The Problem with Giving Blood

As some of you might know today was the blood drive. I have no idea how many of you have given blood before but today I found quite possibly the largest flaw in it of all the issues they deal with. Today I made it through all the tests, my iron was acceptable, my pulse and blood pressure were not too high, all the questions I had to answer checked out fine, and I made it through the worst part of the procedure, which is most definitely the finger prick. Next we went to the little bed like stretchers, I have no idea what to call them, to get ready to give blood. There everything went fine as well, they found a good vein and got the needle in, and the blood started flowing out of me steadily, but then everything went wrong. My blood flowing through the tube really started to slow down and after about five or ten minutes I was told that they were sorry but my blood had clogged in the tube or needle and therefore what blood I had given would not be able to be used. Now this really frustrates me, it is not as much the hour of time I spent going though preliminaries to give blood, I could have easily been denied right at the end for not having good enough veins or one of those generic problems, but I have no idea how much blood I pumped into that bag. The idea that their system allows however much blood I managed to pump out, I am assuming I at least filled the bag half way, gets destroyed really irritates me. One would think that they would have developed a system by now which allows for the use of different amounts of blood. Currently I know that they already have chemicals in the bags to make the blood usable, so the blood can only be used if you fill the bag, but wouldn't it make much more sense to add the chemicals later in some special plant so as to not waste potentially hundreds of pints of blood which clots up halfway through the procedure or can not get it pumping quickly enough? How can they be happy with this enormous loophole in their system? The entire thing seriously irritates me so I am asking one of you, at least one of you I assume plans to be some sort of doctor, to fix this large problem and to make the system work better, to save potentially huge quantities of blood, to help the world. If you need somewhere to get started I would think that the chemicals could be maxed out in the back with the amount needed to prepare the entire bag, but still separated inside the bag and able to be carefully pumped in so as to prepare lower amounts as well.

Just Six Words

I actually feel I accomplished something

Shhhh! Be Quiet!

Today in class Ms. Serensky told us all we were not allowed to speak to each other or really make any noise, meaning be silent and work diligently on your paper. It was when I got home that I asked myself, "Why was this so difficult?" Why is it that even for the quietest people, being quiet when told to do so seems so impossible. Even I, I consider myself fairly quiet, with Ms. Serensky sitting next to me at the table, could barely manage to keep my mouth shut for the class. So why is it that it is so difficult for us to be quiet when told to do so? Is it a built in desire to never do what we are supposed to? I do not think so, I seriously doubt the reason I had so much difficulty staying quiet was because I wanted to be a rebel and break Ms. Serensky's rules. Is it simply because we do not like to be quiet? This one I dwelled over for a bit, but I feel there are some people who actually do like to be quiet, who would prefer to sit there and listen rather than talk. No, I think the root of the problem which makes this task so difficult is that when we are told to do so we all notice it is quiet. I have had plenty of moments when an entire room is silent for a fair amount of time, but once someone notices it is quiet that is when suddenly they have an urge to break that silence. Not to mention there is something humorously absurd about silence. We have all experienced that moment when suddenly an entire room falls silent and for really no reason at all it seems really funny? I will never really understand why silence is so hilarious but I have noticed its effect on people, perhaps just the awkward sitution silence creates is the cause of this. In my opinion if someone wants a room to be silent, it is necessary to somehow make everyone believe they want to be silent rather than telling them to do so, because telling them to be quiet will just make them want to talk more.

A True Hero

Last night I watched the movie Defiance, in case you are not familiar with the movie it covers the true story of four brothers who formed a group called the Bielski partisans during World War II, these brothers formed a hidden Jewish community in the forests of Poland to protect them from the genocide lead by Hitler. Over the course of two and a half years they managed to keep over 1200 Jews hidden in their community, saving them from genocide. Today during our discussion of the selfish acts of Clive and Vernon, Tuvia, the oldest of the brothers who became the leader of the community, kept returning to the forefront of my mind, as I considered what the world would be like if everyone aspired to be more selfless like Tuvia. To bring over twelve hundred Jews to safety at your own expense is simply inspirational, and I feel that both Clive and Vernon's acts of selfishness are inexcusable. Imagine the world we might live in if everyone acted as Tuvia did,  the disasters that could be avoided, the lives that could be saved. If everyone attempted to act as selflessly as he did then I imagine this world would be a far better place.

DA TANK

I was walking into a restaurant this weekend when I passed a truck with the license plate "DA TANK" on it, I was not sure why it had caught my attention at the time but four minutes later it suddenly hit me, That license plate should be on Ms. Serensky's hummer. However as the night progressed I began to try to think of a better license plate for her hummer, and began to develop a goal to come up with the best license plate possible for her hummer, here were some of my ideas:

• PARDONME
• YHAVERDS
• GOT  GAS
• U R NXT
• GLBLWRMR
• CATCH UP
• 2FEWMPG

Feel free to add to the list.