SF Pics

Back in the saddle again -- Let me tell you, I could really get used to taking time off. I don't think I have felt this rested in a long time. Boy, did I need it because I think my entire patient pool called today.

Don't get me wrong, I did feel the love from my patients. It was just a little overwhelming. I couldn't help but crack a smile everytime a patient said, "I'm glad you took some time off, because you deserve it. But, I'm so glad you're back!" I was so relaxed that it didn't bother me, at the time, to explain that our office totally used up our flu shot supply while I was gone (no rant from me, yet, on this).

I'm on call Wednesday. I don't even think I remember what it is to be on call. LOL! I think I was last on call about two weeks ago - an eternity in my work life. We'll see how Wednesday goes.

Since I've gotten back, I haven't had the time to post the pics on my Flickr page -- until now. I definitely learned from last time with my DC pics. Who has the patience and time to look at 82 pictures? Certainly not me. I just wanted to test out my Flickr pro account.

So, this time, only 15 pictures for your to peruse. Before you ask, no, you will not find Dr. A in this set. The digital camera ran out of battery before I could take any pictures of me. Believe that? I didn't think so. I'll be a while before I go out of town again, so enjoy the pics!

Time travel

What a long day yesterday. We left our San Francisco hotel at around noon to make our way to the airport. We told our taxi driver that we were going to the airport. "San Francisco airport?" the driver asked. All of us looked at each other and kind of told ourselves, "Duh!"

Our driver then told us that Oakland airport was about the same distance from our hotel and one time he took a passenger all the way to SF airport only to find out that the person was flying out of Oakland airport. Interesting.

All of us thought that it would be a heavy travel day and there would be long lines at the airport. But, we checked in without incident and went through the security line with no problem.

Our first snag occurred when we were told that our departure from SF would be delayed for an hour. Unlike when we had a straight flight to SF, we had a connecting flight going home. So, we began to worry about missing our connecting flight in Chicago, and maybe losing our luggage.

Four hours later, we landed in Chicago. The flight attendant told the plane to allow those with connecting flights off the plane first. Of course, no one listened. So, we had to negotiate from our 50th row seat to other passengers that we had to rush to our connecting flight. Most people were reasonable, but there's always that one person whose life is always more important than yours.

Luckily, the airport has an outside shuttle bus which takes people from the "c" concourse to the "e" concourse, where our gate was. There would be no way that we could walk that entire way in the five minutes we had to change planes. But, we made it home, with all of our luggage, ok.

It was past midnight when we landed at home airport. Someone said, "It's really 11pm anyway with that time change thing." Oh yeah, I forgot that daylight savings time ends and we had to turn our clocks back.

What an interesting concept. Some bureaucrat determines what time it is and has the power to "time travel." In doing a quick search, I found an interesting article describing the history of daylight savings time. And, Congress passed a law last year that will extend daylight savings time in 2007. (NPR)

These last 10 days have been very relaxing. Not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow, but I know I have to. Thanks for the great feedback on my blogcasts. They were fun! Don't know when my next one will be. A different change of pace from the written blog.

Blogcast 3

I'm leaving San Francisco around midday for home. We have a connecting flight through Chicago tonight. And, everyone knows the risks of possibly missing your connecting flight home and/or your luggage not making it back to your home airport. So, this will be an interesting travel day.

But, before all that, I recorded blogcast 3 last night - and obviously posting it today. I don't know if these are getting better or worse as I do more of these. I guess you can be the judge of that. Enjoy DABC3.

Fashion Police

I've talked about professional dress before on my blog - whether it be to wear or not to wear a lab coat, or to wear or not to wear a tie.

Now, the board at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust have taken this to an entirely new level (high or low depending on your opinion). They are proposing a dress code banning things like novelty socks. The Daily Mail article states that employees could face disciplinary action if socks had "characters [such] as Homer Simpson, Mr Blobby and Wallace and Gromit."

Distractions of inappropriate dress should be limited, it added. Novelty socks fall foul of the new code along with see-through clothes, clothing that is too tight or too loose and plunging necklines.

Plain black or navy blue socks are deemed suitable but socks can be left off in hot weather. The board is recommended to accept the new uniform policy.

Is this the same hospital that is promoting the modesty gown? I'm curious. Doesn't the modesty gown promote cultural sensitivity and tolerance? Why can't tolerance extend to my Homer Simpson socks? Doh!

Blogs & Myspace

Two interesting articles I read this morning. I picked up the complementary USA Today outside my hotel room and read an article called, "Students, officials locking horns over blogs."

The article reported three school districts taking disciplinary action against students because of statements made on a blog -- this included one student being expelled from a school in the Indianapolis, Indiana area.

As you can imagine, this has re-sparked the free speech and first amendment debate. Can school districts discipline students for statements made on a blog? Can a student go over the line when making free speech statements? Who determines where that line is? Apparently, the courts are now getting involved and will contribute to the debate.

For me, in reading this article, I support what these school districts did. I agree that there is a fine line between the perceptions of venting frustrations and criticism and the perception of personal attacks. I also agree that school districts have the right to preserve the learning process the best that they can despite comments made by students. This attorney disagrees...

Says [Tom] Clarke, the San Francisco attorney: "Sometimes I'm very surprised how paranoid school districts are about what is said about teachers. That seems to be a focus of a lot of their concern, that nobody bad-mouth their fine, exemplary teaching."

What if the shoe was on the other foot? What if a teacher was perceived to be overly critical of a student? Does the teacher have free speech rights, even if a case could be made that it was constructive criticism?

You know the answer to that one. This teacher would be sued for student harassment, a demand would be made for the teacher to be fired, and maybe even to have the teaching license to be removed. You can’t have it both ways, and that’s how I see these cases going.

The second article I read this morning was from the hotel complementary Wall Street Journal. It describes people completely removing their listings from social sites like myspace and facebook in the article titled, “MySpace, Bye Space” (free article on wsj.com today only). There are two reasons people are starting to rebel: ads and spam.

There's no question, however, that MySpace's recent popularity has brought with it a proliferation of spam that has annoyed some users. Many advertisers take advantage of the "friend request" function and send out requests that are really just advertisements.

And programs have cropped up that can automatically send mass friend requests to MySpace users -- in short, a new generation of email spam. Sites with names like FriendBot.com and FriendAdder.com sell the programs starting at $19.95.

There was a time when I considered getting a myspace listing to try to further promote my blog. I think I’m comfortable passing on that idea now. It’ll be interesting to see if there is a trend over the next few months of myspace profile deletions because of ads and spam.

Blogcast 2

Good morning from the left coast! Back by popular demand (or maybe not), this is blogcast number two! It's a little different style and format verses episode one. It's about twelve minutes in length and about fifteen MB in size. Let me know what you think Enjoy! Download DABC2

On the road

This clue is probably too easy, but it's the best I could do.
Will be my last vacation for a while, so I'd better live it up :)

Fugue

I don't want to be intruding on Shrink Rap's territory, but I thought this story was interesting. (I'm not a psychiatrist, I only play one on this blog).

Jeff Ingram left Olympia, Washington, on September 6th to drive to Alberta, Canada to visit a friend (Washington Post). He never showed up there. Somehow, he ended up in Denver for a month, and didn't know who he was or where he was.

Ingram's identity came to light last weekend after he appeared on several news shows asking the public for help: "If anybody recognizes me, knows who I am, please let somebody know."

So, the guy's fiancee calls the television station to identify him and they were reunited Monday in Seattle. That's the end of the story, right? NOT - Apparently, this is not the first time this has happened.

Ingram had experienced an episode of amnesia in 1995 when he disappeared during a trip to a grocery store. Nine months later, he was found in a Seattle hospital, according to Thurston County, Wash., officials. His mother said he never fully regained his memory.

When I first heard this story, I totally thought that this guy was making this up -- for attention -- kind of like the whole runaway bride thing a year and a half ago. Apparently, his story is true. And, there is a clinical diagnosis for Jeff Ingram's condition called dissociative fugue.

Dissociative fugue, formerly called psychogenic fugue, is one of a group of conditions called dissociative disorders. The word fugue comes from the Latin word for "flight." People with dissociative fugue temporarily lose their sense of personal identity and impulsively wander or travel away from their homes or places of work. People with dissociative fugue often become confused about who they are and might even create new identities. Outwardly, people with this disorder show no signs of illness, such as a strange appearance or odd behavior.

Dissociative disorders are mental illnesses that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, conscious awareness, identity and/or perception. When one or more of these functions is disrupted, symptoms can result. These symptoms can interfere with a person’s general functioning, including social and work activities, and relationships.

I admit I had to dust off the textbook to re-learn about fugue. Interesting story. In 10 years, I wonder if we're going to hear another story from this guy when his fugue strikes again.

Non Smoking

When I go to a restaurant, I usually get asked where I would like to sit, whether in the smoking section or non-smoking section. I usually say the latter. However, if you go to Omaha, Nebraska, the non-smoking section begins at the city limits. What am I talking about? (WorldNetDaily)

The ban to smoke in Omaha began October 2nd and applies to nearly all public places. How about this for violators: $100 for first offense, $200 for second offense, and $500 for third and subsequent offenses.

The Nebraska city's elected leaders and police department are urging residents who see violations to call the 9-1-1 emergency system for an immediate response.

Yes, that's right. Omaha residents are encouraged to report violations of the non-smoking ordinance to authorities just like any other crime.

Douglas County Emergency director Mark Conrey said people should not call 9-1-1 every time they see someone light up in a restricted area. He said the very idea threatens Douglas County's emergency system.

But, even after Conrey's concerns, Omaha police insisted residents should use 9-1-1 to report smoking law violators.

I agree that smoking is bad for your health, but potential use of tax dollars for literally the "smoking police" may be a bit much.

I can just see this --> (Cue announcer voice) Next on COPS: From Omaha, Nebraska -- Don't even think about lighting up a cigarette. Watch as our TV cameras follow Omaha's Finest bust chain smokers -- Saturday at 8pm. HA!

Christmas shopping

So, I'm checking my e-mail this morning. Sarah Mclaughlin, who is one of my favorite artists (and it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes, if you know what I mean), just released a new album last week and it's currently number one on the barnes and noble popularity chart.

Anyway, her new album is called "Wintersong" and has the following song list: Happy Xmas, What Child Is This, River Wintersong, I'll Be Home for Christmas, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Noel/Mary Mary, Silent Night, Song for a Winter's Night, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, In the Bleak Mid-Winter, Christmas Time Is Here.

I read this, and I'm like, c'mon! I know it's not her fault nor b&n; it's the distributor. But, a full two months before Christmas? It's not even November yet.

When I was a kid, I remember watching A Charlie Brown Christmas and how Charlie Brown was complaining about the commercialism of Christmas. That has stuck with me and is re-emphasized through the years. I'll have more to say about the holidays as they get closer. I just can't believe the shopping season is being pushed earlier and earlier every year.