| Sunday, November 29th, 2009 |
| 8:43 pm |
Writer, Heal Thyself?
OK, I am in the health care field but I've never been a medical snob when watching TV shows or reading fanfiction. I don't go obsessing over every little medical mistake because it really has nothing to do with the plot if the chest xray is backwards or if they use the wrong antibiotic. I don't even mind if the timeline is stretched a little and our hero survives for a couple of days with something that would probably have killed him in a matter of hours. Unless it's crucial to the plot I'll let most stuff just slide on by because frankly, I'm reading/watching for entertainment. If I want to obsess over medical details I can go read JAMA (Heaven forbid!). That being said, it seems to me that if your story involves extensive injuries or illnesses you might want to do a little research first - or maybe get a medical beta. This is on my mind because I was reading a story (not MFU) that I had to give up on because it seemed like every other paragraph the author was doing things that contradicted common medical practice and /or disregarded basic anatomy and physiology. I finally threw in the towel when one of the main characters had a a fractured femur, a fractured kneecap, a spleen that had been ruptured by fragments of his fractured ribs (huh?) and - wait for it - a broken neck. All this and he was still apparently mobile enough to drag his wounded lover to safety through enemy territory. Now if this was a random story on ff.net I would just stop reading and move on, but this was a lj fic-a-thon story in a well known fandom where betas of almost every kind are available for the asking. I mean, what is up with that? |
| Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 |
| 7:16 pm |
Freida
I've been enjoying the kitty pics of others so thought I'd share a pic of our Freida. I was never a cat person until she came into our lives 5 years ago. My son (see icon) had been begging and begging for a cat so we went down to the Humane Society and there she was. She had the most precious meow. We never considered any of the other cats there even though we had been planning to get a kitten. They estimated that Freida was about three. She was ours from the moment we saw her.  |
| Sunday, October 18th, 2009 |
| 9:42 pm |
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| Saturday, October 10th, 2009 |
| 7:32 pm |
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| Monday, October 5th, 2009 |
| 10:24 am |
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| Friday, September 25th, 2009 |
| 8:51 pm |
Disgruntledness
I hate working Urgent Care. I don’t have the temperament for it. I’m just not a “treat ‘em and street ‘em” kind of gal and it stresses me out to be that way. I’m usually scheduled to do Urgent Care once a week but since we’re understaffed they’re doubling me up. Today was completely ridiculous – feral chinchillas, condescending ER docs, distraught family members - and we still don’t even have everyone on campus yet since classes don’t start till Monday. Once H1N1 really takes hold it’s liable to get downright ugly. We’re already seeing scattered cases – I shipped one poor guy off to the ER today coz he was going downhill fast and then had to listen to the ER doc blow hot air at me about it. No, I really don’t expect him to see everyone in town who catches the flu. Yes, it really is significant when you have big time bandemia and dropping platelets. No, he doesn’t look toxic but his temp is 102.5 and his heart rate doubled in the two hours he was here. Call me crazy, but I’d really rather have them in house before they go into multi organ failure. Arrogant jackass. I was really tempted to remind him about the guy they sent home last month who’s still in ICU up in the large tertiary care center to the North of us. Did I mention I hate working Urgent Care? |
| Thursday, September 24th, 2009 |
| 6:36 pm |
Should I buy a lottery ticket?
It was "University Day" at our school today where all the departments have booths etc. I always sign up for the drawings but have never won anything until today. And it's not just a free pen or logo tote bag - it's a $30 Harry and David gift certificate! Harry and David is an Oregon based gourmet fruit and food company - delicious stuff but way too spendy. They have an outlet store near Portland where you can get bargains sometimes - and tasty samples as well :) I especially like the Dark Chocolate Moose Munch Bars - mmmmmmmm... |
| Sunday, August 30th, 2009 |
| 11:07 am |
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| Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 |
| 8:21 am |
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| Friday, August 21st, 2009 |
| 4:20 pm |
Whitewashing History
My daughter is taking a US History course this summer. This is a passage from the section on US Latin American policy from 1950-1990: Fearing the adoption of communism in these countries, the United States intervened by promoting democracy, pressing governments to make reforms to solve their pressing problems, and offering aid. The United States felt that supplying aid to these countries would engender the growth of democracy and cause the communist influence to wane. ...... The United States also battled communism by providing military aid to resist despotic domination in developing countries.Is this US History or Cold War propaganda? "Pressing governments to make reforms"? "Resisting despotic domination"? Is that what they're calling things like Operation Condor, the Dirty War and the School of the Americas? I am amazed that I would see something like this in 2009. |
| Sunday, July 26th, 2009 |
| 12:19 pm |
Pinheads, greed and politics
So I mananged to keep my rant about the utter hypocrisy of Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, R- Miss to myself but now the news has moved on and we've had various and sundry stupid (yes I said stupid) government and non government actions and activities. Currently it's the fear mongering about the big bad public option for health care that's getting on my last nerve. All this stuff about rationing health care, socialized medicine etc. I wonder if most people know that alot of the "grassroots" organizations putting ads out there were created by the insurance industry. Wendell Potter, a former insurance exec wrote about some of it here: http://www.prwatch.org/node/8422 There's also an article in the NYTimes about health care rationing here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/business/economy/17leonhardt.htmlI've long believed in the PGP Theory - that in any human system there will always be pinheads, greed and politics. Anyone who has spent time on the phone with an insurance company representative will know exactly what I mean by "pinhead" but for those who have been spared I'm referring to people who are incompetent, apathetic and/or deliberately obtuse. People seem to have this idea that there's a health care model out there somewhere that would *not* be stupid and broken. I believe this is false. I don't know of any health care system in the world that does not have its broken/stupid aspects. So the question is what kind of imperfect system do we want, realizing from the get go that PGP is a given. My preference would be a single payer system. It would have all kinds of problems (see above) but there would access to health care for the vast majority of people. I also think the cost of healthcare would go down since big Pharma, the insurance industry and the AMA would lose much of their ability to manipulate the system for bigger profits. The things that go on in the industry right now are downright obscene. |
| Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 |
| 12:28 pm |
Pretest hell
I'm taking the recertifying exam for my specialty boards tomorrow. Today I've been torturing myself with an online practice test. My favorite question so far: What term is used to describe a peripheral neuropathy with simultaneous or sequential involvement of individual, noncontiguous nerve trunks? Stop the madness. Current Mood:  stressedCurrent Music: The clanging chimes of doom |
| Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 |
| 12:34 pm |
Leavin' on that midnight train - woowoo
Heading out on a 3 day train trip to see the folks in Cincinnati, with a side trip to Columbus for the Mennonite Church USA convention. Hubby volunteers with Mennonite Disaster Services and there's going to be some kind of building project there. I also wanted to share this link because my secret ambition as a child was to be a Pip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pHhItkhc7o |
| Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 |
| 10:15 am |
They say it's your birthday
Just wanted to add to the birthday congrats for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) orca_girlYou are truly one of the good guys of fandom. I still have the Season 4 VHS tapes you offered to donate to a worthy cause when the DVD's first came out - my kids still watch them on our antique VCR :) Your birthday also has special significance since one of my favorite SG1 stories, Two Sides of the Coin , was written as a birthday present for you. Wishing you a wonderful birthday celebration and many happy returns of the day. Pooh scratched his head, being a little puzzled by all this. "But is it really your birthday?" he asked. "It is." "Oh! Well, Many happy returns of the day, Eeyore." "And many happy returns to you, Pooh Bear." "But it isn't my birthday." "No, it's mine." "But you said 'Many happy returns' -- " "Well, why not? You don't always want to be miserable on my birthday, do you?" "Oh, I see," said Pooh. |
| 9:59 am |
Guilty Pleasures
So I - ah - sidled on over to that MFU kink_meme thing they've got going on. http://community.livejournal.com/kariki_neroli/1482.html?page=1#commentsI was a little nervous since some of that stuff kind of freaks me out but it's pretty easy to figure out which ones would probably do that and the stories I've read so far have all been well within my comfort zone. I especially enjoyed the "Illya as Super Villian" role playing one and the "Thrush gas as aphrodisiac" one. There's also a nifty AU story that features Napoleon as an - ahem - "Professional dance partner". As my mother would say "Is that what they're calling them these days?" :) |
| Sunday, May 31st, 2009 |
| 7:46 pm |
ST:TOS advice
So I want to take the kids to see Star Trek but I'd like to show them a few eps of TOS first. I guess I'm not sure exactly why but it's sort of like reading the book before you watch the movie if that makes any sense. Any advice on which eps to show them? |
| Monday, May 18th, 2009 |
| 12:10 am |
Shatter the Silence
 Don't have much to offer since I'm not a writer or artist but I will put out this request for Sri Lanka - the country where both my parents were born and where my very old and very precious grandmother still lives. If anyone can spare some healing thoughts please send them over towards that deeply messed up country as it lurches towards the gruesome end of a brutal post-colonial civil war that has lasted almost 30 years. Over 70,000 dead and untold millions maimed, tortured, displaced, terrorized... the list just goes on and on. The "victory" that's being celebrated there right now is positively dripping with the blood of innocent civilians. How any sane person can believe that a lasting peace can emerge from this is beyond me. |
| Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 |
| 8:00 pm |
Score one for the good guys
I heard this on NPR this evening. You can hear the whole story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=104092457&m=104104514 Ali Soufan is a former FBI terrorism expert and interrogator. He testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. While with the FBI he infiltrated Al Queada and testified against terrorists in court so he had to testify behind a screen so his face wouldn't be visible to the news cameras. Among other things he testified that he believed that torture ("enhanced interrogation techniques") was "slow, ineffective and unreliable." Lindsey Graham is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee (R - South Carolina) Sen. Graham “One of the reasons these interrogation techniques have survived for 500 years is because apparently they work." Soufan replied those techniques have survived because "It's easier to hit somebody than outsmart them." |
| Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 |
| 2:00 pm |
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| Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 |
| 11:43 pm |
What would Macgyver do?
Some folks from my church called this morning because their three year old had shoved a ball bearing in his ear. They called because I'm a trained health care professional and were very pleased with my ingenious solution to their problem. What I didn't share with them was the fact that said ingenious solution had absolutely nothing to do with my training - it came straight out of an episode of Macgyver. Remember the episode where Macgyver makes a magnet by beating a metal bar on a fire hydrant? Turns out if you beat an empty pen casing against a magnet it works great for pulling ball bearings out of ears. Thanks Mac ^_^ |
