The I.T. Life

ICE has been on my mind for a while, combined with things like medic alert; I have been trying to come up with a really simple way of having just enough emergency information readily available for those that need it.

Incase you are not aware, ICE is a concept thought up by a British (I believe) paramedic. The concept is to add a contact on your cell phone (or have it written, or stored somewheres) that identifies your emergency contact. It would be done by adding a contact with the name “ICE” (in case of emergency) to your phone, and assigning your mom/wife/dog’s phone number to it. If you are found unconcious on the street, somebody could find the ICE contact in your phone and find out that you are a diabetic.
There is a bit of debate, as most of what could be revealed by your contact will be tested by a paramedic, and double checked before anything is given to you, however it is a great idea.

This is almost like a poor mans medic alert. Which for those that don’t know is a bracelet/necklace with a phone number and an ID. A doctor/medic/nurse can call this number, read them the ID, and be given your up to date history (or as much as you have provided). There is also a website for them to view the data on.

I don’t want to bother with medic-alert, as most of my history isn’t that critical (or at least, isn’t that relevant in a trauma scenario). So I’ve been thinking of something like a dog tag (US Army style… I just don’t like the Canadian ones lol). I have been thinking of a format like this:

LAST NAME FIRST NAME
NS CAN
MSI 0000000000
ICE 0000000000
O NEG

I’ve chatted with a few medics (Canadian and US) and learned a few things. ICE is more important when you are in the hospital, not when they find you on the street. They will test if you are a diabetic, and if you need immediate blood, they will either give you a O NEG variant, or type test it first. If you have heart disease and are having a heart attack, they will treat you for a heart attack as best they can on the way to the hospital. If you need a kidney transplant and they find you in a car accident, they will treat you for immediate injuries. ICE will basically get called possibly by a doctor or nurse once you get there.

The blood type, as I just stated, will not be taken into consideration. They will test your blood type first. And as I am starting to understand, the MSI number (Nova Scotia health card number) may not help that much out side of NS, and even less outside of Canada. However within Nova Scotia, that MSI number will give them absolutely everything they need making every other line of information not necessary.

So, I’ve been trying my very hardest to not buy toys, and not drool over toys. I end up with huge lists of things I want, and just putting them away. I have added a few more items for my EDC/really cool crap that I want, and have some uses for. I recently had a few bucks for my bday, so I bought a few random things, most significant is a CRKT M21-14SF

In addition to this beautiful knife, I’m drooling over a NiteCore D20 R2.

A great flashlight, about 6″ in length, running off 2aa batteries. Capable of 200 lumen for 1.5 hours before power decreases. This will not be my EDC light, or my pocket carry light, 6″ is too big for that, this will be my backpack light, my camping light, my SAR primary light. I was hoping to buy this light for my bday however I ended up needing to spend some of the cash for bills, so, I am out of luck on that one. I’m hoping to have it in my hands for some of my training in the fall with SAR, or even sooner for my camping in PEI with friends. I’m going to have to look at the budget, see what is happening with the house, and figure it all out.

Now, also on my list, is the uber cool Leatherman Skeletool, a great stripped down Leatherman, with a new design.

Its light, simple, and effective. I don’t know how I will carry this, or what I will use it for though. I have a Leatherman Wave in my backpack for SAR, and that is also in the Jeep so, its easy to get to. I carry a pocket knife now, and have a bigger knife on the way. Perhaps I will giveup carrying my c33x and start carrying the Skeletool, or just rotate them. Perhaps I will carry both the CRKT and the Leatherman in my laptop bag, in addition to my NightCore D20 and my various other things.
I find I am carrying too much junk, last weekend for camping I loaded 3 bags in the jeep all for myself. My SAR/survival backpack, that basically lives in the Jeep, or in the house and is carried to the jeep whenever I am going anywhere, my big camera bag, and my over the shoulder laptop bag. My SAR bag will be staying in the jeep, so that leaves me 2 bags. Perhaps I choose limited camera equip for weekend travel and use my laptop bag. Perhaps I can put my laptop in my camera bag. Perhaps I can travel without the laptop, without all the camera gear, and without the sar gear, then find a small, ie smaller than shoulder bag for my edc/weekend gear, that will hold knives, lights, etc, and my camera…. Perhaps… I’m hopeless…

In the next 5 years, I want to get some more travel under my belt. I’m not talking about backpacking Europe, or photographing Africa (these are on my hit list, but not the next 5 years). In the next 5 years, I want to see the following (and likely in the following order)…

- Disney World / Florida… Not only is this my current #1 honeymoon destination, this is on my travel hitlist. I think it would be a great vacation, lots of fun, and hell, its Disney!

- San Francisco… Alchatraz, just that in itself is enough for me. That and it seems right now, all the good conferences are out there. Its a sweet city, and high on my hit list. This is #2 because I might be hitting a conference out here in 09… well have to wait and see though

- NYC… NYC is just that, NYC. If I truly need to give a explanation than it is hopeless. The history, the town, the atnosphere. It is a very artsy town, very cultured.

- Vegas… Casinos, Guns, Fast Cars, Amazing Partys… need I say more?

- Greenbay… Packers!

The time is getting close, there are ofically 87 days until wedding day. So here are some quick announcments. The stag party is Jan 3rd at 6pm. The location is on the HMCS St. Johns (it pays to have connections). We will likely be there for most of the night but will go clubbing downtown after that. There is going to be a bridal shower but we don’t have a date yet. We have no information regarding a staget party… but there likely be one. There have not be invites sent yet, but this will be done this month. We are collecting addresses right now and hope to start in the next few days. If you haven’t already, get ahold of me or Beth with your address. The only thing left to announce is we might have picked our honey moon destination. We “might” be going to Disney. My current hope is about 12 days today. We will of course loose 2 days to travel so thats 10 days. I have penciled in 6 days, 5 nights at a Disney Resort, and then the remainder at a hotel in Orlando next to Universal. We will spend 2 days in Unversal, and the rest of the time just relaxing, enjoying the city, and whatever. We might spend a day at sea world, and there are a few shows we want to see. Specifically Blue Man Group, and Cirque de Soleil. There is also a pirate themed dinner theater that looks out of this world.  If you guys have any suggestions of places we have to see, like the hard rock cafe, or something like that, let us know! Thats about all for now, but stay tuned!

DSC_0004

Originally uploaded by hannjeff_87

I love traveling, road trips, vacations, whatever, I just love to see the world. Of course, I love to photograph my trips. As many people like me, you end up with thousands of photos, and you often forget where the sweet jebus you took them. I mean, the east coast has a bagilion beaches, and its hard to tell them from each other. One of the nice things flickr does is let you place the photo on a map. This is all good and dandy… but somewhat time consuming. A) it takes a while to upload all your pics, write titles, descriptions, add tags, and then place them on a map. and B) go through old photos and figure out where you took them. So, here is a sweet solution Geotagging! You bring a gps along on your trip, and record a trip log. Basically, you end up with a text file, with exact quarantine’s, and time stamps. A big lost that when read with the right software allows you to view a path on a map of where you went. Now, there is some software that takes this list, and a group of photos, and then matches the time stamps. It will check to see when photo a was taken, where were you, than adds these quard’s to the photo details. Now, when you upload to flickr, it adds it to the map automatically. I suppose you dont save a step, because you have to match the files and picures, but if you have 200 photos from a trip, you only have to do this once, and not add 200 photos to a map. Plus, its so fun to link technology that has no similar designs.

So, me and Beth were talking about going on a mni vacation in Augest. We have our big vacation coming in November but we (espically me) need something small to keep is sane untill november. We were thinking about driving down to Boston (Take the cat to portland) and spend a day or 2 there, but things just started to look a bit beter than that. I emaled my CEO who lives near Boston and asked him for some recomondations on things to do, places to stay, etc. He told he that I can probably come down for a few weeks for work and that he will have me down to Cape Cod for a few days. So im hoping that Beth will drive down to Boston with me, spend a few days than fly back. And then around the middle of my trip she can fly down again. Ill probably take a few days off and we can tour Boston, and even go to New York for a visit. Im thinking this will be a sweet trip!