Tryal...what? Not clever enough?

"Lordy, lordy, look who's turning 4040!"

2009-12-02T01:43:00.000-08:00

Another sleepless night of insomnia and MST3K...found some modeling clay...and...

Behold!
Using but simple modeling clay and these two hands, I have built a mighty mushroom forest!
Well, it's not really a "mighty" forest, per se. One might actually say something along the lines of "tiny, easily squishable, 2-inch high crudely crafted fungi atop an overly-cluttered floor".
But, eh. Either way, here they are.

Gaze upon the adorable red-and-white fungi and TREMBLE! Well, maybe not tremble. They're not really tremble-worthy. They're actually pretty cheerful.

Ah well.

Anyhow.

I shall bid you all adieu for this evening.

Adios!

Why am I awake? Seriously...this is an insane hour

2008-09-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

Good mourning!!!

And yes mourning is right seeing as how it is...2:07 in the AM...another rousing night of not being able to sleep.

My poor blog...it's been sitting collecting dust for the better part of a year..

I say my blog but it's really become "our" blog now...mine and Tricia's that is.

For those of you playing the home game, and have been living under rocks this year Tricia is...heh...how do I explain this...Tricia is the most incredible person I have ever had the privilege of having in my life. She and I met at Disneyland, on the infamous parade route. She is kind, beautiful, supportive, funny...the list goes on...annnnnnnnnnyho. She and I are currently exploring the fun filled world of unemployment (your prayers would be apprciated by the way).
However my school carrer as revamped it's self, Nursing is that much closer.

Rainy Day Parade

2007-12-20T20:06:00.000-08:00

Hmmm few things better than working in the rain...reminds you your alive

A New Dawn...A Mischievous Night...

2007-12-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

PHHHEWW...now that I have that off my chest I can finally get to writing what I WANT to write...

Jungle was...uneventful tonight, although it did rain pretty heavily. There are few things more beautiful than the Jungle in the rain...granted it was at night so one couldn't really SEE much...but the idea is still the same.

To give you an idea of my work place...this is my Jungle...and she is beautiful...

Although she is not without her mischief...before I show you allow me to explain...

In Jungle Terms "going on safari" means to go behind the scenes at Jungle and explore the show scenes. a few nights ago myself and several other Skips, including our Lead went on Safari to the scene known as the "African Velt" in which there is a vignette of a pride of Lions lording over a kill or rather "protecting a sleeping" Zebra. Now...what most people don't know is that the Zebras tail has long since fallen off and well...some of the Skips thought this would be a funny joke for the next batch of guests to see when the boats came through...

...I love my Job...

Rekindling

2007-12-19T04:06:00.001-08:00

I've had this blog for a while now and I've been somewhat lackadaisical in my usage of it, a sin I'm now trying to correct.

I beg your pardon if some of this comes across more negative than I would hope but I do have a few things I would like to get off my chest.

As some of you know I work at Disneyland as a fully certified and licensed Skipper for the Jungle Navigation Co. (a.k.a. Jungle Cruise); a job which has forced me to come to terms with most of my childish ways, tie them in a burlap sack and feed them to a passing Hippo. It has also brought me face to face with the true ugliness of the world, namely in my coworkers/roommates.

Roommates:
I have 3 roommates; Luis, Chris and Drew

For the most part, Luis seems to be innocent enough, someone who was raised a certain way and is set in his ways, and at the same time trying to mature through the mucky quagmire that is the end of the teenage years.

Chris is very easy to please, a book, some Pepsi and good conversation from time to time is enough to get him through his day. Little pleases or displeases him, in fact its very difficult to get a response beyond and shrug and "meh."

Drew is, to put it in the most gentle way, a toad. He claims to be a fervent Atheist, however I've begun to think he only identifies with that way of life because it poses the smallest intellectual threat to him, or at least because he must constantly be arguing about something to someone, "only I am right" as said in Fahrenheit 451. I cannot express the pure frustration I feel towards this creature, and I used that word in the most loving of ways. I've never heard someone speak so hatefully of their parents, nor have I ever seen someone so utterly self motivated (by which I mean motivated to please himself and only himself.)

However, as frustrating as he is he seems to be the common voice of much of my generation, the entitled elites and self worshiping fat cats that seem to be everywhere I turn. "If you don't agree with how I see the world, you are useless and stupid, if you don't exist to service me you are obsolete, if you don't make me feel good about myself at all times you are cruel, and if you ask for a kind word in return you are greedy and all that is wrong with the world." IN other words, John F. Kennedy's sentiment has become "Ask not what your country can do for you, demand all from your country, you deserve it."

I beg for forgiveness for having ever been guilty of these sins.

The Laboror

2007-08-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

My name is, well, it doesn’t really matter. I work for…that doesn’t really matter ether, I work, that is most likely a pointless thing to say, “I work for…” Because that would imply I am employed. A more appropriate word to use is “Labor.”

We are told to labor, that is the reason. We are meaningless, only the product is meaningful. I believe this, I want to believe this, and I must believe this. My mind however, does not.

I wonder, a strange feeling, wondering is not reasonable, it serves no purpose, it only distracts. But, my mind wonders, what is my purpose. I am told I have none. I am told my purpose is to be meaningless, I must only labor.

A part of me yearns to find purpose. I am told individuals must only labor. I am told there is no I. But there must be. My mind is like a stubborn child. It refuses to believe there is no I. It refuses to believe there is no purpose.

We are not allowed to leave the factory, we eat, sleep and labor in our small cubicles and then we are sent to our assembly lines. Each of us has a purpose, one welds the metal, one puts the pieces together, and one puts the product onto the next belt.

We are not told why we do this; we are not told what we are making. We are only told to labor.

There is a sign on the wall, written with yellow paint; it says “Where are all the good men dead? In the Heart? Or In the Head?” it looks as if the wall is bleeding this out, is scares me.

The rooms are dark, only minimum lighting. Its warm, to warm, I want to take some layers off, but we all have to wear regulation uniforms, gray, they are gray, as are we, as is our labor.

We don’t know where our “creations” go. They go through a small hole in the wall on the belt and are never seen again.

I get up…there are no guards; I move towards the hole…I look through…darkness.

I lay on the belt. I lay on the belt to find my purpose through the wall.

I move through the hole…darkness overcomes me.

I emerge, a room, my room, but it is not. No doors, only one leading to the cubicles.

No one notices me, if they do, they ignore me, I serve no purpose to them, and to them I am meaningless.

I see laborers, I see our “creations” they are being taken apart. Like an aborted child they are disregarded and the pieces are put back on the belt.

I stay on the belt. I move through the counterpart hole in the wall. Once again darkness.

Once again I emerge in my room, this time it is my room…I see the pieces being put together. I see things being “created.”

My mind freezes, my purpose is nothing. My meaning is nothing. My labor is nothing.

I feel nothing.

I am cauterized…I return to my purpose…I return to my meaninglessness.

I return to my labor, my minds have new thoughts now, regrets. I remember stories from my labor nurse of a time before when purpose was free. I remember stories of the sins for those who came before me, those who gave their purpose to the community, and stories of the first laborers.

My name is, well, it doesn’t really matter. Names have no purpose. For the sake of nonexistent argument call me “Laborer.” I suppose I am also a mother. But I am not a mother, I give birth to a child, I give the child away and it is killed, I mother would not allow this. I see the “children” go out of the room through hole, only to be destroyed and sent back to be reborn.

THE END

The Ecstasy

2007-08-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

Long had we crept in cryptic,
Delights and doubts on tiptoes,
The air growing purer, clearer
Continually; and nearer
We went on to the center of
The Garden, hand in hand, finger on lip.

On right and left uplifted
The fountains rose and swifter
And steadier urgance, argent
On steely pillars, larger
Each moments, spreading foamy plumes
Thinner and broader under the blinding sun.

The air grows warmer; firmer
The silence grips it; murmur
of insect buzz nor business
of squirrel or bird there is not.
Only the fluttering of the butterflies
Above the empty lawns, dance without noise.

So on we fared and forded
A brook with lilies bordered,
So cold it wrung with anguish
bitterly our hearts. But language
cannot beguile lies. And the paradise,
found I, in your eyes.

The Da Vinci Crap

2007-06-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

It is a persistent and popular fact that Leonardo Da Vinci figured out all the secrets of the universe, didn't tell anyone about them, and then kinda...got drunk and forgot them. But not before he left a lot of obscure clues and riddles in order to hide them from the nasty big bad Catholics and their Pope mobiles from them

Ok...I love some good fiction now and then, I've even been known to enjoy some of L. Ron Hubbard's older less heretical works...but the notion that the Catholic Church is a Big Brother conspiracy is just deep fried silly on a stick.

Major silliness: The Opus Dei is a militant wing of the Catholic Church, an organization that is led into a sinister international conspiracy to keep the world in the dark the Jesus was in fact not divine but rather a regular man who fathered children with Mary Magdalen and these Children or the "blood line" is the true Holy Grail...King Arthur eat your heart out.

Reason for it being silliness: Let me count the ways...1: The major villain in The Da Vinci Code is a Rasputinesuqe monk who is member of Opus Dei but...surprise surprise...in reality there are no monks in Opus Dei. 2: The Opus Dei is called the Pope's "personal prelature" in the book, however, but the term "personal prelature" does not refer to a special relationship to the Pope: It means an institution in which the jurisdiction of the prelate is not linked to a geographic territory but over persons, wherever they be...oops.

LOGIC TRAIN!!! ALL ABOARD!!!...oops it left without me

In the real world the Opus Dei is an organization of the Catholic Church that emphasizes the Catholic belief that everyone is called to become a saint and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The great majority of its approximately 87,000 members are lay people. Opus Dei is Latin for "Work of God", and the organization is sometimes known simply as "the Work".

Most members, called supernumeraries, lead traditional family lives and have secular careers. The other three classes of members, numeraries, associates, and numerary-assistants, are celibate, and often live in special centers.

Opus Dei was founded in Spain in 1928 by Roman Catholic priest Josemaría Escrivá and given final approval in 1950 by Pope Pius XII In 1982, it was made into a personal prelature its jurisdiction is not linked to one specific geographic area, but instead covers the persons in Opus Dei, wherever they are. Opus Dei is currently the only Catholic organization of this type. Various Popes and Catholic leaders have strongly supported what they see as Opus Dei's innovative teaching on the sanctifying value of work, and in 2002, Pope John Paul II canonized Saint Josemaría Escrivá.

Holo-riffic

2007-05-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

From ABC:

Virtual Human Puts Doctors Inside Their Patients

Resarchers Develop '4D' Model of Body; Doctors Might Use it to Plan Surgery

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian researchers say they have developed the most detailed model of a human yet, a movable "4D" image that doctors can use to plan complex surgery or show patients what ailments look like inside their bodies.

Called CAVEman, the larger-than-life computer image encompasses more than 3,000 distinct body parts, all viewed in a booth that gives the image height, width and depth, the researchers said on Wednesday.

CAVEman also plots the passage of time -- the fourth "D."

Scientists can layer on the unique visuals of patients, such as magnetic resonance images, CAT scans and X-Rays, giving physicians high-resolution views of the inner workings of the body while it appears to float within arm's reach.

It will help researchers study the genetics of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, muscular sclerosis and Alzheimer's, said officials at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine, which has worked on the system for six years.

"Today, this kind of a model is unique in the world. It's the only one that is complete," said Christoph Sensen, director of the medical school's Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics.

"We have components of models. We could make this thing with 50 different brains because everybody makes their own brain model. What we didn't have was a whole, complete body."

CAVEman is an offshoot of a 3D virtual reality "Cave," a C$6 million ($5.5 million) lab the Sun Center opened in 2002 in conjunction with Sun Microsystems Inc.

The model started partly due to a desire among massage therapy teachers at a company in the central Alberta city of Red Deer for a more intricate picture of muscles and bones.

It cost somewhere between C$500,000 and C$2 million. "It's very hard to guess, because it has taken many years, especially in Red Deer, with at least one or two artists constantly employed," Sensen said.

CAVEman, seen through 3D glasses in a booth, appears to stand in front of the viewer. As in a video game, the controller can manipulate it and focus on body parts, skin, bones, muscles, organs and veins.

"We say that killing monsters is fun, but curing cancer is more important," Andrei Turinsky, a mathematician and computer scientist, said as he moved the model around using a joystick.

The closer the image gets, the further into the body the viewer appears to travel. It is difficult to resist trying to touch it.

The image can also be loaded on to regular computers, to be viewed off site.

The medical community will benefit by being able to merge patients' diagnostic results -- such as computerized internal images and blood tests -- in one place, allowing specialists to work together more closely, Sensen said.

In addition, surgeons can use it instead of cadavers as teaching tool, and to plan surgeries before conducting them.

Patients will also gain much more understanding about their own conditions, he said.

"We want to do this so any patient can walk up to a machine with a surgeon in tow who says, 'This is what it looked like six weeks ago and this is what it looked like today. You better get surgery now'."

Next steps include developing versions to sell to hospitals around the world, and adding a touch element to the image.

Enter now the young hero...

2007-05-21T18:48:00.001-07:00

Ok, ok, ok, after years of being bugged about starting a blog I have finally fallen off the wagon.

I've been told time and again that if I wanted to express my opinion and be heard I must have the proper venue...so now let the script show "Now enters the young hero....pursued by a bear."