Friday, August 01, 2003

I think I want to get a new PDA. I was looking at the Sony SJ33 but since I have a Mac and the Sony isn't easily compatible, I guess I'll stick with the Palm Zire 71. I think I also prefer being able to buy SDIO cards for the Palm. And SD memory cards (at least the brand I trust) are pretty cheap compared to memory sticks. Oh and then there's COLOR. The SJ33 is also color but the text is so fine that it's somewhat difficult to read unless the lighting is good and the graffiti area sucks on the sony. Since best buy, compusa, and office depot seem to think that people will steal the styli, they don't supply those on the display models to try out the product. So I'm forced to use my finger or my keys. Well, the sony graffiti area was pretty poor at recognizing ANY touch I made with my keys and I was tapping pretty hard. The Zire registered my fingertip easily. The SJ33 does have a screen cover that flips up so I really like that. I think that if the Sony wasn't so anti-Mac, I'd get it and not care about it not having an SDIO slot but oh well, at least the Zire 71 is my favorite color - blue. I did look at the tungsten T and T2 but the T2 is Waaaay too expensive and I don't need bluetooth or a voice recording feature. The T has voice recording as well but the screen is crappy compared to the T2 and Zire 71 (they have the same screen). Actually, I think that if the screen on the T was the same as the T2, I'd go for it because the price has come down but oh well. I basically want a hybrid of the Zire 71 and the T2 which would have the nice screen, the screen flip cover, the controls of the T2, the sliding controls to reveal the graffiti area, don't need the voice recorder and camera, and I could care less about having bluetooth. One of my classmates has the Zire 71 and he seems pretty happy about it. He just doesn't really use the camera. The other thing is whether or not to buy a replacement plan from CompUSA. If the screen cracks or other problems happen, it would cost at least $125 to get Palm to fix it. It costs $70 for a 1 year plan and $100 for a 2 year plan from CompUSA and if I have to cash in on the plan, I can buy a new plan for the new PDA. Palm has a plan for $40 but only includes 1 screen replacement and the replacement isn't necessarily a new PDA but most likely a refurb and you have to wait a few days for the replacement. I guess that's why the Compusa plan is more $$ since all I have to do is take the broken one in and get the NEW one and go home - apparently instant gratification does have a price. Of course, if I buy the 2 year plan and my pda is "accidentally" dropped, I could get whatever the $250 PDA is in 2 years. Eh, I guess I'll wait awhile and watch the market. Maybe the price will drop between now and when I get tired of waiting. Or maybe Palm will come out with a new PDA that is more of what I want.
~me~ at 6:24 PM

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

It really annoys me when I hear that people will donate thousands-millions of dollars to help an idiot like George W Bush run for office while places like Charity Hospital have to close clinics and stop other services to keep open. Oh and then this tax refund...yeah, we REALLY have no need for that money anyway so let's just give it back. Hmmm...no wonder the education and health systems (among others) in this country are pathetic compared to other countries. Did you see a report that when democrats were in office the unemployment rate dropped and in the past 3 years that the idiot and his retards have been in control, that rate has once again gone up. Oh and back to the Charity hospital thing. One of the things they're proposing to close is the Diabetes Clinic. Hmmm...can we say BAD IDEA?!? This state is riddled with diabetes and hypertension and many are already in poor control because a lack of available services and now they're going to dump the charity program?!? What are these people smoking?!? Oh and then this guy wins his lawsuit for having to wait in the doctor's office. Now, he did have to wait excessively long but in these past few weeks, I can now see why that happens. You see, people make appointments with one complaint or even just to follow up on something simple but then when you inquire if anything is wrong or you get ready to go on your merry way, all of a sudden they tell you either one major complex problem or multiple little problems that complicate the original complaint and so a 10-15 minute visit turns into a 30-45 minute or longer visit. Now, I hate waiting just as much as the next person but I guess this experience makes me more understanding of the situation. In fact, sometimes the patient only tells the nurse 1 thing, then tells me 2 more things, and then decides to share another bunch of things with my preceptor and so it looks like the nurses and I haven't done our jobs in terms of finding out the chief complaint and so I end up having to do addendums to my beautifully written SOAP note. Ugh! Why tell me your asthma is fine when you're having exacerbations sometimes twice a week. I'd hate to know what their idea of poorly controlled asthma is - death by suffocation?!? So if you're reading this, when you make you're next appointment and you want to discuss tons of info, tell the person making the appointment that you're there for more than your sore throat! Or at least tell the nurse checking you in that you've got more on your mind than your throat so that we can triage the complaints and deal with the most life threatening ones first. The funny thing is that family medicine/primary care is when I'm supposed to be seeing common problems and while I have seen a great deal of ear infections, allergic rhinitis, tonsillitis, and diabetes, the other day I saw frontal lobe syndrome (Phineas Gage) and other motor disturbances in a former professional boxer, endocardial abscess, bronchogenic carcinoma, brachial plexus injury (twice), and rheumatic fever (with antibiotics, usually this is prevented). I'm having fun though. I'll post a little video I made at the office when showing Amy my camera. There's Welcome to Thibodaux sign I need to get a picture of (it's teeny) as well as a picture of the building where I'm learning all about family medicine from a Matrix obsessed FP (reminds me of when Kevin gave me his little lesson on the intricasies of the movie - my preceptor would love to discuss the movie with him). I do have one up on him though - I (sort of) watched The Ring (Ringu - Jeff, Heather and I want to watch the japanese original film) and dr. s freaked out and turned off the movie in the first 5 minutes. Apparently they're going to have a Ring party. Well, I've got a full day of lectures thursday and friday. Blah! I'd rather be down in Thibodaux.
~me~ at 10:47 PM

Sunday, July 27, 2003

Oh and this week I have to sit in all day lectures...
~me~ at 12:42 PM

I'm constantly amazed at how much poop my body can make in a 12 hour period. Granted I did eat a big meal last night. I went out with a few of my friends to this place called Mango House. They serve caribbean and creole food and it was absolutely delicious! I had these potatoes that must have been the bottom of the pot serving because the spices were rich and it was mashed up and absolutely fabuloso! Amber and Jess also had the potatoes but they tasted nothing like mine. This was a delayed celebration of my 26th birthday. Unfortunately a few people were still tied up with clinic duties and couldn't come but it was a nice and relaxing night. The food took forever to get to us and our waitress wasn't that great but the food made up for it. We also had 3 different desserts. I'm not sure if my friends ordered them for us or if it was a complimentary thing because they decided to pay for everything and I didn't get to see the bill. My favorite dessert was the Mango Ice. Yummmmmm! Afterwards we went back to Jess and Christina's and had planned to head over to a classmate's gathering but first we got caught up looking at various underwear sites that had overly priced "costumes" that we were laughing over and then fatigue set in. We're so pathetic! We got used to going to bed early and getting up early so now we have no drive to stay up late on the weekends. And I think we've fully begun to understand the necessity of sleep. Meanwhile I think someone knocked on my front door at 6 am. Well, I'm going to make egg salad for sandwiches. Oh darn, I need more mayo - I think with all the high fat food I've eaten in the past 4 days, my cholesterol panel is no longer impressive...or maybe it's now impressive in the wrong way.
~me~ at 12:30 PM