Yearly Archives: 2006

Thinking About Forever

Posted on August 8, 2006 by

A common theme has cropped up recently in discussions with a couple of my friends. One friend is trying to quit smoking; another recently stopped drinking. They both made statements that were nearly identical: “I just can’t imagine never [smoking|drinking] again!” It got me to thinking about how we humans are so good at defeating ourselves by how we think about things. Forever is such a long, long time, and is so much more to deal with than we could possibly have the strength for right now. No wonder it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Deep Thoughts | 2 Comments

Why I’ve Abandoned MySpace

Posted on July 24, 2006 by

Originally posted on my now-defunct MySpace site My daughter has pointed out that I have a severe MySpace deficiency. I willingly concur. I’m sorry. I got tired of waiting! I have ADD. I don’t watch TV, for example. I listen to it while I’m doing other things. If there’s not enough dialogue in a show to let me know what’s going on, I miss out, because I can’t seem to remember to keep looking at the screen, what with everything else that’s going on! So it should come as no … Continue reading →

Posted in My Life | Leave a comment

[Video] Dancing Jordan

Posted on July 15, 2006 by

This is my cousin Elisabeth’s daugher Jordan, hamming it up for the camera…

Posted in Life & Love | Leave a comment

Thankfulness

Posted on June 18, 2006 by

I had a patient recently who will stay in my memory for many years to come. He’s not an old man, barely middle-aged. He’s a homeless drunk, “frequent flier” on the hospital unit where I work as an aide. He’s admitted on a regular basis for various injuries and illnesses. Now he’s got cirrhosis and cancer and half his body is covered with cellulitis. His skin is yellow from liver failure and brown from living outdoors and red and oozing where the cellulitis has attacked; his teeth are rotten and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deep Thoughts, Nursing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Focus

Posted on April 28, 2006 by

Back in the early 90s there were these posters and pictures everywhere that looked like a big mess of colored dots or designs, but if you learned to look at them the right way, you could see a three-dimensional image there. It took practice to teach your eyes to focus in this new way. Even after you had learned the trick, sometimes it was just really hard to get past the “noise” and see the true picture beneath. Some people never could get the hang of it. I remember hearing … Continue reading →

Posted in Nursing, Parallel Universes | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Seeing in Pictures

Posted on February 25, 2006 by

I went to a really interesting presentation last night by a guy named Daniel Reisberg, an expert in cognitive psychology. He was talking about how some people can visualize things in their minds and some people can’t, although they may not know they can’t. Researchers can tell this by sticking people in FMRI machines while they are being instructed to visualize something. For the visualizers, when they follow an instruction like “picture your living room in your mind”, the visual cortex lights up just like it would if they were … Continue reading →

Posted in Deep Thoughts | 1 Comment

Pert’ Near

Posted on February 5, 2006 by

Doing admit vitals on a new patient one night, an elderly man with twinkling eyes, long hair, and a Santa Claus beard, I asked him how tall he was. “Pert’ near tall as you are,” he replied, looking up at me from where he lay on the hospital bed. “I’m six two,” I said. “Is that how tall you are?” “Pert’ near,” he nodded, then clarified for me, “I’m five six and a half.” I guess, depending on your perspective, that a gap of seven and a half inches could … Continue reading →

Posted in Parallel Universes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment