My RSS adventure wasn't too traumatic. I checked out the google reader one. Then downloaded NetNewsWire from the Apple website and it is doing the job well, in a format I like. Hurrah for that. I have put all my non-wibsite blogs into it and will do the wiblogs tomorrow perhaps.
In other news I hit my head on the balcony today while retrieving one of Pooka's toys from underneath. It always amazes me how big the lumps are on your head when you hit them on something solid. No blood. Just a large lump.
In yet more other news, a man at the dog park was a bit panicky today as the house-sitter he'd organised for a couple of weeks from now turned out to be a bit of a bad egg. He was very very relieved when the brother and I said we'd take care of it. And he's PAYING us (not heaps, but more than nothing)! Usually people think they're doing you a favour. So yes, that'll be for 3.5 weeks in a few weeks time. Not sure if I'll stay there all the time, but it's only around the corner. Will depend what happens with Pooka.
Also I've organised the first four weeks of my elective in the town where my bosses have bought a pharmacy down the coast. This means that I will have
a) A place to stay for free (boss's house)
b) with a backyard and a dog for Pooka to play with
c) A job
d) all within a few minutes drive of the elective
e) the beach very near by
f) lots of love from the boss because he is longing for a holiday and I will stay for a week or two afterwards and do his job while he goes away.
I am thinking about attempting to make use of RSS feeds. I know. Crazy huh? It will streamline my internet faffing around somewhat... and did you know that you can subscribe to flickr feeds too? I just have to um... do it... somehow... I will make my brother give me a tutorial.
It's weird how I am totally confident with some aspects of technology (manuals?! Who reads manuals! Just play with it! Press all the buttons! See what they do!) but bamboozled by other aspects. I subscribed to my first podcasts last week. But I don't know what the deal with it is. I know that some things will be on my ipod... but that's about it.
So yes. The car is back. It was ready that day, and apparently my water pump was broken.
Pooka has had her annual service. It has been noted by many at the park that Pooka appears utterly fearless - clearly these people have never seen the pathetic shaggy, dog-shaped pile of fear at the vet! There was a large labrador in the waiting room, and all the staff thought she must be terrified of it as she wouldn't come in the door. Not so! She loves labradors! She is just terrified of being at the vet. Once she was coaxed in with copious liver treats, she ran to the scales and planted herself firmly there. The scales are her place of refuge at the vet. They are the only place where she feels safe. She weighs 18.7kg by the way.
The vet lady said that when the big labrador was coming out, Pooka could go into an examination room if we liked, because she still thought the lab was the problem. The examination room is even more scary than any giant, mutant, 12-legged, fire-breathing labrador you can imagine! It was our turn before that came to pass, and we were ushered in. Well, I was ushered in. Then I had to go and pick up my quivering dog from the scales and carry her in. She coped fine with the examination, didn't appear to notice the vaccination, received many compliments, and it was all fine. But I don't think she'll remember how fine it was when we go back in four weeks for a booster she needs.
So my car started making funny noises a couple of days ago. My younger brother is into avoidance as a coping strategy and thought it was fine. That evening he went to see my older brother who said the noise was bad. Yesterday I was about to go to church and it was making the noises with lots of enthusiasm, and the (!) light was on.
I decided not to go to church (half an hour drive) and to wait for the father to get home so he could give his opinion before I called the NRMA (roadside assistance people). He came home and agreed that the noise was bad, but pointed out that the (!) light was on because I hadn't taken the handbrake off (which was because I wasn't going anywhere because of the noise - it's not a regular occurrence).
So I called the NRMA who said someone would be out in about 90 minutes. Which was fine, as I wasn't going anywhere. 10 minutes later a lovely man arrived and agreed that the noise was bad. He added that he would not even drive the car anywhere because it sounded like a bearing... something... and that the engine may well blow up (not his words) if it drove anywhere. He said to call NRMA in the morning and they would tow it.
He also congratulated me for not turning up the stereo and pretending the noise wasn't there. His niece did that and ended up with $2000 worth of repairs.
I then went inside and told my mother that the engine was about to explode and it needed to be towed. She likes panicking, my mother, so I like to give her the opportunity to when possible.
This morning I called for the tow truck, they quoted 60 minutes, truck arrived in 20, I naughtily reversed the car onto the road for ease of loading onto the truck (it didn't explode) and it is now on its way to the car dealership where they will do something hopefully and make the noise stop.
And we all lived happily ever after! AND as I'm up early, I can take Pooka for a walk!
People you meet #10 - the ones who appreciate quality
(yay, 4/05/2008 1:12 pm)
So yesterday I came across another dog's tag along the bush track. I picked it up, intending to give it to the owner when I saw them. Conveniently enough, this was in about 2 minutes time when I arrived at the park.
I handed it over, and he was very pleased and said that I'd saved him $15. I told him that Pooka's tag (same tag, different engraving shop) cost $5 at the place up the road.
"Oh no! That guy doesn't know what he's doing. We had one done by him and it was dreadful! That man! No idea!!"
Apparently he digs the engraving thing in at the wrong angle and his writing isn't at good as at the $15 place.
Good thing Pooka can't see her tags - she might want me to get her expensive ones next time. She has two tags by the way. A purple one on her blue superman collar, and a green one on her red collar.
* A lightbulb
* Some baby spinach seeds (I don't know if they will grow into adult spinach if I don't eat them while they're babies...)
* two buckets.
The lightbulb is an energy saving one, however it has two features that encouraged me to give it a try. It is 20W (supposedly equivalent to 100W regular) and it has a halogen bulb in it too, so when you first turn it on the halogen goes on too, hence it is bright straight away. Once the energy saver bit gets to full boil, the halogen bit goes off.
The bulb in my room is still lit, so I have to wait for it to blow before I can try my new one. If it works ok, then I will be able to be a bit more environmentally friendly.
The buckets are for Pooka to play with. She loves buckets. Really. I don't know if I've put any footage online of her bucket dance. Will have to do that sometime.
The seeds are to satisfy my occasional need to make something grow out of the soil. It usually fails. Luckily seeds are cheap.
(Apologies to those on dial up - series of Pooka photos follow)
Pooka has mixed feelings about water.
She likes playing in puddles. This means she gets quite dirty on occasion. Last week was one of those occasions, and I had to dump her in the bath when we got back. It looked like this when I'd pulled her out:
She looked like this:
She's tied up because she had to be inside to dry (it being night time and cold) but couldn't be trusted to roam free with steak cooking in the griller. I'm not sure if her health insurance covers griller-mouth.
So she loves puddles, but hates baths. Not sure what the deal is with that.
Yesterday Pooka and I gave up on obedience after 15 minutes.
After 10 minutes I was in despair because the trainer we had was being extremely harsh and authoritarian and just not very helpful. There was also an awful lot of standing around being talked at and told that we weren't very good. I was frantically trying to think of a way to make a graceful exit. Then Pooka read my mind, and went nutso and did her "I've had enough" routine that she usually does about 10 minutes from the end of class. I tried to rein her back in, but she wasn't having a bar of it, so it was with great regret that I had to excuse us from class because Pooka wasn't up to it.
At least three of the dog park regulars have been spotted wearing gumboots this week. Which is reasonable really, as the park does not have any puddles but is in fact, one big puddle. As is the oval.
I don't have any gumboots, but I wear shorts (legs are easier to clean and dry than long trousers) and my dog walking shoes were trashed long ago.
The dog park is preferable for puddle play because the mud at the oval stinks. I have a feeling the materials used to make the oval into an oval may have come from a toxic dump. The mud is black and stinky. And when Pooka has been eating it, it looks like she's had an upper GI bleed.
So I have this dream occasionally. I'm sitting at the bus stop (grassy verge near my house), waiting for the school bus. There is a box with a towel on it. I look underneath and there's a brand new computer. Then I realise it's actually a whole lot of boxes, with a few towels on top, with a whole lot of computers and various other things. I realise that someone has stolen these goods and left them here to be picked up by an accomplice. They have cunningly disguised them with the towels but I am not a fool!
I notice that one of the towels belongs to someone from school - I saw it at the swimming carnival. I call him to let him know that his towel has been stolen. Turns out he had two towels, and this is the less exciting one.
I have to call the police to tell them about this pile of stolen stuff, but I'm in a quandary. It's not an emergency so I can't call 000. But what if the accomplice turns up to collect the stash before the police arrive? And I don't have the number for my local station. So I call my mother and ask her to drive to the bus stop with the phone directory.
Then a friend from uni and her hippie friends arrive and start taking stuff from the pile. They ignore me when I tell them to stop. My friend tells me to lighten up because they're just taking a couple of board games, including Hungry Hungry Hippos.
Thankfully the bus arrives and the friend and her hippie friends get on. I tell them I'll see them at school - I need to stay with the stolen goods until the police arrive.
The mother has still not arrived with the phone directory. I call her, and it turns out that she's parked around the corner. She saw the hippies and thought she should stay undercover. I discuss the situation and we decide to put the stash in her car and take it to the police station ourselves.
A new character has emerged on the dog park scene lately. It's a guy who is scared of dogs.
As you can see, the area where I walk consists of two parks, joined by a bush track. Most people tend to start at the dog park end, as this is the end where most people live. Now as you can also see, only the dog park is a dog park. Dogs are allowed in the bush on a lead (although this is often disobeyed by those with obedient and calm dogs) and at the other end they are technically supposed to be on leads, however an enormous empty oval in a fairly secluded location is generally an ok place to exercise a dog if it isn't bugging other people. So a common dog-walking scenario is to arrived at the first park, play for a bit if there are other dogs around, walk to the second park, play if there are dogs around, do a couple of laps if you feel led, walk back to first park to see if there are any dogs yet.
There are a lot of non-dog people who use this same walking circuit for their own exercise, except they don't have to look for dogs to play with all the time. Hence they must first traverse the dog park to get to the bush. And when they reach the bush, it is quite likely that they will encounter dogs either on or off a lead. Those who are scared of dogs adopt a number of coping techniques. Some just ignore the dogs or stand still if the dog approaches them. Others tell dog owners that they are scared of dogs. Another group get very aggressive. People you meet # 8 is one of these.
He is a jogger. Looks pretty tough and fearless. Every time he arrives at the dog park he retrieves his large stick that he keeps near the road. It's about a metre long, 5cm thick. Then he keeps jogging the circuit. If approached by a dog or if anywhere near one, he goes out of his way to hit or kick it. He has told one of the dog owners quite aggressively that his wife is afraid of dogs. This is interesting, however his wife is not present on his daily jogs. It seems POSSIBLE that perhaps HE is afraid of dogs. Which is nothing to be embarrassed about (I am scared of knees for example) and the dog owners at the park are very good about keeping their dogs away from scared people. But if that is the case, hitting a friendly dog with a stick is not a good way to protect yourself. See, hitting dogs with sticks doesn't make them very happy. In fact, it can make them quite angry and a bit bitey. A stick can be useful for sort of guiding them away from you (I have done this on occasions with Pooka's ball flinger) but not so much as a hitting device.
I'm sure there are also some animal cruelty things related to hitting a non-aggressive dog in an off-leash park. Or anywhere for that matter.
I've been looking at some of my archives and am a bit concerned that I'm not as good at blogging as I used to be. I haven't posted anything particularly good for quite a while. This is not a very good state of affairs.
Perhaps I was better at blogging when I had more time on my hands. I certainly don't have much time at the moment. And a lot of my time is spent doing secret confidential medical stuff that I can't really blog about. And I don't have time to cook stuff in the shape of things.
Hmmm that seems to answer that question. Maybe I'll just repost some of my previous better posts as a trip down memory lane :p
This was at the sunrise service that my church has on Easter Sunday. Interestingly enough this was before the sun rose, but it looks like there's an enormous sun there. Anyway, I recommend sunrise services for Easter. Sun Rise, Son Rise... cool.
This is the West Wing at my clinical school! I sit outside for ages waiting to catch a glimpse of CJ or the President! One day...
This is the very welcoming main entrance to my hospital. Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy, like you're entering a place of healing? Or perhaps like you're entering a factory that makes paper clips and staples?
I appear to have been neglecting ToVY recently. Sorry about that to anyone who has been biting their nails, waiting for the next thrilling installment.
Incidents of note since my last post:
* I got to drive the camera for a laparoscopic gall bladder removal
* I arrived at the park the other day and was greeted by a lady with a small dog who said "and this must be the dreaded Pooka". She's famous!
* Half way through this rotation. Hurrah! Although I'm enjoying it. I'm just looking forward to a week off in 6 weeks.
* I get an extra month of holidays at the end of this year. The uni has changed our course so that fourth year rotations are now 8 weeks instead of 9. So an extra four weeks has to be added on to the holidays. I am not sad about this at all.
* I keep losing things. Mainly my phone. But also keys. And other small but important items.
cleaning cleaning cleaning and specialty run down.
(yay, 30/03/2008 3:01 am)
So since Christmas I have been away twice, for a total of about 6 weeks. Unfortunately I haven't really unpacked properly from either trip. Hence I am living in a dump. Such a dump that I can't work out where to start with making it right. I am currently
In other news, audaci has published her 2008 list of specialty thoughts for the future. It isn't a meme so I am allowed to copy it without compromising my principles. And I've added some extras :p
Surgery - NO. It's interesting enough to watch (and probably fun to do) but I just can't get up in the dark. And I don't have the personality for it.
Emergency - unlikely. Although the emergency physician who spoke at orientation this year said that emergency physicians have short attention spans. That sounds like me.
Cardio - nope. ECGs are not my friends. Although I'm getting better. And I just don't think I want to do this one.
Respiratory - possibly. I like respiratory physicians. Not sure about the work though...
Neuro - I don't think so. Although my GP said that neurologists are quirky and that she thought I'd fit in for that reason.
Haematology - maybe. I can now get a single picture when looking through a microscope. That has to count for something.
Orthopaedics - no. This involves surgery. And knees. I hate knees.
O&G - probably not.
GP - quite possibly.
Oncology - probably not.
Gastro - not so big on the poo stuff.
Derm - no. Steroids and antfungals fix most things. Burning stuff off fixes the rest.
Opthalmology - nope. Spend all morning doing cataract repairs then play golf all afternoon. Such a small ball over such a large field.
Paeds - no. Kids are generally cool. Parents can be a trial. A very competitive specialty. An option would be to do GP training then sub-specialise in kids.
Anaesthetics - nah
Radiology - I'm never convinced that I can actually see anything. I always wonder if it's just a bad exposure. And ultrasound images will never make sense to me!
Pathology - probably not.
Immunology - probably not.
Endocrinology - maybe. But the increasing prevalence of diabetes could make it a fairly repetitive workload.
General physician (if these still exist) - possible
Infectious diseases - hmmm possibly. They get lots of mysteries! I like mysteries.
Renal - maybe.
Intensive care - probably not
Rheumatology - possibly. Although the knee issue surfaces again
Palliative care - probably not.
Clinical genetics - no. I don't like genes.
Psychiatry - at the moment probably not although it's a backburner one. Not ruled out.
[disclaimer: I have attended a baptist church for about a year now. Prior to that I went to an Anglican church for 25 years or so. Hence any generalisations I make may be somewhat fanciful]
Most evangelical churches in Sydney with more than one service on a Sunday tend to have a family service in the morning, sometimes a traditional service early in the morning, and a contemporary service at night. At my previous church there were two evening services, one had become "young married couple"-central, the other was "trendy highschool/uni student"-central. I didn't really fit into either of these categories and objected to "the church" being so segmented (it wasn't the fault of the church, just how people gravitated). At my new church there is a good range of people at the evening service - old people, young people, single people, married people, people with kids, people without kids. I like it like that.
An interesting thing about Sydney churches is the similarity between Anglican, Baptist and Uniting (aka. Methodists, Presbyterians and various others) church services and theological bent. In the rest of Australia and the world there are significant differences between these traditions, but in Sydney (conservative theology and minimal tradition capital of the world) the practical differences are negligible. Hence there are large numbers of people who don't subscribe to any particular denomination but will happily belong to any.
At my church I am currently not eligible for membership as I have not been baptised by immersion. They are happy enough to do this (the church is across the road from a large lake), however at this point I'm not sure of the need to be baptised again. Although the pastor does agree with me that I should not have to be baptised again. It's a church constitution thing. And perhaps the constitution will change in the future. That said, there is nothing to stop me participating fully in the church - I can take communion, lead groups, be in the church directory, erm do other stuff... and they give me money to go to mission in summer. Apparently I am seen as a small m member. As are a large proportion of the congregation!
So a typical evening service at my church involves singing, prayers, sermon, announcements, sometimes communion and occasionally a variety segment. There are probably about 100 people present on a regular night (although I have never counted. Perhaps I will one week) in a building that comfortably fits that many without acres of empty space.
Building Layout
The building is of a funny shape. This picture does not really represent the shape. However that's how the seats are.
I have included co-ordinates in case I wish to point out any features. At the moment I don't wish to do that.
Music
We mainly use contemporary music. Common songwriters include Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, various Hillsong people... and some others. There is also commonly a sprinkling of hymns - either new hymns (eg. Stuart Townsend - How Deep the Father's Love, In Christ Alone) or old hymns, typically with a new tune (eg. When I Survey, May the Mind of Christ...).
Then occasionally someone throws in a Baptist classic. These sound like they're of 80s origin, some earlier. I can't really describe them. Both hearty AND cheesy. They usually make me giggle a bit. And I can't remember what any of them are called unfortunately.
The music team usually consists of a guitar or two, a bass guitar, drummer, piano, a few singers. These people are not projected onto a screen. However the words to the songs are.
Prayers
Usually someone asks if anyone has anything they want prayed for, then they throw in a few that haven't been mentioned. It's most common for the person at the front to then pray, but occasionally the front person says that anyone who wants to can pray out loud.
Communion
Grape juice and bread, open to all believers. Walk down to the front where there are two people at the head of each aisle, one armed with bread and the other with grape juice (apparently the younger generation of Baptists aren't so much into the teetotal thing, however we must respect our heritage). Pull off a bit off bread, dunk it in the juice.
Sermon
We are very lucky to have some excellent sermonisers at my church. These can be anything from 10-45 minutes. But the 45 minute ones are not a chore - there is no padding out with waffle, and it doesn't feel like 45 minutes.
Supper
Tea, coffee, cold drinks, whatever food the supper people have brought.
1. I found my phone, you can all stop looking now. It was actually in the pocket of what I was wearing yesterday but for some reason I couldn't hear it when I was standing 30 cm away. And no it wasn't on silent. Weird.
2. I will at some point soonish describe what I meant by "baptist-style" in my church marathon post. I may even have some suggestions of places for downunderdocE to try in her local area (hopefully it doesn't freak her out too much that I know where her local area is)
3. This morning I was late to uni because I hadn't found my phone yet and hence was using my back-up alarm clock, which appears to have stopped working the moment I set the alarm. Also weird.
4. So at Subway at the moment there's some health something or other deal, where if you buy a 6 inch ham, turkey or roast beef sub and a drink made by Coke (ie. Coke/Diet Coke/Coke Zero/Sprite/Fanta/various water brands) then you pay $4.95. Which is interesting because those three subs all cost over $4.95 if you get them by themselves. So Subway is paying me to drink Fanta. That pleases me.
Those of you of a medical bent may recall the coagulation cascade. This is where an event (eg. injury to a blood vessel wall) initiates a sequence of events, a cascade of chemical reactions if you will. I don't think I can be bothered to explain properly, but I'm sure Wikipedia has a nice summary if anyone is interested.vv
Yesterday, I think I left my phone on the bus. Today I forgot to wake up because my phone is my alarm clock. I am now wondering what the next event in this cascade will be. Which enzyme will be activated due to me forgetting to get up?
Possibly the one where I get in trouble with the people who monitor attendance... but WHO KNOWS! It's all very exciting being a part of biochemistry.
So since Thursday I have been to five church services. Which sounds excessive (and probably is) however the problem was that they were all totally different and it was hard to work out which ones to go to.
Thursday night was a contemplative thing where the lights all went out
Friday morning was a Good Friday service Baptist-style
Sunday very early was sunrise service on the headland
Sunday less early was the regular Easter Sunday service Baptist-style (oh my one of the Easter classics had me in lots of giggles!)
Sunday evening was the Sunday evening service.
They all had different sermons and music styles and foci... and I'm glad I went to all of them. Particularly the sunrise service.
Tomorrow is work from 9-6. And sadly I have not achieved my aim of doing something about the garbage tip in my room over the long weekend. Ah well. Maybe for the Queens birthday weekend. Or Anzac day! Or the week off in May...
In other news, I have now finished a quarter of third year. Woot!
I've been having some strange dreams lately. Last night I dreamed that I posted a video on youtube and the next morning there were heaps of comments and they were all so vicious that the youtube admin had deleted half of them. It was quite odd. I can't remember what the video was about.
However the next video I'll post is of Pooka and her friend having a brawl at the park. Just have to think about uploading it and all...
Tales of Variable Yayness 
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