capital flight

i went to the walk-in clinic today to get help for my finger, which is infected. it was all puffy on the side, with a nice spot of pus beside the nail. the doctor recognised it right away, and i was out within five minutes. after picking up my prescription, i checked the active ingredient in the sleep aid 'nytol'. yes, it was diphenhydramine again. i.e. the same agent is sold under two different named with two different uses: benadryl for allergies and nytol for sleeping. i also seem to have developed an incredible sensitivity to medical situations. i didn't faint, but i nearly did. it was a delayed reaction; i made it in and out before i felt the effects, but they came on hard when i got to safeway to fill the prescription.

i've been preoccupied to some extent with the concerns of jack gladney in delillo's white noise, esp. around the effects of consumed agents. the horrible intertwining of my chance encouters with, say, benzene, and my ultimate fate as an individual. will my death be any more than the sum of my ingested chemical traces? flashing stars. nyodene d. myelx. i'm looking forward to reading libra. i've had no urge to read past 60 pages of players, though. i'm enjoying rules of engagement; it's better than minus time.

i've left myself 3 days to write this paper. tomorrow i will be moving, all day. on friday i will be peaking all day, with the exception of lunch, when i hope to meet pauline at the highland pub. can i pull it off? probably. i met my neighbour liz today, who said 'ah, whatever; that's 16 pages. the introduction to my thesis was longer.' her thesis was about non-verbal pain cues. i.e. how humans express the level of pain they are experiencing through non-verbal cues. there are lots of applications, from accurate WCB claims to identifying instances of systemic racism in emergency rooms. i love hearing about people's enthusiasms, esp. when they are guarded about sharing them.

some words: thixotropic. isostasy.

joni mitchell's the hissing of summer lawns has become completelty inseparable from family road trips to eugene, oregon. there's a huge overwhelming sense of the unreachable to this album as well. court and spark, blue, don juan's reckless daughter, and esp. hejira do this to me as well. an intense nostalgia coupled with a severe mystery. would i be happy holed up in a cabin with my record collection and library? yes, for a time, at least.

food technology. the profession of 'food technologist'.