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Saturday, April 25th, 2009
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10:22 pm - Swine Flu - Pandemic Potential - Don't Panic
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First rule, and written clearly on the back cover:
DON'T PANIC.
That being said, there is indeed pandemic potential for the Swine Flu. If you're not familiar with this recent development, look here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090425/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/med_swine_flu
or
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/25/swine.flu/index.html
Swine Flu's first victims were in their 20-40s in age. This is reminiscent of the Spanish Flu, which also killed people indiscriminantly of their age or apparent health. The reason this is the case is that it's a cross-species virus. Human immune systems have no exposure to this virus, so we have little to no species immune history against it.
It's in the U.S., confirmed cases in Kansas, California, New York, and possibly 4 other states. It is spreading human to human, so it has extremely high potential to mutate.
Don't panic. If you get the flu (be it Swine Flu or regular), bite the bullet and don't go to work: go to your doctor. Symptoms include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea; in other words, the same symptoms for any other flu.
If it does become a global pandemic and you want to prepare? Well... if a pandemic happens you're probably going to get infected. Vaccines take months to make, so you won't get them in time. So what can you do?
Stay healthy. Wash your hands. Eat healthy. Moderate aerobic exercise daily (nothing too extreme or damaging). Stay hydrated. Increase your Vitamin C.
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(2 bites | consume me)
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| Thursday, April 9th, 2009
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9:27 am - A Solar Powered Oven
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A guy "invented" it in his back yard one day for a contest to make the best practical ideas to ease global warming.
It's an oven made of cardboard. It gets hot enough to boil water, bake casseroles, etc. It's really simple to make. Here's how you make one.
What you need:
2 Cardboard Boxes, one small enough to fit inside the larger one
Aluminum Foil
Black Paint
Transparent Acrylic Cover
How to Make:
1.) Line the inside of the larger box with aluminum foil.
2.) Paint the outside of the small box black. Making a black cardboard lid for it will concentrate the heat even more.
3.) Insert the small black box inside the aluminum foil lined box. Put food you wish to cook inside the black box.
4.) Put food dish inside black box.
5.) Place Acrylic Cover over large box.
If made correctly, you should be cookin' pretty quick. The black box and foil help concentrate the heat. The only thing I was curious about is if it would get hot enough to light the black box on fire... I know one way to find out!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/09/solar.oven.global.warming/index.html
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(2 bites | consume me)
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| Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
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1:14 pm
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So here's my journal over the last 4-5 months using wordle.net. Hmm...
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(consume me)
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| Monday, March 9th, 2009
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1:49 pm - Watchmen
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Disappointing, but fun to watch.
The music was incredibly heavy-handed, to the point of hilarity.
The movie failed at fully realizing the original important themes of the book. Seemed more like a generic comic book story, which wasn't the point of the book at all.
Gorgeous visuals.
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(2 bites | consume me)
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| Sunday, February 15th, 2009
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10:27 pm - A Shooting Star - The National Weather Service in league with Nyarlathotep?
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On my way to visit Cori and Mike, an extremely bright blue glowing shooting star fell and fizzled out less than 400 meters away from me. It was startling, beautiful and amazing. I'd never seen a shooting star so close and in such detail as this one, seeing it burn out and crackle just before it would have hit the ground.
Cori did some investigating and discovered the source of the shooting star. We had suspected it was satellite debris because of the bright blue glow, and it seems she confirmed it:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/product.php?site=JKL&product=PNS&issuedby=JKL
Still... I'm thinking conspiracy theory, with perhaps a healthy dose of Cthulhu involvement. Anybody dreaming of Rl'yeh lately?
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(1 bite | consume me)
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| Friday, February 13th, 2009
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1:14 pm - I have... a girlfriend?
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Why yes, yes I do.
Robie and I are officially dating, and it's awesome. Just last night we were discussing the best plans for handling a Zombie invasion scenario, and have established a few important details in those regards. Yes, you know you really like somebody when you partake of Zombie Preparedness together. How Romantic!
Some of you may be curious as to what my Lady looks like. ( My Lady. )
We've realized that I need another guitar hero guitar as well, so that we can play together, though I'll get that after my next paycheck. Geek romance. <3
In other news, I'm going to spontaneously visit Cori and Mike this weekend! Hurrah! I haven't seen them in quite some time, and I miss them. As usual, it'll likely be a wonderful time. I'm bringing Gloom along, and I'm certain a wealth of card games, ice-cream and pizza lie in wait for me at their place. As well as multitudes of very serious discussions with Mike in regards to our secret plots to rule Siberia, and other shenanigans.
Things are going pretty good around here over the past two weeks. I'd like to see if Jason Newcombe and I can find some time to hang out as well, via LARP or just to see each other and hang out.
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(9 bites | consume me)
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| Monday, February 2nd, 2009
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7:10 pm - Will I be... Sweeney Todd?!?!
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I heard a rumor that the local Community College is holding auditions for the musical...
Sweeney Todd.
I've been wanting to play the lead in this musical for years now. I'm one of the best and most experienced basses in the region.
Can anybody local confirm or deny this? In any case, I'm breaking out my music to practice, just in case.
If it is going up, I will be Sweeney Todd. At least, for a few nights of performance. ;-)
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(3 bites | consume me)
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| Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
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7:50 pm - Princess Noriko
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Noriko, the Princess, my cat, is dead. She died today sleeping in her litter box.
She had been sleeping in her litter box a lot recently, only coming out for food and water. She had become quite, well, mentally ill it seemed and was ready to die.
Noriko loved two things in the world after me: jewelry and cigarettes. She would steal jewelry, and sit there and wear it. And she loved cigarettes so much that she would steal it from my grandmother's purse when she visited, take them behind the couch, and roll in them. We would give them to her, and she reacted like she was in heaven, putting them in her mouth, rolling around on them, and acting like she was on catnip.
Tonight I buried her in the back yard. I bought a pack of cigarettes, and took one of my nicer rings. I smoked part of a cigarette, placed the rest of the pack and lighter in with her, along with my ring.
It helped me. And it's a good homage to Noriko.
I love Noriko.
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(7 bites | consume me)
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| Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
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6:29 pm - Punny
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| Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
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3:17 pm - Ooh, look...
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| Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
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4:34 pm - I Lost the Game.
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| Friday, October 31st, 2008
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9:13 pm - So...
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Furniture all moved over in record time, thanks to my cousin Brandon and his friends. Also found a couch in good condition for free, so I now have a comfy loveseat as well.
Oh, and... in case you didn't notice, I have internet. They connected it in record time, and during the move the delivery guy came with my modem and connectivity instructions. All connected without a hitch. So... that 3 weeks stuff is off the table. I'm easy to communicate with again.
Things are slowly becoming organized. Did some quick shopping for basic foodstuffs and essentials tonight, so I'm good to go.
I traded days so I have this Sunday off, but I'm working a 3-day weekend next weekend. I'm spending all of Sunday studying. It's a slim chance, but it's a chance. I'd rather stay in the program than not. I will have lost nothing by taking the extra time to study, as I was able to trade work-days. If it works, I stay in the program. If it doesn't, I have lots and lots of free time. Those are the bonuses for each, so whichever I get I'll take advantage of those bonuses.
I really don't want to fail out. It's going to be very difficult to stay in the game.
If I get a borderline score, I'm going to be arguing every question I missed on every test to try to get the extra points I need. I really want to stay in the program. It was just a sucky week.
So tired...
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(consume me)
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10:13 am - Moving etc.
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Just a note, my internet access will not be dependable or constant for a maximum of 4 weeks. It's going through the rural bureaucracy to get hooked up at my new place still. I'll be able to check e-mail, etc., at the local library from time to time. If you need to contact me for some reason, call me. If you don't have my phone number, e-mail me and ask for it and I may give it to you.
Take care. I'll update when I have reliable net connectivity again.
postscript: I live 3 blocks from the library, so there's a chance I'll be checking frequently. But no promises.
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(1 bite | consume me)
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| Monday, October 27th, 2008
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5:12 pm - Circumcision
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| Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
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6:35 pm
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| Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
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6:36 pm - Remember that post about Sugar Highs?
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So, at the end of April I made a post discussing the "Sugar High" phenomenon. Here's a link to it:
http://ninquark.livejournal.com/174941.html?view=596573#t596573
Since then, I have periodically received comments on it from several anonymous users saying "thanks" for, or complimenting me on my description of the information.
Now, I IP-log my LJ (except on occasion when I want to allow for true anonymity on posts), so I thought, why not. Lets see where these people are from.
Now, the person going on a tangent on evolution is from Washington State, near Seattle. Ok, he's in the U.S. That's cool and expected.
Then there's the next anonymous commentor, I looked him up and where's he from but... Seoul, South Korea.
I thought that surely the third person would be from the U.S. as well, but when I looked up his IP-Address, what do I find?
Tallinn, Estonia
I was wondering how all these anonymous comments came to me, and with a quick goole search I found the answer.
If you go to google and type in: what causes sugar high; My LJ is the 10th relevant entry.
type: sugar high what causes; 8th relevant entry
type: sugar high causes; 11th relevant entry
Out of about 300,000+ relevant entries.
It should also be noted that my page is one of the few, perhaps only, within the first few pages on the search that delineates the differences between getting a Sugar High and having High Blood Sugar
So I thought, "Man, how did I develop a decent enough Page Rank on Google to get here?" So I looked up my google page rank here: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php and discovered... I have no page rank. At all.
So I'm not sure what's up. But in any case, I've apparently contributed to the education of people on at least three continents in regards to what causes Sugar Highs, and some basic functions of human metabolism.
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(consume me)
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| Thursday, September 11th, 2008
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7:29 pm - Answers
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Ravens
A Conspiracy of Ravens
An Unkindness of Ravens
When Ravens are referred to as Crows, they are called a Murder of Crows.
((Really, there are lots of birds within the Genus of Corvus. Separated into different specific epithets, or species, you get the birds commonly known as: Common Ravens (Corvus corax), Hooded Crows (C. cornix, Rooks (C. frugilegus), Jackdaws (C. monedula), and Carrion Crows (C. corone). There are more species than this, but... those are the ones you've likely seen the most of. I suppose I should've been more specific before. ;)
Vultures
A Venue of Vultures
A Committee of Vultures
And the third... when a group of vultures are circling in the air they are called...
A Kettle of Vultures.
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(1 bite | consume me)
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1:18 am - Because I Agreed To
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A Meme
1. There are 30 questions.
2. Next to each number, write only the name of the person on your LJ friends list who fits.
3. Answer one question with one name.
4. Don't tell the questions to anyone who isn't doing this meme.
( Read more... )
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(11 bites | consume me)
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12:39 am - Trivia
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There are at least three collective nouns specific to vultures. What are they?
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(2 bites | consume me)
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12:30 am - Trivia
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There are at least two collective nouns specific for a group of ravens. What are they?
If you looked it up before answering, please fess up. It's ok if you did. Resourcefulness is looked highly upon in these parts.
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(5 bites | consume me)
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