By Daniel Taverne

Mom turned me loose in the hallway.

And as I grew I noticed the walls adorned with many interesting and exciting objects that I became familiar with. And for a while, mom pointed out the dull wooden crosses that also adorned the walls.

I acknowledged her with a nod and a smile but overlooked the crosses to concern myself with more colorful, glitterier, shinier and more exciting things

And before I realized it, mom wasn’t around anymore to point out those crosses, so I overlooked them and continued my journey.

After a while, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something in the distance. I strained to see what it was, but I couldn’t make it out.

Then my best friend was killed in an accident, which made the thing I saw in the distance become clearer.

Strangely, the closer I move toward that distant thing, the more crosses I am noticing. And, they seem much more beautiful than they were when mom pointed them out to me.

I am reluctantly, and helplessly moving ever closer, and find myself looking for them more and more.

Are you like me? Have you been overlooking your salvation? Maybe it’s time you do something about it and concern yourself with the crosses hanging on the walls of your own hallway.

Think about it. Death is in the distance patiently awaiting your arrival. Will you be ready? Are you ready?

I’d like to think that my blog, “Forward Observer: Peering From a Fox hole” is the greatest blog in the world, but because I didn’t know what I was doing when I started it, I failed to seriously consider what would happen when I named it as I had. Look what happened in my case.

I thought I was clever when I named my blog since I considered my self to be a kind of ‘writing soldier’ protected by the fox hole of our first amendment. So I filled this blog with content relevant to military people and veterans, as well as original content and interjections of my opinions about important political, social and personal topics. Unfortunately, most of the visitors to my site, however, are looking for information on U.S. Army Forward Observers.

Therefore, the first rule in starting the world’s greatest blog should be to name it with words (or key words) that are relevant to the content you will provide. So what content would constitute the greatest blog in the world? It would have to contain subject matter that is relevant and interesting to most people.

Something else that makes up a great blog is regularly updated content. No one wants to browse through a blog that hasn’t been updated in over a year, do they? Do you?

The greatest blog in the world has to have the perfect blend of humor and seriousness that puts readers at ease, yet causes them to ponder the important questions of our time. My blog causes readers to ponder some unimportant questions as well.

As I stated above, I write about social issues, cultural issues and personal issues that stifle us Americans, keeping us from being what we should be. If you read through some of my work, you’ll find, for instance, that I think TV is our single most costly cultural challenge today. It is a part of our culture that keeps many of us from being what we could and should be.

I think TV psychologically leads kids, insidiously into believing they are the star of some show in their lives. They then act out according to their whims thinking as with a TV show that everything will be okay after the show is over. Big Mistake!

The world’s greatest blog should be honest, and belief in its content by the writer, should not be questionable. Therefore, the writer’s convictions should come across believably and succinctly.

The greatest blog in the world should be accessible by people looking for the kind of information you have to offer. You can become more accessible by getting your blog listed in major search engines such as Google and Yahoo, as well as blog directories such as Blog Catalog.

You can also try getting your work published in other publications which in return for your work, might give you back links to your blog increasing your search engine rankings.

So, do visitor numbers indicate how great a blog is? I would hope not, because looking at my low numbers, mine isn’t so great after all. How can you measure how great your blog is? Simply put, be true to yourself. If you believe in what you are writing and you are providing relevant and interesting material, then your site, although maybe not the greatest in the world, it may be pretty darn important to who ever happens along needing to learn something from you.

NEWS FLASH!

OPEC released a statement early today announcing to the world they will no longer provide oil to the world. Venezuela echoed that sentiment by releasing a similar statement shortly there after.

Reaction around the world has been staggering. The President of the United States (as well as foreign leaders around the world) has frozen their respective strategic oil reserves, and their militaries have been placed on alert in anticipation of global warfare.

China immediately announced a military response toward OPEC if the cessation of Oil isn’t reversed.
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+2 hours

NEWS RELEASE

Georgia Pacific, Kansas City Southern as well as every other U.S. freight hauler indicated they will have to stop moving freight inside of two days. As a consequence, Coal fueled Electric power-plants will shut down shortly there after since deliveries to those plants will become impossible without trains and trucks replenishing coal supplies.

Diesel, Gasoline and natural gas prices are expected to sky rocket in a matter of hours. Despite high fuel prices, fuel pumps nationwide are expected to be empty also within 2 days since people will be lining up with every container they have, to get as much as possible.

Airports around the nation announce suspension of all flights beginning midnight tonight, and NASCAR announces the suspension of all racing activities, including practices, until further notice.
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+ 2 Days
NEWS RELEASE:

The sudden fuel shortage has caused fuel prices to jump to a nationwide average of $92.24 per gallon
Despite predictions that fuel stations would be completely dry inside of 2 days, many have closed their doors to the general public, with the station owners reserving what fuel they have in their tanks for themselves. This has created a public backlash, with a record number of shootings nation-wide as fights and riots begin in major cities.

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+3 Days

NEWS RELEASE: :

Food supplies in major cities have quickly disappeared from store shelves as people scramble to get what they can, but without replenishments, people have begun fighting over what food is left adding to the chaos at hand. 11 million people in and around New York City are suddenly left to their own devices regarding food sources. Similar crises are occurring in every major city across America.

Food and fuel shortages have ignited Riots in Los Angeles New York, Chicago, Milwaukie, Denver, Dallas, Miami and at least a dozen other cities. Martial law has been declared in at least ten states by their respective governors, and the National Guard has been activated to confiscate citizen’s firearms and restore order.

Across America today, Businesses, apartments, and homes are without water because most municipal water companies use electric pumps to supply water. Without electricity, the pumps don’t work, and there is no water.

The U.S. Department of Commerce predicts soaring unemployment as inventories of undelivered manufactured goods backup at factories, and our Nation’s ports are suspending operations because ships all over the world are called back to their home ports. The Secretary of Commerce predicts the unemployment rate to reach 75% within 2 weeks
Hospitals and nursing homes across America are suddenly facing severe shortages of food, water, and medical supplies.
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+5 Days

NEWS RELEASE:

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the energy provided by all hydroelectric power stations will be diverted to military installations around the nation. Civilians will receive only rationed amounts of electricity with rolling “white-ons” lasting 2 hours every three days.

Additionally, the Nuclear Energy Commission has announced that since many nuclear power-plant employees vacated their positions at the power plants, all nuclear power plants have been directed to power down, and be placed on standby with skeleton crews
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+ 6 Days

NEWS FLASH!

Early this morning, the president of the United States issued a statement to OPEC threatening military action if oil production and commerce is not resumed immediately. OPEC issued a counter statement indicating an unwillingness to comply with the president’s demands, and also issued a warning that the Soviet Union will consider any attack of OPEC nations as an attack on them.
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The above is just a quick scenario of what could happen if “No more oil” were ever announced. What do you think would really happen if suddenly there was no more fuel for our vehicles and homes? How would our lives change? How many of us would survive? As bad as Hurricane Katrina’s, and the World Trade Center’s destructions were for our nation, I believe the “No More Oil” statement from OPEC will be infinitely worse.

The following is a possible community leader’s address following the “NO Oil” news.

“Here me people! We’ve come together tonight because we are faced with a monumental crisis that we can (and will) survive if we stick together. Before we get started, it’s important for all of you to understand a few things:

Gone are the days when all you had to do all day was absolutely nothing. We must forget the pampered lifestyles we’ve grown accustomed to so we can reacquaint ourselves with a harder labor intensive and more primitive way of life.

100 years ago, it was the norm for most people to subsistence fish, hunt and farm. Here we are again. This day has been approaching, and we knew it. We didn’t heed the warnings, we continued relying on foreign oil to provide our electricity, heat our homes and fuel our cars, now we’re going to have to get used to walking, blazing hot summers without air conditioning, and long winters without oil or electric heat.

We’ll get organized, and we’ll have everything we need to survive. We’ll have to protect ourselves, though, from those who are not as organized and civilized as we are. People will try to take from us what we will work to have, so if we want to keep those things, we’ll have to be willing to fight. People who can, but don’t contribute to our society will be promptly exiled.

I’ll not listen to complaints from any of you because as a collective, this is what we deserve! Why haven’t we demanded better fuel economy from our auto manufacturers? Why haven’t we invested more in alternative energy sources? Why have we let special interests, and multinational corporations dictate our national policies all these years? We are supposed to own our government, but we have allowed those corporations and special interests to use it to dupe us out of our security.
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Now I realize this is a highly simplistic and maybe flawed scenario, but think about the ramifications of our oil tap suddenly running dry. If we don’t demand proper actions from our government representatives, as well as ourselves, I’m fairly certain such a day is coming, and probably sooner than you think.

The article below mentions a blog I've been operating for a few years. That is refering to my other blog, "Forward Observe: Peering From a Fox Hole" www.dtaverne.blogspot.com.

You can visit if you'd like.

Thanks

Danie

Making the most of your hospital stay requires you to keep in mind why you are there in the first place. You may be there to heal from an accident, recover from an illness or have some surgery performed on you and then be observed for a time. These primary reasons for being hospitalized should be your primary focus while you are there. This means that following the directions of your doctors and nurses should be paramount. Keeping this in mind, the hospital staff is available to help you while you are there.

It’s a mistake though, to assume someone is always available to answer your call button depressions immediately, every time you press it. Remember there are probably 20 or more other patients on the floor and a minimum of staffing to care for all of you. This doesn’t mean however that the staff should continually ignore your calls.

Neither does this mean it’s okay for you to call the nurse every 5 minutes for every little thing. To minimize the need for pressing the call button, try to request everything you think you’ll need while the nurse is in your room making rounds. Usually before they leave the room for checking IV’s and giving medications, they’ll ask if you need anything. This is the time to make your requests for an extra blanket, pillow, water, to see your doctor and the like.

If you feel you are ignored by the hospital staff, don’t be afraid to ask a nurse why this is so. However, you should use a nonjudgmental voice and indirectly phrase the question withholding blame. For example, with a pleasant tone, you could say something like, “You guys must be really busy huh? I’ve been calling for a nurse for 30 minutes. Do you think you have time to get me some ice water?”

Phrasing your discontent this way does not put the staff on the defensive, instead it aligns you with the staff as a pleasant and understanding patient they will want to help. Conversely, constantly voicing your angry disapproval might put off their answering your calls in the future. That said, not many people have a truly intrinsic desire to help crabby people.

As for me, the hospital staff is a constant source of human interaction that helps me cope with being hospitalized, so I don’t limit my interactions to the nursing staff and doctors alone. That said, I also carry on a light hearted banter with the maintenance and cleaning personnel that come in and out of my room. This type of give and take does a good job chasing away in-hospital depression.

Another aspect of being hospitalized where attitude can help is the infamous hospital food situation. Okay, so you suddenly find you’re stuck in the hospital which means you’re at the mercy of that hospital’s cooks and your doctor’s dietary rules. Let me suggest you utilize this time as a learning experience.

Although hospital food may not always taste the greatest, you can get a good idea of proper food portion sizes, and eating it might help you discover your ability to eat foods that are low in saturated fat and prepared with little or no salt. Furthermore, if you realize and accept that your diet does matter in the continuum of your health, you might adjust your diet accordingly, at home.

When you’re in the hospital, you may find getting restful sleep to be a difficult proposition. With nurses going in and out of your room at all hours, janitors running floor buffers, loud squeaking wheeled carts moving up and down the halls, cabinet doors and drawers opening and closing and people talking, sleep can be as elusive as a hiding phantom.

I’ve found getting angry over this situation to be counterproductive. I surely can’t relax and sleep if I’m angry, so instead I consciously tell myself that Maintenance to the hospital must be performed, people must talk, and my not being in my own bed at home can’t be helped. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t let yourself get angry either. Instead, try to be understanding and your sleep will come naturally, regardless of nearby noises.

Another way to make the most of your hospital stay is to bring a “Notebook of Strategic Memory” and a pen with you to the hospital. I have found doctor’s names, and their departments impossible to recall without writing them down. That said, there have been many occasions when I wanted to ask the nurse to contact a particular doctor for me only to realize I couldn’t remember his/her name.

The Notebook of Strategic Memory also comes in handy when questions arise and the doctor is not around. I jot the questions down as they arise, then pose them to the doctor at a later time. Additionally, I’ve found the notebook helpful by writing down information the doctor related to me for later accurate retellings and explanations to loved ones.

Don’t use your hospital stay as an excuse to live in your bed. I say this because you can do everything in a hospital bed. From going to the bathroom, bathing, watching TV, eating and even exercising, the hospital staff can remove every reason why anyone ever needs to get out of bed. I say if you are able, and you have your doctor’s permission, get out of bed and go outside.

I used to do this, but I’ve found I get better faster when I get out, regularly, for sun and fresh air. If you are like me, then not only will going out help you physically, it could also improve your attitude which could improve the other aspects of your hospital stay.