Come with me if you want to live...

In the event of a Zombie outbreak, you should come with me. I've got loads of movie and video game experience. Not to mention, I've got some good hand eye co-ordination and believe myself to be a decent shot. And according to this quiz, I'm goign to survive. Here's my official tally.

Official Survivor

Congratulations! You scored 78%!

Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere. Nobody's perfect, at least you're alive.

Test from okcupid.com (gotta give credit, yo).

Listening to the Pres.

As some of you may know, Butler is going to host former Presidents Clinton and Bush Sr. (clinton in Nov and Bush in Jan.). They allotted a section of tickets for students and faculty for free, but they decided to pass them out starting at 10 AM on Monday (makes it tough for students with classes and especially for us on rotations). Anyway, I gave my brother my ID (even though we don't look identical, the picture is 6 years old and worn out, so it would fly) and had him go and wait in line to get the tickets (don't feel bad for him, he was going to CTS - christian theological seminary - anyway). Plus, since you get 2 tickets per ID, he gets to come along and listen to the President anyway. I am really looking forward to going to hear President Clinton. Personally, I thought he was a great President, not necessarily the best moral man, but a great President. I am also going to look forward to hear Bush Sr. (not as much as Clinton, but still looking forward to it)...but I'm sure they'll do his tickets the same way. Seriously, when do you get to listen to political figures talk that's not a political rally (ie propaganda city). It should be very neat.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. I guess I should get back to doing nothing....I'm at Lilly this month and currently have no clue what I'm supposed to be doing. Guidance to this point has been slim.

The Half-way point

Technically my rotation is not over until tomorrow, but seeing as how I only have to come in at 9 (at BU, not the hospital) to get my eval, I'm chalking this rotation as being up. This marks my 5th rotation. 5 down and 5 to go (over 7 months, I have 2 off months in there). I honestly think I can put it on cruise control for the next 3 rotation blocks (aka until February). My next ones are Marketing/Sales at Lilly, then Drug Info (investigational new drugs at IU hospital), and in January Clinical Community at Marsh. I do not anticipate these being difficult, or requiring much offsite work. So, in other words, I'm looking forward to taking it easy (getting my work done, of course), working on grad school applications, and studying up for the GREs (Nov. 21).

This past rotation was decent. My co-workers were very nice (preceptor and residents). I learned a few things (if you want coumadin dosing, just let me know). It did require quite a bit of off-site work. In other words, I spent a few hours several nights at the good ole BU SciLi (aka Science Library at Butler). The grade should be a resounding "A."

With that said, I've got an eval or two to fill out, then it is off to bum around until 8:45 for my league at Expo (let's hope I improve from last week). I'm outie.

Down the homestretch

Well, this rotation is almost over. I have only one more hurdle to go (my formal presentation...which I have to put together tonight and present tomorrow). After that, it's just a matter of surviving the day on Thursday. I am anticipating an early release on Friday. I'm currently looking forward to this weekend, because as of right now, my only plans are to do some laundry, possibly straigten up my living quarters (this is low on the list), and relax....maybe play some video games (maybe tennis if anyone is interested), but that's it. No rushing around. No work do. Just doing things I enjoy. It should be fun and something I've not been able to do the past few weekends.

Well, it's about time for me to get working today. I'll catcha lata.

Doing work on my own

Ever since classwork ended and rotations started, I have been responsible for doing all my own work for every assigned project. Now, in acutality, I have always been responsible for doing the work, but I've had assistance in ensuring it was done. During classwork schooling, most projects were group projects and I allied myself with some diligent workers. In fact, we had a great group. Even the non-group work was the same for each of us and I worked with the same people to get our individual work done (co-operative learning...I'm a fan!). Alas, now I am fully and singularly responsible for this work. It is amazing how fast I revert back to doing everything at the last minute. Without my fellow classmates forcing me to do work in advance, I am now stuck doing everything the night before it is due. Now I'm not really complaining about this, because I get my work done and it is generally of decent quality. I am sure it could be slightly better, but in my book a 90% is pretty solid, so why work a lot harder? Here comes my predicament though (I'm not looking for sympathy, because I know my audience here, and I know that I won't get any....I'm just stating facts on how it is): I have two items due on Monday (a careplan and a drug info question), Pt. ed. handout on Tuesday, and a formal case/primary literature presentation on Wednesday. Not too complicated, right? But consider that tomorrow night I'm hanging with the sis, Saturday consists of 8 hours at CVS (2-10pm...a day killer shift), and Sunday consists of church, football, and videogames with the bro, Monday is a bowling night. I'm busy and don't have time for this work stuff....but alas, it has to be done. Oh well, I guess I'll have a few late nights (or cut something fun....late nights are ok by me).

There you have it. The update on me. Please don't let this news keep you up at night.

Conversation with a Seventh-day Adventist

I worked at CVS on Saturday for 10 hours. The night pharmacists (whom I worked with for 2 hours) is a Seventh-day adventist. According to his tradition, he is not allowed to work from sunrise to sunset on the seventh day (sabbath day) in order to "keep it holy." I made a comment that we don't know what day is the seventh day (since I was not present during the creation of the world). He disagreed. He claimed that since the naming of the days (way back when....Roman times I believe) they have not changed. I realized that this was not going to be worth discussing, but I still disagree on several levels about this seventh-day thing. 1) I don't believe the world (and everything on it) was created in 7, 24 hour days; 2) the naming and order of days came long after the creation of the world and I do not know what day they started on (the naming process that is); and 3) who cares....the whole sunrise/sunset/sabbath thing is very legalistic and based in Jewish tradition...the important thing is to take a minimum of 1 day a week to be holy and reflect on God (preferrably this is done on a daily basis).

The other thing this pharmacist said that irritated me was, "I do what my Bible says." He said this as a defense to his seventh-day/sabbath belief. I would like to have questioned him further, but realized that would only make things bad. I was curious the last time he recommended stoning someone for adultery, or any of the other ridiculous laws of the Old Testament. I have a distinct feeling that he (and possibly his church) is doing a bit of choosing which laws to follow and which to ignore as being out-dated.

I was most bothered by this because we hold the same foundation belief (ie Jesus was God's son and savior of the world), but do not have any type of fellowship. Because of his strongly held views (seemingly legalistic), and my more open-minded/liberal viewpoint, we won't ever be on the same religious page. It is sad, but then again, this is the reason we have so many denominations and independent Christian churches. For the time being, we have to agree on the foundation and agree to disagree on the details/laws/dogmas.

That's all for now. I'm gonna leave my rotation site now and go get ready to bowl tonight.

Many goings-on

I realize I haven't posted many posts of my thoughts on things. Generally I just give updates about what I am doing. So, I'll give a quick recent hightlight, and then move-on to some recent events and my thoughts.

Update: Started a new rotation this past week. It is going to be good, the people are nice, but it does require a lot of off-site work on my part. I'm not used to this, but it must be done, so I'm going to do it. Secondly, I've spent this weekend home. It's been nice to catch up with the ole fam. Wish I would've bowled better in the tournament on Saturday, but I did get Shyler's (greatests BBQ ever) out of the deal. In fact I've eaten well...too well....Shyler's, steak and baked potato dinner, mom's biscuit and gravy, Gasthof (amish buffet), Bobe's pizza, and homemade waffles. Darn good food, that I don't cook for myself. That's been my life.

Now recent events.

Katrina - This is without a doubt a terrible natural disaster. I truly feel for all those people. I just hope that the generosity currently present, continues, because the problem is not going to be better (possibly worse) in 3-6 months. I've heard several people say (some possible jokingly, but some serious) that this was God's way of wiping out a sinful city. I am truly bothered by this. Are the people of New Orleans really more sinful than people in Vegas, New York, Indianapolis? I have my doubts, especially since it's been my opinion that a sin is a sin in the eyes of God. I don't believe He qualifies them. I think the people who have that kind of theology need to realize that not just bad people died and lost everything, a lot of good Christian people also died and lost everything. I also don't believe God causes each hurricane and I don't believe He directs them on where to hit land (yes, He created the world and the weather patterns, but does not choose when hurricanes strike). Anyway, continue to give and support missions to the Gulf Shore, and most importantly, continue to pray?

Supreme Court - I was truly bummed when I heard Rhenquist (spelling?) had died. I'll be honest, my saddened feeling had much less to do with the death of a person, and more to do with the fact that Bush gets 2 nominations to the court. There has been little if anything that Bush has done/said that I agree with. I am concerned with him having 2 nominations because he can now try to load the court with conservatives/ultra-conservatives. His first nomination seems to actually be a bit more moderate, but I am a little out of touch and not up on all the news. I'm not sure how this will play out....only time will tell.

Worry/Joy - I know I'm a little biased, but I can honestly say there are slim to no ministers I'd rather hear preach than my dad. He is a great speaker, always with a great message, and never more than 18-20 minutes (this is key!!!). Anyway, his sermon yesterday was very good and I thought I'd pass on the main point. He preached that a faithful Christian should be joyful and not worry. Worry and joy are a faith issue. With faith in God, then worry is not required and that being joyful is the best option. Whenever worry creeps in, realize it as a faith issue, say a prayer, and be joyful. A good message for us all.

Well, that's all for today. Thanks for reading. Signing off....

Gas prices are crazy

Now, I'll say that I've been a pretty tolerant guy about gas prices. My general philosophy is that minor fluctuations in prices are ok (maybe unneeded, but ok). I do not freak out if I just paid 5 cents more per gallon than the gas station I just past. Mainly because, the difference in cost is always less than $1 (unless you get >20 gallons of gas, which my car can't even take). But I am currently a bit irked with the gas companies. I went in to work at 7:30ish and gas was a pretty consistent $2.69 (or there abouts). I leave work at 5ish and suddenly gas is $3.19!! 50 fricking cents in a matter of hours!! Now that got me a bit angry. There is absolutely no justification for that. Yeah, I heard some gas lines/companies got damaged in the hurricane. Ok, fine, bump the prices a little (15 cents, etc.), but 50 cents. That's absurd. The gas in the tanks didn't suddenly change to expensive gas, did it? I'm pretty sure that the profit margin for the gas in the tanks just went through the roof. It's fricking crazy. I heard on the radio this morning that the Attorney General is watching closely to make sure price gouging isn't occuring. Tough to tell when every gas station charges the same ridiculous price. Price gouging? Of course, there is price gouging. Ok, I'm going to relax now, calm down, and then do some work this morning.

Until next time.