Ugh, nasty tummy ache-- one of our guys at work had his last day Friday so we went to a restaurant on Thursday and something there did *not* agree with yours truly. I was sick that day, fine Friday all day, then sick again Friday night. I hope that was all it was and there isn't a bug going about (if it is, I hope it isn't this). Anyway, I was going to do the ambulance thing today but called in sick. All in all, the best thing to do.

I have re-discovered the virtues of ginger ale.

I got "the thin letter" yesterday. I expected it, really, after all this time. They were nice enough about it, though. I will just have to cast a wider net for next year.

Dunkirk spirit! Never say die! "Tonight, Spartans, we dine in Hell!!"

Whew, busy day-- did the ambulance thing today and had three calls. The third was a cancel-on-scene, but the first two were pretty interesting. An elderly lady was going down fast-- gray skin, blue lips. We got her into the ambulance and hooked her up to oxygen and albuterol, and bagged her. Short version is she came back from the brink. We got her to the hospital and hopefully she is doing better now.

The second call we had was a car accident. Now all through training I heard from people in the class that "we never use a KED". Well, "we" did today. I'll tell you, if you need no other incentive to avoid being in a car accident, imagine what being in one of those feels like. That should get all you crazed drivers out there thinking twice. >) Not a comfortable thing to be stuck in for any length of time, much less transported in on an ambulance, with the wait for check-in. Then, to get the thing off requires an evaluation from someone a few pay grades higher in the healthcare world. I'll speculate the minimum time you would be in one in most cases would be two hours. Not a pleasant experience I am sure. I had to be in one several times during training and just five minutes was too much.

I feel I am learning, but wish I could contribute more. I haven't felt this junior at anything in a long time. But I am glad to know that when the pros I am working with need extra hands, at least I can give them that.

Doctors need malpractice insurance. Lawyers need it. Civil engineers need it. So why after reading this, I ask, don't software engineers need it?

When you think about it, a computer programmer can do more harm/good with five minutes of work (or lack thereof) than most any other kind of profession. This is because the product of their labors is, in some cases, propagated pretty much throughout all of civilization. Take just one example: the Microsoft Office programmers -- all over the world people use their software, which they wrote once and is used to create millions, perhaps billions, of all kinds of documents a year, as well as manage countless amounts of financial and other data. "Write once, use everywhere". So any bugs (or omissions) they added to the software is something pretty much the entire civilized world has to put up with. Of course this is why the "Open Source" movement started, and for good reason. And a not-so-trivial example of this propagation thing is of course seen with computer viruses. Ten minutes of hacking away to make a virus can easily lead to billions of dollars in damage throughout the world and ruin the days for countless sysadmins. Amazing-- all that with just a keyboard.

I have adopted this Dilbert as my official attitude toward life.

I also dug up an old Hall & Oates tape in my car (yes, "tape"-- I have a tape player in my car, not a CD player. Secretly, I am a Luddite). I couldn't believe how much better it sounded today to my ear than it used to. The days of musicians first getting solid training in instruments and voice before trying to record hits seems to have passed, and this tape only reminded me of the good ol' days when such was not the case. Didn't have lyrics on-line back then either (in fact they didn't have an "on-line" to speak of), so after hearing some of these old songs I looked up their lyrics (my only real criticism of their music is that they didn't seem very good at interweaving their lyrics with their beat, making it hard to understand what Hall was singing) and you know, I found out that a lot of their music doesn't have anything to do with what people think it does. I guess this is probably true for a lot of songs.

If I don't show my age in my face, I guess I show it in my musical tastes. I'm gonna be 39 next month. Ughhh...

I really wish I had had this back when I was in grad school. It would have saved me a great deal of time.

The video (an 88 MB .avi file, safe for work) these guys made of their adventure with it is too funny. Warning: Non-geeks may not get quite the same laugh out of it that geeks will. Or maybe you will-- no way to know for sure unless you watch, I guess. What's sad is that what you see here in terms of bad presentation and gibberish-like speeches is pretty typical of such technical conferences, which is exactly why I don't go to them.

Did my first overnight last night-- learned that an EMT uniform makes a great stand-in for pajamas, and sleeping in boots is not as uncomfortable as you might think.

Not a single bloody call all night.

Thanks, Connie, for this pic. Gives us hope that peace is possible in the world. (Notice I didn't say "likely", just "possible"...)

I just may order this, the excerpts are so good.

My second ambulance training shift was yesterday. It was not pretty. First call: attempted suicide, OD on pills. Afterward I got a dressing-down from the paramedic over having moved one of his items, and also for being too nice to the patient (a fair complaint, really-- one can be too nice to a pateint, especially certain kinds). After the second call (I don’t even remember the problem this person had) I was told not to do anything unless I was specifically trained/shown how to do it (ie, don't touch anything, rookie). The third call I started getting sick from the motion and the diesel fumes. The paramedic (had three different ones, one for each call, due to a weird combination of circumstances) told me if I ever got sick on a “real call” (this one was “merely” a trouble-breathing), he’d "throw me out of the back of the moving rig" himself. I started at 12:00 and finished at 6:45, 45 mins. late for meeting a friend for dinner.

Welcome to EMS!

Really, I do expect it. I expect to get gnawed on by paramedics for being clueless. It’s like being a pledge in a fraternity all over again. It’s not fun to be corrected and sergeanted-on, but at least I am learning some useful things. And wouldn't you want a hard-nosed SOB in charge of your emergency care keeping the clueless newbies in line while saving your miserable skin? I sure would.

Apparently, America has a problem with rats. It's so bad it made CNN (vid). But I have my own remedy for rats, mice, etc. The same one ancient Egypt came up with, and it works, too. If you were an itinerant rodent, would you take this on?:















Not me. I'd be afraid of being smothered to death before being eaten, though I'd be afraid of that, too. I'd take one look at that and head for someplace a little less occupied already.

Speaking of tornadoes, I'll bet these folks weren't expecting one to interrupt their soccer game. Youtube vid here.