Kanye was right...

the gift that keeps giving (i.e. like herpes, but...you know, never look a gift sore in the mouth). GWB caught wiping his hands on Bill Clintons Penis (no, arm) after shaking the hand of a black man. Damn Kanye was right! that makes twice Mr. West was spot on. think i need to make a button now. (below is the second of the "twice")

Valley of Tears

while visiting my friends in Israel we decided to try and find some burnt out Syrian tanks. we had just spent the night in the northern town of Metula. we looked on the map and saw the outpost of "Oz" around the area my friend thought she had climbed on some one drunken night in the past. we drove around and after going the wrong way (i was driving the Honda in between mines fields and turned around just before reaching the Syrian border, muddin' it in Israel) we found the entrance to the Valley of Tears memorial for the 77th "Oz" Regiment. the entrance is in front of the entrance to the Kibbutz Elrom (in case you ever are in the area). it was a very chilly and windy day. we parked at the memorial and there was a lady just sitting in her car the whole time and my guess is that a family member died in battle, we were there at the end of October and the battle was on 06Oct1973 (on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement). we walked around the memorial and looked out over the Syrian border. the memorial is made of welded parts of tanks with the dead inscribed in the metal with torch.

we could see a fighting position to the left with a tank and we drove over to it. we walked around in the trenches and explored above ground for a while. the trenches were chest high and reinforced with corrugated metal and posts to hold their shape. you could see out over a vast flat plain and right in front of the bunker complex was a marked mine field. the girls were getting cold and they went back to the car. we followed them to get CB's iTouch with the flashlight app so we could go into the bunkers. the girls stayed in the car and CB and i walked back into the defences. we entered a trench and walked down the chute into the bunker. it was a basic concrete bunker you would see in WWII movies, cold concrete with a slit opening giving a good field of fire onto the plain below. this bunker was hit almost perfectly by either a small tank shell or, more probably, a RPG round. it entered the slit and skimmed the top of the slit causing a half-moon and hitting the left wall.

there was also bullet holes in the concrete on the right hand wall. i have been in combat and was lucky enough to be above ground and with a light infantry unit. i could not imagine the strength it would take to stand your ground in a cold coffin like these bunkers. knowing that at one point in the battle only 40 Israeli tanks were holding off 500 Syrian tanks (and if i remember right, there were also Iraqi tanks mixed in) it really shows how a few heroes can save a whole country. we were walking around and came across another bunker but it was too dark in it. we deduced that the slit must be caved in so we searched out another. we tried to enter the bunker in the rear, obviously a command and supply bunker since it didn't open up to the battle field. as we entered it both CB and i got the willies and decided to get the hell out fast. we both were laughing, nervously, as we left the bunker. we had both got that creepy feeling and both our arms had goose bumps. we were still laughing when we came around the command bunker and saw the girls in the car. but they looked a bit shaken and started talking before we could even sit in the car.

they were sitting in the car and were reading and talking when suddenly the door locks on the car started to go up and down. they got startled and then my girl said it was us guys screwing with them. then a little later it happened again, the locks went up and down fast a number of times and then stopped. my girl said that us guys were using the key chain to lock and unlock the doors but then they said they remembered i had left the keys with them. and sure enough, they were just sitting there on the console. just as they noticed that, we came around the corner after getting spooked ourselves. we sat in the car for a bit and i talked about what i knew about the battle (from reading The Yom Kippur War). i didn't feel scared at all and the others were not upset at all. to know what happened there, and the history it made and produced, i can see why spirits would inhabit the area. it was the one and only time in my life i really truly believe that kind of thinking. that something "other" could reach out and communicate with living persons.

I can smell the popcorn but i can't see it...

engineers have recently started the long march towards invisibility. a team at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have made a device (pictured) that can make an object invisible to microwaves. even though microwaves have a longer wavelength than light, this is a great start. they are only able to do it in a 2 dimensional form but 3D is probably not too far off. this article will lead you to the basic how's-and-what's involved.

...and I drove too fast.

this is part two of the last post. when last you read us CC and i just had our first cardiac arrest together and CC got his intubation. well, the next day was a busy day and by the end of it we came to the conclusion that we were douches. we were supposed to be done at 7 pm. around 1700 we got a 27D, GSW. some crack head/heroin addict was walking down the street and some peeps drove by and shot her in the ass and back of the legs with a shotgun. it was my call and we got her fat ass off the scene and to the hospital in nice time. we were on top of our game that day, after having such a good day the day before. so we check out of the hospital and right at 1825 we get another call. ok, no big deal i guess. yeah, it sucks but what can we do. so we go and pick up this old guy and take him to the hospital on base (he's retired military and gets a choice between the two in our county). we check out of that hospital at 1945 (45 minutes over our scheduled time) and now we get to go back to base with no chance of getting another call. unless, of course, a bad call comes out and we are the closest. BAM! 9E1, cardiac arrest comes out. we are kinda far from it but when we hear the only truck available for it is coming from base we have a choice to make. i look at CC and he goes "ok, let's do this" and i get on the radio and tell the other truck, medic 13, to keep going and we'll MEET them there. fully thinking (wishing) they will get there a couple minutes before us and CC will get another tube and then we can just help out until they take off for the hospital. but what does my dumb ass do? i drive to fucking fast and smoke the other ambulance. now WE are the first on scene and this is now our call. i couldn't believe it when i came around the corner in the neighborhood and saw just a fire truck. and on top of it all the firefighters placed a BIAD/King airway! so we load the guy up because he was outside in his car at the time. the fire dept had him on the ground and it was cold out so, without thinking, we put him in our ambulance. WRONG. he was in asystole at our first contact and according to our protocols we can work him for another 30 or so minutes (with numerous other caveats on top) and call it there on the scene if he doesn't improve (even getting him into a VTach/VFib i consider an "improvement"). but now we have him in the truck and we aren't just going to stop and take him back out after 30 minutes and lay him in the grass in front of the neighbors. so we take off for the hospital (after setting him up) and en route the King airway is sliding around in the guys mouth due to all the puke. CC notices the SPO2 dropping and d/c's the King and intubates the guy. so it all worked out in the end. at least until it was 2245 and we were still at base writing up the report into emscharts. we both were so tired and we could only laugh at how stupid we were.

Chuck got his tube...

i have been training CC since 12/23 and we have seen just about everything in the entire protocol book (CPAP, SVT, Afib w/ RVR, STEMI, etc.) but we couldn't buy him an intubation. we would try and jump cardiac arrests and someone would be closer or we would get there and the dude would be dead for days. we tried switching up stupid things, trying to drum up a cardiac arrest. and finally on 2/17 CC finally got one. we were at base and a 6D, respiratory distress, came out for medic 10 and the dispatcher stated possible cardiac arrest. CC and i were very close so we advised dispatch we were going to it too. we figured that we would pull up a minute after medic 10 and CC could still intubate (and we would just steal the call from them and run it in). the two units met at an intersection and CC was on the phone with medic 10. we were at the exact same intersection near the call and they stopped their lights and siren and gave it to us. we rolled up on scene and the fire dept. was already there (it happened to be one of the guys mother-in-law). she was on the floor with CPR going and we took over. she was in asystole on the monitor and after the next rhythm check she was still in asystole. we had IV access and intubated her and cardiac drugs on board. our QRV was there, as well, and had pulled the family into the kitchen and explained that we were going to work her for another 25 minutes and if she didn't get out of asystole we were going to call it here in the house. the family was ok with that and were very understanding. the pt just was released from the hospital with pneumonia and when we tubed her thick, white phlegm was all in the tube. she was altered and short of breath (SOB) for most of the day and she just collapsed on the floor. 24 and a half minutes into it she gets a strong femoral pulse and we scooped her up and took off to the hosptial. 24 1/2 minutes exactly. asystole to pulse. strange, very strange. she stayed alive for most of the day and CC went into the room to see the family (they had already signed a DNR for her and were sitting by the bedside all day) and CC literally saw her go into PEA and he called for the doc to come in to the room. CC brought her back and was there the second she died, again. strange day. the next day was even stranger....

And I...

jizzed in my pants. ;)

Spanish for dummies...

was on a SWAT raid recently, i'm a medic on two separate SWAT teams locally, and they were joking around when we were in the truck on the way to the scene. they were talking about another guy, who wasn't with us that day. i'm paraphrasing but here's the jist of the story. they hit a house and there was a spanish dude in the house and the SWAT officer came at him, gun up and fully kitted up, and wanted the spanish dude to put his hands up. so he started yelling "Como te llamas!!" and the dude said "Juan". so he kept moving forward and yelling "Como te llamas!!" and the dude yelled back "Juan!" with his hands still by his side. "I'll shot you motherfucker!! Como te llamas!!!" and the dude screamed back "JUAN!!". hahahahahaha. finally someone corrected him before he shot the dude. i'm not sure what exactly they are taught in SWAT school, i finnaly get to go this summer, but "Manos arriba" will probably work just fine. reminds me of when we were in Iraq. we were in the invasion so our cultural knowledge was very primitive and the universal American sign for stop (hand palm forward and arm up) is actually a greeting and sign of "come over here" for the Iraqis....oops. within a day or two my platoon noticed it was different (both hands over your head and arms crossed). luckily we hadn't killed any civilians by then. ah, but understanding cultural diversity is such a dirty fucking hippie (DFH) way to approach the world, isn't it. too bad most people who get into the infantry and police work are, for the most part, not the sharpest tools in the shed.

Solar flares and the shuttle...

go to spaceweather and search for today in the archive in the top right (02/08/2010) and check out some wonderful pics of the space shuttle Endeavour lifting off. it is bringing a new section of the space station so the astronauts can see in a 360 degree space. how f-in cool would that be?!? and then right below that part you can listen, by links, to massive solar flares screaming by the Earth. it sounds like being in a tent during a strong rain storm... i guess that is a pretty good analogy of us and our planet. such a great website on a daily basis.

I must be dreaming...

this was a couple years back. i was working a shift with SA and we were in line to get breakfast at Bojangles and a 10D, chest pain, came out and we both got out of line and set off to it. usually when interrupted from breakfast a crew may make snarky remarks about the pt we are going to (of course, once on scene that all goes away) but this time i remember we didn't say anything we just took off. we got on scene and the first responders were already there with the pt. this was in a bad area of town on one of our worst streets for drugs and violence. we walked into the house and the pt was a black male about 42 years old, he looked younger. he was wild eyed and clutching frequently at his chest. right away we could tell there was something going on and we placed him on the stretcher. as we were pulling the stretcher out of his house, he was only 2-3 minutes from the hospital and we decided to do everything in the truck, he said something about "spiders". his house was dirty and i started to look at my shoulders and arms and get that feeling like stuff was crawling all over me. as we loaded him into the ambulance he said it again "is it the spider?" and i crawled into the truck looking at my clothes for spiders. SA placed him on the monitor and right away, i think without even a 12-Lead she just said "let's go, i'll do everything en route". the pt was very anxious and had that text book "impending sense of doom" going on, looking back in hindsight. i took off for the hospital and i could hear him asking SA "is it the spider" and finally she asked him what he was meaning. he started to say he was watching a hospital-type show the other night and heard about a spider. SA asked him "you mean a widow maker?" and he goes "yeah, that. is it that?" and i just mashed the pedal a little further into the floor. as i pulled up on the ramp of the old ED i could see SA in the rear view mirror start yelling at the guy and she pulled the head of the stretcher down, moving him from sitting to supine. i ran around to the back and pulled open the doors and jumped up and the pt looked to be having a seizure. SA was at the monitor and she had placed the pads on him earlier and the monitor was showing V-tach. but the pt was shaking so violently i told her to hold on and i checked for a pulse quickly and after 5-10 seconds of not finding one she gave him a nice shock at 200J. as i was pulling him out someone came out and i yelled to them to tell the ED our pt coded on the ramp. we ran him in and i was doing CPR and SA was pushing the stretcher and we got him into the old orange zone and the nurses and MD were there and i moved around to lower the head of the stretcher and the doc yelled out shock him again. the monitor was in between the pt's legs and the doc could see the V-tach plain as day once i stopped doing compressions. BAM! we hit him again and began to move him to the bed. within a minute of his first shock on the ramp the pt was shocked a second time and he was on the hospital bed, biting a female ED tech in the hand and screaming "i'm dreaming!!! i'm dreaming!!!". hell yeah he was dreaming. and sure enough he WAS having a widow maker. we later found out he had an extensive cardiac history from abusing cocaine and had had a mild MI in the past. "i'm dreaming!!! i'm dreaming!!!" crazy town.

Words to the wise...

As I Develop The Awakening Mind I Praise The Buddha As They Shine
I Bow Before You As I Travel My Path To Join Your Ranks,
I Make My Full Time Task
For The Sake Of All Beings I Seek
The Enlighted Mind That I Know I'll Reap
Respect To Shantideva And All The Others
Who Brought Down The Darma For Sisters And Brothers
I Give Thanks For This World As A Place To Learn
And For This Human Body That I'm Glad To Have Earned
And My Deepest Thanks To All Sentient Beings
For Without Them There Would Be No Place To Learn What I'm Seeing
There's Nothing Here That's Not Been Said Before
But I Put It Down Now So I'll Be Sure
To Solidify My Own Views And I'll Be Glad If It Helps
Anyone Else Out Too
If Others Disrespect Me Or Give Me Flack
I'll Stop And Think Before I React =
Knowing That They're Going Through Insecure Stages
I'll Take The Opportunity To Exercise Patience
I'll See It As A Chance To Help The Other Person
Nip It In The Bud Before It Can Worsen
A Change For Me To Be Strong And Sure
As I Think On The Buddhas Who Have Come Before
As I Praise And Respect The Good They've Done
Knowing Only Love Can Conquer In Every Situation
We Need Other People In Order To Create
The Circumstances For The Learning That We're Here To Generate
Situations That Bring Up Our Deepest Fears
So We Can Work To Release Them Until They're Cleared
Therefore, It Only Makes Sense
To Thank Our Enemies Despite Their Intent
The Bodhisattva Path Is One Of Power And Strength
A Strength From Within To Go The Length
Seeing Others Are As Important As Myself
I Strive For A Happiness Of Mental Wealth
With The Interconnectedness That We Share As One
Every Action That We Take Affects Everyone
So In Deciding For What A Situation Calls
There Is A Path For The Good For All
I Try To Make My Every Action For That Highest Good
With The Altruistic Wish To Achive Buddhahood
So I Pledge Here Before Everyone Who's Listening
To Try To Make My Every Action For The Good Of All Beings
For The Rest Of My Lifetimes And Even Beyond
I Vow To Do My Best To Do No Harm
And In Times Of Doubt I Can Think On The Dharma
And The Enlightened Ones Who've Graduated Samsara