Time Warp

We had stake conference today and it was really great, we got to hear from Elder Alan Packer, who is President Packer's son. All the talks were great and the spirit was very strong. It's really great the things that can happen when the spirit is present, if a speaker has the spirit with them and if you're working to have the spirit with you as well, then you will hear what you need to hear, even if it's not actually what the speaker is saying. It's so wonderful to be able to have personal inspiration and revelation.
I was in the choir and so I was sitting up on the stand and it was fun and interesting to look out and see people in the stake. I saw a kid I'd been on youth council with four years before and it was crazy to see how grown up he'd gotten. There are all these boys that I haven't seen or thought about in years who are now going on or just getting back from missions; one of my friends just got back last night, I hadn't thought much about him for a while but it was so exciting to unexpectedly see him again. It was especially cool to see another boy who'd been on youth council, he just got back from his mission to Germany, he's such a cool kid, he was born with a disability so that it's hard for him to walk, his twin is completely normal but despite his disabilities, he's always happy and positive and smiling. It's strange to see how people change while you're gone, how grown up they get.

72-hour kits

Quite frankly I've run out of enthusiasm for this but I did promise to do it so here is yet another instalment on emergency preparedness. If you're not sure where to start with the whole preparedness thing then 72-Hour Kits are a good place to start, it's about the most basic level of preparedness. A 72-hour kit would be helpful in an earth quake, tornado/hurricane, car accident, getting lost, etc. You should have a kit for each person that's in your home and you should keep at least one in your car. You can buy ready made kits or you can make your own. If you want to make your own or if you're just curious to learn more about 72-hour kits try here or here.
Another tip in general is to always keep your gas tank half full, that way if something happens and you're far away from home, you're won't get stuck with the gas light on.

Classical

I have found something interesting about classical music, when it's on all the time my desire to hear other forms of music fades away. I don't seek classical music out generally but when it's on I quite enjoy it. Over the summer I've renewed my love of our local classical radio station for many reasons, mostly ones that I hadn't noticed. While I don't generally seek classical music out, it is usually very beautiful and plesant to listen to. Another reason I enjoy this station is that the radio shows are interesting, informative, there's no ranting or raving about politics etc. I love that; I also love that they don't obscess about movies, tv shows or American Idol- which technically falls into the tv heading- they talk about news in the world, things of research or study, books even. I like that they relay the BBC, somehow I'm more willing to listen to the news if it's via the BBC, I think I trust them more and they cover a broader scope. One thing I really enjoy on this station is that they have a program where they discuss scholarly topics, things like the writings of German women in the 1800s, or the inspiration behind a play that's currently running, an art exhibit; call me boring, old fashioned or crazy but it doesn't really matter to me who's doing what on which reality tv show (although I do like So You Think You Can Dance), I like hearing a program that might open up a new area of interest or study, where I might learn something new and useful.
So here's to classical music!

Emergency Preparedness - First Aid

Back to Emergency Preparedness, in the lesson I heard on Sunday first aid was mentioned as a part of emergency preparedness and that was something that I hadn't considered before but a very good point. In a mass emergency there will be people injured, you may even be injured yourself and knowledge of first aid will come in very handy.
I don't know about you but I've had a lot of first aid training over the years, in every swimming class I ever took, in health classes in school, and every year when we had girls camp. If you're like me you also don't necessarily remember all of that good training so here are some things to refresh us all.
First off, there is training available through the American Red Cross; they offer training in first aid, CPR, AED(Automated External Defibrillator), disaster education, things to know for babysitting, life guarding, etc. Also a note: even if you've been certified for something like CPR in the past you may need to certify again, I believe that you need to recertify every two years.
The Mayo Clinic has a website with instructions on the first aid for many injuries/ailments, including shock. If you only learn first aid for a few things make sure you learn about shock, if a person is injured or sick there is also always the danger of them going into shock.
Some other standard first aid that you should know is how to care for: broken bones, severe bleading, how to make a splint/sling/bandage, heat stroke etc., hypothermia, and choking.
Besides knowing first aid it would be a good idea to have some kind of first aid guide to look to, I found several options on amazon, and I'm sure they could be easily found else where. Another very important thing to have is a first aid kit, I would keep a stocked first aid kit in your home, in your car(s) and even have small kits to carry around in a purse etc. You can find any number of resources for first aid kits. The Red Cross recommends that you include these items in your first aid kits:

• 2 absorbent compress dressings (5 x 9 inches)
• 25 adhesive bandages (assorted sizes)
• 1 adhesive cloth tape (10 yards x 1 inch)
• 5 antibiotic ointment packets (approximately 1 gram)
• 5 antiseptic wipe packets
• 2 packets of aspirin (81 mg each)
• 1 blanket (space blanket)
• 1 breathing barrier (with one-way valve)
• 1 instant cold compress
• 2 pair of nonlatex gloves (size: large)
• 2 hydrocortisone ointment packets (approximately 1 gram each)
• Scissors
• 1 roller bandage (3 inches wide)
• 1 roller bandage (4 inches wide)
• 5 sterile gauze pads (3 x 3 inches)
• 5 sterile gauze pads (4 x 4 inches)
• Oral thermometer (non-mercury/nonglass)
• 2 triangular bandages
• Tweezers
• First aid instruction booklet

I hope that these links and information help and that you look into them deeper on your own.
Also an addition about food storage or family home storage as it seems to be called now, I didn't notice this link at providentliving.org; there's more information there including a pamphlet available in several different languages.

Labor Day Tradition

I'll just start by saying to make things perfectly clear that this is not a post about emergency preparedness, I do more of that later(yes, I really will get to it). Today is Labor Day, a holiday which most people don't know the reason for, I'm going to see if I can remember the reason, I learned it in AP American History which was some time ago. As I recall Labor Day stems back to the days when people worked in factories, you know, back when little kids got terrible lungs from being in hot, dirty, factories for hours and hours on end; I'm sure you've read a book or seen a movie about it. While conditions in factories were terrible for children they were just as terrible for adults; in the factories people generally worked every day of the week and for hours and hours on end for terrible pay. Because of all of these conditions people began going on strikes, and if I remember correctly there were mass strikes that led to labor day...I can't remember why we got the holiday out of it but there you go.
Anyway, getting back to today, it's a tradition in my mom's family to gather at my Grandma's over night the night before and then go and have breakfast at a park. In the early days it was always at Salem Pond(nothing to do with the witch trials), but we haven't gone there for the last several years. Today though we made it back to Salem Pond, I think because my future cousin-in-law was there and the tradition was explained to him and Salem Pond was remembered.
I don't know that Salem Pond was all that exciting of a place but it was a lot cooler in my memory, I remember there were these huge tires that were half buried in the ground that you could climb on, naturally those haven't survived time and the need to have safer play grounds. There was a stream running through it which I remembered once I saw it, my cousins and I used to have little boats that we floated in it but the stream was kinda yucky now. One thing we did do though was feed the ducks.

Emergency Preparedness

We had a lesson on emergency preparedness today, that's nothing new, they happen every so often, usually I hear them and know there's a lot to what they say and usually I forget about it before I do anything about it. I would like that to be different this time, maybe this will help me keep with it.
If you're LDS, then the idea of emergency preparedness is nothing new and you've probably heard about it your whole life, food storage is probably what comes to your mind when the word is mentioned. For anyone who isn't LDS, we focus a great deal on emergency preparedness, when emergencies come it's too late to be wondering if you've got the supplies to see it through and so our leaders encourage us to prepare now. You might be wondering what kind of emergencies we might be expecting, we try to be prepared for anything that might come our way, be it flood, earthquake, fire, snowstorm, power outage, unemployment, etc.
As I said food storage is probably the most well known aspect of emergency preparedness but it is by no means the only aspect of it. The Church has put together a website called Provident Living, and their section on emergency preparedness coveres home storage, finaces, community planning, communication and lists resources.
I don't think that I can cover all of emergency preparedness today but maybe since I believe that September is emergency preparedness month (and if it wasn't, it is now) I can keep going through out the month, posting more about this and hopefuly learning more myself.
I guess I can start with food storage, because it's the most well known it's also the one I think I know the most about. To start with, the 'why?' We store food because in an emergency it's not likely that you'll be able to make it to the store and even if you can you probably won't be able to keep going to the store or the stores may run out of things. We are encouraged to start with something like a 72 hour kit and work our way up to a year or more supply of food. Food storage food tends to be things like canned goods, and dried or powdered items. Another item would be to store wheat that can be ground with a wheat grinder. Food storage should be something that can last but it should also be something that you'll eat on a regular basis so that you can cycle through your food storage and it doesn't get bad and go to waste.
Food storage can be a daunting task and something that seems like it would be more fitting to do at some later phase in life but I'm here to tell you that any time, now in fact, is the right time to start. I know that if you're a newley wed or living in a small apartment, it can be especially daunting due to lack of space or money but it is possible and worth it. This article in this month's Ensign Magazine offers a starting place for those in small apartments etc. and ideas on how it can be done. Now on the why you should, it's very important to have food on hand, not just for a disaster type emergency, but for financial emergencies as well. As a college student I was generally straining my budget to be able to pay for the next semester's tuition and all the other things in life. I set myself trips to the grocery store every two weeks and a certian budget for those trips. There were weeks when I was digging through my cubard for a can of this or a package of that, that I might have gotten a month or so earlier to be able to make it through until my next trip to the store. It may sound silly but an extra can or two at each trip to the store can really make a big difference.
Look for future posts on 72 hour kits, First Aid, Financial Preparedness, Communication, Emergency Planning and possibly much, much more.

Shakespeare Anyone?

I've been wanting to improve myself by reading more Shakespeare, perhaps even his complete works (how cool would it be to be able to say you've read them all?). I figured that it might be more fun to invite anyone interested to join me in my reading and start a reading group. My idea is to have people read the plays together (e.g. at the same time, not nescisarrily the same place) and be able to discuss them, watch movies of the plays (because a play is always better once you've seen it) or where posssible the actual plays themselves. I guess the idea came to me because I really loved the Shakespeare class I took and I miss it. If desired perhaps members of said group could even get together to act out scenes of the plays that are read.
So if you're interested in this at all, let me know. If you have a play that you'd like the group to read, then let it be known and if you have any other comments, let's hear them.
If it becomes feasible to do so, I might make a blog for the group so that everyone had a place to participate.
So if you love Shakespeare, or want to try to, join on up.