Emilia

Raped at the age of ten, a life full of depression and self harm since then, you let me step into your life but for a moment last night. Scarred beyond your years but at twenty-one your still but a child. May your journey forward be graced with peace and sanctity.

Thank God I'm Canadian!

Happy to be CANADIAN, yes I am!

Although I have many American friends(and even some relatives), I gotta say..."America..your "FU*KING CRAZY"
Most people are a little bit crazy. Americans are simply a splendid example. Well, I shouldn't say it that way because it significantly understates the case. Americans are an outstanding example of human craziness.
You might even say Americans are the absolute pinnacle of human craziness, the "greatest" achievement of our species.
Americans LOVE guns, www.pinkgun hey it's their constitutional right to bear an arsenal of high powered automatic weapons to blow the shit outta somebody that may knock on their door after midnight. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  1791 folks..time for an update!! Maybe that's why there were more than 11,000 murder's in the US last year. That's why if there is going to be a 'massacre' anywhere in the world it will probable be in the US (ie: 20 children killed in Newton Conn, Oregon shopping mall, Colorado movie theatre..ect..ect..) The US has the highest gun ownership in the world, 90 guns per 100 people..
In America you can get a gun easier than you can get health care, walk into a Walmart and pick one up next to the diaper section...that shit is just crazzzzy! There are about 300 million guns floating around the good ol' US of A, I don't think these are all hunting guns?
In America if you have the "small man penis syndrome" you don't need to buy a Harley motor bike, or a Porche convertible, you get your small penis an AR 15 !!!

You buy a gun because you're threatened that 'they're' going to deny you one. It makes perfect sense to me, too. Whenever any government bans a book or a movie, I buy it immediately, on principle. It's my right. "If I want to have a gun that blats off more than a thousand bullets in a few seconds, why shouldn't I??"   HUH!! America...NRA... pull your ignorant backwards head out of your ass.
One interesting case is the defeat of crack cocaine, which has slowly disappeared from urban America. Not because of the tens of billions of dollars spent on the war on drugs, which has resulted only in drugs becoming cheaper and more accessible than ever. But because it became clear that smoking crack was the same as committing suicide. Crack evolved from a sign of pleasure to one of death. The same transformation may well happen with assault weapons.
A country should not be judged by how great it is, but how great the majority of its individuals are.

Why be surprised when the rest of the planet regards the USA as an out of control rogue nation?

Plainly, Yanks love guns more than children. Or their cultural paranoia is greater than their care for their children. Either way, the USA is a nation not yet civilised.  Americans are the only Western nation without public health care for goodness sake.
A country should not be judged by how great it is, but how great the majority of its individuals are. And there are a lot of countries out there doing it a lot better than America.
Thank God I'm Canadian!

My first patient today was a nice gentleman who stormed the beaches of Normandy..when he was just 18 years old. You just sometimes never know who your going to meet on any given day. A lot of Paramedic's don't enjoy the geriatric calls, and I must say that it gets a tad boring doing these myself, however I always take the time to ask some unrelated questions from their medical history, like "what did you do in your younger days" , "where did you grow up".
I've met some pretty interesting characters in my time with the ambulance service, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a lady who worked for Churchill decoding secret messages from the Nazi party, a guy who ran from the east coast of Canada to the west coast...too many to remember. It's a joy meeting different people and learning 'their story'.

I feel I am getting a bit fitter, slowly building up my running endurance, 3-4 hours of solid trail running is feeling good. I would like to get up to about 6 hours of continous running ability, then i will able to add some long walk/run trips into the mountains with some good climbs and descents. I feel my mental strength is there, I just need to get the legs turning over. My feet have plagued me with a variety of issues, if I could get them 100% then I know could perform a lot better. Keep givin'er!!

24 hour virus is..

...a great weight loss program. Pressurized vomit and diarrhea, awesome!
I hadn't been that sick in a while, it was quick and intense and just as quickly as it came it left.
The wife was awesome, she provided me with lots of 'Chinese' medicine, TLC and wifely support.
Feeling better tonight, came in for my night shift, we'll see if I can stay away from the toilet tonight!

Bolus

Got my coffee, gonna bolus that in! Gimme 5 and I'll be ready.

Week in review

Did a couple trail runs, couple indoor trainer sessions on the bicycle, some strength and cardio workouts. Feeling good throughout the week, my longer run this week was 3 hours, which went well, I drank too much coffee the morning of, and then had to pee about every 30 minutes. Side note about peeing and racing. Sure when you are training and you need to pee you just pull off the trail a bit and then go do you business. But when I am in a competition I will pee on the run..in my shorts..on myself.....no problem. Taking a dump is another matter.
The wife and I argue about stupid shit, usually something difficult to translate or make her understand. She gets frustrated and pissed off and then we laugh it off. She IS a crazy Chinese mofo though! She's a very feisty little thing, all 5 foot 2 inch 96lbs of her. She is awesome though and I love her to bits, I cannot think of my life without her.
Work has been good, I did my ITLS course(international trauma life support) and got all my required CME credits for the year. The licensing requirements are always a hassle every year but I guess it is good to make a standard requirement for Paramedics.
Helen and I went to Maggie's Highschool open house. Helen cannot believe all the things a western highschool offers, music, arts, cooking, theatre, sports, dance, trades, and such like. She never had any of that, Maggie never had any of that either...her schooling and education is drastically different then what she would have if she were still in China. However the biggest difference would be the way of learning. The school of thought in the West is totally different than how Chinese students learn, TOTALLY!!!
I'll explain more about the schooling system a little later, right now my thumb is getting tired from typing this up on my iPhone :/
Here are a few pictures from the week that was...
running, skating thingy at the Olympic Oval, ITLS gear, Vancouver General heli pad.

Beautiful day today, blue skies and a cool breeze, it's just nice to not go out in the rain again. Went for a nice one hour trail run, picked up the pace and added a couple 5 minute 'pick-ups' into my run, felt good. Getting home I immediatly got on the indoor trainer and did a one hour spin on the bike, sweated it out in my self made sweat suit(trying to drop a few pounds..damn chocolate)
Working ot tonight, kinda wanted to stay home with the wife tonight but the lure of money has me by the balls...no sorry that's 'my mortgage' has me by the balls. Can't ever seem to get ahead!!
Went back to the hospital where we took the head injury guy from my last post, the nurse told me he had a cardiac arrest, but is now somewhat 'stable' up in ICU.
So far tonight it has been an 18 year old who passed out on the bus after drinking a 'yager' and snorting oxycontin(didnt know that they snorted oxy??), he was depressed and wanted to kill himself. Then there was the light weight 25 year old male who witnessed his friend getting hit in the head when a bed frame fell on his head and some blood squirted out. When he saw the blood he fainted, awoke with heart palpitations...wanted to go to the hospital. "Ok, get in".. the red and white taxi is here...