Ahhhh, hello blog world. Long time no talk. The weather gods have been playing tricks on me. One day they let me wear tank tops and the next I'm in thermals. Here, if you call it "lake effect", it's all okay apparently. Ann Arbornites are easy to please.

A whirlwind of stuff in my life has put me behind on my random ponderings. I was even behind on reading nytimes! On Friday, Micah brought to my attention a rather depressing manisfestation of the Comprehensive vs Selective Primany Health Care debate in Henan, China (article in the nytimes). So finally, the Chinese government has pledged to to provide AIDS treatment to anyone positively infected with HIV, but (there's always a "but") the government is unable to offer anything besides the most archaic drug cocktails, the ones that are no longer under patent. Some rural farmers encounter such violent side-effects (vomiting, etc) that they decide not to continue treatment. Here's where the debate comes in: selective phc can theoretically be more cost effective in targeting specific problems, like HIV/AIDS patients, but it's inherent narrowness precludes investment in more sustainable comprehensive care that could potentially be more effective at monitoring AIDS patients. Comprehensive phc would be the ideal, but it's geometrically more difficult to convince people to fund broad programs without obvious milestones or fashionable pr quips. For the short term what comes to mind for effective monitoring is perhaps modeling the Henan treatments with a looser form of DOTS or simply more training for counselors. Just a reminder that just getting the "goods" is not enough for health.

Didn't want to drop the ball, but I have finish my reflections at another time. Gotta get crackin on writing some essays!

Sunday night laundry thoughts. At the risk of sounding a little uptight, I need to air out some pet peeves: 1) people who shuffle their feet when they walk. It's like they can't decide where they're going, or their shoes are too big (although, I'll excuse that), or they want people to know that they're coming before they arrive, a little like men who spray on too much cologne. 2) people who smoke in the laundry room. Don't they know that the only reason I'm even doing laundry is to get rid of the cigarette smoke in my Friday night bar sweaters? It simply defeats the purpose if a guy puffs next to my freshly laundered clothes! Besides, it must be a fire hazard for cigarette stubs to be in such close proximity to highly flamable dryer lint.

We celebrate Micah's birthday (which was actually on Monday) Friday night. The big 2-5. A quarter of a century. Micah and I had a quiet dinner at Dominick's and were entertained by listening in on the conversations between the owner's two little sons and other patrons. I'd recommend the antipasto salad to anyone who eats things that walk. And for those who don't eat things that walk on land, you can just pick off the salami and other meaty thing. Then we walked over Dan's for a screening of Matrix Reloaded before heading over the Madstone Theater at Briarwood for Matrix Revolutions. They had a guy spout off about the theater instead of commercials. You know you're in a small town when...

I won't spoil the movie. Afterward we went over to Full Moon for beer and billiards. Oh, gotta check on laundry--be back later...

Halloween highlights: John G. was Yankee Doodle. You wouldn't have guessed that his secret talent was dancing with suspenders. Tanya (John G.'s girlfriend) entered the costume walk-off at Necto as an airline attendant. Definitely Catch Me If You Can-esque. It's all about attention to detail; she even had the loud scarf and obnoxious 80's earrings. Kathryn showed up as a Texas rose, but soon departed to attend the MCF party. Dan was a blind tourist (perhaps this explains the black socks...) I was supposed to be Nasdaq stocks after the bubble, but Tanya kindly suggested that perhaps, instead, I could say I was trying for the 'Alicia Keys' look. Anna went as a sexy-momma. ;)

Saturday's events for prospective public health students started out with a disappointing introduction to the school. The keynote was juvenile and indicated that the speaker either completely misjudged his audience or that he himself did not understand what his purpose up there was. Thankfully, the epi session was more informative and didn't try to cater to the lowest denominator. Anna and I were generally impressed by the practicality of the program. Got the impression that one would come out with a real skill set. But was also wary of a student in the IH track that said something about "third world countries", which I thought was inexcusable for someone claiming to know anything about international health. Major downside to the school was that there seemed to be limited funding opportunities available.

Over the course of the weekend, Anna shared stories about Tanzania, her home-stay, the classes she taught, walking hours and hours between sites, and riding daladalas. She's a great story teller and I'm inspired to travel to Arusha some day. I'm so impressed with her speaking Swahili... I have more to write about this weekend but I have to get back to reading the Sui Dynasty. Sigh.