Okay, Three Things

Alright, this post may not be entirely coherent, but whatever. There are three things I wish to touch on.
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1. Wang Leehom's sexuality

As a refresher, here's a couple pics to remind you who he is (as if you need it, but it's here anyway):

My friend RZ-F sent me an email today telling me she found out he was gay and was deeply saddened by that. When I asked her later online, she said she has a friend who is a friend of Wang Leehom's agent. And his agent says he's gay or something to that effect. And people know Wang Leehom's boyfriend, apparently. Now, as much as a part of me (and any non-straight male fan of his) wishes this is all true, I find it a little hard to believe.

I give you exhibit A:
Granted, it's possible that this is all for publicity so the public views him as straight. Also, I remember reading an incident where a guy claimed to have homosexual relations with Wang Leehom, and Leehom openly denied and called it "Bullshit." But Wang Leehom is very private about his personal life, much to the chagrin of nosy journalists. While what I say next doesn't mean much, but he doesn't strike me as "being gay." He doesn't seem to fit any part of that stereotype - and again, we all know that statement there doesn't actually mean much. Now to those who say, "Oh he's a music major, it makes sense he's gay," I say, "Wrong!" Take exhibit B, my roommate, AW-M. He's a music major and is now engaged. His relationship with his fiance is . . . interesting. She has control over him like a master over a slave, I kid you not. It's kind of wrong to be so pussy-whipped, as they say.

Okay, I'm going to stop spreading this rumor that I frankly find a little hard to believe (though, wouldn't mind fantasizing about). I just have to get this out of my system after my friend told me.
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2. Mom's car accident and the ER

Earlier today my mom got into a car accident. Don't worry, she's fine. She stopped at a red light and a pickup truck rear-ended her. What kind of douche bag rear-ends at a red light in the middle of the afternoon?! The rear bumper has a rather large dent and a big crack, but the car is otherwise fine.

Now, the real issue here is that from the time my mom entered the ER, got the scans, got the results, and left, she had been there for 6 hours. The vast majority of those 6 hours were spent waiting in the ER. 6 hours?! Seriously?! It takes 6 hours for someone to get 2 X-rays and a CAT scan? For all we know, my mom could've had suffered a complication from a concussion during the waiting time. For all we know, the crash could've injured a major artery that could've bled into her brain during the waiting time. 6 hours for this is unexcusable. Seriously US health care, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER BEFORE I FINISH MEDICAL SCHOOL. Who knows what could've happened in those 6 hours! Thankfully everything turned out okay and all the tests showed nothing wrong.

My mom did also remark that every person she saw - nurses, technicians, doctors - were all women. She was surprised that there wasn't one male technician running the machines or a male doctor. Well, women do make up about 60% of medical school graduates now. And the vast majority of nurses are still female.

Which leads me to my last issue . . .
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3. Academic gender disparities

About a week ago I was talking to my old roommate DvF-M about women in science. Now I must first say he's a math and physics double major, so he's clearly intelligent. However, he's also Republican and voted for Bush twice. And he once said that the biology field never gave society anything useful. I'll never forgive him for that. My friend JR-M refers to this as smart-stupid.

Anyway, he believes that there are inherent biological differences between men and women that may make men better at the "hard sciences" (i.e. physics, math, engineering - he discounts biology and chemistry for some reason) than women. There is also upbringing and culture. I pointed out how girls are doing better than boys pretty much throughout school. How women make up the majority of undergraduate degrees. How women make up about 60% of biology majors and almost as many chemistry majors. And also how women are beginning to increase their numbers in physics and engineering.

I think it's just a matter of time before women take over most (if not all) of the major professions. In my opinion (and the opinion of great many female scientists and professionals), the one thing keeping women out of science is the thing called pregnancy and childbirth - having a child can pretty much end one's career. In any case, women make up 60% of the graduating med school classes now, if not more. My roommate countered that doctors, in a way, are more "humanities" and hardly use science on a day-to-day basis. I'll let this slide . . .

And today I read an article that basically said girls are just as good as boys at math throughout school. The prevailing culture had simply made it hard for girls to want to go into science and math because it was perceived as a "man's realm." My roommate would contest this probably, but whatever. Point is, where academics is concerned, girls are equal to boys at pretty much everything, if not better at some.

Sometimes I wonder if soon it'll be us guys who need more help in school. I mean, genetically women do have some protection against many forms of mental retardation . . .
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Well, that's all.