Climbing and Manicures Don't Mix

But I don't care!

Leeloo at the Gunks

Even Leeloo got to enjoy some quality time outdoors!

Tweet!

She was a big hit with everyone.

A Little Afternoon Climb in the Gunks

Pretty good day yesterday. After about 5 hours of morning studying we took a drive up to New Paltz for a little afternoon climb at the Gunks.

Nurse Reality TV?

This could either be really cheezy or extremely interesting. Access Nurses is doing a web-based reality TV show about a group of travel nurses. They are looking for candidates. You can vote for the ones you like here.

Tough Day in Microbio Land

Well, I don't think I did so hot on today's Microbiology Exam. I studied for hours and hours but this morning my mind just totally blanked. I couldn't remember stuff that I was looking at just minutes earlier. I did get a 91 on the last one, though so hopefully I can get it together for the final.

Note to self: staying up till three in the morning studying, getting two or three hours sleep and then taking an exam may have worked at 21. It no longer works so well at 41. Sigh.

Check this installment of the wonderful RocketBoom, though, for another cool NYC subway performance.

Subway Sounds Volume One, Issue One

Click me

I have always been fascinated by the street performers I see in the NYC Subway system. There is such an amazing diversity of talent and random craziness to be seen. I saw this drummer on my way home from school the other day. He is incredibly fast. I hope you enjoy him.

The video ends a little more abruptly than I would like. My shooting and editing skills still need a lot of work. This will be the first in what I hope will be many vblog. I will strive to make them better as we move along.

Arrgh! Morning Comes Way Too Early

Breakfast of Champions

Dinner is Served

Last Night's Dinner

Bad Girl, No Blogging for You

Aaak! Quiz Tomorrow!

Microbio quiz tomorrow. Too much blogging, not enough reading. Time to close the laptop and hit the books!

Brooklyn Flora

Brooklyn Flora  

I saw this on the way to school yesterday. I have never seen one this big. I was running late, but I just had to snap this shot.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

S.H.M. August 19th, 1980-June 13th, 1996

This is my little brother. He died nine years ago today at the ripe old age of sixteen. It's not supposed to happen this way. But sometimes it does.

I sat in the exact spot he sits in this photo and watched two cops take him away in a body bag.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1(800) 273-TALK (8255)
The Samaritans NYC (212)673-3000
SAVE - Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
Yellow Ribbon International - Teen Suicide Prevention Program
AFSP American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
American Association of Suicidology
AAP - Preventing Teen Suicide
Teen Suicide article on Kidshealth.org
Teenage Suicide Info on NAMI - The Nation's Voice on Mental Ilness
SPAN - Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network (Excellent Links.)
1000 Deaths -Suicide Survivor Support/ Memorial
Child Suicide - Support for parents, siblinds, grandparents, and friends of a child suicide.
The Compassionate Friends - non suicide-specific support site for parents, grandparents and siblings grieving the death of a child.
Surviving Suicide - support for Suicide Survivors
Sibling Survivors - support for Sibling Suicide Survivors
Books on Suicide

"... joy and sorrow are inseparable. . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed."

- Kahil Gibran

First Attempt at Videoblogging

Click to view

After all the promises, here it is... my first vblog post. Giant shout out of love and deepest appreciation to www.freevlog.org. Check it out, with the tutorials there ANYBODY can do this! Also Big THANKS to www.ourmedia.org for free and easy posting.

I first got interested in doing videoblogging myself, while watching a videoblog post by Jay Dedman called "Cat Power". Jay says it best so you should go check his post out. He talks about people who don't get vblogging boiling it down to "its just girls talking about their cats". Then he goes and makes this super cool video about girls and cats. I don't have a cat.. so you will have to settle for my parrot, Leeloo and maybe one day you can look forward to my nine year old catfish, Jed. Or (gasp) maybe even me!

I actually did this video several months back, around December. It was done on a Nokia 6620 camera phone. So, yes, this is pretty amateurish stuff. I haven't quite figured out the finer points of iMovie so there are some shots that probably could have been edited out. Too much Birdie Butt - I appologize for that in advance. Please bear with me, I have a lot to learn.

Microbiology Exam tomorrow

I haven't written in a few days. I have been studying for my first Microbiology exam tomorrow. Not familliar with this professor's tests yet so I am pretty nervous.

Here is a funny signature I saw the other day:

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world.
Those who understand binary, and those who don't"

Ok, ok so I am still a geek....

John Edwards vblog

Here is John Edwards' videoblog. He has lots of clips including ones of questions people sent in and his answers. This one echoes some of the sentiments I voiced in my last entry about direct access to information. Interesting. Let's send him some Healthcare and Nursing questions, folks!

Media Futures

I am very excited about videoblogging. I see a glimpse of a future where information exchange, in all its forms, is controlled by people and their interests, not big corporations or governments. As members of the human community, we all seem to have some need to reach and share with each other. We do it in different ways: painting, music, sculpture, needlepoint, writing, talking, chatting, flaming, blogging, videobloging, gaming or just watching others do these things. It helps us feel connected. At least that is how I feel when Carol and Steve share their gardening fun. Or Michael Verdi shares this clip of his daughter Dylan. Or Dylan gives us her opinion on the Sex Pistols. Up until recently, gatekeepers would decide whether expressions were worthy of distribution or consideration by the greater community. Record companies, publishers, television networks, news services, art galleries, newspaper editors etc. would decide who got to express themselves, what was compelling content and where and when these expressions could be viewed, if they could be viewed. As internet technology evolves, we are all getting the tools to publish news, art, opinion, music, video, movies, photographs and make it available to millions of people. At the same time, we are getting the tools to search, access, enjoy and learn from these astoundingly diverse offerings. A truly "free market" for information is being born. You put a piece of your self out there and people can consider it. There may or may not be interest or appreciation but at least freedom of expression is truly becoming reality. The day of the gatekeeper is coming to an end.

What got me fired up today is an excellent interview by citizen journalist Steve Garfield with Holmes Wilson from the Participatory Culture Foundation. Holmes is talking about Broadcast Machine. Holmes also speaks about BitTorrent.

It's a long piece, but I love how beautifully Holmes articulates the paradigm shift that is happening and his vision of free information exchange now and in the future.

Information Wants to be Free (?)

Thanks to Steve and Holmes for a very thought-provoking discussion.

Endings, Beginnings, and Giant Leaps of Faith

Twenty-five working days and twelve and a half weeks until I take a big leap of faith into my nursing life. At the end of August, I will quit my job and become a full-time nursing student. It will be the formal end to a twenty year career working in information technology. I will say goodbye to colleagues I have grown to respect and love. I’ve loved this career, and sometimes hated it. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity of an interesting and challenging job for so many years.

While it is an ending of a chapter of my life, it is a new beginning as well. I am excited to dedicate myself fully to the process of becoming a nurse. I look forward to clinicals, to begin finding out what it really means to be a nurse. I hope that that I have the right stuff. I worry that I don’t. The only way to find out, though, is to jump in with both feet. Step outside the comfort zone. Take the leap of Faith. Sometimes, I envy people who are getting in “clean”, straight out of school… no comfortable habits, no beloved colleagues, no established career or reputation, no baggage that must be abandoned. But then again, I wouldn’t give up the last twenty years for anything, so that’s foolish thinking. Keep the faith.

“Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.” – Claude Bernard

Indeed.

JCAHO "Do Not Use" Abbreviations and Symbols List

Incorrect use of abbreviations is rapidly becoming a pet peeve for me. I have attended a number of otherwise excellent classes taught by nurses who persist in using abbreviations off the Joint Commision on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' "DO NOT USE" list(Requires Adobe). Here is the related FAQ. (requires Adobe) It is more than understandable that practicing nurses and doctors, who have been using these for years, slip up from time to time. But I expect "Nursing Educators" to be preparing us to chart correctly by example from the start. Why teach us something we will have to unlearn the minute we get into the field! Grrr... OK, rant complete.... Carry on.

Pthalates

From "Living on Earth" NPR radio show. Study suggests pthalates may effect development of male genitalia in utero. Read transcript or download MP3 or RA here.

"Researchers have known for years that phthalates, a family of chemicals found in paints, pesticides, and consumer products like shampoo, soap, and makeup, can have detrimental effects on genital and reproductive development in male rats. Now for the first time, a study looks at possible impacts on male human babies. Host Steve Curwood talks to Shanna Swan, one of the study's authors, about the results.."