid the Monday. 


Ack - I've got to get moving.

Comments

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

What do you all think constitutes or signifies life and death?

How d'you mean? In the talking-about-euthanasia way, I think breathing-but-braindead probably constitutes life, but not much of a life, so pulling the plug wouldn't (to me) be killing the person concerned. And death is not being aware, with very little hope of that being remedied.

[derien.livejournal.com]

See, here was where Eightball and I had our disagreement - not in the actual definition of death (we agreed it was a cessation of brain activity) but in what people generally think of as death. He maintained that people think of heartbeat as indicating life. And, I guess you are a data point in his favor. :)

And death is not being aware, with very little hope of that being remedied.

A lot of people are walking around dead. ;)

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

A lot of people are walking around dead. ;)

It must be true, or the Buddha wouldn't be so worried about it.

[derien.livejournal.com]

hee!