Mortaine’s Blog

Due to a scheduling conflict between SCUBA and the Big Sur 5K (oops), I’ll be running the Run Forrest Run 5K in October instead of the Big Sur 5K in April.

Sigh. Which means I won’t meet in April this year, but I might meet him at some other event in the area, or if I get down to Monterey later this year (which I would like to do– we used to go to the AT&T Pro-Am, but that’s not happening this year for us, obviously).

I’m dropping the Jazz Piano class; I just can’t handle the 1-hour drive for a 1-hour class during lunchtime. I’m going to buy a decent “Teach Yourself Jazz Piano” style book and go from there.

I’m about 2 days from finishing another cross-stitch project, provided I stick to my 15-a-day routine. Then I think I’ll turn to a larger, more complicated piece for a while.

I left home at 8 this morning and got in a 9:06. On a typical day when I left at 8:40, I would get here at 9:15. I really hope it’s the weather that makes this kind of crappy traffic conditions, but I don’t think so. I wonder if going at 7:30 will be better, or if it’ll be the same. If it’s the same, I might as well slip back to 8:40. Gah.

Sigh. OK, anyway. I started writing the Minion story yesterday. It’s dreck, of course. I realized that it had Not Much by way of a plot, tension; the minion character is really only an observer. I need to plot that out better, or scrap the idea altogether. I think it can be a fun story, though, which is why I wanted to work on it.

I have Stuff to work on today at work, which is good, cause it keeps me busy. But I should get to it, eh?

Phone post later, maybe. Cause I haven’t done one in a while, not cause I actually have a driving need to post one.

Inventor Charles Drew.

Some of you know how enthusiastic I am about blood donation; Charles Drew is one of the reasons why.

When I was girl in elementary school and junior high school, I always ended up with Dr. Charles Drew as my “Black History Month” research assignment. As the lowest girl on the totem pole, I knew I’d end up with the very last choice of assignments. But as I learned more about him, I came to choose him as my research topic, rather than the other way around. He’s not a “flashy” assignment. He didn’t invent peanut butter, and he never broke a world record for running.

All Charles Drew did was save millions of lives.

Dr. Drew was an inventor and a scientist who developed a method for preserving blood plasma, and promoted the study of blood and blood typing. He championed for the medical rights of African Americans, demonstrating scientifically that there is no difference between the blood of a black man and that of a white. He was a well-respected surgeon and researcher, even though his career and educational opportunities were unfairly limited because of his race. Ironically, he died of blood loss after a car accident, when he was refused treatment at a white hospital.

Meme this: Who’s your favorite figure from black history? Post a short biography about what they mean to you and what they meant to the world. Include a link where people can go find more information. I know I’d certainly like to learn more about the famous and not-famous-enough contributions by African Americans. It’s more interesting than another lame quizilla post.