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This story could be, IS (really), about my sister. Completely. I’m always shocked and awed… but in the good way. I know so many girls that are the future high achievers. The ones who coach the soccer team, are on the swim team, play the instruments, speak the languages, get the grades and the boys. They do it all, which is amazing but is doing it all what they really want to do? I try to be good but I know I’ll never be perfect…

The first message: Bring home A’s. Do everything.
The second message: Be yourself. Have fun. Don’t work too hard.
You still have to be pretty, thin and, as one of Esther’s classmates, Kat Jiang, a go-to stage manager for student theater who has a perfect 2400 score on her SATs, wrote[...] “It’s out of style to admit it, but it is more important to be hot than smart.”
“Effortlessly hot,” Kat added.
NYTimes: For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect Too

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I always think that I don’t really have any nicknames or pet names, until I really think about it and realise that LOTS of people call me names that are not my real name. Not that I mind or anything, I just don’t think of them myself. Here’s a selection of recent names for me. If you have any others you’re been whispering behind my back, yes Rebecca like ’stud muffin’, add them in the comments.

Petruchio

(Allison)

Pat

(Rowena)

Paddy

(Andy)

Patio

(Rebecca)

Patioo

(Rebecca)

P P P P P!!!

(Roisin)

Mr P.

(Ken)

Pat-e-rique

(Stella)

Paddy

(Helen)

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Andy Stern on the WSJ: The Wal-Mart Posse

He makes a huge fuss over how many anti-Wal-Mart groups are funded by ‘organized labor’. As though that’s a bad thing? Who else keeps tabs on these people? Nobody! They don’t hide their funding. It’s obvious that these ‘anti’ groups are going to be funded by somebody. And it’s not going to be Chinese factory owners. Who does care: the people who get paid dirt cheap nothingness wages. The unions are tryign to change wal-mart even when they’re not largely paid by wal-mart workers because of anti-union policies throughout Wal-Mart’s history. I think that’s pretty impressive that the Unions still try. And he claims that Wal-Mart is good for poor people. Only if you’re rich enough to drive there and shop and have other options too. it’s not great if it’s the only store in town, if it’s built a mega-store on your backyard. It’s not great if it’s made you redundant by putting your former employer out of business. And he claims that 7-12 dollars an hour is not a poverty wage. Not poverty?! Good lord. I assume he’s not paid 7 dollars an hour. I’m always amazed by American opposition to ‘organized labor’. It always shows a really rather mean capitalist streak. Don’t let those poor people get themselves together. Their leaders MUST be into something else. They MUST have an alterior motive.

“Today the company employs 1.3 million American workers, and its recent push into groceries has made life miserable for Safeway and other grocery chains organized by the service workers or the UFCW.” – Are the unions really that scared of Wal-Mart doing groceries? Who cares as long as they do it right! But this isn’t Costco with an average wage of 16 dollars an hour. Wal-Mart workers are lucky to be able to shop in their own store. And the reason there are always thousands of applicants for Wal-Mart jobs isn’t because they’re good jobs. It’s because Wal-Mart drops their stores on the poorest, cheapest areas in the region. There are lots of people out of work! That doesn’t make the jobs good ones, it just shows how desperate the people are. The WSJ disgusts me sometimes.

Andy Stern on the WSJ: The Wal-Mart Posse

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I slept in my contacts overnight, not an unusual thing, but woke up with a pair of killer bloodshot eyes. Not pretty!

New pair I think..
(of contacts, not a new pair of eyes, though that would be convenient!)

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My house was built in 1907. That’s the only thing I know about my house, really, and I tell it to people all the time. “It was built in 1907,” I say, pointing at something in the house when we’re walking around. I could be pointing at my CD player. It doesn’t matter what I’m pointing at, because then I make a little joke I always make: “It was a very popular year to build houses in San Francisco.”

I would say ‘Classic!’, but I think I’m overusing that word today. But you know what I’m thinking.
NYTIMES: My House – What Lies Beneath

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It’s 33 degrees in the shade at 10 o’clock in the morning! My oh my.

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Did you know that the guidelines on CPR technique have changed? The bodies that develop the procedures and techniques that two thirds of all cardiac arrest patients will receive, altered their advice on how ‘we’ should carry out Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. According to the American Heart Association, only 1-2% of those in New York city who experience Ventricular Fibrillation survive. With bystanders doing nothing, people are literally left on the street without CPR or Defibrillators, to die. In Seattle, in contrast, around 30% of those affected survive (link to data). It’s those of us who are with out friends or just walking around on the street, that happen to stop and wonder what’s happening, that make the difference. These new guidelines were created at the International Consensus Conference in Dallas, Texas in January 2005. The new guidelines are agreed with the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR).

The main new focus is on giving effective and unhalted chest compressions to accompany one second ventilations (breaths) that produce notable rise in the chest.

The compression to ventilation ratio is now agreed at 30 compressions to two breaths. 30 to 2. This is what I always ‘forget’ when I’m trying to remember my technique.

Techniques like raising the chin with two fingers to open the airway, using a finger to clear the airways, and a noted dissatisfaction with finding a pulse using the carotid artery, largely because many people find it hard to find. Instead we should look for signs of circulation like colour returning to fingernails when squeezed, coughing or breathing: these are the new consensus though, “Even if the victim takes occasional gasps, rescuers should suspect that cardiac arrest has occurred and should start CPR.”

See the new guidlines on response to cardiac arrest from the AHA (with full scientific information) or just the changes and current procedure from the ‘Currents’ Winter ‘05-’06 Journal.

The University of Washington Medical School has a great page on the three main steps for CPR illustrated with moving diagrams. Whatever you do, learn how to do save the lives of your friends. Even if they can’t, you’ll thank yourself for knowing how.

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Second essay done, the third one is about two-thirds done. I’m getting there eventually!

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One essay down, three more to finish by Monday afternoon. Further updates as they come!

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