I can’t remember exactly why I started this blog. I do remember thinking around that time that blogs seemed like self-indulgent, silly things.

I also vaguely remember thinking that a blog would be a good way for me to stay in touch with my writing–something that I’ve always enjoyed doing, but had less and less time for. It would give me a reason to write and an imaginary audience to write for. Over the past couple of years, the writing aspect hasn’t really developed as well as I had hoped but my soapbox sure has become quite worn down with my footprints.

Readership has really only grown because of Google’s pagerank and the random hits the blog receives through search. I have few dedicated readers. Facebook has increased my readership through their ability to link the blog to my facebook profile. Facebook has also been responsible for the demise of other blogs that I read. As long as one person reads the blog I’m happy.

I’m also happy that a good friend was found through the blogging process. Granted, they have trouble speaking English the proper way–they say brazier instead of bra–and they are hopelessly dedicated to beating me at Scrabulous. I’ve also made the acquaintance of a dental student down under who, although at times is angsty, is a cool person.

All things must come to an end, especially good things. Bad things seem to last forever…

The experiment that spawned this blog has come to an end.

I’ve come to feel increasingly limited by Blogger’s interface. Don’t get me wrong–Blogger is still my current preference for an easy to use blogging system but there’s stuff that I need done differently that Blogger can’t accommodate. Despite that I’m indebted to Blogger and the staff that run the system for the help they’ve provided me in the past.

I have too much to say, however, to stop blogging.

I’m currently working with my tech guy (my brother) to migrate to a hosted blog system (the host will be his corporate site). I just have to decide between either MovableType or WordPress as the blogging platform. Once I get that all worked out, I’ll start blogging again at a different URL. I’ll let you know when and where.

The new blog will be a work in progress for a while, just as this one was. But the point is that blogging is no longer an experiment for me. Two years later, it has become a part of our lives here in Cowland. It is a productive waste of time that feels therapeutic. It is also the diary/journal that I started on paper in the mid 90′s and ended up aborting at the end of that decade.

I am, therefore I blog.

I’ve started watching Gary’s wine critiques because he has a very educational and entertaining approach. Here he is on Conan O’Brien’s show:

As time has marched on with this blog, I’m finding that it’s become much more complex than when I first started it. That’s a good thing I guess–although an ex of mine told me that she was breaking up with me because I was too complex (or was that complicated). Duh.

Anyway, The Boy, has added himself as an author to the blog because although I’ve posted on his behalf a couple of times in the past (I’ve indicated in the posts when they are from him) the next post is best done in his words.

And speaking of Time. Here‘s something that I know you’ll find interesting. It’s a photo essay of a man and his family. A photo of each member taken every June 17th from 1976 to present. There is something dramatically haunting about it.

I found this post from Ginny extremely refreshing (even though my mind is still a bit hazy from the lack of sleep).

Conservatives hate their daughters.
Warning: policital incorrectness ahead. Cover your eyes if you can’t handle a personal opinion. As you read this, remember that I have two daughters (aged 23 and 15). I speak not as a liberal; I speak as a mother of 2 girls.

Additionally, I preface my thoughts with this fact:

Each year in the U.S.A. 14,500 new patients get invasive cervical cancer and 8,000 women die of it. “Pre-cancerous” changes in the cervix are much more common; they affect 59,000 American women per year and are shown by an abnormal “Pap smear”. Some, but not all, of these patients with “pre-cancerous” cervical changes will go on to develop frank cervical cancer. The average age of patients is 50 years, but the disease has been seen in patients ranging in age from 17 to 90 years. In general, cervical cancer has been on the increase in the United States, and even more in developing countries. It currently ranks as the fifth most common cancer in women, after lung, breast, colon and uterine cancer.

Governor Perry of Texas signed a mandate that schoolgirls must be vaccinated against cervical cancer, sidestepping opposition in the state Legislature. Texas is screaming that it’s because the governor is in bed with Merck, they claim that there hasn’t been enough testing, they claim that once vaccinated, girls would be less likely to go get pap smears…but their biggest problem with the vaccine is that getting vaccinated against cervical cancer will make their daughters more promiscuous.

Are you kidding me?

If this was a vaccine against prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction, you can bet the farm that these same parents would be lining their boys up, clamoring for the vaccine. If this were a vaccine against any other kind of cancer, parents would be lining their kids up for the vaccine. Because, however, this is a vaccine that protects their female children against a kind of cancer that is triggered by sexual contact, surely it’s an evil idea forwarded by those evil liberals who are against family values.

These are the same folks who teach their children abstinence as a form of birth control (which has driven up the incidence of oral and anal sex and STDs among teenagers) and who want to teach their kids that the world is 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs coexisted with Man. Normally, I would cluck and say that these folks deserve what they get with their misguided leanings…but we’re talking about potentially saving the lives of their own daughters. We’re talking about children who could potentially be spared heartache, surgery, chemotherapy and untimely death. We’re talking about a potential windfall of savings in insurance payouts, healthcare costs and taxpayer dollars as less women need assistance in paying for cancer treatments.

The fact that these folks have formulated the idea that vaccinated girls=promiscuous girls boggles my mind. If you’re that worried, don’t tell the girls what the shot is for! (But more importantly why are you that worried about your child’s sex life? No matter what you think your kid is doing, eventually he or she is going to be playing spin the bottle with some sweaty, airheaded brat and the best you can hope for is that you’ve taught your child well enough and are open enough for your kid that he or she will talk to you before that happens.)

Womens’ health is a touchy topic. The number 1 killer of women is heart attack, yet we pay more attention to and have more passion for the breast cancer cause. This is because a missing breast is more traumatic to a woman than a faulty heart valve; you can see a missing breast, but you can still look fabulous in your dress for your man no matter how bad your ticker is. The need to look sexy trumps the need to stay alive. On the opposite end of the spectrum, although the need for a woman to look sexy is paramount in the minds of both men and women, the need to keep the sexual organs functioning is taboo if it is your daughter’s sexual organs we’re talking about. It’s better for them to get cancer and die than it is for them to be protected because if they’re protected…they might have sex. Death before sex, then, for the daughters of Texas, if the Texas Legislature had their way.

Everyone is perpetually up in arms about how conservative Muslims treat women. At least conservative Muslims are out in the open with their misogynism–they cover their women in burqas. Conservative Americans would rather cover their women in caskets after a shortened lifetime of looking fabulous.

Hi, this is my first blog post. In case you’re wondering, my blue dawg tag says that I’m a fellow of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada, a member of the: Ontario Society of Endodontists, Canadian Academy of Endodontists, American Association of Endodontists, Ontario Association of Dental Specialists, Ontario Dental Association; and that I’m registered with the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario. They all have cheese at their meetings.