Yearly Archives: 2005

Menorahs and clocks made out of crazy old junk

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  • Post category:Brain Food

Klockwerks Clock

I’ve posted several things recently about cool stuff made out of old junk, and here’s another… Roger Wood at Klockwerks has expanded from making super-cool clocks to making super-cool menorahs out of old stuff.

I LOVE stuff like this. I have several old parts of stuff that I bought at the salvage yard with this kind of thing in mind. I love clocks, compasses, windmills, weather vanes, thermometers, barometric pressure measures, and any antique science thingy or doo-dad. At one point I was scouring eBay for monocles, science beakers, and glass eyes. Unfortunately, glass eyes are expensive. If I were going to be a sculpture artist (and I’d like to be) this is the kind of thing I would make; something cool looking but also kinetic. I need a workshop.

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This is why my sister should have a blog

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  • Post category:Health

She never stops cracking me up:

Why, that’s just not true. In addition to good vibes, I can send you goodies for after surgery. Of course, I can’t send anything funny, or you’ll laugh and your chest will hurt. And I can’t send you anything sad because you’ll cry and your chest will hurt. And nothing exciting that will make your heart race… so boring stuff that you’ll be indifferent to. Yep. That’s what I can send. Q-Tips maybe? Or some string? Beige shoe polish, even.

It’s a shame it’s your heart that’s the trouble. I mean, if it were a kidney, I could just say “Here, have one of mine. Either one. I’m not really using them anyway. I want it back when you’re done though. Better yet, have one of Gary’s. And one of Todd’s. One for day and one for evening wear. And take an appendix while you’re at it, since you’re already one short”!

But alas, my GP says I’m not allowed to give away bits of my circulatory system, even on a time-share basis.
Anyway, keep me posted.

Love,
Stacy

I like how she volunteers my brother’s kidneys. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.

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Stuff you read on the internet that scares the crap out of you

From this page:

Expectations after surgery:
The rate of success of heart valve surgery is high — and increasing. The operation provides symptom relief and prolongs life. The death rate varies depending on the heart valve and averages 2% to 5%. Approximately 2 of every 3 patients who received an artificial mitral valve are still alive 9 years after the surgery. Life-long anticoagulant therapy is necessary for patients with artificial heart valves. The clicking of the mechanical heart valve may be heard in the chest — this is normal.

2 of every 3 patients? 9 years? Oh my god. Okay, wait a minute. That’s for valve replacement, not repair. And, this make me feel much better:

Conclusions– Mitral valve repair using Carpentier’s technique in patients with nonrheumatic MVI provides excellent long-term results with a mortality rate similar to that of the general population and a very low incidence of reoperation.

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Open Heart Surgery

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  • Post category:Health

I’ve waited a bit to write about this, because I need to talk to my family and friends first. It appears that I will need to have open heart surgery to repair my defective heart valves. I’m hoping to get some other opinions and information on less invasive types of surgery, but that appears to be what I know currently.

After I had the stress echocardiogram last week, that was the analysis the cardiologist (Dr. Yee) gave me about what he is seeing. His conclusion is that my heart valves, especially my mitral valve, are failing, and eventually I will have heart failure, possibly in the next two or three years. If I go in and get the valves repaired now, I have a prognosis of living a normal, long and healthy life. The sooner I get the procedure done, the better, because it will be a repair of the valves, rather than a replacement, and my heart will not enlarge to fight the valve failure.

After I get the TEE test that I wrote about earlier, the surgeon will be able to tell me whether I need the procedure next month, or if I can wait a bit longer, like six months. But Dr. Yee is saying that I will need surgery this year.

What’s interesting is that this is the reason some of my shoes don’t fit any more. My feet are swelling because my circulation is poor. It’s also the reason I haven’t been able to lose weight easily while exercising, because I’m just not able to burn enough calories before I get tired and out of breath. So this surgery could help me lose weight.

Obviously, if this is the surgery I need to have, it’s a pretty scary thing, because they crack open my chest and put me on a heart & lungs machine to circulate my blood while they stop my heart to work on it. After the surgery, I’ll be in intensive care for several days. The recovery time is significant and for a little while after I come home I’ll need someone with me to watch me 24 hours a day.
Stephanie is already making plans to move in for a while to be with me, which worries me a lot, because this is a huge burden to fall on one person. She will need to go home twice a day to feed her cat, and I’m hoping my family will help and support her if they can. I’m also very worried about the hospital not recognizing her as my spouse and letting her visit me, and I want to make sure that they know she is the number one person I want with me, along with mom.

The following links about open heart surgery are not from my hospital, but they do cover some basic information about what the surgery and recovery are like.

On the bright side, according to this page, I’ll be able to resume fishing after 6 weeks, and firing small caliber pistols after 2 months. Woo hoo!!

This link seems to have a lot of good information: from Brigham and women’s hospital

Open Heart Surgery – What to Expect
Heart Valve Repair Surgery
Mitral Valve Repair
heart valve surgery
Mercy Hospital Open Heart Surgery

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Factual Errors in anti-gay amendment arguments

Courtesy of Jeramy Townsley, Adjunct Faculty, Psychology, IUPUI and Univ of Indpls
Below are numerous factual errors from the anti-equal marriage rights advocates who are seeking to prevent equal marriage rights for gay people, with factual analysis and studies included illustrating the mistaken ideas in their arguments.

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Judge rules California marriage law is unconstitutional

According to the Associate Press:

SAN FRANCISCO — A Superior Court judge has ruled that California’s law limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman is unconstitutional. The lawsuits were brought by the city of San Francisco and a dozen same-sex couples last March, after the California Supreme Court halted the four-week marriage spree Mayor Gavin Newsom had initiated when he directed city officials to issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians in defiance of state law.
They argued that California can no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman, hoping for a ruling that, if upheld on appeal, would pave the way for the nation’s most populous state to follow Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed.
Since Jan. 1, same-sex couples registering as domestic partners in California have been granted virtually all the rights and responsibilities of marriage, so the arguments for striking down the state’s gay marriage ban have centered as much on the social meaning of marriage as its legal benefits.

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Brother Bush’s Travelin’ Salvation Show

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  • Post category:Politics

As the Washington Post reveals, Bush’s “conversations” with “the people” about social security are anything but that. They are orchestrated, scripted, staged “meetings” with people put in place specifically to agree with him, and the whole point is for the local news to film the “event” and put it on TV as propaganda for Bush’s screwed up plan.
As the WP reveals in their article, and as you can see in this similar New York Times article on the same issue, people who dissent with the president are drowned out, or forced to leave.
So much for democracy and freedom of speech.

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