Affairs of a Heathen

It has been one hell of a week/weekend. All I can say is that I can’t wait until my Winter vacation from work to see my family.

I had a rough week and will have an even worse weekend. I woke up Monday from my Mom calling me. Last week she sent me an email briefly explaining the trip to the vet that the family cat, Rusty, had taken. She mentioned something about a black spot on the x-ray and would fill me in later. The call I received was about the results. The vet identified the black mass as cancer and noticed it was in his liver, spleen and intestines. This would account for his lack of an appetite and bowel movements. He was given only a couple weeks before his organs would begin to shutdown. I visited him tonight and he wasn’t looking well. His hair was shaved around his stomach and ankles. He was somewhat lethargic and distant. While I was there, there was a call from the vet again to update us on the advanced tests that were performed. Rusty had very aggressive hepatic cancer which showed signs that was expanding rapidly and causing necrosis of the tissue from the inside. We were advised to move forward with a decision to euthanize him soon. My parents agreed and scheduled an appointment tomorrow.

I’ve been living on my own for almost 3 years now and haven’t seen Rusty much. I’m usually there whenever my parents take a trip out of town and I tend to the litter and food. Before I moved out, Rusty would be in my room napping or in my lap while I’d be on the computer. He has a personality that will definitely be missed.

I recently switched my focus for Blitz from VB6 to VB2008. I’ve completely transitioned the graphics end of the code to the new language. I’m excited about the move. Next step is recoding the player turns to avoid excessive CPU polling like I was doing in the original code. Also, I need to ensure the update feature is working and permissions function like normal for the updater downloading.

“The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why”

By Amanda Ripley

The subject of this book focuses around the individual and group response to disaster, tragedy, or any life-threatening event. Our author lists physiological and psychological responses that one might experience in these situations and gives examples for each by introducing us to people who have lived through it first hand. One of the major ideas covered, in my opinion, which sums up the main idea for the book, is our risk analysis of day-to-day events.

Risk analysis is something we do almost every waking moment of our life. Amanda Ripley goes on to show us how trends in our past shape our present, then help us “predict” the future. In some cases, our inability to adjust for change creates “blind spots” in our judgment. The example given is of a Louisiana man who, by request of his family, refused to leave New Orleans in the wake of the impending land-fall of Hurricane Katrina. As a New Orleans native, he experienced two hurricanes that had little to no impact on the land. So with that fact in mind, he made the assumption that Hurricane Katrina would be no different. His failure to recognize the difference in strength and the changing topography of his own city throughout the years eventually led to his death after being imprisoned in his attic trying to escape the flood waters.

The examples Ripley gives us are to show how the mental preparedness of the individual greatly effects their survival in disastrous events. What she is trying to convince us is that knowing how we react to events like these before it happens could save us and others. We might say we are ready for a fire at our work because we have monthly drills but the truth is, we’re only ready for the drills! In a state of panic, all of that training is gone, and our “fight or flight” instinct takes over. We need to come face-to-face with this instinct and train ourselves to look past the emotions and find the facts of the situation and assess them properly.

Another example given, and one I can relate to, is the idea of “group think”. It is that situation where a group of individuals are faced with a problem and try to quickly resolve it without much deliberation. In this scenario, stability of the group is crucial and ideas that deviate from the direction of the group are quickly discarded.

Two years after graduating high school, some close friends and myself, spend a weekend in the Ocala National Forest. We setup camp Friday night, then went around meeting the other campers. We had very little rest that night, maybe a nap here and there. On our walk back to the camp from my truck, we encountered people running away from the main camp site claiming a fire broke out and is spreading fast. It was at that moment that time had slowed almost to a stand-still. My risk analysis began to organize the information I just learned and tried to compare it to anything in my past, but couldn’t. I had never been in a forest fire like this before. Group think took over from this point as my friends and I weighed our options out. Oddly though, while doing this, we didn’t walk away from the situation, instead, we continued down the path towards the fire.

When we arrived at the site, water and bucket lines had already been formed by the remaining campers. I found myself in the midst of the water line in minutes. The signs of fatigue my body were sending me before the news of the fire were gone and I was in over-drive. At some point during this event, I vaguely remember a disassociation from myself. I no longer felt as if I were the same person. The faces around me were blurred and in general the situation was surreal.

My mind wondered around while my body did the work. It wasn’t until news of the local fire department’s arrival that I showed any signs of fatigue. In the end, the camp site was saved and no one was injured. I couldn’t help but wonder how much of an effect we had in holding off the fire. Later that night, people who were strangers that morning, now had a deep connection with each other. My friends and I talk about it to this day and I had to ask one of them for reassurance that it actually happened prior to me writing this paper.

I found myself wanting to argue with the author throughout the book but kept noticing similarities in my involvement in the forest fire and the people that Ripley described. We all shared a disconnect with our “normal” selves. This is the effect the author is bringing into focus. If we are able to stay connected or acknowledge this state of mind in a disaster, we might be able to improve our chances of survival.

A major opposition to this idea could be the problem in knowing how or what to prepare for. Culture and ambiguity are the issues here. We can’t educate everyone or prepare for every situation! The variables within a culture greatly affect their general disposition. For example, industrialized nations use symbols such as the symbol for radioactivity of a substance, or the electrical danger of an area to warn the public. If proper education isn’t in place, or these ideas aren’t globalized, the safety for those uneducated is at risk.

I think a lot of the material covered here is important but again, it needs to be integrated into the culture for it to have any effect. I feel that because of the vagueness of “disaster”, it is difficult for someone to find a starting point in changing their behavior. On the other hand, this openness can lead to transparency between events and in the end allow someone’s decisions to be unshaped by the tragic, unfolding events of a disaster.

Short video of my friend Ian spinning fire. He’s become really good at it by the looks of the video. Good stuff.