It's been a crap week. An awful one that resulted in me showing up to work with two puffy eyes looking very decidedly ... well, asian and squinty. No offence, but boo to squinty puffy eyes!!
Thank goodness for Australia Day. I have newfound appreciation for the public holiday. Without it, I would have had to work for two weeks straight without a day off. With it, my long stint was cut to a mere 9 days straight. Yay! On the downside, we had an awful weekend. Non-stop steady stream of patients and that horror ward round of about 60 patients, most of which weren't on my team at the time. It was ugly, so I stayed back to help out Sunday night. My senior decided to be nice and let me have some theater time.
Now you see, most people would jump at the chance for theater time. It means being in the zone, the surgeon's zen garden where everything else can wait because we're all scrubbed up and it's up to whoever's NOT scrubbed to go deal with issues outside the operating theater. It's where time seems to fly and 3 hours hammering away at a hip seems like 30 minutes. So.. my senior thought he was doing me a favor. For me, I'm not too fussed about getting theater time at this stage. I figure that you could train anything and anyone to perform operations and there isn't really time at 9pm in the evening to get any real teaching. It was a mad scramble to get in, fix it and get outta there.
So anyway, I was called to theater on short notice while my colleague decided to be brave and carry my pager for me and sort out the patients in ED. We finished, I met him down in ED, we admitted two more patients requiring surgery, got changed out of our scrubs and were thankful to be able to go home to catch about 5+ hours of sleep before we were expected at work at 7am the next morning.
It was only when I was in the car on the way to work at about 6.40 in the morning that I realized I didn't have my wedding rings on. You have no idea what that feels like unless you've been through it yourself. I felt my heart go through the floor of the car, heard it splat on the ground and then go squish in the far distance as it bounced along the road to be squished again and again by each oncoming car. And that repeated itself the whole day. We searched and searched and there's no news of them yet. Oh, and that was only Monday. What a way to start the week.
And Tuesday was when I showed up as puffy squinty eyed girl getting sympathy from the nurses about the rings. Hell, I needed it. And then Weds, I think I got run down so much my body decided it had enough and chucked a fever. The nurses took my temperature during our outpatient clinics and it read 39.3C. The look of horror on their faces was awesome. The mad scramble to get me some panadol was good and it was a good reason to work a bit slower than usual. To be fair, I wasn't feeling right since Monday anyway and the temperature just made me feel more spacey and nauseated.
And then we have today, my ED day. Sorted through a bunch of inappropriate patient referrals that showed up at our registrar review clinic. Thank goodness ED wasn't busy at all. Only 2 patients to admit all day by 5pm! BUT.. a hella lot of clinic patients, incessant calls from GPs all over the south coast, and annoying calls from the wards through the pager. It was so bad someone rained pity on me when I went to return their page, exclaiming that she heard that practically the whole hospital had been paging me this morning and she's sorry I was so busy.
...
So here I am. Thursday night. Chinese New Year. With my plate of reheated mycoprotein fake chicken burger patties. Alone. Missing my hubby. In a different state, in a different town. Faced with the prospect of having to move again in as soon as a week as the worst case scenario. Without news of my lost rings. At 10ish at night after work, when I was supposed to have left work at 5pm. And yet, for the first time in a while, I felt happy. Maybe it's all relative. We should all be delegated uber-crap weeks, maybe have one every few months to make the humdrum seem like bliss. The awful reality of the public health system and how cruel it is shall be reserved for another day. Right now, I don't feel stressed, I don't feel tired. I'm happy that I made someone else happy today, that I was able to give them reassurance and establish trust before their major operations, that my patients have been all lovely and appreciative (except for two little bitches, but we shan't go there), that I got all my jobs done and have everything/everyone accounted for and that I called my grandpa and got him a bit excited when I told him I was able to go back and visit him in June in time for his birthday. And the best part is, I gets to see my hG in less than 24 hours =)
2.03.2011
1.26.2011
And the whinging begins.
It's been one and a half weeks at Canberra, and I haven't even worked through all of it yet but I'm sitting here with a whopping big headache trying my very hardest to convince myself that I can make it through the rest of the year. I miss hG. I miss home and all things familiar. I think I'm too old to do this whole uproot-your-life-and start-new thing anymore.
The place is great to visit with friends or family - museums galore and the Floriade! It sucks to live in, especially by oneself. Even more so in a dinky apartment infested by bugs. Dinky, I don't mind. No airconditioning in weather that gets up to 37 degrees celcius, I can live with. Bugs, I mind. A lot. Dodgy neighbors give me the creeps. It sucks when you don't feel safe coming home from work every day. Am always on the lookout as I climb up the 4 flights of steps to my apartment. I don't relax until I twist the deadbolt shut and I hear a resounding thud. This was the best apartment for rent we could find near work. Half thinking of moving out in a few months if a better place comes up.
As for work, this has got to be the most disorganized system I've ever encountered (mind you, I've only encountered about 4 or 5 other ones in my short career but still...)
Who was the smartie that decided it would be a good idea to have five different programs with five different log-ins and passwords to access different aspects of someone's file? We can't even order and view xrays on the same program, and ordering xrays might as well have been asking us to fill in an electronic operation report with all the zillions of fields to complete. Don't get me started on the amount of fuss we had to go through to GET the fricking passwords.. and even then, they didn't work. Oh, and then there's this whole thing about going electronic. We write our notes on paper, they get shuffled to wherever they go to get scanned in and a few days later (actually, I'm not sure of the timeframe), they automagically appear on the computer system that requires yet a different username/password combination to access. Gee. Saving a lot of trees here, aren't we. And then we have the rotating roster that takes me away from the bulk of the action most days of the week Or what about ... ah hell. There's got to be a more efficient way of doing things and there must be a better functioning system out there that we could implement, but for the life of me, I can't come up with one. I don't even know where to begin because it's all so ridiculously convoluted and it's driving me mad. I need a system. I need algorithms. I need some sort of stability, something that grounds me other than coming home from work to check mail, shower and sleep.
It's gonna be a long long year..
The place is great to visit with friends or family - museums galore and the Floriade! It sucks to live in, especially by oneself. Even more so in a dinky apartment infested by bugs. Dinky, I don't mind. No airconditioning in weather that gets up to 37 degrees celcius, I can live with. Bugs, I mind. A lot. Dodgy neighbors give me the creeps. It sucks when you don't feel safe coming home from work every day. Am always on the lookout as I climb up the 4 flights of steps to my apartment. I don't relax until I twist the deadbolt shut and I hear a resounding thud. This was the best apartment for rent we could find near work. Half thinking of moving out in a few months if a better place comes up.
As for work, this has got to be the most disorganized system I've ever encountered (mind you, I've only encountered about 4 or 5 other ones in my short career but still...)
Who was the smartie that decided it would be a good idea to have five different programs with five different log-ins and passwords to access different aspects of someone's file? We can't even order and view xrays on the same program, and ordering xrays might as well have been asking us to fill in an electronic operation report with all the zillions of fields to complete. Don't get me started on the amount of fuss we had to go through to GET the fricking passwords.. and even then, they didn't work. Oh, and then there's this whole thing about going electronic. We write our notes on paper, they get shuffled to wherever they go to get scanned in and a few days later (actually, I'm not sure of the timeframe), they automagically appear on the computer system that requires yet a different username/password combination to access. Gee. Saving a lot of trees here, aren't we. And then we have the rotating roster that takes me away from the bulk of the action most days of the week Or what about ... ah hell. There's got to be a more efficient way of doing things and there must be a better functioning system out there that we could implement, but for the life of me, I can't come up with one. I don't even know where to begin because it's all so ridiculously convoluted and it's driving me mad. I need a system. I need algorithms. I need some sort of stability, something that grounds me other than coming home from work to check mail, shower and sleep.
It's gonna be a long long year..
1.06.2011
I didn't study IT but still...
In the Life of Amy, there are always WTF moments. Some are blips while others have a lot more impact. The new year didn't waste much time in throwing me one of them.
The phone rings.
*drumroll*
I don't know if you've had bad experiences with phone cards, where one party can't hear a thing and the other party's shouting "hello" until their face turns blue but when I picked up the phone, it was kinda like that. There wasn't a dial tone or static.. just silence. Nobody said hello back. It was kind of annoying after the third time it happened, not to mention a tad creepy at that stage. But then, this voice answers back. A voice with Indian-accented English telling me it belonged to John Smith and he was asking for a Mrs. Lee.
*keep your mind open, keep it open. don't judge too fast, don't jump to any conclusions. be nice to the telemarketer and then hang up soon*
So John Smith tells me he's returning a call for a technical assistance request coming from my computer. I told him I've never lodged such a request before and asked how he got my number. He misunderstood, or misheard me and was incredulous that I had no computer. *shrug* What the heck, why not? I went along with that and said he must have gotten the wrong number because I didn't have a computer, so why would I lodge a technical assistance request?
The scary part was that he was able to read out my phone number, initial and last name, and my street address. Now that got my attention. I had to find out where he got my info. I knew they were shady because a lot of things didn't make sense, telling me to run programs because I had spyware on my computer that couldn't be eradicated via anti-spyware software or deletion of the files - that only specialized people could remove it. Bullshit. Alarm bells were having a field day in my head. The long and short of it was that I had fun driving them insane but I was still a tad freaked after the call. If they were really legit, which I highly doubt, then they really need to work on establishing their credibility quick smart.
So all these things didn't add up. I pushed all their buttons and John eventually got fed up, put me on hold and the next thing I knew, there was another guy with Indian-accented English on the phone with me who introduced himself as the supervisor.
John had wanted me to type in "prefetch spyware" in my Windows start menu run prompt. He treated me like an idiot and spelt it all out - "peter robert echo flow-.." you get the point. I was feeling a tad mean.. and I did tune out halfway through because I got bored. So I got John to repeat it all again halfway through. Googled it at the same time mind you, but I wasn't about to go run some program - legit or not - just because some stranger calls up and tells me to. Who knows if it's gonna trigger some remote-access thing, or if reading whatever pops up on my screen to them will give them further information about my system at the very least.
And I just keep saying yes, I got what he spelt out. He asked what operating system I'm using and I refused to answer that too. Shouldn't he know what OS I'm using if he indeed received an error report from my computer? I asked him that, and he wouldn't answer my question and just kept repeating his question. (Granted, I appreciate that some error messages don't specify OS and other information but I was very loathe to reveal any information to the guy anyway).
Seeing that we were going around in circles, I bluntly told him I refuse to run any program until he tells me what the program is supposed to do, and what I'm supposed to see. The guy kept asking me to read out what was on my screen! This is when he got fed up and the "supervisor" got called in.
The guy was a lot more fun to talk to. So much so, that he got really agitated and tried to intimidate me. Professional.
me: What am I supposed to see on my screen when I run the program?
I forget how the conversation went exactly but here's the gist of it...At some point in the conversation, we get back to how they ended up with my details again. He revealed that they apparently received these error reports and will randomly chase a customer up sporadically, getting their contact details off the white pages. (As for that, it's utter crap. I went to look myself up on the white pages - they got my address correct, which creeps me out because my details are wrongly listed on the white pages.)
S: You think you can just delete it and that's the end of your problem. You think that your antivirus software will find it? (I was thinking to myself - well, Microsoft Security Essentials has deemed my computer safe and if you're calling from any branch of Microsoft, you would think you wouldn't rat out your own anti-virus program...) They can't find these spyware. You think you update the anti-virus program and you'll be fine but you're also downloading new virus files into your computer.
Mind you, I was getting more and more amused as his voice got louder and higher the more he ranted. So I let him go on for a bit. I stayed firmly obstinate but polite and kept thanking him, and that I'll fix the problem. It irritated him to no end.. to the point where he challenged me, asking if I worked in the IT industry, lol. I denied that, and man, you should've heard him go off! He ranted that if I thought all computer problems could be fixed by the user, then what did I think tech support was for. I reminded him that I didn't solicit this call, but thank you for alerting me to my problem and I will deal with it.
He gave up and hung up.
I must admit, I would have sounded like a horrible little prat but to my defence, I did explain my attitude to the guy. I know I didn't need to but I did. Did they think I would willy-nilly run things on my computer based on what they told me? In all the years (we're talking since Windows 3.1 here) that Windows has failed me with errors and BSODs, not to mention the numerous error reports automatically sent (no, didn't disable it after my most recent reformat and install), why would I suddenly get a phone call from tech support now? Or that their tech support customer database is reliant on http://whitepages.com.au. Now, really. The guy just talked over me when I brought up all these points in my attempt to tell him I don't trust him. Ah well. Live and learn.
My only regret is that I didn't take down their phone number. It's the only thing I always forget to do until hindsight kicks in. Poo.
The phone rings.
*drumroll*
I don't know if you've had bad experiences with phone cards, where one party can't hear a thing and the other party's shouting "hello" until their face turns blue but when I picked up the phone, it was kinda like that. There wasn't a dial tone or static.. just silence. Nobody said hello back. It was kind of annoying after the third time it happened, not to mention a tad creepy at that stage. But then, this voice answers back. A voice with Indian-accented English telling me it belonged to John Smith and he was asking for a Mrs. Lee.
*keep your mind open, keep it open. don't judge too fast, don't jump to any conclusions. be nice to the telemarketer and then hang up soon*
So John Smith tells me he's returning a call for a technical assistance request coming from my computer. I told him I've never lodged such a request before and asked how he got my number. He misunderstood, or misheard me and was incredulous that I had no computer. *shrug* What the heck, why not? I went along with that and said he must have gotten the wrong number because I didn't have a computer, so why would I lodge a technical assistance request?
The scary part was that he was able to read out my phone number, initial and last name, and my street address. Now that got my attention. I had to find out where he got my info. I knew they were shady because a lot of things didn't make sense, telling me to run programs because I had spyware on my computer that couldn't be eradicated via anti-spyware software or deletion of the files - that only specialized people could remove it. Bullshit. Alarm bells were having a field day in my head. The long and short of it was that I had fun driving them insane but I was still a tad freaked after the call. If they were really legit, which I highly doubt, then they really need to work on establishing their credibility quick smart.
So all these things didn't add up. I pushed all their buttons and John eventually got fed up, put me on hold and the next thing I knew, there was another guy with Indian-accented English on the phone with me who introduced himself as the supervisor.
John had wanted me to type in "prefetch spyware" in my Windows start menu run prompt. He treated me like an idiot and spelt it all out - "peter robert echo flow-.." you get the point. I was feeling a tad mean.. and I did tune out halfway through because I got bored. So I got John to repeat it all again halfway through. Googled it at the same time mind you, but I wasn't about to go run some program - legit or not - just because some stranger calls up and tells me to. Who knows if it's gonna trigger some remote-access thing, or if reading whatever pops up on my screen to them will give them further information about my system at the very least.
And I just keep saying yes, I got what he spelt out. He asked what operating system I'm using and I refused to answer that too. Shouldn't he know what OS I'm using if he indeed received an error report from my computer? I asked him that, and he wouldn't answer my question and just kept repeating his question. (Granted, I appreciate that some error messages don't specify OS and other information but I was very loathe to reveal any information to the guy anyway).
Seeing that we were going around in circles, I bluntly told him I refuse to run any program until he tells me what the program is supposed to do, and what I'm supposed to see. The guy kept asking me to read out what was on my screen! This is when he got fed up and the "supervisor" got called in.
The guy was a lot more fun to talk to. So much so, that he got really agitated and tried to intimidate me. Professional.
Supervisor (S): What do you see on your screen?
me: What do you mean?
S: What do you see on your screen?
me: What do you mean? I don't see anything unusual.S: What do you see on your screen?
me: I'm sorry, I don't understand. Am I supposed to see anything?
S: What do you see on your screen?
me: (grinning by now) I don't see anything! I don't understand. What am I supposed to see? I haven't done anything yet.
S: silence. The previous guy told you to type in prefetch spyware. Did you not do that?
me: No. I told him I wouldn't do it until he told me what I was supposed to see, and what the program is supposed to do.
S: Why didn't you do what he said? Run the program!me: What am I supposed to see on my screen when I run the program?
S: Type in prefetch spyware and tell me what you see in the window that pops up
I forget how the conversation went exactly but here's the gist of it...At some point in the conversation, we get back to how they ended up with my details again. He revealed that they apparently received these error reports and will randomly chase a customer up sporadically, getting their contact details off the white pages. (As for that, it's utter crap. I went to look myself up on the white pages - they got my address correct, which creeps me out because my details are wrongly listed on the white pages.)
me: So you're telling me I have spyware and you want to get rid of it for me. So what kind of file names am I looking for after I run the prefetch?
S: Any sort of programs. Exe files, PDFs..
me: So if you received a technical error report saying that spyware caused my Windows error, can you tell me what the spyware is so I can deal with it?
S: You need to run the program and then tell me what you see on your screen!
me: So you're telling me that my problem is that I have spyware on my computer and you want to tell me how to fix it.S: You have spyware on your computer. Now do you think this is a good thing? It may contain all your credit card numbers, passwords and other information about you. Now, you you think it is a good idea to have this on your computer so hackers can extract the information at any time?
me: So you're telling me that my problem is that I have spyware on my computer and you want to tell me how to fix it, right? Then can you please tell me what spyware I need to look for and I'll deal with it. I have anti-virus protection that is up to date and am very aware of what is on my computer.S: You think you can just delete it and that's the end of your problem. You think that your antivirus software will find it? (I was thinking to myself - well, Microsoft Security Essentials has deemed my computer safe and if you're calling from any branch of Microsoft, you would think you wouldn't rat out your own anti-virus program...) They can't find these spyware. You think you update the anti-virus program and you'll be fine but you're also downloading new virus files into your computer.
Mind you, I was getting more and more amused as his voice got louder and higher the more he ranted. So I let him go on for a bit. I stayed firmly obstinate but polite and kept thanking him, and that I'll fix the problem. It irritated him to no end.. to the point where he challenged me, asking if I worked in the IT industry, lol. I denied that, and man, you should've heard him go off! He ranted that if I thought all computer problems could be fixed by the user, then what did I think tech support was for. I reminded him that I didn't solicit this call, but thank you for alerting me to my problem and I will deal with it.
He gave up and hung up.
I must admit, I would have sounded like a horrible little prat but to my defence, I did explain my attitude to the guy. I know I didn't need to but I did. Did they think I would willy-nilly run things on my computer based on what they told me? In all the years (we're talking since Windows 3.1 here) that Windows has failed me with errors and BSODs, not to mention the numerous error reports automatically sent (no, didn't disable it after my most recent reformat and install), why would I suddenly get a phone call from tech support now? Or that their tech support customer database is reliant on http://whitepages.com.au. Now, really. The guy just talked over me when I brought up all these points in my attempt to tell him I don't trust him. Ah well. Live and learn.
My only regret is that I didn't take down their phone number. It's the only thing I always forget to do until hindsight kicks in. Poo.
1.03.2011
the ghost of christmas past came late this year
So I get sidetracked easily, contrary to popular belief although hG would contest that. He's seen the other side of me. The one I keep locked up so the rest of the world can continue to believe that I'm all grown up. Anyway, I came across a facebook update by a classmate of mine from junior high, warning people about this people-searcher called spokeo.
Curiosity got the better of me, and despite freaking out not just five minutes before at the horrible thought of having to know enough anatomy of the abdomen to "tutor" third year medical students for tomorrow, my fingers took me to the spokeo site. It's not like typing your own name into google you know. It's a tad more personal, a tad more nail-bitingish given that you have the option of searching for your online presence by username. So, I did. And a zillion things came up. Thankfully, I have an uber-common name. Yay! And, apparently, my choices of online usernames are a tad humdrum.. or so odd that nobody else in their right mind would be able to look me up. Yay!
And so, I'm sitting there clicking on everyone else's page, curious to see what my dopplegangers-by-name have put on their pages, what they look like and so forth. And then, I click on this one link that took me to my own site - a 2006 version. Was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by one of my dopplegangers-by-name, so imagine my surprise when I realized I was reading my entries of old. An odd feeling, I tell you - half spooky, half familiar. I don't recall creating it and worst of all, I don't recall why I came up with some of the pages I did. My old self in 2006 wasn't very precise either, so I didn't leave myself many clues to piece together my questions although I think I had every plan to continue my cyberspace presence there for a long long while.
How many plots of cyberspace have you claimed? How much information have you let loose for all to grab? Enough for some of 'em deep-crawlers like spokeo, intelius, or pipl to aggregate it all into a tidy little package that someone else could use to create a profile page on your behalf? Just think about it a little, and if you need to, buff up your privacy settings for your various online profiles. (Unless you actually like the prospect of acquiring a potential stalker, or two. Personally, I've been through it and it was scary as hell. I'll pass.)
Curiosity got the better of me, and despite freaking out not just five minutes before at the horrible thought of having to know enough anatomy of the abdomen to "tutor" third year medical students for tomorrow, my fingers took me to the spokeo site. It's not like typing your own name into google you know. It's a tad more personal, a tad more nail-bitingish given that you have the option of searching for your online presence by username. So, I did. And a zillion things came up. Thankfully, I have an uber-common name. Yay! And, apparently, my choices of online usernames are a tad humdrum.. or so odd that nobody else in their right mind would be able to look me up. Yay!
And so, I'm sitting there clicking on everyone else's page, curious to see what my dopplegangers-by-name have put on their pages, what they look like and so forth. And then, I click on this one link that took me to my own site - a 2006 version. Was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by one of my dopplegangers-by-name, so imagine my surprise when I realized I was reading my entries of old. An odd feeling, I tell you - half spooky, half familiar. I don't recall creating it and worst of all, I don't recall why I came up with some of the pages I did. My old self in 2006 wasn't very precise either, so I didn't leave myself many clues to piece together my questions although I think I had every plan to continue my cyberspace presence there for a long long while.
How many plots of cyberspace have you claimed? How much information have you let loose for all to grab? Enough for some of 'em deep-crawlers like spokeo, intelius, or pipl to aggregate it all into a tidy little package that someone else could use to create a profile page on your behalf? Just think about it a little, and if you need to, buff up your privacy settings for your various online profiles. (Unless you actually like the prospect of acquiring a potential stalker, or two. Personally, I've been through it and it was scary as hell. I'll pass.)
1.01.2011
merry new year!
so the clock struck twelve
and the fireworks went off
we were already perched
quiet, with nary a cough
through the window
from across the hall
we saw the bridge light up
we saw sparks and all!
the camera snipped
and the camera snapped
we caught some sharp shots
and were duly rapt
so with these snaps
(so amatuer)
we wish you all
a happy new year!!
May twenty eleven be bigger, brighter and all things better than twenty ten!
12.08.2010
a belated happy halloween!
no pumpkin carving this year..
here's a sneak peek at what happened for halloween *grin*
here's a sneak peek at what happened for halloween *grin*
12.04.2010
Lists!
It's been a while since I've done one of these compilations but well, I've been in an organizing mode lately. I get into these moods where I feel like I have to re-organize my life and re-organizing was definitely a huge thing lately. Been trying for the past month to consolidate our things, get rid of doubles and trying to sort things into our 25 IKEA expedit boxes. Wedding things are still floating around, we still haven't seen our professional shots from the big day itself, let alone the video compilation... and that's just the life part of it all. Work is a whole new can of worms, don't get me started.
Anyway, so when I get these moods, I sit down, literally chuck everything out from all their usual nook and crannies onto the floor, make a huge glorious mess that eventually end up in multiple piles that hG likes to term as "amy droppings".. and start putting things back. Of course, these moods are accompanied by loads of list-making. Oodles and oodles of lists, to-dos, to-files and so on. Not that I manage to complete any of my lists. I used to be quite good about it but have lost a lot of steam in the past few years. Now, I'm lucky to even get through a quarter of my lists, but nevertheless, the process of making them tends to be therapeutic.
So here's a few of the sites I've found myself on lately...
Pearltrees - a one-click bookmarking system online that saves each page as a "pearl" that you can consolidate into "trees." best part is that you can "pluck" pearls from other users to link up with and search or browse for either users or pearls that run along the same vein as your own, or whatever else strikes your fancy
Flickr - most people should know what this is without needing much prompting. recently rediscovered =)
Tabbles - tag your files!! cross tag your files!! Now, I don't need to remember where I've buried or what I've named a file =) All I've gotta do is type in what the file is in my mind .. or what I wanna look for (like typing in "ortho" and "xrays" and "left" to bring up all jpegs of xrays taken of left wrists, hips, femurs etc). awesome for work, awesome in general!
Ninite - haven't tried this one myself.. not quite game enough to but keeping it at the back of the mind for when I become very desperate. It's a one-stop shop for installing commonly used applications in a few clicks.. useful for when you've just reformatted or gotten a new computer to start filling up again!
Hmmm.. and now, some online window shopping! if only i could print my own moolah. oh, the technolust never ends =(
Anyway, so when I get these moods, I sit down, literally chuck everything out from all their usual nook and crannies onto the floor, make a huge glorious mess that eventually end up in multiple piles that hG likes to term as "amy droppings".. and start putting things back. Of course, these moods are accompanied by loads of list-making. Oodles and oodles of lists, to-dos, to-files and so on. Not that I manage to complete any of my lists. I used to be quite good about it but have lost a lot of steam in the past few years. Now, I'm lucky to even get through a quarter of my lists, but nevertheless, the process of making them tends to be therapeutic.
So here's a few of the sites I've found myself on lately...
Pearltrees - a one-click bookmarking system online that saves each page as a "pearl" that you can consolidate into "trees." best part is that you can "pluck" pearls from other users to link up with and search or browse for either users or pearls that run along the same vein as your own, or whatever else strikes your fancy
Flickr - most people should know what this is without needing much prompting. recently rediscovered =)
Tabbles - tag your files!! cross tag your files!! Now, I don't need to remember where I've buried or what I've named a file =) All I've gotta do is type in what the file is in my mind .. or what I wanna look for (like typing in "ortho" and "xrays" and "left" to bring up all jpegs of xrays taken of left wrists, hips, femurs etc). awesome for work, awesome in general!
Ninite - haven't tried this one myself.. not quite game enough to but keeping it at the back of the mind for when I become very desperate. It's a one-stop shop for installing commonly used applications in a few clicks.. useful for when you've just reformatted or gotten a new computer to start filling up again!
Hmmm.. and now, some online window shopping! if only i could print my own moolah. oh, the technolust never ends =(
iwantoneofthose.com - 'nuff said.
thinkgeek.com - also 'nuff said.
wall scratch world map
a few "hmmmmm.. i..in..interesting..." ones to throw in while we're at it:
happy clicking!
11.13.2010
i just need to get this out of my system
i had all these great plans for today
to finally clean up and all
to pack and stuff
so i cleared out three huge bags of garbage and lugged them down to the garbage room
was surprised by this dude coming out from somewhere in the distance - hadn't heard a car door close or anything during my trek from elevator to garbage room. that's usually a good indicator that someone's just gotten out of their car, right? i mean, most people close their car doors as a last step after getting all their stuff out the car, right? so yah, i got startled a bit.
shrugged it off, went into the garbage room. the place was full of bins, i forgot what colored tops were what.. why can't they just make garbage bins for normal garbage with the same awful army green lids, and the special recycling ones with different colored lids? why do they make both "special" by giving them different colored lids from their bases? i always get them bloody confused, especially with the colors having nothing to do with the contents. you'd think that the recycling bins' lids would be like bright green, blue or brown or something that screamed "ECO!" or "SAVE THE EARTH!" but no.. it's yellow. wtf am i supposed to link with yellow? a banana?
so yah, i get mixed up and dump my largest bag of garbage in the yellow-topped bins and then get distracted by the door opening. i didn't even get a chance to work out i needed to dump my trash in the red-topped bins. i eventually would've on my way out when i saw the red-topped ones but all i saw when i walked in was a sea of yellow, so i had assumed that it was for normal trash. anyway, the door opened. it was the same guy that startled me earlier. i was even more distracted. no, he wasn't hunky. he wasn't even hot. i was really confused as to why he came in to latch the garbage room door open, empty-handed. thought most people came in the garbage room to dump trash. so what did he want? i was stumped for only a millisecond before he started telling me how to recycle and pointing out what could and couldn't be dumped in the recycling bin. i was like, "yah and your point would be?" not realizing that the bloody yellow ones were for recycling yet. so he comes over and starts dumping my bags IN the trash bin and pretty much takes over. i was so flabbergasted at the gall of the guy, especially after he grabbed my empty, folded IKEA reusable bag from under my arm to dump in the recycling bin, that i just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. to get as far away from the guy as possible. now. instinct took over, i clammed up and dumped my trash to get out of there asap.
not only until the guy was out of eyesight (which took a while because he managed to catch the same same elevator as i did, and then walked for a block out towards the shopping center in the same direction as me) was i able to slow down and think. and then fume. and FUME. and fume so much that retail therapy, an sms and a phone call couldn't cull it. so here i am. fuming. i so need to let go. =(
but seriously, this is one of those.. wtf, who DOES that?!?!? moments. i should start an anthology of these one of these days..
to finally clean up and all
to pack and stuff
so i cleared out three huge bags of garbage and lugged them down to the garbage room
was surprised by this dude coming out from somewhere in the distance - hadn't heard a car door close or anything during my trek from elevator to garbage room. that's usually a good indicator that someone's just gotten out of their car, right? i mean, most people close their car doors as a last step after getting all their stuff out the car, right? so yah, i got startled a bit.
shrugged it off, went into the garbage room. the place was full of bins, i forgot what colored tops were what.. why can't they just make garbage bins for normal garbage with the same awful army green lids, and the special recycling ones with different colored lids? why do they make both "special" by giving them different colored lids from their bases? i always get them bloody confused, especially with the colors having nothing to do with the contents. you'd think that the recycling bins' lids would be like bright green, blue or brown or something that screamed "ECO!" or "SAVE THE EARTH!" but no.. it's yellow. wtf am i supposed to link with yellow? a banana?
so yah, i get mixed up and dump my largest bag of garbage in the yellow-topped bins and then get distracted by the door opening. i didn't even get a chance to work out i needed to dump my trash in the red-topped bins. i eventually would've on my way out when i saw the red-topped ones but all i saw when i walked in was a sea of yellow, so i had assumed that it was for normal trash. anyway, the door opened. it was the same guy that startled me earlier. i was even more distracted. no, he wasn't hunky. he wasn't even hot. i was really confused as to why he came in to latch the garbage room door open, empty-handed. thought most people came in the garbage room to dump trash. so what did he want? i was stumped for only a millisecond before he started telling me how to recycle and pointing out what could and couldn't be dumped in the recycling bin. i was like, "yah and your point would be?" not realizing that the bloody yellow ones were for recycling yet. so he comes over and starts dumping my bags IN the trash bin and pretty much takes over. i was so flabbergasted at the gall of the guy, especially after he grabbed my empty, folded IKEA reusable bag from under my arm to dump in the recycling bin, that i just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. to get as far away from the guy as possible. now. instinct took over, i clammed up and dumped my trash to get out of there asap.
not only until the guy was out of eyesight (which took a while because he managed to catch the same same elevator as i did, and then walked for a block out towards the shopping center in the same direction as me) was i able to slow down and think. and then fume. and FUME. and fume so much that retail therapy, an sms and a phone call couldn't cull it. so here i am. fuming. i so need to let go. =(
but seriously, this is one of those.. wtf, who DOES that?!?!? moments. i should start an anthology of these one of these days..
10.17.2010
a bit of this and a bit of that
i've had a couple of gripes up my sleeve but i missed the boat and now, i've forgotten what they were. i vaguely remember the gist of it but like most things seen through hindsight, my gripe doesn't seem so gripe-worthy now. the sun will still rise, with or without Sydney's posse of idiot drivers, crazy patients.. oo!! speaking of which, something got revived. gripe-from-the-dead, here we go!
every so often, i come across a situation that makes me think long and hard, making me reflect on why i decided to become a doctor. this was one of them. it brought out the fighting spirit in me. i haven't felt it this strong in a very long while. i was angry, frustrated and wanted to do the best for the patient but wasn't allowed to do so by idiot family members. i find it very hard to believe and even harder to accept allowing a demented patient's family to take her home with a broken hip because they've refused to let her undergo surgery. they believed that the body is a miraculous thing and will heal itself, even if it's a broken neck of femur that will render the patient immobile and in constant pain if left unfixed surgically. they spat on the information provided, refusing to believe anything but their own warped ideas. it took myself, two registrars and the consultant a total of 2 hours or so to make them agree to the surgery. to make them understand that yes, the patient may die during or from surgery, but may also die without surgery. lying in bed all day for about 6 weeks or more is not exactly healthy for an 80-something year old who used to hobble minimally around the house. people like this tend to develop infections like pneumonia, blood clots and pressure sores from being in bed and immobile all day, not to mention the amount of pain stemming from the broken bone. for 6 weeks or more! would you subject your family member to that kind of torture? i can't believe those family members scoffed at the above, saying they knew better than their treating doctors and all of that was hogwash and they would like to take their mother home thank you.
anyway.. onto other things. happy things. like looking forward to halloween 2010. instead of my annual pumpkin carvings.. or whatever substitute i can find to carve, i'll be dressing up this year. yay! pictures may follow soon, depending on how they turn out.
dumdumdedum.. ;)
every so often, i come across a situation that makes me think long and hard, making me reflect on why i decided to become a doctor. this was one of them. it brought out the fighting spirit in me. i haven't felt it this strong in a very long while. i was angry, frustrated and wanted to do the best for the patient but wasn't allowed to do so by idiot family members. i find it very hard to believe and even harder to accept allowing a demented patient's family to take her home with a broken hip because they've refused to let her undergo surgery. they believed that the body is a miraculous thing and will heal itself, even if it's a broken neck of femur that will render the patient immobile and in constant pain if left unfixed surgically. they spat on the information provided, refusing to believe anything but their own warped ideas. it took myself, two registrars and the consultant a total of 2 hours or so to make them agree to the surgery. to make them understand that yes, the patient may die during or from surgery, but may also die without surgery. lying in bed all day for about 6 weeks or more is not exactly healthy for an 80-something year old who used to hobble minimally around the house. people like this tend to develop infections like pneumonia, blood clots and pressure sores from being in bed and immobile all day, not to mention the amount of pain stemming from the broken bone. for 6 weeks or more! would you subject your family member to that kind of torture? i can't believe those family members scoffed at the above, saying they knew better than their treating doctors and all of that was hogwash and they would like to take their mother home thank you.
anyway.. onto other things. happy things. like looking forward to halloween 2010. instead of my annual pumpkin carvings.. or whatever substitute i can find to carve, i'll be dressing up this year. yay! pictures may follow soon, depending on how they turn out.
dumdumdedum.. ;)
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