Thursday, June 13, 2002, 11:24 p.m.

Laundry time

Well i'm almost halfway done with moving my crap from my old apt to the new one. During the cleanup, purging and packing of stuff, i've noticed some odd things. I'm doing what will probably be my last load of laundry at this place and just ran out of liquid detergent. I've only used two bottles in the 3 years i've lived here. Made me stop and think, hmm, am i super-efficient with my laundry, or am i just a disgusting sloth who never washes his clothes and lets them get all foul. I like to think i'm reasonably clean, but living alone, i really have no one to keep me in check. God only knows i'll be a maintenance nightmare when i get married *roll eyes*

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Wednesday, June 12, 2002, 05:44 p.m.

Kids...

I was working at the pediatric immunology clinic today saw little kids with odd immune problems like hypogammaglobulinemia and combined variable immunodef. and other really long terms. No bubble-children tho, but they take care of them too. We saw this one little 8 month old girl who kept getting repeated infections and she was the most adorable thing. In fact all the kids i saw there were too darn cute. For a second i wondered if i should have pursued a career taking care of kids, but then i remembered, naw...the parents piss me off to no end.

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Monday, June 10, 2002, 09:59 p.m.

My aching shoulders...

Wow, i just got back from this fitness center/gym on the medical campus near work. I scored a free 1 month pass so i decided to take advantage and check it out, and found out it was pretty damn cool. First, all the cardio machines had tvs attached to them which had more cable channels than i ever did at home and you could also bring a CD or tape and play that too while doing the treadmill. Plus i forgot how good looking everyone was around me, both men and women (yeah shuddup). Definitely no shortage of eye candy which only made me want to work out harder.

While i was watching tv there was some Amazing Inventions show on the Discovery channel where the guy invented a mechanical ice cream cone...yes, it doesn't make much sense to me either. But he demonstrated how this was supposed to work by having the show host hold a normal/non-mechanical/manual ice cream cone. The guy holding the cheap cone had to lick all around the ice cream to keep it from dripping on his hand (yes you remember how that goes), and this mecha-cone *spins* the ice cream around at the push of a button so you can just stick your tongue out and let it do all the work (yeah i know, shuddup again).

It was an odd juxtaposition of me working out and sweating and watching a demonstration of an invention designed for the LAZIEST HUMAN BEING ON EARTH. Sometimes being in a modern automated society really sucks, especially when ppl get overweight, out of shape and die a young death as a result *ugh*. Ok i'm hungry, time to eat dinner now.

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Monday, June 10, 2002, 07:12 p.m.

o/` I said this looks like a job for me... o/`

I started listening to some random mp3s from The Eminem Show and its pretty good shit. I'll have to pick up the actual album sometime. A word of warning though, there are two versions, one with the regular explicit lyrics and another without. The great thing about eminem is his tendency for sardonic wit, poking fun of everything, even 'non-dirty lyrics' release of certain rap stars albums.

'without me' is a good song. Anyone who pays any attn to eminem should listen to it, but be careful which version you listen to,
i'd suggest hearing this: The regular version
before hearing this: The clean version

...yeah exactly, thats what i thought too.

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Sunday, June 9, 2002, 11:16 p.m.

I'm hungry dammit

This is really sad. I'm actually contemplating waking up bright and early tommorow so i can make the cafeteria for an unrushed breakfast before i actually start work. Of course i'm thinking about it now because my stomach is growling. Why don't i just eat something you say? That has been kind of the problem for the last 4-5 months. Since winter hit, i stopped working out, ate shitty fast food several days a week for months on end and i ended up getting pretty out of shape. So now i've tried to set a few ground rules for myself: 1)no red meat whenever possible, 2)no fast food unless i am eating with someone else, 3)more veggies, 4)doing cardio workout for at least 1 hour every day, 5)and no late night snacking.

Even though i set these rules i don't follow em 100% of the time, but thats ok. Even sticking to them 80% of the time is a hell of a lot better than what i used to do.

My friends are looking at me like i'm crazy, asking why i'm dieting since i'm so skinny. Well i am pretty thin, but being thin with a gut and a tightening belt...does not look so cool, and i don't feel good about it either. It wouldn't be so bad if i gained weight and it spread all over, but no, i have to get the spare tire. *sigh* it took months to accumulate and its going to take months to go away. I just got a free 1 month pass to a fitness place at work too, so i think i'll start hitting the weights as well. Still have a buttload of weight gainer powder that i haven't used and, well Mark McGuire had a good thing going, creatine works. Looks like i'll be making a trip to the health food store too.

A friend of mine who is currently trying to lose weight asked me the other day about diet pills and how safe they were. At first i couldn't and almost didn't want to give a straight answer. We get taught in our heads that only prescription meds are safe safe and that we have no grounds to recommend any crazy, unregulated herbal supplements or fat-burning pills. I gave her some vague party-line disclaimer about how it could be bad in some ppl with bad hearts or other health problems. Eventually i did tell her, in her case that they were probably safe as long she as used em as instructed and not in excess. I don't know why it was so hard for me to tell her that. Fear of betraying my professional community? Fear of being held responsible if anything bad happens to her? Makes me almost a little afraid of the future, dispensing out medical advice, and facing up to the consequences if what i said wasn't right or didn't work out the way i thought things would. If its going to be this hard to say something about diet pills, i wonder how i'm going to handle bigger, more important things.

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Sunday, June 9, 2002, 06:22 p.m.

Another near death experience

Imagine drive on a tight freeway loop onramp, about 30 mph with a big van in front of you, about 20 ft away. What if it started to go straight and veer off the onramp and run into the guard rail, losing control in front of you. Would you have time to react or end up as part of a big fender-bender(lets just say there are two more cars right behind you). I'm not sure either, since the van in front of me didn't totally lose control but came really close. When it happened i could see thru the rear window and saw the driver's head suddenly pop up out of nowhere, which made me think 'wtf'? What was this guy doing? Looking for loose change, tying his shoelaces, or resting his head comfortably up his own ass?

So lucky for me he managed to regain control at the last minute, but even after all that, that wasn't the scariest part. When he started to veer to the outside of the lane, for a split second i actually pictured passing him on the inside like it was a damn race. Yeah shut up, i know i play too much GT. Oh well, at least no accident happened and i made it home ok, hurrah~

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Sunday, June 9, 2002, 04:00 a.m.

0wneD

I forgot to mention that another wonderful thing happened today. I wrote check for .15. Whats so great about that?

Well it was the last .15 on my car loan. Impreza-chan belongs to me now, finally.

I'd say more but i don't want anyone to see my tears and think i am totally gh3y. Sometimes i think the car 0wnz me than the other way around. In fact, that is likely true.

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Saturday, June 8, 2002, 10:30 p.m.

*sniff sniff*

I was flipping through an issue of GamePro magazine when i noticed an ad for Right Guard deodorant feat. Red Man and Method Man(of Wu Tang fame). It made me stop and think, hmmm, thats odd. I mean, think about it...a gamers magazine and a underarm deodorant ad? Wonder what they're trying to hint to their 'sit-on-their-ass-all-day, non-showering, popcorn-chickin-eating' gaming readers? I really don't know, maybe someone can shed some light for me.

btw, KFC popcorn chicken is the fast-food devil. I try to resist it like the Dark Side of the greasy-assed Force.

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Saturday, June 8, 2002, 06:01 p.m.

Vroom vroom

I just bought a motorcycle helmet from a garage sale. My friend pointed it out when i was furniture hunting for my new place, but it was a great deal, for a 0 helmet that had no damage at all. I managed to talk down the guy to because some trim was a little loose, no big deal but i used it as an excuse to pay less than what he asked, ah the beauty of bartering. I picked it up for auto-x racing and my friend urged me to get it since it was a great deal, and also cause he was tired of lending me his extra helmet every time we raced. ^^

Now i'm thinking about learning how to ride a motorcycle and maybe even get a liscense and bike next year. I don't love bikes, but i don't hate them either. Being such a car nut, i think getting some 2-wheeled experience isn't such a bad thing and when there is another smack-talk discussion between car drivers and bikers, i can say something and not come off like a dumb fool :) *tsk* who am i kidding? I know i'll just ride too fast and turn into road pizza in less than a week, oh but to do a pop-wheelie *zoom*

btw if i do get the bike, f u to all of you that think i'm doing it to attract chicks. Those of you who really know me know better.
(I try to do it with my hit-n-miss charm).

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Thursday, June 6, 2002, 09:51 p.m.

Eat Mor Chikin

...is the slogan of a southern fast food chain Chik-Fil-A. It started in Atlanta but has spread as far north as here and makes some pretty good, if overpriced chicken sands. I was on my way to the local B&N when i saw a right next door, the grand opening of a new CFA. I've never been to the grand opening of a fast food joint before, plus i was starving, so i strolled in.
All in all, i found the whole experience creepy. There were about 3 times as many employees as usual running around cleaning tables, refilling empty ketchup bins and actually stopping at our tables and *asking* us if we needed any trash tossed or drinks refilled. Plus some guy in a suit(i'm guessing the manager) was making rounds chit-chatting with customers asking how was the service. Believe it or not there are McDonalds in other countries, like Brazil, that are real sitdown restaurants with beer and wine menu, live music, and even a nightclub, serving items like McFiletMignon and McLobster. Imagine getting carded just to grab a late night Big Mac...
I know first day and all they wanted to make a good impression, but treating the place like a real restaurant...it was the weirdest experience i had eating out, so i hurried up and got the hell out.

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Thursday, June 6, 2002, 01:29 p.m.

Are we too high maintenance?

One of my friends at work brought up a recent NYtimes story about a group of medical students filing a class action lawsuit against 5 major US medical organizations, concerning the inhumane treatment and work conditions of medicial residents-in-training across the country. Having a little experience in this matter i thought about it. True, they work insane hours for little pay, little reward and often the rough schedule can actually be dangerous on the job, given people's lives are in their hands. Sure other ppl may complain about how their jobs force them to work 24, even 36 hour shifts as well, to complete business presentations, programming code, works of art, etc. But how many of these result in a father, mother, sibling, loved one, dying because of this overworked schedule. Very few i hope.
When i heard about the lawsuit, i thought it was cool, yet problematic. First of all i'd like to point out that there were a group of medicine students, not medical residents (aka housestaff physicians-in-training) who are filing the suit. Reason this is important is because i asked several fellow residents what they thought about this. They thought it was great and needed to be brough to public attn, but would they actually take part in the suit themselves? Probably not and neither would i for that matter. Why is this? You'd think we, who are the actual ones overworked and abused (don't feel sorry for the medical students, they study a lot and have no life, but don't have it that bad otherwise) would be the first ones to jump in on a major action like this, but that isn't the case.
Theres a reason for this. Those who've gone thru the whole process agree that it sucks, its brutal, and again dangerous for both our and the health of the patients. In a perfect world, we'd like to see everything change, all the wrongs righted, but one dramatic action isn't going to make it happen, and even if it did, it wouldn't work. Our perspective is a little different cause we understand why the system is the way it is. Say we work less hours and fewer call nights, that means less work is done by us, which means either others have to get paid more to take up the slack, we get paid more to compensate for the extra work, or they hire more residents who need to be paid to cover. Anyway you look at it, its gonna cost $$. So yeah you deplore the plight of the poor medical scrub residents. You really wanna help? Feel free to pay more taxes up the @$$. Until we're all willing to do that, nothing is going to change anytime soon.
Another cruel irony about our health care is, 1)we all consider health care a right, not a privilege and 2)when we do get care we all expect to get the latest and greatest in quality care with the most cutting edge medicine and technology. Imagine the great dissapointment when we don't get both. There are many countries who don't get close to either of these but being the great USofA, we're supposed to be the shit, and our health care is also gonna be tops right? So why isn't it? Guess what, none of it is free either, and if we aren't paying for it directly out of our own pockets, then we're paying for it thru taxes. We have a lot of great medical science that almost everyone hears about on ABC news but only 5% of ppl in the country actually have access to. Talk about a big socioeconomic class divisiion slap in the face.
'Yes this new amazing procedure *can* save grandma's life...too bad you/your insurance/state can't even afford it!'
I think we've made our medical care so sophisticated and advanced that we can't even afford it. Just like the million protoype car that no company would actually *mass produce*. Except this isn't a car, it isn't a new recreational toy, its people's lives. When lives are at stake, we're entitled to everything right?
To quote Bart Simpson from the 'Kidz Newz' episode 'it really makes you think....'

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