UnderNewManagement

Ode to Sweety

2009-07-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sweety left us this morning, Sarah's beloved pet. She got Sweety just before Christmas in 2006, a birthday present for her 9th. Sweety would whistle for us when he wanted something from us and Frosty the cat would watch Sweety and try to get in the cage when we left Sweety's door open. Sweety didn't like the door open, he would chew the bar till we closed the door. July 1st, 2009.

Ode to Strawberry Pie

2008-02-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

Sarah's first horse, Pie, passed away late Friday night, February 8th, 2008. Pie was about 22 months old. We are all shocked by this sudden and tragic death of her horse. Pie was burried on the Cowboys Pride Horse Rescue in Luther, Oklahoma were Sarah kept him; Pie was a rescue horse that Sarah purchased at the horse auction to save him from going to slaughter.

Cowboy Caviar

2007-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

2 cans black-eyed peas-drained
1 can corn-drained and chopped
2 jalapenos-1 with seeds 1 without
1 tomato
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 onion
1 can Rotel
1 large bottle low-fat Zesty Italian Dressing
combine all ingredients, cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours, drain, serve with chips

for fun add: black beans, black olives, minced garlic, and 1 red onion

The New Improved Rock, Paper, Scissors.

2007-09-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

Rock_Paper_Scissors rock on!
also check out this video, think survival! cool_little_miniature_stove

A little Retro News from March 22, 2007

2007-09-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

COYLE, Okla. -- There is trouble for a long-time summer camp in Oklahoma. Camp Cimarron's closing has disrupted summer plans for hundreds of Oklahoma kids. NewsChannel 4 met with some protesting parents. They arrived with homemade signs in hand.
The parents showed up with one unified message scribbled in magic marker. "We have to keep Camp Cimarron open because it's the best camp ever," says Tori Noah, Camp Cimarron Camper.
It's a sentiment shared by campers, old and young.
"Riding the horse, climbing the walls and swimming in the pool; it's a lot of stuff they're taking away from us," says Sarah Kerr, another Camp Cimarron Camper.
The camp is a summer escape hidden away along the bluffs of the Cimarron River on 200 acres. Camp Cimarron is run by the Camp Fire USA Heart of Oklahoma Council, a nonprofit United Way agency.
Last month its board members sent out a letter cancelling the camp's upcoming summer session.
Tuesday night a small group of concerned parents and campers staged a silent protest at the council's monthly meeting.
Regina Kerr says "I would like to see this board step up and reopen the camp. Be open with these kids; with what's really going on with this camp."
"Currently we are in a budget shortfall, and in addition to that, our candy sales are down 50,000 in net sales," says Phyllis Morris, Interim Executive Director of the camp.
The council's interim executive director says the shortfall is due to mismanagement by prior board members and is a direct reflection of dismal fundraising numbers.
She says the camp is outdated and its future is in limbo. Which means its gate could be locked forever; forcing campers to find another summer retreat.
Morris says, "We'd love to have Camp Cimarron reopen, but it will be based on what's good for the council and the information we receive."
Last year, as a last resort, the council got so desperate they took out a $200,000 loan to pay off mounting debt. They're asking for the public's help to their organization back on its feet.
Copyright 2007 KFOR-TV-DT. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

i got your captain right here

2007-08-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

hahahaha

How yall doin?

2007-08-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

I am half way through my second class now. I enrolled in a degree completion program and will finish around Nov '07 with a BA in Ministry. The Lord has called me to get an education and I am not trying to rush anything right now. In May of '06 I am hoping to get to go to Nicaragua on a medical mission trip. I am very excited, I have not traveled outside of the United States before. Well, their is 24 more days till Christmas, has everyone finished there shopping? I'll write again after the first of the year.

*****Update: I got my report card from 15 of 16 classes, I got A's!!!!!!!!!(13 A's, one B, and one C)
15 classes down, 1 to go!

Ode to Jane

2007-07-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

Dearly beloved Jane left us this summer. He was very much loved by Sarah and Sweety. Jane was laid to rest in our backyard on July 16th, 2007.

Jane never bit, loved all, and was cared for very well. Jane was 9 months old when we adopted him, and was with us for another 18 months.

BigMike

2007-07-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

Goals

2007-07-31T15:34:00.000-07:00

I have been in the BA degree completion program since October '05. The first class in the program you are SUPPOSED to have is called Goals. I felt called to go into this program, although I had no idea what MY goal was. I did not have goals first, I entered the program mid-semester, and I have been looking forward to goals ever since. The first opportunity for me to take goals was my next to the last class. I am almost finished with the program and am anxious that I have not found/discovered my goal. Last friday was the day that I was recognized for my efforts with the students of the Rad Tech program and today on the way to work I discovered that I had a goal all along. Teaching students and helping them mature (Radiologically speaking) is and always has been my goal. It is so much a part of me that I did not recognize it. This program has helped me to fine tune my teaching skills and helped me to better approach the more difficult aspects of teaching. For as long as I have been in the Ministry program everyone I know has asked me what I was going to do when I finished and I had always told them 'I don't know.' Well now I know. I will be the best Rad Tech for the students that I can be. I will be patient and have confidence in them. This is what I am going to do!
This IS my goal.

BigMike

The Fine Art of Mentoring

2007-07-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is the speech that I gave (for the most part) at the Rose State College Radiologic Technology Graduation, July 27th, 2007. I hope you enjoy it.

A fire started in the grasslands close to a farm. The county fire department rushed to the scene, but the fire was more than they could handle. Someone suggested calling the volunteer fire department. Despite some doubt that they would be of any assistance, they were called. The volunteers arrived in a dilapidated old fire truck. They rumbled straight towards the fire, drove right into the middle of the flames and stopped! The firefighters jumped from the truck and frantically started spraying water in all directions. Soon they had snuffed out the center of the fire and leaving two parts which were easily put out. As the farmer watched all this, he was impressed and grateful that his house and farm had been spared. He quickly got his check book and donated $1000 to the volunteer fire department. A local news reporter asked the volunteer fire captain how they planned to use the funds. The captain replied, "The first thing we're gonna do is get the brakes on our fire truck fixed!"

Good evening. I am honored by the invitation to speak to you tonight. I have had the priveledge of teaching some of you when you rotated through Mercy and I'm proud to see and hear of how far you have come in just two short years. I want to speak to you tonight about mentoring. You will soon be in the position to help others who are now, or in the future will be, in the RADIOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY program. Hopefully all of you have benefited while in thIS program from the help of experienced technologistS guiding you through your learning process. As new technologist you will now have the opportunity to guide and mentor others while they progress through their learning process. The definition of a mentor is to: serve as a trusted counselor or teacher, especially in occupational settings. “Mentoring is a relational experience in which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources.” Connecting; The Mentoring Relationships You Need To Succeed In Life by Paul D. Stanley and J. Robert Clinton. The basis of mentoring has to be a sound relationship between the mentor and the student or mentoree. Like any other relationship it must be based on trust.

Having students to mentor does not come naturally to everyone. When you begin to mentor you must first assess the needs and learning habits of the student you are trying to help. You must recognize at what point they are in the program, and what needs they have that must be addressed. Mentoring students is not just an intellectual venture, it is emotional as well. One of the most basic needs that many students have is a lack of confidence. Not that the student has no confidence themselves but that the technologists at the clinical sites have a lack of patience and little confidence in the students abilities. This deficiency in the technologist is projected onto the student and thereby stunts the student’s growth. This equates to moving a plant into a dark closet and being angry with the plant for not growing. As new technologists I urge you to have patience with your future students; you must allow them to make mistakes. I tell students at the beginning of the semester, upon first meeting them, “I will make you make mistakes; small mistakes that you will learn from, and I will not let you hurt any patients.”

Very early one morning in October of 1991, a first year x-ray student, on his first clinical rotation would learn a lesson that would impact other students for decades to come. This lesson had nothing to do with medicine or x-ray, but was a harsh life lesson in people relations. A technologist who had a severe dislike for students, was the epitome of everything I would strive to not become. It is the point that I was treated so harshly that made me promise myself that I would never treat another person, especially one who is trying to learn from my experience, like she treated me. I have learned to have the patience of Job and the mentoring love that Paul had for Timothy for all of my students and to respect them as fellow human beings.

Surely each of you in this auditorium can remember a superior treating you rudely. It was once said that the moral test of someone is how one treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. Hubert H. Humphrey. Well, now it is your turn. New technologists have the uncanny knack of forgetting in just a few short months how it felt to be a student. I work with technologists every day that have forgotten that just a short time ago they were the student complaining about being treated like an inferior. You can do something about it. Much like myself, each of you can make the decision to put forth the effort to reach out to a student, and enrich their learning experience.

One of my favorite Bible verses says, Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other, Proverbs 27:17. Mentoring does not end when a student graduates the program. My co-workers and I mentor each other. We share information that is needed and we continue to mentor one another with knowledge we acquire on a daily basis. I haven’t had the opportunity to reach out to each of you graduating tonight. However, I have had the opportunity to reach a few of you. If each of you that I have reached, reaches out to future students, the student mentoring pyramid will continue exponentially. Can you imagine the quality of students, and student mentors that can be created?

All of you here tonight have gone through physics pertaining to radiology. The point of physics is to achieve the greatest effect with the least amount of effort. If you don’t sharpen your ax, it will be harder to use…... Mentoring should be like this as well. If you sharpen your ax before you chop down the tree, the job will require less effort. The best teaching style is often self-learning. To allow self learning shows the true patience of a mentor. If you allow students to make mistakes and learn from their mistakes, even though it may be painful for you to watch, you have reached the greatest potential for the student because they are not likely to forget their mistakes.I challenge you, find a student, come along side them and nurture them. Walk shoulder to shoulder with them and watch them experience the new ideas and concepts that you discovered just a few short years before.

You do not have to know all the answers. Students need someone to have patience with them; to help them to learn from their mistakes and your experience. If you Take care of a tree, you will eat its fruit. Do it with a smile, and know that I am proud of you for the effort, and the student you have helped is appreciative of your time and patience. Some people call this ‘pay if forward’ I call it mentoring and together we are training better technologists for tomorrow.Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you, and congratulations.

Michael H Kerr R.T. (R)

I have a lot to tell yall......

2007-04-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have been gone from my blog for a while but I am back with some new news. I have become an Ordained Minister of The Universal Life Church, I am now the Reverend Michael Kerr! many people will point out that it takes no formal education or test to do it this way and that it doesn't really mean anything. I would tell you that it means a LOT to me. I have legally registered with Cleveland County in the state of Oklahoma and I take this Ordination as serious as when I asked Jesus Christ in to my life. Jesus didn't stamp me with an official 'saved' seal and didn't charge me a cover charge so why should Universal Life Church.
Today I officiated my first wedding. My cousin Sami to her fiance, Chris Croteau. She and their child have been living with me since March '05 and I was thrilled that I could be the one to unite these two people. I really like Chris a lot and am proud that he is part of my family now. I am adding some of the wedding photos, I'm the one in the black and white shirt. My wife made the wedding dress in two days and she also made the wedding cake, we may have a great business in our hands, Bigmike.

p.s. By the way...... the dates on the bottom of the pictures are not acurate this happened today, 9-9-05, at least that is the date I signed their marriage license!

p.s.s. Update...The happy couple are doing great! I have heard through the grape vine that they are still together. Sami or Chris drop me an email: mikehkerr(at)msn(dot)com

What do you think about this heat?

2006-07-28T00:20:00.000-07:00

The summer break is nearly over and I am very glad. My wife has been gone to summer camp since before Memorial day and I have been very lonely. I had to pick up an extra job, although the money was nowhere near 'extra'. I had a great time visiting Europe especially Scotland, but I don't feel very rested especially with all the heat. I did get to talk to my best friend Allen yesterday. Sorry but I got to get back to work.

We took a little trip to Europe.....

2006-06-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of pictures from our trip and I'm looking for suggestions for posting and/or storing them online. If you have any suggestions please leave them for me. Thanks, BigMike

p.s. Please keep your posting robots off my page, I am not the yellow pages. Advertise on your own page.

50 pounds gone in 5 months!!!!!

2005-05-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

It took just over 5 months(from Dec. 6th to May 9th) for me to loose 50 pounds. I realized last night talking to a coworker that I don't have a goal 'number/weight' that I am trying to reach but that my goal is healthy. My faith in Jesus Christ is the only way I have been able to get this far. I do not have cravings or food temptations because I pray that the Lord will take those things from me. I don't care what you say or think, it works.

(not so) BigMike

***Update.....full time school and full time workhave paid their toll on my diet, ive put the 50 pounds back on. still BigMike

My diet

2005-05-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I have a weight problem....Ha Ha Ha, I'm fat and I'm not P.C. about it. I have started my 'diet' again and thought that this would be a good thing for me to chronicle. So every monday-ish I will try to post my new weight. This is how it has gone so far....
12-06-04 311# START
12-13-04 307#
12-20-04 302.5#
12-28-04 301#
01-03-05 298#
01-10-05 298#
01-17-05 298#
01-25-05 295#
01-31-05 291# 20lbs gone!
02-08-05 289#
02-14-05 287#
02-21-05 287#
02-28-05 283#
03-07-05 283# At least it didn't go up!
03-14-05 282#
03-21-05 281# 8 miles walked this week
03-28-05 279# 15 miles
04-04-05 272# 23 miles walked, 39lbs gone!
04-11-05 274# 19 miles (everyone says its muscle gain!)
04-18-05 271# 40lbs gone! no walking(I blistered my feet really bad.)
04-26-05 268# 3 miles
05-02-05 266# 0miles
05-09-05 260# 4 miles 51 lbs gone!
05-16-05 261# 10 miles
05-23-05 260# 25.5 miles (11.5 miles on my birthday 5-20)

The way this works is I count fat grams thats it. Normally, dialy allowance is between 60g and 85g fat per day depending on a 2000 vs. 2500 calorie diet. I am staying at about 22g-25g of fat daily and not doing much else. Oh, I have started drinking loads of water. Later I will tell you how to keep track of your fat intake. Turn over any PACKAGED FOOD ITEM (preferably wraped for american consumption) and read ALL the information printed on the nutritional facts. Try switching from hamburger to ground turkey (found at my favorite store, Wal-Mart), eat more fish(not fried/LJS). Matter of fact stay away from anything fried, and watch out for salad dressings. I eat a lot of Subway because they actively list fat and calories and aren't afriad to. Other than that, I stay away from 'fastfood' especially the golden fried arches! My wife has completely cut out all red meat, poultry, and dairy from her diet which is helping me because we are eating a lot of fish and soy products. Her 'diet' has been going for almost 4 weeks and she has lost 29#s (I know that that much weight loss in such a short period of time is not healthy. That is her choice, and I am trying to advocate a sensible weightloss plan. but feel free to comment.)

I have begun exercising this week(3-14-05). My supervisor is letting me take a 30-45min walk in the evenings with a pager. We will see how things go now. I have not given enough credit to God for my diet. I have been given the strength to stand against my (food)temptations by prayer. I have tried dieting many, many times before and I have always failed. My faith is not failing me or my diet.

I have set a goal as far as my walking goes; The Okc Memorial Marathon in '06. I am planning on walking(or running) the full 26.2 miles. I will keep you informed of my progress.

I will keep the new listings going. Always and forever, (ironically)BigMike.

Metamorphosis

2004-12-14T11:00:00.000-08:00

I have not posted on my site for a while. Partly because I wasn’t getting feedback/comments, partly because I have been studying The Bible a lot lately. This is the first time I have brought it up here. I have been having some internal conflict with my life, things that I have been putting too much ‘interest’ into. Some of you might think this has to do with the recent passing of my grandfather but it has been brewing much longer than that. Still some may believe that my wife is pushing me into this and to that I say not so.
A long time ago I was ‘turned off’ by questionable actions taken by The Church. I saw The Church as an evasive business using its status to rake in profits at a tax-free status and billowing forth its narrow-minded views with an unquestionable authority. I felt that The Church was a hypocritical society pointing fingers at others with no investigation of their own actions. These are some hard feelings to get over. I never had any question to the existence of God or not but at how man was running the establishment of religion. As a result I pushed God and religion away and even flaunted the fact that I was going to hell. I know it sounds ridiculous but I did it. I also allowed much of my life to be consumed by pornography, where I felt I ‘needed’ to view it in one form or another on almost a daily basis. This is hard for me to admit, who wants to come out and say ‘hey, I’m an addict.’
I now have a different opinion of The Church. I have joined a church locally that treats me like a family member, happy to see me. They are not so quick to point fingers, there is a very minimal ‘fire and brimstone’ with a lot of emphasis on following the teachings of Jesus. Rejoice is not a strong enough word. My life is very different these days. I am learning to love my enemies and to control my temper. I am learning value of every life, which from a medical standpoint is very difficult. And I am enjoying life tremendously, I can only hope that each and everyone of you reading this can find this type of peace.

Ernest Toussaint Muise, my Grandpa

2004-11-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

Sunday the 31st of October was the day of the Highland Baptist Church Block Party, an alternative to Halloween. I am a co-leader, with my wife Regina, for a sixth grade group of Campfire kids that built a booth for the festival, a variation on a dunk tank, for one of the most prestigious emblems that they can get. My kids put in over 40 hours of work into the design, concept, and construction of their project and The Block Party was the final step of ‘operating’ the project. About ten minutes before the start of the festival I received the call that my Grandfather Ernest Toussaint Muise Jr. had had a stroke and was in the Emergency Room at Saint Anthony’s Hospital. I knew that there was nothing I could do, I couldn’t leave my Campfire kids or they couldn’t finish their requirements without me and it would not be fair to leave them anyway. All of the requirements to complete the project had been met by 3:30pm and I left to go to the hospital.
Soon after I got to the Critical Care Unit I was informed that the CAT scan in the ER showed not a stroke but a cerebral bleed. Grandpa Ernie was now on a ventilator and was responding to voice by squeezing our fingers and moving his legs, he did not open his eyes or talk to us, and he looked very good. I was there with my Mom and my Aunts Di and Jane, Uncle Rob and Uncle Sam was there, too. We all stayed till around 6:45pm when we all left except Di and Jane. The next morning when I got up I called to check on him and Mom told me he was not doing well so I went to get my brother and together we went to see Grandpa.
When we got to the hospital he had been taken down to CAT scan again and we went wondering around the hospital trying to find him. By the time we found CAT scan he was gone back to his room but I ran into some old acquaintances that let me look at the new images. I had been a CAT scan Tech 4 years ago and I still knew what I was looking at and I knew it was not good. He was taking an anti-coagulant medication for a recent heart stent placement and that medication was exacerbating the problem of his cerebral bleed. The problem is, (sorry, I forget that everybody doesn’t understand the lingo) Ernie is bleeding on the inside of his brain and the medication he had taken is preventing the blood from clotting and stop bleeding. Problem number two; the skull is a confined space, there is only so much room, and all the newly arriving blood has no where to go but to compress the surrounding tissue which kills the compressed brain causing permanent damage.
So Bill and I find our way back up to Grandpa’s room where the Doctor has showed up to discus the findings on the new scan, I already knew what he was going to say. If the anti-coagulant was not in the equation they could take him to surgery and remove the big clot and stop the bleeding and he would have a very good chance of a full recovery. But, if they take him to surgery now he will start bleeding everywhere they cut him and nothing will clot for at least 12 more hours making the problem one hundred times worse. And, if we wait 12 hours the bleed will be so big that he will have irreversible damage. The Doctor showed us the two CAT scans and it was unarguably evident that Ernie’s situation was not improving. Di, who is also a Radiographic Technologist and the reason I got into this business, sat down with Jane to explain what the Doctor had said when Mom approached me. ‘You don’t think he will get any better, do you?’ she asked. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. ‘No’ was my response. We all lost Grandma Jean just 16 months ago and now with an ever-increasing sense of doom Ernie’s time is drawing near.
I left the hospital to take my brother home and head to work. While I was in the car by myself I spoke with God, I did not ask for Grandpa to get well because in my heart I knew that is not what Ernie wanted. The sky in Oklahoma City on November 1st was very cloudy, on the verge of rain, but the clouds were so big and they were very beautiful. I asked God to give me some blue sky for just a little while and one ray of sunshine parted the clouds and followed me for at least ten minutes. That was when I knew for certain that Ernie had left to be with Jean and God. He was not lying in the bed in Saint Anthony’s, that is just the shell of a great man that I did not take enough time to know.
Ernest Toussaint Muise Jr. passed away on Wednesday November 3rd, 2004. Grandma Jean Muise passed away on July 3rd 2003. She and Ernie were married for 53 years, they have four daughters; Susan, Katherine, Di and Jane (my mom is Susan), four son-in-laws; Howard, Paul, Sam and Rob (respectively), eleven grandchildren, and at least twelve great-grandchildren.

What did you want to make of your life?

2004-10-04T23:33:00.001-07:00

Not since kindergarten has anyone asked what you want to be when you grow up. Take a minute now to do just that, ask your self that question. Why didn’t you follow through with your original plans? I can not remember what I wanted to be from kindergarten, but when I was in the 8th grade my Aunt Di got accepted in x-ray school and one day showed me some x-ray films and I was mesmerized. It was the coolest thing I ever heard of and at that point in my life I decided that was what I wanted to do. My brother, Wild Bill, and I have a discussion often about the fact that I work for a company making them rich and that I should start my own business and work for my self. But I am doing what I want to do and I enjoy my job a lot. I would not be able to do the things a do if I ran my own business.
There is a scene in Fight Club where Brad Pitt’s character asks that of a man. He replies that he wanted to be a Veterinarian but it is too much school. Pitt pulled out a gun and held it to the man's head and told him that he has a couple of weeks to get in school or he will come back to see the man again. We should all have friends like that. Someone to stand by us and not take our excuses, to stick the gun to our head and tell us to get it in gear. We are a people of procrastinators and we can not wait around for tomorrow anymore.

What would Jesus do?

2004-08-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

That is a very good question. I try to ask myself that at least every day. I have recently become involved in church again for the first time in almost 9 years. It is shocking to me that I have been gone from the church that long but my life has definitely changed for the better. I used to be cynical about church going folks, I thought that they are going so that they could look down their noses at people that don’t go. I was wrong.
The church I attend now is Highland Baptist Church of Moore. The people there are genuine and they work very hard at making everyone feel welcome. I am very happy right now in my life and that is saying something as I have suffered from depression and sleep depravation most of my life. This is no pseudo-euphoria or drug induced elation, I am happy. My relationships with my kids and my wife are better now than they have ever been; I am closer to my brother than I can ever remember. Bring an open mind and I’ll save you a seat up front.

You want what? A spaceship! Why, when I was your age I had to drive to school…

2004-08-24T23:01:00.001-07:00

As a child you heard your family tell stories that begin with ‘when I was your age’ and you promised yourself that you would never do that to your children. Now I am 32 and have started telling my kids the ‘when I was your age’ stories. I understand my dad’s frustration at seeing me upset at my childhood hardships and he was just trying to teach me that he had hardships in his youth and he was able to overcome them. Now I see those frustrations in my son and I am finding it hard to tell him about how hard I ‘had it’. I can see that he does not have the responsibilities that I had, and, he does not have the freedom that I had either. I grew up in the time of people starting to lock their doors. There was no fear of child abductors at that time. My brother and I would ride our bikes all over the city where we lived. Several Saturdays we would leave at 10am on our bikes and not be home till 3pm or later. We never got in trouble for being gone. Now, my kids go out to play and they have to ‘check in’ every half-hour. There are flyers about child molesters ‘in your neighborhood’ and Michael Jackson on the news everyday, if my son thinks he has a hard life just wait till he is an adult.

Don’t blame ragweed

2004-08-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

I have a passion for science and medicine that almost rivals my brother’s passion for news. I came across this article in Men’s Health, the July/August 2004 issue.
No thanks I’m stuffed
Don’t blame the pollen. A recent Italian study found that a common food preservative might cause chronic nasal congestion. After identifying 226 people suffering from persistent congestion, researchers removed all preservatives from the subjects’ diet and then added them back one at a time. For a small number of people, reintroducing the preservative monosodium benzoate made them stuffed up again within hours of eating. Study author Maria Pacor, M.D., suggests avoiding foods with high levels of monosodium benzoate, such as colas, jellies, and salad dressings, to see if symptoms improve.
I used to suffer from chronic congestion all the time and I used to drink about 3 liters of Mountain Dew a day. I had sleeping problems and blamed it on caffeine, so I cut out of my diet and inadvertently removed the monosodium benzoate. It is a rare occasion that I have any sinus problems these days, go figure.

Water batteries

2004-08-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

Forget messing around with hydrogen cells and whatever ‘futuristic’ dribble they are buzzing about these days, Popular Mechanics magazine (popularmechanics.com) from March 2004 has a small article about a water battery.
Battery taps water
"A radically new type of battery takes advantage of the way water molecules line up when they come in contact with glass. The electrokinetic micro-channel battery developed by Larry Kostiuk and his colleagues at the University of Alberta makes use of the fact that water molecules have positive and negative ends. Glass takes on a positive charge whenever it touches water, explains Kotiuk. Conversely, the negative-charged ends of all the water molecules line up facing the glass container. In the battery, water flows through glass channels, producing electricity along the channel walls. ’Each channel contributes less than a nanoamp,’ says Kostiuk. ‘But you can gang together as many as you need.’ The prototype shown here cranks out 2 microamps."
There is nothing in the photo to compare the size of the water battery to, but it appears to be about the size of a 2 or 3 liter bottle. Now let us imagine the applications of such a power source…

I touched a life

2004-08-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

It was just last week, I was down stairs in the ER and I got an order for a chest x-ray on a gentleman that had been in a car wreck. I try to treat my patients as if they are someone I know quite well, like a member of my family. I began asking questions about his life, like what he does for a living, and he told me about how he wanted to work in a hospital. I asked him what type medical education he has and he said he is a Medical Assistant (a very limited certificate offered by a local ‘college’, it is basically a medical office license). I told him that he should think about going back to school and getting a degree in Nursing or Medical Laboratory Technology, or even X-ray. At this time I pointed out that he wasn’t injured much and that maybe it was fate that he crashed his car and came to the hospital, to run into me. His eyes welled up with tears and he said that he needed this motivation to help get him back to school. This is not the first time I have been in this situation. I like to think of myself as the Johnny Appleseed of inspiration; planting little seeds in people’s minds of what they can do with their life. The world needs people to do the tough jobs; there are plenty of burger flippers out there. As my brother would say: Aspire to inspire.
Take a minute to look at your life. Are you doing what you really want to do? Have you ‘settled’ for a job that you are not happy with? Today is the day to change your life. You see what your life is like now, always waiting for tomorrow to sweep in and change you. You have to get up and change your life yourself. Stop wishing your life away and do something, do it now!