A_4

When I was thinking about more approaches to do, I came at a crossroad, from here my work will be basically developing what i want interfaces to look like and fine tune the rest of the features, which is what the approaches are about. A lot of what my project about is the experiences and places and the tone to go with those. As i have stated in the past, the point is not just "oh, i went to burger king on main street, and i had good food", but rather "i went home for the holidays for the first time in 4 years, this is what happened" then some sort of reflection on the experience and the place.

In thinking of how users are going to upload stories, it would be something sort of the Experi and the Space part. Possibly seperate so the person can think about the story, then in the background after think about the place specifically.

I have a personal example I drafted up.

For this version I am just going to type it up, then later do a mockup of that page, when I am working deeper with site design.


Who? - Matthew Leavitt & Rebecca Hickman
When? - Sunday, November 5, 2006

What?

On this morning, I was woken up my friend and neighbor "Bex". She was standing at doorway with a bloodied tissue. We had both went to bed very very late the morning before, her at 4 a.m. and I at 5:30 a.m. due to some friends we had over. I was very out of myself as I was woken up on about 4.5 hours of sleep.

She needed me to drive her to the hospital because due to her history of artery failures and them bursting, she could faint on the highway. I quickly got dressed, not caring about my obligations for the day because there are moments that you know you are needed beyond the things you mark down on your daily planner.

I drove her to the hospital and when we got there, we had to register, which is a great process, since they care more about getting your money first and then helping you second. Fox news was on, and we talked about Sadaams Death Sentence, which was being covered for 10 minutes at a time in between every single other story. We talked about the things we did not like about the war and the state of the goverment.

She was brought into see the triage nurse. She brought a book entitled "When Things Fall Apart", which had a lot to do with Tibetan Buddhism with a lot of advice about embracing fear and instead of always running from the fear, knowing what it is and how it affects us. I am in no way a religious and barely spiritual person. I believe there are things outside of our understanding, and there may be a big blue light in sky waiting to take us. One term used in Buddism referred to as Samsara, states that in Theism the only thing we do is wait for our inevitable death, and though that brings hope, what it brings more is the despair that we are waiting for death, waiting for heaven, then reliving again only to face to same uncertainly. Rather we should embrace the moments of now, and here. Though, I did not gain a lot of religious output, i think daily life suggestions it gave a lot of, and I would not have even thought to read this book unless I was there.

Bex came out of the triage nurses office, and later taken into the doctors. I proceeded to read for a while. An interested story within there the author Pema Chodron describes one of her friends was having intense nightmares about these demons chasing her. When asked what they looked like, she did not know, so curiousity branched in her mind. The next time she had the dream she turned around and faced them, though odd looking they resembled normal animals. She never had the dream again because she faced her fears. I think there is practical advice everyone can take out of that. We live in fear daily, we all have limits, and part of the fear is reaching those limits, and not knowing what is coming. I think I learned just a little bit more about myself in reading some of the book.

Bex came out, they had to caudorize her artery with nitroglycerine. We left the hospital, and soon realized her mom had driven from Houlton to come see her, so we turned around, and i brought her car back to Orono.

In reflection, I think i learned a lot about everyday small life. Helping a friend, even if something simple as driving to the hospital, there is a kind of bonding that happens when someone is in fear, especially after a lot of surgeries in a hospital. It means a lot to a person, and i think it made us better friends.

Where?

Interestingly enough, I had my fair share of visits at EMMC. We went through the Webber building to get into the Emergency room, an area I knew all too well. My freshman year of college, i was very very sick with something after 8 months of blood tests, MRI's, Catscans, Gamma bone scans, and testing for everything else under the sun, doctors could not diagnose. Meanwhile, during my sickness I always had to go to EMMC for the big tests (blood work could be done at Cutler). I already have a previous affliction to hospitals especially the smell. I had not been to EMMC since my last MRI where they brutally stuck me with screening fluid with 3 misses into the vein, 1 injecting radioactive fluid into my tissue with an incredible burning on my part.

It is amazing how a place can make you feel so uncomfortable. I realized a lot though reading the book about embracing fear, so i used the same kind of knowledge to embrace this place. For me, it was a place that got it wrong so many times, stabbed me with their steel instruments, and left me undiagnosed, but for Bex, knowing the specific problem, they were able to help her (maybe not in the quickest of time, but help nonetheless). I still do not like hospitals, as i think there is a lot wrong with medecine in America, but on this day it was simply a place of reflection with a book, and helping a friend.


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I do not know yet if it will be a WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY HOW type deal, odds are not, but did that to easily break the what and where of the story, i will think of something more clever , but the thing is a lot of what i realized about what happened today came from the reflection in writing about it, especially the place. I thought a little about the hospital while there, but moreso when i was writing about the place it happened. I think it will be successful if people buy in, which will be the later part of getting my project to work !!