Shocking Facts Regarding Administration of Cervical Jab

Earlier this year, it emerged that 2,118 schoolgirls in the UK have experienced health problems after being given the jab. Side effects range from rashes and fainting, to convulsions, heart palpitations and even paralysis. One girl in Liverpool has spent nearly six months in a wheelchair after becoming paralysed following the jab.

These figures come from the Government's own pharmaceutical watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, which monitors reports from GPs and hospitals of reactions to drugs and vaccines.

In May, Crispin Blunt, the shadow minister for Home Affairs, also raised concerns about the vaccines in the House of Commons. He cited the case of Rebecca Ramagge, a schoolgirl in his Reigate constituency who had fallen ill shortly after her first injection of Cervarix.

He said: 'Over the full course of the three injections, Rebecca has gone from being a healthy sports-loving teenager and tournament level tennis player to being crippled by chronic fatique syndrome, unable to attend school regularly and in need of help with basic tasks such as walking and eating because of the exhaustion and muscular pain from which she is now suffering.'

Rebecca suffered serious joint pain after her first injection in September 2008. Yet she went on to receive the two follow-up jabs at school as well.

Worryingly, her family doctor was never told about the jabs - and was unable to link her deteriorating condition to the vaccine. It was only after Rebecca was referred to a consultant paediatrician at hospital that her symptoms were identified, according to Mr Crispin, as 'highly consistent with a reaction to the vaccine.'

The consultant was 'astonished' to find that nurses had administered the third jab despite Rebecca complaining of a side effect listed on the Cervarix production information.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216942/Cervical-cancer-vaccine-programme-chaos-death-schoolgirl-14-hours-jab.html#ixzz0SaBCg2P9

Girl Dies From Cervical Jab

Yesterday a fourteen year old girl dropped dead at her school within an hour of receiving the cervical cancer jab. What is shocking is the continued pressure being put on parents and pupils by the government to continue with the vaccination programme.

Last night, a fellow pupil gave a dramatic account of how Natalie collapsed.
The 15-year-old girl said: 'We all had the jab today from Year Nine to the sixth form.
'About an hour after having the jab Natalie went really pale and wasn't breathing. I think it was around lunchtime.
'She fainted in the corridor. I saw ambulance men pumping her chest then the teachers told us to go outside.
'A lot of people were crying afterwards and we were all very worried.
'We have to have three of the jabs in all and a lot of us don't want to take the rest, but they're telling us we have to because there will be sideeffects if we don't have them all.'

Let us be clear cervical cancer is still rare and the virus which causes it is sexually transmitted. Therefore the more sexual partners you have the greater the risk.

My heart breaks for those who are literally being used as guinea pigs in an evil game of social engineering.

Be warned to submit to the pressure to have this jab could literally cost you you daughters life!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216714/Schoolgirl-14-dies-given-cervical-cancer-jab.html#ixzz0STofnRKS

The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood

It seems like so long since I have been able to whole-heartedly recommend a book, without reservations, that I have almost forgotten how. But here goes - I loved The Year of the Flood.

I am always a bit hit-and-miss with Margaret Atwood - either I love her books or I can't get past the first chapter. Fortunately this book falls into the former category. Right from the first couple of pages, I was drawn into the world that she has created, and it was a book that stayed with me, even when I wasn't reading.

She has created a world in the not-so-distant future where all of the bad things happening in our world today have continued and become worse - global warming, pollution, materialistic culture, privatization and increasing power of corporations, uncontrolled genetic engineering, invasive species, rapid species extinction, and the list could go on. And all of these things are drawn together so that the picture, bleak as it is, is unified and believable. There are certainly lots of lessons for our society to learn from the world that she has created.

The characters were also well drawn and believable - every one has their good points as well as their weaker points, and in typical Atwood fashion, there are some good strong female characters.

This book is being marketed as a "companion" book to Oryx and Crake, which I know that I read shortly after it came out in 2003; but as it is not on my bookshelves, I must have borrowed a library copy. I want to dig it out and read it again, to appreciate how they fit together. And I do hope that she writes a third book in this world - The Year of the Flood has a true Atwoodian ending where you are left not knowing what happens to the characters in the long run (I finished the last sentence, turned the page expecting another chapter, and that was it!), and I do want to know more.

The Year of the Flood is also on the Long List for the Giller Prize - the shortlist is going to be announced next week, and if this book doesn't make the short list, the competition must be pretty stiff indeed!

This book was also read for the Canadian Book Challenge at The Book Mine Set.

Team in Training Thank You Gifts

Guess what? I have less than one month left to get ready for my first ever half marathon. Even worse: I have 1 week left to raise nearly $500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a participant in their Team In Training program.

So here's the deal: the first 15 people who make a donation of at least $35 between now and October 1st can choose to receive a thank you gift worth between $5 and $20. You can view the options below. All you have to do is make an online donation and write which thank you gift you would like in the comments section. If someone has already chosen a gift, consider it spoken for. Here is the website:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/nikesf09/awilliamstnt09

I will send your gift in the mail to the address you enter for your donation.

Don't forget that you can also make a donation by purchasing fabulous handmade stationery, craft paper, and gifts from the following site:

http://www.twistedlimbpaper.com/fundraising/teamintraining.htm

Each donation helps accelerate finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. More than 823,000 Americans are battling these blood cancers. I am hoping that my participation in Team In Training will help bring them hope and support.

On behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, thank you very much for your support. I greatly appreciate your generosity.

(For those of you who have already donated and did not receive a gift, I apologize. It doesn't seem fair. However, I am behind on my fundraising and I have some leftover prizes from another event that didn't work out, so I had to do something. Feel free to donate again!)

Thank you gifts:

1. Apple sketchbook
2. Owl sketchbook CLAIMED
   
3. 100% notepad
4. 100% notepad
5. 100% notepad
6. Strawberry bangle purse
7. Brown bangle purse
8. Pink bangle purse
9. Parrot bangle purse
10. Red bangle purse
11. Brown/flower bangle purse
12. Handmade stationery set
13. Handmade bits and pieces bag CLAIMED
    
14. Starbucks gift card ($10) CLAIMED
    
15. Olive Garden gift certificate ($10)
    

The Winter Vault - Anne Michaels

I was very excited last spring when a new novel by Anne Michaels came out. It's been about 11 years since I first read Fugitive Pieces, and I couldn't wait to read another book by the same author. Unfortunately I'm not as impressed with this book.

Don't get me wrong - Anne Michaels was a poet long before she was a novelist, and you can tell when you read her prose - each word is carefully chosen (maybe that's why it took her 13 years to write it!) and it is beautiful to read. But I guess that I like plot too much, and that is what this book is missing.

I guess it is a love story - love found, love lost, new love found, new love lost, initial love found again (I hope that I haven't spoiled the ending for anyone!). But I found the characters to be rather flat and unmemorable; the story was disjointed and hard to follow; and the book didn't flow well. I started reading this book back in June, but then set it aside maybe 1/3 of the way through, didn't miss it, but picked it up again to finish this week.

There are a couple of themes similar to Fugitive Pieces - World War 2 and the consequences to Europe and Canada; the artistic community in Toronto; intergenerational relationships. In fact, some of the passages in The Winter Vault could have been taken from Fugitive Pieces.

On reflection, if you approach this novel as a book-length poem rather than a novel, it would probably be easier to handle, but in my opinion, it doesn't work as a novel.

I heard yesterday that The Winter Vault was long-listed for this year's Giller Prize. I plan to repeat my Giller reading challenge this year - read all of the short-listed books to make sure that the jury chooses the right book! Fugitive Pieces made the short-list in 1996, but it was in a very good field - Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood) won, and the other books on the short-list were A Cure for Death by Lightning (Gail Anderson-Dargatz), Fall on Your Knees (Anne-Marie MacDonald) and The Englishman's Boy (Guy Vanderhaeghe). I've read (and enjoyed) all of those books, and even though I liked Fugitive Pieces, I would have chosen Fall on Your Knees for the prize. But I guess that is off-topic!

This book was read for the Canadian Book Challenge at The Book Mine Set.

City Walks SF #46: The Latino Mission

Now, this part of the Mission I actually like. It isn't as trendy as the northern part, Spanish is still spoken most places, and you can purchase Mexican pastries on the cheap. Of course we have yet to find a panaderia as tasty as Golden Crown.

The area is also apparently famous for its murals. Here are just a few:






I think the one below is Matt's favorite. He loves Mr. Burbujas.



Also a soda fountain that supposedly dates back to 1918. I am a big fan of soda fountains, being a lover of milkshakes, fries, and other such treats.



If you have to get off the BART in the Mission, I definitely prefer 24th street.

City Walks SF #45: Valencia Street

Hmm, I seem not to have any pictures of this walk.

Valencia Street is the trendy part of the Mission District. I am a little baffled by this, since it is still quite overrun by crack addicts and crazy people in general. You will not find Matt and me joining the hipsters in this neighborhood anytime soon.

However, Dave Eggers did found a writing center there, which also houses a pirate-supply store. Odd.

Also, one can get some good burritos on the cheap in this neighborhood.

City Walks SF #44: Dolores Park and Mission Dolores

This walk involves one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city.

Here is the city's "largest and most colorful" mural, located on the Women's Building. Personally I am rather afraid of it.



Next up: Mission Dolores. Do you recognize it at all from Vertigo? We didn't at first, until we saw the second tower.



A building in the complex dates from 1788 - apparently the city's oldest! Not quite the history New Mexico has, I guess.



And finally, Dolores Park. We always happen to be here on a super nice day, and I am always surprised at how many people can fit in a city park. I have a feeling it is not just a place to enjoy the weather, but a place to see and be seen.

City Walks SF #43: Noe Valley

Well we apparently did these walks way back at the beginning of August, and I've failed to post them until now.

This picture certainly doesn't do Noe Valley justice; we completed this walk after at least three others. I was starved and demanded to be taken to dinner - Haystack Pizza. Remarkably tasty and affordable, and a cute little hole-in-the wall.

Noe Valley is a fairly pricey neighborhood featuring, as far as I can tell, a lot of stay-at-home mothers with toddlers. It's a short bus ride away from our house, but we hardly ever go there. We still haven't found anything exceptional in the food department, and the stores aren't really up my alley. But a nice neighborhood.

Just Read: The National Parks - America's Best Idea

This is the companion book to Ken Burns' PBS series coming out at the end of the month to which I have a link on my sidebar. Some time ago, Matt and I went to a preview of the movie with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, and I was obsessed.

Friday night we were in a bookstore and I noticed the beautiful coffee table book for 30% off. And since I am spoiled, I went ahead and bought it and took it home. Today I finished reading its 386 pages of text, with many gorgeous photographs thrown in.

And again I remembered why I changed my major to recreation. Why I wanted to work for the Park Service. And why it is silly that I have been to many other countries but not to all of our parks.

The book's theme seemed to be a bit different from the movie's, at least based on the preview I saw. The most influential part of the book seems to be our personal connection to the parks. How it is hard not to go to one and not have some sort of epiphanal moment, or feeling of awe and grandeur.

I have had the luck to go to many National Parks. I don't remember going to many as a child; I remember being bored at the Grand Canyon after just a peek from the top. But my parents had certainly instilled a love of nature in me from all our hikes in the mountains near Tucson.

In college I visited the Grand Canyon again. I took a job at Bryce Canyon for a summer and fell in love with Zion. I also saw Capitol Reef. At the end of the summer, a fellow intern and I spent a week on a driving tour to Glacier, Yellowstone, and Mount Teton. We thought about going to graduate school in Montana, in the midst of all the beautiful scenery. A week was not nearly enough time.

The summer after college I visited Crater Lake. I took another trip to Yellowstone, where I saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for the first time. Grand Teton again. At the end of that summer, I embarked on a solo camping trip on my way back home to Arizona. After two nights on the gorgeous Oregon coast with a friend, I visited Redwoods National Park, Lassen Volcanic, and Yosemite. I did not make it to Sequoia and Kings Canyon as I had planned, because as it turns out I was not too good with the loneliness factor - I camped just 5 nights alone.

But on this solo trip, I had pivotal experiences that are probably my favorite memories of National Parks. Because I was by myself, I would go to sleep early and then wake up early. At Redwoods National Park, the Coastal Trail I had planned to hike was gated until 9 am, so instead I hiked the 1 mile interpretive trail at Lady Bird Johnson Grove. I was the only one there at the early hour of the morning. I wrote, "The sun was filtering through the trees. The only sounds were of the wind in the giant trees and little animals scattering around me." It was like I was lost in a fairy wonderland. I have another memory of Redwoods, a sinful but beautiful one, although perhaps I dreamed it because I don't see anything about it in my notes. I was driving (the sinful part of such a memory) out of a campground early one morning through a meadow enshrouded in mist, with a herd of elk grazing through it. Did I dream it?

Later I arrived in the Toulomne Meadows in Yosemite, a few days before the campground would close for the season, in late September. I stopped to hike to the Gaylor Lakes, which rise to over 10,000 feet, challenging by ability to deal with altitude. I remember feeling like I had a head cold the whole hike. But it was worth it. I remember hiking up the trail, and suddenly you would come up over a ledge, and there would be a lake in front of you that you could not have seen before. As I wandered around Middle Gaylor Lake, I saw another hiker, the first I had seen. When he saw me, he seemed to change direction and walk around the side of the lake I was on, so we would meet. After he told me briefly about the rest of the hike, we stood there together in silence contemplating the view. Then he continued down the trail. Maybe you like your solitude in the wilderness. I do too. But I remember this as a priceless moment where it was fantastic to share the beauty with someone, having taken in such gorgeous sights the last several days by myself.

Since that solo trip, I have visited with Matt Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison. All fabulous of course. I'm sure I'm forgetting a park somewhere. I've also been to numerous National Monuments and National Historic Sites.

Reading this book makes me want to plan more trips. Yosemite for Thanksgiving. Maybe Yellowstone this winter for a ski race. I want Matt to see Glacier. There are so many places I have yet to see.

What is your favorite memory of a National Park? Do you love them like I do?

The Birthday Present - Barbara Vine

Barbara Vine is an author who showed me just how much taste in books can differ from person to person. The first book of hers that I read was A Dark Adapted Eye. My father read it a few weeks before me and hated it - I remember him commenting that he was bored with the book because nothing happened in it, and that he wouldn't have finished the book except for the fact that he was convinced that *something* would have to happen at some point before the end! Even after such a review, I did read it a few weeks later (based in a contradictory review by one of my friends) and loved it!

Barbara Vine is a nom de plume used by Ruth Rendell, and having never read any books by Ruth Rendell, I tried to do some research to discover the difference between books by Ruth Rendell and books by Barbara Vine. The conclusion of my not-so-extensive research is that there isn't much of a difference. Ruth Rendell's books started out as standard crime mysteries, then progressed to more psychological crime books, while Barbara Vine's books started out that way. Another theory was that she wanted to switch publishers so changed her name. Or a third theory is that she was producing books too quickly and in order to capitalize on the market, she was advised to publish under two different names. The truth probably lies somewhere in between the three theories.

Anyways, while I have never read anything by Rendell, I have read several books by Barbara Vine and have always found them to be a compelling read. So when I came across The Birthday Party the other week, I didn't hesitate to buy it. And I wasn't disappointed.

Similar to several other books I have read in the past year (Through Black Spruce and The Other Side of the Bridge amongst others), the story is told from two different perspectives, however they don't alternate so at the start of each chapter, I found that I had to read a few sentences to figure out who was speaking. I liked this, but I can see that not everyone would.

It is basically the portrait of a self-centred, self-interested person, Ivor, who was a (fictional) member of parliament in the British government in the 1990s under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. There are definite historical references (hard to avoid when the main character is a politician), and I found it easy to forget that the book was fiction. Anyways, Ivor gets into a situation that could jeopardize his political status and does everything possible to avoid having it discovered, to the point where he is totally uncaring of the effects of his actions on anyone other than himself. The story is told in the first person by his brother-in-law writing in the present (2008), as well as the diaries of the friend of his now-dead mistress, written as events unfold.

I polished this book off in only a few sittings. It was as just as gripping a story as I had expected, and I really must dig out some more of her books that I haven't read yet. I'll probably pass this book on to my sister who enjoys books by Minette Walters - like her books, Barbara Vine goes behind the story and tries to figure out the why's.

Wood On The Fire

Michael Jordan can teach a girl a lot about writing.

Well, not writing per se, but the pursuit of dreams and goals. That's what writing is all about.

Last night I sat down with my husband, a die-hard Michael Jordan fan (he followed him when Michael had hair and played for North Carolina), to listen to Jordan's acceptance speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony.

I've always considered Jordan to be a class act, so at first, his neener-neener speech was kind of ... off-putting. He talked about how he got his competitive spirit. That spirit had its roots in proving other people wrong. He talked about how, when he got cut from the varsity high school basketball team, he wanted to prove that his coach had made a big mistake.

Other naysayers along his path had been, as he put it, "wood on the fire." Basically, his acceptance speech, except for one very kind comment about teammate Scotty Pippen, was one how-do-you-like-me-now remark after another.

Or it was at first blush.

About halfway through it, I realized his speech wasn't just a "neener-neener." He really was thanking them. He was admitting that, if they hadn't told him what he was after was impossible, that he wasn't good enough, he wouldn't have become Michael Jordan.

Huh. Now that was enlightening for a girl like me. It occurred to me that some of the biggest moves I'd made in life were in response to people who said, "Ennnh. Can't be done."

People told me only rich kids went to college. I won a full honors scholarship and graduated magna cum laude.

An editor told me that I shouldn't enter the Georgia Press Association's competition for Best Humorous Column. "It'd be like dropping a rose petal in the Grand Canyon," he said. I did, and I won first place the very first year I entered.

My husband told me it would take me three years to finish a book for the first time. I finished it in three months.

My husband rolled his eyes when I pointed to the First Sale Column in the Romance Writers Report and told him my name was going to be in there one day. "Right," he said. "Keep dreaming." Two months later, my name was in black and white.

Unlike Michael Jordan, I didn't realize that what goosed me was proving naysayers wrong. I'd thought all this time I needed warm and fuzzy affirmations from those around me. I thought negativity was bad for you, that it would tear you down and kill your spirit.

And maybe it would. But something else happened this very month that tells me maybe MJ is onto something.

My daughter, bless her heart, came home with a fundraiser for school, three-pound tubs of refrigerated cookie dough at fourteen bucks a pop. The brochure came with incentive prizes: sell twelve items and you get to go to a Mega Party. Sell thirty items and you get a chance to spin the money wheel. Sell an impossible amount and you get to take a lunch-time ride in a limo.

That's a lot of dough. BOTH kinds of dough.

We live in a small town, and having a product that you can't sell easily to out-of-town friends and family makes it dang hard. It's even harder when every kid in the elementary school is selling the same thing. I told the Kiddo, "Sweetie, don't get your hopes up. People can't really afford to buy cookie dough at $14 a pop. I just don't think you'll make the Mega Party."

She cried. I cried. I admit I did the dumb thing and called the superintendent and fussed at him for ever allowing such a fundraiser go forward.

But she didn't give up hope. Every afternoon, she got her dad to take her around to peddle her cookie dough. Yeah, she got some "no's." But so far she's gotten fourteen yeses. And she's made that Mega Party I didn't think she could attain. I guess I put wood on her fire.

I think, in light of Michael Jordan's speech and my daughter's success, I owe the school superintendent an apology ... and I need to rethink how I look at naysayers. I need to look at them as if they're wood on my fire.

206 Bones - Kathy Reichs

I have been following Kathy Reichs' books almost from the beginning. Having lived in Montreal for a few years, I love being able to recognise places that I know that pop up. Unfortunately, the series had deteriorated over the past couple of books to a series of cliches and easily guessed endings (possibly related to the fact that the book series had been turned into a television series - at one point she was churning out one book a year). Fortunately this book broke the trend and I quite enjoyed it.

Similar to Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta novels, the main character, Tempe Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist. She usually splits her time between Montreal and North Carolina, but this book is set almost entirely in Montreal. I don't want to write too much in case I give away the ending (it is a mystery, after all!), but let me just say that it involves a serial killer targeting elderly ladies (I didn't guess the ending of this one); career sabotage of Tempe's reputation (this story line was a bit easier to guess); and a continuation of the on again - off again Tempe/Ryan relationship.

The cliches are mostly gone and the book is much better written. It is, after all, 2 years since her last book which I guess has allowed a bit more time for editing and more careful selection of words :-) My one criticism is the final chapter which sounds rather like the author stepping up on her soapbox and came across as rather clumsy. I was almost ready to give up on the series, but I guess I will stick with it for now.

This book was read for The Canadian Book Challenge at The Book Mine Set.

Speechless, just speechless

I am speechless.

Well, voiceless to be more accurate. I am on day 3 of laryngitis so bad that I can emit nothing more than a whisper. I had NO idea that a person needed to talk as much as I apparently do. Now I know why two-year-olds throw temper tantrums – they get so tired of not being able to be understood!

It's the little things that will get you: say for instance, calling out the Kiddo's spelling words and going over her science study guide and her reading vocabulary. Last night I remembered that there were computer programs to “read” text, so I looked on my computer, and thank goodness, it was there. I typed in all of the Kiddo's science study guide for this week (on fossils) and her reading vocabulary words and her spelling words, and then I let the computer call it all out for her. I wish I had a portable computer to do my talking for me today.

And then there's negotiating dinner-table conversation. Last night I had to try to explain profit to the Kiddo. Can you imagine trying to explain profit to an 8-year-old using sign language and a notepad? Lovely.

This morning, the Kiddo wanted to take her lunch. Only we had lost her insulated lunch bag, and I couldn’t fit all the stuff she wanted into my old one, because I needed to put a dry ice pack into it (ham and mayo sandwich). If I’d had another Ziploc bag to put her grapes in, it would have all gone in, easy-peasy, but I was fresh out of bags save one. So finally after much tears (hers) and much frustration (mine) and a few more tears (mine, because I couldn’t talk and it was exhausting to carry on an argument with an 8-year-old in gestures), I wrapped the grapes in aluminum foil, the sandwich in aluminum foil and stuck her chips into the only Ziploc bag I had. (Can you tell I didn’t go grocery shopping this weekend??? And that nobody ELSE went grocery shopping for me, either???)