survival and a book suggestion

I try to stay away from fiction for the most part because i get sucked into it and i try to read as much to learn as well for entertainment and above that I really try to read my textbooks because i'm supposed to do that.
i am not by any means saying you can't learn from fiction--you definitely can--i meant i try to stay away from purely entertainment fiction.
ANYWAYS. I recommend you read Footprints of God by Greg Iles. while fiction, there is definitely something to be learned here. I had a hard time picking it up (because of school-guilt) but as soon as i did, i had a hard time putting it down and i finished it last night. its a philosophical quick read that will get your mind going. If you've read it, i'd love to hear what you thought, and if you haven't... read it and then tell me if you could wrap your mind around those concepts and then tell me what you thought.

On top of the artificial intelligence subject matter--the book (and watching cast away...) got me thinking on how incredibly connected our world is by technology and how reliant we really are on that technology. If some disaster were to befall our world, how many of us could really survive out in the middle of a forest or island. How many of us have what it takes, could do without the internet, supercenters and perfectly prepared food? how many of us can make a fire out of soggy wood? tie knots strong enough to land a 50 pound fish, or anything else you might need a knot that strong for... how many of us can filter water or know what plants are poisonous and which are safe? these questions go on a while... even if (i.e. 2000 crisis) someone were to "stock up" on batteries, etc... how long would that really last, and how much better off would that person be once they were gone? how would you deal with injury? i have dedicated this last summer to learning some techniques that would be necessary in any situation--not on purpose at first, but i'm leaning more towards that now. I am sure that something big is going to change in our world soon, and unless i get killed instantly by some nuclear bomb... i plan on surviving. It might actually be peaceful and rewarding to go live out in the middle of nowhere and use my own skills to survive.

i'm not some crazy end-o-the-world nut... nor am i anti-modern-commodities... i am very close to my feather-bed AND my blackberry. i AM considering going on survival trips... short ones... where i can obviously get back to society... just to learn, test, and work on my skills. they're important to have. i don't ever want to be a helpless person nor do i want to be someone that gives up. I want to be someone that knows they can rely on themselves, and that others can rely on--in any situation.

self-help help letter

my anxiety has been more than out of control lately, so i decided, as most of us neurotic people do, to go back to one of my favorite places for help. the self-help section at borders, picked up a book that is supposed to be one of the top 8 self-help books of all time and i started reading it...

the irony jumps in here... wait for it... the book has been making my anxiety WAY worse... just reading about anxiety has been tensing me up and giving me that knot in my stomach. does that even make any SENSE?

and the tests... KNOWING i'm like at the 99th percentile of abnormal above anxious people... really doesn't help with anything.

signed-
hoping this book becomes more helpful REALLY soon

when the hypothetical happens

friday afternoon. i was preparing for 2 things. the first being trish's wedding, the rehearsal dinner of which was going on that evening and with me being in the bridal party i was going to feel bad not being able to make the dinner. anyhow, an escape to tulsa as fast as possible was in order. and the second thing was a presentation on a hypothetical avian flu epidemic in which it transfers into being sustained person-to-person transmission and about 100 people are initially exposed to it in tulsa, oklahoma. The presentation was for a class on public health preparedness and practices dealing mainly with threats of rapid infection spread or bioterrorism.

Prior to this class period i did NOT have much informtion on swine flu. During the middle of the class, my professor got called out of class due to necessity of being on a conference call dealing with the rising situation. considering his background, obviously this makes a lot of sense. He came back into the class and discussed the situation with us. The entire thing was terribly ironic considering the presentation project assignment that we were working on at the exact present time. our hypothetical situation seemed pretty ironic considering the exact event was going on now with swine flu. on friday the count was 2 confirmed cases in texas, 6 in california, and about 100 exposed people in mexico. We began to do research as a class effort and figure out what we could. only i couldn't stay around to see when i could find out because i had a wedding to get to. i tried to catch a CDC statement on NPR on the way to tulsa but all i could do at this point was to watch it unfold.

Sunday afternoon. I had not had internet access in a few days due to being away for a gorgeous wedding. (Congrats Trishy) As soon as i get back and begin my research I see the situation has escalated immensely. After being in the middle of it friday and studying in class exactly what COULD happen and then watching the first steps happening within just a few days, of course i began freaking out. I have seen where this situation can go, i've studied it continually and aside from that was taking a class BASED on this situation. (and watching toooooo many outbreak movies)

The point of this is that this flu is an immeadiate threat and should be taken seriously. the arguement of "the regular flu kills people every year" is null and void in my opinion. people survived the plague too... stupidity kills people too. the flu kills people by changing to a case of pneumonia and combining with other factors in one's body and environment. this flu does NOT have a vaccine and is resistant to two of the 4 antivirals we have. if it continues to evolve, it could be as bad as past epidemics where millions die or it could just scare the hell out of us all, which is what it should do. If borders start closing and supplies can't get in we'll be in an exponential amount of trouble. please understand the severity of how fast it is spreading. Understand that as soon as there is one case in a state, many are to follow. it IS that contagious but once a person contracts the virus he has no idea for at least a day and every person he has come into contact with in that day are now exposed.

A virus is an amazing thing. I'm dedicating a portion of my life to respecting and understanding them. They are defined as not living things, but they are able to adapt and change with their environments far better than we as humans are. In my opinion viruses are natures way of keeping populations in check--we've already far surpassed the population of the planet that we should have and this only will account for further spreading. please just be careful. don't take a threat like this lightly. Its already in many countries. I'll never understand how people will duct-tape windows for the year 2000 but will laugh at an infection spreading over the land.

so long tiko!

there's a stepping stone... my OU email address is finally being deleted. i guess that means i have to fully move on to my big-girl email address and with that comes the impending other big-girl responsibilities. its been my internet identity for so long that not going to exchange.ou.edu is just going to be strange.... not sure how i'm going to handle this one...

but we all have to grow up

we all have to move on--past the dorm days and 3 am campus walks...
past that first weekend when we all moved in not knowing what to expect and not knowing what hit us when it did... but getting to start off with bags and bags of free things from manipulative vendors... (we got the last laugh)
past making all those new friends... losing all those new friends to other states and cliques... finding new friends again... finally finding our little niche.
we all have to move on past the idea that we'll never really have to be responsible for more than an all-nighter before a huge test... or a forever long lab... or some 20 page paper that we pulled out of thin air...
past that constant checking of an email to see if your teacher replied to your begging for mercy...
past coming up with clever IM's until stupid hours of the night with the cute boy you met in class...
past the wading in the south oval fountains, jumping out of car-trunks and scaring the new kids taking campus tours...
we all have to move on past that time when we're just beginning to grow up and are expected to realize the entirity of our future...

we all have to grow up past these things but we don't have to forget them... sorta strange that an email address has so much history linked with it...

RIP tiko@ou.edu

chopped bug hair

i had a dream last night where a light colored scarab flew into my hair and stuck there. i had a coworker cut out the chunk of hair that it was entangled into. later in my dream i cut off the rest of my hair... and i just kept attacking my hair with scissors until it was all uneven and an awful mullet. yes thats right... an awful mullet.

in other nightmares--only the ones that happen during waking hours....

i would like to say... less than 1 month in... and obama is sincerely apologizing for his mistake of nominating people with IRS issues. c'mon... really... everyone is making a huge deal out of this but he's actually even coming out and saying that he's sorry when it really wasn't his personal fault if he didn't know about their issues... for those of you who don't know... he actually has a board to research and make sure everything is kosher with his nominees. i'm pretty sure bush said he really didn't make any mistakes even at the end of his 8 years. i just don't understand. there were 8 years of administration that sent the economy to the gutter and people are STILL whining about the new plans to bring it back to clinton levels--or at least livable levels. people are still whining about obama and his policies and ideas... the same people that are whining... this is for you: you HAD 8 YEARS... IT DIDN'T WORK. GIVE IT A DAMN REST AND GO ON VACATION SOMEWHERE FOR A FEW YEARS.

this was my favorite. psych. i had a coworker come in today and say "so i know what democrats don't mind high taxes.... they don't pay them anyways....". he continued to laugh hysterically before going into everything that is wrong and ridiculous about democrats. i've heard his rants so many times before... about how the country is going to hell now that obama won... how healthcare is over and how we need to go buy as many guns as possible because everything about them is about to be illegal. give it a break, man--i really don't like you.


just had to get that off my chest.