Learning Bushido

Bird Songs

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:47:35 GMT

My son doesn't like hearing birds in the morning—they wake him up and he can't get back to sleep. He keeps his window closed at night because of this, but I don't think it matters much—I can hear the birds even when the house is all closed up.

Right now I hear the distinctive clipped chirp of cardinals. They've returned to our backyard since sirvalence put out the new feeder, yay! Not especially pleasing to listen to, but the males are very pretty to look at, especially at this time of the year when they're all territorial with their crests and the feathers their brightest red.

Wow. This was my son's teacher.

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:18:23 GMT

Carmel sign language teacher dies in motorcycle accident.

Brandon is doing okay. It was a shock, but he's dealing.

IndyScribe (for the local Indy crowd)

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:26:45 GMT

Google Reader recommended this site to me this morning: http://www.indyscribe.com/. There's an RSS feed, the volume is manageable, and the articles cover a variety of interests. Hey, and they even have a Board and Video Games category!

I am amused that the first entry under their Restaurant category is the Bosphorus Istanbul Cafe, also mentioned today in this post. Heh--first time I'd heard of the place and it's twice within one morning. I must go there sometime.

First Day at My New EMT Job

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:13:14 GMT

Wish me luck...

So What's Your Halloween Costume Gonna Be this Year?

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:43:42 GMT

Raelians Rocket from Clones to Clitorises

sirvalence: It's for a good cause.

me: Oh, sure. I don't disagree with that at all. I just haven't made it past the image of the woman dressed up as a clitoris to read the article yet. It's not something you see every day.

sirvalence: Thank God for that.

What I Did Over the Holidays...

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:18:59 GMT

I got a tattoo! Hee! My BIL David celebrated his 40th birthday while we were down in Florida. He decided that he wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate the event, so my sister Kris (his wife) and I joined him. I consider it a late 40th birthday present to myself.

Getting it done.

It hurt. Not enough that I wimped out, but I winced occasionally and struggled to stay in my happy place. The procedure took about 45 minutes, and I'm very glad it wasn't any longer. I didn't get an endorphin rush (that would've been nice). Really, I don't understand why people cover large portions of their bodies with tattoos, considering the pain both in the procedure and in the aftercare. Especially don't understand why people tattoo sensitive areas, such as around the eyes for permanent eyeliner or genitalia.

Finished product: a Celtic knot just above my right ankle.

It itches right now and I'm trying hard not to scratch. Should be completely healed in about a month. No current plans to get more.

A Capella: 12 Days of Christmas

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:53:20 GMT

A men's a capella group from Indiana University. (I was the black sheep of the family and went to Purdue, but the rest of my family—parents and siblings—went to IU.)

Straight No Chaser

Creative Writing

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:37:42 GMT

Brandon is playing a character named Heath in a Harry Potter PBEM (his first online RPing venture) that I am helping to moderate and it's been a real treat to read his descriptions:

As Heath was saying this something gnawed at the back of his
brain. It wasn't painful, just a little ticklish. Heath would have
scratched it if one could scratch the inside of one's brain, with
magic they probably could.

On his way out Heath paused at the door way. A familiar and almost
dreaded feeling crept up in his chest. A feeling Heath knew quite
well. A feeling more pleasant than joy and at the same time more
painful than pain. Curiosity.

A mixture of embaressment, fear, relief, and gratitude washed over him
as he saw his mother's face. Reflecting later Heath would describe the
feeling as seeming green with orange spots and blue six sided stars,
although he has no idea why to this day.

Popular Science

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:24:09 GMT

Some pretty shiny stuff here. I'm impressed with what people can create when they're not busy yelling at each other and blowing things up.

PopSci's Best of What's New for 2007

Link from sirvalence

Handbells

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:57:42 GMT

Wow.

I got back a little while ago from an extra handbell practice squeezed in today. We're playing a lot of challenging new Christmas music this year and, man, we are working our tails off to get it all performance ready. (But rather than being draining, playing in an ensemble like this energizes me. It's a really great feeling.)

Just as an example, our arrangement of Twelve Days of Christmas changes nine times between five key signatures, and thirty-six times between five time signatures Well, I suppose you need to do something to keep the song interesting through twelves stanzas. It's just...wow. (Actually, it's only eleven stanzas. I went through and marked where each one started and the arranger left out verse seven. Apparently Kevin McChesney has something against swans.)

Three more practices before our first holiday performance and then we're into the season: fourteen performances in the month of December—apparently people like to hear bells at Christmas. Our director is still getting requests, which he is now thankfully turning down (Heh, call back by August next year!)

There will be a few public performances (i.e., free), and I'll let the local group know when and where in case they're interested.

Breaking the Record

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:49:57 GMT

(lifted from Coffee Klatch)

A local (Indianapolis) DJ is trying to break the world record for longest radio program by one personality. Mat Albro has been on the air since 12:01am on Monday. The current record is 135 hours by a DJ in Italy. As I understand it, this is sanctioned by Guinness and all that, so when he breaks it, he’ll be in the Book (along with “from Indianapolis”). The programming is a variety of things, focusing on classic rock, and it’s interesting to see the kinds of songs he’s playing after more than 4 days with no sleep.

He’s been able to take the radio station’s van (with someone else driving) out to local restaurants and other places, broadcasting live from there, which I’m sure helps as well as making things more interesting. To find out more about it or to see how he’s doing, visit http://wklu.net/. You can also listen live at http://wklu.net/listen.html. He’ll be on the air (hopefully) until at least Saturday afternoon.

Right now there’s a group of deputies administering some tests to see what sleep deprivation is doing to him. Similar to testing for sobriety. :-) Pretty funny. He says he’s waiting for the hallucinations that he’s heard about to start kicking in. Ha!

For what it’s worth, he is drinking absolutely NO coffee, caffeine, or energy drinks. He’s got someone helping him out who IS taking little naps and drinking coffee, and he apparently looks horrible! :-)

There’s also a link on the website to send him words of encouragement. Help him out and send him a note or joke or something. I did.

Go Mat!! (Oh, and you can follow his perspective on this event on his blog.)

Busy Weekend

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:50:46 GMT

We had a very busy weekend.

Our front yard is getting a makeover. Last week a local landscaping company, Salsbery Brothers, came out and removed the last of the tree debris from the tree we had taken out, took out the dead grass in the front yard (we'll need to reseed in the spring), removed the overgrown yews in front of the porch, and extended the bed in front of the house.

On Saturday morning I attended a free 20-minute consultation with a landscape designer from Salsbery. I didn't quite know what to expect (Okay guys, we have an overstock of these plants so I want you all to push them in your consultations today...) and came armed with photos and measurements of the front yard and a battle plan of what I wanted to accomplish. I was pleasantly surprised. There was no agenda, she followed my lead, and I was very pleased with the quickie design.

I rewarded Salbery Brothers by purchasing that afternoon the plants outlined in the design (holly, hydrangea, lilac, and dwarf shasta daisies). We all won, for the shrubs were 30% off and the perennials 40%.

My sister called Saturday afternoon and told us she and her husband had been in a bad car accident (not their fault). They rolled over and spun on their roof. Both exited the car on their own--no broken bones or serious injury. Both needed to have glass removed in the ER (Kris from her knee and David his leg). Very painful. Kris had them stop (apparently the local didn't take) and is waiting for the bits of glass to work their way to the surface so she can remove them herself.

On Sunday we took my parents (they're visiting from Florida) on a drive around Indiana to look at the fall leaves. We stopped at an orchard in Danville (I bought apples, the pumpkins were WAY too expensive so we didn't buy any of those, Mom bought Indiana popcorn and apple butter, and we went through a corn maze. Eh. On a scale from 1 to 10, I give the place about a 3.) After the orchard we went searching for covered bridges in the area using a brochure from the Indiana Historical Bureau and a 50-mile map of Indiana that showed county roads. The brochure had a listing of bridge locations that looked like this: CR 500 North, southeast of Bainbridge. A little vague, but with the county map and the realization that the bridge will be over a creek, we managed to find all the ones we looked for. They were indeed out in the middle of nowhere, often on gravel roads. The weather was mild, the leaves gorgeous, and we all had a good time (Brandon brought a book :-)

On the way home Carl decided to put his new GPS to use and we looked for a geocache in Danville, Indiana. The location was at the site of a "haunted" railroad bridge, so the cache seemed appropriate with Halloween just around the corner. Both kids got out to help, but Carl was the one that eventually found it.

Monday I managed to get the hydrangeas planted (it took longer than I expected, for I had to stop and remove some impressive roots left over from the yews and the tree we had taken out) and the daisies. Then it rained. And rained. And rained. Now, on Tuesday, I'm looking at a very muddy front bed that I won't be able to work in until the end of the week (sigh).

Bonus pictures! Hummingbird in our backyard, and dragonfly on our deck.

My Cuppa

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:07:41 GMT

Mugs to help you mix your favorite brew to just-how-you-like-it by matching the color swatch on the inside. Brilliant. The visual designer in me loves this.

They are FINALLY HERE!

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 01:57:47 GMT

We received the StoryCards decks from the printer today. The decks look pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

However... The tuckboxes, instead of being a rich blue, were purple and streaky (she says shrilly).

Tuckboxes were sent back to the printer. Cards were kept. Yay, we have card decks in time for GenCon!

The StoryCards manual is progressing nicely. I'm more-or-less all in pages now, so time to start on the TOC and index. Then I'll add artwork to fill up the holes. I think we're in good shape to be done in time for GenCon.

(While laying this manual out I've actually read parts of it for the first time and I have to say--and yes, I realize I'm biased, but honestly--that I'm very impressed with Carl's concept. He's managed to succinctly create a roleplaying system that runs on metarules, so it's amazingly flexible without being overly crunchy. It's wonderful, IMHO.)

We're Back...

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:19:09 GMT

...from vacation, and great time was had by all.

Best part? White water rafting on Saturday down the Hudson River in the Adirondacks. We hit a rock traversing one of the rapids and I tumbled right out of the raft and started rushing down the river on my own personal white water adventure. That was a major adrenalin rush, let me tell you.

More stories and pictures later. Just home after 14.5 hours on the road and exhausted. Sleep now. sirvalence is already snoring on the couch.

Kids Are Off...

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:24:43 GMT

...to spend two weeks with my parents in Florida courtesy of AirTrans. Next on the agenda is last minute housecleaning and packing for our own trip. Next stop: TBR.

I'm Unofficially an EMT

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:07:21 GMT

We had our practical exam this morning. There were six skills I was tested on, plus a seventh random skill.

Our instructor thought she had the inside scoop on what the random would be. "The preceptor organizing the practical said he needed three people at the random skill station. The only random that requires three people is the Hare traction splint." So we all studied in great detail the Hare traction splint.

Last night, while briefly going over the other random skills in case our instructor was wrong, I lamented to sirvalence that there was one random skill I hadn't even done: long bone splint. I don't know how that happened--I guess I was busy looking at the traction splint. Carl said not to stress about it--I was already pretty sure what it was going to be, and if it wasn't that, I had an 80% chance it WOULDN'T be the long bone splint.

Guess what the random skill was? Right! LONG BONE SPLINT. I was like, @&&$@%!! I haven't even done it!

Well, long story short, I managed the random skill and flubbed up on one I KNEW: the KED, or short backboard. I tried to put it on BACKWARDS, and even though I discovered this and turned it around, I was out of time before I could finish.

We were allowed to repeat stations we'd missed, and I got the KED second time around, so I've unofficially passed the practical and unofficially passed the written. I'll get official notification about the time we get back from vacation.

So...I'm unofficially an EMT. Yay! My plan is to get a year or two of EMT-B experience under my belt, then it's on to paramedic school. We all went out for a drink afterwards (the testing students) and I'm still currently glowing from the two ciders. Life is good.

Storycards Art

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:03:49 GMT

It is almost done. I received the last pieces of art from our illustrator last week and now I'm almost done incorporating them onto the 60 cards. There's still some tweaking left to be done, and I still have the tuckbox to design, but progress has been made. (Whew!)

If you're interested in a sneak peek at the cards, clicky here.

Star Wars Weekends!

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:06:33 GMT

My younger sister Kris and her husband David dress up and march every year in the parades during Star Wars Weekends at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando.

Kris is the officer in the left-hand row, third from the front. David is the trooper in front with the Very Big Gun.

I'm so tickled not to be the only sci-fi geek in the family.

What Really Powers Your Mouse

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:53:57 GMT

[snerk]

click here

Stolen from Coffee Klatch

Shift Three: E.R.

Wed, 16 May 2007 14:42:38 GMT

Had another twelve hour shift in the ER this past Sunday.

My preceptor was nominally engaged with me, doing things like preferring to cut short a medical explanation to turn away and flirt with a passing nurse. (From conversations with my classmates I glean that this lack of attention in the ER has been more common than not.)

I came prepared for downtime—of which there was a lot—and studied. So not a complete waste of time.

I did actually take vitals a few times, rather than just watching. I helped hold down an old woman so the nurse could insert a tube down her nose to pump her stomach. I also held a number of limbs as they were splinted.

Notable happenings:

A very old woman fell while gardening and and broke her wrist. My preceptor put the arm in a splint until she was able to get in to see an orthopedic doc on Monday. There was the possibility of swelling so he had to remover her wedding ring and she cried, for the ring had never been removed since she put it on over fifty years ago.

-------

A twenty-year-old male was flown in by helicopter from Brown County. He'd been skateboarding and was hit by a car. The driver didn't stop, and there was no one else around, so the patient lay at the side of the road an indeterminate amount of time before he was found. He was responsive and talking when EMS arrived, but unconscious by the time he got to Methodist.

I stood in the trauma room off to the side and watched as the docs and nurses worked on him. One doc checked the sphincter muscle in his rectum and found it flaccid.

An older doctor also watching the scene turned to me and asked, "What does that tell you about his injuries?"

"Spinal cord injury," I replied. "Possible neurogenic shock." We'd covered this just the past week in class, so it was fresh in my mind.

They immediately took him down to surgery—he was bleeding into his head—but I was told his chances were slim at best. If he'd gotten definitive care within that first hour, things might have been different.

-------

An eighteen-year-old woman was brought in toward the end of my shift escorted by the police. She was bi-polar and had been making suicidal noises so the police dumped her in the ER (this was their attitude) until someone from psyche was available to see her.

They put her in an empty (except for an exam bed, a TV, and a remote) observation room that locked from the outside. She had periods where she laid quietly on the bed and watched TV, and then she had periods where she would wail and cry loud enough to be heard all through the ER. Twenty minutes later, she was quiet and watching TV again.

I was somewhat surprised—but perhaps shouldn't have been?—at the jaded comments from the nurses watching her.

That Fits

Sat, 05 May 2007 22:43:45 GMT

I Hate Ants

Tue, 01 May 2007 09:54:04 GMT

That is all.

Shift Two: Ambulance

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:39:06 GMT

Twelve hour shift on the fire department ambulance today.

• More amenities at the firehouse than at the ER—computer room, bunk room to nap in, TVs, and steak out on the grill for supper.

• Supper was scheduled for 5:30. Because of runs, I ate it at 7:30. It was the best damn steak.

• Slobbering, spitting, altered mental status patient is classic for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

• A towel tossed over the face of a slobbering, spitting patient keeps him from slobbering and spitting on you. Putting an oxygen mask on him accomplishes pretty much the same thing. (Towels are removed before bringing the patient into the ER—they wouldn't approve.)

• It is possible to start an IV in the jugular of a patient in the back of a bouncing ambulance.

• Patients that weigh 548 pounds require six firemen to lift a cot they're on and are too big to fit in some of the hospital's diagnostic equipment.

• ERs in various hospitals look very different from each other.

• I-70 going into Indianapolis is an extremely bumpy highway.

• I thought I wore a size M glove, but a size S fits me better. Always put on gloves before entering a scene.

• Community East Hospital is also known as Little Wishard (only locals will get this).

• Female patient called 911 for both a bloody nose and supposed pain in her groin from a graft she had back in 2005. My preceptor had seen her before. When I asked what her ailment was for my run sheet, he said to put down "frequent flyer."

• I want to work on an ambulance through a fire department rather than through a private ambulance company.

Shift One: E.R.

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:02:29 GMT

We're to do 24 hours of observation in the E.R. and 24 hours on the ambulance—today was shift one in the E.R., twelve hours long.

What follows are random observations—I'm too tired to put them into any sort of order, so they're rather scattered.

I came in at 6:00 a.m. and it was really quiet until almost 10:00. A lot of the patients coming through today complained of shortness of breath and chest pain.

I saw an acute MI (she later died), a man who'd been stabbed above the scapula, a woman on crack, I held down an elderly woman while the ER doc put in a central line (he kept missing and had to restick her), and I saw a man with no sternum.

Yes, he had no sternum—it'd gotten infected and hence was removed and his ribs were only attached at the spine. You could watch his heart beat under the skin, and it looked like it was bubbling up, like something under the skin was boiling. Rather fascinating.

I watched an intubation and watched the docs shock a woman (she was conscious at the time but in ventricular tachycardia—her heart rate was hovering around 200 and they couldn't get it down with drugs).

I learned how to hook someone up to a heart monitor, the BP monitor, take their temp, and apply a nasal cannula. Whoo-hoo!

I ate lunch in the cafeteria and visited the gift shop.

I discovered that we EMT students are at the bottom of the food chain. The docs ignore the nurses. The nurses ignore the paramedics. And the paramedics ignore the EMT students. This is an oversimplification, but there's a kernel of truth to it.

For the most part the people were friendly. The docs did ignore everyone who wasn't a doc.

The coffee was mediocre, but they did have an ice machine with the crushed ice I like so much.

The code for all the key pads found in the ER is the same.

ER floors are hard—my feet were aching and my knees were stiff about 9 hours into my 12 hour shift.

I'm looking forward to going out on the ambulance so I can compare experiences, which is where I'll be going for Shift Two in another couple of weeks.