YKYW - Nursing Student Blog

Yesterday, the high was in the 80s. Today? It just started snowing!

Stay safe and warm

If you are looking for something special to do for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, consider this beautiful piece from Storypeople. It’s called “Lifetime”. Here are the words:

We’re here to end it,
I said & she said, No,
we’re here to begin it
& then she turned &
opened her arms
& everywhere I could see,
there were people,
like bright birds, calling
with a thousand voices

& suddenly I understood.
Here is where it begins.
With all of us, together
giving our daughters
a world worth loving
for a lifetime to come.

From the site: All profits from the sale of this print, both here on the site & at our gallery partners worldwide, will go to fund breast cancer research for as long as it takes to find the Cure.

Be sure to check out his other stuff. It’s amazing!

I tried several times to write something to sum up how I felt five years ago, but I cannot find the words. Gene’s touching and thought-provoking Five Years After 9/11 is better than anything I could write.

What’s more, exercising our rights to free speech and a free press are now considered aiding and abetting the terrorists who hit us on 9/11 and would like to again. Pointing out the disastrous handling of the Iraq war and the lies that led up to it is encouraging the terrorists. Demanding that we come up with a plan to resolve the situation in Iraq, or that we not rush headlong into a war with Iran, is “appeasement”, the crime committed by Chamberlain when he met with Hitler in Munich.

The fact that so many Americans think we should meekly surrender so many of our rights in the name of “security” is a absolute disgrace, and when this chapter in our nation’s history is written we will have much to be ashamed of. The fact that the Bush Administration chose again and again to ignore the Constitution and go with with the lazy, easy, and venal path is to be expected, given their track record. But the fact that so many Americans think that the best way to be “safe” is to hand over power to the government and hope they’ll take care of us is profoundly disturbing.

Be sure to read the whole thing. I still have goosebumps.

SK and I are both feeling a little under the weather, so we had a rather low key weekend. We did get to spend a lot of time with family over the weekend, so that was nice. And, rainy days plus feeling poorly equals great movie weather. I *finally* saw Gone with the Wind all the way through. One more movie classic that I can check off my list. I think it is sad when people are so blinded by the love they think they want, that they miss the love they have right in front of them. On the school front, I’m done with both of my government classes for the week, and I have to get started on my statistics assignment. We are supposed to have a test in Anatomy on Monday, but the professor pushed the test because we are already behind in lecture.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, was killed by a stingray barb to the chest on Monday. At first, I thought it was a hoax, because his death has been rumored before. However, once it started showing up in the mainstream media, I finally accepted it as the truth. The world lost a great advocate for animal rights.

I was excited to hear about Rosie O’Donnell’s new shindig on The View. I think she has a lot to offer in this format. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics work out between her and the other ladies on the show.

I’m surprised about the opinions regarding a relatively new service called PayPerPost. Dan over at Florida Venture Blog has a great write-up on the service that is getting a lot of attention on Digg. Personally, I’ve written a few posts but I haven’t been paid yet. They have a fairly eclectic customer base so far, and many advertisers even leave the tone of the post up to the blogger. I think this is a great marketing tactic, because it allows people to offer their real opinions about your product/site/service. Even negative feedback can benefit a company if they take it to heart. For bloggers, it is a great chance to make money blogging. It will be interesting to see how this all works out.

Well, duh. Is anyone surprised? The surprise-o-meter registered the same levels for Ellen and Rosie.

Myspace and Webshots users should be aware:

An online banner advertisement that ran on MySpace.com and other sites over the past week used a Windows security flaw to infect more than a million users with spyware when people merely browsed the sites with unpatched versions of Windows, …

Only a little more than half of the anti-virus programs used at anti-virus testing service AV-Test.org flagged the various programs that the Trojan tried to download as malicious or suspicious.

The ad was also spotted on Webshots.com, a popular photo-sharing site. So, if you visited either of these sites recently and your computer is acting up … this might just be the culprit.

If you are using Internet Explorer and had the latest updates installed, your computer would not be vulnerable to this Trojan. So, make sure you have the latest patches installed. Or, switch to Firefox!

We watched UFC 61: Bitter Rivals on Saturday night. I was hoping the card would surprise me, but the fights were fairly boring for the most part. Why are some many fighters content to let things go to the judges for a decision?

Yves Edwards Vs. Joe Stevenson - I think this was one of (if not THE) bloodiest fights I’ve ever seen. Stevenson opened up a nasty cut on Edwards’ head and the doctor stopped the fight. I look forward to seeing ‘Daddy’ fight again.

Josh Burkman Vs. Josh Neer - Boring. But another win for Burkman and Team Punishment.

Dan Christison Vs. Frank Mir - Another boring fight. Neither one impressed me, and Mir won by unanimous decision. Personally, I probably would have given the win to Christison but it was really close.

Tito Ortiz Vs. Ken Shamrock - Even before the fight started, everyone knew Tito would come out on top. What nobody predicted was that the ref would stop it at 1:08 of the first round! The stoppage is controversial, and so Shamrock will probably insist on a rematch so Ortiz can REALLY kick his ass.

Tim Sylvia Vs. Andrei Arlovski - 5 rounds of Arlovski trying to pick apart Sylvia but failing. Technically, Arlovski is the better fighter by a long shot, but Sylvia has size on his side. They were both rocked during the fight, but managed to regain their composure. I hate that the judges don’t seem to think that when all other aspects of the fight were fairly equal, pressing the action should be worth something. I’m not sure how they thought Sylvia won it, when Arlovski was practically chasing him around the ring the entire fight. (Yes, Arlovski wasn’t quite as aggressive at the end, but rumor has it he messed up his knee during the fight.) However, I do realize that in order to take away the belt, Arlovski needed to make it clear that he was the better fighter. Maybe next time.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is adding almost 100 new words with the 2006 update, expected to be released during the fall. New words include ringtone, supersize, unibrow, gastric bypass, drama queen, manga and polyamory — a little something for everyone!

Rumor has it that “bling” and “Google” (as a verb) were also introduced.

• I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching medal ceremonies.  I get goose bumps and tears in my eyes, too.
• It sucks that Apolo Anton Ohno fell.
• Is it just me, or do all the snowboarders look like they enjoy smoking out?
• Would you want to be an Olympian enough to admit you’re the person with the broom in curling?
• Yay for Tivo!  I don’t have to stay up until 3a to see all the events.
• I like Chad Hedrick’s Southern draw.
• Are the bruises worth it?
• Anybody wanna lay odds on the number of gay figure skaters to straight figure skaters?
• What’s up with Bode Miller?
• Am I the only one humming “the song” in my sleep?