Red, White & Blue

After a sad beginning of the week, there is some kind of magic in knowing it is snowing on Mars.

Swamp Girl

"She is a legend. She is a myth. She is Swamp Girl. Growing up on the Okefenokee, abandoned by her parents, Swamp Girl was raised by a black man she calls Pa. Trouble reins for Swamp Girl when another girl who happens to be a psycho prison escapee and her boyfriend force Swamp Girl to be their local Swamp guide. Things get nasty when Swamp Girl battles Convict Girl in an all out catfight." That, a little Ferlin Husky crooning, and more bad ass snakes than you can shake a stick at, makes for fine Sunday night respite.

We do indeed have the double feature including Swamp Country (1966), which we've saved for a rainy day. Sadly, we missed out on the extra added attraction, Swamp Virgin (1947). What gives?

Sweet Can

Sweet Can is performing this weekend in Fremont. $25 for adults, $15 for kiddos. Totally worth it, even on a student budget. Tickets here. Check it out.

Community Health

So, one of the great things about MEPN is the community rotation. Today I learned that as a part of my placement I will not only be doing immunizations for the flu season, but also in-home prenatal Hep B screening, communicable disease education and screening, and we will all participate in a countywide bio-terrorism drill where we will perform "drive-by" immunizations of thousands of police officers and fire fighters. (And we have to be deputized to do this. Yes!) We also have the opportunity to volunteer for free tattoo removal and/or perinatal education for low-income families. As a part of our concurrent L&D rotation, we have 12 hours on the floor, and the option to volunteer in the NICU or at the Women's Option Center. That, and a pretty laid back academic quarter, makes us all happy.

Is That a Clown in Your Pocket...?

There was an article in the NYT last Thursday about Clown Conservatory founder, Jeff Raz. I love the clowns. But this article was one of the more absurd, placing clowning in cahoots with psychoanalysis by way of desocialization. And here is where I run screaming from the room... “Working on clown is in vogue right now," says Dody DiSanto, director of the Center for Movement Theater in Washington. Working on clown? Does that sound, um, dirty to anyone else? Here are some of the workshop names for those of you looking for a little clown action*:

DYNAMICS OF CLOWN PARTNERING
DISCOVERING THE CLOWN
ENSEMBLE ADVENTURES IN CLOWN
BOUFFON. THE ANTI-CLOWN

*AKA get your clown on, a phrase I am working on popularizing.

Festina Lente

Classes start up again tomorrow and rather than fight the pace of the program I have decided to just alter my approach and perspective: to make haste, slowly.

Hillbint on Destruction

Can I just offer that if the new GOP vice presidential candidate wants to be taken at all seriously, she's going to need some lessons in diction. That, or maybe I can make some money when I publish the Sarah Palin Diction-ary.




"wey" (i.e. All the wey up here in Wasilla.) = way
"dint" (i.e. Oh no he dint.) = didn't
"hill" (i.e. I know hill make a fine president.) = he'll or hell, see "bint"
"bint" (i.e. Hillbint) = bent
"impordend" (i.e. The Bush Doctrine is really impordend to me.) = important

Cigarettes & Mustache Wax

Yesterday morning on the ride to school, The Kid wanted me to feel his chin to see if he had suddenly begun to grow a beard.
"Nope," I said, "no beard yet... why do you want a beard?"
"I don't," said he, "I want a mustache so that I can make it look like this..." and he proceeded to draw swirls around the corners of his mouth.
The child wants mustache wax. And he often walks around smoking a fake cigarette that he got in a grab bag at the "Sing-a-Long Grease" at The Castro theater a couple of years ago. Very curious.

A.World A.Part

Sometimes, on a short holiday, it is nice to sit and listen to an old friend.

Psssst...Do Something!

Cloacal Disbelief

When my partner got into the car for the commute home last night, he and The Kid took up a little birding. This was all fun and games until it came out that many male birds don't have a penis.

All that was heard from the back seat was a long and whispered "....what...?" followed by a very long and contemplative silence.


Some do, by the way, as is evidenced by this Argentine Lake Duck.

Did You Feel That?

I hate that -- when my house shakes uncontrollably.
The next time you feel it, report it here.


A light earthquake occurred at 9:00:15 PM (PDT) on Friday, September 5, 2008. The magnitude 4.0 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) ENE of Alamo, CA. The hypocentral depth is 16 km (10 miles).

What a Pain

There seems to be something of an all-consuming concern on my floor (which I have just left for the next four months for my new clinical placement) but there still exists, in my absence I am sure, a somewhat obsessive concern with drug seeking. Granted, when I walk in the room, evaluate my patient, have a nice, friendly and coherent conversation with her -- VS normal, everything checks out -- ask her pain on a scale of 1-10 and have her reply "12", I have to think there's something a little fishy going on... especially when her PRN med is methadone.

It is a problem. But it is not as big a problem as some of the other nurses seem to imagine. For example, when my next patient has a hole in his body that is 4x4" and has reached the bone, and he reports to the docs, "I want you to change my demerol from every 6 to every 4 hours because my pain is a 7 all the time" I tend to roll with that. But this guy has had an incredibly hard time getting anyone to believe he is in any pain at all.

With that in mind, I've found some good advice in the event that you're ever in pain and in the hospital -- credit to Crass-Pollination, an ER Nurse who says:
"Attention: The pain scale stops at 10. If you say '12', we think you're FOS."

Runnin' Back to Saskatoon

I asked The Kid this morning if maybe he'd like to do some traveling this year. He said he liked that idea. I asked where he'd travel if he could choose. China? Ireland? Guatemala? "No," said he, "I think I'd like to visit Montreal... either Montreal or Saskatchewan."