Another March Post

I found this interesting medical blog a couple months back. I have been meaning to link to it for some time now. I believe the best article I have read from it is this one. It talks about the problems between doctors and patients arising from differences in perspective. Of course, this is more about American health care than anything else. The blog often critiques various alternative medicine (including homeopathy, life energy stuff, acupuncture, chiropractic etc.) techniques. I think it's a valuable resource because in my younger days I was given to understand that some alternative medicine is legit. After spending some time studying the persuasive mumbo jumbo of "traditional healers" and remembering some of the things I have heard advocates of alternative medicine say I am convinced that most of them are frauds. The rest are well meaning quacks. The bottom line is that they advocate for treatments which are not based on science or any kind of clinical trials. Some of these treatments have been around for a couple hundred years without adjusting to the current body of biological knowledge. Don't be fooled.

The problem still remains, however, of the impersonal and rigid manner in which medical doctors treat patients. I have to say the eye rolling thing some doctors do when a patient refuses a treatment is just plain annoying. I hate it when my doctor corrects me before I have finished my thought. Not that he does that very often, he's a pretty nice guy. But still I am not some idiot patient who isn't going to listen to the doctor because I think he's in some sort of conspiracy to poison me. Something else I dislike about doctors is when they fail to finish their thought. They say something like, "Maybe you've had asthma for years and didn't know it." Then they stop and never explain the statement. So annoying. Then there's the propensity to treat people like they are hypochondriacs if their symptoms do not match with others. Who doesn't hate that? Why can't doctors assume that some of us just don't fit into the definitions of normal? I, for example, rarely have side effects from medications other than dry mouth. It's weird, but it's me. However, I did have a very bad reaction to a certain asthma med known as Singulair. Several times my doctor has asked me what happens when I take Singulair because I listed in my profile that I am allergic to it. After I get done explaining that it causes me to have asthma attacks he gives me this look which says, "I don't quite believe you." I would add that my doctor is probably one of the nicest MDs I have ever met. If even he has some of the annoying tendencies than it is no wonder people are often inclined to seek out methods of treatment based more on the personality administering the treatment than the science -- or lack thereof -- behind it.

Does Uranus Have An Aurora?

The title of this post is an actual question from the game Trivial Pursuit (the original game). I am not making this up. You can't make this sh** up. No, you can't.

Speaking of Uranus, I am currently taking a certification class for becoming a med manager. I am learning that if I continue in my job I could end up giving people medications in all kinds of interesting ways -- and places. Time for a new job? Methinks soon it will be.

House hunting is going along. We came close to making an offer, but then the house was purchased out from under us. Kind of sad. But logic had already told me it was the wrong time for us to buy that particular house. Someday it will be the right time and we will find another house just as beautiful and enormous. In the meantime, a smaller, cheaper house with low property taxes and a low energy bill would suit me fine.

All I seem capable of are random updates on my blog. Let me just say that aside from class, more work and house hunting I am working through some overdue troubles of the past. Part of it is related to shyness and finding friends in my area. Nothing to fret over, but I would not mind the prayers of those of you who pray.

Long Time, No Write

I went from posts concerning nothing but politics to no posts at all to random updates about what I am doing with my life. I have been very inconsistent with my blog lately. Rest assured, I am here. Things are just happening a lot and I have less inspiration for writing than I used to have.

House hunting is going. Definitely going. It really takes a lot of work to do this.

One of my favorite American Idol contestants got voted off this week. Bummer. Amanda Overmyer, I hope somebody out there signs you for a record deal. I would love to go to your concert someday.

Work is long and a bit dull. It's got to the point where I know what I am doing, there's nothing new to do and now it's boring me. I have to decide how long I am going to put up with this before I find a job that will not bore me after only 6 months. Like my last job, I could have done that one for a few more years without getting bored. It was always changing.

Politics, politics. I am not as up to date as I should be. Frankly, the presidential contest between two real Democrats and one pseudo-Dem got rather dull. I have less motivation to get out there and pay attention. I think I'll go back to reading foreign policy a lot and checking the status of the economy.

On the Smallville front (yes, I reserve the right to rant about my favorite tv show) I am excited. The storyline just got much more interesting. For those of you who read my post about Smallville jumping the shark a while back, well, it didn't really. It just pretended to jump the shark. It's back on track and more complicated and emo than ever. I love it!

Writing is slow going. I keep getting too tired to put in much time on it. And I am not sure where to start with editing so many novels. I keep going from novel to novel trying to decide which one to focus on. Then I think I should just start a new one. Ah, me. It's time to institute some self discipline.

In other news I have been reading a lot about alternative medicine lately and have come to the conclusion that it's mostly quack. I might write a post on that sometime in the near future.

I Have A Problem

I become easily obsessed with American Idol. So, tonight I watched the guys sing and tomorrow the girls will sing. I will not be watching the boring Thursday show in which we find out who got voted off. Why waste an hour of my time when I can check out the website on Friday?

Here are my thoughts on the competition this year:

-There's a really cool rocker chick named Amanda and I hope she stays in at least until the Top 12.
-Mr. Australian guy is just not doing it for me. Why do people like him?
-Ditto on Mrs. Irish girl. She has amazing vocals and always picks the wrong song.
-What's with the cute, teary eyed kid who can't stop talking about people less fortunate than himself and singing sad songs? He's turning into a parody.
-The tall, blonde girl named Brooke is fun to watch. They call Simon "Mr. Happy" every time she sings because of his "washing up liquid commercial" speech in which he described her singing as "happy and yellow."
-I have a tough time deciding between David Cook and David Hernandez, but this week it was definitely David Cook.
-Either Syesha or Asia'h could become my favorite female Idol this season.
-The guy with the dreads has a beautiful voice.
-Ramiele is my favorite girl. Here's hoping she picks a good song this week (not like last week when I couldn't vote for her because of song choice).
-Why does Danny dance? Someone should tell him to stop trying . . .
-Whatever happy pill Paula's taking is starting to frighten me.
-Randy never stops talking about singing and performing technique. Wait, that's how he's always been.
-Simon is still the voice of reason and after Paula's long, flowery speeches I really like to get the opinion of someone who does not have an open mind.

And those are my thoughts on American Idol this year. Enjoy the show.

Where Am I?

I am totally here. I just don't have much to say. I thought I would post an Oscars commentary. But I just didn't feel like it. I'm glad Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor. Why didn't Ellen Page win Best Actress? Stupid Academy. Anyway, I was going to give out my own set of awards, but can't seem to come up with anything funny enough. So whatever.

I was going to post some commentary on the election as it struggles along. I do not have much to say. I am sad that I will not be able to feel proud to vote for anyone this November. That's the way things look at least.

Looks like I might be getting a house soon. So that's exciting. And time consuming. I am going to be working more hours starting next week. Not too much more though. But it will bring in a few more bucks and that's always a good thing.

I will try to come up with an actual intellectual post in the near future. In the meantime, I am alive and around. But my brains are definitely smelly.