Same Day Heart Repair in Alberta

Blair Stone’s a busy guy, with a government job and a jam-packed calendar that typically leaves him little time to hang around hospitals or to fuss over things like a twinge in the chest.


“I was out walking my dog when I got this chest pain. Most men go into denial with this sort of thing, so I made excuses like it was indigestion,” says the Red Deer man. “I had no idea what the pain of angina was supposed to feel like. So I basically ignored it.”

But the pain became more prevalent and, in September, the 58-year-old found himself at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, where received a stent in the catheter lab to relieve an obstructed artery. What really amazed Stone, however, was the fact that he was able to go home the very same day.

Like Stone, heart patients with narrowing or blocked arteries are now benefiting from a new Alberta Health Services (AHS) outpatient program that restores blood flow and returns them to the comforts of home the same day.

Continue to the full article here.

Example Writing Course Assignments - Exercises for You to Try

Assignments

This section features detailed instructions for the papers and lists all the short assignments. Please consult the calendar for all relevant due dates. This course is taught through MIT OpenCourseWare.

Manuscript Drafts and Submission Guidelines

Both papers and short assignments (except short assignment #4) are due in class in hard copy on the date listed and should be submitted on the class Web site, by class time, as well. Assignments should all have a title, your name (on all pages) and a date on them, twelve point type, and one inch margins all around. The electronic version should be in either Microsoft® Word or RTF format.

Papers

Paper 1: Narrative Essay, ca. 800 words

Your first assignment is to write about yourself-about your own intellectual interests and passions. In particular, I would like you to address the question: What scientific or technological issues, questions or problems most deeply interest you, and how do you think those interests will shape your life?

Paper 2: Contrasting Technical Descriptions (2), ca. 1200-1600 words

The purpose of this assignment is to give you experience in adapting a piece of technical writing to a specific audience. The assignment consists of two short independent pieces. Choose something that you know a lot about, but which would probably not be familiar to a broad, general audience. It could be anything from an abstract concept, to a technique, a skill, an object, or an activity (e.g. a sport or a hobby). Write a description or explanation of it that is aimed at a general audience. (Characterize the audience you have in mind before you begin to write.) You could imagine that this description will be one component of a larger piece of writing aimed at that audience.

Then write another description of the same thing, this time for a more specialized audience of your peers. This audience could be people who share with you a very specific area of specialization within a field, or it could be a broader audience within that field.

Paper 3: Literature Review, ca. 1200-1500 words

This assignment links to the fourth assignment. In order to propose the creation of a course, you have to very thoroughly research the academic landscape. A successful course proposal answers a variety of questions: How will this course fit in with other courses and course sequences? Who will teach it? What texts will be used? What students can be expected to take this course? To answer these questions, you need to delve into a variety of kinds of research. These may include: examining course catalogs and syllabi at other institutions; interviewing or surveying faculty or students; reading reviews of potential texts, or reading the texts themselves; becoming familiar with Institute statutes on course creation. Your research review should consist of a bibliography of the sources you have explored, along with a narrative which briefly explains what you have found, what was useful and what was not, and what research gaps you have yet to fill before you can write the design proposal.

Paper 4: A Design Proposal, ca. 2400-3000 words

In this assignment, you will develop an idea for a course at MIT, undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education. You will then write a formal proposal describing the course and its rationale. The purpose of this assignment is for you to become familiar with the format and style of a proposal.

Individual Oral Presentation of Paper 4, ca. 10 minutes

An in-class, oral presentation of your Design Proposal. Eight minutes to present; two minutes to answer questions.

Short Assignments

Note: For short assignments 3, 4, and 7 (which are written proposals of papers 2, 3, and 4, respectively), you will write from a few sentences to a paragraph about what you plan to do. This shouldn't take much time or effort, but it is important that you complete these assignments and complete them on time.

1. Make a list of the steps you take from the time you are given a writing assignment to the time you hand it in. Make sure that you include the more "casual" steps in your process. That is, not just "then I revise," but also, "I meditate/eat cookies/lift weights/take a walk, then I revise."
2. Find an ad for a job that appeals to you and write a letter of application for that job-essentially a one page cover letter to go with a c.v. Bring in both the ad and the letter. You may fictionalize your cover letter but it should be serious rather than satirical.
3. Brief written proposal of what you plan to write on for Paper 2.
4. Brief written proposal of what you plan to write on for Paper 3.
5. Bring in a book review from a technical journal in your field.
6. List at least five ways in which you think the design of the course is working well and five things that you would modify, eliminate, or supplement.
7. Brief written proposal of what you plan to write on for Paper 4.
8. List five Web page design characteristics you find appealing and five which you find problematic.
9. Write a short, email response to a technical problem.
10. List at least five ways in which you think the design of the course is working well and five things that you would modify, eliminate, or supplement.

Group Presentation

In addition to the short written assignments, each student will be responsible for participating in a group presentation, with two or three other students. The following topics will essentially be student-presented:

• Argument
• Reviews and Critiques
• Graphics
• Web page Writing and Design
• Email

Free Online Writing Courses

The free courses can help you improve your writing skills:

1. Learn to Write a Feasability Study from About.com’s About U. I took a similar course in college. If you’ve never written a feasibility study, here’s your chance to learn how.
2. Writing Interview Winning Resumes also from About.com’s About U. Knowing how to write a good cover letter and resume is important to job hunters, but it’s also a good skill for any freelancers to have. This course will show you how.
3. Intensive Grammar Workshop also from About.com’s About U. A great, free grammar course for beginning writers, non-native writers of English, or experienced pros looking to freshen their skills. Remember that poor grammar could cost you a gig…
4. Introduction to Technical Communication: Explorations in Scientific and Technical Writing from MITOpenCourseware. Learn some of the basics of technical writing by following the course notes and syllabus of an MIT instructor.
5. Becoming Digital: Writing About Media Change from MITOpenCourseware. Learn how changing media has affected communications from an MIT instructor’s course notes. This sounds very interesting.
6. The NetWriting Masters Course from Writer’s Helper. A free 49-page e-book on writing for the web by Ken Evoy. Learn how to write for the Internet.
7. The School of Journalism at Wikiversity. This isn’t one course, but rather, a whole online journalism department through Wikiversity. Pick one course, or take all of them.
8. Technical Writing. Again, not one course, but a series of courses through Wikiversity. This can be a great way to learn more about technical writing.
9. Marketing Writing Tips from the HP learning center. Page through lessons that illustrate common business writing mistakes and explain how to avoid them.
10. Creative Writing 101 free course on creative writing from Suite 101. Is creative writing your dream? This course contains eight lessons. Once you finish this course, you may wish to follow it up with their Creative Writing Workshop.

For more on what to expect from free writing courses, visit the original article at Freelancefolder.com

Free Online Writing Exercises

From Stephen Lloyd Webber, of Wellness and Writing Immersion Retreats. Not everyone is physically or financially able to travel across the world with us for a writing retreat, so he created a free virtual space for creative writers from around the world to get together and learn. In a short amount of time, this site became a  popular place among creative writers.



Some course highlights include:

Course 1. Direct Observation. Do you sometimes get stuck in the details? Have you ever wondered how to write better descriptions? This course digs deep into the thick of what propels different modes of descriptive writing, taking you through exercises that challenge you to observe again, and observe closer. The heart of dynamic descriptions is direct observation. If you’re looking for an original and exciting take on writing descriptively, this course is for you.

Course 3. Poetry. What makes sacred poetry different from other types of writing? What is it about haiku that can stop us dead in our tracks with only a few words? How can writing be a spiritual experience? This course guides you through some insights into modes of writing that lead to a richer experience of the world around and within you.

Visit http://writingvacation.com/exercises/ and stretch those writing muscles!

BookThug interview with Nicole Markotic, author of Bent at the Spine

Here is an interview with Canadian poet Nicole Markotic. Nicole was my creative writing mentor in high school. I remember we were in a Starbucks or Second Cup when I was in grade 12, and we were going over some of my writing. I had written a line like, "Losing that love cost me" and Nicole asked, "What did it cost you? What is something great? What would make an impression?"

The line became "Losing that love cost me an open eye."

Check out the video below - Nicole is swell!

"Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, 
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

"MY river runs to thee" by Emily Dickinson

MY river runs to thee:
Blue sea, wilt welcome me?
My river waits reply.
Oh sea, look graciously!

I ’ll fetch thee brooks	5
From spotted nooks,—
Say, sea,
Take me!

"ALTER? When the hills do" by Emily Dickinson

ALTER? When the hills do.
Falter? When the sun
Question if his glory
Be the perfect one.
Surfeit? When the daffodil	5
Doth of the dew:
Even as herself, O friend!
I will of you!

"Colour Wheel" by callie atta

Colour Wheel. 2007.

colour wheel                                      sets me dries me                                             like red

 into the grand canyon

                                                                                                                love

is sometimes    light                                         for all the hours

for all the hours in the world I would leave this city to          find you

tempered tempo

we explorers look so similar from afar

and yet on ourselves we etch I am different I am so wholehearted I am so complete I am stealing your lines

bass backbeat coming up from the apartment below

12:22 am on a week day night

it’s freezing outside it’s april outside

I feel like I’m learning too much too early or not late                       enough

timing was a                                       stumbling block.

"toute de suite" by callie atta

tout de suite. 2008. 

granite points and shifts of some-rock

the objects of our affection might change

to replay the chord to box up the wine bottles I left at your sink

we scrambled to the top and broke out the camera

I can hear your good-bye slowly condensing flat third on the front window

                describing me. peeling paint instead of the bridge we climbed.

with a photograph we drew our weapons

four sharps but the melody still comes through.

I thought I would live in a thousand countries, with hundreds stored                                     still                                        as if the wars did not come to them

I played rogue you’re the playwright

slowly the birds of the spring the gulls the link

the ice fields loosen their hold to the ground

three inches each year will bring the whole shelf down

the north and the south; my love was not like that

hearts do not steer when you ask them to turn

melodies surprise the mind when they’ve been lost for years

and exposing the heart’s route can wash away the trail

"bone index" by callie atta

bone index. 2008.

a beach a glass of wine a sunset

two hands about to press

clasped in mind yet fleeing

they understand

their place is the same

they live in the same world

crux would rather

            if one is green the other is green

three rallies in the sky, the gods meeting to

ease the rain horizon

colour wheel retraces timid pulsing for love

"Azores" story introduction by callie atta

Azores: introduction. 2012.

A story of triumph, of overcoming yourself. A young woman is led on a journey to the islands at the center of the Atlantic.

Ilah woke with a start. She heard the cows shifting and yet it was only 5:00 am. Too early. Too early. She thought many things in her life had been too early. She had learned too early that people cannot be trusted, which then became I can’t be trusted. She was tired of the routine, of the same thing for months on end. Months that led nowhere. She was tired of being tired and feeling nothing for days she worked long and hard for. 

Today was the day something would change inside her. Looking back, she would know this had been the day. It doesn't take long to feel the shift - it can be a bank account, a robbery, a cold drink. But things change all the time.

She slowly stretched and opened her eyes. Sun was breaking through the blowing curtains. She had picked them herself on a shopping trip with her mother months ago. Try them, it will add some fresh air and openness to the place. They didn’t. 

"Zenith times" by callie atta

Zenith times. 2011.

I am a small scar

          Harlequin’s mid-day

I am a small near

          Harlequin’s mid-day

I am a small attendance

          Harlequin’s mid-day chance

To light upon

          Stone sooner barrage

To near to stand outside

I am small formal where it lands

          Thirty-two year crown

Seeing you there

          Crux for affected laid out largo

Stance in flux nadir and reference

          For I am a small block

Of tip or place to look

          For all there is

All this happened in water

          The authored turn

Stone to hand to swish

          Sink and then there’s atlantis

In pocket book format

"The fisher and the fish" by callie atta

The fisher and the fish. 2007.

Then it let go. 

With a pop and hissing, the fishing line ran through my fingers so fast that I had not realized I lost the fish. Here we go. Another sign. I was always searching for hemlock, for word posts, signposts. 

None met my childhood dreams. And yet there I was, at 19, running my finger tips along the backs of shelves in my grandfather’s fishing hut. Looking for floats, weights, an old tie? He sent me in for some heavier line, and I thumbed through the boxes and piles. Old hooks, jigs, orange for dawn, red for dusk.

It was the quiet water that drew me out to the docks. It was that quiet moment, between life and the next day. 

When it was silent and grey and nothing mattered. There were no worries or plans.

What is it about objects we can touch that make us feel sure? What difference does it make to hold something? Thinking about it makes it just as real as it’s ever going to be. And yet.

It doesn't quite.

Fishing from the pier, as I often do, has taught me to hang on and to let go. 

It is not the map that locates us – it is the fawning over accomplishment, wishing to be all that we are, but only sometimes. It’s like feeling sheepish when there is not even a reason to feel that way. If I could bridle my emotions like horses, make the local news personal, I could leave a few things packed in time’s trunk. I could make them personal.

To be in two places at once, the fisher and the fish. I could move through the water, a foot from the bottom, where time loses some meaning. 

No seconds no ticking. Heaven. 

We are the fisher and the fish. Our dreams coming from our blue depths, the places we haven’t shown anyone.

To be quiet, and say good-bye with a little dignity, was what took place. I still wanted to shout as loud as I could, don’t go. But the urgency and sting that greets us those first few days, eases a little. Growing into a unworried friend, we walk with our minds on things that are a little further beyond.

Worry. Damn attendant that I apparently enjoy since I seek it out. Like a tilted clay pot I would like to make it and place it on my shelf. 

And yet worry is a different artifact. It is not beautiful, it does not really show care, and it is impersonal. At the end of time, when we read our books and tally the score of how nice we were – worry does not even tell others we cared about something. There is no nurturing because of worry. It is a closed lump in the throat. In my experience anyway.

"World less" by callie atta

World less. 2007

notebook pages torn

separated from the coil

power lines

swept away

from the solid wooden poles as if nothing 

has a place any more

do you believe in policy

does it work for you

three dimensional feelings like love like nostalgia

bruise like a fight

rising temperatures soften the roads

concrete, hard for decades between the city’s places,

softens and creaks.

memory lies

"if everything happens that can" by callie atta

if everything happens that can whenever
salmon migrate out of doors
to touch fins with close encounter with a kind of rush
i would you committed to do the best played out
tapped out we adore black and white films
and the stooges like an oath
varying weathered

"There Are So Many Tictoc" by ee cummings

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic
Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly
                                we do not
wind it up it has no weights
spring wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.
(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me) 

"Humanity" by ee cummings

Humanity i love you

because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you 
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because
when you're hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you're flush pride keeps 

you from the pawn shops and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you 
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down

on it
and because you are 
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity

i hate you

"i have found" by ee cummings

                i have found what you are like

        the rain,

                (Who feathers frightened fields
        with the superior dust-of-sleep. wields

        easily the pale club of the wind
        and swirled justly souls of flower strike

        the air in utterable coolness

        deeds of green thrilling light
                                      with thinned

        newfragile yellows

                          lurch and.press

        -in the woods
                     which
                          stutter
                                 and

                                    sing

        And the coolness of your smile is
        stirringofbirds between my arms;but
        i should rather than anything
        have(almost when hugeness will shut
        quietly)almost,
                       your kiss

"L(A" by ee cummings

l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness 


Another sign of cumming's craft: the long ellipsis that conveys a deep ache.

"i carry your heart" by ee cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

"dive for dreams" by ee cummings

dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you(trees are their rootsand wind is wind)
trust your heartif the seas catch fire(and live by lovethough the stars walk backward)
honour the pastbut welcome the future(and dance your deathaway at the wedding)
never mind a worldwith its villains or heroes(for good likes girlsand tomorrow and the earth)
in spite of everythingwhich breathes and moves, since Doom(with white longest handsneating each crease)will smooth entirely our minds
-before leaving my roomi turn, and (stoopingthrough the morning) kissthis pillow, dearwhere our heads lived and were.

silently if, out of not knowable

silently if, out of not knowable
night's utmost nothing,wanders a little guess
(only which is this world)more my life does
not leap than with the mystery your smile
sings or if(spiralling as luminous
they climb oblivion)voices who are dreams,
less into heaven certainly earth swims
than each my deeper death becomes your kiss
losing through you what seemed myself,i find
selves unimaginably mine;beyond
sorrow's own joys and hoping's very fears
yours is the light by which my spirit's born:
yours is the darkness of my soul's return
-you are my sun,my moon,and all my stars

"if everything happens that can't be done" by ee cummings

if everything happens that can't be done
if everything happens that can't be done
if everything happens that can't be done
(and anything's righter
than books
could plan)
the stupidest teacher will almost guess
(eith a run
skip
around we go yes)
there's nothing as something as one
one hasn't a why or because or although
(and buds know better
than books
don't grow)
one's anything old being everything new
(with a what
which
around we come who)
one's everanything so
so world is a leaf so tree is a bough
(and birds sing sweeter
than books
tell how)
so here is away and so your is a my
(with a down
up
around again fly)
forever was never till now
now i love you and you love me
(and books are shutter
than books
it is at moments after i have dreamed
can be)
and deep in the high that does nothing but fall
(with a shout
each
around we go all)
there's somebody calling who's we
we're anything brighter than even the sun
(we're everything greater
than books
might mean)
we're everyanything more than believe
(with a spin
leap
alive we're alive)
we're wonderful one times one

"2 little whos" by ee cummings

"though your sorrows not" by ee cummings

though your sorrows not

any tongue may name,

three I'll give you sweet

joys for each of them

But it must be your"

whispers that flower

murmurs eager this

"i will give you five

hopes for any fear,

but it Must be your"

perfectly alive

blossom of a bliss

"seven heavens for

just one dying,i'll

give you"  silently

cries the(whom we call

rose a)mystery

"but it must be Your"