Alma de Color

So I was just chatting with one of my bosses at work today, and she triggered some thought. She told me of something she had heard/read recently about this drug they medical science is working with for victims of Parkinson's disease. Evidently, the treatment has come to the attention of the healthcare providers because one of the side effects of this drug is to cause average, stable people to become compulsive gamblers. So the drug company is now working with researchers to look further into the matter. Supposedly, the drug targets the substantia nigra section of the midbrain, (this is the area that controls smoothing out body movements), but this section of the brain is surrounded by other portions that control the pleasure center. Normal brains have something that regulates the production of dopamine, (a neurotransmitter that is associated with the pleasure and reinforcement portions of the brain). So, basically, when the balance is off, behavior is thrown out of balance as...

Ah, the delights of spring break! I tried to make it to Butte by 11 on Sunday morning, but made it there at 12 instead. Oh well. It was a delightful morning to pack, clean, and get all my ducks in a row. (No, I was not out terrorizing the poor ducks at the pond...) I met my family at church as it got out, and we switched vehicles. I sent all my gungadin home, so my electronics and guitar wouldn't get too cold sitting around in my car all day. Tassie and I decided to drive all over Butte in search of a new place to eat...but in the end, we ended up at Melaques anyway. :) Gotta love Mexican food! In the afternoon, shortly after parting ways with Tassie, I made a quick visit to the Liesches before going to the Wolstein's for Jeff's b-day party. It was great to see the family again. The food was fantastic, as always, and I enjoyed myself heartily. The following day, I pretty much did nothing useful. I read some more of Frye's "A Natural Perspective" fo...

When I was a child, I took great fiendish delight in burying ants. I remained steadily amused for several minutes dropping handfuls of dirt on poor, innocent ants, and chortling with delight as they would tunnel through the obstacle and break through to the sunlight…only to have me drop another trap on their unsuspecting heads. But I was discriminatory. I did not bury ants that were one solid color, or ones that were small and harmless. Oh no, I only buried the big smelly red ones with the black butts. They were my enemy. They were the ones that built gigantic ant mounds in my back yard, along the fences, in the fields along the irrigation ditches, the base of the trees I so liked to climb, and virtually everywhere a child roams. Their bites hurt. So I buried them until they gave up trying to tunnel out. If I was feeling particularly generous on any given day, I would award only the most persistent ant his life. He would struggle to freedom over and over again, dis...