I still remember the first time I drove for the Marion Area Transit; in fact, it was just ten years ago, November 24. Driving a passenger bus required a clean driving record and that I upgrade my license to a class C commercial driver's license. Because of this I had to take test that showed my understanding of maneuverability, driving safety and transporting passengers. The first bus that I drove could handle about twelve people, but now I drive one that can transport twice that number. There have been many challenges in driving such as learning the names of the streets, avoiding accidents, and learning to provide good customer service while driving. Yet the rewards have been many; I have made friends, cooed over babies and had lots of fun. When I recall how frightened I was when first approached about driving a transit bus, I’m still glad I made the change. Replace the subject line and body with your first blog post and hit send! Include pictures, an mp3, or anything else you want to share. It |
Sunday, November 23, 2008
In Honor of When I First Learned To Drive a Transit Bus Ten Years Ago
Sunday, October 12, 2008
My First Third Day Concert
My recent purchase on e-bay was this poster which dates back to my first Third Day concert. The show took place in Dayton, Ohio on March 17, 2001. The concert also featured Kendal Payne and Lincoln Brewster. I was hooked! My Sunday school class got together to go to the show. I remember that we did not plan well and got there just as the show was getting ready to start and the place was packed! Because of that we ended up sitting in the balcony, which didn’t allow us to see well. Didn’t really manner that we had to move around to even be able to see the stage, the music was amazing. They played one of my favorite songs, “Your Love Oh Lord” which I still listen for when I go to a concert. I had only been a Christian for a very short time and things such as this strengthened my daily walk. This was my second Christian concert the first had been just months before when we got to see Newsboys with Sonicflood and Bean Bag. I am so glad to say that these may have been the first two of many shows that I have been fortunate enough to attend over the years. The first concert my husband and saw together was Third Day when we traveled to see them at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, on Thursday November 18, 2004. He is just as hooked now as I am. On November 8, we will be going to see Third Day once again in what will be my seventeenth show in Cincinnati, Ohio. |
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Fireproof
| Greg and I went to see this movie this evening and I most recommend it to everyone. The theater was packed full of people who applauded at the end of the move. It was nice to see a movie that dealt with the world from a Christian prospective with humor and honesty. My only problem with the movie was that at times I felt that it was a little heavy handed on the preaching. At times the acting is a bit on the stiff side but at the end of the movie you are cheering for the couple. Greg and I left holding hands having enjoyed the movie and of course the music. There are two songs from our favorite band Third Day featured in the movie. |
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Summer Reading Club
These are the books that I have completed for the Summer Book Club:
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale
Stiff By Mary Roach
Time Travel In Einstein's Universe By J. Richard Gott
The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
Sex God By Rob Bell
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
Phantasted George MacDonald
Blue Shoe by Annie Lamott
The Shack by William P. Young
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale
Stiff By Mary Roach
Time Travel In Einstein's Universe By J. Richard Gott
The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
Sex God By Rob Bell
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
Phantasted George MacDonald
Blue Shoe by Annie Lamott
The Shack by William P. Young
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
When We Were Romans Matthew Kneale
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale.
This is the story of 9 year old Lawrence, his sister Jemima and their mother Hannah. The story is told from the perspective Lawrence, which at times gives the story an odd twist. At that age his is totally unaware of anything outside of the view of life other then the truth that his holds as his mother. His sister is difficult and self involved but it is his relationship with his mother that guides his life. When Hannah becomes convinced that her ex-husband and father of the children is stalking them. She decides that they should travel to Rome to get away from him. So they leave London behind to begin their adventure. Once they are in Rome they survive off the good will for friends that his Mother had known in her younger year. It is during a visit with an old friend in Rome that we the reader are first lead to question her story. Lawrence’s only concern is of toy soldiers, tin tins and the safety of his hamster. Then his mothers fears start to shape his world, there is sightings of his father’s yellow car and poisoned food. Soon the fears of Hannah become those of Lawrence as he struggles to make his mother happy even when they travel back to Scotland to end the problem with his father. Till in the end when he faces his own struggles with his mothers mental illness. In the end the ability of the young to heal allows Larry to return to the childhood that going to Rome stole from him. It is difficult for a while but in the end he is once again the child that he was meant to be. There are times that the story drags on a bit as it works to maintain the voice of Lawrence in the story. There are also many misspellings in the novel which may just be a reflection of the age of the protagonist. The story does make you aware of the influence of the parent on the child good and bad.
This is the story of 9 year old Lawrence, his sister Jemima and their mother Hannah. The story is told from the perspective Lawrence, which at times gives the story an odd twist. At that age his is totally unaware of anything outside of the view of life other then the truth that his holds as his mother. His sister is difficult and self involved but it is his relationship with his mother that guides his life. When Hannah becomes convinced that her ex-husband and father of the children is stalking them. She decides that they should travel to Rome to get away from him. So they leave London behind to begin their adventure. Once they are in Rome they survive off the good will for friends that his Mother had known in her younger year. It is during a visit with an old friend in Rome that we the reader are first lead to question her story. Lawrence’s only concern is of toy soldiers, tin tins and the safety of his hamster. Then his mothers fears start to shape his world, there is sightings of his father’s yellow car and poisoned food. Soon the fears of Hannah become those of Lawrence as he struggles to make his mother happy even when they travel back to Scotland to end the problem with his father. Till in the end when he faces his own struggles with his mothers mental illness. In the end the ability of the young to heal allows Larry to return to the childhood that going to Rome stole from him. It is difficult for a while but in the end he is once again the child that he was meant to be. There are times that the story drags on a bit as it works to maintain the voice of Lawrence in the story. There are also many misspellings in the novel which may just be a reflection of the age of the protagonist. The story does make you aware of the influence of the parent on the child good and bad.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Stiff By Mary Roach
Stiff
The Curious Lives Of Cadavers
Mary Roach
There have been points in the reading of this book that I thought about putting it down and never picking it up again. Not because it is a bad book but the subject manner at times is just too much. Stiff is a very well written book, one that handles its subject manner with compassion. I chose to read this book because my husband and I were talking about what was to be done when we no longer needed these bodies and what our final arrangement should be. Surgery has a way of making you think that way when one of you already has some very serious health issues.
Donated cadavers allow surgeons to “practice” before they use a procedure on a live patient. Not many medical students are given the chance to work on donated cadavers. Instead they are taught technique by watching and then at some point given the chance to operate under the supervision of an experienced surgeon. Donating your body for research is a fairly new concept. In the 1700 and 1800’s the threat of dissection was used in some areas as a deterrent, if you stole a pig you were hung but if you killed a man you were hung and then dissected. In Paris the unclaimed poor could be used for dissection. And in some cases it was known that family members were taken for dissection before being brought to the churchyard for burial. This lack of donations leads to early surgeons turning to grave robbers for the cadavers that they needed for research. There was money to be made by robbing graves.
There are many areas of research in which cadavers are and can be used to make life better for those left behind. One of those is in the study of human decay which helps the police to better understand crime scenes. Cadavers are also used in tests to see what the human tolerance limits are in vehicle collisions. This is the best way to see how the body reacts to injury. This type of study also takes place in the study of victims in airplane crashes. The types of injury tell what happened at the moment of the crash. Often in ways that the black box in the airplane may not be able to show. The use of cadavers takes place to help researchers understand how bullets and bombs work. How to protect someone from more serious injury because of the battles fought in war. There is also the donation of organs that are used to help the living. This may be the ultimate choice because it is done while the organs still work but the brain no longer functions.
The use of cadavers also is used in the research for alternatives to burial and cremations which are being studied around the world. One of these is known as a mortuary tissue digester which in a few hours would dissolve the tissues of a corpse and reduce it to 2 or 3% of its body weight. This only leaves behind a pile of decollagenated bones that can be crumbled. Everything else has been turned into a sterile brown liquid but some may have trouble with the issue that the main ingredient in the procedure is lye. There is also the process of Freeze-drying by using liquid nitrogen but the body would need to broken down into small pieces and would take about a year. There is also the idea of composting human beings as an option for third world countries such as Haiti, parts of rural China. Where burial is often expensive and bodies are often cremated in mass. Most of these ideas have been passed over for differing reasons. Most often the cause is that people cannot deal with the loss of someone in these unusual ways.
How has this book affected me? Tried talking with hubby about some of this but the discussion was too much for him. At times this book was an informative read but very difficult, only for the strong at heart or the oddly curious. I think that I am now going to go read a nice novel, something light and easy on the brain.
Donated cadavers allow surgeons to “practice” before they use a procedure on a live patient. Not many medical students are given the chance to work on donated cadavers. Instead they are taught technique by watching and then at some point given the chance to operate under the supervision of an experienced surgeon. Donating your body for research is a fairly new concept. In the 1700 and 1800’s the threat of dissection was used in some areas as a deterrent, if you stole a pig you were hung but if you killed a man you were hung and then dissected. In Paris the unclaimed poor could be used for dissection. And in some cases it was known that family members were taken for dissection before being brought to the churchyard for burial. This lack of donations leads to early surgeons turning to grave robbers for the cadavers that they needed for research. There was money to be made by robbing graves.
There are many areas of research in which cadavers are and can be used to make life better for those left behind. One of those is in the study of human decay which helps the police to better understand crime scenes. Cadavers are also used in tests to see what the human tolerance limits are in vehicle collisions. This is the best way to see how the body reacts to injury. This type of study also takes place in the study of victims in airplane crashes. The types of injury tell what happened at the moment of the crash. Often in ways that the black box in the airplane may not be able to show. The use of cadavers takes place to help researchers understand how bullets and bombs work. How to protect someone from more serious injury because of the battles fought in war. There is also the donation of organs that are used to help the living. This may be the ultimate choice because it is done while the organs still work but the brain no longer functions.
The use of cadavers also is used in the research for alternatives to burial and cremations which are being studied around the world. One of these is known as a mortuary tissue digester which in a few hours would dissolve the tissues of a corpse and reduce it to 2 or 3% of its body weight. This only leaves behind a pile of decollagenated bones that can be crumbled. Everything else has been turned into a sterile brown liquid but some may have trouble with the issue that the main ingredient in the procedure is lye. There is also the process of Freeze-drying by using liquid nitrogen but the body would need to broken down into small pieces and would take about a year. There is also the idea of composting human beings as an option for third world countries such as Haiti, parts of rural China. Where burial is often expensive and bodies are often cremated in mass. Most of these ideas have been passed over for differing reasons. Most often the cause is that people cannot deal with the loss of someone in these unusual ways.
How has this book affected me? Tried talking with hubby about some of this but the discussion was too much for him. At times this book was an informative read but very difficult, only for the strong at heart or the oddly curious. I think that I am now going to go read a nice novel, something light and easy on the brain.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Time Travel In Einstein's Universe By J. Richard Gott
Time Travel In Einstein’s Universe
The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time
The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time
J. Richard Gott
One day going through the book store I came across this interesting book. The title caught my eye because I have always wondered about time travel. I must admit it was more from the philosophical then the scientific. This book delves into the ideas of physics by use of pop culture with discussions of Star Trek, and the movies Back To The Future and of course H.G. Wells The Time Machine. At times this book was a delight to read as well as difficult for the non scientific person such as myself. The talk of cosmic strings, curved space time and worm holes along with Einstein, special relativity and curved space has lost me on more then one occasion
There are discussions of the possibilities of time travel to the future. An example that he uses is one of Einstein theories, in which you would get on a space ship. Go to a star about 500 light years away and then return traveling both ways at 99.95% of the speed of light. Upon return earth will be 1,000 years older but you will only be 10 years old. Such speed has been shown to be possible with the use of particle accelerators. We can be fairly certain that time travel from the near future still is just a theory because of the fact as Steven Hawking has noted we are not being run over by tourist from the future. They would only be able to travel back to the point where the machine had been invented
Several theories are presented as to the probability of time travel to the past through the use of Cosmic String Loops and Black Holes. There is also the chance that you might be able to take advantage of a Wormhole. Warpdrive, which is the altering of space to travel among stars at speeds faster then the speed of light as seen on Star Trek. This theory has been shown to work by Miguel Alcubierre by the use of general relativity.
At this point all that has been presented in the book is for the most part is nothing more then theory. As they work to push physics to the extreme never taking for granted that the imposable may not be possible.
One day going through the book store I came across this interesting book. The title caught my eye because I have always wondered about time travel. I must admit it was more from the philosophical then the scientific. This book delves into the ideas of physics by use of pop culture with discussions of Star Trek, and the movies Back To The Future and of course H.G. Wells The Time Machine. At times this book was a delight to read as well as difficult for the non scientific person such as myself. The talk of cosmic strings, curved space time and worm holes along with Einstein, special relativity and curved space has lost me on more then one occasion
There are discussions of the possibilities of time travel to the future. An example that he uses is one of Einstein theories, in which you would get on a space ship. Go to a star about 500 light years away and then return traveling both ways at 99.95% of the speed of light. Upon return earth will be 1,000 years older but you will only be 10 years old. Such speed has been shown to be possible with the use of particle accelerators. We can be fairly certain that time travel from the near future still is just a theory because of the fact as Steven Hawking has noted we are not being run over by tourist from the future. They would only be able to travel back to the point where the machine had been invented
Several theories are presented as to the probability of time travel to the past through the use of Cosmic String Loops and Black Holes. There is also the chance that you might be able to take advantage of a Wormhole. Warpdrive, which is the altering of space to travel among stars at speeds faster then the speed of light as seen on Star Trek. This theory has been shown to work by Miguel Alcubierre by the use of general relativity.
At this point all that has been presented in the book is for the most part is nothing more then theory. As they work to push physics to the extreme never taking for granted that the imposable may not be possible.
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