A Blogger's Story

There is an interesting concept that just started out there today in blogland. It is a soap opera story with the main characters being bloggers - Hmmmmm...

Ok folks here goes… ways back in the blog a thon days.. Cathy and I discused doing a soap with all these bloggers… now well I think I am going to do it and it will work like this.

If you want to partisapate let me know. You will be a part of the story as well as writting the story. Anything goes.. know that up front cause like.. Don’t want people getting offended ok.

Apparently, this has been talked about for a while by Wolfbaby and Cathy. Well, today, the first installment has been posted over on Dreaming and Believing.

Wolfbaby cleaned the bar top to a polished shine then looked around the new place with pride. It was almost opening time and soon all of her blog world friend would come to see the new meeting place. What an idea they had all come up with. A jointly owned and operated restaurant and bar to allow all the blog owners to safely meet debate and create. There was a safe haven for everyone. A library room for those who loved to read and write. Along the walls of the place were cubbies for painters to paint. Plenty of tables for people to eat and talk. Lots of good food and drink for everyone to enjoy. This was a proud moment for all of them. As the time drew nearer to open the doors for the first time Wolfbaby grew giddy at the thought of meeting all her friends in person. As she opened the door to greet her friends Wolfbaby wondered how this joint endeavor would turn out.

One year later...

How's that for a teaser? Read the rest of this episode on the post called WolfDen Soap Part 1. (Post your comments over there) Like I told them, I've a lover and not a writer. LOL! So, I volunteered to be in the story but not write anything. We'll see how the esteemed writers treat my character...

Holiday personality

Your Holiday Personality is Fun

You're all about the celebrating. Whether you're partying hard or singing along to Christmas music, you're totally enjoying the holidays. Make your own Christmas ornaments. Create a holiday mix for all your friends' stockings. Run around your neighborhood late Christmas Eve ringing bells.

How Should You Spend the Holidays?

Welcome back to holiday week here at Doctor Anonymous. Here's another personality test for you. Take the test yourself and post on your blog!

Gift cards

Since this is the holiday season, why not talk about gift giving. Back in October, I talked about the whole thing of re-gifting. And, that seemed to generate some discussion.

I have to admit that I'm horrible at picking out gifts for people. I dread going to the mall and trying to figure things out. When I was introduced to the gift card, my life changed dramatically.

I know some people are offended by this gesture, but for me, it says, "Hey, I know what ever I get for you, you're going to return anyway, and get what you really want. So, why not cut to the chase. Here's a gift card."

I was talking with one of my co-workers here at the office. She thinks the gift card thing is totally insulting and saw on television the idea of plastic surgery, er, cosmetic surgery, gift cards. What? Huh?

I did a little research on this and found an article in USA Today talking about giving the gift of plastic surgery. Hmmmmm....

Tina Baldwin, 48, of Newfield, N.J., was thrilled this fall when her husband gave her an early holiday present: any cosmetic surgery she wanted. She chose liposuction.

As others like Baldwin gear up to look their best for the holiday season, cosmetic surgery centers nationwide are offering gift-giving specials, where anything from wrinkle-reducing Botox injections to breast implants can be credited to the gift giver.

I would imagine some people would like to get plastic surgery as a gift from someone. But, I would also imagine that others may have a problem with this....

The gift giver may also offend the recipient, says Zachary Gerut, a Long Island plastic surgeon and assistant clinical professor at Albert Einstein Medical Center in New York. He says it's not uncommon for a husband to bestow the gift of a breast implant upon his wife this time of year. "Why don't you just insult the poor lady and be done with it? It's like telling someone they have bad breath," he says.

So, as you're making your final checks of your list to see who has been naughty and who has been nice, don't forget to factor in the plastic surgery gift card for someone your love. If that's too expensive for you, then there's always the Olive Garden. Happy Holidays!

Dr. A's person of the year

In case you haven't heard yet, Time Magazine's Person of the Year is YOU. That's right, YOU. I know, you're asking yourself, Huh? In my opinion, Time has reached a new low here. In an effort to offend no one, they took the easy way out and named everybody, er, YOU. That's pretty pathetic if you ask me.

Time has assured itself that this annual distinction is now irrelevant. It's like me naming a person of the year. So, why not! If Time Magazine can make itself look important, then I'll do the same.

My person of the year is not actually a person. In addition, there is not even an agreed upon name of this "person." Now, before you think I'm going to do a spirituality post (not that there's anything wrong with that), here are the many names that have been used for my "person": Bug, Bacteria, Virus, Germ, Infection....

Well, you get the idea. In 2006, the population of the world has gotten to know more about microscopic organisms than ever before. For example, ripped from recent headlines....

E.Coli: Forget about bagged spinach from California. That story is so three months ago. Now, the big thing is the infection raging through Taco Bell restaurants. Oops! I forgot, the CDC has now announced that Taco Bell is now safe to return to. I know that because in watching TV on Sunday, at least twice an hour, the president of Taco Bell had an announcement asking people to come back. I wonder how much that cost. Probably pennies compared to the revenue lost over the past few weeks. Anyone remember Chi-Chi mexican restaurant? They had an outbreak in 2003, not with E.coli, but Hepatits A. Chi-Chi's went out of business soon after that.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa: This is a bacteria usually found in water and soil. It may not sound familiar, but if I say this bacteria closed the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units at a Los Angeles hospital two weeks ago, then it may ring a bell. Five babies were infected and two babies died from this bug.

MRSA: The long name is "methicillin resistant staph aureus." This is a big and bad sounding name, and this bacteria usually is. This is a bug whose victims are usually elderly patients with extended hospitalizations. In this story from the UK, hospitals there are finding a more powerful strain of MRSA, meaning it is more difficult to treat. As bacteria get exposed to more and more powerful antibiotics, the bacteria adapt and become more and more powerful. A dangerous trend.

NoroVirus: This virus first made it's mark on the scene on cruise ships. Remember hearing about cruise ship illnesses? This was norovirus at work. Now, it had made landfall - namely at Olive Garden restaurant in the Indianapolis, Indiana area. Almost 400 people in that community have been affected. One wonders how much that's going to hurt that business not only locally, but nationally as well.

Finally, I've already had my flu shot rant this year. I'm also upset about the media hype over flu shot surpluses. But, that's a rant for another day. What will 2007 bring? Well, in addition to all of the above, bird flu is still on the radar screen. What new bugs are on the horizon? We'll have to see. Congrats to Dr. A's person of the year! Don't forget to wash your hands....

Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds 3.13 is now up and running over at Nurse Ratched's Place. I love the title and theme this week: It's Christmas Grand Rounds, Charlie Brown! Thanks to Mother Jones RN for including my submit this week:

And speaking of eating Christmas goodies over the holidays, Dr. Anonymous writes about websites that take us into the world of anorexia and bulimia, and gives us his opinion about an aritcle that was written about these websites.

Grand Rounds goes home next week to Blogborygmi (say that fast three times). What a Christmas present that is, Charlie Brown! Dr. Nick Genes, the founder of Grand Rounds, will be taking the reigns for the December 26th edition. For now, enjoy the best the medical blogosphere has to offer this week. It's Grand Rounds!

My geek profile

I was tagged by that Super Steno Girl. Gee thanks! By the way, this is a great new blog just started on December 1st. Check it out if you can. As for my geek profile, unfortunately, no surprises here, ugh...

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: Very geeky! Internet Geekiness: High Movie Geekiness: High Music Geekiness: Moderate SciFi Geekiness: Moderate Fashion Geekiness: Moderate General Geekiness: Moderate Gamer Geekiness: Low Geekiness in Love: Loser

How Geeky Are You?

The Nose Knows

Ah, to be a college student again. Those were the days. Partying a lot, going to class sometimes, and having that occasional "interesting" experience. Now, before any of you out there jump to any conclusions, the experience I'm talking about is taking part in a science experiment.

Today, the Chicago Tribune describes a study involving the sense of smell...

If the results are surprising, that may be because no one ever had tried putting a bunch of college undergraduates in a field wearing blindfolds and sound-muffling headphones, then had them crawl in the grass after a scent like pigs hunting for truffles.

Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley found that "most of the students could follow a 30-foot trail of chocolate perfume and even changed direction precisely where the invisible path took a turn."

Here's how they did the experiment (I'm not joking)...

To create a scent trail, the scientists soaked a line of string in the chocolate scent and embedded it in the grass. The people were set loose on the ground about 9 feet away from the trail, then had to find the scent and follow it.

Some people out there are probably saying, "Hey, it's Berkeley, that's the crazy stuff that they do out there." Some other people may think this is a fraternity stunt. But NO! This is in the name of science, by George. Here's how the article is trying to tie this in to scientific experimentation....

By revealing how noses locate smells, the scientists hope to lay the groundwork for electronic noses that could detect hazards such as land mines. Their work, published online Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, was funded in part by the Army Research Office.

That's our tax dollars at work! I don't know if I buy that explanation. But, just you watch. Next summer, there will be a movie about this experiment and someone (probably from Berkeley) will make tons of money. Maybe another one of those lame American Pie sequels. Happy Monday!

Six-month blogiversary

Yup, that's right, boys and girls! Doctor Anonymous been around for six months. I can hardly believe it! Thinking back, I didn't even know if I would get through the first week, or even the first month.

It's fun looking back at old posts - especially on occasions like this. I'd have to say that the entire Blogaholics Anonymous thing really got me started. Granted, this is not an original idea, but I'd have to say that was definitely the spark to get things rolling.

Over the past six months, I'd have to say that there were three points where I got a lot more noticed. First, when Moof highlighted me on her blog in June, I remember getting a lot more traffic that I'd ever seen. She's always been great to me, especially when I first started answering all my naive blogger questions. I even asked another question over this past weekend and she got back to be right away. Thanks for everything, Moof!

The second most significant point in the past six months was when I was named Bestest Blog of the Day by Bobby Griffin in September. Especially, if you have been only blogging for about a month or so, get involved with Bestest Blog. You won't regret it. Thanks Bobby!

The third point was the entire Grand Rounds experience, which for me was almost the entire month of November. When Dr. Nick Genes contacted me to host that blog carnival, I had no idea how much exposure I would get and the people that I would meet along the way. For the medical bloggers out there, if you ever have the opportunity to be the GR host, definitely take advantage of it. Thanks Nick!

People have asked me how I've kept on going for six months. First and foremost, your blog should be for YOU and not for us. Write what YOU want to write about and not what you think we want to read about. Just like in the real world, people in the virtual world know when you're not being genuine and trying to "fake us out."

Adding a little piece of yourself goes a long way. Sure, I'm "anonymous" in that people don't know my name or what I look like. But, whether you like it or not, your personality will show through. If people connect with it, they'll be back to read more.

The second piece of advice I'd give is don't be afraid to write about things out of your comfort zone. Sure, when you started blogging you wanted to tell the world about medicine, or being a patient, or science, or sports, or news, or entertainment, or whatever. Don't be afraid to mix it up with different topics.

If you're starting out, don't be afraid to try to add a picture, or audio, or video to your blog. Try different types of posts, like interviewing a fellow blogger. Trying something out of the ordinary will keep things fresh as a writer and we'll enjoy that as a reader.

Finally, I'm the first to say that I'm obsessed with my numbers and my stats. I mean, just look at my sidebar. It's easy for me to say, but to keep your sanity, don't get too hung up on how many visitors you get on a daily basis. It doesn't matter how many people see your blog. It matters how many come back again and again to see your blog.

Speaking of that, thanks so much to all of you who come back again and again to read my blog. I never knew how much fun this all would be. I don't know if I'll be around in another six months, but it will be fun along the way!

Never Question Mr. Nibbles!

You gotta like that YouTube. I saw this very funny commercial this morning, did a quick search, and BOOM there it is. Here is my favorite holiday commercial of the moment...

And, even though the commercial is not exactly the same, here is another version of the Mr. Nibbles commercial on the YouTube site....
Is Christmas really next week? What is your favorite holiday commercial?

Why Beta Why?

I'm having trouble sleeping tonight. So, I'm thinking, why not blog?

After days of going back and forth, I finally decided to make the switch to Beta Blogger, UGH! I felt it was really affecting me making comments on blogs. And, maybe it was preventing others from commenting on my blog. So, I took the step to make the switch.

When I was thinking to switching to Blogger Beta, I had this flashback to my blog post number one on June 19, 2006 called: Does this thing work?

I've got to admit off the bat that I'm no techno-expert. This entire sign on process was kind of traumatic. Is this what this blog is going to be about -- whining? Hope not. I'm glad just to be up an running. Don't worry, this sparse blogspace will be filling up soon. Just as soon as a figure out what to talk about...

Ah.... Memories.... Anyway, I heard that the side bar may be affected by switching. So, I made sure I saved the links of where all the third party stuff came from. I even printed out my front page, in case I had to re-create my sidebar on my new beta site.

Finally, I got through the first page of Beta registraton. I paused and took a big breath before clicking on making the move. Optimistic that everything would be ok, I clicked to the next screen hoping to see my new site. Unfortunately, I saw the following message.

Could not switch you to the new Blogger: Thanks for your interest in the new Blogger in beta! Unfortunately, we cannot switch your Blogger account at this time, because one or more of your blogs cannot be moved. Please see our help article for more information.

What! Blogger, you've been bugging me for MONTHS to get me to switch over. I've been hearing stories, both good and bad, about switching. Many of my blog friends have been bugging me to switch. I made the decision and went through the process, and this is what I get? How do I switch to wordpress?

After about half an hour, I think I've calmed down a little now. The good news is that I think the comment problem has been resolved (hopefully). I'm going to try again to check out my favorite blogs and comment. Feel free to comment here and let me know if this thing is stll working. I'm still thinking about wordpress...