Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Celebrate the past

Recall a better season

Gone without reason

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2009, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Thank you, Dr. Lindsay Bates. Your works are good.

Technorati Tags: poetry,haiku,anniversary,twenty-two years ago today

A Brief Neurophychological Exam

Look into his eyes

Is he in there? I can't tell.

Anybody home?

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2009, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"Consciousness is that annoying time between naps." - Unattributed

Technorati Tags: poetry,haiku,neuropsychology,brief exam

Bell Curve

IQ seven two

Just enough to understand

Fitting in’s not yours

IQ one three nine

Not quite ready for prime time

Asks what might have been

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2009, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Seeking Spiritual Enlightenment

The Way

Path dark and narrow

Bordered closely by cow crap

Direction one way

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2009, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Technorati Tags: poetry,haiku,spirituality,cow crap

EHR, National Health Database, Confidentiality, and More

It has been quite some time since I have made an entry to this blog. My only excuse is that I have been writing and ranting elsewhere and neglecting my self-imposed responsibilities here. I have several concerns with such things as the EHR and its apparent imposition upon us by "bigger" business, the creation of a national health database, the security of anything posted to or transmitted on the web, conflicts between "national security" and net neutrality, and more. I have collected information on these topics, but never quite gotten around to compiling it into coherent posts. In all liklihood these subjects, though interrelated, will be dealt with separately or will intertwine without full explanation as a series of posts.

Until I am able to begin this series, I will leave you with a poem written by a humanistic psychologist. I ran across it in the Psychotherapy.net News newsletter. While you're there, sign up for their free monthly e-newsletter:

EMPIRICALLY VALIDATED PSYCHOTHERAPY
(A POEM)

What works in psychotherapy?
That's far beyond the likes of me.
I've only practiced fifty years,
and still am plagued by doubts and fears.
I muddle on and try my best
to aid my clients in their quest
for ways of being more alive,
somehow in spite of all to thrive.
I wish I knew the right technique
to give them more of what they seek.
The mystery of change persists


unsolved by dogged scientists.
I hope that they will soon impart
quick ways to heal a broken heart.
My efforts stagger, balk, and lurch
unguided by precise research
to tell me how to ease life's pains,
and thus flawed intuition reigns.
Pray science soon will guarantee
sure cures for human misery,
but meanwhile I'll do what I can
without a validated plan.

- Tom Greening

http://www.psychotherapy.net/announcements/Dec08.html

Peace, Doc

Copyright (c) 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Odd Haiku

This Stinks

Fie! Here is death’s stink.

Nay. ‘Tis the odor of piss.

Change its damn diaper.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Technorati tags: haiku, baby, elderly

Today in a speech to a hopeful nation ...

Scientific integrity cannot flourish in an environment of suppression and politically skewed reporting.

George "The Walker" Bush

Issued a proctomation;

"Everything is fine!"

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George W. Bush

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Joseph Goebbels

Here-A-Ku, There-A-Ku, Everywhere A Haiku

Having awakened several times during the night, I finally ceased resisting and arose early for the morning, remembering some dream fragments. There were several that might have inspired a haiku (or a limerick.) These are variations on the themes of past, present, and future which were interlaced into one dream. Whether you like them or not, the reader may at least be thankful that nothing was written about a portion of another dream concerning the frustration of trying to clean projectile cat poop from carpeting.

Tightly grasp your Now

Far too fast becomes your Past

Future's not yet lived

___

Learn Now's lessons well

Too soon fading into Past

There will be a quiz

___

Old man once told him

Get a good education

They can't take from you

___

Older now himself

He's come to realize that

Aging surely can

___

Unwilling to stay

In the Now, he meanders

The paths of his Past

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again." - Willa Cather

Neuropsych Haiku

I love to dream. Not daydreams. The all out, longer, stranger ones that occur late in the sleep cycle. Traveling in time, changing the past, reliving parts of it, when even being changed by the dreamstuff itself seems possible. I don't really mind if I wake in a panic from a dream if it was interesting. One type that I like the most combines concepts, people, words, images, or events in ways that would be highly unlikely in a waking state. I had one of that sort recently that somehow intertwined my confusion about my future with the mnemonic device for remembering the names of the 12 cranial nerves. Further, in the dream, I realized that the words of the "standard" version of this memory aid had seventeen syllables. Ooh, haiku! Of course upon waking I could not leave the version I had learned alone. I had to modify and add meanings to it. "Meanings" is deliberately plural to allow for good or bad outcomes.

The most frequently used mnemonic is, "On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops." There are other versions, one quite lewd, but all help the student to remember the names of the cranial nerves by using the first letter of the nerve as the first letter of the associated word in the mnemonic; Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Acoustic, Glossopharyngeal, Vagal, Spinal-accessory, & Hypoglossal.

One Omen Only
To Tear Apart Fantasies
And Give Vent Sour Hate

-or-

One Omen Only
To Tease Apart Fantasies
And Grant View Soul's Hope

Quite likely a bit of each is present or I wouldn't have felt conflicted enough to have written two versions. I'm working on the latter, though.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"BP = f(E & RV)" - Julian Rotter, Ph.D.

Moving Forward, Looking Back

Salutations, faithful readers (both of you.) I have not written to my blogs for several weeks because I have signed a contract to sell my house and I elected to do all the realtor/broker work on my own with the help of my attorney to tell me when I have just done something stupid. This, along with the facts that I have nobody to help sort what to keep, sell, donate, store, or aim towards a landfill, to lift heavy objects alone, and that I have no idea where I am going to live after September 14 has left me with somewhat less blogging time than usual. For this reason, I will share with you (inflict upon you?) the haiku that are reflective of my feelings about moving. It went over well, even in my primary blog, where my regular readers are known to have thrown rotten cyber-tomatoes when I post a haiku. One of my severest critics even wrote that she liked it. I think she just feels sorry for me.

Organization
Possessions and memories
Safely locked away

Pictures of Annie
Boomer’s ashes in a can
Packed, ready to move

Box of Gone fuller
Never too much to carry
Full becomes empty

I shall soon return to blogging for the private practice mental health community for whom I generally write. This will occur when my daughter and my two cats feel I am settled down enough to do so. The cats won't care, anyway, as I often find one standing on my chest at 3:30 a.m. Thankfully, Firstborn does not live with me nor is she given to standing on chests.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.