Constant noise can lead to stress disorders which could further develop into ulcers or high blood pressure. Large amounts of noise every day not only causes stress for people but can also contribute to mental illness. People of all ages who already expierience health problems are at very high risk.

Hmmm.. what with the ever present roadworks outside our unit, Lind's propensity for 24/7 TV, the roadwork here at work, and the stupid shouting saleswoman, I'm not surprised I'm feeling stressed and really just want to punch someone.  PMT isn't helping.

As soon as you buy a wheelchair, I bet you'll be able to walk again!

You are just too worried about never walking, it's all in your head! If you stop thinking about it so much, it will happen.

Someone posted this classic on another board I frequent.  It always makes me smile in a DOH sort of way.

From the season finale of "Six Feet Under"(2004 season). The late Nathaniel
Fisher, Sr. speaks with his son David:

—————————————————–

  Dad: "You're not even grateful, are you?"

  David: "Grateful? For the worst fucking experience of my life?"

  Dad: "You hang on to your pain like it means something. Like it's worth something.
  Well let me tell you it's not worth shit. Let it go! (Rolls eyes to heaven) Infinite
  possibilities and all he can do is whine."

  David: "Well, what am I suppose to do?"

  Dad: "What do you think? You can do anything you lucky bastard…you're alive!
  What's a little pain compared to that?"

  David: "It can't be so simple."

  Dad: "What if it is?"

Here I sit on my blood red couch in the candle light.
On my left, two gold grapefruit and some chocolate royales.
On my right, a bottle of muscat, a box of cigars, and some 6" stilettos.
In front of me, Blade.
One, AND two.
Along with "From Dusk till Dawn", one, two and three.
In a pile on the floor, in the dark, the most heinous.
24 episodes of Buffy.

All my vices.
Arranged beautifully around me, like offerings,
like glittering artifacts to take into the afterlife.

Door opens. Door closes. Soft footsteps. My companion.
No words. No need. Familiar. Comfortable.
Some knowing looks. The mischevious smiles of a very dear friend.

Lady Death doesn't always come to dance.
Sometimes she comes to watch DVD's in my candlelight and..
to remind me that death is OK.
That sometimes, a thing
NOT dying is the only true evil.

Fragrant smoke rises like incense into the air as ashes fall.
The muscat is sickly sweet and the grapefruit wedges are bitter.
Two pairs of pretty crossed feet are languidly served up on the coffee table altar.
And a pale skeletal hand with a great French polish reaches out of the shadows..

to press "PLAY".

The absence of iodine causes a hormonal dysfunction that can be seen with practically every hormone inside the body. Dr. Flechas has recently been able to show that patients with insulin resistant diabetes have a partial to full remission of their illness in the presence of taking iodine. Iodine deficiency is also felt to be the source of ovarian cysts. With iodine replacement therapy the cysts disappear and women have stopped having ovarian cysts.

http://www.cancercontrolsociety.com/bio2005/flechas.html

http://www.helpmythyroid.com/iodine.htm

Another article here:

http://www.mamazine.com/Pages/feature62.html

Interesting.. I'd wondered the same about cultural camps – not exactly a contemporary look at the culture.

Like language lessons, I guess some kids are going to hate them, some are going to love them, and some are going to hate them, but appreciate them later, especially if they want to go back to their birth country at some stage. 

The only parallel I can draw in my own life is that I'm still pissed my parents never made me play the piano.  My ex is still pissed his folks refused to pay for guitar lessons because his older sister had begun the piano, hated it and given up.  A weak analogy, I know.

I think I'm really overthinking this whole thing.  Each kid is different, so there is no RIGHT answer to how much cultural exposure you should involve a child in.  I'm trying to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to an individual.  There are no guidelines entitled "Top 10 things to do for your transracially adopted child to help them become perfectly well adjusted and not hate you for removing them from their culture".   I guess I'm just really cognizant of the fact that my choices may profoundly affect somebody's life, and I want to get it RIGHT for them, damn it!

I've also been thinking more about the anger many of the adoptees have.  I'm trying to understand it. 

I remember my first encounter of sexism after growing up in a pretty much non-sexist environment.  I got a job working as an Assistant Accountant.  There was another assistant accountant there, a guy, two of us doing the same job.  I remember my first day, when I was asked to take over the coffee-making and the typing.  I remember how absolutely furious I was.  How offended I was.  How insulted and belittled I felt.  I had never experienced anything like it before and it was absolutely shocking to me… I started reading alot fo feminist literature and I became very, very, angry.  I used to carry around a can of black spray paint on the car, and when I saw a sexist billboard (and there seemed to be a rash of them at the time) I would jump out of the car and spray paint clothing on the women who were being degradingly portrayed as sex-objects. (Much to the chagrin of my friends and relatives.)  I felt *dehumanised*.

I can only guess at the additional dimension racism and adoption would add to the mix, and as much as I want to, as much as I see that anger as more than valid, raw, I can no more on an experiential level understand it than my male friends could understand my reaction to scantily clad women on billboards.

So here I sit, a blue-eyed blonde who will probably piss off her kids just like all of the mothers gone before her.

Welcome to parenthood.

At the moment I'm working on lowering the pesticide load on my body, psudo-estroegens in particular. We've started to microwave stuff in glass containers and drink water out of glasses instead of plastic bottles to reduce the intake of SE that way.

I'm also only eating organic chicken (and organic everything else) to reduce the hormonal intake from there as well. So.. on my recent trip to Woolies I noticed that there are never any organic chicken breasts there. Whole birds, thigh fillets, but no tenderloins or chicken breasts. There isn't even a space for them to go. Woolies never stocks them.

I really want to know where the chicken breasts have gone? They must be somewhere!

Pseudoestrogens are endocrine disruptors that either occur or are released into the natural environment and influence or mimic the function of hormones.  They are found in pesticides, synthetic hormones, plant constituents, plastics, detergents, and environmental pollutants.

http://www.uni.edu/pubrel/newsroom/op-ed/chemdep.shtml

"Estrogen is produced not only by the ovaries and adrenal glands, but also by abdominal fat cells that convert other hormones (particularly testosterone) into estrogen. The more weight a woman carries, particularly around the abdomen, the more estrogen circulates in her body.."

And how do you get a disproportionate amount of abdominal fat?  My nemisis, Adrenal Exhaustion, of course.

I keeeeeelllll  yoouuuuu!!!