Some short videos of our little Arywen : )
The website wont allow me to embed them, but you can click to view them on flikr.

Video 1

Video 2

Well, I haven’t bloged much for the last few weeks, and I thought I should give some explanation, and catch up to date.

During the first week of this month my computer hard drive died completely, the computer wouldn’t boot, nada. The drive was completely dead. I have been making backups but… the last one was over a month old. So I bought a new drive, installed it in the laptop, re-installed linux, then restored. It wouldn’t have been to much of a problem; but as some of you know, I am working on a website at www.SmallBusinessSense.com and I had been writing a book(let) that is to be a major part of the site. I didn’t have any backup copies of the book at all, so I lost it. It was discouraging, and “motivating” (angering) so after getting the computer re-setup I attacked it and haven’t written much of anything while I was working on it since. But the text of the book is now finished, and I am working on proofreading and page layout, and then will post it to the site at www.smallbusinesssense.com/how-to-start-and-grow-your-mowing-business I finished it on Saturday, and was planning on blogging, but then we had another event.

Last Sunday Heather and I decided to take a walk in the afternoon, it was a rather dreary day, grey, and with a light rain trying to turn to snow. Salt Lake is pretty grey anyway in my opinion, but that day there just wasn’t much life out. There is a decent park about a mile from where we live, and we went there, almost no one else was around, and parked, no one else was in the parking lot, and then had a nice walk. I think we where back at the car a bit past seven. Heather likes to drive around, so we drove about town, found new streets/areas we hadn’t seen, talked, and got back to the house at about 10pm, we got out of the car and didn’t see Heather’s purse, shrug, we thought she probably didn’t bring it so we had a look in the house, and it wasn’t there either. We knew that she hadn’t taken it out of the car, so it couldn’t have been lost, but it just wasn’t there. Heather remembered taking it, but it wasn’t in the car, we didn’t lock the car. We never had problems before. (Once someone did break into the car of one of the other tenants that is parked near our car, and rummaged through our car, but since we didn’t lock it they didn’t break anything, and that time there was nothing worth taking. But that was a while ago, and we didn’t see a need to lock it.) We where concerned, Heather had her drivers license, SS card, debit card, camera, phone, etc in her purse. We immediately checked online to see if the debit card had been used, and it had been used four times, for a total of about $200. We immediately called and froze the checking account, and our main debit cards. We then decided to go back to the park and just check around, since we thought that whoever stole it might just keep the valuable items and discard the purse, and Heather’s journal which was in it. We checked all the trash cans in the park, and all around the road that runs through the park but didn’t have any luck. Then headed back home. Once we got there we canceled Heather’s phone, and then started to make a list of things that where in the purse, so we would know what they had, and what we needed to take care of. I was thinking and noticed that Heather wasn’t wearing her ring, the last time I had seen it was in church that day; Heather’s hands are swelling some with being pregnant, and she sometimes takes it off and puts it in her wallet. I asked her if it was still in her wallet…. it was.

Losing the ring is the big deal, we wouldn’t care so much about the other items, but the ring was her wedding ring, and it was expensive, about $1900. We have filled a police report, and are going to go around to pawn shops latter today, but I think we only have about a one in three chance of finding it.

It has been eye opening how much value and information was in her purse, and has made us think about how we are keeping things safe. It has been an interesting month with me losing information from my hard drive failing, including the part of the book I was working on, and the baptism photos, and then all the stuff in Heathers purse. I had taken photos of most of the cards in Heather’s wallet, which is really nice because then we know what they stole, and what we need to close down, or get new of. There was alot of stuff, insurance information, ss card, drivers license, two debit cards, all her passwords and such where in her journal/notebook, library cards, her aircraft mechanic certification card etc. I think to that we haven’t heard the end of it. I think they didn’t just happen to see the purse and take it, I think they where looking, and know how to make the most of what they stole. We are placing freezes on her credit report, and planning on getting identity theft insurance (it doesn’t cost very much, and they will handle any problems that crop up from someone pretending to be you). Heather’s information has really had bad luck. About a year ago Heather was sick and went to the ER, and then a few months latter the hospital here in Salt Lake had a backup of its database stolen. It was big news here, they had the medical records, and personal information for about 600,000 people, including Heather, in that backup. And now this theft as well.

I have been surprised lately by how much criminal activity there is. It used to be that I never saw it, but besides Heather’s purse beings stolen, and another of the tenants car being broken into, I have had several people try and scam me. I have been trying to sell our car, and a ring we found, on craigslist. We found the ring in the road, it looks like someone lost it in the snow and then it was run over by a snowplow. We cleaned it up and repaired it, and then posted signs for anyone to claim it. Since no one has we are trying to sell it, and the our car. Everytime I post the ring to criagslist, I get several emails within the hour that end up being people trying to scam me out of it, I have lost count now, but it has been more then 20 times, and I have had three people try and scam me out of the car, which I am a bit surprised at. I also know of a musician who was just scammed, I had never heard of it happening exactly as it did to him: he has a band and they regularly play at gigs. Someone contacted them and asked if they would play at a wedding, they said sure, and a price of $2400 was agreed upon. The musician suggested that they pay half up front, and half after the wedding, but the couples said, no, that ok, and just gave them the $2400. A week or so latter, they called back, and said that the brides mother had died, and that they where going to wait on the wedding, and could they get a refund? The musician saw that the check had cleared, so he wrote them a check for $2400 and sent it back and forgot about it. Now a month latter the bank tells him that the original check wasn’t valid after all. They are required by law to clear funds within a few business days, but don’t actually get around to checking the accounts for up to a month. So he is out over 2K

Heather and I are now going to be a little paranoid. We will get some insurance money back for the ring (a thousand) because of renters insurance, but we are getting jewelry insurance, and going to have Heather’s other pieces appraised. We are also getting some identity theft insurance, and going to take pictures and document everything of value, and are thinking about keeping very little of value in our wallets, and finding some way of keeping things safer. Probably keeping everything on the computer, encrypting it, and getting some remote/online backup as well. I am glad we had the insurance that we did, but we are also looking into how all our other affairs stand. We have upted our auto insurance, and are just looking into what steps we should take. Time to make it impossible, or harmless if Murphy’s law should come into effect again. We somewhat had a warning last month, when my boss was in an auto accident and I saw how much of a mess his records where in (I helped his family search through his office and house here where we are working) We are going to have everything in order now.

/

On Saturday the 7th of February I (Jordan) was baptized a member of the LDS Church

This may come as somewhat of a surprise to some who are reading the blog, ie, Clark’s : ) or Nadine, if so, feel free to email and I am well prepare to show evidences for my position. It boils down to this, a house divided cannot stand, and, you shall know them by their fruits. (Also, “not every that sayeth unto me ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Mathew 7:21) The LDS Church has the best fruits, so how can they, doing good, be evil? They do have the best fruits, and for a good while when I was examining their doctrine to judge for myself if it is true, I kept coming back to the fact that they are a strong community of believers, and they help and hold each other accountable to gospel standards, and that this is extremely helpful and important for aiding me to walk and act in accordance with scripture, and not just believe scripture. So I testify that I know that this church is true, and serves the only God, and his Son.

It is traditional to wear all white for the baptism. Here is Seth (my brother is law) and me together before the Baptismal Fount.

Heather, Seth and I

Me and my girl : )

The temple in Draper was just completed, and opened for tours before the dedication. Heather and I went through on an evening, it is beautiful. The exterior is all done in granite from China, the interior is marble from France, and African Chery wood. The LDS Church has really gone to great lengths to make it beautiful, they also have taken alot of consideration for visitors. The temple receives so many visitors that they have to use a reservation system. We went there at 7:30pm, they have everyone park at one of several local churches, and then bus people in to keep down traffic/noise/etc at the Temple itself. There where five buses carrying just the people from the church we where at (I think that there are at least two churches being used to shuttle people back and forth) and we still waited for about an hour before we where on our way to the Temple. As you can see in the pics it is snowy and cold, but they had covered walkways up to and away from the Temple so you didn’t have to freeze.

I think that the artwork inside was very nice. It was decorated in levels, to show the progression of sanctification, the ground floor was decorated simply, all the decorations where surprisingly simple, not ornate, and not symbolic. I found it interesting that it was so “clean” of symbolism. I usually find alot of symbolism in public architecture, alot of which seems out of place, or used because someone liked the shape rather then because the understood the meaning, or meant to display the meaning. But the Temple had very little iconic symbolism. It is of course meant to be a symbol as a whole, and the rooms each have their meaning, and the colors and tempers of the rooms show a progression. The lower levels are all darker stone, and the dark African Cherry, the middle level rooms are decorated with full wall murals, depicting natural scenes and wildlife native to the area, and then merging into the white stone, gold filigree, and glass chandeliers of the highest floor. No photography is allowed inside the temple, but here are some shots from outside: (Seth took these when he and Valerie visited the temple)

You can find more information about the temple here.

I will get in the habit of blogging regularly yet : )

We cleaned up and organized the apartment, trying to make more room for company coming to town this weekend, and making all things neat and tidy in expectations of baby.

Christmas 2008

Well I know that is has been a long while since either of us posted, we had pretty much abandoned the blog. But over Christmas Heather and I spent some time looking at photo albums and journals and I got to thinking how nice it was to have some kind of regular record, especially with baby coming : ) So I have decided to post again.

Heather and Mom (mother-in-law Valerie) found the tree : ) They went tree hunting at Red Lodge : )

For Christmas Eve everyone gathered in Big Timber for a fighting feast, here is Auntie Kim setting out the food. We rented the dugout for the occasion.

This is the best picture I have of the whole affair, it was too wide of a shot for my camera so not everything is included. Heather and Seth had practiced some Christmas tunes, are played for us during dinner.

Some friends of Heather’s grandma came, and this is their little boy. He is so photogenic/cute that I had to take some photos.

Heather’s cousin, Becky, helping prepare dinner. I think that is another cousin, Kenneth, nearly whacking her with a green bowl. The kitchen was quite crowded.

From left to right, mom (Valerie) uncle Tom, and his daughter Molly. I didn’t want to take posed shots, so I was staying near the edges of the excitement and taking shots when people didn’t weren’t noticing. It is not the best shot of their faces, but they are in the moment.

After dinner there was a Christmas Trivia game, which Auntie Kim created.

Mark (Heather’s dad) taking pictures at the dinner.

---

Christmas Day at the Heilman’s

Seth opening presents.

The baby-on-the-way had a good catch of Christmas presents. Here grandpa to be is closely examining the directions on the set of wooden blocks : ) Heather and I have been very well outfitted with about everything a new little one needs by the Grandma to be (Valerie). Heather and I both think that noisy, plastic, battery powered toys are not he way to go, rather “real” toys, hardwood blocks etc are the real way to go. Plan on having a look around for a woodworking shop and seeing if I can scrounge up some hardwood scraps to make a another nice block set out of : )

I know that pretty girl! : )

Heather opening more of baby’s presents.
We have decided to not choose a name until baby arrives, we have a few in mind, but want to see the new arrival and choose something fitting, so for now, it is just baby. We have also decided not to try and find out the gender until he or she arrives.

Making egg rolls for Christmas day dinner.

Mark at the house in Columbus.

Heather and Seth practicing. There are sheets over the windows to help keep the heat in as it was -20F.

---

My Grandma.

My Grandpa.

Grandpa again, modeling his new Christmas hat : )

Grandpa has written several short stories, and is now gathering them up to be published together. Aunt Deborah is helping him make the cover, this is the pose they are thinking about using : )

That is it for now, you can see larger images by clicking on the images. I will continue to upload more images to flickr which you can check by clicking on the “More Photos” link above.

–Jordan

I have been listening to podcasts at work when I don’t need all of my mental attention, and I have found a particularly interesting one, Futures in Biotech it explores the current innovations in biology, mostly by interviewing leading scientists.

One episode that I found particularly interesting recently was an interview with Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, whose team has been working on new treatments for pulmonary hypertension. During their work they came upon a possible treatment for cancer.

One of the best ways in which cancer is diagnosed is that it turns off the mitochondria in the cell, which are responsible for cell respiration (energy generation) and for apoptosis (apoptosis is the process of regulated cell death) Since cancer turns off the mitochondria it is not subject to regulation by apoptosis, which then allows the cancer cells to grow unchecked. Dr. Michelakis and team where studying the processes of cell metabolism as it relates to hypertension and formed the hypothesis that the mitochondria being turned off was not a byproduct of cancer, but that it had a more formative function in cancer’s pathology. So that if one turned the mitochondria back on, one would not only restore cell respiration, but could restart apoptosis, which would kill the cancer cells. Upon investigation they found that cancerous cells produce an enzyme which turns off the mitochondria, and found that DCA (Dichloroacetic acid, which has been used for some time in humans to treat certain metabolic disorders) is a counter to this enzyme. So that in their tests using rats, when a rat without an immune system is injected with human cancer cells, and the cancer begin to grow, the growth can be stopped and reversed by giving DCA in the rats drinking water. Dr Michelakis tried to interest the pharmaceutical companies in further testing of DCA in the treatment of cancer, but as DCA is not patentable, the companies where not interested. So he has begun gathering public financial support to put the drug through phase I and II trails, with a phase I trail beginning in Canada last September.

Some interesting links:
Dr Michelakis’s Website
Futures in Biotech Episode 21
Wikipedia Article on DCA
Dr Michelakis and teams original paper

Heather – I bought a watermelon and found some good fruit today.

{Heather looks in frigerator for a snack…. I look in and notice large watermelon.}

Jordan – I heard on a science podcast recently that watermelon is an aphrodasiac and male performance enhancer : )

Heather – Good! Eat lots!

Views on Birth

When you first think of a baby being born what do you see? You might see a hospital room with a mother laying on a bed. With the best doctors and nurses with her. Maybe there is a husband present looking like the proud father. There is medical equipment just in case something goes amiss. And in the back of your mind you know that there is the save all cesarean. You feel that the mother and baby is safe because they are in the hands of a Doctor.

It has not always been the place of doctors and hospitals to bring babies in to the word. Up until the early 1900’s babies were delivered for the most part by midwives. When it came time to deliver, a women was at home in familiar surroundings, supported by women. As time went by roles changes and men (someone that never experiences birth) and hospitals became responsible for bringing in new life. This was viewed as the best possible place a women could give birth. She would be surrounded by highly trained staff that could deal with any emergency. The advent of pain killers made doctors the one person that could give women a pain free birth. This was and is viewed as a wonderful blessing, the right of every women. Then came the advent of drugs that could speed up a delivery. So now women can have a fast pain free delivery. What more could a women possibly want? Well a lot more actually…

Yes it’s a good thing that we have come to able to manage a delivery. But that’s just it, now a delivery is something that is managed by the doctors, not the mothers. They have a golf match at 3, so oops, they will call for a cesarean if it does not look like he will make it. Or oh the doc has a vacation in Hawaii planed on the date that you are due. No problem we will just induce you the week before. Oh you are having a baby no big deal your room door is left open and complete strangers can look in as they pass by. Oh you are having trouble focusing on your delivery, because strangers keep on looking at you. Not a problem we will give you a drug that will force your body to have this baby faster then nature would have it. Oh your not opening up enough for this baby to be born we will just cut you ( in the most sensitive area of a women’s body). But don’t worry we will sew you up tight at the end. So much so that sex will be painful for the next 3 months. We doctors give you the best and safest births, don’t worry you are safe with us. That is what the doctors really believe, so much so that the American Medical Association has tried many times to get home births and midwifery band. Despite the fact that countries that use more natural birth processes have a better infant mortality rate then we do. Take the Netherlands for instance, 40% of all births occur at home attended by midwifes. Yet their infant mortality rate is 4.9 per 1,000 compared to our 6.0. There are other countries such as Sweden and Singapore that have rates as low as 2.8 and 2.3 respectably. These countries also base their maternity care off of midwifes and allowing women to chose were to give birth.

The medical profession might be good at emergencies I will give them that. But they feel a compulsion to mess with nature. They have to do something to feel they are earning there money. Heaven forbid that they let a women handle it her way and let nature takes it’s course. NO, NO that can not be done, we have it down to a science, and that is just what it is to them a science. With facts, figures and time tables, with a human life as the after product.

Not all women are happy with this view of birth. They decide to seek other means of bringing in a brand new life into the world. They turn to midwifes and birth centers and possibly even plan to have the baby at home. What ideas do they run into at these places? What makes them different ? Well first off birth is viewed as something natural. Granted there are the exceptions then a women must be moved to a hospital. But for the most part they let nature take it’s course. Allowing the mother to decide how, when and were she will have her baby. They support her as she goes through a life changing experience. The mother is tolled that her body is capable of this change. That she can do this. They will help her use alternative means of pain control such as breathing techniques and self hypnosis. She is encourage to move and use what ever position makes her feel comfortable. Sometimes using a birthing ball or a sort of a jacuzzi called a birthing pool in the processes.

Above all they recognize the sanctity of birth. And treat the mother and baby with respect and awe as they go through this. Fathers and family are encouraged to support and be involved in the birth if the mother so desires. Overall mothers enjoy an experience vastly different then what they would encounter at a hospital.. Why is this ? Well one sees birth as a science and the other as a miracle. Which one would you rather have for a child and mother? The choice is not all that hard to make.

<!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>

-

Rhetorical Analysis of

“For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care”

“For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care” by Helen Benedict was published in the New York Times on May 26^th, 2008. It is an article addressing the fact that women are the fastest growing group of veterans, yet the Department of Veteran Affairs lacks the hospitals and staff to deal with the sexual assault that these women experience in the field. Yet alone the trauma and post-traumatic stress that they will face.

Helen Benedict a professor of journalism at Columbia University is the author of “The Lonely Soldier ”. A none fiction narrative about female soldiers who have served over seas in war torn Iraq. She received the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism work on women veterans of the Iraq war in April 2008. And has had other works published that addressing topic of rape.

The article was part of on ongoing debate in the Times about how war is effecting military personal on the home front. There is evidence that rates of post-traumatic stress disorder is the highest it has ever been for U.S veterans. I think that the writer wrote on Memorial Day in the hopes of touching the general public at a time then they were more open to thinking about problems that vets face. Her purpose in writing this piece was to alert the public to a little known issue. Sure we know about the blood and guts but how many of us think sexual assault then the vets are mentioned.

The writers perspective seems to be that even though most Americans do not know of this situation that they would be concerned to know what is happening to their service women in the field and the lack of treatment they will get at home. She does not write as one of them (as a service women) but writes more on their behalf. Stating figures and facts to support her claim that they face sexual assault large scale in the field and do not get the treatment that they deserve. For her article to have any impact on an individual they would have to be open to the

idea that women face sexual harassment in general.

Her tone in writing this piece is of someone well educated on the topic making it understandable to the everyday person on the streets. It’s neither light nor dark but someplace in the middle. I liked the fact she did not describes the sexual assaults themselves. Thus enabling readers to be alerted to the situation with out having to face some of the more gruesome details. Her use of words like rape, sexually assaulted, harassment and threatened brought up a vivid enough picture for me.

When I was looking through the New York Times the title

“For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care” caught my eye. Why? at first glance I thought it was speaking of the blood and guts type of wound and I wanted to know why women where not getting the care that they needed. As I read I found out that she was speaking of a different type of wound, one that goes much deeper then flesh and blood. And the manner in which she brought things forward to the readers attention was smooth and effective. She made her main point in the introduction. The body

had tree main points that sustained and added to the introduction. Whenever she made a claim she would take the time to back it up with studies and numerical data that related. Which in my mind really helped to build her case. In the closing she wrapped things up with her solution. Over all I thought that her writing style was affective for what was she was trying to accomplish. In reading her article she has made me want to take more note of what is going on to our women over seas as well as at home.