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Die EU-Grenzschutzagentur Frontex hat gemeldet, dass sie die deutsche Bundesregierung bereits im Frühjahr 2015 über die hohen Flüchtlingszahlen informiert habe. Der Leiter von Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri bestätigte, dass er die Bundesregierung im März über eine Zahl von ca. 500.000 bis 1 Millionen Flüchtlinge informiert habe. Bereits zu diesem Zeitpunkt war ...

I’m starting to get a little bored of telling the story every time I pick up the phone or run into somebody, so I’ll just post it here, and then we can all move along from it.

Headline synopsis: I had a tooth abscess, it was really bad, I got hospitalised, and because I suffer from sleep apnea ended up on a high-dependency unit for a night (because sleep apnea and general anaesthetics don’t mix).

Longer version:

About six weeks ago I got a chest infection. Pretty nasty stuff, and I was coughing quite badly a lot of the time. I took a day off work at one point - which I rarely do for illness - so, you know, horrible.

As that was clearing, I started to develop toothache. I’ll be frank: I hate dentists, and have pretty much avoided them for my entire adult life. The pain was coming from near my wisdom teeth on the right side of my face, which have played up now and again a few times. I self-medicated with paracetamol and ibuprofen after a couple of days. I was unable to eat solids from around the 8th May.

I then travelled to London for business and stayed overnight. At my boss’ wife’s birthday party, I discovered that my jaw was so sore and unable to move, I could barely eat non-solids, and was struggling to swallow even fluids.

Buoyed by medication, the next morning (11th May), I was able to take on about 2 litres of water and a small amount of food, but I was quickly realising I was in pain that needed professional help. Leaving London early that day, I recognised that the following day I would need to seek emergency treatment.

Manchester has the University Dental Hospital. It’s often a struggle to get seen there, but casualties can walk up for 8.30am and get seen - for free - by a student dentist, supervised by some of the best qualified dentists in the country. I made my way out on the Thursday morning expecting to be seen, prescribed some antibiotics and to make my way home.

They took a look, X-Rayed my jaw to be sure, took another look, and referred me to Accident & Emergency. The abscess was large enough that they had become concerned I was going to be unable to breath within the next 24 hours.

The SHO from Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (“Max Fax” as it’s known), had been told to expect me in A&E within the hour. Off I trudged.

On being booked in at A&E, they took my blood pressure and pulse. They were off the charts. They took my temperature, and it was high. My body was fighting a raging infection, and losing. I was hooked up to an ECG, and they took some bloods. My glucose was off the charts - I hadn’t eaten properly in days, and my body was starting to pull down the fat reserves (of which I have ample supply) and eat itself.

The clincher though was the fact I was no longer able to really comfortably swallow without pain and discomfort. Not even fluids. Barely my own saliva. I was admitted, cannulated (a drip line being put into my hand), and put on saline within about 30 minutes.

Rebecca duly packed a bag of things for me, and being the angel she is, cancelled work and made her way to be my bedside, if for nothing else than to give me a bit of love, support and sympathy.

Things then got weird. They put some antibiotics on my IV, and there was a thought that maybe - strong as they were - I would be able to avoid emergency surgery. However, to give them a hand, the registrar and the SHO wanted to know more about what was in that abscess. They pondered a CT scan. They then realised that my mouth would open just enough to get a syringe in there… they asked to “drain it a bit”.

The local anaesthetic sprayed into the mouth to “aspirate” an oral abscess is meant to taste like bananas. If your banana crop grows in a bath of dilute acid, maybe you would recognise the taste, but it was pretty horrid. My mouth numbed a bit, and then I grabbed onto my chair whilst they did what they had to do - twice - and removed a sizeable amount of horrid stuff.

I won’t lie, if you ever need this doing, you need to prepare yourself. You need to breathe through the nose, and know that it will be over in 30 seconds. It is not at all comfortable. But you’ll live, and you’ll feel better within minutes.

Within 4 minutes, I could move my jaw more, and suffered less pain. I could swallow again. Alas, because they might want to do surgery in the morning, I was kept on “Nil By Mouth” (NBM), for the evening.

I was now on a regular rotation of saline to hydrate me, paracetamol on IV to take the pain away, and extraordinarily strong (and expensive) antibiotics to help fight the infection. My temperature remained high, my pulse remained high, and my blood pressure was high. I think at this point I was around 38-39C, 120bpm (resting), and blood pressure of about 170/100. Despite not having eaten in several days, my glucose levels were high and on one chart I saw the phrase “needs fasting”.

I awoke the next morning to some confusion. Some doctors thought I would go to surgery. Others thought the antibiotics hadn’t had a chance yet. I just wanted it all to be over.

The consultant anaesthetist at this point called around to have a chat. He asked me the usual questions about allergies etc, and all was fine. He asked me whether I had any questions. “What are the risks of general anaesthetic given my size and that I have sleep apnea?”. He froze. “You didn’t mention sleep apnea”. It was important.

To be honest, I have never been diagnosed with sleep apnea. Rebecca noticed it some months ago, when she was awake and I was very much asleep. I would stop breathing for 10, 20, maybe 30 seconds. I would then suddenly start breathing oddly. I phoned Rebecca and asked her to describe this to the consultant and for him to decide if this was important.

He decided it was very important. I was told that the night after my surgery, I would need to be closely monitored, and that meant I would need a bed on the High-Dependency Unit (HDU), which is a sister unit to Intensive Care. This was starting to get a bit scary.

For various reasons, over the rest of the Friday I deteriorated. My canular became very painful in use, suggesting it needed to come out and a new one put in. Because I have “collapsing veins”, this caused some problems. It meant I was effectively off all medication, painkillers and saline for several hours, and I got to the point I could barely talk.

At 5pm, I was taken off NBM and told I could eat/drink what I could manage until midnight. I ordered a meal, and struggled to down a jug of water. 45 minutes later, I was called for surgery - surgery I clearly couldn’t have, given I’d just drank so much water. The meal arrived, and I couldn’t eat it. I was now very low. I had missed the chance of getting to leave on the Saturday, and I felt awful.

The SHO who admitted me was back on shift, and did an amazing job of making sure I was looked after. He attempted to recannulate me himself (and failed), and then tracked down an amazing nurse who “felt” her way around my veins and gave me the most comfortable canular (albeit at a strange angle), I’d had all weekend.

At around midnight I was moved from Ward 1 (full of people with broken arms, legs and skulls and the like), to Ward 55 (in the eye hospital), where I had a private room. It was in here that a nurse - whilst moving me over to another batch of antibiotics as I slept -noticed that I had stopped breathing for a little while and woke myself up. She had witnessed the sleep apnea. By that point I was already booked for HDU after the operation, but good job she saw it either way.

Saturday morning I felt good. I had slept for 4 hours (the most I had managed in over a week), and it was FA Cup Final day.

I then received a visit from an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist. There was concern the chest infection I had prior to the toothache had triggered tonsillitis and that I had a quinsy that would need treatment - that this wasn’t dental at all.

This was the only point I refused treatment. She wanted to aspirate the abscess again. I refused consent on a couple of grounds:

1. Whilst using the tongue depressor to look in my mouth, when I gagged slightly (I have a terrible gag reflex), she thought I was being childish. What she thought I’d do when draining an abscess, I don’t know
2. She said it would be like my previous aspiration “but further back, near the tonsils”, which frankly scared the crap out of me
3. I was going to be in surgery in less than 3 hours. There was no clinical need for me to have this aspiration right there and then. If my surgery had been cancelled, it would make sense, but right now? No.

She was annoyed. She wanted to aspirate (I suspect she wanted to do it for clinical experience reasons as much as anything else), and I didn’t want her to. She went away and spoke to some other doctors on the phone, including the Max Fax team, and they - apparently - sided with me. It was an unpleasant, traumatic and painful procedure that was not needed right now. Phew.

Another anaesthetist turned up, and talked me through what he was going to do when I got to surgery. They wanted to shove a camera through my nose and down my throat. Normally they would have done this whilst I was asleep, but on this occasion they needed to do it whilst I was conscious. I still don’t know why. He remarked it would be “uncomfortable, but not painful”. Hmmm.

As 3pm approached, I settled down to watch the FA Cup Final - the first one my team Manchester City had reached in my entire life. I knew I would probably not see the whole game.

Sure enough, 30 minutes in, the phone call came. Time to get into the gown.

It’s odd when you’ve been sat waiting for days for surgery, and finally its time. I can’t deny that given the procedure to knock me out was going to involve pipes through my nose and throat, and I was going to end up on HDU, and one doctor had already suggested my chances of dying whilst under were “only about 1%”, fear was starting to take hold.

Rebecca didn’t know where she was meant to be going, and so the stress of making sure she was going to be OK built slightly. The move into surgery was not how it should have gone.

In the anaesthetics room, things generally went to plan. More of the banana-tasting anaesthetic to numb the naval cavity and throat. I wasn’t getting groggy quickly enough, so he gave me “a couple of beers” - a small dose of something uber-powerful through my canular. Then the pipe came out. Huge. Closed my eyes. Barely felt anything. Then, a rush of fluid in my chest and I started to cough. Then choke. Then he said it was time for sleep. My last thoughts: “I’m choking, I might die here…”

Waking up in recovery is horrid. You’re disorientated, confused, groggy and feeling miserable. Except now I felt something different. No pain at all in my mouth. I could swallow, pain free. Something worked.

To be honest, what happened next is all a bit unclear. A surgeon told me that the abscess had been taken out, along with my upper right and lower right wisdom teeth. I looked at the clock, and realised I had been under for probably near 2 hours.

The porter who took me down appeared with another patient. He knew I was upset about missing the game. He pointed at me and mouthed “one nil”. Nice afternoon for me then - we’d even won.

I asked for Rebecca to be called. Actually, I couldn’t remember her number off the top of my head, so it was my Mum who was called, who called her. Unusually they allowed her into recovery to see me. We were now just waiting for HDU. I realised then that I was in a HDU bed. Some poor bastards had had to lift me into it whilst I was asleep. Poor them. I hope their backs are OK.

I then got admitted into HDU. HDU is an odd place. They just want to watch you, watch everything you do, all of the time. They measure how much urine you produce. They write down every cough, every movement, and you are kept with a blood pressure cuff and pulse monitor on constantly to check your vitals all the time. I was also on humidified oxygen.

I slept little. You don’t really want to go to sleep if you know you have sleep apnea and you’ve come out from general anaesthetic - you’re worried you might die. During the night my oxygen levels went down to 70%. The nurses woke me a couple of times. In the morning, I was told it was serious enough that I should seek advice about it from my GP, but I was never at any point in any real danger - thankfully.

Then it was a waiting game to be discharged. Patients never get discharged from HDU, and so I was a freak occurrence. To one nurse’s mind, I was the first patient to get up, dress myself, and walk out of the doors of HDU she could remember. I’m glad I was able to.

Since then, I’ve only had to take two paracetamol all week. I am banned from smoking or drinking “fizzy drinks” for another week. The fizzy drink thing is to do with CO2 - bacteria near the site of the abscess and surgery will thrive on it, so no soda, lager or tonic water for me for a while.

On the whole, I’m fine. It was horrific, and I would never want to do it again, but that’s the story - scary as it was at the time - of how a toothache got out of hand, and I ended up on a high-dependency unit.

Presuming I do not choke on a pretzel, drown in a gin and tonic or get run over by a minicab driver hurtling around the streets of Manchester in order to maximise his double fare revenues, I should see out 2011 in the next few hours.

Thank the invisible big man in the sky who probably isn’t there for that.

This year, I was hospitalised, my girlfriend broke her arm and spent 2 weeks waiting for surgery in hospital, and I missed almost every single deadline and objective I set for myself.

To say it has been an emotional, miserable year would be an understatement. Given the year before it we lost my grandmother to cancer and my business went under, it would be hard to call it my “worst year ever” but it’s dialled quite high on that scale.

Some silver linings though: I now have a job at a startup I love working with people whose company I enjoy and my probable financial situation 5 years from now looks very good indeed. Having more time at home with the girlfriend has been great, and it seems I’ve given up smoking again (I’ll consider myself truly a non-smoker sometime in February if I get there without another cig).

I don’t do “resolutions” normally, but I do have a few objectives:

• I need to get my weight down. I’m finally prepared to do something about it.
• I want to create more, so will aim to not go more than two or three consecutive days without working on something creative in 2012. It could be writing (here, for example), it could be code for a personal project, or it could be something I’ve never really tried before (music? art? Don’t know yet). I basically want to spend less time reading/consuming and more time doing stuff. David Tate provides excellent inspiration if you want to consider doing the same. I’ll try to document as much of that as possible here.
• I’m going to try and shift from always being behind/late for almost everything going on in my life, to being early. I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but I suspect if I can pull it off, I’ll be calmer and happier as a result.

And that’s all I’m aiming for in 2012: get healthier, lose some weight, create more, stop being late. They’re objectives, not resolutions, so can’t be broken. If I slip up, I’ll just crack on.

I really hope it’s enough to make 2012 better than 2011 and 2010. I’m overdue for a good year.

Dream about what you would wish for. It might come true.

In South Kensington they take their fashion so seriously, that if you find yourself on the District/Circle line platform wearing something untrendy, TfL have got you covered. 

Gap are a bit mainstream though. Surely a jumper from somewhere more boutique would have been more fitting?

I love knowing what my friends and family are up to. I love finding out about the latest thoughts going on within my peer groups. I enjoy reading many blogs, newsletter and emails. I used to regularly get over 400 emails a day including group/mailing list traffic, followed over a thousand people on Twitter and was friends with more than 250 people on Facebook. I subscribed to over 200 blogs. I read all of it, all the time.

Mix in LinkedIn, reddit, Hacker News and a few other corners of the web, and we’re suddenly talking about a lot of data flowing into my head.

I’m led to believe that some even value the contributions I make myself from time to time.

However, I’m about to start dialling all that down. I’ve made a start in some places, but over time I’m going to stop reading anywhere near as much short-form (twitter, Facebook, etc.), a little less medium-long form (blogs), and use the time to start reading longer form work again (books) and creating more.

The reason is not because of burn-out, cynicism or some other excuse: I’m not arguing that it’s all pointless, and I’m not being a Luddite. I just want to create more, and there are only so many hours in the day.

This was prompted by going back over my resolutions posted here in December, and realising I’ve made little progress:

• I need to get my weight down. I’m finally prepared to do something about it.

• I want to create more, so will aim to not go more than two or three consecutive days without working on something creative in 2012. It could be writing (here, for example), it could be code for a personal project, or it could be something I’ve never really tried before (music? art? Don’t know yet). I basically want to spend less time reading/consuming and more time doing stuff. David Tate provides excellent inspirationif you want to consider doing the same. I’ll try to document as much of that as possible here.

• I’m going to try and shift from always being behind/late for almost everything going on in my life, to being early. I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but I suspect if I can pull it off, I’ll be calmer and happier as a result.

This, I am happy to report, seems to have actually happened for the most part. Public transport not withstanding - including my own self-sabotage - I tend to be where I need to be on-time (or early), far more than I was last year.

Back to the main point: by reading what’s going on out there, by trying out new apps, by listening to all these voices, I am feeling engaged and plugged in, but only as a consumer. The purpose of the Internet is not to simply consume but to create, amend, edit, destroy, vandalise and promote. Ideas, content, products, whatever.

Also, am I the only one who has noticed how exhausting this hosepipe of information can be on a daily - even hourly - basis? I’m tired of consuming. It’s worse than television - at least with television an editor or commissioner has attempted to do some curation.

So I’m not departing, I’m not shutting down accounts, I’m just going to read a great deal less online, to the point the relevant apps might disappear off my phone. In return, I should be able to produce a few new things to share. Watch this space!

A couple of lovely people I know have suggested that some of the Olympic disciplines are not “proper sports”. This sentiment is one frequently echoed by compatriots of losers, stand-up comedians and miserable bastards the World over.

It has now seeped into the social consciousness and zeitgeist to the extent that many people mistakenly think “sports” are one thing - typified by physical endurance, stamina, or skill - and “games” are things anybody can do really, probably whilst having a pint at the same time.

Let’s put to one side that “the Olympics” are actually called “the Olympic Games” (or in French, “Jeux olympiques”), and just assume the “point” of the Olympics is to promote “sporting disciplines”.

Why do I feel certain that every single one of the Olympic disciplines is worthy of the name “sport”?

Even archery, which I reckon I could have a good bash at it with the right kit despite being a perfect example of how bad Guinness can be for your waistline, or boxing which is standing around and punching people when they didn’t even borrow that DVD off you in the first place.

Yes, I’d even include dressage where the horse is the one actually doing the moving about, whilst the “competitor” sits atop in a fine hat looking more English than a teapot in a red phone box (even when the competitor is French, which must be embarrassing for them).

All of these can be - and in the context of the Olympics, most definitely are - sports.

To explain, let’s just focus on what makes something nothing more than “a game”.

Any activity can be made into a game. All you need is a way to keep score and some rules to make sure the scores actually mean something. Staring at a wall: how long for without looking away? Making a cup of tea: judges could taste-test quality, or there could be speed trials. Having a nice sit down and a biscuit: how few crumbs can be counted on your lap afterwards?

Most games are obviously a bit more involved and preferably prefer people either getting naked or putting things onto a spring-loaded donkey (or both!), but the point is I could make a game out of writing this very post if I wanted. Or even this sentence. (4 words, 0.6 seconds, 100 words/minute, if you’re interested).

“Gamification” is a major social force in the web application industry right now, to the point where sitting in your office and pressing a button in an app on your phone can make you “Mayor”, which is why I don’t use FourSquare: I might become an annoying prat who asks for a third of a Londoner’s council tax to spend on bicycles and zip lines or whatever.

Games are obviously more fun when there is a degree of competition, and therefore the scores must be fairly comparable. You and I might decide to play pooh-sticks for example, and we will have a grand old time as I crush you and claim glorious victory and then we’ll go and get an ice cream or something. The fun is in me beating you without “cheating”. Or you usurping me and claiming a surprise victory, perhaps (like that’s ever going to happen, you fool), all whilst not kicking me in the head as I sing “We are the Champions”, etc.

This is a game: any activity at which there are some established rules allowing the participants to keep score, and where the point of the rules is to make different participants scores comparable with each other.

Cheating isn’t just “naughty” - it stops it becoming a game, because the scores are no longer comparable. If I turned up to pooh-sticks with laser-guided remote-controlled precision sticks with outboard motors on them, I can’t claim a fair victory when you’ve just picked up that stick with a leaf on it next to that weird moss on that rock, no not that one, that one over there, no, there you moron… yes, the bent one! 

Providing the game is fair then, I would argue that any game can become a sport. How? Other people caring about the outcome.

If whilst I am thrashing you at pooh-sticks, a small crowd appears and starts cheering one or the other of us on (hint: I’m very charismatic, they’ll be cheering for me mostly), then we have a sport. The number of people who care about the outcome or who want to have a go themselves determines how “sporting” it is. Once we start keeping World Records, or we meet regularly to do contest on a schedule we share with non-participants, and arrange ourselves into leagues, and perhaps start making money from the gullible fools who fawn in my pooh-stick abilities, then we have a moderately successful sport.

Sport is, I think, simply any game, where non-participants care about or are interested in the scores and who wins.

If the dressage, archery or boxing events at the Olympics, it’s pretty clear there were non-participants who cared about the outcome. In some cases, they really cared to the point where they flocked to Twitter, barely able to type through their blubbering tears about how wonderful and marvellous it is that somebody they’ve never met who happens to be considered by International Law to be a citizen of the same part of the World as them despite living 3,000 miles away, beat somebody who lives 300 miles away who they do not share such a close bond with due to them suffering the genetic disadvantage of being French.

So, here’s my cut-out-and-keep guide:

1. In both games and sports, people keep score somehow
2. In both games and sports, rules ensure the scores of different participants are fairly comparable
3. In games only the participants care about the comparison, in sports there are non-participants who also care

If this still doesn’t make sense to you, think about what sports would become if nobody cared? Or even if the outcome wasn’t scored or measured? What exactly would those footballers be doing if nobody nobody cared about the score? What would the by doing if they didn’t bother keeping score? Just what is it that Usain Bolt would be proving by running really quickly if nobody was watching? Or some people were watching, but were not measuring how fast he was running?

So the next time you hear somebody say “that’s not a real sport”, despite there being a clear loyal following of non-participants, maybe point out that it might be an activity whose outcome they don’t care about, so that can mean it’s not a sport to them.

But to the participants and to their followers, and to the people around them, it is very much a sport. And what they’re saying is a smidge hurtful to all of them, even if it’s just pooh-sticks. So, you know, try not to say that. It makes you sound a little bit mean.

I’ve decided to let Craig have a break from posting so he can get some work done. Besides, I’ve had something on my mind that is worth mentioning. I think.

It has become increasingly interesting at the variety of exercise clothing participants wear to class. For the most part, they are dressed comfortable, in easy to move in outfits. Some have outfits that match – right down to the shoes, and some could care less how ‘in style’ they are – they just came to get a great workout. Then there are the ‘others’. You know who you are – the ones in the low cut tops, the shorts with the really wide legs, the shorts with no legs at all, you get the picture. For us, it makes it difficult when we are watching for form because we don’t want to appear like we are staring at something we shouldn’t! Does anyone else have this problem?

There has also been the rare occasion where someone has forgotten his or her shoes. I had one lady work out in her hiking boots! Craig has had to work out in his socks before. He would have had to work out barefoot but I went to the local drugstore and bought him socks! He has also forgotten his shorts and had to workout in his jeans. Not very comfortable.

Personally, I am one of those who likes to look somewhat put together. (I confess – I have Nikes that match my outfits…) My biggest issue is finding clothes to wear. Right now I teach 6 classes per week – that will increase to 11 in a couple of weeks so I need plenty of outfits! Being one of those who are vertically challenged, it makes it especially hard to buy pants that don’t need to be hemmed. I love Capri’s’, but on me they always come down to my ankles making me look like someone chopped off my legs. Tops are another issue. I’m short waisted so most tops on me are too long – leaving a wad of material at my middle. And then, exercise clothing is soooo expensive! And unfortunately, if you buy cheap stuff, it doesn’t last. Thank goodness I don’t have a problem with shoes….

It is great to see Body Pump clothing getting away from so much red and black. Don’t get me wrong – I DO like it, but it is nice to have some variety. However, I can’t afford to keep up with all the BP latest fashions.

Men don’t seem to have the same problems women do. When Craig went shopping for his BP attire, he got everything he needed at one store. I on the other hand have to go from store to store – and when you live in a small town with not a lot of stores, your choices are even smaller. Most everything looks all the same – black or navy pants, solid or print tank style top. I have seen some great websites offering cool clothes – but I generally like to try things on before I buy.

So, I guess for now I will continue to wear my same outfits. (Maybe a new pair of sneakers would brighten up an old outfit) Or maybe I’ll call Stacey and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not To Wear”!

An investigation into ISKCON and other present day Gaudiya societies and offshoots.

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The good folks at anime streaming giants Crunchyroll have sent us details of the upcoming Hatsune Miku Expo 2024 Europe Tour. The idol will ...

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It was the CPRE that helped instigate the "green belt" system 50 years ago.

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Those wanting a firmer grip on chatbots, then, may have to explore more underhand techniques, such as the one discovered by two computer-science researchers at Harvard University. They’ve demonstrated how chatbots can be tactically controlled by deploying something as simple as a carefully written string of text. This “strategic text sequence” looks like a nonsensical … Continue reading ""The Chatbot Optimisation Game: Can We Trust AI Web Searches?""

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In this episode, we're diving deep into the buzzword "revolutionary" and how it's often misused in the world of bodybuilding and fitness. We explore the history of exercises, the role of supplements, and why the quest for something "new" might be a wild goose chase. So, is anything in bodybuilding truly revolutionary? Let's find out!

Key Topics:

1. The "Revolutionary" Trap: Why the term "revolutionary" is often misleading and how it's overused in the fitness community.
2. Old is Gold: A look back at the golden era of bodybuilding and why some of the best exercises are decades old. Shoutout to Vince Gironda!
3. The Bench Press Twist: How a simple change in palm orientation can make a world of difference in your workout.
4. Pushups Are Back: Why this classic exercise is making headlines again and how it can benefit you.
5. The Real Game-Changers: The role of motivation and goal planning in achieving your fitness dreams.

Key Takeaways:

• Don't fall for the "revolutionary" hype. Master the basics and build from there.
• Old-school techniques still have a place in modern fitness regimes.
• Motivation and goal planning are the real MVPs in your fitness journey.

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I do hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast. Here's some helpful resources including any sites that were mentioned in this episode.

Sites Mentioned in this Episode

• VinceGironda.com | Home of The Iron Guru

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• Website: justaskmarc.com
• Email: marc@justaskmarc.com (Put "podcast" in the subject line)

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New York, New York - Brooklyn Bridge

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Wow, let me tell you about my adventures in New York City.
I wouldn't advise anyone to go to New York like I did. Yet,
I can say I had a bonified blast.

I had been online for a short period of time and had spent a
great deal of time in several AOL Chat Rooms. I lucked
across this one chat room where everyone would chat for
hours. We laughed so much in this chat room that
we all became like family.

After several months talking in this chat room, someone
decided to get together and go clubbing. At the time,
I was living in Delaware. The plan was to meet in
Manhattan at a night club.

There were several men in the group and the women
were really close. So it was on! I was going to ride the
train from Delaware to New York City.

I rode a four hour train ride and as I arrived at the
Penn Station, my palms became really sweaty. I realized
I was going on a blind date. I was going to meet at least
50 people that I had spoken to online and didn't have a
clue about New York City (Manhattan).

Needless to say, I arrived at the hotel and stood in the
middle of the room and asked myself, "What the heck
are you doing?" I got dressed and rode the cab to this
booming night club that had an upstairs and downstairs.
It had at least four rooms with different types of music.

I wish I could remember the name of the this off the
hook club. It was awesome.

I remember walking downstairs to meet everyone. The
music was jammin and there were a lot of people dancing
and talking everywhere in the room.

The first thing I did was walk to the bar and order a
drink. When I turned around, someone asked, "Is that
you *&)*&(%?" I said, "Yes". And that's basically how the
whole night went. We all would walk up to each other
and ask if the other person was a certain screen name.
We danced, partied, laughed, and had an awesome time.

We went out to breakfast and eventually said good night.
I really miss the people from the chat room. We had such
a great time. This all occurred in 1998.

The next morning, I figured out how to ride the train
to Times Square. I went to a restaurant on Times Square
and had the best Chili I have ever had. I think it was called
the Chili Factory. I'm really not sure.

I saw the Empire State Building, went to Tower Records
and fell in love with a group called Alabina, and basically
drifted along Times Square. Be sure to click on the Alabina link,
it's an awesome Flamenco, Arabic sound. The Megamix is off
the chart if you like this type of music.

When I was in Manhattan, I was captivated how it could
be peaceful in such a large city.

Manhattan, you will forever be the apple of my eye.

I highly recommend seeing Manhattan and Times Square.

Drifters Memoirs
Travel Banter Blog
@-------->----------

Hi Everyone,

Blogging is so much fun. At times we can run across very ruthless people on here. One of the blogs I had to be changed from a blogspot blog to a dot com blog. This was not because of Blogger. Blogger has supported us above reproach and I'm a true Blogger fan.

It's just when you have a good thing, you have to protect it. Our new web site address for Glamour and Cocktail Dresses is www.cocktaildressandheels.com . So if you want to continue looking for cocktail dresses and evening dresses with us, please go to the above address.

Someone may ask, how in the heck did I go from Travel Memoirs to Cocktail Dresses? It's very simple. When you travel, you want to look good. When people go on a cruise, there's normally parties and formal nights.

Men wear tuxes or suits and the women wear formals. It's really amazing how one travel experience can revamp a person's wardrobe.

I recall taking a trip to Hawaii (while stationed in Alaska). I wanted a few nice outfits, dresses and new high heels. What did I do? I went on a shopping spree and begged a girlfriend for a few of her outfits.

The next post, I'll tell you about my trip to Hawaii! Remember, I was stationed in Alaska and it was around 20 degrees and when I landed in Hawaii, it was 88 degrees lol. What a contrast.

Take care and have a great holiday season.


Drifters Memoirs
Travel Banter Blog
Cocktail Dresses and Heels
@---------->-------------

Tags: travel memoirs
humor cocktail dresses

Continuation from my posting in http://www.livejournal.com/users/bryanong/:

White Hat
When you think of white, think of neutral. de Bono has categorized information as a neutral subject. The white hat has to do with data and information.
What information do we have here?
What information is missing?
What information would we like to have?
How are we going to get the information?
When you ask for white hat thinking at a meeting you are asking people to forget about proposals and arguments and to concentrate directly on the information. What information is needed, what is available, and how it can be obtained.

Red Hat
When you think of red, think of fire and passion. The red hat allows people to show their emotions on a subject, their gut feelings. People don't need to justify their statements. It is often important to get feelings out in the open, rather than have people at a meeting have hidden agendas, feelings, or misgivings. The red hat allows these feelings to be expressed, to come out in the open.
This is what I feel about the project...
My instincts tell me this won't work.
I like this, I don't like that. The idea is that these statements are known to be "feelings" and nothing more. Once they are stated, the meeting can move on to a more constructive approach.

Black Hat
When you think of black, think of negative, or caution. The black hat is for critical judgment. It points out what cannot be done. The hope is that the black hat role will prevent us from making mistakes.

Yellow Hat
When you think of yellow, think of the sun and sunny, positive thoughts. The yellow hat role is for discussing ONLY the positive view of problems and solution possibilities. The yellow hat looks for benefits (and feasibility), but must be logically based, not intuitive like the red hat.
We are often better with the black hat. We are good at seeing what won't work, as opposed to what will. Forcing ourselves to look only at the positive aspects can be very valuable, since otherwise we don't always move forward.

Green Hat
When you think of green, think of plants and growth. The green hat is for new ideas, for creativity, for new alternative solutions.
Could this be done in another way?
Might there be another explanation?
Does anyone have another idea? (See brainstorming)

Blue Hat
When you think of blue, think of the sky and an overview. The blue hat is the hardest one to understand. It deals with controlling the thinking process. The blue hat is often "given" to one person, who controls what hat will be "worn", hence controlling the type of thinking being used. The different colours don't always follow in the same order. Depending on the situation, and the mix of people, it might be better to let people get their negative thoughts out first, or their intuitive sense, and then use yellow or green to move ahead. The blue hat comments on the thinking being used, asks for conclusions, decisions, etc. The blue hat can move from person to person, or can be a chairperson.

Source

Love and romance is about how to achieve love and romantic compatibility regardless to your age? Single, married, divorced or even aged! It doesn't matter since your heart is still beating.

An example of how some people who request consulting and want others to help them do things in a hurry, write such long sentences and just don't care.

Here's what you can do after a hacker strikes.

Similar to its long term migration to New Teams, Microsoft plans to replace the classic Outlook desktop app with New Outlook.

A law of physics that explains why larger animals live longer and travel further can be extended to the simplest forms of mass migration on the planet - like rolling stones and turbulent eddies in water and air currents...

RSS is the newest technology for communicating with others. It avoids spam and it puts you in the control seat...learm more about RSS...
RSS Overview

Best Regards
Bob
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RSS:www.orchids-plus-more.com/support-files/orchids-plus-more.xml

What are these orchids? They will prove to be easy to care...Dtps will also show better blooms.

Leaf orchid care will help you to spot diseases early. Orchids like other plants get diseases spot trouble early before it turns to disaster. Read more on this;

Best Regards
Bob
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URL:www.orchids-plus-more.com
RSS:www.orchids-plus-more.com/support-files/orchids-plus-more.xml

When an orchid is sick the blooms will hold a lot of hints for the diagnosis. Read More...



Best Regards
Bob
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URL:www.orchids-plus-more.com
RSS:www.orchids-plus-more.com/support-files/orchids-rss.xml

We've taken a giant step and added more options for you and your shopping experience. Take a look. Bob Roy http://www.orchids-plus-more.com

CDC issues health alert to U.S. doctors over subtype of monkeypox spreading in Congo that kills one in ten and is more infectious –Alert warned clinicians to test patients traveling from the Congo for the virus | 7 Dec 2023 | Doctors in the US are being told to look out for a more deadly […]

Like the facilitator, the online student possesses unique qualities. The online students of today consist primarily of working people who are trying to better their opportunities. This however is changing, as more and more young and older people become aware...

WHAT WOULD GANDHI DO? Fred Thompson thinks Code Pink's sanctimonious question is actually reprehensible. During World War II, Gandhi penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the...

Brand can be a really fuzzy concept. Plenty of small business owners think that brand = their logo. They’re not necessarily wrong, since a logo is part of an overall brand. But what many don’t know is that their overall brand is a whole lot more. What I hope to break down in this article is explain a little bit more about what is included in an overall brand as well as how to get [...]

The post What Do You Do and Who Do You Do It For – Uncovering the Keys to Your Brand appeared first on Create + Design + Market.

I’m convinced that no company out there wants people to be able to use older computers or software, even if they’re still working fine.

I get the money-making angle for software companies. They have to stay in business and in order to do so, most have moved to subscription based models. As software is constantly updated for the latest operating systems, the technology that runs those operating systems (computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and even [...]

The post The Conundrum of Old Tech (aka, what do with your old computers, phones, etc.) appeared first on Create + Design + Market.

Whether you’re just starting out and need a brand new website for your small business, or you already have a site up (but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything for your business), you could benefit from determining what your website actually needs. Just having a site is not enough. Remember, a website is your most important digital asset and should be your central, online marketing piece. So putting some extra thought into that is [...]

The post How do you know what your small business website needs? appeared first on Create + Design + Market.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. (via Wikipedia).

Basically, it’s all the rage lately and I’ve done extensive testing on it to determine (1) its usefulness and (2) its pitfalls. And no, I didn’t use it to come up with the text of this post. This is really just a very quick, very broad overview and introduction to what this is and how it’s being used.

First, I’ll [...]

The post What’s all this about ChatGPT? appeared first on Create + Design + Market.

This is a very helpful article to read regarding what
we do for work and how we view our career path.

This article is from the Military Transition
Tips Article Directory:


"What Do You Do For Work?"
By: Doreen Banaszak

I remember being asked this question a lot when I was
dissatisfied with my career. My usual strategy would be to
give a pat answer and immediately turn the question back
on the person who asked it.

My avoidance of the question wasn't so much.......

Article Continued

Military Transition Tips Article
Veterans In Motion

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