Blog post # 3 Summer Classes

Class is over in about a month, My last class is the 22nd of December. Recently we signed up for classes for the spring semester. In the program I'm in IT-Networking the spring semester would have had 19 credits which would have been pretty tough. Luckily though, I had already taken care of two of the geneds during this last summer. So, I didn't have to take Economics or Ethics. I put speach in one of my open periods so now I'm at 15 or 16 this semester. Since I took Speach off my 3rd semester that one went down from 18 to 15. I have a good schedule I go in from 9 am to 3 pm mon through thursday and I have Friday off. All thanks to summer classes

Personally, I'm never doing summer classes again it was kind of annoying going in from 445pm to 730pm, I couldn't work in the afternoon. Plus the classes were long, 3 hours or so. There were some benefits. Having only two classes helped me get an A in both of them. I was able to study for tests, do all the homework and passed both classes with over 100%. It's a good way to get some credits without too much work, and you don't need a parking permit in the summer, but the schedule is inconvienent.

Blog Post #6 My thanksgiving Break

When you think of Thanksgiving, what comes to mind? I think of a small dining room or kitchen completely crammed full of my family. I think of all my brothers and my sister and all their kids. I image a few of my aunts and uncles stopping by as well. This year that wasn't the case.

This probably has a lot to do with all my Siblings having their own family. They either had thanksgiving at their own home with their children or they went over to their other parent's house. The same could be said about my aunts and uncles minus the other parent part. So this thanksgiving I was surprised that it was just My parents and I. I was still full of a ton of good food and it was nice to spend time with my parents. I was just a little disapointed to not see all my brothers. Oh well, there is still christmas and since I'm the only one who showed up to thanksgiving I automatically get more stuff then everybody else. I wasn't told that, its just logic.

What else happened on my thanksgiving break? Well there was work, but you don't wanna hear about that.

Well I havn't had a coat thoughout the whole fall season. To save money I waited until the time was right to get a good coat. That time was Black Friday. At 1130am I went to Kohls, After getting lucky and finding a close parking spot in a packed parking lot I quickly went in and got my Coat and hat, which would have normally been $140 all together. There were forty people in each of the two checkout lines, but it moved so fast I got out in five minutes. I paid #52 and aparently save 90 bucks. All in all, a good weekend.

Blog Post #8 Blog Posts

Whoops.....

I underestimated the point-value of these blog posts. Now that my grade has been updated I'm MUCH more motivated to write these. Where before I didn't have anything to write about, now I'm more than happy to write about ANYTHING :). So the actual topic of this blog post is a brainstorm of possible Blog Post topics.

So there are many possible topics for blog post some are recomended some are not. Topics include: junk you see on youtube, recent or even not so recent news, junk you see on TV, books you've read, movies  you watched, what you did over the weekend, brainstorms of possible Blog Posts, and any worthless subject you can squeeze two paragraphs out of.

I am easily able to write about things I've seen on the internet, Television, books, or movies. And writing about random stuff is enjoyable because it can be funny (to yourself at least). I don't really like writing about news, mostly because other than the rare otter atack, it doesn't really interests me and I can write about something I don't find interesting. I also can't write about my weekend because I either didn't do anything that I can write about or what I did was just not something I can squeeze two paragraphs out of. And my MOST recomended topic: just start writing and go with it, For example, this blog post.

Blog Post #7 OTTER ATTACK!!!

On my way to school this morning I was listening to the radio. They talked about a young man who was attacked by an otter. The young man who was about 17 walked into the pond in his back yard and recorded this otter who was swimming around doing all this cute stuff. Then he runs up and starts eating the kid's leg. The screams of the kid are kinda hilarious. You can watch the video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPcMpz3BCes

 Personally, I feel any small animal or rodent shouldn't be approached. They look cute but as soon as you get near them they'll either run away or eat your face. I'm sure some people who read this have either harrased a squirel and had it chase them. (I have) I say we should just plant land mines all over the edges of lawns and sidewalks to deter the furry fugitives from repeat offending. We should possibly allocate some of the resources of homeland security to protect the people from this internal threat.

Blog Post #5

          Many of you may have gotten the news of this recent email sent to all western students. A lot of burglaries have been reported recently, most were near but not limited to the downtown La Crosse area. They say the items stolen were commonly Tv's, game systems, computers and other high price electronics. It stated that the culprit most likely knew which houses were unsecured and even where most of the items were located in the apartments/houses. This was likely learned at parties in these houses and from friends.
          I've read some things on the LaCrosseTribune.com and I've found this to just be one of many instances in just the fast few months. Some were small scale burglaries, some were at a wider scale like this one. One man was even shot and killed in his home during an armed robbery. My Uncle who I'm living with said he used to drive school bus and drove the person who perpetrated this crime to school every morning.
        I recently moved here from Sparta and it surprises me how common these things are, not that long ago a girl shot up her boyfriends house before killing herself at he own home. I suppose it has to do with this being a larger city. Not long ago a few friends and  I were stumbling our way back to one of their homes after midnight and we were followed by two stranger's from main street to market street. We were able to loose them in an alley that they followed us into and headed home.
       I'm not sure what to make of this, bigger cities are less safe maybe? La Crosse isn't neccessarily a huge city although its much larger than my home town. I don't know what to make of it.  Compared to the US as a whole I suppose we might be better than average.
http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-La-Crosse-Wisconsin.html

Weekly Blog Post #4

      Since I moved in to my Aunt and Uncles house to be closer to college they had to get rid of their 100+ TV channels. Now we currently have basic cable. Now, I know there are worse things and that people are suffering around the world, which I'll write about later because Im running out of personal topics, but I am really bored if I can't find anybody to hang out with. So first I spent some time excercising: riding bike, running, just getting outside to keep myself busy. Now thats its getting colder surfing the internet or playing my xbox will probably get old fast. Plus, I want to see the new South Park episodes, or maybe watch The Daily Show or Tosh.0.
    After considerable suffering I went back to one of my fundamental skills. Pirating cool stuff off the internet. So with a few searches and a little downloading I can get any episode of any show I want. Plus if I want to have I movie I can get that too. But, I also like to go to Family video and excercise my 1/2 off any rental discount. I have about $40 worth of coupons for popcorn and rentals as well. So if all goes well I should not be to bored this next semester. Praise Jesus

My Final Draft of my Narrative

This is a better updated version of my Narrative for this class.

                This last spring our family had a frightening experience. The month leading up to this family crisis, my mother had gotten kidney stones; she was prescribed a medication to help with the pain. Within two weeks from recovering from that my mother went in to the hospital with a serious case of pneumonia. The doctors gave her some medication and sent her home. What we later learned was that she had an Oxygen percentage of about 70%. According to other doctors I’ve spoken to, it is the policy of that hospital to admit anyone under 88% because a healthy woman her age should have had at least 95%. To have a percentage under 70 is considered life threatening.

                The next day, I had come home from high school and found the house empty and eerily quiet, not paying much attention to it I got dressed for work. As I was driving to work I got a phone call from my sister. She told me my mother was in the hospital there in Sparta and she was going to be sent by ambulance to Gunderson Lutheran in La Crosse. I remember hanging up and taking a sharp left turn towards the Sparta Clinic which was just a few blocks away. I got there within minutes and I entered the Emergency entrance and saw my sister in the lobby. She led me to the hallway to the Ambulance and I saw my mom hooked up to an oxygen tank as she was being put on a gurney.  I had learned that my sister in law went home and saw that my mother could barely move and her lips were blue. She convinced my mother to go to the hospital and by the time she got there my mom could barely walk.

                My mother assured me that she would be alright and that they’re just transporting her to a better equipped hospital, though in reality I had already learned that the doctors were not sure she would survive the ride there. I tried calling my friend so he could take my shift for me but I was not able to get a hold of him. I called in to work telling them I was not coming but they asked me to come in because they didn’t have someone to take the shift for me. My mother at the time worked at the same place I did and I remember her saying “It’s alright I understand that they don’t have anyone to replace him”.  Being upset I went into work without thinking about it, which I regret doing. If I encounter another situation where I have to work and a family member is in that condition I’ll call into work and tell them it’s not my problem if they have a replacement or not.

                So I spent about three hours at work, I was nervous, frustrated and upset.  Two hours into it I had learned that the General Manager of the restaurant I worked at was visiting my mom because she was in La Crosse. That made me furious that she was there when I should have been, and within a few minutes I decided to leave and go see my mother. The thought that she might die while I’m nowhere near was what upset me the most. Just before I was about to walk out I got another call from the GM and she told me that my brother was coming to pick me up and take me to the ICU to see my mom.

                When we got to Gunderson Lutheran in La Crosse, the first thing I did was enter the ICU waiting room where my whole family was, because only two people could visit my mom at the time. My four siblings and their families were there, as well as many of my aunts and uncles. My family has always been very close and it was very comforting to have them there and learn about my mother’s condition. The first chance to visit her was about twenty minutes after I got there. I went down the hall to her room and found my dad speaking to her while she was lying in a hospital bed. I had never seen her that weak before, she was hooked up to oxygen and other machines to monitor her health, but she was awake and completely coherent.

                It was a relief to speak to her and see she was alright at the moment, although her condition was still very high risk. We didn’t have a specifically special conversation, I remember asking about what the doctors said and telling her I loved her. It was simply seeing her, making sure she was all right and letting her know I cared that mattered to me at that point. I had to leave because the nurses were going to medicate her and run a few tests. I returned to the waiting room in better spirits and spent most of the night with my family. There were many discussions, some about random things, others about my mother’s condition. We were all worried that the doctors said that the test results for my mother wouldn’t be ran till tomorrow morning and we’d get them later that night. One nurse told us my mother had Adult Respiratory distress. When we looked it up on the internet it said most that got that died a few days later. When we talked to a doctor he apologized and said the nurse must have mixed up what disorder she thought it was. He explained that that was merely what she thought it was and they wouldn’t know till the test results came in.  At about 11pm I went back home with my brother.

                Two days later my mother came home, soon after they took a sleep study and we had learned that she had a case of severe sleep apnea and the reason her lungs got so weak was that she wasn’t breathing in her sleep. The medication she was prescribed for her kidney stones relaxed her throat, but it was not supposed to be used by someone with sleep apnea, which we didn’t know she had.  When she vomited from the kidney stones fluid was getting in her lungs which coupled with the fact that her breathing was restricted when she slept was very dangerous and high risk.  Since then she has had to sleep with an oxygen machine next to her bed, she had this for a month or two. She got rid of that oxygen machine after her lungs healed and switched to a pressurized mask she has to wear in her sleep that forces her to breathe. She has to wear that indefinitely, but she is currently hoping to find an alternative that isn’t so uncomfortable. Her health is much better and she hasn’t been hospitalized since then.  We were able to almost immediately get the hospital to pay for much of the medical costs. She was sent home with a low oxygen percentage in her lungs when she should have had tests run. If that had not happened she may not have needed to go to the ICU.

                As I said she is doing much better since this last spring, but unfortunately this last week I got a text message from her saying she had been diagnosed with Pneumonia again. The doctors gave her medication and are running tests. She should be fine when she gets better but I worry if she could have chronic lung issues and if it could be a problem when she gets older.