Your mom's clone

2002-12-29 / 11:00 p.m.

Hey kids, how �bout that cloning? I personally am not yet convinced that Clonaid actually produced a human clone. They�re being way too clandestine about the process and the results, and their claims really seem to good to be true. This nutty Bridgette or however you spell her name is on television now claiming that 5 of the 10 implantations succeeded, but that seems unlikely....50% success when it took over 200 tries to get one success with Dolly? This causes a lot of doubt for me, among many many other things. I had actually done some looking into Clonaid before this whole mess came into the forefront: it was part of a case study I did for my biology class. Honestly, the first time I looked at the website and read Rael�s manifesto on eternal life, I didn�t think it was a legitimate company. It just screams crazy. Looking at the Clonaid page now, it seems like they�ve made it a tad bit more professionally focused and less mystical in the last few weeks. Still though. Loco. And what if they actually did clone a human? I don�t know what I�d think. I�m not ready to take a stance on that. Last semester, I spent a long time thinking about how I felt about therapeutic cloning. Is a week-old blastocyst a human being? Should it be used rather than allowed to grow into a human being? The possibilities that are made available with therapeutic cloning and stem cell research are amazing, but I still don�t know where I draw the line....but the idea of creating a whole human, that�s too much for me. It just feels wrong. At any rate, whether I approve or not, I find the process fascinating and I intend to read more about it before I have to go back.

Planning my trip to New York tonight. I�m quite excited to be doing something interesting, still, it�s hard to stave off the rising feeling of panic that always comes to me when spending money. I�ve got enough money for my trip itself--that isn�t the problem-- but with Penny�s not giving me any more hours this break, I�ll be in debt when I get back. I probably won�t have enough to buy my books, let alone continue to go out to the movies and to eat out with the frequency that I currently do. And, as if an obligatory afterthought, I start to worry as far forward as this summer. I need to work, I can�t pay for tuition or study abroad (in the event that I can scrape up enough money to go) unless I work a lot this summer. At the same time, if I even want a ghost of a chance of doing anything with my degree, I think I need to obtain an internship this summer. And the likelihood of getting a paid internship? Phhhppppttt! Slim to none. Thus, I am cast in a downward spiral of panic over the coming semester, the summer, college, my career, and my life....all while thinking about a vacation...something that�s supposed to be fun. What�s wrong with me? But I won�t further bother you with my neurosis.

So New York...planning hasn�t been hard. I have a list of places I want to go, and a loose outline of when, but I�m pretty much planning on going wherever I feel like. This is made possible through the fantastic location of our hotel (Thanks Will!!!). My problem now is trying to find something to do at night. Unless you have the money to go to restaurants and clubs, it�s hard to find things to do. Perhaps I�ll go ice skating at Rockefeller center one evening, I think I�d like that a lot.

What else? Watching an interview with Clinton about his presidential library and playing with Alice. Clinton�s library looks like it�s going to be cool, but it�ll be awhile before it�s open to the public. This is life at home. boring. I argue with my mother a lot and it hurts my feelings, but she�s just become do incredibly lethargic and unreliable.

Alright. That�s all she wrote. I�m going to read, and brainstorm possible ways to make some money, so I don�t have a panic attack. :) Goodnight all!