some last minute study

On occasion, when I attempt to explain things to another, it sometimes helps me learn as well. There are on average 20-30 points on each meridian pictured below that one is required to know in order to pass the licensure exam in NY state for massage. The particular meridians I'm "studying" this week are stomach and spleen which are governed by the Earth element. There are 45 points on the stomach meridian, it is Yang and starts under the eye and ends on the 2 toe. Yang meridians flow downward. The spleen meridian is Yin and starts on the first toe and ends on the torso, flowing upward. Earth associations: Productive, fertile, growth. The earth element relates to the stomach (yang) and the spleen (yin). The stomach begins the process of digestive breakdown, while the spleen transforms and transports the energy from food and drink throughout the body. Pensiveness is the emotion which creates imbalance within this element. And if your horse is feeling pensive or infertile: Sorry couldn't help it. But hey if he's running in the fourth... UPDATE: I got my Shu points(back) worked on tonight ( part of the bladder meridian) by a nice boy in class. That always makes the studies a little nicer.

There may be a solution to my current academic dilemma here. Libra Horoscope for week of December 1, 2005 "Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem," wrote psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. "That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all." I hope this observation is a sufficiently gentle preparation for your assignment, Libra. Are you ready to make the entire world your classroom, to expand your capacity to be taught, and to master a slew of new tricks? I hope so. To pull it off, you must be willing to let your ego die.

Some great memories live in these books, I read them to siblings and later to my daughter. Farewell to half of an incomparable duo. Stan Berenstain, who helped teach generations of children to read with the Berenstain Bears series of books he created with his wife, died Nov. 26 of complications from cancer at his home in Bucks County, Pa. He was 82. Beginning in 1962 with the first title in their series about a lovable family of bears, "The Big Honey Hunt," the Berenstains found a formula that drew millions of young readers and propelled their books into one of the most successful franchises in children's literature. In the past 43 years, the husband-and-wife team wrote and illustrated approximately 250 books about the bears. More than 260 million copies have been sold, and the Berenstain Bears have branched out into two television series, videos, stage musicals, toys, cereal and other products. Mr. Berenstain and his family managed the entire enterprise by themselves until 1997, when they hired an employee to run the computer. Pitched primarily toward children ages 4 to 8, the books introduced vocabulary and gentle moral lessons. The bear family originally consisted of a father, mother and one son, but over the years the den expanded with a girl cub. (Sister Bear, always wearing pink overalls, liked to play with her "Bearbie" doll.) The family lived in a cozy, five-story treehouse. Distinguished by relatively sophisticated plots and character development, the Berenstain books sometimes addressed such social issues as the environment, working mothers and drugs, but for the most part they were built around the events of everyday life: visiting the dentist, doing homework and cleaning a bedroom. Mr. Berenstain and his wife often produced 10 or more 32-page books a year, not all of which were met with glee. Some critics objected to the traditional, old-fashioned family structure, with a bumbling woodworker father and a stay-at-home mom who finds solutions to the problems her sweetly wayward cubs stumble into. Others claimed to see encoded political messages in Papa Bear's lethargy. "I hate the Berenstain Bears," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer fumed in 1989. "The raging offense of the Berenstains is the post-feminist Papa Bear, the Alan Alda of grizzlies, a wimp so passive and fumbling he makes Dagwood Bumstead look like Batman." In 1996, Mr. Berenstain told The Post: "We've gotten unkind letters complaining that we are emasculating the men in the family. The absolute truth is that Papa Bear is based on me." One of the Berenstains' early editors complained that the bear family's clothing, language and general mores were several decades out of date: "It's just not that way in the real world." "But that's the way it is in Bear Country," the Berenstains replied. Stanley Berenstain was born Sept. 29, 1923, in Philadelphia. He met his wife, Janice Grant, in 1941 on the first day of drawing class at the old Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. They often went to the zoo for drawing exercises, where they sometimes sketched bears. Mr. Berenstain served in a field artillery unit in World War II and, later in the war, became a medical illustrator. After their marriage in 1946, the Berenstains embarked on a joint career as cartoonists, eventually becoming regulars in the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and the Saturday Review. In 1956, they began a popular cartoon called "It's All in the Family," featuring seven captioned drawings on one page, which ran in McCall's and Good Housekeeping magazines. Their first book, called "The Berenstains' Baby Book" (1951), derived from their experiences raising their first son. After an editor suggested that they give children's books a try, they struck on the idea of a family of bears, but it took two years of tweaking before they could please their editor at Random House, Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. Geisel edited the first 17 books in the series, advising the Berenstains on drawing, character and rhyme. In the years since that initial effort, the Berenstains have never run out of topics for their bears, ranging from bad dreams and teasing to jealousy, fear of the dark and even the question of God. They launched spinoff books for children ages 9 to 12 and a series in which their cubs are detectives, or "Bear Scouts." Two subjects that never entered the child's dreamland of Bear Country were divorce and death. "We take what we do very seriously," Mr. Berenstain told The Post in 1996. "But we can't solve all the world's problems in 32 pages." Survivors include his wife of 59 years; two sons, writer Leo Berenstain and artist Michael Berenstain, who will continue the family enterprise with their mother; a sister; and four grandchildren.

A little whine with my Shiatsu

Egads. This is a project I need to have done within the next two weeks. I have to write a report about my "subject" and based on a series of questions and physical assessments (palpation of abdominal cavity) rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine I need to develop a 'hara' diagnosis and based on that and the answers to the questions develop a care plan of sorts to treat my subject. No APA format here, thankfully.Treatment consists primarily of working the "meridian" points of one of Five Elements of TCM that may be excessive or depleted . This is my second semester studying this and believe it or not, the NY State Boards for licensed Massage Therapist is heavy on this stuff. I respect the Eastern philosophy, but it's some pretty involved theory that I know for a fact 99.9% of people who become massage therapists never use. Why NY is so hot for aspiring massage therapists to know ancient Chinese medicine like this is beyond me. I think there is enough evidence in Western medicine to back up the benefits of massage. I have a nursing degree, I thought this field of study would be an enjoyable experience and I guess I just didn't realize what a... well, the word racket does come to mind . So here I am downing mega Thin Mints and blogging about it.

mail

My daughter got a nice letter back from Santa today after mailing one out oh, back in October. Another early start. I was wondering what became of it and was happy to see that Santa's Workshop has a North Pole Annex right here in Buffalo, NY 14240-9998 !

in memory of Quinn

If you'd like to donate for flowers or make a gift of food for the family of Quinn Sedinger who passed away yesterday, you may donate through Jen's site or e-mail her as she has kindly volunteered to handle the arrangements.

GoodSearch

Hat tip to Jen for this worthwhile site:

Neat thing for blogs

StumbleUpon is a newer extension for Mozilla browsers and is pretty handy with it's option for downloading and using photos on your blog. If you see a photo you like, click on it and it gives you a code to paste into a post on your blog. It doesn't re-size the way Picasa does but it's alot quicker and uses less space. StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.

The X incident

I didn't see the live speech and therefore didn't witness the 'X' that was on Cheney's face. I'm sick of Cheney and Bush and Rumsfeld and I don't think they are truthful in matters of national policy, especially these days. What some techie at CNN did was wrong though and can't be justified, no matter the numbers of Americans in disagreement with this administration is daily increasing. When a person is employed by a news agency or network, their responsibility is supposed to be to report the news and let us decide. So Drudge reports this weekend that a CNN operator got into a verbal argument with a caller and wound up getting fired. Have we heard an explanation other than "it was a technical malfunction" ? Is that like a wardrobe malfunction? A CNN switchboard operator was fired over the holiday -- after the operator claimed the 'X' placed over Vice President's Dick Cheney's face was "free speech!" "We did it just to make a point. Tell them to stop lying, Bush and Cheney," the CNN operator said to a caller. "Bring our soldiers home." The caller initially phoned the network to complain about the all-news channel flashing an "X' over Cheney as he gave an address live from Washington. "Was it not freedom of speech? Yes or No?" the CNN operator explained. "If you don't like it, don't watch." Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN, said in a release: "A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views -- behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her. "

It's almost up

Norad is almost ready for this year's SantaTrack and if you haven't had the pleasure- the site rocks, especially if you have little ones in your life. There is no better way to get their excited little selves into bed on Christmas Eve than being able to show them where Santa is on the radar screen. When he heads into Canada he's only a short hop away so you'd better be in bed asleep...

phenom

Red stains are seen running from the left eye of a statue of the Virgin Mary at the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005. According to Anthony Nguyen, a deacon at the Church, the stains first appeared more than a week ago, but they were wiped away. The stains reappeared a week later. Visitors have been flocking to the church to see what many call "a miracle."(AP Photo)

Fa la la la la I won't be there...

I've never been a Black Friday shopper. Aside from being dangerous it compounds the crass commercialism of the season, which isn't of itself a bad thing but I refuse to elbow and shove other people to grab stuff. This year is no different from others in WNY according to the Snooze.

I need to pull it together NOW

I can't blame the cold for the past day or two, because my carb craving pigginess has been going on since October. Thanksgiving is a week away which is the beginning of the annual month+ long binge but I'm already in trouble. Having 90 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to dispense (and sample) hasn't helped, neither does working close to a Tim Horton's. This is gonna be a major weight pile-on of a winter if I don't locate my self control. Attempting to find some normalizing ( justifying) words on the subject, I find this from a British website talking about SAD and food cravings- hey they ought to know- Q: There are times at the moment when I feel like a hibernating squirrel. All I seem to want to do is fill up with high calorie foods such as chocolate, biscuits and chips, and nestle down on the sofa and sleep. I don't feel particularly down, but equally I don't have much interest in doing anything. Is this a temporary thing? Dr : There's a strong link between eating habits and the change of the seasons. On a simple level many people prefer 'comforting' high energy foods to charge their batteries against the cold and miserable winter weather. But research is actually showing clear links between our food choices and conditions such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). An increased appetite and craving for carbohydrate-rich foods is an important symptom of SAD, which is thought to be because of a decrease in levels of a brain chemical or neurotransmitter called serotonin which develops as a result of long dark winter nights. Well it's way too early to be talking about SAD here anyway, and consider this nugget from the USA Rice website: Instead of fighting winter carbohydrate craving, you can use carbohydrate foods therapeutically to control overeating, overcome winter blues, and even boost your energy levels. Oh really? Back to my high protein breakfast regimen before it hits the fan(ny) - quick.

When all else fails

Try the abject humiliation route? Or maybe her mother feels this will spare her that stigma later in life I don't know. Desperate measure. Tasha Henderson, right, and her daughter, Coretha, left, pose for a photo outside their home in Edmond, Okla., Friday, Nov. 11, 2005, with the sign Coretha was forced to hold for an hour at a busy intersection so that passing motorists could read it. The 14-year-old freshman already has been forced by her parents to give up basketball and track because of slipping grades, and said she hopes to improve in school so she can play next year. (AP Photo)

It's early- pretty but early

Fell asleep sometime after the Daily Show started and woke up around 5:30 am- well hasn't the sky been busy all night? This is early for this kind of snow. There have been years with pre-Thanksgiving (significant) snowfall in the past, especially the last 10 years or so, but it's generally not something you see until Christmastime or afterwards. It could be 50+ degrees next week, that's part of the charm of Autumn in WNY.

:-)

As if it's not cool enough to be up on the space station, imagine waking up to Sir Paul singing Good Day Sunshine. Neat. Some people aren't sharin' the love, suggesting such an event would repel an imminent horde of alien invaders: We’d managed to slow down the invasion by using repeated bursts of the last Rolling Stones record. Unfortunately the aliens must have built up an immunity to it like the rest of us. We did consider beaming a Ben Affleck movie to the mother ship but apparently that would be against the Geneva Convention.” Need we remind you that listening to anything Mr McCartney has released after 1971 constitutes a very real and serious health risk. Anyone exposed to such material is likely to suffer terribly and we therefore cannot condone its proposed use by the American military.” Foobahs.

Freaky

An interesting drive heading south from Buffalo this evening to be sure...2-3 inches of hail (ok maybe just 1-2) coating the streets with a nice shiny, icy coating beneath. Lots of people fishtailing and spinning out and I decide to brave the 400. This is the first winter blast since I got my Focus and I gotta say- it's a little snow machine. So far so good (although that sporty little fin on the back that I thought was so cute in May is nothing but a pain-in-the-ass snow repository). What's up with this nuclear-blast style lightning though? Weird weather, even by Buffalo standards.

I,I,I - 'tis the Season

A few of the "hot" toys for the 2005 holiday season: the iDog from Hasbro: billed as such: "Ever think of having a pet listen to music with you? This is no longer a dream! iDog not only listen music with you, it also dances with rhythm as well as compose song. This is the latest hot release by SEGA. When you place it in front of speakers or plugging it into a headphone of any hand-held music player, its face lights up and it moves its head and ears. It is the loveliest speaker as well. There are 7 LED lights in different colors on its face which flash with strength of rhythm. It is compatible with most portable music devices such as Discman, iPod, or Rio MP3 players." Runs anywhere from 22.99 to 34.99. The IZ from Zizzle: The musical toy for the iPod generation. Twist his ears to create new rhythms and lead tracks; press his belly to change the beat. Plays music from CD player, PC, MP3, iPod or any music device that uses a standard headset cable; connector cable included. High-quality speaker inside; eyes bounce and nose pulses in rainbow colors to the beat. Uses 4 AA batteries, not included; 9Lx8Wx12.5H. Cost: 30$-40$. In case you've gotten excited at the thought of a "hot" toy costing under $100, here's a deflation- the biggie that the two above need in order to exist in the "hottest" fashion: leaving mommies everywhere:

Yea, I have looked, and seen November there; The changeless seal of change it seemed to be, Fair death of things that, living once, were fair; Bright sign of loneliness too great for me, Strange image of the dread eternity, In whose void patience how can these have part, These outstretched feverish hands, this restless heart? - William Morris, November

Simple is better

Try to keep this in mind when faced with all of the "must have" toys costing over $100 this year when you do your Christmas shopping : In this photo provided by the National Toy Hall of Fame, at Strong Museum, in Rochester, N.Y., a toy house made out of a cardboard box is shown in an undated photo. Forget the fancy toy: The box it comes in can be much more fun. Spaceship, castle, haven to daydream in, the cardboard toy box was enshrined Friday, Nov. 11, 2005, in the National Toy Hall of Fame along with Jack-in-the-Box and Candy Land. (AP Photo)

Vintage

< Vintage erotic photos. Very nice but normatively short on the male side of the species in a disappointing way. Anyhow they're all here.

Zen Beer

One doesn't generally associate zen with beer. After all, monks follow a strict ascetic regiment. But zen monks are different from zen itself. While monks may follow a tee-totaling line, zen encompasses both the drinker and the dry.

The history of Eastern religion contains many examples of spiritual leaders who liked to imbibe. The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, is best remembered for his love of bars and women:

If the bar-girl does not falter,

The beer will flow on and on.

This maiden is my refuge

And this place my haven.

As with all things in zen, the path to the truth lies in the Middle Way between opposites. If we drink, we have to know our limit. If we refrain, we should not judge those who partake. The paths to enlightenment are myriad; those who claim there is only one way are blind to the truth themselves.

A zen story makes that point by telling of two teachers with opposing philosophies. The first, Unsho, never drank. The second, Tanzan, enjoyed wine.

One day Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking at the time.

"Won't you have a drink?" Tanzan asked.

"I never drink," Unsho said.

"One who does not drink is not even human," Tanzan said.

Incredulous, Unsho said, "Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in wine? If I'm not human, what am I?"

"A Buddha," Tanzan said.

Eat, drink, and be merry.

Or just eat and be merry.

Either way, cheers.

" he says it's like running a small city"

I'll bet. Channel 4 has this story: Over 800,000 dollars in wages and benefits combined were paid Michael Bogulski by Erie County since 1992. As president of the Civil Service Employees Association Local 815, representing 5,000 county employees, Bogulski was granted what's called full union release under the union's collective bargaining agreement with Erie County. That gig was up July 1st of this year however and still no worky-work for Mr.B.

The legend lives

FORT SUMNER, N.M. - Two investigators say they have obtained DNA from a cowboy who claimed to be Billy the Kid. Before dying in the 1930s, John Miller purportedly told friends and a son that he was the legendary Western outlaw. Former Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan and Capitan Mayor Steve Sederwall say they obtained the DNA last May from Miller's remains, which are buried in Prescott, Ariz. They say they will compare it with blood traces taken from a 19th-century bench that is believed to be the one the Kid's body was placed on after he was shot by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881. The bench was discovered on a Fort Sumner ranch. Should the samples match, Sullivan and Sederwall say they could have a break that upends accepted historical accounts of the Kid's life and death. "Wouldn't it be a coincidence if someone we dug up in Arizona, and who died in 1934 and claimed to be Billy the Kid, bled on that bench? That's like winning the lottery," Sullivan told the Albuquerque Journal. But Fort Sumner city officials and most historians say the tale of the Kid's death and burial in DeBaca County is well-established. Trish Saunders, a spokeswoman for the Billy the Kid Historic Preservation Society, told MSNBC.com that the efforts being made by Sullivan and Sederwall showed a "blatant disregard" for the cemeteries and the lore of the Old West. "These guys either need to find a hobby or devote more time to legitimate criminal investigation," she said Tuesday. Over the last century, at least two men surfaced supposedly claiming to be Billy the Kid — Miller and Ollie P. "Brushy Bill" Roberts of Hico, Texas. Such stories presuppose that Garrett killed the wrong man in Fort Sumner and lied about it, with the collusion of Fort Sumner's residents. Sullivan and Sederwall were rebuffed in their 2003 and 2004 efforts to exhume the remains of Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner and those of the outlaw's mother in Silver City. Sullivan has said the impetus for uncovering the truth about the Kid began more than a decade ago when he visited a Hico, Texas, museum dedicated to Roberts. Sederwall said if Miller's DNA does not match the blood on the bench, investigators will try to exhume Roberts' remains, which rest in Hamilton, Texas. DNA analysis has yielded solutions to historical mysteries ranging from the fate of Russia's last czar to the identity. However, Saunders said any blood samples from the bench would likely be too degraded to yield any useful DNA samples after decades of exposure to the elements. "Frankly, we're disappointed that they're back to stirring up all this old dust and trying to rewrite history again," she said. "The bottom line hasn't changed. There's no question that Billy the Kid was killed on July 14, 1881."

Now that it's over...

Howard and Poloncarz- two new faces that got my vote .Here's to hope that they are the agents of change they purported to be and we need them to be. I am not a city resident, I didn't vote in that race and I truly don't want to get sucked down the negativity vortex that is Buffalo politics so I'll just hope and pray with the rest of ya.

Election Day

Perspective

This week's challenge

Libra Horoscope for week of November 3, 2005 In one of his books, the Dalai Lama challenges readers to go just ten minutes without having a negative thought about another person. When I told this to my acquaintance Arthur, he said, "What a simplistic, overrated fraud that Dalai Lama dude is. It's totally easy to go ten minutes without dissing someone." Your assignment, Libra, is to submit to a marathon version of the challenge: See if you can go seven whole days without having a negative thought about anyone. His Holiness implies there's a good selfish reason for doing so: It helps you cultivate a state of mind in which peaceful contentment is a natural condition.~ R Breszny

All Souls’, blustery and chill. I hear them before I see them, six lines scribbling across the white sky. I look up at the tiny crosses beating above me. The pain is new each year, and I’m surprised, even though I expect it the sudden cold, the geese passing over.