Broken Heart Syndrome

Hey there. I had never read the news in the 90's about the "discovery" that a broken heart was actually a clinically definable medical condition. There are things like this that some of us already know and accept as part of life, because our heart have been broken, but others need a definition before they accept it.

Medics 'can mend a broken heart was a BBC news headline this morning that I found interesting. Rather than linking to the story, I am just going to re-post it here.

[Scientists have found it is possible to mend a broken heart.

US researchers studied 70 patients with "broken heart syndrome", a recognised condition linked to stressful or emotional events.

All these patients recovered, most after being given aspirin or heart drugs, even though 20% were deemed critically ill.

The American Journal of Cardiology study says the condition is probably caused by a surge in stress hormones.

Broken heart syndrome, known medically as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, was first described by Japanese researchers in the early 1990s.

Even though symptoms mimic those of a heart attack such as chest pain and shortness of breath, broken heart syndrome does appear to be temporary and completely reversible - if treated quickly.

The patients studied by the researchers from two hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island were diagnosed with broken heart syndrome between July 2004 and April 2008.

Spring breaks

Around 67% of patients had been exposed to some sort of physical or emotional distress - such as bad news about a family member, a domestic argument, severe physical illness or a car accident - just before the onset of symptoms.


There does seem to be an association between this condition and a very stressful event
June Davison, British Heart Foundation

Six patients presented with heart-induced shock and three had abnormal heart rhythms which required emergency treatment.

Two-thirds of the patients - almost all post-menopausal women - had experienced a very stressful physical or emotional event just before arriving at the hospital with heart attack-like symptoms.

Overall, the majority of those in the registry were prescribed aspirin or heart drugs such as, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and statins while in hospital.

Even though a fifth were were critically ill and required emergency treatment to keep them alive, all the patients survived the first 48 hours and experienced a full recovery.

The researchers also discovered that, unlike heart attacks which tend to occur in winter, broken heart syndrome cases tend to occur in the spring and summer months.

'Rarely fatal'

Dr Richard Regnante from the Miriam Hospital, who led the research, said this seasonal pattern could help understand the condition.

"Some believe it is simply a form of a heart attack that 'aborts' itself early and therefore doesn't leave any permanent heart muscle damage.

HAVE YOUR SAY

A broken heart just needs time to digest the pain and get back on track with the help of friends, relatives and some shopping

Maeth P, UK
Send us your comments

"Others say that the syndrome has nothing to do with the coronary arteries and is simply a problem with the heart muscle.

"Since the seasonal pattern of broken heart syndrome that we observed is opposite of what it seen with heart attack patients, our findings suggest - but certainly do not prove - the latter theory may be correct."

He added that the study could help heart specialists and A&E doctors manage patients with the condition.

"Although there is much we're still learning about broken heart syndrome, we do know that it is rarely fatal as long as patients are fully supported with medications, respirators and other critical devices in the first 48 hours."

Dr Regnante and his team are now recruiting patients with broken heart syndrome for a new study which will use ultrasound images to look at whether the condition causes internal damage to the heart.

June Davison, a spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation, said: "There does seem to be an association between this condition and a very stressful event.

"But not enough people have been affected to provide hard evidence of what happens and what actually causes it.

"However people do seem to make a full recovery."]

Just a Juicy Taste

I do love these tunes! You can look for more, their there for you to chew on.

Shirl and Zach Arrived Safely

My sister and 16-year old nephew got here without a hitch, with more gifts in hand than we had at Christmas a few months back. No really, the amount of stuff they brought borders on historic. In fact, they brought 3 big suitcases and 2 carry-ons, and 2 of the suitcases and 1 carry-on were stuff for us!

I am going to post a photo of this stuff because otherwise I don't think anyone could comprehend just how vast this pile of stuff really is. Let's see here, we have: a stack of kid's books, Easter candy and other sweets, toys, including an awesome black Barbie and some other dolls, an X-Wing fighter, stuffed animals, some baby clothes, an entire BAG of taco seasoning packets, several boxes of mac n' cheese, etc. etc.

When preparing to come here, my sis asked if I needed any shirts...I said I would like a black wool shirt and a denim shirt if she happened to see one or the other...she brought 4 denim shirts and 3 black shirts. All of them are boss. Perhaps the most precious article of clothing though is the most mundane to everyone else...8 pairs of socks THAT FIT MY FEET! The biggest shoes here are size 10, and with size 12 feet, socks never fit right. So I can take them strolling around western Japan now with happy feets!

Anyway, for dinner we took them out to yaki-niku (Korean BBQ, but so popular here it may as well be Japanese). They seemed to think it was alright, but did not eat that much. My kids and I on the other hand ate double our usual amount. Alex had FOUR small bowls of rice...where he put it... is a mystery. I am going to have to get a lot more cash here with Alex eating like that!

After dinner we stopped by a convenient store and I was so zoned out from eating all that beef, and my family coming to town, that as we went into the store together I almost went in STILL ON MY BICYCLE! Had a woman not been coming out of the store at the same time, I don't know how far in I would have gone before I snapped out of it. That is the kind of shit that happens when I am talking to my sister.

Tomorrow I will take them to a couple of awesome temples in Kyoto, one of which has 1000 human sized statues of the Buddhist figure "Kannon" which are gilded wood. Very cool.

The one good thing about Osaka is, it is in the center of western Japan and has several major cities nearby. Kyoto, Nara and Kobe. This will be a busy week!

But that is all for today. They fell asleep at 10pm and the kids got sent to bed at 10:30 even though they were in the midst of trying their best to examine the gargantuan stack of new toys.

Faith No More To Reunite

For some reason, news of two ginormous rock reunions has been buried at the end of press releases in recent weeks.

European tour is offhandedly announced in press release regarding singer Mike Patton.

First, there was an e-mail from the Recording Academy, which casually announced that Blink-182 would be reuniting at the Grammy Awards to present an award - which the band of course used to announce their reunion. And now, thanks to a press release touting singer Mike Patton's involvement in the "major motion film 'Crank 2: High Voltage,' " we know that Faith No More - the much-celebrated, much-missed art-rock act that he fronted from 1989 until its dissolution in 1998 - are finally reuniting!!

That news was, er, broken, in the final line of the press release sent late Monday night, which listed Patton's upcoming performance schedule, including a stop at the Coachella festival and "the highly anticipated reunion tour with Faith No More in Europe this summer." Needless to say, long-suffering FNM fans were pumped.

But is the news true? MTV News contacted Patton's publicist, who told us that yes, the Faith No More reunion is happening ... and no, they're not going to be playing any dates in the U.S. This is will be a strictly European affair.

Patton won't be doing any interviews to promote the tour, and it's not exactly clear who will be in FNM this time around: Presumably mid-'80s singer Chuck Mosely (who Patton replaced after Mosely was booted for erratic behavior) won't be on board, although it's unclear whether epically-maned guitarist Jim Martin, who left the band in the early '90s under less-than-friendly circumstances, will be coming.

Faith No More formed in San Francisco in the early 1980s, and after running through a spate of lead singers (including Courtney Love), settled on Mosely and released their debut LP, We Care a Lot, in 1985. Another album followed, FNM parted ways with Mosely and hired Patton, a musician/ performance artist with an epic vocal range and a manic onstage manner. (Patton was also the lead singer of Mr. Bungle, with whom he continued to work during his stint in FNM.)
In 1989, they released The Real Thing, an album which fizzled initially, but thanks to the success of second single "Epic" (and the iconic video, featuring Patton's rapping, Martin's soloing, an exploding piano and a fish gasping for air) quickly began rising up the Billboard albums chart and ultimately went multiplatinum. The band's melding of rock, hip-hop and funk - not to mention Patton's scattershot vocals - would prove hugely influential on the so-called nu-metal acts that would dominate the charts in the latter portion of the decade.

FNM followed up the success of The Real Thing with the confounding, contorting Angel Dust, which is widely considered to be one of the most uncommercial follow-ups to a hit album of all time. Full of gnarled song samples, frazzled rock, aboriginal chanting and operatic vocals, the album unsurprisingly failed to catch on with mainstream rock fans here in the states, although a non-album cover of the Commodores' "Easy" provided the band with some mainstream airplay. While touring in support of Angel Dust, Patton seemed to take delight in testing the patience of FNM's audience, standing center stage eating cigarettes (seriously), while perplexed fans headed for the exits. Upset with the direction the band was taking, Martin left in 1993 and was replaced by a revolving-door of guitarists.

In the years following its release, Angel Dust has come to be seen as a high-water mark, praised for its constant pushing of sonic barriers and its deft infusion of performance art into rock. Faith No More released two more studio albums before calling it quits in 1998, as Patton chose to focus on even more bizarre projects, like Peeping Tom and Tomahawk, and collaborations with Björk, producer Dan the Automator and others. Most notably, drummer Mike "Puffy" Bordin worked extensively with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath; keyboardist Roddy Bottum continued with his band Imperial Teen.

Since FNM split, Patton has often been questioned by fans about the possibility of a reunion. He's always answered that it wasn't going to happen - except now, it appears that it will, and although they're apparently just committing to the to the European tour for now, anything is possible.

Another cool score on e-bay!

I shanked these cool watches for me and the wife from e-bay.

A Hamilton Senator for me, bought at $34.00 (retail $295.00). It is a 1991 or so quality replica of a 1939 design. And a Lady's Hamilton Ardmore which is a early 90's replica of a 1932 design, purchased for $41.00 (retail $245.00)

Both are new and never used!

I did a bit of research and just the Hamilton watch bands go for $35.00!

Yes, another cool score!

What a great deal!

Work work work........

I have been super busy lately, sorry I have not been around much. I finally got a day to laze, maybe two!. Time will tell, I have a feeling I will be called in to work one of my scheduled days off, again. I have been called in to work early most of the week, and the line up has been grueling. Yesterday I did another twelve-ball....which means dealing twelve 1/2 hour-downs...6 hours straight without a break. Usually you deal 4-balls (2 hours) and then a break to get your head straight. Dealing poker is really mentally frightening sometimes. After 4 hours of dealing concentration is lost and mistakes start to occur, where perfection is called for and the standard.

When dealing poker there is so much going on at the same time, (I will not list the many things) but it does not take into account the personalities of ten grown children playing poker and there different personalities taking a toll on you. All the while you have to smile and take the childrens verbal abuse while being thankful, professional, courteous, and perfect in your actions. But, I really shouldn't complain, the poker room has been so-very busy unlike many rooms in town, the money is grand, and much more than I have made in a long while.

Here is an expert from an e-mail from my boss,

Everyone on property knows who we are, what we do, and how well we do it. We have become the standard that the rest of the casino is trying to become. Be very proud of yourselves. We have taken the poker room from being the "red-headed step child" to the "star of the show" in just 3 weeks. I give all the credit to you guys. It is YOU that makes the Guests return. We value their loyalty and believe me, they value your dedication to the experience. A few of our closest competitors were not to worried about us. They figured we were to far away, to small of an operation, to inexperienced, to inconsequential to matter. Guess what, we have all their business. They are taking notice now. Every time I look up I see another card room manager at the rail, watching us, trying to learn how we have accomplished so much, so fast.

......and I am proud to work there!

I played poker last night after my shift (Tuesday is my night to play, knowing I have Wednesday off) and we had seven tables going on a late Tuesday night! while other rooms in the area are having a hard time filling one or two! And my good luck still stands! I made $350.00 playing no-limit poker. I am on a huge roll in the last three weeks playing!

Update over. Like the Faith-No-More song. My back side melts into the sofa, my world, my T.V, my food....besides listening to my belly gurgle, ain't much else to do. -grin-

Computer Update

I called the computer shop and it comes down to this: just going in and "Looking for a problem" will likely cost $2-3 hundred -- which I clearly do not have. So my hope is that someone has a spare HD to let me pop in to my computer, or just lend me their formatted HD to put into my PC to see if it starts up, or will put my HD in their PC to see if it runs. If either works, my HD is toast, so I will have to buy ANOTHER new one. (Got a new one just 1 - 1.5 years ago)

In the meantime, I was able to successfully hook up my printer AND print off an invoice, so I will be able to bill my client and get paid for this month. Last I checked, my printer was very annoyed with Ubuntu on my desktop and would not print, but it likes my laptop fine.

Earlier today I made sure that all the software I need to do my translation jobs were setup, etc. for the next job, and they are good. Good thing too, because another job just came in an hour ago!!!

My reflex reaction was one of "My computer is broken!" But actually, I was totally prepared with a second computer that is set up better than many people have for their only computer. Furthermore, all of my data was backed up, complete with a recent backup of my Firefox bookmarks, and I am utterly ready to take on this next job. Another guy in my shoes would be utterly screwed, or if he were a successful translator (made money) would have to rush out and just buy a new computer. Yet my PC broke 1 day before a job came in and I can still do it without a hitch. Luckity luck luck!

Why I Keep Trying to Work from Home

And these are the reasons why I have kept trying and trying to get freelancing to become a "real job": Since I work at home, I get to be here when Mika's class sings for all the moms in the middle of the afternoon. This was yesterday, and I was the only dad there. Then I took the kids to swimming class. I don't always do that, but Mika just reached green-level, so I wanted to show my support. Their swimming school uses colored swimming caps that work as grade levels -- like Karate right? She has been there I guess 1 1/2 years or so, and has gone through red, white, yellow, orange and just went green. She is using the kick board here because they are learning to do the Butterfly stroke, and working on their kicks.

These pics are from today. Alex's last day of what we would call pre-school in the US. Kindergarten is 2 years here, with an optional year from 3-4. We put him in last year so he could make friends, and since it is only 2 1/2 hours long of play time, it seems like he really liked it! Besides, we always play for an hour in the park after kindergarten, and that gives not only Alex but Luna time to play and be with other kids. Since Luna began walking not that long ago, she plays with Alex, the boys and Misaki-chan too!

Spring has Sprung

Today was not a full day of dumb computer futsing, rather I was really busy with kids and the house all day. Alex only had 1 hour of kindergarten today, and after an hour of playing at the park together with Luna, Mika came home at 11:30. Only half day for her too. They are now officially on Spring break, and when they go back, they will be 1 grade higher (Alex in kindergarten again...year 2...and Mika in 2nd grade) After that, we all went to the park together.

When Nami came home and took Mika to piano lessons*, me and Alex went plant shopping! I was pretty happy to find that the home center sells starter strawberry and tomato plants, so to make sure that THIS year I would get to eat some of our produce experiments, I planted 5 strawberry plants, and 5 tomato plants! (Last year I grew a couple tomato plants from seeds, and they died)

Funny story here, is that last year I had one planter box with carrot seeds in it. Nothing at all happened. I later used some of that soil in replacing soil in the hanging baskets you see to the left, and this year? ...two carrots have grown in the hanging baskets! So anyway, because there is not enough room to grow good carrots there, I carefully moved them to a bigger pot. They are already mini carrots, so I was careful not to mess up their roots and moved them with the soil surrounding them.

So in this picture, you see new tomato plants in the long boxes, strawberries in the giant pot that used to hold a small maple tree (died) and some new flowers in the hanging baskets on the railing. Just trying to have SOME kind of green around here.

FTL Drive Offline...Transferring Flag to Another Ship...

So THIS sucks. I am posting from the laptop today -- but not because I want to. The desktop is experiencing another reality right now, without my consent.

I was in the middle of typing an email, and everything froze. No keyboard control, mouse and the restart "ctrl+alt+delete" that is the way to restart Ubuntu did na-da. So, I am talking FROZEN solid, like an Ubuntu-cicle. After a couple minutes, the only choice was shut off the power and try again later. When I restarted the computer, it would not go past the initial brand-name screen which I normally see only for a brief moment (above pic). Aside from it hanging up here, the image was all screwy as you can see.

After dinner, I tried several times to get this thing to work, hoping maybe that I could go to the Windows partition, or maybe even run Ubuntu off a CD (which is usually an option). I put in the CD and nothing happened at first, then on the third try it finally it began to start. However...

Normally, when you boot Ubuntu off the CD, you will have an orange bar moving back and forth as it starts up...not THREE as you can see here. And no weird streaking, pixelated logo. But after a few minutes, even this froze up.

Restart, the computer says something that IF it were not all pixelated, and I could actually read it, might read something like "Son, this dang computer is rat done broke". I could not read it, but it was neither Ubuntu nor was it XP, just a black screen with a garbled message.

Wednesday
Tried to start it this morning and the garbled, pixelated screen froze again, so I have to actually take it in to a SHOP.

For this week anyway, I am using the laptop, and it is good enough for some things, but is not all "streamlined" as my desktop and I will have to get used to some things over here. A US keyboard, and no DVD burning capabilities. The latter in fact means very little right now, since our DVD player is also dead.

So, last night I spent some time getting to know this lappy since I only use it occasionally. (Nami uses it more). I took a while to set up the Japanese language settings, make sure everything was ready to go in case we get another couple pages of work this week.

Over the past couple months, the computer has had some weirdness that caused me to shut it off and restart hard a couple times. Each time I would restart and nothing would happen...just black screen...so I would unplug the power, wait a few minutes and come back, switch everything on, and within 3-5 tries the computer would come back. But never gave me this odd streaking/scrambled image thing. Dunno. It seems like something has been working on going kaput and now it finally has.

Good damn thing I have a backup computer, and good thing that my main hard drive is the 1Tb external HD. I don't trust computers, so I make two copies of every batch of photos I take, songs, files, jobs, everything. And this is why.

Once you start using a double monitor system, a single monitor is like typing one-handed. So I am really glad that a few months ago I got a free 17inch monitor to hook up to the lappy, so it is a dual head system now too. That will make using this temporary transfer of my hardware much more doable.

The only additional trouble is, the lappy is Ubuntu only, and my printer only seems to be working works right now with XP, so no printing, and no scanning either. That will make it tough to figure out how to send in my end of the month translation invoices...

And if you thought I took BSG seriously...

All Good Things Come to an End

Exciting, entertaining, surprising and a bit emotional, the series finale of Battlestar Galactica was better than I had imagined. If you have not seen it, and are planning to watch the series someday, then don't read this because of course, I am talking about the ENDING and that would screw things up for you. I am mostly writing this to decompress after watching it myself.

The last couple shows of the season before the big finale left me feeling like I was given a mop and a bucket and told to clean up the rest of the show while we waited for the end. Because of that I was not quite sure what to expect for the end. It was actually better than anybody could really expect I think, and again leaves me thinking "Wow...that was TELEVISION, not a movie?"

By that I mean that for 4 seasons (about a year and a half for me) I have been drawn into this show as if it were a major theatrical production, and never really considered that I was watching a show made for TV. My impression of TV in general is very poor, and this was the best thing I have ever watched. I liked it far better than Star Wars, and any space show or drama is going to be hard-pressed to impress me after BSG. Not that I stopped liking SW, just that this show shows so much more of the human drama. It seems that the message is, "No matter how screwed up us humans are, there is always hope. The fact that even when the good guys win, it comes at a high cost makes the show more believable. In other shows, people die, major characters are injured, but in this one, people are just dragged through the muck of the galaxy repeatedly, and important characters get killed off. At the end, rather than thinking "Of course they all win, this is TV" I felt more like "Wow...they actually made a happy ending out of all this?"
(I cannot appreciate the Chinese movie story line where all the main characters die at the end and we all sit back and enjoy how beautiful it is...not my thing.)

Of all the characters I enjoyed most, Guias Baltar (pictured here with Caprica 6) is one of my two favorites -- the other being Starbuck. I find his flaws and his selfishness to be pathetic, disgusting, hateful and all too familiar. So I am always pleased when he does something that redeems his scummy character. Finally, he gets "The" girl and they take their love and go off into the hills. I enjoy how when they found out that they had been seeing actual angels all this time, and they arrive at new Earth, how they both react just as the audience would, "What?! That's IT?!! THIS is God's plan?" Many people will not like this ending, but the majority of us, Hollywood and Christian raised chillenz will be satisfied I think. The only kinda...odd? or somehow sad or disappointing part is related to Starbuck's ending. Fans waited a year or so to find out "What IS Starbuck?" and she just disappers into thin air. I wonder how many Americans yelled "Doh!!!" at the TV screen when that happened? Maybe it is better this way though. I mean, explaining everything with clear dialog is more the cliche' soap opera style. This way the meaning is clear, but we have some room to move around within our own imaginations.

A bit lame is the way the Final Five end up, but again this really is the only way -- they end up having with no more significance than any other living being. Finally, in the end, everyone is just a person. ...except for Tory... and the vegetable flying into the sun with all the ships...

However, Centurions with war-paint? ...super cool. Fighting old-school cylons against new ones? Very cool! (I tried to post a screen shot of these, but for some reason I cannot get one...the screen shots just come up black). Flying the fleet into the sun... very strange to say the least. And final "Earth" may be too good to believe, but I am good with that too. I would rather my favorite characters end up on a good planet at a time when it was clean, than in the modern day.

Last comment about this show: angels and God are real...but God hates that name. I like it. 70% of Americans still believe in God so they will like the ending. Doesn't bother me, and the "angels" make a couple comments about God that I would have made myself. "God doesn't take sides" etc.

Amazing show. I was entertained beyond my best expectations, for a longer period than any movie or show has ever provided. Thanks Battlestar Galactica!

Special Translator Guys

Just a little rant here. I am really getting sick of snarky language pricks. Specifically, Japanese language nerds. As you know, I am working as a translator. But what you may not know, is that guys who work in this industry have an overwhelming tendency to be arrogant about their language abilities. They are proud because they can speak another language and people always say "Yer so smart", but it goes beyond just being confident and leads to exaggerated sense of being "special".

Japanese language nerds (and I imagine it must be the same in Korea, Taiwan, etc.) are even more "special" because not only can we speak another language, but we are a small minority which reside in countries where westerners are viewed as super cool. Now, if you thought white dudes were annoying? Well you have never seen an annoying white dude until you have met one who lives in Japan.

Myself, I am working on developing "anti-language nerd pride". Admittedly, I studied Japanese to better communicate with Japanese girls...back in my twenties, in Seattle. I ended up being able to speak Japanese well enough that I got jobs at Japanese restaurants, cooking at first, then waiting on Japanese customers in Japanese. I was pretty odd in that I was already fluent in Japanese by the time I got to Japan. A couple of friends convinced me that I was good enough at Japanese to become a translator. Never really understanding how long it would take me to improve my Japanese reading skills, or how truly difficult it is to find work as a freelance translator with no pro experience. None of us knew what kind of roller coaster ride this was going to be. Both the guys who suggested I get into this industry had in mind that I should specialize in one area, but noobs like me end up working as generalists, and that means I translate just any old topic, which is actually really tough.

In the current company, the editor is another white dude living in Japan, and he has some "special" issues too. He has convinced the company that he is THE authority on translation, so everything I translate is marked up like crazy and just about nothing I have written ends up on the final draft. The ass even makes comments on the projects about how the writers of the JAPANESE text are wrong. My wife says, "Why doesn't this jerk just do it all?" But this is the way of the linguist -- think that they know how both languages they work with should be written -- and everybody hates a know-it-all.

Now, we add the "special" from being an intelligent language nerd, to the "special" from being white in Japan, with the "Impenitrable virutal wall" that the internet provides wieners like forum geeks and other know-it-alls, and we get asshole editors like I am working with now who write things like "How many times do I have to tell you this before you get it??" Gosh, my answer has to be something like, "About as many times as it takes me to punch you in the head before you stop being rude." Sorry, but as much as I try to see the beauty in others, pompous attitudes really gets my blood to boil.

I often wonder, "Why is it that there HAS to be a complete bastard at every job?" Power-hungry managers, snarky editors, button-pushing coworkers... It's enough to make a guy root for the postal workers standing sentry on the roof. So now I look back at my work history and wonder where I took a wrong turn. For me though, I have realized that it is not actually about the job, it is about the people I work with. And it is almost always another big male ego that gives me the trouble. Upon reflection, the 2 jobs I stayed at longest were at the foundry -- one worker next to me, only 4 other faces around which I seldom dealt with, but all who had very simple personalities, and therefore a pleasure to deal with -- and English teaching (which I eventually got out of because of the annoying special people).

A bit late for revelations like this, but I probably should have been a forest ranger in the Olympics or heck, maybe a tree planter in the Yukon! Yikes.

Goin Crazy with a few bucks in My Pocket!

Working like I am, the bucks are finally rolling in. Not to mention the good luck I have had the last three times I have gotten out to play poker, over 600.00 chips up! in the last two weeks. So I am splurging on a few trinkets that I so richly deserve!

I won this really cool Swatch Watch in an e-bay auction for just 15.50 USD. It is a commemorative 1996 Atlanta Olympics watch still in the original packaging. I am stoked! I cant wait to get it in the mail!

What a fucking deal!

I also have a bid in for $95.01 on this pre 1969 Hamilton in terrific shape! It goes up before I get off work, but at this time I am high bidder at $26,00. I actually kinda doubt I get it, but it would be another cool score!

Overzealous watchmaker vandalized Lincoln’s watch in 1861

It’s a little known fact that watchmakers like to note the time and date of their work on the inside cases of watches. If you ever have something repaired at a watch shop, chances are there’s a little note - “change battery”, “crystal”- in the case. This is fairly common and it’s fun to open an old watch and find notes from long-gone watchmakers secreted inside.

Well, this note is a doozy.

Jonathan Dillon, in 1861 was watchmaker on Pennsylvania Avenue, and had Lincoln's watch in his hands when he heard the first shots of the Civil War had been fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

The watchmaker's great-great grandson, Doug Stiles, first heard the rumor of an engraving in Linclon's watch from his great uncle decades ago. For years the story went unconfirmed.

On Tuesday, watchmaker George Thomas, who volunteers at the National Museum of American History, spent several minutes carefully opening the antique watch as an audience of reporters and museum workers watched.

In 1861 Jonathan Dillon wrote under the watch face of the watch “Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels’ and ‘thank God we have a government” and more- on the eve of the Civil War.

I wonder what Abe would have thought of this?... I doubt strongly he ever knew.

The watch appears to be a standard Civil War railroader. A Waltham William Ellery from Connecticut in a gold case with fleur de'lys hands and Roman numerals.

Lincoln's family kept the watch until it was donated to the museum in 1958. It was Lincoln's everyday pocket watch, one of the president's only valuable possessions he brought with him to the White House from Springfield, Illinois.

Useful Redneck Skills

People have said that learning is never wasted, and the other day that was made clear to me yet again when I was playing kick ball with the kids. They say "Wwoooooww!" when papa kicks the ball real high, so I booted that sucker nice and high into...a tree. Not just any tree, an evergreen with fronds that point upwards.

Most dads would think of a ladder, but that sucker was WAY up the tree so my first thought was to get a rope. So we went home to where I have a 100ft. of rope -- that I may have used once if ever -- went back to the park and made a lasso. The kids were like, "You are gonna get the ball with a ROPE?!" So suddenly, that day Grandpa Pete took me out round back the house and taught me how to rope a fence post turned out to be genuinely useful. 35years after the fact, it was tough to rope the right branch, but it only took about half a dozen tries before I was gently shaking the branch and the ball fell back down.

So, not only is being able to lasso things a good thing to know, but I finally got to use that rope! (When you move all your shit to a new country, sometimes weird shit like 100ft. of camouflage, nylon rope gets sent with all the other stuff. But this was one thing I thought "Why the hell did THIS get sent?")

After I got the ball down, I proceeded to teach my children how to throw the rope to catch the jungle gym in the park. Why is it whenever I do something REALLY WHITE suddenly an otherwise empty street corner is filled with neighbors passing by wondering what the HELL that white guy is doing with that rope in the park?

AWESOME!

Now you know what living here is like...almost.

I love Fa-Kin!

Facebook, the MMORPG*

Facebook is a massively multi-player online roll playing game...hilarious.



*This was my first time to ever write this acronym.

I went and did it.......

I bought this watch without researching it and I think I know why? I guess got fuzzy and squishy with the looks of the thing, and got wrapped-up in the moment and made a bid in a frenzy. I won it for the total sum of $22.50 USD.

My thinking was, for the price, a "classic style" vintage time-piece, with a new leather band, that works well, that I could wear to work, was worth the price. I think I am right? I hope I am right?

I can't wait to get it! Open it, and learn more! How exciting!

It is a hard one to find out information on because of the name "Classic" and the fact I cant gander at the movement. Every time I do a search on classic watch (or other spins of the name) I come up with all kinds of weird shit, and assorted "classic style" watches. The logo above the name is very reminiscent of a Wittnauer logo, but not quite exact. I am assuming it is from the 60's to 70's but it could be older or younger? I am unsure of the country of origin? It is a manual wind, with 17 jewels, with a stainless back that says "shockproof" "water protected". One thing for sure....I will love it like all the rest. I will try to do more research before I receive it, but any information known by others will be appreciated.

Cloning Neanderthal

There are a LOT of budding writers out here in cyber-space, and I have been bumping into other people's blogs when doing searches for images. One such search for Neanderthal pics, brought up alexluck.wordpress.com where a fellow blogger posted a bit from the NY Times. This week, I have really been watching a lot of documentaries on prehistoric humans and enjoyed them immensely. But I would not want to BRING THEM BACK as it were, no more than I would want to bring back dinosaurs. Simply for the reason that I would like us to put more attention on cleaning up our current "house". Cloning Neanderthal is way low on my list of important things to do.

So this topic comes up because as 2009 began, the Neanderthal Genome Project completed its first draft (dunno if that means they are totally done or what, I am just writing what I read) so we can see EXACTLY what kind of people we are studying. For example, we know that this particular Neanderthal woman had red hair, green eyes and a light complexion. "Whoahhh" I say. Science am perdy amazin'. Anyway, I wanted to repost this news article here:

Scientists report that they have reconstructed the genome of Neanderthals, a human species that was driven to extinction some 30,000 years ago, probably by the first modern humans to enter Europe.

Possessing the Neanderthal genome raises the possibility of bringing Neanderthals back to life. Dr. George Church, a leading genome researcher at the Harvard Medical School, said Thursday that a Neanderthal could be brought to life with present technology for about $30 million.

Ethical considerations aside, Dr. Pääbo said, Neanderthals could not be generated with existing technology. Dr. Church of Harvard disagreed. He said he would start with the human genome, which is highly similar to that of Neanderthals, and change the few DNA units required to convert it into the Neanderthal version.

This could be done, he said, by splitting the human genome into 30,000 chunks about 100,000 DNA units in length. Each chunk would be inserted into bacteria and converted to the Neanderthal equivalent by changing the few DNA units in which the two species differ. The changed lengths of DNA would then be reassembled into a full Neanderthal genome. To avoid ethical problems, this genome would be inserted not into a human cell but into a chimpanzee cell.

The chimp cell would be reprogrammed to embryonic state and used to generate, in a chimpanzee’s womb, a mutant chimp embryo that was a Neanderthal in many or most of its features.

Dr. Church said he had no plans for such an experiment, but if someone were eager to supply the financing, “We might go along with it.” The treatment of Neanderthals would raise many problems. “Are you going to put them in Harvard or in a zoo?” asked Dr. Klein of Stanford.

Cool National Geographic vid HERE on the new reconstruction of the Neanderthal pictured above. But I have to argue with their referring to Neanderthal as "our closest ancestor". That has already been proven incorrect with genetic information. We share a common ancestor but they are not our ancestors.

Crazed Bastard Sword

Sorry to be such a goofball and post this here, but I have always thought that this one picture pretty much sums up my character with the most honesty. I just now accept it enough to share it with you. Complete with "Spear to the head commentary".

Primitive Humans

Along with my interests in space, philosophy and spirituality, anthropology also interests me a great deal. Today I am watching a show called, "Ape to Man" which you might have already seen, but I have just found. Great show if you like documentaries on primitive man. This one talks about the discoveries of Homo neanderthalensis, (Taung Child) Australopithecus africanus then Australopithecus boisei, Homo habilis and Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy). Very cool, very exciting stuff to me. This LINK has a fun chart with some cartoonish images along side the names.

Amazing really that anybody ever pieced the puzzle of man together since people were all looking in wrong directions -- some people even screwing with our puzzle by introducing fraudulent fossils like Piltdown Man. But somehow we were able to come to the understanding that different types of bipedal evolved in more than one evolutionary line*. I also find it amazing that little more than 100 years ago, everyone assumed that evolution was spurred by brain expansion, or our increased ability to use tools, but today we all know that it was our ancient ancestor's ability to walk upright. If you never took anthropology or watch related documentaries, you might never really consider how the ancient ancestors of man (3.2 million years ago!) were more like bipedal chimps than cavemen -- short, hairy monkeys who could walk and run...but still slept in trees.

*In 1996 genetic study on Neanderthal bones concluded that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were not on the same evolutionary line, though they did live at the same time. Pretty darn cool. Of course we have known this for over a decade now, but I still think it is wicked cool. In 2009 the first draft of the Homo neanderthalensis genome project was completed.

Just Passing Along Info

Just scroll down a little on this page for free calendars for either Excel or Open Office
. I have been using the one the comes in Ubuntu or Google Calendar, and both are not what I wanted. This spreadsheet one is more like the type of calendar for writing shit on, which is what I needed for work, and it has the next couple years included. Took a little while to find, so here ya go.

Recipes III: Super Wakan Fry Bread

When I first searched Google several years ago to find a fry bread recipe, every one I found was utterly different. In some cases the dough came out harder than Playdoh, and some came out kind of soupy, and the wasi'chu in me was unhappy. I did not have a good Dakota-ring to find the truth in the recipes so I experimented and failed a few times before I found that "Let the dough rise for 10min." actually meant an HOUR. How bout that native time enit? Anyway, here is my recipe which I hope will work for you too. Great with honey, stew or chili. Sadly, it ain't great day-old and so is not super wonderful on a cold morning at camp, unless of course you take the time to heat some up over your campfire. So without further ado here is, "Crazy Crow Flies Against the Wind" Kaze's ...

Fry Bread Recipe

4C flour
3/4 to 1C warm milk (generally 1, but stir it in and listen to the wind)
2t baking powder
1/2C of honey
1/2t salt

1. Mix all the dry ingredients first and gradually mix in the milk as you stir, (I heat up the honey in the microwave for about 10seconds, to make it easier to mix in) and mix in the honey.

2. Sprinkle a little flour on your hands, and knead the dough together until it has and elasticity and there is no powder in the dough.

3. Break the dough up into golf ball sized pieces, sprinkle a little flour on your cutting board and flatten the pieces into about 3/8in. flat discs.

4. Let the flattened dough sit out for about an hour.

5. Deep fry the bread at a medium temperature until golden brown. Too hot and you will burn the outside but the inside will not get cooked.
________________________________________________________________________________

A little blurb from a book by Bruce Johansen Roberto Maestas on the word Wasi'chu.
The first peoples who lived on the northern plains of what today is the US called themselves "Lakota," meaning "the people," a word which provides the semantic basis for Dakota. The first European people to meet the Lakota called them "Sioux," a contraction of Nadowessioux, a now-archaic French-Canadian word meaning "snake" or enemy.

The Lakota called the newcomers "Wasi'chu" which means "takes the fat," or "greedy person."
Wasi'chu does not describe a race; it describes a state of mind.

Recipes from the Olden Days Part II

This is not my photo, but it looks pretty much the same as what my Tarragon Chicken looks like. The difference is that I cut up the chicken to make it easier to eat with a spoon. This is probably my favorite western (non-Asian) dish:

Tarragon Chicken

3lbs. chicken
2t salt
1 onion
2T oil
3T flour
1C chicken stock
1 small bay leaf
1 1/4t pepper

1C sour cream
1/4 t tarragon

I prefer to cut up the chicken first in bite-sized cubes to make it easier to eat, but
when I first learned to prepare this dish I used chicken legs. I further altered the recipe
to use a bit less meat, and add mushrooms.

Cook first 8 ingredients together on a med. low heat until chicken is cooked.
Add the tarragon and sour cream and cook on low heat for (up to) 5 minutes.
Do not allow the sour cream to boil, and keep stirring the pot.
Serve over rice...oh my god!

Recipes from the Olden Days

Do you like spicy food? This is a recipe for Beef Vindaloo, which I don't make any more because it is too spicy for my chillen. If you make this, get some good beef, pork or lamb. Last time I made this I still did not really understand quality meat and so the toughness of the meat kinda ruined the dish for me. It wasn't until I started eating Indian food made by people from India that I realized how tender it was supposed to be. But I have confidence in your maturity, so you will probably do a fine job. Here tis:

1t ground corriander
1/2t ground cumin
1t turmeric (don't ever wear WHITE when using this stuff!)
1/2t mustard powder
1/2t cayenne pepper
1/2t ground ginger
2T apple cider vinegar

3T chopped onion
1/4t minced garlic
2T cooking oil
2 lbs. beef/chicken/pork/mutton/llama/horse/kangaroo...

2 1/2 cups hot water
1 1/2t salt
2T lemon juice

Combine the first 8 ingrediantes into a paste. Cut up the meat.
Saute the onion and garlic in the oil, then add the spice paste and cook 1 or 2 minutes.
Add the meat and cook for about 10minutes (lower heat, longer time to keep the meat tender).
Add the hot water and cook for 50minutes. Then add the salt and lemon juice, and serve with rice...and keep a pitcher of cold water nearby. Ha!

RSS Feeds: A Vertible Black Hole for your Time

Not sure just how much you read the news, but I started reading a lot more because of the "Latest BBC Headlines" live bookmark in Firefox. I am nearly certain that you can subscribe to any RSS feed in all of the major browsers, and put them in your Favorites menu. The BBC bookmark lists the 30 or so most recent headlines, which I can ignore or not, and it saves me looking at the front page of a paper. If you never used an RSS feed, they are pretty useful. (Your blogger dashboard can do that with other people's blogs too, by adding their blog address and becoming a follower...I just think Blogspot's choice of vocab sucks.)

Finding news that I might actually care about reading is even easier since I just go right to BBC's "Science and Environment" page, which has all the space news that I dig. That is where I got this artist's rendition of two black holes...which just happen to be bright white...revolving around each other.

The story is that a guy seems to have found a pair that rotate around each other at 1/3 of a light year apart every 100 years. The rest of the time they wander their respective territories, hunting, marking trees, and living out their lives. One day, the female will produce offspring and they too will have to learn to survive in...THE WILD KINGDOM! ...nonono, I think I got that part wrong. Read the story if you like: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7924414.stm

(The black holes are why I started writing, the other stuff is just peripheral info.)

Hina Matsuri (Girl's Day) in Japan

Nope nobody had a birthday here, this cake is for the Japanese event/day "Hina Matsuri" nicknamed "Girl's Day" in English. It is one day in the year when girls pull out really expensive, traditional dolls from the cupboard and display them...a tradition I think is just silly. The dolls form a cute little princess/prince set, complete with samurai retainers, etc. and can easily run over $1000. My wife has her set from when she was a kid, and they are really nice ones. So she passed them down to our daughter. This year with the baby around we did not put the dolls out however...which makes the event even more meaningless to the white American dad. But grandma gave them a cake, so that was really all anybody wanted huh? I will be lazy and link up an EXAMPLE of a really nice set here, since ours stayed in the closet this year.

Brit Gal Got Sacked for Saying her Job was Boring...Off the Job

Remember a little while ago I was talking about our "web presence" and how I decided to keep my actual name and my web identity separate? Followed by me censoring one of my own comments about an agency I worked with whose trainer wrote more poorly than my last cat? Well, Kimberley Swann from Essex was fired from her job for commenting on Facebook that her job was boring...and she didn't even say the name of her company. Some say it was her mistake for inviting coworkers to her Facebook page, but that means someone at the company reported her...which means ya canni trust yer cow-erkers. Well there prolly wasn't a lot of doubt about that anyway, but just that same, you'd better watch out if you ever wanna work with people from Ivell Marketing & Logistics. I mean...its not like she was using Facebook to talk to MEN for god's sake.

I love how her boss said when giving her the sack, "I have seen your comments on Facebook and I don't want my company being in the news." Niiiiice. Way to go boss.

I for one agree with the TUC (Trades Union Congress) secretary, "Most employers wouldn't dream of following their staff down the pub to see if they were sounding off about work to their friends." But just looking at Google, I see that it is not uncommon to see people getting fired for talkin smack about their company. In October, 13 flight attendants were canned for talkin shit about their customers in a Facebook discussion group. They referred to some customers as "Chavs" and talked about some of the company's planes being infested with cockroaches. Now... I totally agree that this kind of thing is really not good for publicity, but why is Facebook any more public than a bar? Before you say that there are 175 million active users on FB, nobody can accurately say how many people ACTUALLY read any given page.

Let us say that each one of the flight attendants has 300friends on their individual friend list (popular people). Multiplied by 13, that is still just 3900 people. Then we have to calculate how many of them are active users, and how many of them could access the "discussion group". My opinion is that talking smack in a BAR would pose the greater threat for employees to "destroy a company's rep" than in the previous cases. We clearly talk much more loudly in a bar, include people we just met in our conversations, and are much less inhibited when talking. If a company fired you for talking shit at a bar, that would be a serious breach of privacy. Internet is a sticky wicket though because it is "special".

What do you think? Should the British 16-year old have been fired? Should you be able to be fired if you are in the super market and say "My boss is a vapid prick" and a coworker heard it an told your boss? So apparently saying something on Facebook is considered somewhere between saying it on a street corner and the radio or TV?

Hmmm... I am sure this has been a topic of some discussion since the net first switched on.