I Am Grateful to......

.......the innovative idea of a woman, that I have never met: Nurse Elise Sørensen.

She was a Danish nurse that invented the ostomy bag in 1953 as she wanted a solution for her sister, that after cancer surgery had problems with her stoma. The sister became scared and somewhat anti-social because of the fear that the stoma would leak - Elise's invention gave her life quality back when reducing the fear when aided by the new invention.

The invention became the foundation of the Danish company COLOPLAST. I have known since age 8 or  that the company produced items for people that had some problems with their bowels and bladder  and never really knew what diseases that might cause these problems - reason I knew about the company was because that parents of some of the kids in my class worked there. The company has added several products to their portfolio.

Since October I started using one of the company's many products caused by a condition inflicted by my MS adding a second product in January. Makes my everyday manageable again and started participating in social events again. A specialist at the hospital told me that MSers embrace these products and the use of same faster than most needing them - most of us are determined to do what it takes to make broken things work somewhat normal.

Can not help thinking - what if Elise had not been innovative? Would we even have the aids/products we have today? I feel like I have been given a second chance and I am seizing it. For that I am grateful.

The Imitation Game

 

Went into the cinema darkness and laughed a bit about the words that just popped into my mind when watching the movie: data structures, algorithms, pointer, array, balanced trees, hashing, Pascal, Turing, programming and the list goes on. Some will go "Huh?!" as not all on them were even mentioned in the movie - other will laugh as it reveals some of my past.

Well once upon a time a young lady thought, that computer science was going to be her future, so she went to university to study it. That young lady was me only to find out, that I need interaction with people and not just sit behind a computer screen developing software etc. so I changed major after 4 years of studying.

The movie "The Imitation Game" is about Alan Turing and the Enigma machine invented during WW2 to decode the Germans' coded messages. We heard about the Turing Machines (now know to us as early computers)  in some of the classes at the university as his work was important in the evolution of computers. I was surprised to learn, when the British revealed a well kept secret from WW2, that Turing and some others had actually managed to crack the Enigma code and used some of the intelligence reports thereof to defeat the enemy in strategic places/battles.

Another story within the story is, that Alan Turing was homosexual - at that time a crime in the UK - could it be used against him and would people stop working with him when they found out? Alan Turing committed suicide in 1954 - later to be questioned as it could also have been a fatal accident when handling cyanide.

Yes Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing is eye candy, and so is Matthew Goode as Hugh Alexander - you can never go wrong with adding Keira Knighly as the only female in Turing's code-breaking team. But the story was also luring me into the cinema to learn more about this event in the history books.

Peter Pan Must Die

He (John Verdon) is doing it again - just a small word or phrase and my mind immediately wanders off - this time it was the word "formidable" and then I think of a song's chorus, as two TV commercials used this song: one for online tv streaming and one as tv spot for a Danish top model contest/reality show  (0:56 in the YouTube music video). See I am writing a book post and I am once again getting sidetracked by that little word - but the sidetracking creates a smile on my face.

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The former NYPD homicide detective, Dave Gurney is once again drawn to a murder case, that is supposedly solved but there are some details that just needs some attention. He is involved in the case via Jack Hardwick who lost his job after assisting Gurney with some information in the Good Shepard murder case.

Jack and his wife, Madeleine, escaped the Big Apple and moved to the Catskills to have a more quiet life, but Madeline is convinced that Jack has still not adjusted to the quiet life as he has yet again involved himself in a case that could get violent - 4th time happening since he retired from the NYPD.

Most of us thinks of a well-meaning, playful ever young boy when we hear the word Peter Pan - actually the Disney cartoon and the Robin Williams movie comes to my mind when seeing the name Peter Pan. However lately that image has been jolted both by the TV series "Once Upon a Time" and lately this book. He is still ever young, but what if he is a contract killer that always erased the traces he might have left?


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Lots have happened lately and I have been lost in the world of books - reading books and other things came to an abrupt standstill this weekend as out little old capital suddenly was in the news worldwide with one sad word: terror. Two men were killed and five policemen injured - an attack of something we hold very dear in our country: freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Can not say we never believed that anything could happen in our country - we hoped that it would never happen - but sadly it did. Life will go on but it leaves a shadow.

The Quiet Water

Really cold today, but got to spend a couple of hours outside taking some photographs. Actually in my work hours as my job asked me if I would be interested in helping taking some photos for internal publications - how could I possible resist that request :) Lots of photos taken hoping that just a few of them will come out OK and to be used. As you know - I am just an amateur photographer who loves to be challenged with a camera.

In my mind I silently added some bonus to today's task:

• First time in a long time that I have been able to spend some hours with a camera in my hand
• Enjoying day outside in the sun with no clouds to be seen
• Most importantly: being close to the water that always have a positive effect on my thoughts and usually brings forth the smile on my face