Sunday, January 28

Training

This Saturday was demanding and one of the best training days I've had this year. My wife and I began our morning running 5 miles and then traveled to an awesome MTB course for 8 miles of two wheeled abuse. After the ride I was exhausted but still wondered when the next opportunity to ride would be. That's what made it such a great day. After working 100 hours last week Saturday was an awesome escape and spending time with my wife really put the icing on a cake like day. Back at work today but I may be able to hit the trails tomorrow hopefully whether running or biking either way it will be fun.





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Friday, January 19

Ready for the trails

Finally, I purchased an awesome MTB to thrash some rocks and also to make some money as a bike medic. I searched several (6) different specialty shops looking at many different bike manufacturers and finally fell in love with a Haro V4. It's absolutely awesome. Black and gray with Shimano LX dérailleurs and a Rock Shox Judy front fork that has over 3.5 inchs of clearance. I'll be telling much more about this bike in the near future.





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Tuesday, January 16

Things I do

It's funny, I feel like I understand the things I must do to remain healthy and have energy. I write down what I eat, how much I run and workout and how I feel after these things. Wait, I don't always write these things down. Usually, when I am slacking or "wobbling" as I heard it said, I am not journaling these things. Journaling is key to my health as I have found out over and over and this leads me back to what I am saying. At what point does these things become automatic? Will I always have to consciously, grudgingly, go and write down what I eat etc...? Why isn't it easier? How can I make it easier? One day I will find the perfect balance but until then I must be disciplined and a hard ass to become a hard ass.





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Saturday, January 13

Medical Blogs

The amount of medical blogs have been increasing exponentially over the past couple of years. That's pretty exciting because with the increase in volume comes the increase in quality. Many of my favorite blogs, ones which I will be posting links to in the near future, speak to the heart of medicine as well as the difficulties that medical personnel face. Especially when faced with things such as the DMV or unruly patient's. Speaking of unruly patient's, I think I will share a war story with my one reader. I used to work in an inner city emergency service where it was routine for gunshots, stabbings, gang related violence as well as all sorts of medical emergencies from the unfortunate individuals who did not seek medical treatment until it was too late to occur. Boy, have I got some stories.. As I was reading through other blogs today an encounter with a giant came to mind.



Late one night during an especially busy shift my partner and I had just finished eating when we were summoned to a gang infested area of our lovely city where we didn't go without at least three metro police officers escorting us. The precession arrived at the house and was promptly met in the front yard by the largest person I think I had ever seen. He was 6' 10'' and appeared to be very muscular. His hair was in a semi-afro parted in the middle with a comb protruding from the left side. I immediately concluded that the comb was impaled in his scull but was afraid to ask, actually I was afraid to step out of the truck to take a closer look until we found out what was going on. As the individual stepper closer it was apparent that he was our patient. He had that really crazy look in his eyes, the one that people have just before they pull the trigger or jump off of a bridge and he was walking in a somewhat bizarre fashion. Finally, my partner and I got out of the truck, with our mag-lights in hand just in case, and approached the gentlemen. As we began to speak he walked past us, opened the side door on the truck and stepped into the ambulance and closed the door. At about that time one of his family members added "He crazy." My partner along with the police officers exchanged looks and opened the ambulance door to find the patient lying face down on the stretcher. I asked what was wrong and he said he was tired and felt like sleeping. He denied any complaints and his family said he called 911 but they didn't have any idea why. During our ride to the hospital the patient didn't say anything else. When we arrived at the hospital the patient, who's name I didn't get, stood up and let himself out of the truck and walked into the ED. We followed and explained what we knew to the nurses and doctors while the patient proceeded to lie on his stomach on a gurney and asked everyone to "just be quiet." Later on that morning we returned to the hospital and inquired about our patient. The charge nurse told us that he evidently just wanted to sleep. All of their test were negative and he didn't complain of anything. They finally kicked him out after three or four hours off good sleep. Maybe it was the family that was crazy and wouldn't let him rest, who knows?



That was weird. Anyway, there's a war story for ya.





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Monday, January 8

Jobs and the DMV

I am frustrated, really frustrated. I end up at the DMV this morning to renew my already expired license and there are 38 people in front of me. That's not a big deal because I don't mind waiting my turn; however, I sat down in the black seats that are noticeably dirty and begin waiting patiently when two women seated behind me begin talking about kids. Just then a little bastard walks out from behind me and begins hitting my shoe with a drenching wet dog toy looking thing. The mother of the child says "Say you are sorry, maybe he should have moved his foot." She then proceeds to explain to her friend that she just doesn't know how she is going to handle the three more kids that her "boyfriend" wants to have. Unbelievable. So, as I sit there and become more and more educated in the art of poor child care I decide to go to my care and get a book. I also realize that the DMV, in their infinite knowledge, do not accept debit cards. I then leave the child and its mother to get cash from an ATM and grab my book. That was pleasant. I return to another seat far away from my previous neighbors and begin reading. Much to my delight the line has moved from A046 to A053 and luckily I am only A080, so my time is coming. A few odd and pressured conversations later and an hour and a half my number is finally called. I approach the -Examiner- to be graciously informed that the renewal instructions that I received in the mail are not correct and that I will need my birth certificate to prove that I am a citizen of the United States. Brilliant, I really should have seen this coming but I didn't. Luckily, she told me out of pity to find her when I return and I wouldn't have to wait any longer and she would take care of my renewal. "Sweet" I thought, too soon. I left the DMV to return home and pick up my birth certificate and return to the shit hole but I decided to stop and get a quick bite to eat so that my endurance doesn't suffer for round two when much to my dismay I couldn't find my wallet. I get out of my truck, as I sit in the Taco Bell drive thru and begin looking for my missing wallet. I didn't have any luck so I decide to continue home, pick up the birth certificate, return to the DMV, renew my license, find my wallet and run like hell. No problem with the birth certificate. I return to the DMV and the -Examiner- is there and she takes my info, glances at the birth certificate and I hand her twenty two dollars and she tells me that all I need is my photo taken and I will be finished. I wipe my brow and thank the nice -Examiner- and walk over to where the pictures are taken. The picture taker which is also an -Examiner- (instills great confidence in me) instructs me to sit in front of a blue piece of fabric on a black metal chair with a soiled red cushion and stare at the camera in front of me. She then looks at me in a very awkward way, which coincidentally does make me smile and then turns to speak with an elderly women who is concerned that her license picture is more than two years old. I continue to stare at the camera; however, the smile is gone. A few moments later, ten minutes, she returns to the camera and tells me that my name hasn't came up and she is going to restart the computer and "its going to be a few minutes." "Great, I will be looking for my wallet in the parking lot." I tell her. I exited the picture area and began searching the parking lot for my wallet. No wallet. I returned to the picture area to find several angry looking individual waiting just like me for the damn picture. We were then informed that the computers have crashed and they are sorry but no further IDs or license can be processed today. Funny, I thought. I was right where I began 5 hours earlier except now instead of having an expired license I didn't have a license at all. Luckily, after another 45 minutes I am able to procure a "temporary" license so that I can travel to another testing station and complete this entire process all over again.......





















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Thursday, January 4

NY Times article

Mr. Negroponte stepped into a pool of crap with to many layers of bureaucracy to begin with and has more than likely been looking for a way out of a potentially career ending stint at a make believe post that was destined for doom at its inception.



NyTimes article.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/washington/05intel.html?hp />



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My First Time

So, I am attempting my first techy-like blog from somewhere other than my website. This is supposed to revolutionize how I blog. Lets hope it also improves the topics that I write about.





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Monday, January 1

It's 2007

Odd, it really doesn't feel different. I have been thinking for several days on the most important changes I can make in my life during this very important year not in order of importance. I would like to get in the best shape of my life, get out of debt, love my wife more and more everyday, read many rich books, learn a different language and continue to improve my guitar playing. That's it only a few things to improve on. I can do it, I know I can. It is really simple, make the correct decisions and don't allow myself to slide. I read on a triathlon web page about how they fight what they call the "wobbles." Once you recognize yourself sliding away from your intended path whether it is nutrition, training or just lack of motivation you should set a three day goal and stick to it. It works, let me tell you. Generally speaking three days of discipline and attachment to a goal can turn around some of the worst wobbles. On another subject. This new blogger is pretty impressive. I am not sure if the spell check is coming from my firefox browser or my computer but I know everyone (one reader/writer) will be very thankful. Until next time.