Unexpected Gifts

Merry Christmas everyone! I thought I would drop a note to let you know an unexpected gift the holiday season.

I talked with my brother in New Jersey this morning. He was very excited about his new digital camera he received for a gift.
My brother in his excitement told me, "Kelly (his wife) likes to go do family stuff, and we can take pictures now and send them to everyone, it'll be great! We never did anything like that growing up. It is amazing to go and watch the kids and all, can't wait to send pictures."

I thought it was a great gift, he is having a better life with his family than we did growing up. He figured out how to
have a better life all on his own, and I'm really proud of him!

The gift of family and the gift of enjoying them.
Perfect.

Merry Christmas.

Merry, Happy and Everything in Between!

I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday! Best wishes in the new year for happiness and success.

Be safe, laugh lots, and enjoy every day. For each day is a gift.

Order Your Organism

I saw this link from the Washington Post on synthetic DNA and the organisms that are being created. This is big business for the 21st century and beyond.

As a scientist, I have both excitement and trepidation concerning artificial DNA and the organisms it alters or creates. Some of what is discussed in the article simply have added genes to bacteria to produce chemicals needed for an array of different things.

Another side is the actual engineering of a whole genome for an organism that may or may not already exist. A safe guard mentioned in maintaining/controlling genetically altered bacteria is the fact these bugs are engineered with a artificial nutrient dependence and thus would not be able to survive outside the lab.

Where have we heard that before?

Never under estimate the adaptive ability of nature, nor the drive to survive and reproduce. That is all bacteria and viruses are programmed to do.

The article also discusses virus creation. I'd hate for I am Legend (originally The Omega Man)to actually come to fruition. I really enjoyed the movie, by the way.

It is an interesting article. But one last point:
Just because we can, does not always mean we should.

Three Down, One to Go!

I finished my third semester! I have a month to relax and work, then on to the fourth semester--the last one!!

Fourth is supposed to be the hardest, with you having to do several things at once. I think maybe I will finally be busy enough...

Scheduling work will be a bit of a challenge it seems, but there is always the weekend too. I have tried to keep the weekends for sleeping and studying and other things recreational, but I may have to give in this last semester. It will all work out I am sure.

My grades were good, not a s good as I would have liked, but since there were no A's, I can't complain. A few did not make the grade to continue on, so I am counting myself fortunate. We are all having a celebratory night at the Fox and Hound in Richardson tonight. I am looking forward to hanging out with everyone.

It has been a long semester....

One more to go!!

Gratification of Sweat

I finally got back to martial arts class. I have been hit-or-miss for way too long.
Damn nursing school...

There is such gratification in working out and sweating with other people, all doing the same thing. The class activity is great. Going to the gym is not quite the same, but close.

I hope to attend regularly at least for the month I am off. Then try really hard to come once the ominous fourth semester kicks in. I will need the stress reduction and my behind certainly does not need to get any wider.
Damn nursing school...

I am looking forward to a relaxing time, with skiing!!! Lots of physical activity and lots of down time.
My gosh, maybe I'll read something other than nursing!!??!

Maybe X-men Isn't Too Far Off?

This is a very interesting blurb of an article published in the National Academy of the Proceedings of Science. Human evolution is happening at a break-neck speed.

Apparently our discovery of agriculture and thus a better diet along with culture and community living has spurned on our evolution. Humans are now living in new environments that require fast adaptation.

So what's a Homo sapien to do?

Evolve...


The question is are we E-volving or De-evolving.....

Quote For the Day

SUCCESS

To laugh often and much
to win the respect of intelligent people
and affection of children; to earn the
appreciation of honest critics and
endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the best
in others; to leave the world a bit
better, whether by a healthy child
a garden patch or redeemed
social condition; to know even
one life has breathed easier because
you have lived. This is to have
succeeded.


-Ralph Waldo Emerson


I doubt it will ever be stated better.

Consumerism and Christmas

I have found the commercial that embodies why I dislike Christmas and what it has come to represent in our society.
It is the Dodge Caravan commercial of the mom talking about how her son went to the friend's house and saw his friend's new Dodge Caravan. She states her son came home and asks, "Mommy, why doesn't our van have swivel seats?" and, "Mommy why doesn't our van have dual DVD players?"
At the end of the commercial she plaintively tells her son, "...your Daddy and I are going right over to the Dodge dealer to get a new Caravan, Mommy loves you."

Since when do Christmas presents involve new autos because our kids think we should all have new cars? Why do we have to buy a zillion things and spend money we don't have in the belief that if we don't, we won't be thought of well or loved or something bad would happen?

Is it not gift enough that we have health, family and life? I am all for striving for the best, but to keep our kids happy by purchasing things....what's the point? They have too much already.

For many, I think this is what Christmas has boiled down to: Who spends the most. Gifts are fine, but come on.
Case in point, one year my Ex's niece, all of almost three years old, said on Christmas morning, "Do I have to open more presents, I'm tired." I think it was over kill.

I just don't agree with such consumerism as a replacement for presence in a person's life, especially children's lives.

Be there, the presents go away.
Money is not the most important thing.

The Light Grows Brighter...

I have one week, one final left. Then semester three is done! All I have to do is live through the last semester and take the NCLEX-or nursing boards.

I am still not certain about exactly what field of nursing I want to go into. This is the definite "NO" list:

1. Anything OB: Being all up in another woman's WhooHa is just not my ball of wax. Oh, and catching that critter as it slides or is forceped out of Mom, no thank you. I have no problem with blood and guts, but massaging funduses to make them contract and bleed, um, that's a big no too. And I don't want to inspect your episiotomy for a living. Ew factor to the nth degree. So, no OB.
2. Psych: I am too afraid I will see my family there. And those people are crazy.
3. Geriatrics: It is a character flaw, I realize, but I am not cut out for the old person stuff. Or to be groped by the dirty old man when taking his vitals. I like healthy old people because they are a riot, but no sick ones please, I already have one of those.
4. Med-Surg: Boooorrringgggg. Pass meds, chart, no adrenaline. There are great med-surg nurses out there, but I don't think I am one of them.

So, you wonder, what does the possible yes list hold?? This list is in very faint pencil, so don't hold me to it.

1. Big person ICU or trauma. This should be no surprise to those who know me. The down side is I would want the best training and it is found at Parkland.....
2. Research nursing: Just do what I do now only make gobs more $$. Not such a bad deal.
3. Pediatrics: Shocking, huh? I liked my Children's rotation. I don't know if I could do it full time, but it is not on the No list.
4. After I have worked for a while, I will go back to university and teach. I have always loved teaching and I know I will end up there.

This is the list so far. Anyone out there with any ideas, I am all ears. It is a little strange for me personally to not be driven in one specific direction. This is why I am getting my RN; choices. I can do anything I want, this was the whole deal.

Go to the light, go to the light!!!!

Words From a Boomer Nursing Student

My monthly copy of Imprint, our nursing student organization magazine arrived today. There is an article about retiring into nursing. Yes, retiring and then going to nursing school. There is a passage in it that really speaks to me. The author discusses what it is that made her want to go back and basically start again, reinvent herself. This is an excerpt from that article that I thoroughly agree with:

Furthermore, a trait that I share with Dan and Gary is a fear of complacency. To be complacent is to be stagnant. In business, stagnation means a failure to thrive, The same holds true in personal life. I don't wish to ever grow complacent or simply happy with the status quo. To do so will have meant that I have lost my competitive spirit, my desire to excel, and my natural curiosity. I will have lost my sense of adventure, my desire for new opportunities and experiences, my "edge." Should complacency ever occur, I would undoubtedly grow mentally and emotionally old.

Really, isn't this what living, really living life is about?

Engineered food for Cats?

It seems that scientists can't keep from jacking with nature. Why do we want a mouse that isn't afraid of a cat??

It seems genetics is a great deal responsible for our reactions to our environment. Makes sense to me, otherwise species would not have been able to thwart predators' for this long.

Let to natural selection, I doubt this new genetically engineered mouse would survive. Cats are not chanting, "Mice are friends, not food."

Poor mouse!

China Deserves our Attention

It seems China has decided it will not go disrespected or underestimated any longer. A Song class submarine surfaced within firing range of several US battleship practicing in the Pacific.

Whether we like it our not, the world as a whole must accept that China is an up and coming new world power. With 1/3 the world's population and a very well controlled population, recognition of their potential needs to be acknowledged.

Quite the wake up call if you ask me.

I Found My Next Bike!!

We went to the International Motor Cycle Show on Sunday. After sitting on practically everything there, I found it. Then I went and sat on everything again, but still came back to it.

Why am I attracted to some of the most expensive things out there??

My next bike will be a BMW F800ST. With the lower seat option, I am flat footed on both sides of the bike. It weights the same as Moose, but the engine is lower and you sit on the gas tank which lowers its center of gravity.
I loved it.
It is also expensive...dammit!

Of course, I have to have the Electric blue color!!

Only 11 classes left...

I have 11 actual classes left in this semester of school. The light grows brighter at the end of the tunnel. I cannot wait till it is all over. Just think, after this, there is only one more semester left!!
A more pressing question is what field of nursing do I want to go into? I have just about settled on an ICU rotation. Parkland, most likely since their internship is one of the best around and you get rotations in all ICU fields: Neuro, Burn, Emergency, Cardiac and one more that I can't think of right now.
Obviously, no laboring moms, no NICU and no postpartum-yuck! Peds was OK, but I think I would get bored. That leaves trauma and ICU.

I have to start hunting for a job in January. This is why I need to narrow it down fairly soon! Wish me luck.

More Answers From Science

I love this stuff!! Scientists have discovered a laser that can obliterate viral particles of the tobacco mosiac virus without harming surrounding "good" stuff.

Kong-Thon Tsen, a professor of physics at Arizona State University, has shown a super fast laser to be able to basically molecular 'undo' the viral capsid or "packaging" of the virus thereby inactivating it.

We just have to keep looking and trying to figure it all out. Great stuff!

More Answers From Nature

I get so excited about finding answers to biological and technical questions right in our own backyard--literally.
Here is an article on slash dot about the use of capsaicin for pain control. Yes, that's right, when you bite that pepper and your tongue goes numb, there is a medical use for that.
Who woulda thunk it?

Moose Can Bite!

This is what your leg looks like when you fall over in the drive way and your motorcycle of 410 lbs slides down your leg. The drive way is on an angle and by the time the foot got to the ground it was too late. This was the final straw on admitting my bike is just too damn tall no matter how much I love it. I am shopping for something shorter. This was at a standstill too and this pic is a week old.
Ouch!

Oh, and feel free to see my add on Craig's list!

Happy Birthday Jen!!!

Happy Birthday to one of my bestest friends!!

Hope your day is great!

Technology Moves Forward Again

Apparently we an now make chromosomes to order. The Chicago Tribune published an article about researchers at Chromatin Inc., making chromosomes artificially for corn.

These mini chromosomes seem to be accepted by the corn's genetic machinery and are passed on like the natural chromosomes.
What will we engineer next?

Nature, Nurture or Technology

I have almost finished my Pediatric rotation. I am now intimately familiar with the horrific things that can go wrong with little ones. It is amazing what our technology can fix, prolong or just sustain.

This begs the question: Is our technology ahead of our humanity? should some of these kids really be here?

I realize this is as charged a subject matter as possible, but I have to ask; should we be saving all of these kids?

When a child is born at 24 weeks gestation and has to be measured in grams, can't breathe, and will never be able to breathe correctly, or develop mentally normally; should we be saving this child?

On the flip side, whose choice is it? Most of the time, these parents are not able to financially suport these high needs kiddos. If the parent is willing and able, who is to tell them no, they cannot save their child?

There are no real answers, but I think the day will come where we will have to answer this question: Who do we save? And why?

Some questions are very difficult indeed.