On December 18, 2012, the Oklahoma Supreme Court decided Benson v. Leaders Life Insurance Co., 2012 OK 111, ___ P.3d ___.  The Benson case involved the interpretation of section 3609 of Title 36, which deals with when an insurer may rescind a policy due to misrepresentations, omissions, concealment of facts, or incorrect statements made in the application for the insurance policy.  As noted in the opinion, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has held on several occasions that the statute requires a finding of an “intent to deceive” the insurer before a policy may be avoided by reason of the insured’s false statement or omission in the application.  However, in discussing the insurer’s purported failure to use a medical release provided by the insured at the time of application (Id. at ¶ 9), the Benson opinion brings into question other Oklahoma Supreme Court and federal court pronouncements stating that…

And I’m done exams, wohoo!! No more classes until January 7th :D! I really want to focus on my blog this Christmas break; I’ve got a few topics in mind before I start researching the suggested topics from some of you guys. If any of you have any requests, feel free to ask and I’ll make a list and eventually get to it :).

My roommate and I had our Christmas party last night, couldn’t have asked for a better group of people who came; it was a really nice reward after all of our exams :). After spending most of the day climbing (obviously), we came home and decorated the house with Christmas lights, homemade snowflakes and a cardboard Christmas tree I taped to the wall :P. I definitely feel the holiday spirit now, ready to get onto some vegan holiday creations!

Here’s a picture taken of me in…

I’m not going to tackle the rather daunting debate on book vs e-books in any detail here, but I thought I’d just share a couple of recent posts I’ve seen that set out some stats on the issue quite nicely. This infographic presents a nicely balanced view on the merits of both. I particularly like what it says in regard to children’s books, if there is a point where I myself would put my foot down on the use of e-books it would be there. I’m sure picture books are available in e-book form, but there is nothing in this wide world to compare with cuddling up and reading a physical book with my son.

via the CILIPMultimedia Information Technology Group Blog

And from a nearby academic library, a couple of informative posts on their own internal survey of student opinion on e-book usage. It presents more evidence of…

Somebody got it wrong… or did they?

Man comes in with a chief complaint of poison ivy on his arm for several weeks. It’s getting better. I ask how I can help him.

Patient: I thought you could give me some Viagra for it.

Me: Um, Viagra isn’t going to do anything for your poison ivy.

Patient: It’ll take my mind off of it.

Artists create out of the stimuli they net as experience. But what if our limited energies as artists (there are only so many hours in a day) were focused on others’ needs, fears and desires? What if we focus on the audience of our choosing? What if our life energies were in the service of others?

During the teaching process, I will often ask artists who their audience is. This is what I commonly hear,