How to donate blood

Blood Donation in Canada;

1. Make an appointment by calling 1-888-2donate.
2. Sign in and make your next appointment for 56 days from today.
3. Sit with a nurse and verify who you are then get stuck in the finger to get your Cu / Fe level checked.
4. Fill out a questionnaire about your health
   
5. Sit with a second nurse and get your blood-pressure, heart-rate and temperature checked
6. Answer some more personal questions about your history with the nurse
7. Go sit on a really comfortable chair while a nurse cleans your arm and inserts a needle.
8. Wait for 5-10 minutes and talk to the nurses joke have fun.
9. have the nurse remove the needle
10. repeat step 8
11. go have a cookie and juice
12. Go home and have an excuse not to do housework / heavy lifting for 24 hours...
    

It's really easy and the people in the clinic (at least in Guelph) are a lot of fun and really nice. if you are in Guelph you should book an appointment and go. It takes less than an hour.

I give blood about every 56 days.

Netbook Specs?

What Should the perfect Netbook (UMPC) be? What are the key features? Let's see;

1. Easy to Use
   
2. Instant On
3. Long Battery Life (8 hours or more)
4. Wireless network connection (WiFi) built in
   
5. Light weight (under 1kg)
   
6. Simple interface (I like a touch screen interface instead of a mouse, touchpad, pointer stick).
7. Alpha numeric keyboard (say 68 or so keys).
8. 1024 x 768 display (minimum 1280 x 800 would be nice)
9. Priced under $400
   

I work for Psion and I have both the Netbook and NetbookPro I loved the interface. the ablity with the NBPro to remote desktop to my PC or Citrix thin client to servers at work... it was / is great. it is too bad they didn't bring it to a consumer market...

That was a rant but I think that all Netbooks, UMPCs, EEe PCs etc have some or most of these but none have all of them... (even my beloved NetbookPro).

With what is going on with Software as a service (Saas) "the Cloud" cloud computing the lightweight (both processing and actual weight) the Psion NetbookPro would really hit a niche if it was priced right.

Any comments?

Some Cool Scary Stuff

My 9.5 month old just climbed the stairs from our basement to our main floor for the first time today. That is nearly 2 months earlier than her big brother... We are going to have to watch that girl.

I had my second massage of the year today.... I just love company benefits... I actually tweaked my lower back and put it into spasms a couple of weeks ago and today I came close to it again. This getting old thing is really not good and I am not even 40 yet.

O.K. Linking to other blogs seems to be what a lot of people do so I will try it. This is a blog from a former employer (sort of). http://www.audiobibles2.blogspot.com/ this gentleman has been around the world translating the bible into different languages. His son has followed in his father's footsteps with the formation of the Talking Bible. This was done because the majority of people in the 3rd world can't read... duh... They realized that it takes millions of dollars and decades of work to translate a bible into a new language. Once that is done, in many cases, most of the people that speak that language cannot read. They thought "Why not record that new language" that way, for around 1% of the cost of the translation you can reach 100% of the people that speak that language... this not only helps spread the gospel but it also helps keep a record of that language, it's pronunciation and it's spoken grammar... interesting huh

This is where I came in. I helped design the first "analogue" talking bible in 1998/99. It was a really interesting project. We were trying to get 24 hours of recording time onto a single 90 minute cassette... we couldn't use the capstan and roller to maintain a constant speed so we had to come up with a way to control the speed of the motor... we also had to get a very high gain low noise audio amp (120dB gain).

I also just told my wife that i had a blog... she was mad that I didn't tell her or send her the link... I guess I will have to do that now.

What to do.

Hi,

OK, I have had blogs before but never really kept them up. Part of my new years resolutions package was to start a blog and maintain it for at least the year... Ok so it's nearly the Middle of February and I am just getting it started.

I have some strong views on my beliefs and I will probably share them here. If you don't agree with me I won't have a problem with you commenting as long as it is something constructive or at least intelligent to say. If you just flame me I won't post the comment.

He, He,

This is from the Jan 23,09 reverendfun.com cartoon.

It has been over 2 years since my last post but hey life happens.

Let's see I was talking about the bible trail that St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church is going through. we have finished the Old Testament and are through Hebrew's in the New... so not much left we should be finished this year... well after Easter.

Speaking of Easter, Lent is coming up and I was wondering what, if anything anyone is planning? Is there something you or your church is doing that might be different that what you have done in the past? How are you getting involved? How are you getting others involved?

I promise I will post again in under 2 years.