Quixotic Effort to Determine Additional Carcinogenic Noises

In too many ways, I am similar with the main character in Cervantes' 1605 novel. Both Don Quixote and I have tilted at various wind mills with varying degrees ranging from utter failure to efforts of no consequence or recognition.

Too often I became transfixed on problems that I couldn't possibly fix or even impact, to ignoring other issues that I could and should have engaged.

But today, I have a new issue for which I again need to put on my ill-fitting suit of armor, grasp my cracked lance, and mount my over-aged steed. And that issue for which I am willing to 

My Official Idaho Identification Badge

I had to send a pict of my ID as proof for being eligible for a reduced rate for an online newspaper.

I got thinking about my official Idaho state identification badge, and wondered what Freud might think about my ID ID.

Would my ID² be similar or different to his id, or his super id or even his ego?

And even more importantly, what would Freud's mother think about my ID²?

Pride vs. Dignity

As many in America, or at least like many Democrats, and the 2016 U.S. presidential election less than a week ago, I find myself pondering the surprising outcome. I ponder which factors and which qualities mattered, and which factors and/or qualities were overshadowed by the majority of the voters (in terms of the electoral college, not the populace.)

One factor that truly surprised me was the majority's lack of concern, or at least a lowered priority, in terms of the outsider, the celebrity having his finger on the nuclear arsenal. What bothered me most was how easily it seemed Mr. Trump could be baited. While seeming in some ways to be totally without any kind of sense of shame, at the same time, he seemed extremely proud, or rather, seeming to have a threatened sense of pride that he felt he needed to protect. His frequent tweets that seemed to amount to little more than tit for tat, often resorting to little more than name calling or mere insults. I worried how easily it might be that he could be manipulated by others via his wounded pride to act in ways that might prove with hindsight to be fairly destructive or counter-productive.

I pondered how this seemed to be in contrast with the current president. Though often goaded, e.g. accusations that he was not a U.S. citizen, accusations that he was not Christian, accusations that he did not actually graduate from college, etc., etc., etc. The accusations seemed endless. And yet, time and time again, President Obama seemed to stay above it and avoided taking the bait. As First Lady Michelle Obama stated, "when they go low, you go high."

Yet obviously President Obama has a strong sense of pride as well.

I found myself considering the differences in the pride of each: the lame duck president's, and the president-elect's. And what I think I see is a distinction between pride and dignity. I believe that the difference is in how President Obama seemed to focus on maintaining the dignity of the office, and not getting drawn down to petty personal attacks. It is not that he was oblivious, certainly in watching the videos of the press corps' annual dinner with the president as the key speaker, the president demonstrated a keen sense of humor and ability similar to John Kennedy to use self-deprecation to his advantage -- poking fun at himself while at the same time, never de-grading the office that he held or the country that he lead.

I don't know that the president-elect currently has the ability to poke fun of himself, or that he has enough self-confidence that he can walk away from anything that challenges his sense of self-pride. Hopefully, this will be one of the things that the new president will grow into as he prepares to rise to the challenge required of being the single most powerful person in the world and all of the responsibilities that go with it.

New advancements in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Concerns for long-term intensive medical care are starting to focus on the matter of long-term nourishment of unconscious patients. It seems that the limited use of fluids through IV is most likely causing side effects from the lack of using the digestive tract. Experimentation has begun in regard to attempts to feed patients that have been in a coma for a month or more with solid foods - albeit solid foods that are soft, e.g. bread, crackers, etc. Surprisingly, one of the factors of unwanted side effects are foods that are too soupy or liquidy. It got to the point where the liquids caused breathing problems by entering the trachea and even the lungs. Ironically, one effort to try to counter-act this problem is to make food a bit more solid such as with act of toasting bread in contrast to the softer regular, non-toasted bread. Though results have not been fully assessed, the initial efforts have been promising to the point of now referring to patients using this procedure as comatoast.

Matthew Perry's Grandfather's Heart Transplant

I posted this on Facebook Wed, Jan. 8, 2014 of a little known event:

Very few people know that Matthew Perry's grandfather almost became the first heart-transplant patient. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. Back then, they pretty much matched organs by blood type only. However, there were other complications as well. After a young man in his 20's died suddenly in a car accident in northern California, the surgeon rushed to catch a flight up north to extract the heart, and then tried to race back to LA in time. Meanwhile, Mr. Perry had slipped into a deep coma, and the surgeon felt pressure that time was slipping by.

When the flight finally arrived at LAX, the doctor was shocked to learn that his baggage had been lost when he changed flights at SF.

Deeply upset, when asked by members of the hospital staff, the surgeon emotionally explained that there were two things: Mr. Perry's coma, and he had left his heart in San Francisco ...

And now you are one of the few to know also ...

And in case any of you have any doubts as to whether this is a true story, remember Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying that if it's on the internet, it has to be true!

Touching Base

I was cleaning up 19 pages of saved emails on my main email account, and realized that I had lost the email with directions to getting into this blog (not remembering which gmail account was needed as an anchor and what it's password was, and that it was separate for another gmail account that my cell phone company set up for my cell phone as a means of saving phone numbers and addresses apparently -- though I don't see any phone numbers in that account ....

And I realized that I had not posted anything in 2013, which was not good in terms of writing, but I was also fearful that there might be a time limit on this blog account and that a year of no activity might cause it to be deleted, and so am writing a quick post.

But in the process, my God, has gmail and google put up all sorts of road blocks and manipulative controls trying to force me to connect this to all sorts of things -- regardless of what I want, or fully understand. Nothing like having businessmen, whose main purpose is to make money, to herd customers/clients where they want, regardless of what the customer wants or understands fully all of the ramifications.

Eventually, I do believe that there will be a backlash by consumers/users/customers if the major social network sites continue down this path of excessive control.

Kim

P.S. One redeeming factor while writing this, I see that neither gmail or google have been so dominant as to have been included in their spellchecker yet ....

Inevitable Divorce

Facebook posting from August 11, 2012:

With hindsight, both parties would probably agree that divorce was inevitable. Both also agreed that it was the suntanning/branding incident that probably took it over the edge. Seems she was in the backyard ... suntanning ... in the nude ... asleep. He used some sunblock lotion to mark the letter "M" on her tush.

Once she realized what had happened, she claimed, "You Mbareassed me." He responded, "Yes, for "mine," but I "Y" bare assed your other tush for "yours."

It went downhill from there ...