Ken's Journal

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House projects
For those who are interested, there's a new post up for

middle_street showing the wall repairs.

Last night
was our Solstice Party and it went smashingly well.

We held the party over the weekend so that people would attend and because we decided to sit the Solstice Vigil only we used a candle instead of a log as we have no wood burning fireplace. Surprisingly, a single bees wax taper lasted from dark till dawn. We had 8 as we were told to expect a 2 hour burn time per candle. The crowd was a good size but never got too large and mingled well. The last guests left around 1:30 while Clue,

firestarter333 and I sat the Vigil while watching old episodes of Top Gear that we had on the DVR. Dawn came, the candle was still burning and we crashed to let it do its thing... we don't know when it went out but it was at least 14 hours after we lit it.

and now, ( the photo evidence )

Current Mood: pleased

I normally
do not post from work as it is frowned upon.

Today however, I felt this signal had to be boosted:

This holiday season, CNN highlights inspiring acts of kindness and generosity in a special series called "Giving in Focus: The 12 Days of Goodness."

(CNN) -- When Sadako Sasaki lay in her hospital bed sick with leukemia, she showed her father origami cranes from local school girls. "When you fold 1,000 paper cranes, you will get well," her dad responded.

Sadako was just 12. Hoping to get better, she began folding tiny origami cranes, using paper from get-well gifts and wrappers from medicine. She had survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Yet 10 years later, her fragile body suffered the effects of exposure to radiation.

"Please treasure the life that is given to you," Sadako said before her death on October 25, 1955. "It is my belief that my small paper crane will enable you to understand other people's feelings, as if they are your own."

Sadako's death inspired a memorial in Japan's Hiroshima Peace Park, complete with a statue of her holding a golden crane. Now, one of her last origami cranes resides in a new memorial thousands of miles away, in the country that dropped the bomb.

It was given to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center in New York by her aging brother.

"I thought if Sadako's crane is placed at Ground Zero, it will be very meaningful," says Masahiro Sasaki, in an education program produced by the tribute center and the Japan Society. "Commonly, in Japan, the crane is regarded as a symbol of peace. But for us, in the Sasaki family, it is the embodiment of Sadako's life, and it is filled with her wish and hope."

"I hope by talking about that small wish for peace, the small ripple will become bigger and bigger."

The delicate red crane, smaller than a fingernail, is on display at the center. Hanging near it are origami cranes that were placed on the fence around Ground Zero after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Another 10,000 cranes from families and colleagues of Japanese victims of 9/11 surround Sadako's.
Every time I visit the World Trade Center site, I wonder where my son was and where he suffered.
--Tsugio Ito, Hiroshima survivor
RELATED TOPICS

* September 11 Attacks
* Hiroshima

"This little girl believed that the world could be made better if we all worked together," says Lee Ielpi, the co-founder of the center, whose grown son, Jonathan, was killed on September 11.

"It sends that beautiful message: Even in death, we're going to carry on that little girl's wish. ... I'm so tickled we can carry on her wish."

Meriam Lobel, the center's curator, says staffers were speechless when Masahiro Sasaki presented the gift. "He lifted it out with this little, tiny tweezer and there was this beautiful red glistening crane," Lobel says. "It was like a gem, like a little red ruby."

For Tsugio Ito, the symbolism of the crane holds special meaning.

"When the atomic bomb was dropped, I was exercising in the schoolyard at the elementary school. My brother was a student at the high school," he says in the center's educational program.

He survived. His brother was killed in the bombing.

Fast forward six decades. Ito's son was working for Fuji Bank in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11. Kazushige Ito, 35, was one of 24 Japanese killed on 9/11.

"After September 11, we waited for him to call. One month passed, then two months, then I came to accept that perhaps this means he is gone," he told the center. "Every time I visit the World Trade Center site, I wonder where my son was and where he suffered."

What happened that day only reinforces "how important it is to have peace."

"We must have peace," Ito says. "I feel that stronger now than ever before."

Tom Johnson has been active on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation ever since 9/11 when terrorists killed 2,976 people. His 26-year-old son, Scott, was among the victims.

When he visits the center, he cherishes two items in particular: his son's death certificate, which lists "homicide" as his cause of death, and Sadako's origami crane.

"You have to derive some kind of message of meaning that will make the world heal," he says.

Sadako's brother says the spirit of his sister lives on in the crane, "because she had a heart of kindness." He had five of her original cranes. He hopes to give the others away to museums on other continents.

"As a victim of war or a victim of terrorism, we share the same grief, and share the sense of duty to tell the stories to our children and our children's children," he says.

"Although the incidents were different, I hope we can help each other work for world peace from now on."

To see a picture, follow the link to the article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/17/origami.gift/index.html

Another photo
post of the Victorian Stroll

( blurry photos... )

Current Mood: dorky

I present (pun intended)
our Holiday cats

( Cuteness abounds )

Current Mood: amused

A meme
As stolen from

fire_flutterfly and

pheylan

( An excuse not to make a real post... )

Current Mood: awake

I am
awake and doing remarkably well after 2 Ice Bears. The law is normally 2... for the Ice Bear, the law is 1 as it is a MIGHTY beast.

I do not have a hangover this morning, though I was flirting with one. I drank enough water both before bed and during the night that there is no headache and my stomach was not in a pleasant mood all night or this morning. A bowl of 5 grain porridge and a cup of coffee has done wonders. I will likely even be able to get clapboard on the house today :) I do not regret last night, I needed the release but well, the law for that drink is 1.

Current Mood: relaxed

I am
drunk and will likely be that way for a while yet.

If there's ever a question you've wanted to ask me but didn't think I'd answer... now is the time. Most of the Dominus filters are offline... except for the screening filter... that one is online so you don't have to worry about what you ask.

Edit 1: I'm going to bed now, but will answer any questions asked before I check my LJ in the morning as though all the filters were still down. It will be hard, but I promise I will do so. I will close this with edit 2 when I read my posts in the morning.

Edit 2: It is now morning, I am no longer drunk, the question window is now closed.

Current Mood: drunk

Instead of
a real post...

ganked from

jperegrine

If I came with a warning label, what would it say?

(if you want to play along, post this on your own journal)

Current Mood: tired

It's snowing
damnit.

Don't get me wrong, normally I love seeing the first snowfall of the year.

Normally, I really enjoy coffee while watching the white fluffy water fall.

Normally, I don't have a 4 foot by 10 foot hole in my house.

All I needed was another week... damnit.

I have
earned my stripes.

Tonight was my first escort and now, I can honestly say, yes, I can do this.

Current Mood: tired

and this
my friends is a classic example of rape culture in advertising.

I will NEVER buy any products from this company. I support the cause but this is the worst of all possible ways to go about it bringing it to light. I'm working up my letter to the company.

Method Soap fail

I live
with the most amazing cook. I helped with prep but wow can she cook.

Today I
received an email from my supervisor at SACVAP and it just disgusts me.

MEN out there, do NOT stand by and let shit like this happen, period. Call it out, point it out, contact site admins, all of that stuff. Do not be silent about rape or rape culture. This is not funny.

Australian students create "pro-rape" Facebook group
via Feministing by Jessica on 11/9/09

This is the kind of story that makes you wonder about the basic goodness of people.
A group of past and present University of Sydney students set up a ''pro-rape'' page in the sports and recreation section on Facebook, describing themselves as ''anti-consent''.
The male students, mostly from the elite, all-male St Paul's College, initially ensured the ''Define Statutory'' group had an open, public profile, and proudly displayed their membership on their personal Facebook pages.
Both the commander of the NSW Police sex crimes unit and the head of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre condemned the site, describing it as ''grooming perpetrators of sexual violence''.
And people have the nerve to argue rape culture doesn't exist...
Outside of the general horribleness of this story, Hortense at Jezebel asks a really great question: Why would Facebook allow this group to exist for so long?
This is a social networking site that refuses to let women post pictures of themselves breastfeeding, mind you, but it's okay to make a "hilarious" pro-rape group in the "Sports and Recreation" category? The group was public, by the way, accessible to anyone and visible to all. Interesting, isn't it, that in the eyes of Facebook, a woman shouldn't be allowed to show her breasts while feeding her child, but it's perfectly acceptable for men to make a highly public "sport" out of rape.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/09/2736793.htm

http://jezebel.com/5399911/facebook-allows-pro+rape-anti+consent-group-to-stay-on-the-site-for-months

I am so infuriated I could just spit. MEN do not pull this sort of shit. BOYS do and need to be educated seriously.

Current Mood: infuriated

Once again
I have a film scanner and this is a happy thing.

I had one for years and it worked well, still does if you can get the software to run, which it does not on any machine in the house. So, I was doing some research and stumbled across the one I have at quite a reasonable price. Since I still shoot all my black and white work on film, this is a happy thing. I'm working off a backlog of negatives I was scanning at the Photo Center but had to set aside time, go, get set up, all that stuff. Now I can do this at home after a day of working in the basement :)

I'm working through the negatives I have at hand, will get an idea of the shots I have, edit them down... and then I'm going to need some new material. It's all good though, I'm back to working with film to some degree.

Current Mood: happy

I'm not
dead yet.

I spent the last week in Las Vegas at a conference and while the conference was good, Vegas is definitely not my sort of town. I do not enjoy gambling with the exception of the occasional game of penny ante poker or possibly other stakes that can make the game fun. I enjoy shows but like with movies, I hate going alone and so I don't. Add to all that, my allergies were off the hook to the point of 6 Benadryl a day (for those who don't know me, I generally avoid medication unless absolutely necessary) and it made for a business trip like any other basically. The conference could have been held in Omaha and the result would likely have been the same.

Now, please don't take it that I had a bad trip. The conference was excellent. I didn't hit as many sessions as normal but I did a huge amount of networking, I established some new connections and from a work/career/business perspective it was quite an excellent conference. Interestingly enough, I spent the majority of the networking experiences with the Germans from IBM. This is actually much better than it sounds because two of the major tools I use from IBM are out of the German labs. I also have an invitation from one of the developers to come visit him at his house if I'm ever in the area for business or pleasure.

While there I also had the opportunity to visit with

yinshu and Panther. It was a good dinner and my body still being on east coast time was an early evening (or late for the east coast).

I am very glad to be home where my allergies have gone back into hiding, I have my cats, all 6 of them, a comfortable bed and a town I enjoy.

Current Mood: content

I is
drunk.

5 Captain and Cokes will do that to a guy, even me. Yes

pheylan I'm aware I broke the rule. I will however be much closer to sober before I hit the bed. At least I got to talk, extremely briefly, to the Cute German Girl (tm)

Current Mood: drunk

And once again
I step into the realm of the political.

I am, at this point, tired of the party of NO. For several years that party was the Democratic Party and now, for the last 10 months it has been the Republican Party. As case and point, I bring health care reform to the forefront. I will not come forward and say that the bills in the House and Senate will solve all the problems the plague the health care system, it took us decades to get here and one bill won't fix the problem. It is a step, a start, a place to move forward from. If we wait for the perfect bill, we will never have a law. The problem is, all the critics appear to be able to do is say NO.

Let me hear some viable alternatives, please. I've heard two alternatives, "Break down the laws restricting cross boarder purchasing of insurance and let the Capitalist system work" and "Limit malpractice awards to $250,000".

Let's start with the second one first, because I'm contrary that way. On the surface, this sounds like a great idea, $250 is a lot of money and is great compensation. Well, let's break that down a little. Start with the fact that to get the $250K, you have to hire a lawyer. A normal lawyer will agree to take on the case for 30% or $75,000. Sounds great, you still get $175,000, which is still a lot of money. Well, not so fast there. You still have to pay taxes on that money, which will put most people paying at the 38% level of the $250,000 and since Uncle Sam gets paid first, that comes out to $95,000. So, let's do the math: $250,000 minus the $95,000 for the government, minus $75,000 for your lawyer leaves you $80,000 or 32% of your malpractice award. Now for the next step; is your right arm worth $80K? How about your eyesight? Or perhaps your child? Are any of those things worth $250,000 after taxes and lawyers to you? More? Starting to get the point?

I agree, there are many frivolous malpractice lawsuits out there, target those, not legitimate claims. Target the real problem because what I just went over is about to play into the first alternative I skipped.

The Capitalist system. Sounds great, free market and all that. Well, first of all the Capitalist system is about one thing, Capital. Money. Money does not have ethics, morals, a soul nor does it care about humanist principles. A for profit venture cares about one thing, making a profit. Do not think, for one second, that any insurance company has your best interest at heart. They only care about their bottom line and what the law tells them they must do. The goal of the insurance company is to take your money and give as little of it to anyone else as humanly possible. They will find all the reasons in the world to reduce costs and not pay out.

Two, real world scenarios that happened in this household. Clue had major surgery, an incision from navel to pubic bone and the insurance company only authorized one night in the hospital. Her Dr. stood his ground and she ended up there for 3 nights but not until after a big fight and nearly a delayed surgery. I had minor surgery however I was put under General Anesthesia. My insurance company paid for the Anesthesia but was not going to pay for the Anesthesiologist. What, I was supposed to administer it myself? Both were resolved in our favor but took time and arguing with the insurance companies. They did not care about our health, they only cared about our money. That is how the Capitalist system works.

Now, to tie the two together. If an insurance company or doctor can only be held responsible for $250,000 of damages, now a cost benefit analysis happens. If we don't perform procedure X, it will cause a fatality 2% of the time, however we can only be financially responsible for $250,000 per fatality. The savings to the company by not doing X 100% of the time is $750,000 per 100 skipped procedures. The two fatalities will only amount to $500,000 and the bad press will amount to $100,000 so by not doing X, the company saves $50,000 per 100 skipped procedures which translates to Y Hundred Thousand per year. Don't think they'll do this? Look to the auto industry, they've balanced recalls vs $$ for years. It's one reason why the National Transportation Safety Board now has the authority to order automotive recalls. The Capitalist system cares about one thing... Capital.

Please feel free to start a courteous debate on the topic. Flames, insults and rudeness will be deleted but intellectual discourse and disagreement are welcome.

Current Mood: annoyed

Thank you
to all who wished well last night.

No calls, no pages.

Current Mood: relieved

I have
just started my first oncall rotation with the SACVAP hotline.

Wish me luck for a quiet night.

Current Mood: nervous