03.26.10
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Uncategorized at 11:38 am by Administrator
Back in October and November of 2006 I was blogging about radiation, its discovery, and its subsequent development. I don’t remember why I never finished the series, but I did write five parts, the first of that series was posted here. And here are parts 2, 3, 4, and 5. Today I found the beginnings of my 6th part of the series in my drafts folder. Since recently I seem to be back studying radiation history, I thought my radiation post might be relevant, so am moving them back up. I find them particularly relevant in light of the fact that nuclear energy seems to be making it back to the forefront again with all the commotion of global warming and climate change. The least we could do is study and understand the issues at hand. These posts have been my attempts. Below is what was stuffed in my draft folder as the beginnings of my part 6 on radiation.
To continue with my radiation series, I thought it might be a good idea to step back for a moment to look at what else was happening in the world. So many events overlap in time, which are linked to the progression of discoveries and inventions. Various events can overshadow new discoveries to the point of oblivion such as is claimed with the emergence and subsequent disappearance of Coley’s Toxins discovered in 1893 for cancer treatment . William Coley’s promising research with the use of Erypselias to treat cancer was pushed into the background as the X-ray became the treatment of “choice” for cancers in 1896. In a similar vein, research on “radiation,” along with the idea of the possibility of harnessing its power to create energy was brought to the forefront. While scientists were learning the secrets of the atom nucleus in the 1930s, Adolph Hitler also began his rise to power in Germany. In fear of persecution, some Jews and those opposed to living under fascist or totalitarian governments were able to migrate to other countries such as England and the United States. Among them were physicsts Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, and Victor Weisskopf.
Scientists already knew that atoms contained electrons and protons, however, British physicst, Ernest Rutherford, believed that there must exist a “third” particle. In 1932, James Chadwick of Great Britain was able to tease out that third particle. Through his experiments, Chadwick was able to eject a previously unknown particle, which was neither an electron or proton, but was a “neutral” particle. This particle was soon called “neutron.” With the understanding that the “atom” housed the potential energy powerful enough to create an atom bomb, atomic research was catapulted to the forefront of science. In the summer of 1939, rumors began to circulate that Hitler’s Germany was actively engaging in atomic energy research. For fear of what that power would be used for under the authority of Hitler, the U.S. was determined that it would create the atomic bomb first. Massive amounts of money and man power was funneled into its research and development. The nuclear race was on.
WWI had been fought with chemical warfare. With continued global unrest, something was needed to ensure that the United States continued to be the leading world power. That something needed to be more powerful than chemical warfare, something that would wipe out whole facilities and infrastructures.
Okay, so that’s what I had sitting in my draft folder for 3 1/2 years. Now that I’ve started reading about radiation again, and in light of the push for nuclear power plants, I’ve moved on a bit to learning about the history of nuclear weapons and subsequently nuclear power. Recently I commented on a couple books–A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness and Atomic America. I finished reading The Day We Lost the H-Bomb, so will eventually comment on that book as well. I just started reading Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, and wow, already an enlightening read. I also recently watched a DVD called, “The Atomic Bomb Movie,” which has live footage of nuclear detonations as well as a narrative of some nuclear weapons development history in the U.S. There’s also a good amount of info online regarding the Chernobyl meltdown back in 1986. I had realized that I never really knew much about the details of what happened there, so decided to watch it and man! what an eye-opener. Maybe I’ll comment more on that later regarding what I learned that I had not known after all these years after the accident. They are still dealing with the situation today more than 20 years later. When will we ever learn? Anyway, need to get out the door in about 15 minutes, so will stop here for now.
Marlakins
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04.20.09
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 9:00 pm by Administrator
It’s hot here today in Los Angeles. Brian said that it hit 100F, yikes! And while I was planning on blogging a little more on Frank Schaeffer, I’m just too hot and lazy. . . So I think I’m gonna save that for later and instead write about something that requires less thought, but still enjoyable nonetheless. I know this has made the rounds several times already, but it really was just fun to watch and is a feel good video so I’m gonna put it up for the remote chance that someone hasn’t seen this yet. Like most of those who first saw Susan Boyle, I was pleasantly surprised! Just click onto the picture for the video.
After watching Susan Boyle I started to think of all the people who have lovely voices. Unfortunately, I’m not one, but I wonder if I’ll get a better voice in the next life? Ha! With that thought I thought imagine what beautiful music we might hear in heaven? If we have people here on earth with beautiful voices, just imagine what sounds we might hear in heaven? I bet it would just blow us away.
When it comes to music, I’d say I like a variety of styles. Recently I’ve been enjoying listening to Elisa. I particularly like her song, Dancing. She has such a lovely voice.
For those who are familiar with Bic Runga and her old album, Drive, there is a little part in the music video above that reminded me of Bic Runga. It’s been years since this video came out, but I was happy to find it on YouTube. Brian is the one who pointed it out to me years ago. He said, “You have to see this video. It’s so cute.” Turns out he thought it was cute that this little Asian gal had a crush on this white guy, ha ha! Hmmm. It’s called, Sway. What a lovely, clear voice she has. And I did end up buying her album, too, heheh.
Maybe some other time I’ll put up links to some of the male musicians I enjoy listening to. 
Marlakins
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08.28.08
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 2:06 pm by Administrator
A couple weeks ago I found to my surprise and delight that Custom Handweaving was going to have a booth at the Bead Show at the Pasadena Hilton. The reason I was excited about that bit of news is that they are one of the few vendors who sell spinning wheels near me and I’ve been contemplating getting a wheel for quite some time, now. Custom Handweaving is actually located in Redondo Beach, which is about a 45 minute drive away from me. But Pasadena is only about 15 minutes away from me, so I broke into my piggy back and jumped at the chance to see what spinning wheels were going to be on display.
When I arrived, I found that Nancy, the owner of Custom Handweaving and a very nice lady, brought a nice selection of wheels. I originally had been eyeballing the Ashford Double Treadle Traveler spinning wheel on the net because it was compact, but still had a nice country look to it. Since I’ve never owned my own wheel before, I really didn’t know what to look for aside from versatility and aesthetics. I basically knew I wanted one that was decent looking so that I could leave it out in the house and that it had to be somewhat small because I don’t have much room here for more gadgets. Plus a small wheel would make it easy to transport if I wanted to take it to a spinning group meeting or just somewhere else to spin. When I got to the show, I was able to try out a few different models and brands, including the Ashford Double Treadle Traveler. I say “try out” meaning treadling, since I’ve never used a spinning wheel before, but only a hand spindle. What I found was a bit unexpected for me, but I’m happy with my final choice. After a little bit of treadling and contemplation, it was only a matter of minutes before I became the owner of my very own spinning wheel! Woo hoo! I know, I know. “Woo hoo” over a spinning wheel? Yes, something only other fiber artists/addicts can understand. . . It doesn’t “look” like what I had in mind for a spinning wheel, but somehow I still think it has a cute look to it, anyway. Plus it’s pretty compact, and best of all, the treadling is extremely smooth! When I tried out the floor sample, I fell in love with it. That baby had to be mine! So, I dug deep in my very shallow pockets, and I forked over my dough. This is what I now have as my very own. . .
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m pleased to introduce the Ladybug Spinning Wheel by Schacht Spindle Co. Inc. (Rah, rah, rah! Roar. Applause.)
Yeah, I know. It doesn’t quite look like the spinning wheel that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on, but hey, I like it anyway! And it spins like a charm! I will admit that at first I felt very uncoordinated. I had to concentrate on getting the wheel to spin in one direction and at a constant rate. Once I had my feet doing what it should, I found that I wasn’t using my hands to draft the wool. Once I started to draft the wool, my feet would stop treadling and/or I would pause then start the wheel in the other direction, ack! Any spinner knows that I would never get any yarn spun if I kept up those antics. So it took a bit of practice, and I can now say that I’m much more coordinated and am actually able to spin on this thing.
Okay, so for a little info on this new baby. It is new, not only to me, but it’s one of Schacht’s newer models. Hee, I’m just so happy with it I have to show another view of it.
Now that red flywheel may look familiar for some reason. At first I thought of a steam ship or a fire engine, but I thought, “No, there’s something else about that flywheel. . .” As it turns out, Schacht actually makes other things aside from spinning wheels. I think they’ve made old cars, and they make bicycles. . . And yep, a better look at that flywheel pretty much has “bicycle rim” written all over it. I noticed that there is even a “hole” where the stem of an air tube (or inner tube) would come out! Ha!
But honestly, that didn’t deter me one bit as when I felt how smooth it treadled, I realized that they’re likely using their bicycle assembly/design knowledge to make such a smooth treadling animal. I personally don’t know why they call it the ladybug, but I’m guessing that’s why they chose to have a red flywheel. And as a nice little touch (the type I appreciate), each Ladybug Spinning wheel has a tiny ladybug affixed to it somewhere, but each one has the ladybug placed in a different spot. So one of the first things I looked for when I pull the wheel out of the packaging box was where my ladybug was placed? I found it on the rear maiden.
Ah, thar she be. Okay, so before I sign off, I did want to mention how nice it was doing business with Nancy in that along with the purchase, she also threw in 1 pound of wool for practice spinning as well as a little oil bottle for the wheel. The wheel came with two other bobbins, and I also purchased a couple of carders. With my wheel purchase, I also have one free spinning lesson, but I just don’t know when I’ll get the chance to drive all the way out to Redondo Beach. It must be the current gas prices that really have me turned off about driving too much these days. And am I glad that these spinning wheels don’t use fuel, ha!
Okay, now I better get some use out of this stuff, so toodles for now!
Marlakins
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12.29.07
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 12:57 pm by Administrator
Ah! I’ve found a moment to blog. So I uploaded my pictures like crazy. Too many to share, but picked out a few from Christmas eve (eh, more than a few, ha!) Basically, it has become a tradition for our family to celebrate Christmas eve at my parents’ house. We all go over to my parents for a large dinner, and then hang out until midnight when we open our Christmas gifts. Then we all sleep over and continuing eating on Christmas, ha ha! I didn’t realize it until just this Christmas that that is a Catholic tradition, yikes! Anyway, the dinner was all organic again, heheh. Brian and I are usually in charge of that because my family knows that we are picky that way. Good of them to oblige us! This year’s dinner consisted of tea smoked duck, steeped chicken, paella, baked root veggies, mashed potatoes, bread and cheese. This year, after stuffing myself silly with Brian’s pumpkin pies(he’s honestly the better cook between the two of us. He cooks “specialty” stuff, while I cook every day meals), I decided to buy some ready made desserts from Real Food Daily, my local organic restaurant. Wow, and am I glad I did! It dawned on me that I had not had “cake” since 1999! My kids have, but not often, so this was going to be a treat for them. As it was for me because it was heavenly! Ha! Here’s a shot of our dessert table with homemade oatmeal cookies topped with pecans, chocolate swirl cake and ginger cupcakes from Real Foods (yum!), and another chocolate cake my sister picked up from a Japanese bakery in downtown. It was so cute with lots of animated toppings.
And here’s what the first slices looked like before we demolished the desserts. . .
Oye, it was weird eating cake again after 8 years! New Years is coming up, and we’re to cook again, so I just might pick up another cake, heheheh. . . As you might expect, there’s no more left, and even this poor deer tried to plead with us not to be eaten.
Ah, but his pleas were not heeded, and he’s history, ha!
After dinner we hung out and socialized for a while. It’s always a good time! We got to watch some movies on my parents’ new HDTV, which my oldest sister bought for them this year. My dad is so funny. He loves war movies, I think because of his experience during WWII. So when we set up the TV we teased how soon we might see him sneaking around in army fatigues, peeking around corners, etc. ha! Now he can watch his movies and you’ll even hear the shells falling to the ground in stereo, ha ha ha! My dad. . .
The kids amused themselves with various things. Lately they’ve gotten into drawing, and Matthew drew up a bunch of face “parts” that could be re-arranged. Here they are with them.
And here’s some of the combinations that we came up with.
And here:
And here:
Ha! Well there were quite a bit more combinations, but I think you get the drift.
Midnight approached in no time. Since we all stay up until midnight, Christmas eve at our place is usually casual. This year I knit up presents for everyone, so I manned the camera. But I misjudged my knitting abilities and was not able to finish all the projects I wanted to even when I only made ankle socks for my sisters, ha! I only got to finish “one” side of my brother-in-law’s socks, and the reaction was so funny that I have to share the pictures. . .
Okay, so what was so funny? Well, my sister and her hubby were planning a trip to Machu Picchu. They were leaving on the 26th of December for a week. When my brother-in-law saw only “one” side of a sock, he yelled out, “Is this supposed to be a harbinger of the future? I’m going on a plane ride for goodness sakes! Am I only gonna need a sock for “one” foot soon?” LOLOLOL I tried to explain to him that I was knitting as fast as I could, but couldn’t finish it, ha! But I’m finishing the other side, so don’t worry, “He’ll get “two” socks, ha!” But, as you can see from the picture, he didn’t want to hear it, ha ha ha!
My sister convinced him that I was going to finish his other sock, so he could rest assured that his “feet” (plural) would be safe on their trip. Here they are modeling their sock/s.
Here’s my other sister when she unwrapped her socks. Her feet are so tiny that when I showed my boys the completed socks they exclaimed, “Wow, auntie has small feet!”
And here are my two sisters modeling their new handmade socks. By the way, they were both knit using hand-dyed wool from Hissy Knits.
I also knitted up two pairs of socks for my dad and a felted purse for my mom. After all, what do you give people who don’t really need anything? We bought stuff for the kids, so I didn’t have to knit up anything for them, ha! But it’s okay because I’ve been knitting stuff up for them before Christmas.
I got an email from my sister the other day from Urubamba, Peru. They’re having a great time, and guess who still has two feet? Ha ha ha! I’ll let them know it’s because I’m pretty much finished with his second sock. Here it is, and just needs to come off of the needles. Hopefully, I’ll finished them off today. He’ll have them when they return.
And finally before I end this. . . the little bears I’ve been crocheting up have unexpectedly been a hit! Ha! I’m almost embarrassed to say how many I’ve made! Yikes! But I’ll say one thing, no two are exactly alike, and I’ve been getting more ideas along the way. After I finished these bears, I tied on pens to each one. They were received pretty well that way. Here’s a shot of a few of them before going off to their new homes.
Whew, is anyone still with me this far? Ha! Blogging is fun, but it’s hard to keep up with all else going on. I’ll try to be better this year, but my new year’s resolution list looks like it’s gonna keep me pretty busy! So in case I don’t get back on until the New Years, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
Toodles!
Marlakins 
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12.10.07
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 10:56 am by Administrator
Merry Christmas everyone! This year is just flying by! I’m so behind this year, but I’m forcing myself to make a quick post because I realize that it’s been a while since my previous post. Despite things moving too fast for me, I’m still enjoying the season. Last night my family and I went out to dinner at Ulysses Voyage. So while we were there, I was able to take a picture of the Christmas decorations at the Grove, which now has their Christmas tree fully “assembled,” ha! In a previous post I wrote how I finally found out how they got such a tall perfectly shaped tree each year. This year that mystery was solved for me. Basically, they assemble a tree by building one up with real branches. So here’s what it looks like fully decorated at night. This was taken from the 7th floor parking lot.
I think it was a couple weeks ago when they officially lit the Christmas lights and closed off the Grove for private invitations during that opening. I wasn’t invited, ha! But I could hear the fireworks from my house.
Here’s a picture of my youngest son, Aaron, and me at the base of the tree.
Below is another shot of some of the decorations. The gingerbread house had a long line most of the day of parents with little kids trying to get in to see Santa. My son jokingly told me, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Santa were there telling the little kids on his lap their fortune?” Ha ha! What a thought, especially around here where there are quite a few Palm and Psychic Readers! Yikes! Yep, another strange thing in the big city. . . The topic came up because of a discussion we had about how mixed up the meaning of Christmas has become. One of my friends had gone to Japan and mentioned how during Christmas they had some trinkets or Christmas decorations for sale with “Santa on a cross!” Ack! I can see how they’d be confused!
After we finished dinner, we took a short drive out to Beverly Hills. When my sisters and I were kids living at home with my parents, my father used to love to take us to Beverly Hills to look at their Christmas lights display. We used to do that every year. Each year the decorations were different. Well, years have gone by since we did that, so while we weren’t too far, we decided to check out Beverly Hills along Wilshire. We were a bit disappointed to see that there were hardly any Christmas lights displayed as they had in times past. (Maybe the person who used to be in charge is retired, ha!) However, we did turn down Rodeo Drive, and look what we saw!
Those square glass boxes suspended in the middle of the road are housing Baccarat chandeliers. It’s been a while since I’d been down there during Christmastime! I found an article dated 2004, which explained that Baccarat decorated this street with 20 of their crystal chandeliers each worth close to $50,000, yikes! That’s a about $1 million just along this street. Kinda makes me stop in my tracks in confusion, ha! One side of me loves art and beauty(so that I “oh and ah”), yet the other side of me hates the gaudiness. Oh well, such is life.
Here’s a closer view of one of the Baccarat chandeliers. I would have taken more pictures, but my camera battery died after this shot, ha!
Okay, I’d better stop playing around here, and get my butt moving! Don’t know if I’ll have much computer time between now and Christmas, I in case I don’t get a chance to send a proper greeting, Merry Christmas everyone! Oh! And I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was nice, too! Ours was very nice aside from the “bugs” I caught that slowed me down for Christmas preparations! Ha! But I’m good now! So must dash and make up for lost time!
Toodles!
Marlakins
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11.15.07
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized, cooking, knitting and crocheting at 8:23 pm by Administrator
Yesterday Brian was in the mood to bake. Oh boy, oh boy! Aside from the mess he makes when he takes over the kitchen, I love it when he’s in the mood to cook because he’s actually pretty good at it. Yesterday he cooked pumpkin pie! Which reminded me that there was a guy we met at the market who asked us what we were going to do with the pumpkins. . . Eh, make pie? He seemed surprised that we were actually using real pumpkins, ha ha! It dawned on me that some people don’t make their own pies, and some that say they make their own pies only buy the ready made pie crusts and pumpkin filling from a can. Basically, they open a can, dump the contents into the ready-made crust, then bake. Instant pie! So, since I got to sit back and fool around while he cooked, I took some pictures of his ingredients:
We prefer to make things from scratch if possible, including the pie crusts. Usually we use whole wheat for the crust, but this time Brian wanted to try buckwheat. The first step is to bake the pumpkins. We cut them open and scrape out the seeds. We bake the seeds in a separate dish so that we can eat them later. This is what the pumpkins looked like after they were baked. The baked seeds are in the dish off to the left.
After the pumpkins are baked, they are blended up with the ingredients to make the filling. This is what Brian’s pies looked like after they came out of the oven:
I know we had more pie dishes, but they seem to disappear. I’m thinking we leave them at other places like my mom’s house when we take stuff over there. Sometimes I end up with some of her dishes, and she ends up with some of our dishes, ha ha! So Brian used one of our rectangular dishes to use make up the rest of the pies. While Brian was working on those, I decided to continue working on the gansey I was making for Matthew. This is how it looked:
I was able to get the second arm on. I thought I was done, but I’m thinking that I want to add a few more inches at the bottom. It turned out a tad shorter than I would like, so after I get that one, I’ll take another picture. But in the meantime, it’s pretty much done! My very first full-sized gansey! AND it is my very own design, too! The pattern on the table was my guide, but I had to change most of the pattern due to the gauge of yarn. Then I found that the pattern actually has two mistakes! I worked it out after much frustration, but now I know better. Anyway, here’s what it looks like now.
I didn’t even finish the gansey before Brian already put in a request for me to knit up for him. This is what it looked like when I got started on it.
Can’t tell what it is? How ’bout now?
Well that’s what it looked like last night. Below is what it looks like now. But Brian hasn’t seen it, yet. Shhhhhh.
It’s a knitted dickey that he requested. I saw a picture of one like on the net, and made my own pattern. I hope he likes it. It’s still sitting on the table, so he should see it when he gets in. I’ve actually never owned one of these before, but it’s what he wanted, ha!–A knitted dickey to keep his neck warm when he goes out at night. It’s made of organic merino wool from Treliske in New Zealand. It’s not dyed, so that’s the natural wool color. I guess here in LA a full sweater is just too hot! Matthew’s gonna burn up in his new gansey. . . But he asked for it! And I sure had fun knitting it up, heheh. So now I’m off to work on my other projects. I’ve got a few going on right now. Will report back on those later.
Okay, time for dinner!
Marlakins 
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11.06.07
Posted in Anything goes, History, Uncategorized at 1:08 pm by Administrator
Last night Brian and I went to see American Gangster starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Wow, what a story! I realize Hollywood must have embellished or Hollywood-ized the story, but it was based on a true story. True stories always catch my eye.
I’m assuming many people have already heard or read about the drug involvement with our military during the Vietnam war. Some go so far as to say that a lot of the Vietnam war was about drugs (the Golden Triangle stuff and all). But this American Gangster story puts in another angle to how big the drug business has been and likely still is right here in the United States. After all, anyone who has been exposed to world history is somewhat familiar with the Opium War between the British and the Chinese. Basically the story goes that the British wanted to do trade with China in the 1700s and China wasn’t interested. China felt that they had all they needed and did not care for the goods that the British wanted to trade. However, the British still wanted to trade with China and what opened the door for trade was opium. The British found that the Chinese wanted opium. According to some history books, the British started out in 1736 with exporting about 400 chests (which contained about 45 pounds or 100 kilograms of opium) into China, but eventually worked their way up to 30,000 chests by 1850. That’s a lot of opium! And I bet they were making mega bucks. I think that’s an amazing story in itself, but history tends to repeat itself and human nature appears to have remained the same through the centuries. Namely, many people were corrupt and corruptible.
As in the opium trades between Britain and China had corrupt officials, so did Americans and the southeast Asians. According to movie, Frank Lucas employed military personnel to transport his heroin from Southeast Asia into the United States. This article even states that, “the CIA knew all about his shipments and even made it possible for Lucas to bring the dope to America. Lucas was such an astute businessman that he even had the mob, the Sicilians and Mexicans as clients. Everybody wanted what Lucas was peddling.” Frank Lucas was in the business of selling pure heroin which became known on the streets as “blue magic.” He was eventually caught, but not without exposing many, many corrupt NY nacrotics police personel in the process. It is said that during his conviction, 3/4ths of the NYPD Narcotics division was found to be corrupt and involved with drug dealings. Wow! That’s more than half of their division! Just goes to show that people will succumb to temptations. If 3/4ths of the NYPD Narcotics division was corrupt back then in the 1960 and 1970s, what’s to stop them today? Even after a 100 years after the opium wars, it appears that human nature has not changed. Corruption and greed are likely still alive and well.
This movie made me think more about all these businesses I see one after the other as I drive around Los Angeles. I look inside and lots of them seem to have no customers inside. How do they stay in business like that? Are they all legit? Or are some of these businesses fronts for more clandestine dealings? Not long ago I was looking at these buildings in a different light when I was reading about “human body parts for transplantation.” What strange things are going on right in my neighborhood? Now I look at these buildings and wonder which ones are dealing in drugs, ha ha! I shouldn’t laugh at that, but I think it’s part of what my sons say about me, that at times I have dark humor. My take is that learning about some of these things makes me cynical. For instance, I know that there must be some legit businesses. Yet, the other side of me wonders every so often as I drive by some of the incredible mansions that are in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, what business are these people in to have such opulence? Who are they stealing from or hurting? Or screwing? Ha! Normal comforts I can see are many times earned honestly, but I wonder what percentage of the ultra wealthy acquire their money through corruption and extortion?
Okay, so really quickly back to the movie, American Gangster, I think Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe did a great job. Who ever directed it or wrote the scripts also did well. The movie turned out not to be as violent as I was afraid it might have been, but just enough to give you an idea of what was going on (which I appreciate because while I don’t like to watch violence, I am also disturbed at times when terrible events are watered down. Catch 22, I know). Basically, it had a real story to tell, and it was told well.
Okay, I’m off to make myself useful.
Toodles!
Marlakins
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11.04.07
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 9:51 pm by Administrator
My sister called me this morning to go shopping at the Grove. First we had lunch, and then we hit the stores. They were already setting up Christmas decorations, and this time one of my mysteries finally got solved. . . How or where do they get such HUGE Christmas trees? The trees are real for sure. Not only are they huge, they are perfectly formed and taller than the two story department stores. I have always wondered, “where do they get those trees?” Well, today I found out. I’m sure other people have known this secret, but I’m slow, ha! This is what I saw. . .
Notice the crane. The tree was too tall to get the top in the picture. Uh, notice the “bottom” of the tree. Looks a little sparse, huh? Just to get a better idea of the size of this tree, take a look at the size of the man in the crane.
What’s he doing in there? I didn’t see any Christmas tree decorations. But what I did see were lots of these on the ground. I drew in a red arrow to show the base of the tree with no branches or needles.
And more stacked up here.
Cripes! It finally dawned on me that they were “assembling” the Christmas tree! First they plant a big tree “trunk” in the ground. Then they nail in live branches. Talk about living in fairytale land. We city folks aren’t only removed from where food comes from and where it’s processed, but even our Christmas trees are not what they seem, ha ha! And here I thought they find just the right tree and just decorate it, ha ha ha!
Okay, so moving along to something I know a little more about. . . yarn. . . My mom called me the other day and told me that she found some of my old yarn stash in her garage, ack! So I went down to visit her and sure enough, she had bags of more of my old yarn. One bag contained crocheted sampler squares that I was working on to make an afghan. I had completely forgotten about those squares! The receipt in the bag was dated January 1990, ha ha! But I couldn’t have found those squares at a better time. The ladies at my knit group informed me that they are giving away some knitted items for charity and wanted to know if I had anything to give. This particular group is for babies (oh, I love those little tykes!). But I really wanted to start my Christmas gift knitting instead of working for charity at this moment. Soooo,
now that I found those old squares which were kept clean in plastic bags, I decided to just sew a few of them up and “bingo!” instant baby afghan, ha ha! So fate has been on my side since not only did I find those made squares, today was the time change! One hour extra! Perfect! This morning while all were still asleep in my house, I picked out a few squares and started to assemble. Here’s what I decided to put together.
I know they’re not the best baby colors, but oh well, they should keep a little baby warm. Here’s what it looked like after I assembled it and put a border around it. Nine Lives and Clarence, my new knitting mascot, came to make an inspection.
Clarence is standing on top of the pile of the other squares that I can assemble for another blanket. But I think the nine squares makes a good size for a newborn or a stroller afghan. Nine Lives and Clarence decided to try out the afghan to see if it was warm and comfy enough. . .
Looks like I’ve got their approval! Yay! Now I can continue with my other projects, yet still be able to contribute with the other ladies AND put those squares to good use!
Okay, I’m off to try to be more productive. Oh boy, oh boy, I love this time of year!
Marlakins
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10.31.07
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 8:22 am by Administrator
Happy Halloween! I know I’m too old for this holiday, but the little kid in me always wants to see what everybody is dressing up to be, heheheh. I’ll try to remember to keep my camera at the ready. . . I shouldn’t spend too much time on the computer today, but thought just for fun, here’s a little Halloween game to play that a friend of mine sent to me.
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10.25.07
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 10:31 am by Administrator
I’m just about finished reading Black Markets, The Supply and Demand of Body Parts by Michele Goodwin. I wanted to keep the book a tad longer to go back and review a few things, but alas, it is due today, and not renewable because someone’s waiting on this book, erp! So really quickly, I’m making a few comments while I still have this book on my lap.
While Goodwin does bring up many good points, what appears clear to me is that she is coming from the presumed standpoint that transplants are good. And from there, she discusses the various ways of organ procurement. My personal opinion is that in order to make a good decision of whether we even should be procuring organs for transplant, we need to look more closely at the “process” of procuring organs in addition to the actual transplants themselves. I believe there is more to consider than just that some people sell their organs or that some organs come from cadavers (I realize there are many other aspects of organ procurement discussed by Goodwin, but the bottom line is organs either come from live donors or cadavers).
From a little further reading on the net, it appears that calling some organ donors “cadavers,” is misleading. A so-called “brain-dead” person is technically “not” a cadaver. This person is still alive with a beating heart. I think this is a very import concept to understand because “vital” organs such a the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, etc. appears to only be transplantable if it is removed “fresh” from a still warm body, not from a cadaver. So technically, there are only live donors. The difference is whether the donor “continues” to live after donation or not. I think this is a very big missing part in Goodwin’s book.
Okay, so words are easy to manipulate. Am I just making a big deal of a technicality of whether a comatose patient is alive or not and can feel pain or not or ever has the possibility of regaining consciousness? Consider the below excerpt from a person who supposedly has been personally involved with harvesting organs for transplantation:
The late Dr Phillip Keep, former consultant anaesthetist at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in the United Kingdom, risked his career by publicly saying what the anaesthetist profession had been debating privately for decades,
“Almost everyone will say they have felt uneasy about it. Nurses get really, really upset. You stick the knife in and the pulse and blood pressure shoot up. If you don’t give anything at all, the patient will start moving and wriggling around and it’s impossible to do the operation. The surgeon always asked us to paralyse the patient.”
The full article can be read here
This link gives more details about harvesting organs such as how long organs are viable after harvest and other information such as what is done to the patient to keep his/her organs viable. Organs can actually be no longer viable for transplantations if they are taken from the body only as short as 15 minutes after the heart stops beating.
There is so much more to know regarding what is truly involved with transplants. It’s easy to accept transplants when the details are so watered down to terms such as “donations,” “cadavers,” “gift of life,” “life-saving transplants,” “brain-dead.” etc. What we don’t hear about is all the compromise, pain and suffering, and experimentations on people and animals. Do we ever stop to consider how this “technology” came about? What sacrifices were made? Who were sacrificed? How about the paradox of hoping that another person would die, so that another person could live? Such is the case while “waiting” for an organ to become available from a so-called cadaver. And what of the poor who sell their organs for incredibly small amounts of money? One such example can be read in this article of a Filipino who sold one of his kidneys for $1,750. Apparently, many others have sold their body parts as well because of sheer desperation of their living conditions. Goodwin wrote that in Iraq, some have sold their organs for as little as $750. What kind of world do we live in where we are willing to take someones organs and think it is okay because they were paid for it? Keep in mind that often times more care is given to the organ recipients than to the organ donors. Many of those poor organ donors don’t get follow-up care to make sure their surgeries don’t end with complications. Why not spend more effort into finding out why the need for organ transplants are increasing? Why not find ways to heal our organs, rather than taking organs from others. Instead, we keep pumping ourselves full of drugs and toxins which damage our kidneys and livers, and other organs.
While I do think Goodwin missed a big aspect of transplantation in her book, I do appreciate her insight into the inequality of blacks and whites throughout our history. I had not realized the extent of sacrifice made at the expense of blacks toward the advancement in our western medical knowledge. The grave robbing aspects were also of interest to me as well as medical experiments done on black people that I had never known about, and likely a great majority of people still don’t know about. And while I currently am not in favor of transplants, I did come across a book review of a book called, “Kidney for Sale By Owner, Human Organs, Transplantation, and the Market” by Mark J. Cherry. The book reviewer stated that he used to be against organ transplantation until he read this book. Soooo, I reserved a copy of it at my library, and just last night I picked it up. I want to see what Mr. Cherry has to say and if he can persuade me too that organ transplantation is okay. We’ll see. . . And also Goodwin brings up other very controversial aspects of body parts such as cloning, designer babies, etc. I was a tad disappointed that she didn’t go into more details regarding some of the pictures she included in her book. There were short captions below each picture, but no further details. For instance, she had pictures of facilities where organ parts are harvested, testimony of a witness of organs harvested from Chinese prisoners, etc. What a teaser. . . Okay, off to return Goodwin’s book for the person who is waiting for it.
Toodles for now,
Marla
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