There's a post in my journal from October 2004 that says

My new PhD supervisor reckons I should try to get some papers in and at least peer reviewed before I submit my thesis. This is probably a good idea so I'm working on one now. Writing papers is more fun than writing my thesis, so I'm enjoying that.

Well the good news is that yesterday we finally submitted a paper based on my PhD!

Wooo!



Edit: I've just spotted that we sent something off in Dec 04 as well, but that was really bad so it doesn't count.

Time for a new userpic and this is it.

My mission to post more on LJ has been helped by this fabulous opportunity to go on a rant.

Baroness Mary Warnock, who apparently is a 'respected ethicist' whatever that means has decided that people with dementia should be able to kill themselves if they feel they have become a burden.

This is wrong from about every possible point of view. First, feeling that you have become a burden is a subjective position that depends more on the personal circumstances and personalities of the patient and caregiver than anything else. There is a lot that can be done to make caring for dementia sufferers better.

From a practical point of view, the respected ethicist also seems to have confused two different states. First she talks about people deciding to die if they feel they have become a burden, which would suggest a high degree of mental capacity and ability to discuss and communicate on some quite difficult issues. People in this early state are not going to be causing a huge burden of care.

Then she talks about people who can't swallow, which is more an issue of withdrawal of treatment than anything else, but people in this condition with dementia cannot be considered to have the mental capacity to request euthanasia.

This leaves the position of advance directives, where people in full capacity leave instructions to be killed if they reach a certain level of function. On the face of it this seems reasonable, but any kind of thought on the practical implications reveals it as unsatisfactory. First, there is no way of knowing what any person's dementia will be like, some people become very content in their illness and have no insight into the fact they are unwell. Second, there are no objective measures of quality of life in dementia that can be used (this gets back to the lack of communication issue). In the Netherlands where this is legally acceptable, and such directives are very commonly in place, they are almost never executed. Untreatable depressive illness is a common symptom of early dementia, and so may lead people to seek euthanasia or make a directive, but depression in dementia very often resolves itself quite quickly, and it is likely people may make directives and then change their wishes but forget about the directive.

Most importantly there is no way to know how the future demented you will feel about life and death. Setting a directive before you are ill or in the early stages of your illness may lead to the situation where you have a reasonable quality of life, but with impaired judgement and communication abailty, and your family or you feel that the level of care you are receiving is unacceptably high, and so you are killed. I cannot see how any safeguard can prevent this.

I'm in Canada! I'm only here for a couple of weeks for work, so in the grand scheme of things this isn't so remarkable, but for me its a pretty big achievement (given that I really don't like leaving my comfort zone and my comfort zone is about 2 square miles just south of Cambridge).

What's possibly more amazing is that I'm posting on LJ. Hopefully I'll feel motivated enough to keep posting.

But not right now, because I've been awake too many hours.

walked under a ladder on my way to work this morning...

Trying to do the ten things thing, but couldn't even think of one thing I've done that none of my friends had done (probably better). So here is...

Ten things my pet budgerigar has done that none of my friends list have (probably)

1) Flown (like a bird)

2) Eaten gravel

3) Been shut in a cage due to anti-social behaviour at mealtimes.

4) Nearly died through malnutrition rather than eat an inferior brand of birdseed.

5) Attempted intercourse with own reflection.

6) Attempted inter-species intercourse.

7) Slept standing up

8) Bitten my nose.

9) (It hurt, too).

10) Moulted


Not sure if this means that my budgie leads a more interesting life than me.

This is very cool.

http://www.etienne.nu/imagepuz/

I'm stuck at level 8.

It seems that at least four of the people on my LJ friends list spend far too much time reading the BBC News website. I myself have been struggling with a similar, in fact identical, problem.

I think some sort of support group is required.

Is anybody interested in entering a team for this years BCS programming competition?

I went last year and nearly got through to the final. Its lots of fun. And you get a cool t-shirt.

see http://www.bcs.org/BCS/Awards/Events/ProgrammingCompetition for more information.

The regional heats are on Saturday 5 March and the final is Saturday 16 April.

time for an update!

been in my new job for a month, and its going really well. the project is good, the people are nice, and the location (right in the middle of the city near smithfield) is superb. i keep getting lost when i go exploring london at lunchtime though.

my travelcard is fast becoming my favourite possesion.

done some work on my phd today as well. hasn't happened enough so far, but i'm hoping to get into it properly and get it done by end of january.

finally submitted a proper paper based on my phd work too.

i have a new icq account, the uin is 274490485.

and christmas is approaching too fast. is anybody else up for putting it back a couple of weeks?...

To everybody whose LJ I've commented on inanely tonight.

And to those who now feel left out by the lack of such comment.

Moved to London (Highgate) last Friday, and am starting my new job tomorrow.

I'm still trying to unpack my stuff, but with some difficulty due to the lack of anywhere to put anything.

In other news, I've put my mobile phone down somewhere and lost it. I'm hoping that its somewhere in one of the boxes full of junk in my room, and not somehwere like on the tube or in the pub, because its where all my numbers are kept.

Must write down phone numbers in a safe place.

Jobs for today:
1) Hang dartboard
2) Play darts

if any time left after 2),

3) Iron clothes for work
4) Change bank details
5) Finish PhD

Date:	2004-11-02 17:44
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	stressed

Is anybody going to the Cambridge firework display this year?


In other news..

I will be moving to London some time in the middle of next week.

I don't like my PhD any more. (okay so that one isn't news)

'Minty' is now officially the opposite taste to 'beefy'

Hello. Had a good day today. Went to the optitian and got my eyes tested, ordered some glasses that make me look like Vic Reeves (and some others that don't) and finally got round to putting my money somewhere sensible.

Because I'd been such a good boy I rewarded myself with a visit to HMV, where I bought a copy of Bob Dylan's first (and self-titled) album. It's pretty good, very folksy but a bit one-dimensional if you compare it to his later stuff. Still very worth buying.

My new PhD supervisor reckons I should try to get some papers in and at least peer reviewed before I submit my thesis. This is probably a good idea so I'm working on one now. Writing papers is more fun than writing my thesis, so I'm enjoying that.

Anyway. Not allowed to go home before I've finished another section.

Toodles!

had a long essay thing written out to post. a trollish trying to upset people kind of thing. but i don't think i'll post it.

i suppose i'm guilty of what i was trying to accuse other people of doing. feeling angry and upset and frustrated, primarily at myself, and wanting to take it out on anybody who even vaguely crossed me.

anyway. maybe i'll edit my intended post to make it nice, then send it. hmm.

I have finally bought a DVD player. Which means that trips to the video club are forthcoming. And so I need suggestions for which films to get. I need to know which films I absolutely must see. The kind of films that my life would be incomplete without.

i plan to be at the cambridge beer festival on friday from about 5pm.

anybody else going?

Well I didn't get the UCL job. Not that I wanted it that much anyway. Would have been nice to have been offered it though.

Hmph.