when nature breaks the laws

haha, amusing for the morning

Robber disguised as tree hits N.H. bank Sun Jul 8, 2:54 PM ET

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Leaf it to New Hampshire, where a bank branch was held up by a man disguised as a tree.
Just as the Citizen Bank branch opened Saturday morning, a man walked in with leafy boughs duct-taped to his head and torso, and robbed the place.

"He really went out on a limb," police Sgt. Ernie Goodno said Sunday.

Police said the leafy man didn't saying anything about having a weapon, just demanded cash, and was given an undisclosed amount.
Although the branches and leaves obscured much of the man's face, someone who saw images from the bank's security camera recognized the robber and called police.
Officers said James Coldwell, 49, was arrested early Sunday at his Manchester home and charged with robbery. Arraignment was not expected until Monday.

Song of the day:take the money and run- steve miller band

Tales from Gestalt - Episode 12: Is the CEO a Klingon?

ok, so it really has nothing to do wqith my gestalt, but since there is the organizational side to the gestralt institute, i believe that this is a consulting firm that uses gestsalt techniuqe *and sense of humor) to address energy needs

medicare, what to do

so ive been covering for one of the social workers at the hospital, and will continue to do so for two more weeks. the hardest part of this, for me, is that everytime i come into cover, the rules that govern the hospital have changed. this time it is a new medicare policy that adds extra paperwork for me when i dont have enough time to get everything done as it is (the unit is already understaffed, and the doctors get angry at me for not getting the patients out faster, but i will not comprimise the level of care i give to meet beaurocratic demands)...

the new policy allows patients to appeal their discharge from the hospital, which in theory i agree with, as sometimes i think people are d/c'ed before they are ready, but on the other hand, neither the patient nor medicare are responsible for paying for the days while the appeal process takes place, and the hospital must eat the cost (and people are amazed at the situation in california regaurding patient dumping, but its rather logical- unethical, but logical)

anyhow, i cut out the meat of this new policy and have pasted it here

Revised Notification of Discharge Appeal Rights

...CMS published a final rule changing the requirements for notifying inpatients about their hospital discharge rights.... The most noteworthy change in the final rule is the substitution of a revised “Important Message from Medicare” (“IM”) beneficiary notice of non-coverage in place of the additional generic notice that CMS had proposed. The final rule also expands prior law requiring hospitals to provide a notice of non-coverage only when the beneficiary disagreed with the discharge decision.

oh and i divided it up into sections to make it feel a little more managable :)

Standardized Notice of Discharge
The notice must contain the following information:

the beneficiary’s rights as a hospital inpatient, including the right to benefits for inpatient services and for post-hospital services;
the beneficiary’s right to request an expedited determination of the discharge decision, and an explanation of that process and alternative appeals procedures;
a description of the circumstances under which a beneficiary will or will not be liable for charges for a continued stay in the hospital...Under the final rule, a beneficiary may submit a request for expedited review of a discharge decision to the applicable Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) in writing or by telephone no later than the day of discharge....Under the final rule, the failure to make this request in a timely fashion may result in beneficiary liability for the services. When the QIO notifies the hospital that the beneficiary has requested expedited review, the hospital must provide a more detailed read of the policy, her eis a pdf containing the following information: pdf for details

and finally

Notably, the new rule has no effect on the existing policy regarding the financial liability for a patient’s extended stay during a review. CMS still considers such costs to be hospital operating costs covered by the overall diagnosis-related group payments.

Song of the day: theyre coming to take me away- napolean xiv

Buttermilk Biscuits: old school mix-a-lot

sir mix-a-lot, posse on broadway days

.....fun song

Sesame Street - Cripple Creek

another buffy moment...its one of my favorites (all though this version is a little fast)

spider

Check out this video: Spiders on Drugs...



Add to My Profile | More Videos
one of my favorite videos when i need a good laugh...couldnt resist sharing (ps mom, youd hate this)

Song of the day:kiss off- violent femmes

a daily affirmation

a friend of mine passed this on to me, and thought others may find it worth taking in....enjoy

From: Tian Dayton's Daily Affirmations [mailto:tian-affirmations-return-@tiandayton.webbie.net]

"A Full Human Being"
I am willing to pay the price of personal and spiritual growth.
Confronting the situations both within and outside that frighten me is
not easy-it can feel terrifying, sometimes almost life-threatening. But
today, rather than bemoan my fate, I will reach deep down into myself
and look for something good. I will be sustained not only by courage but
by a sort of goodness, a trust in life, a willingness to think that if I
stay with it long enough and well enough, things will work out. I could
give up on living fully, but I feel that if I did, I would regret it.
Trouble and suffering are a part of the human condition. Once I accept
that I am in a position to look for my rewards where they are most
likely to be found-not in the world but in my relationship to it - I can
move closer to spiritual living.

I have a loving relationship with living.

Teach me, like you, to drink creation whole And, casting out, my self,
become a soul.
Richard Wilbur

Song of the day: all you need is love- the beatles

sicko!!

i went with hess to see sicko last night, and once again michael moore has managed to bring truth and shock to another overwhelming situation

while over the top in some places (as moore is so good at doing), one older british interviewee put it best in his description of democraacy

democracy, he said, is the most rebellious idealogoy there is- giving power to the people, giving people the vote

right now as americans, i think we may feel helpless, hearing things about rigged elections, but just as the british people decided to provide healthcare for everyone...its not socialism its humanism...

it embarrases me that hospitals are put in a position that they feel a need to dump patients on the side of the road, it embarrases me that we are the 37 best countyr in healthcare despite the amazing medical community and inordinate wealth of the u.s.

song of the day- come to my window- mellisa etheridge

Throwing Muses - Counting Backwards

kristen hirsch and tonya donnely back in the day

laws effective july 1

so virginia has raised the price of speeding tickets to outrageous levels through a new state law that allows to pay for road repairs without raising taxes (folks, tawes are not always a bad thing)...i wonder how virginians will feel as this new policy unfolds, and drivers going 5 miles over the limit wind up with $1000 fine....

here are some other new laws across the country that went into effect on the first...what do you think about the, whether the good the bad or the ugly??

from: Virginians Face $3,000 Traffic Ticket, by Dennis Cauchon, USA Today
Posted: 2007-07-01 15:18:05

Drunken Driving: Wyoming bans open containers in vehicles. South Dakota expands a program that requires repeat drunken drivers to check in at jails twice daily for breath testing. Supporters say it reduces jail costs and allows people to continue working, support their families and stay sober.

Health: New York City bans trans fats. Massachusetts' sweeping health care insurance law takes full effect, with everyone required to have health insurance — either with state help or purchased privately.

Children's Health: California bans soda sales on school campuses during school hours, and puts new limits on sugar and fat content in school food. Florida starts a one-year pilot program to test randomly for steroid use among high school athletes participating in football, baseball and weightlifting.

Cervical Cancer: Indiana schools must tell parents of sixth-grade girls about the link between human papillomavirus and cervical cancer, and about the availability of a new vaccine. North Carolina also requires schools to tell parents about the disease and the vaccine. Nevada requires insurers to cover the new vaccine.

Sex Education: Colorado bans abstinence-only sex education in all schools (except for one district), requiring schools to teach sex education based on scientific research and to include information on contraception.

Energy: Nevada and Minnesota encourage conservation and alternative energy. North Dakota begins a temporary tax break to spur the drilling of more oil wells in an area called the Bakken geologic formation.

Sex Offenders: Virginia requires convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses with the state. Nevada forces certain sex offenders to live at least 1,000 feet away from schools and other places children gather. Connecticut creates a new crime for those who abuse a child under 13 that carries a 25-year prison sentence.

Showing ID:Tennessee requires everyone who buys beer at a store to show identification, regardless of their age.

War and Veterans: Minnesota provides state education assistance to veterans, or family members of dead or disabled veterans. Idaho limits protests at military funerals. Florida bars commercial use of names or pictures of service members without their permission or their families' permission, if they are deceased.

Immigration: Georgia's tough anti-illegal immigration laws kick in, requiring public employers with 500 or more employees -- and any contractors -- to verify that all new hires are in the country lawfully. The state also checks to make sure that anyone over age 18 who is receiving benefits is in the country legally. Idaho requires proof of legal residency for most forms of public assistance.

Abortion: Women seeking abortions in Georgia must be given a chance to see an ultrasound image of the fetus and listen for a heartbeat. In Mississippi, an abortion provider must perform a sonogram and give a pregnant woman the chance to listen to the heartbeat.

Minimum Wage: Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania were among the states that raised their minimum wage.

Sexual Orientation:Gays and lesbians are protected by Iowa's civil rights laws. Vermont bars discrimination against people who change their genders or discrimination based on whether they present themselves as a man or a woman.

Medical Marijuana: New Mexico legalized the medical use of marijuana. Rhode Island made permanent its medical marijuana program, which was to expire June 30. Vermont expanded the use of medical marijuana from only those with terminal diseases to those with some chronic diseases, too.

Song of the day:

to dream

very enjoyable and peaceful

hat tip to dreams and dreamscapes

remembering the road: sxsw -march 20, 1995

we drove 22 hours from atlanta to austin with a few hundred dollars and a box full of mix tapes just to see the indigo girls production of jesus christ superstar, sally and i did- we were pulled over on a back road in eastern texas by cops in cowboy hats who werer sure we were off to mexico to buy drugs and spent two hours searching my brand new car, and since i was not aware of my rights, it was what it was...ofcourse, i can never go back to texas since i got a ticket and never took care of it. i definitly never want to spend the night in a texas jail!
anyhow, we could not attend anything else at the sxsw since we were underage, so there is not too much to say about the actual event of sxsw, but they made a video of the show that daemon records put out (now out of print) and while i am not on it, sally is, dancing to the last song of the show in my red and white checkered seventies polyester button down shirt (which she still wears)...

there was something really evocative about jesus being played by a woman, true, but amy and emily had no chemistry playing jesus and mary respectively, and because of that it really lost the edge having a woman play jesus could have had if that spark had been there...

...we ran out of money, did not have enough to make it to atlanta, and some guy gave us a hundred bucks to get home...not enough for a hotel so we found a denny's and intended to fall asleep in shifts in the booth...but we met a blue haired punk who took us home with him and gave us the two bean bag chairs in the living room to bed down on...we joked that in a way, it was a strange kind of early adulthood manger to happen on...

Song of the day: pilates dream-gerard mchugh(pilate/jesus christ superstar)

a piece of "adam and eve"- ani difranco

adam and eve
i suggest that if you have never heard the album "dialate" you give it a listen, for you can find true emotion in every song....for me today, the true grief in ani's voice while she sings these words speaks for me and my heart...

....You rhapsodize about beauty
And my eyes glaze
Everything that I love is ugly
I mean really, you would be amazed
Just do me a favor
It’s the least that you can do
Just don’t treat me like I am
Something that happened to you

I am truly sorry about all this

You put a tiny pinprick
In my big red balloon
And as I slowly start to exhale
That’s when you leave the room
I did not design this game
I did not name the stakes
I just happen to like apples
And I am not afraid of snakes

I am truly sorry about all this...

So I let go of the ratio
Of things said to things heard
And I leave you to your garden
And the beauty you preferred
And I wonder what of this
Will have meaning for you
When you’ve left it all behind
I guess I’ll even wonder
If you meant it
At the time

Song of the day: adam and eve- ani difranco

Mika Brzezinski of MNSBC rips Paris report

to a truly rebelious woman

...thank you for bringing sanity back to the world

thanks jeff

Take Action against Hate Crimes

to let your voice be heard
HRC take action against hate crimes

three feathers

close to the end of my class with the majickal professor, i found three feathers on the sidewalk between the mandel school at cwru and the '25 cents for fifteen minutes' parking lot at the corner of ford and mayfield.

it seemed significant at the time, and i named the three feathers after the three qualities i felt were most important in that class, for that fall (from left to right); responsibility, integrity and humility


...i struggled with humility the most, going on a dictionary hunt that brought me to the realization that both humility/humbleness and humiliation (mortification)come from the same latin root, and i hate feeling humiliated more then anything else.

so last week, i was walking around doan brook at shaker lakes and i came upon three feathers in the middle of the path.

reponsibility, humility, and integrity indeed....

Song of the day: crucify- tori amos

"every day I crucify myself
Nothing I do is good enough for you
Crucify myself
Every day I crucify myself
And my HEART is sick of being in chains"

what are your hopes for cleveland's future?

even in th is country, where taxes are currently not high enough to pay for what we buy, i often feel frustrated in the choices that are made in this city reguarding taxing and business. i want us to find a way to create an equal chance for the future of cleveland citizens, instead of catering to corporations in many ways, including breaks that are detrimental to us, and we need to take a stand.

the community that lives within cleveland, however, consists of struggling neighborhoods, failing schools, and urban abondonment as not just citizens, but also local businesses (including my own family's) move out to the suburbs, taking their jobs and tax revenue with them...

i feel like, our politicians are always building some kind of center around here, saying that it will boost the city and her citizens, but in the past fifteen years weve gotten the rock and roll hall of fame, gund arena, jacobs field (and yes, i know we payed for that with a sin tax-which also highly affected lower income people, but its the same idea)...and while all these places are nice, they have mostly brought minimum wage jobs replacing inionized factory work, and lets face it, that does little to raise the living conditions for residents living with the continuing downward slide of cleveland

from care2petition (thanks jeff)

Without asking voter approval, the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners appears poised to approve a 0.25% increase to the existing 7.5% sales tax in Cuyahoga County, whose citizens already endure the highest sales taxes in Ohio, while at the same time, has some of the poorest and over-burdened residents in the nation. In the proposal, the purpose of this increase is to build a new Convention Center and to attract Medical Mart to the community in an unproven effort to generate revenue for Cuyahoga County. The Convention Center and its funding have been controversial from the beginning with the public, and this is just a way for the Commissioners to circumvent voter approval. Additionally, other communities around the country, including nearby communities in Ohio (Columbus, Cincinnati) and in Pittsburgh, have required private contributions from companies who stand to benefit from publicly funded construction (examples: sports stadiums and Pittsburgh's arena/casino plan). Those who will benefit most are not the citizens funding the construction through the tax. As usual, it will be a small number of corporations who benefit. Instead of exacting the entire burden of the project on the public with an increase in the sales tax, we are asking the Commissioners to look at other possibilities for Convention Center funding, including asking those who will profit most from the Convention Center (Forest City, Medical Mart) to contribute private money OR put the sales tax proposal to a public vote.

Song of the day:

sea salt in the wound

i got a wolf creek email this morning, about astrology and sending the professor energy....and its like, the minimal amount of hard found healing was all to waste with this naturally occuring irritant to my hurt...i really hope i manage to build some sort of defense that will allow me to fulfill my desire of attending wolf creek without being overwhelmed by my feelings of embarrasment, guilt, loss, anger,hurt and bewilderment that one misunderstood interaction could cause such a big break in a relationship, because i am sobbing again thanks to this email.

ive made it through the "blame it all on the other guy" phase...i feel stifled though...everytime i try to talk about my responsibility in the situation with friends, they point out the professor's poor boundaries, say shes not really as sincere as she'd like the world to think, etc.etc.

well, ok, i would agree she has unclear boundaries, that is true, but theres nothing i can do about that....you know?

as for me, i am realizing that i dont want to take responsibility for myself, that is definitly part of the gestalt here- its a part of the gestalt of my life...i can see how that plays out in many different places...

i realize that i am not willing to let her (or anyone else for that matter) get away with hinting because i deserve to be told to my face....then im told to my face, but it wasnt said in the right way, with no intention of kindness and learning....she did give me hints (or maybe redirection would be a better word than hint), i see that looking back, and im a smart cookie, so i prolly had some idea of it in the moment as well but my stubbornness won out and i became pressureful- its really hard to sit here with the dichotomy of this feeling that the professor did a great disservice to me by not letting me know that i was getting too personal or whatever as time went on (her directness is what i most appreciate about her), and the need for me to take responsibility for myself, for demanding to know what was up, for pushing so much.....

it really is about me, and my inability to take what i am given without demanding something different or more (at least, i can find some sense of control by focusing there


Song of the day: shadow on the wall- band de soleil

so now the military is using a shady little trick to deny us soldiers needed mental health treatment.....by saying there was a personality disorder in existance before they entered into service, they are trying to say the ptsd some soldiers experience is a pre-existing consition. personality disorders are considered "axis 2" disorders, and like other non-changable conditions such as mental retardation, are never covered by insurance as they are considered inherent to the individual and not as a disease or treatable condition.

as i know very well, insurance has the right to deny treatment for pre existing conditions for up to a year....

one of the most interesting aspects of post traumatic stress is that it is considered to be the ONLY mental health condition that is entirely unrelated to internal disturbances, ptsd always involves a real-life unexpected stressful situation that puts strain on the brain
A National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet explains:
(by a.j. mahari

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape [childhood sexual abuse]. People who suffer from PTSD often re-live the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person’s daily life.


PTSD is marked by clear biological changes as well as psychological symptoms. PTSD is complicated by the fact that it frequently occurs in conjunction with related disorders such as depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition, and other problems of physical and mental health. The disorder is also associated with impairment of the person’s ability to function in social or family life, including occupational instability, marital problems and divorces, family discord, and difficulties in parenting.

the above article goes on to talk about ptsd and borderline personaltiy disorder or bpd. bpd often is present in individuals have a strong history of abusire and traumatic experiences....however, ptsd is not caused by the personality disorder. anyone can respond to situations with ptsd, and for each tour of duty a person spends in a combat zone, the likelyhood that the experience will result in ptsd increases....

i understand the military is broke. i understand that bush has not starved the government, but has instead traded social services for high tech highly expensive weaponry....but it is not appropriate to deny any soldier treatment for a condition they now have which is a direct result of combat in service to the protection of this country....

Song of the day: where have all the flowers gone- peter paul and mary

sadness

i cant believe how sad i am...

i dont know why i am putting this out there, i hate it, knowing that my mother will read this, but i need to be heard, and i dont think i am listening to myself right now

i fought with my therapist yesterday...nothing she said was right (a bad aspect of me) and she said "i dont know how to help you through this, and maybe it will actually be someone else who does"...and i flipped out

she pulled back, and said she was not telling me to go see someone else, but her cousin just kicked me to the curb for needing too much after denying that she wanted me to back off over and over....

but i wonder if its some kind of hint-telling me to move on, you know? (i know thats me...i hope thats me, and not real, but it seems like whats true this moment)

i also think the job loss was a bigger hit then ive been saying. i feel like i have no purpose, im bored, and lonely again, suddenly, all these friends i thought i had, they seem so far away, when in truth i can think of atleast three who would be there for me in a split second

i fear this place

i did stop taking neurontin a few days ago, and it seems like the spasticity has mostly let go though, so i will try and use that as a ray of hope, as pain has been a part of my experience for three months almost non-stop

...i met up with a guy from gestalt for lunch today (i never did get to talking about the most recent weekend, but it was the weekend that led me to the bold place i went with the professor, so i feel not too kindly about it right now).....he asked me "can you just let it be?"

but me, i have to keep trying to fill the space