Tolerance, will our generation actually see much advance on it? I sure hope so. And the whole thing about pushing marriage to be defined as tbetween a man and a woman, I haven't quite sorted out the feelings about it. I mean why should both sides be so worked up about semantics, but then it's all the implied things that goes along with the word 'marriage' that I guess everyone is fighting over. For me, if I get the same rights and benefits as a 'married' couple I can care less what you want to call it. And in part I think it's a big sarcastic joke against those that withheld the belief that marriage has to be between a man and a woman. Why do I say that? Because say for example, a woman decides she really is a guy born in the wrong body so she goes and have a sex change. Viola, instead of Jane, she becomes John. She now can go get 'married' to her long time girlfriend.
So are those people that say marriage is between a man and a woman really saying as long as you got a penis bonded to a vagina then let's call it 'marriage'? Or are they saying as long as you have a piece of paper that states one 'male' and one 'female' then it's a marriage?
Perhaps down the road we'll see a shift in the battle. The controversy will be how we define our 'gender'. Is your gender identification based on physical attributes, mental identification, or as whatever is stated on a piece of paper?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tumble
It was a bit freaky to witness my painted ceramic car fell from its perch on the Anthrocart to the floor. Amazingly, it survived the fall without breaking into pieces. Wait, let me double check. Yep, not a scratch or a chip. Amazing. Thank goodness my room is full of crap, useful crap that is. I do not know why did the car fall considering I have not move the desk at all and I am pretty sure that there was not a mini earthquake. Freaky, yo. Anyways, it went nose first and hit my little letter box, then it bounced towards the right which it then collided with the magnetic stuffed words lined the upper portion of one of the Anthrocart poles. Bouncing off of that it slide down the wall, its descent slowed by the Aiwa earphones. Finally it landed on the wood floors. Amazing. I just hope it's not some warning of some kind.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Fellow Dreamers of Toilets
It has been a while since I had the list of fellow bloggers who also dreamed of toilets and thought about the implied meaning of the white porcelain chair.
Now comes the time to archive this list in a blog entry and remove it from the side frames:
Anduin's Word: Dreams
ChAoS CeNtRaL
okkaywarner
banibear
missgoodey
Aberdoos
tiarella
lisa102373
Vern
BombayJen
CApoppy
holyhoses
Lisa
anni2pink
turtleheart.net
jadeisms
Now comes the time to archive this list in a blog entry and remove it from the side frames:
Anduin's Word: Dreams
ChAoS CeNtRaL
okkaywarner
banibear
missgoodey
Aberdoos
tiarella
lisa102373
Vern
BombayJen
CApoppy
holyhoses
Lisa
anni2pink
turtleheart.net
jadeisms
Flash Content
It's wonderful how there seems to be a new service popping up every single day, feeding and enabling amateurs like myself to publish more personal content on the web. Tonight, I was introduced to a new beta service - Sprout Builder - which allows building Flash creations using mainly drag and drop user interface. Beautiful!
I spent a good hour or so playing around with its features, which are quite adequate for the the most of us. There are some great looking Flash creations from users and it's amazing to see what can be designed using the building blocks provided.
The only thing that really made me hesitate on using Sprout Builder in the future is section 7b which talks about the user submissions and how by posting, you are automatically granting certain rights to Sprout Builder. That part, I really did not like.
So from this point on, I'll just be using the site to create Flash projects that will not include photos or videos or any original forms of artwork which I would want to retain all the rights.
Still, thanks Sprout Builder for this great service. If anyone from Sprout Builder is reading, which I highly doubt, but just in case, please let users retain exclusive rights regarding their submissions, such as video or images. You can provide an option for users to selectively grant various license permission settings if they wish. If you do that, I'll definitely use the service more often and I bet many others will also be more willing to display their work using Sprout Builder.
Here's my simple little slide show of the salamander in the yard.
I spent a good hour or so playing around with its features, which are quite adequate for the the most of us. There are some great looking Flash creations from users and it's amazing to see what can be designed using the building blocks provided.
The only thing that really made me hesitate on using Sprout Builder in the future is section 7b which talks about the user submissions and how by posting, you are automatically granting certain rights to Sprout Builder. That part, I really did not like.
So from this point on, I'll just be using the site to create Flash projects that will not include photos or videos or any original forms of artwork which I would want to retain all the rights.
Still, thanks Sprout Builder for this great service. If anyone from Sprout Builder is reading, which I highly doubt, but just in case, please let users retain exclusive rights regarding their submissions, such as video or images. You can provide an option for users to selectively grant various license permission settings if they wish. If you do that, I'll definitely use the service more often and I bet many others will also be more willing to display their work using Sprout Builder.
Here's my simple little slide show of the salamander in the yard.
Unexpected Residents
Yesterday, was one of my better days in the past 3 weeks. A day where I felt close to being relatively healthy versus being plagued by mysterious slightly elevated body temperature, body aches and thicker post nasal drips. So, dressed in my outdoor gear of choice - navy blue Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, with a green T from Children's Place and completed by a pair of forest green Children's Place fleece sweatpants, I joined my mom in the front yard on a gorgeous 72 degree Spring day.
The activity goal for the day was to plant these little flowers into the severely dry grounds on the front lawn underneath this big old tree (which my brother thinks it's on it's last legs, so to speak). My contribution was to peel the degradable wrappers around the nursery plants and plant them into the holes my 59 year old mom has dug out. What! I was feeling weak! Anyways, squatting there and half way through the tray, I got a little surprise. Peeling away the wrappers, I saw these 2 slimly dark gray worm like things on the bottom of the plant entangled in the roots. Those are not worms my friend. Kinda looked like little snakes. I sat the plant down and carefully peeled away the rest of the wrappings. That's when I saw there were 2 of these little creatures, whatever they are. They have 4 feet each and a little head.
I should've have ran into the house to get my camera that second but instead, I separated them from the roots. Freed them is what I've done I like to think and used the same twig to pull them out on the ground so I can take a closer look. I think they are some type of a precursor to a frog? My mom stayed away for she's afraid of slimy things. By the time I finally realized that this is a great photo op, one of them already went into hiding so I only had the chance to do my photo Safari thing with 1 of the creatures.
Here it is:
It was a great photography experience and practice trying to shoot this little thing which can run really fast when it wants to.
The activity goal for the day was to plant these little flowers into the severely dry grounds on the front lawn underneath this big old tree (which my brother thinks it's on it's last legs, so to speak). My contribution was to peel the degradable wrappers around the nursery plants and plant them into the holes my 59 year old mom has dug out. What! I was feeling weak! Anyways, squatting there and half way through the tray, I got a little surprise. Peeling away the wrappers, I saw these 2 slimly dark gray worm like things on the bottom of the plant entangled in the roots. Those are not worms my friend. Kinda looked like little snakes. I sat the plant down and carefully peeled away the rest of the wrappings. That's when I saw there were 2 of these little creatures, whatever they are. They have 4 feet each and a little head.
I should've have ran into the house to get my camera that second but instead, I separated them from the roots. Freed them is what I've done I like to think and used the same twig to pull them out on the ground so I can take a closer look. I think they are some type of a precursor to a frog? My mom stayed away for she's afraid of slimy things. By the time I finally realized that this is a great photo op, one of them already went into hiding so I only had the chance to do my photo Safari thing with 1 of the creatures.
Here it is:
It was a great photography experience and practice trying to shoot this little thing which can run really fast when it wants to.
Friday, April 11, 2008
MinuteClinic
Several weeks ago, I was feeling downright miserable. I was having heavy chest congestion and coughing up globs of thick, yellow, blood streaked sputum (the medical term for - phlegm, as I found out). Lovely images aren't they? Afraid that I was going to pass something to my dad, I went looking for doctors in the area. And "wham!", doors slam in my face, cyber doors, as I tried to call to make appointments with a doc. As soon as I mentioned the word, uninsured, I was told that many of the docs will not see patients who does not have insurance.
Lucky for me, I had a friend who gave me a good suggestion of going to one of those walk in clinics like the ones that CVS has called MinuteClinic. I logged on immediately and saw that yes, they do have strep throat tests, so off I went. Below are my impressions from my own visit to MinuteClinic.
Unfortunately, not all locations of CVS will have a MinuteClinic for they are probably testing out the MinuteClinic idea. If you are listening CVS, do more advertisements!! Especially online! I tried searching for "walk in clinics" or clinics in general and MinuteClinic never came up! Anyways, I digress. So I walked up to CVS located at X and immediately noticed that there's this little MinuteClinic posted on the CVS window. I walked in and the MinuteClinic is located next to the Pharmacy area. There's a little room with a check-in counter outside of it. Everything is computerized. The check-in kiosk prompts the patient for a series of general information, very similar to the ones you would fill out at a doctor's office. Name, addres, phone number, reason for visit, and so and so. For those that are not computer literate, I am sure the MinuteClinic doctor will be able to help, but overall the process is pretty simple and easy. When you are done registering yourself, your name is placed in a queue.
The entire registration process took less than 5 minutes for me. If you are bad at typing, it'll probably take you a little longer.
I was the only person there at the time, so I was first in line. No wait time at all.
The doc greeted me into his office. A 9x9 little space, very clean, very much like the one you usually sit in while you wait for your family doctor, except everything is spaced a bit tighter. As I walk in, to my left is a long counter where supplies are kept. The immediate left corner is occupied by the doctor with his computer, printer, and Visa machine. There are couple of chairs in the room, no lounge bed to lie on. The room looks neat and clean.
Next, the doc closes the door for patient privacy. With the door closed, you forget that you are actually inside a CVS store. Instead it looks just like many of the 'regular' doctors office, only much newer. Yes, you know what I am talking about.
The doc pulled up my info on the computer and starts to take some preliminary history and to understand what's ailing me. I explained I have this horrible chest congestion and cough for almost a week now and that my main concern is that I might have strep throat. He listened carefully and took my blood pressure, looked into my ears, eyes and throat. The doc said he doesn't think I have strep instead that I probably just have an upper respiratory infection and the cough is due to the post nasal drip that I have which is irritating my throat thus making me cough. But course, he went and explained the two different types of diagnostic tests available to
test for strep and went to explain both the quick strep test and the strep culture. I opted to do both. The quick strep test was easy, swab the back of my throat and 5 minutes later it showed that I was negative for strep. But being the anal person that I am, I went for another swab to be sent out for the culture.
I asked some questions about strep, and sinus infection and bronchitis. The doctor patiently answered my questions.
Towards the end of my visit, the doc printed out some prescriptions for me to take to dry up the post nasal drip and to help with thinning out the phlegm.
I paid for my office visit using a credit card. My prescriptions, medical history, info on strep throat and upper respiratory infection were printed out from the in room printer.
40 minutes and $99 dollars later I was out of the MinuteClinic, breathing a little bit easier now knowing I don't have strep.
So overall for me, MinuteClinic is a great thing. Good for those non-threatening ailments and definitely beats going to ER for a simple test like strep. I hope that United States will expand on walk-in clinics especially since this is about the only way the uninsured or those paying out of pocket will be able to see a doctor within a reasonable amount of time without going to an ER for simple illnesses.
And hopefully, these types of clinics will be expanded so they can take on a variety of cases that might require uses of X-Rays.
Lucky for me, I had a friend who gave me a good suggestion of going to one of those walk in clinics like the ones that CVS has called MinuteClinic. I logged on immediately and saw that yes, they do have strep throat tests, so off I went. Below are my impressions from my own visit to MinuteClinic.
Unfortunately, not all locations of CVS will have a MinuteClinic for they are probably testing out the MinuteClinic idea. If you are listening CVS, do more advertisements!! Especially online! I tried searching for "walk in clinics" or clinics in general and MinuteClinic never came up! Anyways, I digress. So I walked up to CVS located at X and immediately noticed that there's this little MinuteClinic posted on the CVS window. I walked in and the MinuteClinic is located next to the Pharmacy area. There's a little room with a check-in counter outside of it. Everything is computerized. The check-in kiosk prompts the patient for a series of general information, very similar to the ones you would fill out at a doctor's office. Name, addres, phone number, reason for visit, and so and so. For those that are not computer literate, I am sure the MinuteClinic doctor will be able to help, but overall the process is pretty simple and easy. When you are done registering yourself, your name is placed in a queue.
The entire registration process took less than 5 minutes for me. If you are bad at typing, it'll probably take you a little longer.
I was the only person there at the time, so I was first in line. No wait time at all.
The doc greeted me into his office. A 9x9 little space, very clean, very much like the one you usually sit in while you wait for your family doctor, except everything is spaced a bit tighter. As I walk in, to my left is a long counter where supplies are kept. The immediate left corner is occupied by the doctor with his computer, printer, and Visa machine. There are couple of chairs in the room, no lounge bed to lie on. The room looks neat and clean.
Next, the doc closes the door for patient privacy. With the door closed, you forget that you are actually inside a CVS store. Instead it looks just like many of the 'regular' doctors office, only much newer. Yes, you know what I am talking about.
The doc pulled up my info on the computer and starts to take some preliminary history and to understand what's ailing me. I explained I have this horrible chest congestion and cough for almost a week now and that my main concern is that I might have strep throat. He listened carefully and took my blood pressure, looked into my ears, eyes and throat. The doc said he doesn't think I have strep instead that I probably just have an upper respiratory infection and the cough is due to the post nasal drip that I have which is irritating my throat thus making me cough. But course, he went and explained the two different types of diagnostic tests available to
test for strep and went to explain both the quick strep test and the strep culture. I opted to do both. The quick strep test was easy, swab the back of my throat and 5 minutes later it showed that I was negative for strep. But being the anal person that I am, I went for another swab to be sent out for the culture.
I asked some questions about strep, and sinus infection and bronchitis. The doctor patiently answered my questions.
Towards the end of my visit, the doc printed out some prescriptions for me to take to dry up the post nasal drip and to help with thinning out the phlegm.
I paid for my office visit using a credit card. My prescriptions, medical history, info on strep throat and upper respiratory infection were printed out from the in room printer.
40 minutes and $99 dollars later I was out of the MinuteClinic, breathing a little bit easier now knowing I don't have strep.
So overall for me, MinuteClinic is a great thing. Good for those non-threatening ailments and definitely beats going to ER for a simple test like strep. I hope that United States will expand on walk-in clinics especially since this is about the only way the uninsured or those paying out of pocket will be able to see a doctor within a reasonable amount of time without going to an ER for simple illnesses.
And hopefully, these types of clinics will be expanded so they can take on a variety of cases that might require uses of X-Rays.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)