I mentioned The Blonde's interest in doing a blog. She wants to do it on nursing, where she feels she has a lot of knowledge to impart. Of the commenters here, what's your expertise, the field on which you think you can really expound for all the world to see? And maybe critique?
You know you have one.
68 comments:
My special knowledge is how to stay single. I don't think I'd get much traffic. Maybe I could start a dating website where you post your significant other and try to get them a date.
I'm also incredibly lucky, but I'm not sure how to turn that into a blog. Then a again, with my luck, I don't really need a plan.
Procrastination.
what's your expertise, the field on which you think you can really expound for all the world to see?
Brevity.
Bago, I don't know how you manage it, as eligible as you are :) You must have some sort of straight gaydar type thingy.
Ricpic, we could start a blog together and rule the internet. But I have plans today to spring into action! Will report later.
You leave yourself open for a stealth straight girl to pose as lesbian and pretend you've turned her, you know.
I am an excellent at making comments on blogs.
I was wondering how I would get this question to deborah and this post seems a fair enough opportunity.
[D]eborah, you seem interested in the topic of wisdom. I assume it's something you've thought about substantially.
My question is this: Can there be wisdom without humility?
I'll tell you why I ask. I'm listening to an audiobook on the history of evolutionary theory and it tells the story of a biologist who shamelessly ripped off Mendel's work and took credit for it. He got caught, eventually, and supposedly said, "Humilty is a virtue but one gets further in life without it."
And here's a quote I heard attributed to George Washington: "On the whole, vanity has done more for the progress of Mankind than humility."
Why is the Pope named Francis?
I think you see where I'm going with this.
I'll take my answer off the air, thank you very much.
I'm hoping to become an expert on the El Segundo Blue Butterfly, which we've discussed here before. I don't think it's very blog-able, but I might share what I learn here.
There are only a few hundred left in existence, and they only live behind my house. I'm going to a nursery today to get some Sea Cliff Buckwheat which is the only plant they live on. It's the only thing they will eat, breed or live on. No wonder they are going extinct. I mean c'mon, branch out, try something different. I'm gonna plant a bunch of it this weekend. Next, I'm gonna breed Dodo birds.
Deb, I know it's almost Halloween, but you are really scaring me with this stuff. I'm sending out a text to all my lesbian friends insisting on video P.O.L. (proof of lesbianism).
I thought i saw this post before. Am i having dejacade?
""On the whole, vanity has done more for the progress of Mankind than humility."
I can see that, it drives some people. For example some people give to charity out of a desire to look good to others. I think that's great. Whatever get the job done. Also, many great achievements, were nothing more than vanity quests.
On the other side, as Reagan was fond of, and attributed to Truman: "It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
All you need is Infinity... top
Tell the blonde to go for it. I'm interested in nursing stories. Could be very compelling. I think it's one of the hardest jobs there is, and most important. During my stints in the hospital, I felt mostly sympathy and some awe for the job they had to do. They were required to do some awful things to me, and the whole time I felt sorry for them. You go into nursing to help people, yet your job requires giving them pain, and embarrassment to help them. That's tough, and it never ends with new people every day.
Remembering things I've read, seen or heard-and noticing those details in the first place. I'm really good at that. I should be a detective. I have to hide the things I remember so I don't seem like a creeper. I don't care all that much, really; I just remember.
Yes, AJ, you do. I think we have a unique mix here. I love it.
Eric, I never think of wisdom or attaining it, but I don't think it's possible without humility. But it's coincidental you should ask that since last night I read this:
Meditation and wisdom are considered one--inner cultivation and outer illumination. -Nyogen Senzaki, Buddhism and Zen
ST?! It is totally cool that you have that butterfly protective site in your back yard. Has the government ever planted sea cliff buckwheat there?
Lem I used the same picture on Ed's last question on blogging.
Exactly, Pants. I have that kind of memory on what people have posted.
Of the commenters here, what's your expertise, the field on which you think you can really expound for all the world to see?
Games and game theory.
That's not how I earn my living, but it is my passion. :)
Rev recently I watched the beginning of a well-known British documentary series...uh...shoot, the name escapes me. But they explained Prisoners Dilemma in a way that I finally got it. They explained it in the context of the world becoming more distrustful due to international relations assumptions. MAD, etc. The Beautiful Mind guy was interviewed.
I'm with AJ, except I tend to be too sloppy with grammar and sometimes spelling to be considered excellent anymore. There was a time I tried to do more. That even pre-dated Instapundit. You might have to wait until after the shutdown to read the link.
I'm all for the nurse blog. Wife is a nurse. Bago, the stories are always interesting. I'll give an example:
So yesterday, the big news was the dental hygenist that went crazy and got shot by cops. My wife nearly had that happen in her hospital just 2 weeks ago. Man came into the hospital, and then just flipped out. One description claimed he was throwing security guards off him like The Hulk. A tazer was fired but it was uneffective. Eventually, 4 guards, 3 police officers, and a half dozen nurses managed to hold him down and get the guy sedated. My wife is in administration now, and as she wasn't on duty at the time, she was tasked with the initial investigation. One of the nurses was a 5'4" female, and so my wife asked, "why was she involved in taking this guy down?". One of guards spoke up and said she was probably the most effective person there. When they got the man down, the small nurse put her foot as her windpipe.
The guy since recovered and was perfectly normal. He was discharged earlier this week. What caused his attack is still a bit unknown. It is almost certain that a chemical inbalance was involved, but his tox screen came back clean.
I'd like to ask Mrs. edutcher whether it's true that nurses have to whack you off a little bit before they can catheterize your dingus.
Because that's like my worst nightmare and God forbid it's a male nurse.
That'd be worse that George Costanza getting a massage from a dude.
I think it moved.
"The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. The average man is hooked to his fellow-men, while the warrior is hooked only to himself. Perhaps you are chasing rainbows. You're after the self-confidence of the average man, when you should be after the humbleness of the warrior. The difference between the two is remarkable. Self-confidence entails knowing something for sure; humbleness entails being impeccable in one's actions and feelings."
don Juan
"Has the government ever planted sea cliff buckwheat there?"
Ironically the reason the butterfly is near extinction is that in the 70s the government actually planted a bunch of coastal Buckwheat after they cleared out the houses, but they planted the wrong species. These picky-ass butterflies wouldn't have anything to do with it, and it out-competed the Sea Cliff variety, as did the other butterflies who liked the new stuff.
Since then, they have planted some Sea Cliff, but it's still a minority plant out there. I'm gonna try and change that some, although I kind of think the picky-ass butterflies deserve to go extinct with their attitude.
"...being impeccable in one's actions and feelings."
Great pull phx. Though Castaneda may have made up the whole thing, of which I'm undecided, there was still great wisdom emanating from Don Juan. I should reread the series.
As for expertise, well, in my field it is good to stay humble in realizing that no matter how much you know, you don't know everything, or even close. So keep an open mind as to the limits of your knowledge.
Besides, I am and have been more of a generalist in studying life and will likely remain so for the short years I have left.
Interpretive dance.
Rosemauling
whittling circumcised and uncircumcised pemises out of teakwood.
deviant sex
Touching Negroes and Indians in a caring and empathetic way.
Video surveillance.
Getting people to talk who don't want to talk.
Finding people that don't want to be found.
I'm just driving up numbers for Deborah. TOP is pleading for it in a proud, yet transparent way. They need a 10 man crew of skycaps for all that baggage over there.
Speaking of skycaps, I'm planning a trip in December. We're going to Milan, Florence, Tuscany, Cannes and Monaco. Any tips? chick?
Cool. That way you don't lose any time having to get off the table to go to the bathroom.
Thanks, deborah.
I was wondering when that last one was going to show up. Maybe you ought to extend the courtesy to phx since this was his idea.
bagoh20 said...
Tell the blonde to go for it. I'm interested in nursing stories. Could be very compelling. I think it's one of the hardest jobs there is, and most important. During my stints in the hospital, I felt mostly sympathy and some awe for the job they had to do. They were required to do some awful things to me, and the whole time I felt sorry for them.
I'll pass it along to her, bag, and thanks.
You're right about how hard they work and it can be a very dirty, thankless job.
PS Eric, I don't think so. I know Herself wouldn't do it as she worked communicable disease for a number of years (including the start of AIDS) and she's very leery of other people's bodily fluids.
PPS In a way, I think asking about one's expertise is like asking what's their passion, as most of the time, becoming anything like an expert requires a lot of effort, particularly over time.
(1) I forget who I got that from. Maybe The Drill Sgt or Fen or one of those guys. But I sure remember the claim. Yikes!
(2) I once went to a VD clinic. The doctor said, "Drop 'em." So I dropped my pants.
He goes, "Underwear too." So I drop 'em.
Then he says, "Milk it." And I'm like "Oh fuck, what do I do now?"
So I milked it.
Didn't seem like a good time to debate the subject.
Besides, doctor knows best.
P.S. At the end the guy said, "You're clean. Go get her again."
I don't remember what I said or did next. I was too embarrasssed to do anything but get the heck out of there.
He stuck this enormous wooden Q-Tip into my urethra.
Not something I'd ever do for fun, let's just say that.
ndspinelli said...
Speaking of skycaps, I'm planning a trip in December. We're going to Milan, Florence, Tuscany, Cannes and Monaco. Any tips? chick?
I was much younger when I travelled those parts and did stupid things like sleep outside and hitchhiked. I used to say to myself when I watched tourists getting off busses "I'm so glad I'm doing this now."
After you hit all the high spots, consider going to small towns like Lucca (a walled city), Sienna, and San Gimignano, which viewed in the right light and from a distance has an almost urban skyline: link.
Of course the vino and food in Toscana is to die for. Polish up your Italian because they love that.
@Nick: I was 19 when I visited Monaco and was too young to gamble or even get in the casinos. It's way different than Vegas, that's for sure. People dress elegantly to gamble. I had a German friend once who was shocked, shocked at Vegas when he visited: "They gamble in shorts!" he cried, as if that was the height of heathenism.
"On the whole, vanity has done more for the progress of Mankind than humility."
--G. Washington
Washington's use of the word vanity is unfortunate, though what he says is obviously true. All his contemporaries agreed that self-interest (a better term for what he meant) is the great driver of human achievement. In this they were all followers of John Locke. And America is a Lockean project and an immensely successful working out of the power of self-interest for the good of all. That a large cohort of our ruling class denies the Lockean project - for others, not for themselves - is why we are in crisis.
ndspinelli said...
Speaking of skycaps, I'm planning a trip in December. We're going to Milan, Florence, Tuscany, Cannes and Monaco. Any tips? chick?
I recently did part of that. Rent a diesel car. The diesels are high mpg and diesel is generally cheaper than gas.
I know this guy who lives his life on the straight and narrow and he runs to keep in shape.
He was once in Las Vegas for a business conference.
He told me afterwards, "One of the most depressing things I've ever seen in my life is Las Vegas at 5:30 in the morning."
Polish up your Italian because they love that.
i read this as though you were recommending to speak Italian with a Polish accent, and cracked myself up.
Thanks folks and C Stanley, the Polish Prince, lol.
princess?
Liability will be the problem with doing a blog on medical topics. Someone takes the advice, things go bad, and hello tort lawyers.
Although photos of implants would be okay.
The downside of nurses is that they don't offer much sympathy for head colds. Only massive coronaries need apply.
"Neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie" is, at the moment here, a specialty I shall ascertain in order to confer gratitude. My lack of wisdom cannot describe.
The Breakfast Club. The dead director at a young age to die isn't my specialty neither.
No Country For Old Men is the greatest defense I've witnessed, albeit indeed vicariously, of Reagan's (both quite forefrontly and philosophically is Nancy herewith) Drug Wars.
One of my best friends is a former cardiac care nurse, she has great stories. I think the blog is a great idea.
As for expertise, I'm trying to come up with one as I'm job hunting.
y/w Ed :)
Bago, will you have to keep at it for a year, watering till it's established? Then hopefully the patches you put in will re-seed?
Thanks for the quote phx. I've never read Castaneda.
XRay glad you like it. He's a favorite of mine as well. I'll be interested in what you think if you do reread him.
deborah you might feel a kinship with him as well.
I'll take a look :)
The great is the difference between the intent and the message.
edutcher thanks for the thought. I would prefer seeing more contributions here from you. I know there are one or two topics you have some expertise in.
Great foibles I break and will continue to "bread" were it as, since it worked for John Kerry when he broke bread with his running mate, Senator John Edwards.
deborah, here may be an inexpensve way to dip your toe in the water, so to speak. Serendipitous in a way as it just went up last month.
http://essential-knowledge.net/resources/entire-castenada-series-full-text/
I'll let you know, phx, should I reread. It would be interesting as it's been some thirty years now.
phx, giving a little more attention to that site above it does all seem a bit much. I wonder if Crack has ever read don juan, I doubt it. But I can see hints of 'the way of the warrior' in Crack, if that makes sense. Don't ask me why I thought of Crack re this subject though. :)
And, looking at the dates of publication, it has been closer to forty years than thirty. Alas.
Do it. But purchase blogger insurance, just in case.
Bagoh's butterflies. I love it.
Lucky butterflies.
How about. we focus, us all each and everyone, on the Joe Bidens,John Edwards, and Al Gores.
You know, first on everyone's list as leaders compared to SARAH PALIN.
How about that?
Most of the good ER stories involve people with objects inserted too far into the exit end of the alimentary canal. Just sayin'.
Keep us abreast on Sea Cliff Buckwheat/El Segundo Blue Butterfly experiment.
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