Memorial Day 2005

It's Memorial Day, and once again time to honor my ancestors who have served in the military.

Jacob Wuest 1st Sgt 95th NY Volunteers Army of the Potomac
Dwight Condo Baker PhD Cdr USN; OSS
John Clark, Sr. ABS USN
Joseph Clark MD Capt USA Medical Corps
Gerald Redwine PhD ABS USN
Dwight Cormack Baker MS LtCdr USN

Outside my family, I would like to honor my boyhood friend
Tom Ray Sgt USA
and the greatest American soldier of his time
David Hackworth Col USA

They all served the old American Republic, which has passed away. The present soldiers and sailors of the entity known as the United States are Imperial forces. And mercenaries.

Great great grandfather

Great great grandfather, originally uploaded by docxray.

This is Jacob Wuest, my maternal great great grandfather. He was a native of Zurich, Switzerland, and came to California to hunt gold in the rush of 1849. He didn't find gold, but did become a harnessmaker in San Francisco. When the American Civil War broke out, he took ship around Cape Horn to London, then caught another ship to New York. Upon arriving in New York City, he enlisted with the 95th NY Volunteers and was sent south. He fought at Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. In 1864 he was captured by the Confederates at the battle of the Wilderness and sent to Andersonsville prison. He survived Andersonville, and was liberated by Sherman's army. After the war, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa, meeting my great great grandmother Mary Collins. Flora Wuest, his daughter, was my grandfather Dwight Condo Baker's mother. Dwight Baker interviewed Jacob Wuest about 1910 when the whole family had moved to Pasadena, California and wrote down Jacob's chronicle about forty years later.

Good day

Today I had to stay home instead of going to sing and play in the church choir, because I was on call. The morning was pleasant with plenty of net surfing, then I practiced the horn parts for the upcoming concert for about an hour and a half. We will play Shenandoah; Shaker Melody; Danny Boy; Shepherd's Hey Morris Dance; Wagner Homage March; and Nobles of the Mystic Shrine by Sousa. About two thirty I went in to the hospital and read the day's work, getting done about four thirty. Late in the afternoon I cleaned up our CD collection; it's all organized by genre and alphabetized now. Tomorrow I'll have a fun time going to the dentist and meeting our banker.

New Yamaha 668

Here's my new prize possession.

Dawn over the Remarkables, Queenstown

Music

My sister Tess sent me a circular email today, documenting the stress relieving effects of music. Apparently a scientific study has shown reduction in levels of stress related hormones and peptides after exposure to music. It wasn't specified what kind of music it was - must have been something like Debussy or Johann Strauss rather than heavy metal I should imagine. The article also mentioned stress reduction with actual music making - drumming, harmonica playing, and singing, among others.
I have often relieved stress at work by drumming - much to the annoyance of my co-workers. They're also annoyed by humming and whistling. Our work - radiology reading - involves a lot of visual searching and concentration, and intrusion of any other sense modality is definitely unwelcome. I wonder if our visual mood could be improved by background pictures, say for example a soothing seascape by Turner or a classical pageant by Raphael, flashed on our PACS screens between readings or when the system is resting. Geometric patterns might have an interesting if unpredictable effect. Or perhaps
"Where's Waldo" puzzles, though that would be too much like work.
Reading radiology is best done rhythmically, if silently. Preserving concentration and rolling out the stock phrases rapidly are paramount. From what my wife tells me, rapid reading in radiology is somewhat like simultaneous interpretation. One's judging mind is put aside while pure reflex takes over. It is also extremely mentally fatiguing to do so. Simultaneous interpreters never work more than 20-30 minutes at at stretch, because even the best fall into a literally mind-numbed state after this length of simultaneous serious work. Perhaps it's good after all for me to have my concentration irregularly periodically interrupted. The real trick is not responding with annoyance or anger, which just leads to a vicious cycle.
Anyway, today at work I tried some of my own background music since nobody else was around to object. Singing in a foreign language I don't understand turned out fine. Instrumentals are generally good, but they can't be too rhythmical or attention-grabbing. I think I'll try some Bach tomorrow, that's very Apollonian.