Alot of people have asked my opinion about the Big King and I like it. There are several differences between them however. The Big King is a little bigger than the Big Mac and it is also flame grilled. Both are on the same type bun and the sauce is a little different. But I like the Big King better, I guess mainly because it is new and I have eaten enough Big Macs in my life.
Both the Big King and Big Mac claim 29g of fat and 10g of saturated fat. The King is slightly lower in calories (510 vs. 550 for the Big Mac), sodium (780 mg vs. 970mg) and total carbohydrates (38g vs. 46g), but some of these numbers could vary wildly depending on just how much sauce is put on any one sandwich.
Customers do not care if one place is cloning another fast food place sandwich its about taste and value to the customer. Coupons were sent out when the Big King first appeared and it is on their current 2 for $5 promotion.
So Burger King won me over and I have not been back to a McDonald's.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Seth Rogan's visit to Washington
Seth Rogan, an actor, who stars in films like "knocked Up" and "This is the End", visited Washington D.C. for a Senate meeting about Alzheimer's. His mother in law has been recently diagnosed this disease and the actor has started a charity dedicated to the study of Alzheimer's. According to reports Rogan only had 2 senators listening out of 18. There were a few more there but they left halfway through his speech and the two left their was falling asleep. The actor voiced his displeasure on CNBC's Hardball and also tweeted about his meeting on Twitter.
Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks.Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases.Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging, although the greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are 65 and older. But Alzheimer's is not just a disease of old age. Up to 5 percent of people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer's (also known as younger-onset), which often appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s. Alzheimer's worsens over time. Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over a number of years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimer's, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those with Alzheimer's live an average of eight years after their symptoms become noticeable to others, but survival can range from four to 20 years, depending on age and other health conditions. Alzheimer's has no current cure, but treatments for symptoms are available and research continues. Although current Alzheimer's treatments cannot stop Alzheimer's from progressing, they can temporarily slow the worsening of dementia symptoms and improve quality of life for those with Alzheimer's and their caregivers. Today, there is a worldwide effort under way to find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, and prevent it from developing.
My Grandmother developed Alzheimer's after my Grandfather's passing. My Granny had dementia which was made worse due to Immaculate Degeneration. I agree with the reporter who did this story even though Washington is not listening (as usual) Mr. Rogan, I am listening because it has touched my life too.
For my reader's who might know someone with this disease there is help available:
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or a related dementia, you are not alone. The Alzheimer's Association is the trusted resource for reliable information, education, referral and support to millions of people affected by the disease.
Call our 24/7 Helpline: 800.272.3900
*Like, Comment, Share*
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
WWE Network: My Thoughts
In case you have been under a rock, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) launched their network this week available online. They have promoted this to death since the big announce earlier this year. Does anyone remember WWE 24/7 that was available on TV/PPV and it showed everything in their library. Well now the Network is going to show all WWF/E content, WCW content, and ECW content, but no AWA and WCCW. That is alittle disappointing that they are not going to show their entire library they could if they were not going to add a few reality shows in the mix. I was on YouTube and looking at Ring of Honor wrestling and Total Nonstop Action wrestling videos and guess who the before video starts advertiser was of course WWE.
Alot of people think that the WWE Network will hurt the other promotions. It might hurt TNA but I doubt it will hurt Ring of Honor since they are not on alot of TV Markets.
I just hope with the launch of the Network that the current WWE programming gets better. This past Monday's RAW was good with the return of the Undertaker. I was thinking that he was not going to make a WrestleMania appearance. Its a shame that the UnderTaker matches are usually alot better than the main event and I have a feeling this will be the case this year since as I write this that its Orton/Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. How many times have seen that match?
*Like,Comment,Share*
Alot of people think that the WWE Network will hurt the other promotions. It might hurt TNA but I doubt it will hurt Ring of Honor since they are not on alot of TV Markets.
I just hope with the launch of the Network that the current WWE programming gets better. This past Monday's RAW was good with the return of the Undertaker. I was thinking that he was not going to make a WrestleMania appearance. Its a shame that the UnderTaker matches are usually alot better than the main event and I have a feeling this will be the case this year since as I write this that its Orton/Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. How many times have seen that match?
*Like,Comment,Share*
A Thank You Blog to the IRS from Servers at Restaurants
For those of you that have never been in the hospitality business/restaurant business please take this blog to heart if you go out to eat in a big group or party. On average in America a restaurant serves makes $2.13/hour and this wage has not changed since it was first introduced. Your tip makes up the difference and in some instances if the server does not make enough tips that puts them in their company's "Sup Pay" list. "Sup Pay" is where the company has to pay the difference to equal minimum wage and they do not like paying "Sup Pay". Some restaurant companies have been known to either fire servers for their "Sup Pay" or they move the server in question to another part of the restaurant or they do not put the server on the schedule and make them quit.
The IRS late last year sent an email to all restaurant owners stating that gratuity could not be charged to anybody no matter how big the party or group. They decided that it was at the customer's own discretion to leave a tip. Most restaurants have a gratuity button on their cash registers that figures the tip and some places charge it due to it being a late night open eatery. But now they can not no longer do this. So think about the impact that if you are a server making $2.13/hour and a table of 20 or more walks in. Before the email they would be charged 15% gratuity with their total, but now there is no charge, they make a huge mess that the server has to clean up and they leave a $2 tip for the whole experience.
How would you feel?
Thanks IRS from Restaurant Servers all over America.
*Like, Comment, Share*
The IRS late last year sent an email to all restaurant owners stating that gratuity could not be charged to anybody no matter how big the party or group. They decided that it was at the customer's own discretion to leave a tip. Most restaurants have a gratuity button on their cash registers that figures the tip and some places charge it due to it being a late night open eatery. But now they can not no longer do this. So think about the impact that if you are a server making $2.13/hour and a table of 20 or more walks in. Before the email they would be charged 15% gratuity with their total, but now there is no charge, they make a huge mess that the server has to clean up and they leave a $2 tip for the whole experience.
How would you feel?
Thanks IRS from Restaurant Servers all over America.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Gravity: A Movie Review
When Gravity came out (starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) from the previews I was expecting an awesome action/scifi movie, but guess what instead I and the people sitting in the movie theater that night was a huge disappointment. So I can see how it got to #1 for several weeks there was nothing else playing worth a crap when this movie came out. Yes it was full of visual beauty I will give the director that much credit and that is about it.
So here is my question how can a disappointing bore fest get so many nominations for the Academy Awards. Several YouTube channels named it their #1 movie of 2013 (in their own opinion). Were we all watching the same film? Did I and the 50 other people in the theater that night I watched it see the same film or did we all miss something?
I did not go see alot of films in 2013 what few I did see, like Insidous 2 were way better to me than Gravity.
*Like, Comment, Share*
So here is my question how can a disappointing bore fest get so many nominations for the Academy Awards. Several YouTube channels named it their #1 movie of 2013 (in their own opinion). Were we all watching the same film? Did I and the 50 other people in the theater that night I watched it see the same film or did we all miss something?
I did not go see alot of films in 2013 what few I did see, like Insidous 2 were way better to me than Gravity.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Military Budget Cuts
It was recently announced that the government wants to cut back the military now that both wars are ending. In doing so what they are not thinking about is the effects it will have on local economies in the areas where military bases are located. If you think about how much military people spend in an area where they are stationed that helps the total local economy in an area. One base that they are considering closing is in a town where if the base closes then the area is going to feel the effects of that closure for years to come. Think about how many businesses will close because the personnel of that base supports it. But the government is not seeing this. They see the end of two wars and now they have to cut costs to help pay for those wars. Think about all of the soldiers that are about to be relieved of duty. They have served our country, they have families, and now they are probably being put out to pasture. Its a shame and shocking to me that our government who allowed these wars to begin with and did not believe that the expenses of these wars would be so high. Last estimates put the total figure in the TRILLIONS, plus you have to add the health care costs for our veterans for the rest of their lives.
I agree with some reports that instead of cutting the military budget so far back lets cut back the food stamps by increasing the minimum wage to something more liveable. But like every other great idea it will come down to a fight in our government houses. And big business will lobby our leaders that they have bought and paid for.
*Like, Comment, Share*
I agree with some reports that instead of cutting the military budget so far back lets cut back the food stamps by increasing the minimum wage to something more liveable. But like every other great idea it will come down to a fight in our government houses. And big business will lobby our leaders that they have bought and paid for.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Monday, February 24, 2014
Separation of Church and State
The separation of church and state is the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state.
Although the concept of separation has been adopted in a number of countries, there are varying degrees of separation depending on the applicable legal structures and prevalent views toward the proper role of religion in society. While a country's policy may be to have a definite distinction in church and state, there may be an "arm's length distance" relationship in which the two entities interact as independent organizations. A similar but typically stricter principle of laïcité has been applied in France and Turkey, while some socially secularized countries such as Denmark and the United Kingdom have maintained constitutional recognition of an official state religion. The concept parallels various other international social and political ideas, including secularism, disestablishment, religious liberty, and religious pluralism. Whitman (2009) observes that in many European countries, the state has, over the centuries, taken over the social roles of the church, leading to a generally secularized public sphere.
So you may be asking why I am doing a blog about this. Well its what I have been watching on the news, internet, YouTube, etc. over the past few months. Courthouses as of late have been putting up monuments dedicated to the 10 Commandments.
In a town in Florida a courthouse put up a monument to the 10 Commandments on the courthouse lawn. A local group of Atheists petitioned the courthouse and local community to allow an Atheist monument. It was a simple marble bench with a few quotes on it. Of course when it was finished the Atheist group was proud of the bench even though the Christian community wanted it removed. As this blog is being posted it has since been vandalized but it is still there.
In a town in Oklahoma a courthouse also put up a monument to the 10 commandments up on courthouse property and the Temple of Satan petitioned the city to allow them to put up a monument dedicated to Satan. It was to be a chair with a visualization of Baphomet sitting on it with a child, according to the last artist rendition of it. The group is still taking donations to put up the statue and government leaders are debating whether or not to allow any more petitions for artwork in or around the courthouse.
But to me if you allow one group to place a monument on government property it is just as fair to allow other groups that are not of the "Christian faith" to do the same thing. I personally think that no religious artwork of any kind should be allowed on government property and simply keep in the the religious places where they belong. But I know that religion and government are intertwined because many of our elected officials make decisions based on their religious beliefs.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Although the concept of separation has been adopted in a number of countries, there are varying degrees of separation depending on the applicable legal structures and prevalent views toward the proper role of religion in society. While a country's policy may be to have a definite distinction in church and state, there may be an "arm's length distance" relationship in which the two entities interact as independent organizations. A similar but typically stricter principle of laïcité has been applied in France and Turkey, while some socially secularized countries such as Denmark and the United Kingdom have maintained constitutional recognition of an official state religion. The concept parallels various other international social and political ideas, including secularism, disestablishment, religious liberty, and religious pluralism. Whitman (2009) observes that in many European countries, the state has, over the centuries, taken over the social roles of the church, leading to a generally secularized public sphere.
So you may be asking why I am doing a blog about this. Well its what I have been watching on the news, internet, YouTube, etc. over the past few months. Courthouses as of late have been putting up monuments dedicated to the 10 Commandments.
In a town in Florida a courthouse put up a monument to the 10 Commandments on the courthouse lawn. A local group of Atheists petitioned the courthouse and local community to allow an Atheist monument. It was a simple marble bench with a few quotes on it. Of course when it was finished the Atheist group was proud of the bench even though the Christian community wanted it removed. As this blog is being posted it has since been vandalized but it is still there.
In a town in Oklahoma a courthouse also put up a monument to the 10 commandments up on courthouse property and the Temple of Satan petitioned the city to allow them to put up a monument dedicated to Satan. It was to be a chair with a visualization of Baphomet sitting on it with a child, according to the last artist rendition of it. The group is still taking donations to put up the statue and government leaders are debating whether or not to allow any more petitions for artwork in or around the courthouse.
But to me if you allow one group to place a monument on government property it is just as fair to allow other groups that are not of the "Christian faith" to do the same thing. I personally think that no religious artwork of any kind should be allowed on government property and simply keep in the the religious places where they belong. But I know that religion and government are intertwined because many of our elected officials make decisions based on their religious beliefs.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Missing Something
I decided to write a real blog having to do with me the writer.
For the past few months, actually since 2011, but here lately this feeling of a part of me has died has grown. I fell like I have lost something a part of me and I am not sure what it is. I have been debating what I have lost, you know that part of yourself that in my own words "committed suicide and did not leave a note". But I know why I have felt this way however. Parts of my life, my real life, has sucked the life out of me and I have just felt so dead or misplaced in the world. I do not want to freak anyone out but I am not going anywhere, I know how some of you will take this post, but trust me. If you read my post on suicide I am not feeling that way. I just feel empty and I know that my job has had a HUGE part in this and some other parts of my real life has contributed to this feeling. My real life and my online life are two separate things, except my online life has more friends in it and they actually care about me, while my real life is basically 3 friends, that have basically turned their backs on me and chose there lives over me. But it is ok. I am used to walking in this world alone, if you read "I survived #1" you understand why. My last few jobs I have had had made me feel like a "man without a country", and they basically push me into a corner. And being extremely anti-social does not help matters none either, but you know the old saying when life gives you lemons you make lemonade.
But I am not asking for any pity or I am sorry. This has become a part of me and I have grown used to it. I have been battling this since I was 10 years old and it just sometimes seems like something I can not get over.
But it is what it is.....
*Like, Comment, Share*
For the past few months, actually since 2011, but here lately this feeling of a part of me has died has grown. I fell like I have lost something a part of me and I am not sure what it is. I have been debating what I have lost, you know that part of yourself that in my own words "committed suicide and did not leave a note". But I know why I have felt this way however. Parts of my life, my real life, has sucked the life out of me and I have just felt so dead or misplaced in the world. I do not want to freak anyone out but I am not going anywhere, I know how some of you will take this post, but trust me. If you read my post on suicide I am not feeling that way. I just feel empty and I know that my job has had a HUGE part in this and some other parts of my real life has contributed to this feeling. My real life and my online life are two separate things, except my online life has more friends in it and they actually care about me, while my real life is basically 3 friends, that have basically turned their backs on me and chose there lives over me. But it is ok. I am used to walking in this world alone, if you read "I survived #1" you understand why. My last few jobs I have had had made me feel like a "man without a country", and they basically push me into a corner. And being extremely anti-social does not help matters none either, but you know the old saying when life gives you lemons you make lemonade.
But I am not asking for any pity or I am sorry. This has become a part of me and I have grown used to it. I have been battling this since I was 10 years old and it just sometimes seems like something I can not get over.
But it is what it is.....
*Like, Comment, Share*
Sunday, February 23, 2014
School System Scandals
It was recently reported on the news that a local system was rocked by another scandal. This time it had to do with a high school in the school system in question's principal changing grades of over 130 freshman students. A teacher at that high school was a whistle blower and revealed it all to the media. As a result the teacher that blew the whistle on the school system is being forced to resign for not following proper protocol at the end of the current school year. And the principal of the high school got a simple "slap on the wrist". Ok here is my question why did the principal do it? What motivated him to change that many freshman's grades? But now to me it has been pretty much swept under the rug and we may never know how and why he did it? I feel sorry for the poor teacher who after this school year will probably NEVER be allowed to teach again because no one will probably hire him.
Last year the same school system was involved in another scandal this time it involved the CRT test or whatever they call it now. A couple of the teachers it was found out helped students cheat on this test. Like the other scandal mentioned my question is Why did they do it? So an investigation was done and about 4 teachers and a principal was forced to resign.
Stuff like this needs to be prevented. Did they do it to help their system get more federal money? I think they did it to prevent so many students from having to repeat a grade due to their lack of teaching ability or lack of the student's ability to comprehend the material. Alot of students are being allowed in to the next grade and either not be able to read at a proper grade level or they do not know math. This is what causes the students to become easily frustrated and want to drop out because they feel like no one cares about them. I agree that parents need to be more involved in their children's education, but they are not doing their part for different reasons. The main one being economic. Teachers are being stressed so alot of them now a days is letting alot of their students being "left behind".
And this is why we have such a screwed up society and too many students that do not know what a half dollar piece is or they can not do simple math or they think "twerk" or "selfie" are legitimate words in the English language.
*Like, Share, Comment*
Last year the same school system was involved in another scandal this time it involved the CRT test or whatever they call it now. A couple of the teachers it was found out helped students cheat on this test. Like the other scandal mentioned my question is Why did they do it? So an investigation was done and about 4 teachers and a principal was forced to resign.
Stuff like this needs to be prevented. Did they do it to help their system get more federal money? I think they did it to prevent so many students from having to repeat a grade due to their lack of teaching ability or lack of the student's ability to comprehend the material. Alot of students are being allowed in to the next grade and either not be able to read at a proper grade level or they do not know math. This is what causes the students to become easily frustrated and want to drop out because they feel like no one cares about them. I agree that parents need to be more involved in their children's education, but they are not doing their part for different reasons. The main one being economic. Teachers are being stressed so alot of them now a days is letting alot of their students being "left behind".
And this is why we have such a screwed up society and too many students that do not know what a half dollar piece is or they can not do simple math or they think "twerk" or "selfie" are legitimate words in the English language.
*Like, Share, Comment*
Saturday, February 22, 2014
State of My Blog (Feb. 2014)
I am writing this a week early I know. But when I logged on to my blog I saw something that kind of shocked me. I had 40 views of my blog in ONE day, and as I write this I have over 700 views of my blog since I started it in Jan. WOW is all I can say and a lot of thank yous to the curious who see my blog on whatever social media you are connected to (Facebook, Twitter, and Google+) is where I heavily promote my blog. I am also part of a blogging community on Facebook called the Bloggers. When I started this blog I was not expecting alot of people to be curious about what I write about and I have been experimenting with what I write about and how I write it. I have tried some things that alot of which has not worked out. I am still learning what you the reader makes you want to keep coming back to my blog every time I post something. Like all of the other projects I have scrapped due to lack of interest on either my part or I simply think no one likes it. This is the first thing I have done that I have made people curious. As a result of your curiosity that is what keeps me writing. I have taken several of my friend's advice and written what I know about. I also threw in a friend's of mine story along the way too. I watch the news and blog about what I have seen that surprised me and maybe it will make you the reader curious. I have talked a little about myself in a few of blogs. I have even let some friend's of mine pick out a topic for me to talk about. I never thought I would be writing a blog let alone almost 50 posts since Jan.
I am a very humble person and I never expected this little social experiment to literally blow up like it has, and for once (knock on wood) something is not blowing up in my face. People keep telling me that there are people out there similar in mindset to me, which at first I did not believe. When I got 100 views I honestly thought it was a fluke, because to me I am not that interesting a person. When I am talking to other people I feel like I am boring them, but apparently I do not bore the readers of my blog and I am glad that you all keep coming back because it is all of you that read my blog that keeps me writing. I try to keep things simple and I have learned from one blog that my readers do not like alot of swearing and ranting like you would see on a ranter's channel on YouTube and I can accept that and simply not do it again which I have not.
So the future of this blog (unless my readership quits reading) is wide open and as long as you all are going to keep an open mind and keep reading what I have to say I have decided I am going to keep writing.
So for those of you that have been sharing my blogs with your peers thank you for the support. If you are new to my blog read all of my previous posts and keep coming. Comment about my posts do not be afraid to speak your opinion about what I write, I have always valued it and very few have done it.
So until the next post, thank you all for giving me a chance to entertain you and maybe you have learned a little something along the way.
*Like, Comment, Share*
I am a very humble person and I never expected this little social experiment to literally blow up like it has, and for once (knock on wood) something is not blowing up in my face. People keep telling me that there are people out there similar in mindset to me, which at first I did not believe. When I got 100 views I honestly thought it was a fluke, because to me I am not that interesting a person. When I am talking to other people I feel like I am boring them, but apparently I do not bore the readers of my blog and I am glad that you all keep coming back because it is all of you that read my blog that keeps me writing. I try to keep things simple and I have learned from one blog that my readers do not like alot of swearing and ranting like you would see on a ranter's channel on YouTube and I can accept that and simply not do it again which I have not.
So the future of this blog (unless my readership quits reading) is wide open and as long as you all are going to keep an open mind and keep reading what I have to say I have decided I am going to keep writing.
So for those of you that have been sharing my blogs with your peers thank you for the support. If you are new to my blog read all of my previous posts and keep coming. Comment about my posts do not be afraid to speak your opinion about what I write, I have always valued it and very few have done it.
So until the next post, thank you all for giving me a chance to entertain you and maybe you have learned a little something along the way.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Friday, February 21, 2014
ICD-9 vs. ICD-10
Please note to all my readers this blog was planned before I changed majors in college. I decided to share this with you all.
The ICD-10 code sets are not a simple update of the ICD-9 code set. The ICD-10 code sets have
fundamental changes in structure and concepts that make them very different from ICD-9. Because of
these differences, it is important to develop a preliminary understanding of the changes from ICD-9 to
ICD-10. This basic understanding of the differences will then identify more detailed training that will be
needed to appropriately use the ICD-10 code sets. In addition, seeing the differences between the code
sets will raise awareness of the complexities of converting to the ICD-10 codes.
Issues today with the ICD-9 diagnosis and procedure code sets are addressed in ICD-10. One concern
today with ICD-9 is the lack of specificity of the information conveyed in the codes. For example, if a
patient is seen for treatment of a burn on the right arm, the ICD-9 diagnosis code does not distinguish that
the burn is on the right arm. If the patient is seen a few weeks later for another burn on the left arm, the
same ICD-9 diagnosis code would be reported. Additional documentation would likely be required for a
claim for the treatment to explain that the burn treated at this time is a different burn from the one that
was treated previously. In the ICD-10 diagnosis code set, characters in the code identify right versus left,
initial encounter versus subsequent encounter, and other clinical information.
Another issue with ICD-9 is that some chapters are full and impede the ability to add new codes. In some
cases, new codes have been assigned to different chapters making it difficult to locate all available codes.
ICD-10 codes have increased character length, which greatly expands the number of codes that are
available for use. With more available codes, it is less likely that chapters will run out of codes in the
future.
Other issues that are addressed in ICD-10 include the use of full code titles and appropriately reflecting
advances in medical knowledge and technology. More detailed information and examples are provided
below to demonstrate the differences between the ICD-9 and ICD-10 code sets.
Diagnosis Codes
In the ICD-10 diagnosis code set, the alpha characters are not case sensitive.The expanded number of characters of the ICD-10 diagnosis codes provides greater specificity to identify
disease etiology, anatomic site, and severity.
ICD-10 Code Structure:
Characters 1-3 – Category
Characters 4-6 – Etiology, anatomic site, severity, or other clinical detail
Characters 7 – Extension
The ICD-10 code sets are not a simple update of the ICD-9 code set. The ICD-10 code sets have
fundamental changes in structure and concepts that make them very different from ICD-9. Because of
these differences, it is important to develop a preliminary understanding of the changes from ICD-9 to
ICD-10. This basic understanding of the differences will then identify more detailed training that will be
needed to appropriately use the ICD-10 code sets. In addition, seeing the differences between the code
sets will raise awareness of the complexities of converting to the ICD-10 codes.
Issues today with the ICD-9 diagnosis and procedure code sets are addressed in ICD-10. One concern
today with ICD-9 is the lack of specificity of the information conveyed in the codes. For example, if a
patient is seen for treatment of a burn on the right arm, the ICD-9 diagnosis code does not distinguish that
the burn is on the right arm. If the patient is seen a few weeks later for another burn on the left arm, the
same ICD-9 diagnosis code would be reported. Additional documentation would likely be required for a
claim for the treatment to explain that the burn treated at this time is a different burn from the one that
was treated previously. In the ICD-10 diagnosis code set, characters in the code identify right versus left,
initial encounter versus subsequent encounter, and other clinical information.
Another issue with ICD-9 is that some chapters are full and impede the ability to add new codes. In some
cases, new codes have been assigned to different chapters making it difficult to locate all available codes.
ICD-10 codes have increased character length, which greatly expands the number of codes that are
available for use. With more available codes, it is less likely that chapters will run out of codes in the
future.
Other issues that are addressed in ICD-10 include the use of full code titles and appropriately reflecting
advances in medical knowledge and technology. More detailed information and examples are provided
below to demonstrate the differences between the ICD-9 and ICD-10 code sets.
Diagnosis Codes
In the ICD-10 diagnosis code set, the alpha characters are not case sensitive.The expanded number of characters of the ICD-10 diagnosis codes provides greater specificity to identify
disease etiology, anatomic site, and severity.
ICD-10 Code Structure:
Characters 1-3 – Category
Characters 4-6 – Etiology, anatomic site, severity, or other clinical detail
Characters 7 – Extension
The ICD-10 diagnosis code set also expands on the use of combination codes. Combination codes are a
single code that can be used to classify 1) two diagnoses, or 2) a diagnosis with an associated secondary
process or a diagnosis with an associated complication. Combination codes allow for the reporting of a
single code to express multiple elements of the diagnosis.
The increased specificity of the ICD-10 codes is more flexible, which means that emerging diseases can
be quickly incorporated. The higher level of detail in the codes provides the ability to more precisely code
the diagnosis. As with ICD-9, ICD-10 codes are to be reported at the highest level of detail possible
within the code structure. ICD-10 reflects advances in medicine and medical technology making the code
set more relevant to today’s understanding of diagnoses. ICD-10 also provides an improved ability to
measure health care services and conduct public health surveillance.
The alpha characters in the ICD-10 procedure code set are not case sensitive. The letters O and I are
not used to avoid confusion with the numbers 0 and 1.
The additional characters in the ICD-10 procedure code set allows for identifying the body system, root
operation, body part, approach, and device involved in the procedure.
The ICD-10 code sets are not simply increased and renumbered ICD-9 code sets. The move to ICD-10
will not be easy. The ICD-10 code sets include greater detail, changes in terminology, and expanded
concepts for injuries, laterality, and other related factors. The complexity of ICD-10 provides many
benefits because of the increased level of detail conveyed in the codes. The complexity also underscores
the need to be adequately trained on ICD-10 in order to fully understand reporting changes that will come
with the new code sets.
(Courtesy of the American Medical Association)
*Like Comment Share*
Georgia teen holding Wii remote shot by cops at his front door
This was just reported a day ago. It is still under investigation by the GBI.
A Georgia teen who dreamed of being a Marine was killed by police at his front door while wielding only a Wii remote, the family lawyer claims.
Christopher Roupe, 17, of Euharlee was felled by a single police bullet when an unidentified officer arrived at the family mobile home to execute a probation violation warrant against his father,
We live in a "gun soaked" society. The cops are nervous, the general public is nervous because everyone has a gun. Deadly force has become the norm since everyone owns a gun, a taser is considered inhuman in some parts of the country and in other parts of the country even rubber bullets are not even right. So yeah police has a right to be nervous everywhere they go even when they are serving a warrant. So if the teenager in this case was holding a Wii remote or a BB gun the question is was the officer that fired the shot in the wrong.
Hopefully it will all come to the surface during the investigation.
Does any of my readers remember when that teenager was accidentally killed for pointing a Lazer Tag gun at an officer. Back in those days those guns looked real and was black. I used to have a Lazer Tag set so I remember those guns. That incident resulted in all toy guns not looking like the read thing and being colored differently or have a bright colored unremovable cap from the end of them. I think even cap guns have quit being made any of you remember them. I used to have one of those too and it made alot of noise and let off alot of smoke like it was real.
I am not against guns. I just believe they should be used for self defense. But we have become a "gun soaked" society. If anyone mentions regulation of some form everyone freaks out.
"Guns do not kill people, only people using them kill people."
*Like, Comment, Share*
A Georgia teen who dreamed of being a Marine was killed by police at his front door while wielding only a Wii remote, the family lawyer claims.
Christopher Roupe, 17, of Euharlee was felled by a single police bullet when an unidentified officer arrived at the family mobile home to execute a probation violation warrant against his father,
We live in a "gun soaked" society. The cops are nervous, the general public is nervous because everyone has a gun. Deadly force has become the norm since everyone owns a gun, a taser is considered inhuman in some parts of the country and in other parts of the country even rubber bullets are not even right. So yeah police has a right to be nervous everywhere they go even when they are serving a warrant. So if the teenager in this case was holding a Wii remote or a BB gun the question is was the officer that fired the shot in the wrong.
Hopefully it will all come to the surface during the investigation.
Does any of my readers remember when that teenager was accidentally killed for pointing a Lazer Tag gun at an officer. Back in those days those guns looked real and was black. I used to have a Lazer Tag set so I remember those guns. That incident resulted in all toy guns not looking like the read thing and being colored differently or have a bright colored unremovable cap from the end of them. I think even cap guns have quit being made any of you remember them. I used to have one of those too and it made alot of noise and let off alot of smoke like it was real.
I am not against guns. I just believe they should be used for self defense. But we have become a "gun soaked" society. If anyone mentions regulation of some form everyone freaks out.
"Guns do not kill people, only people using them kill people."
*Like, Comment, Share*
Movie Review: 3 Days to Kill
Today I went to see 3 days to kill starring Kevin Costner. I had seen the trailer for this movie and was thinking possible comedy action movie. Costner plays a field operative who gets injured on the job and you find out he is dying of cancer. He then decides to try and reunite with his estranged wife and daughter whom he left in Paris while traveling all over the world. He then is pulled back in by a CIA operative to do one more job and she gives him shots of an experimental drug to help slow down his cancer and give him a little more time with his daughter after the last job. The movie to me was awesome it was full of action and had its moments of comedy.
I know alot of more serious critics have bashed the movie and is calling it horrid and not a real Costner film and whatever. I do not agree with the critics at all. I like word of mouth from friends. Some of the critics top picks I would not even recommend to my friends.
I give this movie 3 out of 4 stars. I have not been to a good action movie since Fast and Furious 6 came out last year.
I know alot of more serious critics have bashed the movie and is calling it horrid and not a real Costner film and whatever. I do not agree with the critics at all. I like word of mouth from friends. Some of the critics top picks I would not even recommend to my friends.
I give this movie 3 out of 4 stars. I have not been to a good action movie since Fast and Furious 6 came out last year.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Fast Food Craziness
If you my readers have read my post on "Customer Complaints", read that before you read this entry into my blog.
If you ever have been a customer that has complained for some reason or another I hope that you do not follow what your fellow man or woman has done.
In Miami Fl at a Wendy's the manager on duty one night got shot at by a customer over BBQ sauce. The manager got hit in the arm by the bullet and is ok.
In Arizona a McDonald's manager was run over in the Drive Through lane just because they were pulled up due to their french fries (which by the way the customer wanted FRESHLY DROPPED) took longer than expected.
In Georgia a manager at a McDonald's was pistol whipped in the face by an attempted robber the manager survived but had to have several facial reconstruction surgeries.
In Michigan a pair of customers whose order was not right came back through the line and their was not right a second time and the passenger pulled a gun and started shooting in the drive through window.
In several states a customer called 911 and wanted the cops to come and make the restaurant do what the customer wanted. They were all arrested for making a non necessary call to 911.
On the other side of the counter.
A manager in Fl was caught touching herself and giving several of her patrons HERPES.
In several states employees intentionally placed hair (pubic or otherwise) on patrons food. Some even went as far as masturbating and putting the "results" in food.
In Maine an employee was caught on camera urinating in a sink that is used to wash dishes. The employee was fired and the establishment was shut down.
*Like, Comment, Share*
If you ever have been a customer that has complained for some reason or another I hope that you do not follow what your fellow man or woman has done.
In Miami Fl at a Wendy's the manager on duty one night got shot at by a customer over BBQ sauce. The manager got hit in the arm by the bullet and is ok.
In Arizona a McDonald's manager was run over in the Drive Through lane just because they were pulled up due to their french fries (which by the way the customer wanted FRESHLY DROPPED) took longer than expected.
In Georgia a manager at a McDonald's was pistol whipped in the face by an attempted robber the manager survived but had to have several facial reconstruction surgeries.
In Michigan a pair of customers whose order was not right came back through the line and their was not right a second time and the passenger pulled a gun and started shooting in the drive through window.
In several states a customer called 911 and wanted the cops to come and make the restaurant do what the customer wanted. They were all arrested for making a non necessary call to 911.
On the other side of the counter.
A manager in Fl was caught touching herself and giving several of her patrons HERPES.
In several states employees intentionally placed hair (pubic or otherwise) on patrons food. Some even went as far as masturbating and putting the "results" in food.
In Maine an employee was caught on camera urinating in a sink that is used to wash dishes. The employee was fired and the establishment was shut down.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Cyber Attacks on Hospitals
It was recently announced on the news that hospitals are more open to cyber attacks by hackers and the hospitals are totally clueless until it is too late. So how are hackers doing it.
It was reported that the IT department in some hospitals are keeping the firewall settings at minimal.Which basically means that it is easy for employees to surf the internet without restrictions and it also means that hackers are getting in easier. It was also reported that most of the employees use easy login passwords to access the hospital data, which means it gets easier for a hacker to get in to restricted information. With the changes in healthcare everything from an Electronic Medical Record to patients creating and carrying or downloading their own Personal Health Record it makes the information easier to get to. It was also in the article I read today that even hackers can get to information in hospitals through equipment that is connected to the Internet while you as the patient is getting diagnosed. And as I mentioned in an earlier blog your information is not even safe on hospital owned laptops because employees are walking out with them and selling the equipment at pawn shops.
So what are the hospitals to do. First they need to improve their security within their IT department and install more cameras in records area or where sensitive information is stored. That would be a great start.
Health care information is changing everyday. Most hospitals and doctor's offices are not ready for the changes.
*Like, Share, Comment*
It was reported that the IT department in some hospitals are keeping the firewall settings at minimal.Which basically means that it is easy for employees to surf the internet without restrictions and it also means that hackers are getting in easier. It was also reported that most of the employees use easy login passwords to access the hospital data, which means it gets easier for a hacker to get in to restricted information. With the changes in healthcare everything from an Electronic Medical Record to patients creating and carrying or downloading their own Personal Health Record it makes the information easier to get to. It was also in the article I read today that even hackers can get to information in hospitals through equipment that is connected to the Internet while you as the patient is getting diagnosed. And as I mentioned in an earlier blog your information is not even safe on hospital owned laptops because employees are walking out with them and selling the equipment at pawn shops.
So what are the hospitals to do. First they need to improve their security within their IT department and install more cameras in records area or where sensitive information is stored. That would be a great start.
Health care information is changing everyday. Most hospitals and doctor's offices are not ready for the changes.
*Like, Share, Comment*
AT&T Buys Out Alltel Wireless
This was recently announced last year and I am still not sure how it is all going to play out. Alltel has been bought and sold alot in the past few years since the land line version was sold separately. Alltel wireless was sold to Verizon until the deal fell through due to monopoly laws. It was then sold to a small telecom company and now it is being sold to AT&T. I know that their will be alot of changes involved with this transistion, including getting put on their 4G network, which I hope makes things better. I am worried about two things through all of this though; first is what are they going to do with my wireless internet connection and second is my bill going to go up or hopefully it will stay the same. I know that they are letting the contract customers know that they will get things similar to what they currently have. I have been going to the AT&T site trying to see what they might offer or what might take the place of my current service. We as humans either are accepting of change or simply afraid of it. I would love for the service to be better, I get tired of the slow internet on my phone.
So we will see how this turns out.
*Share, Like, Post*
So we will see how this turns out.
*Share, Like, Post*
Monday, February 17, 2014
Changed Majors
My Photography: Pecan and Sycamore Tree in Winter (2014)
I decided recently to change my college major from Health Information Technology to Computer Support Specialist. I did it mainly because first off I was taking healthcare statistics and it was kicking my ass and I knew that if I did not drop the class that I was going to fail and it would be next year before I could take it again and I still would not of graduated til next summer. Second I had been talking to people in the profession on Linkedin and they were telling me that not only would I have to do my practical but also probably have to volunteer for another two years before even being offered a job and it would give me experience which I badly needed but I could not really see me driving all over the place for another 2 years and still be at my crappy ass little job. So I know that I was close to graduating with my degree this summer but I just could not deal with all of this information that people were telling me. So I dropped both the classes I had and I changed majors. As a result I am taking the rest of the current semester off and I will start back up with school in the Summer as long as I did not lose my remaining Pell money. I decided on computer support because it is the only other thing that I am comfortable majoring in I did not want to do anything have to do with Business Administration that ship sailed long ago. I enjoy a computer and doing things with it so I am giving this a try so when I get done in 2015 I can do it from home and until I can find a full time job in it somewhere at least I will get paid for doing it.
So while I am taking a break from school I am going to continue this blog so no fears there. I am also going to start studying to update my skills so I can take a couple of Microsoft Office Specialist tests so I can get re-certified in that.
I also want to say a quick thank you to all of my readers I currently have 615 views of this blog since it started.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Rural Hospitals Closing/Being Bought Out
Since the start of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare" several states has refused to expand both Medicaid and Medicare due to the fear that it will cost their state's more money in the long run. So in many states this decision is hurting rural hospitals or small hospitals and forcing them to close due to a poor financial future or they are being consolidated with larger hospitals to remain open. Several larger hospitals also see this as an opportunity to cut back services at the hospitals they consolidated with or they just leave parts of it open. Some have even opened smaller clinics in these areas to help the sick.
So why are these hospitals closing. It is due to the impact of Obamacare and the lack of support from state leaders to do an expansion of Medicare and Medicaid. Some states mainly do not want to do an expansion of Medicare. They fear that it will hurt their budgets in the long run, but they are not seeing who they are really hurting the elderly and those that have to go out of town to seek some form of Medical Procedure. Where I live the small hospital that is currently consolidated with a bigger hospital makes patients drive 62 miles to have a bigger procedure done. When my dad had a heart attack they flew him via helicopter to the bigger hospital. Other bigger hospitals have put in little clinics or a profession office in my area so people will not have to drive 40 miles or further. A friend of mine lives in a smaller area and if they need a hospital has to go at least 40 miles or further to see a hospital because their town's hospital completely shut down.
The loss of many hospitals is a combination of the failing economy and financial strain caused by uninsured patients and increased number of Medicaid patients.Providers that accept Medicaid patients receive roughly 20% less than Medicare pays for the same services and Medicare pays about 15% less than private insurance carriers. With more patients relying on Medicaid doctors and hospitals feel the squeeze and have to take action. Hospitals that accept any kind of federal funds cannot refuse Medicaid patients but doctors and other medical providers are not obligated to treat Medicaid patients.
A part of the financial crisis is due to the loss of indigent care funds under Obamacare. Those patients were supposed to be covered under Medicaid expansion but Georgia, like most other states, do not have the money to pay their share of the cost of Medicaid.
The bottom line is more and more people are going to be losing their jobs. Communities are going to be nonexistent due to people moving for jobs and access to health care. Mortality rates are going to increase due to lack of healthcare.
*Like, Comment, Share*
So why are these hospitals closing. It is due to the impact of Obamacare and the lack of support from state leaders to do an expansion of Medicare and Medicaid. Some states mainly do not want to do an expansion of Medicare. They fear that it will hurt their budgets in the long run, but they are not seeing who they are really hurting the elderly and those that have to go out of town to seek some form of Medical Procedure. Where I live the small hospital that is currently consolidated with a bigger hospital makes patients drive 62 miles to have a bigger procedure done. When my dad had a heart attack they flew him via helicopter to the bigger hospital. Other bigger hospitals have put in little clinics or a profession office in my area so people will not have to drive 40 miles or further. A friend of mine lives in a smaller area and if they need a hospital has to go at least 40 miles or further to see a hospital because their town's hospital completely shut down.
The loss of many hospitals is a combination of the failing economy and financial strain caused by uninsured patients and increased number of Medicaid patients.Providers that accept Medicaid patients receive roughly 20% less than Medicare pays for the same services and Medicare pays about 15% less than private insurance carriers. With more patients relying on Medicaid doctors and hospitals feel the squeeze and have to take action. Hospitals that accept any kind of federal funds cannot refuse Medicaid patients but doctors and other medical providers are not obligated to treat Medicaid patients.
A part of the financial crisis is due to the loss of indigent care funds under Obamacare. Those patients were supposed to be covered under Medicaid expansion but Georgia, like most other states, do not have the money to pay their share of the cost of Medicaid.
The bottom line is more and more people are going to be losing their jobs. Communities are going to be nonexistent due to people moving for jobs and access to health care. Mortality rates are going to increase due to lack of healthcare.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Education
I was watching the news one day and this superintendent for a school system was talking about how his school system was going to improve and how it was going to help improve high school students so they will be better able to find a job when they graduate. And yes I know that most high schools have a joint agreement with technical colleges so they can dual enroll. I agree with that dual enrollment so they can start earning college credits before they graduate. But here is what I have the biggest issues with when it comes to education in general.
The student population as whole does not have enough textbooks or computers for the entire class due to budget cuts, but school systems do not cut the budgets in other areas like high school sports, especially football, the yearly salary of the school system's coaches (most school systems are more focused on if they can get a winning coach). More and more school systems are cutting out the vocational classes, the art classes, basically the important things a high school needs to decide what they want to do in their future. As a result students are dropping out, bullying others, or simply being a problem student. I know that schools are now having a more hands off approach to discipline and that the parents are supposed to be more involved, but lets be honest that does not work in most cases or the school just wants you to get them some medicines and the teachers have a classroom full of zombies. The government wants education to catch up with other countries that is simply a pipe dream. Class sizes are getting bigger and teachers are simply not getting paid enough or their is not enough due to fear of the students becoming violent. If school systems would cut the budgets of non educational items, quit giving raises to administrators or school board members and put that money where it belongs that would help. A new gym/football field/band room/choir room is not an educational item that is a non educational item. Only a few gets a sports scholarship, music scholarship, etc. I feel just a superintendent alone can run a school system, most board of education members are NOT even educators.
Education has changed alot since I graduated high school and I really feel for the students who are getting neglected by a very broken system or a very broken family. This society reflects that. It was just recently reported that only 1 out of every 4 Americans know that the earth revolves around the sun. More and more school systems are trying to quit teaching Evolution and the Big Bang Theory and replace it with theories on Creationism (God did that) in Science classes. Learning to write cursive is slowly dying out in schools.
*Sigh*
*Like, Comment, Share*
The student population as whole does not have enough textbooks or computers for the entire class due to budget cuts, but school systems do not cut the budgets in other areas like high school sports, especially football, the yearly salary of the school system's coaches (most school systems are more focused on if they can get a winning coach). More and more school systems are cutting out the vocational classes, the art classes, basically the important things a high school needs to decide what they want to do in their future. As a result students are dropping out, bullying others, or simply being a problem student. I know that schools are now having a more hands off approach to discipline and that the parents are supposed to be more involved, but lets be honest that does not work in most cases or the school just wants you to get them some medicines and the teachers have a classroom full of zombies. The government wants education to catch up with other countries that is simply a pipe dream. Class sizes are getting bigger and teachers are simply not getting paid enough or their is not enough due to fear of the students becoming violent. If school systems would cut the budgets of non educational items, quit giving raises to administrators or school board members and put that money where it belongs that would help. A new gym/football field/band room/choir room is not an educational item that is a non educational item. Only a few gets a sports scholarship, music scholarship, etc. I feel just a superintendent alone can run a school system, most board of education members are NOT even educators.
Education has changed alot since I graduated high school and I really feel for the students who are getting neglected by a very broken system or a very broken family. This society reflects that. It was just recently reported that only 1 out of every 4 Americans know that the earth revolves around the sun. More and more school systems are trying to quit teaching Evolution and the Big Bang Theory and replace it with theories on Creationism (God did that) in Science classes. Learning to write cursive is slowly dying out in schools.
*Sigh*
*Like, Comment, Share*
Customer Complaints
We are all customers and we shop and eat at various places. Sometimes we have good experiences and sometimes we have bad experiences. And as a result of the bad ones we feel like we need to complain and go over people's heads. Sometimes we feel like that where we come from will not satisfy our complaining and therefore we tend to call 1-800 #'s or go to the company that did us wrong websites and complain there.
So why I am writing this blog? The answer is simple I have been in retail long enough and I have seen the damage that customer's complaining to higher ups can do to employees. I wish more people would learn that the place you come from either shopping or eating is better to deal with your complaints than corporate heads. What most people do not know and sometimes they do it intentionally if they complain enough about the same employee that based on the company that employee or employees can be terminated. Most customers do it out of spite or they simply do not like the employee and they know them. Most customers when they do complain let there emotions do the talking/typing for them and they blow the whole situation out of proportion.
So now let's talk about the employee side of it. The complaint happens. The store manager puts out the issue, after it is discussed on how to discipline the employee with an Area Manager/Owner, and then based on the severity of the issue the employee can have a simple warning, suspension, or a termination. In the current economy every business sees every penny being lost, remember word of mouth can either make or break a business, and also in this economy you are a disposable asset (easily replaced).
And in this digital age we live in what most people do not know is that your complaint based on the company becomes a public viewing for all employees to see so that a manager can reprimand the entire staff. Yes most companies when they post them on a bulletin board do black out the important information or a company will do a sit down discussion about what happened and no one else sees it But for those of you readers that eat at fast food places or any restaurant that is a huge chain your complaint becomes a public viewing and the information you give the complaint line is visible for everyone to see. So what does that mean to the complainer that if they got the employee in enough trouble and if the employee is smart enough and in this digital age can find you. So if you do complain do not give all your information out. An angry employee can make your life miserable and if they got fired because of you well you in some cases now have a stalker. It does happen.
So if a place of business does make you mad call the business back or go back to where you bought or ate at to talk to someone who can handle your issue better.
*Like, Comment, Share*
So why I am writing this blog? The answer is simple I have been in retail long enough and I have seen the damage that customer's complaining to higher ups can do to employees. I wish more people would learn that the place you come from either shopping or eating is better to deal with your complaints than corporate heads. What most people do not know and sometimes they do it intentionally if they complain enough about the same employee that based on the company that employee or employees can be terminated. Most customers do it out of spite or they simply do not like the employee and they know them. Most customers when they do complain let there emotions do the talking/typing for them and they blow the whole situation out of proportion.
So now let's talk about the employee side of it. The complaint happens. The store manager puts out the issue, after it is discussed on how to discipline the employee with an Area Manager/Owner, and then based on the severity of the issue the employee can have a simple warning, suspension, or a termination. In the current economy every business sees every penny being lost, remember word of mouth can either make or break a business, and also in this economy you are a disposable asset (easily replaced).
And in this digital age we live in what most people do not know is that your complaint based on the company becomes a public viewing for all employees to see so that a manager can reprimand the entire staff. Yes most companies when they post them on a bulletin board do black out the important information or a company will do a sit down discussion about what happened and no one else sees it But for those of you readers that eat at fast food places or any restaurant that is a huge chain your complaint becomes a public viewing and the information you give the complaint line is visible for everyone to see. So what does that mean to the complainer that if they got the employee in enough trouble and if the employee is smart enough and in this digital age can find you. So if you do complain do not give all your information out. An angry employee can make your life miserable and if they got fired because of you well you in some cases now have a stalker. It does happen.
So if a place of business does make you mad call the business back or go back to where you bought or ate at to talk to someone who can handle your issue better.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Friday, February 14, 2014
Micro-transactions in Gaming
We have all played Candy Crush on our smartphone or tablet. And we all remember when Candy Crush was the game to play. And now most mobile games and games on social media are now doing Micro-transactions or you have to pay for an additional level or a tool to get you by a level if you are stuck. A recent news program was talking about Candy Crush and all the pay to play features on the game. And most of who they interviewed was hooked. One lady admitted to spending around $300 in a MONTH to get by levels on Candy Crush. Another person admitted putting down money for their kids to continue playing. It is just ridiculous and insane. I used to play Candy Crush on my phone and I got up to level 200 before I swapped phones and lost all my saved information but the thing is I did it without spending a dime. It took forever but I got their slowly. I used to be a gamer and Atari games never had it, but some people compare Micro-Transactions to when you used to feed quarters into an arcade machine, but folks there is a major difference. In arcades when you ran out of $1's or your parents would not let you have any more you were out of luck, but these days people are running up their credit cards or cell phone bills just to keep playing a game like Candy Crush, Papa Pear Saga, and the list goes on and on. the sad part is more games are doing that and i think its stupid because no one has any patience anymore. Now big consoles are getting into the act gamers are paying outrageous prices for the rest of the game, different levels, etc. When I used to have a console when I dropped $50 for a game I better have the whole damn game or a FREE cheat code to access all of the secret stuff in the game. I no longer play console games because they got too expensive and I just lost interest in it. I do play games on FB and I DO NOT spend money on them. I am patient when I play a game, or better yet if you can not get by a certain level just leave the game alone for awhile. Companies know that if they can frustrate you enough and make the level difficult enough you are going to drop that dime for something and its just unnecessary. I read somewhere that Angry Birds Go has so many options for you to buy stuff to upgrade your racer or get another car its just crazy, play enough and earn it without having to pay for it. Games are not worth playing if you have to buy your way off a level. I have quit playing games due to frustration and some I still play and yes I am still stuck on the same level but I will get past it one day I might be 80 years old but I will do it without spending a dime.
*Like, Share, Comment*
*Like, Share, Comment*
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Driver's License
I went to get my driver's license renewed. Now you have to have so much identifying paperwork its sickening. The last time I got my license renewed it was so much simplier. You went to the state patrol office you do a simple eye test, fill out an application confirming your ID and if everything was ok you paid them $20 and they printed you a laminated license and see you in a few years. Then they added the option of you doing it online and they mailed you a new one if you did it with in the required time period. But that was then now...
It is you have to go to a Department of Driver services. Go to the front desk tell them why you are there for whatever reason. They give you an application, which by the the way is 2 pages long and with a notary requirement, and a number and then you have to fucking wait until your number is called and also they do not call the fucking numbers in order. Plus the DDS office I went to today did not have enough FUCKING CHAIRS I had to stand for at least 30 minutes before someone got called so I could get a seat. So I finally get called and then I have to show all of this paperwork (Passport, SSN, and two forms of mail with your address on it) just so I can get my license renewed. And as I said in the earlier portion of this blog back in the day you could get your new license same fucking day but no they can not do that anymore you have to deal with a paper one until your real one comes in the mail. What the Fuck! I understand that they want to confirm everyone's ID and to make sure they actually live in the state and they are wanting your license to be proof of voter ID which by the way I DO NOT FUCKING VOTE, but that is another blog. I am just thankful that I went ahead and got it over with and for the time being I can do it online and not have to worry about this shit for awhile. I know that ID theft is on the rise and this and that but DAMN you could make getting a simple RENEWAL on your everyday normal fucking driver's license alot less painful. I understand that people need the DDS in case they lose their license or worse they have done stupid shit while driving and lost the right to drive, but damn it people like me who drive so carefully should not have to feel like you are further being watched by the DAMN GOVERNMENT/NSA.
I work with a bunch of moron drivers who have lost their right to drive due to doing every dumb ass funcking thing you can think of (drunk driving, racing, tickets, not paying child support, etc.). That is one of my biggest pet peeves with the system is that if you do not pay your child support the first thing they take away is your license. Now how in the hell can someone go to work if you take their fucking way to get to work to pay child support away and most of the time that is the reason you end up with so many dead beat dads they loose their license and they say just fuck it or they are willing to go to jail if it gets to that point. Its just FUCKING stupid.
Sorry I got off topic. Hope you enjoyed anyway.
*LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE* Thank you all that have been to this blog alot keep coming back for more.
It is you have to go to a Department of Driver services. Go to the front desk tell them why you are there for whatever reason. They give you an application, which by the the way is 2 pages long and with a notary requirement, and a number and then you have to fucking wait until your number is called and also they do not call the fucking numbers in order. Plus the DDS office I went to today did not have enough FUCKING CHAIRS I had to stand for at least 30 minutes before someone got called so I could get a seat. So I finally get called and then I have to show all of this paperwork (Passport, SSN, and two forms of mail with your address on it) just so I can get my license renewed. And as I said in the earlier portion of this blog back in the day you could get your new license same fucking day but no they can not do that anymore you have to deal with a paper one until your real one comes in the mail. What the Fuck! I understand that they want to confirm everyone's ID and to make sure they actually live in the state and they are wanting your license to be proof of voter ID which by the way I DO NOT FUCKING VOTE, but that is another blog. I am just thankful that I went ahead and got it over with and for the time being I can do it online and not have to worry about this shit for awhile. I know that ID theft is on the rise and this and that but DAMN you could make getting a simple RENEWAL on your everyday normal fucking driver's license alot less painful. I understand that people need the DDS in case they lose their license or worse they have done stupid shit while driving and lost the right to drive, but damn it people like me who drive so carefully should not have to feel like you are further being watched by the DAMN GOVERNMENT/NSA.
I work with a bunch of moron drivers who have lost their right to drive due to doing every dumb ass funcking thing you can think of (drunk driving, racing, tickets, not paying child support, etc.). That is one of my biggest pet peeves with the system is that if you do not pay your child support the first thing they take away is your license. Now how in the hell can someone go to work if you take their fucking way to get to work to pay child support away and most of the time that is the reason you end up with so many dead beat dads they loose their license and they say just fuck it or they are willing to go to jail if it gets to that point. Its just FUCKING stupid.
Sorry I got off topic. Hope you enjoyed anyway.
*LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE* Thank you all that have been to this blog alot keep coming back for more.
CM Punk's Departure from WWE.
I have been a wrestling fan since the mid-80's. To be honest I enjoyed the National Wrestling Alliance better than WWE back in those days. But that is for another blog.
I am a fan of CM Punk and thought he was an interesting talent and show man. If you watched his matches in Ring of Honor, I think he should of stayed in ROH. I had a feeling that he was about to leave and it be for real unlike what happened in 2011. He had some awesome matches in WWE and his 434 day reign as WWE champion was a great story line. But the way his character had been treated the past several months was just simply wrong and him not winning this years Royal Rumble was even worse in my opinion. I do not like Triple H's vision for WWE. He is leaning to close to a WCW repeat and that is not a good thought. But what I really did not like was the fact that CM Punk left and the WWE did not think that we the fans would not notice what they did by not changing the storyline and just replacing CM Punk with Daniel Bryan. I understand that maybe Punk left at the last minute and they could not change the plans for the Raw after the Royal Rumble but they could of changed it after that night.There are rumors all over the internet that he might go into MMA which I think he could, look at all of the other wrestling talent that went to MMA. But maybe he can go to either TNA or ROH, that would be a great idea.
But whatever he decides to do is great, but I am just disappointed at how bad WWE did not think their fans would notice. I had read somewhere that they think we, the fans, DO NOT pay that much close attention. Guess what WWE WE DO!!!
I am a fan of CM Punk and thought he was an interesting talent and show man. If you watched his matches in Ring of Honor, I think he should of stayed in ROH. I had a feeling that he was about to leave and it be for real unlike what happened in 2011. He had some awesome matches in WWE and his 434 day reign as WWE champion was a great story line. But the way his character had been treated the past several months was just simply wrong and him not winning this years Royal Rumble was even worse in my opinion. I do not like Triple H's vision for WWE. He is leaning to close to a WCW repeat and that is not a good thought. But what I really did not like was the fact that CM Punk left and the WWE did not think that we the fans would not notice what they did by not changing the storyline and just replacing CM Punk with Daniel Bryan. I understand that maybe Punk left at the last minute and they could not change the plans for the Raw after the Royal Rumble but they could of changed it after that night.There are rumors all over the internet that he might go into MMA which I think he could, look at all of the other wrestling talent that went to MMA. But maybe he can go to either TNA or ROH, that would be a great idea.
But whatever he decides to do is great, but I am just disappointed at how bad WWE did not think their fans would notice. I had read somewhere that they think we, the fans, DO NOT pay that much close attention. Guess what WWE WE DO!!!
I Survived #3
Divorce (or the dissolution of marriage) is the termination of a marital union, the canceling and/or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country and/or state.
I Survived Divorce
In March of 2008 my marriage was done. After a long hard argument I told her to leave that I could not deal with her and the fighting anymore. It had taken its toll on me body and soul. The constant arguing had been going on for several years and none of our truces she had agreed to was not sticking. I was tired of trying to salvage a sinking marriage by myself. So after she moved out and her thinking that I was just ranting about getting divorced and did not mean it, she found out that I meant what I said that it was over and done. We agreed that it was going to be a simple quiet divorce and since we did not have kids I did not think it would take long to file it and be done with it, but I was wrong. I went to divorcewriter.com and got the ball rolling. I paid for the entire divorce myself. I did not want any of her money and she was still thinking that I would not go through with the paperwork. Of course my divorce ran into several obstacles. First my grandmother died and second all the required paperwork. It is funny to me that if you have in the paperwork several times that you do not have ANY KIDS, the court wants another piece of paper stating that you do not have kids. It freaked me out I did not know what to do. So I looked at my paperwork and I went through all of the fonts and borders in Word 2010. I was able to match up everything perfectly and got it signed and filed. May of 2008 we met the judge, we argued before meeting the judge, and officially became divorced.
She posted a simple little blog on her Myspace (anybody remember that site) She said somethings that I did disagree with. In her eyes it was faster to get a divorce compared to getting married. No to me it was the same amount of time and it was just as stressful. All she had to do was sign and I did everything else for it. I have no regrets about getting divorced, to be honest it was either get divorced or somebody in my house was going to get hurt or worse and I was not going to jail. We both did something that screwed up our marriage, but to me she did more damage than good. She could not do the simple things that was in all of our truces. I also feel like if she had listened to her parents advice things would of been smoother but she did not. She stopped trying to be the wife she should of been and simply became a pain in the ass roommate.
Its been six years now since my divorce and I am happier now with her gone and my health is slowly getting better (less stress). I hope that she is happy now since I found out she remarried. We agreed that we could not be friends and I really did not want to be friends with her. The last time I saw her she had this I wish you would die look, but I have since forgiven her and now she is someone else's problem.
*Like, Share, Comment*
I Survived Divorce
In March of 2008 my marriage was done. After a long hard argument I told her to leave that I could not deal with her and the fighting anymore. It had taken its toll on me body and soul. The constant arguing had been going on for several years and none of our truces she had agreed to was not sticking. I was tired of trying to salvage a sinking marriage by myself. So after she moved out and her thinking that I was just ranting about getting divorced and did not mean it, she found out that I meant what I said that it was over and done. We agreed that it was going to be a simple quiet divorce and since we did not have kids I did not think it would take long to file it and be done with it, but I was wrong. I went to divorcewriter.com and got the ball rolling. I paid for the entire divorce myself. I did not want any of her money and she was still thinking that I would not go through with the paperwork. Of course my divorce ran into several obstacles. First my grandmother died and second all the required paperwork. It is funny to me that if you have in the paperwork several times that you do not have ANY KIDS, the court wants another piece of paper stating that you do not have kids. It freaked me out I did not know what to do. So I looked at my paperwork and I went through all of the fonts and borders in Word 2010. I was able to match up everything perfectly and got it signed and filed. May of 2008 we met the judge, we argued before meeting the judge, and officially became divorced.
She posted a simple little blog on her Myspace (anybody remember that site) She said somethings that I did disagree with. In her eyes it was faster to get a divorce compared to getting married. No to me it was the same amount of time and it was just as stressful. All she had to do was sign and I did everything else for it. I have no regrets about getting divorced, to be honest it was either get divorced or somebody in my house was going to get hurt or worse and I was not going to jail. We both did something that screwed up our marriage, but to me she did more damage than good. She could not do the simple things that was in all of our truces. I also feel like if she had listened to her parents advice things would of been smoother but she did not. She stopped trying to be the wife she should of been and simply became a pain in the ass roommate.
Its been six years now since my divorce and I am happier now with her gone and my health is slowly getting better (less stress). I hope that she is happy now since I found out she remarried. We agreed that we could not be friends and I really did not want to be friends with her. The last time I saw her she had this I wish you would die look, but I have since forgiven her and now she is someone else's problem.
*Like, Share, Comment*
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Valentine's Day
This was another topic that was suggested by my friends/readers. I am not big into this day and I am not a supporter of it. Probably because currently I do not have a love in my life and I have not had a serious love in my life in awhile. I give my mom a card and usually a small box of candy for my dad to eat. The women I have been involved with use this day as an excuse to try to get something nice and expensive for this day besides the usual dinner and a movie. Valentine's day to me is for people who are in love and have a very awesome relationship. Some lover's use this day to get engaged on or married on if it falls on a weekend. I also see Valentine's day as a overly commercialized day for people to shop. Look at what stores do to promote the day and schools have a valentine's day party. Which I know the schools use it as a socializing tool and yes I did enjoy that growing up. Even though I DID NOT get many Valentines in my bag. So yeah it can become a traumatizing day when you are younger or when a girl stands you up for a date and goes out with another guy. When I was married my ex wife's birthday was a few days before Valentine's day so I tried to merge it into her birthday so I would not have to worry about it, but she never liked the idea. And one year after an argument I did NOT get her anything for Valentine's day I intentionally forgot. I also hate this day because all your coworkers have stuff sent to them at their job and they act all excited and what not. But I am one of those people that never did that kind of thing. I felt like the receiver makes everyone else around them jealous at the work place. And those who do not get stuff at work and then get jealous or mad because their coworkers got Valentines day stuff and they didn't this leads to fights and arguments sometimes. It also does not matter how nice a set of roses you buy a woman because if her coworker gets a bigger and prettier set of roses you will not hear the end of it. I have been in many an argument because of as she put it, "me not being thoughtful enough".
So why do we celebrate it?
Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine.[7] The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae).[8] Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 496 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The relics of Saint Valentine were kept in the Church and Catacombs of San Valentino in Rome, which "remained an important pilgrim site throughout the Middle Ages until the relics of St. Valentine were transferred to the church of Santa Prassede during the pontificate of Nicholas IV".[9][10] The flower-crowned skull[11] of Saint Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. Other relics are found at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.[12] Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino). Jack B. Oruch states that "abstracts of the acts of the two saints were in nearly every church and monastery of Europe."[13] The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.[14] Saint Valentine's head was preserved in the abbey of New Minster, Winchester, and venerated.[15]
February 14 is celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in various Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of 'commemoration' in the calendar of saints in the Anglican Communion.[4] In addition, the feast day of Saint Valentine is also given in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church.[5] However, in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14."[16] The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Second Vatican Council calendar. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. Valentine's Day is celebrated on July 6, in which Saint Valentine, the Roman presbyter, is honoured; furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox Church obsesrves the feast of Hieromartyr Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, on July 30.[17][18][19]
Legends
J.C. Cooper, in The Dictionary of Christianity, writes that Saint Valentine was "a priest of Rome who was imprisoned for succouring persecuted Christians."[20] Contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most probably destroyed during this Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century.[21] In the 5th or 6th century, a work called Passio Marii et Marthae published a story of martyrdom for Saint Valentine of Rome, perhaps by borrowing tortures that happened to other saints, as was usual in the literature of that period. The same events are also found in Bede's Martyrology, which was compiled in the 8th century.[21][22] It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. The jailer's daughter and his forty-four member household (family members and servants) came to believe in Jesus and were baptized.[21] A later Passio repeated the legend, adding that Pope Julius I built a church over his sepulcre (it is a confusion with a 4th-century tribune called Valentino who donated land to build a church at a time when Julius was a Pope).[22] The legend was picked up as fact by later martyrologies, starting by Bede's martyrology in the 8th century.[22] It was repeated in the 13th century, in Legenda Aurea.[23] The book expounded briefly the Early Medieval acta of several Saint Valentines, and this legend was assigned to the Valentine under February 14.
There is an additional embellishment to The Golden Legend, which according to Henry Ansgar Kelly, was added centuries later, and widely repeated.[3] On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to the daughter of his jailer Asterius, who was no longer blind, signing as "Your Valentine."[3] The expression "From your Valentine" was later adopted by modern Valentine letters.[24] This legend has been published by both American Greetings and The History Channel.
John Foxe, an English historian, as well as the Order of Carmelites, state that Saint Valentine was buried in the Church of Praxedes in Rome, located near the cemetery of Saint Hippolytus. This order says that according to legend, "Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship."[25][26]
Anther embellishment is that Saint Valentine would have performed clandestine Christian weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry.[27] The Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly forbade this in order to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers.[27][28] However, this supposed marriage ban was never issued, and in fact Claudius II told his soldiers to take two or three women for themselves after his victory over the Goths.[29]
According to legend, in order "to remind these men of their vows and God’s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment", giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine's Day.[30]
Saint Valentine supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring, customarily worn on the hands of Christian bishops with an image of Cupid engraved in it, a recognizable symbol associated with love that was legal under the Roman Empire;[28][31] Roman soldiers would recognize the ring and ask him to perform marriage for them.[28] Probably because of the association with Saint Valentine, amethyst has become the birthstone of February, and its thought to attract love.[32]
Folk traditions
While the European folk traditions connected with Saint Valentine and St. Valentine's Day have become marginalized by the modern Anglo-American customs connecting the day with romantic love, there are some remaining associations connecting the saint with the advent of spring.
While the custom of sending cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts originated in the UK, Valentine's Day still remains connected with various regional customs in England. In Norfolk, a character called 'Jack' Valentine knocks on the rear door of houses leaving sweets and presents for children. Although he was leaving treats, many children were scared of this mystical person.[33][34]
In Slovenia, Saint Valentine or Zdravko was one of the saints of spring, the saint of good health and the patron of beekeepers and pilgrims.[35] A proverb says that "Saint Valentine brings the keys of roots". Plants and flowers start to grow on this day. It has been celebrated as the day when the first work in the vineyards and in the fields commences. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day. Another proverb says "Valentin – prvi spomladin" ("Valentine — the first spring saint"), as in some places (especially White Carniola), Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring.[36] Valentine's Day has only recently been celebrated as the day of love. The day of love was traditionally March 12, the Saint Gregory's day, or February 22, Saint Vincent's Day. The patron of love was Saint Anthony, whose day has been celebrated on June 13.
Chaucer's love birds
Jack B. Oruch writes that the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer.[21] Chaucer wrote:
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.
["For this was on St. Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."]
This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.[41] A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381.[42] (When they were married eight months later, they were each only 15 years old).
Readers have uncritically assumed that Chaucer was referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day; however, mid-February is an unlikely time for birds to be mating in England. Henry Ansgar Kelly has pointed out that Chaucer could be referring to May 3, the celebration in the liturgical calendar of Valentine of Genoa, an early bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307.[41][43][44] Jack B. Oruch says that date for the start of Spring has changed since Chaucer's time because of the precession of equinoxes and the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The date would correspond to the modern 23 February, a time when some birds have started mating and nesting in England.[21]
Chaucer's Parliament of Foules is set in a fictional context of an old tradition, but in fact there was no such tradition before Chaucer. The speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. Most notably, "the idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present".[15][45]
There were three other authors who made poems about birds mating in St. Valentine's Day around the same years: Otton de Grandson from Savoy, John Gower from England, and a knight called Pardo from Valencia. Chaucer most probably predated all of them, but, due to the difficulty of dating medieval works, we can't know for sure who of the four had the idea first and influenced the others.[46]
Courtesy of Wikipedia.
*Like, Comment, and Share*
So why do we celebrate it?
Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine.[7] The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae).[8] Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 496 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The relics of Saint Valentine were kept in the Church and Catacombs of San Valentino in Rome, which "remained an important pilgrim site throughout the Middle Ages until the relics of St. Valentine were transferred to the church of Santa Prassede during the pontificate of Nicholas IV".[9][10] The flower-crowned skull[11] of Saint Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. Other relics are found at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.[12] Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino). Jack B. Oruch states that "abstracts of the acts of the two saints were in nearly every church and monastery of Europe."[13] The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.[14] Saint Valentine's head was preserved in the abbey of New Minster, Winchester, and venerated.[15]
February 14 is celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in various Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of 'commemoration' in the calendar of saints in the Anglican Communion.[4] In addition, the feast day of Saint Valentine is also given in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church.[5] However, in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14."[16] The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Second Vatican Council calendar. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. Valentine's Day is celebrated on July 6, in which Saint Valentine, the Roman presbyter, is honoured; furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox Church obsesrves the feast of Hieromartyr Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, on July 30.[17][18][19]
Legends
J.C. Cooper, in The Dictionary of Christianity, writes that Saint Valentine was "a priest of Rome who was imprisoned for succouring persecuted Christians."[20] Contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most probably destroyed during this Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century.[21] In the 5th or 6th century, a work called Passio Marii et Marthae published a story of martyrdom for Saint Valentine of Rome, perhaps by borrowing tortures that happened to other saints, as was usual in the literature of that period. The same events are also found in Bede's Martyrology, which was compiled in the 8th century.[21][22] It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. The jailer's daughter and his forty-four member household (family members and servants) came to believe in Jesus and were baptized.[21] A later Passio repeated the legend, adding that Pope Julius I built a church over his sepulcre (it is a confusion with a 4th-century tribune called Valentino who donated land to build a church at a time when Julius was a Pope).[22] The legend was picked up as fact by later martyrologies, starting by Bede's martyrology in the 8th century.[22] It was repeated in the 13th century, in Legenda Aurea.[23] The book expounded briefly the Early Medieval acta of several Saint Valentines, and this legend was assigned to the Valentine under February 14.
There is an additional embellishment to The Golden Legend, which according to Henry Ansgar Kelly, was added centuries later, and widely repeated.[3] On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to the daughter of his jailer Asterius, who was no longer blind, signing as "Your Valentine."[3] The expression "From your Valentine" was later adopted by modern Valentine letters.[24] This legend has been published by both American Greetings and The History Channel.
John Foxe, an English historian, as well as the Order of Carmelites, state that Saint Valentine was buried in the Church of Praxedes in Rome, located near the cemetery of Saint Hippolytus. This order says that according to legend, "Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship."[25][26]
Anther embellishment is that Saint Valentine would have performed clandestine Christian weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry.[27] The Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly forbade this in order to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers.[27][28] However, this supposed marriage ban was never issued, and in fact Claudius II told his soldiers to take two or three women for themselves after his victory over the Goths.[29]
According to legend, in order "to remind these men of their vows and God’s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment", giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine's Day.[30]
Saint Valentine supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring, customarily worn on the hands of Christian bishops with an image of Cupid engraved in it, a recognizable symbol associated with love that was legal under the Roman Empire;[28][31] Roman soldiers would recognize the ring and ask him to perform marriage for them.[28] Probably because of the association with Saint Valentine, amethyst has become the birthstone of February, and its thought to attract love.[32]
Folk traditions
While the European folk traditions connected with Saint Valentine and St. Valentine's Day have become marginalized by the modern Anglo-American customs connecting the day with romantic love, there are some remaining associations connecting the saint with the advent of spring.
While the custom of sending cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts originated in the UK, Valentine's Day still remains connected with various regional customs in England. In Norfolk, a character called 'Jack' Valentine knocks on the rear door of houses leaving sweets and presents for children. Although he was leaving treats, many children were scared of this mystical person.[33][34]
In Slovenia, Saint Valentine or Zdravko was one of the saints of spring, the saint of good health and the patron of beekeepers and pilgrims.[35] A proverb says that "Saint Valentine brings the keys of roots". Plants and flowers start to grow on this day. It has been celebrated as the day when the first work in the vineyards and in the fields commences. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day. Another proverb says "Valentin – prvi spomladin" ("Valentine — the first spring saint"), as in some places (especially White Carniola), Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring.[36] Valentine's Day has only recently been celebrated as the day of love. The day of love was traditionally March 12, the Saint Gregory's day, or February 22, Saint Vincent's Day. The patron of love was Saint Anthony, whose day has been celebrated on June 13.
Chaucer's love birds
Jack B. Oruch writes that the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer.[21] Chaucer wrote:
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.
["For this was on St. Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."]
This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.[41] A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381.[42] (When they were married eight months later, they were each only 15 years old).
Readers have uncritically assumed that Chaucer was referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day; however, mid-February is an unlikely time for birds to be mating in England. Henry Ansgar Kelly has pointed out that Chaucer could be referring to May 3, the celebration in the liturgical calendar of Valentine of Genoa, an early bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307.[41][43][44] Jack B. Oruch says that date for the start of Spring has changed since Chaucer's time because of the precession of equinoxes and the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The date would correspond to the modern 23 February, a time when some birds have started mating and nesting in England.[21]
Chaucer's Parliament of Foules is set in a fictional context of an old tradition, but in fact there was no such tradition before Chaucer. The speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. Most notably, "the idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present".[15][45]
There were three other authors who made poems about birds mating in St. Valentine's Day around the same years: Otton de Grandson from Savoy, John Gower from England, and a knight called Pardo from Valencia. Chaucer most probably predated all of them, but, due to the difficulty of dating medieval works, we can't know for sure who of the four had the idea first and influenced the others.[46]
Courtesy of Wikipedia.
*Like, Comment, and Share*
Medical Procedure Screw Up
For many of us we have all had a medical procedure done at least one time in our lives. While researching a hospital or we go to a hospital we trust we always look at several things one of those items we look at is the infection prevention rate of a hospital. This is a number or a percent of patients or anyone involved in the hospital that gets an infection after the procedure is done.
So why I am wanting to write about this subject. Well this week in a North or South Carolina hospital a patient was operated on that had been diagnosed with something similar to Mad Cow Disease. Well after the surgery the medical staff DID NOT SANITIZE THE EQUIPMENT after the patient with Mad Cow Disease was removed from the Operating Room. As a result of this at least 18 MORE patients had a surgery done using contaminated equipment. So imagine how you or someone you loved felt after they had a surgery done and then come to find out you somehow got MAD COW DISEASE.
The following article is from 2012 and its kind of surprising.
Numbers don't lie, but new research by a public health expert at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center finds infection rates following surgery may be higher than the numbers reported by hospitals across the country would indicate.
Approximately 300,000 surgical infections occur annually at hospitals in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Surgical site infections are the second most common health care-associated infection in this country. We know that somewhere between two and five percent of all operations are complicated by infections, and rates are much higher for certain infections. Because reporting varies greatly from hospital to hospital, we wanted to determine the accuracy of the statistics being reported," said Dale Bratzler, D.O., M.P.H., associate dean of the OU College of Public Health.
In two separate studies, he and other researchers utilized Medicare billing data from hospitals and physician offices to follow patients during their surgical admission and after discharge to search for billing codes that suggested the patient may have had a surgical infection. If a bill suggested an infection, the researchers next reviewed medical records to determine if the patients indeed had an infection.
In the most recent of the two studies that did not examine Oklahoma hospitals, they found significantly more infections through this process than had been identified through traditional hospital surveillance – 1.8 to 4.7 times as many infections.
Bratzler said some of the problem stems from the different ways hospitals do surveillance for surgical infections, including post-discharge surveillance. Some hospitals contact patients directly. Others collect information from surgeons after discharge. Some look for hospital readmissions for infections and others look at laboratory or pharmacy data, if available, to identify treatment of infections.
He said it's not uncommon for a patient to have surgery at one hospital, develop an infection after being discharged and then have the infection treated at another health care facility.
"It may be challenging for the first hospital to keep track of an infection that occurred in their patient when they went somewhere else to have the infection treated," Bratzler said." Our research method of using Medicare claims data allowed us to track when a patient has surgery in hospital A, gets an infection and decides to go to facility B to be treated. Without the use of Medicare claims data hospital A may not even know about a patient who developed an infection and went to facility B to be treated."
The study is especially important because starting this month, Medicare now requires hospitals to track and publicly report infection rates for certain surgeries. Without a better way to consistently track infections, Bratzler said those numbers may be substantially underreported.
He added that the findings also point to a way to identify hospitals that may need to be targeted for efforts to lower surgical infection rates.
Further study is planned, but Bratzler said the research clearly demonstrates that their technique, utilizing Medicare claims, identifies more infections than typically reported through standard hospital surveillance methods nationwide.
The research is published in the January 2012 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
*Like, Comment, and Share*
So why I am wanting to write about this subject. Well this week in a North or South Carolina hospital a patient was operated on that had been diagnosed with something similar to Mad Cow Disease. Well after the surgery the medical staff DID NOT SANITIZE THE EQUIPMENT after the patient with Mad Cow Disease was removed from the Operating Room. As a result of this at least 18 MORE patients had a surgery done using contaminated equipment. So imagine how you or someone you loved felt after they had a surgery done and then come to find out you somehow got MAD COW DISEASE.
The following article is from 2012 and its kind of surprising.
Numbers don't lie, but new research by a public health expert at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center finds infection rates following surgery may be higher than the numbers reported by hospitals across the country would indicate.
Approximately 300,000 surgical infections occur annually at hospitals in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Surgical site infections are the second most common health care-associated infection in this country. We know that somewhere between two and five percent of all operations are complicated by infections, and rates are much higher for certain infections. Because reporting varies greatly from hospital to hospital, we wanted to determine the accuracy of the statistics being reported," said Dale Bratzler, D.O., M.P.H., associate dean of the OU College of Public Health.
In two separate studies, he and other researchers utilized Medicare billing data from hospitals and physician offices to follow patients during their surgical admission and after discharge to search for billing codes that suggested the patient may have had a surgical infection. If a bill suggested an infection, the researchers next reviewed medical records to determine if the patients indeed had an infection.
In the most recent of the two studies that did not examine Oklahoma hospitals, they found significantly more infections through this process than had been identified through traditional hospital surveillance – 1.8 to 4.7 times as many infections.
Bratzler said some of the problem stems from the different ways hospitals do surveillance for surgical infections, including post-discharge surveillance. Some hospitals contact patients directly. Others collect information from surgeons after discharge. Some look for hospital readmissions for infections and others look at laboratory or pharmacy data, if available, to identify treatment of infections.
He said it's not uncommon for a patient to have surgery at one hospital, develop an infection after being discharged and then have the infection treated at another health care facility.
"It may be challenging for the first hospital to keep track of an infection that occurred in their patient when they went somewhere else to have the infection treated," Bratzler said." Our research method of using Medicare claims data allowed us to track when a patient has surgery in hospital A, gets an infection and decides to go to facility B to be treated. Without the use of Medicare claims data hospital A may not even know about a patient who developed an infection and went to facility B to be treated."
The study is especially important because starting this month, Medicare now requires hospitals to track and publicly report infection rates for certain surgeries. Without a better way to consistently track infections, Bratzler said those numbers may be substantially underreported.
He added that the findings also point to a way to identify hospitals that may need to be targeted for efforts to lower surgical infection rates.
Further study is planned, but Bratzler said the research clearly demonstrates that their technique, utilizing Medicare claims, identifies more infections than typically reported through standard hospital surveillance methods nationwide.
The research is published in the January 2012 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
*Like, Comment, and Share*
Blog Post #30
This is Blog #30, and I asked my friends/readers on Facebook and Twitter to suggest topics for me to write on. I got several good suggestions and I could not just pick one. So this blog will be of three topics suggested by others. Enjoy.
Aggressive Drivers/Driving
Aggressive driving has become a serious problem on our roadways. What is aggressive driving? Most of us know it when we see it, but NHTSA, after discussions with law enforcement and the judiciary, defines aggressive driving as occurring when "an individual commits a combination of moving traffic offenses so as to endanger other persons or property." The NHTSA provides guides, planners and information to law enforcement professionals and prosecutors to assist in the reduction of aggressive driving. Aggressive driving can also lead to road rage. The following statistics are courtesy of the NHTSA:
Approximately 6,800,000 crashes occur in the United States each year; a substantial number are estimated to be caused by aggressive driving.
1997 statistics compiled by NHTSA and the American Automobile Association show that almost 13,000 people have been injured or killed since 1990 in crashes caused by aggressive driving.
According to a NHTSA survey, more than 60 percent of drivers consider unsafe driving by others, including speeding, a major personal threat to themselves and their families.
About 30 percent of respondents said they felt their safety was threatened in the last month, while 67 percent felt this threat during the last year. Weaving, tailgating, distracted drivers, and unsafe lane changes were some of the unsafe behaviors identified.
Aggressive drivers are more likely to drink and drive or drive unbelted.
Aggressive driving can easily escalate into an incident of road rage. Motorists in all 50 states have killed or injured other motorists for seemingly trivial reasons. Motorists should keep their cool in traffic, be patient and courteous to other drivers, and correct unsafe driving habits that are likely to endanger, antagonize or provoke other motorists.
More than half of those surveyed by NHTSA admitted to driving aggressively on occasion.
Only 14 percent felt it was "extremely dangerous" to drive 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
62 percent of those who frequently drive in an unsafe and illegal manner said they had not been stopped by police for traffic reasons in the past year.
The majority of those in the NHTSA survey (52 percent) said it was "very important" to do something about speeding. Ninety-eight percent of respondents thought it "important" that something be done to reduce speeding and unsafe driving.
Those surveyed ranked the following countermeasures, in order, as most likely to reduce aggressive and unsafe driving behaviors: (1) more police assigned to traffic control, (2) more frequent ticketing of traffic violations, (3) higher fines, and (4) increased insurance costs. Increased police enforcement was rated "Number 1," both for effectiveness and as a measure acceptable to the public to reduce unsafe and illegal driving.
NHTSA research shows that compliance with, and support for, traffic laws can be increased through aggressive, targeted enforcement combined with a vigorous public information and education program.
When Maryland launched its "Aggressive Driver Campaign" in 1995, with an emphasis on public information, education and enforcement, the media and the public praised the state police for their efforts. The public's perception was that the police were "out there to catch the other guy." Related fatalities have declined dramatically.
If you are not sure about the Aggressive Driving Law in your state the following is a list of the 11 states that have an aggressive driving law or amendment.
State Aggressive Driver Actions Defined by Statute:
Arizona Speeding and least two of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, passing on the right out of regular lanes of traffic, unsafe lane change, following too closely, failure to yield right of way; and is an immediate hazard to another person or vehicle.
California Amended reckless driving law to include causing certain bodily injuries to people other than driver. Specifically cites drivers engaged in speed contests.
Delaware At least three of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, passing on the right, driving outside the lanes of traffic, following too closely, failure to yield right of way, failure to signal, failure to stop or yield at signs, passing a stopped school bus, speeding.
Florida At least two of the following: speeding, unsafe or improper lane change, following too closely, failure to yield right of way, improper passing, failure to obey traffic control devices. Not an enforceable offense; violator is cited for specific traffic infraction(s). Issuing officer can select "Aggressive Driving" checkbox on traffic tickets for data collection purposes.
Georgia Intent to annoy, harass, molest, intimidate, injure or obstruct another person, while doing one or more of the following: overtaking and passing another vehicle; violating traffic lane markings; following too closely; violating signal, lane change, slowing or stopping laws; impeding traffic flows; reckless driving.
Indiana At least three of the following: following too closely, unsafe operation, passing on the right off of roadway, unsafe stopping or slowing, unnecessary sounding of the horn, failure to yield, failure to obey traffic control device, speeding, repeatedly flashing headlights.
Maryland At least three of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, overtaking and passing, passing on right, driving on laned roadways, following too closely, failure to yield right of way or speeding.
Nevada Within one mile, commits all of the following: 1) speeding; 2) at least two of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, passing on the right off of paved roadway, following too closely, lane violation, failure to yield right of way; and 3) creating an immediate hazard for another vehicle or person. Increased penalties for subsequent offenses.
New Jersey Enforces against aggressive driving by charging under 39:4-97 (Careless Driving), 39-4-97.2 (Operating a vehicle in an Unsafe Manner) or any other statute at the discretion of the officer.
North Carolina Speeding and driving carelessly and heedlessly in willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others while committing at least two of the following violations: running a red light or stop sign, illegal passing, failing to yield right of way, following too closely.
Pennsylvania House passed a resolution to encourage drivers to drive courteously and defensively, not aggressively and resolved to support measures that would promote safe driving practices.
Rhode Island Speeding and at least two of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, overtaking on the right, driving outside the lanes of traffic, following too closely, failure to yield right of way, entering roadway unsafely, failure to use turn signals, failure to stop or yield at signs, use of emergency lane for travel.
Utah Amended reckless driving law to include willful and wanton disregard for safety of persons or property or three or more moving violations in a single continuous period of driving.
Vermont Following too closely, crowding, and harassment.
Virginia Is a hazard to others with the intent to harass, intimidate, injure or obstruct another person while committing at least one of the following: failure to drive on the right side of highway, driving outside of marked lanes, following too closely, failure to yield or stop before entering roadway, failure to obey traffic control device, passing when overtaking a vehicle, passing on right, failure to yield right of way, speeding, stopping on a highway.
Total States 11
Why Colors are Named the Way They are?
This is the second of three topics that were suggested by friends/readers this was a debate on how to answer this topic but I am going to take my best shot at it and with a little research courtesy of Google.
The names are derivatives of old latin and Greek words. That was one answer that I found Another answer comes from the idea that different cultures see colors differently from other cultures. In Japan, people often refer to traffic lights as being blue in color. And this is a bit odd, because the traffic signal indicating ‘go’ in Japan is just as green as it is anywhere else in the world. So why is the color getting lost in translation? This visual conundrum has its roots in the history of language.
Blue and green are similar in hue. They sit next to each other in a rainbow, which means that, to our eyes, light can blend smoothly from blue to green or vice-versa, without going past any other color in between. Before the modern period, Japanese had just one word, Ao, for both blue and green. The wall that divides these colors hadn’t been erected as yet. As the language evolved, in the Heian period around the year 1000, something interesting happened. A new word popped into being – midori – and it described a sort of greenish end of blue. Midori was a shade of ao, it wasn’t really a new color in its own right.
One of the first fences in this color continuum came from an unlikely place – crayons. In 1917, the first crayons were imported into Japan, and they brought with them a way of dividing a seamless visual spread into neat, discrete chunks. There were different crayons for green (midori) and blue (ao), and children started to adopt these names. But the real change came during the Allied occupation of Japan after World War II, when new educational material started to circulate. In 1951, teaching guidelines for first grade teachers distinguished blue from green, and the word midori was shoehorned to fit this new purpose.
And it’s not just Japanese. There are plenty of other languages that blur the lines between what we call blue and green. Many languages don’t distinguish between the two colors at all. In Vietnamese the Thai language, khiaw means green except if it refers to the sky or the sea, in which case it’s blue. The Korean word purueda could refer to either blue or green, and the same goes for the Chinese word qīng. It’s not just East Asian languages either, this is something you see across language families. In fact, Radiolab had a fascinating recent episode on color where they talked about how there was no blue in the original Hebrew Bible, nor in all of Homer’s Illiad or Odyssey!
Texting and Driving
This is the 3rd and final topic offered by my friends/readers. Texting and Driving has been compared to being just as if not more dangerous than drunk driving. In 2011, 23% of all crashes involed a cell phone. That adds up to about 1.3 MILLION CRASHES. It is estimated that at least 5 seconds is the minimal amount of time you lose attention to driving while you are texting and driving. 13% of drivers age 18-20 involved in car wrecks admitted that they were on their phone at the time of a wreck. These same 18-20 year olds think that texting and driving is not a big concern. 77% of these drivers claim that they are very or somewhat confident that they can safely drive while texting. 55% claim that it is easy for them to be able to text and drive. And this same age group all agree that they watched their parents do it. So what has been done about it. Well 39 states and D.C. has laws prohibiting all drivers from text messaging.
I would like to thank my friends/readers for participating in suggesting topics for this blog. I am very grateful to all who read, comment, share my blog.
Aggressive Drivers/Driving
Aggressive driving has become a serious problem on our roadways. What is aggressive driving? Most of us know it when we see it, but NHTSA, after discussions with law enforcement and the judiciary, defines aggressive driving as occurring when "an individual commits a combination of moving traffic offenses so as to endanger other persons or property." The NHTSA provides guides, planners and information to law enforcement professionals and prosecutors to assist in the reduction of aggressive driving. Aggressive driving can also lead to road rage. The following statistics are courtesy of the NHTSA:
Approximately 6,800,000 crashes occur in the United States each year; a substantial number are estimated to be caused by aggressive driving.
1997 statistics compiled by NHTSA and the American Automobile Association show that almost 13,000 people have been injured or killed since 1990 in crashes caused by aggressive driving.
According to a NHTSA survey, more than 60 percent of drivers consider unsafe driving by others, including speeding, a major personal threat to themselves and their families.
About 30 percent of respondents said they felt their safety was threatened in the last month, while 67 percent felt this threat during the last year. Weaving, tailgating, distracted drivers, and unsafe lane changes were some of the unsafe behaviors identified.
Aggressive drivers are more likely to drink and drive or drive unbelted.
Aggressive driving can easily escalate into an incident of road rage. Motorists in all 50 states have killed or injured other motorists for seemingly trivial reasons. Motorists should keep their cool in traffic, be patient and courteous to other drivers, and correct unsafe driving habits that are likely to endanger, antagonize or provoke other motorists.
More than half of those surveyed by NHTSA admitted to driving aggressively on occasion.
Only 14 percent felt it was "extremely dangerous" to drive 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
62 percent of those who frequently drive in an unsafe and illegal manner said they had not been stopped by police for traffic reasons in the past year.
The majority of those in the NHTSA survey (52 percent) said it was "very important" to do something about speeding. Ninety-eight percent of respondents thought it "important" that something be done to reduce speeding and unsafe driving.
Those surveyed ranked the following countermeasures, in order, as most likely to reduce aggressive and unsafe driving behaviors: (1) more police assigned to traffic control, (2) more frequent ticketing of traffic violations, (3) higher fines, and (4) increased insurance costs. Increased police enforcement was rated "Number 1," both for effectiveness and as a measure acceptable to the public to reduce unsafe and illegal driving.
NHTSA research shows that compliance with, and support for, traffic laws can be increased through aggressive, targeted enforcement combined with a vigorous public information and education program.
When Maryland launched its "Aggressive Driver Campaign" in 1995, with an emphasis on public information, education and enforcement, the media and the public praised the state police for their efforts. The public's perception was that the police were "out there to catch the other guy." Related fatalities have declined dramatically.
If you are not sure about the Aggressive Driving Law in your state the following is a list of the 11 states that have an aggressive driving law or amendment.
State Aggressive Driver Actions Defined by Statute:
Arizona Speeding and least two of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, passing on the right out of regular lanes of traffic, unsafe lane change, following too closely, failure to yield right of way; and is an immediate hazard to another person or vehicle.
California Amended reckless driving law to include causing certain bodily injuries to people other than driver. Specifically cites drivers engaged in speed contests.
Delaware At least three of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, passing on the right, driving outside the lanes of traffic, following too closely, failure to yield right of way, failure to signal, failure to stop or yield at signs, passing a stopped school bus, speeding.
Florida At least two of the following: speeding, unsafe or improper lane change, following too closely, failure to yield right of way, improper passing, failure to obey traffic control devices. Not an enforceable offense; violator is cited for specific traffic infraction(s). Issuing officer can select "Aggressive Driving" checkbox on traffic tickets for data collection purposes.
Georgia Intent to annoy, harass, molest, intimidate, injure or obstruct another person, while doing one or more of the following: overtaking and passing another vehicle; violating traffic lane markings; following too closely; violating signal, lane change, slowing or stopping laws; impeding traffic flows; reckless driving.
Indiana At least three of the following: following too closely, unsafe operation, passing on the right off of roadway, unsafe stopping or slowing, unnecessary sounding of the horn, failure to yield, failure to obey traffic control device, speeding, repeatedly flashing headlights.
Maryland At least three of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, overtaking and passing, passing on right, driving on laned roadways, following too closely, failure to yield right of way or speeding.
Nevada Within one mile, commits all of the following: 1) speeding; 2) at least two of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, passing on the right off of paved roadway, following too closely, lane violation, failure to yield right of way; and 3) creating an immediate hazard for another vehicle or person. Increased penalties for subsequent offenses.
New Jersey Enforces against aggressive driving by charging under 39:4-97 (Careless Driving), 39-4-97.2 (Operating a vehicle in an Unsafe Manner) or any other statute at the discretion of the officer.
North Carolina Speeding and driving carelessly and heedlessly in willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others while committing at least two of the following violations: running a red light or stop sign, illegal passing, failing to yield right of way, following too closely.
Pennsylvania House passed a resolution to encourage drivers to drive courteously and defensively, not aggressively and resolved to support measures that would promote safe driving practices.
Rhode Island Speeding and at least two of the following: failure to obey traffic control device, overtaking on the right, driving outside the lanes of traffic, following too closely, failure to yield right of way, entering roadway unsafely, failure to use turn signals, failure to stop or yield at signs, use of emergency lane for travel.
Utah Amended reckless driving law to include willful and wanton disregard for safety of persons or property or three or more moving violations in a single continuous period of driving.
Vermont Following too closely, crowding, and harassment.
Virginia Is a hazard to others with the intent to harass, intimidate, injure or obstruct another person while committing at least one of the following: failure to drive on the right side of highway, driving outside of marked lanes, following too closely, failure to yield or stop before entering roadway, failure to obey traffic control device, passing when overtaking a vehicle, passing on right, failure to yield right of way, speeding, stopping on a highway.
Total States 11
Why Colors are Named the Way They are?
This is the second of three topics that were suggested by friends/readers this was a debate on how to answer this topic but I am going to take my best shot at it and with a little research courtesy of Google.
The names are derivatives of old latin and Greek words. That was one answer that I found Another answer comes from the idea that different cultures see colors differently from other cultures. In Japan, people often refer to traffic lights as being blue in color. And this is a bit odd, because the traffic signal indicating ‘go’ in Japan is just as green as it is anywhere else in the world. So why is the color getting lost in translation? This visual conundrum has its roots in the history of language.
Blue and green are similar in hue. They sit next to each other in a rainbow, which means that, to our eyes, light can blend smoothly from blue to green or vice-versa, without going past any other color in between. Before the modern period, Japanese had just one word, Ao, for both blue and green. The wall that divides these colors hadn’t been erected as yet. As the language evolved, in the Heian period around the year 1000, something interesting happened. A new word popped into being – midori – and it described a sort of greenish end of blue. Midori was a shade of ao, it wasn’t really a new color in its own right.
One of the first fences in this color continuum came from an unlikely place – crayons. In 1917, the first crayons were imported into Japan, and they brought with them a way of dividing a seamless visual spread into neat, discrete chunks. There were different crayons for green (midori) and blue (ao), and children started to adopt these names. But the real change came during the Allied occupation of Japan after World War II, when new educational material started to circulate. In 1951, teaching guidelines for first grade teachers distinguished blue from green, and the word midori was shoehorned to fit this new purpose.
And it’s not just Japanese. There are plenty of other languages that blur the lines between what we call blue and green. Many languages don’t distinguish between the two colors at all. In Vietnamese the Thai language, khiaw means green except if it refers to the sky or the sea, in which case it’s blue. The Korean word purueda could refer to either blue or green, and the same goes for the Chinese word qīng. It’s not just East Asian languages either, this is something you see across language families. In fact, Radiolab had a fascinating recent episode on color where they talked about how there was no blue in the original Hebrew Bible, nor in all of Homer’s Illiad or Odyssey!
Texting and Driving
This is the 3rd and final topic offered by my friends/readers. Texting and Driving has been compared to being just as if not more dangerous than drunk driving. In 2011, 23% of all crashes involed a cell phone. That adds up to about 1.3 MILLION CRASHES. It is estimated that at least 5 seconds is the minimal amount of time you lose attention to driving while you are texting and driving. 13% of drivers age 18-20 involved in car wrecks admitted that they were on their phone at the time of a wreck. These same 18-20 year olds think that texting and driving is not a big concern. 77% of these drivers claim that they are very or somewhat confident that they can safely drive while texting. 55% claim that it is easy for them to be able to text and drive. And this same age group all agree that they watched their parents do it. So what has been done about it. Well 39 states and D.C. has laws prohibiting all drivers from text messaging.
I would like to thank my friends/readers for participating in suggesting topics for this blog. I am very grateful to all who read, comment, share my blog.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
02/12/14
A friend of mine's painting project
This is just a random blog. I decided just to have a normal blog to vent, rant, or whatever you want to call it.
I do want to thank you all that has or still does visit this blog. I must interest some people in what I have to say.
Since I started this blog in Jan. it has grown slowly and that shocked me. As I have said before I do not feel like I am the most interesting person in the world. So to see as of today that nearly 440 people have visited my blog and hopefully really read the posts, its surprising. I do not feel like I am a decent writer and when you do not do well on essays in school and college that makes you NOT want to write anything. I used to write poetry back in the day. Some people liked it, some thought it was "too dark", but amazingly the English teacher at the time thought it was good. I have not written a poem of any kind in who knows how long, and unfortunately I did not save any of what I did before. I was a better photographer in high school too, but I did not have my Grandmother's talent to paint. I have some amazing friends who can paint however. The painting in this blog was emailed to me from a friend who is in college in another state, I have forgotten her major. I like art if it makes you curious. I like Van Gogh paintings, it was his work even though some of it was dark (Blue period) that got me through high school. I have tried writing a short story but I just can not focus the energy enough to do one completely. I have had some ideas but it never panned out, like most of my other projects. I used to have a website on Geo-Cities when I was in college the first time. I used to write music reviews of bands I was listening to at the time. It was fun and it was hard to learn HTML but I learned enough to do an ok website, but all of that is gone. Thanks Yahoo! I did a few videos and was going to start a YouTube channel but I did not like showing my face and so I scrapped that too. I did post them on Facebook and got mixed reviews about what I talked about, but I still was not comfortable doing them. So a friend of mine started their own blog and I watched alot of You Tubers blog and it got me curious. So here I am blogging and I still can not believe that I am about to have written 30 blogs. (This is #29). I am still learning how to blog and I am experimenting with different topics. I think my blogs on Deconversion caught most of my readers/friends off guard. I am trying to write what interests me but that is hard sometimes. I am still a little skiddish about what to write and how to write it. I look at my stats of my other blogs and I guess the one's that are more about me or me just talking about life got the most views or it might of been the title. I am still working on my titling skills.
I am going to keep doing this unless I feel like people are not coming to see what I have to say or I get tired of doing it. Which I doubt I will get tired of doing this unless I have writer's block or I can not figure out what I want to talk about or respond to. I watch alot of news and You Tube. I am going to do more CD Reviews I have an interesting music collection and I do not listen to Country, so there will be NO reviews on that subject. I do not talk about politics alot because I just hate that subject too. I might do a blog on Obamacare but that is just an idea since I studied it. I do have ideas for the "I Survived ___" series, but we will see how that pans out. I think the one on bullying was the most interesting out of the two I have done.
I do want to make one thing clear I am not blogging for either fame or attention. I am doing this as a creative outlet because I simply do not have an outlet. I have been told to write about what I know and some are shocked this did not turn into a ranting blog. I am building the courage to release my anger and frustration on the world but I am scared in doing so that I might scare off people. I have a business degree I know that word of mouth can make or break a business or in this case a blog.
What also surprised me since starting this was the fact that one of my online friends invited me to be a contributor on "The Bloggers" a community they started where we can post our blogs and maybe get more people reading our material.
The Bloggers on Facebook www.facebook.com/thebloggers2014.
So for now this blog is growing and I want it to continue to grow. So I am going to end this blog post and get ready to plan blog post #30. I asked my friends for ideas for topics and I also asked visitors to the Bloggers community to send me some ideas.
Also for those of you a little curious about what kind of music I listen to here is this blog's song of the night.
Inkubus Sukkubus, "Paint it Black".
*Comment, Like, Share* I appreciate it.
"The Summers Spent with my Grandmother" Part two
Part two:
She also had chickens and goats that we had to take care of. She would tell us, "If you can not take care of an animal, how are you going to take care of yourself?" So every morning after breakfast, we would go to the chicken house, collect the eggs, and feed and water the chickens. I always laughed at the way they would run around pecking at the ground when we would throw the feed over the fence to them. Every now and then one would get out and we would have to chase it and try to catch it to put it back. I would chase a hen but not a rooster; I was terrified of them as a child. When I was very young, I was going around my grandmother's house to get a tricycle, and she had a mean rooster. He flew up at me, and started chasing me, and scared me to death. I ran screaming to her, and all she could do was laugh. She took me back around there and told me,"Baby, you can not run from what scares you. Face it, and be stronger." She gave me a stick and walked around there with me; needless to say we had chicken and dumplings that night.
When the sun would go down and it became a little cooler, my grandmother and I would spend so many nights sitting in her porch swing laughing and singing. She would tell me stories of her childhood and her and my grandfather. The lessons I learned from her are priceless. She was a very strong and wise woman. She showed courage and strength all through her life and all the way up to the day she passed away. Even then knowing it was time she showed great strength. She had a massive stroke and could not talk or move anymore.It was very hard to know that she was going to be leaving us soon, but all her pain and struggles are over now. My grandmother has always been a very important part of my life. I learned so very much from her. How to love, how to forgive, how to be a better person in a very bad situation, and how to hold my head high and be proud of who I am and where i come from. She passed in DEC.2010, little over a month before her 80th birthday. When we lost her, we lost the glue and backbone of our family. I only hope that I can honor her memory and live the way she taught us every day that we were with her. Heaven has a beautiful angel, and the rose gardens will be just as beautiful as the one she had when she was here on earth.
THE END
*Like, Comment and Share*
She also had chickens and goats that we had to take care of. She would tell us, "If you can not take care of an animal, how are you going to take care of yourself?" So every morning after breakfast, we would go to the chicken house, collect the eggs, and feed and water the chickens. I always laughed at the way they would run around pecking at the ground when we would throw the feed over the fence to them. Every now and then one would get out and we would have to chase it and try to catch it to put it back. I would chase a hen but not a rooster; I was terrified of them as a child. When I was very young, I was going around my grandmother's house to get a tricycle, and she had a mean rooster. He flew up at me, and started chasing me, and scared me to death. I ran screaming to her, and all she could do was laugh. She took me back around there and told me,"Baby, you can not run from what scares you. Face it, and be stronger." She gave me a stick and walked around there with me; needless to say we had chicken and dumplings that night.
When the sun would go down and it became a little cooler, my grandmother and I would spend so many nights sitting in her porch swing laughing and singing. She would tell me stories of her childhood and her and my grandfather. The lessons I learned from her are priceless. She was a very strong and wise woman. She showed courage and strength all through her life and all the way up to the day she passed away. Even then knowing it was time she showed great strength. She had a massive stroke and could not talk or move anymore.It was very hard to know that she was going to be leaving us soon, but all her pain and struggles are over now. My grandmother has always been a very important part of my life. I learned so very much from her. How to love, how to forgive, how to be a better person in a very bad situation, and how to hold my head high and be proud of who I am and where i come from. She passed in DEC.2010, little over a month before her 80th birthday. When we lost her, we lost the glue and backbone of our family. I only hope that I can honor her memory and live the way she taught us every day that we were with her. Heaven has a beautiful angel, and the rose gardens will be just as beautiful as the one she had when she was here on earth.
THE END
*Like, Comment and Share*
Monday, February 10, 2014
Top 5 (First installment)
To my readers,
This is just another random series of various topics. This is the first installment and an experiment.
#5: HARRIS COUNTY TEXAS (HOUSTON, TX).
Harris County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,092,459, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous in the United States. Wikipedia
Area: 1,778 sq miles (4,605 km²)
Founded: December 22, 1836
Population: 4.254 million (2012)
Unemployment rate: 6.1% (Aug 2013)
County seat: Houston
I am a regular watcher of the First 48 when I can. This city and county to me has appeared in alot of episodes. And about all involve the same thing Money and Drugs.
#4: MEMPHIS, TN.
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers. Wikipedia
Area: 324 sq miles (839.2 km²)
Weather: 26°F (-3°C), Wind S at 2 mph (3 km/h), 56% Humidity
Local time: Monday 8:22 PM
Population: 655,155 (2012)
Unemployment rate: 10.9% (Aug 2013)
Memphis appears in alot of episodes too. Memphis has alot of crime which as you can see is due to no jobs and according to some sites due to poor education. One episode involving this city a whole family was executed.
#3 CLEVELAND, OHIO
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. Wikipedia
Area: 82.47 sq miles (213.6 km²)
Population: 390,928 (2012)
Cleveland when it is on the First 48 it is usually a domestic violence turned homicide case or an eye for an eye homicide.
#2 MIAMI, FL
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County. Population: 413,892 (2012).
Miami and the #1 city on this list would of been considered a tie, but #1 is more violent. So Miami is a beautiful city in Florida. It is home of drugs, murders, and Etc. This town has been on more episodes but not as many as #1.
#1 DETROIT, MI
Detroit is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, and is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state and the largest city on the United States-Canada border.Population: 701,475 (2012) Unemployment rate: 17.7% (Aug 2013).
This is the NUMBER ONE city that appears on the First 48 that I would not want to live at. Every time their is a case here its gruesome. Due to no jobs and high gang activity.
This ends the first Top 5 blog.
*Like, Comment, Share*
This is just another random series of various topics. This is the first installment and an experiment.
TOP 5 #1
This Top 5 is places I would not want to live at due to them being on A&E's THE FIRST 48.#5: HARRIS COUNTY TEXAS (HOUSTON, TX).
Harris County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,092,459, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous in the United States. Wikipedia
Area: 1,778 sq miles (4,605 km²)
Founded: December 22, 1836
Population: 4.254 million (2012)
Unemployment rate: 6.1% (Aug 2013)
County seat: Houston
I am a regular watcher of the First 48 when I can. This city and county to me has appeared in alot of episodes. And about all involve the same thing Money and Drugs.
#4: MEMPHIS, TN.
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers. Wikipedia
Area: 324 sq miles (839.2 km²)
Weather: 26°F (-3°C), Wind S at 2 mph (3 km/h), 56% Humidity
Local time: Monday 8:22 PM
Population: 655,155 (2012)
Unemployment rate: 10.9% (Aug 2013)
Memphis appears in alot of episodes too. Memphis has alot of crime which as you can see is due to no jobs and according to some sites due to poor education. One episode involving this city a whole family was executed.
#3 CLEVELAND, OHIO
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. Wikipedia
Area: 82.47 sq miles (213.6 km²)
Population: 390,928 (2012)
Cleveland when it is on the First 48 it is usually a domestic violence turned homicide case or an eye for an eye homicide.
#2 MIAMI, FL
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County. Population: 413,892 (2012).
Miami and the #1 city on this list would of been considered a tie, but #1 is more violent. So Miami is a beautiful city in Florida. It is home of drugs, murders, and Etc. This town has been on more episodes but not as many as #1.
#1 DETROIT, MI
Detroit is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, and is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state and the largest city on the United States-Canada border.Population: 701,475 (2012) Unemployment rate: 17.7% (Aug 2013).
This is the NUMBER ONE city that appears on the First 48 that I would not want to live at. Every time their is a case here its gruesome. Due to no jobs and high gang activity.
This ends the first Top 5 blog.
*Like, Comment, Share*
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)