My little brother, Andrew, has suffered pneumothorax twice. Once just before I graduated high school though he didn't go to the hospital until the Monday afterwards. And once just before his birthday his junior year. Basically, what pneumothorax is is that there are weak spots on your lung that develop blisters like places that fill up with air. That in itself would be no problem but when they pop, that is pneumothorax. The air then flows into the chest cavity and prevents the lung from fully inflating.
The first time, they only had to cut a slit in his side and put in a tube to drain his chest cavity and he was home in three days. Of course, they couldn't put him under while cutting him because his breathing capabilities have already been compromised. So they gave him morphine but he was still obviously in agony as they did the procedure and he was moved.
The second time, they did the same thing, but it wasn't enough and they had to go further. They had to scrape off the weak spots on his lung and this time they did put him under. Both of these procedures are some of the most painful because its not like an arm that you just don't use when it is hurt. You can't just stop breathing so the pain is almost constant. We could tell and I think that the rest of us cried more for him then he did himself.
This story describes how to do it for someone who is perhaps trying to learn. It describes it in a way that I had never thought of it before. I have always been the one with family or friends under the knife. Even myself a bit for wisdom teeth. This describes it in a way that I never thought of and I could almost relate to despite my repulsion of the topic. It is not something I like talking of, reading of, or hearing of but he almost makes it bearable.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
On Good Music
Good music is hard to find because it must meet at least two criteria - it has to have a catchy tune and the lyrics have to mean something. Whenever I listen to music and it has a catchy tune, I try to look up the lyrics later to see if it matches the tune. If it does, I usually memorize the lyrics and listen to the music enough that I can sing along whenever I please.
Amazingly enough, really good music does not even really depend upon how well the author can sing. Some people, if you just heard them singing, you may find their voices annoying and not listen to them. But if they are singing a really great song, you don't even notice how obnoxious they are. This often happens in church. Not many truly care about what the leader may sound like, all they care about is worship.
Some music, like heavy metal, my brothers love. I may enjoy the lyrics if I could understand them enough to look it up. Or I can appreciate the talent in the musicians in the band because even I can hear the difficulty in what they play. My brothers may tell me numerous times that it is, in fact, good music and they enjoy it immensely but I need the lyrics. I need to understand what they say and I can't so I often don't agree personally. Maybe in a version that I don't need to learn "the language" or learn how "to interpret" it, I would agree that it is indeed good but in its present form, I would argue with them in my taste.
Some songs that you listen to, you can listen to a thousand times and find more meaning for your every day life. The best of songs are the ones that are timeless. They may be super old, but even people who were born after the song was written can enjoy. For musicals and plays, we would often sing songs before it started while we were warming up. The one year, we had the entire cast singing Don't Stop Believing before the play began. Our director just stared us in utter confusion, since that was the first time that he directed us.
Good music can be sung for years and not grow old or irrelevant. Truly great songs will be sung until the end of times and still have people jumping around and singing it to each other. They are the songs that you can dance around with and sing with your children and watch your grandchildren do the same. They are the ones that people can do thousands of re-dos of where sometimes they may turn out to be better than the original but more often you will always look back to the original.
Amazingly enough, really good music does not even really depend upon how well the author can sing. Some people, if you just heard them singing, you may find their voices annoying and not listen to them. But if they are singing a really great song, you don't even notice how obnoxious they are. This often happens in church. Not many truly care about what the leader may sound like, all they care about is worship.
Some music, like heavy metal, my brothers love. I may enjoy the lyrics if I could understand them enough to look it up. Or I can appreciate the talent in the musicians in the band because even I can hear the difficulty in what they play. My brothers may tell me numerous times that it is, in fact, good music and they enjoy it immensely but I need the lyrics. I need to understand what they say and I can't so I often don't agree personally. Maybe in a version that I don't need to learn "the language" or learn how "to interpret" it, I would agree that it is indeed good but in its present form, I would argue with them in my taste.
Some songs that you listen to, you can listen to a thousand times and find more meaning for your every day life. The best of songs are the ones that are timeless. They may be super old, but even people who were born after the song was written can enjoy. For musicals and plays, we would often sing songs before it started while we were warming up. The one year, we had the entire cast singing Don't Stop Believing before the play began. Our director just stared us in utter confusion, since that was the first time that he directed us.
Good music can be sung for years and not grow old or irrelevant. Truly great songs will be sung until the end of times and still have people jumping around and singing it to each other. They are the songs that you can dance around with and sing with your children and watch your grandchildren do the same. They are the ones that people can do thousands of re-dos of where sometimes they may turn out to be better than the original but more often you will always look back to the original.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Items of me
Hat - I can be warm and comfy like a winter hat but I can also be a bit crazy like my fox hat. I can dress of nice but also be dressed down. I can go to many occasions and fit in.
Gummy candy - I can be sweet and a bit sour. I'm squishy and will wiggle when pressed but not break. Though I look easy to break, I am tough. When life is trying to chew me up, it will have difficulty succeeding because I will keep trying and get stuck to life's teeth rather than go down.
Book - you can't judge a book by its cover and neither can you judge me by how I look. I hold my secrets close to myself and you have to get to know me before I may let you in on them. I may never tell you some things about myself. I am a book that you have to read over and over again to even begin to get an understanding of who I am. One read is never enough.
Stuffed animal - I love kids and have lots of love to give to them. I am warm and soft. I will be there when you just want to sit and cry and hold onto something. I will also be there when you're excited and want to babble to someone. I may not always have any answers, but I will be there for you.
The Shining Sword - was an allegorical book I read about the Christian life. I could read it a dozen times and never get tired of it. The sword each of them got when they became people of the king could be used in every situation and was strength to them. When I think about my Christian life and a metaphor for it, I think of this book. The Shining Sword was representative of each of their faiths and the Bible. Many of the elements in the book became truths in my real life. Like the character in this book, I have made and will make mistakes. But in the end, I hope I will be fighting alongside my fellow believers even when it seems hopeless. Just as the sword that new followers are given shine brightest when under the greatest adversity and the greatest faith is shone, so do I hope to shine.
Piano - I knew from when I was young that I wanted to play piano. It took a while, but eventually I got to the point that I actually began to regularly practice piano for my lessons. I improved greatly from then on. I'm not in practice any more because I'm too busy. but I would love to someday get back to it. This shows how I have ideas that I don't work on but eventually I enjoy it and start to do it regularly. Practice can make beautiful music or items but I have to be willing to put in the work which I am not always willing to do.
Gummy candy - I can be sweet and a bit sour. I'm squishy and will wiggle when pressed but not break. Though I look easy to break, I am tough. When life is trying to chew me up, it will have difficulty succeeding because I will keep trying and get stuck to life's teeth rather than go down.
Book - you can't judge a book by its cover and neither can you judge me by how I look. I hold my secrets close to myself and you have to get to know me before I may let you in on them. I may never tell you some things about myself. I am a book that you have to read over and over again to even begin to get an understanding of who I am. One read is never enough.
Stuffed animal - I love kids and have lots of love to give to them. I am warm and soft. I will be there when you just want to sit and cry and hold onto something. I will also be there when you're excited and want to babble to someone. I may not always have any answers, but I will be there for you.
The Shining Sword - was an allegorical book I read about the Christian life. I could read it a dozen times and never get tired of it. The sword each of them got when they became people of the king could be used in every situation and was strength to them. When I think about my Christian life and a metaphor for it, I think of this book. The Shining Sword was representative of each of their faiths and the Bible. Many of the elements in the book became truths in my real life. Like the character in this book, I have made and will make mistakes. But in the end, I hope I will be fighting alongside my fellow believers even when it seems hopeless. Just as the sword that new followers are given shine brightest when under the greatest adversity and the greatest faith is shone, so do I hope to shine.
Piano - I knew from when I was young that I wanted to play piano. It took a while, but eventually I got to the point that I actually began to regularly practice piano for my lessons. I improved greatly from then on. I'm not in practice any more because I'm too busy. but I would love to someday get back to it. This shows how I have ideas that I don't work on but eventually I enjoy it and start to do it regularly. Practice can make beautiful music or items but I have to be willing to put in the work which I am not always willing to do.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Research
Joseph born after Rachel barren for 7 years,
30 years old when pharaoh sent for him
30 years old when pharaoh sent for him
Shira Schoenberg
The Open Scroll
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Moving Forward
Thought Thoreau begins this piece by talking about his walks and ends it on the same, it is not truly what the piece is about. It is more about moving forward and humanity moving forward. He talks about the myths that some cultures are set upon and what they meant to the people who had them. When he talked about the Hindoos believing that the earth is on an elephant on a tortoise on a serpent, he thought that it wasn't a surprise that they found a fossil of a tortoise large enough to support an elephant. Though I found no proof of that being true online, Thoreau explains that he likes crazy beliefs like that so he himself may even have known that it may not be true.
When I started this piece, I could not help but think of my own walks. I do not often go on walks alone but prefer to go on them with friends and family. To me, they are a chance to talk, to unwind, to listen, and to see without other things right there with us begging for attention. They are times to forget homework, forget your job, forget everything. And not forget as in don't think or talk about them but as in to stop trying to work through everything in your head. To empty your head of the things that bog you down for just a short while so that when you go back to them, you can have a fresh point of view for them.
Thoreau is able to see things that I cannot in this piece. The different topics that he somehow connects to walking totally leaves me in the dust as I scramble to try to catch up to what he is trying to do.
When I started this piece, I could not help but think of my own walks. I do not often go on walks alone but prefer to go on them with friends and family. To me, they are a chance to talk, to unwind, to listen, and to see without other things right there with us begging for attention. They are times to forget homework, forget your job, forget everything. And not forget as in don't think or talk about them but as in to stop trying to work through everything in your head. To empty your head of the things that bog you down for just a short while so that when you go back to them, you can have a fresh point of view for them.
Thoreau is able to see things that I cannot in this piece. The different topics that he somehow connects to walking totally leaves me in the dust as I scramble to try to catch up to what he is trying to do.
Opening Your Eyes
Anne Dilliard speaks about the problems that people with cataracts had just after they were removed and they could see. Some were overwhelmed and couldn't cope with the new sensory inputs. One little girl was happiest walking around with her eyes closed. Others tried to reteach themselves how to live and see. While we look around and automatically perceive depth and that people can see us when we can't see them, they had trouble with that and had to teach themselves about it. What we see as 3d, they saw as flat with dark patches instead of shading because of the light. They also could see the beauty of the world with fresh eyes though. The things we see and take for granted, they saw and stared in awe. They see differently.
When Dilliard mentioned how nature reveals itself at random to those who are watching closely, it resonated in me. I remembered how in fourth grade when we were studying insects, our teacher had an expert come in and speak to us. He told us that the best way to see insects around us is to stop, be quiet, and just watch. The things that our eyes just skim over or we frighten away with our movements will slowly start to become more clear until we are seeing them all around us. We can enjoy it then. We listened to his advice at much as we could as fourth graders and we did indeed see many insects and caught a lot of them as pets.
A few weeks before I returned to college, I was in the car with my dad and my little brother, Andrew, on the way to lunch. As we drove, my dad and the car in front of us suddenly slammed on his breaks. Before our eyes, a black bear not much past the cub stage ran across the road in front of us. Living where we do, not much is often seen beyond deer and rabbits. To see the black bear was a gift for us that we could easily have missed if we weren't paying attention.
When Dilliard mentioned how nature reveals itself at random to those who are watching closely, it resonated in me. I remembered how in fourth grade when we were studying insects, our teacher had an expert come in and speak to us. He told us that the best way to see insects around us is to stop, be quiet, and just watch. The things that our eyes just skim over or we frighten away with our movements will slowly start to become more clear until we are seeing them all around us. We can enjoy it then. We listened to his advice at much as we could as fourth graders and we did indeed see many insects and caught a lot of them as pets.
A few weeks before I returned to college, I was in the car with my dad and my little brother, Andrew, on the way to lunch. As we drove, my dad and the car in front of us suddenly slammed on his breaks. Before our eyes, a black bear not much past the cub stage ran across the road in front of us. Living where we do, not much is often seen beyond deer and rabbits. To see the black bear was a gift for us that we could easily have missed if we weren't paying attention.
Wilderness Trip
Berry speaks about a trip he makes into the woods for a weekend regularly. Once out there, everything seems so much slower to him. It's peaceful out there even though he can still here the sounds of civilization. When he spots someone's name carved into the rock from 1903, the timelessness of the place really strikes him vividly. He imagines that it would look the same no matter what past time period it was. But even there were everything living and dying contributes to the sustaining of the habitat, there is still almost a human threat hanging over it. You can hear a highway in the distance and you know that even this beautiful patch of land may eventually be sacrificed for the sake of civilization.
When I read this passage, it reminded me of my classes Senior Wilderness Trip at the beginning of the year. The purpose of the trip is to try to take our class out of technology and the trappings of the world to the wilderness for a time so that we may try to become closer and overcome difficulties for our final year of high school. For some classes, nothing changes but it did work for our class. When we went on this trip, we drove way into a national park. Though people were camping in the parking lot where we were supposed to park our cars but were unable to, we still did not see any people once we walked so far in. We couldn't hear any cars. We couldn't see any houses. There was nothing but the random pop of something. It may have been illegal hunters and we weren't sure so our guide was more careful with us than normal. But being out there was wonderful in a way. Everything seemed so simple to us, including overcoming all of the hurts that our class spent years accumulating.
When I read this passage, it reminded me of my classes Senior Wilderness Trip at the beginning of the year. The purpose of the trip is to try to take our class out of technology and the trappings of the world to the wilderness for a time so that we may try to become closer and overcome difficulties for our final year of high school. For some classes, nothing changes but it did work for our class. When we went on this trip, we drove way into a national park. Though people were camping in the parking lot where we were supposed to park our cars but were unable to, we still did not see any people once we walked so far in. We couldn't hear any cars. We couldn't see any houses. There was nothing but the random pop of something. It may have been illegal hunters and we weren't sure so our guide was more careful with us than normal. But being out there was wonderful in a way. Everything seemed so simple to us, including overcoming all of the hurts that our class spent years accumulating.
Pets
Almost everybody has a favorite type of pet for whatever reason. Some favor fish, others dogs, others cats, and some, like Edward Hoagland, favor turtles. For each pet that people may have, there is different reasons why they may favor that type of animal. One person may favor dogs for the protection that they may give. Another may favor cats for their ability to catch little rodents. One may favor fish because it it the only pet that they are allowed in their apartments or because of their simple beauty. Every animal may become someone's favorite animal and sometimes pet for any reason.
Hoagland favors turtles to the point of knowing various kinds of turtles and having a favorite kind. He gives the reasons of being allergic to fur and how they are low maintenance animals. He also explains how they are very smart animals as well. At one point, he described some of the cruelty that is done to turtles in the name of selling them for profit and how it is hard for them to survive once one habitat is destroyed. When he got a turtle that he did not know how to take care of, he tried to release it in a place where he would be able to survive. Once Hoagland realized that the turtle could not survive there either. He left it. Though for many people, this may seem unimaginably cruel, it was almost more of a kindness. Rather than lingering on for a while longer while trying and failing to take care of it, the turtle would have a quicker death in the wild.
Hoagland favors turtles to the point of knowing various kinds of turtles and having a favorite kind. He gives the reasons of being allergic to fur and how they are low maintenance animals. He also explains how they are very smart animals as well. At one point, he described some of the cruelty that is done to turtles in the name of selling them for profit and how it is hard for them to survive once one habitat is destroyed. When he got a turtle that he did not know how to take care of, he tried to release it in a place where he would be able to survive. Once Hoagland realized that the turtle could not survive there either. He left it. Though for many people, this may seem unimaginably cruel, it was almost more of a kindness. Rather than lingering on for a while longer while trying and failing to take care of it, the turtle would have a quicker death in the wild.
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