Golden nugget

I had to take a small break from studying to share this recent golden nugget from the Daily Show. I just love when the conservatives get caught in their words :-) Oh what a tangled web we weave!

Enjoy and I’ll be back this weekend with an update.

Peace…Mark

A great start...

The last unofficial weekend of summer has come and gone.  As luck would have it the weather was cool, cloudy and rainy.  It's not the first cruddy Labor Day I've been through and it gave me a opportunity to do some studying.  The rain has been great and it should help bring an  early end to the 2008 fire season.

School got underway last Monday and I had a good starting week.  The classes will be a little more challenging than last year but I feel prepared for that.  My first class of the morning is contemporary math and it doesn't seem that bad.  It's geared towards majors where math is a basic requirement and it deals with current issues in mathematics.  The first few chapters are timely as they deal with elections and the various types of voting systems.  I'm so happy this is my final math class and I plan to celebrate when this one is over :-)

The second class I have is Montana History.  It's a big lecture class and it looks to be quite interesting.  I'm a history buff and it will be great to learn more about Montana.  We have 4 books to read this semester and each book is tied to a specific period in Montana history.  The first book is quite good and the other 3 sound like they won't be too bad.  

The last on campus class I have is Great Traditions (Ethics).  This will be my most challenging class I have and it requires a great deal of complex reading.  It's centered around the classic works of Aristotle, Kant, Mills and Nietzsche.  We have a great professor and he makes the lectures very enjoyable which definitely is a plus.  I hope I won't be gaining a bunch of gray hair with this class.  The first exam will be a pretty good indicator.

It's nice to have only two days of school this week.  Gives me a chance to get ahead in the game.  Friday I'm helping out the College Dems with voter registration and that should be fun.  Hopefully many students will get involved and exercise their right to vote.  The future of our country is at stake and we face severe consequences if we don't change where things are headed.

That's it for my first update of September.  I'm hoping to check out Hemp Fest this weekend and if I go I'll take my camera along.  

Peace.....Mark

Wild weekend

This past Saturday, I celebrated another year of conquering my old foe of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  We've battled each other for 33 years now and I have no desire to give my formidable opponent an inch anytime soon.  It's great to be one of many with DMD who have lived much longer than the medical establishment ever gave us a chance to.  Hopefully I'll be thumbing my nose at this disease for many more years to come.

My birthday was pretty laid back and it was a really good day.  The highlight of the day was when we went to the newly opened Hooters for dinner.  It was a little bit of a zoo since they had only been open a few days but the scenery made up for that :-)  Wings, drinks, flat screen TV’s and pretty waitresses.  Does it get any better than that?  I don’t think so!  Seriously though, it was just great being with friends and celebrating the day together.  

Sunday was the direct opposite of the fun day we had on Saturday.  At about 10:30 in the morning the power went out at our house.  It turned out that our neighbor’s son was hauling something down our alley and he took out a few power poles in the process.  We were in the two block area that was affected and to make matters worse, the temperature reached a high of 100. It was a long hot afternoon but we survived just fine.  The power came back on at 8:30 that night and we were all pretty glad about that.

My second year of college gets underway on Monday and I’m ready to get started. I’ll be taking Contemporary Math, Montana History, History of Rock n’ Roll, and an ethics class this fall.  These classes will be pretty interesting I think and I’m happy to be taking my final math class.  The only downside to the semester is that I have 10 textbooks and there will be a heavy load of reading.  Hopefully most of the reading will be fairly interesting and not too boring.

That’s it for this update but before I sign off I’d like to give a brief summary of the video that leads off this post.  Matt Eddy is a vent user from Massachusetts and he’s currently wheeling across the country to raise awareness for Matt’s Place.  Matt’s Place is a charity that seeks to provide housing and care options to adults with severe physical disabilities.  Matt’s Place wants to give institutionalized adults with disabilities the chance to live in the community and be contributing members of society.  If you’d like to learn more about Matt’s Place please take the time to check out the clip.  You can also track Matt’s progress by checking out his blog from the road at http://obcrip.livejournal.com/

Peace…Mark

Fun at the Fair

I’ve been a bit of a slacker with my blog lately but I’m trying to enjoy every moment of vacation that remains.  Things will be more balanced when schools starts and my video blogs should be returning in September.

The dog days of summer have settled in here in Missoula and we've been having the hottest temperatures of the summer.  Hey at least the skies are clear and we’re not having the heavy smoke we had last summer.   The fire situation is pretty stable for now and the rain we had over the weekend should help out.

The Western Montana Fair was in town last week and we went last Thursday.  It was a blazing hot day with temps near 100 but we had a very enjoyable time.  My highlight of the fair is always the selection of culinary delights and I was not disappointed.  I had my traditional Viking along with fresh squeezed lemonade, fry bread and a pulled pork sandwich.  Everything was delicious and I went home with a very happy belly.  

I also visited the 4H Barn and viewed the menagerie of critters inside.  They had goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, llamas, and of course horses.  A couple of the highlights were a 2600 pound long horn steer that was huge and the other was the adorable miniature horses that our former nurse Kimbra raises.  It was fun to be sniffed out by one of the minis.  I’ve included some pictures and I’d like to thank my friend Mandy for taking them for me.  The fair was a great time and I can’t wait until it rolls into town next August.

The countdown to fall semester is on and there are two weeks remaining of summer vacation.  I’ll be taking 12 credits and I had to tweak my schedule to fit with my nursing schedule.  My on campus classes will fall on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I’ll also be taking an online class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This fall will be busy but I’m looking forward to the challenge that school will bring.  Hopefully I can knock the cobwebs off my brain without too much trouble J

I’m up late tonight watching the Olympics and wow what a wild few days it’s been.  The swimming has been my favorite and Michael Phelps has been absolutely dazzling to watch.  It’s amazing to see these athletes perform at a level that pushes the limits of the human body.  Hopefully Mr. Phelps can make history and win more gold medals than anyone has previously.

Stay well and I’ll return soon…Mark