The next time you’re immersed in cold water, remember:

1. You have 1 minute to control your breathing
2. You have 10 minutes of useful movement
3. You have 60 minutes till you're dead

(c/o Dr. Popsicle.)

Update: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5gOW8ZaYqHA

The 10-day WFR course was a lot more intense than I expected. The course schedule is available online, for the curious. As you can see, there’s a multitude of different topics covered every day, plus a fair amount of nightly reading. Short (30-60 min) scenarios are interspersed between lectures. There were a little under 30 students and two different teachers, both W-EMT, who would alternate between lecture topics. The lectures themselves are in a relaxed format. In addition to the textbook, students are provided with a workbook, referred to as the hymnal. The hymnal summarizes all the topics and provides the notes you’d normally be jotting down during lecture. There are two big scenarios throughout the course, the MCI and Night Rescue.

The Mass Casualty Incident, or MCI, is a 2 hours (or so) scenario designed to give students the experience of managing multiple patients with limited resources. I was a patient for this one, and unconscious for about half of it, but the main emphasis seemed to be on managing rescuer stress and deciding evac orders. (There was only one helicopter, so only one pt could be evaced at a time.)

The Night Rescue mission is definitely the high-light of the course. Sadly, we all took an oath of secrecy, so as not to rob future WFR-ers of the experience. I can relate to you the weather, though: temperatures hovered above freezing, with snow forecast, but instead a downpour of rain and wind gusts of 30-40mph. I’ll also say that I’m now completely justified in packing my silponcho and wearing paracord bracelets.

Overall impression of the course is two thumbs up. I’d do it all over again. In fact, I’m disappointed that the re-cert class I’ll be taking in two years is only 3 days, not 10.

Paracord bracelets save lives.

Today I took the Red Cross’ CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer course, upgrading my previous CPR certification. As before, it covered adult rescue breathing, choking remedies, and CPR, but this course went a bit more in depth into those subjects and added child and infant breathing and cpr, and the automated external defibrillator. We also got to use those fancy face masks, instead of the basic plastic barriers.

As the course title implies, it’s intended for EMTs, nurses, SAR, LEO and the like. I think it’s a course that folks would do well to attend if they’re willing and able, but doesn’t add enough on top of the basic CPR course to warrant taking otherwise. Basic CPR you should take, whether you want to or not.

The wind was strong enough yesterday to cause power outages and cycles throughout town. When I got home, I discovered that whoever I’m borrowing my wifi from had lost his internet connection. I waited a few hours, waiting for him to do something about it, but nothing happened. Finally I fired up telnet and rebooted his AP/modem for him, which reconnected everything.

Don’t you appreciate neighbors like me?

I’ve been exceptionally unmotivated to study for my finals this time around, the first of which is tomorrow. So I haven’t.

Instead, I’ve been reading about life and trains and all that other stuff that’s dangerous and subversive to the status quo and is going cause society to fall spinning into the dark, dismal abyss.

People are confused. They think they’re subject to society and their culture when it’s the other way around.

Remember about a year ago when I said I’d update the vitals page? Yup. Did that. A little.

A couple months ago, I was kicked out of the closet I used to work in and moved to the front desk. I wrote and prominently displayed the following, so as to alleviate any confusion concerning my status as a possible receptionist. It was taken down. Something about not being appropriate for the work environment, I suppose. The last stanza has been removed to protect certain individual(s).

Dear Valued Visitor, The good looking fellow who sits in this space, is not paid as a receptionist. Can't you tell from the look on his face? He was kicked out of the closet and made to interact, but that has no effect on his employment contract. He's not here to answer phones, to assist, nor to direct. Which isn't to say, he means you disrespect. He'll do his best to help and to give you advice. Just don't make him state his job description twice. If you're on your way in, he'll tell you hello though his mind may be elsewhere thinking of snow. If you're on your way out He'll bid you farewell though if you're leaving for good someone else you should tell. This prose is no good. It's turning out to be crap. I bet [censored] could do better. He listens to rap!

Once again, I was awoken by a disturbance on the street. This time it was about 2:15AM. They were right below my window, so it was a bit hard to see what was going on. The fight looked to be between two girls, with about 10 male onlookers cheering and exclaiming the occasional “oh damn!” (Girl fights always look particularly brutal – no mercy.) As far as I could see, there were no cops or cameras. After a couple minutes, the group migrated around the corner. I drifted back to sleep to a soundtrack of “the bitch attacked me!”