Can't get far without!

My favourite slogan has always been “Don’t send your organs to Heaven because we need them far more down here!”

Previously I have recorded on my drivers license and registered online that I am willing to donate any body parts that might help others towards health, when I die. At 60, I could realistically die any time, although I am likely to live quite a bit longer, given my genes and if I am happy [rather than depressed]. If I get to 95 as my father did, there may not be much of me left worth sharing! However, if I’m struck down by a car or sudden fatal illness, most of my organs should be good for someone or something.

Obviously I’m not a young person, but hopefully some young people will read some of the blogs in the project and sort out their organ donation intentions while they are young and can talk with their families and loved ones. My partner and I have discussed this and we both agree that organ donation should be our fates after death. We have no qualms about having life-preservation machinery turned off if we have a dire prognosis and we have no close relatives who believe in burying intact bodies after we die.

I am constantly amazed by others who have strange Christian beliefs concerning the intactness of their bodies for admission to their “Heaven”. I thought Christians believed their SOULS went to “Heaven”, not some physical representation of their earthbound body and I fail to see how a soul could have mass or occupy space! It must also be difficult for other faiths, such as Judaism and Islam, to donate organs, since they believe the intact body must be committed to the ground as quickly as possible. I have no idea what Hindus and Sikhs believe about organ donation since they traditionally burn corpses in funeral pyres. Does anyone know if they are allowed to burn a body without its internal organs?

Since Buddhists don’t believe an intact body is necessary for the soul to pass to its next life in the journey to Nirvana, I assume they are fine with donating body parts, as would be the Tibetans who use Sky Burial. There is no point in believing in only giving intact bodies to the vultures as they’re going to tear everything apart in order to eat it!

I don’t have any belief in the after-life, any sort of “Heaven” or “Hell”, nor even a belief that I have a soul, so none of these rituals surrounding my death bother me. My preference would be to have compost made from any left over physical body after my death, while my “self” would merely cease to exist, except in the memories of my friends. Frightening, but that’s the deal, I believe!

Answering the FilmLife questions:

1. What’s your take on or experience with organ donation, and why did you choose to take part in the FilmLife Blogger Challenge?

I chose to take part in the Challenge in the hope that some readers might discuss their own beliefs and decide that organ donation would be a good thing. Even if people decide they could not donate in the present, maybe the seeds of an idea will be planted, for later germination.

I have known two people who have had heart transplants and a stack of older people who have had corneas replaced. The heart transplants seemed rather traumatic for all involved, both men in their 40s with families and responsibilities. One of them recovered sufficiently after a lot of illness and complications to resume work with light duties while the other died about 12 months after the transplant. Heart transplants seem rather fraught, even for highly publicised people like Fiona Cootewho is alive and well 25 years after her first heart transplant when she was just fourteen.

Fiona Coote

Liver transplants seem like a marvellous idea, but I don’t know anyone who has received one. Given what I know about livers, I can’t imagine it is easy to transplant them, join them up to all the veins, arteries and ducts they need to work properly and then make them last. Donating a liver seems very generous but somehow sounds like a terrible risk for the recipient- although since they face eventual death with no functioning liver, a few months extra may seem worthwhile. Personally, I wouldn’t have a liver transplant- I’d just get palliative care for some months & pull the plug once I became unable to function at more than 50%. My impression is that most other people would be very happy to risk everything and take the transplant because some lucky recipients live for a long time afterwards. Let’s see what happens to Derryn Hinch.

Derryn Hinch recovering

Incidentally, I think he deserved his chance with a transplant as he had been an alcoholic due to mental health problems [as with most people addicted to anything]; he had given up drink and cleaned up his life and body in readiness for the rare gift of a suitable organ.

You can read all about the FilmLife Challenge at: www.filmlife.com.au so that if you’re interested in submitting a film blog, you can get involved.

If you also blog for the challenge, make sure you Tweet your blog out using the hashtag #filmlifeproject - and FilmLife will  retweet via their Twitter account, @filmlifeproject.

Donate Life Book

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,100 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The death of my friend from cancer, only in his early 50s, affected me quite deeply. It made me think of what it would be like when I know the lights are going out for the last time. With Richard, there was probably another century’s worth of things he could have done in his life, as he had multiple enthusiasms and stacks of friends to keep him company. Yet the curtain came down on him very early and it’s like he never physically existed. How did he feel? I can only imagine the swift fade of sensations and the rushing “water in the ears” sound of an anaesthetic taking effect, but then no waking up. How would that be different? I guess it wouldn’t be. It’s just hard to think of my own personality and “liveliness” not being in the world. But that’s what will happen.

This should spur me on to fit a lot more in my life before I go. I AM doing quite a bit compared to winter, so maybe I’m on the up.

While I’ve been aware for some time that Pakistan is probably [knowingly or unwittingly] sheltering pro-Taliban groups, I wasn’t aware that China still had designs on India and was befriending more nations on the borders. Apparently there have been some agreements forged between China and others concerning supply and support of technology & weapons. I’m not sure of the details [who is?], but it seems India is quite paranoid about it. Indian newspapers abound with stories, especially about supposed Maoists who may have been recruited to the older-style communist philosophies of China on the north-east border.

If you’re interested, have a look at the articles gathered by my ScoopIt bulletin

If you are commentator or expert on the topic, please send me some links! I need to learn.

Ginger & Smart $435 dress

This dress is a T-shirt with some pieces of silk chiffon sewn onto it! That’s all! Why is it $435 and who gets the lion’s share? I’m sure I’ve seen similar dresses online from overseas made from the same materials with similar simple style and they are something like $30 to $40 (au). Sure our labour is more pricy but we don’t even get to buy this dress at $100 here- it’s $400+. Obviously the designer should get something and the shopkeeper needs a little to keep them in business. The transport on one dress could not be huge, particularly if it weighs only 200 grams max- silk is almost lighter than air! So, who gets the most? I’d be interested to hear from people in the know!

I can’t afford anything, really, as I have no independent income any more, but I could probably justify spending $30 on a nice fine cotton T-shirt and another $30 on some silk chiffon. If I looked for the cheapest silk chiffon and didn’t mind the print, it might be considerably cheaper, eg. at XS Fabrics, which are virtually around the corner from my place. However, they have bolt ends etc. from designers who have used all they need for a range, so there is not much choice in what’s left. However, it’s massively cheap for some things.

This butterfly wing print has beautiful colours but it’s a little pricier than I would like, although it wouldn’t bother most people: $28/metre. There are lovely plain colours for only $16, so they’re a possibility. You would need more than a metre for most sizes, but not a lot more- depends on your height, mainly. I could see this print pairing beautifully with a black, red or lemon yellow T-shirt. [Hint: If you can find a men's T-shirt in a fine, soft summer weave, you'll get more length so you won't need an underslip.]

Butterfly print silk chiffon

Any half-competent sewer could make this dress at home: The T-shirt might be shaped a little at the waist if you like that and then the chiffon cut carefully, using the T-shirt as a template [or making a paper pattern from it]. You can see how the front chiffon panel is attached upside down at a position just below the neck and then pressed down over the seam. Look on the original site and you’ll see lots of detail if you zoom in. The back has some further pieced sections, but you could achieve the same overall impression repeating the front arrangement.

As long as you finished edges and seams super-neatly and ironed carefully, this dress could be yours in one afternoon!

I’m almost tempted to have a go- I wonder what XS Fabrics have in store to whet my appetite? Maybe that soft brown palm tree on the white background…hmm.

Here is a link to the TV interview: http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/celebrity/8377461/matthew-newtons-tell-all-interview

Here is the article by Meshel Laurie containing some rather negative views about Matthew Newton. Matthew Newton: The day after.

Lastly, my response to the interview and article:

I thought Matthew Newton was very brave to admit his illness and shortcomings in the interview. Tracy obviously didn’t understand his type of mental illness by the way she asked her questions, but he coped admirably in the segments shown. IMHO Matthew didn’t go into the domestic violence/assaults in any detail because he simply has no memory of the details of the incidents. That what usually happens in the “brain storm” of a psychotic “frenzy”. The brain is firing off in all directions and anything that might have become a memory is totally mixed in with the feeling and actions going on at the same time. He could well be very shocked at what he did to those unlucky women because he seems a gentle and reticent soul by nature. I suggest that he may have written or recorded apologies and explanations privately or intends to do so with advice from his lawyer. I don’t think he would be the sort of person to write it all off as bad luck for Brooke & Rachel- his personality seems full of shame & guilt and depression about his lack of “perfection” and feeling he hasn’t measured up to his parents’ expectations. He is an adult, his former partners are adults and I think we should let them deal with their previous troubles privately and whenever they choose- it’s none of our business nor Tracy’s.
Matthew appearing on TV and describing his symptoms will help other young people to “come out” and/or seek help for their own mental difficulties they will identify with him and may tend to follow his example in seeking longer term help. On the other hand some aspects of the interview could have been frightening to parents and friends of people with similar diagnoses to Matthew’s. With bipolar or manic depressive illness it IS true that the sufferer will have the problem for life, it’s almost impossible to predict manic or depressive episodes and the medications can control it, but not cure it. I don’t think Tracy made it clear enough that Matthew was NOT cured and will never be cured of the psychotic condition, but could fully recover from the OCD.  I wish she had asked him about having friends and supportive people around him that he is NOT in an emotional relationship with, as these sorts of people are essential to living life with mental illness in the community.

Lastly, why would anybody [even someone with money to spare- which I doubt Matthew would have after his manic episodes] spend 7 months cooped up in a small psychiatric hospital with their daily activities continually supervised and scrutinised, if they didn’t need to? You wouldn’t get me staying there more than 2 nights with a bunch of other troubled and miserable people (no offence intended)- and I DO have a mental illness [major depression]. Think carefully, critics.

The person who annoys me most is Nasrin Mohebbian, who posts many photos per day. Sure, some of them are reposts and so have the name of the original artist on them. Other posts can only be traced to their owners via url links on the images themselves and others are very difficult to trace except by performing a Google Image search.

I have reported this behaviour, but with only temporary results. Also, I have had an exchange with Nasrin about acknowledging the true artists, but that hasn’t made her change her practice towards always naming the person.

Today Nasrin posted a lovely set of images of autumn-toned roses, without naming the original artist. I managed to trace the owner through a Google Image search, arriving at *lieveheersbeestje on deviant.art

Here is *lieveheersbeestje’s photo Autumn Morning:

Autumn Morning

Isn’t that beautiful, gentle and finely executed? If I had taken that photo, I’d want people to know I had and I’d hope a few people might like to buy a copy to display, or as a card. Nasrin hasn’t entertained this possibility as she has made it too hard for the average viewer to reach the source.

What do you think of this sort of behaviour?

One person died peacefully in his sleep after many years of heart problems, plus having a burst blood vessel in his brain in 2009. At that time the doctors decided to let him go peacefully but his son (who is actually my good friend, not the old guy) persuaded them that he was quite functional – running his own little computer network at home, chatting on Facebook to friends all over the world and staying in touch with his former singing students. So they removed the clots over his brain surface and patched him up with metal plates. He was quite OK for an 81 year old, until he went that Friday night.

My friend of only 52 who died, had been quite close. He was the partner of my best girlfriend for about 20 years and they only split up 2 years ago. He was one of the happiest, healthiest people until he became depressed about 5 years ago. I think it was his “immovability” that broke them up as my friend was jibing at him for being “lazy”. My impression was that their business troubles (caused by old-fashioned local council regulations) were so deep that my girlfriend didn’t see the depth of her partner’s distress. Very sad all round because he then left the state and I couldn’t contact him. Apparently, shortly after he left he started having the health problems that eventually killed him. In spite of his great eating and fitness habits, he got bowel cancer which spread to his liver.

His wake (no funeral), was a tribute to his life, but was also sad for me. There were reminders of his happy life everywhere- his scuba diving gear and underwater camera, his racing bicycle, motorcycle & jet-ski. There was a continuous DVD playing of photos from all his adventures both overseas and in Australia. I thought that the most exciting thing he had done was when he was part of a BMW advertisement that was being made in the Arizona desert. He got to ride with a heap of others in a mile-wide line across the desert, with the ad being shown all over the world. It was great to visit, as he cooked wonderful food, always using the best ingredients and generally spiced up with a mixture containing chilis. Some people at the wake speculated that all the chilis might have produced his cancer, but my money is on his extensive exposure to high-octane fuels during his motorcycle racing & playing with other toys. We’ll never know- that’s cancer for you. Too sad.

Basically, a pod of sperm whales became stranded on some huge sandbars at the entrance to Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s wild west coast. You can see how narrow the harbour entrance is, plus sandbars are visible even on the Google map! The sandbars exist because this is the outlet of the mighty Franklin River- the one conservationists have fought so hard to save from the hydroelectricity schemes. Ironically, one piece of conservation is contributing to another species’ bad fortune. Nature does not choose it’s champions nor victims using logic or reason.

Macquarie Harbour showing narrow entrance

If you look on Google Maps, you’ll see that the Franklin River is huge and deep, ending in the monstrous Macquarie Harbourwhich has various deep, navigable channels. I imagine that the current pod of sperm whales was planning on steering themselves up a nice channel and investigating the nooks in the deep harbour.

The mighty Franklin River

Other whale pods had probably taken some great excursions here and reported to the whale-folk back home. This time, not so lucky and some of the family became beached. The reporter said the whales were in good condition and will probably be refloated in 24 hours. I’m not so sure, looking at their mouths, but we’ll see.

The strandings on adjacent Ocean Beach (north of entrance) are quite frequent. It is a huge long, straight beach, continually facing the Roaring Forties, blowing in unfettered by any land after Madagascar.

Ocean Beach & the Roaring Forties

It is pretty much continuous and I imagine that whales could easily be pulled out of their intended route and into the mass of waves running towards shore. I’ve notice the torrent of waves building up more than a kilometre from shore.

When I visited Ocean Beach in 2009, the wind was blowing hard as usual, there was a certain stench of rotting mutton birds and fish, but no whales or their carcasses. However, people who live in surrounding towns and villages are used to strandings so I think they probably happened long before humans arrived.

Why do whales strand? Zoologists and other scientists concerned with currents and climate change have many theories, none of which are easy to prove in the short term. Some say that whales’ navigation system is disturbed by an illness, pollution or the earth’s changeable magnetic field, causing them to go off course or miscalculate the position of a dimly remembered shoreline.

Tasmania, pimple in the Southern Ocean

Others say that Ocean Beach, on the “tiny” island of Tasmania within a vast Southern Ocean, is only a blip iin a big space, so sometimes the whales hit the island merely by chance. I don’t know what is believable about any theory on this , but as a soft-hearted human and conservationist, I find it worrying when these wonderful, lumbering animals meet their end during the prime of life.

A ScoopIt show integrates this blog post with other news about whales and conservation:
http://www.scoop.it/t/whale-wonder/js?format=square&numberOfPosts=3&title=Whale%20wonder&speed=3&mode=normal&width=300