This summer I am trying to make my life more blogworthy. This means that I am trying to do things that other people may just want to read about. In other words, I am trying to spend less time on the couch watching Seth MacFarlene cartoon reruns and drinking PBR.
So, I have updated this blog with a few new features. You've probably already noticed the new title. I am quite proud of that. You can follow me on Twitter, RSS, or you can just subscribe via email. I fixed the slideshow so that it actually works and doesn't show the same damn pictures. (Well, it does show the same damn pictures, but it shows them in a different order.)
And, well, that's about it. For the all the work it took me, I thought that I would have more to offer.
What Next?
26 July, 2010
25 July, 2010
MICU?
I was just working with a medical record of someone who was on the MICU, and that got me wondering about what exactly a MICU is. Turns out that it's a medical intensive care unit.
Excuse me? Isn't that a tad redundant? I mean, is there a non-medical intensive care unit where they just stand around and hope that you get better?
Excuse me? Isn't that a tad redundant? I mean, is there a non-medical intensive care unit where they just stand around and hope that you get better?
24 July, 2010
Jon Stewart was Right: they are Appholes
Let me please take a minute to do what blogs were really designed for -- angry rants towards large corporations to minuscule and insignificant audiences who don't really care, all simply for the purpose of making me feel better.
So, recently, John Stewart recently went off on Apple. A brilliant monologue -- that was no surprise -- but I thought that Mr. Stewart had gone a little bit too far in saying that "…It wasn’t supposed to be this way – Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one! But you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes! What the fuck is going on???!!!" I thought that this was a bit over the top until I actually had the pleasure of visiting a Apple Store. You see, my iPod has suddenly decided that I really don't need to hear music in both the left and right ears. One should do fine, thank you.
Let me take another second here to say that this is the third iPod I have owned and the third one that has broken down in less then a year. The first was actually a present, so when that one decided that it didn't want to do anything except show the damned Apple logo on it's useless little screen I sort of cut my losses. The second one was used and after it decided to become a $200 paperweight I decided that I would never own an iPod again. Then a friend came around and sold me an iPod Touch after getting an Android, and well, I couldn't resist. I mean, I figured that it was a totally different bit of machinery and I was willing to give iPod another chance. Big mistake. I don't see my Microsoft is so intent on building an "iPod killer"-- the damn things are committing suicide just fine on their own.
Anyway, I went to the Apple Store knowing that I was most likely going to be very disappointed. My used iPod does not have AppleCare© associated with it, so I was pretty sure that the Apple Store was going to tell me to either fork over more money then my iPod was worth or get the hell out. As it turns out, I didn't even get that far.
No, I got to the store and as I attempted to walk in, I was stopped by not one, but two mall security guards. There were three at the door, and the third was chatting up the Apple guy who was lounging outside the store. As the guard asked me what I needed, I looked over his shoudler assuming that someone was going bonkers with an uzi inside-- the only reason that I could think of that a store would need to have four men manning it's gates. Turns out that this was not the case, this is just stardard operating procedures for an Apple Store nowadays.
I told the guard that I needed to have someone look at my iPod, and the guard indicated-- no, bowed, actually, at the Apple worker and told me that I would need to "talk to him first." The guard told me that this god-like man "may or may not choose to let me in." Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Let me in? Is this studio fucking 54 now? Would it help if I were a blonde bimbo? I waited a good thirty seconds while the Apple guy talked to the guard about some restaurant that he'd gone to before Mr. Apple God finally agnowleged me. When I told him what I wanted, he pulled out an iPhone and asked me in a snooty maitre'd sort of a way if I had an appointment. No, I told him, I don't have a damn appointment, all I need is for some AppleCare moron to tell me that they can't fix my iPod. The Apple Maitre'd offered to make an appointment for me. When I asked if I could get in that day he just laughed at me. (I am being totally serious.) I turned around an walked away and Mr. Maitre'd Apphole remembered something he read about customer service and called after me to have a good day.
Like Mr. Stewart, I am also feeling a bit put off. Aside from the fact that I haven't owned an Apple Computer since 2001 (when I went to work for MS), I did support those losers when their stock was worth less then a candy bar. I spent my hard-earned money from working at my college cafeteria on a damn PowerMac 7100, for god sakes. And now they won't even let me in the store to fix my broken iPod.
Screw them. My next mp3 player is going to be... oh, who am I kidding.
Let me take another second here to say that this is the third iPod I have owned and the third one that has broken down in less then a year. The first was actually a present, so when that one decided that it didn't want to do anything except show the damned Apple logo on it's useless little screen I sort of cut my losses. The second one was used and after it decided to become a $200 paperweight I decided that I would never own an iPod again. Then a friend came around and sold me an iPod Touch after getting an Android, and well, I couldn't resist. I mean, I figured that it was a totally different bit of machinery and I was willing to give iPod another chance. Big mistake. I don't see my Microsoft is so intent on building an "iPod killer"-- the damn things are committing suicide just fine on their own.
Anyway, I went to the Apple Store knowing that I was most likely going to be very disappointed. My used iPod does not have AppleCare© associated with it, so I was pretty sure that the Apple Store was going to tell me to either fork over more money then my iPod was worth or get the hell out. As it turns out, I didn't even get that far.
No, I got to the store and as I attempted to walk in, I was stopped by not one, but two mall security guards. There were three at the door, and the third was chatting up the Apple guy who was lounging outside the store. As the guard asked me what I needed, I looked over his shoudler assuming that someone was going bonkers with an uzi inside-- the only reason that I could think of that a store would need to have four men manning it's gates. Turns out that this was not the case, this is just stardard operating procedures for an Apple Store nowadays.
I told the guard that I needed to have someone look at my iPod, and the guard indicated-- no, bowed, actually, at the Apple worker and told me that I would need to "talk to him first." The guard told me that this god-like man "may or may not choose to let me in." Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Let me in? Is this studio fucking 54 now? Would it help if I were a blonde bimbo? I waited a good thirty seconds while the Apple guy talked to the guard about some restaurant that he'd gone to before Mr. Apple God finally agnowleged me. When I told him what I wanted, he pulled out an iPhone and asked me in a snooty maitre'd sort of a way if I had an appointment. No, I told him, I don't have a damn appointment, all I need is for some AppleCare moron to tell me that they can't fix my iPod. The Apple Maitre'd offered to make an appointment for me. When I asked if I could get in that day he just laughed at me. (I am being totally serious.) I turned around an walked away and Mr. Maitre'd Apphole remembered something he read about customer service and called after me to have a good day.
Like Mr. Stewart, I am also feeling a bit put off. Aside from the fact that I haven't owned an Apple Computer since 2001 (when I went to work for MS), I did support those losers when their stock was worth less then a candy bar. I spent my hard-earned money from working at my college cafeteria on a damn PowerMac 7100, for god sakes. And now they won't even let me in the store to fix my broken iPod.
Screw them. My next mp3 player is going to be... oh, who am I kidding.
22 July, 2010
Scientology is Complete Crap
So, one of my meet-up groups has been doing a tour of different religions. I am new to the group, and I am pretty sorry that I missed pretty much every one of these talks. They have had nights centered around all sorts of different faiths, including Baha'i, Muslim, Hindu, and even Mormon. This week they were sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel and we went to explore the Church of Scientology.
The inside didn't really look much like a church, it looked more like the room of a top-rate nonprofit, with a main meeting room and classrooms and offices at the side. The meeting room walls were advertising various books and workshops with "L. Ron Hubbard" spattered in every available niche. (For someone that is so philanthropic, as we learned later, the guy sure seemed to like his name spread around.)
Anyway, the first part was a viewing of thier new DVD (based on the book "The Problems of Work"). This was basically a poorly acted but generally well-produced "dramatization" (so we were told, no I have not read the book) of the different chapters. They are geared to help improve communication at work as well as one's own being. One of the things that they talked about were "Tones". Someone at the bottom of the stack feels "sub-apathy", and the idea is to move them upward through the various tones to Serenity. Now although tones are really just a rip-off of Kübler-Ross's grief model (Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) I do have to admit that for me, a chronic depressive, there is a bit appeal and dare I say logic to this model. We were told that people get stuck at various tones and need help to pull them out. When the video talked about how people who were stuck in apathy saw the world as (I am paraphrasing here) "like looking at shades of gray through water" I have to admit then had it not been freakin' Scientology, I might have considered actually picking up a few pamphlets and maybe checking out their books in the library. I mean, after dealing with despression for more then half my life, that stuff spoke to me and I am long past the point where I will try just about anything.
Anyway, after the video we had a guy who looked remarkably like Kyle MacLachlan with a beard (Cooper from Twin Peaks or Orson from Desperate Housewives) jumped up with a smile and ask if we had any questions. He quickly established that he was one of us (sane) by saying that he is an engineer and Catholic (probably figuring that would cover pretty much everyone in the group in some way.) Kyle took our questions, and being that we were a pretty nice and respectful group, we started out with some easy ones. Is there a service in the Church? How does the church see god? Are other faiths accepted? As Kyle took our questions with his smile, the other Scientologsts that were standing around holding thier free DVD and other stuff slowly inched in as the questions started to get more difficult. When one gentleman asked about Scientology and it's believes towards physics and other established sciences, Kyle's little posse started to edge in protectively, smiling at us with suspicious eyes.
Finally, someone got around to asking about money. After assuring as that "no one has ever gotten rich over Scientology" he said that this would be the last question, as he knew that "we" had to go. I looked around and didn't see that anyone in my group looked particularly interested in leaving. The Scientology posse was getting nearing and started making "alright" gestures- nodding and looking like they were ready to give us our DVDs and get us the hell out. Before this happened, however, one girl did manage to ask about Tom Cruise and his views twoards Psychiatry.
Now here things got interesting. Kyle gave a sort of fake laugh and then went all Jekyll and Hyde on us. I inched towards the edge of my sheet, thinking that Kyle was going to go off on Tom Cruise and what a lousy representative of Scientology he was. Instead, Kyle started to rail on psychiatry in general, stating that people are spirits and can not be controlled chemically. Although he did come out in favor of Phycology and it's "talking cure" (every psychologist I ever had referred me to a psychiatrist for a prescription) he stated that pushing pills and chemistry was simply a way to control the natural spirit. There was no pill, Kyle insisted, that would help the spirit. Pills were a way of pushing buttons to control people, and Kyle said with a snear, do you know who started these vile experiments? It was the NAZIs!!!!!
There was a definite change in the room at this point. The Scientologist bouncers looked ready to jump and the audience was just getting started. One woman in the back quickly jumped in and identified herself as a clinical psychologist. She pointed out that although the "talking cure" was well and good, there were many of her patients that suffered from visual and audio hallucinations that talking really could not cure. Kyle seemed to see that he had gone a bit too far and then back-peddled, saying that there were people who were "insane" that Scientology didn't really claim to help. Apparently the door was closed to the "insane", non-insane people who didn't hear voices were welcome to join their own brand of "medicine"-- provided they were willing to toss their antidepressants and anti anxiety medications. Obviously, that was the end of our little talk.
Anyway, my opinion of Scientology has gone from mocking it to realizing that this is a pretty scary concept that should be stopped. They target people who are depressed, lonely, and scared and lure them in with promises of a cure. They encourage them to abandon their established methods of treatment and throw their mental health (along with their wallets) into the hands of what is essentially a group of quacks. This is wrong, and this is unethical. It is no different then those people who claim that they can cure cancer with no more then clean living and a special concoction of vitamins and snake oil.
Scientology isn't just a cult, they are evil.
The inside didn't really look much like a church, it looked more like the room of a top-rate nonprofit, with a main meeting room and classrooms and offices at the side. The meeting room walls were advertising various books and workshops with "L. Ron Hubbard" spattered in every available niche. (For someone that is so philanthropic, as we learned later, the guy sure seemed to like his name spread around.)
Anyway, the first part was a viewing of thier new DVD (based on the book "The Problems of Work"). This was basically a poorly acted but generally well-produced "dramatization" (so we were told, no I have not read the book) of the different chapters. They are geared to help improve communication at work as well as one's own being. One of the things that they talked about were "Tones". Someone at the bottom of the stack feels "sub-apathy", and the idea is to move them upward through the various tones to Serenity. Now although tones are really just a rip-off of Kübler-Ross's grief model (Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) I do have to admit that for me, a chronic depressive, there is a bit appeal and dare I say logic to this model. We were told that people get stuck at various tones and need help to pull them out. When the video talked about how people who were stuck in apathy saw the world as (I am paraphrasing here) "like looking at shades of gray through water" I have to admit then had it not been freakin' Scientology, I might have considered actually picking up a few pamphlets and maybe checking out their books in the library. I mean, after dealing with despression for more then half my life, that stuff spoke to me and I am long past the point where I will try just about anything. Anyway, after the video we had a guy who looked remarkably like Kyle MacLachlan with a beard (Cooper from Twin Peaks or Orson from Desperate Housewives) jumped up with a smile and ask if we had any questions. He quickly established that he was one of us (sane) by saying that he is an engineer and Catholic (probably figuring that would cover pretty much everyone in the group in some way.) Kyle took our questions, and being that we were a pretty nice and respectful group, we started out with some easy ones. Is there a service in the Church? How does the church see god? Are other faiths accepted? As Kyle took our questions with his smile, the other Scientologsts that were standing around holding thier free DVD and other stuff slowly inched in as the questions started to get more difficult. When one gentleman asked about Scientology and it's believes towards physics and other established sciences, Kyle's little posse started to edge in protectively, smiling at us with suspicious eyes.
Finally, someone got around to asking about money. After assuring as that "no one has ever gotten rich over Scientology" he said that this would be the last question, as he knew that "we" had to go. I looked around and didn't see that anyone in my group looked particularly interested in leaving. The Scientology posse was getting nearing and started making "alright" gestures- nodding and looking like they were ready to give us our DVDs and get us the hell out. Before this happened, however, one girl did manage to ask about Tom Cruise and his views twoards Psychiatry.
Now here things got interesting. Kyle gave a sort of fake laugh and then went all Jekyll and Hyde on us. I inched towards the edge of my sheet, thinking that Kyle was going to go off on Tom Cruise and what a lousy representative of Scientology he was. Instead, Kyle started to rail on psychiatry in general, stating that people are spirits and can not be controlled chemically. Although he did come out in favor of Phycology and it's "talking cure" (every psychologist I ever had referred me to a psychiatrist for a prescription) he stated that pushing pills and chemistry was simply a way to control the natural spirit. There was no pill, Kyle insisted, that would help the spirit. Pills were a way of pushing buttons to control people, and Kyle said with a snear, do you know who started these vile experiments? It was the NAZIs!!!!!
There was a definite change in the room at this point. The Scientologist bouncers looked ready to jump and the audience was just getting started. One woman in the back quickly jumped in and identified herself as a clinical psychologist. She pointed out that although the "talking cure" was well and good, there were many of her patients that suffered from visual and audio hallucinations that talking really could not cure. Kyle seemed to see that he had gone a bit too far and then back-peddled, saying that there were people who were "insane" that Scientology didn't really claim to help. Apparently the door was closed to the "insane", non-insane people who didn't hear voices were welcome to join their own brand of "medicine"-- provided they were willing to toss their antidepressants and anti anxiety medications. Obviously, that was the end of our little talk.
Anyway, my opinion of Scientology has gone from mocking it to realizing that this is a pretty scary concept that should be stopped. They target people who are depressed, lonely, and scared and lure them in with promises of a cure. They encourage them to abandon their established methods of treatment and throw their mental health (along with their wallets) into the hands of what is essentially a group of quacks. This is wrong, and this is unethical. It is no different then those people who claim that they can cure cancer with no more then clean living and a special concoction of vitamins and snake oil.
Scientology isn't just a cult, they are evil.
19 July, 2010
Update from Samoa
I found this old email, and thought that I would pass it along as an update to my time in Samoa. A sister of my Samoan mother wrote me to let me know that my Samoan grandmother, Fetu, passed away. Although she was never officially diagnosed, Fetu suffered from Alzheimer's and was cared for at home by my Samoan family.
Hi There Kimberely,
My name is Tui Filemoni I am one of many daughter in-laws of Fetu. I was asked by Talosia Sini in Nuusuatia to get in contact with you to inform you of the family's sad loss of Fetu. Who sadly passed away in Samoa on the 11 January 2008. Talosia sends her sincere apologise for not being able to get in contact with you sooner, and also asked to send her love onto you. I do apologise myself for being the one to inform you of our mum, but am pleased my sister Talosia has asked me to do this for her as she expressed you had deep love for our mum. I am in contact with Talosia quite alot so if you wish for me to relay any message to her and the family back in Samoa, please do so, would love to repay the favor for you.
Many best wishes from the Fetu Filemoni family
Tui Filemoni
Dear Tui,
Thank you so much for writing. I was so sorry to hear that Fetu passed way. I actually work at a hospital and we get a lot of elderly patients, most of which have Alheimers like Fetu had. For these poor people, they live in nursing homes and they have no one to care for them. When they come to the hospital they are very confused, and many of them are screaming for help. I try to help them, but I know that what they really need is to be at home in a familiar place with people who love them.
And then I think of Fetu. I am pretty sure that she also had Alheimers, but unlike the poor, lost, scared souls at the hospital she was at home, and she was with people who loved her dearly, and that made me so happy. She was such a lucky person to have so much love in her life. Many times people with Alheimers will become confused-- they will swear, and hit-- but this is just the disease. When I think of Fetu lying in her fale, tapping the floor, singing and saying prayers, it always makes me smile and feel glad that she was able to have so much support for such a terrible disease. I remember that I would teach Anne songs on a flute and after hearing them a few times, Fetu would be singing and tapping away with us.
I know that it must have been so difficult for Talosia to care for her mother when her mother was so different, and I hope that Talosia knows that it was the disease that made her mother do strange things. But when I work with people who have the same sickness here, in America, I always wish for them what Fetu had. I wish for them that their families would show even a little of the care and respect that Fetu's family gave her. That is something that I always remember when I think back to Samoa and to my family in Niusuatia-- the love and devotion that is shown to each other-- even to me, a stranger. So although I am very sad that she died, it always makes me so happy to know that Fetu had so much love at a time when she needed it the most.
Please tell Talosia that I am living in Iowa, and that I am studying to be a nurse. This may sound a little crazy, but I think that I started thinking about being a nurse when Angel got sick right when I first got to Samoa. She was so hot, so sick. I guess that something like that is normal in a country like Samoa, but for me I had never seen a child so sick and it made me scared. I went to Apia and found some children's fever medication, and the next day when I got back from school Angel ran out of the house and threw herself into my arms, not a trace of fever left. Ever since then I always felt that I wanted to help children everywhere get better. I am going to a school in Sioux City, Iowa called St. Luke's College, and to pay for school I work as a nursing assistant at St. Luke's Hospital. It's a Methodist hospital. :) I have about a year and a half left, then a few years working in the states before I travel again.
After I left Samoa I went to Yemen, then Thailand. It was so hard to leave Samoa, but it was something that I had to do. I felt bad that I left so quickly, but I was offered a job that needed me right away. I am glad that I have had the chance to travel so much, but everywhere that I have been I have never found anyone who cared about me so much as my family in Niusuatia.
Tima
PS:
Did you know that you can see Talosia's house on Googlemaps?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=samoa&ie=UTF8&ll=-13.983696,-171.838735&spn=0.002415,0.00346&t=h&z=18
Hi There Kimberely,
My name is Tui Filemoni I am one of many daughter in-laws of Fetu. I was asked by Talosia Sini in Nuusuatia to get in contact with you to inform you of the family's sad loss of Fetu. Who sadly passed away in Samoa on the 11 January 2008. Talosia sends her sincere apologise for not being able to get in contact with you sooner, and also asked to send her love onto you. I do apologise myself for being the one to inform you of our mum, but am pleased my sister Talosia has asked me to do this for her as she expressed you had deep love for our mum. I am in contact with Talosia quite alot so if you wish for me to relay any message to her and the family back in Samoa, please do so, would love to repay the favor for you.
Many best wishes from the Fetu Filemoni family
Tui Filemoni
Dear Tui,
Thank you so much for writing. I was so sorry to hear that Fetu passed way. I actually work at a hospital and we get a lot of elderly patients, most of which have Alheimers like Fetu had. For these poor people, they live in nursing homes and they have no one to care for them. When they come to the hospital they are very confused, and many of them are screaming for help. I try to help them, but I know that what they really need is to be at home in a familiar place with people who love them.
And then I think of Fetu. I am pretty sure that she also had Alheimers, but unlike the poor, lost, scared souls at the hospital she was at home, and she was with people who loved her dearly, and that made me so happy. She was such a lucky person to have so much love in her life. Many times people with Alheimers will become confused-- they will swear, and hit-- but this is just the disease. When I think of Fetu lying in her fale, tapping the floor, singing and saying prayers, it always makes me smile and feel glad that she was able to have so much support for such a terrible disease. I remember that I would teach Anne songs on a flute and after hearing them a few times, Fetu would be singing and tapping away with us.
I know that it must have been so difficult for Talosia to care for her mother when her mother was so different, and I hope that Talosia knows that it was the disease that made her mother do strange things. But when I work with people who have the same sickness here, in America, I always wish for them what Fetu had. I wish for them that their families would show even a little of the care and respect that Fetu's family gave her. That is something that I always remember when I think back to Samoa and to my family in Niusuatia-- the love and devotion that is shown to each other-- even to me, a stranger. So although I am very sad that she died, it always makes me so happy to know that Fetu had so much love at a time when she needed it the most.
Please tell Talosia that I am living in Iowa, and that I am studying to be a nurse. This may sound a little crazy, but I think that I started thinking about being a nurse when Angel got sick right when I first got to Samoa. She was so hot, so sick. I guess that something like that is normal in a country like Samoa, but for me I had never seen a child so sick and it made me scared. I went to Apia and found some children's fever medication, and the next day when I got back from school Angel ran out of the house and threw herself into my arms, not a trace of fever left. Ever since then I always felt that I wanted to help children everywhere get better. I am going to a school in Sioux City, Iowa called St. Luke's College, and to pay for school I work as a nursing assistant at St. Luke's Hospital. It's a Methodist hospital. :) I have about a year and a half left, then a few years working in the states before I travel again.
After I left Samoa I went to Yemen, then Thailand. It was so hard to leave Samoa, but it was something that I had to do. I felt bad that I left so quickly, but I was offered a job that needed me right away. I am glad that I have had the chance to travel so much, but everywhere that I have been I have never found anyone who cared about me so much as my family in Niusuatia.
Tima
PS:
Did you know that you can see Talosia's house on Googlemaps?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=samoa&ie=UTF8&ll=-13.983696,-171.838735&spn=0.002415,0.00346&t=h&z=18
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