The Star Thrower

The first and last paragraphs of The Star Thrower by Lore Eisley

The are the first paragraph and last paragraphs of "The Star Thrower":

There was a man who was walking along a sandy beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up on the shore. He noticed a boy picking the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. The man observed
the boy for a few minutes and then asked what he was doing. The boy replied that he was returning the starfish to the sea, otherwise they would die. The man asked how saving a few, when so many were doomed, would make any
difference whatsoever? The boy picked up a starfish and threw it back intothe ocean and said "Made a difference to that one..." The man left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. He soon returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea....

*****

In a pool of sand and silt a starfish had thrust its arms up stiffly and was holding its body away from the stifling mud.

"It's still alive," I ventured.

"Yes," he said, and with a quick yet gentle movement he picked up the star and spun it over my head and far out into the sea. It sunk in a burst of spume, and the waters roared once more.

..."There are not many who come this far," I said, groping in a sudden embarrassment for words. "Do you collect?"

"Only like this," he said softly, gesturing amidst the wreckage of the shore. "And only for the living." He stooped again, oblivious of my curiosity, and skipped another star neatly across the water. "The stars," he said, "throw well. One can help them."

..."I do not collect," I said uncomfortably, the wind beating at my garments. "Neither the living nor the dead. I gave it up a long time ago. Death is the only successful collector.

~ Loren Eiseley

Insulin and Synthroid

A new doc changed my insulin from regular and NPH to Lantus. She also took me off of synthroid, and changed it to a low dose of Levoxyl. Yes, I have hypothyroidism. Wanna fight about it?

I haven't felt this good in about 5 years. It's like a ton of weight was lifted from my shoulders.

The Lantus is one shot per day. Blood sugars drop slowly, so no need for a carb fix every few hours. No more hyperglycemia and shaking, paranoia, or drunken, cold sweats of an insulin reaction. Lantus is the kind! I woke up Saturday morning and I was 70 mg/dl. I wasn't shaky, confused, or any of that. My blood sugars have been level for a couple months now.

I didn't notice a difference from the Levoxyl for awhile, but I have been sleeping better. I'm a lot more active than I've been in years and am feeling stronger. I actually set up the bench press in the spare room. Now I'm pushing up 300. I was doing 2 sets of 12 reps at 370 about 6 years ago. But since I'm older, I think I'll knock it down to 3 sets of 20 reps at 200 pds and just keep it there 3 days a week. Time to think more about tone.

In other GR news: my birthday is Monday. On Saturday, I received cards from my three siblings. Each sent me $45 a piece! Yep, $135 all to spend on ME! Saturday I took the bus to Big 5 and got some new shoes at 75% off. I stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant for a vegan soup. I came home for my carrier, then went to the shelter to pick up my new friend, Biscuit, the blind 9 - 10 year old cat. I have an appointment Monday in Riverside to give blood platelets. Few things would make me happier than to give blood on my birthday. Plus, I can stop at Trader's on the way home and get some cereal and a can of french onion soup. Good shit.

New RNC movie

Produced by the RNC. Directed by no one. Here's the latest scoop on the remake of an old classic.

Characters:

Older boy named Newt, with questionable past.

Romantic poet named Mark who dreams of riding his bike down the Appalachian Trail all the way to Argentina to visit his other girlfriend.

A chubby boy named Rush, who speaks for the whole crowd and blames their rival for Mark cheating on his domestic gf.

Michelle Bachmann, the more than slightly paranoid girl who thinks our gang's rival will use school documents to round them up and force them into a concentration camp (nut house).

Flirty winking cheerleader type named Sarah.

And cute little Bobby Jindal, whose innocence and boyish charm wins over tens of tens. Of course he'll have to look like this - (click).

The Little Rascally Republicans

Part 2: Left meets right

My previous post was about two people who were ideological polar opposites, but were in the same boat heartwise. Neither cared about their fellow man but cared greatly of damaging other bloggers futures who ticked them off by posting on the internet. Both believe they are justified in their actions. Both believe the blogger they attacked deserved to be ruined. If these two could inflict harm on an "enemies" soul as well, "kudos to me" would be their victory chant to themselves.

The outcome:

As far as I can tell, Righty did nothing to hurt Lefty's business. She claims not to have lost a single client due to the rightards actions.

On the other hand, Lefty did considerable damage to the nearly blind blogger and others.

Living off a pittance of a savings, Blind Lefty depended on the free schooling that Lefty Woman took from him. He left the school before he'd finished classes on reading braille; another class that would have taught him of the social programs he could have taken advantage of; a class that would have been very helpful in his finding a new career; and his favorite writing class where he was learning to misuse punctuation and how to construct the perfect, boring-as-hell, run-off goddamn sentence.

Any other schooling would cost Blind Lefty most of the savings he had planned to live out his days on. So he spent the money. No longer can BL afford the things that made him feel like a useful person. Terry the bum on the corner doesn't get his $20 a week anymore. Small dogs and cats are no longer rescued from eternal sleep. But worst of all, BL can't even afford the bus fare to Lifestream to give blood platlets every 28 days.

So congratulations to Lefty Woman! She causes more widespread damage than a Republican clown. Not just to a blind man's wallet, but his future, and his god damned soul. Kudos to you.

CMV negative platelets

Left meets right

Forget the polititians, I'm talking about the uber conservative and ultra liberal, or atleast the people who label themselves as such. How far apart are they personalitywise?

I knew this very liberal female Blogger who was constantly harassed by a drooling Rush addict. One day she writes a post about the criminal activities of the GOP. The angry righty gets so mad that he conacts the business clients of Lefty's in hopes of ruining her future. All of her blog buddies thought that he was the biggest creep on Earth.

A couple years later, Lefty is so angry with another Blogger that she calls his blind school in hopes of ruining his future.

Moderate Dems and left leaning Reps (all three of them) are not so far apart on opposite sides of the grand meridian, but the two Bloggers mentioned above are hand in hand on the international date line. One is no better than the other.

I hope they run out of Dramamine and puke all over eachother.