Warning! L5R Geeking out in progress.

So I've built a new Rank 1 character for L5R. I figured I've always loved playing the heavy-hitter so now will be no exception. He is, as you've probably guessed, a Crab Clan Bushi. He has a ton of Dis-ads but it's somewhat offset my his mondo Ad-vans. Not to go too in depth with the details but here is what he is capable of in terms of Hay-Maker damage with his primary weapon....mind you, he is a NEW Rank ONE character:

1. 4 strength character
2. Plus 1 by spending "Void"
3. Plus 2 for "Unholy Strength"...oops, the bag is out, he has a Major Shadowlands power.
4. Plus 2 more by tapping into the "Shadowlands Taint" at a cost of one Taint box.
4. Times 1.5 strength with use of a "Tetsubo"
5. Plus 1 for "Large" Advantage
6. Plus 1K1 for "Bishoman's Blessing", provided he makes the requisite 2 raises which would be offset by a "Full Attack".
7. Plus 3 pts (Earth Ring)

That's 4+1+2+2=9x1.5=13.5+1=14.5+1K1= 15.5K4 which rounds to 10 KEEP 7 plus 3 plus ignores Armor!! That's an average of 57PTS of Damage! How's THAT for a first level character! However, he only rolls 7 Keep 3 to hit. If theProf. is reading this, let me know if I've done the math correctly, but I think I'm right on this one.

This is not as bad as my now dead 4th rank Nezumi "Berserker of Doom" which, when nearly down and utilizing the "Motchichikan" and the "Rake" plus "Leap-over" maneuver could conceivable do (only with optimum conditions):

1. 4 strength
2. Plus 1 for large
3. Plus 4 strength when doing Motchichikan/Rake/Leap-over plus Athletics maneuver which was 3 raises total, 2 raises offset by Full Attack.
4. Plus 0k1 for "Hands of Stone"
5. Plus 1k1 for Claws
6. Plus 6 free raises for extra damage (rank ability) plus 40, or 8 raises for extra damage provided he's in the Down box.
7. Plus 40 for Rank 3 Berserker ability
8. Plus 2x Water = 8

Which is 4+1+4=9K2+1K1=10K3+4K5(14 free raises)=14K8 which rounds to 10 KEEP 10 plus 48 pts with his BARE HANDS!! That's an average of 108 Pts. of damage!! Unfortunately, I never lived long enough to unleash this Ultimate attack...I blame theProf. for that.

End Geek-out....

The Rave-Boy inspired this blog entry.

It has occurred to me that in my little kingdom within Public Health Administration, I am in a position to affect the lives of many people given my decisions regarding authorizing and denying services. I do not shy away from this authority nor do I revel in its meager power. I simply realize that oversight is an important function with regard to how our valuable and costly resources are doled out.

However, I do not author policy and our office's authority has limits. We do not legislate laws or regulations, nor do we make broad fiscal decisions regarding city and county, state, and federal budgets. In other words, I'm a little pee-on.

Other folks all across this country in similar positions of limited authority (theDiscourser included) at times will encounter situations where policy and modus operandi compel us to make decisions and/or maintain a protocol that runs counter to our ethics and values and intelligence. We continue to slog through it knowing that we are but a cog on the wheel...that our dissenting vote mean next to nothing excepting a poor employee evaluation.

So what do we do? Ghandi, Thoureau, Dr. King et.al spoke and wrote at length about campaigning against injustice where ever it may be; from the halls of Congress, to the hallways in our schools, from third world countries, to our gleaming urban cities. They spoke about how all of us have the capacity and the responsibility to reveal injustice in our communities and in our world...but that this knowledge means little without action. HOWEVER, they never intended for us to struggle and battle alone...and that standing up for what you believe was never at the expense of your livelihood or life....that our state, federal, corporate, and global institutions are entities that one man/woman could not possibly challenge by themselves. This was not expected of us.

These visionaries believed that there were other ways an activist can advocate. Another option is to NOT participate in a system that is unjust, in a policy that is unfair, in a protocol that does more damage than good, in a system that is broken. We can do this silently and in relative obscurity melding in the background within the system. We need not be the Hero or Martyr. And in this process, find allies and leaders, and over time create a movement. This applies to our health-care system, our educational system, politics, governments, regulation of industry, and any place where injustice lies.

Throughout history, the numbers are incalculable with regard to those who chose to do what was right despite all that compelled them to do what was wrong. Soo soo many did this without fanfare and, in fact, did so with great care to avoid exposure.

For the past couple of years in my current position, I've given thought to how these principles could apply to me and the work that I do...about how despite itemized and guided policies I can and should make decisions that are founded more-so on sound clinical judgement rather than fiscal interests. That I need not be the Hero and advertise my dissent but rather sit quietly and serve my clients in the most ethically and clinically sound manner I can muster.

That's enough writing for now...I'll be giving several examples in my next blog entry.

A gag pamphlet created by a co-worker.

Our unit is given the authority and the responsibility to place clients all throughout the system of care. We essentially control every "BED" everywhere, save the "bed" on the sidewalk or in a park that homeless folks utilize, and the beds people sleep in in their owned or rented homes. Everything else is controlled; from every Hospital bed, to Jail bed, to every shelter bed, to skilled nursing bed, to board and care bed, to independent living bed, to residential treatment bed, to locked facility beds, to half-way house beds...you name it, we control it...we're talking thousands of beds here.

The most challenging and at times frustrating aspect of our job is when we are asked, or rather compelled, to transition our most challenging patients (psychiatrically and medically) out of higher, more expensive levels of care and into less expensive levels of care; for example, from a locked psychiatric ward and into the community. From a philosophical perspective, this makes moral, ethical, fiscal, and clinical sense.

1. A hospital bed costs 1500 dollars a day. A bed in the community costs anywhere from 25 to 600 dollars a day.

2. Locked psychiatric units are designed for folks who are psychiatrically acute, meaning a very recent episode of "danger to self or others, or grave disability". If a patient has compensated from their psychiatric episode and no longer meet legal criteria, it is completely unethical to hold them against there will in a locked setting.

3. Maintaining a patient, psychiatrically compensated and no longer needing a locked setting, in a volatile setting exposes that patient to a high risk of abuse and violence. It is flat-out WRONG to maintain a client in a potentially dangerous environment when they no longer need to (prep. sorry).

4. Crazy environments are crazy-making. When clients have compensated well enough to manage at a lower level of care, continuing to maintain clients in clinically inappropriate settings negatively impact the prognosis of their psychiatric recovery.

With that said, the challenge remains: "Where the Hell do we place some of these clients!?" Patient advocates, Ombudsman's, State Licensing, Doctors, Social Workers, Families, and Psychiatrist expect our system to have an answer for EVERY client that we come across. The expectations are at times both completely unrealistic, bordering on Utopian, and utterly self-righteous.

Often times our teams find ourselves in political struggles and philosophical debates between the system (us) and client advocates regarding where, when, how, and what should be done with the clients we serve. And within this cauldron of frustration and debate, workers within can alleviate a bit of tension by inserting a bit of humor.

Here is a fake pamphlet one of my colleagues created of a fictitious home. I don't think you'll find it at all funny, but to folks in Bed Control, it is a complete riot. I made the mistake of passing this around to a bunch of therapists and social workers I sometimes eat lunch with. Some got the humor while others thought it was over the line. I stood my ground, especially re. the fake email "We'llslap'em4u@RiaootnManor.com". I responded with..."some of our clients need to be slapped"....GASP!

I continued..."If one person CONS another person for ten thousand dollars, that person can be arrested, convicted, and thrown in prison. On the other hand, when you have ONE manipulative malingerer (with a contrived factitious disorder and deliberately exaggerated psychiatric symptoms) conning our system of precious resources and expensive housing to the tune of 1.75 million dollars over 24 months, what do we do?!?...NOTHING, no outrage let alone an attempt to CHALLENGE or even QUESTION that client's claims of disability. Instead, what we do is continue to bash that square peg into that round hole...brilliant."...no answer. I deftly tossed the report re. the clients history of cost to the system onto the center of the table (names and identifying info. removed according to HIPAA regulations of course).

I mentioned that it was AS IMPORTANT to serve our clients as it was to delegate our efforts to those clients MOST IN NEED OF OUR SERVICES AND RESOURCES. We simply cannot serve everyone with the same intensity of service; it is neither good for the client or the service worker. We MUST make difficult clinical judgements regarding who we serve as well as the degree to which we invest our resources toward their care. One social worker (whom I like and respect) said, in jest, "You sound burnt out". I responded that I was in fact the opposite! That I was more excited about the work than ever! I clarified that I was in NO WAY frustrated with our clients,...rather it was the other way around!...I was frustrated with folks who serve our clients.

Enough of that, here's the pics.




BTW, R.I.A.O.O.T.N. stands for "Running In And Out Of Traffic Naked".

The greatest swimming race I've ever seen.

The 4 X 100 freestyle relay last night. I can't say it any better than this report:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/swimming/news/newsid=194272.html#relay+instant+olympic+classic?GT1=39001

Read it please.

Ruins of Monte Alban

The Valley of Oaxaca is a geographic region located within the modern day State of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. The valley, which is located within the Sierra Madre Mountains, is shaped like a distorted and almost upside-down “Y,” with each of its arms bearing specific names. The Valley of Oaxaca was home to the Zapotec civilization, one of the earliest complex societies in Mesoamerica, and the later Mixtec culture. A number of important and well-known archaeological sites are found in the Valley of Oaxaca, including Monte Alban, Mitla, and San José Mogote.

Here are some of my wife's pix from her recent trip to Oaxaca. This is Monte Alban...by 400 BC, this site, which is located atop a 400 m tall artificially-leveled mountain and completely lacking in easily-accessible water sources, had a population of ca. 5,200.




Mesoamerican's played a ball game with similarities to modern soccer. The ball game was intense. The players, dressed in padded clothes for protection, dashed up and down the court, skillfully moving the ball, using only their shoulders, knees, elbows and hips. Everyone in the city will watch, but the most intent spectators are the priests, who interpret the will of the Gods by the actions of the ball and the players. At the end of the game, the winners will have brought prosperity to the region they represent. The losers, however, will march off sadly—their loss has shown that the Gods are displeased with them and their city-state. The only remedy: the losing team must be sacrificed. The skull of the losing captain will form the core of the hard rubber ball that is used in the next game



According to some scholars, these skulls also represent proof early Trepanation: surgery in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the skull, thus exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial disease



Back to watching the Olympics. Been watching the gymnastics portion this evening. My god, after watching the Chinese men and women, why bother continuing with the competition?

Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

So I just finished watching the entire opening ceremonies...with the occasional PIP channel flip during the Parade of Nations to watch some UFC fights. I've watched nearly every opening ceremony since the late 70's...my parents did the same. I have to say that this opening ceremony was the grandest spectacle I have ever seen.

As Bob Costas (anchor hosting the games and a journalist who has covered the Olympics for over 25 years) elequantly put it during the torch lighting phase, "If Olympic Opening Ceremonies were a contest, you'd retire the trophy." WOW, utterly amazing. I simply can't begin to explain it.

It is Tuesday the 5th of Aug.

1. Gamed Saturday at Rave-boy's. Needless to say, I LOVE playing L5R. The dice rolling has been going my way for the last two sessions. Also, our group is as well rounded as an adventure party can be...combat-wise. I'm actually looking forward to my character's ongoing and growing challenges with dealing with the Dark Side. I believe I can successfully negotiate and eventually master the Shadowland Power...hehe...that sounds like a challenge to the GM...and walk that thin line without compromising my character's unflinching integrity.

2. The Wife returned from Oaxaca. Had a wonderful time and learned a helluva lot of Spanish. She took a few fantastic pics that I'll be posting...some of a huge and ancient Aztec city. Beautiful now, kinda creeps me out knowing what they did at these temples. If you don't know, just imagine an endless parade of mutilation and sacrifice that goes on from sun up to sun down, one poor soul after another, one day after another, one week after another, one months after another. And all of it to appeal to and praise the dieties. She took pictures of several skulls from the site's science center...all of them have signs of death inducing cranial trauma.

3. My car has been driving decently for several months now. Still has a nagging boost flutter issue that doesn't rear its head often enough to qualify as a "problem". However, when I parked in my garage space at work and shut of the motor, all the contents of the radiator decided to explode out from under the car...DAMN. After some serious web research and after tapping into the Audi Fanatic on-line Collective that is "Audiworld", I got a hook-up to a reputable mechanic within 4 blocks of my garage. I kinda knew what was wrong and absolutely knew that despite the catastrophic symptoms, it was simply a matter of a blown hose under the motor. Got a call today from Darrell at Atlas Motors LTD (good guy) and sure enough, just a blown hose to the coolant temp sensor. Easy fix and cheap to boot. Having to Bart it for a couple of days though.

4. Movie recommendations: Nothing earth shattering here...just some some entertaining flicks.
- The Dark Knight...you already know about this one.
- Wanted...watched this one with NTT's Brain, theProf, theAcupunturist, and Rave-Boy. Quite entertaining...not alot of substance but it never took itself that seriously.
- The Brave One...the most thoughtful vigilante genre piece in quite some time. Totally convincing. Examines revenge and the vigilante psyche better than almost any other vigilante genre film I've seen.
- Frailty...great hook, doesn't let go, and ends with a bang.

5. Eating a late lunch at work: Papusas and chorizo gorditas from "Bocadillo Il Primo". I would have rank Chorizo just slightly behind SPAM as my favorite food. You can do almost anything with this stuff...and the yummy, spicy, fatty juices that seem to run and soak into everything near it tastes soo good. SPAM has it beat only because Chirozo requires a pan to cook properly. You could conceivable eat and enjoy SPAM right out of the can, if you weren't opposed to the rubbery texture and slimmy goop on it's exterior. My parents used to make me raw SPAM sanwiches in grade school. My classmates would wretch at the sight and smell. I would simply close my "Land of the Lost" lunch pail in silent shame and save the sandwich for discard at a latter time. My parents would have been quite angry if they knew, "My Goodness, you're throwing away some good SPAM right there!". Raw is the only way I can't eat SPAM.

More about my grade-school lunches in a future post.