2015 Reading Challenge

So Book Riot has a reading challenge that I am going to try. The list is as follows:

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25
A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65
A collection of short stories
A book published by an indie press
A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ
A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
A book that takes place in Asia
A book by an author from Africa
A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
A microhistory
A YA novel
A sci-fi novel
A romance novel
A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade
A book that is a retelling of a classic story
An audiobook
A collection of poetry
A book that someone else has recommended to you
A book that was originally published in another language
A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind
A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure
A book published before 1850
A book published this year
A self-improvement book

In addition, my cousin Teresa sent me the Pop Sugar Challenge:

Now clearly the two lists overlap, and I will be combining the two challenges into one master list that covers every item, to set my 2015 reading list, which I will track on Goodreads. By combining the two challenges, I will read over 52 books this year. Wish me luck!

NYPD and Tommy

My brother, Tommy, married my baby sister Ellen in 1994. They have three amazing children and live in a lovely house just north of New York City.

Tommy is also a detective in the NYPD.

For over twenty years he has served New York City. He worked Narcotics in the Bronx, was a bike cop, and worked on the pile for 9 months after September 11th's terror attack. 9 months. I just can't imagine that.

He worked every New Year's Eve for over 15 years, missed Christmas, birthdays, and many special events over the course of his career.

He has been assaulted by prisoners to the point of needing surgery to correct his injuries. He works harder than anyone I know. And every single time I hear that a member of the NYPD was shot, I think of Tommy.

I worry.

I pray.

For him and all the good cops out there doing one of the toughest jobs I can imagine... right up there with the military and firefighting I am so glad people like him are willing and able to do it, because I could not do what he does every day.

Two of New York's Finest were executed this week on the job. Both married, one with children. Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were murdered while doing their job.

Do some cops make mistakes? Absolutely. Are a few cops bad apples? Yes. Just like there are bad apples in every other profession. That said, the vast majority of Police Officers are good, hard working, amazing men and women who are doing their best to make the world safer for the rest of us.

I am praying for all the families impacted by violence, praying for peace. I am also praying for Tommy and his comrades, fighting the good fight. That they do good work and go home safe.

Ebola: Entering Year 2

The Ebola epidemic has entered its second year: 

The Butcher’s Bill: A total of 17942 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola virus disease have been reported in six affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Spain, and the United States of America) and two previously affected countries (Nigeria and Senegal) as of December 7^th, 2014. There have been 6388 deaths since December of 2013.  

 
Time Magazine has picked Ebola Fighters as the "Person of the Year"

They deserve the praise- they are working hard in scary conditions. Risking their lives every day. They are all heros.

The beginning:

Patient Zero was a little boy. In December 2013, Emile Ouamouno had a fever, black stool and started vomiting. On December 6, he was dead. 

Within a month, so were his sister, his mother and his grandmother.

The mother suffered bleeding symptoms and died on December 13. Then, the toddler's 3-year-old sister died December 29, with symptoms including fever, vomiting and black diarrhea. The grandmother passed away January 1, 2014.

Ebola had never been in this part of the world before. The cases were not recognized. Months would pass before the Ebola crisis became international news.

Progress has been made. The outbreaks of Ebola in Senegal and Nigeria were declared over on 17 October and 19 October 2014, respectively. The unrelated outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a total of 49 deaths is over as well, since more than 42 days have passed since the last case tested negative.

Mom

Mom and her sister Etta were the first of her large family to come to the US in the 1950s.

We used to spend Sunday's at Mom's uncle, Brian Moore's house, about a mile from where I grew up. He was our grandfather in so many ways. Mom lived with him when first here in the US and then she and Dad shared the  tiny basement apartment when they first married. His wedding gift helped them buy their home.

 

My Mom was in Ireland in 2002, just four months before she died, and got to see most of her family while attending my cousin's wedding. It was such a good day and we had such a good time with all the relatives. We didn't know it would be our last big celebration that everyone would attend.

Mom would be 76 years old today. Happy Birthday, Mom.

The Oxford 2014 Word of the Year is...

The Oxford 2014 Word of the Year is...: "Vape" can be used as either a noun meaning "an electronic cigarette or similar device" or a verb in which one would "inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device." CNN reports

Vape is also known as a word I NEVER HEARD OF until voted the Word of the Year and I really cannot imagine a setting where I would ever use it. The same can be said for the runner-up words in the article.

I decided I would collect words that were new to me this year


recalcitrant: having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline.
elucidate: make (something) clear; explain

Funny story- my friend used elucidate to describe something I wrote on Ebola a while ago, and having never seen the word before, I looked it up to see what it meant. I mentioned looking it up to my son- a big reader in my house- and he told me what it meant... It was used in one of the books he was reading. Starting to see why he is a bit bored in school.

Recalcitrant, on the other hand, was used in a wound care article I was reading to describe a stubborn wound that refused to heal.

Learning something new every day...

World AIDS Day: The Beginning of the End

A look at where we are in the fight on World AIDS Day:

The Tipping Point (Yahoo)

"We've passed the tipping point in the AIDS fight at the global level, but not all countries are there yet, and the gains made can easily stall or unravel," said Erin Hohlfelder, ONE's director of global health policy.

"The number of people newly infected with HIV over the last year was lower than the number of HIV-positive people who joined those getting access to the medicines they need to take for life to keep AIDS at bay."

A Vaccine on the Way? (CNN)

A trial in Thailand that had 16,000 participants and used 2 previously studied vaccines aimed at stopping HIV infection may prove to be the answer, in much the same way as the cocktail of medications changed the HIV world in the late 1990s.

"Two previously developed vaccines, known as ALVAC-HIV and AIDSVAX, were used in combination, with the first priming an immune response against HIV and the second used as a booster once the immunity waned. The duo reduced the risk of contracting HIV by 31.2% -- a modest reduction, but it was a start."  

"When creating vaccines, the desired level of protection is usually 80% to 90%. But the high burden of HIV and potentially beneficial impact of lower levels of protection warrant licensing at a lower percentage... Over 50% is worth licensing from a public health perspective," Koff said, meaning that despite less shielding from any contact with the HIV virus, even a partially effective vaccine would save many lives over time."

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving tradition begs that we consider all the good that surrounds us and give thanks for all we have. This is my list this year

1. My growing up too fast children-  How can Liz be 21? John is nearly 13- and the years are just flying by.
2. My healthy new body- I am in better shape now, after surgery twice in the last 14 months, than I can remember being since my days in the Peace Corps when I was walking miles every day and eating healthy every day.
3. My beautiful house- Improvements and positive equity are nothing compared  to the sense of peace I have when I am home.
4. My large network of amazing friends- The support and love are constant reminders of my blessed life
5. My work in the EB world- I know I make a difference, and making a difference matters. I work with some of the most incredible families, medical providers and scientists. We get closer every day to my dream world where EB has no place.
6. My huge wonderful family-Getting home to Ireland after such a long time was an amazing thing and I love that I can sit down with my cousins after years and it is as if no time has passed- My family rocks!

Looking at my life I can't help feeling awestruck by all the gifts God has given me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

DWTS: Champions of the Mirror Ball

Bethany Mota and Derek Hough  were the first couple sent home Monday at the end of night one of our two part finale and our final four became three...

Janel Parrish and Valentin Chmerkovskiy were the next to be eliminated... I had hoped they would take the trophy... oh well...

Sadie Robertson and Mark Ballas became our runner-up couple, but they should be so proud of all they accomplished.

Alfonso Ribiero and Witney Carson took the trophy. Just like Meryl did last year... But having danced professionally, do they have an advantage over folks like Sadie, that the show was created for?  People who don't dance becoming dancers?

Next season starts in March. See you then...

Homestead: A 1st Time Champion and a host of goodbyes

4 drivers who were Rookie of the Year when they came to NASCAR are battling for their first Championship.

Harvick, the oldest of the chasers, won in 2001
Newman beat out Jimmie Johnson for it in  2002
Denny did it in 2006
Logano, our youngest chase contender, won in 2009

I hope Denny Hamlin wins and but  would be elated if underdog Ryan Newman wins.

Jeff Gordon was our pole-sitter and our contenders started in 4th (Harvick) 8th (Hamlin) 9th (Logano) and 21 (Newman)

We are saying goodbye today to ESPN- this is the last NASCAR event they will cover, as next season NBC and Fox will split the season. Thirteen of NBC's races are on NBCSN, a channel I don't get, so I will miss a third of the season- disappointing.

We also say goodbye to Marcos Ambrose, who returns to Australia, and Steve Letarte, who will move from Junior's crew-chief  to broadcasting next season. Jimmie Fennig is also acting as a crew chief for the last time- he retires at the checkers tonight. Steve Burns, suffering from a cancer relapse, is absent tonight but on everyone's mind.

At the restart on lap 111 we have our chasers as follows:


Harvick is in 2nd place
Denny is in 3rd place
Joey is in 5th place
Ryan- our biggest mover, is up to 8th place

At the restart with 55 laps to go, Denny raced from 2nd to 1st, with Harvick in 3rd, Joey in 6th and Ryan in 11th.

But cautions change things...


In the end, a late caution let Harvick have the lead,  and he won the race and his first Sprint Cup Championship. Newman in second place in the race and the championship was so close and yet so far. Denny placed third with his seventh place finish and Joey Logano was 4th with his finish of sixteenth, after his car slid off the jack, a poor showing not reflective of his year as a whole.

Congratulations Kevin!

The Great War

From the 28 of July, 1914 to the 11th of November 1918, the world was at war. What started as an assassination became a battle between world powers and redrew the map of Europe.

Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide. 

French soldier Henri Barbusse, in his novel "Le Feu", 1915

100 years have passed since war was declared and losses were huge: The total number of casualties in World War I, both military and civilian, was about 37 million: 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes nearly 10 million military personnel and nearly 7  million civilians. The number of Irish deaths in the British Army recorded by the registrar general was 27,405, according to wikipedia
 
My grandfather's brother John was one of them. he was killed in Northern France.

The First World War killed fewer victims than the Second World War, destroyed fewer buildings, and uprooted millions instead of tens of millions - but in many ways it left even deeper scars both on the mind and on the map of Europe. The old world never recovered from the shock. 

Edmond Taylor, in "The Fossil Monarchies"

The war was over- Hard fought for peace arrived, but at huge cost. The landscape of Europe was forever transformed. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. New countries had borders decided on in a haphazard manner and stability was lost:

The old empires had provided a degree of stability, so many had trouble adjusting to life under a different rule, says Margaret MacMillan, professor of international history at Oxford University.

“Suddenly people throughout the Middle East and the center of Europe found themselves living in a world where they didn't know what country they belonged to; it wasn't quite clear what the borders of those countries would be; a whole lot of small wars were breaking out between different national movements trying to grab territory, and so it was in fact a very difficult time for people," said MacMillan.

The Great Depression rocked the world as it tried to recover.

Yesterday I visited the battlefield of last year. The place was scarcely recognisable. Instead of a wilderness of ground torn up by shell, the ground was a garden of wild flowers and tall grasses. Most remarkable of all was the appearance of many thousands of white butterflies which fluttered around. It was as if the souls of the dead soldiers had come to haunt the spot where so many fell. It was eerie to see them. And the silence! It was so still that I could almost hear the beat of the butterflies' wings. 

A British officer, 1919 

And before too long, these nations battled again across Europe. Inevitable? Some think the punishment of the Versailles Treaty made it possible for the Nazi Party to rise, making the Great War into World War I, by bringing on World War II.

The Second World War took place not so much because no one won the First, but because the Versailles Treaty did not acknowledge this truth. 

Historian Paul Johnson, 1972

I wonder what all those men and women would think of the European Union and the state of the world today. Do we make them proud or do they weep for all that was sacrificed to get us to this point.

We will have a 1st Time Champion in Sprint Cup

Newman pushed Kyle Larson up into a wall on the last lap and ended Jeff Gordon's Drive for Five. Gordon missed advancing by one point, Kenseth was three points back, Bad Brad was eight behind and Carl Edwards was out by 15. And that means we will have a first time champion next weekend at Homestead.

The Four still in the Chase are:

 Kevin Harvick finished        1^st

 Denny Hamlin finished        5^th

 Joey Logano finished           6^th

 Ryan Newman finished       11^th

 ^{Can't wait to see what happens!}