I'm a firm believer that everyone--and I mean everyone--has some good aspect to them no matter how utterly evil the rest of them may be...

For example, say whatever else you like about Nero, but the man was one hell of a fiddler.

EMT at Last

I took my EMT practical on wednesday...and I passed! I worked with Meryl and we had four scenarios to do. The first was the individual skill in which i had to demonstrate how to apply suction. The second was a cardiac arrest...basically a cpr scenario. Not like the BS cpr scenarios I had when I took CPR in highschool. This was pretty realistic and they grade you according to how well you do things. In order to pass you have a ninety-minute window in which to get an AED going and a four minute window in which to call ALS. Our third scenario was the trauma...and that one was a littel rough mainly because it was different than the traumas that they demonstrated for us in class. It was made more complicated by the fact that the patient (an EMT at the school) didn't seem to have anything actually wrong with him other than the fact that he was unconscious. We back boarded him and transported. Our one slipt was that we forgot to check the back, but we caught it in time. All we did was backboard him and transport, but we didn't know if we had done it right because we weren't sure what was wrong with him. I guess we did ok though because we both passed. My last scenario (which you do alone, just like with the aptly named individual skill) was the medical, and it was awsome. I love doing medical, which is good since that's what most calls are. I had a heart attack patient, and I took a SAMPLE history along with her vitals, gave her a quick focused medical exam and administered nitroglycerin (she had oxygen on the whole time, of course). And that was pretty much that.
I took the written test today and it was so easy it really wasn't much more than a formality for me. That's okay though because the local written was a prettry thourough test, so I think we were evaluated pretty well.
So I'm going to be an EMT-B. What do you know.

Well, I just got a beast of a chemistry test back. Evidently Dr. Shive has not been exposed to the concept of partial credit. Since there were only four twenty-point problems and five four point multiple choice questions, this caused some problems. Yeeeeaaaahhhhhh....
I really hope that those last couple labs brought up my lab grade...'cause I need it now.
On another note, I passed my local practical and written tests for the EMT course, and now I just need to pass the state tests and badabing badaboom: I'm an EMT. I just need to remember that ABC stands for Airway, Breathing, Circulation and not Ambulate Before Carry and I should do fine.

Love and Passion

When I first kissed Kate, I viewed love as being like an unapposable force drawing two people together. A desire to take that person and make her as happy as possible in as many ways as possible. I used to think that love was searching for the person who filled you with such ecstasy that you could not imagine being with out her. However, I was wrong.
An aquaintance once told me (in front of a whole audience) that love is rebuilding things when they have been damaged and most importantly, wanting to rebuild them. But he isn't right either.
Since I have been with Kate over these past few months, i have come to realize that love is something very different. It's much quieter, much more subtle and ultimately that much more wonderful. To paraphrase the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin, love is not a desire for something so strong it is greater than that for life itself. That is passion. Love is what is left over when passion dies and there is nothing else new to discover about each other. I would say that love is still desiring each other as much as the day you first met--if not more so--even after everything new and exciting has been discovered and there are no more stones left unturned. It is not passion, although passion leads to love. It is the simmering embers that remain once the fires of passion have been banked.

As Kate pointed out to me earlier, that last post came out sounding somewhat angsty. It wasn't supposed to...that was just my way of trying to be funny. The point that I was trying to make was that if we all really understood each other, the world would be a very boring place...so maybe a bit of misunderstanding is a good thing?

On another note, I took a chemistry test today that knocked my socks off. WHOOOAAA! I have no clue as to how I did. Absolutely none. I guess I'll find out in a couple days.
...but I did get an interview for that job that I wanted at the Museum of Natural History.

Everyone always complains that no one understands them... And by this I mean EVERYONE. I include myself in this along with every friend that i have ever had, because at one point or another every single one of us has has complained (even if it was just in our heads) that no one understands us. Well, I've been thinking about it and how I felt that remarkably few people in my grade really knew me back at Friends. Anyway, after thinking about it for a while and indulging myself in a bit of recreational self-pity I decided that a healthy bit of misunderstanding is a good thing. I don't think I really want anyone to completely know me (significant other excluded). I think I'd rather stay a little but mysterious and misunderstood. That way, I can still surprise people.

Here is a quote from the Tao Te Ching that I liked.

"The great integrity has given us three treasures to cherish:
The first is love.
The second is moderation.
The third is humility

If you love, you will be fearless.
If you are moderate, you might always sense abundance in life.
If you live in humility, you will be widely trusted.

But you will not have the capacity to love if you are fearful.
Even if you are fearless and without love, you will always be courting disaster.
If you live in insufficiency, you have no opportunity to be moderate.
If you live in overabundance, you not only live immoderately,
but are always courting disaster.

If no one trusts you, then compensatory ego will preclude humility.
If everyone trusts you and you lack humility, you will always be courting disaster."
--Segments of the Tao Te Ching, verse 67

The Ring

Kate finally got me to watch the Ring with her last night. I expected it to be really scary...but in the end it was just really creepy. In a way I think I prefer that since that kind of eerie creepyness last a lot longer than a quick scare. I think it would have been a better, deeper movie if they had made it end with finding the girl fixing everything. That wya it would have made a point. Kate disagrees though.
Any way, all through the movie I could help but ask myself: in this situation, what would Chuck Norris do?
This brought about the following Chuck Norris fact:
Chuck Norris Real Fact # six billion and twenty seven (and a half):
One day Chuck Norris saw the ring and got a mysterious phone call telling him that he would die in seven days. He just made the Chuck Norris face and didn't say anything. Over the following week he killed a Yak with his bare hands everyday and ate it. Exactly one week later the little girl came out of his tv, and he immediately round-house kicked her so hard she didn't land for seven days. After that, she stayed inside the tv.

Good byes

I just finished my final conversation with Chloe. We talked about some stuff and hopefully I gave her some closure. I don't know if I actually did, but I tried. She requested that I never speak with her again, and I intend to honor that request. I had hoped to remain friends with her, but it is not kind to try and befriend someone if it will only bring them pain. Maybe it is for the best that we never encounter each other again. I don't know.
During our conversation she said that I had lost my personality...the things that made me different from other people; that i had become more generic. Is this true? I don't think so...but it's worth thinking over.
I don't know...I don't feel generic.

Aikido is wierd. It's so different from Kyokushin in every way shape and form that I don't know what to make of it. For one thing, the classes are much less structured. In aikido everything is very relaxed. The class runs just like the techniques do, if that makes any sense. I can definetly see how Aikido might be useful in real life...but there is one very important thing that Kyokushin taught me that I don't think aikido could: the importance of willpower in winning a fight. In Kyokushin the three most important factors in winning a fight are strength, endurance, and willpower. Technique is important, but not in the way it is in Aikido. In aikido fights are pretty much completely passionless and technique seems to be the only thing that matters. I'm not sure what to make of it. There seem to be a lot of formalities too...at least from what Kyle has told me. I'm not sure if they are de jure or de facto. When people first start doing a martial art they tend to be obsessed with the rituals and such...but the rituals are only there to convey a certain spirit. After a while, you get over them and observe the spirit of the thing and just concentrate on your training.

On another note, I signed up for classes this morning. Next semester I'm going to be enrolled in Bio 3, Organic Chemistry 1, Elementary Italien 1, and The rise of Civilization (an anthro course).
Not quite what I had wanted origionally, but it's pretty good.