Mason and Alex for the most part don’t play much together.  Occasionally you will find Alex throwing Mason one of his toys, or you will find him feeding Mason some of his treats.  But yesterday, this is what I found and thought it was just priceless. 

Oh boy… Mason you don’t know what you are in for!!

Back to copying and pasting at last! Commuters Britain-wide will have seen this in the Metro today, about a snake who ate himself. The poor animal was kept in a space that may have been too small, meaning in his desperation he saw his own tail and thought it was another snake. The tail tip was about to be digested by the time the vet unclamped his jaws.

This reminded me with warm feelings of the Darwin Awards, a glorious, wonderful site featuring people who have eliminated themselves from the evolutionary chain. ‘Natural deselection’ it’s called.

Cruel? Try not to to feel a bit of Schadenfreude when reading this one about stupid journalists…

But it got me thinking more generally about animals being put on a par with humans in the press. Animals, we’re told, are not ‘he’ and ’she’ in articles. “THEY DO NOT HAVE SOULS!“, our tutor cries, unless you’re writing for the Guardian about tossing a pigeon, or the Indie on the plight of “one of Britain’s ugliest dogs”.

Extremely ugly dog (Independent)

Ew. But normally I have some issues with this stance. Could be something to do with the childhood lectures around the dinner table. Whatever their effect, I strongly feel animals shouldn’t be paraded around for our entertainment, just because they can’t speak for themselves.

Well – usually. I think in a case like this, an animal which knows that little of its arse from its elbow(!) shouldn’t really need to complain. And it’s only being paraded as much as a human who would do the same thing. Just look at world’s heaviest man Paul Mason in the Sun.

In fact, in my opinion, the real discrimination would be if poor Loopy Reggie wasn’t allowed to enter the Darwin awards. Not that it would win. People have done far stupider things than a snake ever could.

Some doctors listen, carefully, to their patients. They listen first, consider, ponder, and make thoughtful suggestions.

But there are other doctors who dash into and out of the examination room and seem to get all slaphappy with psychiatric labels. Years ago, one such doctor ranted to a very sick friend of mine in this vein: “Listen, 95% of the things people come to see me about aren’t even real. They’re not sick; they just hate their jobs or can’t stand their husbands. And it builds up, and next thing you know, they’re in here, whining to me about all these aches and pains that miraculously disappear if they get a good night’s sleep or a decent day at work.”

This latter kind of doctor infuriates me because when I was in grad school, studying clinical psychology, I lived in terror of diagnosing a patient with a psychiatric disorder when, in fact, he or she had a medical disorder. The first thing I’d do with a new patient was to ask them to go see a doctor and explain that their shrink wanted them to be worked up, stem to stern. And what fascinated me was how often a patient who’d come in self-diagnosed as “deeply depressed” turned out to have mononucleosis or some other very real, and sometimes extremely serious, medical ailment.

On the other hand there are medical doctors who have very little training in psychology or psychiatry but who blithely toss around labels that can have a very destructive effect on a patient’s ability to be properly diagnosed and treated. I’ve had more than one patient tell me that once one doctor labeled them as having a psychiatric issue, most other doctors wanted nothing to do with them.

So, consider for example, vocal cord dysfuction (VCD). The fourth edition of Murray & Nadel’s Textbook of Respiratory Medicine notes that “VCD … has historically been considered a functional or conversion disorder with terms such as ‘factitious asthma,’ Munchausen’s stridor, or ‘hysterical asthma.’”

In fact, a more recent term, irritable larynx syndrome, has been introduced, in part to reflect the “greater appreciation that factors other than psychological problems, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease [GERD], posterior nasal drainage, neurologica dystonias, or intense irritant exposures can lead to laryngeal hyperresponsiveness.” [Ibid.]

In other words, Munchausen’s stridor is out. VCD is out. Irritable larynx syndrome is in. And what has historically been written off to a psychiatric etiology may well be due to a perhaps not-so-obvious physical problem.

Ah, but if I could only have a dime for every time “Munchausen’s stridor” appears in patient charts and files in the next year, I bet you I’d be well off. These labels are an easy way to quickly identify and dismiss troublesome or difficult patients. Those labels are sticky, and it takes quite some effort to get them off once they’ve been applied.

Reference: Balkissoon RD, Baroody FM, Togias A. Disorders of the upper airways. In: Mason RJ, Murray JF, Broaddus VC, Nadel JA. Murray & Nadel’s Textbook of Respiratory Medicine, 4th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2005.

Copyright © 2009 by Candace L. Van Auken. All rights reserved.

…you listen.

Only another year or two until this isn’t cute.  Good thing we don’t have any girls to raise.

Detroit Red Wings vs. St. Louis Blues

November 28th 8:00pm, Scottrade Center

Game Notes:

1. Khan reports that Brad May will be back in tonight, but in a surprise turn of events, Kirk Maltby will be benched to keep Drew Miller on the ice.  This is some high praise for Mr. Miller and he deserves it.  He’s been one of the Wings most consistent forwards throughout this slump, so why not reward that.
2. Howard is likely to get the start in goal, not that this matters in the least until the Red Wings decide scoring goals is part of hockey again.
3. St. Louis is in 5th in the division, Detroit is in 4th.  Hopefully tonight the Red Wings can keep it that way.  Who knew a quarter of the way through a season Detroit would be a part of a battle of the bottom dwellers of the division matchup.  This is what we have come to, and the only way out is to claw our way back to the top.
4. Chris Mason starts for the Blues tonight, not our old friend Ty Conklin.  I don’t know if this is good or bad, since we know how Conks can play when he wants to.  Maybe we’ll have as much luck on this Mason as we did on youngster Steve a few weeks ago.  (9-1 against Columbus in case you forgot…)

Bold and Stupid Predictions:

1. Zetterberg scores twice.  Breaking the scoring drought and providing some much needed leadership by example for the Wings forwards.
2. The referees do not blow a goal/no-goal call tonight.  Surprising, but hey, it could happen.
3. Brad May gets in a fight. (Not bold or stupid, but it’s been a few games so I’m excited…)
4. Despite all the odds, I think that playing back-to-back helps the Wings.  Their anger and passion carries them to a 2nd period lead they do not relinquish.
5. Final Score: Red Wings win 3-1.

Big Man and I were watching TV last night when he saw a commercial for Subaru and their “Share The Love” campaign. “They’re going to sue you,” he said.

“Yup, they can sue me and so can Divine Chocolates. But they’ll have to battle it out with each other before they’ll bother with me,” I answered with sarcasm dripping like baby drool from a cheerful grin. “Oh, and don’t forget the Share the Love Cat Campaign too. And how do you think they share that Love Cat? Like timeshares or is it more like cake, cut up and passed around…?”

And yes, I DID get something thrown at me for that last bit.

But seriously, I can’t help but be excited about the fact that if you Google “share the love campaign” you get THIS BLOG as your first link! Woo hoo!

And speaking of sharing love, JessieDog really knows how to share love and enforce it. Here you see JessieDog laying across the laps of my son Mason and his girlfriend Tisha. Tisha was worn out from a week of visiting with family topped off with a huge T-Day dinner at my church, but if she stopped scratching JessieDog for even a moment, JessieDog was kind enough to let her know. Do you know of a bossier dog than a Border Collie?

Oh, and don’t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY! Go here for details: http://kimquiltz.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/happy-thanks-giveaway/. You have until noon on Sunday to enter. Good luck!

Last night, the kids decorated Mom and Dad’s tree.

The tree now has ornaments, but only on the bottom third!

Owen, Noah, Aaron, Rylen, Bruce, Holden, Parker, Matthew, Spencer, Dawson, Brandon, Trey, Tucker, Nathan, Kain, Jacob, Alexander, Collin, Benjamin, Nicholas, Austin, Joshua, Evan, Jack, Neco, Cooper, Elijah, Kyle, Oscar, Keegan, Malcolm, Mason, Bregan, Madden, Myles, Caeden, Brenden, Pryor, Maurice, Nicky.

Gabriella, Jillian, Lillian, Audrey, Ruby May, Erin, Bianca, Jade, Rylee, Aili, Trynity, Meghan, Olivia, Elise, Quinn, Ariana, Charlotte, Beatrix, Abigail, Layla, Kenley, Caoimhe, Cailyn, Ava, Carolina, Mia, Ailey, Alena.

Ya en un post anterior les había brindado un link que me encontré con el nuevo libro de Dan Brown, pero estaba en ingles, el libro en español ya lo tenía desde hace tiempo, pero se me había pasado por alto publicarles el link, así que aquí esta el link para los que les gusta este tipo de lectura para entretenerse.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IH70VN2T

*Recuerden para bajarlo ingresen el código que les muestra del lado derecho ahí en Megaupload y esperen el tiempo reglamentario para bajarlo, que son uno segundos.

Lo estoy leyendo voy en el capitulo 10, esta entretenido para matar el rato, en los desplazamientos por sus ciudades o cuando tenga que esperar en algún lado, se lo instale a mi móvil, y ahí lo leo.

George Washington's masonic apron.

Most Masons can & do go through their entire masonic life completely happy with the lambskin they were given by their Lodge and the thin, cotton numbers that most Lodges keep for members and visitors to wear. These are all well and good. I always wear one of the Lodge-supplied aprons. Masonically speaking, it wasn’t always so…

In our not-so-long ago Masonic past brothers often took great personal pride in their aprons. Their apron oft showed a lot bout the man wearing it, regardless if it had been made by the local seamstress or embroidered by his wife, daughter, or even himself by the imagery thereon. Many of the surviving examples are true works of art! The most famous of which is George Washington’s masonic apron shown here on the right. I know that some say that the brethren can’t meet “on the level” if some are showing their wealth &/or success by the intricacies of their personal apron. I humbly must disagree.

As I see them it is often the home-made, home decorated, aprons that show true dedication to our order. They are often the most beautiful, too.

Fortunately, I am not entirely alone in my beliefs here. There are a few people scattered about this Nation, and the World, that still produce these wonderful aprons.

Here I will post a few photos of some that I have found particularly beautiful…

The Tarbell Apron.

Massachusetts apron, circa 1791.

In my next post I hope to post photos of some aprons made by modern-day artist. (I’m awaiting permission to post the photos..) Meanwhile, give the subject some thought.

As always, I have the Honor to Remain Your Brother,

MTJ

These cute little plants in a jar seem to be all over people’s minds today for gifts, etc. (especially now that Christmas season is arriving). I had an earlier post about these deliciously wonderful jars of moss :

Previous Post
But the small feature presentation is at the bottom of the page.

Anyways, I’ve mentioned before, Etsy is a wonderful online handmade crafts place where people may buy and sell their ingenious (not to mention beautiful) handmade items.

Here’s another terrarium I found that I loved :

To wrap up this entry, I found some DIY tutorials for those who want to be cost efficient (but still somehow have moss living in their backyards):
1) http://smoothpebble.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/making-a-moss-terrarium/
2) http://arieleldridge.blogspot.com/2009/05/moss-terrarium-how-to.html
3) http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/03/craft_project_mason_jar_terrar.html

Hope this helped those who are scouring the internet for terrariums!

Okay everybody, The Mason Studios Show is well underway and we are about 10 episodes (7 posted) deep into the series.  Now unfortunatly I had to delete some older MSS post because of media library issues.  But listed below are all the episodes we have done so far.  Watch, laugh, rate, comment, tell friends and family, watch again, repeat process.

EPISODE 1: PREMIERE  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OrHp7fleJs

EPISODE 2: OPTIMUS PRIME http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5levtighDhU

EPISODE 3: MORTAL KOMBAT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVGI5s_u6XY

EPISODE 4: WHATEVER YOU LIKE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hJWlvOEm6U

EPISODE 5: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaoM5vGspEw

EPISODE 6: THE HOBO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55jhxK2i4LQ

EPISODE 7: HARRY POTTER http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUT3aMTO_Bo

MINISODE: 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m25MdavwRZ4

It’s so fun to go to the beach, and share those fun times with your family.  Regardless how many times, we go with the grand kiddos, it’s always fun, and I’m as ready as them to go back.  It’s relaxing to dig in the sand, feed those sea gulls, and run thru’ the waves.  

Check this out!

Feeding the seagulls.  Autumn seen some earlier in town, and said those birds need to go back to the beach.  She didn’t think they belonged in town.

The best part of feeding the seagulls is….

Eating the Bread your self!

Crystal….she hardly ever lets me take her picture….

The kiddos loved flying their kites.  Mason was so stinking cute, flying his.  And he wanted to do it all by himself!

This kite was pretty….but even Aunt Val, couldn’t make it fly!

And of course…you have to dig in the sand at the beach!

And that’s all folks….til we head back to the beach!

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THIS SHOCKING STORY IN THE U.S. MEDIA?…..NO!

The following article is almost unbelievable and potentially deadly for our nation.  And while it poses a very serious and detrimental danger to the United States, I have not heard anything about it from the mainstream media.

The information was obtained from Israel National News and is located at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134466, which thankfully to the Lord, DOES NOT worship Barack Obama nor props him up on some sort of throne.

With that said, take a look at what they have discovered about the guy sitting in the White House.

Obama ‘Reaches Out’ by Naming ‘Devout’ Muslims to Security Posts

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) U.S. President Barack Obama continues to “reach out to Muslims” by appointing them to key security posts amid charges he wrongly ignored internal Muslim terror. One recent appointee was harshly criticized for appearing on a British-based television station whose host is a member of a radical Muslim group.

His “reaching out Muslims” speech in Cairo last June has been followed by action, the latest being this past week’s swearing-in of a Muslim rights advocate to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, shortly after the Fort Hood massacre. HSAC members are involved in expertise on national security.

The new member is Syrian-born Kareem Shora, who was the national executive director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination (ADC), which previously has called on the United States to stop providing Israel with weapons because of alleged “atrocities” against Arabs. Her background for her new security post is having been a legal counsel and advocate for Muslim civil rights.

She also has been a frequent guest on the pro-Hamas al-Jazeera satellite network.

Shora, who has been described as a “devout Muslim, joins another devout member of the faith, Arif Alikhan, who was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the Department of Homeland Security. His qualifications for the job were listed as having been in charge of public safety in Los Angeles during his term of deputy mayor. One of his actions was to remove the plan that tracked Muslims in the city who were suspected of terrorist activities.

Americans have been jolted by several lethal attacks and confrontations with Muslims over the past year, including a plot to attack synagogues and down U.S. military aircraft, the manufacture of bombs, an alleged attempt to explode a Texas skyscraper, a plot to blow up malls in Boston, and last month’s Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim psychiatrist who was an officer in the army.

A desire to avoid the appearance of labeling all Muslims as terrorists lunged out from the shadows last month after President Obama faced criticism for not taking seriously the threat of Muslim terrorism within American society as well as in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Several months ago, President Obama appointed Dalia Mogahed, a “devout Muslim,” to his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She quickly came under fire for appearing in a telephone interview on a London-based Muslim television station, whose host is a member of an extreme Islamic group.

She said was unaware of the affiliations of her host, whose program included questions and comments favoring the implementation of Islamic Law (“sharia”).

Mogahed explained that she did not hang up the phone in the middle of the interview because “I assumed that very few people would watch this show but that doing something more dramatic would bring more attention.”

In the current issue of Newsweek, columnist Jacob Weisberg, citing former Secretary of State Colin Powell, wrote that “Obama’s [Muslim] heritage feeds a broader suspicion that he is too casual about the threat from America’s Islamist enemies.”

The journalist added, “With the massacre in Texas, Obama now confronts something that George W. Bush did not face in the years after September 11—not just a major act of domestic terrorism, but one struck from inside our security apparatus…. America does not face a threat from the perversion of faith in general. We face a threat from the perversion of one faith in particular.”

End

I want to encourage all of you to pray and to draw ever so close to the Son of the Living God, the LORD JESUS CHRIST……THE ONLY SAVIOR.

By all appearances, judgment seems to be heading for the United States of America.  As a watchman giving warning, I am urging everyone who is reading this to please follow the Lord’s Word from Isaiah chapter 55 verses 6-7 which is as follows:

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

May we all take heed to this warning while we still have the chance, because a time is coming when we will not.

Sven Vath 

Mirror

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Mason

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Bob Sinclar

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Sorry for the lapse in posts. Again.

I’m trying to make the jump over to blogger, only because it seems relatively easy to set up & they allow affiliate ads. However, things aren’t always as they seem.

I couldn’t find a template that I really liked, so I started making my own. It sounded like such a good idea at the time, too. Click here, paste there, chug a few Diet Coke’s and wave my magic fork at the screen a couple times. But here I am, a week later, and still not happy with the damn thing. The header isn’t quite right and I need to tweak the colors a little bit more, but I’m getting there.

Anyway, when I get it up and running (hopefully by next Friday – the busiest shopping day of the year!), I’ll put up a final entry here on wordpress and have the web address thingie pointed at the new site.

I know, right. I know what a pain in the arse it is to update your links/bookmarks and all that. So, I’m going to offer a little giveaway when I’m done migrating to the dark side. More on that to come.

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My poor boy is having a hard time of things.  He has 3 molars coming in on top and another 3 trying to poke through on the bottom of his mouth.  He doesn’t want Tylenol.  He doesn’t want ice cubes or ice pops or popsicles.  He doesn’t want Tylenol and he still can’t stomach Motrin.  He doesn’t want to cuddle.  He just wants to walk around and moan.  And throw things on the floor in fits of grumpitude.

As of tonight, the score is Mason 2 and Lamps 0.  We’re going to have to start reading by candlelight if he keeps this up.

On a sidenote, his 15-month checkup is coming up awfully fast.  I’m still torn on the whole flu shot issue.  On one hand, they’re a good idea, especially if you have a compromised immune system.  But on the other hand, we all got flu shots last year and still got very, very sick in February.  We weren’t diagnosed with H1N1, but the symptoms were all there.

I’m going to talk it over with his doctor; but, still.  It’s the flu, not tuberculosis or diptheria.  Any thoughts, one way or the other?

Also, when did chickenpox vaccines become the norm?  The school district we presently live in won’t let your child attend if s/he hasn’t had his/her chickenpox vaccines.  Seriously???  I had chicken pox twice when I was a kid, and I lived through it.  It just makes me wonder if we’re putting our kids in too much of a plastic bubble.

Oh, and one more thing.  The Husband sent me this today.

*thud*

Just wanted to share a bit of the love in the house from tonight as the two boys sat and watched Tinkerbell together.  That’s right, my boys like the movie Tinkerbell.  I have never been more proud.    

right, today. what to write about a regular and uneventful day?

well firstly, the mass amount of coursework and homework I am expected to, is slowly getting beyond a joke. I normally spend my Sundays for all of my work that I need to do, so I am eagerly awaiting this Sunday. Yet the rest of my weeks plans seem rather obfuscated, I haven’t an idea what to do with myself this weekend

yet today hasn’t been to useless, its helped me figure some people out quite well, it helps me to understand people that I don’t normally engage directly with. yet I still need to read through nineteen eighty-four, for literature coursework. and since I’ve got back from sixth form, I have writen some more, thats about it really. which has led me to here, the internet, with my music on shuffle, sitting on my bed, writing this.

thats about all I can write on this today, so, laaaters xxx