Mononucleosis
Nov 2, 2000
I suffered a bad bout of this illness....and still sometimes feel the lingering aftereffects. Here are the facts about mono, for everyone. It's not fun, to say the least. I don't remember the times when my fever was high, except for the excruciating pain in my throat and neck. I looked deformed because of my swollen glands. The disease also sucked all the color from my skin. Now, I'm fairly pale anyway. When I was sick I looked like a ghoul.
Here's the short version:
Cause: virus, spread by close contact, such as kissing. Transmitted in saliva.
Symptoms: Fever, malaise, fatigue, drowsiness, swollen lymph nodes, loss of appetite
Duration: 4 to 6 weeks
Treatment: There are no antiviral drugs to combat mono. You're pretty much stuck taking Tylenol and eating the invalid's diet - jello, thin Cream of Wheat, pudding, juice, and soup. Yuck.  Also lots of bed rest.
Complications: strep infections, due to lowered immune system. Swollen spleen - you'll be banned from contact sports for about two months.
I was sent home from university for two weeks to recover from mono. I was lucky - my mother nursed me through the worst parts. If you can avoid mono, do so. If you have it - I know how you feel.
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Oscar Wilde
Jul 7, 2000
Perhaps I should go into a mini-biography, but you can find that anywhere. Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite authors. His comedies are full of true observations on the absurdities of Victorian life. The Picture of Dorian Gray is an acutely sensitive portrait of the dissolution of an innocent soul. Salome was decadent and incisive. De Profundis moved me deeply. His poems are well-crafted, but it is The Ballad of Reading Gaol that is his best work. It strongly influenced my own opinion on the death penalty and human rights, even though its religious rhetoric sometimes escapes me - I am not a Christian nor was raised one.
I think the best lines he ever wrote come from that poem:
And all the woe that moved him so that he gave a bitter cry,
And the wild regrets and the bloody sweats none knew so well as I,
For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die.
By the way, the movie Wilde was excellent, Stephen Fry being the only living actor I can think of who could carry of Oscar Wilde. Jude Law was wonderful as Bosie, and did anyone notice Ioan Gruffudd as the inspiration for Dorian Gray?
I think Oscar Wilde would be pleased to know that his genius and talent are finally recognized.
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- Latest reply: Jul 8, 2000
Writing
Jul 1, 2000
I am a writer of sorts. Right now I'm working - not very hard - on a play based loosely on people, places and events I've encountered at University. The writing process seems to go in fits and starts for me: pick up pen, put it down, stare at notebook, curse, stare off into space, open notebook, pick up pen, write furiously for thirty minutes. You get a tender love scene on paper, feel weird inside, throw down notebook and pace the room, go to the kitchen and fix a sandwich and a glass of milk, smoke a cigarette and lie down. Five minutes later you're at it again. Finish scene, smoke another cigarette, and you don't pick up the notebook again for two days. Repeat as necessary.
Honestly, my characters have grown on me. I feel almost guilty putting them through what I come up with - not very pleasant stuff. But they have to go through it, and I'm almost inspired to tell them to suck it up, it'll get better in the next act. Almost.
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