I was waiting for this train of thought. (click)

Here in Edmonton we recently experienced an unfortunate event.  A distraught person who had fallen on hard times, took his frustrations out by heading to the Workers Compensation Board.  In effort to bring attention to his plight he took a number of people hostage at gunpoint.  He had been on disability for a while but was unable to find work …and the WCB had just cut off his support.  As one former employee remarked “These people are at their wit’s end and don’t know what to do any more.“

I’m sure there’s talk (amongst the powers that be) of reviewing situations like this in effort to avoid similar problems in the future.  They’ll talk about case handling, screening, extensions on benefits etc., but among them there will always be those who, in spite of understanding the root of the problem, bring up the idea that we need more security.  After all, we’re in ‘terrorism times’ and why not spend millions of dollars equipping all of our public buildings to thwart the efforts of gun-wielding …crackpots?  Let’s install and man hi-tech, costly machines to clamp down on all the pocket knife, box cutting bandits that might do us harm.  I mean, how else are we supposed to live in peace?

It reminds me of post 9-11.  After the dust had settled, we here in Edmonton immediately placed guards to specific areas in the city ‘just in case’ we were to be the next target.  Sound thinking?  It depends on who you talk to.  Some might say you can never be safe enough while others might argue what can it hurt?  And yet others may suggest that safety is an illusion at best, for if anyone truly wanted to inflict harm on us, it could be done regardless of our defence.  My beef with the idea of heightened security is that it typically fails to address the problem before it becomes a problem.  It’s an after thought.  It’s a band-aid solution that after spending countless dollars and time, misses the cause in the first place.  It’s the easy thing to do.  It’s window dressing.  It gives the look of protection without really protecting.

It’s not that I don’t think innocent people in an office need protecting …if their lives are in danger then certainly, we should do all we can to ensure their safety, but what are the odds that their lives are actually going to be in jeopardy while sitting behind their desk doing the paperwork that fills their 9-5 days?  What are the chances that someone is going to be desperate enough to walk into their place of work looking to put an end to …something?  Should we necessarily spends hoards of money preparing for the infinitely improbable chance that someone is going to stroll into our workplace and physically harm us?

There are places that warrant security.  Banks come to mind.  Casinos.  Any setting or event that operates physically with money or in capital of some type.  And these places have security procedures in place because the odds of an event occurring are almost expected given the opportunity that exists.

But working in your office on paperwork!?

You often hear about the disgruntled postman.  Or the regular white collar guy who one day suddenly snaps.  These are rarities.  These are the types of situations that although unpleasant, are so remote that you really can’t prepare for them.  They’re almost an ‘act of god’ …a force majeure.  And this is what happened at the WCB last week.  And event unraveled that was so improbable that it will most likely never happen again in the lives of those involved.

Media might have you think differently of course …when events like that happen it’s HEADLINE NEWS for papers, tv etc., so coverage is extensive, prolonged and awash in speculation and conjecture.  It is news, without a doubt, but as much as we wish it was preventable, it’s not.  The idea that we could have done something different is only natural, but at the same time we have to acknowledge that ultimately it wasn’t our fault – that is was beyond our control.  We couldn’t foresee the unforeseeable and given what we know now, still can’t really change anything.

But we’ll try I suppose.  We’ll put security in place to alleviate our fears which ironically promotes our fears by having a ‘person with a gun’ in sight everyday …constantly reminding us that our freedom is at risk.  Our safety is in jeopardy.

I think life is too short to be worried about being struck by lightening.

How A Tractor Fell On My Head, I Was Diagnosed With A Chronic Lung Disease And I Healed Myself By Expressing My Feelings.

On April 7th, 2008, while at work on a construction site, I sustained a fairly severe neck injury. It was raining that day so I wore a hard hat, a precaution I normally avoided. The site safety officer, May, and I were charged with the task to re-erect an 8×10 safety rules sign which had been dismantled to make way for a large hole. We dug new holes and dropped in the posts, but the sign was not sturdy enough so we decided to get the Skytrak to utilize its bucket attachment to press the sign deep into the earth.


I steadied the sign while May positioned the Skytrak’s 920 lb utility bucket above the sign. What happened next is a blur. The posts snapped and the utility bucket jerked down several feet, hitting me atop the hard hat. I dropped to the ground.

I went to the emergency room, filled out forms. I was unable to move my neck and by the next day everything hurt and it was a big deal just to move. I lay in bed for months with what was described as a compression injury to the disk between R3 and R4, the neck vertebrae which facilitate the movement of your head.

My roommate, Jeff, captured this period of my life with a photo.

Note the underwear and black socks.

I saw a physiotherapist who assigned simple stretches and dispensed neck traction, which provided the only relief I felt from constant pressure in my neck. He stuck little electrodes and ran tiny currents of electricity into me for 20 minutes at a time. Worker’s Compensation required I attend a rehabilitation program designed for those who have suffered head injuries. I attended such a program through June and July 2008. They provided a physiotherapist, a personal trainer and a sports injury doctor who never looked me in the eye. The doctor asked me to describe how the injury felt like and then declared I would be ready to go back to work in August. They devised more strenuous stretches and exercises which I did 4 to 6 hours a day. When I complained that my range of mobility had decreased and the pain was getting worse, they reassured me I would be better within weeks. I lay around with ice or heat on my neck intermittently while exercising.

WCB paid for an MRI and the results came back with the happy news that my brain was ‘normal,’ with the small exception of what looked like a cyst in a sinus of my brain. They said everybody has these little empty spaces, but I have a little something extra that is no big deal. They reassured me the cyst was no cause for concern, just a useless lump of tissue in my brain.

I graduated head injury school with with the assurance I was on the mend, but, still, I could hardly move. I was in a lot of pain. I continued to go to the gym every day and performed the therapeutic exercises assigned to me. Six weeks later WCB declared I was ready to go back to work, but I still found my injury debilitating. I went to different doctors and asked what the hell was going on with my neck, why was I not healed, but they were baffled. They told me according to their data I should be fine.

I called WCB and said, tell me what to do here. They fixed me up with a specialist who asked questions and told me two things. First, the exercises I was doing only aggravated my neck, the same as if I cranked a sprained ankle around the joint, which would only re-bruise the soft tissue. Second, he suggested that, although it was outside his particular area of expertise, he thought my neck’s refusal to heal might be linked to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He suggested I look into this. And then he told WCB that, due to prior injury/trauma (I’ve been hit by a few cars, for example), I likely had a preexisting condition of PTSD, which effectively reconciled for WCB their liability in my case.

I’d met Natasia around this time and she had a book, Healing With Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions And Modern Nutrition, an Asian Medicine reference manual. The book said neck pain was linked to the liver and that “emotions themselves when driven by the desire-complex of greed, anger, and resentment greatly damage liver function. Unresolved emotional issues are stored physically as residues of excess in the liver, while emotional clarification unlocks and releases these residues.” Signs of liver syndromes include “emotional repression, anger, frustration, resentment, impatience, edginess, depression, moodiness, impulsiveness, poor judgement, difficulty in making decisions, mental rigidity, irritability and negativity.”

There is no doubt I’d put my liver through a lot, and indeed for years had become increasingly hesitant, suppressed, a condition only more acute since my neck injury. The information I found in Healing With Whole Foods was uncannily familiar. So, that book as my guide, I altered my diet and began actively to confront emotional issues in my life. I made decisive changes, took risks. I drew lines in the sand and said, this is where I stand. I made necessary moves toward creating in my external world an expression of my thoughts and feelings.

During this time my GP had a few tests and X rays done on me. When the results came back my doctor told me, in addition to neck problems, I had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. In 10 years, he said, I would be dragging around an iron lung. He said there was nothing I could do to heal damage already done, but I should quit smoking now and my condition might not worsen. So I quit smoking right there. I phoned Natasia and she, in solidarity, quit smoking too.

Here is what Healing With Whole Foods has to say about the lungs:

“Grief is the emotion associated with the lungs and colon. Grief that is expressed and resolved strengthens the internal basis of health, but repressed grief causes long-term contradiction in the lungs, which interferes with their function of dispersing nutrients and qi; ultimately, the lungs become congested with undistributed matter. Virtually everyone with lung and colon problems, regardless of the source of the problem, has unresolved sadness that needs to be cleared. Understanding the inward nature of this emotion offers a clue to working with it.
The contradicting force of grief, if used constructively, clears repression: it encourages us to look within, to identify unresolved sorrows, and to transform them by simply being mindful of them. Sharing such feelings with others can also help dissipate them. By focusing internally, one heals those areas where deep illness may otherwise develop.”

One thing about me, since I was a teenager I wanted to write. I set about learning to do so but for various reasons stopped when I was 24 and did not write for 6 years. I hardly wrote letters or emails anymore. The unifying theme of my health problems, according to Asian Medicine, was the suppression of voice, manifested in the lungs and liver. So I started writing again, seeking ‘emotional clarification.’ I wrote long, expressive letters. I wrote to myself. I subjected my family to diatribes. I explored issues I’d avoided for fear their expression would be hurtful and only alienate me further, and indeed I said hurtful things and I alienated myself, but what began to happen is the smoke began to clear. Gradually  my emotions became less tempestuous and I was able to navigate my thoughts with assurance. It became easier to write and these pockets of suppression, out in the open, became increasingly manageable. The hurt became less terrible and the alienation began to sort itself out. I found atmospheres less alien and breathed freer.

A few months later my lungs were tested and weirdly, inexplicably, I no longer have signs of COPD. My lungs apparently work again at full capacity. As for my neck, I hardly noticed the progression, but I have not felt that pain in a very long time.

“Going postal” became part of our culture’s vernacular after several instances of US postal workers killing coworkers in fits of rage. From Wikipedia we have:

It derives from a series of incidents from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public. Between 1986 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage. The phrase has been applied to murders committed by employees in acts of workplace rage, irrespective of the employer. It’s generally used to describe fits of rage, though not necessarily at the level of murder, in or outside the workplace.

So when a workers compensation claimant took people hostage this week at the local Workers Compensation Board in Edmonton it was a bit like going postal, although he wasn’t an employee. There is mixed information on Patrick Clayton’s background and it seems he was using drugs on top of it all, but we don’t know if he ended up doing drugs because of how Workers Comp treated him or if he had a pre-existing drug problem before his injury.

Clayton might not be the best example of the frustration people feel at workers compensations boards across the country, but he is in the spotlight because of it regardless. It’s interesting that Alberta’s premier’s first concern was looking at security in government buildings and not looking at what in WCB’s policiies drives people to such desperation.

I’ve outlined my own earlier interaction with WCB in another post. But let’s say there are many many people who have felt frustration, fear and hopelessness as they have been denied their claims or cut off prematurely. I wonder what the statistics are of people who have killed themselves over claim denials or people who continue their lives in pain because of such limitations through WCB.

Some people will claim that for every one legitimate claimant there are ten faked claims (some of the many many comments on CBC’s news article listed below), when it is more like the other way around. I’ve had a nephew whose truck was hit by a train when the truck stalled on the tracks. The truck’s maintenance was the responsibility of the company my nephew worked for and they had ignored the problem. However WCB cut my nephew off after a month or so, even though his shoulder was still screwed up.

This is a common statement for people with claims. If they are not outright denied, their claims are often cut very short. WCB seems to think that all people should heal at the same rate. Every knee injury or back injury is exactly the same as the one before and therefore a person should be back to work in X weeks. When that person responds slower than this ideal list, WCB says goodbye. They pretty much make claimants feel ike cheaters, liars and fakers, and it’s guilty until proven innocent.

As I mentioned previously WCB in BC is called WorkSafe BC and I can’t help but believe the name change is partly because they realized they weren’t compensating workers. Sure there are some claimants who try to get a free ride, and sure there are claimants whose compensation is approved. The first time I had to claim was for a repetitive stress injury to my hands. WCB paid for the physio but again when I wasn’t better within the allotted time it was sorry, no more help. I had to work around the injury and lost a job opportunity because of it.

Any doctor worth their salt could tell you that physiology from one person to the next may be similar but there are numerous factor that can contribute to rehabilitation and healing and much of it not in the patient’s control. There are genetic predispositions, underlying conditions and the vast mystery of how the body works. People don’t respond the same or at the same rate. Would that we could, then it would be cut and dried in fixing people. Everyone into physio and out healed and whole in six weeks.

People lose their livelihoods, their way of life and their physical and mental health when cut off by WCB. They’re often not given anyway to adapt, no explanation other than you should be better and the attitude, whether meant that way or not, comes across as cold and uncaring. My own case had someone taking notes for the vacation case worker talk to me but the actual case worker never actually every talked to me, and just sent a letter of denial. How can a person feel other than ignored and dismissed summarily.

Taking innocent people hostage was not right at all, and could have easily been me or friends or family. But if nothing else, maybe this will bring light to the fact that WCB practices are not seen as fair or just from many people. WorkSafe BC probably did the right thing in changing their name and I think that WCBs across the country should evaluate their mandate. If they’re not their to help the worker then they need to let people know that and change the name.

 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/10/22/edmonton-charges-hostage-incident.html#socialcomments

Bonkers!! Square Kaput burger badges

There are probably many people reading this who know someone or have themselves experienced a workplace injury and WCB’s attitude toward compensating the worker. In fact, the Workers Compensation Board changed their name to WorkSafe BC, to reflect the greater scope of their reach and because they’re known for not compensating workers, or cutting compensation off arbitrarily.

This could all be hearsay but I do have direct experience. I have had to file twice in my life. The first time was for a repetitive stress injury to the soft tissue of my hand (my fingers and hand swelled) due to writing so much in quintuplicate for the movie industry (with one period that consisted of about 30 hours straight). In this first case, WCB did cover treatments but only until they thought I should be better. A known fact about the human body is that people heal at different rates and many other factors come into play. So I had to somehow manage to get better, without affording the therapy while still working.

The second time was perhaps harder to pinpoint but indicates the arbitrary decision making of case workers. I was working inside underneath three air conditioner vents. I have a couple of conditions, the major one being chronic myofascial pain syndrome (MFS). It is similar to fibromyalgia but more treatable. I can be fine for a long time and then experience a relapse brought on by certain conditions. Then I will proceed into a chronic pain cycle, which can take years to get hrough. I can function but am often in pain all the time.

Myofascial pain can be triggered by various events, some of which are: stress, cold, injury. This means, at the onset a person can try to work through the pain with exercise, which can backfire, causing more trigger point cascades. A trigger point is an area on the body that when pressed refers pain to other areas. People with myofascial pain and fibromyalgia have specific spots on their bodies which will be major trigger points. Each person may not demonstrate pain in all of them but may in most of them. A trigger point is often a hard knot. I’m not a medical expert but from what I’ve read it involves muscle tissue and fascia (the thin membrane that covers muscles [like you see on chicken]). A trigger point cascade can occur where one trigger point starts a progression of spasms and knotting that create other trigger points.

At my worst, I was trying to work out and increased the problem unknowingly. I had trigger point cascades down my arms and back, to the point where I could barely hold a fork or chew. That was an extreme episode that I don’t wish to visit again. Overall, my muscles will spasm and knot up and will forget how to release. I had ten years of chronic pain before the combination of the right muscle relaxant (many painkillers and analgesics don’t always work on this type of pain), a massage therapist who understood how to work with trigger points, and about four months of very warm weather which took me out of the chronic stage.

As I’ve mentioned, stress, injury or cold can trigger myofascial pain. Other conditions can be associated with it, such as Reynaud’s syndrome. Reynaud’s is also called red, white and blue because it will be brought on by cold and the vessels in the extremities (fingers and toes) will constrict, causing the limbs to go from red to white to blue as the blood flow is suppressed. People with this condition will experience sharp, knifelike pain and numbness. I have found, when I experience Reynauds, that the only way to bring circulation back to the extremities is to bring up my core temperature.

I have given these two examples here to wind back to workers compensation. The three air conditioner vents that I was sitting under blew a lot of cold air onto my back. I’m more susceptible to cold, but was the only person in my area who was under three vents (no one was under more than one). Because the muscles tightened up, when I moved suddenly, sitting at my desk, I threw out my back. I was a contract worker so I couldn’t really take time off but I filed a claim. I went to the chiropractor a couple of times but couldn’t afford more than that.

Recognizing that this could be another chronic pain onset, I wanted WCB to cover therapy for a couple of weeks. In all, if I had had treatment right away I could have put off the chronic pain. It would have taken probably a month at most, consisting of chiropractic to adjust my back, and massage to keep the muscles from tightening up and pulling my back out again (believe me, I live with this often, muscles pulling my ribs out while I sleep).

My case worker was on holidays so I talked to someone else first. When the case worker came back, he didn’t even talk to me but denied the claim straight out. I wrote back citing the specialist that had originally diagnosed me. I was willing to be examined, get letters from the specialists about the condition and other documentation if needed. I said that the cold of the air conditioning was the problem and the case worker wrote back and said that cold never hurt anyone. Never. Cold.

I wonder what those people feel who suffer frostbite and hypothermia and die of exposure? One of the best ways to get through myofascial pain is to apply heat, along with therapy. This case worker didn’t consult any medical expert but made his own uninformed arbitrary decision. I would have had to go to a new level to fight this, to get the therapy that was now some time from the onset of the injury. And what else causes myofascial pain? Stress. Having already taken ICBC (our provincial car insurance company) to small claims court for not covering the therapy costs of the injury that originally began my relationship with myofascial pain, I knew how stressful that process was (I won, BTW). I didn’t do it and have spent several years getting out of another bout of chronic pain. And of course all the subsequent visits to my doctor for muscle relaxants (trying to find some that work), the few visits to the therapists, and days I take off work when the pain is too much, or for doctor appointments puts more strain on our health care and system. In the long run, it costs way more than what the initial treatments would have been.

This is just one example of how workers compensation is a fallacy. I have heard far worse stories. And I have only touched the tip of the iceberg on what myofascial pain is all about. It is a more accepted condition these days, very hard to diagnose and many doctors pooh pooh it still.  Wikipedia has a very short entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myofascial_pain_syndrome  And should you have a workplace injury that brings on this condition, you can expect workers compensation to not compensate, to not help you get better, and like many other injured workers, leave you out in the cold.

oh, klau|s|ens, gestern klagst du über die kälte des kapitals – und heute erklärst du das resultat zur kunst.

ja, so widersprüchlich ist die welt – gestern ging es um die fällarbeiten für den boulevard für das WCCB bonn, dessen finanzierung gar nicht gesichert ist oder scheint oder so.

und heute?

heute geht es um die bäume, die sie nicht abgehackt haben. (die übriggebliebenen!)

wieviele bäume haben sie denn abgehackt?

ich las von 22 bis über 40, je nachdem, welche quellen man zu rate zieht.

aha!

es gibt einen norbert volpert von stattreisen, der hat wohl alle abgehackten bäume gezählt, und ist auf eine deutlich höhere zahl gekommen, als die stadt offiziell bekanntgab.

aber es sind doch nur bäume.

eben: und so widersprüchlich ist die welt.

wieso?

dieselbe stadt, die bäume abhacken lässt, lässt sie wiederum schützen.

als was?

als bäume, als erhaltenswerte.

und nun?

nun haben wir den holzbretterkranz als installation des schutzes. und es ist ja ästhetisch überaus faszinierend.

das habe ich schon bei 1000 baustellen gesehen.

ja, aber noch nie so schön, wie hier – und das nur unweit vom KUNSTMUSEUM BONN und der BUNDESKUNSTHALLE.

die bäume sind also eine installation?

vielleicht – dieselbe stadt, die bäume fällt, will sich nun als kunst-offen und kunstfortschrittlich wieder pluspunkte holen.

das scheint doch zu klappen.

wieso?

weil du dich an der ästhetik des objektes nun berauschst.

ich bin eben ein vielfältiger mensch – übrigens: dieselbe stadt bonn, die nicht genug von umweltinstanzen und naturbehörden bis hin zur fledermausschutzkonventionsgruppe der UN hier angesiedelt hat und weiter ansiedeln will, fällt bäume, für ein bauprojekt, welches selber auf sehr ungewissen füßen steht.

ja, ja, aber wen interessiert es?

wieso?

jeden tag passieren verbrechen gegen das gemeine volk. aber niemand interessiert sich dafür. das kapital und die politik dürfen weitermachen.

und?

aber die “kunstwerke” des verschalten baumes, die wiederum werden dann von lächerlingen wie KLAU|S|ENS = ZWEITKLAUSENS euphorisch gefeiert.

du meinst, künstler und politik und kapital ist alles eine soße, am ende?

ja, denn den beweis haben wir doch mit unserem eigenen blogeintrag geliefert. anstatt zu protestieren, lassen wir uns von der idee der “tollen” kunst in dem bezug zum verlust des baumes wieder besänftigen.

aber ich sehe die eingeschalten bäume als mahnmale für die gefällten. ich deute alles ganz anders. (und auch der untergang der welt wird sie alle noch zu guter letzt für ihre sünden strafen! alle!)

ORIGINALVERSION mit Fettdruck und allen Bildern
und allen Links bei KLAUSENS BLOGG (mit 2 G !!!)
KLAU|S|ENS – LOG – W E L T L I N G
http://klausens.blogg.de

HOMEPAGE VON KLAU|S|ENS: http://www.klausens.com

If you happen to be in Berlin now till May 3rd, be sure to stop by the Strychnin Gallery and view some of our work along with a handful of other heavy hitters.

Bombs Away! is a graffiti show curated by Yasha Young and American graffiti artist CON at Berlin’s Strychnin Gallery, featuring some of the most prominent US graffiti writers today, including “The Godfather of Graffiti” himself, Richard Mirando – better known as SEEN. Having started his career in New York City in 1973, SEEN is considered one of the most famous old school NYC “graf” writers. His work has been shown alongside such artists as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, or Jean-Michael Basquiat. SEEN continues working today and has, among other things, recently produced work with and alongside famous British street artist Banksy. CAN2, member of the famous UA crew, is bringing his distinctive style of shading and characters into the mix.
True to the Strychnin concept, Yasha Young is hoping to bridge the gap between the underground and the traditional art world with this exhibition. Featuring works on canvas as well as spray-painted model trains of various sizes, Bombs Away! brings works by over 20 internationally acclaimed graffiti writers to Strychnin Gallery Berlin.

Zeonel’s Journey

Hey guys…

Guess what I saw today in Erinn… A white composite bow!

It’s amazing when I thought it was just a myth that it existed :p

I’m guessing this one is the only one in the whole NA servers.

Pic:

To the owner of WCB, thank you for letting me post this up =3

and another pic.

White Composite Bow (WCB)

now I’ve seen it all =3 lol

Zeonel

O NoReset está presente no World Cyber Games Brasil. O maior campeonato de e-sports do mundo. O time NoReset vai participar do torneiro PES 2009, do Xbox 360, mesmo ganhando ou perdendo, você vai conferir aqui todas as informações deste evento que ao mesmo tempo está organizando o primeiro torneio WCG entre blogueiros de games. O grande vencedor ganha uma vaga e viagem para Alemanha com tudo pago.

O WGC aconteceu no último sábado (13) e domingo (14) na Unicsul  Anália Franco, que fica na avenida Regente Feijó, 1295.

NoReset dá WO no WCG

Pois é quando eu e o Gustavo soubemos que fomos chamados para participoar do primeiro torneio de blogueiros dentro da WCG, ficamos satisfeitos e contentes pois graças a vocês que “nos aguentam” o NoReset é bem recebido no mundo online. E a nós agradecemos a Milena Wiek, do Menina que Joga, e muito legal, que foi uma das pessoas que reconheceram a nossa capacidade de ser um blog bacana de games e é claro a organização da One DIgital, liderada pela Tayra Vasconcelos, que é super gente fina, por nos ter convidado para este desafio e por ter compreendido a nossa ausência.

Bom o principal motivo do WO foi falta de logística do próprio blog. Eu e o Gustavo estavamos com os horários enrolados e infelizmente não conseguimos mandar nenhum representante.

Veja abaixo os participantes do 1º campeonato de blogueiros do WCG:

1 -      Sound Test – Maurício Mosquito
2 -      Meio Bit Games – Dori Medeiros
3 -      Jovem Nerd – Bruno Yudi
4 -      Gamer.br – Pablo Miyazawa
5 -     Benzaiten – Bruno Brambilla
6 -      Freeko – Renato Bueno
7 -      Game Girl – Renata Honorato
8 -      Game Reporter – David Lemes
9 -      Hadouken – Cláudio Prandoni
10 -   Judão –  Kim Paiva
11 -   Melhores do Mundo – Júlio César Soares
12 -   Go Luck – Lucas Patrício
13 -   Menina que Joga – Milena Wiek
14 -   Save Game – Carlos Merigo
15 -   Tupinihon – André Kishimoto
16 -   Continue – Fábio Bratch
17 -   Não tão Gamer – Thiago “Borbs” Borbolla
18 -   Puro Pop – Fernando Froio
19 -   Banana Games – Wanderley Scarpignato
20 –   Eu Podo – Octávio Maron
21 -   Game Blog – Fernando Sálvio
22 -  NoReset – Cido Coelho >>> WO
23 -   Bloda – Edoardo “Doda” Vilela
24 -   Gurave Haato desu kA? – Paulo Alkmin
25 -   Oito Bits – Vinícius de Figueiredo
26 -   Hardgamer – André Forte
27 -   Thements – Thiago “Bigods” Vilella
28 -   MMO – Daniel Berton
29 -   Cegos Surdos e Loucos – Eric Franco
30 -   Blog do Morróida – Fábio Rodrigues
31 -   Enloucrescendo – Ian Black
32 -   Anonymous – Lucas de Camillo

Esperamos que em 2009 o NoReset participe de fato da World Cyber Games e continue com a gente, logo vamos trazer mais novidades sobre o primeiro campeonato de blogueiros da WCG no Brasil

I saw my WCB post was too long, so I decide to make another, you can Still posting here

[Pleez visit the Ginger of the day: Stellaluna's Twin!]

Let’s begin!

1. Stellaluna (me) is being wicked, as usual, but this time with Stifler :[
2. Rosa is in a heatwave, ufff!
3. The Hotties posted somefing byootiful about some SPCA kitties
4. Things are looking good at icanhaspnutbutr??
5. Samantha and Mr Tigger are playing outside
6. Sebastian at FurryPaws loves Greenies (who doesn’t?)
7. Mog is tasting the Temptations!
8. Wow, Luna likes to scratch!

Remenber WCB is here this weekend!

Pleez comment in this post, thank you!

Note: click on “read the rest of this entry”

firrst I taste it

TASTING, TASTING! 123

Then we go fur a ride

Stifler: Me no wanna go ridez!

Now me want to ride a ginger!

Oh, we make a video Stifler riding a ginger! We’ll upload it to YT and then we show it to you!

Vote fur Stella, Sprinkles and Stifler

Looky, we’re in the frrst rankingz!

I’ll update for you the ranking every hour or two so you can see! (ratings are the averages of all photos)

Last time updated: 9:43am GMT -06:00

Sprinkles’ Current rating: 4 (ranking  3!, 104, 120) (Spanish ranking: 115)

Stella’s Current Rating: 3.80 – 4 (ranking  16, 67) (Spanish Ranking: 106, 108)

If you have a United cats account, you can vote fur us, go to My user’s profile and choose “Stellaluna or Sprinkles”, go to the pictures and choose that one that you like, the click on “Excellent”, remember you just can vote once each photo, but you can still voting other cats. When you vote, pleez let me know

-Stella

Ohmygod… what a morning.

 If I didn’t think I was a little anal about my daily am routine before, today confirmed it. I cannot function without technology.  After a power outage thwarted all of yesterdays work,  I woke up even earlier today to make up for it. However, after getting my coffee, breakfast etc ready, I sat down at my home office station only to discover the internet was out – again. Ok, I thought, I can handle this. I’ll watch the early news while I call it in. I turn on the TV – no cable. Really pissed now, I grab the phone to call Shaw, my wonderful cable/internet/phone provider, and – you guessed it- no dial tone. *!@^&!*  I grabbed a swig of my coffee, which by now was tepid. *$%%$&$!    I get the cell, call Shaw, where of course I am on hold forever, and after I finally get the most helpful clerk on the line (really, he was, considering he had an irate, 9 month pregnant woman on his hands !), I discover that whomever the worker was performing routine maintenance in my area this morning, he failed to either complete the job, or test the system upon completion.

So here I finally am, 4 hours later, sitting in my desk chair, working away, and  happy as a clam in sand.  It better not happen again.

-First up on our weekly hump day trip around the web, is the story of Port Coquitlam Mayor Scott Young, who is spending his hump day in the courthouse, where he is facing seven charges including assault, break and enter, and criminal harassment. ****** UPDATE******** Mayor Scott Young has now plead guilty to two counts of assault and one count of breaching conditions, in the incident at his ex-girlfriends home last year.  Crown has stayed the proceedings on the remaining 4 charges. Sentencing will occur at a later date. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/21/bc-mayor-scott-young-court.html

  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/21/bc-mayor-scott-young-court.html

Mayor Young made several headlines and was the subject of heated debate and criticism following an alleged break and enter and assault at the home of his ex-girlfriend last year. An admission of  alcoholism was pegged as the source of his evil ways, and he refused to step down from office, playing the  good ole’ “Woe is me, I have done wrong” card. Yes, apparently we should all feel sorry for the tragedies within his life that led to the unacceptable behavior surrounding the allegations.  This is where I stand on this issue. We are all human, and  certainly we all make mistakes. That being said, when someone in a position of trust, who holds that position as a result of being elected on his reputation and beliefs etc., allegedly commits and is consequently charged with a crime such as assault and break and enter, that previously represented reputation is no longer enough to continue to hold office. Scott Young should have stepped down or been removed, until the outcome of the trial has been reached. Why are we so forgiving? The actions within the personal life of a politician certainly do play into his/her ability to hold public office, and considering the provinces role and stance against domestic violence- and this is domestic violence – Scott Young should have shown some class and removed himself.His judgement is questionable. Can anyone spell arrogant?

-Gasp! Criminals have been money-laundering at BC casinos? Nooooo !! Gangsters and drug dealers have been filtering dirty money through local casino’s for years? How scandalous!!!  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/20/bc-money-laundering-casinos.html

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/21/bc-loan-sharks-casinos.html

NOT!!! Since when has illicit activity not been going on in casino’s? Hello??!!! Casino’s have always been a hotbed for a variety of criminal behaviors, including loan-sharking, drugs, prostitution, as well as the reported money laundering. And the fact that the provincial government has known about it for years and turned a blind eye, is par the course. What does anyone expect them to do, shut it down and consequently turn away all the revenue they depend on ? Turn off the massive cash flow that filters down to all the municipalities and charities that depend on the cheques and grants administered by the gaming commission? NAh, of course not.  Its business as usual for the BC liberals. You want to know whats going to be done about all this ’sanctioned’ criminal activity thats going on?  To use BC Gaming Head, Derek Sturko’s words, “Generally speaking “,  how about a BIG FAT NOTHING !!

 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/22/bc-premier-casino-money-laundering.html

They’ll hem and haw, and wait for the story to die down, and back to business  – chop ,chop. Good grief, how about some real news?

- Quote heard in the taser inquiry from Dr. Charles Kerr: “There should be a realization that the potential for sudden death does exist.”

Sure there is. In the words of WCB and RCMP, who are not allowed to taser themselves in testing any longer, one could potentially fall down and bang ones head, sustaining injury.Ha !……I think there might be a little more to it than that, don’t you?  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/20/bc-taser-inquiry.html

-And simply because I’m an avid gardener who loathes wearing gloves while doing so - I love to feel the soil- here is a warning for others like myself. The Sun is running an item to warn gardeners to wear gloves and get their 10 year tetanus booster if you haven’t in the last ten years. 3 deaths have been reported from tetanus on Vancouver island, and a non-fatal case in the Valley, which is surprising in this day and age. The bacterium that causes tetanus can be found in soil and manure,and should you scratch or cut yourself without adequate immunization, you could be at risk. Tetanus shots, unfortunately, seem to be one of those things we often forget about until we actually sustain an injury such as stepping on a rusty nail, but the reality is that you can die from an injury that is much more minor than than. Now,do yourself a favor and  go check how long its been since your last  shot.  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=9d1f582d-1768-4db2-82f6-89259f19d319  

- And here’s a link you need to check out. Here’s a fellow who is actually doing something about crime, rather than just complaining about the cops inability to catch thieves. He has started a website called www.crooktube.com, where anyone who has been a victim of crime, has a police file and video of the suspect or crime being committed, can upload the video for others to see. The hope is that someone will recognize these suspects and call it in. Word is, however, that police and Crime-stoppers aren’t too happy with the site, but it’s a free world after all….and it certainly cant hurt.

Ciao people, hope you enjoyed the post today!

New addition to the office walls courtesy of our friend MYTH