Music Beta. Version 2.0 or My favorites of 2005

Now I know some of the albums came out earlier than that of 2005, So fuck off. I know, so there is no need to tell me. I discovered them (the albums not nessasarly the band) this year. So These are the albums that have taken over my iPod this past year.
God I love iTunes.

Rachael Yamamgata
Happenstance

What a wonderful debut album. Some songs, like "Letter Read", are reminecent of Fiona Apple. Others, like "1963", sound like Norah Jones. But her voice and lyrics are truly unique and all her own. These are songs made for slow Saturday mornings. With beautiful piano and strings, the melodies build a perfect little frame for her voice. Check out "I Want You" and "Meet me by the Water" But I will say I love every song on the album.


Frou Frou
Details
Imogen Heap
Speak for yourself

I put these together because "Speak for Yourself" is Heap's solo album. Frou Frou is her band, well its not really a band its a pair. But whatever. Both have very similar sounds. Ghost like voice over top an electronic sound. Electronica is no longer cold and icy. But now has heart. Good lyrics. Great sound. All around a very well done effort. If you are a fan of Jem or Dido check Imogen out.


Death Cab for Cutie
Plans

"I want to live were soul meets body"

This band's fifth effort makes me believe people can still put out good music. It's not all linsay lohan, britney spears crap. Thoughtful lyrics. Well done Death Cab. I do tend however to like their last album "Transatlaticism" a bit more. But still an awwsome CD. I can listen to it over and over.


Rilo Kiley
More Adventerous

I know, I know this came out in July of 2004. But I'm still going to put this on my top of 05. Try and stop me. I love the lyrics, the political comentary. By now yall have heard "Portion for Foxes" ("Im bad news") because it's been a song on Grey's Anatomy. Oh yeah, and their live show is just a good as the albums. I heart Jenny Lewis.


Audioslave
Out of Exile

Never have Chris Cornell sounded so good. The sound still has some Rage Against the Machine's undertones. But Cornell has transformed that band and made a sound that is truely awsome. This album has taken over the spot that RATM had when I paint and listen to loud angry music. My favs include "Bee Yourself", "Doesn't Remind Me" and "Man or Animal"


Foo Fighters
In Your Honor
Disc 1 and 2

Can the Foo's ever put out a bad album? Not even word to explain how fucking bad ass this is.

The Killers
Hot Fuss

"I got soul, but I'm not a soilder."

Kick ass debut. And I'm not normally into glam emo rock, or whatever you want to call it. Brings back memories of an ex who LOVED David Bowie.


Stereophonics
Language, Sex, Violence, Other

"Thinkin' bout thinking of you..."

Perfect driving album. Kelly Jones' deep raspy voice and hard guitars makes an incrediably sexy combination. Wonderfully hard and thoughtful. Memorable tracks include the single of the summer "Dakota", "Brother" , and "Pedalpusher"

Weezer
Make Believe

I love Weezer, even if their lead singer is a fucking lunatic. Rivers's two year of celibacy aparently means that they can make good music. From the radio friendly "Beverly Hills" to the drug indused lyrics of "Freak Me Out" this album is fantastic from start to finish.

So these are my 10 favs of of 05. There are many, many more, but I only feel like writting 10 really short reviews. Check these out.

My christmas present

Well then...the holidays are now coming to a close. And What I have left with is a maxed out credit card and a brand new camera. My father went all out this year. What I asked for was a small point and shoot Digital camera. Nothing too fancy. What I got was a Nikon D50 digital SLR. Something I wanted but didn't want to fork over the bank for a new camera body. According to my mama, my daddy bought like four diffrent cameras, one just slightly more advanced than the next until he settled on the Nikon. Every photographer has a preferance on cameras. Some, like my dad, prefer Canons, some Pentax, I am a Nikon girl till the end. They are easy to use and easy to find lenses and other accessoiries for. I was not expecting this at all, so imagine my surpirse when I opened a small heavy box Christmas morning to find a new Nikon. Unfuckingbelivable. Now one mistake was made. my dad thought that my 30year old manual lenses that I have for my 30 year old Nikon (Julia is her name) would work on the new digital. Not so muuch. It works in the fact that I can take pictures, however there is no light metering and my apperture settings are wrong. I would have to guess on all of my exposures. So my dad being that he was so proud of himsef for the nice surprise of the camera, and then the sheer let-down that the lenses I have didn't work, he immediatly got on B&H's website and ordered me a brand new AF Nikkor 18-55mm lens. I also got a few other small things like a copy of "Harold and the purple Crayon" ( book from my childhood that was read to me almost as much as "Goodnight Moon"), and a Van Gogh book. A new mixer because I burned out the motor on mine making sugar cookies. All and all a fabulous holiday. Expect lots of photographs posted as soon as my new lens comes in.

Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas to all. Hope the hoildays are bright for your families, hope for no calls for those working and if you do have to run calls, go forth and save a life for christmas.

Stupid Medic Tricks

Wow, I had a dumb medic moment last night. Now every one of us has an off day (or night in my case). So we get called to a Severe Respiratory Distress at 0400. Not a time when I am on my A game to begin with and then walk into an actual sick patient who is really having respiratory distress. Now in the four short years I have been in EMS (less than one of them as a paramedic) one of the things I have learned is that calls at 4am are one of two things: complete and udder bullshit or fucking sick. This old woman was the latter. Now walking in the small apartment you could tell she was fighting to breath. I listened to her lungs and she was very very diminished and what I could hear was wheezes. She stated she had asthma and had been short of breath since this morning. She had been taking her Advair all day, and of course that didn;t help, as that Advair is a treatment not for acute onset. I loaded her up and she was still very short. I get her in the back of the ambulance noticing the swollen legs and the enormous bag o meds she had. One of the pill bottles had the label for furosomide (Lasix or Water pills as they are also know) Still that didn't tip me off that what was going on was not asthma. ( like I said dumb medic moment) SPO2 still in the 80s, still fighting to breath. And of all things to forget we have on the ambulance now I forget that we now have access to CPAP. Yes, I forgot. It's fairly new to us and I completely forgot. Plus I was still treating Asthma not CHF, which is what was clearly going on with this woman. However we were two minutes from the hospital, so I start a quick treatment of albuterol for the wheezes and encode the hospital. Now of course the Blood pressure monitor isn't working and she moving so much that a manual pressure is impossible. Everything I tried to hear it all I got was an earfull of diesel engine and siren. And of course the hospital keeps asking me what the pressure is and, well I don;t have one. Finally I palpate a shitty way off pressure. Give them that. And we pull into the hospital. I have no IV, given no Nitro, and forgot about the CPAP. So I felt about two inches tall. And to make it worse the MD on duty HATES medics, thinks we are all incompetent boobs. And he tell me she is in Florid CHF, which I have no ideas what that means. (it apparently means she be real full up) so then I felt really stupid. I did everything I could just to get the hell out of the hospital. I felt stupid and angry at myself that I missed it. I had suck tunnel vision that I didn't see the forest for the trees. Now I know everyone was a bad day, but being a medic your bad day can turn into a death. She didn't die, she was fine. As soon as we pulled into the ER they had the BiPAP ready and everything was good. I am not normally this retarded. I know the treatments. I know my meds. I just had a bad call, made a bad call and tow minutes from the hospital doesn't give much time to think, especially when the nurse on the other end of the radio is yelling for a pressure. I got this AM and called my mom. Being an ER nurse she understands what goes on in the streets. She knows that everyone makes mistakes, we are not always perfect. She told me, so you made a mistake and forgot something. The next time you won't make that same mistake.

You mean he's really sick?

Well...I had my first real kinda live sick patient in two months. In the past two months I have been dealing with flu-like sympotoms times three days, fevers, sore throats, bullshit chest pain secondary to crack intake, spitters, depressed suicidals, ABD pains from too much egg nog, drunks, and anything that the police department calls us for. The poilce seem to think drunk is a medical emergency. Hell, I was drunk three days ago and I didn't need an ambulance. I needed a taxi and Advil. Anyways, back to my sick man. He was a fairly young veteran, 52 years old. The call had come out as Respiratory Distress secondary to Asthma. We were met outside by several police officers, a young male officer I have known since my days working the the ER comes up to me while I grap the airway bag and computer and says "B, He's got some kind of growth on his neck, I have never seen anything like it and he's bleeding...bleeding alot."
"So this isn't a Shortness?"
"Shortness, where the hell did you get that?"
"Our dispatchers told us this was asthma."
"Well I 'm not the meidcal expert you are, but I don't think this is asthma."
So I put the airway bag back and grabbed a trauma box and a D-tank. My partner was already in the house. The front door is a peice of plywood and there is another door to the immediate left. The doors swing in the oppisite directions so you have to close one door to open the other. (this detail about the doors is important in the extrication od the patient from the residence) It is a tiny one room apartment where these two best friends live together. It reeks of cheap booze,cigars and the metallic scent of blood. A small black and white TV blares on the floor. The paient is sitting on the blood soaked bed being supported by his buddy. He is damn near dead, unresponsive with no radial pulses. He friend tells us what happened. The large tumor on the mans neck had split open and had started squirting blood. The man was covered in it, as was his buddy. His friend had tied a tee shirt around the wound and was holding pressure on it. "M..M..Miss ambulance lady...It just started bleeding...I...I...I Put this on it, but it just wouldn't stop. Y..You help my friend? I felt for my patient and I felt for his friend who even though was somewhat intoxicated knew to call 911 and knew to put pressure on the wound. He had a look of sheer panic in his eyes. I gathered all the infomation I needed from the buddy while my partner called for the fire ddepartment. The extrication from the house was gonna be tough because of the way the doors lined up. And the fact he was COVERED in blood. So the fire department showed up and we wrapped him up in what is refered to as a "Shit Taco" ( a huge fluid proof yellow sheet) And carefully carried him out of the house. We get him in the back of the ambulance and he is still only alert to pain. I lay him back and throw his legs up in hopes to bring his pressure up somewhat. The wound had quit activly bleeding for the most part. It was still slightly oozing. The first offical Blood Pressure was 72/44. He had shit for vascular access. I tried 6-7 times for a line my partner tried twice. My second pressure since putting him the trendelenburg was 92/50 and he was starting to wake up a bit. If you hollered his name he would look up at you. After trying for several lines I just look up at my partner and tell him to just get me on the road. He needs a central line and blood. Cat Two, please and ER's channel. High flow O2, High flow diesel is all I can give him. By the time we arrive at the hospital he is more awake and starting to fling blood around the box. I learned from the hospital that the tumor had started out dime size about six months ago and he had refused all surgery. It was now the size of a large grapefriut.
The rest of the night was uneventful, a broken leg, a drunk and a weak all over.

Also of note I had my court date for the speeding ticket. Reduced to two points and $77 fine. Accoding to the judge I could have just called, I didn't have to drive all the way out there to get it reduced. Apparently the arresting officer had told him that he had told me that. Which he hadn't of course. I couldn't even get the courts phone number out of the officer....damnit

The Goat Rape

I know it's getting longer and longer between post, but my excuse is not much as been going on that is blog-worthy. Well until the other day. I learned that my little city on the east coast is one of the top cites on the vunerable lists for attacks, due to the fact we have the 2nd largest port on the east coast (NYC, I want to say is the largest, maybe Savannah, or Boston), we also have a Navel Weapons Training center and a large Air Force base. We also have the largest Cable stay bridge in North America. I learned this because we had a "surprise" county-wide Haz-Mat WMD terrorist drill. But let's call it what it really was... a big ol' fashion goat rape., as most of these type of drills are known as. Now I know it's kinda supposed to be so that emergency responders know what the weaknesses are and how they can fix them before the Big One happens, but shouldn't be a Surprise type of thing. We already had six ambulances ready and running before it started, as were the Special Ops teams already on suited up. In real life none of this would be ready. What I think should of happened is that yes tell us a drill is going to take place sometime during the day, have the special Ops teams on stand-by, But have that the only information that is released. Not the times, not the places, just that it's going to happen at some point. Then when it starts, do the ring down of the teams and other emergency workers to staff the medical, fire and police vehicles needed. That way the response times of getting the response vehicles, trailers and busses 10-8 and ready can be recorded somewhat realistically. But what do I know, Im just a paramedic. SO it started and first thing right off was that the dispatcher (who did a wonderful job, even though she is a part-timer who normally plays in the streets as a paramedic) received wrong information on where the first incident was so they sent us, the medical support, to stand-by at one location to wait for fire and port authorities to "clear" our scene and set up the zones and Fire got sent to a totally different location. It took almost 30 minutes to clear up that there was, at this point, only one incident. Not our fault, not fires fault, not even the dispatchers fault. It was the fault of one person who gave the wrong info to us. So we got that cleared up and we were sent to the right place. Now all the while the mix-up is being fixed two more "incidents" happened at two more locations so we were being dispatched to all of these different locations. From what we got on the street, the different accidents were to train the different agenties what they were supposed to do. One was to train the Fire department, One for the Medical teams, and one was more aimed toward police and SWAT. I was at the Fire's Haz-Mat incident. So we really did not have patients per-say (we had like two) but we were to do the entry and exit exams for the Fire department. So the senario was that a container at the port had been dropped, was smoking and leaking something and the the port people had readings of radiation and explosives. Not many injuries of bystanders (like I said two), this was more geared toward the fire's HazMat response. Now the fire guys were actually suited up in there HazMat gear, were on SCBAs and the whole thing so entry and exit exams needed to be done. The fire department we were working with, unlike most of the department were work with, has a problem working with EMS. SO They had already suited up an were working before we could do our exams. Then when they were told nobody else could go into the hot zone without exams, they bitched and complained. I had one guy yell at me because he was extremely hypertensive and I told him that he would not be allowed into the hot zone. "Look," I told him "Its' not my call, its your chief's call, I was given a max number for blood pressures, I am not allowed to clear you when you pressure is in the 220s, you should have taken you Pressure meds or something. Don't bitch at me, its not my call." He carried on about being up for promotions and why was I not keeping any one else out, bitch, bitch,bitch, blah, blah,blah. I did have to keep tow more out, but they both were like "Hot damn, I hate wearing those fucking suits anyways" So I finished my entry exams and when it came time to do the exits I had three, three of the forty domething fire guys come back to me for their exit exams. WTF, IM NOT STANDING HERE FOR MY HEALTH YOU DUMB BASTARDS. I standing here for yours. If one of those guys had collasped or something, it would have been my head. I didn;t really know what the other incidnets were, I know one was a tanker overturned with "green stuff" leaking from it and there was some dirty bomb detonated at another site. From what I understand, the other sites had their share of problems, but we also found solutions to a lot of them. So, Al and All, by EOC's standard it was a successful drill. Other than the late lunch, lack of bathrooms ( at least ones that you didn't have to walk through the hot zones to get too) and some other minor problems, the public was told it was a positive drill. Now ask some of the responders and you might get a different story. But these things are supposed to be a fucking nightmare anyways.

Mad World

I just returned home for a long shift. I didn't feels good yesterday, that horrible achey feeling you get right before you get sick. Never a good sign. Also never a good sign when you get called to the same house twice in one shift. Yesterday AM we get called to a house when a very angry woman lives with her parents. According to the parents, she when psychotic after she hit her toes on the bottom of the stairs. Of course when we got there, she had taken a Xanax and had calmed down. Answered all the right questions all the right ways, so that we could not take her to the hospital. So later on that night we get called to the same house for the same woman. Except this time she had threatned herself and her parents with a box cutter and said she had taken 15 Xanax. She is now extremely violent and screaming like a fucking banshee. Dad had called us and was the only one in the house with any goddamn sense. Because of Course the mom couldn't handle any of this, she kept crying out "What are you people doing to her?!?" So while I was busy with the 'rents my partner and 4 police officers where upstairs restraining this woman. The Dad finally got the mother to calm down, so that I could go and assist in the restraining of this nut. Now I'm fine with the name calling ( YOU DUMB FAT UGLY DIKE! FUCK YOU YOU BITCH!) and I can keep my cool through the kicking and swinging ( have restraints for that), but when they start spitting in my face that's when I lose my patience. Spitting to me is just about the nastiest thing you can do to a paramedic. It's horribly disrepectful and completely unnecessary. I hate spitters. So all the while of fighting this woman we are getting rained upon by spit. My partner got the brunt of it being that he was closer to her face, I was at her legs getting the shit kicked outta me while I tried to tie them down. We get her down the stairs after about 45 minutes of fighting with her. With her screaming to UNTIE ME YOU FUCKING BITCH, YOU CAN;T DO THIS! I'M GONNA HAVE YOUR JOB AFTER MY LAWYERS HEAR ABOUT YOU! I AM AN IMPORTANT PERSON AND I KNOW PEOPLE WHO WILL FUCK YOU UP! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! AND YOU ARE HURTING MY FUCKING ARMS ect ect ect she demeaned us, and our choice of work, that she was a RX rep and that she was more important (so how many lives have you saved?)...So my partner and I silently continue. There is no talking to these people. We get her on the stretcher and get the arm above her head and the other at her waist, get her legs tied down and I load her into the truck. At this time she starts kneeing at the restraint at the top arm, spitting the pieces at me. Gets that arm loose, then gets a leg loose (our soft restraints suck balls) So then I resort to cravats and get everything back tied down, get a mask on her face to keep the biting and spitting at a minimum. My partner asked if there was anything else. Nope just a ride please. The City officer hops in the back with me so If I need help if she manages to unrestrained herself. And off we go. She cusses and screaming for the entire ride, up until the point were she starts complaining about her shoulder hurting because of the restraints. Now Of course being the responable medics that we are we checked all the the points of the tie down. Making sure we got pulses and everything is loose enough so that we don't loose circulation but tight enough to keep her at bay. So when she started in on her shoulder hurting (at first it was MY FUCKING SHOULDER HURTS YOU DUMB BITCH!...Then she tried a different approach of Can you loosen my right arm, please, it's hurting me? ) I told her that I could not loosen anything because of the fact that I cannot risk my own safety in the back of an ambulance. "You did nothing but hit, kick, cuss, bite, spit and call me names while I was trying to help you, so no I cannot loosen it. It's as loose as I can safely keep it I can however help you reposition your body. But under no circumstances can I untie anything." So I helped her reposition. I think she got it through her head at this point that she is no longer in control and that I was. She started crying and apologizing. She said she was scared and angry. She asked if I could stay with her. I told her I could not, however the people at the ER are very nice, they, like us, are just trying tohelp her. According to my mama, who works at the ER we took her to, that lasted about 45mins. She became violent again spitting at my mom, calling her names, swinging at her. My mama is a very kind and wonderful nurse. She cares for her patients in a loving manner, even the fucking crazy bitches. I felt for my mom. I know she can handle them, she knows when to be...Well a mom...When dealing with completely unreasoning patients. But nobody messes with her on my watch.

Music Beta.

Okay Since I tend to buy at least three to five CDs a payweek (or now iTunes had become a better option due to everything being 9.99 and you can buy just the songs you want it's great!) I will try and do 30 sec reviews of at least 3 new albums. This is the testing phase, if yall like it tell me and I will try to keep up with it once a week or so. Cool? Okay here goes...

James Blunt/ Back to Bedlam
David Grey but better. Great voice for a British Recon Officer. According to iTunes he kept a guitar with him while in Kosovo and the songs he created there became Bedlam. He does get a bit whiny in a few songs like "Goodbye My Lover". "Beautiful" is a great first single, though a bit stalkeresque . Also check out "Tears and Rain" and "Out of my Mind"
***1/2

Panic! At The Disco/ A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
If The Killers and Fall Out Boy had a love child it would be Panic!, Emo with a beat. Songs of Note "Time to Dance" ("When I say shotgun, you say Wedding"), I write Sins not Tragedies", and with it's sexy lyrics, "Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Off Her Clothes"
***

Brandi Carlile/Brandi Carlile
I discovered her while watching "Grey's Anatomy" when they played "What Can I Say". This is a great debut album. She has taken place among my top five female artists ranking somewhere between #2 Liz Phair (circa Exile in Guyville) and #4 Tori Amos (circa Little Earthquakes). Brandi's lyrics are well written and complement her voice perfectly. "Happy" is remincent of several of my failed relaltionships, but not in a depressing kinda way. The melodies just flow from song to song, this album is great to chill out to. This is the album that keeps me calm while stuck in traffic.
*****

If I offend you, you can keep it to yourself.

Spiderwebs


Oh happy days...Five days actually. I have a stretch of five days off. Five days to do nothing. And that is exactly what I'm going to do, because after my five days I have to go back and spend the next three weeks in uniform. I have a shitload of OT coming up to help pay off the credit cards bills I'm going to rack up in the next few weeks. Three weeks of the sick and stupid. Though works recently has been uneventful. Last shift consisted of three calls, a respiratory, a "I think I had a seizure and a hypocondriac. Her chronicfibromialgiafatiguesydromedisorder was acting up. This woman had more chief complaints than a CHFer having an MI with a CVA just for kicks. She was weak, dizzy, had tunneling vision, with black spots, couldn't move her ring finger on her right had, her legs felt funny, she couldn't fill her lungs all the way, chest tightness and had kidney pain and that was just the list she gave me. She had a whole new list for the hospital. The list of meds she was on was a page and a half long. I've had cancer patients on less stuff, she was a walking pharmacopoeia. Nobody should be on that many Meds. Drugs for her pain ,her hypertension, her heart, her lungs. Drugs to counteract the side effects of the other drugs and then more pills the counteract the ones she takes to counteract side effects. A never ending circle of action/reaction. Why?...no really why? And they were all prescribed by different doctors. She had to have been under the care of six different doctors for a disease that modern medicine doesn't even know if it exsits. Come on, if you are going to summoned an ambulance at 0230 al least let it be for a real disease. Like a pseudo-seizure.

I have a show coming up this weekend. I am going to be selling some of my photographs is a local arts show alongside of my mama. My mom is a jewelry designer and makes her own glass beads. So together we are hopefully going to make some cash for Christmas. AKA "Holiday" No longer in The Holy City is Christmas to be referred to under any circumstances as "Christmas". It has not been replaced by the more politically correct term as "Holiday" No longer does the local Lowes sell Christmas trees, they are to be renamed Holiday trees. Because Christmas has now become offensive. Now I have several friends who are Orthodox Jews. They have different stories, games and traditions. I'm not offended by the lighting of the Menorah. I am not offended by the different prayers they say in Hebrew. But all of a sudden the Christian story of the birth of Christ has become offensive. Christian children are no longer able to act out the Christmas story or decorate a Christmas tree. Santa has become a fat evil elf. The Three Wise Men have been fired. My roommate works in a local store that had a "Merry Christmas" sign outside by the trees. The store was made to take the sign down because a man came in and furiously demanded that it be removed because he found it offensive. IT'S A SIGN PEOPLE! BY THE CHRISTMAS TREES!
When did this change? When did the season stop being about family, friends and celebration?