Marla's adventure from Aplastic Anemia and beyond
“Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose – and you allow him to make war at pleasure.”
–Abraham Lincoln
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Some people like to accuse Christians of disregarding the earth because of what they “think” is taught in Genesis 1:28.
28“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
It’s the word “dominion” that they like to run with. And in reality, I can see why some people run with that word because I have seen it myself where “some” Christians do in fact reason that this world is only temporary so we have every right to do with it as we please be it cut down all the forests and pollute the land and air with wild abandon. They want no restrictions. However, I would like to assert that not all Christians believe that. I for one think that Genesis 1:28 refers to man being good stewards of the earth, and the “dominion” part of it has to do with our ability to reason and our capacity to think and plan/organize. This is a far cry from recklessly plundering our natural resources without regard of the future ability of the land to regenerate healthfully. Just think that within the very same verse God instructs man to “be fruitful and multiply.” How can man fulfill that command if he pollutes the environment so badly that nothing will grow, and animals struggle to reproduce, and their own children are born with birth defects as a result of that pollution? Therefore, I submit that having dominion refers to being good stewards of the earth that God provided for us, not a license to rape the land, air, and oceans.
So in my little ways, I try to be a good steward of the earth, too, by trying to do green things. Granted sometimes it seems so overwhelming as I look at our trash cans and realize that we do in fact contribute to a lot of waste that clogs up our landfills. I have endeavored to recycle and cut down on plastics and anything toxic that I can think of. But I am guilty of owning and going through several computers and various electronics, consume countless batteries and other excess packagings, and enjoy long-distant traveling. But with this duality, I have become sort of a pack rat with things that aren’t donate-able. I hate to waste and throw things away. . . so I try to donate old stuff when I can. But what to do with the undonate-able stuff? Then on Earth Day I happened to see a video of a woman using scraps of fabric from old shirts and turning it into yarn that she knit up into scarves. Oye! I’ve got lots of old rags. . . even old jeans and bed sheets that aren’t really donate-able, but I still don’t have the heart to throw away. What to do?
Well, I decided to try it and make a small rug out of one of my old bed sheets. Here’s how it looked when I started. I had already started ripping before I thought I should take a picture of my progress.
After I stripped the sheet down, I started to connect the pieces by just tying the ends together and wrapping it up in a ball.
Then it was ready to knit. This is what it looked like half way through.
And here’s my little rug completed!
Yeah, I know, kinda of a funky rug, but hey, it works! Not sure if I’ll just leave those ties sticking out or tuck them in or what, but I’m loving that now my old sheet that was essentially unusable is now going to be used again. It’s completely washable, too! And the added bonus to this project is that I not only recycled, but “upcycled” something. Heheheh. I love it.
Okay, so that’s my little recycle project, but while at Santa Monica last weekend we saw a larger scale green project in the works there. It’s a system called “SMURRF,” Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility.
The yellow tank in the foreground has dirty, gritty, oily water in it where it is filtered and cleaned. As the water passes through the system it ends up cleaned as shown at this stage.
As described in the placard, the water that is captured in the SMURRF system comes from the city storm drains, which contains a lot of debris and which ordinarily would go straight into the ocean without being processed first. But this system captures some of that dirty water, cleans it, then recycles it to water the landscape. I love it! Not only is the dirt prevented from entering the ocean, but the lawns are also fed and maintained.
Thank God for people who have the genius to know how to put these facilities together. Now that’s a good use of a scientific brain, and what I think would qualify as a good steward of the earth.
Marlakins
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The Lobster had nice big windows so that we could see the pier and parts of Santa Monica around us. Just outside while we ate we saw this man. . .
We had to take a closer look to see that those were not real snakes, ack! Not sure what his thing was, but I guess he was just balancing all sorts of things for donations.
After we ate at The Lobster, we decided to walk along the pier. It was a really nice day with lots of people out and about. So since I had my trusty camera with me, I decided to take more pictures. And no sooner did we just get to the pier when I found my first photograph subject–Gwen Stephani! Apparently she was out strolling with her family or friends, and she was taking pictures of their kids. Here’s one of the pics I got of her. She’s the blonde one with the dark glasses on.
There were a couple of paparazzi following her and taking pics, so I just took a few quick shots and left. I’m sure these stars would appreciate being able to go out and do family things without being hounded by fans all the time.
One thing I like about the pier is the sampling of different musicians. And actually on the day we were there they all sounded pretty good. Here’s a couple that we saw first.
This was musician #2.
Here’s musician #3. I thought his dog was so cute!
And while I did like the sound of all of them, I think musician #4 had the most interesting sound. Now that I think of it, maybe I should have purchased one of his CDs.
Then interspersed along the pier were shop and food vendors and other types of artists like this one.
Here’s a closeup of his work.
There were also sculptors and finger painters, trapeze lessons, and even this interesting guy. . .
He positions he was able to twist himself into was amazing.
Okay, so that’s a fair sampling of the ongoings at the Santa Monica Pier. Afterward we did a little shopping, then headed home. There were a few other pictures I took of this water purification system they had set up nearby as well, but I think I’ll try to add those pics with explanations on another post.
Marlakins
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Yesterday we celebrated my dad’s 79th birthday at the Lobster in Santa Monica.
As usual, I love getting together with my family, and it was especially nice seeing that my dad was really enjoying himself.
I didn’t get pictures of everything, but first there were the appetizers. Uh yeah, I call those jumbo.
Here’s my dad getting ready for his lobster meal. . . He just got through his soup and salad starter and is now anticipating a nice juicy lobster, heheheh.
And there it is! 2.5 lbs of lobster. . . ummmm
I had their Grilled Australian Barramundi with squash and sauteed spinach. Oh wow! Now I will vouch for this dish! It was absolutely delicious!
There were roasted pumpkin seeds as well on top. Absolutely yummy. I highly recommend this dish.
Then there were the desserts. My aunt and uncle as well as my oldest sister had these.
My other sister had the strawberry parfait.
El brother-in-law had the Tequila lime sorbet.
I refrained from indulging in the desserts, wah. . . As did Brian and my boys. And lastly, here are a couple more pics of us–mom, dad, me and my sisters.
The pics of my boys are on my sister’s camera, so I don’t have those yet. But here’s one with Brian and me.
After lunch we walked along the pier. There was actually a lot to see, so I ended up taking more pictures there. But I’ll have to share those on another post as there are too many pics already on this one.
Okay! Now to find more mischief. . .
Marlakins
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Last night my boys and I joined Andrew, my oldest son, in the celebration of accepting his certificate for making it on the Dean’s List at his school.
I went with Andrew to receive his Dean’s List certificate at his previous school, but this time I brought his two younger brothers to watch the ceremony,too. They were able to see the wind ensemble and the school choir perform.
Then the processional began with all their pomp, heheh.
Then the students entered.
And there he is!!! My baby boy (shown circled and under the arrow in the picture below, hehehe). He’s standing because they call out the specific schools where the students belong and request that they stand. Andrew was among the students at the top 5 percent of their class.
And here he is with his brother, Matty, and me after he received his certificate. Andrew is in the middle holding his cert.
After the ceremony they served cupcakes and drinks.
Some of the cupcakes looked yummy, but since none of them were organic, we passed up on them and instead headed out to Whole Foods to get our own celebratory grub.
Andrew had his appointment with his counselor this past week and found that he still needs four more classes to take before he can graduate with a BA. I thought he was a little closer than that to the finish line, but it’s still not bad, and if all goes well he should finish by the end of this year. Wow, I can’t believe my baby boy is all growd up! I was so happy for him last night and even felt at moments a bit teary for him. So much has happened since the day he was born, even the scare that I might not see him finish high school. But not only has he finished high school level, he is close to finishing his BA and even got on the Dean’s List two times. I thanked God for that nice, nice moment. I have been blessed.
Marlakins
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
–Dwight Eisenhower, in 1953, aka the unrepentant lefty, five-star general.
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One might think that on Earth Day I would write a post on earthy stuffs, but really, how exciting is it for me to write that I’m going down to recycle my plastic water bottles? I already have a couple compost piles going, I use very little chemicals in my entire household if Bon Ami, Bonner’s dish washing liquid, 7th Generation laundry detergent, body lotion, body soap, and shampoo count. Hmm. That list got a little longer than I expected. . . I’d say about 99% of our food is organic (there are just certain things that don’t come officially organic like wild-caught fish), so “hopefully” no pesticides there, and none of us are using any prescription drugs, and none on hand for any emergencies, either. We rely on herbs for that. I’ve been trying to use my reusable bags for groceries as well. So that’s my contribution to Earth Day for now. Although I will admit that I will have to use my car today to go with Andrew to pay for his summer tuition.
So what is interesting me today? Well, Patti and I have been having a little discussion about the Tea Party movement. It has prompted to me look into a few things, one of them being immigration. Just before I nodded off to sleep last night I wondered what exactly are the requirements to enter the U.S. legally. I pretty much knew that to be an American citizen you either had to be 1). born in the U.S., 2). born from at least one parent with a U.S. citizenship regardless of where the birth takes place, and 3). Naturalization where the person has to meet specific requirements such as being at least 18 years of age and a host of other possible requirements if they apply to you. There’s a list of hurdles that can take years for one to qualify. More information and details are on this link.
Okay, so that’s for becoming an American citizen. But what about becoming a legal resident? I figured it must not be a completely easy process otherwise why would so many people slip in illegally? Well, I found an article that explained that there were “five” major ways to come in legally. And again, there are hurdles to overcome, which can make it very difficult for a person to gain legal entry. Here are the five categories.
1. a. Family based immigrants. If you have no family here to petition for you, then this isn’t for you. Besides, even if you have family it could take “years.” My uncle in the Philippines took “20″ years to get approved. Literally. And I have a few cousins who still have not been approved after all those years.
b. Spouse of a U.S. citizen. This is okay if you have a spouse or someone you’re going to marry that’s a U.S. citizen, but not everyone will have this luxury.
2. Study Visas. This is a good option only if you can get accepted to a specific school, who in turn has to apply for your visa.
3. Work Visas. This is also good if you can get a job before you enter the U.S. Tough thing to do if you aren’t a very well educated person who has a specific skill that is needed.
4. Refugee and Asylees. Here you have to somehow prove that your life is in danger be it from political persecution or group, or what. I don’t know how long that process takes, or what exactly would be acceptable proof of danger.
5. Diversity Visa Program. This is a program where your name is dropped in a hat and names are picked out randomly. People who come from countries with fewer immigrants have a better chance of entering this way. Between 50,000 to 55,000 names are picked annually. This is also a long shot if you’re coming from a country where a lot of it’s citizens are immigrating already and the fact that there are millions of applicants.
So there you have it. The legal ways to enter the U.S. as a legal resident. And just as I suspected, and not that I’m saying it makes all illegal immigration okay or justified, but that it’s understandable why so many try to get in without going through all the legal processes. Not to mention that perhaps not all of them are too bright on the legalities of immigration much less speak a different language that makes it even more difficult to ascertain what’s needed.
And then there’s the issue of what to do with all the illegal aliens in the country now? This link estimates that as of 2004 there were about 20 million illegal immigrants here. Now that the health care issues have moved out of the spotlight, it seems there are efforts to get immigration reform on the next agenda. So how is Obama gonna tackle it? Well, as I understand it, immigration reform is high up on the agenda, so we haven’t heard much yet regarding details but for now, I found this link on Obama On Immigration. Perhaps this might help us get a picture of where Obama is headed with immigration reform.
Okay, out of blogging time, but at least it helped me educate myself a little more on the immigration situation here in the U.S. For now better go make myself useful. Perhaps later I’ll try to do more searches on what the prevailing arguments are, hopefully from more educated people, and not from those just spouting off from the hip.
Marlakins
The lapse in blog posts haven’t been due to lack of blogging material, but rather just the usual life-getting-in-the-way. There’s lots to comment on from the recent nuclear summit and Iran’s response, China’s recent earthquake, the recent Icelandic volcano disruption, to the books I’m reading, the crafts I’ve been working on, and even the YouTube videos Aaron and I have been watching such as history on Stalin and Mao and other off the wall things like this one. . .
If you’re like me, this video on giant earthworms is both gross and fascinating. Makes me wonder who it was that stumbled upon these things. I know if it were me I would have screamed bloody murder. Maybe even have a heart attack while at it.
Okay, so was that off the wall enough? I don’t know, there’s just too much craziness going on in the world right now, so might as well get a chuckle out of it somewhere. This made me laugh, especially the part when Sir Richard Branson comes in. This is from Saturday Night Live. A little skit on the Icelandic volcano.
Well, that’s about all I have time for right now.
Toodles!
Marlakins 
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Wow, is it really happening? Since the genie was let out of his lamp back in the 1940’s, is it possible to stuff him back in, more than 60 years later? Apparently, there seems to be some attempts to do just that. Obama has signed a pact with Medvedev to reduce nuclear arms by 30%. That would mean instead of 2,200 nuclear warhead per country, stocks would be reduced to about 1,540 warheads per country. Considering those warheads are much more powerful and destructive than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (for instance the 4 Mark 28 nuclear warheads lost in 1966 over Palomares were believed to be each “70 times” more powerful than Little Boy), that still means that we can still experience massive destruction with what’s left on hand. Do I feel safer already? I think not.
While I would be one of the first to be happy to have a nuclear-free world (as Ronald Reagan was apparently dreaming of as well according to Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons by Paul Lettow and evidenced when Reagan initiated the START proposal in 1982 in Geneva), I have my doubts that it’s possible. There will always be some crazies out there who think they can outrun bullets. But that doesn’t stop me from hoping and striving for a halt on further nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Yes, I know that would also affect nuclear medicine, but that’s a topic for another day. But I am welcoming this new piece of news that at least something is in the works to continue to reduce nuclear arms. What I want to know now is how is it going to be done? What obstacles are up ahead?
Before getting too excited, I knew I would run into information like this–“Disposal of Plutonium from U.S.-Russian Disarmament Likely to Take Decades”. The bottom line is that there’s still a stockpile of plutonium that needs to be “handled” before we can even start on disposing the plutonium from the warheads slated to be decommissioned. Sigh. . . And I think the pact still has to go through the Senate, anyway. And not only is there still a stockpile that needs to be disposed of first, the structure being built for the disposal of plutonium has a structural flaw that they still need to work out like the right kind of metal that can handle the plutonium. Hmmm. How long will that take for them to figure it out? At the rate they’ve been at it, probably decades. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers, huh? And then there’s North Korea and Iran pushing the envelop. . . And who else is nuclear capable? India, Pakistan, China, the UK, France, and Israel? Course South Africa disassembled all of theirs. . . hmmmm. Maybe there’s hope after all. . .
Marlakins
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The Day We Lost the H-Bomb by Barbara Moran turned out to be a very captivating read for me. Her writing style was very clear and easy to follow and included many interesting details that helped bring her story to life. While I did enjoy reading her book and learned a lot of interesting facts about how the military operates in some situations, some technical information regarding nuclear fusion, the history of the downed B-52 in 1966 carrying four nuclear warheads as well as other things, I do have to comment that in the beginning of the book I found some errors that made me cautious about the accuracy of the book. I’m a stickler for details and accuracy, so when just on page 12 and 13 I found some inaccuracies, I continued reading with caution keeping in mind that while the story is based on true events, the “exact” details may be off. I mean how can a lay person like myself know the difference without checking everything out myself?
So what inaccuracy did I find? On page 12 Moran wrote,
“. . . On August 7, 1945, U.S.forces dropped an atomic bomb named ‘Little Boy’ on the city of Hiroshima. “
From many other sources, it’s been recorded that it was August 6, 1945 when the U.S. dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima. But she goes on stating,
“Nine days later, they dropped a second, ‘Fat Man,’ on Nagasaki. That evening the Japanese surrendered. The war was over.”
No, many other sources claim that it was “three” days later, August 9, 1945, that Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. And again, no, the Japanese didn’t surrender that evening. It was “six days later” that Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 and signed the surrender on September 2, 1945. That’s three big mistakes made in four short lines in Moran’s book. Three details that are easily verifiable through many other sources. Hmmm. Definitely something that makes one reading her book think “maybe” she’s not such a stickler for details. Proceed with caution. One might argue that those are small discrepancies, but I would beg to differ considering many people justify that the second bomb (Fat Man) had to be dropped because the Japanese refused to surrender. Well in light of the fact that they dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki only three days (not 9 days) after Hiroshima would show that Japan didn’t have much time to react, much less time to “refuse” to surrender. Consider that communications was wiped out. How could they even communicate and determine the damages in Hiroshima in three short days and then refuse to surrender? In three short days they probably didn’t even know what hit them being that it was the first nuclear bomb ever dropped on a city. Even after the second bomb was dropped it took Japan “six” days more to surrender. Why didn’t the U.S. just drop another bomb then? My guess is because they didn’t have another atomic bomb to drop otherwise they very well might have dropped another one even tho there were only about three cities left in Japan the hadn’t already been bombed. It’s been written that the U.S. had used all their nuclear fuel on hand at the time with those two bombs. Also Curtis LeMay’s forces had already been firebombing other cities in Japan for months with napalm beforehand killing more civilians than both Little Boy and Fat man. The civilian casualties didn’t seem to be an issue. I’m guessing the key focus was on an “unconditional” surrender, since there are accounts that Japan was trying to negotiate a surrender months prior to the dropping of both Little Boy and Fat Man.
The rest of the book ran very well considering I didn’t know of any other facts that were obvious errors. In short, Moran describes the events back in January of 1966 when a mid-air collision between a B-52 and a refueling plane sent the two planes crashing down on Palomares, a small town in Spain. While the crash itself was a story worthy for headlines, the more troubling detail was that the B-52 was carrying four nuclear warheads that needed to be recovered. The good news was the three were recovered shortly after the crash and had not detonated, although two had spread radioactive material on the tomato fields of some farmers. The fourth nuclear warhead was nowhere to be found, thus troops and a whole operation of divers and scientists were employed to scour the land and the ocean for that fourth missing nuclear warhead. It took about four months to finally find and retrieve the fourth nuclear warhead, which ended up about 2,800 feet on the ocean floor. In the end, the Navy billed the Air Force $6.5 million to search and recover the bomb, including soil transport of the contaminated radioactive soil. 4,800 barrels of contaminated soil were shipped to the Savannah River nuclear processing center in South Carolina. Moran writes that, “the Navy calculated that its total cost was actually higher: $10,230,744 or $126,305 per day. It was the most expensive salvage operation in history.” Amongst the villagers there were more than 500 claimants and were paid $555,456.45 in damages. Every year, about 150 residents of Palomares travel to Madrid–all expenses paid–for complete physical examinations, including urine testing for plutonium. So far, at least 1,029 people have received more than 4,000 medical and dosimetric examination. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, these tests show that about 5 % of the people studied carry plutonium in their bodies. A study done in 2007 surprised scientists as they found the plutonium contamination in Palomares was higher and more widespread than they had suspected, and several areas they had considered clean were contaminated with americium, a product of plutonium disintegration. In 2008 was another surprise discovery of two trenches containing radioactive debris left by the Americans. Construction was restricted as a result and the contamination area was widened. No remediation plan has been established as of yet.
Anyway, there was so much more to the story of this book. For anyone interested in nuclear history or even just a good “suspense” story, I recommend Barbara Moran’s The Day We Lost the H-Bomb. There’s information about nuclear fusion, some history regarding the Strategic Air Command, some discussion about the political tensions between Spain and the U.S., etc. Interesting, interesting book. There are people who use this story to support both sides of the nuclear disarmament controversy. We need to educate ourselves so that we can better understand the issues and concepts that we support. We should not be ignorant of such important issues since nuclear energy has the potential to impact everyone in the world. If we don’t take the effort to voice our opinions, other people less informed or even less careful or more radical will make decisions for us.
Marlakins
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