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What Would You Do?
posted by GJ on June 1, 2007 @ 1:48PM
I'm starting up a new blog feature...it's called, What Would You Do? You don't need to put that in the title, per se, but include WWYD? as a tag. This one I'm presenting has to do with the recent news stories about the attorney who had a nasty case of TB and then flew around the world, possibly putting people at risk of infection in many locations. So, a little more background, to set our story. A new theory (for real, I'm not making this up) proposes that the Black Death of Europe in the Middle Ages was not caused by bubonic plague, as originally thought. Some towns kept very good records of who died and when--in one particular town, most of the land owners died in the winter from the Black Death. Bubonic plague, due to its vectors of transmission, is rather dormant during winter months. Instead, the study's authors suggest that some form of hemmoragic fever, like Ebola, was the culprit. Ebola, as you may know, is incredibly virulent disease and kills 90% of its victims. There are fears that Ebola or some variant of it will be the future pandemic that we'll likely eventually face worldwide sometime in the future. OK, that's the stage. Here's the situation: You are travelling on business overseas. As part of a work social activity, you and your local coworkers visit a local zoo. You all have a great time. Three days later, you cancel your day's activities due to a nasty fever and general malaise. By the next day, your fever is still raging and you're now bleeding from the rectum. You look up your symptoms on the internet, and egads, you think you might have ebola. Of course, if you do, and you get diagnosed at the hospital, you won't be leaving that hospital and will likely die there. Scary thought. Of course, you might not have it, either. Let's face it--you're no doctor. But that night, you see on the local news that one of the monkeys in the zoo was diagnosed with Ebola, and people were reporting into local hospitals, fearing the worst with headache symptoms and other various ailments. No health alert has been issued yet...but it all but confirms your self-diagnosis. The information you found on the web indicates that it tends to sit in the body for 3-21 days, and you are not contagious during this initial window. You have family back home--and you are certain that medical care back home will be superior to what you might get in this particular country. You ache to at least say goodbye to your loved ones, and if you have to die, you want to do it on your own terms. What do you do? Fly home, and seek treatment there after checking in with your loved ones? Or check in to the nearest hospital, hoping that all hope is not lost and they can treat you successfully? Why do you do what you do?
| Tags: philosophy, WWYD?
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Remembering the Atari 2600
posted by GJ on May 31, 2007 @ 1:11PM
Dunno if I've mentioned this, but I'm an active participant over at GamerDad. Well, ok, on the forums, that is. One of the other forum participants writes games in Flash, and several of these are available for playing either on the net or the Wii..find them here. The point of my post...he also has a blog on this site of his, and he lately published a look back at the Atari commercials of years gone by. Be sure to check it out!
| Tags: games, video, history
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Anybody remember the game of Bounce?
posted by GJ on May 30, 2007 @ 10:23AM
Years ago, we used to play a game called Bounce on our hoop. I don't recall the particular rules, but I think it worked like this: Players A, B, C, and D are playing. (Min 2 player, no upper limit). Player A steps to the foul line and attempts a shot. If successful, A scores one point and can continue shooting free throws until one misses. When one misses, Player B attempts to recover the rebound and sink a shot from where it was recovered from. If made, that shot is worth two points and B now takes A's place at the foul line to begin shooting foul shots until B misses. If B missed the rebound shot, or failed to recover the ball, then Player C goes to the foul line for shots....and the cycle repeats until one player has scored 21 points. One of the rules I seem to recall was that the rebound shot had to be made in the air--that is, you couldn't catch the ball, stand there and gauge the shot, then take it, instead, your feet had to be off the ground as you picked up the ball and shot it. Using this rule would pretty much mean only short rebound shots were possible, but I recall making some rather long ones. Perhaps we started with this rule and later dropped it? Only curious since we just got ourselves a hoop and are now playing with it a lot. Horse only gets you so far. ;)
| Tags: recreation
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July 4 plans
posted by GJ on May 28, 2007 @ 9:35PM
So, with July 4th being a Wednesday this year, most of us probably have just Wednesday off this year. For those of us possibly going to Mom & Dad's, would you be taking off Mon-Tues that week, or Thurs-Fri? Or not coming at all? I'd prefer Thurs-Fri, but I'm flexible. How 'bout you folks?
| Tags: family
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Ticket to Ride!
posted by GJ on May 21, 2007 @ 11:13AM
I have a new board game that perhaps I can get you interested in. Nope, it's not a social party game--but it does take up to five players. It's basically a combination of Star Reporter, Go Fish, and Qix. Have I lost you yet? The game is incredibly easy to play. Abby and Trevor picked it up immediately, and it's become a family favorite right away. A single game for newbies takes about 45 minutes with 3-4 people. Play with 5 experienced players, it might go up to an hour. Picture a gameboard that shows the USA. There are colored train routes all over the board, connecting the various cities. Your job--lay your rails down on these routes to a) match your secret destination cards, b) create the longest continuous rail empire and c) block your rivals from meeting their own goals. You keep a hand of "train cards," where each train car is a different colour, and a hand of "destination cards" which show you where you're supposed to be going. Points are scored laying down track and meeting your goals. Points are lost for failing to meet your goals. Each turn, you either draw two new train cards, three new destination cards (must keep at least one of those three), or place a new route with your existing hand of train cards. Game ends when one player runs out of track pieces--highest scoring player wins! It's a simple game to learn, simple game to play, and actually rather deep on strategy. Best part--often, you never quite know who will win the game until the very last turn when the secret destination tickets are revealed. I'll bring it in July for something to do other than Guitar Hero, Wii Sports, or golf. ;)
| Tags: games
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Groomsman Needed
posted by Geoff on May 19, 2007 @ 11:58PM
Hey, I need a few good groomsman for the wedding (September 2nd). Technically, I need all of you men. I acquired Marc to play the best man, so that is taken care of (Steve I thought of you, and then I remembered when you threw me into the door...jk :)
Really, all of you would be my best men up there and it would be an honor to have you all by my side. I'm not exactly sure when all of you will be back in Syracuse, but I was thinking around July 4th may be a good time to try on some penguin suits if anybody will be around. Let me know if your in, I hear there is a big game of golf for the few good men who help me out!
| Tags: info
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Link to newspaper article
posted by Kristen on May 19, 2007 @ 6:15AM
The story on our company made the papers this morning! Of course when they interviewed us, all of us looked phenomenal and were having great hair days, but the photographer couldn't make it. He came two days later, when I was having a hideous hair day--but luckily you can't see the zit the size of Kansas that I had on my chin. Maybe they zapped that out! I'm holding my breath awaiting some sales online! Yikes!
| Tags: company
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