red tree flowers

red three flowers

the unremarkable brain returns in february

The unremarkable brain has been on hiatus last month and this month as a result of the holidays and the Federal Government shutdown-- yes, my brain actually IS a National Park, but I digress--

Great news!

The unremarkable brain will be returning in February with:

So I Thought: "The International Federation of Who Cares?" (2/9) and "Does Humor Have a Color? Yes. Green." (2/23)

So I Saw: Seven more R O Y G B I V images

So I Went: "Maine" (2/13)

So I Heard: "Karaoke Songs: Too Much Heaven" (2/17)

Dates approximate.

ALSO -- If you would like to order prints or notecards featuring my images, please see SALE to place orders!

violet cardoon at high noon

violet cardoon at high noon
the gardens at lake merritt, oakland, ca

indigo motel mood

indigo motel mood
memphis, tn

blue sign

blue sign
division street, san francisco, ca

green feeling

green feeling
oakland, ca

yellow leapday melancholy

yellow leapday melancholy
port of oakland, ca

orange autumn light

orange autumn light
lake merritt, oakland ca

red morn

red morn awaiting a sailor
13th street, oakland, ca

The Klutz with the Clots

The Teaser: (composed Nov. 9, 2018) 
This first post of November 2018 is a meditation on my uncommon blood and what I did when doctors told me to ingest rat poison and also my recent reflection on being prescribed yet ANOTHER med.

As October 2018 ended and November began, I underwent a medical procedure-- two days later a consultation with medical specialist.

I'm going to write about my consultation with the specialist because you don't want to hear the story of my colonoscopy. (But, believe me, it’s a story…)

I inaugurated this blog's posts last month with comments about my unremarkable brain..

NOTE: Genealogically my blood is as common as anyone’s. What makes the stuff my heart pumps so unusual is its not one--  but two!-- genetic factors which makes it clot really really really well...

My Uncommon Blood 
Quite accidentally in July 2010, I ran a test on myself which revealed my blood contained not just the Factor V Leiden clotting factor but also the Factor II. This just means I clot like a beast.  

What was the test?  Well, I don't really know.  Midweek the first week of July I started to have pains in my left calf which I thought might be a charleyhorse, but which I couldn't stretch out.

Yadda yadda yadda -- clots in my lungs which required six days in the hospital.

What I Did when Doctors Told Me to Ingest Rat Poison
Perhaps you all recall those TV commercials with the late Arnold Palmer, comedian Kevin Nealon, basketball great Chris Bosch and some NASCAR star? They were advertising a prescription drug which helps folks with really clotty blood like mine.

Was I prescribed this medication? No.  In 2010, my health insurance wouldn't pay for THAT medication.

Instead I was prescribed Wonder Drug of the 1950's: Warfarin.

Some of the details in the following History of Warfarin may be incorrect but basically:
1) Scientists develop a substance
2) Scientist test substance on rats
3) Rats die of internal hemmoraging
4) Substance marketed as rat poison
5) Demand for rat poison wanes
6) Some nut decides substance can be used to treat folks with blood that clots like a beast if the people taking the substance can adhere to dietary limitations and, since those folks usually die really quickly anyway,...
7) Wonder drug Warfarin introduced

Sixty years later-- I was told to ingest rat posion and given ridiculously impossible dietary restrictions to follow involving the intake of Vitamin K.  Since the drug was introduced in back when men had wives who stayed at home (or cooks) who planned their meals, no problem looking out for that pesky Vitamin K.

When I insisted I didn't want to take the stupid medication anymore because I missed certain foods, my idiot doctors would insist: "no one said you couldn't have blueberries anymore, you just have to consistently eat 7 blueberries every day...."

By 2014, it was decided I could take one low dose aspirin every day. Which I'm cool with....

But...

My current medical profession recently sent me to see a hematologist and the recommendation: now that the cost of the TV anticoagulant has dropped, it's time to take that...

Except--- I would have to watch out if I ever traveled to a remote location.... because, if I were injured there probably wouldn't be anyone with the antidote to the anticoagulant around....

Now, I'm not big on traveling to remote locations-- it's not a fave for me like blueberries. But it's at lease something I enjoy as much as cranberries-- which also raised Warfarin warning flags.

Even more so, I know myself and have come to know myself better in light of my diagnosis as having depression and anxiety.  While it may be oversimplifying the dual affliction, for me they lead to periods in which I am overcome with horrific inertia (depression) which simultaneously cause me such inner distress (anxiety) that I tend to hurl myself into action. 

(NOTE:  I am actually completing this entry in one of those "hurlings")

Knowing that I have this inclination explains why I can be a klutz at times-- I simply don't "stick the landing" well when I vault from wherever I've been sitting or laying in depressed inertia.

Recognizing this makes the idea of taking some medication which requires an antidote were I to injure myself VERY undesirable. 

It really doesn't matter to me if I fall in the company of many people in an exotic locale or by myself at home-- in both instances, I could still bleed internally to death.  

So, please pass the baby aspirin....

-----------------------

Self assessment

In November, the added challenge will be sticking with the schedule I previously mentioned of posting between the 9th and 23rd of each month.  I adopted this schedule assuming that a horrifically stressful but periodically resolvable situation would be on track to its periodic resolution. This situation hasn't been resolved so I am in anxiously uncharted territory. After dragging myself out of a multi-day emotional roadside ditch, I concluded that-- in order to proceed with and meet my schedule-- I'd make the adjustment of providing teasers for my posts whenever I cannot complete the entire post, then double back to complete it later.  It, of course, complicates my overall task but it's all I can do.  There's no point of getting even MORE depressed and anxious about shit.
Now I'm going to eat a shit-ton of blueberry coffee cake (and a piece of fruit!), post this to Facebook (but first a birthday shoutout to a college friend!), do a little cleanup on my post labels till 1:30p (and a maybe start this month's R O Y G B I V cycle), finish my coffee and go look for this farmers market in West Oakland I keep missing. (Didn't find it this time either.)

violet passion flower & R O Y G B I V

violet passion flower
san pablo avenue, oakland, ca

Final photo from this first lap across the spectrum 

_____________________________________________________

R  O  Y  G  B  I  V

This was the proposal for an art exhibit I recently submitted to a gallery in SF.  

I wasn't accepted. 

Perhaps my photography wasn't good enough, perhaps they weren't interested in submissions from Oakland.

____________________________________________________

Name of Show: R  O  Y  G  B  I  V 

Tagline: A Rainbow Seen by Colorblind Gay Eye  

Photography by Donald Cooper

Theme

I am one of the 10% of males who “suffer” from a specific type of color perception (aka “color blindness”) called a “red/green seeing deficiency”.

There's almost certainly a scientific name for the condition but “defect” is the word I remember being told I had that day in elementary school when I was tested and diagnosed. The news was shared with me in a pitying tone, I thought. The school nurse implied that the defect would hamper my pursuit of any number of careers careers. 

I was even told I couldn't be a bus driver because I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a red light and a green light.

So, no one's perfect. We all have defects and talents to overcome them. I didn't let having a “defect” limit me...but the concerning idea that the rainbow I see may differ from what the “90%” sees stayed with me through the decades. 

And I do see in color. I know “red” and “green”. Apples are red. And green too…. I didn't have a defect.  Through trial and much error I learned not to make the sort of wardrobe choices that made me look like an escapee from a circus. 

And I got very reluctant about discussing visual art.  

But, for 17 years I had  a job which allowed me to travel extensively and I learned I enjoyed photography.  Investing in a genuine SLR never seemed practical-- given my “defect-- but did all right with a basic disposable camera.

In 2010, I finally got a phone which came with a decent camera…. And I finally had the capacity to challenge my longtime self-perception as “defective’.

Describe your work, your vision for the type of art you want to be exhibited on the second floor, and why you want to show it at Strut.

Capturing images of my home in the Bay-- as well as a handful of other locations-- started out as a pastime something which simply brings me joy. The Gay Bay is often seen exclusively as San Francisco’s clubs and organizations, and the sights and scenes of San Francisco. Of my 30 years in the Bay, Oakland has been my home for 16 years.

Oakland’s unique combination of natural beauty and “hella” gritty realness has sharpened my eye to such qualities wherever I travel and has made me a more assured photographer. In fact, the photos I’ve contributed to Google Maps as a Local Guide have been viewed 538,000 times. 

I have visited 40 States (and DC) on my way to all 50 and have trained my eye to see details many might miss,

The significance of the rainbow is-- naturally-- the image of the Rainbow flag representing our LGBTQ community.

But R-O-Y-G-B-I-V also represents the range of color I was told I could never physically perceive. 

As I facetiously recounted above, I spent decades doubting my “visual sense. I only gradually started to consider the images I took with my Nexus 5 phone “photography”, developing a love for the art past the age of 50. 

------------------------------------------------

Self assessment

This piece was already for the most part composed.  It simply required some editing.  Posted in the niddle of the night as a result of insomnia

indigo cathedral with fairies

indigo cathedral with fairies
lakeside park, oakland, ca

blue twilight

blue twilight
the pergola, lakeside park, oakland, ca

green view

green view
calverton nat'l. cemetery, wading river, ny

The next image from R O Y G B I V

yellow floppy sunflower

yellow floppy sunflower
oakland ca

the next image from R O Y G B I V

orange clamoring dahlias

orange clamoring dahlias
old oakland farmers market, oakland ca

The second image from R O Y G B I V

red POW rose

red POW rose

gardens at lake merritt, oakland, ca

This page, ”So I Saw”, will showcase my photography. 

I make no claim to great skill as a photographer. Basically, what I present are simply moments that I have had the good fortune to capture.

The page’s launch will progressively feature a collection of seven images entitled R O Y G B I V.

I’ll explain the wherefore of the collection and its name in detail after I've posted one complete trip through the spectrum.