Of Black Triangles and Earthquakes

More from the WardBunny news network.
There was a comment on Pink News from last February about how we should take pride in our history. And why shouldn't we? Every other culture and group does. So I'm taking the time to enjoy LGBT history month! (LGBT - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual - just in case you didn't know) So as part of my fact finding here's the meaning of Black Triangles.
The lesbian equivalent of the pink triangle used by the Nazis to identify the 'asocial' inmates, which may or may not have been used in the concentration camps. What I have noticed is that over time lesbians often were missed when men were being persecuted for sodomy and overt homosexual behaviour. Maybe the close female relationships were easy to overlook because they were more likely hug or touch in public. I'm still working on that one.

Recently there was the breaking news that Gays cause earthquakes. Wow I always thought it was down to plate tectonics. My high school geography teacher lied to me! No folks, I didn't cause the earthquake in England this week, even if Suggs does believe that I did it testing out my super powers. Trust me if I had to have a super power it wouldn't be earthquakes. Invisibility. Now we might be on to something. Mind you it's usually hormonal teenage boys that want that one for sneaking into women's changing rooms. I won't make the comment that is on the tip of my tongue. Still sometimes I'd like to be invisible.

More Artwork

First up a collection of scraps from probably all from the Nursing Standard. Ads and the like. I love the giant fingers / tiny IV bag. I'm quite chuffed at how this turned out. I just tear stuff out and throw it together. O.K. granted I cut round some of it.

Florence Nightingfish.
So much better in colour than the simple pencil sketch I did ages ago.

My Crystal Ball.
It's why I know so much.... I'm still trying to figure out why I keep putting green in my syringes because there is nothing I know of that is green and injectable (SubCut, IM or IV). Please correct me if there is something.

Best Websites Since Sliced Bread!

http://www.lesbiangeek.com/ and http://www.lesbiangamers.com/
Sister sites that are just the best damn things since sliced white bread with butter and Diva magazine.

Learn To Nurse

As I drag myself towards the End of the World Exam I think I might have found the answer to all my problems!
Learn nursing by post! I just love that it comes with a free uniform and cap. The ad itself comes from the 1950's
Anything must be easier than spending these three years up to your neck in study.

I have a theory that you spend the first part of the course being broken down then reprogrammed through the rest of the course. They want to rebuild you in the image of the perfect nurse. Of course the breaking process is protracted and painful. Having suffered this first hand I know it is not easy but hey I'm still here.

So I'm working on a range of stuff that I've found helpful so I can pass stuff on to other students.

Gentle Words

She hadn't eaten for two days and we were starting to get worried. I was as yet to hear an intelligible word pass her still down-turned lips. But we continued to try and now it was my turn.
Strawberry mousse for desert.
"Wouldn't you like to try a little?"
She shook her head, "Mousse, it's really nice."
Another shake.
"It's O.K. it doesn't come with a tail." I hoped she would get the joke. Moose - Scottish for mouse.
Then the world's most glorious sound... Laughter. From somewhere deep insider her that brought the entire staff running. It was a day we all thought we would never see. She smiled and talked for the entire day. A window into a world that remained closed for the rest of the time I spent with her.

How to Pass an Essay

Read the DAMN Question
Start with the Question
Stay with the Question
Define the Question
Show Examples
Back-up the Question
Link to the Question
Restate the Question
End with the Question

Double check the References (TWICE!)

Follow these steps and trust me the essay will be fine!

Sheep, We Are All Sheep

Since everyone else is doing it...



Looks about right to be honest!

A Little Perspective

I should have added to the last post but I felt this deserved a space of it's own. To put my result of 4.57 or predominantly homosexual in to perspective. Suggs scored a grand total of 0 and Dee Dee had a score of between 0 and 1. The Klein grid is an expansion on the Kinsey scale but hey as the summary said sexuality (especially in women) is fluid.

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep Deprivation makes you do some funny things...

Klein Sexual Orientation Grid

I scored an average of 4.57

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Heterosexual

Bisexual

Homosexual

Meaning

This result can also be related to the Kinsey Scale:

0 = exclusively heterosexual
1 = predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual
2 = predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
3 = equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 = predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
5 = predominantly homosexual, incidentally heterosexual
6 = exclusively homosexual

Summary

The idea of this exercise is to understand exactly how dynamic a person's sexual orientation can be, as well as how fluid it can be over a person's lifespan. While a person's number of actual homo/heterosexual encounters may be easy to categorize, their actual orientation may be completely different. Simple labels like "homosexual", "heterosexual", and "bisexual" need not be the only three options available to us.

Take the quiz

Tech Support - Believing in PEBKAC Since 2005

I'm off tonight to fix Dee Dee's computer and yes I, for some reason, am regarded as Tech Support. I have no formal training but hey I've been around computers since I was 7 so it's all the same to me. Here's a cracking article on being the family's tech support. I'm good natured about helping but I have a habit of taking over as opposed to guiding the poor stricken person.
While I'm away I suggest you go read PC Weenies (the new strips) or even the Archived PC Weenies (where I got this cartoon). I love this guy's work!
I would love a t-shirt with 'RTFM' on it or even 'PEBKAC'.
Granted sometimes I can't fix everything. Until I had to use Vista I had no idea on how to fix it. Don't let me near a Mac (you will never see it again) and Linux is a total grey area to me. So some people don't come to me for help any more. Mind you I've already said that I have NO formal computer training.
So more art when I come back. And a rather fantastic rant if I do say so myself!

The Town Centre Gym

So town centres are being turned into gyms to improve our health. Nice one! What a way to waste public money. People won't stop driving as close as possible to the shop that they want to visit and the Disability Discrimination Act stops them destroying the elevators and escalators. So is it going to change anything? NO!!!!! Freaking nanny state!

If Only...

The Answer to the BIG Question

The one I answer on an almost daily basis.......
How do you know you're gay?
OK a few facts -

• I have not always felt this way
• I did not come to this conclusion lightly
• I have dated men

I have never felt the way my friends did about men but even when I was in high school I learned to fake the right responses. I was so good at faking I started to believe myself and therefore I could convince myself that what I felt was wrong.
For a long time I ignored what I felt. Eventually with some sympathetic friends I explored this side and over time (2 years to be exact) I came to terms with this.
Now for the really short answer "I like women."
Does that make it easier to understand?
Trust me, life is way more fun!

Study Day

Guess what I actually studied! I spent the day filing my old notes and writing up new ones. And in a moment of being a geek I resized and fiddled with the HTML for the little panda like thing in the sidebar. I've left it and it's friend full sized at the bottom, in case in a moment of madness I decide to change from one to the other.

TV

I've been watching lots of TV recently. Don't tell the lecturers. It's an addiction but I've been noticing a worrying trend. It's that bad even the nursing standard is talking about it.
First it was No Angels on channel 4. Making nurses look like boozy women that were only after doctors. Then it was last week's Holby City. Did anyone see that after Chrissie's face was slashed and Stewart was putting her on the table she was wearing hold-up stockings? I'm not the only one, honest. Find me a ward sister that wears stockings to work, and I'll be applying to work there. That's another one that is only chasing doctors!
Least there's some respite with Casualty. There's only mistake-prone junior doctors to worry about there.
I also watch The Royal (when it's on) and The Royal Today and House! And I wonder why I never get any study done!
Point is why is there this trend of boozy, over-sexed nurses that are only after doctors? Guess it makes good television but it really doesn't make us look good.

Pain, Panic and Abuse

That would about sum up exactly what happened today. The lectures were on pain and abuse in A&E. But the panic is what really made the day for me.
First up someone bought a newspaper this morning and found this story about the shambles some lecturer thought up. Exposing a student's errors without their consent must contravene the data protection act or something. It's not right. Although I don't think it had anything to do with the nursing school.
Then there was a petition doing the rounds to stop the college taking away some of the things we (OK more accurately I) rely on. In fact some of this goes back to yesterday's post. We are not allowed to go past an accident because we could be pulled up in front of the NMC but we don't get more than a few hours of training in first aid. They're trying to pull the plug on our CPR training before we go out to our final placements. Now I'm confused we can't go past an incident but if we aren't trained how can we be competent to help?

Accountability

So why am I getting into this again? The governing body of nursing in the UK (the Nursing and Midwifery Council or NMC) is out to get us. In their own words they are there to 'protect the public'. Not the nurses, I guess that falls to our unions.
Nurses have gotten dragged up for all sorts of reasons.... I can't imagine what they would have done to the nurse Terry at Counting Sheep was talking about. Popping a patient's zits while they were under? Throw the book at them.
So one half hour later and the whole class were freaking out. I was considering hiding in my room for the foreseeable future.
Accountable for my actions 24/7 ? Why am I doing this? I could still be working in a shop. No accountability there (unless my till didn't balance). No lives to be fretted over (unless it was my own when the drunks and druggies came in).
1 more year and peoples lives really will be in my hands. And it scares the living heck out of me.

...

That can only be a good thing though. If I'm scared then I'll be double checking everything. The fear can only make me stronger, work harder and strive to be better.

PUI

Posting Under Influence
feeling pished
can't walk rite
Arrgh!
Neva drinking again

WardBunny's State of the Country Post

It has been a while since I wrote a post that come out as a rant but I feel the need to express how much seems to be wrong with this country. To start with there's the Dispatches documentary on the choice pensioners have to make. To they heat their homes or eat?
Why do we let this go on? Why should people who have worked their whole lives to pay their taxes and national insurance be forced to make a choice like that because the state pension is not enough to pay for their care, food and the hiked up heating bills?
This country has more problems than Swiss cheese has holes. Where should I start....
Think about it, hard working lower middle class (and that is a legitimate class these days) are being taxed every way they turn while the NHS continues to go down the pan, children are almost literally getting away with murder, knife crime is on the rise, and the education system is suffering from delinquent children and massive shortages.
So what are the politicians doing with our taxes? Paying their own families to work for them (without doing any actual work).
It's all a bit of a shambles. I could run this place better (and no I've not been drinking).
I believe this is now a nanny state. We have a ban on smoking in public places, people sitting on the dole for their entire lives and we are a huge soft touch when it comes to immigration.
We need to toughen this place up. You want to ruin your life with smoking or poor diet, then carry on just don't take anyone else down with you. We need an acceptable cap on taxes for those who can't afford it and a cap on the amount of pay some get. Politicians get paid far too much in my book. We need to reroute these taxes back into the police, the NHS, the emergency services and the education system. We need slap (not literally) some sense back into those in power.
Prevention is good but it sure as heck not working. We need to plough money into fixing the fact that we are the best at teenage pregnancy, stroke, heart disease and heart attacks. Oh yea and if we could stop going on about England winning the world cup in 1966, please? We don't need to be reminded that the last time we were any good as a country at a sport of any kind was 40-odd years ago. You don't hear the Scottish curlers going on and on about their gold medals now do you?

While I fight With Vista

Here's a message I received while updating Palm Desktop....

My New Website

I've had different sites over the years (most notably I was thrown off Geocities for signposting) but I'm back and my old (I can't stress the old enough) short stories are up for viewing.
http://wardbunny.googlepages.com/
So there you go there's not much but it's (and I hesitate the use the word) quality stuff (well it isn't quantity!).

My New Disease

I'm calling it Vista-itis.
Main Symptoms - Usually first noticed when patient starts screaming uncontrollably at their computer for no good reason. Screaming is not always present, however the lost hours spent staring at a green bar inching across the screen are present in every case. Other less obvious symptoms include anger, frustration and crying.

Disease Progression - Increasing frustration aimed at the operating system can result in damage to both user and computer.

Cause - An infection started by the bacterium Microsoftium. Which has been growing and spreading since the variation number 3.1 was discovered. Mostly dormant the recent mutation, now called Vista, has been the cause of this new outbreak. It has a limited amount of sufferers although it is thought that the amount of people affected will increase over the next year.

Treatment - Some have discovered that Vista-itis can be removed by bringing the previous mutation of Microsoftium called XP into the infected computer. This can greatly reduce the stress caused. If the patient is unable to procure XP then limiting the amount of contact with Vista will reduce the symptoms even if the cause cannot be removed.

Prevention - Smart people are avoiding the bugs by choosing XP or an Apple over the Vista.

Cure - There is no known cure at this time.

Geekdom, Art and Heating?

I realised last night that I can speak 4 dialects of geek: medical, Trekkie, gamer and I.T. tech. I'm near fluent in I.T. and Trekkie. I'm working on medical. You can always tell when someone is fluent in a geek dialect when they start talking way above your head about what should be a simple subject.
My art seems to be getting no where these days. However the collection of art stuff is getting out of control. I've been getting pens, pencils, paints and brushes for years now I've got more than enough to fill the box I was using for my sewing stuff. I'll scan in some of the drawing I have finished as soon as I can.
Under the banner of heating; the heating has been broken for days and it's freezing here. Proof positive in the fact that snowflakes survive indoors!
I'll post something else later and for the rest of the week.