Experiences, both good and bad, form us all into the people we become. Map of a Distorted Mind, begins with the emerging of the Phoenix—a rebirth. Departing from upstate New York and continuing on through Idaho to Oregon, this chronological collection of poetry invites its readers to escort the author, Joseph R. McNulty, on a transformational journey to chase a western dream. Prepare to travel a wandering path as each mile traveled leads to the measured discovery of the author’s emerging manhood. As you follow the author on his restorative journey, you will encounter the sometimes overwhelming and life-threatening obstacles that he encountered along the way. You will see how he overcame them and what he learned from them. This book is an emotional depiction of purpose and service as the author reveals the reason behind his rare survival and his new definition for the meaning of life.
http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/MapOfADistortedMind.html
(Officially available for purchase)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
A Random Thought
As concerning our current tragedy; The BP Oil Crisis, which is said to be the largest oil spill in history. It seems that oil has been an ongoing motive for greed and war throughout the years. It is an unfortunate situation that has affected nature, wildlife, buisness, fishing, and even tourism. And who the hell knows when we will ever get this cleaned up...will we?
In my very short opinion I think that this is Karma! For all of the wars and violent outlashings that centered around oil, it's like "You want Oil? You've got it. A whole lot of it. Here you go, have it all in one lump sum."
Doomsday is close, I can smell it.
In my very short opinion I think that this is Karma! For all of the wars and violent outlashings that centered around oil, it's like "You want Oil? You've got it. A whole lot of it. Here you go, have it all in one lump sum."
Doomsday is close, I can smell it.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Synchronicity
Has anybody ever heard of synchronicity? The term, the meaning? Synchronicity is a term coined by C.G. Jung which basically means "Meaningful Coincidence" in so many words. Now we are not talking about randomly meeting your neighbor at the grocery store or something boring like that. Synchronicity dives much deeper than that, and if you have ever been faced with a synchronistic event, or two, in your life, consider yourself blessed. I am writing this to share with anybody who's interested, about a synchronistic event that shaped me and blessed my life to this day.
I was born and raised in Upstate New York (Syracuse area) for the first 19 years of my life and I am an only child. Sure I would have loved a brother or a sister but unfortunately that never happened. I found my sibblings elsewhere through deep friendships overtime. My Dad comes from a family of eight, all originating in the Syracuse area but eventually they all moved out west to Boise, Idaho. I was 7 years old by the time the last of his side moved west so I was never really exposed to them growing up.
My Aunt Mary is works with another gal for a company called Adams and Associates, a tutoring buisness for the learning disabled or any student who is in need of further tutoring. My Aunt Chris is a nurse. Both have gentle hearts and care deeply about the individual, not just looking at them as "clients". We McNulty's treat you like family; that's how we have always been.
In April of 1982 (I was born in August of that year) a little boy was born but born with a rare disease that almost took his life in the years to come. Had it not been for my Aunt's loving care to nurse him back to health and save his life, he would have perished from the disease. Had it not been for my other Aunt, he wouldn't have done so well in school, for she became his primary tutor and helped him with his school work and taught him while he was sick. After a while of intensive care and love, bringing life back in him, they all parted ways...and life carried on.
After graduating high school in 2001, I had decided to move to Boise to start a new life for myself. I had visited there numerous times in the last two years of my high school career. I even went as far as living there the summer before Senior year to get a job and see if I had really wanted to live there or if it was just "vacation thinking" as my dad put it. I got a job and lived, but I didn't want to return home to New York, so my goal to graduate high school was having that chance to move to Boise, and I did.
Father's Day weekend of 2002 I purchased a Greyhound bus ticket and spent three and a half days on the road en route to my new life ahead of me. I didn't know anybody there except for my Family but I had a job waiting for me because I transfered with JC Penney. I met quite a lot of people and quickly established friendships.
I met a girl, Diane, while working there and we started dating; she was one of my manager's daughters, while her other daughter, Michelle, I ended up moving in with and shared my first apartment. I partied quite a bit and Michelle and I were going to be attending a party. For days she had been talking about this guy named, Seffan, who she thought we'd hit it off and become pretty good friends. The party we were supposed to be attending that night, Seffan was going to be at.
I met this fellow Seffan and by the end of the night we became pretty good friends...days, weeks, years, after this party, we quickly established a strong friendship. We have established a brotherly bond. Seffan is an only child and so am I. We to this day are such good friends that we both consider ourselves to be the Brothers we never had. We love each other like Brothers and are both very fortunate to have each other in our lives.
About a month or so after living on my own I had stopped over to my Aunt Chris' house for a visit. She asked how my life in Boise was going and who I had been hanging out with and the friends I made. I mentioned Seffan's name and newly established friendship we held. I spoke of him the most, over all the others. Chris paused what she was doing and asked what his last name was in an estranged curiosity.
I told her his last name and her jaw dropped in astonishment. Long behold, Seffan was that little boy with the rare disease, that both Chris and Mary helped so many years ago. Seffan and I were destined to become those Brothers we never had and wished we had growing up. Seffan being on the West Coast and I on the East. Michelle, some random person who I just happened to meet and move in with, knew Seffan and had it in her to introduce us. It was like she felt like she had a fun obligation to do so.
Had it not been for my family, Seffan might have died. Had it not been for Michelle begging for us to meet, I may not have ever met Seffan but through Synchronicity, we were supposed to meet; sometime in the future. For this I feel honored to have had such an inspirational yet powerful moment happen in my life and to this day I am grateful for this "meaningful conincidence".
On a final note; My friend Austin (my other Brother made in Idaho) lent me a book to read about this very topic of Synchronicity. If you, the reader of this blog, would like to know more about these "meaningful coincidences" the book Austin lent me is called
'There Are No Accidents; Synchronicity and the Stories of Our Lives' by Robert H. Hopcke
I was born and raised in Upstate New York (Syracuse area) for the first 19 years of my life and I am an only child. Sure I would have loved a brother or a sister but unfortunately that never happened. I found my sibblings elsewhere through deep friendships overtime. My Dad comes from a family of eight, all originating in the Syracuse area but eventually they all moved out west to Boise, Idaho. I was 7 years old by the time the last of his side moved west so I was never really exposed to them growing up.
My Aunt Mary is works with another gal for a company called Adams and Associates, a tutoring buisness for the learning disabled or any student who is in need of further tutoring. My Aunt Chris is a nurse. Both have gentle hearts and care deeply about the individual, not just looking at them as "clients". We McNulty's treat you like family; that's how we have always been.
In April of 1982 (I was born in August of that year) a little boy was born but born with a rare disease that almost took his life in the years to come. Had it not been for my Aunt's loving care to nurse him back to health and save his life, he would have perished from the disease. Had it not been for my other Aunt, he wouldn't have done so well in school, for she became his primary tutor and helped him with his school work and taught him while he was sick. After a while of intensive care and love, bringing life back in him, they all parted ways...and life carried on.
After graduating high school in 2001, I had decided to move to Boise to start a new life for myself. I had visited there numerous times in the last two years of my high school career. I even went as far as living there the summer before Senior year to get a job and see if I had really wanted to live there or if it was just "vacation thinking" as my dad put it. I got a job and lived, but I didn't want to return home to New York, so my goal to graduate high school was having that chance to move to Boise, and I did.
Father's Day weekend of 2002 I purchased a Greyhound bus ticket and spent three and a half days on the road en route to my new life ahead of me. I didn't know anybody there except for my Family but I had a job waiting for me because I transfered with JC Penney. I met quite a lot of people and quickly established friendships.
I met a girl, Diane, while working there and we started dating; she was one of my manager's daughters, while her other daughter, Michelle, I ended up moving in with and shared my first apartment. I partied quite a bit and Michelle and I were going to be attending a party. For days she had been talking about this guy named, Seffan, who she thought we'd hit it off and become pretty good friends. The party we were supposed to be attending that night, Seffan was going to be at.
I met this fellow Seffan and by the end of the night we became pretty good friends...days, weeks, years, after this party, we quickly established a strong friendship. We have established a brotherly bond. Seffan is an only child and so am I. We to this day are such good friends that we both consider ourselves to be the Brothers we never had. We love each other like Brothers and are both very fortunate to have each other in our lives.
About a month or so after living on my own I had stopped over to my Aunt Chris' house for a visit. She asked how my life in Boise was going and who I had been hanging out with and the friends I made. I mentioned Seffan's name and newly established friendship we held. I spoke of him the most, over all the others. Chris paused what she was doing and asked what his last name was in an estranged curiosity.
I told her his last name and her jaw dropped in astonishment. Long behold, Seffan was that little boy with the rare disease, that both Chris and Mary helped so many years ago. Seffan and I were destined to become those Brothers we never had and wished we had growing up. Seffan being on the West Coast and I on the East. Michelle, some random person who I just happened to meet and move in with, knew Seffan and had it in her to introduce us. It was like she felt like she had a fun obligation to do so.
Had it not been for my family, Seffan might have died. Had it not been for Michelle begging for us to meet, I may not have ever met Seffan but through Synchronicity, we were supposed to meet; sometime in the future. For this I feel honored to have had such an inspirational yet powerful moment happen in my life and to this day I am grateful for this "meaningful conincidence".
On a final note; My friend Austin (my other Brother made in Idaho) lent me a book to read about this very topic of Synchronicity. If you, the reader of this blog, would like to know more about these "meaningful coincidences" the book Austin lent me is called
'There Are No Accidents; Synchronicity and the Stories of Our Lives' by Robert H. Hopcke
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Root Canals...Horror Story? What a joke.
I had my first root canal, bright and early, at 8:30 this morning. It was my first true extensive dental procedure since getting all four of my wisdom teeth pulled, back in the late 90s. I have heard horrific details throughout my entire life about these so called Root Canals. Weird Al even wrote a song about it called 'Cavity Search'. A parody of a U2 Song.
I don't have one of those fears of the dentist and I am not quite sure why people really do. I guess maybe it depends on the dentist you have, but when you find a dentist who calms you and makes you feel secure about procedures, it makes the world of difference.
I've had this cavity for far too long and one dentist referred to it as "The Problem Child" but the pain of it came and I wanted to take care of it, but when the pain subsided it just sort of got lost on the back burner...until just recently.
I was at work this past week and I noticed that there was a quarter sized lump that formed on my jaw, figured "okay, this is not good. I need to get this taken care of sometime soon because now it's becoming abscessed" I went to bed that night around 11pm and when I woke up at 7am that quarter sized lump turned into the size of a baseball...and I looked like a goblin.
Now, when your tooth abscesses you have one of two urgent options; The first, get the tooth extracted and just remove the problem altogether (while allowing more problems to come in the future, like your teeth shifting and mangling) the second, get a root canal; Dun, Dun, Dun. If you prolong the abscess and wait, the pus and poison built up can leak into your blood stream and either go to your brain or your heart and ultimately will kill you.
Due to the immense pain I was going through I just wanted to avoid a root canal and get it removed and move on with my life, but my tooth was still salvageable so the smart decision was to get the root canal. The problem here with me was that I do not have insurance and I do not have a ton of extra cash to just pay up front, like most dentists want if you are the uninsured. I was quoted up to a grand by several dentists with a 10% discount, but I had to pay it all up front.
I was lucky enough, after calling around getting price quotes, that my Fiance's boss called his dentist and put in a good word for me and I was able to be put on a payment plan based on what I could afford each month; which we ended up starting with 100 dollars a month. The root canal only cost me 750 dollars. The dentist was really nice, and calming about the procedure and explained anything and everything about it.
I had to take antibiotics for a week prior to the procedure because my mouth was so swollen and they could have numbed me up but the swelling would've offset the numbing agent and I would've felt the drill and all of the poking and prodding and what not. So then, came the morning of my root canal. Like I said, I don't contain that fear like most do. People asked me if I was nervous about the procedure and my response to them was that I did not know what to expect so I was just going with the flow.
I brought along my IPOD to listen to while they were doing the root canal. Where I was sitting, I was facing a giant window looking out into the tree filled distance of the outside world. Just pondering and jamming out to the music playing in my ears. The dentist pricked my gums with this paper thin needle to inject the numbing agent. The only sensation I felt was the Novocaine seeping in, not the needle prick. It couldn't have been longer than a minute and a half and they were already starting the procedure, drill in hand.
Much to my surprise the actual root canal, drilling and packing the rubber dam, only took about an hour, maybe less. They had to take a few X-rays afterwards, so that took some extra time. I was in and out in close to two hours and I have had no pain as a grand end result. Even after the Novocaine wore off I felt no pain, just slight pressure on the tooth itself from the dentist messing around with it. The "Agonizing" part of the entire root canal procedure was my jaw tightening up from being kept open throughout the whole thing.
You'd be surprised, just like I was, that root canals get such a bad rap. You just have to think, we have come so far in medicine that how could you not, feel something. Maybe 20, 30, even 40 years ago I'm sure root canals may have been painful but not in the modern day. Root canals are not what they are cracked up to be and my whole experience in getting my first root canal (hopefully my last) was nothing but a great experience.
The horror story of a root canal seems like an old wives tale. So for anybody who is getting their first root canal and has a certain fear, I hope you read this prior to getting it done and I hope that all root canals are as pleasant as mine was. So stay calm, ignore what you've heard, just kick back and relax and all will be fine. That's my promise to you.
I don't have one of those fears of the dentist and I am not quite sure why people really do. I guess maybe it depends on the dentist you have, but when you find a dentist who calms you and makes you feel secure about procedures, it makes the world of difference.
I've had this cavity for far too long and one dentist referred to it as "The Problem Child" but the pain of it came and I wanted to take care of it, but when the pain subsided it just sort of got lost on the back burner...until just recently.
I was at work this past week and I noticed that there was a quarter sized lump that formed on my jaw, figured "okay, this is not good. I need to get this taken care of sometime soon because now it's becoming abscessed" I went to bed that night around 11pm and when I woke up at 7am that quarter sized lump turned into the size of a baseball...and I looked like a goblin.
Now, when your tooth abscesses you have one of two urgent options; The first, get the tooth extracted and just remove the problem altogether (while allowing more problems to come in the future, like your teeth shifting and mangling) the second, get a root canal; Dun, Dun, Dun. If you prolong the abscess and wait, the pus and poison built up can leak into your blood stream and either go to your brain or your heart and ultimately will kill you.
Due to the immense pain I was going through I just wanted to avoid a root canal and get it removed and move on with my life, but my tooth was still salvageable so the smart decision was to get the root canal. The problem here with me was that I do not have insurance and I do not have a ton of extra cash to just pay up front, like most dentists want if you are the uninsured. I was quoted up to a grand by several dentists with a 10% discount, but I had to pay it all up front.
I was lucky enough, after calling around getting price quotes, that my Fiance's boss called his dentist and put in a good word for me and I was able to be put on a payment plan based on what I could afford each month; which we ended up starting with 100 dollars a month. The root canal only cost me 750 dollars. The dentist was really nice, and calming about the procedure and explained anything and everything about it.
I had to take antibiotics for a week prior to the procedure because my mouth was so swollen and they could have numbed me up but the swelling would've offset the numbing agent and I would've felt the drill and all of the poking and prodding and what not. So then, came the morning of my root canal. Like I said, I don't contain that fear like most do. People asked me if I was nervous about the procedure and my response to them was that I did not know what to expect so I was just going with the flow.
I brought along my IPOD to listen to while they were doing the root canal. Where I was sitting, I was facing a giant window looking out into the tree filled distance of the outside world. Just pondering and jamming out to the music playing in my ears. The dentist pricked my gums with this paper thin needle to inject the numbing agent. The only sensation I felt was the Novocaine seeping in, not the needle prick. It couldn't have been longer than a minute and a half and they were already starting the procedure, drill in hand.
Much to my surprise the actual root canal, drilling and packing the rubber dam, only took about an hour, maybe less. They had to take a few X-rays afterwards, so that took some extra time. I was in and out in close to two hours and I have had no pain as a grand end result. Even after the Novocaine wore off I felt no pain, just slight pressure on the tooth itself from the dentist messing around with it. The "Agonizing" part of the entire root canal procedure was my jaw tightening up from being kept open throughout the whole thing.
You'd be surprised, just like I was, that root canals get such a bad rap. You just have to think, we have come so far in medicine that how could you not, feel something. Maybe 20, 30, even 40 years ago I'm sure root canals may have been painful but not in the modern day. Root canals are not what they are cracked up to be and my whole experience in getting my first root canal (hopefully my last) was nothing but a great experience.
The horror story of a root canal seems like an old wives tale. So for anybody who is getting their first root canal and has a certain fear, I hope you read this prior to getting it done and I hope that all root canals are as pleasant as mine was. So stay calm, ignore what you've heard, just kick back and relax and all will be fine. That's my promise to you.
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