And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam, Carrying his own house still, still is at home, Follow (for he is easy pac'd) this snail, Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.

– John Donne

Robert Anton Wilson died on the 11th. Why am I only hearing of this now? It should have been much bigger news.

UPS delivered my so-called “Moroccan” glass candle lanterns today. Two for $9, straight from the Bay of E.

I just purchased my first album from Magnatune: Falling You’s Human. It’s a pretty cool idea. You can pay whatever you want. All they ask for is a credit card, name, and email – no addresses, phone numbers, or any of that. They give me a username and password, and I can download the album in whatever format I want. Now I can give the album away to 3 people.

But not the fire alarm.

They better not expect me to evacuate during my dinner.

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.